Catch Phrase!

In case you needed to know the anatomy of an Oscar Winning Trailor!

Healthcare Wisdom From Obama's Cousin

I just read a great piece on healthcare over on the Washington Times by Dr. Milton R. Wolf. Part of what makes this interesting is that it is both written by a doctor and that the doctor happens to be President Obama's 2nd cousin. Here is one part I really like!

One of America's founding principles is our trust in the people and their economic freedom to rule their own lives. We should decouple health insurance from employers and empower patients to be consumers once again. Allow them to determine the insurance plan that best meets their families' needs and which company will provide it. This will unleash a wave of competition that will drive costs down in a way that price controls never have. Eliminate the artificial state boundary rules that protect insurance companies from true competition and watch as voters demand that their state insurance commissioners get the heck out of the way. Innovative companies will drive down costs similar to how Geico and Progressive have worked for automobile insurance. And it won't cost taxpayers a trillion dollars in the process.

This free-market approach has worked for everything from high-definition TVs to breakfast cereals, but will it work for medicine? It already is. Take Lasik eye surgery, for example. Because patients are allowed to be informed consumers and can shop anywhere, doctors work hard for their business. Services, availability and expertise have all increased, and costs have decreased. Should consumers demand it, insurance companies - now answerable to you rather than your employer - would cover it.

Go check it out!

Spring is Here!

As a kid I loved to play with snap dragons. They always remind me of spring and flowers!

Cinderella in Christ?

I was watching Faerie Tale Theatre with the NerdPie last week and it was a major throwback to my own childhood. I remember being just a girl and watching wide eyed as Jennifer Beals and Matthew Broderick dance around the floor in Cinderella. It reminded me also of my misconceptions of what my Christian life might be.

Apparently many people hold the misconception that accepting Christ means that your life won't have any problems or worries. But that wasn't my problem. For some reason I never held that theory because I can't remember a time in which I wasn't familiar with "into every life a little rain must fall". I knew that just because life was hard and people were jerks to you didn't effect God's love and grace for you and vice versa. Maybe it was because I had a less than idyllic childhood.... But I did have different kind of fairy tale picture for life.

When I read about those who faced trials and tribulations in the Bible they all seemed to have this odd kind of peace. Not seeing anyone who had peace in real life I went to fairy tales for my picture of what that would look like in "real life". I thought my life would be more like Cinderella's, and I mean the Disney version. While people may still treat you horribly and not love you for reason beyond your control, you would have a song in your heart. You know, the woodland animals and sweetly singing birds would come in and help you do your work. While you may be slaving away it wouldn't be hard, it wouldn't be lonely, it would be serene. You wouldn't care that no one ever said any thing nice because you had a song in your heart.

As someone whose childhood was fairly isolated, lonely and sucked for huge portions... life didn't quite go that way. We never see Cinderella really cry. We just figure that it doesn't hurt. All because of that song in her heart. The one I didn't get. Or so I think at first.... As I started thinking about this subject and how naive I was I remembered the music, the hope....

I didn't have a lot of tapes but I had some Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, DC Talk and KDUV started when I was in high school. That helped give me that song in my heart. A song that helped me focus on something other than the fact I was pulled out of bed to finish the dishes or to get the bits of hair I didn't clean off of the linoleum. A song that reminded me that I was loved unconditionally by the God of the Universe no matter how isolated I was from those who I wanted so desperately to not only love me, but love me in spite of my flaws. A song that told me that even though I didn't have 1 friend who REALLY knew me, my hurts or my life, God knew and cried with me. A song that reminded me that God would give me a happily ever after, and I am not talking about the one I have with NerdDad (though it is pretty good) but the one that is to come.

So maybe, just maybe my misconceptions weren't so wrong after all.... A life with Christ is a little like being Cinderella. But while we have this life on earth we get to dance with Him at various balls and someday He will come with a glass slipper to claim His bride.

Theories of Everything

New Scientist has a great articles on the various physics theories that are trying to be the "theories of everything". These are the theories that they think might make the world;). New Scientist looks at the top 7 in clear terms. Ever wanted to know about String theory after watching Big Bang? Go read and let me know what you think! I think I might read it with my older 2 kids so none of the rest of you are off the hook;).

Lost, You Better Not Make Me Mad

After years of hearing how great it is, NerdDad and I just recently started watching Lost. What can I say, we are early adopters;). We started in the beginning on Hulu (gotta love Hulu). So far we are a few episodes into the 2nd season. We are very aware of the fact that the current season being shown is the last season. Frankly, I love it when a show knows it is the final season because then it gets a chance to answer the many questions that have been left sticking up through the series.

So the fact the series is ending is one of the reasons I was willing to wade into the Lost maze. Then I see a post from I09 that NerdDad shared with me..... I am afraid that when this series ends I will not be happy. Damon Lindelof off sites Star Wars and midichlorians as the example that some things just don't need to be known. Now I agree with I09 that the problem with the midichlorians is whole other issue. But the Force was explained before them.

But my real problem is that I am now really nervous. I don't want to watch all these hours of Lost to only have more questions. I already have a list of questions and I am only in the 2nd season! I will be mighty testy if I don't get my answers!

So all you Losties out there. If all your questions that you have (being in the final season) aren't answered will you feel like you wasted all this time?

WFMW: Taming the Treasures

Life creates little treasures. You know what I mean: that lost tooth, the Valentine's Day picture, the ticket stub from that memorable concert. But I am not a big scrapbooker. So that means that things go into the boxes. But the problem with the boxes is that you end up with piles all over the house that at some point will get put into the boxes. But you need to find a place to put them, make sure that they don't get mixed in with the other kids (I have 4 kids and all their pictures drawn at 2 look the same;), and so on. So my tip of the day is to use a filing cabinet.

If you are like me, you have a file cabinet. But your family filing probably only takes a drawer or 2. So what I do is take one of those hanging folders for each person in the family. Then you can put in sub-folders if you want. For instance I have a section in NerdPie's folder that is just for notes and cards from her friends. Then put all of that person's memories in it. I have teeth in a ziploc bag, cards, photo magnets from VBS, etc. Then when ever you want to do something with it all (scrapbook or just put them into a box) you know where it is and whose it is!

It is the simple things that make life easier;).

Crazy Legs!

Check out these crazy tights! Was I ever young enough to carry something like this off;)? But NerdPie looks adorable in them!

Let's Protest the Protesters!

Yes, I know that the California education budget keeps getting cut. Do I think it is great? No, not really. I do think it should lead to a restructuring of the whole system but that is another post;). But the Teachers' Unions are mad. They are organizing protests for this Thursday in Fresno and in Porterville.

“We’re trying to get all the associations and all the schools to stand up for education and let the Governor know that taking money away from education is not the right thing to do,” Porterville Educators Association President Stan Ennis said.

Well, I want to communicate somethings to the Unions. If we simply let go teachers who couldn't actually teach the kids instead of fighting costly battles to get them out we might make up some of the budget loss. That could save about a half a million dollars and that is for each bad teacher they have tried to get out. And that is just the cost for the ones that school districts have tried to get rid of. Many districts have found that the unions make it so costly and expensive, that it is cheaper to just hold on to the bad teachers. Some are left in the class room and some are relegated to other positions with in the districts.

So maybe we should go protest the unions as being the biggest problem in our educational budget fiasco. We know where they will be on Thursday!

(I know lots of good teachers, I am talking about the unions so don't yell at me about good teachers.)