Thanksgiving and Southern Hospitality

Thanksgiving has come and gone.  A little bittersweet in a way.  Thanksgiving is the day that many on my side of the family choose to get together but I was not able to make the trip due other obligations.  A couple of weeks prior a friend that I work with invited us over for Thanksgiving and we accepted.  This was the same person that gave the kids their first pony ride which can be seen here.  This lady, I will call Ms. K, opened her home to four families and a couple of straggling teenagers.  Char, the kids, and I all had our first experience with fried turkey.  Actually, somehow I ended up being the fry daddy.  It’s really not hard at all and only took an hour to cook a 13.5lb turkey.  It was not greasy or heavy.  Ms. K marinaded it so it had a great flavor throughout.  The picture is not of ours but it looked about like this when we finished.  We all had a great time with the animals.  All of Ms. K’s animals are so well socialized.  All the kids got pony rides and had the time of their lives.  A big thanks to Ms. K!

Child Telepathy

Binh is starting to talk a little more these days, but for a while he would try to communicate and we, or maybe I should say I, could notfigure out what he was trying to say.  One day Binh came storming into the the living room and began grunting and torquing a shoulder.  I had no idea what he was trying to say but Ava soon came into the room and without being prompted said, ” Binh wants some apple juice.”   Now Binh has always understood a large number of word so I then asked him if he wanted a drink of apple juice.  After asking he immediately ran to the refrigerator and began pulling on the door.  Turns out that was exactly what he wanted.  Initially I thought this little episode was coincidental.  However, this happened a number of times over the next couple of days about different things.  I was forced to consider the fact that Ava could actually be reading some other body language or perhaps… his mind!

Its pretty cool that after a considerably short time Binh and Ava are so in tune with one another.  I now know that if Binh is fussing I can simply ask Ava what he wants if I am having trouble understanding him and chances are she knows.  This transcends external factors and is just simply about brother and sister.

The “stay-at-home Mom”

The stay at home mom has to be the least appreciated role in society.  I find myself in a distinctly unique position to  observe just how amazing an impact my wife has on both our children.  Watching Char mother our first child Ava (biological), I could only see half the impact, the explicit piece if you will.  Ava grew and blossomed so fast and her heart grew just as fast as the rest of her.  She is such a blessing.  We have had friends in the past say things like, “You guys are so lucky to have a good natured child.” or “She’s so easy, wait until you have a boy.”  Well, we have a little boy now and that is were Char’s gifts come into focus.  We got Binh just about the time he turned one.  He lived most of that year without a mother in the harsh environment of an orphanage.  Needless to say, our first days, weeks, and months were difficult.  But today his personality shines and his heart is proportional to Ava’s.  It is simply amazing.  With Binh I saw child start nearly from scratch and grow so rapidly before my eyes.  I don’t think I buy the good nature stuff so much.  When we got Binh he was not easy but today he is such a blessing and I owe it all to mom. 

Thanks baby, you are the best!  We are so  blessed.

Congress Hired as Your Broker

To date approximately $290 billion of the $700 billion rescue package has been used to prop up companies like AIG, which continues to send its execs to plush resorts with your money.  No formal action has been taken to fill the independent oversight posts established by Congress when it approved the bailout to prevent corruption and government waste.  Nor has the first monitoring report required by lawmakers been completed, though the initial deadline has passed.  Does this concern anyone besides me?  Our government is spending our grand-children’s money with what appears to be reckless abandon and they are about to ask for another $50 Billion or so for the auto industry, insanity.  Congress says that oversight is difficult because of the “intensely complicated financial work” involved.  Isn’t that something you think about before hand?  Assignment of the primary oversight position, special inspector general, has resulted in a battle between the Finance and Banking committees over which has jurisdiction.  Additionally, lawmakers have yet to nominate the five-member Congressional Oversight Panel to assist the new inspector general.  What happened to letting people fail?  In order to have true freedom, we must be free to succeed and fail equally.  As soon as you toy with this balance everything falls apart, like what we are seeing today.  If folks neglect to read a contract and sign it, it is their fault.  That goes for individuals that take the risk of adjustable rate mortgages as well as auto makers that know the union contract they sign will bury them down the road.  It’s not like there aren’t other individuals as well as car manufacturers out there making good decisions and succeeding.   Some of us read our contracts and knew to negotiate a fixed interest rate.  But now the government is going to use tax money from the responsible to bail out those who made bad decisions.  Likewise, Toyota, Kia, and Hyundai have been building cars in the U.S. for some time using good business practices and with out labor unions.  

In order to get better, sometimes we must fail.  To keep propping up failing people and companies is lying and telling them and those modeling themselves after them that they don’t have to change, what they are doing is good enough, well its not.  Better yet, would you invest in people or companies like this?  Well, your grandchildren are.  

That is the general situation but what are the specifics?  What bad investments has the government made for you?  They can’t even tell you.  Congress will tell you it’s complicated and that you are not smart enough to understand but actually it is quite simple.  They acted as the catalyst in this financial crisis by directing Fannie and Freddie to do things they should not have, make bad loans.  Then they  defend their actions to the end (see video below).  How long will we continue to let such an incompetent body of people compound their own mess.  Enough!

Youtube Tuesday – Bathtime Fun

As you may have read on Char’s blog, she spends her Saturdays at a GRE prep class.  It is more for practice than anything else, she is going to smoke the GRE.  One of the things the kids and I do is take a bath before she gets home.  A typical bath involves colored water, boats, bowls, spoons, and foam letters and numbers. 

I have learned that kids learn best when having fun.  Ava began picking up on letters a while back during story time.  We began playing a game with the letters and numbers at bath time.  I would slap the letters or number on the side of the bathtub hard enough for them to stick and ask Ava what the posted alphanumeric  was.  If she answered it right, I made a big deal of it and threw it in the air like a crazy person.  If she could not get it, she would ask me what it was and we would learn the letter and revisit it later.  I just happened to be videoing this particular time when she began joking with me about the letter “J.”  She, not wanting to show she did not know this particular letter, spontaneously decided to call it “ouwie.”  She took me by surprise with this one but as we went over the letters again she continued to call the letter J an ouwie.  She still calls it ouwie today.  What a sense of humor.  

The Chosen One’s Promises

Well its done.  This next four years is probably going to remind me of a line out of Top Gun, “your mouth is writing checks your body cant cash.”  I guess in this case it might be more like the Treasury can’t cash.  I have accepted the fact and ready to make adjustments in long term planning.  For example, investing in indexed mutual funds might be a good idea.  Its looking like you will be able to buy low in the immediate future.  There are a couple of promises that I will be keeping a close eye on.  The first is my next promised tax cut.  BO said it would be better than the year before; we shall see.  The second is his promise to pull out of Iraq, as that will have a direct impact on my family. 

Now that the Dems are in charge of the executive and legislative branches, there should be no reason they cannot get anything done.  Regardless of what many want, they know better.  Lets see how responsible they are with our money. 

In the next 4 weeks Obama will get an unimaginably sobering intelligence briefing.  If he is smart he will surround himself with experienced level-headed wise men to help him make the right decisions and adjust some of his less educated positions.  I love my country and wish for the best.  Pray for our new leaders.  They are going to need it.

Halloween

This is the first year that Ava really got a holiday.  She talked about dressing up the entire week leading up to Halloween.  We carved pumpkins and talked about them becoming Jack-O-lanterns.  We went to a couple of Church events the day before and day of.  The kids are always attracted to the petting zoos.  The video below is of the kids feeding a donkey and goat.

 

Char worked so hard on Binh’s costume and, with the help of a great friend Leanne, it turned out perfect.  As you know the kids are in love with Veggie Tales so Ava and Binh went as Larry the cucumber and Bob the tomato respectively.  The kids are actually watching the Ester Veggie Tale as I write and Ava is singing along with it.  

  

On our way out we stopped by the firetruck and Ava got to get into the driver’s seat.  Wow, I would have given all my Hot Wheels cars to sit up there.  The world must just be a friendlier place.