I am going to make this very short as i don't want to dwell on the fact.
I am extremely happy with the outcome of this election. I think people looked past all the lies and past all the things being putt out there and really voted for the candidate that they felt served them the best. I am extremely happy that Obama won. I feel that he is the best direction to take this country in. He is well educated and has a great background with working with communities that are poverty stricken and helping them out of the crisis and i can only hope he will do the same for our country. This is my opinion as a voter.
As for my opinion as a mom. I can only put it this way. As i sat, in tears and silence, listening to Obama speak last night i felt a since of hope and joy. Hope because i feel that he can turn this country around, and joy because i can finally tell my biracial kids that they can be anything they wanna be and truly be able to know that it is true. They can be anything they want to be!
I want to commend both sides for all the votes they pulled in. More youths and first time voters came out last night than the prior 8 years. People needed their voices to be heard and they were. I am proud to be a American today. As i said yesterday this will not change the fact that we still have racial barriers but it is a step in the right direction. I hope that people can rally around Obama to help him restore this country to its standing as a proud confident helping hand nation that we always were.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
A History Lesson
Now i am no history buff so i will try to include all of my links here so that if i am wrong i can direct you to the quote that misinformed me. Today as many of us head out to vote for our next president, our senators, governors, and other elected officials as well as propositions, how many of us actually know how much voting means. How hard did some people work to get the right for us to go out and vote. Outside of wars we fought for our country's freedom do you know when Women were given the right to vote? Do you know when Blacks were given the right to vote? How many of us actually know the truth?
When this country was first founded only white property owners over the age of 21 were aloud to vote. This meant that a lot of white men, all women, and all minorities were denied the chance to participate in the democratic process. They were not aloud to have a say so on how the country was to be directed or who it would be directed by. This is a far stretch from what we see today. During the Civil War most white men could vote but the same could still not be said for minorities and women.
In 1866, the 14th amendment was passed. This changed slaves from 3/5 to whole people, and then in 1869 the 15th amendment allowed the right to vote to black men, but because of the "Black Codes" or state laws (which included restriction of the right to vote). Everything from taxes, hiding the polling places, and physical threats of violence were in these laws causing most black men to not vote.
The Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 was where the real fight for women's right to vote began. After a long fight, which was slow during the Civil War, two sides came together and in 1920 via the 19th amendment, women were aloud to vote. If you have never seen the movie Iron Jawed Angels i highly suggest it. It is a tear filled, high emotion, accurate depiction of history that will have you proud to be a woman in America. I also suggest if you have a teenage daughter and you want her to understand why it is our right to vote, and why we should take advantage of it, make her sit and watch this. My guess is she will be moved or at least understand the hardship that women had to go through just to win the right to vote.
In 1924, most Native Americans were given the right to vote. This is sad seeing as this is their land and they were here before the founding father's but that is a whole other topic. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is largely responsible for allowing minorities of all descents to vote. It banned and helped remove the laws that had previously prevented minorities from voting.
(Sources: I Want My Vote, Activote America, History Now)
So all of this history brings me to what i am about to say. I am so proud to be an American. For all the time it took, all the fights, all the wars, all the violence, what other country can you say people fought for there rights and won. Many great people died to give us the right to be free, to vote, to protest, and to live our life as we see fit. This is the only country where we can all stand together, regardless of our different views, and cast a ballot to say who should run our country, and no one is being killed over it. No one got shot today (knock on wood) because they voted for "the other guy". I am a Obama supporter but i respect if you aren't. It is your American right to choose who you want.
I am also proud that for the first time in history a black man is in the running to become president. He is a few hours from possibly making history. On the other side we are moments away from possibly having the first woman vice president. What amazing accomplishments no matter who wins. This election has moved us forward in the world ten fold. I know we still have a long way to go but we are moving and that is what matters.
I will be so proud to tell me mixed kids that one day they can truly be president if they work hard and want it bad enough. I will be able to tell my daughter (if and when i have one) that she can be president if she wants it bad enough. I can tell them that it doesn't matter the color of their skin or their gender they can do anything include run this great country of ours. This means so much to me. It means that my kids will be able to have the same future as any other kid. Yes their will still be those who turn their head and make their nasty comments but gosh darn it my kids can be president and that is a dream come true.
So i am done with my rant about all this mess and i hope that you all got out and exercised your rights today, because a lot of good people fought hard and even died to give you those rights!
When this country was first founded only white property owners over the age of 21 were aloud to vote. This meant that a lot of white men, all women, and all minorities were denied the chance to participate in the democratic process. They were not aloud to have a say so on how the country was to be directed or who it would be directed by. This is a far stretch from what we see today. During the Civil War most white men could vote but the same could still not be said for minorities and women.
In 1866, the 14th amendment was passed. This changed slaves from 3/5 to whole people, and then in 1869 the 15th amendment allowed the right to vote to black men, but because of the "Black Codes" or state laws (which included restriction of the right to vote). Everything from taxes, hiding the polling places, and physical threats of violence were in these laws causing most black men to not vote.
The Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 was where the real fight for women's right to vote began. After a long fight, which was slow during the Civil War, two sides came together and in 1920 via the 19th amendment, women were aloud to vote. If you have never seen the movie Iron Jawed Angels i highly suggest it. It is a tear filled, high emotion, accurate depiction of history that will have you proud to be a woman in America. I also suggest if you have a teenage daughter and you want her to understand why it is our right to vote, and why we should take advantage of it, make her sit and watch this. My guess is she will be moved or at least understand the hardship that women had to go through just to win the right to vote.
In 1924, most Native Americans were given the right to vote. This is sad seeing as this is their land and they were here before the founding father's but that is a whole other topic. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is largely responsible for allowing minorities of all descents to vote. It banned and helped remove the laws that had previously prevented minorities from voting.
(Sources: I Want My Vote, Activote America, History Now)
So all of this history brings me to what i am about to say. I am so proud to be an American. For all the time it took, all the fights, all the wars, all the violence, what other country can you say people fought for there rights and won. Many great people died to give us the right to be free, to vote, to protest, and to live our life as we see fit. This is the only country where we can all stand together, regardless of our different views, and cast a ballot to say who should run our country, and no one is being killed over it. No one got shot today (knock on wood) because they voted for "the other guy". I am a Obama supporter but i respect if you aren't. It is your American right to choose who you want.
I am also proud that for the first time in history a black man is in the running to become president. He is a few hours from possibly making history. On the other side we are moments away from possibly having the first woman vice president. What amazing accomplishments no matter who wins. This election has moved us forward in the world ten fold. I know we still have a long way to go but we are moving and that is what matters.
I will be so proud to tell me mixed kids that one day they can truly be president if they work hard and want it bad enough. I will be able to tell my daughter (if and when i have one) that she can be president if she wants it bad enough. I can tell them that it doesn't matter the color of their skin or their gender they can do anything include run this great country of ours. This means so much to me. It means that my kids will be able to have the same future as any other kid. Yes their will still be those who turn their head and make their nasty comments but gosh darn it my kids can be president and that is a dream come true.
So i am done with my rant about all this mess and i hope that you all got out and exercised your rights today, because a lot of good people fought hard and even died to give you those rights!
Monday, November 3, 2008
Pictures and Stuff
So yesterday was interesting lol. We went with my brother, his wife, and their kids to do a big family shot for Christmas. It was interesting to say the least. Their kids are a little older 7 and 9 and mine our 2 and 3. Do you see where i am going with this. My youngest, MJ, did not want to participate. We ended up having to bribe him for each picture. I now owe him 3 cars, some chocolate, and my SIL gave him a dollar. Yea he racked it up. I wish i would have got paid to take pictures.
We went to JC Penney Portraits Studio and the girl who did the pictures was great. She was so patient with my kids and got some great shots. I will make sure to post them where ever we get them in. We did one group shot of everyone. A family shot of just me and my husband and our kids which is the first in almost 2 years. We did one of my niece and nephew together and them tried to do one of my kids together but ended up with a shot of each kid by them self. Then we did once of all the kids together. It was very nice.
The last time we did a big group shot of the family together like that i was 12 and my nephew was 1 (just so their is no questions my brother is 14yrs older than me). I am now 22 so that means it has been 10 years. So sad that it took that long to do it again but hey it worked very well. We did the whole white shirts and blue jean look which i think turned out great. I just wish the kids would have been a little more into it. Over all the look very natural and happy. Not too too poesy but still organized. We don't look like robots lol!
In other news Bloggy Giveaway Quarterly Carnival was very good to me. I won 2 things last week. First i won a $25 dollar gift certificate for N Style Mom and a 1 year subscription to Parents from 5 Minutes for Parenting. I am a person who hardly ever wins anything so to randomly be chosen to win these 2 things was awesome. I used my gift certificate to buy a Monogrammed Travel Tumbler. I am a big coffee and tea drinker so this is great!
Just one last thing. I am enrolled in NaBloPoMo for those of you who know what it is. For those who don't know what it is, it stands for National Blog Post Month which is November. I am pledging to post everyday this month which might be hard but i am giving it a go. I hope maybe some of you will join me and if not them at least i hope you read and pass me on if you like me to you friends.
Have a happy Monday all and a great week!
We went to JC Penney Portraits Studio and the girl who did the pictures was great. She was so patient with my kids and got some great shots. I will make sure to post them where ever we get them in. We did one group shot of everyone. A family shot of just me and my husband and our kids which is the first in almost 2 years. We did one of my niece and nephew together and them tried to do one of my kids together but ended up with a shot of each kid by them self. Then we did once of all the kids together. It was very nice.
The last time we did a big group shot of the family together like that i was 12 and my nephew was 1 (just so their is no questions my brother is 14yrs older than me). I am now 22 so that means it has been 10 years. So sad that it took that long to do it again but hey it worked very well. We did the whole white shirts and blue jean look which i think turned out great. I just wish the kids would have been a little more into it. Over all the look very natural and happy. Not too too poesy but still organized. We don't look like robots lol!
In other news Bloggy Giveaway Quarterly Carnival was very good to me. I won 2 things last week. First i won a $25 dollar gift certificate for N Style Mom and a 1 year subscription to Parents from 5 Minutes for Parenting. I am a person who hardly ever wins anything so to randomly be chosen to win these 2 things was awesome. I used my gift certificate to buy a Monogrammed Travel Tumbler. I am a big coffee and tea drinker so this is great!
Just one last thing. I am enrolled in NaBloPoMo for those of you who know what it is. For those who don't know what it is, it stands for National Blog Post Month which is November. I am pledging to post everyday this month which might be hard but i am giving it a go. I hope maybe some of you will join me and if not them at least i hope you read and pass me on if you like me to you friends.
Have a happy Monday all and a great week!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Candy Gallore
So here it is...all 4lbs of candy that my kids managed to gather within an hours time of Trick or Treat. We have it put up in a container on top of the cabinets in the kitchen.
Now you will notice as you look at these pictures there are no Reese Cups to be seen. There is an easy explanation to that. I am a Reese's addict!!! Sadly enough each year after the kids are in bed i raid the candy and steal all the Reese's. It is sad, i know, but this year i found that Reese's must have been too expensive or something because out of all that chocolate there were only 2! Lucky for me my MIL had bough a bag that had a lot of them so i raided her candy bowl lol.
Now my kids said they were willing to trade the candy for a toy but i am betting that it will end up still sitting in the box on top of the cabinet this time next year. We are not big sweet eaters. Well i am but i don't eat most of these things just the candy bars when i am having a sugar craving. The kids get a piece a day or maybe a sucker but i never let them gorge. So this will also be used in 2 months as stocking stuffers (i will make sure to show Santa where the box is). Then after Christmas day is over it will go back in the box lol to be eatin a piece a day til i decide to throw it all out because it has been sitting for too long.
So how did everyone else do? Is there anything specific you enjoy about Halloween candy? Do you like a certain candy bar or hard candy?
Now you will notice as you look at these pictures there are no Reese Cups to be seen. There is an easy explanation to that. I am a Reese's addict!!! Sadly enough each year after the kids are in bed i raid the candy and steal all the Reese's. It is sad, i know, but this year i found that Reese's must have been too expensive or something because out of all that chocolate there were only 2! Lucky for me my MIL had bough a bag that had a lot of them so i raided her candy bowl lol.
Now my kids said they were willing to trade the candy for a toy but i am betting that it will end up still sitting in the box on top of the cabinet this time next year. We are not big sweet eaters. Well i am but i don't eat most of these things just the candy bars when i am having a sugar craving. The kids get a piece a day or maybe a sucker but i never let them gorge. So this will also be used in 2 months as stocking stuffers (i will make sure to show Santa where the box is). Then after Christmas day is over it will go back in the box lol to be eatin a piece a day til i decide to throw it all out because it has been sitting for too long.
So how did everyone else do? Is there anything specific you enjoy about Halloween candy? Do you like a certain candy bar or hard candy?Saturday, November 1, 2008
Day 1 Recap/Day 2
So yesterday was not as successful as i would have liked. I had plans to just quit cold turkey. Halt all smoking activity and never look back. That is not exactly how it went. I did good yesterday till about 11am. At 11 i found myself walking to the local general store (which is only a block away) and buying the cheapest pack of cigarettes i could find. As i walked i felt like i was 15 all over again trying to sneak and hope that no one saw me. It was really pathetic. So i bought the cigarettes, which cost me $2.30. I smoked one immediately which made me light headed and a bit sick to my stomach. In total yesterday i smoked 9 cigarettes. This is good for me. I have/had a pack and a half a day habit so cutting in one day for 30 cigarettes to 10 cigarettes is a feet in itself. I am not completely happy but i am impressed that i did that well. I also am not allowing myself to smoke indoors. This means that i have to bare the cold or whatever the whether is like to go out and smoke. The 30 degree whether at 8am can be quite discouraging lol. Also kids tearing my house apart while i am outside can also make me not wanna go out.
So today is day 2 and i think i have a new plan. Since i have found out that i did have the ability to cut down from 30 to 10 in just one day, i am going to do the slim down method that my Aunt used. For the first week i will smoke 10 a day (now if i don't need them all i wont but if i do i will but never over the amount allowed), the next week i will cut down to 8, then 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. The last week i will cut it out completely. I do know that this is a bit of a cop out of sorts. I wish i had the strength and determination to just stop. I want to i really do but it is so hard and i can be so weak sometimes. So we are going to try this and yes it will take awhile to edge the amount down and yes it will prolong the fact of actually quitting but maybe it will work better for me. My body will have time to adjust to less and less nicotine and i can slowly find new habits to replace bad ones.
That brings me to a new questions. For those of you who have quit or know someone who have quit, what did they or you do to replace the habit. I am fine as long as i am busy but the minute i stop to rest or anything a cigarette is the first thing my mind goes to. I have tried chewing gum and that just doesn't work for me. I have to keep my hands busy. Like when i am typing here in my blog or cooking dinner i am fine. So does anyone have any ideas? I just have to find something to keep my hands busy with that doesn't cost money or take up too much room lol.
So today is day 2 and i think i have a new plan. Since i have found out that i did have the ability to cut down from 30 to 10 in just one day, i am going to do the slim down method that my Aunt used. For the first week i will smoke 10 a day (now if i don't need them all i wont but if i do i will but never over the amount allowed), the next week i will cut down to 8, then 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. The last week i will cut it out completely. I do know that this is a bit of a cop out of sorts. I wish i had the strength and determination to just stop. I want to i really do but it is so hard and i can be so weak sometimes. So we are going to try this and yes it will take awhile to edge the amount down and yes it will prolong the fact of actually quitting but maybe it will work better for me. My body will have time to adjust to less and less nicotine and i can slowly find new habits to replace bad ones.
That brings me to a new questions. For those of you who have quit or know someone who have quit, what did they or you do to replace the habit. I am fine as long as i am busy but the minute i stop to rest or anything a cigarette is the first thing my mind goes to. I have tried chewing gum and that just doesn't work for me. I have to keep my hands busy. Like when i am typing here in my blog or cooking dinner i am fine. So does anyone have any ideas? I just have to find something to keep my hands busy with that doesn't cost money or take up too much room lol.
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