Saturday, July 16, 2005

Do you have too many kids?

While reading the news, I came across an interesting fact. You have to have a license if you are watching over a specific amount of children. I wonder it this type of thing counts if (your Mormon or Catholic and) you have a plethora of kids???

Check this out. In Kentucky, the law requires those watching four or more children to have a license. In Ohio, the limit is seven children, and in Indiana, a license is required for six or more.

So, if you live in Kentucky & have three kids at home of your own, then you are nice enough to watch a friends three little toddlers, you can be cited for not having a daycare license.

The Bottom line: Never babysit for someone if you have kids of your own. Heaven forbid you have something go wrong while watching said friends kids if they need to go to the doctor or run out for a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk. You could end up in prison or lose your own kids to HRS for being a friend.


Friday, July 15, 2005

Why I like ketchup on my eggs.

I like ketchup on my eggs because I hate eggs alone. They have no flavor! Ketchup gives the eggs a taste. The show called 'Fear Factor' had an episode on an ostritch eggs! The contestants had to eat one it could feed 30 people!

My Dad fixes me eggs, so a ton of ketchup gets used most of the time.

My favorite way to eat eggs without any ketchup is a Hawaiian eye! Our version of a Hawaiian eye is a fried egg on some toasted bread or better yet, an English Muffin! I like them a lot but I do not get to eat them a lot.


Bridget's Bio

This is the first time I've posted a blog. Usually I write with pen and ink in my journals. I like the tactile sensation of holding the ink pen while I am writing. This typing stuff will take some getting used too. Todd and I figured that since the kids have to write in the family blog, Mom (Me) should have to also.

Lets start with brief history of me. I was born in North Hollywood, California in the late 60's to left over hippies. We moved all the time. East L.A. Ca.; Seattle WA.; Tujunga, CA.; Nampa, ID; Medford, OR; back to Nampa, ID. There I graduated from High school.

I went to college at Boise State University, ran out of money. Then I joined the Navy. Went all over the world. Saw great things and miserable things. The best thing that military service did for me, was to show me how wonderful America really is. I don't think anyone can truly appreciate this country until they have traveled and seen how much worse the rest of the world is.

Now today I am living in Cincinnati, Ohio with my husband and three children. I would prefer to move out West to Western Montana, or Idaho. But we are here. In Ohio. There are no Mountains and I always joke to the kids that the reason I get lost while driving is because without the Mountains to show what direction I am in, I get lost. They are getting old enough to realize that I just get lost a lot.

We recently moved from a big old farm back to the city. This is some adjustment. We sold the Farm because Todd knows I want to move. Now we are looking for property closer to where he is working, but not near people. Since I have such an abrasive personality, we decided it would be better to not live near other people.

We both want to build a monolithic dome home. I looked at some sites in New Richmond, Ohio. Pretty little river town, good school district for the kids. Gotta go get the cat, he is on top of the TV.


There is no piano but I have a keyboard

Our friends (currently in China) bribe their children to practice the piano, time share the computer. I believe that they use the minute to minute ploy. In other words, for every minute the kids practice, they get the equal amount on the computer playing games and such.

I am using the same thing to get my kids (and wife) to blog. For every 15 minutes, they must create one approved paragraph in this blog. I had a little resistance (for about 5 minutes) until each of the boys played Mechwarrior 4 and were very compliant in my demands.

I am hoping that bridget keeps doing this since there is so much she can put and remember. I can only hope.


Motherhood: the unrespected profession

This entry is currently being revised. Please check back in a little while. This thought is not yet complete!

Apparently, there was a study out that put motherhood as a unrespected profession or career.

Yes, being a parent is a career. think about this before you scoff and dismiss this as drivel. If you have kids, I have a 80% chance (plus or minus 10% either way) of you agreeing with me. Mainly because that 80% care for this kids and can identify with what I am about to say. I is not easy being a parent who cares about their children in today's disjointed, disfunctional, and out of touch society.
I can understand that one from what we are bombarded with every day. All your exposed to in the media is about bad parents. The ones who do despicable things to their kids. You see it every day.

One thing you will never see on TV, or in the newspaper, is the amount of good parents in the world. The parents I am talking about are that middle 80%. The ones who care about their kids. The ones who try and do everything for their kids. I am not talking about the polar extremes. What I am talking about is the 20% out there on the extremes, where 10% do not care about their kids, and the opposite 10% who try and do everything for their kids.

The "I could care less" group: This 20% not only have no worries about their kids, they usually think they are an annoyance. I live around the corner from a "family" like this. Their 8 year old son is a menace to the neighborhood. He terrorizes the other kids, takes everyone's stuff, and is a foul-mouthed little turd.
A good example of this one, This child's mother was all upset about him running around unsupervised when Bridget was out front. When she was asked, Bridget's response to the woman's query about "Weren't you watching him?" was as I expected. Bridget immediatly replied with "Did you ever ask me? He is not my responsibility, he is yours. Besides, I have no idea who you are." That so called parent is part of the bottom 20% of the spectrum.
From experience, this is more wide spread than anyone will admit. Military families are highly susceptible to this kind of problem. Mainly because young and inexperienced parents are taken away from all the support they had in their life and placed in the middle of being responsible for children without guidance.
The "Mommy and Daddy will make it all better" group: The extremes on this end of this panorama of human parents are the ones you see on TV. These freaky people are noteworthy because they are the ones who would put out a hit on the head cheerleader because they think their daughter should have made the squad. Or the ones you see (in the states) who are screaming at the baseball umpire or their son's coach because he just struck out at bat. We had a couple of these too this year. The other team nearly had to forfeit a game because the other coach was just screaming at the players because his team was losing. Or the parents who push their kids everyday into being what the parent(s) want to be and not what the child wants to be.
I know there is such a think as wanting the best thing for your child, but these people have a bad case of not knowing when to stop. They push their kids 24/7 and 365 days of the year for 'what is best for the child' and 'they have to do this to get ahead of the others'.
I have seen half a dozen kids when I was in high school and even while in the military who were in this type of situation. They were wither able to fall inline with the parents plan and were the most aggressive and cut-throat people I have met, or they were on the verge of a nervious breakdown.

This entry is currently being revised. Please check back in a little while. This thought is not yet complete!


Saturday, July 02, 2005

Days so far?

I am not sure if my calculations are correct,but I believe as of today this is 4993 days sober.

This is more of a milestone for my feelings for Bridget since we both stopped on Halloween 1991. This should be correct but even if it is not, it has been so long that I no longer remember the last alcoholic drink I had.