Parenting Through Politics

It has been a very long time since I have blogged. The busy life of a full time working mother of three with two different side jobs and a whole heck of a lot of creativity. Plus, my husband was very worried about me posting about politics due to our positions as teachers, and since the past year has been immersed in politics, I have tried to stay quiet because if I did blog I would probably go off. The last week has changed things, however. Let me give you a little background: 

My husband and I have never been on one side of the aisle or the other when has come to politics. We have almost always voted for the Republican. Even up until this monumental election day I was unsure of who I would vote for, even though the majority of our friends and all of our family are starch republicans. I stood there on the presidential screen debating and debating. Who did I vote for? Who cares! It doesn't matter any more. The election is over (thank The Lord above), and it should no longer matter who you voted for or which party you claim to be a part of....all that matters now is that we ALL ARE AMERICANS. 

And as an American and as parents, it is important that we educate our children on what is going on in a nonpartisan way. To do that we allow, our children to watch the news  (a variety of news stations because if you are only watching one news source then you are limiting and allowing someone to control the news and truths you are hearing) with us and we have discussions. We are living in a monumental historic time which will be in history books in the future. Not only that but your kids should be informed and educated on how our government works and why our country was founded (look for future blog post by current 3rd grade teacher and former 4th grade teacher on the basic fundamentals of our government).

One thing I remember growing up was watching the news with my parents. I watched the morning news with my mom and the nightly news with my father. I was educated about what was going on in the world, which is one of the reasons I think I had a good head on my shoulder growing up. I knew the dangers that were out there, and I knew about the things going on in the world. 

In the last 18 years of teaching, I have watched parents shelter their kids from the news, even to goes as far as telling their kids they couldn't do their homework of watching the weather because they were afraid of what their children would see. 

Guess what? They need to see it! They need to know how scary and wonderful the world can be. They need to know what is going on in our communities, our state, and especially our nation.

Now I don't care who you voted for....THE STATE OF OUR GREAT COUNTRY IS AT STAKE. Our amazing country was founded on the principles of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". The only way that works is with our democracy's checks and balances. This is not a dictatorship, but if we all, as AMERICANS, do not start standing up to this insanity, we will all be under a dictator soon! 

To quote the ex-head of the CIA, James Clapper, "I think in many ways our institutions are under assault both externally -- and that's the big news here is the Russian interference in our election system -- and I think as well our institutions are under assault internally."

Please educate yourself and educate your children on our government, not the Republican or Democratic side, but the government of the United States of America and why it was founded.  Some say it doesn't matter because the reasons our country was founded are no longer valid...to those people I say...either educate yourself or goodbye...go live in one of the red countries in the picture below:

Also you might want to be educated about our president's views about the leaders of these countries (Side note: these quotes are not alternative facts. They were actually said by our president):

"We shouldn't have destabilized Saddam Hussein, right?" Trump asked his supporters on Tuesday. "He was a bad guy, really bad guy, but you know what he did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good."

After Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Trump as "talented" and the "absolute leader" in the GOP race for the White House back in December, Trump said that "sure" he liked Putin's remarks about him. "When people call you 'brilliant' it's always good, especially when the person heads up Russia," Trump told the hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

Trump in January 2016 first called North Korea's Kim a "maniac," then riffed with some awe on the young despot's bloody rise to power."You have to give him credit," Trump said. "How many young guys -- he was like 26 or 25 when his father died -- take over these tough generals, and all of a sudden -- you know, it's pretty amazing when you think of it. How does he do that? Even though it is a culture and it's a cultural thing, he goes in, he takes over, and he's the boss. It's incredible. He wiped out the uncle. He wiped out this one, that one. I mean, this guy doesn't play games. And we can't play games with him. Because he really does have missiles. And he really does have nukes."

Trump said during the CNN-Telemundo Republican candidates' debate in February that while Gaddafi was "really bad," his tactics were effective. "We would be so much better off if Gaddafi were in charge right now. If these politicians went to the beach and didn't do a thing and we had Saddam Hussein and if we had Gadhafi in charge, instead of having terrorism all over the place, we'd be — at least they killed terrorists, all right? And I'm not saying they were good, because they were bad, they were really bad, but we don't know what we're getting," he said.

For now...'nuff said, but I'll be back...

The End to a Dream...AKA McDreamy

So after seeing an overloading of spoiler posts all over social media Thursday night and Friday, I was finally able to sit down and watch that which shall for ever be known as "Oh my good lord, Shonda Rhimes!!!! How could you possibly ever do this? I hate you!!! How dare you!!?!?! Worst episode ever!! Even worse than the death of Denny!!" episode of Grey's Anatomy.

While I am still in emotional shock, my sister has gone into crazy, conspiracy, I hate you, Shonda Rhimes mode. She recently went into this mode via text messaging, which I feel the need to share below. Not only because it is hilarious, but also because whereas it is a wee bit insane it is also seriously insightful!

WARNING: Clearly there are spoilers.
WARNING PART 2: I am bleeping out the language.
WARNING PART 3: There is much hate for Shonda Rhimes in these messages, however, we all know we love her even after Denny, George, Lexie, Mark...Jake...Der...its too soon for that.

My sister:

So I've been thinking....

Derek Shepard was loaded, right?  I mean we can rightly assume that the dude was rolling?

Me:

You mean loaded as in drunk or loaded as in leaving Meredith with bazillions

My sister:

I mean like the dude was basically a millionaire. Right?

I think we can safely assume these things, yes?

Me:

Yes

My sister:

Ok. So that being the case and judging from previous instances we know that McDreamy enjoys the finer things in life, yes?  

Exhibit A: pretty sure he got a big fat settlement from a @#%^ing plane crash and now partially owns a hospital along with his wife. 

Exhibit B: This monstrosity 

Exhibit C: He is a dad gum brain surgeon!

Also, I'm fairly certain there was an episode where he, mark and someone else shared a very old, read: very expensive bottle of scotch. 

Ok. So that being the case and judging from previous instances we know that McDreamy enjoys the finer things in life, yes?

Would you agree on all of these points?

Me:

What are you getting at?

My sister:

I'm 99.9% sure that he was driving a brand new Porche SUV. 

Me:

And....

My sister:

And since we know that Dr. OhWaitIAmFingDeadNow never skimps, we should logically conclude that his ride was loaded. All the bells and whistles?

Me:

You mean, like, even though it has all that it is still shocking that the air bag must have been state of the art since it allowed him stay alive for a little while after being slammed into by a semi?

My sister:

Meaning it would have Bluetooth. Which we do, indeed, know was the very case as, at the beginning of the episode he was talking to Amelia and Bailey using this very safety feature

Ergo - no need to dig for his f-ing phone bc it would have come thru the Motha@#$%ing Bluetooth. 

Screw you Shonda!!!  If you're gonna kill him off at least use common sense. 

Oh and speaking of Amelia. Ummmm......you're telling me that Meredith not only neglected to call in his family to say their goodbyes, she denied his sister (who achieves the impossible on a regular basis) the chance at a second opinion?

So either our dear b@#$% of a friend Shonda is pulling a Dallas, or Meredith was performing her own version of a conscious uncoupling. 

Me:

This last point is so very true!!! Why wouldn't she have called Amy?

My sister:

My conclusion is that Meredith, unseen to us, had gone thru Derek's phone and discovered the sexts and nudies sent by his "research assistant" and was just laying in wait for an opportunity to strike. Gets off Scott free. No one suspects a thing. She is an extremely gifted surgeon who's mental facilities clearly exceed that of the average, run of the mill black widow. 

Me:

Well then...She is dark and twisty.

My sister:

Think about it

.....

😕

My sister:

I haven't watch scandal. And probably never will bc that b@#$% has ruined TV for me. 

Me:

I hate her!!!!

My sister:

That and I shot all of the TVs in my house immediately upon the conclusion of Grey's Anatomy 

Me:

Scandal was good though

My sister:

I can't handle another sexy man being killed. 

She's such an asshole.

That is all! Nuff said!!! I think she might be a genius!

Parent of the Year Award...Right Here

So I was just (as in literally 50 minutes ago) reading about the 24 People Who are Really Nailing Parenting on Buzzfeed.com. There were some super, awesome, genius parents like:

And I looked at my husband and said, "We should totally be number 25 for Knowing how to utilize munchkin labor! I mean, we have one cleaning, one cooking Ravioli by the Chef, and one exercising (three year old running back and forth yelling, 'look at me exercising'!" We could even use this picture we have documenting that even nakey munchkins must help clean the pool.

That was when it became apparent that we could also be known as Number 26-Parents Who Completely Understand the Meaning of Karma! For as I was stating what awesome parents we are, a huge crash came from the kitchen where the aforementioned chef had tried to move a huge spigot glass serving picture on a pedestal (which my lazy tired self should have already cleaned from our previous night's sleep over) and accidentally knocked it over while trying to get plates out with which to serve the other two munchkins.

The two gallon pedestal, glass pitcher still half full of pink lemonade shattered exploded into a bazillion pieces in the middle of the kitchen floor, and this mug was niiiiiicccceeeee and made of really thick glass, much like this one....

Alas, I have no picture of ours because it is now in the dust pan, spare random bowl, vacuum cleaner, and  trash can in a bazillion pieces that we have spent the last 45 minutes cleaning up and picking up, and sweeping, and picking up, and vacuuming, and picking up, and mopping, and picking up more.

The moral to this story, before you start patting yourself on the back and readying your picture to send into Buzzfeed.com for People Who are Really Nailing this Whole Parenting thing, you might want to actually do a little parenting and keep in mind...KARMA cause I promise, as much as I preach about Karma to my kids, they are not going to let us forget this one.