Budget fall down go BOOM!

Life really is bigger than us. If its determined to make sure you dont get ahead, there really isnt much you can do.

Amy and I were able to accumulate about $8,000 for the baby and home improvements including a back lawn, a fence, and a sprinkler system. All was fine and dandy till Janurary, then everything got blown to smithereens. Car repairs are eating us alive.

+$8,000 - Sweet, we're rich
-$3,000 - Baby - this was planned
-$2,600 - Van transmission, unplanned
-$250 - Taurus Heater - planned
-$450 - Taurus water pump - unplanned
-$300 - Taurus oil gasket leak - unplanned
-$160 - 4 new/used tires on the truck - unplanned
-$200 - Truck 60,000 mile service - planned
-$250 - New hoses for truck - unplanned
-$240 - Added Taurus to insurance - planned
-$70 - Inspect and re-align tires on car - planned

That leaves us a woppin $480. La-dee-freakin-da!

Perhaps the idea of buying cheap used cars saves you money is pure crap. The monthly payment for a newer car looks like it would be cheaper than all these repairs. Unfortunately you get in a trap where you have already paid so much so you might as well do the rest blah blah blah blah and in the end you have a 10 billion dollar piece of junk.

Of course, the other way to look at it, is that it was sure nice that all our car repairs waited to happen when we had money. Those car repairs woulda killed us had it happened when we didnt have the money.

So I guess Im thankful. Frustrated, but thankful.

Ghost Rider

So I just saw Ghost Rider last night with Eddie.

It was frickin awesome!

Food

I just need to blog about food today. For some reason it has been on my mind alot lately.

I ab-so-lute-ly looove food. I truly do. What is seriously more enjoyable, more relaxing, and more glorious than good food? What got me thinking about it was Eddie mentioned that he is happy that he is in a position financially such that he has the ability to make sure there is always super yummy delcious food in his house. The tasty green olives, cottage cheese to add flavor to whatever, rib-eye steaks, root beer, chips and salsa, bacon, pork chops, etc. And it hit me how essential that is to being peacefully happy. The ability to come home and at a whim munch on something super tasty is just so gratifying. And I dont mean candy - I just mean good delicious food.

And for some reason, its been on my mind so much, that each time I get to eat something seriously good, Ive sat back in my chair and just basked in the glory of being full of good delcious food.

We went to Mimi's earlier this week and I had 2 huge cups of Hot Choclate and 2 bowls of their French Onion soup. I swear I was experiencing dining Nirvana. Then on valentines Amy did rib-eye steaks, cocktail shrimp, cherry lime-aid drink, and choclate dipped strawberries for dinner..... ahhhhhh, ohhhhhh, mmmmmm. It was dining paradise.

And today for lunch I get to go to Olive Garden with Dad, Brett, and Carrie. Each and every sip of their Zupa Toscana soup and every single bite of their salad is so flippin delicious, I feel like Im just eating in slow motion with "What a Wonderful World by Louie Armstrong" playing in the background.

And yes I realize that too much of anything can be bad for you. But it hasnt hit me hard enough yet to truly do anything about it. So while the rest of you worry about your weight and eat fat-free whatever, Im gonna continue reaching the higher planes of conciousness through scrumptions delcious mouthwatering savory food.

Here is a list of some of the things that are so dang delcious, the entire world melts away and its just me and my plate dancing in the warm summer breeze.

Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana
Mimi's Hot Choclate
Mimi's French Onion Soup
Amy's Sweet and Sour Chicken
Amy's Mothers Chicken Noodle or Beef Vegetable Soup
Rib Eye steaks cooked Medium Rare with Spade-L Seasoning
Dutch Oven Pork Loin with Vegetables
Mom's Chicken Noodle Soup
Mom's Wassail
Mom's Crab Dip
Mom's Cheese Soup with Bread Sticks
Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Tomatoe Soup
Hot Tapioca with too much Cool Whip
The Mat Lyman Special
The Burger King Whopper
Uncle Mikes Wild Mushroom Soup
Sadie's French Dip AuJus
TGIF Jack Daniels Steak
TGIF Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Alaskan King Crab
A Nice Large Cold Glass of Milk
Henry Weinhardts Root Beer
Bob at the Office - his Prime Rib
Real Homemade Fishy Smelling Clam Chowder
Albertsons Fresh French Bread
Hamburger Gravy Potatoes
Hot Homemade Garlic Bread

Divorce and Death

So I read this month's Ensign and ran across 2 amazing articles. First is the comparison of the Good Samaritan to the Plan of Salvation which can be found online here.

The second was an article about a mother who's parents have decided to get a divorce. It was EXCELLENT! It can also be found online here. The paragraph that got me was this:

"Just as we grieve at the death of a loved one, we will grieve at the death of an important relationship. When a loved one dies, we have the hope that our family ties will continue beyond the grave. However, when our parents’ marriage ends, we can lose hope for that eternal family bond. There is no mortal relationship that is more intricately tied to who we are, and when it ends, grief in all its stages is to be expected."

Simply put, divorce is more devastating than death.

Dissattached Parents

I was reading some forums online about how kids and adults spend just a disgusting amount of time online playing games (yes, it was a warcraft addiction forum, freak, leave me alone!)

Anyway, one parent was complaining that she has visited different doctors etc trying to find a way to wean her child from his addiction as it has ruined his relationship with the family and her. Of course some stupid arguement broke out about how much control you should put on your kids etc and when they are old enought to make their own decisions blah blah blah. Its all stupid to me, and mom, in my opinion, drew an absolutely clear line in one of her latest blogs, about how much control you should exert over your kids. But on the forum, some guy posted a very poignant response which I think hit the nail on the head. So I thought I would post it here for the world to see.

---

"Liz, Jenny, Concerned Mother,

It is obvious that you have either became, or have always been, disattached from the lives of your children. Even worse, you have a flawed system of logic ingrained in your head that is going to be inherited by your children both genetically and through social interaction with yourselves.

Based on your arguments here, I must inform you of the sad truth which you will never realize yourself because of your frame of reference. You can’t grasp any concept that is not spoon-fed to you by an entity that you place in elevated-status relative to yourself. Think of it as a lemming complex.

Now I don’t know if its natures way to try and protect your children by corrupting your relationship with them and thats why you are disassociated from their actions, but you must realize that you are an adult and you must make decisions without help from outside ‘experts’. In real life, there are questions that you cannot run to get an answer for from someone else. Almost all of those situations arise when you are dealing with a child.

You are looking for a Ph.D. to tell you how to raise your child. It is a Ph.D. who told you what your brain has filtered as, “games are bad”. So now you want a Ph.D. to give you a fix. And this is what you believe to be good parenting.

Quit “researching” and do things on your own. What separates a person from a ‘zombie’, is the ability to independently reason and articulate ideas."

---