Summer Times.

It’s amazing how summer will take the blog out of you! I have 97 unread blogs at the moment… and any time I have thought to blog something else has come up. We just got back from a vacation up in Lake Leelanau, Michigan visiting my Aunt Susie and Fam at their lake house. It was so much fun. the “cabin” is just adorable. It has the cabin feel to it, but is really a nice house more than a cabin. It has a huge beautiful backyard and a dock on the lake with 2 boats and 2 jet skis. Owen and Lu went boating for their first time. Jeff and I enjoyed tubes and Jetskis. My parents joined us up there later in the week. And then my cousins Leah, Joshua, and Taylor also came up. It was a packed house… but couldn’t have been a better time. The boys even did well in the room with out us even bringing pack n plays. Owen had a little pallate on the floor and lu was up on a bed surrounded by pillows so he couldn’t roll off. Owen loved bonding more with my youngest cousins Cameron (12) and Taylor (10, maybe 11- i think?). They were so sweet to include Owen in everything and told me several times he seemed more like a 4 year old and that he was tall- I thought that was funny.

The week before that we had Jeff’s sister’s family in town. Tim, Janis, and their 5 kids, Jessica, Elizabeth, Maddie, Gabby, and Jackson. It was a full house so the basement (that is now finished- YAY!) was a definite blessing. My neices and nephew are just such great kids. We wish so much that we could live in the same town! I don’t have any pics from them being here So i’m hoping to get some from their digital camera soon Our digital is broken so for our lake trip we developed film and had them put them on cd.

Here are the links to our Lake photos!
Lake Vacation
Lake Vacation Black and White
Lake Vacation- dad’s pics

Interesting Read

Read this even if you hate Rush Limbaugh… It isn’t a Right wing vs. Left wing statement. But it is an interesting observation I hadn’t previously realized. Read as follows:

Love him or loathe him, he nailed this one right on the head……….
By Rush Limbaugh:

I think the vast differences in compensation between victims of the September 11 casualty and those who die serving our country in Uniform are profound. No one is really talking about it either, because you just don’t criticize anything having to do with September 11. Well, I can’t let the numbers pass by because it says something really disturbing about the
entitlement mentality of this country. If you lost a family member in the September 11 attack, you’re going to get an average of $1,185,000. The range is a minimum guarantee of $250,000, all the way up to $4.7 million.

If you are a surviving family member of an American soldier killed in action, the first check you get is a $6,000 direct death benefit, half of which is taxable.
Next, you get $1,750 for burial costs. If you are the surviving spouse, you get $833 a month until you remarry. And there’s a payment of $211 per month for each child under 18. When the child hits 18, those payments come to a screeching halt.
Keep in mind that some of the people who are getting an average of $1.185 million up to $4.7 million are complaining that it’s not enough. Their deaths were tragic, but for most, they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Soldiers put themselves in harms way FOR ALL OF US, and they and their families know the dangers.
We also learned over the weekend that some of the victims from the Oklahoma City bombing have started an organization asking for the same deal that the September 11 families are getting. In addition to that, some of the families of those bombed in the embassies are now asking for compensation as well.
You see where this is going, don’t you? Folks, this is part and parcel of over 50 years of entitlement politics in this country. It’s just really sad. Every time a pay raise comes up for the military, they usually receive next to nothing of a raise. Now the green machine is in combat in the Middle East while their families have to survive on food stamps and live in low-rent housing. Make sense?
However, our own U.S. Congress voted themselves a raise. Many of you don’t know that they only have to be in Congress one time to receive a pension that is more than $15,000 per month. And most are now equal to being millionaires plus.

If some of the military people stay in for 20 years and get out as an E-7, they may receive a pension of $1,000 per month, and the very people who placed them in harm’s way receives a pension of $15,000 per month.
I would like to see our elected officials pick up a weapon and join ranks before they start cutting out benefits and lowering pay for our sons and daughters who are now fighting.
“When do we finally do something about this?” If this doesn’t seem fair to you, it is time to forward this to as many people as you can.