Times are tough...

I can not even express how stressed and worried I am about all this stimulus package garbage they are talking about. I get so frustrated listening to all the details about this plan! It makes no sense what so ever. The responsibility of paying back all of this debt belongs to our kids and grand kids. The power that the government holds has gotten completely out of control. This whole situation has gotten out of control and I feel so helpless.. there is nothing that I can do and my voice is so small that it is insignificant. I think we are all having hard times right now and could all use some help but this plan is not going to work and it will probably just make matters worse!!
This video from Glen Beck is pretty astonishing. My jaw just about hit the floor when I saw this:

http://www.foxnews.com/video/index.html?playerId=videolandingpage&streamingFormat=FLASH&referralObject=3479955&referralPlaylistId=playlist

and on top of that I tried to find the details that are in this so called "stimulus plan" and can't seem to find any straight forward answers besides from foxnews. Here is some of the ways the government plans to stimulate our economy:
Congress wants to spend $600 million more for the federal government to buy new cars. Uncle Sam already spends $3 billion a year on its fleet of 600,000 vehicles. Congress also wants to spend $7 billion for modernizing federal buildings and facilities. The Smithsonian is targeted to receive $150 million; we love the Smithsonian, too, but this is a job creator? There's $1 billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that hasn't turned a profit in 40 years; $2 billion for child-care subsidies; $50 million for that great engine of job creation, the National Endowment for the Arts; $400 million for global-warming research and another $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects. There's even $650 million on top of the billions already doled out to pay for digital TV conversion coupons.
Another "stimulus" secret is that some $252 billion is for income-transfer payments -- that is, not investments that arguably help everyone, but cash or benefits to individuals for doing nothing at all. There's $81 billion for Medicaid, $36 billion for expanded unemployment benefits, $20 billion for food stamps, and $83 billion for the earned income credit for people who don't pay income tax. While some of that may be justified to help poorer Americans ride out the recession, they aren't job creators. $54 billion will go to federal programs that the Office of Management and Budget or the Government Accountability Office have already criticized as "ineffective" or unable to pass basic financial audits. These include the Economic Development Administration, the Small Business Administration, the 10 federal job training programs, and many more. Oh, and don't forget education, which would get $66 billion more. That's more than the entire Education Department spent a mere 10 years ago
This is supposed to be a new era of bipartisanship, but this bill was written based on the wish list of every living -- or dead -- Democratic interest group. As Speaker Nancy Pelosi put it, "We won the election. We wrote the bill." So they did. Republicans should let them take all of the credit.
I found all this info on http://www.askheritage.org/
Seriously does any of that REALLY sound stimulating?? Doesn't to me.. not in the least. We're struggling too and wish that the economy was back to normal but this is not the way to go about it. But we might as well deal with it because this is going to happen and there is nothing we can do about it!

Friday nights = DANCE PARTY!!

I completely meant to post this like Saturday or Sunday. I'm such a slacker! Anywho.. for some odd reason here lately on Friday nights when we're home with the kids we'll turn off the cartoons and shows and nintendo DS's and computer games and Rodger will go get his gigantic case of CDs and we'll just sit here and play our wide variety of music. Its pretty fun cause we'll jump around here singing and dancing, even though none of us can do either of those very well, the kids burn some energy. And little miss Aubrey gets in on the dancing action. She's so sneaky though.. every time I try to catch her on camera she stops! I'll get her one of these days! I almost got her in this video..

and again here... I don't know what Tripp is doing.. just being his normal goofy self I guess..

So other than our dance party Friday we had a pretty uneventful weekend, like usual. Rodger and Tripp have been practicing baseball because Tripp is going to play t-ball this year.. I can't wait! Its going to be sooo cute! Hopefully he'll like it and if he's half the athlete his daddy is then he'll be pretty good. We'll just have to wait and see though.

I highly recommend this..

After months of talking and saying we're going to do this, Rodger and I finally got the nerve up to cut up ALL of our credit cards. It was a little tough for me at first but when it was all over and done I felt a sense of liberation. We're free from the plastic!

Yes that is me cutting up my beloved Victorias Secret card =( That was the tough one. It had to go though and I understood that I needed to part with it. We were toxic friends.

This is the final aftermath! Thats all of them! No more easy spending for us. Hopefully we'll be debt free in no time.

And after I cut them all up Rodger went through and double cut them! haha I guess he wanted to make sure they were all done for! Seriously though, it does feel good that they're gone and now when we pay them off it will be impossible to run the balance up again. I would highly recommend that everyone do the same. Those dang things will get you in trouble if your not careful.

We also had some free time this weekend to watch some new movies. Well they're not technically "new" but they're new to us. They are some good ones too so I'm gonna recommend that yall check them out...

Max Payne-- With Marky Mark. It kinda reminds me of "The Punisher" (which is a really awesome movie for those who haven't seen it) Max Payne is just way cooler. I really liked it, excellent flick.

And The Incredible Hulk--and when I say "The Hulk" I'm talking about the one with Edward Norton and Liv Tyler. I haven't seen the other one but I heard it sucked big time which is why I really didn't want to watch this one at all but I was pleasently surprised. Much better than I expected. And this animated version of the Hulk is sooooo cute!! I know, I'm such a loser! I couldn't find a picture of him when he's not bulging mad but he really is cute! haha

My new hobby

So, for those that know me I'm sure that it comes to no surprise that I've found my latest addiction on the web (thanks to Lissy!). Once I get this thing all figured out I'll be able to keep everyone up to date on our latest crazy family adventures! I'm so excited to be able to share with my family that I don't ever get to see and my close friends that I rarely see. So once I get the hang of it and get a little more spare time I hope everyone will enjoy =)