Why not Hillary? Let me count the reasons.....

Honestly, I went to the Hillary Campaign page with an open mind. I don’t really like some of the stuff she has done, but I wanted to see her take on it…this is the first thing that appears when you click the link…..

Now, we recently had a HUGE hullabaloo about gender and bathrooms, and Hillary is STILL trying to use this to get the woman’s vote?? You cannot possibly, as a woman, state that you are voting for Hillary simply because she is a woman, and not call yourself sexist. Therefore, you cannot be pro-open bathrooms, and still pro-Hillary….I read on… First, I checked out Hillary’s Bio…Of course, it is a long list of her accomplishments, as a good bio should be…not too bad… Okay, now onto the Issues as she has them on her page… 1. Hillary is calling for a tax credit for businesses that hire apprentices, providing much needed on-the-job training. a. Okay, I can get behind this one. I like the idea of starting as an intern and getting the skills you need to complete the jobs, but unless they are going to count that as a degree, a lot of jobs are still not going to be open to people… My husband is an engineer, and he did an apprenticeship, but afterwards, he still needed that little piece of paper to get his foot in the door at most of the companies that were hiring. 2. Hillary will ensure equal pay for women; defend women’s health and reproductive rights against attacks; and fight for paid family leave and affordable child care. a. Okay, I am not going to get into a gender pay gap discussion here. b. If she is talking about free tampons…well, I cannot get behind that…I have been pretty darn broke, but never too broke to buy a package of tampons at Dollar General for $3, and a lot of women now are going to the cloth pads that can be washed and reused…. So tampons are not a necessity…they are more of a convenience… and I DO NOT think the government needs to be giving out free conveniences because someone claims it is their “right”. , I DO NOT think the GOVERNMENT has any business being in charge of policies that affect my personal life…. c. And as for “reproductive rights”, I am staunchly anti-abortion/pro-choice. Because, while I think abortion is wrong, I DO NOT think the GOVERNMENT has any business being in charge of policies that affect my personal life…. (did I already say that?? ) d. Hillary strongly believes that middle class families deserve a raise, not a tax increase. American families need paid leave, and to get there, Hillary will ask the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share. She’ll ensure that the plan is fully paid for by a combination of tax reforms impacting the most fortunate. - Paid family leave would be wonderful. And the costs to the company that is supplying such leave, since they will most likely have to hire someone to do her job while she is off for 12 weeks thus paying DOUBLE for her job for the extent of the leave, all of that expenditure should be added into the woman’s benefits…thus ensuring a smaller pay gap…win/win! But asking the “wealthiest Americans” to “pay their fair share” is a crock of shit, I am sorry, unless every person is paying a set percentage of their income, then how are you determining how much is someone’s “fair share”? 3. Wall Street must work for Main Street. a. Impose a risk fee on the largest financial institutions. – just NO! That is going to make it HARDER for the general public to GET a loan, because small loans are much riskier than large ones, sure, that isn’t where it will start…but mark my words on this one! b. Prosecuting individuals when they break the law…… better look in the mirror Hillary….. 4. Voting rights a. fix the damage done to the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court – Um, the Supreme Court tells up how to read laws and constitutional type things. If they did something you don’t like, you have the right to appeal it, but you cannot veto something they have enacted..checks and balances, she is overstepping presidential authority with this one… 5. America must fully commit to supporting veterans a. I agree…they need to be treated with respect, and they need to be given prompt, experienced health care when needed!! And if you support the troops, you better the heck NOT be standing on the flag they fight under to protect your right to stand on it…. 6. drug and alcohol addiction a. She claims that it is a disease… I disagree; I think it is a lazy. It is something to do because it makes you feel good, or forget something, or whatever. It isn’t a disease; it is a mental health problem. You want to recover from drug or alcohol addiction, find something that is more important to you then getting high or getting drunk, and poof, done. Take it from someone who was an alcoholic and a drug addict at age 25, and I realized that my new family was more important to me than my lifestyle, I threw away all my cigarettes, alcohol, and never bought any more meth. Yes, the first two or three months sucked, yes, I gained 80 pounds, but being overweight was not as bad as being addicted, and my baby was born healthy…He will be 19 this year, and I have never gone back to that lifestyle. Do I think there should be treatment centers? Yes, but if you call it a disease, then it gives people the ability to say “I couldn’t help myself” or “it wasn’t the real me, it was the disease”. No, if you choose to drink or get high, you are choosing anything that happens while you are under the influence, and repeat offenders should be jailed. (sorry, I think I ranted a bit here) 7. Medicare and Social Security a. First, she wants the “wealthiest to contribute more” for Medicare and social security. Now, I may be wrong here, but don’t they take Medicare and Social Security out of my check every two weeks? Why do we need MORE contributed into it, each person should get what they put into it. If you lived off of welfare your whole life and didn’t contribute ANYTHING, then we don’t OWE you anything to retire on. On the other hand, the amount of interest that must be accumulating from all of those funds sitting in a bank account until we need it when we retire must be staggering enough to pay for the administration of it as well as help out those that need a simple, inexpensive insurance plan for retirement…Oh, wait, except that congress keeps taking OUR money out of the account and not replacing it…start your changes by making it something that congress cannot redistribute, and you have the problem half solved! 8. small business a. Okay, making it easier for small businesses to get loans and making their tax filing easier would be nice….. 9. Strengthen rural economies a. To ensure that every American has a solid foundation for success—wherever they choose to live—Hillary will double funding for Early Head Start and make pre-k universal for four year olds, enact free community college, and support telemedicine and Medicaid expansion…… I do not agree with making pre-k a requirement, nor do I agree with free community college. Remember, it isn’t really free…our taxes will go up to pay for it. If it casts $200 per credit per student to pay the schools bills and such, and each student with a full load will take 17 to 24 credits per semester, and say that there are 10 community colleges in each state…the bill is already astronomical, and I know that here in Kansas, there are a lot more than 10 community colleges! 10. Strengthen bonds of trust between communities and police. a. This is great, as long as we are educating our citizens on how to act when a cop tells you to do something as much as we are educating our cops on “de-escalation and use of force”. I was taught in school, if a cop says to do something, you do it…you can explain yourself later if you need to, but those cops are there to keep people safe, and sometimes, that means keeping you safe from the bad guys, and sometimes, it means keeping people safe from you…. 11. Protect animals and wildlife a. protecting animals from cruelty and abuse – I run a pig farm. I am not a vegan. I will never be a vegan… sorry not sorry – because BACON…. However, she does have some good ideas on protecting the ranchers who use federal lands, maybe she has an opinion on the whole Bundy thing…. 12. National security a. Oh, she almost had me with this one…I agree with her wanting to stop Iran from getting Nuclear weapons, I support her wanting to contain possible cyber and disease threats…but then she had to throw global warming into it……Just No! 13. Manufacturing a. This one is touchy, I do not believe that the government should get involved in our businesses, that is not what the government os for. You want to give me incentives to keep my manufacturing in the US with import/export taxes, fine, but tell me I have to keep a mill running in the red because these people need jobs, can’t do it..sorry. 14. LGBT Americans a. Hillary believes no one should be held back from fully participating in our society because of their gender identity….. (please see the very first thing that you see when opening up Hillary’s campaign page…now tell me again how can I fully participate in your campaign if I am not a woman…I am going to assume cis-woman, because it doesn’t say it is my woman/ or trans woman/ or gender fluid card…It is just my woman card…It’s right there…she talks the talk, but she doesn’t walk the walk, folks) 15. Labor a. Okay, strengthening Unions, could be both good and bad, depends on the union and the use of such. b. Raising the minimum wage - just read this, they said it better than I could have… https://americansforprosperity.org/why-raising-the-minimum-wage-doesnt-work/ 16. high-quality education a. Every Student Succeeds Act – The main problem with our schools is that you have dumbed down all of the classes to the slowest learners level so that everyone can go ahead at the same speed…When I was a kid, if you finished your work and wanted to work ahead you could. My 5th grade class had an accelerated program for those of us who got stuff done more quickly… and they still had the title classes for those who needed help in reading or math… don’t dumb down the work so everyone can finish, separate the classes by ability, or promote smaller class sizes, and for crying out loud…..Pay the darn teachers as much as they deserve, they are educating our future! They shouldn’t have to pay for their classroom Kleenexes out of their own pockets! b. Every child deserves the chance to live up to his or her God-given potential… i. That is a pretty republican statement….. 17. Strong infrastructure a. Okay, better roads and less congestion, I can get behind that one… b. Hillary believes that high-speed internet access is not a luxury; it is a necessity for equal opportunity and social mobility in a 21st-century economy. She will finish the job of connecting America’s households to the internet with a commitment that by 2020, 100 percent of households in America will have access to affordable broadband. She will also invest new resources in bringing free Wi-Fi to public buildings and public transportation….. Nope, sorry….Not the government’s place to make it accessible, it is not the government’s job to manage that, it is a private enterprise thing, and as soon as the government gets involved, it will be a monopoly, required, and far more expensive!!! 18. immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship a. Promote naturalization. There are an estimated 9 million lawful permanent residents (green card holders) in the United States who are eligible to become U.S. citizens. Hillary believes we need to do more to help the millions of people who are eligible for citizenship to take that last step. – Okay, that one I agree with…if they are already eligible, let’s get them citizenized….I know, I made that word up… b. However, I do NOT stand behind any policy that gives anything to illegal immigrants. Sorry you have to leave America and your family behind; do you have a green card? No? Then go home! Your kids are American citizens because they were born here, they can go with you and maintain their citizenship and come back when they are 18, or when you get your paperwork filled out, or they can go stay with your cousin who has a green card because he did it legally, and when you get your stuff squared away legally, we will welcome you back. I know that there are immigrants who are fleeing because of bad situations at home, but those are the ones who should be asking for amnesty when they get to the border, then they can fill out the paperwork when they get here, and we have a system for that…Our current immigration law works, if we use it! 19. HIV and AIDS a. Okay, I agree with the making the pharmaceutical companies be held responsible, the food and drug administration should already be doing that, but they aren’t, a pill that can be purchased for 50 cents each in Mexico, should not cost $5 per pill here…especially if it has the same label…. 20. Affordable health care a. The key word there is affordable… we really do not need insurance reform, what we need is TORT reform. If you put a cap on the amount you can sue the doctors and hospitals for, and stop giving 20 million dollar settlements because your kid caught pink eye in the waiting room, then maybe the doctors would not have to have such high personal insurance, and then they won’t have to charge such astronomical rates, thus lowering health care costs, thus lowering insurance costs…. 21. gun violence a. Hillary believes the gun industry must be held accountable for violence perpetrated with their guns. Hillary will lead the charge to repeal the so-called “Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act,” a dangerous law that prevents victims of gun violence from holding negligent manufacturers and dealers accountable for violence perpetrated with their guns……. Face Palm…really? Are we going to sue Oneida because their spoon held the ice cream that made me fat, thus causing my heart attack? Are we going to sue Ford or Hyundai because a drunk driver hit your car and your spouse died? No, because the spoon and the car did nothing wrong, they only did as their owners told them to, thus putting the fault directly on the heads of the owners….Same with guns, my gun has been sitting in my closet for 6 months now, and while I occasionally take it out and shoot it, it has never once loaded itself and shot anyone. The gun manufacturers are not selling “evil” guns. Guns are not good or evil…the gun handler is the one using it for good or evil. Punish the store owner if he sold the gun illegally, no background check or whatever, but not the manufacturer, unless the damage was caused by a manufacturer’s defect of course……. 22. Americans with Disabilities Act a. Improving access to meaningful and gainful employment for people with disabilities. Too many Americans with disabilities continue to be left out of the workforce, and for those who are employed, too many are in under-stimulating jobs that don't fully allow them to use their talents. 23. meeting the climate challenge a. just…no 24. campus sexual assault a. An estimated one in five women report being sexually assaulted while in college i. I am assuming then, that men are much hornier then when I went to college, because we had, maybe 10 reported rapes on campus in 1992…… ii. Please give us the statistics of rapes that actually did happen not just the ones that were reported. iii. Punish the women who cry rape when it wasn’t rape. iv. Getting drunk and going home with a stranger is stupid, it is regrettable, but it is not rape! 25. aggressive campaign finance reform a. End the stranglehold that wealthy interests have over our political system and restore a government of, by, and for the people. i. If you want a government that is of, by and for the people, you would go to a popular vote system instead of the Electoral College system. Our communications are much quicker now, and it would not be hard to do….this would end the electoral votes getting to Washington and voting for someone other than who their district voted for… 26. Alzheimer’s cure a. Increase funding for Alzheimer’s research…..okay Okay, so she has a few good issue resolutions, a couple of face palmers, and some that I just don’t think would work…. Okay, next…I went to her news feed, and it is 90% Trump bashing, with one article that wasn’t bashing, but it was why some democrat wanted Hillary in the west wing…. Okay, I am not reading candidate bashing, I think it is juvenile and stupid…. Sources: everything I quoted came directly from her campaign page… https://www.hillaryclinton.com/ all of the comments are my own opinions…

How exactly does one go a whole 6 months without posting in the blog??

Well, for me, Chianna started school, so I went back to work full time.

So, since last July, I have to admit, I have not done so well on the dieting thing, I have gained back almost 30 pounds...however, I have been having some health issues, so my Dr says I am not to do the diet anymore until they figure out what is going on. 90% sure it is MS, but seeing the neurologist on Monday for confirmation of Dr's tests.

On the bright side, we got new missionaries last week, and they are guys...Have not had guys since leaving Idaho, so that was fun. We love the sisters, but the Elders have such a spirit about them that!! They are coming for dinner on Thursday, so will be feeding 3 teenage boys instead of 1, better double the recipe!! :-)

July 1 weight and measurements

Weight -

Hips 53 3/4
Waist 45 3/4
Breast 50 1/2
Chest 43 1/2
Neck 16
R thigh 27 1/2
L Thigh 28
R Arm 15
L Arm 15 1/2

There's No Place Like Home...

Well, there I was in Idaho, cleaning out my closet when those darn red shoes clicked together...and now I am back in Kansas! We have been here since May 28, and are currently in Larned, but planning on moving to Lacrosse or Otis before school starts. Skipp started a new job in Hays and he loves it, so i am pleased.

So far this summer the girls and Aaron have joined the summer reading program at the library and have read about 60 books for the girls and 3 for Aaron, not bad for 3 weeks....

Looking forward to finding my own place and getting settled...probably going to try to buy something since there are no 3 bedroom rentals anywhere!

May 7, 1972-2011

Tauruses born on May 7 are quiet, highly principled people whose concern for others nearly always outweighs concern for themselves. They are uncritical in the extreme. Yet despite their seeming mildness, there is nothing weak or unreliable about them. Their ability to put their own quiet strength behind the people they love is remarkable.

Friends and Lovers

People born on this day love selflessly, often sacrificially. They have no ego issues within the boundaries of a relationship, whether it is with a friend or a romantic partner. May 7 individuals cannot settle for an "ordinary" love -- they need to find a soul mate.

Children and Family

The relationship between May 7 people and their family members is complicated. There often is some form of estrangement between the individual and a parent or authority figure, making it difficult to retain a close familial relationship in later years. They have a natural affinity for parenthood, though. They have the ability to inspire a child's creative instincts.

Health

The sensitive nature of May 7 people can negatively affect their health if they do not take a strong interest in remaining fit. Vigorous daily exercise is the best way to expel the stress so prevalent in their lives.

Career and Finances

May 7 people often find themselves drawn to a career by abstract circumstances rather than by deliberate selection. They need more than a career -- they need a calling. No amount of money can substitute for the satisfaction these individuals require in their life's work. When it comes to managing money, they have a surprising flair sparked by their other creative energies.

Dreams and Goals

May 7 individuals tend to keep their hopes and dreams to themselves. Generally, they wish to make a success of their important relationships and maintain the clarity of their creative inspiration. They judge the success or failure of a venture in a purely subjective way. If it reinforces their dreams, they are content. These individuals have little regard for the financial ramifications of their endeavors.

Chianna's first Primary talk!

RESTORATION OF THE CHURCH

When Jesus Christ lived on the earth, He organized His church.

He gave each of the Apostles’ the priesthood.

Because people would not believe the gospel, the Church was taken from the earth.

About 190 years ago, a young boy was trying to find the true church.

His name was Joseph Smith.

Joseph did not know which church he should join

He loved Heavenly Father and wanted to do what was right.

Joseph decided to ask Heavenly Father which church was right.

He went to a grove of trees and knelt to pray.

Joseph saw Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ.

Because Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ knew that Joseph Smith would always choose the right, They chose him to restore the true church to the earth.

Because Joseph Smith wanted to know the truth, the true Church of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the only true church.

We are led by prophets and apostles who have the priesthood and tell us what Heavenly Father wants us to do.

I know this is the true church. I know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of the Heavenly Father.

In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen

April 28

Well, 2 days after the end of the program, my weight this morning was 298, so maintaining a weight below 300 for the first time ever. Next round supposed to start in 40 days, but I am going to wait and see what happens with Skipp and the job thing. If we will be in Kansas on June 1st, then i will start then, but if not, then we are going camping from June the 6th to the 16th, and if that is the case, then i will start the diet on the 17th.

Not really sure how I feel about moving back to Kansas. On one hand, I really feel like we should never have left, and on the other hand, I have really gotten involved in a bunch of activities with the kids, for one thing, Bailey sold 1000 boxes of cookies and she won a train ride with the girl scouts, so I want to stay until after that, AND, her girl scout troop is going camping in July, which I think she should get to do...so I have to decide if I follow Skipp right away, or send him June 1st and follow him in August...just before school starts.....