Out with the Old in with the New

Well 2008 is coming to an end in a matter of hours so I would like to wish everyone a Happy and safe hopefully fun filled New Years Day as well as good throughout the year to come!

Down will be coming all my inside and outside Holiday decorations after welcoming in the New Year. I don’t have any big plans though as I never do. I have always been a homebody when it came to celebrating New Years, maybe a handful of the times I have celebrated it at a relatives but never any more than that. So, as usual I’ll be safe and sound in the presence of my home tonight sipping on me a glass of some bubbly champagne. We are expecting a few guests of about five so we should have a nice little time together.

I don’t get wrapped up in all the New Years resolutions and that is because I start off great then somewhere down the line it goes out the window, lol.

Bringing in 2009 I wish all a Happy New Years!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cheers!!

Blagojevich appointment of Burris to the Senate plus Rush

I was dropping by a political blog today that I had been reading First door on the left and it was the first of the breaking news that I heard of Blagojevich appointing President-Elect Obama senate seat to Roland Burris, although he is dealing with the possibility of himself being impeached, he is only carrying on his lawful duties as Governor, he mentioned.

I just have to add my further 2 cents to this announcement in regards to the way Bobby Rush carried on. I do not completely disagree with the message of Bobby Rush on race, but I do think there is a time and place for everything and his timing to me was off. Firstly, I thought Burris looked rather out of the picture in the whole accepting of the senate seat as he just willingly passed what was supposed to have been his spotlight onto Rush when he asked him to come up and speak. If I was Burris I would have preferred someone to speak more on me as a person, American, a human being or more on my actual credentials.

Secondly Rush should have found another opportunity to address his feelings and support of seeing another African American in the US Senate. I whole heart him and his feelings of sincerity on this, but he appeared to me as if he was saying that the race of the candidate is more significant than the actual person fulfilling the duties and the legal appointment from the appointer, and as if (not accusing Burris of any wrong doing) but it’s like he is ready to demand this appointment regardless of the current allegations of the Governor playing pay to play politics, simply because he feels the Senate seat of one African American should be passed on to another African American. Oh really is that how this all goes?

Is my views twisted or am I just looking into this all wrong? What do you think? Who would have taken the spotlight so diligently if the appointee wasn’t an African American, to defend the Governor’s selection? Was that really caused for from Rush?

article on Cnn

*A brief update into all this.*
Senate majority leader Harry Reid is still standing by his previous position along with the senate that Roland Burris still faces a slim chance of being sworn in with the rest of the Senate. He did recently say that he will talk with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and that hopefully there is room to negotiate something, perhaps Burris as just a Senator-Elect with little privileges who knows.

Meanwhile (D) Representative Bobby Rush of IL continues on with the racial terms portraying the Senate as “the last bastion of racial plantation politics in America.” I feel he really needs to stop this. Myself as a black of course I think it would be great to see another black take a seat in the senate, but I seriously think no matter whom tainted Blagojevich chose they would still be facing the same current problems as Burris, so the aspect of race is absurd to me. Burris himself seem pretty confident in becoming the next Junior Senator and I do think he will sooner or later be appointed somewhere down the line and if not let’s remember it was said before hand that the senate wasn’t willing to accept the appointee from Governor Blagojevich while this investigation is still underway. Well well well what a mess in Illinois politics right now.

1/6 Roland Burris has been denied the US Senate seat on to the courts he goes.

1/15 Roland Burris get's sworn into the Senate.

I so love the Wii

I really really do love it!!! I purchased one for my kid’s family this Christmas. We were due for an upgrade and hadn’t had one since the play station 2 and Nintendo game cube. Finding out that the wii played the game cube games was really a plus as well, since they have many games for it.

I find the Wii to be a great family system. I love the fact that majority of the time while you’re playing you’re up and on your feet moving about as opposed to just sitting back being a lazy spaced out couch potato. I have really been having a good time these past few days since Christmas playing the games with the boys. We all stayed up super duper late last night including the hubby playing golf on 4 players. Like what I don’t even play golf in real life but I must admit the game is very fun and makes me feel like a Tiger Woods in fantasy land, lol.

Thing is though that while yes it may seem like a great low cost budget system compared to the Xbox 360 and Play station 3 running at about $250 but jeez how about after purchasing 3 additional Wii Remote Controller at $40 each plus the 3 additional nun chunk controllers at $20 each, not to mention the classic controllers running at $20 each, plus the other little accessories like the sports pack Wii Grand Slam Sports Pack of baseball bat, golf club, tennis racket, driving wheel, charging system etc.. Okay yes granted these extras aren’t required but yet they are a kicker to have as they are fun and stimulating as in making you feel like you’re actually playing the real thing, virtual reality. Now what I didn’t get but think I really want is the Wii Fit!

It comes with wii sports which is cool, the basic sports of bowling, tennis, baseball…. We love Harvest moon and Animal Crossing: City Folk as well alot together helping each other out with it. Then comes my oldest boys with their WW Smack down vs. Raw (something wrestling) they get to slamming their knees into the floor so hard, jumping, yanking arms and all to the point that I have to tell them to take a real deal chill pill as in give it a break son…. Anyways I highly recommend the system!!

Do you or your kids enjoy the Wii, Xbox 360 or Play station 3 the best? What are some of you or the family favorite video games to play?? Yes I’m still a kid at heart :)!

All set and ready for Christmas

I am so glad to say that! I don’t know any other time of year that involves so much ripping and running. I thought I was done with all my shopping but apparently I forgot all about the grocery store run, so I went out and finished that up yesterday and took our dog to the groomer, so now thank goodness I am officially all set and done outside the home wise anyway. I still have some dusting and gift wrapping to do.

Traditionally our family does the whole pot luck dinner where everyone brings a dish and we alternate whose place to have Christmas dinner at. It’s our place this year so we don’t have to cook much. Normally when we go to our relatives for the Holiday’s we would take a dish but still prepare a small meal for home, but since all the food will be here I just mostly had to pick up fruits, candy, nuts etc….

I have a rather large family my Grandmother has 14 children alone, plus my Grandfather had four children before him and her married. Quite awhile ago my family decided upon a grab bag gift exchange every year for our family and friends. It had been running pretty smoothly and everyone was saving on gift purchases of course. Some still buy gifts for everyone while majority of us just purchase an adult gift and one or more kids gift from the grab bag.

After all these years of carrying this tradition since I was a child myself I remember with the grab bag and pot lucking. This year brings something a little different we still doing the pot luck dinner but the grab bag has taken a turn for the worst. I guess it was a combination of lack of participation and organizing. Instead of everyone pulling or receiving a name on Thanksgiving as we did in the past it was decided for everyone to just purchase a unisex gift and throw it under the tree and the kids names were just threw around. Not many like the idea including myself so my cousins and I decided it’s time for our generation to carry on our family tradition and from here on out we will take on the responsibility every year of getting everyone together for Thanksgiving and pulling from the grab bag just like we used to do it. We haven’t told everyone just yet but we plan to make the announcement on Christmas, I’m sure my Aunt probably would be glad since she has been the main one putting forth so much effort over the years to help keep our family close and tight.

As well I would like to Wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas or Happy Holiday for whichever you are Celebrating this Season, if any!

School Snow Day

Ice sleet, slush, and snow you name it and we are getting hit with it all. As a result all schools in our district are closed for the day. Now I have all these little teacher and student presents to hang onto until they go back to school after these two weeks of winter break. Oh the joys of living in a winter wonder land. It is such a mess outside, the snow is super hard my husband barely got our driveway cleared out with the snow blower it sounded like the thing was about to fall apart, maybe we need to upgrade the poor thing. He had already called in late for work so I decided to boot up and go out there to help him finish up. We ended up switching it up as he broke the snow up into chunks with the shovel and I plowed as he shoveled. That was a morning workout and this is only the beginning of winter so we have much more funner days ahead of us, blah!

Drew Peterson in the news again

In a nutshell Drew Peterson age 54 a former police sergeant made the news headlines when his 23 year old wife Stacy became missing back in 2007. Till this day she still remains missing.
Kathleen Savio, Petersons ex wife before Stacy was found dead in the bath tub of their home once declared accidental has now become the investigation of homicide. Drew is a suspect involved with both of the above.

I know life goes on and everyone has to live their life but can somebody just say creepy to this. Peterson has recently told reporters that he is engaged once again to a 23 year old, by the way she would make wife number 5. Then he goes on to say that he is tired of all the media attention but couldn't help but laugh as he said “letting the media into his wedding could come with some perks like free photographers and videographers“. He has quite a sense of humor.

How can someone feel safe and secure in the arms of a man with so much revolving around him? The father of his current fiance says he is trying to talk his daughter out of all this, he even went and paid Mr. Peterson a visit to tell him to take his ring back. Mentioned was that Drew has been promising his new lover many materialistic things. Which is more valuable life, safety and well being or money for crying out loud? Now that really wasn’t all in a nutshell either.

My son got his feelings hurt over snow pants

Yesterday our temperature dipped into the single digits so I pulled out the snow pants for my boys, since they do have to wait outside for the school bus. I could not believe it this morning when I was getting my youngest son ready for the bus and when I handed him his snow pant’s I saw his facial expression turn rather gloomy, so I asked him what was wrong??? Normally he is in a spectacular mood about riding the school bus and going to school in general.

His response to me was that he didn’t want to wear his snow pants to school again. I asked him why and he sadly told me because he got laughed at for wearing them to school and that it hurt his feelings. I’m like WTF, hello my son is in Kindergarten and since when did snow pants become unpopular for 5 and 6 year olds. I just reached out to him and gave him a hug, told him it’s okay and that the snow pants are to keep him warm while he waits for the bus in the cold and that sooner or later other kids at school would be wearing them too. Along with mentioning to him that he didn't want his Asthma to flare up due to the cold weather changes.

Then I turned around and asked him if he did not want to wear his snow pants to school again today or if he wanted to stay warm and go to school in his snow pants, needless to say my baby chose on his own to stay warm so he left in his snow pants.

Jesse Jackson Jr. Says clear his name

Well actually his words were that he wants his name back and is trying to stray away from the linking’s of him as candidate #5 in the whole corruption charges of IL Governor and him possibly being one of those bidders for Obama Senate seat involved in pay to play politics.



If by slight chance you’re wondering who is Jesse Jackson Jr. he is a current member of congress from IL and is the son of civil rights activist Jesse Jackson Sr. founder of rainbow/operation push.

Tisk, tisk, what’s new so many politicians are dirty and corrupted to the point that it’s almost the norm. Even the spotlight revolving around this case leads many to question our current President Elect Obama and his staffers and any involvement or wrong doing pertaining to this. Please don’t let it be.

It’s sad to say but with so much going on at once NO I wouldn’t be surprised if any found cases end up being linked with any connections with Obama or his staffers although I don’t think anything will likely be linked to Obama himself as I think he is too smart of a guy to fall into this trap. A politician is a politician though and I surely hope Obama isn’t involved in any of this wrong doing because I myself look forward to the day of having him serve as our commander in chief.

As for all this hype going on with Blagojevich, Jackson Jr. and Obama or his staffers who knows, but they surely know their own involvement.

IL Governor Blagojevich arrested on several corruption charges

I briefly tuned into the news this morning while getting me and the boys ready for school and I was shocked to hear of the news that the Chicago based Tribune media co. is filing for bankruptcy along with the talks of them selling the Chicago Cubs baseball team which they own. Even though this is surprising news I guess it can’t be too much of a shocker in the midst of the economic crisis in general and I heard a little info about Governor Blagojevich of IL being arrested but I had to get out the door so that was that.

By the time I had gotten home and sat down to relax on the sofa with my doggie to watch a little TV I didn’t see anything I wanted to watch so I decided to tune in to CNN, which I watch frequently. By now the news with the Governor was off my mind as I had forgotten about it but as soon I tuned into CNN it was the first story being covered. So, I’m like oh okay I was wondering what was going on with the recent news I heard.

Blagojevich was arrested this morning by the Feds on corruption charges and yet again this is still not a major surprise he was already in the spotlight of corruption dealings. According to U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald the government had the Governors campaign office and his home phone tapped. What took the cake though was when they mentioned that he was offering President Elect Obama vacated Senate seat to the highest bidder. I can only shake my head at this.

Barack Obama response to this news as he spoke today at a rather awkward press conference was that he had no contact with Blagojevich about his seat in the Senate. That he was saddened about the news and that he felt its best for him to not go into the matter any further since this is an ongoing investigation in regards to the Governor. More on all this here

OJ Simpson going down, Guilty

Well it looks like the OJ has lost his juice as he just has been found guilty on the charges he was facing of armed robbery along with kidnapping. His sentence is supposed to be at least 9 years in prison for him.

My take on this is that for one OJ must be losing his marbles if he actually thought he didn’t commit a crime by busting into a hotel room with a gun like he “The Man” I mean seriously though I find the thought of that rather wacky.

Now, as for the amount of time they giving him “Pay Back” yes that’s right and that’s my opinion as we are all entitled to one. The Judge and jurors can say what they want but I think otherwise. Who did he hurt and what did he steal? His own belongings???

He got off the hook on the previous double homicide charges in the past with his ex wife and all, if he was guilty or innocent obviously there was never enough solid evidence. He didn’t get sentenced to prison then but he’s well on his way now. I do think he brought certain things upon himself though writing a book “If I did it” and all, ridiculous to me. Well OJ perhaps you got what you wanted for whatever reason. I guess he now figured out its not always a good thing trying /being in the spotlight.

Shame on it all OJ "The Juice".

Dinner with or without the TV?

I recall when I was growing up we always ate dinner together as a family gathered around the kitchen table. This rubbed off onto me and my family as well. When dinner is ready we all eat together in the kitchen. I have dinner ready 8 out of 10 times when my husband gets home from work. Since he pretty much makes it home at the same time everyday I pace my cooking times accordingly so that we can wait for him to make it home and for us all to have dinner together at the kitchen table.

The only thing different with me and my family versus my family when I was growing up is that we had a TV in our kitchen. A little small 13” color TV, yike’s you rarely even see TV’s that small nowadays. We don’t have a TV in our kitchen and nor do we branch off to separate parts of the house to eat dinner or watch TV while eating dinner. After dinner we can all go whatever way we want, it’s not that I hold anyone hostage during dinner time but I firmly believe in a family sitting down together for dinner minus the TV so dinner time is family time with us.

I understand not everyone is able to be compatible with their daily schedules, busy lifestyles and work hours or whatever but what do you think about dinner time with the TV is it on or off for your family? Do you gather together for dinner or does everyone eat wherever they choose?

World Aids Day

December 1st 2008 marks the 20th anniversary of raising awareness with World Aids Day. Over 30 million people are currently living with HIV throughout the world. HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) the virus that causes AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) as many know Aids is a disease of the immune system that has treatment options but currently there is no cure for it.

HIV can be transmitted in several ways, through direct contact of a mucous membrane or the bloodstream with an infected bodily fluid such as blood, semen, vaginal fluid and breast milk.
The transmission can involve anal, vaginal, or oral sex, blood transfusions, contaminated hypodermic needles, exchange between mother and baby during pregnancy, childbirth, or breast feeding, or other exposure to one of the above bodily fluids.

Prevention and awareness is the key along with getting yourself tested towards stopping this disease from spreading further throughout the world.

Today in connection with blog catalog bloggers unite to spread the awareness of HIV/AIDS.