Yesterday evening we noticed that our female cockatiel had laid two eggs! We have had these birds for over a year now and this is the first time they have ever laid eggs despite their obvious love for one another. So far there are just two eggs. We will just have to wait and see if she lies anymore.

 

Here is their little nest I made them. Hopefully in a month we'll have a little family of birds. I'm going to need a bigger cage.

Amanda

 

Connor has been waiting a week for me to buy stamps so he could mail his letter to Santa. Here he is putting his letter in the mailbox.



Amanda

I can't believe my great niece is 1 already! She is amazing. I love her so much.

Here is her with her birthday cake I made her.

Here is the full cake.


Amanda

This morning I went to a few yard sales with my mother-in-law and found a few good buys. I've been giving some thought to renting a few booths at Antique Malls, craft places and/or flea markets. This way at least part of my business can stay open and we'll just see how it goes.

Anyway, Here are some of my deals of the day.


The big box is filled with cake decorating items like the grocery stores get in to put on their cakes. They are all still brand new and in the packages. I only gave $2 for the entire box. Probably my best deal of the day!

In the baggie is beads to make jewelry and a few little wooden craft items.

The bottom picture is Christmas birdhouses. They are so cute! There is a General store, Antiques, Bakery, Church, Post Office and a school. I just loved them.


Amanda

I'm trying to keep my head up. It's hard. Jacob says I just need to focus on craft shows and working from home, but that's hard when all of my tools and supplies were in the building. Crazy as it might seem my sewing machine and my cordless glue gun are probably the two things I'll miss the most. My cordless glue gun I can replace fairly inexpensively, but my sewing machine will have to wait. Sigh...

URG this is hard.


Amanda

My friend Jeremy came by my store a week or so ago. He is one of our vendors. While there he asked me if I could make him a small bag for his wheelchair that he could put his cell phone, keys, a plastic bag to keep the motor dry in case of rain and a few other things. I told him I probably could and I the next day I went to work on it. The bag has an inside pocket, along with a cell phone pocket on the outside and a ring that has a D ring so that he can easily clip on his keys. It also has a zipper to keep things from falling out. This was only the second zipper I had ever put in. The last one I did under direct supervision from Mrs.Duey in high school. I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to get it in right, but to my surprise I did it fairy easily.

The bag turned out nice He liked it and it fit perfectly.

Here is Jeremy with his camo bag on the side of his chair.

Okay, So we all know that President Obama will deliver an address to school aged children in public schools. There has been a lot of debate over this and since this is my blog I'll give you my opinion...

It is important as parents and educators to teach our children to show respect for our President. I have read the speech that the President will give tomorrow and see nothing wrong with his message. He isn't brainwashing our children to believe some libral garbage. He is simply welcoming them back to school and encouraging them to be responsable.  I did not vote for him. I do not like many of his policies, but again he IS our President. My child WILL attend school tomorrow and will hear the message that our President has prepared. If for some unknown reason he would have to miss school tomorrow I will personally show it to him myself. We need to teach our children about politics and about our own personal values so that when they are old enough to vote they will be able to make a clear moral decision to vote for the candidate of their choice. Why is it that the First Lady often is expected to talk to school children, but the President himself is not? Former First Lady Laura Bush spent many hours in classrooms with children. Mrs.Bush is in my opinion the diffinition of Lady! She supports President Obamas decision to adress the children and I agree with her.

Again, just my opinion. Please be mindful of what you say to and in front of your children. Stick to the facts if you want to express your opinion of our President to them. Tell them what you like or don't like. Be respectful. There is no need in a bashing name calling session. They will respect you and your point of view more in the end.

This week one of my assignments for my Geography class was to pick one of the 6 topics gave to us by our professor and write a short essay ( 5 paragraph module). It isn't my best work, but after writing 3 other papers this week I was just happy to get a few facts on paper and get the thing turned in.

Here is the topic I picked. What is has to do with geography, I have no clue!

3. In a world of increased globalization, Wal-Mart has been at the center of many debates. They have received criticisms due to low wages and lack of benefits for their employees, environmental issues, and their dependence on foreign labor forces (namely China) to provide the goods they sell. However, they remain the world's largest retailer and provide food and other household goods at prices that are very beneficial for many Americans. Is Wal-Mart an evil giant or a hero of the American people? Support your answer with facts and data; there should be a lot of information available both for and against Wal-Mart, as the company has received a lot of attention in recent years.

In recent years the economy of the United States has significantly declined and I believe that Wal-Mart has had a big part in that. From increased buying imports from countries like China to questionable business practices and employee treatment, Wal-Mart has become the evil giant that we all feared.

Back in the 1990’s Wal-Mart came out with a big slogan that said “We buy American so you can too.” In 2006 Wal-Mart’s inventory from China was over $27 billion. It is estimated that more than 70% of products sold in Wal-Mart were at least partly made in China. Wal-Mart is responsible for over 10% of the total U.S imports from China and has reportedly cost Americans over 200,000 jobs. (Scott)

"People ask, 'How can it be bad for things to come into the U.S. cheaply? How can it be bad to have a bargain at Wal-Mart?' Sure, it's held inflation down, and it's great to have bargains," "But you can't buy anything if you're not employed. We are shopping ourselves out of jobs." Steve Dobbins, CEO of a Carolina Mills Company.  This is exactly what we are doing. Our quick fix of shopping is fueling the economic fire. We all want to save money and we are all living on a budget, but for what cost?

Wal-Mart has been the center of many lawsuits in recent years for employee treatment. One of the biggest lawsuits came in 2001 when Wal-Mart settled for $35 million for off the clock labor violations. Most recently, Wal-Mart has been in court over a wrongful death of an employee who was trampled to death during “Black Friday” the day after Thanksgiving last year.  Wal-Mart has agree to pay $2 million in safety improvements.

I’m a small business owner. I understand the difficulty providing consumers with the best products at the lowest prices. I may not be able to compete with the big giants prices, but I will always be able to compete with their customer service. My customers want a friendly face not a machine to check them out while they do all the work. That machine is one more person who is out of a job. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying to boycott Wal-Mart. I’m saying that as Americans we have choices, and we need to be cautious of the choices we make.

Works Cited

Scott, Robert E. Economic Policy Institute. 26 June 2006. 30 August 2009 .

So another school year is upon us and 3 days in I already have my first concern. Yesterday afternoon Connor brings home a paper in his bag explaining the new lunch prices and milk prices. Not a big deal. Before bed Connor asks if he could have a quarter for milk I give him a couple quarters and don't really think much about it. I'm glad that he remembered because I hadn't and I honestly felt like we would have until Monday to turn in the money anyway.

This afternoon Connor gets off the bus and I ask him the usual questions.. How was your day? What did you have for lunch and snack time.. This is when he tells me about what happened at snack time. It seems that only 3-4 of his classmates had milk money for the day. So they got milk, but the other children did not. It saddens me that these children had to go without their afternoon milk over $.25! Yes, I understand if you tally a quarter a child throughout the entire school that it does add up fast. I guess I just expected them to at least give the parents a reasonable amount of time to send in money.

I know that the Mtn.Grove school had trouble with this a couple years ago and I'm sad that it is starting here.  At Norwood if you pay for breakfast, lunch and milk the total comes to $3 per child per day. That is $15 a week.

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining about having to provide for my child. He is my responsibility and I will give him everything I can. He won't go a day without lunch and milk money! It drives me crazy to hear people complain about having to provide for their children, but that is a topic for a whole other blog :)

My point is, While I'm glad that my own son had his milk money, I just think it's sad that these children had to take turns going down to the water fountain after snack while other children got to have milk and it's all over twenty-five cents.