The Stimulus Plan

I hear the saying, "Better go do something....even if it's wrong" commonly on jobsites. Well, yesterday, the House passed an 825,000,000,000.00 bill that followed the same principle.

Yeah right. That will work. (Just curious, has anyone reaped any benefit of the last bailout? If so, please comment below, I would be interested to hear the circumstances.)

I wanted to know what this "stimulus" involved, so I did some checking, hoping to ease my mind. Not so much. I went to a lot of sites to try and gather information. To find a summary, just google "2009 stimulus package summary." To read one in it's entirety, click here.

Some highlights.....
-$6 billion for broadband and wireless services in underserved areas
-$1.9 billion for physics research
-NASA: $600 million, including $400 million for climate change research
-$900 million to prepare for a pandemic influenza and other health threats
-$600 million for satellite development and acquisitions
-$430 million for new direct lending and loan guarantee authorities to make loans more attractive to lenders and free up capital
-DTV Conversion Coupons: $650 million (MORE) to continue the coupon program and advertisements through summer - (since one year to prepare apparently wasn't enough.)
-$400 million so fed and state governments can buy new vehicles that are more fuel efficient.
-$6.2 billion to help low-income families weatherize their homes
-$6 billion to weatherize modest-income homes.
-$87 billion for a temporary increase in the Medicaid matching rate.
-$43 billion for increased unemployment benefits
-$20 billion to increase the food stamp benefit

A few of them sound fine. To me, I know most of that allocated money will never, ever actually help out the people that really need it.

How about keeping more of your tax return? Put more money in the hands of those who can spend it to actually stimulate the economy instead of pet projects and pork.

Just do something, even if it's wrong..........but at least has a chance of helping.

Whatchu Talkin Bout Willis Wednesday

Ok, so this is Allison and I am doing my first "Whatchu Talkin Bout Willis". Not only is it my first attempt but I have chosen a topic that is somewhat controversial. Here it goes....

While I was pregnant, many people recommended that I read a book titled "Baby Wise." I read it. I liked it. I thought wow this seems like a pretty good method to try.

Well I tried it. It worked for awhile. But once Makenna hit the 2 month mark my success began fly out the window. Makenna started to have problems napping. She would wake up after 20 minutes or 40 minutes if I was lucky. And when I mean wake up, I mean happy and very alert wake. Come to find out she was not transitioning from active sleep to deep sleep very well. Although napping was a problem, she continued to sleep well at night.

We are still having problems with napping but I have gotten used to her waking up and putting her back to sleep. But this was after many weeks of feeling like I was failing at what had worked for so many other moms.

So long story short, here are a few things I think about Baby Wise and what I found worked or didn't:

• Baby Wise has a lot of helpful tips about feeding, scheduling, and other basic information about newborns.
• A feed/wake/sleep cycle really does help promote night time sleep
• Baby Wise is not helpful AT ALL when it comes to your baby having problems napping.
• Just because something worked for 95% of the moms you know, it doesn't mean it will work for you. And even more importantly, you shouldn't feel like you are doing something wrong when it doesn't work for you.
• People/Moms tend to only share the positive experiences of parenting a newborn.
  
• A baby can be happy even when they sleep less than normal.
• Contrary to the statistics throughout the book, we still think that Makenna is gonna turn out great.
• If something is not working and you have given it a fair chance to work, try something new. Don't continue doing it because it woked for someone else.

Please don't get me wrong, I still think that Baby Wise is a good resource. And we will continue to use the eat/wake/sleep cycle with any future babies. I just thought that I would share what worked for me and what didn't. I guess that is how all stages for parenting goes. You find what works for you and you go with it.

Makenna 101

Makenna is changing everyday. Her personality is becoming more and more defined and that is incredible to watch happen.

Here are some highlights and pictures......

• She is talking/cooing quite often. Even in an interactive way now too.
• She smiles almost constantly when someone plays with her.
• She squeals and laughs.
• "Tummy time" is a favorite. She can now lift her head to about a 90 degree angle.
• She loves to hold her hands together.
• She will grab onto a rattle when put in her hand.
• She can scoot backwards when on her back.
• Watching people is fun for her.
• Being read to and listening to music is delightful.
  
• Bath time is not her favorite time. Even with a rubber ducky.
• She sticks almost everything in her mouth.... her hands, toys, my shoulder.
• If you use your imagination, it looks like the hair on top of her is growing some.

Another year older.....

I remember when I was really young, there was a T.V. show called "Thirtysomething." I have no idea what is was about, but remember thinking how incredibly old people in their 30's must be. They probably don't have any fun, probably hurt their hips if they attempt any crazy activity and probably all drink prune juice.

Tomorrow (the 26th) I will wake up no longer in my 20's. I feel quite confident I will still act, look and talk the same, but still can't shake the feeling I'm getting old.

Along those lines, I always imagined people who are 30 are "grown up." Yeah.... Other than my hair turning a little more gray, I still feel young. I still kinda look young. And I definitely don't think of myself as all that mature. I purposely say dumb things, make jokes normally made famous by junior high kids, and pretend I could still fit in with the college kids if I only shaved my beard.

I guess "young" is simply an opinion that operates on a sliding scale. It will continue to be at least several years ahead of me until my kids convince me otherwise.

Is there a difference?

You can say you "never gave up." Or.......... did you really actually never start?

Read an impressive story here.