Ames Iowa GOP straw poll August 14, 2007

We left tulsa at 7 pm friday night. One of our first stops was a little restaurant in Nowata oklahoma just before the kansas state line. The restaurant was called hollywood and vine and was completely decked out in black and white photos of all of hollywood’s finest among other great collectables and knick-knacks. It looked like an authentic mob owned italian restaurant in NYC and they had great food. We stopped every chance we got to put Ron Paul flyers out across the country and it was almost 3:30 when we reached KC. At that point we decided that we could drive the 2.5 hours to council bluffs to sleep for half an hour or we could drive 2.5 to ames and just get there early. We opted for an early set up in Ames I crossed the Iowa border just after 5 and heard my first Ron Paul commercial on the air. This is when I started getting excited and when I started seeing the Ron Paul revolution banners and signs I almost couldn’t contain myself. I kept waking jay up saying “look, LOOK theres another one”

We finally rolled into the Iowa State University parking lotat 6:15 am and the granny warriors bus was in the parking lot with buddy the monkey. after giving him some attention and buying some buttons and wristbands we walked over to where the tents were to see how everything was set up. It was a disgusting spectacle. So much money was put into this event to show off for people. The ron paul campaign had way more integrity than this. The tent was HUGE but there were no ferris wheels, or watermelons necessary. The ron paul supporters were coming out of the woodworks to help and create our own moving spectacle. After signing in for all the volunteer stuff we decided to join the groups of sign wavers standing where the busses were to come in. There were groups of 5 – 10 RP supporters along the routes of the busses and on the other side groups of 10 – 20 Romney supporters. We had a guy with a paper tube psuedo bullhorn keeping us going but it usually took no more than 30 seconds to break up the team romney kids and they would leave because we were WAY WAY louder than them. then they tried to surround us with golf carts honking and bullhorns to drown us out but we just got louder and louder and not even that could stop us. So many people walked up to us and said things like “are you guys being paid to be here” and “good lord RP supporters sure are well organized, who do you take orders from” and other similar things. They were all so pleased to find out we were doing this on our own. One guy said to me “are you from iowa” and i said no tulsa ok and he said “YOU DROVE HERE ON YOUR OWN DIME?????” and I said yep, i would drive to alaska for Ron Paul. We got into a 10 minute conversation about ron pauls issues and he seemed very pleased.

we were back and forth between the parking lots and the tents for a couple of hours. Jay got picked to be the first shift of Ron Paul people to oversee the voting to make sure there was no funny business. and I helped out at the tent selling shirts and buttons and greeting people. There were several people who told us that they had come on the bus for another candidate but had decided to vote for ron paul. One guy had a brownback shirt on and a “i voted for Ron Paul button” THAT WAS SOOOOO AWESOME.

about 2 hours before Ron Pauls speech (we had thought it was going to be earlier) we started the ron paul parade. This was by far the most amazing thing i have EVER participated in. we started marching and chanting “ron paul” and “freedom” and other things like that and holding ron paul signs and banners and american flags. we were led by guys with the drums and flute and they were playing patriotic songs. Everywhere we went more people joined in. I was pretty close to the back of the line but when we ended up at the entrance to the coluseum there were at least 50 more people behind me. I would estimate anywhere from 200-300 people in this parade and the ISU grounds were not HUGE this made a huge impact and the only people with sour looks on thier faces were team romney people. EVERYONE was smiling at us, no one was complaining. they thought we were awesome. we then marched right into the hilton coluseum to watch ron paul speak from the “mosh pit” The clips from CNN are awesome, it looks like thousands of people with signs in front of ron paul.

The rest of the day was similar to this as well.. it started getting very hot and we were staying cool the best we could. we had sno cones and hot dogs and corn on the cob and had a great time talking to all the people.

a few minutes before 6:00 a guy RAN up to the RP table and said ” im from iowa and i haven’t voted yet” they handed him a ticket and he turned on a dime and RAN as fast as a racehorse to the hilton to vote

after the voting ended we sat in the shade for a little bit and then all headed to the coluseum for the results. Inside there were three main groups of people in the seats. a group of around 300 huckabee supporters, 150 brownback supporters, and 200 RP supporters. while waiting for the results we chanted and had some fun trying to drown out the huckabee people screaming “we like mike” and they would chant for about 30 seconds or so, We would chant for like 10 minutes at a time, and louder, drowning them out and they would give up. My voice was giving out from leading the chanting after about 10 minutes so we eventually all calmed down and only chanted when necessary. We had all decided even if RP came in dead last we would go CRAZY when they announced his name and you can tell from the clips that we did. when they read the announcements and said guiliani, the thompsons, and mccain before RP (they went from 10 to 1) my heart dropped. I could think of no better victory then not being in the last 6 places. We went crazy when they said ron pauls place and we were gracious to the other winners ahead of us.

After the results were announced we went back to the tent to hear Ron Paul tell us what he thought of them and everyone decided to go to the bali satay house where “ronstock” was held the night before. We played some pool and sat and ate egg rolls, rangoon and other chinese dishes with the other RP supporters. After a while we decided to get on the road and head to springfield to pick up Olivia. We were exhausted, sunburnt, and ready to get home for some well needed sleep.

This was such a great event and I worked harder and had more fun than I have had in forever. when i get the pics developed Ill post them here but for now here are some of the pics other people took

"reality cartoons" giving false expectations to kids August 14, 2007

School is almost here again and thousands of parents like me will be sending little ones off for the first day of Kindergarten with visions of knowledge and education dancing in our heads like sugarplums. But we like our children are in for a rude awakening. With so much more federal involvement in our children’s educations these days our kids are really getting the short end of the stick. Teachers are spending thousands of dollars each year out of their own pockets on the classrooms, the wages certainly aren’t going up, and a lot of teachers are waiting the summer for the letter in the mail telling them they don’t need to return this year because of budget or staffing problems. In some parts of the country we are putting large numbers of kids in one classroom because of understaffing of teachers. For as long as I can remember kids have been coached to “vote because its your duty” from our teachers, not “inform yourself of the issues and if there is a candidate that fits you, vote for him.” As parents we have to prepare our children for what school is going to be like and a large part of that will be preparing them for the BS that revolves around anything government maintained.

Our children are getting fed large doses of contemporary cartoons that are more of a reality show than a cartoon. When I was a kid cartoons consisted of flying ponies, and little blue people, and sesame street. The almost sex in the city type of cartoons kids are getting these days are giving them a false impression of what school is really like and this is setting them up for a HUGE disappointment. Not that our public school system is anything to brag about but we must be preparing them for the culture shock. On the new cartoons there is very little of the show based around the classroom, its a lot of lunchroom, playground scenes featuring bullies and wedgies and playtime so thats what kids are expecting, A majority of the day they are planning for is on the playground and in fact, recesses this year where I live have actually went down several minutes each time giving the kids more time in the classroom than ever. I bought Olivia school supplies and made two separate boxes, one for home and one for school. I let her play with the home box and during the process I caught her trying to cut the top of the elmer’s glue with her new scissors. After calling her out she says to me “but mom EVERYBODY does it” whawhawhat???? did she really just say that to me. SHE is five years old. Isn’t it 4th grade or something before kids learn this everyone does it crap? I say to her ” who is everybody? you don’t know everybody so how do you know everybody does it?” She says duh mom if the glue wont come out you cut the top and it will come out faster. So shes a little smarter than I give her credit for but I am obviously not well prepared for her going into school yet.

I have learned the best way to prepare her is to just play school with her and act exactly as the teacher will. She is slowly learning that you don’t skateboard in school, hang from the rafters, and build spaceships to fly to the next rival school to play pranks on them (see jimmy neutron). We will see in a week how much of an impact I have made since I will be shipping her off to some stranger to see to it that she gets an education. With my blinders off of course.

August 1, 2007

You know, you hear your whole life that people hate the dentist. I rarely go, I am uncomfortable the whole time Im there, and i can only get lost in a magazine to prevent myself from a panic attack.

I can only attribute this unreasonable thinking with the reasoning that other peoples constant ranting actually does influence our thoughts.

I have been dealing with painful toothaches for years now and about once a year I give in and go get the bothersome tooth removed. I’ve been saying for years I just want them all extracted and yes get dentures in my twenties. Each time I go to a different dentist and each time i get told the same thing. You have several good teeth and several teeth that could be repaired with a root canal, each time the figures to do all the work that needs to be done ranges over 10,000. TEN THOUSAND dollars??? for teeth work? I think I’ll Opt for the dentures. Trouble is finding a dentist to give a 25 year old dentures is nearly impossible.

This week it started again. The excrutiating pain just getting worse and worse each night til i give in and throw down a hundred bucks on an extraction. This time I am at work, ask a few people for a recommendation and find out there are a few dentists within a few miles from my work. The first one I call is booked until september. I finally get ahold of a very nice receptionist at Dr. Brewers office and she tells me she can squeeze me in a few hours later. I suffer through the rest of work and catch a ride to the dentists office. I sit down and fill out some paper work and I am immediately shown to a room. The office is decorated nicely, although going through some obvious renovations. No sooner had I gotten through the Humor in Uniform section of Readers Digest, The Dentist pops his head in the door to introduce himself. He is warm and friendly, and gives off a great first impression. He spends about 20 minutes talking to me about partials, crowns, and several other options a person my age would benefit from other than dentures. He explains the pros and cons to each option including dentures and tells me whatever my decision, it can be done in his office but he wants me to think really hard about my decision since this is of course a permanant solution to an ongoing problem.

After that he tells me his nurse will take me for a full head Xray in one of those weird machines you put your chin on the rest bite down on the plastic bar and hold on. The machine itself is pretty intimidating especially when you are already in pain, In a new Dr’s office and it made these strange beeping and sing song noises at me. It was all over in 30 seconds and whatever terrible things i was expecting never happened. I went back to the room and re-situated myself with the readers digest and made myself knowledgeable about the workings of a chairside spit sink.

When Dr. Brewer came back to the room he went on to tell me that if it was financial issues that were the problem and I had decided on one procedure or another, he could break it down to fit my budget and come as often as necessary to get me fixed up. He lets me know the cost of todays extraction including the X-Ray that I wouldn’t have to do again. We agree that the tooth is coming out today no matter what so he gets started on the numbing process. He tells me how to breath and relax to minimize the pain. As I said I have been to TONS of dentists and none have ever told me you could breath and relax away the pain of the injections. The numbing started immediately and he gave me a bit extra “just to make sure I didn’t feel it” and within a few minutes the tooth was out. It was about 3 inches long because it was actually a wisdom tooth that had grown in place of the molars I had removed 5 years ago. He gave me twice the instructions I had ever been given on after care before and the tips he gave me have all improved the process of recovery, The codiene he prescribed probably helped a little too

around 7 that evening I got a phone call from Dr. Brewer checking up on me to see how I felt and to make sure I was ok. I have not once in my entire life gotten a phone call from even my PERSONAL doctor just to make sure I was recovering well. who was this guy SuperDentist???? In the past couple of days since the ordeal I have been doped up on Hydrocodone and alternating between reality.

Needless to say I had what was possibly known as the only good experience visiting a dentist in the history of mankind

If i get the camera fixed soon Ill take a pic of the Tooth

our house August 1, 2007

Due to the high demand of friends and family who haven’t visited yet but want to see where we live ill give you the virtual tour.

This is the street we live on, its on a dead end street behind Olivia’s elementary school on the corner of 3 different counties. My work is 3 blocks away and Jay’s is a few miles. The house you can see on the left is Olivia’s friend Amanda’s house. We are well aquainted with our neighbors on all sides and being such a small community everyone walks around with their dogs and gets to know each other. These pics were taken in March so I will post some new outside pics soon because the greenery in our yard makes it look awesome and we took the christmas lights down

This is the front of the house as you can see

This is the living room from the front door view. It has actually been rearranged since this pic was taken but not too many changes

This is the living room looking toward the kitchen and hallway. The hallway is filled with my own artwork and black and white pics of olivia, friends, and family

This is the Kitchen. I dont like the wood color but I will probably be changing it next spring


This is the bathroom, When jays dad came to visit the first time he said It looked like hawaii had thrown up in my bathroom. I said “good thats the effect I was going for”

This is Olivia’s room, It has actually been changed a lot furniture wise, she has a lot more stuff and shelves to organize everything and its been turned around the other way

This is the Office, It too has changed a little in order to make room for the projector

And last but not least this is Mine and Jay’s room.

This is the So I hope you enjoyed your tour new pics coming soon to a computer near you