Couldn't stop laughing

I guess its going to happen sometime

It's really out of Parker's nature to be to difficult sleeping through the night, but last night this is how it was at our house.

We had a power outage that woke him up around 9 pm, and he was so spooked that I couldn't calm him down for anything. Eventually he fell asleep on my chest after nearly two hours of crying. Poor kid.

Dueling Match Up – Who Would Win???

I am extremely troubled by the way government has behaved lately, maybe they feel they are just acting out the frustrations of the people however comments like executives should "resign… and commit suicide” is professionally uncalled for. Since Government insists on taking on AIG and the Greedy Evil Corporate Executives I thought we’d match them up and see who wins. This should be FUN!

ROUND I – Fuel to the fire

Sure AIG should have seen the public whiplash coming from handing out millions to executives didn’t they watch what happened to Merrill Lynch? Congress has this round with plenty of people out of work, and losing homes it’s easy to light the fire on a few dozen people nobody knows anything about except they made a lot of money this year when there company went belly up.

ROUND II – Private Jets

Obviously we’ve learned that if you want to get money out of the government you better carpool to Washington. Most of the corporate executives are relearning the art of traveling couch or finding a new job. Apparently however the 500+ members of the house and senate don’t need to be as frugal considering they increased there own spending limits in the last “stimulus” bill they pushed through. Would you like a pillow Mrs. Pelosi? Corporate wins this round although they probably wouldn’t want to.

FINAL ROUND – Wasting money

AIG wanted to spend $168 million in bonuses, that’s bad right? Well depends, out of the $170 billion they received those bonuses were less than one tenth of one percent. Just a few weeks ago Government gave away somewhere between $3.8 - 12.8 billion in nearly 9,000 earmarks. Even if you took the low number that’s over 22 times what AIG wanted to spend. I think corporate knocks government out.

Outcome: Corporate - 2 vs. Government – 1

The Winner is… nobody. The Loser is all of us. No matter who wins this mud throwing and saber rattling we are all still fronting the bill. I do find it ironic that congress would act so outlandishly to such a small amount comparatively speaking. Maybe it’s so all the news networks stop pointing out congress oversight and blunders. Either way shame on them both, let’s move on to that Hope and Change we were talking about…

Dear Uncle Brent,

Thanks for playing trains with me in California!

You're the best uncle!

~Parker

Do You

belong to a gym?

If so, which one?

Do you like it?

Why?

I think tonight is the when its finally sinking in that I got laid off. It's weird thinking that tomorrow morning I won't be going in for my 9:00 am staff meeting that I've attended for the last 3.5 years. Instead I'll be completing new hire paperwork. Man, new hire paperwork is enough to keep me from ever wanting to switch jobs. If you haven't heard my new place of employment is:

I'll be one of their crisis therapists that works on a mobile team responding to people in crisis (hince the title). Our job is to stabilize, assess, and make treatment recommendations. Its fairly similar to what I did for the fire department, but this holds more liability because EMPACT is a licensed behavioral health provider.

This isn't exactly my dream job, but crisis work is always good experience for social workers, counselors, psychiatrists, or anyone else in the behavioral health field. I like that every shift, every call will look different. I like having to think fast, problem solve right there on the scene, and then being able to be done with "it". However, I don't like that the work itself is extremely draining and taxing.

But most of all, I am extremely fortunate to have found another position so soon. (Its all in who you know.) Of the 110 people laid off from Healthy Families 3 of us have jobs so far. Its a tough market, and I know other arenas are doing even worse than social services. I almost feel guilty that my job search went so smoothly, but at the same time, I know nothing is certain in this market. So I hope this new job has funding to just get Mark through school.

Tough decisions... poor outcomes

I am extremely saddened by the all cuts to education and social services we have seen implemented in the last week. I am in shock and appalled that our state representatives have overwhelmingly and disproportionately attacked the most vulnerable population in our state: our children. I for one think that everyone who has children in the state of Arizona should leave. I'm thinking that if you're not going to invest in my child, I'm not going to invest in you.

Am I bitter because I lost my job... No. I work in non-profits; this comes with the territory. But what brings me to tears is thinking about the children I know and love not being afforded a future.

Believe me, I understand that every state is running at a deficit. But believe me again, when I tell you Arizona's hit to children and families is the worst. For one, we never have provided and cared for them as we should (ie we rank 49th in EVERYTHING). Cuts to our already feeble system are absolutely devastating. And for two, other states have been smart enough to know that if we keep services in place for children and families we save money in the end. These budget cuts will be the costliest budget cuts Arizona has ever seen.

If Mark weren't in school I would be looking for employment out of state. I want my son to grow up in a state where they value PEOPLE. I want him to know PEOPLE MATTER; even if they don't have family and churches to fall back on.

Mark is usually the one to discuss politics on our blog, I know that my political views differ from most of the people that read this... which is why I usually leave it alone. But this last week has brought such sorrow to me, I can't keep it in. And to be honest, I don't know how anyone could disagree that these budget cuts are nothing short of a tragedy. But alas, I know people do. Otherwise the cuts wouldn't have been made in the first place.