People often wonder why kids are “so bad nowadays”. I really do think some of it comes down to parenting.

At both Madison’s school and Will’s school, I see kids coming out of cars with their coats not even zipped! Now, I live in Illinois where it has been hovering between 15-20 degrees all week. Not only are my kids zipped, they have hats, gloves, hoods up etc. Heck, they’d be in boots if there was enough snow for that right now.  We aren’t talking eight graders here either — I’m seeing this will preschools and kindergardeners.  You know, kids who don’t know  better.

Another parent lets their kids out at 8:40 or earlier (this is preschool).  The teachers don’t let the kids in till 8:50.  Again, in 20 degree or less weather, are you nuts?

This isn’t engineering jobs or rocket science people!  I just don’t get it at all.  Another example of this is parents who go to Monday Night Football game and stay out late on Monday night, only to keep their kids out of school the next day because they were too tired to take them.  The best is when these same parents tell their kids to lie and say they were sick.  Seriously?  What are we teaching our kids here?

Another annoyance of mine happens daily at Will’s school.  We are suppose to line up (as parents) behind the orange cone that has your kids’ teacher’s name on it.  Simple, right?  Well, it’s now, what, December?  Parents still aren’t doing this.  They aren’t asking for engineering recruitment here.  They are asking you to stand in line!  You aren’t getting your kid any quicker than I’m getting mine by NOT listening.  Most of the time, the teachers call the kids out who’s parents are doing what they are suppose to.

By no means am I a perfect parent.  I’ve made a ton of mistakes along the way.  However, if I don’t stand in line like I am suppose to, what am I teaching my kids?  If I tell my kids to lie, what am I teaching my kids?  If I don’t follow the rules of the road, what am I teaching my kids?

Kids learn by example.  The watch what you as a parent does.  If you don’t follow the rules, how do you expect your children too?  Madison and I butt heads every single day.  However, it’s for her own good (I hope she sees that when she’s older!).  If I didn’t care, I’d  let her do whatever she wanted.

And unfortunately I see a lot of that lately.

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We went to a baby shower on Saturday, and this is what I brought. They were excellent! Now, I can’t cook, and I was able to make these, so anybody can!

Ingredients:

1 package (18 oz) refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1 box (16 oz) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
6 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons meringue powder
Food coloring
12 large marshmallows
Pastel flower shaped candy decors

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare 24 round cookies according to the package directions. Place cookies on baking sheets. Bake cookies until golden brown (8 – 10 minutes). Cool on wire racks placed over waxed paper.

-In a medium bowl, combine confectioners’ sugar, water, and meringue powder. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Divide glaze among several small bowls; tint with food coloring.

-Cut marshmallows in half horizontally. Place a marshmallow half cut side down in the center of each cookie. Spoon glaze over each cookie coating the marshmallow and cookie evenly. Let dry.

Once dry, you can decorate the hats. The recipe I had for this had my making icing which I am just not good enough to do. I cheated and bought gel icing to decorate. DO NOT DO THIS. The gel never dries. The next time I will buy the regular icing to decorate with. With these hats, you can be as creative as you want. For St. Patrick’s Day, you can use the whole marshmallow and green glaze to make top hat cookies or use whole marshmallows and chocolate glaze to make pilgrims hats for Thanksgiving!

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I just got Bill the denim shirt that I ordered for him. He loves it. I love it. Here is what it looks like:

I had Bill model it for you guys (he wasn’t real thrilled but did it anyway). I am impressed. For the price, it is a great quality shirt. It is machine washable too (which is a huge plus in my book). They have big sizes — all the way up to 10x. You can even get the shirts in tall. They have several syles of shirts, and they also carry mesh shorts, hats, and polo shirts (just to name a few things). You can also get women’s and maternity shirts too. My other favorite part is that they have infant and toddler shirts too! I love this shirt we got and the Clothing4All company, so I am ordering some more shirts for Christmas presents. I am also ordering Bill a new wardrobe for work.

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I messed up and missed posting this last week when my computer exploded. I am posting this today and will have another hero up for tomorrow.

Spc. Josiah H. Vandertulip
21 years old from Irving, Texas
2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division
October 14, 2004

Louise Vandertulip fussed at her son about his spending. He bought wild, overpriced hats that had flames on them or horns coming out of the top, she said.

While in Army basic training, he bought portraits of himself. His mother told him to save his money.

She’s glad he didn’t listen.

The hats and the pictures are all a part of her memories now.

Spc. Josiah H. Vandertulip was killed in Baghdad when his patrol came under small arms fire.

Josiah Vandertulip joined the Army right after his graduation from Irving High School in 2002. He spent a year in South Korea before being stationed at Texas’ Fort Hood in February. Against his mother’s advice, he volunteered to go to Iraq. She told him to wait, to go to college.

“When he was determined to do something in his heart, he would do it and hell or high water couldn’t keep him from it,” she said

By going, he knew someone else with a young family could be saved from serving, relatives said.

He always had the important things right, Louise Vandertulip said.

“There’s a lot of rest in knowing that he died doing what he believed in and doing what he thought was right,” she said.

“We have a much more real sense of the cost for the freedom that we enjoy now,” said his father, Robert Vandertulip.

“Josiah was the first brand new soldiers I recieved as a dismounted team leader in Korea. He was one of the Best soldiers I have had the honor to train and work with. He loved being a soldier as much as any guy I have met. He was a great leader in the absence of his superiors. I could always count on him to make sure the mission was accomplished. I watched him change over the year I had him from a goofy kid, to a hard charging soldier.”
Sgt. Nickolas Faul

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. To find out more about Wednesay Hero, you can go here.

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So hopefully you had a chance to read Part I and Part II.

The fact that Madison needs glasses now made me upset. I am not sure why. I called Bill crying (which if you know me — I don’t cry). I am much better about the whole situation, but I am still not sure about why I reacted the way I did.

So, I have been an emotional wreck (which is so unlike me) all week. That about sums everything up. The weekend can only get better, right?

That brings me to Part III. I had a meeting for a side job on Wednesday. I get there and hook my laptop. Everything seems to go working fine. Then I try to get on the internet, and my computer shuts itself off. I go and turn it back on, and it won’t load. Since I can’t do anything, they send me home.

So again, I call Bill all upset. I went home and got my start-up disks hoping that would solve my problem. Nope. I ended up dropping it off at a computer repair center. It is about 5 am Friday morning, and I have not heard back from them yet. Should I be getting nervous? I am hoping that if I blew up the computer they will tell me soon, so I can start shopping for a new laptop. Even though it is a little less than two years old, it is outdated already (which is so sad).

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