Election schmelection

There are smart people on both sides of the aisle. There are red-blooded Americans on both sides of the aisle too.

The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) has some good stuff in it. It encourages efficient care, it regulates insurance companies in ways I find to be positive, and many other positive changes. Unfortunately, it also has some pretty difficult implications for hospitals and physicians on the reimbursement side. Cuts in reimbursement may cause some small rural hospitals to fail, this limiting access to healthcare in rural communities, and low-income areas. Those people who now have insurance (yay) may end up with nowhere to use it (boo) MAYBE. There are other problems with the bill too, but just suffice it to say, a 2,400 page bill is never going to be "all good" or "all bad."

So, MAYBE we will have more affordable access to care in 2016, when it is fully enacted.

But, maybe not. And that is the answer regardless of whether the ACA stands or is repealed.

Maybe, maybe not...so please, let's just all get along. We all want affordable access to healthcare for all Americans. Everyone wants that. There is just some confusion about how to go about making that happen. I have a masters in the subject and work in the field every day and I have no idea what the answer is. It's a little bit more complicated than it sounds in these (very well delivered and professionally written) campaign speeches (I'm not picking on any party in particular)

Instead of being so mean, maybe it would be cool to listen to both sides and try to encourage the best of each side. Since we are all Americans, right?

Don't answer that.

Idealistic? Yes, yes I am. But Facebook and the political ads are making me a little sad-ish.

Oh, and I did my exercise today.

Shred Day 10: Got up early and did level 1, it was easier than level 2, so I think I must be getting stronger. I remember it being harder last week.

Oh, and AND my boys went fishing with their daddy while I was slaving away at work (poor little ole me)!

Labor Day

Our labor day was awesome! We went back to the lake Sunday afternoon, and were soon joined by some of our best friends. Justin and Brent have been friends forever, and his wife, Brooke, and I have become great friends too.  Hunter says that Henry is his best friend, and I sense that Benny might have a little crush on Pearl. Our kiddos are virtually the same age, which makes things very fun, but VERY chaotic.   These little hoodlums were so excited to see each other that there was a bit of intensity there for a while, but since they are such mild-mannered and angelic children, we only had to tell them once to STOP JUMPING ON THE FURNITURE! (part of that is not true, I will let you decide which part)

So, anyway, we enjoyed our time and went out for a long boat ride this morning, fed the kids a big lunch, then packed them in the car.  My kiddos slept from the time we left the lake (about 1:30) until I woke them up at 5pm.  They were both completely exhausted, so we will see how tonight goes (cross your fingers for me).

Shred Day 9: On the workout front, I have decided to give myself a little "day off" today, but I promise to pick it back up tomorrow. Who knows, today isn't over yet, I might get off my tush and do something, but probably not. Now that I think about it, last week I took Monday off too...weird.

This week promises to be interesting for me work-wise, but thank God Justin is home to help!!

Wanna see some pics?

Excited to go on the boat!

Big boys

Beautiful day for watching some wakeboarding

The crew

I hope you and yours had as blessed a weekend as we did!

Sunday Funday

Justin got back from Virginia late Friday night and joined us at the lake yesterday. We came home last night so we could go to church this morning.

Justin took the boys to the swap meet this morning (don't ask) so I got some time by myself!!! The first thing I did was get my workout out of the way.

Day 8: it was sure nice to be doing the shred at home with nobody bothering me, but I was REALLY battling the LAZY! I finished the whole workout, but was mentally fighting it the whole time. Hey...I'm home ALONE...I would much rather be drinking coffee and watching the news. Anyway, I did it and I'm proud of myself. Yay!

We will be returning to the lake after church, but don't try to rob us. We have a security system. (I used to be scared to tell the Internet when we would be gone)

Buh bye

Lake Saturday

At the lake. My parents watched the boys this morning so I could sleep in to an outrageous 8am! Then I did my shred workout.

Day 7: level 2, it was hard, but not nearly as hard as getting my kids to eat their breakfast and get their swimsuits on afterwards! Seriously, though, that workout is really good. I can feel myself getting stronger. I like it. Booya!

Yesterday, honest toddler (do you follow that twitter feed and Facebook page? You should) said "momma is out of breath and disheveled. She didn't fall of a mountain, she tried to get me dressed" OK, people, that is my life.

Off to the boat...have a great day!

Random. So random.

I listen to music all the time, when driving and working and stuff. It struck me today when I was driving to the lake listening to the playlist called "gooduns" that my taste in music is about as random as possible:

Just a sampling-
1)hold my hand - hootie & blowfish
2)shoop - salt n peps
3)bittersweet symphony - the verve
4)you gotta be - des'ree
5)gods not dead - newsboys
6)exhale - Whitney Houston
7)we shall behold him - sandi patty
8)you never even called me by my name - David Allen coe

So, there's that. A good mix of old school Christian music, newer Christian music, country, alternative, old hip hop. And that is just a sampling. I'm weird.

Also, this morning I was trying to get the boys out the door to go to the lake, and was having some trouble. They kept making messes and fighting with each other and just acting like little hoodlums. At one point, I came into the living room, and Benny has dumped out an entire box of kleenex. I was so frustrated!!! I said "you guys suck!" they didn't hear me, but I quickly realized how silly that was. Hunters reply to my annoyance "mommy, we were just trying to make a sand castle. You look so pretty in your dress."

Wow, that kid can really lay it on thick.

Day 6 of Shred: I did level 2 of the shred this morning, and was sweating like a...well, like a sweaty person.

See ya, later.

The Zoo

Last week, mom and I took the boys to the zoo.  I have really cute pictures, so thought I would share.

looking at some Emus

My little loves.  Don't they look so angelic? 

resting on a bench while the boys climb things

train. we really love trains. this one is especially awesome, sort of reminds me of a toy train.

After the zoo, we went to cracker barrel. Hunter is trying to tell Benny what to do.  I think Benny is probably just singing to himself in his head, as he does not particularly enjoy instructions.

Checkers match. Hunter won the "tower stacking" category and Ben won the "who pooped their pants?" category. TMI? Sorry. There are WAY worse things I could be telling you, but I will spare the internet from my gross parenting moments.

Gospel, Guns, Jail and a Train...what?

My mom and I took the boys to Silver Dollar City today.  I am off work in the middle of the week when school is in session, so the park is not so busy, which ROCKS!  Well, this is the "Southern Gospel Picnic" week, so a lot of gospel singing, which draws the "more mature crowd" so there were a lot of people there, but the average age was about 75.  This works out really well if you have little kids who love to do all the little kid things, but don't really like waiting (cough IMPATIENT cough).

So, it was a GLORIOUS day at Silver Dollar City.

First we had to ride the "boat with the guns" which is actually a flooded mine ride with these targets you can shoot at with the guns. The guns count how many targets you shoot. It is super-creepy but the boys LOVE it!

We did ride the train, which broke down a little bit when we were on it.  It wasn't really a big deal, but while we were waiting for them to fix it, we heard some interesting facts about the train.  One was that the actual steam trains they have at SDC were used during WWII by the GERMAN army.  um...I don't really know enough to say much, but it sort of creeps me out that our sweet little train might have Nazi ties. MOVING ON...

This is one of my favorite things at SDC, "Half Dollar Holler" which has this awesome area where kids jump on this rope/trampoline type thing.  My boys can work out their energy, not get hurt, and I can just stand there and watch "Mommy, take a picture of us, we are in JAIL!"

The steam train was blowing its whistle, so the boys were covering their ears. They are so cute (if I do say so myself)

Hunter riding his horse, just like a cowboy.

Benny Boo with his Mimi (he really was excited, he just doesnt look like it)

 So...that was our fun SDC trip.  When we got back, I transferred my sleeping babes to their beds, and i did DAY5 of the Shred, so here is my little "blurb" about that.

Day 5: Moved on to Level 2.  It was about the same difficulty level of 1, in my opinion (which is hard) but had a lot of plank moves.  One was the plank jacks where you hold the plank position and sort of do jumping jacks with your feet.  My shoulder has been bothering me a little bit the last few days, so i opted to do regular jumping jacks instead.  Other than that, I did the whole thing as directed, then decided to blog, so I am really in need of a shower.

if you will please excuse me, that is exactly what I am going to do...

Have a fabtastic day, people.