Punished with a...what?

I was up late watching Glenn Beck, and I watched a clip that I had seen before more than a year ago, but seeing it again just made my blood boil. In it, Obama is speaking to a group and, of course without the teleprompter to help him, says one of the dumbest things I think I have ever heard from a politician.



I can't even believe that anyone who expects to represent us as a nation would have beliefs such as this. I hope his children have something to say about it when they get older, since he believes that they may have been a "punishment." I cannot imagine life without my three little ones, and I have to believe that many of you, whether you like this president or not, feel the same way. How can I trust someone to lead our nation when he speaks so frivolously of human life. If all punishment were like these three, I think I'd like to have little bit more of it.

It's a bird! It's a plane! No...it's Super-Obama to the rescue!

Hallelujah! Our economy is saved. We are on the road to recovery according to our illustrious and all-powerful president. The story released today by completely unbiased (cough, cough) msnbc.com quotes the president that our nation is well on its way to economic recovery. The president says, "that the economy had stabilized and was beginning a slow recovery, telling NBC News in an exclusive interview that it was now his job to 'make sure that ordinary people have some relief.'"

I am so thankful to have been told that we're all okay by the president. From everything I have seen we were still in a deep rut of recession, and by all normal logic spending more money that the nation doesn't have or plan to make anytime soon sends us directly into a depression. But, the president has spoken, and as it has been spoken so shall it be done. (Insert your own magical noise here - suggestions include the tinkling when Samantha twitches her nose, or the Alacazam! by the Genie.)

I'm just saddened that my children don't have any voice in the matter and their futures are being flushed down the drain by the "leadership" of this country. We have talked for so many years about individuals starting out in a disadvantaged situation, and now every child is equal...that is to say that every single American will start out disadvantaged and have to fight their way up just to get to even footing. That just makes my job a little harder, to set up a good enough life for them before the country changes too much and it's no longer possible, and to fight all along the way for myself and for them to prevent those changes from happening. I'm just thankful that we can all do this together.

What are they getting into this time?

I'm sure everyone's kids can do crazy things, but we usually see the best side of families out in public and all of the craziness typically goes on within the confines of the home. Sometimes, however, my children just baffle me. I suppose I can understand when they do something ridiculous if it can hold any kind of logic, like burning ants with a magnifying glass or climbing on top of the entertainment center to jump off onto the sofa, but some things just defy logic, even in the mind of a child.

Take today for instance. We had small holes in the walls of both the kids' bedrooms from the doors opening too hard, and I hadn't previously had a chance to run to the store for plaster to fix them. The unfortunate thing is that they happen to be at the same spot in both rooms so that there's a nice little peep hole to look from one room to the other. Well, somehow they decided it would be fun to put a blanket through the hole and play tug-of-war, and now instead of two small holes we have two gaping crevices that can almost fit their heads...which, in fact, they tried today with the Nisha's head. Thankfully it didn't quite fit.

The youngest, Nisha, also thought it would be fun to pour liquid laundry detergent all over one of their giant teddy bears. You know, one of those that's too big to fit inside of the washing machine, so we're going to have to figure out some other way to clean it. Maybe it'll rain again soon and we'll just put it outside. It's not in the forecast, but if I wash my car it'll be bound to happen. Maybe we'll wash both cars just to be safe. Well, if we wash the cars at a car wash then maybe I can just use the power washer to wash the bear. I'll figure out something.

Then the two girls though it would be funny to stuff another smaller teddy bear in the training toilet. Thankfully they haven't used it in a few months, but being a germaphobe I can't stand even the thought of it.

And to top it off, Nisha has some odd obsession with the toilet. She loves playing with toilet paper, and is singly responsible for clogging the toilets numerous times with all sorts of various non-flushable items. Today she seemed to think it would be interesting to use a cup to get water out of the toilet and dump it on the floor in her bedroom. My germaphobia was in overload over that one, and I can still feel the germs on my feet from walking through the toilet water-soaked carpeting at the entrance of her room.

I was a rambunctious young child, but I can't ever remember doing such outrageously destructive things. I hope they grow out of it soon, or it'll be less expensive to bulldoze the house and build anew rather than repair this one. I'll be happy if they can at least hold off for another year or so until we move into a bigger house with a new canvass for their motley ways.

Nevertheless, I love them and love every second I get to spend with them, even if they are making my hair grow prematurely gray. It's good that we can look back on days like today and still love our kids more than ever. I have to remember that I'm much more fortunate than most dads as I get to spend all day with them because of our business, and I'm thankfully often reminded how lucky our family is.

The prayers of children are truly answered...

So our older cat, Platinum, named for his silvery, platinumy color, got out the front door sometime last Monday. We didn't realize it until just before Nancy and I went to bed because our two cats usually hide somewhere in our bedroom to sleep through the afternoon. When we discovered he was gone we figured it was from one of the kids accidentally leaving the door open, and as late as it was we did only a cursory search outside. He had gotten out once before one morning, and by the evening he was meowing in our backyard, so I held out hope that he might just find his own way back home. I don't know if we spread our scent around when the five of us all went on a walk around the neighborhood, as I've heard cats have an incredible sense of smell. That entire day the kids all asked Heavenly Father to bless Platinum to come home, and lo and behold that night he did. This time was no different, as the kids asked for Platinum to be safe from harm and danger and to find his way home every single chance they had.

Well, a few days went by, and I took the girls on walks around the neighborhood with the girls calling out "Platinum!" You haven't heard cute until you've head our youngest, Nisha, say Platinum's name. It was more sad that the kids missed him, and as well because he is my frequent companion when everyone else goes to bed late at night. From day one we left our back door open a nudge, hoping the scent of out home would draw him back to us. He is quite vocal, so it would've been easy to hear him, and in fact, the first time I was in our master bath and heard him just outside our open window. Well, it didn't work after a week or so. I even tried leaving his litter box by the open back door for an entire evening. No luck, however.

It's been a week and two days now. We've made a trip to the shelter every couple of days to check if he had been brought in, but to no avail. Living in the far west part of town, and having abundant desert land around us, and especially since I've seen coyotes very often within a half mile of our home, I didn't have much hope any more, being a small docile cat. But, even today Nancy said she spoke with a shelter and they said not to lose hope since some animals return weeks to even months after being gone.

The prayers of our little ones are truly answered by our Father in Heaven. This evening Nancy was going out to the car to get something, and as soon as she opened the door a little brown field mouse came running inside, to which she called my name. Then she yelled me to come wuickly and darted out the door saying she saw Platinum. That blimey cat had chased a mouse and trapped him in the alcove of OUR front door!

I grabbed my shoes and followed as Nancy tried to corral him Platinum, though as soon as she got within arms length he would scamper off. I tried to catch up as they made their way into the neighbor's yard, and then across the street to an alley, then around the house into their front yard. He wasn't about to let us get close enough to catch him, so I asked Nancy to run back to the house and get his wet cat food, which has a pop top that's like catnip to our two cats the second they hear it open. That did the trick. As soon as she opened it he came up to her, and she picked him up. He scratched trying to get away, and when I took him from her hands I got a few gouges out of my arm, but all well worth it.

Platinum is safely back in our home, although Diamond is acting like an angry diva after having the house to herself for so long, and hisses at him and everyone else now that she has to share a food bowl and everything else again. We've had a good lesson about closing the door after going in or out, and I hope that it sticks with the kids this time. Oh well, on to the next adventure...

Happy Tax Day!

So it's Tax Day all across our great nation, and people are flooding the streets in celebration of our patriotic duty to give money to the federal government to support those wonderful programs that make our nation function as a whole, like reseeding the grass on the National Mall in Washington, DC, or building a lobster museum in Maine, or even keeping failing companies in existence that continue to bring our economy downwards. I'm so thankful that we have the government to choose to put money into those areas that no rational American citizen would even think of doing.

If you don't like your taxes now, just wait for the next few years. We thought that Pres. Bush spent money like crazy, well Pres. Obama is putting him to shame with the amount of money coming off the presses now, doubling Pres. Bush's average spending deficit from $300 to $600 per year. This means that while Barry publicly committed to reducing the nation debt, with current spending and budget changes will increase to $15 by the time all this money is spent. Over the next 10 years the burden put on Americans will increase from its current $24,000 per U.S. household to $32,000 for the average taxpaying family. Each of us is going to have to figure out how to make much more money over the next 10 years just to pay for the increase in taxes, just to live at the same level we are now, and that's not considering other changes in economy or increases in spending throughout those years.

I'm not just trying to push unhappiness on this wonderful day of taxation, but it is an actual concern within our family considering the amount of money our country is spending. I plan on trying to make money over the next many years in order to provide a happy life for my family, but it is hard enough to survive without having to also pay for non-taxpaying families. I'm even more worried for my children who are going to inherit a larger national debt and even larger yearly deficits due to huge government programs that will require more and more spending over time.

We have someone who promised "change", but change is not always good, and it seems that we're getting more of the same spending that we got from Bush's last year in office, though maybe the "change" is that instead of just paying for failing companies through bailouts, we taxpayers are now paying for anything and everything that can be stuck into a bailout, a stimulus package, or any other spending bill that is "required" for the preservation of America's future. Many years ago Cuba demanded change in their country, and now look where they are. I'm not equating Obama to Castro by any means, but turning a country from a republic into a socialist state doesn't happen in one step, although our government may be trying to prove that wrong with recent spending and government control over various private sectors.

I'm thankful that there are many people around the country that feel the same way I do, with the attendance of hundreds of Tea Parties by thousands of Americans protesting things from excessive taxation to overabundant government spending. It's time that We the People stopped meaning We the People of Washington politics, but returned to We the People of all American citizens. We need to return to a "representative" government that does what we ask them to do, and not be told what will happen because it's where the nation should head whether we agree or not.

My parents came to this country legally many years ago because of the opportunity that existed here, but something changed from then to now. I hope that "change" comes to us soon, not Obama's kind of "change," but a real change, a return to what made our country great, before my children are grown and realize that the dream that brought their grandparents here doesn't exist any more.

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming...

Does anyone but me see where this is going?

I've neglected to write anything political for some time, but after listening to some of the things that have been happening recently, I decided I had to write...for posterity's sake. To start, I was driving around this morning to drop Joram off at school and then to Kiran's eye appointment, and I listened as of the Congressional Black Caucus spoke of their recent visit with former Cuban president and Communist dictator Fidel Castro, and I almost had to pull over the car because I was so dumbfounded. They "heaped praise" on the dictator, calling him "warm and receptive" during their visit.

“'It was almost like listening to an old friend,' said Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Il.), adding that he found Castro’s home to be modest and Castro’s wife to be particularly hospitable. 'In my household I told Castro he is known as the ultimate survivor,' Rush said." Really? An old friend? I can picture it now...

...Good Ol' Fiddy hanging on the back porch at the Rushes home, sipping on ice tea when the phone rings. Fiddy excuses himself for a few minutes, and when he returns he tells his buddy Bobby that he just had to execute some dissenters, confiscate some property, and confirm the building plans of his 6th mansion. He and Bobby sit back and share a hearty chuckle. "All in a day's work," Fiddy says.

It's not enough that we've been doing everything to wreck our economy, and possibly our nation, but now we need to pump our dwindling American dollar into Communist Cuba so that the Castros can build a few more mansions. This may even end up working out better than the UN "Oil-for-Food" that blessed the Iraqi people SO much!

This follows our illustrious leaders "muscling" private institutions and determining their fates, screaming about bonuses for AIG when other failed institutions also paid out bonuses (some of them much larger bonuses!) during and after receiving bailout funds, yet all we hear is the uproar over AIG. I thought that "Turbo Tax" Timmy was a Treasury Secretary, not a mob boss. I'm not saying whether or not the bonuses should be paid, but that's something for the Board of Directors or the shareholders to decide, not the President or Congress. Even a failing company, however, will have good executives, and in order to get back on track the companies will need the good ones to help rebuild, but if they're not getting paid they'll likely go elsewhere. Did I fail to mention that the AIG CEO reduced his salary to $1 last year for 2008 and 2009 in conjunction with the bailouts?

It's embarrassing that Congress wrote the bonuses into the bill, yet when public opinion sways to anger against the bonuses members of Congress and the President himself jump on the bandwagon to help whip up the frenzy instead of maintaining heads. It wasn't until much later that we found that Congress already knew about the bonuses, and this after Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn) first denied writing it into the bill. Does anyone in Washington have any moral stability left?

The way to improve things is to let failing institutions fail, not give them government money that doesn't exist and help them hold on a little longer, only to see them drag the rest of the American economy down with them. These bailouts may work, though they've never been proven to work in the situation we're in now, but we'll have to wait and see. We also can't expect success with the government in charge of private institutions, hiring and firing who they will, determining salaries and bonuses, and messing things up in the way only the government knows how. They continue to slip their fingers into every industry they can in order to exert a tiny bit more control, all on a quiet path to fascism. At least with socialism, there isn't any hiding what the government is trying to do. Now we have a government that claims to be leaving things in the private sector, but all the while they take control inch by inch. It's no wonder that a Communist dictator is anxious to "help" the current administration. Soon we'll be hand-in-hand with Cuba. Hopefully the American people will shake off the haze of a good public speaker with a nice smile and wake up before it's too late. That's the kind of hope and change I'm looking forward to.

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming...

Kids grow way too fast!

So we had a couple birthdays in the last few weeks. Nisha turned 3 on the 8th of last month, and Joram turned 7 last Saturday. They grow up way too quickly. Because Nisha is our baby, it seems wrong that she is so old now. I'm just thankful that she's almost completely free of diapers, and last night was her first night without them on. Kiran has been doing it for a couple weeks with just a few overnight accidents, and Nisha is nearly there as well.

For Nisha's birthday we went to our old birthday staple, Peter Piper Pizza, because they have decent pizza and the kids just run around playing games the whole time. My parents and two of my siblings came down to join us. But for Joram's birthday, my dad wanted to take him to a place in Gilbert called Amazing Jakes. It's like a miniature indoor theme park/buffet. It was a blast...for the first 2 hours. After that it got a little old but we stayed longer because my parents bought Joram a 3-hour ride pass that he could ride unlimited for 3 hours, while the rest of us had to actually buy our rides, which ranged from $2-5 apiece, not to mention the hundreds of arcade games they had as well.

It was fun to go there once, but I'm not sure we'll go back. It seemed a little of a downer to me because it asn't quite the excitement of a real theme park, of which I've been quite fortunate to visit many in my time. This place seems perfect for ages 9-12 because they're tall enough to go on every ride, and not too old to be "too cool" for kid stuff. Joram is tall for his height (we'll see how many of you get that one) so he had a blast as could go on nearly every ride except the race cars. Kiran was tall enough to go on a few rides, but the only one she really liked (and I mean she REALLY LIKED it) was ride that 7 kids sat on a bench and buckled in and it went up and down very quickly. Her first time she sat next to Joram and Kiran just giggled and giggled and giggled the whole time. She went on the ride at least 4 more times, without Joram most of them, and when we weren't on it she'd ask about the "up-and-down" ride constantly. She even woke up from her nap yesterday and cam out to tell us about the up and down ride...making us think she was just dreaming about it. Nisha was extremely sad because she couldn't go on anything, so Nancy just held her the whole time to comfort her...and they played the skeet shoot game a whole lot!

It was a fun month, but thankfully we don't have any birthdays for a while. I don't think I can handle that much fun all at once for some time still. Wow, I think I'm getting old. Well, if I am getting old, than so are all of you...

Pregnant again, really?

So in December 2004 we were arms full with two small children, one boy and one girl, and had just moved into our house. We had a lot of things going on. When we finally thought we had things going well, we found out we were pregnant again in late summer. We wanted more kids, but were surprised how quickly it happened since Nancy was still breastfeeding consistently. We knew there was a small chance of it, and we seem to always defy the odds with getting pregnant.

Nisha
With our third pregnancy, we were like old pros, knowing what to expect and when to expect it. Nancy was again horribly sick throughout the pregnancy, and this time the doctor gave her a pump that injected her hourly with anti-nausea medicine. The day finally came for the baby, and we left for the hospital late in the night on 7 March 2006. My sister, Sriya, who lived just a mile from us by then, came over to watch Joram and Kiran, who were already fast asleep in bed. We got to the hospital and within a few hours of quiet, we progressed into labor. The nurses called the doctor and he headed our way, but in the meantime Nancy's contractions got harder and harder. Her nurse and I spent 30 minutes or so trying to keep her calm and prevent her from pushing through her numerous contractions, eventually sitting Nancy up to prevent the baby from coming.

Soon Nan's water broke and the baby was crowning, and her nurse hit the call button and yelled for another nurse to get in there quickly. If it weren't for the urgency of the situation, I would've laughed out loud at her fearfulness. The next contraction came and the baby just fell out, no pushing whatsoever. The nurse held her while I cleaned her up and within seconds another few nurses were in to take care of the baby. The doctor was soon behind them...about 20 minutes later! She was fantastic nevertheless, and all was well with mom also. We got our pictures and played for a bit, then I headed home to relieve my sister and get a good night of rest.

In the early morning after Joram, Kiran, and I got up and had breakfast, we ran to the store to get flowers and a stuffed animal and went to meet our new baby girl. Joram and Kiran loved having their new baby sister, especially Kiran, though we were still without a name. We had narrowed our list to just a few choices, and thought she would like one most out of them, but she didn't make her choice apparent to us right away. Since Kiran's name meant "ray of sunshine" we felt it right to name this little girl something to do with the night. It took a few days to finally decide, but soon we had our little Nisha ("moonlight") Rath. Nan and the baby stayed in the hospital the minimum allowed, and soon we were all home as our new family.

Nisha is the quiet one, which I am thankful for with Joram and Kiran being as talkative and boisterous as they are. With two wonderful examples to look up to, Nisha hit all of her milestones early, and we are especially thankful that when Kiran finally potty-trained earlier this year that Nisha was right there with her, and now they only wear diapers during the night. Yay! I have fun playing with my girls all day on those days that both Nancy and Joram are in school. Nisha seems to be the peacemaker as well, since Joram and Kiran have such bold personalities. Her face is closer to Joram's, and her skin color is the lightest of the bunch, but Nisha is truly a special, wonderful little girl, and for her I am truly thankful to my Heavenly Father.

Our family is now almost complete, and though we know there are still a few spirits left to join us we are as happy as can be for right now. The kids all get along, well, as much as siblings can get along, and we have a lot of fun all of us together. I love rolling around on the floor or bed with them playing "10-minute Tickle Time," which I thankfully get to do quite often with our business. All in all, we are a happy bunch, and excited for what the future holds for us.

It's about time for level financial heads

Early this morning Mr. Obama held a conference to get to the bottom of the out-of-control government spending and told members of Congress, and the American people, that something has to change. Really? Isn't this some kind of revelation that should have been reached before a 1 trillion plus bill was shoved through Congress and just signed by the president? He also said that we would have to start making "the tough decisions" about where to spend our money and what areas would have to go without. I'm not sure which was the tough decision for Mr. Obama in this bill, whether to give $2.2 million to partisan community groups like ACORN, or spending on the mob museum in Nevada, or possibly buying new electric cars for Washington politicians? What did the American people have to give up to get these "needs," without which the US economy would fall apart? It's a good thing that Mr. Obama is on top of the unnecessary fiscal spending in government, otherwise how much money would we Americans actually be on the hook for? I'm just saddened that my children will still be paying for this monstrosity 20 years from now. And I thought we were supposed to make life better for our kids.

It's a girl!

Well, our next pregnancy was an interesting one. Joram was a few months from turning 2, and Nancy had been having abdominal pains for a few weeks. It became more intense a few days before Christmas when we were down in the Gila Valley visiting our families. On Christmas Eve my dad called the hospital and said that we were coming in (it helps to know someone with connections to get fast service!) and after an ultrasound we found out that it was an ectopic pregnancy near rupture, and Nan had to be helicoptered to Tucson for emergency surgery. In the early evening she left the hospital and I was on my way as well, Joram asleep in his car seat, to meet her at the hospital in Tucson. Some close friends of ours met her there after her surgery finished and I got there soon after. We spent Joram's 2nd Christmas at our little duplex with just the 3 of us. I don't know exactly how everything works, but I know that if our little baby received a spirit, she's waiting for us with the rest of our family.

Kiran
We have a 15% chance of having another ectopic pregnancy every single time we get pregnant, and we were fortunate and blessed to have another baby less than a year later. We knew better what to expect this time, so I tracked contractions very carefully, and in the evening of the 16th of December we headed to the hospital, where my younger brother, Tikon, met us to watch Joram while we were in the delivery room. After just an hour or so of pushing, in the very early hours of 17 December 2007, out came our little Kiran (which means "ray of sunshine" in Hindi) Rath. With Joram we had a midwife named Janet, whom we loved, but Kiran was born just 2 weeks after Janet retired, so our new doctor, Dr. Shawn Tassone, whom we had met just twice (he had performed the ectopic surgery the previous year, which is why we chose him this time, and the week before our delivery).

When Joram was born, things went so quickly that I didn't have a chance to see anything. I watched him crown, then glanced up at Nan, and by the time I looked back down he was out. This time I wasn't about to miss it, so as soon as she was crowning I didn't look anywhere else, and watched as the whole sloppy mess came out quite smoothly. They cleaned her up and gave her to Nan, and I'll tell you, there's nothing like seeing a child of God taking their very first breath of life, and then holding them for the very first time. Kiran had darker skin and eyes than her older brother, and we were pretty sure she would take more after me, whereas Joram was a gentle mixture of the two of us. Joram was in there pretty soon after and was instantly a proud big brother. Their first pictures together show the beautiful relationship they share, even still to this day.

Kiran is such a wonderful blessing in our lives. She is quick to smile and laugh, which is infectious to everyone around her, as rambunctious as her brother, and seems to love everything about life itself and does everything with an intense passion. We're sure that she's going to be a high-octane daredevil when she gets older. Her big, beautiful brown eyes attract gazes wherever she goes, and her hair is filled with huge curls that always look like she just stepped out of a beauty salon.

Kiran loves her family, especially being a big sister, and she gets along well with her baby sister. She wants to go to school badly, just like her big brother, and loves being in preschool (on her first day on the right). She even pretends that she is in school and talks about her schoolwork using the same terminology that Joram does with his schoolwork.

Life is definitely much more exciting with Kiran around, and you can usually expect the house to lack any sense of quietude if Kiran is awake (with Nisha on the left - they got dressed on their own!). We love our sweet Kiran, and she truly is our "ray of sunshine."

Change we can believe in?

Many months ago we were given promises of change coming to Washington, and most of the country fell in love with the idea. Even some conservative friends of mine, dismayed by the thought of McCain as our party's choice, were temporarily swayed by "Slick" Barry's silver tongue. Many weeks now into his new administration we have had some change, though not the changes we thought we were getting, especially with oversight of the Census Bureau moving to the highly partisan White House (thus leading to possible changes in district borders, which would drastically affect elections and funding) and the copious withdrawals of Cabinet appointees (although "Turbo Tax" Tim still made it in).

The change that we were promised, however, doesn't seem to have taken effect as of yet. There was abundant outcry of "fear-mongering" by President Bush in relation to the war on terror, yet now we see similar tactics by our current administration that the stimulus must be passed immediately to prevent total economic destruction. There was also considerable outrage about the "hidden actions" during the Bush years, yet the lavish promises of "transparency" by our current administration has brought us the most abundant spending bill in US history, put through Congress like a thief in the night with Senators and Representatives given scant few overnight hours to read and comprehend a thousand-page piece of legislation before being forced to vote by the empowered Democrats. Even Obama's pre-election commitment to complete bipartisanship was thrown by the wayside as the authorship and voting of the bill went nearly strictly down party lines, with even numerous Democrats voting against it.

It seems that the "change" Mr. Obama had been promising all along turned out to be something other than expected, and we the people are still left uncared for while the politicians bicker about things that have little to do with the rest of the country. One thing that hasn't changed about Washington, however, is that politicians will still tell you what you want to hear in order to get elected. I, for one, Mr. Obama, would like my money back because the change you're giving us just doesn't add up.

The day I became dad

So I figured that there was enough depression to look at, and even though there'll be more to come, I wanted to put some actual family stuff in here as well. I wanted to talk about each one of my kids and how we were introduced.

Joram
Although we'd been talking for some time, the first face-to-face meeting between Jagadish Joram Rath and I was on 28 March 2002, about 5 days after expected. Nancy and I, being first-time parents, were unsure of what to expect. So, on the morning of the 27th, as soon as the contractions were close enough, we drove up to the hospital. After having Nan checked out and monitored for a few hours, they decided we weren't quite ready and sent us out.

Since the hospital was a bit of a drive from our house, we decided to grab a late lunch and ate some Mexican food. We walked around the Foothills Mall for a while, and when the contractions picked up again we went back to the hospital. We sat in peaceful quietude for some time, and early in the morning on the 28th Nan's contractions got stronger, and with some minimal pushing our baby boy came to us around 4:30am. We named him Jagadish(after my paternal grandfather and means "ruler of the universe" in Hindi) Joram(from a king in the Old Testament) Rath. (The picture is the oldest I had at hand, before we had a digital camera)

That moment marked a new era in our family, as we were no longer just the two of us, but now a functional family unit in the household of God.

It has been an interesting life since then. Joram is quite an inquisitive soul. His curiosity is abundant, and while it helps him learn relentlessly, it also sometimes gets him into trouble. In some things he has tremendous focus, including math, science, and video games, yet in others he often wanders.

In all things, however, Joram is a wonderful son and big brother, doing much to help the function of our family and being a good example to his little sisters and everyone else who associates with him.

Joram is now in first grade at the Montessori Schoolhouse (this is him going to school). Although I still have some qualms about their teaching method (including calling teachers by their first name), they are successful in many things and we absolutely love one of his teachers, Mandi. Joram is, from what they tell us, a veritable math wizard. He is a first-grader who does multiplication and division, and when we are out and about people are amazed by his math prowess.

He loves his sisters, his mom and dad, and everyone else in his extended family. He loves going to school and church, and really enjoys reading. He has great faith in his Heavenly Father, as shown by what he says in his prayers every night. We love our Joram and are thankful that our Father has blessed us to have him in our family.

Response to "On the road to socialism"

I wanted to post the comments made about my article, "On the road to socialism," because the comments that Anonymous made were interesting, and with them I can clarify my position and explain a little more. I also wanted to prove to everyone that people do actually read my blog and care about what I say! As always, I love when people respond, whether to agree or not, because I enjoy hearing the sound of my own voice (or in this case thoughts). I'll insert my rebuttal into their comments.

Anonymous said...

Lincon,
You have a very interesting post and the topic is one near and dear to my heart. Please remember that the things I am about to say are not meant as a personal attack on your beliefs, however it is directly to identify the fallacy of your logic.
1. You refer to SCHIP bill as being "totalitarian." As the name denotes this program is "STATE CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE." States are not required to participate - totalitarian connotates power through force. Who is forcing your state to participate in the program other than it's constiuents? SCHIP was originally proposed by Ted Kennedy AND Orrin Hatch. States must match funds to participate. U.S. voters elected Obama - who is being forced other than those who DON'T agree with democracy and majority rule?
I'm fine with the original SCHIP because it does work well, but that this recent expansion is unnecessary and excessive. I also don't believe any state would turn down this free money, and I feel it's somewhat totalitarian in that the state can either go bankrupt paying for their state health care costs or take money from the federal gov't and be told how to use it.
2.You use the logical fallacy of "slippery slope," when you state :"This is only the first step. 'Cause the way I see it, providing coverage to 11 million children through CHIP is a down payment on my commitment to cover every single American." Because SCHIP is passed it does not mean Universal Health Care or "socialized" health care will be passed. Because SCHIP is passed it doesn't mean that the constitution will be altered or basic civil rights will be taken. The promotion of the belief that passing a health care subsidy will lead to eventually enslavement of the United States population is pure conservative propaganda and rhetoric. It's the same ideal of McCartheistic politics that has left a festering sore on the constitution.
I've never been compared to McCarthy before, but I don't believe the passing of this one bill leads down the road to socialism, if it were the only signpost. However, teamed with the successive overtaking of various parts of the free market system by the Fed is what leads me to the fear that our current leadership would be happier if gov't was in control of every aspect and capitalism had no part. I hope I am wrong. And by the way, that quote was from Mr. Obama's own mouth as he signed the bill.
3. You speak of the "little economist" inside of you and how it is telling you that SCHIP is not a good idea. According to research done by BYU and Arizona state, removal of SCHIP programs would lead to more expenses because underprivileged individuals would take their children in for emergency care vs. clinical help. The United States currently spends an estimated 15% of the GDP on health care, which is greater than any other country WITH socialized health care. Maybe the little economist just needs bigger ears?
Again, I agree that SCHIP works fine as it is, maybe I should have made that more plain in my original post, but the expansion just signed gives money to families who should be able to afford it. While the number may be 15% now (I've seen papers with higher estimates), in receiving my recent MPH I saw many reports by liberals in favor of socialized medicine that health care expenditures are increasing more rapidly than GDP growth, and at the current rate may surpass total GDP.
4. You state that "Giving everyone health care in lieu of fixing our highways or providing a national defense just doesn't seem right." I missed the part of the SCHIP initiative that said we were no longer engaging in highway repairs or national defense?
I didn't infer that SCHIP will stop those other programs, but if we continue to increase health care spending, than something else has to stop if we are to have a balanced budget, and those were just the most flamboyent examples I though of. I understand that socialized medicine does work fairly well in some countries, but would likely not work here because Americans want everything now and will not wait, and I've also never been impressed with the government's ability to be efficient in any large expenditure.
In conclusion I agree in a non-interventionist policy from government, however Republicans and Democrats alike do not engage in it. Most libertarians in Universal Health Care countries actually prefer it because of the reduction in expenses for individuals.
Research twice, speak once.
Live well

Thursday, February 05, 2009 10:05:00 PM

Out of the mouth of babes...

A friend's blog that I follow had humorous saying of their kids, and I loved the idea (and thankfully I had been doing this on my PDA for some time already). I had originally posted this on the side, but fearing the eventual size, I decided to put it in regular post so that they'd be archived, and I'll just keep adding as they happen. There'll be a link on the left to bring you back here in the future.

06 May 2011
On the drive home from picking Joram from school.
me: Did they talked about the death of Osama bin Laden at school today?
Joram: A little, but who is he?
me: He's a terrorist. Do you know what a terrorist is?
Joram: Kind of, but can you tell me?
me: Well, they're evil people who attack others to hurt and scare them.
Joram: That's not what I thought a terrorist was at all.
me: What did you think a terrorist was?
Joram: One of those people who vacation in other countries and take pictures.
me: That's not a terrorist, that's a tourist!

01 June 2009
Nancy was reading Cinderella to the kids and was as the part about Anastasia and Drisella tearing Cinderella's dress and Kiran was concerned, saying,
K- Anastasia and Drisella are mean, like Laman and Lemuel.
(This may only make sense to some of you. If it doesn't, ask me about it)

27 May 2009
Disclaimer: This posting is only suitable for adults.
Now that I've said that, the girls got into our travel toiletries bag, and here's what ensued.
Joram- Mom, Dad, the girls played with something in your room!
The girls came running out, Kiran first, saying...
Kiran- Nisha played with the gloves.
...and Nisha following right behind her with condoms over both arms.

30 April 2009
So we were driving in the car and talking about, what else, bugs. I was telling the Nancy and the kids about a huge praying mantis I once saw.
Me- I was looking out of the window that went to the greenhouse room and I saw...
Kiran- Excuse me, daddy. How can a window walk?
Me- What? What are talking about?
K- You said the window went to the greenhouse room.
Me- (after laughing hysterically) Kiran, I meant that the windows were between my room and the greenhouse room.
K- Ohhhhh, now I understand.

17 April 2009
We were all driving and the girls were calling each other "bad girl" in the back of the van.
N- Daddy, Kiran called me a bad girl!
Me- Nisha, are you a good girl or a bad girl?
N- I'm a bad girl, ha ha ha ha ha(cackling evily)!

09 April 2009
I was driving to take Joram to school and we came up next to a 70s-80s Ferrari 308 GTB, a very classic car driven by the famous Thomas Magnum from Magnum P.I. and I asked Joram if he knew what a Ferrari was.
J- That's the kind of trip people take when they go in a jungle.
L- (laughing) No, Joram, that's a safari!

25 March 2009
I was taking Kiran to bed and since many nights she sleeps in her sleeping bag in the floor, tonight I asked her if she wanted to sleep on the bed or on the floor.
K- (very seriously)I propose that I clean up right here and put my sleeping bag down here to sleep.

18 March 2009
Nisha was jumping onto Nancy on the chair and laughing about it. At one point she laughed real hard and snorted...
Ni- I made a pig!

Nancy went outside to get the mail with all 3 kids and by the time Joram got his shoes on Nan and the girls were already done, so he got sad.
Nan-Joram's just being glum.
Me- What's going on?
K- My brother is being glum, glummy-glum-glum!

We were at the store looking at stuff and as we passed by the woman's clothing section Nan paused to look at something on sale, and Kiran ran over to the other side of the aisle and grabbed a bra...
K- Booby, booby thingies!

14 March 2009
We were kneeling down for family prayers last night before bed and I asked Kiran to say the prayer. We've been working with them from as young as possible to help them say prayers, and as they get older we work with them to say their own prayers rather than the same one every time. For example, a few weeks ago Kiran was asked to give the prayer in Primary and she said K- Father, thank Thee for this day. Bless we can sleep good tonight. In Jesus name. Amen.

So this time, as we knelt down, I wanted to remind her what to say.
Me-Remember to think about your prayer first.
K- Heavenly Father, thank Thee for this day. Remember to think about prayer first. In Jesus name. Amen.
You just can't make these things up sometimes!

05 March 2009
Joram's least favorite subject in school is geography, and on the drive home I asked him what the capitol of Arizona was.
J- Do you mean the capitalized A?

22 September 2007
Joram was telling us about his friends in his class.
J- Two people can have the same name like 2 girls in my class, so we should have another boy and name him Joram.

16 June 2007
Nancy, the kids, and I were driving on a trip.
Nan- Look at the horse and mule.
J- What's a mule?
Nan- A donkey.
J- Then why didn't you just say donkey?

Later on the same drive.
J- Do you know what planet I want to go to? Planet Pluto!
K- I want to go to Planet Mickey!

11 June 2007
I was singing a Dora the Explorer song, and Kiran put her hand on my cheek and said, "Good job, daddy!"

10 April 2007
I asked Joram how he liked dinner his mom made.
J- It's edible.

After dinner they were eating sour snacks for dessert.
J- It's so sour it makes my eyes blink!

I also wrote on this day that every time I got home from school Kiran came running up to me saying, "Daddy, daddy, I'm so glad to see you!" in a very mature voice like I'm an old friend.

On the road to socialism

Welcome, komrades, to the beginning of the new USA, the Union of Socialist America. Now, I hate to have to move my precious daughters down in the blog to do another article, but I felt this topic was of absolute importance. It seems that our president and those who hypnotically follow him are well on their way to converting our once-glorious democratic society into a socialist state, one step away from their version of American Communism. On today's sad occasion we witnessed Mr. Obama sign into law a totalitarian expansion of the SCHIP, reducing the role of private insurance in our country. In his own words he said, "This is only the first step. 'Cause the way I see it, providing coverage to 11 million children through CHIP is a down payment on my commitment to cover every single American." He doesn't even hide the fact that wants socialized medicine! Currently, about 46% of total health care spending is controlled by the government, but with the passing of SCHIP expansion this will greatly increase.

For those of you who don't know, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was meant to give children, who's families made to much for Medicaid, the benefit of health insurance. It was meant to cover up to 200% of the Federal Poverty Level, 0r $44,000 for a family of four, though only 9 states are still at that level with most having already expanded the coverage (more at Heritage.org). That's not too shabby of a sum, and our family of five had learned to live on much less than that, as I'm sure many of you have as well. I agree that children deserve proper health care, however, giving government-run insurance to people who should be able to afford it (instead of buying the new sportscar!) is ridiculous. I think that the idea of universal health care is quite admirable and very Christian, but the little economist inside me yells out loud that this just cannot be. Giving everyone health care in lieu of fixing our highways or providing a national defense just doesn't seem right.

While this issue is at the top of the list of wrongs that this bill establishes, the other at the top is the idea that we, as citizens, are soon going to be under complete government control. Our beloved Consitution (read more about it here) states that we the people are in charge of the country, not those in charge, as would be if Mr. Obama's aspirations come to fruition. Communism always starts with the government acting the the helping hand, taking control in the midst of presumed chaos, maybe a financial institution that is having trouble with loans, or health care that doesn't cover enough people. Or maybe that same government will exert control over things it has no business in, such as marriage? Maybe that government will begin to limit the people's rights in matters such as religion or guns. Does any of this sound familiar? Every communist regime begins sliding citizens rights to government control, then all of a sudden they go too far and people finally notice, but they already have so much control that no one can resist anymore, and Voila! a Communist state.

I know I rambled a bit, but just giving you food for thought, people. know your rights and hold as tight to them as possible lest you miss them when they're gone. And now back to your regularly scheduled programming...

They love to dance

My older daughter, Kiran, has been dancing ballet and tap for a while now through the city parks and rec, and she loves it. My younger girl, Nisha, loves it as well, but is too young to be in the class yet, so she just dances out in the hallway while we wait. We forgot to sign them up for this last session of classes, which was okay because we were out of town so much over the last month or so. But yesterday when she started asking about it again we told her we'd sign her up, and she started getting her ballet clothes to wear saying she has to get ready for ballet. When we informed her that we'd have to sign her up before she could go, she said okay and that she'd get dressed anyways and just pretend she was going to ballet class. So she's gone to "pretend ballet class" two days in a row now. I'm so thankful for my kids who make me smile every moment of every day.

And the spending just keeps on coming...

With three kids ages 6 (almost 7), 4, and 2 (almost 3), we have quite a task every time we go to any store, as I'm sure many of you can relate to. My wife does the actual shopping, and I usually do the other work of stopping my kids from grabbing everything in sight and trying to explain that we can't buy something if we don't have the money. My son's answer to that is usually, "Then why don't we just go to the bank and take some out?" He knows about the bank, etc. since we went there a year or so ago to have him start an account to save for his mission. Then we start the round robin discussion about how if there's no money in the bank we can't take anything out, and that we have to have money to put in unless we have money in the first place, and so on and so forth. I'm sure you get the idea.

Well, this kind of thing is quite difficult to explain when they have such a wonderful example in our national government (thank goodness they don't see the news yet!). I can't even imagine what parents were telling their children 13 years ago when we all saw our president lying under oath about his relationship with the intern! Parents nowadays have a hard enough time teaching their children what is right without having our government and society mixing things up. This all leads me to our current situation.

I've been fuming about this recent bailout for some time now, and I haven't yet recovered from the last one. I have never believed that handing out money we don't have to people who don't really need it is a mistake. This makes particular nonsense when giving this money to failing companies in efforts to help them succeed, especially if we want to promote economic growth. I've been hearing a lot about what is actually contained in the current bailout, and as it would be, the president and Congress have included much that has nothing to do with improving our current economy. A new favorite website of mine of The Heritage Foundation, which gives no nonsense facts, has a new website, www.askheritage.org, that gives lots of facts about this bailout plan. Here are some of the highlights:

• $200 million for repairs to the National Mall in DC including $21 million on new sod
  
• $600 million on cars for government bureaucrats
• $650 million for digital television converters
• $50 million to the National Endowment for the Arts
• $87 billion Medicaid bailout and increased SCHIP to help move the country to providing health insurance for every American -- code words for socialized health care!
• increased spending on family planning and birth control for children, immigrants and the wealthy -- this was subsequently removed by Pelosi when there was a widespread outcry against it
  

While some of this may be needed (and as well as some that are not necessary), a stimulus bill should do just that: stimulate the economy! Now I'm no economist, but I don't believe how any of the above can even remotely stimulate the economy into growth. I'm thankful for many of the members of Congress voting against the bill until it is improved and pared down to spending on improving the economy alone.

I'm just not sure what we tell our children and grandchildren when they are having to continue paying for this horrid mess years from now. Well, I'll get off my soapbox now and return you now to your regularly scheduled programming...

Success and Failure: which teaches us more?

So I'm a big fan of Glenn Beck. Not only do we share the same faith, but he is an honest guy who treats everyone with integrity and respect, but he doesn't give a pass to people of his own political views either.

He did an interview a while ago with now-impeached Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, and said that while he believed he was guilty, he thought Gov. Blagovich should've been able to present a defense. He followed that up with another interview with Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, someone Glenn respects and shares faith with, but was quite upset that Sen. Hatch voted for the acceptance of Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary, saying that although Geithner may be the most well-qualified man for the job, his tax evasion was too dishonest, and our country's need for honesty was more dire than the need for financial strength.

Anyways, what I wanted to share was his interview with Chris Gardner, who inspired the movie The Pursuit of Happyness. It's an awesome movie and, as is always the case, an even better story. The point is that in the pursuit of success, there will always be some failures, and through those failures we are taught how to be better and more successful. So, here's the interview.

(edit---the previous video was removed from youtube by the user, so I found another video in two parts as follows)

My first official post!

So a few months ago I finally bit the bullet and joined the community of facebook. Before that I saw it as sort of like Children of the Corn...a group of brain-washed drones that cause you trouble until you join up with them, but now that I have joined I have no more doubts. I waste more time on there than I do sleeping, although it has allowed me to get in touch (and stay in touch as well) with people I haven't seen in some time.

So now after reading blogs from friends for a few months now, I've decided to take this plunge as well and start a blog for my family. Soon I'll have the skinny pants and fuzzy moon boots and hail praises to the mighty Obama just to join up with every other new fad that's coming along. My feelings on blogs previously were that I didn't think anyone else would care enough about my family to want to read a blog about us, but I figured that this was a lot easier than keeping a family journal, and my kids can read about our family life years from now.

So here it is. I'll probably spend now more time on here than I do with my kids, all for the sake of posterity. But I hope that this will be fun for the whole family, and I'm sure I'll let my oldest, Joram, take a crack at writing as well. Anyways, I hope for those of you who actually read this garbage, enjoy. If you just came to look at the pictures, well, there aren't any yet. Come back later when I figure out how to do that stuff.