Assessment Day

Good morning.  The air is crisp and cool with a definite hint of fall in the air. Did you all watch the NFL season opener…Wow did Green Bay ever look good!! We are all happy about the outcome of the game, as we are sure Grandma is as well.

We had a long day yesterday…work, PTA, soccer and a play date that lasted until 7:45p.m. Whew!! Then it was upstairs to read with the youngest, the oldest went right to bed for a “Golden ticket”, more on that later. Both boys were out by 8:10. Hurray!!! We had specific instructions from both of their teachers to get them exercise, a good nights sleep and a healthy breakfast before their assessment tests today.  These tests are designed to put the kids in the correct reading groups….so….if they are too tired or hungry and haven’t gotten the restlessness out of their systems they may be placed in the wrong group. Anyway, we are trying our best to do our part in giving them a great start this morning… I have to head upstairs to help with showers….here’s Daddy…

The Mister cooked ribs (pork and beef short ribs) and twice baked potatoes for dinner last night….yum!! Have I ever mentioned how much I love it when he cooks dinner.

Ok, let’s jump right in, who watched the Presidents speech last night? Man can that guy talk. He can make anything sound good can’t he. I do agree with the payroll tax cuts but am a little leery about the rest of the program where you spend all the money this year and pay for it over the next 10! Sounds like more debt to me and how can he or anyone guarantee that future administrations will follow through and pay his bill when he’s not President.

I was also a little disappointed in the manipulation of the evening telecast by the White House. You see the GOP did not provide a response because Obama said his speech would run about 43 minutes plus 10 minutes of applause taking up most of the entire hour. With the season NFL kick off, the GOP determined there would be no time for a response so they opted not to squeeze it into 5 minutes. Turns out his speech ran 32 minutes with applause so there would have been plenty of time for a response, a whole 28 minutes. Guess the White House “mislead” (nice way of saying lied) to the GOP so they thought they had no time to respond. I mean they couldn’t have been that far off on the timing could they, did he talk twice as fast as expected, hmm. Next as if on cue, right after the speech, they announce a “credible threat” on 9/11 to New York and D.C. I find it hard to believe that this so called “threat” came to light during the speech. In fact they later said they knew about this for a month. Now whether it’s true or not, what good timing for the President! Let’s see, say the speech is 53 minutes but finish in 32, then while all the analysts are getting ready to discuss the speech, release a huge statement warning of an impending attack! It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 is probably a good day to assume that if someone wanted to attack us, they just might pick that day! Hope nothing happens but it was pure politics the way the White House played or manipulated the media last night.

Now to the speech itself, I personally just cannot stand the arrogance of this man. He talks down to everyone and expects us to believe that spending another $500 billion dollars now is going to be different than the $800 billion he spent last year. Where are meaningful proposals like a flat tax. I do agree that the uber rich need to pay more but do not subscribe with the democratic agenda of spend (by borrowing now) and pay later. That’s why were in the mess we are now!

Oh well, I don’t expect much to change until after the election. The whole speech was about setting up the narrative for the coming 14 months. Get ready for a wild ride, both sides need to give a little but I don’t see it happening enough to make any real progress, sure hope I’m wrong. I keep wondering if he really wanted progress, how come the President didn’t get with the republicans BEFORE the speech and let them see it so they could mutually agree on some things and then present that to the American people? How come he has not included one single idea from the GOP (they can’t all be bad) in his plans? Boy I sure wish Hillary would have won a few years ago, can’t believe I’m saying that!

Oh well, Mom’s getting ready to walk to school with the boys this morning. I’ll need to go pick her and the scooters up. I picked up the truck yesterday morning and left the suburban at the shop for brakes and an oil change. Uncle T drove me down around 4:30 to pick that up after it was finished. It goes back in Monday to have the front wheel bearings re-sealed or something. All I know is it’s another $500. Time to run, hope everyone is well. Annette, I did get your “warning”, thanks as I wasn’t sure what you meant.

Take care and God Bless,