How many kids will you have?

NOT 14 IF I AM EVER ON WELFARE (IF I EVER NEED TO BE.. I'M GOING TO THE ARMY)




In 1996 5% percent of all Americans are on some sort of financial aid (excluding college financial aid), now 30% of all Americans are in need of financial aid, 12 % of the federal budget is devoted to welfare for the middle class and wealthy in the form of tax credits, no interest mortgages, home investment incentives, and 39% of the people are welfare are white. I just want to get a few things straight before I jump into this. There are myths out in the world that state African American’s are the most people on welfare, untrue. Considering that African American’s only make up 14% of the United States, and they are also lower in percentage of those that are white proves that they work for their money’s. Some people just want to put blame on someone that can take it. White’s are lazier than black’s. Proven fact by welfare statistics, and also we have Nadya Suleman to thank for reassurance.

A little over 10 years ago, we were in need a quarter less than we are now. Times are tough and people need help. Unemployment rates are high; though they are not higher than they have ever been despite the bull that people are saying. Does welfare necessarily entitle you to all the luxuries that everyone else can enjoy? In the past month, America has learned of a mother that now has 14 kids. She is collecting welfare for those kids due to “unemployment.” Welfare is designed to give people the income that they not necessarily would get with a minimum wage job. With 14 kids, it is almost a given that you will not survive in today’s economy without the income of more than minimum wage. Nadya Suleman has made headlines as the single mother of the 14 kids and as the mother of 14 children on welfare. Before the octuplets, she had six children already living in her mother’s three bedroom house that was to be foreclosed on May 5th. This woman is using government aid to love and care for these children, as she claims. But is she really? She looks a lot like Angelina Jolie and seems to be caring a lot more about her fame than she is about the health of her newborn children and the children that she already has at home. She has called Dr. Phil to tape on his show, and has even appeared in a 20/20 interview. Where are her kids that she is working so hard to keep? They don't seem to be anywhere in sight. She is not looking for a job very hard, and is actually considering working for a hardcore porn video for one million dollars.

There should be a limit on how many children that you are allowed to have if you are on welfare. If someone wants to have a farm of children and can take care of them without other’s tax money, than have at it. Have three farms! There are families in the United States that were able to care for their kids until they reached the age that needed money for themselves (college, housing, entertainment, etc.) but than needed welfare to get their children’s on the right direction to be able to let go. There is no shame in that, but there is shame on having kids to get more money for welfare. If there isn’t a limit on that, then people can and WILL take advantage of the situation. Nadya Suleman seems to be a perfect example of that. She was interviewed and asked the question of why she wanted to have more children. Nadya Suleman’s response was that she didn’t have a great childhood growing up so she wanted to recreate that for her kids. She sounds like a liar that wants money from her child to get more plastic surgery done so she can try and steal Brad Pitt away with Angelina in an attempt to pretend to be her. Of course that is just a theory but a theory that can be done.

Being on welfare is defined as receiving financial aid from the government or from a private organization because of hardship and need. Welfare is also defined as the good fortune, health, happiness, prosperity, etc., of a person, group, or organization; well-being. There are a few things some people do not understand. If someone is on welfare, they shouldn’t be using it to practice their own welfare. Free money isn’t there to get plastic surgery, or to buy your clothes at Nordstrom. Welfare was made to help get yourself back on track, not for it to be there for the rest of your life. Really think about what’s wrong with the idea of welfare. The idea that it puts in people’s minds that they are able to have money as long as they have kids, or as long as they get married they are able to have more.

If a family starts off on welfare, before even really starting a family they wouldn’t give the impression of being stable enough to care for more than themselves. Some people believe that having children was their destiny on this earth. If that was the case, than go ahead and have kids. Don’t use my money to do that. IF worse comes to worse, than only use my money for three children. Beyond that is a cry out for more money to do with what they please. There wouldn’t necessarily be a problem with people on welfare and a lot of kids if they were working as hard as they possibly could to not have to be on welfare for the next ten years (that is how long most American’s are on welfare for). Hard times call for hard realities. Reality is I don’t want to pay for someone else’s stupid mistake. Use a condom, don’t have sex, and do whatever it takes to keep me and my money out of it. If that is ever achieved, I will be quite content.

Are you fat?

Just take this quiz and find out..

Um have you ever seen those ads? If not that's upsetting. Basically it's a fat cartoon that turns from fat to skilly and it says "Are you fat? Take this quiz and find out!"

HOW THE HELL CAN YOU FIND OUT IF YOU ARE FAT BY A QUIZ? Last time I checked, the way you find out if you are fat or not is by stepping on a scale and seeing if it breaks. Or look in the mirror and see if you have rolls. If you're brave enough, you could even put on a bikini/speedo and walk outside, see how many people throw up. That's when you know you are fat or not.

Look around, America is the fat capital of the world. So why do we now need a quiz online to tell us that. That's just ridiculous. And the people who actually take the quiz? Really? If you need to take that quiz to find out if you are fat are not.. ODDS are that you are fat.

I just don't get what that is supposed to accomplish? Tell the fat people on the computer that sits there all day and shoves fried twinkies in their mouth that they need to take a quiz to see if they are fat.. Hmm there is something wrong with that sentence.

It's almost like telling the 500 pound woman that she needs to step on a scale to see if she is fat or not? LOOK AT HER. She's fat.

And it's not JUST that ad that is bothersome. The ones that ask "Are you in love? Take THIS quiz and find out!" Once again, how can a quiz online tell you if you are "in love"? Sometimes the internet just takes things too far. It's absurd. Shouldn't you know if you are in love with someone by what your heart tells you?

So the moral of this story is.. FIND OUT IF YOU ARE FAT OR IN LOVE BY TAKING A QUIZ ONLINE.. AND MAKE SURE TO BELIEVE WHAT IT SAYS TOO BECAUSE THAT'S JUST SMART.

For the people out in the world that actually do that.. I feel sorry for you.

Where are you going next year?

"Where are you going next year?" seems to be the question of the year. Pressure is all that it is building up to. I don't know where I am going next year because I don't know what colleges are going to accept me. If CSULB won't even accept me because of budget cuts who knows who will ACTUALLY accept me.

I just feel so lost when it comes to next year. Where will I end up? I would love to know right now but it's just not that simple. Once again I need faith that I am going to be going to a school that is perfect for me. Going to a school that will love to have me and that I will have an awesome time at. So far I am actually thinking of going to University of Nevada, Reno. It's a great school.. That's all I got. It's in a sucky location, and it's freezing. Oh and there's snow.

Snow-NO.

What am I supposed to do when people ask me where I am going to school next year? If I could say that it's in God's hand than I would. But how can I say that when I am the one that ultimately picks where I am going to be going. So what if I get into all the other colleges that I have applied to (UCSB, UCSD, San Diego State..etc), there still is the decision of where I am actually going to go. God can't really make that decision for me.. Well I guess he can but I am the one that physically makes that decision so..

HOW AM I GOING TO KNOW WHERE TO GO?

It is scary to think about and it's the most pressure that I have been under since I was on the swim team when I was 12. School is the last thing that I want to worry about right now but it will always be the thing that I am worried about. I want to be the one that goes to school and loves it, not the girl that goes to school and wonders what it would be like to go to another school. Thinking it was the wrong choice the whole time. I would hate that and I do not want that to happen.

So.. Where am I going next year? Ask Him. Only God knows. And God knows, I have no idea.

You have the kissing disease?

Considering that I haven't kissed anyone in a very long time.. how can I of all people have the kissing disease? Mono is the most ridiculous virus/disease/whatever you want to call it.. ever.

So it has been a few days since I have been to school and I already know that I am going to be missing a lot. when I was talking to a friend about how I am going to be so behind we got on the subject of dropping out of school. I said that if I could not get back on track for awhile than I was going to drop out of school and pretty much go live down by the river. He actually thought I was serious! Me, serious? Are you sure about that? I am the most sarcastic person I know and I am also the most motivated person. So why would I drop out of school?

Yeah so apparently I am going to drop out of school because go for a week and than I am going to live down by river. What do you say? Anyone want to join me?

Okay anyways, I have mono. I have been stuck on my couch for the past few days. I have done nothing but drink gatorade and watch reruns of Friends. The last part is the only part that I have enjoyed. Eating or drinking anything hurts like hell and I'm too tired to go anywhere. I have my own little apartment inside of my house.

Yess I call it my apartment, so laugh as much as you want but it made me laugh. I have a blanket, my laptop, the tv, and of course my favorite puppy curled up next to me the whole time. I need meds!

Very strong meds please.

Is the window rolled down?

"No Spencer!" Today is my little cousin, Spencer's 14th birthday. YAY!! He will always be the little boy that we used to dress up as a princess but he is just bigger now and probably could take me if we started to dress him up again. Who knows, we should try it!

Today I picked him and his girlfriend up from school like I do every Thursday and I dropped her off. After we were "heading back to the house" I told him that we were going to get Leatherby's since it was his birthday. Because he is just a boy, he got the biggest smile on his face and got excited. There was just one thing that I wasn't expecting him to say.. "I just can't eat that much." Are you kidding me? It was like he was trying to watch his weight or something. I gave him a pretty dirty look (I'm such a nice cousin) and he explained that because he had a wrestling match he couldn't eat that much otherwise he would puke all over the mat.

I laughed and we continued our journey. Some say that because he was the "closest" cousin to me, he and I get along great. I say we get along great because we are very much alike. Like, on the way to Leatherby's we passed by the SMART car dealership. We both thought the same thing at the same time and Spencer said it outloud: "You could totally jack one of those cars with like a big van or something, or just put it in the bed of a truck. Hella easy." Oh gotta love your cousins!

We finally got to Leatherby's and Jill was working! She's one of the nicest people that I know and she was all smiles when we got there. We took our seat and started looking at the menu. We ordered our ice cream and fries (YUMMY!!) and were on our way!! They sang Happy Birthday to Spencer (Jill practically screamed the song.. Which made going to Leatherby's amazing) and embarrassed the crap out of him :).

This is where my laughing attack begins. On the way home from Leatherby's we passed El Camino. He saw someone he knew in the car that JUST passed us and was waiting at the stop light when he screamed! "FLAX!!" The window was completely rolled up and he yelled so loud. I just started cracking up and stared at him "Spencer the window isn't rolled down!" He looked at me with what looked like a very confused face. "I guess I thought about rolling down the window and then realized that it was too late so I just screamed. Wow, I feel so dumb!" I just couldn't stop laughing and of course couldn't stop pointing out how much of an idiot he was for that. As soon as we stopped laughing, he looked at me with a very serious face.. "You BETTER NOT put that in your blog!"

Of course I did! How dare he think I wouldn't. My little cousin will never be free of embarrassment and I will never be free of entertainment. I hope his day was amazing because even though it's not MY birthday, he made my day amazing.

Need the garden?

Waldo has a mini rock garden that you are supposed to rake if you are stressed out. I guess one of the teachers awhile ago told him that he needed to relieve the stress that he had so he went out and bought the mini rock garden. When I say mini, I mean mini! I don't even know how to explain how small it is. Just picture like a 4 x 4 little box with "little rocks" (that when inside the box make the rocks look HUGE!) and a little rake that looks like it can be snapped in half at any second of the day.



Apparently in the hallways there were a couple girls that were being VERY loud and he tried to deal with it. Waldo's version of dealing with things that make him mad/upset/annoyed/etc. is to put them on the podium where he then proceeds to ask them questions in front of the whole class. For these particular "ghetto" girls, it was

"What are your names?"

"Why are you so loud?"

Questions like that.

While telling the story about the "ghetto" girls, Oliver's eyes are tuned onto the computer screen like every other day. You never quite know if he is listening to the conversation or if he is wrapped up in the thing that is on the computer screen. Today, he was definitely listening to the story. After Waldo did his reenactment of the "ghetto" girls and their "ghettoness" Oliver suggested that Waldo needed the rock garden to relieve his stress. I, of course, laughed very hard and got to thinking about the rock garden.



We all have our own rock garden and for each person it is different. My rock garden is to cry.. It is the only way that I can fully start over. (TRUE GIRL!) For others it could be a lot more. Playing sports, stress eating, sleeping, etc. That is when I started to think about a healthy way to relieve stress. What if instead of screaming at the top of your lungs about everything that is going wrong we were proactive. Volunteering for a family in need or something that actually makes a difference. If volunteering seems more stressful than what about reading a book or something. I am actually trying different ways of relieving stress. Reading is a keeper!

A rock garden is not. The sand would spill to easily since I am a clutz and all.

Why do I have the worst immune system ever?

Today has been a day of ibuprofen's and tv shows. Lots of liquids and even more sleep. Why do I have the worst immune system ever? Sometimes it can come in handy.. no work, no school, no chores, etc. But sometimes it just sucks.. achey, dizzy, no idea what's going on in school, etc. I wish there was a cure for the common cold. I would be the number 1 fan!

Because I didn't go to school today meant that I got to catch up on my tv shows that I have missed over the weekend. Mostly Friends. Friends is the best show ever and I have missed so much about it. The episode I watched today was about Frankie Jr. How Phoebe's younger brother came to New York to spend some time with her and to experience New York. He experiences every part of New York.. The good, and the bad. He goes to see Central Park, and trys to find a hooker. Once Phoebe finds out that he thinks HER friend is a hooker, she wants to kick him out of the city pretty much. She gets really mad and starts getting pissed off at him.

In a very small way, it is how life goes. When things are going right we tend to be very happy. When things piss us off we flip out and want to take drastic measures. Often I find myself doing that. I find myself flipping out over some little mistake. I misunderstand a lot and jump to conclusions more than necessary. I need to work on that and I am learning.

But exactly how am I supposed to do that? Just stop talking about things? If something makes me upset, I will be stubborn and will say something that isn't necessary. Is that normal though? People have told me that keeping things in isn't really a good thing ALL the time.. I need that filter. The filter that says when is an appropriate way of telling people my feelings. When jumping to conclusions can actually help.. and when it won't.