Politics: Palin

Is this for real? Is America seriously going to let this woman possibly be in charge of our country? Oh my word! Here's a clip of her interview with Katie Couric.



This is insulting to me as a woman. Could McCain really not find a more intelligent woman to put on the ticket with him? This HAS to be some kind of joke... Not only is she frighteningly unprepared and uneducated but she scares me with her religious references - "the US is the force of good in the world," "the evil that he (Iranian president) speaks," "good guys," and the "bad guys."

The SNL skit was hysterical. But, it was so close to reality it was also a bit scary!

Kisses

Today the boys and I did quite a bit of shopping. I always try to sit them in the two-seater carts and today we lucked out with one at both Wal-Mart and Publix. While in Wal-Mart, I saw Connor reach over and grab Cameron's hair. I've never seen him do this before and Cameron didn't really seem to care (he's a tough kid) but I told Connor that we don't pull hair and to tell Cameron he was sorry which he did. I told him to give Cameron a hug to make it better which he did. Shortly thereafter, I saw Connor lean into Cameron (they were sitting across from each other) to try and give him a kiss. Cameron leaned in and they kissed. Then Connor did it again... and again... and again. If Cameron wasn't looking at Connor, Connor would make kissing sounds to get Cameron's attention and then Cameron would lean in to kiss Connor. One time Cameron was busy looking at something and didn't hear Connor making the kissy noises so Connor said "besito" (kiss in Spanish) to get his attention. It was the sweetest, cutest thing I think I have ever seen. It was so spontaneous. My boys love each other and it makes me so happy to see.

POOP!

I can't believe it! Both boys pooped on the potty for the first time tonight (that I know of since they may have already done this at school and I just don't know about it)! Connor wanted to use the big toilet *I assumed* so he could pee so I had him stand on the seat and reminded him to aim carefully. I then got Cameron set up on the little toilet so he could sit down and go potty. Connor had been standing there for a few minutes and did not appear to need to pee but then I saw the big poop about to fall - right into the toilet. I was so excited I called Mike so he could see too. As Mike came in Connor had another little poop fall into the toilet. I was so excited and happy for Connor. He was really happy for himself too. We were high fiving and saying bye to the poop as Connor flushed. Very exciting stuff!

Cameron totally did not want to be outdone so he managed to get a little poop out and into the little potty which we then excitedly dumped into the big toilet to flush and say good bye. He was pretty proud of himself too. So am I!!!

Politics: RNC - what about policies?

I didn't watch the entire coverage for either party’s conventions but I did watch the key speakers at the Republican National Convention this week - Sarah Palin, Cindy McCain, and John McCain. Sarah was just nasty (such pretty girls shouldn't frown and sneer so much), Cindy was a drip (and flaunting the corrupt way she chose to adopt her daughter was just disgusting for me personally and seemed to make Bridget really uncomfortable too), and John was a bore (although I was quite touched when he explained how he came to love this country so). The utter lack of mention of how they will actually bring the change they keep claiming was most impressive. I heard blanket statements but no substance. After hearing Obama's acceptance speech, I was really expecting more. This was their chance to rise to the occasion. I was shocked that they didn't even try. Obama really said it pretty well on 9/3/08 in his address at a town hall in New Philadelphia, Ohio:

Politics: Bush

There are so many reasons that I have the utmost disdain for George W. Bush, it would be almost impossible to list them all. Here are my top 13 reasons I find the Bush administration appalling for their utter failure to serve the people who elected them and who represent them to the rest of the world:

1) Failing to capture Osama Bin Laden.
2) Misleading the US and the rest of the world about the unreliable information they had obtained which was supposed to show that Iraq was amassing WMD and that Saddam Hussein was tied to 9/11.
3) Being on vacation while Katrina was sitting as a category 5 hurricane in the middle of the Gulf and then not responding swiftly and appropriately once it reached and destroyed America's shores. (Didn't Jeb call him????)
4) Continuing huge tax breaks for large oil companies in times of record profits for them and massive deficits for the US. (I'm thinking W's not very good with math)
5) Refusing to end our occupation of Iraq while letting our honorable soldiers continue to be attacked - 4,150 Americans have been killed and more than 30,000 wounded in addition to countless Iraqi civilians.
6) Failing to provide proper medical and mental care for our veterans (remember Walter Reed Medical Center?).
7) Giving tax cuts to the wealthiest 2% during a time of war which is costing us $341 million per day (more evidence of W's lack of basic math skills).
8) Endorsing torture as a method to be employed by the military but then publically denying that torture is used at all (remember Abu Ghraib?). This is also a direct break with the Geneva Conventions which is just shameful.
9) Promising the Iraq war would lower gas prices.
10) Concealing the pre-9/11 Presidential Daily Briefing entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S."
11) Rejecting the Kyoto Treaty to stop climate change in addition to outright rejecting the notion that climate change was even occurring for the vast majority of his presidency.
12) Allowing Afghanistan to fall into chaos thereby allowing the Taliban and al Qaeda to regain control.
13) Telling the 45 million uninsured Americans "people have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room." (7/10/07 in Cleveland) And, no, I did not pull that out of context. He really said it just like that as if that is really an acceptable means of obtaining health care.

These are just a few of the things Bush has done that really get me upset that, not only was he elected, he was RE-elected.

I remember during past election cycles, there was a lot of talk about how Americans thought W would be fun to have a beer with. I'm sure he would be! If you're into cocaine, I'm sure he was a blast on that too back in the day. And there are very good reasons people feel that way. W is a crack up, he's funny. He is not who should have ever been in charge of the greatest nation on earth! As evidence of his fun-loving, laid back nature, here are my favorites:

* Setting the record for most days on vacation by any president in U.S. history - this illustrates a very laid back nature.
* Turning a budget surplus into massive budget deficit - anyone that can spend that kind of money in 8 short years knows how to throw a party!
* Swiftboating John Kerry - this was a great example of making fun of someone. It was so outrageous though because, while Kerry actually served his country in VN, Bush was on vacation (again) in TX!
* Outing CIA agent Valerie Plame to retaliate for her husband, Joe Wilson, telling the truth about Iraq's WMDs. That's not really something fun but it is certainly something people can relate too - getting back at someone who really pissed you off.
* Trying to slash funding for PBS and NPR - those programs are just no fun always having educational, informative programs - SNORE!

Another thing that makes W someone you could have a beer with is his lack of intelligence. I've already pointed out his apparent lack of math skills - simple math skills. There is also a lack of leadership skills in his failure to hire the most qualified and instead choosing to fill appointed positions with his supportive, like-minded friends. Good leaders know that in order to make the best decisions they need a diverse team who will not only tell them what they want to hear but will present the facts even if they are unpleasant (um, sir, you really need to call off your vacation, it looks like a storm is going to destroy a few hundred thousand American's lives and it doesn't look like the NOLA government is handling it appropriately) or are not in agreement with you (no, actually, Saddam can't get his hands on anything dangerous anymore even if he still is one of the nastiest MFers on the planet, he can't harm any Americans or even his neighbors at this point).

What really blows my mind now is that the Republican nominee, John McCain, who agrees with Bush 90% of the time, is enjoying a remarkably CLOSE race with Obama. I just don't get it.

Politics: Obama

Prior to the Democratic National Convention, I already supported Obama because I agree with most of his policies and the things he wants to do in office. But his acceptance speech... that really "did" it for me.



This link has the speech with its transcript.

I am totally in awe of this man's incredible intelligence, superior leadership qualities (surrounding himself with the best and brightest in every area as well as understanding the necessity and brilliance of compromise to reach the best solution possible) and his ability to see and admit to the realities of a situation. I broke the bad news to Mike - I am in love. ;-)

Staycation

This year, Mike and I decided to have our family vacation at home the week of August 18th. We opted for the local vacation because we have toddlers. Driving or any other version of travel with them is miserable for everyone. Better to keep any travel to one hour or less. Plus, we aren't exactly flush with cash these days so staying and eating at home is much more economical then traveling anywhere. So, we decided this was the way to go back in March/April… sometime BEFORE hurricane season. Our plans were to go to the zoo, the water park, the beach, and boating - typical Florida vacation plans. All beach and boating activities were cancelled due to not a single meteorologist knowing where or when Tropical Storm Fay was going to reach the states. Tampa was in the middle of the "cone" at one point meaning that several of our plans instantly became non-options - the beaches were unsafe, boating was impossible, the zoo was closed. How fun! It was nice to be home and spend some great family time together but sometimes hurricane season can really be a drag. We did make it to the zoo on the 20th which was a lot of fun. Here are my favorite pictures from the day.

Feeding the giraffes crackers was really memorable for the boys. If you mention giraffes now, the boys normally respond "crackers."


The camel ride was very intense. At first Connor was NOT going to do it and Cameron only did it with me reluctantly.


However, after seeing Cameron and I ride the huge animal safely, Connor (and Daddy) wanted to go too!


The animals were most memorable for the boys but they sure had a LOT of fun in the water fountains.



The looks of pure joy just make me smile. :-D

We did make it to the water park as planned on Thursday with Nana, Titi and Kaylie which was a lot of fun. It was overcast almost the entire day and sprinkled on us a few times but at least it wasn't blazing hot in usual August fashion and no one burnt so it was a perfect day. All the babes really enjoyed it even when Kaylie and Cameron ended up going under water with Titi and me at the end of one of the slides - we both lost our footing and went under with our children. Oops! They still wanted to do it again. Of course none of us brought a camera so there are no pictures to share but that's probably a good idea with my history of vacations with water and cameras. At least mine is still working right now!

The rest of the staycation we just hung out, ran errands, went shopping - like an extended weekend. Oh well! Next year we will be out of town so at least the hurricanes shouldn't be too much of an issue for us!

Mommy's bed

The boys' new favorite toy is our bed. I think they call it Mommy's bed bacause I'm the one they are always asking to get into it. They like anytime they can be in the bed. On the weekends, they will drink their morning bottles with us in bed. On any given day, they love to climb up on the bed and jump and play. Here's a little clip showing one of those times.

So sad... so many reasons

I haven't posted in ages. This is due to the fact that the boys literally stop me from being on a computer in their presence. Then, when I went to upload some pictures to our desktop about a week ago, I discovered it had erased all of the pictures I had there, which was all of them. I have completely lost all of June and July (I had previously downloaded the other pictures to the web). This is sad. But I just read a post on APV (a Yahoo discussion group for anyone involved in Vietnamese adoptions) and saw this posted. This disturbs me for so many reasons:
* Cameron & Connor were born in and adopted from Vung Tau, one of the six counties in which arrests have occurred
* We received falsified documentation at referral (their initial medical reports were incorrectly translated - "positif" as "negative" - which was not discovered by us until after the G&R; we actually were not allowed to see the original French medical reports until after we received their visas and were on the way to the airport to come home)
* We have several reasons to believe other paperwork surrounding their abondonment was less than truthful
* The agency we used, FHSA, works with a known criminal previously found guilty of visa fraud charges, My Linh Soland
* FHSA was denied Hague accreditation in May. For those not involved in intercountry adoption, the Hague is a treaty that governs intercountry adoptions between the United States and nearly 75 other nations. As stated on the U.S. Dept of State's site, "The Hague Adoption Convention protects children and their families against the risks of unregulated adoptions abroad, and ensures that intercountry adoptions are in the best interests of children. The Convention also serves to prevent the abduction, sale of, or traffic in children." Vietnam has not adopted these rules yet.
* Just as a strange coincidence, the boys were named Hoa and Binh by their orphanage director (no longer at the orphanage as of Dec-07 when the Goods went to visit). Hoa Binh is another one of the six counties in which arrests have occurred.

I guess my crying is the only thing keeping the boys from tearing me away from the computer right now. To say I am devastated is an understatement. My heart is just breaking. My worst fears and suspicions have been further confirmed. Now we just wait to hear the details. So, so sad.

A toddler workout

To a toddler, everything is fun and anything can be a toy. Here the boys are playing on the exercise equipment. They get more exercise on it than anyone else in the house! And they ENJOY it! Amazing!







I have never seen anyone else on exercise equipment as happy as Connor is here.


Cameron seeing if he can crawl along this metal bar. He is dangerously daring!