beckas political forum

i often spend time creating programs in my head to further interest in learning life skills for youngsters. the popular television programs do little to encourage our children to find a hobby or a skill. they show why our country is torn appart and education has taken a back seat to reality programs which are based VERY LOOSELY on reality. the discovery channel is still wonderful and their are several others with very positive programing with educational shows. i am interested in creating a program to teach sewing a upholstery skills. i am so disappointed that our educational system has taken out music lessons, carpentry, home economics, auto shop and drafting classes. everything has been taken over by computers and fine arts aren't taught at all anymore. the only hope our children have to learn to cook is by their parents which lessens with every generation. i had to teach jimee and jazmin how to boil water because their mother can't cook. how scary is it to think of the homes our children will be living in if they cannot prepare a healthy meal for themselves or their children. what ramifications will this have on the health of our world? have you ever stopped to think that the daily voilence is caused by boredom? if more people spent their time making a quilt or building a desk or perfecting the song they have written wouldn't they spend less time trying to be angry at a world that has not provided them with oppuritunity. it is my belief that the current recession that we are in is in part created by lack of experience. it is very hard to run a sucessful country if the majority of the citizens in your country lack the ability to maintain it. it has become an epedimic problem to find relaible, honest, skilled, trustworthy employees for nearly every labor -oriented company. mine included. how are we supposed to have sucessful companies without competent employees? i strongly believe that if we do not make steps to correct the downslide we have gotten ourselves into, we will lose the ability to pull ourselves out of it.

overcast and hot

this is the last hurrah for holiday weekends in town. we have mass craziness on memorial day ending on labor day. the boaters come out of the woodwork to party on the lake and show off their boats. it is really slow in the shop today (as every year) as everyone is out on the water. nice for being tired, but not great for business. hopefully the recession will not affect us to the point of having to close. we still have work to do, but many places have shut down in town already and more are feeling threatened to. scary for self-employeed people like ourselves. we are still the busiest shop in town, but people are doing enough to get by right now instead of redoing whole boats or having specialty things made. everyone is waiting for the economy to pick up. it is an interesting cycle. you have to buy things to create demand, you have to work to make money to buy things. it is amazing to me how many people are living off of disability and food stamps, trying not to work so they can still qualify for assistance which we working folks are paying for. i do not understand the welfare system or the disability system. if your foot is broken are you then unable to find a job using your hands or something else? i think we should impose a time limit for assistance for people unwilling to work. why are we paying for women to have more babies if we are paying for welfare for the children she already has? why can't we limit coverage to the kids and her at the time of application and any pregnancies will be uncovered? i bet more people will figure out how to use birthcontrol or get their tubes tied. if a mother has a baby under the influence of drugs, why can't we give her a tubal ligation to insure that the pattern doesn't continue. these babies are often mentally affected and will never be productive members of society and we continue to allow the same mother to have more of them for us to support and have to raise and further add more welfare cases to our country. this cycle has got to stop. i am convinced that we can maintain a more stable society and economy if we manage from the bottom and try to encourage healthy, capable humans to populate. it is very scary to me when i go places to people watch and see the masses of "brain deprived" parents raising children who in most cases will turn out just a little futher brain deprived.

some work

these are jeep seats fran sewed. totally custom and they turned out really nice. they look great in the vehicle. the back seat matches and we also did the carpet.
romo sleeping in his favorite spot. it is really hot and humid here right now. we had a big storm last night.
we just finished this boat. it has been quite a project. we had to rebuild the floor and all other woodwork. it was sooooooooooo rotten. we are very happy to finally have it finished.
back view of same boat. i love our pockets.

some of my favortite things.

here are my short people who are not so short these days. this is my side of the bed. i love the pictures the boys make me. this is the bottom painting done by ian last year jule made this when he was 4. it is me on the right, mike on the left and he is the little one in the middle.

owen did this last year and i am in love with it. i love my boys.

kids rooms

this is ians room. he no longer has a closet since we put in the pantry, but he does have a really cool wardrobe.
this is owen and jules room. it is very busy. they love to put up everything important to them on the walls. i let them. i also let them put up things in the other rooms. this is owens bed.
this is jules side.

my new pantry

i love my new camera. it works! so, here are a few long awaited pics of my pantry. this used to be a wall with cabinets inset and ian had a closet on the other side. bye bye closet, hello useable space. i love it. i have so much stuff in here and have freed up much space in my cabinets.

these are a few of my favorite things by my kitchen sink. i love hanging artwork. love it love it love it.

robin, it is a vagina.

yes, the picture below is what it looks like. that is the whole point. the back is old hippy titties (pierced) and the seat bottom is what it looks like. gotta teach anatomy.

Using our skills to further human intelligence.

rachel hard at work
mike and fran trying to work mario thinking about work yes, this is totally custom. couldn't be more proud. it is for my friend sheryl whose husband had open heart surgery today. she had me do it for him so he would laugh before hand. anyway, just wanted you to see my mad skilz!

pics from beach

jazmin with our new baby (romo). he is purebread black lab. sweet baby. we all love him. the boys were in the blue tent and the girls in the tan
my parents pop out tent trailer which we borrow to camp. they have a full size real one now. jule douglas and his really big hole ian kiacking by himself.

beach pics

mike climbing up a really cool rock to see the sites. he fell off another so he is wet! my boys!
ahna and fred ready for action
our family. i didn't get to go on that hike because there were no dogs allowed, so i sat here and read my book. it was GREAT!

some pics

the crew.
jule all buried and happy.
ian in morro bay.
ahna and i in morrow bay
the girlies. aren;t they pretty!

time and a lack there of

i was supposed to be sewing my dress today, but i am still working on work. it is looking like i will be up friday sewing it at bevs beach house (mikes mom). she will have electricity. i still have to pack and get out the tents and camping things and pack the truck. i have done nothing yet as we have been so busy. so, off i go to sew 4 screens so i can go home tonight and pack. i still have to do laundry also. i really need a clone.

counting down

i just cut apart the dress i bought to alter into a pattern for my wedding dress. i will go cut the material now, i am feeling very guilty though because it is rachels birthday (my sister in law) and i totally forgot and we worked together all day. i am going to the theatre to get her some movie tickets so she can go on a date with douglas sometime. i am just terrible. it was jimees 18th birthday yesterday and i have been thinking about that. mikes birthday is saturday (the day we get married). one work day left (and dress sewing day). time just flies when you get old and have responscibility. i look at my kids how time is never ending with school and everything seems so long to them. it makes me giggle to look back and see now. school is going great so far for all of them. i am going to take care of being a bad sister in law now. and jovi, i have so many nice boy clothes for you i will send soon. i am putting together the things not worn out that jule has outgown or surpassed before ian outgrew. ian is a size slim, owen and jule are regulars so there are some things the other two have never worn. if zion can't use them then you can donate them to goodwill or whatever ya'll have back there. the box is still growing as the boys have been home only two days and i am going through their things for school.

school

is it fall already? no, we just have insane people making the schedules for school to start. it is the hottest time of year and off to school the boys went this morning.

money pit

school supplies for 3 kids (no clothes, pack backs or others) was 197$ for the cheapest things just off the lists. ouch.

tomorrow short people.

going at 6 to phoenix to pick up my short people. i am very happy. i miss them terribly. i will come to work when i get back, but am leaving now so i can go school shopping at wal-mart. i have to go get supplies since school starts monday. i need to get a few food items to since boys like to eat.

yes, it was better

today started off great, everyone came in ready to work and we got some things accomplished. i got lots done but still have much to accomplish to go on vacation next week which we totally cannot afford. 8 days till i am rebecca jensen. we are so busy, which is a blessing as most people are not. i will begin to raise my prices again as we still are not making enough to not work crazy hours. my kids come home sunday, (mario will go get them and i will make a boat cover) and school starts monday. i have to go buy supplies still and grocery shop as i will not feed them the crap i have been living on. they don't need to know convience food exists until they are 18 and figure it out for themselves. thank you for your good wishes i appreciate the support.