Oct 9th - Coming Soon!

7 years of Goob

You have always made us proud, sometimes scared. You are fearless , sweet, very smart. You want to be really good at everything. You are always a goof ball. We love you. Hopefully we will throw you an Indiana Jones party like you want.

BEn Art

He's into photo groups all kinds of stuff. I like being the model..

My Life ~ why obsessions are healthy.

My Daily Life from Laurie Fisher on Vimeo.


My day outline.. Rough sketch.. not including 2 loads of laundry, 1 load of dishes a day and other cleaning.

Mon
3:30 am go to work
8am Big kids to school
11am Leah to school
11:30 - 2pm clean or go to gym w/ Nolan ( I have been caught browsing model homes)
3pm take ana to soccer
go home make dinner
Ana done at 6pm
feed troops , homework , baths, is it bedtime?

Tues.
3:30 am work
8am Big kids to school
11am Leah to school
11:30 - 2pm clean or go to gym w/ Nolan
2:30 pick up kids
Home work, dinner, baths
what a relaxing day!

Weds.
6am Run start laundry get food etc ready
8am Big kids to school
11am Leah to school
11:30 - 2pm clean or go to gym w/ Nolan
2:30 pick up kids
3pm take ana to soccer
go home make dinner
Ana done at 6pm
feed troops , homework , baths


Thurs.
6am Run start laundry get food etc ready
8am Big kids to school
11am Leah to school
11:30 - 2pm clean or go to gym w/ Nolan
2:30 pick up kids
Home work, dinner, baths
what a relaxing day!

Fri.
6am Run start laundry get food etc ready
8am Big kids to school
11am Leah to school
11:30 - 2pm clean or go to gym w/ Nolan
2:30 pick up kids
6pm take all kids to soccer
go home make dinner did we eat already?
Soccer done at 7:15 ish
feed troops , homework , baths
Ben & I pass out
Sat.
House painting, yard work oops ana soccer game..
Sun
7am rush ready for church (church 9-12)
Don't bug us!!! More house stuff, or if we are lucky close all the blinds and sit on the couches.. in ugly clothes..we eat pizza.

"You don't know who's swimming naked until the tide goes out." ~Warren Buffett

Interesting data..
Why do these companies give money to senators??? I know I'm not a genius, any good reasons?
Read this Fannie & Freddie Mac contributions..

Here's an Article from Prospect.org I'm thinking I was dead on.. The conclusion my research apparently led me to brought them to this conclusion a year ago..

What's Behind The Subprime Disaster

Sorry, I talk to people for hours at work all about this stuff. So many have lost jobs, homes and retirements. I guess I'm a little obsessed ..for this week ;')

Next week who knows.

Beautiful Stuff I like..

After the last post, I HAD to post this stuff. I realize I have china. I also realize I have a
" dinner" set of dishes and a " family" set of dishes. That said aren't these lovely...I want the little bowls and plates.. and the Tureen aagh I'm so naughty!!

And these.. in person the weight and edges are beautiful! (I like cream, all colors are gorgeous)


There are these cuties too.
I happen to have found AMAZING prices on some of these pieces.. as in .50 each for 8 of the dinnerware plates. and 10$ for 4 of the pumpkin plates..but there's the problem, I have to buy the rest. ;')

BAaah, baaa We are their Sheep.

Ok, I have been reading and hearing . It's on everyone's minds. Friends have lost their retirement money in the market or company's 401k option. People losing jobs and homes. Well, it's all happened before, possibly not to this degree in a while. My thought is this is a delayed result from the "save " back in the late 70's , 80's . They delayed the inevitable. It's all media, tell us we are doing good, offer us cheap loans , convince us that a shack with 1200 square feet is worth 400,000$. Make us proud to buy said shack or said Hummer. Really, it gets like 10 miles to the gallon. All the battle weary old timers knew that none of that junk was really worth what it was being peddled for. Young stupid sheep (even you 50 - 60 year olds...) were convinced that you now made so much more than you parents ever did, you deserved all that_____. Insert commercial product. If you didn't have a 500$ bag (that's being modest) , or a 5,000$ diamond ring well, you were lower class no?
Enough of my rant...here's some stuff... fodder.....
Don't forget to give your kids cars for their birthday or Christmas.. they deserve it.
( I realize some sources may have bias or be slightly untrustworthy , but most of these facts are easily verified by multiple sources. So, look at the ideas.)

Savings and Loan Crisis of the 1980's ish.

1980's budget deficit recession etc read into this one , near the bottom about finances..

This is from my Myspace blog...last year ( when Myspace was still fun..)

In the movie "The Gods Grew Tired of Us, which I enjoyed, A young man from Sudan comments on Christmas here.

"He wonders out loud at the U.S. version of Christmas, with plastic trees and flashing lights. "Is Santa also in the Bible"?" he asks, a dedicated Christian owing to his conversion in the camp. For the Kakuma version of the holiday, he recalls, "People marched in the street, to prepare for Jesus Christ to be brought into our hearts." He turns on the Christmas tree lights, his face suggesting a mix of disbelief, bemusement, and disappointment."
I have known many South americans who also celebrate this very differently. In Biblian, Ecuador the village would gather and walk up to the 1 church high up a hill, they would walk several miles, families together singing.

Thus, in a culture marked so heavily by acquisition and consumption, we should hope to live simply and aspiring for attitude of "enough."

This year, Americans celebrating Christmas will fork over $795.86 each, up 5% from last year, according to BIGresearch, a Worthington, Ohio-based consumer research firm. And while growth is somewhat slower than it has been in years past--in 2005, the firm forecast an 8.1% increase--total spending will be a record $154 billion.

Ok, so I hope I haven't made myself look too foolish. When you start looking into the mess, Everyone's name comes up ...in Both or ALL the parties. I am concerned yet I think we will end up ok. Look at Europe..they've been through worse and they're still kicking, and most recently Japan. We must stop this bubble head mentality, buying everything sold to us. Remember when your parents house had ugly couches they bought new at like 300$ and they thought that was expensive. How about not having your own bicycle? Anyone else share bikes with their dumb siblings..lol Really you all had TV's in your rooms? O.K. My friend got to have a birthday party at McDonald's and I thought "Lucky..." (think Napoleon D there.) .


***Side note..or outline
~70's recession
~deregulation to stimulate economy
~S & L crisis
~more deregulation and rate cuts to save economy
~more deregulation and easy credit (to help lower income folks do well)
(Economy looks fantastic!!)
~current situation

I realize if we don't buy..the economy will grind to a halt. If we don't "bail out " these huge investment companies ( and AIG) Foreign investors won't but our bonds etc, they will pull what they have invested now and their countries too will be drug down with their losses. What a mess the next guy will have to clean up. Good Luck! 20 years of poor financial planning.
If you made it this far check out these fun economic flashbacks.. they show the last 40 years of gas prices nat'l debt etc.. houses at 17,000$ , gas at .31 /gal !

Busy busy bee

I went crazy this week on the house. Owning does NOT save you money. There are so many more things you want to do. I want a mission style wood door with glass in it, a pool, the floors done, New handles on the doors, re do the bathrooms ie: new vanities ..cool mirrors..tiled walk in showers huge ones the size of a small closet., a new sectional, the rest of pottery barn barbara eigen dishes. (ask me that story , I'll happily tell) Enough stuff for a few years eh. That said I did collect a bunch of frames for the kids wall of fame...I am taking 5 pictures to blow up of the kids. I pianted my shutters and the door is next, I planted a TON of ground cover and ripped out some dumb flower thingys. I never realized how hard it is to know a ton about plants and where they should go to look good. We had a pool guy give us an estimate too. We will see if it can happen. Keep your fingers crossed, hey if we get it I do love to entertain with the right space. ;')

Advanced Mathmatics - Perfect Week

Ana got moved up to advanced math. On her star tests she outperformed "proficient for grade level " on all levels of both Reading /Writing and Math. We may have mentioned she is in Competitive Soccer she plays Left Defender and she scored a goal on Saturday against a good team! What an amazing week for Ana!!!! She finally cleaned her room after 2 weeks of nagging. Way to go nani!!! We love you.

Crazy Weekend - or The Jellies!!

We started the weekend with Ana's comp game # 1, which they won 7-1. We then left immediately for Tahoe where we swam like 3x it was kinda cool temperature wise but not too cool. Later that evening I went down to the knoll hot tub with Ana. It was nice to hear the wind howling as I sat in the hot water. I you closed your eyes you could imagine there was a raging blizzard. We barely slept we needed to leave at 4am for Reno. When we arrived in Reno some balloons were just taking off. In the first light of the morning they would "glow" as they lit the fire for take off. Sunlight quickly warmed everything up, and we got to see close to 100 balloons take off. We picked a spot high up on an outlook over the park. We didn't know then but discovered it was an awesome spot to be for watching the balloons. Several times they were floating all around us fairly close bobbing up and down like jellyfish. their closeness almost suffocating. It was an incredible experience. The kids loved it. When the first balloon came really close huffing at it re fired itsel Nolan was a little scared. He would cling to us.. by the end he would say , " it's not coming down." Almost still a question . The idea for the trip was to have all of us do some great photography. We had each of the kids use a camera, Ben & I used the canon D's. Ana used the old AE-1. I will add more of our hundreds of pictures later.

Tools of Obsession, don't look!!!

I picked these up and well, don't try this at home.. all primate cousins can't stop applying and removing the strips..under magnification!!!