Why Are People So Entitled?

I often wonder why kids (even mine), young adults, and everyone in between have this unearned sense of entitlement to everything. They "deserve" the best, the newest, the most expensive - and they truly believe it. I see this issue a lot with military wives especially, where there are people buying houses, cars, new electronics, premium things for their kids, etc. None of this is a problem if you can afford it, or saved up to buy it, but then these same wives end up crying online that they can't pay their bills.

The whole idea of entitlement has gotten even worse with children, and I am dreading to see how this next generation will act in the future...

We Need to Keep Score Again!

Are you sick of sports games not keeping score (while all the parents and coaches do)? Do you get report cards like my son, where they refuse to use letter grades and dissect every category, like English and Science, into fifty subcategories? It just becomes a confusing mess right?

And the purpose of this is to shelter our children who need to learn that the world is competitive and everyone can't be great at everything. By not allowing failure, kids never become motivated to seek success, and then the real world hurts all the more.

So let Red Riding Hood's Grandma get eaten by the wolf, have the Huntsman chop the evil beast open, and allow our kids the good with the bad (joy with fear, winning with losing, laughing with crying) - it builds character and will create a better generation of adults!

Pregnant Young Adults

Now teen moms can be a handful, but what about the young moms who are legally adults, but not emotionally ones?

I got a viewer question about hurt feelings and the "obligations" of family to give your baby gifts. I answered it as honestly as I knew how:

The Mommy Club

Are you a mom? Then you're in the Mom's Club. Are you a new mom? Then you need to learn your place in the Mom's Club! Too many new mothers decide that having a baby makes them a grown up, and/or equal to every other mom on the planet. This is not true in the least!

Snowman Treats Activity

Kids getting bored over Xmas break and you're looking for something fun and creative for them to do other than watch TV or play games? Try this no-baking food activity of making snowman goodies!

My Kid

My daughter cracks me up and makes me laugh (she comes with many headaches and frustrations as well, so keep that in mind any young women watching and getting the baby itch). She made this video for her Papal, but then started going off on her own rant, and it was hilarious! She's going to punch the fictional fish, and her tongue keeps getting turned into background image and freaking her out, haha!

What I don't get is why Photo Booth on my Mac lit her so well at 10pm, but when I recorded a video at 4pm it was so dark half of my face was gone even though I was using three light sources! I'm going to have to think of a better solution for recording if I can't figure this out.

The Epic Dreams of a Black Friday

So, 2011 is winding down, almost time to cut the Turkey (or Honey Baked Ham if you're at my house), and that means we are in countdown mode to Black Friday savings. If you are like me, retail price is a dirty word for most items. I buy my Blu-Rays for $20 on the date of release at Wal-Mart, or for $13 at Blockbuster (great deal, but no DVD copy if you store does this offer), I see two values for everything - the worth-my-time price, and the pass-it-up price. Usually, anything less than 20% off is a pass for me, as 15% or less barely covers the taxes and is not worth my time.

You would probably think that I am Black Friday crazy then, getting in line for the mega deals at midnight the night before. Alas, I am not. I have learned that, all too often, a mega deal (like a $2,000 TV for $500) is not going to last and be in extremely short supply. So, odds are, I will not get one, even if I did wait in line all night. Secondly, I hate waiting in line, and after 10am, most stores have almost no line, but most of their specials still going on. For example, last year I bought my daughter a 7 piece Disney doll set, $50 blu-ray player, and even the on sale cookware at 7pm on Black Friday. There were pallets full of most of the specials, enough so that many items were still available on Saturday and Sunday.

In short, if you're after televisions and computers - come early and wait if you think you have good odds to get the item you're after. If you are looking for toys, Blu-Rays, DVDs, games, and smaller-scale items - they will likely be waiting long after midnight/5am (except for the hot toys, but again, they usually only get in a few units per store, so odds are not favorable).

My strategy this year is a little different, because I have some particular items that I am after, and I'm not sure what the supply will look like. As such, I will be there at midnight (when the stores open this year, instead of when the lines start at Wal-Mart as it was in the past) and fight through the crowds to capture an illusive 3DS holiday bundle pack. I'm hoping that there won't be such a rush for that smaller item, and that people fight over laptops while I sneak to the cashier with a X-mas victory for my son. :)

Here is what is, or will hopefully be, under my tree this year:


And don't forget about the lesser-publicized Cyber Monday on the 28th! Check Amazon and other online shops for specials or items that you missed over the weekend.

Foster Care Update

After much silence, here is our disappointing update on foster care adoption. This will likely be our last update unless we either move to a new area and decide to put ourselves through the ringer again.

11-11-11: Make a Wish!

First of all, Happy Veterans Day!

Secondly, this is possibly the luckiest day of the century. 11-11-11 - that date only happens once every hundred years, so even if you think it's silly and supersticious, make a wish just in case! My daughter's wish is to become a pop star mermaid, so she made this video:

Review of PixieKids Toys

I love their Food of the Month program, and you can find them on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/PixiekidsToys If you have kids from 1-10 they will love these cool eco-felt food items.

Foster Care Adoption - Rejection

It has been just shy of a month since we got to speak to the girl we were wanting to get matched with on the phone. I know for a fact that we were the only home she spoke to, and that she was very excited about us, but we've never heard back and are at a point where we assume that we are no longer being considered. Rejection hurts, and not knowing for sure is very difficult to process and makes it even more difficult to move forward with our search for a match.

I suppose it is a painful reality that rejection works both ways. Even though we started out by setting up ground rules for what children we would and wouldn't consider, I never thought I would be picky in the adoption process. However, the now that we're at this stage, it seems like we go over every child with a fine tooth comb to decide if we're right for them, and if they're right for us. I get filled with these horrified thoughts of my kids being hurt or molested by a child that we chose to bring into the home, and that has brought a great sense of gravity to every profile we look at. Where do you decide that you don't want to chance certain things instead of jumping in and hoping for the best?

While we have no expectations of finding a "perfect" child, we do want to find a match with someone that my husband and I are both really confident about. Unfortunately, we've recently rejected a profile that could have been a potential match, because we felt that the special needs were too severe for what we could handle. It makes me feel terrible to look at someone wanting a family so badly and say "no," but I feel like it's more important for us to be realistic about what we can and cannot handle rather than bring a child into our home only to confirm that it won't work and uproot them again. All the same, I do find some comfort in knowing that the child has had no idea that we looked at his information and passed, and I hope he finds the right home for him.

You can't force things or make them fit, it has to be right or you can very easily set yourself up for major problems.

Adoption Update - Hearing Back

I have an adoption update! I am not looking my best today but I wanted to share the feeling I had for getting to another stage in the process.

Make Your Own Curly Bow/Ribbon

Thank you all so much for tuning in for my first ribbon making video, it's been my most popular by a landslide! Here is another guide on how to make curly ribbons. It's not hard at all, but you do need Fabric Stiffener which has to sit overnight, so be prepared for that!

Adoptoin Vlog Part I

Wow I have gotten really behind on my blogging. Well, we have been working on adopting from foster care for almost a year now, and we've finally gone through all the hoops to get approved, and now we're on the inquiry search. So here is the first of a two part video (it was too long for YouTube so I suddenly had to splice it), it deals with training and getting approved.