My Playlist

Ok, so my playlist on my blog is now songs from the Stephenie Meyer webpage. I took the songs I liked the most from the playlists she had on her site corresponding w/ her different books. Garrett actually likes a lot of the songs (especially of course the more hard core like Muse and Linkin Park). He said the music has now "peaked his interest." I am glad b/c I am going to need someone to come w/ me to the movie in November. I am just finishing up New Moon for the second time. If you haven't done so already, I definitely recommend reading them again (or for the first time). I find myself actually reading word for word instead of skipping through parts like I had. Whenever I read a new book, I skip through a lot of the descriptive to get to the dialogue. Doing that, however, makes for a lot of missed and important parts.

Differences between McCain and Obama

I have heard that Obama supported gay marriage and thinking that wasn't the case (but supported civil unions like McCain) I figured I should check it out. According to this article and others, they both support civil unions, but not gay marriage. Of course, there are other articles saying the opposite (that he doesn't believe gay marriage should be banned) so who really knows...


I saw this on CNN and thought is was interesting. Obviously, I don't see us making upwards of 603K every year, but the numbers are very interesting. I read that really the deficit would increase more w/ McCain, but in general the deficit would be about the same (relatively....McCains is about an extra billion towards the deficit, but supposedly that isn't very much w/ the total of the US GDP)

http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/11/news/economy/candidates_taxproposals_tpc/index.htm

Here's how the average tax bill could change in 2009 if either John McCain's or Barack Obama's tax proposals were fully in place.

	MCCAIN	OBAMA
Income	Avg. tax bill	Avg. tax bill
Over $2.9M	-$269,364	+$701,885
$603K and up	-$45,361	+$115,974
$227K-$603K	-$7,871	+$12
$161K-$227K	-$4,380	-$2,789
$112K-$161K	-$2,614	-$2,204
$66K-$112K	-$1,009	-$1,290
$38K-$66K	-$319	-$1,042
$19K-$38K	-$113	-$892

More Pics from the Zoo

So this is actually from our first trip to the zoo. I didn't take a lot of pictures of animals because I figured they weren't going anywhere anytime soon. The pandas were awesome though and of course the macaw was gorgeous (I think it is a macaw). When we went yesterday, we saw a show that featured sea lions (not to be confused w/ seals mind you). We sat in the perfect spot b/c right at the beginning they had this huge looking owl (they said it weighed only five lbs) fly down right above our heads. Reagan was sitting in my lap and literally we could feel him flying right above us (as in I would have hit him if I even put my hand on my head..kind of freaky). The lady actually commented on the fact he was pretty close to getting Reagan's hair. I thought, great my child was almost scalped by a owl. Of course they thought it was all pretty cool. Garrett asked what there fav. part of the zoo was and interestingly enough it is the skyfari that is this small tram that holds four people that takes you from the bottom to the top of the hill and then you can go back down again on it. We can ride it for free b/c of our annual passes which is pretty cool. So my children like the ride better than the animals. Kind of funny, but cute at the same time. The skyfari is the best thing ever b/c the hill is VERY steep. I count it as part of my workout routine for the week. Kind of cheating, but I say it still counts. Pushing 25 lbs up a hill isn't too easy. Well I will put more pics up at some point. It is drizzly today so I think Rea and I will try to go to the beach next week. Hope you are all well!

The Zoo

We decided to get annual passes for the family. The girls and I have already gone twice and Garrett will come w/ us again on Saturday. Last Saturday the girls and I spent about 3 hours there. It is a large zoo so we didn't even see a fraction of it. Maddie has early release once a week so we went again. Our house is being sprayed again for bugs so we are going to go again (w/ G this time). I was informed I needed to put new pics up, so here are some from the zoo:

Just a reminder

Just a reminder of how we can all look back at old pictures and go "what were we thinking with that hairstyle?"

Midnight Sun leak-Twilight Series

So I had heard that there was a leak of the Midnight Sun book. I of course had to google it and found an article about the story (it was posted four hours ago). So at any rate, the manuscript has been put on her webpage. Reading the note she put up reminds me that maybe I shouldn't give "everyone and their mother" copies of songs that I have purchased off of iTunes. It is so sad to think that now the book won't be published b/c of one person's decision.

First Day of School

 

I must start with the explanation of why I haven't posted anything in awhile. Well it is simple. I am a really busy person. Let's see. I get up, feed the kids and then..well I shower, put make-up on and then ummm...oh and eventually the kids get lunch and then naps/tv/quiet time and then well that's about it until about 5pm. See, really busy, huh? HA! Well I really don't have an excuse (having two kids isn't one of them...they seriously entertain themselves).
 

Maddie started school on Tuesday. It was a lot of fun to take her and see her excitement. She seems to be enjoying her day. Reagan wanted to stay at the school w/ Maddie today but seems to be fairing well. I keep waiting for HW to be sent home...Not sure my deal, but I have to remind myself she is in school all day.

 

I sent these pics out yesterday to some family and friends. Of course everyone noticed Rea's shoes. Let's just say (esp. for those who haven't read prev. blogs/seen other pics) that I try my hardest to dress my kids, but it only takes about five seconds for R to change again. I am guessing with the rush to get out of the house, Reagan found the first two ballet shoes she could find in their lovely (but messy) toy room.

School is about a 6 minute walk (I timed it today) though today we were too early so I think we won't leave until a few minutes later.

We visited family this past weekend which was fun. We went swimming up in Orange County and then visited my Aunt in Encinitas on Sunday. Oh and on random news: G and I are going to go on a date! My sister reminded me that we needed to be going out on dates (I think she asked when the last time we had gone out was...I couldn't remember). At any rate, we are FINALLY going to go see Dark Knight. My cousin, Christine, is going to watch the kiddos.

And last but not least...I ended up splurging (aka using our food/misc budget) to buy the four Twilight books. I actually freaked out today b/c I realized I am turning into the Twilight version of the crazy Harry Potter fans. I have to say though that I am glad to be reading again. It had been a long time. I read a friend's blog and it got me thinking Garrett neeeded to read these too esp. if I don't have anyone else to go w/ me to the movie in November (Mariah: you can always come out early to CA, k? no need to go w/ those utah friends).

Ok, that is it. I am going to go finish reading Twilight (I am on Chapter 16). It is way better the second time for me b/c I am one of those "skip the description, read the dialogue" readers. Now I am forcing myself to read word for word esp. since I know the ending...