California Education - A Budget Crisis

April 28, 2009

Tonight I had the opportunity to take my sister out for dinner. She had been having a pretty horrible day and so I invited her out and we had a wonderful time. We met at Sizzler in Concord and had a delicious dinner and a fantastic time visiting. (We need to do that more often - just you and me! )

Then I came home and was reading up on some blogs I follow and followed a lead from one blog that led me to a newspaper article and to another and from there I was horrified. "Prosecutors said F**** (age 17) and S*********, 17, stabbed F******* nearly 200 times and used golf clubs and a television set to beat S******* to death." ARE YOU SERIOUS PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! These two 17 year old boys stabbed a woman - that the article says was the mother of a friend, that they called 'mom' - and they stabbed her nearly 200 times! And then they used golf clubs and a TV to beat her young son. 

These two 17 year olds are now going to serve a life sentence for this senseless act. How on earth are the children of today getting the idea that murder is a solution for whatever problem is going on?!?!?!?!?! Tonight, Nanci and I were talking about the similarities & differences between Sodom and Gomorra and today's world. And then I read this story that on one hand infuriates me that these 2 people lost their lives senselessly and that 2 children did this to them. On the other hand, I am so terribly sad that these 2 children took the lives of 2 people for what? Nothing that could not have been settled any other way than through violence. 

Do I know any of these people involved? No? No.. so why, you might ask, do I care?  Well.. I do! I work in an environment where I see children struggling every day - some making it through with no outside problems and some who are drowning. We have one girl in 9th grade  - that due to no fault of her own has not been in school since she was in 2nd grade! And in the time that she has been out - her family was caught in a major hurricane that hit a few years ago. If we do not help our children, and those around us, then they will drown and they feel will have no options other than to resort to violence to make it through what they think will be their life. 

We need to pray for 1) our children and the children of the world 2) parents of said children 3) the unsaved - we need to show them Jesus and what He can and will do for them 4) the family of the 2 people that lost their lives and 5) these 2 17-year olds that will now spend the rest of their natural lives in prison - surrounded by other offenders, many whom don't care what happens to them. 

On a happier note - baby Stellan - who I have been praying for since last summer was able to come home from the hospital today. He was discharged from Boston's Children's Hospital yesterday and flew home today to Minnesota with his mom. He still needs our prayers so let's cover him and his family with prayers that Stellan will be healed and that others will see Jesus through him and his family - who are not afraid to give God the glory. 

Whiners, Drive-By's 'n Chives

So, today was another wonderful day of adventuring with our favorite trio. Today we ventured to Monterey - and it was BEAUTIFUL there. Maybe a little windy, but beautiful. Okay, so let me back up just a little bit... Dave drives a 2000 Astro van and he totally loves his van - loves the way it rides, handles, etc. But in the last year and a half or so, Dave's van has started to develop certain age-defining characteristics that fall within the high dollar repair range. We've done a little here and there but finally got the real high dollar stuff and had to decide whether it was in the best interest of the family finances to continue to repair or to check into purchasing another vehicle. (Did I mention that Dave is really a Cadillac man? He loves them - the way it rides, handles, etc....) So during this past week he has been looking online to see what he could find. Well, I came home from work on Friday and he showed me a couple of cars that he liked. He said we could go look at them on Sunday and I said "why not tonight? We aren't doing anything..." So, we went. (It really didn't take too much convincing on my part....)  

The first car was a lemon (literally, and that is a whole other post..) so we called the second place, said we were on our way and got there about 30 minutes later. We walked in, met the salesman, saw the car and the rest is history . . . we are now the proud owners of a 2005 Cadillac DeVille ( i keep thinking of Cruella now... )

Back to original story... so, we got to drive to Monterey in the new caddy and it was a very nice ride - as you can imagine. It is true that nothing rides like a cadillac. 

We had a great day - starting with eating at Willy's BBQ

 and then walking down by the water, down the walk to the aquarium (which we did not go to - choosing to wait until another day to tackle that) and then we drove along the 17 mile drive. - very nice. 

The ride home was much quieter as we were all somewhat exhausted after our wonderful day but we had a great time and can't wait until the next one... 

Rapping Flight Attendant

I saw this and thought you might enjoy.... Happy Tuesday...