I believe he can fly! And no emergency room necessary…
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Doesn’t Seem Right
The “Stop It Now ” campaign – just launched locally – will urge people to call a help line if they see an adult whom they suspect of having a sexual relationship with a child.
Billboards and posters show an adult hand holding a child’s hand, with the words: “It doesn’t feel right when I see them together.”
This makes me uncomfortable. While I think it’s a great idea to get adults to report suspected child abuse, it seems weird that a picture of a man holding a child’s hand is considered abuse in some way. Will I be reported if I hold my daughter’s hand?
Story HERE. Credit for Story HERE.
Kid’s Camp 2007
Took the kids from church up to Dry Gulch U.S.A. for summer camp this weekend. It was a total blast! I’ve always wanted to attend this camp, but I’ve never worked at a church willing to pay the upfront money to make a camp like this feasible. (And have the kids with parents willing to spend $200+ for the weekend camp.) Usually at kid’s camp I’m exhausted and ready to come home when it’s over; but Dry Gulch is different. I wasn’t ready to leave, and neither were my kids. I spent an entire weekend simply playing with kids, tubing, riding the canoe, riding go carts, shooting them with water guns, riding horses, playing on water slides and eating breakfast, lunch and dinner with them. This particular camp puts the burden for keeping the kids in order, on the hired counselors. Thereby, allowing me to play and just spend time with the kids. They also do a lot to make us CP’s feel important, and provided some special perks throughout the weekend.
Although it was wonderful to be with the kids, we did have our exciting times. On the way to camp, we had a kid get locked in the bathroom. We had to pull over and pull the window off the bus to let him escape. We also had a kid with lice, that required an overnight stay at a hotel with one of our sponsors doing treatment. The girl passed the next morning and was back with the kids, but not without some hand wringing. We also had the prerequisite travel sickness kid on the bus, however he waited until we were 5 minutes from home to lose his lunch. Fun Times!
I’m looking forward to next year, and am already planning our return.
What Not To Do!
I’ve had my house in Dallas on the market for over 80 days, and about 45 days ago, I moved to Lubbock. For the past 40+ days I’ve had a deal in the works for someone to assume my loan, and pay cash to move-in. It was a terrible deal for me, I mean terrible; but at least I could get myself out from under the loan. Today that deal fell through.
Here are the list of things I’ve done wrong with my first time home purchase:
- I bought my house 3 1/2 years ago.
- I used a FHA loan at 5.75% and made bi-weekly payments.
- I paid over $2,500 as a down payment.
- I purchased the home for close to the exact appraisal value, $82,000.
- I paid $2,000 to have a privacy fence installed.
- I paid $1,000 to have the outside AC unit replaced.
- I paid $1,500 to have the sewage line repaired under the house.
- I paid over $3,000 to have the foundation repaired.
- I took on a small kitchen remodel project and installed new laminate counter tops, painted all the cabinets, installed a new sink, updated the electric stove and hood vent, and replaced all the lighting in the kitchen.
- I installed new light switches and electrical outlets in the entire house.
- I installed new ceiling fans in the entire house.
- I patched and repaired numerous holes in the drywall throughout the house.
- I put new flooring in the main bathroom, and installed two new toilets in the house.
- I finished off part of the garage, creating a utility room/office; and installed a window unit AC to provide some comfort.
- I meticulously kept my lawn in perfect condition; watering, fertilizing, and mowing it on a regular basis.
- I repaired everything in the house when it broke, and provided regular maintenance on every major appliance.
- I never made even a slightly late payment on my mortgage for years.
I warn you about these things, because even having knocked my payoff amount down to $76,000 on the mortgage, and upgrading so many things in this house… I still stand to lose major money when and if it ever sells. I would have saved THOUSANDS of DOLLARS if I had rented the past 3 yeas. I can remember hearing it said that buying a house is the best investment you can make, and that to upgrade things in your home will only increase the resale value of the home. This is a load of poop. At least for me anyways.
And please don’t post the comments telling me that you did these same things, and made $46k when you listed your home for sale. These things don’t comfort me.
