National Honors Society

Last night, Hailey was inducted into the National Honors Society. I am such a proud mom! She really is an exceptional young lady. Not only is she very helpful around the house with the little ones, she holds down a job and makes good grades.

She looked beautiful, as always, at the ceremony.

I had to actually get a babysitter because Alessandro was in school and I wasn't going to miss the ceremony. I am so excited because I have known Samantha for years, she lives close by, and Luca adores her. She did a great job last night and Luca even went to bed for her! I put Nora to bed before I left the house, but she probably could have handled both kids.

All in all, we had a great night, celebrated at Grimaldi's and then Alessandro met me for 31cent scoop night at Baskin Robbins!

April 3rd Rawhide

Our Saturday was spent at Rawhide which was a blast! The highlight of this day was when Sal and Josephine had their boys "arrested" and thrown into the Rawhide jail. Poor Dominic, who is 4, was devastated! He thought it was real and cried and cried. The deputy's didn't give in...they played it out until the end. Tough guys.

April 2nd...Grand Canyon Day Trip

I haven't been to the Grand Canyon since I was a very young kid, so I don't really remember anything about it. We loaded up the two cars on Friday morning, and off we went. In one vehicle was Alessandro, Sal, Sal Jr., Jacob, Dominic and Luca. In the other car, me, Josephine, Hailey and Nora. I ask you...who got the better deal?

The Grand Canyon was beautiful! The kids did great...until it was time to head back. The video player that keeps us sane when driving long distances was malfunctioning the entire trip, so the men tell us! This usually results in Luca screaming! Boy, we are really going to have to work on that!

The most memorable part of the whole trip was in the car on our way back. The girls were in the rental car that had XM radio, so we found the 80's station and absolutely tortured Hailey! Josephine and I knew almost all of the words to almost every song and we sang them loudly! We had so much fun! Hailey kept begging us to stop and kept looking at us like we had lost it. It was great!

We were all pretty naive about the whole "day trip to the Grand Canyon" idea and thought we would be back by 8 or 9 p.m....no, it was more like midnight! We were exhausted, but all of us were glad we experienced the Grand Canyon.

Tax Day TEA Party-2010

I have to interrupt the Staycation series to share with you what I had the honor of being a part of today. If you are a tax-paying American citizen, then you know that today was Tax Day, April 15th. The day where you give the government a large portion of what you earn. Brings tears to my eyes...

Just in case you can't see the sign Luca is holding, it says "I Am Pro Choice When Talking About Light Bulbs, Not When Talking About Unborn Babies".

I had the pleasure of attending a TEA Party here in Gilbert, AZ with a couple of friends and let me tell you, I am so glad I went. With all of the negative things going around in our country, all of the taxing, bailouts, the health care takeover...the ruling that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional, in a society where more value is placed on endangered animals than on an unborn baby, and tax-dollars are being spent on abortions  and Viagra for sex offenders and rapists, it was an encouragement for me to come together with people who share the views and values I hold in regards to politics and religion. I needed the encouragement because with all I read and hear about, feelings of isolation were beginning to set in, as if I were the black sheep, the minority. Today reminded me that we are not the minority, but we were the silent majority. NO MORE! A sleeping giant has been awakened and I am excited to be a part of it! The TEA Party movement is going to bring about the common sense solutions that this country needs, starting with cleaning the House and the Senate in 2010!

There were a couple of thousand people gathered in Gilbert to rally together for the common good. The party got started with prayer (that's right...people came together and began their political event with prayer and too bad if that offends anybody!).
There were some very creative signs held by some very diverse people.

JD Hayworth (John McCain's opponent) was a participant in the TEA Party event, among other conservative politicians. There were Pro-Life groups, 2nd Amendment Rights groups, and the most impressive to me...the Teenage Republicans Club (TARS). Sheriff Joe Arpaio spoke about all of the government waste along with cracking some jokes about himself too. Go Sheriff Joe!

He is doing a great job, and just because I think so, does not make me a racist. One of the signs I held today said "I Am Pro Legal Immigration". You see, my grandfather, Ted Karam, my father-in-law, Rosario Alu, and Joe Arpaio's parents came to America from other countries, legally. They worked hard to learn english and make something of themselves. The key words are "legally" and "work". Novel, huh? I am not against people coming to America because of the great country that is was (we are going to have to reverse some things to redeem what Barack Obama has done to America), but I am against people breaking the law to do it.

Another thing, why do people feel entitled to other people's money? We should all be generous to the causes we feel called to be generous to...that is NOT the government's decision. It is a private decision. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" (Karl Marx) is absolutely wrong. I can't even get into that one right now because this post would be pages long!
Bottom line...
We must take this great country back and let freedom ring!

Night 1, April 1st

Arrival time was at about 9:30 in the morning, which means that Sal, Josephine and the boys had to get up at about 3:00 a.m., St. Louis time. Guess who made those travel plans!!!

Sal Jr.'s birthday celebration was to be that night at the Rainforest Cafe, but Alessandro had to work that day, so we didn't meet until about 6:30 p.m., which is 9:30 p.m. St. Louis time. You can imagine how exhausted the boys were!

So, we arrive at the restaurant and there appears to be a very long line to get into the restaurant, but we are told it is only a 20 minute wait. We take a look around and notice that over half the tables in the restaurant are empty. Hmmm, long line, empty tables...staff cuts maybe??? Who knows.
Anyhow, a little side note for you so that you can understand the whole week...I don't go out much. With the ages of my kids, it is just too hard to eat out, especially because Nora doesn't have any teeth and I am still making all of her baby food, and she has to have it warmed. No cold food for sweet Nora! She'd rather not eat. So, by the time we get to every restaurant, she is so hungry and she lets me know it. The restaurants won't microwave the food because of health code violations, but they bring out a very hot bowl of water that I can submerge her food container into and at the Rainforest Cafe, it worked perfectly and quickly. I had a very happy baby!

                                   This is my nephew, Sal Jr., do you see how tired his eyes are!!!
So, Jacob is practically sleeping with his head on the table and Sal Jr., bypassed his birthday dessert because he was so exhausted! We had them bring out the sundae anyway and sing happy birthday, but promised his big birthday dessert another night.

Family in Town

Wow, I can't believe how much time I let pass since my last post! Life has been so busy with kids and family, let me fill you in.

We had Alessandro's brother and his family in town for a week, so we jam packed a lot of fun filled adventures for their boys. In a sense, we got a staycation out of the deal. I had Alessandro home from work for 6 days and we got to see things in Arizona that we had never made the time to see! Sal, Josephine, Sal Jr., Jacob and Dominic all stayed with us for the week and we had a blast!
So here are the accomodations...Nora in her playyard, in our closet, Sal and Josephine in her room, our nephews in a big tent in the middle of the living/playroom area. So much fun! Luca would wake up so happy to have boys to play with because they gave him so much attention.

I am going to write an overview of the week and then as the days pass, I will enter more detailed posts of each adventure.
While they were here, we celebrated Sal Jr.'s 11th birthday, saw the Grand Canyon, went to Rawhide, stayed at the Arizona Grand Resort, hiked Camelback, had an adult's only night out, went to the Wildlife Zoo and Aquarium, and spend some time in North Scottsdale (shopping!!!), much to the boys dismay!

Stay tuned! More to come, and I promise you will find amusement in some of our adventures!!!

A Little Bit Of Our Freedom Has Been Lost

Although I am passionate about politics, I try really hard to separate my politics from my blog. Today is different. I have to write about what has happened this week. The Obama administration basically threw out the Constitution of the United States, told the American people to sit down and shut up and passed Obamacare. Government got bigger and the American people much smaller. The American people voted this man into office (with the help of Acorn and Voter Fraud), and I want to know if people were actually using their brains when they voted for him!
If you are an American and you are not upset, you should be! Your freedom has been stripped.
 If your employer currently holds your health insurance...be prepared because rates will go up, they will decide they can no longer afford that benefit, terminate it and take the fine. Although there is currently no public option in this bill, one will be created because if your employer can't provide the benefit, and you can't afford private insurance on your own, you have to have something or YOU be fined. This will "force" the government into creating a public option (which was their intent all along) and consequently the insurance companies will be put out of business because they will not be able to compete with the government....which will equal the loss of jobs. If you are one of the Americans who chooses not to have coverage, beware, you are now forced to obtain it, and if it doesn't meet the standards the government has set out, you will be fined by Uncle Sam. Those of you who think that government health care is free, think again. #1 you are paying for it in your taxes, #2 there will still be a premium you will have to pay. It will be less expensive than private insurance, but remember, you get what you pay for and good luck to getting the care you need in a timely manner! Oh, and our wonderful democratic officials who voted this into law, have made provision for themselves to keep their upgraded health insurance...always taking care of themselves! YOU NO LONGER HAVE THE FREEDOM TO CHOOSE. I am so disgusted about the fact that regardless of what the majority of Americans want, the government was able to ram this bill through behind closed doors with backroom deals, circumventing the Senate vote via reconciliation and thus robbing Scott Brown of his opportunity to vote against the health care takeover, which is the very thing he campaigned on, thus robbing the American people of their voice. Complete disregard for those who they work for to begin with. THEY WORK FOR US! We need to remind them...
Approx 15,000 IRS agents are being hired to audit every American every month. Guess what, if you do not carry what they feel to be appropriate insurance, you get a fine. We are now mandated to carry health insurance. When did this become a public and not private choice?

This is supposed to be AMERICA...and yes, we should be proud of our country, but our President has turned our "pride" into "arrogance" and has apologized all over the world for it. Shame on Barack Obama!


Taking from those who work hard to give to those who hardly work is socialist and wrong. People should be empowered to give to others because it is a choice they make. This administration basically feels that we are not capable of making personal, private decisions on our own. Apparently not even the decision to refrain from supporting abortions. The government cannot force me to contribute to such acts. I do not want my tax dollars spent on terminating pregnancies! It impedes on my religious practice and beliefs. If this issue is forced through, can we call it anything other than communism? I think not. I read a comment by somebody on facebook that said, "im sure americans will get by... perhaps a latte less a week from starbucks so a child can go to the hospital." Really? First of all, I am a registered nurse and I worked in a county hospital. If you show up, you are seen, whether you can pay or not. So, to the person that made that very ignorant comment, children who need medical care can get it. I am not denying that reform is needed, but I am adamantly denying that government takeover is the answer. Secondly, if I want to sacrifice a cup of coffee to give to somebody, it should be my choice, not the government's mandate. I am a big believer in giving to those in need, but I am not a fan of the government deciding what I can do with my hard earned money! My family makes many sacrifices so that we can afford certain things that are important to us like food and health insurance. We do without Starbucks, expensive haircuts and clothing, and frivolous spending of the like. We don't expect you (the American people) to provide those things for us. Even when our household income was less than $20,000 a year, we didn't feel "entitled" to the same things that those who made more money were able to buy. We were very blessed during that time and God provided for all of our needs through various vessels including an extra night job for my husband. Yes, that's right, sometimes a second job is necessary! I am so sick of people feeling entitled...no work ethic. The government is making it more attractive to be a bum than to follow the American dream. They are redefining the American dream as we have known it!
 
I am proud of the states that are bringing lawsuits against the federal government.
Barack Obama said it himself, "...that is what elections are for." Guess what, Mr. President and members of Congress who openly went against the voice of America, you were warned and shouldn't be surprised when you are the ones unemployed in November and the 2012 Presidential Elections.