It's a deal!

We went up to the new development, signed the paper work and put down the earnest money for the property this afternoon. After we were done, we went over and walked around the pond across the street. Every few steps we walked, a frog would jump into the pond. They were everywhere and the boys loved it. Two houses down from our lot, we saw a lady outside watching her little boy ride his bike on the driveway so we went over to introduce ourselves and say hi. We visited with her for a few minutes. She was very nice and friendly and her little boy is right around the same age as our sons. It is going to be so nice to be in a neighborhood where there are other little kids the same age as ours. I think the boys are really going to love this place.

We had a little boy funny as we arrived at the development to sign the paper work this afternoon. N had fallen asleep in the car on our way up to the property. He was awake when we stopped. I was unfastening his seat belt and he said, "Mommy, feel my foot!" I was a bit confused at first, as I felt his foot, and then he said, "It feels fuzzy!" That's when I understood that it had fallen asleep. (Isn't fuzzy a great way to describe this?) This must have been the first time that this had happened to him because he was so surprised and thought it was so funny. It was cute to watch his reaction. I helped him out of the van and let go of his hand as he started to walk away from me and he promptly fell down. He was not hurt but just continued to express surprise, as I helped him up and started to carry him but then he said he thought it was OK again. I put him down and he limped for the first couple of steps and then he was OK again.

Another thing that happened was not so funny. The boys were having fun running around in this little building where we were signing our papers. There were only two people working there and us so they didn't mind and they thought the boys were cute. One guy (Ron) was helping us and the other guy (Siggy) was sitting in the conference room on the other side of this little building. The boys would go into the conference room and sit and spin in the chairs and talk with Siggy. But then they started running around and I had told them to settle down but we were still in the middle of our discussions so I was only half engaged with them. Then I heard B scream that hurt kind of scream that all mom's know. He had run into a door knob with his head and he immediately got a huge goose egg sticking out of his head. It was really scary to me and I was glad Dr. dad was there with us. This kid has hit his head hard a million times but has never had anything as bad as this. I would have been very worried if I had been home alone with the boys when this happened. It didn't take him long though before he was right back at it, although he did make sure to remind me to be careful when I put his pajama shirt over his head tonight. The bump was still quite big and he didn't want anyone to touch it. I can understand why. I'm sure that was painful.

So, the next steps for us are:
1. Set a date for the 5-day sale of our house
2. Get the house ready to sell
3. Take all of the necessary steps to be prepared to sell the house in 5 days
4. Start looking for a rental place
5. Start looking for an architect
6. Finish mocking up the plans as we think we want them
7. Start gathering names and investigating contractors for building the house.

That should keep us pretty busy for now.

We have been getting a good bit of rain lately and have been enjoying cooler, cloudy weather. It has been such a relief. Time for bed. Good night.

99% Sure?

First of all, the best news of the day is that a good friend's husband was just hired into a very good job. It is great news because he had been officially without work for a while now, they have twins daughters and they have a baby on the way. I say officially because he was an independent contractor and was getting a little bit of work here and there during this time but he was not under contract and it was not dependable. So I am sure they are all very happy and thankful at their house and I am so happy for them.

Well, it looks as if we have the property. Apparently there was a man who was also trying to purchase the lot on Friday and the guy (Ron) who we were working with on Sat. and Sun. was not aware of it. Ron said he spoke to the bank where the guy was trying to get his financing and they said it was very unlikely he would get it. He is self employed and has had a lot of write offs over the past year or couple of years or something like that so his income appears pretty much non-existent over that time period.

So, we are planning to go back up there on Thursday afternoon to sign the papers and put down the earnest money. They accepted our offer and did not counter, which was nice.

I have been looking at house plans.....hundreds and hundreds of them. They all start to look the same after a while, mostly because they are a lot alike:). We have a very good idea of what we are looking for and would like to find a plan that is very very close and maybe just needs a couple of small tweaks so that we don't have to pay a lot of money for an architect.

Ron told us there is another family already in the subdivision who were their own general contractors so we are hoping to be able to talk to them. I'm sure it will be helpful to hear about their experience and maybe get a list of the contractors that they thought were good.

Now we have to start thinking about getting our house ready to sell and making all of the arrangements to do this 5 day thing. We will be having an open house two days in a row, a Saturday and Sunday, so we will have to make arrangements for the boys and the cats. That will be my biggest challenge but hopefully we can work out something. I think the boys will be easy. It is the cats that I am concerned about....and they are getting old and have never been boarded before so I really don't want to do that. Hmmm. I'll have to put some thought into this one....but if that is the biggest problem I have during this whole thing, we'll be doing pretty good.

Not much news other than that. The boys and I had a good day today. Today they both learned the days of the week. I have been talking to them each day about what day it is and what day was yesterday and what day is tomorrow and they were already starting to get it. After their nap today they watched a video that had a song about the days of the weeks and I think it kind of hit home. B can recite them off with no issue. N sometimes forgets Thursday but he is getting there.

I still enjoy watching them learn so much. We were reading the book Petunia tonight before bed. If you are not familiar with that book, it is about a goose who finds a book and thinks that she becomes wise simply by carrying it around. She gives lots of bad advice and causes many problems around the barnyard before she finally realizes that she has to learn to read in order for the book to help her become wise. When I finished reading the book to the boys, N said "and you are teaching us to read mommy". Yep, and I am but it we are taking the very slow route:).

I had found this old phonics book at the used book store a long time ago. I was going through my books the other day and ran across it so I put it out with their books because I thought they might enjoy it. It has lots of good pics and rhymes. N found it and it is now his favorite book of the moment so we read it a lot today. It introduces them to long vowel sounds, which we had not covered yet. I'm not sure how much it will actually help them though. I don't think it is a very good teaching book but I'm sure it won't hurt and it will likely reinforce what we are covering.

We are getting ready to get a good thunderstorm. I like thunderstorms, especially when there is no threat of tornadoes. Good night.

Counter offer made

The developer sent us an email today with the price for the lot and we sent them a counter offer. Hopefully we will hear something tomorrow.

So, if we end up purchasing this lot, things are going to get very, very busy around here. First, we are planning to sell our house as soon as possible. We are concerned that housing prices might get worse in our area (we've yet to be impacted though, for the most part), so we are thinking we had better sell it while we can, since we will need the money to build the new house.

When we sell our house, we are planning to use the "5-Day" method (www.5-day.com). I had never heard of this before but my husband had. I started reading the book about this today and I think it sounds really good. So, if all goes according to plan, it will take us 5 days to sell our house, although we will have some work to do to get it ready....mostly deep cleaning stuff, like washing baseboards:). We will also have to find a place to rent, hopefully near where we will be building, and we will need to get a bunch of stuff out of our house to make it ready to sell. Lots to do here.

Once the house is sold and we have moved to a temporary place, the really busy work begins, because we are planning to be our own general contractor. Well, I will be the day-to-day general contractor but the husband will be providing research and decision making support. We are reading up on this too and have a lot to learn but I think we can do it and we will likely be happier with the end result, not to mention saving ourselves 20 to 40 percent.

So, if all goes well, we will be doing things a bit unconventionally so it should be an interesting story to follow...for all of us:). We are hoping that the money we save will help to offset some of the energy efficient things we would like to do. I still have a lot more research to do on this also.

If all of this comes to fruition, I'm not sure how much formal home schooling we will get done this year. We'll have to play that one by ear. Fortunately the boys are both well ahead of where they should be so I am not too concerned about it. Our number one priority will be learning to read and I'm sure we will still fit in lots of read aloud time. Everything else will be gravy and they will learn a lot from watching the house go up:).

Gotta go. More research to do.

NOT a lot...but wait....

We ended up deciding that the steep lot was not what we were looking for. It would have had a beautiful view but not much of a yard, front nor back. I ended up going up that way on Saturday while the dad was out with the boys at the park. I was just going to drive around and get a feel for various areas that I had looked at on the map.

My first area to look at was just down the street and around the corner from the first subdivision. I never found anything to really look at in that area but I did become curious about a new area going in across the street from the first subdivision. We had seen it on our trips out to see the first place and had commented on it but it didn't look all that impressive from where we were. After going on down the street and around the corner, I saw that it actually extended back down a long way and I could see new houses and an information center. My curiosity got the best of me so I went in and drove around, which raised my curiosity even more as they were building a very large building which did not seem to fit in with a subdivision. So I went to the information building to find out what was going on.

After speaking with the people in the information area, I went out on a tour with this guy, Ron. As it turns out, they are developing 3,000 acres and they are basically making an entire upscale community within the town. The large building is a new school that will be opening up this fall. They have plans for 4 or 5 subdivisions, a very large park and an outdoor type shopping center (as opposed to a mall-type) with cobble stones and all that. The park and shopping center will be built along the 100 mile lake that is recently built and almost full of water. They will have upscale eating places along the boardwalk of the lake. They will have a rock maze near the park and a lookout area that you can climb to and can see the downtown of the nearby city. The views around this place are awesome and there are tons and tons of trees. It is a very pretty area.

Ron showed me the new country club and golf course that are being built along some cliffs. I think this was the most beautiful golf course I have ever seen. Beautiful views. The two subdivisions with the million+ dollar homes will be built near the golf course and the most beautiful views.

They are building bike and walking trails all across the entire 3,000 acres, including some where you will have the beautiful views and one completely around the lake (not sure how it will go through the shopping area though). They are building an amphitheater near the lake and park and they plan to have lots of fun family activities in the park, lake, amphitheater area.

They are also building a new main road that goes from this new community to another nearby major road which connects to the nearby highway. This will allow people in the community to get to the nearby city very quickly, without having to go through the local town/traffic. It would cut down on the drive time for the husband to get to work. I also found that there is a back way in to the area that my family could take when they come to visit, so it would actually be much faster/closer for them than where we live now. Both of these are big bonuses because I was concerned about drive time for the husband and also for my family.

I left very impressed with the place and thinking it might be just the place for us to relocate. I came home and told the husband all about it and show him the materials. We ended up going back up there that evening and we all took the tour again. The husband was equally impressed. The boys just wanted to go home:). The husband and I both agreed on the lot that we liked the best. The lots in the two subdivisions we were looking at are all one acre lots. Ron did not know the price on that particular lot, as it had been a builder's lot and they (the developer) were going to trade the builder a different lot for it. Ron said he would get back to us with the price on the lot.

Sunday afternoon, we all went back up there to go through a couple of the models. They were very nice but we felt they were overpriced, when considering price per square foot. Ron had told us that, since we would be buying the lot from them (the developer), as opposed to the builder, we could pick whatever builder we want...either from the 20 or so they have allotted lots to or we could also bring in our own builder. Ron had given us a map of the two subdivisions where they are currently selling lots. Each lot has either a price, a builder's name or 'sold' written on it. If it has the builder's name and you really want that lot, then you have to use that builder to build your home. We believe the builders get more for their lots than when you buy it from the developer.

So, that's where we are now. We are thinking of buying this lot that we both liked, if everything works out all right....and we are praying a lot.

A lot or not a lot

One of our goals has been to find a lot and build a VERY energy efficient house. We have been praying about this for a while now. After discussing it again recently, the husband wanted me to start looking for lots that might work for us. I was waiting for his lead, which is not easy for me at times like this:).

So, this week I have been searching the MLS listings for lots in areas where we think we would like to live. The boys and I took a drive up North to look at a couple of lots on Wednesday. There was one that I thought was likely too far for the husband to drive to work but, when I told him about it and showed him the pictures I took, he was interested and thought the drive would be doable.

Yesterday evening we took a drive back up to see it. I had taken a picture from a distance and did not get out and try to walk on the property. From where I was, it just looked like a thick forest with lots of under brush. We were hoping for lots of trees and maybe a hill so this was a good thing and it is on a cul-de-sac so that is a really good thing. On our way up to the lot, I called the real estate agent and asked a few questions. She said to feel free to walk the lot.

When we got there, the people next door to the house were out in their yard, playing with their two year old. Their little boy immediately ran out to see our boys. He was very cute and his parents were very friendly.

The husband took off walking into the lot with B and N but N quickly wanted to turn back (there were lots of tall weeds, stickers and those little tiny cocka-burrs that stick to your clothes). I was right behind them so I took N back out to the street. He played with the little boy in their yard for a couple of minutes while I walked back into the jungle a little ways. I could hear N so I was not too worried about him, although I did not stay too long before heading back out with B to hang out with N until the husband showed back up. After that, we spent quite a while talking to the very nice neighbors and learned a lot about the area. They also let us walk to the back of their property, which allowed us to see how their back yard was done and also what it looked like on into the property we were looking at.

It turns out that this lot (the one we were looking at) is an absolutely beautiful 1.69 acre lot with gorgeous views. The downside is that there is a very steep hill and much of the lot is down below, so basically the house might end up being built kind of on a cliff. Great for beautiful views but not so great for a yard and play room for little kids....although I was thinking that when they are a bit older (say 10 or 11ish), this environment would provide many wonderful adventures for them. There is a pond at the bottom of the steep hill and the property line goes right up to the pond or possibly even into it a bit. The realtor was not quite sure which.

The downside (literally) is that on this kind of lot, the house would likely have to be lower than the road, the front yard would likely not be very big and the back yard would be a cliff (according to the husband). One of the biggest issues would be drainage. If it was not done right, the house could end up with water problems.

On the drive back, the husband was so-so on the property and I was thinking what a beautiful view a house on this lot would have. Then he reminded me that we looked at a house on a lot similar to this, when we moved here from Houston, although that lot was not nearly as steep as this one (it was not nearly as big either). We decided we did not like the house sitting so far down from the road and we didn't like the slope of the lot as it did not leave a lot of good play area for the boys.

At the husband's request, I contacted the real estate agent and requested a topographical map of the property. She said they did not have that and it was not something they normally had but she sent the layout of the lot and the nearby lots. I don't know that this really helps but I was surprised at how large it looks. Too bad so much of it is kind of uninhabitable (although I think if I was a kid, I would absolutely love this place:).

The funny thing is that, when I had originally looked at the property online, I could see all of this beautiful forest area behind and next to the lot and I was concerned about what would happen to that area. You wouldn't want to build your house with the expectation that you will have this beautiful view and lots of peace and quiet (it is very rural) and, years later, someone puts in a WalMart, McDonald's or big housing complex behind your house. Turns out it is such a cliff/ravine that it is probably not something to worry about much because, as the realtor said, it is very difficult to get back in there.

So, not sure where that leaves us. Last night we had discussed getting a builder to take a look at the lot and let us know what we could or could not do with it and what the additional cost might be to do it like we might want (and if we even could). So, I suppose we will discuss that this evening and decide whether to move forward or not. I am trying not to get my hopes up because I think the liklihood is probably slim...but still....it is hard not too. The husband also did not really care for the house we are in all that much, when we moved here from Houston, but I really loved it. It was the first house we saw and, after seeing about 40 houses, he finally agreed that we had not seen anything else that was as nice as this one and, since I loved it and would be the one spending the most time in it, he agreed. Now he agrees this is a great house and we both love it...but we still feel that we need to downsize and become more energy efficient. (Side note: When we originally moved here, we thought he would be on call at times for delivery babies so we had to lived pretty close to the hospital or he would have to stay at the hospital the entire time he was on call. Now we know he does not have to take call for deliveries so we have more options.) Anyway, I reminded him that I have a feel for "these things" (meaning, that we would likely love this lot) and he agreed with me on that. He also agreed that he and the boys could have lots of fun projects working on the grounds and making it more inhabitable, possibly even making some steps to go down to the pond (I did not go down there so I don't know how far down it was but he said it was very difficult to get back up and he didn't think I could have done it). So, that is where we are on this.

In other news, I have been spending a good deal of time on this type of stuff this week, in addition to all of the regular daily duties of wife and mom:). I am also working out what our year of preschool will look like, which is fun. I plan to write a post on this later. Boys are up and running around now so I must go. Happy Friday!

P.S. Karen, did you say you were recently in Kansas City? It was good to hear from you again. I was wondering where you were.

K.C. Pics

Sorry it has taken me so long to post. We went away two weekends in a row so I have been very busy. The dear husband and I just returned from our weekend away without the boys. We had a very relaxing and uneventful weekend, which is to say that all went well and the boys did great. My sister, mom and nephew came to take care of the boys and they had a great time while we were gone.

We left on Friday afternoon and returned this morning around 10:00ish. It was a perfect amount of time to be away for a first time without the boys. I was ready to get back to them but felt I had had a nice break and a good time reconnecting with my husband. We went out to eat a few times and saw a movie (The Proposal) and held hands and had long visits without being interrupted. It was all very nice and we both came back feeling well rested.

We went to Arkansas. We stayed in Springdale which was not as pretty as I expected. We took a drive on Saturday afternoon and drove over to Fayetteville, which was really pretty. The University of Arkansas is there and it has a very pretty campus and the old timey town square was lovely. We just missed their Saturday farmers market. They were putting everything away when we arrived but we got out and walked around anyway. Overall, Arkansas is a very pretty state. Lots of big hills / small mountains and tons of trees and winding roads. It is nice that we can get there by car so quickly and we will look forward to exploring more of this beautiful state. We also need to get out in Oklahoma and explore a bit more. We have very pretty parts of our state also and we have not done much in the way of seeing it. But we have plenty of time, Lord willing.

Other things going on around here. I am considering what I want to do this year with the boys for "preschool". I know it will still be mostly informal, since they are still just three years old and boys need a lot of time to run and jump and play, so they will have lots of time for that. I will likely try to start having a short (15 to 20 minutes) dedicated time with each child to focus on solidifying what we have been learning about phonics and pre-reading, maybe three times a week. I also want to set aside regular time for character development, regular devotions and Bible scripture memory each day. We will likely try to also do some preschool math but we will do it in a fun, playing kind of way. Everything else will just be coloring, pasting, cutting and all of the fine motor skill activities that will prepare the boys for writing. They like to try to write letters now and I will work with them when they are interested but I will not push this type of work until they have stronger fine motor skills.

I forgot to mention that B found a pen (one that Zoe-cat left on the floor after playing with it) and wrote on our leather ottoman. He had already written on it once before with a red ink pen, just a bit of scribble. This time it was a black pen. I had explained to him the first time that we don't do this (I went into more detail) and that he would be punished if he did it again. He knows where to find paper, if he wants it. He deliberately disobeyed and I did punish him for it. Afterward I was trying to clean it off with some leather cleaner (didn't work) and comet (didn't work). He was standing there watching me and told me, very proudly, that he had written an 'A' and a 'B' and, I must admit, he did a pretty good job of it. I never got it off. If anyone has any suggestions for how to get ink off of leather, please let me know.

I almost forgot. The other thing we are up to. We are once again considering downsizing our house. This time we are considering a different approach, although we still have to pray about it more. Instead of purchasing a lot/house in a subdivision, where we can only choose from a select number of house plans and there is a minimum square foot requirement, we are considering moving out a little further to an area that is a bit more rural, purchasing our own land and then having our own custom house built so we can make sure it is extra energy efficient. We are also considering being our own general contractor to save more money. Right now we are continuing to pray about it, while we also spend some time studying up on everything about building an energy efficient home.

So, that's the news update from the Pisarik's. Now, here are some pictures from K.C.:

We went to this great public park. We call it The Farm, although it has a formal name "somebody's name Farm Stead" but I can never remember who it is named after. It is a beautiful place. We had taken the kids there a couple of years ago but they were too little to remember it. They had a great time.
The boys were climbing on the rocks. This is right at the entrance. As we were walking away, I noticed the small signs next to the pond that say "no climbing on rocks". Woops.

This is also one of the views as you walk in. The flower gardens are just beautiful. I wish I had this kind of green thumb. This picture does not do it justice. It was actually much more beautiful in person.
Feeding the goats. The boys really enjoyed this and this place is great because they have nice hand washing areas in all of the right places.
"No more!"
This guy was sleeping in the trough the whole time we were feeding the others.
A hay ride. The boys weren't quite so sure about this because I was not going on the ride with them and dad was not on yet because he was taking pictures. My friend's mom is in a red shirt and is sitting just behind and to the right of B. My friend's two daughters are both in pink, the dark haired one is to the right to B, sitting next to her grandmother. The other one is sitting just behind B, kind of between N and B.
These are the huge horses that pull the hay ride. They have bells on them and they sound like sleigh bells when the horses trot. They walk around this wooded area and then they let them trot on the way back. It sounded very Christmasy as the horses were trotting back. The kids really enjoyed it.
N, looking out of the window of the kid-size log cabin. It is right next to a play ground.
B and my friend's youngest daughter inside of the little log cabin. It was extremely hot on this day and poor little B was sweating profusely. He kept going up to the dad, grabing the dad's shorts in both of his hands and using them to wipe the sweat off of his face. He would put his face right into the dad's shorts and turn his head back and forth, back and forth. It was very cute but I felt bad for him that he was that hot. I tried to cool him down with some ice but he was not very into it.
B's first try at fishing. He accidentally got hooked in the arm once but fortunately it was pretty minor. The hook just barely went into his skin and didn't get in far enough to get past that thorny part that makes it hard to pull it out. It came out easily and just left a tiny hole.
And N's fishing debut. We told him he was suppose to hold the pole up but he like doing it this way better...and we had to keep an eye on him or he would try to catch the ducks. I don't know who this guy with the baby is behind N but he was really in jeapordy of being hooked. Sitting this close to a three year old with a sharp fish hook on the end of a pole is not the best idea. Luckily nothing bad happened.
Giddy-up horse!

Both boys loved the horse ride. They were led around a track by a volunteer of the park. Many of the workers are volunteers and look as if they are high school or college students.
All four of the kids had such a wonderful time together and got along so well. It was fun to watch them all together. They were all born in Volgograd Russia and three of the four are from the same baby home (the three youngest ones). My friend and her mom were in Volgograd to bring her youngest daughter home when we were there to meet B and N. We all hung out together and played with our kids for 7 or 8 days and then we all flew from Volgograd to Moscow together, where we separated because they had to stay in Moscow to do paper work stuff for their daughter/granddaughter and we were headed on back home to finish our paper work and wait for our court date.

Here is a picture I took of the boys after we got home. B sat on N's lap and they thought that was very funny. I took advantage of the opportunity and snapped a photo. Aren't they growing up so fast? They both need a hair cut badly. We were going to do it tonight but the dad ended up taking them over to that neat park over by the river and they didn't get back in time. Just enough time for a bagel and a little playing and then time for bed. We are thoroughly enjoying the bagels we brought home from K.C. We still have three left so tomorrow will probably be the last day. The boys really like them too, although it took a B a bit to decide he really likes them.Time for bed. Good night!

Marry me mommy/daddy:)

Although not many people knew we were gone:). We just returned from a lovely weekend in Kansas City, visiting our friends there. We all had a great time and I will post more about it later, including pictures.

We just rolled in and I am sitting with the boys while they fall asleep. As I was giving N his goodnight hugs and kisses, he said that when he is big like daddy, I won't be able to pick him up anymore. I told him I would be sad when I couldn't pick him up anymore because he is such a sweetie pie (or something cutsie like that). He said that he would love on me and then he said that when he gets big, he is going to marry me.....to which B promptly replied that he would marry daddy:). N went on to say that I am his best friend and that is why he is going to marry me when he gets big and that he is going to hug me after he marries me. Every time N finished a sentence, B would repeat the same sentence about daddy. Isn't that sweet? I had to write that before I forgot it.

We had a fantastic trip and the boys did great, although this was our first longish trip with the boys since they have been potty trained so it was also the longest trip to K.C. and back, since we had to make lots of stops.

They have been quiet now for all of about 5 minutes and I think B is already asleep. I knew it wouldn't take long. They should sleep in tomorrow and take a good nap also because they have played so hard and had longer and napless days while we were gone.

I am ready for bed too. More later. Good night.

Adoption VS Pregnancy

For anyone who has adopted but has never birthed a biological child, this will be a special read. For those who have had a biological child but have never adopted, this will be interesting and possibly enlightening. Take a look:

http://smilingallthewayback.blogspot.com/2009/07/i-finally-have-due-date.html

Stop the Fed!

July 9, 2009

The Fed Must Be Stopped

Written by: Ron Paul

Our country currently finds itself in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the 1930s and, as during all economic crises, people search for the answer as to why this has happened. Not only have large financial firms been affected, but also mainstays of American industry such as GM and Chrysler, all the way down to the Mom & Pop stores on Main Street. The easy way out is to blame the traditional scapegoats: foreign governments, fraudulent businessmen, and greedy speculators. But the real villain is far more sinister; the organization entrusted with maintaining a stable dollar and touted as the guarantor of economic stability – the Federal Reserve.

In the United States, monetary policy has been the domain of the Federal Reserve since its inception in 1913. Since that time we have had a number of cyclical recessions, each one following a boom caused by the Federal Reserve's loose monetary policy. The problem with the Federal Reserve is that it interferes with market pricing functions. Interest rates are a price just like any other and arise because of the fact that people prefer to consume in the present rather than in the future. The extent to which people defer present consumption is reflected in interest rates, which in a free market are determined by the spontaneous interactions and decisions of millions of people.

Fed intervention to set prices throws markets and interest rates out of equilibrium. When the Federal Reserve pushes interest rates below what the market rate would be, everyone wants to borrow money for long-term projects. Shortages of loanable funds would occur, except that the Federal Reserve has the ability to create bank balances out of thin air. The Fed can create a bank ledger on paper, or on a computer, establish a balance of millions or billions of dollars, and then spend these dollars out into the economy.

Loans become cheap, and the result of these lower interest rates is an economic boom which eventually manifests itself as a bubble. Beginning in 2001, the Federal Reserve pushed interest rates to as low as one percent, which after adjusting for inflation meant that the real interest rate was negative, so businesses were actually making money by taking out loans. This was the fuel for the housing bubble and the reason there are 19 million empty houses today.

Because of this awesome power to create money out of thin air, the Fed has jumped in to stabilize ailing financial firms by pledging over $7 trillion through various guarantee programs and credit facilities. This is equivalent to over half of the entire nation's GDP. Over $1 trillion of this is already in play, propping up banks and other institutions that should be allowed to fail. All of this has taken place with no oversight by Congress. The Fed was created by Congress, and it is unconscionable that we have allowed it to act in such a way without our oversight. Currently the Federal Reserve's credit facilities, open market operations, and agreements with foreign governments and central banks are all exempt from any sort of audit or oversight. Earlier this year I introduced the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, HR 1207, that would remove all restrictions on Federal Reserve audits and call for a f ull audit of the Federal Reserve System to be completed by the end of 2010. At this writing, 245 of my fellow Congressmen have cosponsored this bill and we hope to have hearings in the near future. In the Senate, Republicans Jim DeMint, Mike Crapo and David Vitter have cosponsored S. 604, companion legislation introduced by Bernie Sanders. I am very encouraged by the tremendous growing momentum on Capitol Hill.

Our Founding Fathers never intended for a single entity such as the Federal Reserve to have this much power. In fact, there is no authority in the Constitution for the federal government to create a central bank, to enact legal tender laws, or to print paper money. The Tenth Amendment is quite clear that “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” The states themselves are prohibited from emitting bills of credit, i.e. paper money, arising from the Founders' negative experiences with paper money during the Revolutionary War. Cheap, un-backed, easily counterfeited paper money nearly lost the Revolution, until the government returned to minting gold and silver coins. Unfortunately, like too many other lessons learned by the Founders, the painful experiences of paper money have been forgotten by those living in the pres ent. We even ignore the experiences of Germans in the 1920s, Argentines in the 1980s, and Zimbabweans over the past decade. The Fed doubled the monetary base last fall in a matter of months, and God help us if any of this high-powered money begins to make its way through the economy.

An audit of the Fed is only the first step towards returning to where our Founders intended this country to be. The Founders knew that paper money could ruin a country, and drafted the Constitution in such a way that they thought would ensure sound, commodity-backed currency. Unfortunately, the Constitution was dispensed with long ago, and we find ourselves now suffering under an unconstitutional regime of un-backed paper money. Until we abolish the Federal Reserve and return to a stable currency that is not able to be manipulated to create boom and bust cycles, we will continue down the path of economic ruin.

Congress Ron Paul serves the fourteenth district of Texas and is honorary chairman of Campaign for Liberty. His new book, End the Fed (Grand Central Publishing) will release on September 16^th and is available for pre-order on Amazon.

On being informed...

After reading this for a while, I have come to believe that if a person wants to stay informed on much of what is going on in the financial world, including where finance crosses politics, how government spending is impacting our country, gaining a better understanding of the recession, etc. one should really make this site a daily read:

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/

Pics

The other day the boys said they wanted to "do school". We had just finished breakfast. We sat at the table together and they did a little of everything, including coloring, playing around with writing letters, doing mazes, doing a whole science section of one of our work books (circle all things on the page that are living) and another whole section from the same book but can't remember what it was about now. They sat at the table for at least two hours and it may have been two and a half hours before they were done. I even asked at one point if they were tired of this and wanted to do something else. Answer, "no". N was particularly interested in coloring, which really shocked me as both of them have only had short-term interest in coloring to date. B has been particularly interested in learning to write letters, most specifically those in his name.



Last week we made a 4th of July cake to celebrate our country's birthday. It turned out very pretty but we won't be using these sprinkles on cakes anymore because they really did not taste very good. We ended up throwing out at least half of the cake, much to B's dismay.
These pics are from this really neat park that the dad found. It was a great water play area for little ones too but it was being serviced and was not working on this day. That stone wall in the background where the ladies are sitting is actually part of the water play area. It has little fountains all along the top of it and, when it is on, the water runs all over it and down the sides to the ground. I wish I had taken more pics of the whole park because, although it is small, it is very unique. Next time I will have to take more pics.

This is a modern day merry-go-round. The kids love it. The boys were not on it when I took the picture though.
The boys had been climbing on these so I asked them to sit in them so I could take a picture.


This is the hat that the dad wore when we went canoeing. He looked like Indiana Jones. At one point when we were getting ready, he had the brim of the hat turned upwards where it kind of just stuck out straight all the way around. I told him it was the difference between Indiana Jones (brim as seen in pic below) VS Barney Fife (brim sticking straight out). He thought that was pretty funny. He kept the brim down after that:).
One might think B would be a happy little canoe-er, based on this picture. One would be wrong:).

Our first family canoe trip:)

Today we decided to take the boys on their first canoe trip. The dad showed them pictures of people canoeing and they were very excited about the idea. We made the hour-plus drive to the river. We parked and put on our sunscreen and they still seemed very excited, although a bit more subdued because of all of the people around us. We picked out our life jackets and oars and got on the bus that would take us to our drop point.

They both loved the bus ride, although I felt it was a bit unsafe, as the driver left the bus doors open and then proceeded to careen around corners on dirt roads. We were sitting in the front two seats and so it felt very unsafe. The other unsafe issue that really concerned me was that they did not offer any smaller life jackets for kids. It was one size fits all. These were the bright orange U-shaped jackets that fit over your head, lay on your chest and there is a strap that wraps around your chest/back or, in the kid's case, their waist/back. There was no strap that went between their legs, like most kid's jackets have. They should really advertise that you should bring your own if you have kids.

We got off the bus, walked the short distance to the river, put life jackets on the kids and loaded them into the canoe. This is pretty much when their excitement came to an end. They were not very into after that. We did not go far before stopping to let them play in the water. They especially liked throwing rocks into the water. That was their favorite thing. So, after playing for a little while, we put a bunch of rocks into the canoe and started off again. They were sharing a seat in the middle of the canoe and they both enjoyed throwing the rocks out. But, unfortunately, that didn't last long.

We hit a couple of shallow spots where the bottom of the canoe rubbed against the rocks in the river bed, making a loud noise (and of course it also did this every time we loaded them up to push off again, after having stopped to play). Neither of the boys liked this and B was especially scared by the loud noise. Just after we took off again, after stopping to play, both boys started crying and that lasted for 5 or 10 minutes. After that, N stopped crying but B kept crying by himself. They wanted us to turn around and go back and, B especially, kept saying this over and over, through his loud crying. We tried, over and over, to explain in many different, simple ways that we could not go back and had to keep going if we wanted to eventually get home. N seemed to get this and even got annoyed with B's continued crying after a while but B continued to call for a turn around pretty much the whole way.

The canoe outfitters offer a 6 mile trip and a 12 mile trip. We opted for the 6 mile trip. B pretty much cried for at least 5 of the 6 miles. We ended up making another stop so they could once again get out and play, although I was concerned that we would not be able to get them back into the canoe. They again really enjoyed playing in the water and throwing rocks. N even enjoyed sitting down in the water and letting the current push him a little. When it was time to take off again, B started crying before he got back into the canoe and continued to cry, off and on (mostly on) the rest of the way. At one point, he started asking me (over and over again) if we were almost there. After his having asked this twice and having a bad reaction when I said not yet, I realized I just needed to answer yes, we are almost there, every time he asked. It made him feel much better. I think he just needed to have some hope. As it turned out, we were closer to the pick up point than we thought so we really were almost there. As soon as the boys were out of the canoe and walking towards the little bus, I heard B saying something about riding the bus and he was once again in a very happy mood and clearly excited about getting to ride the bus again.

We changed clothes and found a place to eat (Pizza Hut - wow, I can't remember the last time I ate at a Pizza Hut) that also had a room with a few video games, including two that were like driving a car. They both had the best time playing on these and pretending they were driving to Home Depot and to the grocery store. They would run over to us and ask what we wanted from Home Depot or from the grocery store and then they would run back and pretend to drive there. It was great because they were very hungry and this kept them busy until our pizza was ready.

After we arrived home, both boys spent a good amount of time pretending they were in a canoe and swimming and all that and then they did more of this when they took their bath.

They really had a great time before and after. It was the canoeing part they didn't really enjoy so much. They both let us know they do not want to do that again. I'm sure when they are old enough to paddle the canoe, they will love it. At this age, they would have been very happy to just hang out at the river, play in the water and throw rocks. Next time we'll just have to take some lawn chairs, find some shade near the water and sit and watch them play.

Unionize the hospitals??

What do you think about this?
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/06/back_to_acorn_general_hospital.html

Obama's Top Five Health Care Lies

Read this and see what YOU think.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/30/obama-health-care-reform-opinions-columnists-public-option-medicare.html

Here is another one worth reading, if you have the time.
Parsing Health Reform Arguments
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124640626749276595.html