Preparations

We spent the day in Alexandria running errands and getting what we need for the LPL Convention. Now we just have to pack, get through the Convention, a visit with Vinsons aunt from California and then maybe I can breathe for a few days (probably not but one can hope).
I was hoping that after a full May calendar I would get a slower June but it looks like June will be just as busy. We already have most of our weekends planned and almost every day that Vinson is off. I don't know how I'm going to make it through next year when the Governor election gets into full swing.
The children are finally getting to an age where they are a bit more cooperative when things get hectic. It's either that or else we've learned how to bribe them into cooperation. They will actually be attending the Convention banquet with my mother-in-law (I'll be crossing my fingers). We've already discussed what the banquet will be like and how we expect them to behave (i.e. no yelling, jumping, burping, hitting, kicking......) so here's hoping they can remember all of that.

Blast from the Past

This has been an interesting day. Earlier this week I asked Vinson about our friend Gary Nolan. He ran for the Libertarian Parties Presidential nomination but unfortunatly did not get the win. While he was running a filmmaker was taping his progress to make a documentary. Well today we recieved an email from Gary about the documentary. It will be premiering at the Atlanta Film Festival. There is a slight possibility that we may be somewhere in this film. Who knows..
On another note we recieved a phone call from a friend we had in the 1990's. It's been over 10 years since we last saw him. We were so surprised to hear from Steven Lopez. He is doing great and he and Vinson talked for a long time. Vinson and I had wondered over the years where Steven was and what he was doing. Hopefully we will see him sometime in the next year or so.

Catching Up

I haven't blogged in a while. I guess life just got in the way. We have been really busy with family, homeschool, work, politics and everything else.
Today was no different. We spent the morning in Alexandria getting supplies for the LPL State Convention which is taking place next weekend. Then we spent the afternoon running errands in Bunkie. I had the fun job of going to the eye doctor. After many weeks of itchy, bloodshot, and sometimes swollen eyelids he tells me my eyes are just irritated and gives me some prescription eye drops (not cheap). I hope this works because it's really starting to bother me.
Work on the T. Lee Horne, III campaign is going well. We were in two parades this month and are having a social party at the convention. We are planning several more events for June.
The kids are enjoying the warm weather. We've moved our homeschool meetings to parks for now while the kids are able to enjoy the outdoors. I am currently working on a homeschool yearbook movie for the homeschool group. It's a tedious job but I'm having fun doing it. It will be a nice way for the kids to look back at the activities they took part in over the past year.

They Do!

Last weekend my friend Amy (we've been friends since kindergarten) got married. She asked Kaia to be a flower girl so Kaia and I went to Jennings Friday afternoon for the rehearsal. We helped with the decorating and spent the night at Amy's sisters house.
I forgot how much work went into a wedding but it was well worth it. After a late night and early morning we finally got the wedding under way. Kaia did great walking down the aisle and dropping flower petals. Amy looked beautiful in her wedding gown. It was a very beautiful wedding.
After the wedding we all went to the reception. Vins had videotaped the wedding for them and then added personal wishes from guest at the reception. The food was great and we had so much fun watching the children dance to the music. Tanek and Kaia said they had a lot of fun and neither one wanted to leave when it ended.
Amy and Antonio I wish you many years of happiness together!

College?

Over the years many people have asked why I didn't attend college. To put it simply I didn't believe I belonged there. I probably would have done well academically but socially I didn't think it was a good idea. Also, I planned to get married and stay home to raise my children. What was college going to teach me that I couldn't teach myself?

The other day I recieved my homeschool newspaper "The Link" in the mail. I came across this interesting article by John Taylor Gatto " The Richest Man in the World Has Some Advice for Us about College . . . (P.S. He didn’t take it himself). Here is an excerpt from the article:

On February 28 of this year, Bill Gates of Microsoft, told a gathering of the 50 American state governors that the United States has reached a competitive crisis which we were losing. This could best be combated by making college prep the sole function of secondary schooling, college prep for everyone, and college, too. Those who couldn’t afford it should be subsidized by the states. In Erving Goffman’s chilling locution, college was to become a “Total Institution,” controlling all work in the economy.
If Gates’ proposal was such a great idea, then how was it that Gates, like Faulkner, dropped out of college his freshman year? And why didn’t he ever go back? And how was it that from among millions of college-trained techies, Gates decided to hook up with another dropout, Paul Allen, to found Microsoft? That could have been a million-to-one coincidence, of course, except for the fact that Steve Jobs, the brains behind Apple, dropped out of Reed College after one semester. And never went back to college, not for a single day! Was it only an accident that Jobs chose to partner with another dropout, Steve Wozniak, in the founding of Apple?Michael Dell of Dell Computer didn’t bother with college either. Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, said he didn’t have the time to waste on college. Is the penny beginning to drop? These multi-billionaires, who’ve changed the face of the global society in technology, were all dropouts. What do you make of that?

If you think this is an interesting article so far then read the full article at: http://www.homeschoolnewslink.com/v8i3_gatto_college.html

I am stunned by the amount of people I know that went through college, obtained degrees and then had to work as waiters to pay the bills. People now believe that without college you will go nowhere. I believe with college you have a long expensive road ahead. People are putting off life while they are young to run up huge education loans and then spend the rest of their lives hoping the college education they receive will allow them pay off those huge loans.

Life is short and I prefer to live and learn through life rather than sitting in a desk in a room waiting for someone to tell me what I need to know.

Mardi Gras

We had quite an adventure Mardi Gras day. We left home headed for Iota but had to stop and detour a few times. Our first adventure was when I noticed a car in the ditch around a curve in St. Landry. Vins turned around and sure enough some guy had straightened out the curve. He was fine but the front of the car was pretty banged up. Vins called the sheriff department and after some neighbors came over to see the situation we headed down the road. Vins said the guy smelled like alcohol so that's probably the reason he didn't notice the road curved.
When we got to Eunice we took Hwy. 90 so we could pick T. Lee Horne, III, http://www.governor.ws, up at the La Pay E Bas Campground. About a mile down the road we realize we are traveling behind the Eunice Mardi Gras'. They were stopping and it looked like it was going to be a long slow drive. Vins waved down some people on the side of the road and they gave us directions to back roads to get us around the traffic. This is when we realized a map would have been a handy item to bring along. We turned around and headed the other way using their directions. We missed the turn by Pentecostal Church (never saw one) but somehow managed to find our way there.
After picking up Lee and his campaign supplies we made our way to Iota where Lee was planning to do some campaigning. We parked at my brothers and grabbed lunch then Lee got to work shaking hands and meeting people. Tanek and Kaia weren't having much fun so we drove over to Evangeline to see my parents. After a short visit we went back to Iota to get the men.
We brought Lee back to his campground and Vins talked to the owner about putting their campground in the TGI Camping book. Tanek and Kaia played in the dirt and rocks while we waited for Vins to finish. We left the campground at 3:30 and finally started our trek to Lake Charles.
We stopped in Iowa at Faustos for supper. It was interesting to see the devastation the hurricane had caused to the areas along I-10. When we got to Lake Charles we decided to pass by the L'Auberge Casino to see how it looked. I must say it was a grand sight. Much fancier (on the outside at least) than many of the other casinos in Louisiana. After that we figured it was about time to find our spot along the parade route.
We waited about an hour. During that time we witnessed two guys almost come to blows across the street from us. We also watched some pretty strange people walk down the street. Finally after much whining from the kids the parade finally started. They loved it, jumping up and down waving their hands and screaming for throws. When it was all over we left the parade with a backpack filled to overflowing and beads around our necks.
Great fun. We could have done without the two hour drive home. Maybe next year we will stay in town overnight.
Hey, A.W. we missed you at Mardi Gras this year!