Thijs, Barbara, Famke en Floortje in Texas: January 2012

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Tooth Fairy again

The tooth fairy is a busy lady these days! Another trip to the Rademaker residence needs to be made as Floortje lost her second tooth today. If you look closely you can see that the new tooth had already come through behind where the wobbly one was.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Tooth Fairy

Even though Famke told me she only believes 50/50 that the tooth fairy exists she is not taking any chances in losing out on some money. Two prerequisites however: One, the tooth cannot be in her room as she does not want anything or anyone visiting there at night. Two, she does not want the tooth fairy to take the tooth with her, hence the note. (the tooth container is a gift from the school nurse if you lose a tooth at school).

For those needing translation: dear tooth fairy, I lost my tooth today. I want to keep it here so do not take it away.

Sweet!

Marathon Kids

The girls are still busy trying to complete their miles for the marathon. We keep track of their progress on a chart. Last weekend was the Houston Marathon and as part of this there was also the Texas Childrens' Hospital Fun Run for kids. Due to the Olympic Trials in Houston it was being organized right here in Katy. The girls did well and were rewarded with a medal, T-shirt and more goodies!

Elections 2

My previous election post was kind of funny. The article below is something I read on CNN this week and it is all but funny! Very scary to think that there are people like this out there.

written by Dean Obeidallah

(CNN) -- Stephen Colbert -- host of "The Colbert Report" and unabashed right wing radical -- is now considering running for President of the United States of America.

Simply put: Colbert must be stopped! He is an existential threat to our way of life and to the exceptional nature of our nation.

I know some will dismiss the threat posed by Colbert -- these apologists will defend him as "harmless" or say he's no more than "a charismatic speaker" -- but that is exactly what they said about Hitler.

Colbert has not been hiding his extreme views. Night after night (or four nights a week to be exact) Colbert has been spewing his venom. However, for some reason, the media have given him a free pass.

But that ends now. Here are Colbert's positions on the key issues -- I warn you, they are scary:

-- Unemployment: "Suck it up, unemployed. It is your own damn fault that you don't have a job ... So stop scapegoating Wall Street." Do we really want an American president who sides with Wall Street over workers?

-- Corporate taxes: "If we raise taxes on corporations, what incentive will they have to make money other than the fact that it's the sole reason they exist." Colbert is clearly in the pocket of big business -- I bet his super PAC is funded by big businesses like hedge funds and casino owners.

-- Government helping Americans in need: "I believe in pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. I believe it is possible. I saw this guy do it once in Cirque du Soleil. It was magical!"

-- Gays: "There is nothing wrong with being gay. I have plenty of friends who are going to hell." Even Rick Santorum would not say this (at least not in public.)

-- America's role in world: "If our Founding Fathers wanted us to care about the rest of the world, they wouldn't have declared their independence from it." Under a Colbert administration, it appears America would just attack other countries for no valid reason.

-- Immigration: "This is America. I don't want my tomato picked by a Mexican. I want it picked by an American, then sliced by a Guatemalan, and served by a Venezuelan in a spa where a Chilean gives me a Brazilian."

And he advocates arresting illegal immigrants and throwing them in "jail -- then we can force them to pick our crops as prison labor."

-- Civil rights: "I just think Rosa Parks was overrated. Last time I checked, she got famous for breaking the law." Even Ron Paul, whose past newsletters contained racist comments, would be appalled by this callous remark.

-- Muslims: "Every permit granted to a mosque is one denied to an American house of worship." Colbert is to the right of Newt Gingrich on this issue, and keep in mind Newt has compared Muslims to Nazis.

These above quotes are clearly the words of a man with no regard for the values of our great nation. Why do the media coddle Colbert just because he labels himself a "comedian"? Hitler told jokes -- does that mean he was OK?

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Rain

It doesn't rain very often here but when it rains it rains Texas style: big!!! Yesterday we had 4.5" of rain in only a few hours. The rain was accompanied by thunder, lightning, hail, wind and an occasional tornado!

Our street turned into a river and the pool flooded (and looks like a mud bath now). The normal rainfall for January is around 3.5" so you can imagine the chaos this storm created.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Presidential elections on their way

The beginning of 2012 also means the real start of the 2012 presidential elections. As we are very close to the fire now, Thijs and I have started following this with more interest. At the moment the most important issue is who will become the republican nominee. Of course this gets determined by voting (in the US they vote for everything, from president down to the local sheriff). Tomorrow will be an important day in this process as New Hampshire gets to vote. How seriously should we take this? Judge for yourself....