Updates, Updates, Updates - Part 1

Wow! It's amazing how time flies, and I can't believe how many updates I need to make to this blog after being away from it for just a couple of days.

Okay, let's see, where shall I start....well, I guess I'll start with California's state budget crisis, and let me tell you, there are winners and there are losers in the state's budget crisis. Yes, I said winners - a few anyways, but there are certainly more losers. The anti-tax conservatives are certainly among the winners. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you might even recall that our family took to the polls and the streets along the Sacramento capitol in the Spring to protest, along with thousands of other California voters, several ballot measures that would have resulted in significant tax increases. In May, we won that vote against increased taxes (well, for the next 2 years anyways). Hey, sometimes, you gotta' take what you can get and although it's a short-term victory, it's still a victory at least for the next 2 years. Okay, now for the losers, and there really are many more losers in the budget battle in California than there are winners. There are some causes and initiatives that are certainly taking a beating from the budget battle including public employees, the poor, the disabled and the public school systems to name but a few. According to the Capitol Journal, "auto-pilot" spending in California was permanently eliminated on all automatic annual cost-of-living adjustments, except for education. Repealed were the yearly 5% increases for state universities and inflationary hikes for welfare families and the aged, blind and disabled. That's projected to save $300 million this fiscal year and $4.2 billion through mid-2013. Obviously, there are some clear losers in this one.

Caught in the cross fires of this budget crisis, as noted above, are state-funded programs and services for disabled children. A tough one for us because our daughter Taylor has participated from time to time in state funded services, but as my husband and I have talked about many times before, although well-intentioned by the state, these services were simply unsustainable over the long-term and we were always quite surprised that the state of California picked up the tab on such services. We, therefore, were not surprised when we received a letter in the mail from one of the state-funded service providers that Taylor's services would cease the end of August.

While these services have certainly benefitted Taylor, we've always recognized that such state-funded programs were beyond what any state could sustain over the long-term. I feel blessed beyond measure that my husband is able to provide for our family's medical needs independent of state and government assistance. While these types of state-funded medical services have provided wonderful benefits to Taylor, we always felt they were more of a luxury, especially since we weren't paying for them. Now, Mike's insurance will have to pick up the services, and like I said, we're very fortunate that we have private insurance that will allow us to continue providing Taylor and Paige with the quality of care they need. That said, we also understand that many families will not be as fortunate and will lose these services altogether. We have certainly appreciated the services that the state has provided the last couple of years to our children, however, we recognize that no state, especially one the size of California, can shoulder the financial burdens necessary to provide such services for any significant, ongoing period of time.

And, of course, then there's the rates of unemployment and the ongoing housing market crisis that continues to grow. Just like the overall state budget crisis, in both of these scenarios as well, there are winners and losers. But, in my humble opinion, mostly losers as thousands of people continue to struggle to find gainful employment and as thousands of individuals and families toil to remain in their homes, many of which are now more than 50% under water. In fact, I continue to marvel at the sheer number of homes in some stage of foreclosure in California. Take our neighborhood, for example, just within the last two weeks, 4 more homes have been listed as either short sales or bank repos. Personally, I try not to think about it for the most part. I also try not to get bummed out that my husband and I purchased a brand new, beautiful home 4-1/2 years ago which was then valued at $400,000 and that today, is valued between $180,000 - $190,000. Yep, we're part of that population that owns a home that's more than 50% under water with no future indicators that the property value will return to its original value anytime soon. Yeah, I know. All I can say is: Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

Okay, moving on to happier subjects now...moving on, moving on.

The twins are doing well! They are as busy and as vivacious as ever. These days, I find that they are most content playing with each other, pretending to be princesses together, playing games together, playing dress up, whatever, so long as they're together, they're happy as clams...oh, they still have their spells and tiffs with one another to be sure, but even those are becoming more few and far between. They truly are one another's built-in playmate and each other's best friend. In fact, I will take them to a preschool program a couple mornings a week, and when I come back to pick them up, I will periodically ask the teachers how they play together that day and how they played with other children. Interestingly enough, even though they have all these other little children to play with, they buddy up and stick together and are pretty much inseparable. I've heard that to be true for many other twins at this age - that they prefer to play with each other over other children - and I suppose, for now, Mike and I are okay with that. A day will come when they will gravitate towards other children, and begin to seek out their own individual friendships, but for now, they're just perfectly contented to be with each other, so who are we to interrupt their own natural preferences, right?! Pretty cute!

Let's see...what else?! Oh, tomorrow, we're spending the day in Yosemite National Park. We're going to take the twins on their first Yosemite hiking adventure and may even have ourselves a little picnic in the beautiful Tuolumne Meadows of Yosemite. Mike and I used to do a lot of hiking when we first moved to California and while it was just the two of us. Of course, all that changed once I got pregnant with twins and it's only been within the last year that we've really started to venture back out on a more regular basis to the great outdoors to resume our previous hobbies of camping, hiking, and sightseeing. Paige and Taylor are now at the age where they are fun to have in tow on all of our adventures and they too really enjoy travelling and sightseeing.

Well, I've got a ton of stuff still to do before we leave for Yosemite tomorrow morning, so I better draw this post to a close now...there are still so, so, so, so many updates to post however...well, I'll just have to provide you with a sequel to this post another day I suppose. Stay tuned.

P.S. Be sure to check back for some fun pictures of our day in Yosemite National Park!