Her Morning Elegance / Oren Lavie

my Aunt Julie shared this on FB and we are loving it so much, i wanted to share it with all of you. the kiddos are all about the video, yelling "more, more" and "mama, i like to watch it. let me watch it again?"

i heart curls

wet curls ::

long curls ::
mullet curls ::
long mullet curls ::
crazy & running away curls ::
i love that they both have crazy curls!! Nata's spring out everywhere and Evers mullet is just as crazy and messy. i wonder if the top will curl up more around 2 like Nata's did.

after baths, Nata sits on my lap so i can work out the tangles. she looks at pictures and blogs of family and friends and is much more agreeable about the whole thing since i've figured out this helpful tool. when i use the water bottle to rewet her curls, she yells "okay, okay, thats enough!!" she thinks i should be finished already. once all the tangles are out, there is plenty of snuggling. when it comes time to run a comb through Evers curls, b/c they get little knots in them if we don't, he must be held down and kind of pined to get the job done. pictures just don't do the trick. that boy is - allsortsofeverywhereatonce - when you need him to be still. and when i let him up, he run for the water bottle to squirt us all. : )

can you tell that my camera is back!! i'll be updating as i can, but until i am finished, expect the random... i am so happy to have my camera back that i'm taking pics of EVERYTHING. : ) big thanks to Bob and Ann for helping to get the kinks worked out!

University Bubble?, Meredith Whitney, and this Week's Lucky Winner

The next bubble to collapse: The University? Tuition increase of 32% at UCLA sends students protesting.



Meredith Whitney (most recognized banking sector analyst to call banking problems in 2007) had an excellent interview on Bloomberg. Can be found here:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/meredith-whitney-most-pessimistic-about-plummeting-credit-card-lines-feds-meddling-mbs-and-a?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zerohedge%2Ffeed+%28zero+hedge+-+on+a+long+enough+timeline%2C+the+survival+rate+for+everyone+drops+to+zero%29

She say's that currently 45 states are underfunded, credit card lines will continue to contract hurting small businesses and that she has no buy recommendations on any bank since she feels they are extremely overvalued right here. Meredith also discusses what she is most scared about, very interesting.

Only one bank fails this week making number 124 for the year and FLORIDA maintains the title for two weeks in a row with another failed bank.

Grayson-Paul Bill Passes Financial Services Committee!!!

Mark one in the victory column tonight for the real America!

Maybe we will finally help the 14.41% and growing of homeowners who have a mortgage and are delinquent over 30 days or in foreclosure instead of those other guys who lose big time and still get big bonuses.

Here's a list of the Patriots (yay) and a list of those supporting the Banking Cartel (nay) - (may want to keep this list around to sharpen your pencils with next time you go vote):

AL-06 Rep. Spencer Bachus yay
CA-12 Rep. Jackie Speier yay
CA-22 Rep. Kevin McCarthy yay
CA-27 Rep. Brad Sherman yay
CA-35 Rep. Maxine Waters nay
CA-40 Rep. Edward R. Royce yay
CA-42 Rep. Gary G. Miller nay
CA-43 Rep. Joe Baca nay
CA-48 Rep. John Campbell yay
CO-07 Rep. Ed Perlmutter yay
CT-04 Rep. Jim Himes nay
DE-01 Rep. Michael N. Castle yay
FL-08 Rep. Alan Grayson yay
FL-12 Rep. Adam Putnam yay
FL-15 Rep. Bill Posey yay
FL-22 Rep. Ron Klein nay
FL-24 Rep. Suzanne Kosmas
GA-06 Rep. Tom Price yay
GA-13 Rep. David Scott yay
ID-01 Rep. Walt Minnick yay
IL-04 Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez nay
IL-08 Rep. Melissa L. Bean nay
IL-13 Rep. Judy Biggert yay
IL-14 Rep. Bill Foster nay
IL-16 Rep. Donald A. Manzullo yay
IN-02 Rep. Joe Donnelly nay
IN-07 Rep. Andre Carson nay
KS-02 Rep. Lynn Jenkins yay
KS-03 Rep. Dennis Moore nay
MA-04 Rep. Barney Frank nay
MA-08 Rep. Michael E. Capuano nay
MA-09 Rep. Stephen F. Lynch nay
MI-09 Rep. Gary Peters yay
MI-11 Rep. Thaddeus McCotter yay
MN-03 Rep. Erik Paulsen yay
MN-05 Rep. Keith Ellison nay
MN-06 Rep. Michele Bachmann yay
MO-01 Rep. William Lacy Clay yay
MO-05 Rep. Emanuel Cleaver nay
MS-01 Rep. Travis Childers yay
NC-03 Rep. Walter B. Jones yay
NC-10 Rep. Patrick T. McHenry yay
NC-12 Rep. Melvin L. Watt nay
NC-13 Rep. Brad Miller nay
NH-02 Rep. Paul W. Hodes yay
NJ-03 Rep. John Adler yay
NJ-05 Rep. Scott Garrett yay
NJ-07 Rep. Leonard Lance yay
NY-03 Rep. Peter King yay
NY-04 Rep. Carolyn McCarthy yay
NY-05 Rep. Gary L. Ackerman nay
NY-06 Rep. Gregory W. Meeks nay
NY-12 Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez yay
NY-14 Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney nay
NY-25 Rep. Dan Maffei yay
NY-26 Rep. Christopher Lee yay
OH-01 Rep. Steve Driehaus yay
OH-06 Rep. Charles Wilson nay
OH-15 Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy nay
OK-03 Rep. Frank D. Lucas yay
PA-06 Rep. Jim Gerlach yay
PA-11 Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski
SC-03 Rep. J. Gresham Barrett yay
TX-05 Rep. Jeb Hensarling yay
TX-09 Rep. Al Green nay
TX-14 Rep. Ron Paul yay
TX-15 Rep. Rubén Hinojosa yay
TX-19 Rep. Randy Neugebauer yay
TX-24 Rep. Kenny Marchant yay
WI-04 Rep. Gwen Moore nay
WV-02 Rep. Shelley Moore Capito nay

Visit to China, Week of Volatility

Obama visited China this week over economic reasons. What came out of it? China told him to get America's budget under control. Of course, I'm putting words in China's mouth. Obama told agencies to expect a spending freeze in the near future (Bloomberg). China is worried that America will go broke and not be able to repay debt. America also needs China to continue to buy treasuries. China will keep America in line if Congress can't.

This week saw high volatility, especially in currencies. Volatility is typically a sign of trend change. The S&P came very close or may have even touched the upper band of the bear market trend line and then backed off. Also, all moves up in equities is still without volume. So Bear Market is still in tact for the moment. I expect we should see resolution to what the market wants next week.

Also, Florida is this week's lucky winner, with two banks failing. Costs FDIC just under $1 billion. FDIC is currently in the red by about $10 billion. Following graph courtesy of CNNmoney.com shows states with most bank failures out of the 123 that have failed this year:

just found in my inbox

"Hi people! Please follow the link and give my Gap Store's video 5 stars! We will get a much-needed party if we get enough votes! Retail is hard this time of year. :-) And please don't disown me after viewing this performance."

~ Louise

for those of you who might not know Louise, she's the hooded rapper and a good friend. please double click on the video after enjoying it and then click on 5 stars to vote!! thanks!!

Becoming Numb? - October Jobs Report, FDIC

Friday's release of the October job numbers were absolutely horrible. U-3 unemployment reached 10.2% and U-6 unemployment reached 17.5% (from 17% in September) per the Federal Government (U-6 is the number to watch because these are people making less money and are less likely to keep up with bills). The numbers are turning parabolic again, not leveling off as was expected by the people who said the problems were contained last year prior to the bottom falling out. These numbers also do not include people who have given up search for work or who are past the number of months allowed to receive benefits. Here is a chart from the white house estimates of the stimulus package earlier this year with what really happened (courtesy Zerohedge.com):

5 more banks fail, one large, making 120 banks to fail this year. Here are some of this Friday's stats:

United Commercial Bank: Costs Federal Government (tax payers) $299 million in lost investment in preferred stock from bailout money. Estimated cost to FDIC treasury line of credit: $1.4 billion, again FDIC shouldn't lose a penny. I remember when the FDIC used to have $1.4 billion.

Home Federal Savings: Estimated cost to FDIC treasury line of credit: $5.4 million.

Gateway Bank of St. Louis: Estimated cost to FDIC treasury line of credit: $9.2 million.

Prosperan Bank: Estimated cost to FDIC treasury line of credit: $60.1 million.

United Security Bank: Estimated cost to FDIC treasury line of credit: $58 million.

Who is going to bail the FDIC out once they realize they can't have banks repay the line of credit?

Happy Halloween ll

during the day, we all went to SpielWerk Toys and Nata decorated a sugar skull. Evers wasn't old enough to join, but he did his best to cheer her on.
a much better fairy picture!!
a fairy & a butterfly (Rowena)
a fairy, street performer, a knight and a frog prince!

Patty & Keenan threw a party for Halloween and we all did our best to join in b/c costumes were mandatory. although costumes are not our strong point, we managed to pull something together last minute. we all had a good time & these pictures, except the sugar skull, came from Patty. thanks Patty!!

hmmmm

or should i title this one "mmmmm"

my keen mommy sense tells me that my kiddos are mocking me!!

5 dangerous things you should let your children do

watch, enjoy and take in with, as Gever Tulley says, "a grain of salt," and apply to life!! i am curious to see what the other 45 things will be when his book comes out. you can check Gever out at his site :: Tinkering School.