Friendship

I have many close friends. One of my friends is named Anna. We have been friends since fifth grade. Growing up we did some very silly things together. We were never bad kids we were just goofy. We have a lot in common.  She is very artistic. Her drawings are amazing. I have a picture that she drew for me in ninth grade still framed hanging up in my house. Everyone that sees it thinks it’s wonderful and always asks me who drew it. I get to proudly say…, my best friend. For a while when we were in jr. high our dream was to be a writing team. I was going to write children’s books and she was going to edit them and be the illustrator. We used to come up with some silly things to make the class laugh.

I believe someday I will have my own daycare.

Someday I will own my own daycare. I will be my own boss. I will have the final decision on how the business is run.  Currently I am the director at a daycare center and I am unhappy there. I feel like the owner holds me back. The center could be so much more if she would just invest a little time and money into it. The way she talks and asks it is “why mess with something that is working”. Usually I follow that belief but what happened to making improvements. This is a tough business to run so why wouldn’t she want to strive to be the best. My work ethic and the owners’ vary greatly. I think that investing a little of the money they so lavishing spend on their family could be downgraded just a tad. Save a little of the money to invest back into the business. I think it would be wonderful to have my own center. I have the name picked out, the curriculum picked out, the staff picked out…the only thing holding me back is the money for the start up cost. I am working on it though. I have filled out the paperwork to receive a grant to help with the start up cost. Hopefully in another two years my husband and I will be set financially so that we are able to get a decent loan to begin the business. I know that I won’t cut some corners like she does. I have a very high work ethic so I know that I can do this. Since I am a director now there are very few things I will have to learn to become an owner. I cannot wait for this to happen. Downside to me opening my own…the owner of the place I’m at now is kind of my friend so she will feel like it is a betrayal if I leave her to open my own; especially because half of the staff have said that they will leave with me. So if any of them do leave she will be very upset with me and it could cost me our friendship. I believe so strongly in the fact that I will one day soon have my own center that this is a risk I am willing to take.

Health Insurance

I believe that everyone should have health insurance or that doctors should charge a way cheaper rate. My family is one of the many American's without health insurance. My employer does not offer benefits, which includes health insurance. My husband and I make to much to qualify for state assistance. With just our bills, this does not include anything extra or "fun", we cannot afford decient health insurance. I have looked for good health insurance and I have manipulatied our budget and everytime I come up a little short. Not having health insurance bothers me greatly, although I don't tell my husband.

This I believe...

·         Laughter is the best medicine

·         Children are our future

·         Children keep you young at heart

o   Although sometimes they drive you crazy and make you feel older than you are

·         Everyone has the right to live a life without pain

·         Everyone should be treated equally

·         Family is the most important thing

·         I don’t like writing for ten minutes with a timer

o   I feel like I’m under pressure and this bothers me greatly

o   I feel like I do better writing when I know I’m not in a time crunch

·         Fruits and Vegetables are an important part of a person’s diet

o   Not enough people eat them

·         My children and husband are my life

·         My husband is my soul mate

o   I knew this by the end of our first date

·         In love at first sight

·         In true love

·         Someday my children will grow up and get their own car and I can have a nice “cool” car instead of a mommy van…oops meant mini van…lol

·         Someday I will have my own daycare

o   Someday I will be my own boss

·         Everyone should always treat each day as if it is a miracle

o   You never know when you will not wake up or not finish out the day

·         Everyone should live in peace and harmony

·         Everyone deserves to be happy at some point in their lives

·         Anyone on welfare should be drug tested

·         Everyone should have a good work ethic

o   Why wouldn’t everyone want to put a 100% in their job?

·         I may end up liking this blogging thing after all.

o   I kind of think this assignment, it is fun.

o   Maybe this is something I will continue to do after the semester ends

·         There should be more than twenty-four hours in a day.

o   There are so many things I want to accomplish but there is never enough time to do it all.

·          Health insurance should be cheaper

o    Especially for those that do not qualify for federal assistance and whose employer will not give them insurance

·         There is a God

·         In magic

Discover Card

This time my writing prompt is a plastic see through Discover Card. The name on the card is J L Webb. I wonder how they pick the names for these kind of things. I wonder if there is a real J L Webb out there somewhere that doesn't like his name being used on sample cards. I really have no idea what to write on this topic. I don't like credit cards. To many people use them irresponsibly and get themselves into trouble. I have had friends who have used credit cards alot and then have to file bankruptcy to get themselves out of trouble. I have one credit card that I use strictly to help increase my credit score. I have had it for a while. I only use the card about once or twice a month for small purchases that I was going to purchase regardless. Like once I used it to purchase gas in my van and another time I used it to pay for my son't martrial arts class. Every month the day the statement comes in the mail I write a check for the full balance and then place it in the mail. Last month I ran my credit report and was surprised at how much it has helped.

The Liberty Bell

We traded prompts in class today and I got the Liberty Bell. This little bell is cute. It looks like its made of bronze. My daughter's second grade teacher had a bell she used in her classroom. I was able to volunteer some in her classroom and was very surprised by how well the bell worked for her. She was a wonderful teacher. She was a very soft spoken teacher. You would think that wouldn't be the best in a classroom of twenty-one seven year olds but it worked for her. She never once raised her voice in the class. Every time the students were getting a little loud and they couldn't hear her she would ring the bell twice. Every child in the classroom immediately stopped what they were doing, instantly got quiet, and turned to look at her. She would then tell them what she wanted to say. Use inside voices, time to change centers, line up for the end of the day. No matter what was going on all she had to do was ring that little bell of hers twice. I was dumbfounded the first time I witnessed it. I couldn't belive that was all it took to quiet the entire classroom. When I started working in the daycare, in the older classroom, I tried using the bell. It worked at first for me but then the kids just started saying they wanted a bell and wouldn't listen to me so I ended up not using the bell anymore. I found something else that worked for me.  Books. I read the children books. When they are getting to loud I just pull up my chair, grab a book, and start reading. It nevers takes more than a minute or two for the children to stop what they are doing to listen to the book. I read a book so often to my class that when it was time to move out of the classroom and train someone else the children were disappointed in her because she doesn't read to them as much. She told me that one day when the class was getting a little loud one of the girls looked at her and said this is when you get a book out. This just goes to prove that the same thing doesn't always work for the same person. For Mrs. Johnson the bell was a lifesaver, for me a bookis my lifesaver.

A Diaper

How fitting I picked a diaper to write about. I work at a daycare center. I changed diapers everyday so to me this is kind of ironic that a  disposable diaper is what I happened to pick. To my relief the diaper is unused. That is always a good sign and so different from what I experience everyday. The diaper is white with blue and green circles on it. Some of the circles are big and some are little. There doesn't seem to be a pattern on the design. The shapes just appear to be random. The diaper closes with velcro. Diapers have come a long way. Diapers used to be cloth and you used to have to fasten them with safety pins. Can you imagine how hard it would be to try to fasten a couple of safety pins, without poking the child, on a child that is squirmy? These diapers are so much easier to fasten. No matter how much the child moves all you have to do is grab one side of the velcro and quickly touch it to the other half. No more holding children down and poking your finger and the child with a sharp pointy object. Down side to these dispoable diapers...the waste they produce. Landfills are filling up every day with these things. They don't break down fast so they continue to accumulate. Because of this I actually gave cloth diapers a slight thought when my daughter was born. Upside to disposable diapers...when the mess is bad, and I mean real bad, parents you know what I mean, all you have to do is toss those things in the trash. Cloth diapers you have to rinse out in the toilet and then wash them. GROSS!!! I would not want those washed in my washing machine where in the next load I have to wash my kitchen towels. That is why I went with disposable diapers when my daughter was born. Cleaning cloth diapers was not for me. However, there is a parent at my daycare that uses them. She says that she likes them a lot better than disposable diapers. However I have noticed that when her child is real sick she converts to dispoable diapers. I asked her why and was not surprised by her answer. She didn't want to wash them. LOL