Growing Up

Everyone knows there comes a point when you truly realize that your children are no longer truly children and are beginning the all to quick transition to adulthood. Forget the fact that Shatlyn just turned 13 years-old yesterday (which truly does make me feel old though I am only in my Mid-30's). I believe it is the point that they outgrow you physically (or for me mentally; however, that would not be a great accomplishment)!!!

Shatlyn has had the goal of outgrowing her mother for a number of years now. Her goal has always been to be taller than her mother and possibly be as tall as two of her cousins who are nearly 6'0" tall. I always thought that was an amusing goal and that due to the fact I am around 6'0" tall, if she took after me then she might get closer. Well, she hit a growth spurt over the last 6-months where she has grown approximately 8 inches. She shot from being just under 5 foot tall to being 5'7" and passing her mother by several inches. Lord help me if she continues to grow and eventually passes me.

When I looked at the picture of Shatlyn and Becky standing back-to-back for her final middle school spring formal, I just realized that she is growing up way to quickly and way to fast. Though I also realized, no matter how grown up she looks on the outside, we still have a great deal of work left to help her on the maturity end!!

Saying Goodbye to our "Puppy"

This past week, we were faced with the unexpected passing of our "puppy". Now mind you when I say our puppy, he was almost 10 years old and weighed approximately 120 pounds. And for those of you that knew him, he was a Golden Retriever named Tango. He was named to be a pair with his mother, namely Tango and Cash.

Tango was a wonderful member of our family. He was the first pet that we had as a family and he quickly became a favorite of not only our family, but to all our friends and neighbors. Tango had the sweetest disposition and was described by others as being the most humble dog that they had ever seen. He was a great companion to all of us and was the "biggest baby" that you could have possibly imagined. Tango will be missed by all of us and has left a huge void in his normal spots in our home.

For those of you who love animals as much as we do, you understand that they really do become members of your family. Tango was and will always be a member of our family. He will be greatly missed.

Just Turn it Off!!!

I truly don't believe that I have ever seen or experienced a time that is so depressing. Every informational medium I use to keep up with current events is filled with bad news. With topics ranging from the free falling economy, to politicians who don't "practice what they preach" to murders, deaths, etc. Additionally, for all of us sports fans out there, it would be nice to go one day without having new stories of steroids, lying and poor moral character. At what point did it become okay to say that you did something, but everyone else was doing it, so I am sorry and I apologize. I believe my parents comments to that when I was a kid, was "if everyone is going to jump off a cliff, are you"??? Hmm, quite an interesting concept; however, I digress from my previous point.

I am unable to turn on the computer, radio, television, etc., pick up a newspaper or magazine without being exposed to the horrific stories and gloom and doom that dominates the airwaves and media. I have quit watching the local or national news telecasts due to their gloom and doom mentality. You hear so much about a "crisis of confidence". Well if you are trying to improve the confidence of this country, then just turn off the negativity of the nightly newcasts and you would immediately see an increase in confidence. Okay, so I can't watch television and get my news, so I choose to listen to the radio. Due to all of the commercials, I purchased an XM radio a couple of years ago, so I could bypass all of the commercials. Well as XM has progressed, more and more DJ's are now on the channels and commercials are infiltrating my music!!!! Wasn't that the reason I bought the radio in the first place??? Once again I digress. This morning on the way to work, I had the unfortunate pleasure to listen to more accounts of Chris Brown and his girlfriend Rhianna. Evidently, he decided to choke her resulting in his arrest and charges for Domestic Violence. Not exactly the uplifting way to start the day. Furthermore, all of the talk shows I used to listen too are so polarizing that you can pretty much recite word for word what their opinions are going to be. The adage of meeting in the middle is lost on all issues with these "talking heads". Maybe that is what they have to do to get ratings, but it would be nice to actually hear a bi-partisan discussion that does not involve the US exploding!!

So basically, this leaves me with my PC. The wonderful device I spend so much of my time on during the day. When I log on, I get to my homepage and get to see the President of the Peanut Butter company responsible for sickening hundreds and killing approximately 10 others, ordering his staff to go ahead and ship tainted shipments. Need I come back to my previous point of personal responsibility; however, that is not the point of this column!!!

At this point, I am not sure where to go to find out positive stories that occur everyday. People helping their neighbors, going above the call of duty to save others, pictures of our troops actually saving individuals and not just the same old tired pics of warfare. I think I am at the point, that I just need to turn it off!!!! (until tomorrow that is)

Where Did January Go????

As I write this, January has basically come and gone. At one time, it seemed as though January and February just dragged on and on and on. No more!!!!! I have always enjoyed the Holidays and always miss the busyness of the season and it seemed to make the next couple of months longer. Now, it just feels as though the busyness of the holiday season is replaced by the busyness of other activities (I still enjoy the holidays more though!!!!)

This past week, I had the pleasure of spending a few days in Richmond for our yearly Legislative meeting of our Social Services directors. We got to visit the General Assembly and drop by the offices of our representatives. As always, they were busy, though we did have a nice conversation with Del. Bud Phillips. He had a nice long conversation with us, which is always nice to have a long conversation with any of them at this time of year.

I am attending the Rural Caucaus in Richmond this week. This will be my first time attending, so it ought to be an interesting experience. I enjoy the political activities and believe they have significant benefit. However, I do have to say that I was extremely disappointed with our Federal government and the ongoing bi-partisanship displayed when voting on the stimulus package. The original stimulus package developed by Pres Bush and pushed through by the Republicans had significant bi-partisan support. But now, when Pres. Obama pushes forward with a new stimulus package largely developed by the Bush administration and the new administration, there was not a single republican who voted in favor of this package. It would be wonderful if the people who we elect to office would take the time to actually represent our interests instead of playing partisan politics. Do what is right and work together. Spend some of your energy building relationships and partnerships instead of building walls between each other.

Discussions of the Utmost Significance

In these truly challenging times, it amazes me how often individuals get caught up in issues that truly do not impact the overall well-being of people, but just differences in people and how they believe. There is presently an ongoing discussion surrounding one of the Board of Supervisors in Floyd County contacting Channel 10 News and complaining about their anchors not wearing flag pins on their lapel and claiming the station is unpatriotic. In response to this, people are jumping on the BOS member for using patriotism to drive a wedge in between groups.

In my own personal opinion, this is just more of people focusing more on individual differences than on working towards addressing the current problems and issues that impact our counties, states and nation as a whole. I would love for people to put this much energy towards identifying commonalities and ways to work together instead of finding ways where they differ. Everyone has their own opinions, but sometimes it would be nice if those opinions were used to bring people together instead of trying to drive them apart and attack those who do not share your views.

New Year and No Resolution

As the New Year has come and is well on its way, I still have not decided what I would like to accomplish during this year. The last several years have been easy with finishing graduate school and trying to survive all of the papers, classwork, working, etc. that goes along with it all. But being as I finished last Spring, I truly have not identified a new resolution. I guess I could still look at losing weight, getting into shape, etc., but truly those just bore me. It is one of those things that I know I need to do; however, I don't have a desire to do so. In that sense, I would just make the resolution and then break it. So, I guess I will continue on and identify a New Year's resolution sometime during the year, though I guess it won't truly be a New Year's resolution then!!

It is the time of year that I have begun my weekly pilgrimages to Richmond. The Legislature is certainly different this year than it has been for the past several years. There are very few bills being put forth that truly have any impact on anything. For the most part, eveything is specifically focused on the state budget crisis. We received another disturbing report this week that the deficit in Virginia may be closer to 4 billion. That is another billion on top of cuts that have already been identified. My agency completed it's budget this week with a 10% total reduction. Being as we are mandated by VA Code to provide all of the services we do, this ought to be interesting as this process continues.

I will be spending most of the coming week in Richmond. I have to be there from Tuesday through Thursday as we meet with our Legislators and try to keep our face off of the radar. This is one of those situations where you just want to stay out of the crosshairs of the legislature and protect what funding you already have.

Other than the "fun" at work, everyone around home is doing well. Shatlyn is participating in Destination Imagination through school and we have to travel next weekend to Abingdon for their competition. Then there will be another one in March and then April. The group has written a play about Romeo and Juliet of course with the updated teenage take. It should be relatively entertaining!

I have been working on a project of scanning some older pictures into the computer. I never really thought about it, but we take more pictures at Christmas than we do the rest of the year combined I think.

And on a final note, I hope everyone enjoyed the historic inauguration this past week. Whether or not you voted for Obama or agree with his politics, this was a historic situation and there is an optimism in people that I haven't noticed in many years. Let's hope that things improve and people are once again able to meet their basic needs.

Christmas 2008

There is just something about Christmas time and the joy that you see in people's eyes and faces. It truly does feel like the one time of year when people are geninely happier, friendlier and more compassionate. I have always and continue to love this time of year.

We started a new program at work this year called Silver Bells. We basically did an Angel Tree for our elderly population and were able to get them some unbelievable items and gifts. The gratitude that you see on people's faces by just doing simple acts of kindness helps to get you through all of the bad times that you may endure at other times. With all the bad news that we see and hear about (first hand on too many occasions) it always does me good and leaves me feeling a little more energized to start the new year. And the way things are heading, I am going to need it in 2009.

We are enduring another round of budget cuts and now the county is asking for us to introduce budgets with a 15% reduction!!! That is an unbelievable number based on the size of our caseloads and the amount of people we are serving. Everyone in our business knows that when things are going bad, our doors are swinging at an incredible pace. It doesn't make sense to me, but neither does the entire governmental process at times.

With the legislative session about ready to begin, January 14th, I am preparing to begin making my weekly trips to Richmond. These are some long day trips and are really long by the end of the session, which is supposed to be a short session this year, but I don't see them finishing early.

Anyway, everyone in the family is happy and healthy and we are all looking forward to Christmas. We have already celebrated with both my mom, dad and Becky's dad, so Christmas day will be all ours for the first time. I am looking forward to getting plenty of new toys that I can play with and just celebrating the season. Shatlyn should be happy as she is just a tad spoiled, so I don't see her wanting for anything this year. Overall, this year has been very good to me and my family.

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and I hope everyone is happy and healthy.