September Memories Continued

Recently someone made a comment on our blog asking where the family pictures went! Sorry! Time has been flying by and I am just behind. I will try to remedy that these next few days and get caught up. I have so many great pictures, so I better get them posted!

Let's begin with a visit from our friends Carly, Paul and Adelaide! They came to visit on September 16-17. We met them in Tempe and they moved away before we did. We love them so much and were so happy to have them visit. Come back soon!
I couldn't resist taking a picture of my girls in the car on the way to Stake Conference. Lily smiles all of the time, but usually right after I take the picture! Aren't they adorable?!
I had the pleasure of directing a Stake Choir on October 18th. About 60 people came and sang and it was such a wonderful experience. I wish I could show you pictures, but I always feel strange taking pictures in the chapel. So you will just have to take my word for it that the choir sounded amazing, the Spirit was really strong, and I can't wait to do it again! When I sat down after a beautiful rendition of "My Shepherd Will Supply My Need" I looked over at Matt and he was a little teary-eyed. Trust me, that does not happen often--maybe ever. And he said, "That was amazing." No compliment could be better than coming from him because he is my most honest critic. Love you Mattie!
September 20th dance day pics--some of Abby's funny faces:
September 22:
I've been looking for ways to reinforce the positive things that Abby does and so we've been doing sticker charts. With her first sticker chart she earned a Toy Story tent and she was so excited.
I was really proud of her.
Saturday September 24th our friend Michelle came to visit us. We went to a Children's Museum and we all had a great time. Abby tried everything and constantly called each of us over to try whatever she wanted to do. She has the best imagination.
Abby's preschool had their first field trip and it was to the Kern County Fair. Parents were supposed to go, so I went and took lots of pictures. It was a pretty good fair and the kids were so cute. My favorite part was watching them get pulled in the little train. As they saw various animals they put a sticker on a chart their teacher made. Abby still has her chart.
What a fun day!
Matt and I both work with the youth at Church and I had the opportunity to work with the kids for this year's Standards Night. We did a program called, "We Believe" and the youth did the whole program--narration and songs. I love working with the youth and the program turned out really well. We not only did the program for a Sunday evening, they also did it for the entire ward for a Sacrament meeting. One of the young men came up after we did Standards Night and said, "Sister Garrett, I felt the Spirit." That alone made it all worth the time and energy it took to put it together. I hope I have other opportunities to work with the youth in regards to music. What better way to help them feel the Spirit and encourage them to develop testimonies of their own. Here are some of the youth one night as we practiced some of the music.
We have such fun and creative youth.

September Memories

So September seems to have gone by without a blog post! Terrible! I've been working on a lot of projects--one being our Youth Standards Night. Last Sunday they performed in front of parents and leaders and today they presented the program in Sacrament meeting. They did an amazing job and I knew it was worth it when one of the young men came up and said, "Sister Garrett, I really felt the spirit today." That makes it worth every bit of energy!

So now I need to catch up on a few things--beginning with our September memories.
On September 1st we began at Abby's dance class and as you can see, she is learning tap (and ballet). I love watching her dance.

Later that night we had a fun party for some wonderful friends that moved to Florida, the Cola Family. We will miss them so much. Here are a bunch of girlfriends!
Amber Cola and Jen. Love you Amber!
Abby has a friend named Levi whom she loves to play with. Here they are at the Cola's party.
Everyone loves to hold Lily and Stephanie Randall and Jane Delgado are perfect examples.
Here is a cute picture of Abby and Lily sporting their "Big Sister" and "Little Sister" shirts.
Abby loves to go in her blow up pool and so on September 2nd I joined her for a splashing good time. We jumped in the pool I don't know how many times and one time I found myself sliding right onto my rear end. Abby enjoyed that very much. Then Lily even took her first swim in a little blow up pool.
Saturday September 3rd was a college football game day--I say "day" because we have 3 teams to cheer for. Here we are sporting our Nebraska attire. Later the girls both fell asleep on me. I'm so lucky!
After Church on Sunday, Abby fell asleep while eating her cheese roll at the table. She doesn't sleep much or often, but when she does it's pretty darn cute.
September 7th, Wednesday, was a pretty momentous day. Abby's first day of preschool! Can you believe it? I took this before we left. She was so excited about her new lunch box.
After preschool I took Lily and Abby to the movie Cars 2. It was Lily's first movie in the theater! She slept....
Thursday, September 8th was another day of dance and I can't stop taking pictures of
Abby at dance!
The youth in our Ward were in charge of a Stake dance and Matt helped them with the set up. The dance went great and I think they might have had the most fun setting up!
Saturday Lily was having a little tummy time and then fell asleep. So cute!
Our Ward had a fun barbecue and the our friends the Henrie's enjoyed holding Lily--everyone does!
On Sunday, the 11th Matt and I had the youth narrators for Standards Night over to practice their part and have Sundaes. Before we began they used our indoor basketball hoop. Abby also found the camera and started taking pictures. This one turned out pretty cute.
Abby loves to help give Lily a bath and fortunately Lily is very patient.
Ok, just another dance picture or two from the 15th!
Lily loves to watch Abby dance!

Approaches to the Economy: Keynesian vs. Trickle Down

A good friend recently visited me and asked about my feelings about Obama. It led us to a discussion about the economy, labor, and lots of other topics. At one point I explained I believed in Keynesian Economics, to which he replied disbelief, "you're an educated person, and you believe this stuff?" Let me explain.

There are two major approaches to the economy that are embraced by the major American political parties. The Democrats advocate for more government involvement via regulation and taxation for the purpose of redistributing wealthy. Republicans prefer less government and believe that such a policy achieves greater economic prosperity for all. In a time of economic crisis, both parties tout their system as the path to recovery.

Beginning with Roosevelt, the Democrats turned to British economist John Maynard Keynes who believed in a mixed economy--some private & some government enterprise. He recommended that an economic slump could be combated most effectively by dumping tons of money into the system. To accomplish this task, the government should take out loans and hopefully make good investments that stimulate the economy and make enough profit to payoff the debt later. When taken to the extreme this seemed to work and save America from the Great Depression. Conservatives will say, "no, FDR's spending did not save us; World War II saved us!" I agree. And who paid for the massive industrialization of WWII? It was the federal government. "But Obama's stimulus failed!" Yes it did, and I can give you two reasons for that. First, he did not spend enough to make a difference. He got no where near the adjusted spending of WWII (and we can blame both parties for that). Second, he invested it in stupid things. You can't dump money into tax relief and unemployment benefits. That is what people want, but it is not a good investment. You've got to invest in things like infrastructure, new industries, and education in order to make enough money later to pay off the debt. It is not worth taking out a loan to pay for day-to-day expenses because you'll never get out from under it, but it is worth taking out a loan to get more education and increase your earning capacity.

Conversely, Republicans believe in "trickle down economics," an economic theory that says if you deregulate and cut taxes for big business and rich people, they will invest it and hire more employees and the money will all trickle down to everyone. The entire economy and population will benefit. If you ask me, this is a thinly veiled effort to screw the poor and enrich the wealthy, and many Americans who don't know any better jump on board because the conservative propaganda media tells them it works. There is no historical evidence of success--none. America in the 1870s-1890s is the best example of what happens when you deregulate and don't tax the wealthy. The result is a high GNP and strong economy where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. On paper the nation looks wealthy, but you have millions living in squalor--families packed into unsanitary studios pooling their money from low wage labor just to survive. Republicans typically turn to Pres. Ronald Reagan's administration for their positive example. Well, that is a cute thought but there are several problems with that which they ignore. First off, it was under Reagan that the economy slumped first, before rising. When it did rise (and it certainly did), more jobs were created and GNP rose. It was great for the wealthy and even middle classes. But the jobs that were created, termed "McJobs" by one historian, were minimum paying low wage jobs like McDonalds--not the sort of income needed to raise a family. Real wages dropped across the nation. Yes, national production and wealth grew, but it did not trickle down.

So what does our country need today? I think we needed a massive stimulus package that went to new industries, infrastructure, and education. We did not get that, and now the nation is poisoned against any new stimulus and I'm not sure the economy could survive another one anyhow. We now have no choice but to go the other way--screw the poor with conservative trickle-down economics that will not actually trickle down, but it will save the economy as it polarizes wealth into the hands of a few. That is the only way to rake up enough cash to save the economy. It is unfortunate, but I don't see another route at the moment. Once the economy is stable, we can get back to a more balanced system that taxes the wealthy to re-distribute the labor and wealthy that they extract from the poor. After all, a person who puts in 40+ hours, works hard, and generates wealth for the company deserves enough to rent a cheap apartment and eat food, don't you think? But that is a discussion for another day.