Yes, our last update for March. the year is flying by. How's the weather where you are? It will be a lovely week here in northern California. Plenty of sun and temperatures in the high 60s! Nice enough to finally wash the cars in the driveway. Gosh, they were filty!

We had an exhausting weekend. My boys had a sleepover at our house. Not a whole lot of sleep happened here on Friday night! Lots of activities on Saturday, followed by a dinner here with my folks. I did a soup and salad bar. Three types of homemade soups - split pea with ham, chicken noodle and a delicious sweet potato bisque. Yum!

Please continue to keep Gina's daughter Katie in your thoughts as she recovers from surgery!

you made any Spring Break plans?

Here are a few questions to get us going!

1. Have you made any Spring Break plans?

2. Have you done your taxes?

3. Would you buy a car from the Big 3 automakers? What do you think of the crisis?

4. How safe is your neighborhood?

5. Any graduations this spring for any of our kids?

Have a great week.

Sharon
12 year old b/b/b + 15 year old son

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Spring Break plans? My older girls are on break right now. One is in Mexico with her school band (the passport issue was finally resolved) I have break in two weeks with my youngest daughter. I am going to CLEAN the house
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>2. Have you done your taxes? Yes , very nice refund already spent. Waiting on state refund because they claimed to be missing a form for k-12 expen.
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>3. Would you buy a car from the Big 3 automakers? What do you
>think of the crisis? Can't afford to buy a car....hope mine can hold on another year or two. It is already 14 years old. If I had money, I would buy American.
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>4. How safe is your neighborhood? Affluent area but stuff still happens. Like they stole the hood ornament off my old Lincoln. I teach on the West Side of Chicago. That can get pretty interesting.
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>5. Any graduations this spring for any of our kids? High school graduation for the triplets...Eighth Grade for my youngest.
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>Tami
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We've had a busy March. DH and I went to Hawaii with his family to celebrate his parent's 50th anniversary. We left the kiddos at home with a sitter. It was a very nice trip, but I came home very sick with a chest cold and spent 2 days in bed after we got back. Saturday our little dog got out and got run over by DH as he was taking the kids somewhere. She was chasing a rabbit and ran right under his truck, he couldn't miss her. He feels terrible about running her over. We miss her terribly and have had a hard time coping the last couple of nights. One DS was up to 10 last night crying over it. Ugh!

1. Have you made any Spring Break plans? We're on break this week and don't have any real plans

2. Have you done your taxes? In progress right now.

3. Would you buy a car from the Big 3 automakers? What do you think of the crisis? Yes, if I was going to buy one.

4. How safe is your neighborhood? Pretty safe alothough we had some vandalism a couple of weeks ago. The theory is it was some bored teens, but they haven't caught anyone yet.

5. Any graduations this spring for any of our kids? Nope.

Kim
Nate, Nick & Noel(36w4d)and Nia.

<a href="http://www.tickercentral.com"><img border="0" src=""></a>


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1. Have you made any Spring Break plans?
We leave for the Smokey Mountains on Monday.

2. Have you done your taxes?
Done. Stae refund is back, awaiting federal.

3. Would you buy a car from the Big 3 automakers? What do you think of the crisis?
We are trying to hold out 2 more years before getting a new car.
I will buy from anyone who can supply an 8 seater for a reasonable price. We now have a Astro van and a Volvo- both old!

4. How safe is your neighborhood?
We feel safe. We live a few blocks from downtown and between parks so get a variety of people passing through. We get the occasional break-ins, usually garages, but nothing violent.

5. Any graduations this spring for any of our kids?
Our oldest graduates from 8th grade. I am SOOO not ready, tho' he is.
It is hard for me to wrap my head around him going from a school of 440 (k-8) where we know every teacher well, nearly all the families and many of the gradparents since we also belong to the parish, to a high school of 1700.

Judie and Victor
lucky parents to
Frankie 3/95
Maggie 7/96
Rose 7/96
Elizabeth 7/96

1. Have you made any Spring Break plans? I'll be in Yosemite during my boy's Spring break (giving a workshop) -- my sister will be here to hlp watch the boys while dw is at work.

2. Have you done your taxes? yep//\\...

3. Would you buy a car from the Big 3 automakers? No. Crisis? I have a hard time understanding why we have to buy stuff in order for there not to be a crisis. The only natural system I know of where constant or accelarated growth is manatory is with cancer cells.

4. How safe is your neighborhood? On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the safest...I'd say 8.

5. Any graduations this spring for any of our kids? No, but the boys move up to Jr. High next year.

The Boys turn 12 tomorrow. Amazing! Sometimes I think we already have a house full of teenagers...LOL! The other times it seems that I have a house full of five year olds...

Vaughn and the ABC Boys
Alex, Bryce, & Calder
3-31-97 @ 28.5 weeks
http://s515.photobucket.com/albums/t356/vaughn3abc/

"I have a hard time understanding why we have to buy stuff in order for there not to be a crisis. The only natural system I know of where constant or accelarated growth is manatory is with cancer cells."

Or Ponzi schemes....

Kim
Nate, Nick & Noel(36w4d)and Nia.

<a href="http://www.tickercentral.com"><img border="0" src=""></a>


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>Or Ponzi schemes....
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Ahhh...now there is a thought. Our whole economic system as a massive Ponzi scheme. A system of resource extraction and manufacturing as a way for the uber-rich to skim money off the top until the system eventually can not sustain itself and collaspes in a heap.

I bet they don't teach that in the universities' business programs!LOL!

Vaughn and the ABC Boys
Alex, Bryce, & Calder
3-31-97 @ 28.5 weeks
http://s515.photobucket.com/albums/t356/vaughn3abc/

I thought I was being funny, but you know what, there is something behind your comment....making me think....

Kim
Nate, Nick & Noel(36w4d)and Nia.

<a href="http://www.tickercentral.com"><img border="0" src=""></a>


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Well, don't think to hard on it -- it can be a bit depressing. But on a national level, what else can one call a system that pays off the present investors (taxpayers) with money not yet earned by future investors (our kids and their kids) by creating a massive national debt? A Ponzi scheme of the first order!

But I have little training in economics and willing admit that I have no credentials in this field. But the capitalistic system came to be at the same time as the industrial revolution -- a time of massive growth. By definition capitalism became tightly associated with growth. All the formulas and all the theories created, and all the economists trained during times of growth. But the problem is that we live in a finite system and unless we find some way to achieve a stable state system that does not depend on growth, we are going to continue to grow until we hit the wall, and like a mass of cancer cells, kill the host.

So there you go -- the Word from the hippy dippy economic forecaster!LOL!


Vaughn and the ABC Boys
Alex, Bryce, & Calder
3-31-97 @ 28.5 weeks
http://s515.photobucket.com/albums/t356/vaughn3abc/

Vaughn,
Happy belated birthday to your boys.
Catherine

"

1. Have you made any Spring Break plans? We are in the middle of academic years right now. With the kids' sports practices and tournaments, we have stayed close to home.

2. Have you done your taxes? Yes, but I haven't filed them yet.

3. Would you buy a car from the Big 3 automakers? What do you think of the crisis? I want my next car to be a hybrid or electric car... while I see the occasional Ford, American cars aren't big sellers here. Size, cost and fuel efficiency are greatly valued with the very narrow roads and expensive gas (I am cheering at $4 a gallon)and Japanese automakers have traditionally met those needs very well.

4. How safe is your neighborhood? I live in a city of 310,000 with no 'bad' area. Kids walk to and from school unsupervised, come home from school and bike off to the park or friend's houses, women walk alone at night, kids don't walk with their parents in stores, I haven't heard of a break-in in our neighborhood... this is an incredibly safe area.

5. Any graduations this spring for any of our kids? No graduations here.

"

Speaking of weather. Our's is just YUCKY! This morning around 10, I looked out the window to see huge snowflakes coming down. We ended up with about an inch of heavy, wet, sloppy snow. That's better than the 16 inches of snow some cities got!

1. We already had our Spring Break back in early March. We spent it in Florida.

2. Our taxes are done and the money is in the bank. We had to pay last year so we made adjustments and got money back this year.

3. I am looking to buy a new car and don't have an issue with buying from one of the big guys.

4. Our neighborhood goes in cycles. The police explained that to us once about how the crooks rotate areas for crime. Right now it's not our turn. In the past we have had numerous car break-ins, car theft, and our house was burglarized while we slept. We live in a very nice suburb.

5. The only graduation we will be celebrating this May is my son's girlfriend. She will be getting her RN.

Have a wonderful week everyone.

mom to:
Ryan 32 The Lawyer
Jason 30 The Chief Meteorologist
Chris 30 The College Student
Tim 30 The college grad

I love hearing their versions of their childhood memories!!

Hi all

Well Spring is in the air - supposed to be 61 and sunny here today - hopefully we will lose more of the snow!

1-Going to visit friends is Canada for the 1st half and then celebrate the boys bday the second half (friend party, family party and actual bday)

2-yes
3-I would buy anything that was safe, reliable and a good deal (and fuel efficient)

4-We live in a very rural area - no crime to speak of - though always live with that knowledge that anything can happen anywhere!

5
None

Busy here lately - mostly due to going away several weekends including the next 2! Between that and our puppy being the toughest one we have ever had (kept us up last night as she heard a coyote outside) - I am pretty beat and craving down time!

Have a good rest of the week.

Suzanne
BBB 4/00