Focus on the Candidates – Marco Rubio

This blog is part of the series that focuses on the candidates who are running for President of the United States in the 2016 election. This blog focuses on Marco Rubio. Marco Rubio is the son of Cuban immigrants. He started out as a City Commissioner for West Miami. In 2000, he was elected to the Florida House of Representatives. In 2006, he became the Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. Marco Rubio became a United States Senator in 2011. Health Care According to his official website Marco Rubio believes “that Obamacare cannot be fixed and must be fully … Continue reading

Baby Advice Can Become Outdated

New parents are often overwhelmed with pieces of baby advice. Sometimes, the advice comes from family members who really do mean well by giving you a piece of baby advice that they used on their children. Other times, some random person at the grocery store feels the need to toss unwanted baby advice at you. It can become difficult to tell the good advice from the bad. One way to sort things out is to see if the advice you were given is in this list of outdated baby advice. All of the baby advice in this list started out … Continue reading

Girls Night: It’s a Must!

I’ve started a new little tradition with a couple of my closest girlfriends. Every other weekend we try to have a night just for us girls. We go out to dinner, raid thrift stores, do crafts, and talk about anything and everything until all hours of the morning. For a long time I didn’t make my friends a real priority in my life. I was going to school full time, raising a child on my own, and trying my hardest to keep up on everything. I didn’t feel like I had time for friends anymore. It wasn’t until this past … Continue reading

James and the Emerald Night Train

An eleven year old boy who has autism saved up his money for years in order to buy a very special LEGO set. Imagine the disappointment he must have felt when, after reaching the amount he needed, it turned out that he still could not afford to buy it! Fortunately, this story is one that ended in a very happy way. You’ve heard of LEGO. It is the company that makes little colored plastic bricks of different shapes that can be easily snapped together. The bricks can be popped back apart later on, and used to build something else. LEGOs … Continue reading

Easy Weeknight Turkey Burgers

Make some yummy, juicy turkey burgers with very little effort for a great weekday meal on even the busiest days. While they are wonderful as is, to make them truly special, make your own burger buns using the very easy and very good Bread Machine Rolls recipe. You can follow the recipe exactly, which calls for a combination of bread flour and wheat flour, or just use all bread flour. This recipe makes 6 medium burgers. Ingredients: 1 1.3 pound package of ground turkey, preferably 85 percent lean 2 tablespoons of dry stuffing mix (another great recipe that uses ground turkey … Continue reading

Update on the Medicaid Autism Program in Utah

The state of Utah does not require private health insurance companies to cover the cost of treatment for autism. The results of this choice give insight into what could happen across the nation if other states allowed insurers to opt-out of coverage for this very important treatment. It must be incredibly difficult to live in Utah, to have a child who has an autism spectrum disorder, and to have your health insurance company deny coverage for the treatment that your child requires. Parents whose child needs applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy are going to be paying for it out of … Continue reading

Disney Christmas Day Parade Filming Dates

Big news first: I know the filming dates for the 2012 Disney-ABC Christmas Day Parade. This is an elusive event where the tickets go on sale and sell out almost immediately. This year I have an inside line on the taping; the daughter of a friend of mine is going to dance in the parade. They’re taping the last week of November/the first weekend in December. The big day should be Saturday, December 1. I couldn’t verify this information online, because Disney hasn’t posted anything official about it yet. They probably won’t until November. But I can guarantee that the … Continue reading

Anniversaries and Date Nights Part III

As soon as we got home from mass, the rolls went into the oven to bake. Meanwhile, I made two lattes in our thermal travel mugs and the glaze for the cinnamon rolls. The combination of these particular cinnamon rolls (filled with a brown sugar crumb with chopped raisins and pecans topped with a creamy sugar glaze) paired with a decadent latte make for one of my favorite and rare treats (I usually only make these rolls for Christmas morning). Once the rolls were done baking, I drizzled the glaze on top and it took every ounce of my self … Continue reading

Anniversaries and Date Nights Part II

My husband and I are really horrible at taking the time to spend time together as a couple. The predominant rationalization that we make is that the cost involved with going on dates is too prohibitive. Getting a sitter, going to a moving, or going to a restaurant seem to be very cost prohibitive for our budget. It is especially hard for me to justifying eating out when we can make much higher quality and healthier foods (that in my opinion tastes much better) for a fraction of the cost than we can get at any of our local dining … Continue reading

Anniversaries and Date Nights

My husband and I recently celebrated six years of marriage. Before we had children, my husband and I would celebrate our anniversary by spending the entire day together focusing on each other, but our time together has drastically changed after we had children. Celebrating our anniversary is about all we do. It is rare for us to get a babysitter so that the two of us can have a date night. For the first five years of our marriage we were in the throngs of a very intense graduate program which demanded more time and money than one could imagine. … Continue reading