Thursday, March 25, 2010

Commodity Supplemental Food Program March 31, 2010

Going hungry is a terrible thing. There's a program for senior brought to you by the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. Seniors 60 years and older are invited to participate in the Commodity Supplemental Food Program.

They can receive a free food kit once a month. This kit is prepared w/ specific nutrional needs such as: meats, canned fruits and vegetables, dry milk and related products, cereals and other grain products plus much more.

Program Requirements for Seniors are:

* California ID or Driver's License
* Proof of Income - SSI or pension (bank statement, check stub, benefit award letter) or
* Medi-Cal Card

The senior can also authorize someone to pick up the kit every month but they must bring that person the first time the register.

The next distribution will be at the Salvation Army in Glendale, 320 East Windsor Rd, 91204.

Next Wednesday, March 31, 2010 from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm.

Please pass this along to any seniors you know.

Monday, March 22, 2010

From Bad to Worse Now That's Historic Reform

Let me disclose that I am against our government continuing to bailout corporations and individuals. I feel that their primary job is to protect its citizens and keep our borders safe. Just because I believe that it is not our government's job to provide affordable homes or health insurance does not mean that I don't think it is our individual responsibilities to help out our neighbors in need.

No matter how hard we try we will always have rich, poor, and middle class. By trying to eliminate poor we try to punish the rich in the form of higher taxes. The rich have a way of making it all roll downhill so the middle class suffer. Yes we can continue to be envious of all the money that the rich have but the majority of the rich are first generation millionaires. They worked hard all their life and didn't live beyond their means to get where they are at today. Now because of our envy we look at them as the evil person and that they need to pay for our social programs.

You can continue to believe that paying your fair share of taxes is fine and let us allow the government to run our lives and our businesses. Then one day we will realize that businesses have left to find other tax havens and our unemployment continues to rise. Who do we tax when our businesses are gone and someone does not have a job to pay taxes. Even the Bible states that we'll always have poor in Deuteronomy 15:11 "Of course, there will never cease to be poor people in the country, and that is why I am giving you this command: Always be open handed with your brother, and with anyone in your country who is in need and poor."

I will always believe that we can help people better with local community hospitals to address wellness programs. People can pay for these services in cash and others can apply for aid. People can then purchase high deductible insurance plans for emergencies. The reason I want it out of the hands of government is because we have seen generations of families become handicap to the government's helping hand. There's no guilt in taking from the government but taking charity from someone will make people want to provide for themselves and one day pay it forward through their own contributions.

Let's help our neighbors who do need it and those who don't please continue to pay it forward. After all we are all brothers and sisters under God and we need to find a balance where we continue to encourage innovation while not allowing others to suffer. We just can't have our government continue to raise the tax burden for everyone and think that we will still encourage investors to invest in some of the most innovative people that can advance medical technology. Maybe we can raise tax revenues to pay for it all if we adopted a fairtax, http://www.fairtax.org.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Growing Closer to God

Our earthly parents are supposed to prepare us to leave them. Unlike them our earthly Father pushes us so that we can get closer to him. I have made my life as transparent as possible and so you know that I have had my fair share of struggles. I still have trials that I am going through and when I was younger I asked God why and what the heck did I do to deserve such luck. In the past week I have gone on 2 hikes and finished reading 2 books that have really helped me grow spiritually. I need to share this with you so that hopefully I can inspire others to seek the same type of growth.

This blog was definitely inspired by the book I just read. Embrace the Struggle: Living Life on Life's Terms, by Zig Ziglar is a very inspirational book. Not only does he share his own story but he has a few others in there as well. I have said this before but I'll repeat it again. When I was going through my divorce and realizing that being the only parent that was going to look after the kids I felt the weight of the world. We always feel so alone in our darkest hour especially when our relationship with God is not as strong as it should be. The morning of September 11, 2001 I woke up a little later than usual and decided to take my time and watch the news. The events of that day will always be on our minds but those same events made me realize that what I was going through was nothing compared to how thousands of people had just been affected. Life can change in an instant and at that moment I began to pray for thousands of other people that I have never met and my life wasn't all about me.

Struggles in our life we definitely try to avoid but when they do happen we must take the lesson from it and grow spiritually the way God has intended for us. I don't question God anymore cause I know with his guidance he will lead us to where we're supposed to be. As a matter of fact I don't even ask God for patience cause he always seems to bless me with the opportunity to show patience. I guess that's where "be careful what you ask for" comes from. I now thank God for everything he has given me. I praise him for the good and I praise him for the opportunity to learn and overcome struggles. I pray that all of you can also experience the clearing of your vision the way I have. Below is a dedication or poem that I just wrote for my daughter's yearbook as she gets ready to graduate. Be kind cause I'm not a poet and as I started to rhyme I couldn't help but try to be funny. I hope you enjoy.

God's Gift

When I was young I was lost.
My selfish mind was the cause.
I thought of nothing else but to coast through life,
Lots of money, a house, and a lovely wife.
Needless to say I'm quite not there,
money in my wallet is quite rare.
Instead God has blessed me with you,
and soon to follow another two.
You have grown faster than I'd like,
but you'll always be my baby who I taught how to ride a bike.
You were God's gift to me.
You cleared up my vision and now I can see.
Unfortunately you have only seen the struggle,
Having you and your brothers I have learned how to juggle.
It is through the struggles that we grow spiritually,
and you have grown extraordinarily.
The lesson I hope that you have learned from this,
is to keep God close so that your life is bliss.
The struggles that you have endured so far,
are God's gift to you instead of a car.
One day you'll look back and see
that God was really looking over you and me.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

The Dreaded Sex Talk

Last night I decided to ask my daughter for a few minutes of her time so that I can have a serious conversation with her. I didn't think that the time for me to have the talk with my little girl was ever going to come. I had to realize that although she will always be my little girl to others she is now a teenager and it is a matter of time that I'm going to have to pull out my shotgun (just kidding I don't own a gun but my hands are considered lethal). Reading Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World made me realize that if I didn't talk to her than she would get her information from some smooth talking teen or from her friends who probably get all their information from shows like "Gossip Girl"

I kept my conversation very simple. I simply told her all men are pigs and save yourself for marriage. Okay not that simple but going into it that's all I wanted to say. I have taught my kids using myself as an example so that I hope they can relate and take my advice to heart. I wish my parents would have talked to me more about it but growing up and reaching my teens it seemed perfectly fine to lose your virginity. I lost mine by the 9th grade and that's the same grade my daughter is going to be in next year. This might be a shocker to most men but yes I wish I had saved myself.

The following is why I wish I would have saved myself and what I shared with my daughter. When we start to have feelings for the opposite sex you start to realize changes in your body. As a young boy you begin to get aroused and then talking to your immature friends you then believe that you must go out and have a conquest. I had one girlfriend throughout high school and I believe one of the reasons why was because once I had sex that is all I could think about. Why get to know other girls when I knew where sex was readily available to me. Once the relationship became about sex it was all about sex to me, the boy. I can't speak for girls and how they feel and I am not going to try to do that to my daughter. Hopefully her aunt will talk to her.

"Your virginity is something special and should be shared with someone special, preferably your husband", where the final words I told her. We also went over dating guidelines and how she should only seek relationships with boys that add value to her life. My daughter is a very smart girl and she was more concerned on why she can't date until she's 16 (2 years away). She felt better when I told her that she can go out with groups of friends and the 16 year old rule is to go out on a 1 on 1 date.

In the end I am glad that I had started the talk. I say started cause I know it is not over. At least now she knows that she can talk to me. My baby is growing up and I have come to terms with that. I only hope that she will take some of the lessons that I've learned from my mistakes and make better decisions than I did.

She'll always be Daddy's little girl.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

2010 T-ball Mets - Division Champions


Our season is over :(. We came one game short from reaching our goal of making it to the championship. The only loss we had and it happened in the semifinals. Our defeat came to the Cardinals from St. Roberts. We could not have lost to a better group of kids, parents, and coaches. If we had to lose to an organization I'm glad it was to one from our same parish because I believe that we have the classiest organization. Yes I might be biased but you can find out for yourself by becoming part of it next year. Bookmark this page http://www.bplbaseball.com and get ready for sign ups during the last weekend of September and first weekend of October.

The Mets still ended the season as division champs but as we kept on winning during the season we started to focus more and more on the championship and winning rather than having fun. I wrote about these kids last year, http://mariovillagransmind.blogspot.com/2009/03/2009-st-robert-bellarmine-mets-t-ball.html. What they accomplished from last year to this year is amazing. I can honestly say that we started out the season really focused on learning, trying our best, and having fun. We taught the kids that winning would be a result of putting those things together. As the season went on and we continued to win games we started to lose focus. As manager I take sole responsibility and I am a little upset with myself for not controlling it more. I knew we were out of control once I heard parents complaining about the changes I would make so that I can get all the kids involved. We forgot that we were dealing with 4 to 8 years old kids. The pressure really started to build. I could only imagine what my kids were feeling since I was also having a nervous breakdown on the sideline. The winning is everything mentality did us in and because of it I had kids that were crying in the end instead of smiling and it was honestly heart breaking.

In the end the children had a great season and we were all brought back down to reality. The focus of t-ball is to teach, have fun, encourage children to try their best, and hopefully they end up loving the game. I am thankful to have had the opportunity to teach these kids because they in return have taught me so much. The friendships that were made by these kids and the parents also will last a lifetime. I know I'll see most of these kids playing all through their childhood and having fun along the way. This is why they will always be Champions. Below is a letter from me to the Cardinals wishing them luck. I included this cause I want to show what kind of sportsmanship is taught in the Parochial league.

Dear Cardinals,
Hard fought game tonight between two teams from the same Parish. I've written before about how t-ball in the parochial league is no laughing matter. It's a competitive league and tonight's game proved it. The undefeated T-ball Mets took on the Cardinals. Some would say it was like David taking on Goliath.
The pressure really got to some of the Mets players. As their coach I was a very upset with myself and my inability to get them to focus on having fun. Seeing these 4 to 8 year old kids cracking under all the pressure put on them to win was disheartening.  This isn't to take away from the Cardinals cause they played some awesome ball tonight.
The Cardinals batted first and were held to a scoreless first inning. The Mets scored 2 runs in the first inning and the Cardinals hung in strong and kept themselves in the game. I would recap the rest of the game but I was so nervous that I lost track. In the end the Cardinals were the hungrier team and won by 2 points. If we had to lose a game I'm glad we lost to the Cardinals and that SRB will be represented well in the championship. You guys are led by 2 great coaches in Tony and John. The Cardinal parents were also a great crowd.
I know there might have been talk about SRB stacking a team since the Mets had such a great record but tonight showed that SRB always puts teams together that can beat each other on any given night. I'm so happy to be part of such a great organization. I wish the Cardinals lots of luck in the championship versus the SFX Reds. The Mets will be there to cheer you guys on. Go Cardinals!!!