We Petition The Obama Administration To:

Forgive Student Loan Debt to Stimulate the Economy and Usher in a New Era of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Prosperity

 

Forgiving student loan debt would provide an immediate jolt to the economy by putting hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of extra dollars into the hands of people who WILL spend it - not just once, but each and every month thereafter - freeing them up to invest, buy homes, start businesses and families. This past year, total student loan debt finally surpassed total credit card debt in America, and is on track to exceed $1 TRILLION within the next year. Student loans themselves are responsible for tuition rates that have soared by 439% since 1982 and for saddling entire generations of educated Americans with intractable levels of student loan debt from which there is, seemingly, no escape. Relieve them of this burden and the middle class WILL rebuild this economy from the bottom-up!

 

Take a stand and sign the petition  http://wh.gov/gpx once your finished forward the message and add the link to your social media sites...spread the word!

Family Day At Zoo Fest

The Alexandria Zoo had a free day so of course the the Swann Family was there, it's a recession so minus the 1.5hr ride we saw all of our favorite animals (except the Lion - sorry Darryl)! There was ice cream and cake, bounce houses, live music, a bit of education, and of course our favorite animals. We didn't take many pictures of animals because we were having so much fun, but you can check out the ones we did take.

...and reminiscent of my parents we went "old school"and packed lunch, it was a great Louisiana Swann Family Day!

 Waiting in the birthday cake line. Happy Birthday Alexandria Zoo!

 Smile Robbie...LOL

 Family Picture (Rah was annoyed because he wanted cake).

 Take two wasn't any better with Rah.

 Now, he's happy although they were out of ice cream :(

 Daddy Swann enjoying his packed PB&J.

 "Funny Monkey"

 Rah saw that this animal friend was "camouflaged".

 If you look closely you can see the tip of Rah's head at the bottom of the slide (poor action shot, eh?)

 Daddy Swann's on backpack duty.

 Rah is giving me his bounce house strategy for the day. 

 He got on about 8-10 bounces total but stopped when he noticed that the bounce house's water was getting pretty muddy! Lol

 I had to strike a pose.

Zoom in Darryl, Sheesh!
 
Darryl Stop!


Can you find my lion cub?

Got Gym?

OK, so I have been working out and making progress and I am pretty happy; so happy that I decided to put on some jeans that I know I am not quite yet ready to fit "comfortably". Seriously, I'ma good 10lbs  from comfortably wearing the jeans I put on today but I went right from the gym to a doctors appointment and I was already committed (per my previously packed gym bag).

I figured since the ride was an hour and a half and its a widely known fact that your thighs expand to twice their size when you sit, that maybe my legs wouldn't look like two massive bratwursts that had reached their core temperature by the time I arrived at the doctor!

In the car, heading to the doctor.

 No, thats not camel toe! That's a massive double thigh roll that has formed, what appears to be a secondary vag HA HA HA!

Arrived at the doctor! It worked!

This concludes your Science/Anatomy lesson for the day...

After the Storm

Well it's done for now. The clean up has concluded and a mere, if you wanna call it that, $475 later the tree is gone and fence is repaired. Now as you can see the shed now has a faulty roof of which can not be repaired due to the materials of which it was made - thus the integrity of all its contents will pretty much be exposed to the elements. So although the doors still open and close and the structure is still standing, no roof is pretty much a "no go"! 

Thus onto the next decision, any suggestions or are we simply out of another $750 investment? Ahhhhh...the joys of home ownership!

(If you want to see the full images of how the recent tropical storm was disrupted by my property, simply scroll back a few blog entries.)

SEPTEMBER SHOES

As most of you who already know me are already familiar with, I have a few vices; but one in particular is my love for shoes! Now I haven't reached my peak yet, the Christian Louboutin/designer realm, but I dare to dream that one day I will. One day...I guess I may have to do some basic things like get a job and have an actual need to wear them other than doing laundry or my weekly visits to Walmart (but I digress). As for now, I am comforted by my "shoe of the month" boutique that is JustFab in addition to my regular shoe purchases.


At first, like any person with over 432 pairs of shoes (I know, I actually counted today - Darryl's gonna kick my behind), I was elated and had no restraint, buying up to 3 pairs at a time from my boutique of shoes selected for me by a personal stylist who knew my shoe desires from my completion of a simple yet detailed style inventory - ha. But after I took myself through "shoe intervention", like a junkie, I now only make a single selection per month. It's all working out fine.


There are months when I get the "shakes" and could use a hit of a "4" hidden platform peep toe pump", and look back at my monitor ready to select another option to put in my cart, but I don't...and that's progress. I'm proud of me. Nonetheless, this month has been trying. I have 6 styles each month and an endless array of colors - but have narrowed my selection to 2 styles and 5 colors. Maybe your input will influence my final vote. So far Ebony likes the blue booties and both the grey and blue mid calf boots (I know, great help with narrowing down my selection), Verniece also likes the blue booties, and Diane likes the red mid calf boots (which were the most limited in quantity - which also leads me to believe they are a hot item). I like all of them, and I do know that shades of blue are a must this upcoming fall, just as they were over the summer. I will choose only one and show you how they look when they arrive.

(Pardon the pics' quality 'cause they suck, but u should be able to get the jest.)

 Blue bootie (its really bright and vivid - remember pic quality)

 Purple bootie (also very bright)

 Blue mid calf boot (blue bootie has similar color)

 Grey mid calf boot

Red mid calf boot

Thanks for the "Heads Up" Niece (Tropical Storm Ike)

I didn't even know it was a Tropical Storm brewing in the Gulf of Mexico until Niece called me and asked was I OK. Then when I turned on the news yesterday and saw then entire bottom half of the state highlighted in "blue" I of course panicked, to Darryl's dismay (he hates the fact that I constantly overreact). So as I concluded "blue" basically meant flooding, I relaxed - I know, I know - but I did! I'm not THAT close to the Gulf, right? We can get North or West quicker than most people who are further south than we are (well that's my theory).


So we went to a movie (logical, right). It was Harry Potter, the last one of the series and base theaters are only $4.50 and it was great! I refuse to pay full price for a movie again...but I digress; and came home to find a flier on our door from management outlining emergency preparedness and evacuation procedures. Now, I must admit, if the locals are starting to "shoot flares" I'm getting a little anxious. But still the atmosphere here is pleasantly calm because the storm is in the southeastern part on state and we are southwestern - but still the flier was too close for comfort. So by tonight or definitely tomorrow's end decisions of evacuation will be surely suggested. Our "Hurricane Preparation Guide and Checklist" is pretty extensive and consists of 3 pages. So we're gonna get a case of MRE's and a case of waters for each of us in addition to the main staples to add to our "kit".

Now for the fun!

Welcome to Mrs. Swann's Geography Class, 

Right now "Tropical Storm Lee" is in SouthEast LA (Louisiana not Los Angeles as many of you thought before - ha) the storm is over over NO (New Orleans). LA is in the shape of a foot See Diagram 1.O @ the tip (or toe of LA) bordering with MS (Mississippi) and sitting out in the Gulf of Mexico (which I read is sometimes referred to as our third coast - the South coast - FUN FACT) the furthest most area of the state. While we are SouthWest LA (a little more North) maybe above the heel @ that part where your shoe can rub if their too big and flop off your foot - ha, but horizontal to the ankle See Diagram 2.0 (Thanks Darryl for the use of your foot) and bordering with TX (Texas). The storm is predicted to possibly ricochet in the Gulf of Mexico possibly gaining strength prior to coming onto land or spin directly onto land at any point in the Gulf of Mexico but in the state of LA...either way we're getting steady rain at the moment and some flooding. We need rain believe me but not this much in such a short span of time - the drought has had horrible affects here. But if it comes directly over us and has gained strength it can obviously cause more damage and spawn tornados.

That concludes your lesson of where the heck Nicki actually lives in relation to civilization! Ha
Any Questions?

Diagram 1.0

Aerial view of Tropical Storm Ike

Diagram 2.0

Louisiana Map (drawn by Nicki with assitance of Darryl's foot). We live in DeRidder.

Just When I Thought It Was Over...

I get a call about 2:30pm Tuesday awaking me from my afternoon nap from my property manager in NC. So what I was napping, I did 2 hrs at the gym this morning (kick boxing and step aerobics) kickboxing was by chance because it was a "Mystery Mix up Monday" otherwise it wouldn't happened as that's generally not my thing. I feel very, how do you say, awkward, punching and kicking; but I digress.


Anywho she informed me, that my tenant informed her, that one of the trees on the far edge (like it's an estate - ha) of my property that is separated by the Cape Fear River that runs behind my house which I had not fenced in do to this natural nuisance had fell over! Immediately I'm imagining a tree on the roof of the house in my sleepy haze, but was quickly calmed and informed that only minimal damage occurred (not necessary equating to minimal financial damage, if you catch my drift) a total lost of fence slats and a crushed shed...now had the tree been a foot taller....sheesh!

So, now we will simply get the tree removed, replace the slats in the fence (hmmm - I wonder if we can use the wood from the tree - ha), and survey and repair the shed (if it can be salvaged).


Thank God - this could have been much worse!

Its just inches from the house!