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I also appreciate a good sense of humor and liked reading your posts.
I too would like to see both major political parties lean toward the center.
I know you didn’t say that but the extreme leanings on both sides are rather scary.
No one should ever loose their house because they are sick.
It’s just wrong.
That said if we also trimmed some fat we might be able to help with education
As a republican that voted for Obama twice I stand behind living in the middle ground.
Hate just sucks and common sense needs a comeback.
Sorry for the political rant.
I do apologize.
Oh btw my deceased father in-law made a very very good living as a geologist.
What a great field.
Good luck to you and your family.
Andy
Ruth-
We have done alright in most places. The only place i truly had a problem with was upstate NY & i believe that was as much my age & circumstances as where it was/who was there.
Life has knocked me down more than I can count, I have no choice in how to deal with it, if I didn't laugh, I would cry ;-)
Thanks for the comments about my daughter, I think shes done alright, but i happen to be a little biased ;-)
I will keep everyone posted on how it goes. If it is offered, I believe we will be in Seattle, the opportunity is just too great to allow politics to scare me away, I'm tougher than that!!
Andy-
Yes, both extremes scare me. More than you know!!
Since you want there, I will give you my personal thoughts :-) as I have said before, I am unapologetically me. I mentioned that we all have unique opinions due to our unique circumstances, so I will give you my views from my experiences & take them for what they are worth...ya know, coming from an anonymous internet forum & all ;-)
I could have never voted for obama, but that is because my family still lives in IL & deals with the tax increases he helped vote in(on families making 50k+, vs what he said on the trail, 250k+...it was one part the issue & one part the lie for me)& I do not want national healthcare. Before someone screams that i am racist for not voting for Obama(apparently a secret racist with my multiracial children that i would defend with my life)...i was a dual-county coordinator & press liason for Les Phillips(AL-5)& I ran the state for Herman Cain before he chose his family over politics. However those are all personal decisions based on each person's individual experiences & I would never judge you for your politics or what box you checked in a voting booth!!
We DID loose our house due to sickness, we survived my daughters 2 knee surgeries, 3 partial government shutdowns(one was just a contract/base issue, but affected us the same...&contractors don't get back pay like govt employees), & MS tom foolery(mris, one single medication that cost 13k/mo, lumbar punctures, etc)...then we were finally taken out when I dropped dead in a docs office from MS induced low potassium & spent 3wks in the hospital with 18mos followup/rehab(6mos very intense)-I am grateful to be alive, grateful that someone was looking out for me & I dropped dead in a docs office instead of anywhere else, but it was game over for us...all this happened in the span of 4yrs, just after the expense of bringing the little girls into our lives(&7yrs before that my son was born at 27wks with CP, that was another fun time, but he is mostly fine/normal thanks to intense therapy & changing to an organic diet & such, my only point is that we were easier to take out as we had just started rebuilding again ;-)). It ended up working out for us as it was truly a wrongful foreclosure, we were illegally denied a mod & told to just make double payments(uh huh, we cant make single payments, but I will get right on those doubles ;-))...ultimately it was removed from our credit & all, but it was a rough time for a bit!! After all this, i STILL don't advocate for national healthcare & am worse off with the Obama era changes. My medical costs me 3-4x as much as it used to, $3-400/mo i used to pay is far better than the $12-1600+ I pay now...&now I have to fight to get the medications & treatments that i need vs the medications & treatments they want me to have & twice i have lost-so far & on 2 more items I pay 75%. I am no longer able to take a disease modifier to slow down my MS as the only one allowed had too many side effects & interacted with my other meds/conditions & I could not get my annual MRI last year...ya know, while paying more in both premiums & for care. As someone who lives this life, trust me, bring back the old system!!! Fyi-I have an employer plan, but under the new rules insurance companies can now deny things they couldn't deny before as long as they offer "equivalents" trust me, they are not equivalent...the changes made are harmful for folks with disabilities & health conditions!!
Many people believe that because I have a disease, I would advocate for a nhs, but not so. I belong to an online support group with folks with MS from all over the world, our system is better than most of them.
I also do not believe that you should pay to educate my 5 kids, that is the responsibility I took on when i became their mother, but that is only a small part of the overall issue. I believe it will lead to some crazy happenings in the way of unintended consequences-this is a regular conversation at my house :-)
Honestly, my own daughter is a great example of this(seriously). She was set on her career path in paleontology, but changed her mind last minute(seriously last minute, I have SDSMT gear, she was part of an early admit program that had her in SD two years in a row for summer sessions-she changed her mind literally at the 11th hour). Because we are paying, I want to make sure she picks "right"!!! Even if that means holding her back a year in her overall life plan!!! You value things more & make better decisions when you have to pay for it. We already have plenty of programs for people that want to go to college but just simply cannot afford it. We also have scholarships for those that fall in the middle financially but cannot really afford to pay(I get that too), so work harder, get a scholarship, you will ultimately feel better for having earned it!!
How many young people get useless/unemployable degrees these days...i will tell you it is not typically the young person who is working to put themselves through college or even using their parents money, it is the student with some type of free college or maybe even loans if they don't understand the real implications since it's "free" now...my son wanted to get a degree in Egyptology, i told him he was out of his gourd!! 1)my son is not a scholarly kid, he would not have stayed in school 12yrs for a PhD & therefore would not have been employable. 2)even with a PhD, best of luck, 3)he is now set on aviation from ND to become a pilot. This is a good choice for my son, I am happy to pay for that. If the system was "free college for all," how many more kids would get useless/unemployable degrees??
I also believe "free college" will lead to a different set of admission/attendance standards with many kids not being accepted or not being accepted into the program(s)/college(s) they want/need...in the way that in some European countries you may want to be a doctor, but only be accepted to business school. Or in the way of China where adolescents are doing crazy things for admission to university.
Unintended consequences are something that i could talk about all day ;-) In the end I will always pick the option that preserves our freedoms! Freedom to choose medical treatments without bankrupting oneself, freedom to choose college/major, freedom & choices all around :-)
For me it is less about taxes & less about who pays & more about the fact that when you pay, you also choose, & also value what you have worked for. When someone else is paying, you will often loose some level of choice & what is being given looses value to you!!
I believe we could have some amazing conversations based on each of our unique backgrounds & experiences :-)
I know I've said it a few times but give Maple Valley a close look. I think it would really suit you guys.
I did look, online-obviously, & it does seem like a nice area with "reasonably priced homes"(it's all relative ;-)). I have a feeling it very well could be where we end up :-)
From my observations there seem to be at least 2 sets of prices out there, one in Tahoma schools(if I remember right)& one in another district...does it REALLY matter??
My oldest has been to charter, public, private, & homeschooled in 2 different manners(co-op classes & on our own)...the actual school she believed she learned the most from was the charter school which had a great school 4/10-they didnt test well because they weren't taught to the test. The school that she thought was the worst & she learned the least was a great school 10/10-go figure!! After buying into the 10/10 school that everyone said was so great & i ended up homeschooling my kids.
Edit to add....I will note that the charter school kids didn't test well because they were making models of the moon in kindergarten. It was a Charlotte mason school where they learned to learn & learned to teach themselves(more or less). No text books & the world was their classroom in elementary. My daughter was doing 5th grade math in 1st grade because they worked differently.
So I am always hesitant to go by those rankings now!!! Sometimes the 7/10, 5/10 schools are just simply better at actually teaching vs testing.
I will keep you posted & maybe you can help us find a home in a couple of months :-)
I did look, online-obviously, & it does seem like a nice area with "reasonably priced homes"(it's all relative ;-)). I have a feeling it very well could be where we end up :-)
From my observations there seem to be at least 2 sets of prices out there, one in Tahoma schools(if I remember right)& one in another district...does it REALLY matter??
My oldest has been to charter, public, private, & homeschooled in 2 different manners(co-op classes & on our own)...the actual school she believed she learned the most from was the charter school which had a great school 4/10-they didnt test well because they weren't taught to the test. The school that she thought was the worst & she learned the least was a great school 10/10-go figure!! After buying into the 10/10 school that everyone said was so great & i ended up homeschooling my kids.
So I am always hesitant to go by those rankings now!!! Sometimes the 7/10, 5/10 schools are just simply better at actually teaching vs testing.
I will keep you posted & maybe you can help us find a home in a couple of months :-)
Your research is impressive . Tahoma definitely is desired. You are right though, test scores aren't everything. There is no substitute to visiting the school, chatting with the principal and really experiencing the culture firsthand. Indeed, Maple Valley is good value for money. Do you guys like skiing/hiking/nature? It's only 1 1/2 hours from Maple Valley to great skiing at Crystal Mtn and trailheads near Mt. Rainier.
Last edited by homesinseattle; 04-22-2019 at 12:19 AM..
Believe it or not, I spoke with the principal here & even some parents...then 2yrs later filed a claim with OCR & won, the principal was investigated by the district, found guilty of fraud, fired, began a divorce & killed her husband(you cannot make this stuff up...google it, Fillis McGhee in Hampton Cove AL...the ipad referenced was actually slated for my son due to vision issues, paid for by a federal grant under a disability program). It all started with my daughter's teacher swearing at 3rd graders, degrading them, encouraging them to belittle each others art work, etc. when they told me that my daughter was making it all up despite her having hives each night when she would begin getting ready for school, i put a recorder in my daughters backpack...they found out when I began sharing the recordings with other parents & members of the board...my daughter was homeschooled for the rest of 3rd grade. To teach me a lesson, they would not give my 1st grade son the reading help he needed(he is dyslexic)-but they took the funding(that part i did not know initially, it came out later), then kept him out of a field trip & had him sit in the in school suspension room for a low reading grade-without my knowledge, but put back in class when the other kids were discussing the trip(you know, that 30min after the trip, before going home), then justified it by telling me that she had more power over my kid than I did M-F, 8-2:45 & she was well within her rights-HA! We'll see about that ;-)....that was the beginning of the end. I filed with OCR for disability discrimination, I had documentation of my requests for reading help, documentation of why they kept him out of the field trip, documentation that they knew he was a 27wk preemie & maintained some issues(didn't need that, they filed the paperwork i supplied federally for funding), etc. The principal & 3 teachers all went down, it was "fun."
Before you think i am just a trouble maker, my kids have been to 5 other schools with no issues. At the charter school, i used my connections to get them a $50k donation for a playground. I did anything that was asked of me, i cooked/baked(I owned a bakery & catering company for a few years-so even when I didn't, i still have the equipment & knowledge), i organized & volunteered on field trips, filled in for teachers aides, whatever was needed. I am not a trouble maker, so even though i homeschooled my kids after that day, it couldn't stand. It wasn't right & no other parent/child needed to experience what we did!!!
Those are things you wouldn't necessarily know without children & without having a problem.
We love to be outdoors!! I am not an avid hiker anymore(call me a trail walker now ;-)), just because I do have some MS balance issues that randomly hit. I still want to be outdoors, i still want to pretend I have my old life, but strenuous long hikes & off-trail/backcountry are off my menu now. My husband does week & multi-week long backcountry hikes, & my son is a boy scout working on his eagle.
With so many people we have a mish mosh of interests :-) My 7yr old is a gymnast, 6yr old just began ice skating & she does Irish step dance, the 5yr old wants to play hockey(can't start until 5 here & she turns 5 in 2days-the 6yr old started ice skating when we went to buy hockey equipment-lol). We spend just about every weekend doing something, botanical gardens, the 1800s settlement activities, nature preserve, land trust trails, or some festival we can find.
My husband used to cross country ski(i only know this because I have moved his skis all over the country, not because I have actually seen him do it-hehe), I went downhill a few times in high school in Chicago-but not often & never skied anywhere "impressive" or even real for that matter ;-)
I have a feeling that all my kids would love it given the opportunity!!
I also believe there are many unique things close by, sea lion caves, redwoods, Vancouver, etc. Not sure exactly how far, but those seem like they would be fun day trips/weekend getaways :-)
As a side note, my mothers cousin grew up in Kent, we visited when i was very young(3? 4?) There are pics of me playing in Mt St. Helen ash like it was snow or sand :-) We have lost touch with that part of the family, however I have been out that way a few times, beautiful country!!
FYI-i am a huge believer in doing everything & anything offered in an area. Get out of your comfort zone & enjoy something new...so much that I'm not really sure i have a comfort zone any more ;-)
So we will likely be doing everything we can, just because it is there & we can!! We might not like it all, but we will try it all :-)
And this is why I can still walk 13yrs into progressive MS in my neck & spine!!!(I havent been dx long enough to know if it is primary progressive or secondary progressive(3yrs-but they can pinpoint the onset, even if they called it "an unknown inflammatory autoimmune condition" for 3yrs & lupus for 7yrs...it was still MS all that time-hehe))...so my ability to walk then becomes even MORE impressive since i was on the wrong meds :-) but it will limit the really fun stuff :-( I will just take pleasure in that my kids will be able to do the fun stuff :-)
All of that was leading somewhwre....
From your experience, is Tahoma a must? Even if just for resale.
I know you don't want to insult anyone or denigrate an area, but does it seem to be better?
The prices are within 10% from what i have seen, not a huge difference, it is more about limiting a search area than pricing.
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