Grace the Flower Girl

My beautiful girl was a flower girl this weekend. It was a nice family wedding!She was nervous as can be, which is quite unusual for her. She loves to be the star of the show! But this particular event had her in tears the night before the wedding. We got her put back together and went back and practiced in the empty church for the day of the wedding and she finally got it worked out.

She looked amazing in her white dress, like a mini-wedding dress in itself. She told me at the end that she wanted to be the bride, she loved the little 4 year old ring bearer....

All in all it was a nice and busy weekend.

The groom and great grandma.

Grace picking flowers after the wedding.

The bride, ring bearer and Grace.

My crazy and wonderful hubby turned 40 yesterday! We had a great weekend enjoying his birthday at Fast Eddie's in Illinois. Our friend Elizabeth got him this great wig to wear for the evening, needless to say, he had a ball with it.

It was a great group of folks to hang with, those who are easy to chat with and fun and lively as well. I hope it's a night that he doesn't forget soon. I don't think I'll forget this wig!

Happy Birthday babe!

Wayne and his buddy Greg.

Didn't get a great shot of both of us, but here's one anyway.

Our friends, Sean and Beth.


My good friends, Beth and Elizabeth.

Elizabeth and her hubby Dan. I know it's blurry but otherwise, it's a great shot of them. There were many others there but we didn't really start taking pictures till later and other had left. (Also, I had my camera but kept forgetting to take shots - thanks for capturing these Elizabeth).

Jake DeSantis

The following is a letter sent on Tuesday by Jake DeSantis, an executive vice president of the American International Group’s financial products unit, to Edward M. Liddy, the chief executive of A.I.G. I'm not going to comment extensively, but I believe that when you sign a contract with someone - it should be honored...this is a heated one - I'd love to hear your comments.


DEAR Mr. Liddy,
It is with deep regret that I submit my notice of resignation from A.I.G. Financial Products. I hope you take the time to read this entire letter. Before describing the details of my decision, I want to offer some context:

I am proud of everything I have done for the commodity and equity divisions of A.I.G.-F.P. I was in no way involved in — or responsible for — the credit default swap transactions that have hamstrung A.I.G. Nor were more than a handful of the 400 current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. Most of those responsible have left the company and have conspicuously escaped the public outrage.

After 12 months of hard work dismantling the company — during which A.I.G. reassured us many times we would be rewarded in March 2009 — we in the financial products unit have been betrayed by A.I.G. and are being unfairly persecuted by elected officials. In response to this, I will now leave the company and donate my entire post-tax retention payment to those suffering from the global economic downturn. My intent is to keep none of the money myself.

I take this action after 11 years of dedicated, honorable service to A.I.G. I can no longer effectively perform my duties in this dysfunctional environment, nor am I being paid to do so. Like you, I was asked to work for an annual salary of $1, and I agreed out of a sense of duty to the company and to the public officials who have come to its aid. Having now been let down by both, I can no longer justify spending 10, 12, 14 hours a day away from my family for the benefit of those who have let me down.

You and I have never met or spoken to each other, so I’d like to tell you about myself. I was raised by schoolteachers working multiple jobs in a world of closing steel mills. My hard work earned me acceptance to M.I.T., and the institute’s generous financial aid enabled me to attend. I had fulfilled my American dream.

I started at this company in 1998 as an equity trader, became the head of equity and commodity trading and, a couple of years before A.I.G.’s meltdown last September, was named the head of business development for commodities. Over this period the equity and commodity units were consistently profitable — in most years generating net profits of well over $100 million. Most recently, during the dismantling of A.I.G.-F.P., I was an integral player in the pending sale of its well-regarded commodity index business to UBS. As you know, business unit sales like this are crucial to A.I.G.’s effort to repay the American taxpayer.

The profitability of the businesses with which I was associated clearly supported my compensation. I never received any pay resulting from the credit default swaps that are now losing so much money. I did, however, like many others here, lose a significant portion of my life savings in the form of deferred compensation invested in the capital of A.I.G.-F.P. because of those losses. In this way I have personally suffered from this controversial activity — directly as well as indirectly with the rest of the taxpayers.

I have the utmost respect for the civic duty that you are now performing at A.I.G. You are as blameless for these credit default swap losses as I am. You answered your country’s call and you are taking a tremendous beating for it.

But you also are aware that most of the employees of your financial products unit had nothing to do with the large losses. And I am disappointed and frustrated over your lack of support for us. I and many others in the unit feel betrayed that you failed to stand up for us in the face of untrue and unfair accusations from certain members of Congress last Wednesday and from the press over our retention payments, and that you didn’t defend us against the baseless and reckless comments made by the attorneys general of New York and Connecticut.

My guess is that in October, when you learned of these retention contracts, you realized that the employees of the financial products unit needed some incentive to stay and that the contracts, being both ethical and useful, should be left to stand. That’s probably why A.I.G. management assured us on three occasions during that month that the company would “live up to its commitment” to honor the contract guarantees.

That may be why you decided to accelerate by three months more than a quarter of the amounts due under the contracts. That action signified to us your support, and was hardly something that one would do if he truly found the contracts “distasteful.” That may also be why you authorized the balance of the payments on March 13.

At no time during the past six months that you have been leading A.I.G. did you ask us to revise, renegotiate or break these contracts — until several hours before your appearance last week before Congress.

I think your initial decision to honor the contracts was both ethical and financially astute, but it seems to have been politically unwise. It’s now apparent that you either misunderstood the agreements that you had made — tacit or otherwise — with the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, various members of Congress and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo of New York, or were not strong enough to withstand the shifting political winds.

You’ve now asked the current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. to repay these earnings. As you can imagine, there has been a tremendous amount of serious thought and heated discussion about how we should respond to this breach of trust.

As most of us have done nothing wrong, guilt is not a motivation to surrender our earnings. We have worked 12 long months under these contracts and now deserve to be paid as promised. None of us should be cheated of our payments any more than a plumber should be cheated after he has fixed the pipes but a careless electrician causes a fire that burns down the house.
Many of the employees have, in the past six months, turned down job offers from more stable employers, based on A.I.G.’s assurances that the contracts would be honored. They are now angry about having been misled by A.I.G.’s promises and are not inclined to return the money as a favor to you.

The only real motivation that anyone at A.I.G.-F.P. now has is fear. Mr. Cuomo has threatened to “name and shame,” and his counterpart in Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, has made similar threats — even though attorneys general are supposed to stand for due process, to conduct trials in courts and not the press.

So what am I to do? There’s no easy answer. I know that because of hard work I have benefited more than most during the economic boom and have saved enough that my family is unlikely to suffer devastating losses during the current bust. Some might argue that members of my profession have been overpaid, and I wouldn’t disagree.

That is why I have decided to donate 100 percent of the effective after-tax proceeds of my retention payment directly to organizations that are helping people who are suffering from the global downturn. This is not a tax-deduction gimmick; I simply believe that I at least deserve to dictate how my earnings are spent, and do not want to see them disappear back into the obscurity of A.I.G.’s or the federal government’s budget. Our earnings have caused such a distraction for so many from the more pressing issues our country faces, and I would like to see my share of it benefit those truly in need.

On March 16 I received a payment from A.I.G. amounting to $742,006.40, after taxes. In light of the uncertainty over the ultimate taxation and legal status of this payment, the actual amount I donate may be less — in fact, it may end up being far less if the recent House bill raising the tax on the retention payments to 90 percent stands. Once all the money is donated, you will immediately receive a list of all recipients.

This choice is right for me. I wish others at A.I.G.-F.P. luck finding peace with their difficult decision, and only hope their judgment is not clouded by fear.

Mr. Liddy, I wish you success in your commitment to return the money extended by the American government, and luck with the continued unwinding of the company’s diverse businesses — especially those remaining credit default swaps. I’ll continue over the short term to help make sure no balls are dropped, but after what’s happened this past week I can’t remain much longer — there is too much bad blood. I’m not sure how you will greet my resignation, but at least Attorney General Blumenthal should be relieved that I’ll leave under my own power and will not need to be “shoved out the door.”

Sincerely,
Jake DeSantis

Grace is 5 today!

My beautiful girl is 5 years old today! She's so proud - she's told the whole world. It's so amazing that I don't think there are words to describe how I feel, I'm going to choose to post a bunch of photos instead.
She truly is an amazing kid!

Grace with Grandma

Baby Grace with Mommy.

1st Haircut!

Not sure of age - 15-18 months old or so...

Around 2 years old at Grandma's!

Close to 3 years old...

4 year old birthday last year!

Here's one from her birthday party on Sunday. She's changed so much and so little! Amazing! I do love her so much!

Top 10 Things That I Wish You Wouldn't Do During Your Spa Treatment

Okay, so one of my new resolutions in my drive for better behaviour is to stop talking bad about my clients when they drive me crazy. To try to see the positives in them and ignore the negatives. For the most part that's easy to do, most clients are fine. Today I had a few new people that came in with a big party. In order to vent and not be specific about them in particular here are my:

Top 10 Things That I Wish You Wouldn't Do During Your Spa Treatment

• First and foremost - Please try to relax! Here are some things that are not relaxing.

1. Staring at me with your eyes open through the whole facial
2. Constantly sitting up (all the way) during the facial
3. Gripping my hand when I try to massage your hands and arms
4. Wanting to talk but instead tapping your foot, making the whole bed shake, I'd prefer you just talk - it's your service - if you want to talk that's okay.

• Don't change into your gown in front of me. No matter how comfortable you are with changing in front of a stranger - odds are - I don't want to see your naked body.
• Don't lie to me about your botox. I'm an expert - and by the way you can't be 65 without a single wrinkle on your face naturally.
• Please don't ask me about EVERY single thing I'm doing during your facial. It's okay to ask questions but don't QUESTION everything that I'm doing.
• Don't ask me to talk bad about my boss. I'm not stupid, I know you work for a guy on her board of directors.
• Don't tip me $5 for a service that cost you $165. Especially after you've oooozed about how much you love the service. THAT'S JUST RUDE!
• Don't ask for free stuff, I can't do it - it will get me fired!
• Don't bad mouth every person in your family - it only reflects poorly on you.
• DON'T BE LATE! There are other clients after you, if you're late it only makes your own service shorter.
• Please don't apologize for snoring - we really do take it as a compliment!

That's it - I just needed to get that off of my chest!

You go Ed Barnett!

A real letter to the IRS that Ed Barnett of Wichita Falls send to the editor of his paper. You go Ed! I'm not as brave as you to do this but I would love to!


Dear I.R.S.

I am sorry to inform you that I will not be able to pay taxes owed April 15, but all is not lost.

I have paid these taxes: accounts receivable tax, building permit tax, CDL tax, cigarette tax, corporate income tax, dog licence tax, federal income tax, unemployment tax, gasoline tax, hunting licence tax, fishing license tax, waterfowl stamp tax, inheritance tax, inventory tax, liquor tax, luxury tax, medicare tax, city, school and county property tax (up 33 percent last 4 years), real estate tax, social security tax, road usage tax, toll road tax, state and city sales tax, recreational vehicle tax, state franchise tax, state unemployment tax, telephone federal excise tax, telephone federal state and local surcharge tax, telephone minimum usage surcharge tax, telephone state and local tax, utility tax, vehicle license registration tax, capitol gains tax, lease severance tax, oil and gas assessment tax, Colorado property tax, Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma and New Mexico sales tax, and many more that I can't recall but I have run out of space and money.

When you do not receive my check April 15, just know that it is an honest mistake. Please treat me the same way you treated Congressmen Charles Rangle, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and ex-Congressman Tom Dashelle and, of course, your boss Timothy Geithner. No penalties and no interest.

P.S. I will make at least a partial payment as soon as I get my stimulus check.

Ed Barnett
Wichita Falls

Letting go of the rock...

Our pastor did a sermon at church today about letting go of the rock. You know, the stuff you carry around with you that gets in your way. Things like anger, fear, hate, guilt, betrayal that get in the way of your ability to truly love others. I started to let go of my rock last week so it was a good sermon for me. Here goes some of the rest:

I forgive you Dad, you made and continue to make many mistakes in your life. I'm letting those go - I truly forgive you.
I forgive you Mom, I know you didn't have a choice, you had to work so many jobs while we were growing up just so we could survive. It was hard on us (I didn't think so at the time but I see it now in my fear of not spending enough time with my own children), I truly forgive you for that and anything else that you feel guilt for as our parent. I idolize you regardless of your faults for being an amazing mentor for me.
I forgive you Wayne, we've had some troubled times in our past where we both made mistakes. I'm sorry that I haven't trusted you more. I truly forgive you and will have faith that we can get through anything together.
I forgive you Stephanie, we've been really mean to each other in the past, we've judged each other when we shouldn't. I promise to be a true, loving and honest sister to you.
I forgive you friends, I know that you're only human and that means you have done unkind things to me (as I have to you as well). I truly forgive you and will work to create deep friendships with you through faith that you will always do the best that you can.
I forgive you co-workers, this is a hard one for me, there has been many times that you have hurt me and continue to do so. I will try to look away and love you so much that you no longer feel the need to go down that path.
I forgive you - me! I forgive you for making bad choices, gossiping unnecessarily, for not taking care of those who need you when they needed you, for guilt and many other things. I truly forgive you and vow to work harder so that you don't need as much forgiveness.

I know that there's more but these are my thoughts today. I woke up so angry and upset this morning for no real reason and I feel truly better. Healed inside and out...a little less broken and weighed down by that silly rock.

(Did you hear it drop on the floor?)