New Blog Makeover

I need to write some stuff down before I go mad.

So last week, I wanted to rebrand my blog. The last 2 (ok, 4) years are definitely years I did NOT plan on. I have decided to NOT go back to nursing and to go back and finish my business degree instead.  The longer I decide on what I WANT to do, is nonproductive time and I can almost literally hear interest on my student loans ticking as each second goes by. So now that I have a plan, I feel a bit better.

So I have been changing a lot of loose ends in my life as well. I have a beautiful walk in closet, that is filled with clothes and junk I don't use. I have been working on getting that purged, and because of that, other areas in my life are cleaning up as well.

So that leads me back to the blog. I am really excited about working soon, because I have not bought myself any fabric in a really long time. This week I'm going to start on the skirts and dresses I want to make. I'm really excited!

So the header, background and main part are done. I still have to work on the sidebar and decide if I want to change those or keep the same accounts. I wont be able to work on that until later this week.

I have literally complained about Feedburner like 10 times over the last few years (as I was going through old posts). I usually get blogs I love emailed to me, so I can take time to read them when I'm out of the house or just so I don't miss them. I made a new email address last week, to get JUST BLOGS emailed to it. I spend like 4 hours on Saturday morning signing up to the blogs I HAVE to get to that email address. So this morning I'm checking my regular email, and Feedburner JUST started emailing them to me again. I can't figure out when it will and will NOT work, but I CAN tell you, as soon as I make a decision and do something about it, it WILL start working again. So I have been adding blogs I have forgotten to add to the new email address, and deleting them off my mail email address.

I hope it doesn't mess with my email subscribers to my blog, since I changed the URL as well. That is another 3493820th detail that I need to worry about later. (I have to figure out what's up with photobucket too)

Here is a picture of my beautiful cat  daughter's hedgehog for you to admire today :) His original name was Jacqueline after the First Lady.  Now HIS name is Jack. You can probably guess why. Hope everyone has a fantastic productive day, including myself as well.

Clutter

Over the summer I have gotten into the bad habit of putting things down in my room/sewing area NOT in it's proper place. My closet is horrendous. It's so easy to shut the door and not see the mess, but it's starting to spread out into other areas of my life. It's just one of those subconscious things that I feel like my life is full of clutter, and it is!  I am very *really* overwhelmed with everything going on it my life right now. I made a major life decision to return to school to finish my accounting/business degree instead of continuing on with nursing. When I started out, there was NO way to predict what would happen in my life. I know I'm not the only one to switch majors a few times. I originally started out pursuing accounting, then felt so out of place that I switched to nursing. I didn't realize that business is something that you grow into, and it's going to feel very foreign at first. But I have to look at the positives instead of the negatives.

1. I used to be so pissed that I was going to have to pay a lot of extra money in student loans for my accounting degree. I had all my pre-reqs done plus the first year in the College of Business. When I switched to nursing, I had to take a year of pre-reqs before I could apply to the Nursing Program.

2. Unlike accounting, I can use my nursing experience for the rest of my life. I mean, everyone uses basic accounting skills in their life, but not everyone understands medical problems.

3. I have a goal to look forward to. I can stop feeling guilty about "wasting time".

I am sure there are more positives, but my mind is very full right now.  

Quick Note

So there's a giveaway that one of my fave blogs (May Chappel) to read for inspiration is having.  It's called MY Favorite Things Giveaway. But I think we are either siamese-twin broken up spirits OR she has complete access to my brain, bc they are all of MY favorite things too!

Awesome fabric and sewing stuff. Check it out here if you love that stuff too.

wonder clips
awesome fabric 15 YARDS WORTH PLUS:
bloc loc ruler
carolyn friedlander patterns
creative grids ruler
rotary cutter
AURIFIL THREAD
nail polish
quilter's dream batting
dear stella rainbow THICK charm pack!!
violet craft fabric
sweet as honey bundle
Sara Lawsons NEW Jungle Ave
and a few special from the creators of C+S

You have to see the pics to believe it. How special is this lady?! This is bigger than my fabric hoard, and she's GIVING it away!! What a sweetheart :)

Awesome giveaway: Cotton+Steel

My favorite LQS, Pink Castle Fabrics, is sponsoring a fabulous giveaway to win a year's subscription to the Cotton+Steel monthly subscription club on one of my favorite blogs: Lily's Quilts. The winner gets a monthly bundle of 12 FQ: 9-10 prints & 2-3 basics. The bundles for purchase come in FQ, 1/2 yd, and full yd increments. Go to their website: pinkcastlefabrics.com to order your bundle today!

I got to meet Brenda last year when she turned her online store into a real store in Ann Arbor. They carry the best fabrics! They carry all the well known designers like Moda, Art Gallery Fabrics, RJR, Michael Miller, Riley Blake, Liberty, plus super awesome Japanese fabrics like Yuwa, Lecein, and Kokka among others. They also carry other types of fabric besides quilting cotton like linen, canvas, voile, double gauze, and I think they might be getting some knits in this summer! They also carry an awesome selection of paper patterns for quilting and sewing patterns! And one of my favorite things in the whole world: a beautiful selection of Aurifil threads! I love going and spending hours in the shop. In fact, that's my plan for tomorrow morning, because they have hundreds of  fabrics on sale for 40%!!!  That is the biggest sale I have ever seen there! They are moving out a bunch of great prints and solids to make room for the spring/summer/fall fabrics that are planned to be released later on this year. I'm super excited because I have some GCs from Christmas that I have been wanting to spend, but birthday and mother's day money! I haven't been getting gifts this year, just requesting money for fabric that is supposed to come out later this year. But with this sale, I might have to restart my savings for that collection! So make sure you enter on Lily's Quilts. So far theres not quite 500 entries!! I am REALLY hoping I win this one because it's so awesome!

SMS Day Giveaway!!! May 2014

***EDIT: Sorry for getting this post up late. My laptop literally died when I restarted it to put up the pictures. Which leads me to apologize for the crappy pics. They died with the laptop and I'm just using the ones off my phone***

I have known about SMS Day and have been entering since 2012. You can read all about the day at sewmamasew.com.  I think it's about time I give something back. Every time it comes around, it kinda comes up when everything is kinda crazy in my life, and I don't have something awesome to share. So before we get to the good stuff, I would like to share some super important information for females, and I appreciate you taking the time to read it before you enter or coming back and reading it later.

I started this blog after I Googled quilting in fall 2011. My sister had passed from cervical cancer at the age of 29 on August 7, 2010, and I was 31, and I was looking for a hobby to help work through my grief. She was diagnosed with Cervical Cancer Stage 3b in January 2009. She had been "leaking" urine when she laughed hard the summer before, and it was getting progressively worse. She had just finished all her exams and graduated from Eastern Michigan University, to become a teacher. She worked as a Store Manager of a Burger King, for the same owner/boss since she started working there at the age of 15. Fast food restaurants do not offer health insurance for all employees (at that time; it may have changed with the Obama Care thing). In fact, to qualify for health insurance you must have a title of "assistant/manager" and work full time at 40 per week. There are two options to choose from, Crappy and Crappier, and then they deduct a chunk of money from your check. My sister was making MORE money working at BK, than she would as a teacher, and every time she went to leave, her boss just kept raising her salary. She was very loyal, but she was getting too old mentally and physically to work there. (This turned out to be a good thing for her; her bosses were so incredibly giving while she was sick by keeping her on PAID leave for over a year, and were paying for the "better" insurance out of their pockets for her) So in the fall of 2008, she made an appointment with a urologist, (but she had to see her primary doctor to get the referral-so add 3 months), and saw him after 3 months. He did a cystoscopy (put a camera/tube up her urethra- aka your "pee hole"), and did some "examining" around the area. He said to make an exam with a gynecologist. He saw a tumor in her vaginal canal, but didn't bother telling her that. She made another 3 month-from-now appointment with a OB-GYN for January. On December 17, the pain that she had been having in her abdomen became much more severe, so she, her fiance Frank, and my Mom, went to the ER. They did a bunch of tests, and sent her home with some pain meds. A week or so later, my Dad called me on my way home from work, and told me that my sister had been diagnosed STAGE 3B. She didn't even get to her scheduled OB-GYN appointment yet. They started treatment immediately, and my life completely changed forever. At this time, I'm a RN and have experience from working at my first hospital on their Oncology floor for 3 years, and worked at St Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, for over a year. I have only worked on Oncology floors, so I understood the treatments and prognosis, and what each entailed. My stomach flipped and I knew how serious it was. Her cancer was the size of a softball (i think?), but had not metastasized (moved to a lymph node or other organ) yet. To make a long story short, she had missed her PAP smear for over 2 years. Cervical cancer is caused from HPV, which is a STI that you can get by SKIN to SKIN contact. You don't even have to exchange any fluids or have intercourse. You can get this by friction. It's possible to get, even if you both can have underwear on! (according to some reputable websites I found during researching: HPV and Cervical Cancer). Cervical cancer has been known to develop on it's own as well.

There is a test that can be done every year to detect if there are any changes to the cervix, such as abnormal cell growth or surrounding infections, and it's called a PAP smear, and it's exactly for detecting cervical cancer. It's been around for a long time. It's the not-so-fun doctor appointment, where you put on a gown and lay on the table in stirrups, and the doctor takes a special Q-tip and swabs inside you for cells to test. One of the cervix's job is to tighten when pregnant, so the baby doesn't emerge early, so it has a very special job to do. The government has recently changed it's policy on PAP smears, from getting them annually to once EVERY 3 years. They changed this to try to save money on "unnecessary" health testing costs. It is true that the majority of tests will come back negative, but this can be deadly for the small amount that have an abnormal test result. Sometimes insurance even states that you shouldn't start getting tested until you are 25!!! Lots of women will get normal results every year, but I think it's dangerous to wait that long for the women who may develop cancer rapidly, like my sister. I suggest that you get a PAP done every year starting when you are sexually active or after you turn 18 years old; whichever comes first. I would suggest to my daughter to get one by the time she is 21, if she is not yet sexually active. A really nice woman emailed me today, said if she would have waited until 25 she would have not gotten treatment in time, and could have died. You need to be an advocate for yourself and demand this every year! The last that I knew, most insurances will still pay annually for one, but "suggests" testing every 3 years. Please tell your female friends about this, if you feel comfortable enough to discuss it with them. Please ask your adult daughters if they are caught up on their annual PAP. My mom feels incredibly guilty that she didn't ask, although it's not her fault. Your friends and daughters may pass the info on to their daughters or their friends, and even if 1 woman is saved, that will make me incredibly happy! For them and their loved ones! I believe my sister got one of the 4 deadliest strains, and both her and I were not vaccinated with Guardisil (a vaccination a girl can get to help prevent the deadliest strains of cervical cancer)  because we were too "old" when it came out. I'm not recommending the vaccine, to each their own, but I have provided the link to their official page if you are interested in reading about it. (Plus I never like to jump into a new treatment without years of post-research, if I can avoid it). It has been out for about ten years now.

 There are like 80 strains of HPV or something like that. It's not the same strain that causes warts or herpes. Sometimes HPV has no symptoms at all, and it's possible to contract and go away on it's own. It says that cancer can take years to develop, but I don't think that is necessarily true in every case. My sister drank alcohol occasionally and was a social smoker, but she did not sleep around (as far as I know). Her boyfriend before her fiance, cheated on my sister and got that girl pregnant. I think it may have come from him, but I hate to make an accusation like that without finding out for sure. Plus it's not like he did it purposefully. This is why it's important *I think* to get a PAP smear annually, especially if you have ever had a past positive test for HPV, or  have had any findings in your PAP smear that may indicate abnormal cell growth. Remember, HPV sometimes does not show any symptoms at all, until it is too late. Many people do not know they even have it, and that's why you should never be embarrassed if you get it. It's not because you are a bad person.  The PAP is not needed if you are pregnant, because your OB should be checking down there frequently anyway. The technology for HIV/AIDS have significantly improved, and thankfully isn't a death sentence anymore, but 20 million Americans have HPV currently, and it's growing. That's one of the reasons why it's also important to get checked out for STI's as needed. Please see here for the government's Center for Disease Control on cervical cancer, to find out more. If you are going through Menopause, you still need to get your annual  PAP exam. It's still possible to get cervical and ovarian cancer after The Change. Please discuss this with your primary care physician. If your doctor says that you no longer need one, that is the old recommendations. Please remember my sister, and be an advocate for yourself and firmly request one if your doctor doesn't think you need one. You may just be saving your life! When I started working at the hospitals I was blown away by the amount of people who have or had a diagnosis of cancer. It's even more than you think! Thank you for reading this. It means a lot to me. SO now let's get to the good stuff!!!

So I started quilting to help with my grief. I've made a bunch of blankets and a few quilt tops, but have never completely finished them (or blogged about them). But I got some new books to help with that. Since Google Reader died, I have found it easier to keep up by using Instagram. I follow as many people as I can who quilt or sew cute clothes (my other obsession)!

I *am* giving away Heather Ross fabric "scraps" There are 9 pieces total of various sizes. But I have to be honest with you. I bought these from thegreatfabricdestash on IG. The description read "Heather Ross scraps $20". I saw the gnomes and fish, and pounced on it. I was super excited, and couldn't wait until they came. When I opened up the Ziploc, I became less happy. Most of the "scraps" came from PJ pants. These are the first HR prints that I have, besides Briar Rose. I wouldn't have bought them had I known they came from the PJs. I am 99% sure the photo did not show this or was left in the details , so I felt duped. I don't know if they have ever been washed or not, or the history, because I bought them as "scraps", I didn't care if they were washed or not, and I already have pets so I didn't care. My cats come into this room, but don't go by my sewing area, just to let you know. I have a dog, but he stays on the floor or bed. I know that this does not matter to some people, and I know there are HR maniacs (no judging here!) out there that would love to have these! So instead of trying to resell them and make up a fair price -are the PJs even worth as much as the true fabric?!- I *finally* remembered that SMS day was coming up, so I have been holding on to them to giveaway! As you can see, my blog has taken last priority lately and I wanted a bigger audience to have a chance to win these. I have a bunch of projects in progress and I feel confident to finally start to share them here.

The first pic is of the pieces I got that are obviously attached to PJs, except for the dotted fabric. It got cut out of the pic, but the pink gnomes have buttons on them. The bike fabric is folded over so you can see the hems. The dotted fabric is pulled down to show you the selvage, but it's folded exactly in half from selvage to selvage. You can see the picture I posted on my instagram account here, which shows it better. (sorta-it IS from my crappy phone). The other pic I posted is here on IG. As you can see the fabric is switched around in the instagram pics. The coke can is there so you can see how big the fabric is (without me measuring it!)

Pic 1: Pink Gnomes, Sushi and Bikes have definite hems

Picture 2 contains fabric that has been cut with scissors and do not have any sewn hems. The dots above do not have hems either. There are 5 pieces. The striped fabric in this picture is folded in half, and you can see where the wrong side of the fabric is showing at the top. There are: blue gnomes, bags of fish, goldfish, a small pink bike and stripes.

Pic 2: Blue Gnomes, Goldfish, Bags of Fish, Pink Bike and Stripes.

RULES: I'm following the rules from sewmamasew.com. This giveaway will close: Friday, May 16, at 5 pm PST/8 pm EST. I will choose a winner by a computerized randomized draw program. I will try to email the winner by 11 pm, on Friday May 16th EST. I will ship the prize on Monday, May 19, so please respond within 48 hours, by Sunday, May 18th by 11 pm*EST/7 pm*PST, or I will have to draw a new winner, and I don't want to do that!!

I know that some people don't like Rafflecopter, so I made the first question super easy. Just tell me what way you follow me in the COMMENT section. PLEASE make sure you click on the rafflecopter so it can count your vote! Email me (ksmith8@emich.edu) if you have any trouble signing up for Rafflecopter, but I think you just add your email and name to it, and you are done. I promise it's super easy. I wanted to use an electronic counter and not have to go through all the comments myself to see if people did what they were supposed to do, to make it fair for everyone!

EDIT: I made some changes to the rafflecopter on Wednesday May 14, at 9 a.m. I forgot that some people do not have or want a G+ account. I accidentally switched my blog out of blogger to G+, and I can't go back to Blogger. I couldn't remove the original first question in the rafflecopter that asked to leave a comment, so now it's a bonus 5 point question. The new rafflecopter allows you to leave your answer within the rafflecopter box, and if you want to leave a comment below for the same question, you will get 5 extra points. I wanted to be as fair as possible, and that's why I went with rafflecopter.

Thank you very much! I appreciate you taking the time to read this post, more than you know! And thank you to SMS for hosting this awesome event.  Good Luck to all of you, and click here to go back to more giveaways for supplies.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Karen's Quilts, Crows and Cardinals: Celebrate Wool Applique love "Spring Basket" on An...

Karen's Quilts, Crows and Cardinals: Celebrate Wool Applique love "Spring Basket" on An...: Greetings blogging friends and welcome to the next celebration and giveaway in A Month of Monday Giveaways!! but first... "Thank You&...

Happy New Year

So I suck at blogging.  I have already planned to take my blog back to recording my sewing projects. I have not started any quilts or dresses in SOO long. Last October I took some sewing to my LQS, and I took my cutting mat. I left it in the car and it warped. I tried to set really heavy things on my pool table in the garage to kinda warp it back into shape, but that failed. I asked for one for Christmas, and thought I was getting it, so I didn't rush out to get one. Well, I did not get one for Christmas and it has been snowing for 3 days with a wind chill. So of course I haven't ventured outside to go get one. I plan on doing that today hopefully.

I had a great Christmas. It's always hard when you lose a family member, especially if they are in your immediate fam. My sister passed in 2010, and this is the first Christmas that I have felt ok about celebrating. It's really hard to enjoy a holiday when a major piece is missing. It's not like that are coming later, or live too far away. She's gone and won't be coming back. I think about her every day and I miss her a lot. I'm sure we would have been best friends later on in life.

So I asked for a dress form and an extension table for my basic sewing machine. I ended up getting both! Plus that cute mint cart from Ikea that everyone has (or wants). I built the dress form and sewing cart myself! My kid has been sick for most of her vacation with this horrible cough. I have quarantined myself into my bedroom so I don't get it. I've been realllllly lazy and have spent most of my vacation reading in bed. I have to clean my room tomorrow and reorganize everything. I was planning to do it AFTER I bought the mat, so I would get some inspiration (or major caffeine from Starbucks) to move some stuff around.  There is a Starbucks across the street from Joann's. I also got some gift certificates to Pink Castle Fabrics, and I want to get some Rapture by Pat Bravo. It is SO pretty! I also got the Washi Dress pattern by Made By Rae, and I'm hoping that I can buy a FQ bundle and have some left over for a dress!

I checked out a bunch of books on making patterns, other dress making books (Colette!!!) and a TON of novels. I have been using my Goodreads app to find books I would want to read, so I don't have to go through the aisles looking for something interesting. I could easily spend like 5 hours in the library looking for books. After this bunch of books, I plan on sewing. I haven't done any free-motion quilting, but I plan on learning that this week. I just have a bunch of stuff to do to make that happen and that's what I plan on doing this weekend!

getting better

I'm feeling a bit better this week.  I actually have kept a log of what I have eaten/drank. I just need to exercise, drink more water, stop drinking Coke, and I'm well on my way. I've lost 3 pounds from my doctor office weight. I feel a lot of this is extra water weight, while my meds are being adjusted.

I have been keeping a tiny notepad on my nightstand, so I can keep notes. It's been helping me focus a bit better.

I've read 3 fiction books this past week, so I feel like I'm actually doing something, instead of watching tv. I also have dressmaking and pattern making books checked out. I'm learning SO much. I'm still bummed that I'm STILL not better since I got sick last weekend. I missed a skirt making class that I've been obsessing about for MONTHS. I also have a book out on making bags. I never had an interest, until I had the idea that I can make bags to match my dress!

I have over 3K email. I've erased the entire thing TWICE. The first time I used my iPhone, and thought I reversed something to make all the email magically reappear, like the hour I just spend deleting all that email didn't exist.  So it took about another week to get over that, and I tried it again. I pressed trash, exited out, and saw I had 300 emails to read. Pretty good from over 3000. Then I noticed about 15 minutes later all the email came back again!! So I'm going to have to do this manually on my laptop. The bad thing, is I get really distracted and start 5 different side projects while I'm doing it.  I find that I need to reorganize my pinboards, and transfer all my bookmarks to pins, that way I have more memory (or whatever it's called. I don't care, i just want my computer to run faster). Then I find that I need to blog about 5 different things, while entering giveaways and checking Instagram on my phone.  It's been a difficult task. That's what I get for abandoning my laptop for a month.

I KNOW that I'm going to be unsubscribing to a lot of crap emails I get, and try to figure out a better way to read my blogs.  Some blogs I haven't even seen since Google Reader died. On my iPhone, i can only load a few pages of blogs. So 10 blogs at a time. I subscribe to like 8000 or something, because I have a lot of different interests.

Thanks for reading this rant. I promise I'll be more interesting next time. After cleaning out my computer, I'm going to start on my room. So I can start sewing presents. It's been fun seeing what other people make.

The past month

I haven't opened up my laptop. I just didn't FEEL like it. For the first couple weeks, I was pretty good at going through my email. Then around the 4th week, I had almost 2,000 to go through. I deleted more than 900 during my first sweep through them. It was a bit more than my iphone could handle, and I did something that REVERSED that process and I got back my junky email. Oh, thank you Apple, because of all other things to mess up, email isn't one of them. grumble grumble.

Because I could only delete somewhere between 50 & 100 at a time, I reluctantly decided to open my laptop and get back to business...because that number is driving me insane. I get over 100 email a day. Thank YOU Google (not-anymore-reader).

But you know what? I'm not stressed about this blog. I don't care if I didn't get around to writing something. I have been using it as a : GO DO this already, pathetic girl.

Something happened mid-month that is horrible beyond belief. It's a very private issue that I haven't talked about on my blog, but it's serious. It has nothing to do with rape, so don't get to worried there. The only person it hurts is me...and maybe the people who really care about me, but in the end, it really just effects me. So now that's been almost a month ago, and last week I started getting hives again. That happened way earlier this year when Spring was trying to emerge as winter was clinging on. I guess the temperamental season changes doesn't help this much. I was SO SICK this past weekend. I even missed my skirt class that I have been dying to attend since this past summer. Like I have $50 to waste. I'm so pissed, and I really hope I get to work out something, that I can take another class at a different time. I fell asleep 5pm Friday and woke up around 4pm on Sunday. I slept through Saturday.

I know I'm depressed. I know that it's a situational depression that really is dependent on how this will play out. I see a Dr at least once a month. She's aware of this and has been prescribing me meds for this for over 3 years.

I know that I've gained a bunch of weight and am HATING it.

I know that I have too many mind-numbing activities going on.

What I can do: I have a treadmill on loan. Right now it came possessed, and I have to figure out how to run/fast walk on a few inclines without going from 2 to 8 incline and from 2 to 9 speed. There is no way in Hell, I can attempt something like that any time soon.  I don't have a goal because I have NEVER worked out before. I figure if I can lose 10 pounds and increase my metabolism, it will be a win-win.

Changes have been made so I have fresh veggies, and sometimes fruit on hand so I can eat that instead of cookies.

I am quitting Coke. This is one of the hardest things I've had to do. It's ALWAYS there. There really isn't an option to get this out of the house.  I'm thinking on ways to do it though.  I drink sweetened tea instead. This is the same sweetened tea that I've drank ALL my life (when I wasn't drinking coke) when I've weighted 90 pounds, so I'm not too worried about cutting EVERYthing down to water and carrot sticks. Tea is good for you.

I need to start journaling. Which is different than blogging. I want to buy a new notebook for this. I also want to start a Fitness journal, where I record what I'm eating and drinking and how much I exercise.  Just to keep track of where something might be going wrong.

I need to start SEWING again. Just because I don't have a backing for a quilt, isn't a good excuse not to put together the top.

I need to start making a real effort to be friends with the friends that I have. I tend to isolate and not keep promises....which makes me go back to feel bad about myself...vicious cycle.

I REALLY hope that I can take a different class. I didn't feel right about going in with a super high fever and fever spots/hives. I guess we will see tomorrow. If not, I'll just act like I donated to a good cause. Because I like that spot and I don't want to get bitter over it. It's not worth it.

I have good things going for me, if I work for them. I also need to find something new to read. I love to read about ANYthing I find interesting.  From the non-fiction, biographies, sewing books sections to just about anything from Stephen King to David Sedaris in fiction.

I think anything good to battle the anxiety and depression that I'm having is good for me. The only thing I can do is pray and wait for a (hopefully good) answer.

Government Shut Down Hurts Everyone

I'm going to copy and paste the email I received from the White House. Did you know that House Republicans have voted over 40 times to try to sabotage Obama Care? As a nurse, I'm ashamed that I don't know much about Obama Care yet. I know the goal is for every American to have health insurance at a low cost and affordable. What I think, is that there is a lot of fear of the unknown. We should have put this into place 30 years ago, but that didn't happen. Now that tons of people are getting sicker and have chronic diseases, which costs billions of dollars, it's like stepping into an impossible problem. Obama Care isn't going to be perfect. It's an initial attempt to try to bandage an hemorrhaging problem. It's like putting a bandaid on a gunshot wound. It's going to take years to get all the bugs out. I don't understand why the House Republicans are so against it, but they are seriously effing with innocent people, and that's what makes me angry.  Here is the initial letter I received from the White House a few hours ago:

(insert image of White House that didn't copy)

If the United States government shuts down tonight and our economy takes a hit, it will be because House Republicans let it happen.

Right now, there's a bill sitting in the House that funds the government for a few more weeks. It doesn't demand the repeal or delay of the health care law, or deny women access to birth control, or include any other failed, partisan proposals. It funds the government. That's it. And if Republican leadership allowed a simple yes or no vote on this bill -- like the Senate has -- it would get enough support from members of both parties to pass.

Instead, the government that these Republicans were elected to fund will close down and that will hurt our economy. Americans across the country won't be allowed to show up for work. Paychecks could be delayed, meaning some folks will have to cut back on groceries or maybe even not pay a few bills. Businesses will have fewer customers. Veterans won't get services they rely on -- and it will put benefits for seniors at risk.

Even though they've already voted over 40 times to defund or delay the health care law, this group of Republicans in Congress is so obsessed with the idea of sabotaging Obamacare that they're willing to take the economy hostage to do it.

Take a look at how this shutdown will affect millions of Americans -- and then make sure you share it so other folks know, too. (that's the same link from above)

President Obama has said time and time again that he's willing to work with folks on both sides of the aisle to grow our economy and even improve the health care law. But using the threat of government shutdown or defaulting on the bills our country owes is reckless and irresponsible.

In fact, shutting down the government won't stop Obamacare. The Health Insurance Marketplace will still open for business starting tomorrow, without delay.

Washington needs to stop manufacturing crises and focus on the issues that matter: creating jobs and building a strong middle class. Taking our economy over the cliff just to score political points isn't fair to the millions of Americans who show up every day to work and do their jobs. It’s time for Congress to do its job.

Make sure you know exactly who this shutdown is directly affecting and then pass it on.

Thanks,

David

David Simas
Deputy Senior Advisor
The White House
@Simas44 

P.S. -- You'll still be able to sign up for affordable health insurance onHealthCare.gov starting tomorrow, shutdown or no shutdown.

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What are your thoughts on this?