Welcome to the first official post of my blog. I will not make any sort of promises or random predictions about the frequency or quality of my posts. The only thing I will guarantee is that I WILL post SOMETHING SOMETIME. Nothing more, nothing less.

So it begins.....Regardless, on to my ponderings. This past weekend, I had the opportunity to attend a research and awareness conference in Cincinnati, Ohio. One of the topics covered during the weekend was future planning. Suprisingly, our government has made that one a bit more challenging for those of us who happen to have the "enhanced" models running around underfoot. Up until this point, I always assumed I'd tuck some money away, take out a life insurance policy, grow old, die and leave my kid some money. Survey says: WRONG.

Because my son has Down syndrome and has/will receive some sort of governmental aid in his lifetime, any inheritance/savings, etc. becomes fair game for the good ol' boys. Based on my understanding, the only way to protect anything I leave to my monkey is to set up a special needs trust. Anything contributed to the TRUST of the monkey is untouchable by our greedy old uncle. This is the balliwack of a lawyer, and it's not something you can do with Word, a bottle of wine, and thirty minutes of down time. However, in order to secure the future of your mini-me, I'd recommend getting in touch with your friendly local legal counsel and making things all official like. I'm doing it now.

And while you're at it, remind mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, cousin earl, aunt buelah and cousin tillie to update any policies, wills or checks they'd like to give your crumbsnatcher. Everything goes to the TRUST of Sunny Bubba Junebug Johnson Jr. Otherwise, it goes to the politicos, and we don't want that.

See, it wasn't all that painful. We'll see if it goes uphill or downhill from here.