| | I am sad. I wish that there weren't so many people living in poverty and starving. Or having no freedoms at all and living in war torn nations or having awful diseases ravage their countries. I have a hard time with how rich the US is and I feel like there has got to be so much we can do. But I don't know what. Why can't some of our millions of dollars in movie revenues go to feed starving children and their parents and the other people in their villages. Why can't we, instead of living the luxurious life we are used to, help give homeless people places to live. I never realized how we are so utterly blessed to be where we are. My family has a house, 2 cars and we eat at least 3 meals a day. Most people in America have these things but that is definitely not the norm a lot of countries in this world. I feel so bad that we have all that stuff and are still not content. There is always something more to get. I feel so selfish. I also feel so completely frustrated because I don't have a single clue how to help. How to feed the people that need feeding or to protect the people being massacred or to put a roof and heat over people's heads. I feel so helpless, what can I do to help? I truly, truly want to do something. And yet I will probably close this entry and go back to my padded little life and never do anything at all because I don't know what to do. I wonder how mother Teresa got started helping people or how that one scientist knew how to created golden rice. I don't know how all these people got started. I don't know what to do. I want to stop being an arrogant American who lives a rich, cushy life and thinks the whole world lives this way. I want to take my head out of the sand. But once I do, then what????? | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment   |
| Well its been awhile since I have posted so I felt obligated to get something up here. I am not sure what to say. My life has consisted of work, Leah and Nathan, and hanging out with friends (not too much of that though, cuz I also have to squeeze in sleep). Plus the holidays are oh so hectic with trips and family and whatnot. For Christmas I got a membership to a gym and I am loving it!! Now I just have to get myself to wake up in the morning to go so I don't have to try and fit it in after work. Ok, I am getting bored with this, I will let you know when I have something fun to comment on. In the mean time, here is a updated picture of Leah's first Thanksgiving, birthday and Christmas.
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| Well it's been a couple months and I am still liking my job. I find it interesting how much working teaches me what I to make sure I teach Leah. I've decided that it is very important to me that Leah be respectful to her elders and to her peers. I have also learned that while it would be fun to spoil her I would not be doing her, or anyone else for that matter, any favors. Sometimes being in a Jr. High can test my patience. Enough about work.
Halloween was fun this year. I dressed up as Kermit the frog and when I walked into the living Leah took one look at me and started cracking up. Leah was a pumpkin this year, see:
Also, I recently let Leah play in the bathtub with a few tubs of colored cool whip.
Leah will be one this month. I don't know how that happened, it feels like she was just born.
Our friend Teresa is leaving us this January to go to school in Chicago. That stinks. I will miss her. She better come back and visit a lot.
I remember I had a specific thing I had wanted to post but I can't remember what it was. I guess I'll have to get back to you. Time for football!!! | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Time: | 06:15 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/stars/purple/working_sp.gif) accomplished |
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Leah in her cuteness.
Daddy teaching Leah tricks of the trade.
Leah burying daddy at the beach.
Not super-recent, but Mario is in there, so you know it's gotta be good.
Leah's first airplane ride. | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Time: | 05:10 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/stars/purple/bored_sp.gif) bored |
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| Um Hello? Is anybody there? I am sorry. I know it's been a long time. Let me fill you in.
I believe I left off with Nathan's swollen face. Well I am not sure exactly what happened when but things have happened since.
Nathan's root canal went well, he ended up only needing one. I haven't had another trip to the hospital since well...last week, but that was for Leah, I haven't been there for an abscess since May. So the whole family has been healthy for one week and counting!!
Nate, Leah and I moved out of Katie's house and into our own. We are still working on renovations but it's livable here and we are actually sleeping in our bedroom now so that's amazing! Thanks to everyone who helped.
About a month ago I was in Connecticut visiting Rachel and a school system from this area called and offered an interview for me. I wasn't looking for a job but after a series of interesting events I decided to take the job. And I am loving it! I work about 30 hours a week and every Wednesday I have a half day. I like my student that I work with and I love the work that I do. I dislike not seeing Leah as much as I used to and some days it's really hard but for the most part I think working outside the home has made me a better mom. The time I spend with Leah has so much more meaning now and I'm excited to see her at 3:00 everyday. I'm not sure if I was cut out to stay at home. Which is interesting because every since I can remember I've wanted to be a teacher or a stay at home mom. I think I'll try again when Leah is old enough to communicate and we can actually do stuff together. I almost feel guilty liking my job so much. It's been a weird mix of emotions.
Ok, I am feeling particularly bored with this entry. Now that my obligatory "bring you up to speed" post is out of the way, my following posts will be actually interesting.
*Picture post on its way* | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| *UPDATE - Nathan has a double root canal tomorrow morning.*
So we got the house across the street that we wanted. Now the people who bought our house need to sort out the glich they are having in financing so that Nate and I can close on the new house. Nathan does a good job of explaining why we bought that particular house so I plan to just copy and paste from his journal, as I have other things to post about. "Here’s a picture of the new house from the porch of our current house… 
I know, it seems crazy to move to another place that is so flipping close. We had pretty much finished whatever real improvements we could do on our current house, so we decided to sell. As we went through the process of selling, we started looking for another place we could buy that could be fixed up. We looked at more than a dozen different houses of varying size, location and price. They were all what Realtor types would probably call “Handyman Specials.” We looked at the place pictured above a little over a week ago, it is in good enough condition that we felt confident in being able to do most of the work ourselves and we liked the layout. Our plan is to stay for a year or two and then move on to another place. We’re really just trying to keep our broker as busy as possible. More updates about how things work out, our renovations and all that coming up soon." Ok, so an update on the families health. About two weeks ago I got a nasty viral infection that I promptly gave to Leah, who promptly gave it to Nathan. It is finally pretty much gone. Other than that, Leah has been healthy. I wish I could say the same for Nathan and I. I got another abcsess, in the same spot. I now have to see some specialists. Nathan's toothache came back full force Saturday and yesterday his face started swelling. So he callled the dentist who called in a prescription for Nate to start. Nate sees the dentist this afternoon and I have a followup appt with my doc this afternoon as well. Thank God Leah has been relatively healthy(and sleeping well too!!). Plus, I finally figured out how to keep her poop in her diaper, all i had to do was stop giving her rice cereal. Nathan and I are now living with our friend Katie. We started moving into the house we planned on renting but a few days after we moved stuff in, the house was broken into and the copper piping was stolen. Not only that but the people stealing the piping left the water main on which ending up flooding the basement. So needless to say we couldn't live in a house with no running water and we didn't feel comfortable in a house that was so recently broken into. So Katie was amazing enough to let us move in with her. It's been nice to have a place to stay and we feel really comfortable here. Katie's a great friend.
I got to go interpret for the whole day on Thursday. It was nice, I didn't realize how much I missed it until I was there. I think I'm going to let the agency know I'm ready to come back. Maybe just work once a week or something. Ok, so i've updated about the house, the move, our health, work, I think I'm done. Over and Out. | | comments: 8 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Last night at Las there was a conversation about societies pressure on women to be thin. Ok, the whole conversation wasn't about that but that was one of the points we touched upon. Well, today I stumbled onto America's Next Top Model and I watched a bit of it. They have two plus sized models on the show. I found out that one of the "plus size" models wears a size 8. A SIZE 8!!!!! How on earth is that considered plus size!?!?! Anyway, i just thought it was interesting that we talked about the absurd pressures put on women in our culture to be thing and I think this is a perfect example. | | comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment |
| Three nights ago Leah was up every two hours. Not to eat, just to fuss and scream about being in her crib. Then the next night she slept from 10pm-4am then back to sleep til 8. It was amazing. Then last night she slept from 10pm til 6am then back down til 8. I'm so proud!
In other news, I think Nathan and I have found a house. We are putting an offer on it today. I'll let you know how it turns out. If we get it, it would be hilarious because of it's location. It's across the street from where we live now. No Really, I'm not joking. If the offer goes through I'll explain a bit better.
Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go clean the bed sheets which were just spit up all over. Ah, the joys of motherhood. :-) | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| Ok, as a reply to Andy's request back in October for me to update, here we go. You'll notice I haven't been on here since July. I'll do my best to fill you in. I really don't remember much of anything before November. Leah decided to come along on Nov. 24th, the day after Thanksgiving, at 7:34 am. Which means that I was having contractions all day on Thanksgiving. It wasn't bad though, we stopped by the hospital at 9ish just to make sure things were ok and they ended up keeping me there. I started having pain with the contractions around 2am. It was all over by 7:30am. During our stay in the hospital Leah was called Feisty and Pissy by the nurses and every single time they brought her back from the nursery they said to me, "you better have a swing at home" and then they would leave quite quickly. To say the least, Leah was a bit cranky, and she let you know it, for the first 2 months of life. She has since improved and is now a cute, smiley baby who occasionally has a colicky night.
For the most part, the past 3 months have not been good medically. Apparently while I was in the hospital for delivery I fed Leah wrong for a few days. This resulted in massive wounds on very sensitive parts of my body. These usually heal within a week but in my case it took 4 1/2. It was prolonged due to the fact that I got a yeast infection in my milk ducts. The symptoms of which were itching, burning and the feeling of shards of glass in my ducts. So needless to say feeding the little lady resulted in a nightly tear-fest.
2 days after I healed fully from all that I got a sore on my bum. I went to the hospital for it on New Years Day and found out it was an abscess. They opened it and drained it and then Nate had to pack it twice a day for me. That lasted about 3 weeks. While they drained it they put me on antibiotics but oral antibiotics weren't strong enough so i had an IV in my had for 4 days and I had to make 2 trips to the hospital that would last between 2 and 4 hours each. This is a bit irritating when you have a child to feed and she can't come with you. Plus taking care of a 5 week old with an IV in your hand is quite the challenge. However one good thing is, while I was there we figure out that the rash I had come home with from the hospital for delivery was actually a yeast infection on my legs. Hard to get rid of but treatable.
We then had a Dr. appointment to discuss Leah's projectile vomit habit and her crankiness. She has acid reflux so the dr. put her on medicine to help take the discomfort away. I had to administer this grape-peppermint nastiness twice a day. That was on top of the antibiotics I had to give to her 4 times a day to prevent the yeast from me infecting her mouth.
So things were looking up, the packing was over and I was able to sit again so I thought things were going to settle down. Unfortunately that Monday(the 29th I believe) Leah was acting very lethargic and was very warm. Her fever spiked that night and I whisked her away to the emergency room. After doing a million tests, including the threat of a spinal tap, and a few x-rays, they decided she had a Urinary Tract Infection(UTI) which is extremely rare in 2 month olds. So they admitted her and there we stayed for the week. On Wednesday night Nathan stayed with Leah in her room while I went down the to ER with another abscess. This one made it difficult to sit or walk, which is not appreciated when you have a colicky infant who can only be consoled with a specific combination of bouncing and walking. So anyway, after an awful Wednesday/Thursday we were discharged Friday night and on the way out I had a reaction to the meds they had given me. So Nate and I stayed while my mom took Leah home. The good thing about this stay though was that I got to talk to a lactation consultant to figure out why there was still soooo much pain when I tried to feed Leah. We figured out that I produce too much milk and it comes out WAY to fast for her little mouth to keep up with. So to stop the flow she was pinching me. The consultant gave me a few things that might help alleviate the pain and things have slowly been improving ever since. It doesn't even hurt to feed her anymore!! It's amazing.
We spent most of February recuperating and in Dr's appointments, both hers and mine. They ruled out kidney reflux in her so her UTI was just plain bad luck. They figured out the reason for my abscesses was that I had contracted MRSA during labor and delivery. It isn't curable. You can find more info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRSA The up side is that now when I go to the hospital I have to have a private room. The down side is that I may continue to randomly get abscesses or boils.
Recently she had a dr appointment and we decided the acid reflux medicine wasn't helping so we stopped giving that to her and we got to stop the antibiotics. So now I only have to give her vitamins once a day. AND last night she slept 5 hours straight!!!
Also Nathan and I put the house up for sale a few weeks ago and it sold right away. So now we are in the process of trying to find a new house. I don't know why, but I think it is soooooooo much fun to go look at houses.
So for everyone who has called or sent letters and hasn't got a response yet, give me about another week and you should hear from me. I haven't meant to neglect people, I've just had a lot on my plate. When Nate gets some time to show me how to post pictures I will put some up on here. Hopefully that won't take me another 7 months. | | comments: 7 comments or Leave a comment |
| Well I guess I know it's been too long when I go to log in and can't remember my password. For some reason lately I just haven't been in a posting mood. I'll think up some great posts but getting them down on 'paper' just doesn't seem to happen. Oh well, life goes on.
Since school let out I've been able to go camping twice. It has been delightful both times. The first time I went with a group of friends and that made it tons of fun, dispite the cold temperatures(we are talking frost warnings). The second time was with Papa and Nathan. It was also Allie's first camping trip. It was quite amusing. I think for the most part she liked it but she didn't enjoy being on a leash the whole time. Although everytime I put the leash on after going for a walk so thought she was going for another walk. That was very entertaining to me. I really like camping and I can't wait to go on a trip to the UP. It's purty up there.
As for news on the baby, we find out the sex tomorrow. I'm pretty excited to find out what it is so I can stop trying to guess. I mean, I already know it's a girl but then again, last week I 'knew' it was a boy. I guess I'll be writing again tomorrow. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | I am so sick of science. I understand that there are biological reasons for many things. I understand that there are many emotional/mental disorders out there that are serious and can not be controled. But come on people start taking responsiblity for your actions. It has now been concluded that there is a biological disorder that causes road rage. "Oh, I'm sorry I stabbed you because you cut me off, but sir, it's not my fault I have a biological disorder." | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | What if I stuble - DC Talk | | Subject: | This one's a keeper. | | Time: | 03:46 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/stars/purple/happy_sp.gif) ecstatic |
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| I'm back for a little bit. Health update: Some days are better than others. Morning sickness is a lie, it lasts all day. And you don't necessarily get sick, you just feel like you're going to....ALL THE TIME. Other than that I've been doing pretty good. Cravings are fun, very guilt free. Now on to the reason for this post.
Nathan and I recently got dental insurance through my work. I thought this was a good thing, turns out not so much. We both went to get our teeth cleaned and both of us didn't have a very good experience but mine was dreadful. They used red toothpaste to clean my teeth after I told them I was allergic to red dye. When I inquired as to why they were using the red toothpaste the woman asked what red dye was. I explained it something they put in food or things of that nature to make them an appealling red coler. But the woman said it wasn't food, it was toothpaste. I said I know, but it's still artificial red dye. No, she said, it's toothpaste. Hmmmmm.
Then the dentist told me I had 5 cavities. This struck me as odd since in 21 years I had never had a cavity and I had given up soda in the last year. And I still brush my teeth at least twice a day. Never the less I set up my appointment to get them filled. Nathan's was a few days ago and I asked him how it went. Well let's see, the shots hurt like heck and they didn't really numb anything as it still hurt when they did the work.
So I decided to get a second opinion. I went to my old dentists office. IT WAS AMAZING!! He told me everything he was doing as he did it. He gave me options and clearly explained the pros and cons of each of my decisions. He told me that my TWO(yeah 2) cavities could be filled that day. So he filled them WITHOUT any pain killers. No shots, no gas and I felt no pain. That's how good this guy is. The other 3 "cavities" that he found were in fact just stained crevases that had NO stickiness/tackiness(the sign of a cavity) in them. But they are going to keep an eye on them to make sure they don't progess to cavities.
Now, I don't have dental insurance at my old dentists office, only to the other one. I will never go back to the other dentist though, and neither will Nathan. It's worth our money to be completely comfortable and informed with our old dentist who can fill two cavities with no painkillers and no pain. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| I REALLY want to say something witty here and tell you all I am pregnant and tell you about my awful flying experience yesterday. But I just can't. My body wants to just cease to exist at the moment so all you get it this:
I'm six weeks along. I am very happy to be preggers.
My 8:08 flight last night ended up leaving at 10:40 getting me home in bed at 2:40 and me having to get up and be to work by 7:45. It didn't work out that way.
And just for added kicks, "morning sickness" hit me last night at about 9:00 at full force. Yup that means I was running from the terminal to the bathroom every couple of minutes hoping not to miss my flight and then being sick on the plane. I believe it might just be one of the worst experiences of my life.
I'm going to go pass out now. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| So my turtle died this morning. Here's the story:
Last night I took him to Petco to see what kind of turtle he is/was. They didn't know but they did say his shell was REALLY soft and he would die if i didn't get him UVB light. So I bought one and some food for him. Also when we got there his face was all bloody so i must've drove to fast or something.
So I bring him home, feed him turn on the light and let him set for a few hours
i turn off the light go to bed, then i wake up and i see him acting funny, flaling with his tail up and his head down but still alive. I come out of the shower and his nose to to the ground and he is no longer moving so i poke him and nothing happens. Nathan took him out and we was very very dead.
so either I:
Killed him by not providing the right light, killed him with a head injury, or let him drown while he was flayling for help
Right, I just let my turtle drown and I'm supposed to be smart enough to raise a kid. Good luck kid. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| I know, two entries right in a row. I'll give you a moment to catch your breath. Ready? Ok. I am thinking that maybe I shouldn't have children. My primary reason for this is my dog. Now I love me dog TONS. But every once in a while she starts this whining thing. And she just starts whining and won't really stop. So as her loving mother what do I do? I tell her to shut up. Yup, and it never works, not once. But I still continue to do it.
In other news I was wondering if a techie might be able to be of service to me. I have recently(within a month's time) commented on other people's blog, a rare occurance. And what happens? Not one of them show up. Oh sure they show up for a couple of minutes. But then when I look at them the next day there is not comment. And it's not contained to just one blogging serivce. It's happened on livejournal, and jeff's blog - what ever he uses and danny's blog. It's makes me a lil' sad. I mean, true nothing I said was of dire value but I don't think I deserved to completely erased. Any suggestions? Oh and also it's not just me, apparently Erin left a comment on Jeff's blog(I know only because he responded) and I don't see any comments left on it. Under the comment area it says zero. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I just got done watching the first episode of black.white. My concensus is that I will never watch the show again because it's just frustrating. The show takes a black family and a white family and does both of their make-up and they become the opposite race. The problem is they use white people who think there is no racism in the world today and black people who think there is racism in everything. Now, obviously this was done for shock value. The thing that frustrated me is that they put each family in an "all white" or "all black" situation. For example the white black man was put in a bar in a "white neighborhood only" OF COURSE he's going to hear discrimination in that kind of setting becuase that kind of neighborhood is full of racist people, that's why the whole neighborhood is white. They put the black white girl in a slam poetry setting. They mostly focused on how that was an eye opening experience for her and didn't really focus on any kind of discrimination there. It just seemed like the whole show consisted of the white male saying the black male was seeing racism where it didn't exsist.(part of which I agreed with b/c the guy thought eVERYTHING happened becuase he was a black man) and the black man saying the white man didn't see it because he didn't want to.(which at some points I did agree with)
I would like to see the show put the black family who is pretending to be white put in an "all black" situation because I as a white person have recieved racism against me because I am a white person. and I'm not saying I experience the same thing as a black person - I am positive that they recieve WAY more racism that I ever have, I'm just saying that sometimes people look at me with dislike - and voice that dislike - because I'm white.
I just wish we could all grow up. We are all people regardless of our color, we are people with different cultures and different life experiences and we need to have respect for everyone. I want to be friends with someone because of who they are not because of what they look like. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Time: | 12:02 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/stars/purple/awake_sp.gif) awake |
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| I went to RumRunners last night with a group of my brothers' friends, Nathan and Andy. It was an interesting experience. I had wanted to go and check out the dueling pianos upstairs. They were pretty cool but not at all what I had expected. The downstairs was just like a club, completely not my scene. I only last about 3 minutes down there. We ended up staying until the place closed. It was a long night, but I did get to watch a police intervention out the window I was standing at. It was really funny because the two cops were standing there with crossed arms questioning this guy and then one of the cops pulls out chapstick and proceeds to apply it. I'm sure that was very intimidating and the guy probably confessed everything after that.
I also watched a thunderstorm. I was very excited about that and I remembered coming home from Holland one time in a nasty snow storm. During the snow storm there was lightening all over and it completely amazed me. I had never seen lightening during a snow storm before. It was incredible.
Anyway, it's quite warm outside so I think I'm going to go spend the majority of the day outside. Anyone up for a bbq? I've been really wanting to have one recently. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Time: | 04:01 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/stars/purple/grumpy_sp.gif) cynical |
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| This is going to be short and not very sweet. Today, while in the clinic with a student, I saw a commercial on the t.v. It was for some random luxury car and said how heated seats were not good enough, we now have heated and cooled seats not to mention a variety of other non-essential options. It made me literally sick to my stomach. Good thing we don't have to deal with hot or cold seats anymore.
How is it that we(yes myself included) can justify buy all this crap while we full well that there are millions of starving/homeless people in the world?! What the hell is wrong with us!?
Yesterday I was at a friends house and they mentioned that one of their friends worked for Intellegence(she mentioned what position, it was super high up, but I had a baby in my arms and was somewhat pre-occupied). ANYway, she said that it was interesting that no other country actually trusts their media other than the US. And that a lot of times the government uses the media as a smoke-screen. At first I thought, I don't buy into the whole conspiracy stuff, but then I actually thought about it. And why do we trust our media so much? I mean, I'm not saying that everything they say is a lie but I am also saying that Everything they say is most likely not the truth. OR what they are saying could be the truth that's just being played up to help us overlook another story that's happening. The media has a lot of power. Even over those who don't consider themselves news watchers.
Bottom line is that I like being around people who make me think. It is very stimulating.
Sorry about saying this was going to be short. But at least I didn't lie about the not sweet part. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
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