gawge sailing!

Emma loves going garage saling with me. Last Saturday Tuan and Daniel came too. It was a great day! Below are the pics of what Tuan found.

Exactly!

Well, to be fair - he bought a box of crayons for Emma and Daniel for 10 cents. That's it!

Sooooooo - here are the pics of what I bought! Hee, hee!

I finally found a mini fridge for Emma and Daniel! It took me all summer, but I found one! I think it's actually a good thing it took several months to find. I have gotten much better at bargaining. It was marked at $35 but I managed to haggle it down to $25. And this was even within the first hour they were open!

This I found at a sale with about $200 worth of toys. They were all plastic (not my thing) but I spotted this gem hidden among them. I asked how much and they only wanted $4 for it! I am going to sand it down and stain it to get it back to the beautiful wood. Emma loves dumping out all of the toys I keep in it and playing inside.

Emma is wearing the Lightning McQueen shirt she snagged and a pair of pants I picked out for Daniel. Both are size 12 mos. The shirt fits and the pants are capris on her! She and D are so close to the same size. I actually get asked if they are twins!

This is only half of what I got for $5! Emma was busy playing with the rest. :o) I'm always on the lookout for beads for Em and D to play with. Nearly all of these are wood and big enough that I don't have to worry about D choking on them. At the same sale I also found at least a dozen fun colored shoelaces. You know - there's something relaxing about threading beads onto laces. Emma will play with these for, well, tens of minutes! If you know Em, you know that she is always going and doesn't stay with something for very long before she's on to the next thing.

At only $1 a piece, these camp chairs weren't a necessity, but impossible to pass up!

While I was gleefully rummaging through stacks of infant boys clothes (all in like-new condition!) Emma found this book. The nose squeaks, so D likes it too. :o}

This purse Emma found and charmed the owner into selling it and a small stuffed animal to her for a quarter. Three of the watermelons at the bottom light up.

I don't have a picture of it all, but for only $5 I got 5 shirts, 4 pairs of pants, 2 sweatshirts and 3 shirts for me! I felt a bit bad that Tuan didn't find anything, but I sure had a blast!

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I haven't been up to blogging lately because any time both of the kids are asleep, I go and take a nap with them. This of course leaves little time for blogging - even for such great, faithful readers as yourselves. ;o) You see, the news office decided that instead of dropping the papers off at my doorstep, they would create a central drop site and expect us to pick them up ourselves. Yuck! But our district got lucky and has someone who will still drop them off for us. Unfortunately, instead of getting them at 2:30 am, I now get them at 4 am. So while I have enough time to get them delivered before 6 am, I don't really have enough time to get back to/any sleep before Daniel and Emma are up for the day. It really does take me at least 1/2 hour to fall asleep. Yet Tuan can be out in 5 seconds flat! How is that fair! Add to that the sound of the door opening is some kind of alarm to them "beep, beep! mommy's back!" so I'm getting them both back to sleep as soon as I get home making it take even longer to get back to sleep. So I think that I may just bite the bullet - use the fuel and go pick up the papers at 2:30 myself. Then maybe I wouldn't need to nap every day with them and could blog more! The ultimate goal, right? :o}

600 Physicians, Dentists, Scientists and Environmentalists Call for an End to Fluoridation

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/08/14/600-physicians-dentists-scientists-and-environmentalists-call-for-an-end-to-fluoridation.aspx

In the United States flouride is added to tap water in the hopes that stronger teeth will result. This has never been proven. Over fifty years ago in 1950, the U.S. Public Health Service enthusiastically endorsed fluoridation before one single trial had been completed. In fact, fluoridation is dangerous and unethical.

"Fluoridation is unsafe because:
1) It accumulates in our bones and
makes them more brittle and prone to fracture. The weight of evidence from
animal studies, clinical studies and epidemiological studies on this is
overwhelming. Lifetime exposure to fluoride will contribute to higher rates of
hip fracture in the elderly.
2) It accumulates in our pineal gland, possibly
lowering the production of melatonin, a very important regulatory hormone (Luke,
1997, 2001).
3) It damages the enamel (dental fluorosis) of a high
percentage of children. Between 30 percent and 50 percent of children have
dental fluorosis on at least two teeth in optimally fluoridated communities
(Heller et al, 1997 and McDonagh et al, 2000).
4) There are serious, but yet
unproven, concerns about a connection between fluoridation and osteosarcoma in
young men (Cohn, 1992), as well as fluoridation and the current epidemics of
both arthritis and hypothyroidism.
5) In animal studies fluoride at 1 ppm in
drinking water increases the uptake of aluminum into the brain (Varner et al,
1998).
6) Counties with 3 ppm or more of fluoride in their water have lower
fertility rates (Freni, 1994).
7) In human studies the fluoridating agents
most commonly used in the U.S. not only increase the uptake of lead into
children's blood (Masters and Coplan, 1999, 2000) but are also associated with
an increase in violent behavior.
8) The margin of safety between the
so-called therapeutic benefit of reducing dental decay and many of these end
points is either nonexistent or precariously low.
Fluoridation is unethical because:
1) It violates the individual's right to informed consent to medication.
2) The municipality cannot control the dose of the patient.
3) The municipality cannot track each individual's response.
4) It ignores the fact that some people are more vulnerable to fluoride's toxic effects than others. Some people will suffer while others may benefit.
5) It violates the Nuremberg code for human experimentation."

http://www.mercola.com/2002/dec/18/water_fluoridation.htm

Fluoridation falls into the ranks of stupid, unproven, damaging and unethical practices packaged to us as "preventative medicine". Others - male and female circumcision and vaccinations. In fact, Americans have been given fluoridated water, their sons have been circumcised and their children have been injected with vaccines for over 50, 200 and 100 years respectively as a giant experiment at the expense of their health!! It's time to stop. (http://www.icgi.org/2007/04/medicalization-of-circumcision-an-online-slide-show/ , http://www.vaccinationnews.com/default.htm )

Sign the petition to help end fluoridation of our water here: http://www.actionstudio.org/public/page_view_all.cfm?option=begin&pageid=8276

DVDV!

This past weekend was my oldest brother's 40th birthday. His wife rented a skating rink for 2 hrs and invited family and friends. So Tuan, Emma, Daniel and I caught a ride with my dad down to Provo and skated. I have not been skating for over 12 years! So after a few rounds to get my balance, I took Daniel for a spin. Talk about nerve-wracking! But I never fell and never dropped Emma or Daniel. BTW, Tuan is good at everything! He is way better at skating than I am. Grrr! LOL My dad took some pics.

W started at a park where we briefly met up with one of my sisters. This is an awesome park. I need a pic of the actual park.

Then we headed to the party. Emma liked the trainer skates (7-weelers!) better than the four wheelers.

But her favorite things were the many arcade games they had and sneaking onto the rink without skates on!




After we were done skating we had pizza. I think I ate an entire pizza. No - seriously!



(The DVD player and the DVDs are called DVDVs. Sometimes DVDVDVDVDVs.)

So, I wanted to say thanks to everyone who still visits my blog in the hopes that I have updated it recently. And also my apologies for making you wait.

I am now running my own business and realizing the benefits of becoming an independent contractor! Well, at least that's what the newspaper office tells me. The reality? I'm a news-carrier. I have a paper route. That's all. Oh, and

I'm exhausted!!!!

I have 83 customers on the weekdays and 95 on Sat and Sun. My papers get delivered at 2:30 in the morning. If the alarm doesn't wake up Daniel and I can extricate myself from the bed relatively soon after, I can be done and back in bed by 4:45.

Unfortunately, as I am running my own business, I seem to have done a horrible job of hiring a newspaper distributor and could I threaten to move my business elsewhere, I would! My first day it took me 5 hours to do my route. Why? Well, I followed the route sheet that my supervisor gave me as a suggested delivery order. Dumb not to double-check, I know, but it turns out that she gave me a super old list. I had to go back out and move papers from one porch to another and drive all the way to the office to get three more papes because a few people apparently thought they got a free paper that day! So I was up from 2:30 am until 9:30 pm. The second day was rather uneventful. However that evening, I began shaking and shivering and couldn't feel the tips of my fingers. I'm guessing my body was pretty worn out. (You see - my children didn't stop nursing just because I started a route!) On the third day I had my route, my papes didn't arrive until 3:40 am. Saturday morning I got 95 papers but only one new address to deliver to. When I called the carrier hotline, I got no reply. On Saturday evening I got 95 papes deposited on my doorstep. 12 bundles that collectively weighed about 200 lbs! I guessed they forgot to tell me that the Sun papes arrived on Sat night. I was excited that I could deliver them at midnight and just sleep through on Sun morning. Thank goodness I slipped in a card with my name and number to each paper because when I opened the door Sun morning there was the rest of the paper! I believe the first word out of my mouth was "Shit!!" My phone rang off the hook as I ran my ass off delivering the rest of the paper to my entire route. Again! I really wish they would have thought to tell me about this Sunday difference. Thanks to their incompetence, I now have 8 service reports on my record with at least 2 runners being sent. Each one costs me $3!! I'm going to contest the ones from Sat as they screwed up and failed to give me the customer's addresses. And starting next week they will no longer be delivering the papes to my doorstep. I now have to drive 1 mile to pick them up. But it's only a mile! But it is now impossible do do my route without a car which was one of the main perks of this job. That and that I can do it while the kids are alseep and with Tuan. As of now the route is still worth having as the times and location are ideal. I just wish the news office took better care of their carriers.

The hardest part about the route is that I am more tired during the day making it that much harder to have endless patience with and not yell at Emma and Daniel. But if it ever gets to be too much, I will not sacrifice my kids for $250 a month. I'm very much hoping this will work because I really, really, really want a house with a yard for Emma and Daniel to run around in.

home

We are home. Thank you everyone for you thoughts and prayers for safe travels.

in preparation

A month ago my mother told me that a friend of hers felt I needed extra prayers sent my way. I didn't know why.

Two weeks ago I had a very vivid and tramatic nightmare that Tuan had been killed.

On Saturday a 25 year old woman died tragically in a car wreck in Kansas.

On Sunday I talked with a mom who lost her daughter at the age of 8 to diebetes.

I also met our new neighboor whose husband died 3 weeks ago.

I didn't know the 8 year old. I didn't know my neighboor's husband. But I knew the 25 year old woman in the car wreck. Renee was one of my best friends from college.

One week ago on July 30 I got a surprise message from Renee. We wrote back and forth with her last message coming on August 3. She died on August 4th, probably never getting my reply.

I believe that everything that happened in the last month was a preparation for the phone call I received on Monday.

None of this does justice to how I feel though. I didn't feel anything on Saturday. I heard on Monday. It is Tuesday somehow. The world didn't stop turning. Why didn't the world stop turning? Renee is gone! Why doesn't everyone know? Why isn't everyone sad? Why is the world oblivious to the passing of such a wonderful person? Renee was my friend when I felt like a person no-one would befriend. She gave me self-confidence. She made sure I made it through 5 semesters of music theory and 3 semesters of music history - subjects I am woefully bad at. She taught me how to paint my toe-nails and dye my hair. She taught me how to be a better musician. She helped me to be a better person.

Our family will be travelling to her funeral this weekend so I won't be updating for a bit. Thank you for your prayers and thoughts.

Renee

December 1981 - August 2007

I love you.

World Breastfeeding Week August 1-7

http://www.worldbreastfeedingweek.org/

Watching new mother and cover model Jessica Hebert breastfeed her baby
girl, Luna, born this May, during our cover shoot, was absolutely
breathtaking.
The ease and the confidence she exuded while striking a pose
was incredible. You
would never have thought that, like most new mothers in
America, she originally
knew very little about breastfeeding.

Jessica and her partner Marcus set out to get educated before Luna’s
birth. “Neither Marcus nor I were breastfed as babies. But he was 100% for
breastfeeding and I am so grateful to him for doing a lot of research in
advance. We both watched baby shows and read a ton about breastfeeding while I
was pregnant. Marcus’ support was and continues to be invaluable.”

Jessica was also smart to spend a lot of time with her best friend who was
nursing. “It was great to have ‘hands-on’ experience and to learn from her.” By
the time Luna was born, Jessica knew to put her immediately on her bare chest
for her first feeding. The two began what has turned into an awesome
breastfeeding relationship. “We have had no problems, I still can’t believe
nothing has gone wrong. I breastfeed anywhere and everywhere.” Jessica
breastfeeds Luna on Luna’s cues, not according to a schedule, and “Luna is such
a happy baby, and rarely cries. We have also taught her to self-soothe by
encouraging her to suck on her fist or thumb because we read that pacifiers can
lead to more ear infections.” On the subject of sleeping, Jessica finds that
co-sleeping safely with Luna in bed “gives everyone a better night’s sleep.”
And, she adds, “it is so, so sweet.” Jessica’s story is a clear example of
how well breastfeeding can go. All too often vulnerable new mothers only hear
horror stories about breastfeeding.

In Jessica’s own words: “Ohhh, it has been the most wonderful thing for
us…when she looks up and stares into my eyes. It’s the most heart-warming and
comfortable thing for me.

Read the whole article here

Duiber

It's kind of hard to write this one out phonetically. What she is refering to are her boogers. I actually wasn't sure what I wanted her to call them when she first presented me with one and asked what it was. I thought for a minute and decided to call them boogers. (well, what would you have chosen?) It was so cute to hear her say it. (still is actually, but I'll get to that) Each time she pulled one out, we would help her find a rag or trash can for it. Nowadays though, we don't get the chance. She will tell me - put duiber in my mouf. What that means is that she has just put her booger in her mouth and is eating it. Ok, I'm a pretty chill mom about these things (I like to think) but this one gets to me. Little chills in my center - know-what-I-mean? But I try not to act all disgusted because she will feel that she as a person disgusts me. Besides, how many people do you know who still eat their boogers? Thought so! So I just calmly explained that while they may taste sweet (I nearly typed sweat - how aprapos!), they have no nutrients and don't help her body or giver her any energy. So now she has added a phrase: Put duiber in my mouf. Heps my body. I can insist until I am blue in the face that, no - it is waste and doesn't help her body, but she will still insist that they do. sigh. toddlers! :o)

More pics!

Here are some more pictures. (Yes Jill, Tuan and I are in some ;o) Some of these I tried loading last time but they didn't take.

My dad has lots of thornless raspberry bushes in his backyard. Emma had fun picking some and even more fun eating them!

At the 2005 reunion my cousin and her daughter posed with Emma and me. We are the same age and both named our first daughters Emma.

Crazy how much they grow and change in just two years!

We stopped using disposable diapers as a back-up in April. He is usually always bare-bum at home and we use poquito pants that I made the rest of the time and while we're out. But I was a bit apprehensive about going to the reunion where everything was new to Daniel. We did really well! We never missed a poo and since we were able to do laundry at my grandma's home, we never ran out of one-wets. Here Tuan is giving Daniel a "potty-tunity" :o)

My sister and brother-in-law brought the three car train that his family made for their dad. He gave the cousins tons of rides behind their 4-wheeler. Everyone LOVED it! Thanks Matt!!

2007 Reunion

Ok - so it's been two weeks since my last post. We left for a family reunion just after my last update and it has been a bit tricky to get any kind of routine back. First the train-wreck of a house needed to be tidied. Then I realized that we left our BBLP (Baby Bjorn Little Potty) at my grandmother's house and it took until last night to get it back! (Long story - perhaps it would bore you). So - we are back and everything is well and I just didn't want anyone to worry about us. (If no-one was worried, please don't tell me - my fragile ego can't handle it.) And while I am dying to get to work on my latest crochet project (see below) I am taking the time to update my blog for you, my loyal readers. Ain't I great! Here are some fun pics of our great time at the reunion.

This is what they should look like when I'm done.

On Friday we went to the lake - Daniel enjoyed floating but got a bit nervous when Emma took the wheel! You can imagine why.

After swiming all afternoon, Daniel was plum tuckered out.

After the reunion, Emma had a chance to play with lots of her grandpa's cool water toys! She loved the water squirters.

More pics to come when I get more time. Both kiddos awake now.

Girls in Tears and Dumping Princes

Each Tuesday Emma, Daniel and I go to a playgroup. So we drop Tuan off at work and then head to the city park for a change of pace from the park we go to every other day. After about an hour the library opens and we cross the street and go in. They have a nice room downstairs with puzzles, board books and bead track toys. We always leave the library with several books to read that week. Two weeks ago, these are the two titles that Emma insisted we check out. She would not leave them and carried them out herself! They both have bright pink covers and are found in the young adult section located right next to the childrens section. Emma loves to find paperbacks there and last week the new titles were: Sweet Valley High Kiss of a Killer and Clueless Cher Goes Enviro-Mental. Sheesh! Oh, the book she asked for on the car ride home was titled Dump Trucks. Go figure!

Mommy, sing A-B-O-T-P

My dad got Emma a set of alphabet bath toys. For at least a month she asked us to sing the ABC song to her. This is how she asked for it.

In other news, Emma has been postponing her nap until she finally just crashes wherever she happens to be. She still needs a nap every day, even if she doesn't think so! LOL So she will usually crash around 5 pm or so which means a very late night for us. An interesting side effect of this is that she will just lay down and go to sleep (we all go to bed at the same time now) and when she wakes up to move to the middle of the bed she no longer nurses back to sleep. So my baby is nightweaned! I don't think that I am entirely ready for her to be done nursing altogether, but I will say that I am glad to have my nights back. Wait - who am I kidding? There is still Daniel! ;o)

I juss full.

Me: Emma, would you like any more to eat?

Emma: No, tanks. I juss full.

Too cute!

I have finally made it to a great local health foods store and purchased some stevia. Check out the link for lots of great info on it. Basically, stevia is an herb that is 200 times sweeter than granulated white sugar and calorie free! It is much more healthy than sugar and especially splenda et al because it is a plant and not artificially made. I have been testing it out in baked goods. Don't these banana carrot muffins look scrumptious? No sugar! Just stevia. Tonight I put a teaspoon of cocoa (unsweetened) plus a pinch of stevia powder into a cup of milk. It was the yummiest chocolate milk. Tasted like creamy, sweet dark chocolate in a cup. So - are you running out the door to get some of your own?

no wunner

Looking back over the last few months I can see a pattern. It is this:


Wake up lots of times every night. Every few times play for a bit instead of nursing right to sleep. Grin and coo so that Mommy feels bad for being irritable.


Within a week, learn to do something new and exciting like roll over.


Wake up lots of times every night . . .


Within a week learn to army crawl your cute little butt across the floor.


Wake up lots of times every night . . .

Within a week learn to sit up unassisted.


Wake up lots of times every night . . .



Within a week learn to crawl on your hands and fet with your cute little bum sticking up in the air.



Repeat ad nausium.



If Mommy seems a little it cranky, simply grin, stick your tongue out and pat her back each time she picks you up. Apparently this just melts her heart.



Love,

Daniel

Mating pan-tates

After watching Emma pretend to cook and bake with various baskets and pilphered kitchen utnsils I decided that I wanted to have a playkitchen for her to play with. My object was not to stifle her imagination but to help enhance her creative play with a few props. So I looked around online and decided on a playkitchen. I didn't want a plastic toy, so I saved up for a wooden one. Ta-da!


I then scoured the 'net for free crochet patterns for foods. This is what I have made so far.
In case you can't tell they are bacon, carrot (Sarah, the carrot remark still rankles! lol), tart (pie), strawberry, onion (looks more like garlic - actually pink garlic since Emma soaked it and the strawberry in a tub of water!), tomato, green apple and donut with sprinkles.
We found some pots and pans and wooden spoons at Target and now Emma will "cooking dinner" and "mating pan-tates" (making pancakes) with "it's hot mommy" pans. :o}

P.S. Don't forget that this week (July 2-8) is boycott Nestle week Don't forget to call their hotline and tell them you won’t be buying any of their products.
The number to dial in Canada is: 1 800 387-5536.
The number to dial in the USA is: 1 800 225-2270.
The lines are open from 8 am to 8 pm.

I can't!

What can Emma not do?

Emma cannot (at this time) unhook her car seat buckle to unlock the car door from inside the car.

What can Emma do?

Push the power lock button before Mommy helps her into her seat.

Guess what happened today?

It seems that I am to be plagued by a lifetime of car lock travails. In Emma's first year alone, I locked us out of the car at least 12 times. When pregnant with Daniel, I locked us out 3 times in one week! The first day we moved in to our new apartment I met our new neighbors and then borrowed their phone to call a locksmith later. I honestly try so hard to avoid this problem. I know I am susceptible. I have two spares. I leave the key in the door until the kids are in their seats. I try to always have at least one car door open at all times. I told myself that if somehow Emma and Daniel got locked inside, Emma would be able to unlock the doors. But that was before we re-adjusted her car seat straps to fit more snugly. Today I unlocked the doors and put Daniel in his seat. It was super hot in the car, so I turned it on and cranked the air up. I left the front door open (gravity pulled it in so that it just latched). Emma was playing in the front ("I'm driving, Mommy") while I checked our plans with my sister. I buckled Emma in and closed the door. When I went to open the front, it was locked. I knew right then they were locked inside. I held it together for about 5 minutes. After 5 minutes of explaining to, pleading with and (I'm ashamed to admit) yelling at Emma to unlock the door I gave way to panic. She was tired and scared and couldn't do what I was asking of her. My spare was inside the car along with our cell phone and my children. Emma began to cry which set Daniel off. She finally fell asleep. Tuan had a spare, but we had to wait for my sister to drive by his work to pick it up. While she was gone, Daniel had cried Emma awake and himself to sleep. I never want to feel again the feeling of being forcibly separated from my children. Being forced to watch as they scream and sob in vain for your touch is a torture no mother should have to endure.

Peet-a-boo!

I must hear that 100 times a day. I love it!

I don't particularly like Michael Moore. Regardless, I am looking forward to his exposé on the US health care system, called "Sicko." It came to theaters yesterday. I really must find time to go see it.

We are behind every industrialized nation and several third world countries in health care and infant/maternal mortality rates, for two reasons: The poor can't get quality care, and the rich are given more than necessary so they can be over-charged to make up for money lost on serving the poor.

For instance - A labor nurse's experience with differing treatments among those who can pay and those who can't. Read this interesting blog entry for a little peak

A friend of mine says it best: "I believe that for-profit health care is one of the most heinous crimes against humanity. When people can't get the medications and treatments they need without going bankrupt, when most of our homeless people are simply people with untreated mental illness, when over 30 countries have better infant and mother outcomes than we do, something is sinfully wrong."

Egypt joins other countries in the ban of Female Genital Mutilation!

Egypt takes a step in the right direction!

Thu Jun 28, 10:27 AM
"CAIRO (AFP) - Egypt on Thursday finally banned all female circumcision, the widely-practised removal of the clitoris which just days ago cost the life of a 12-year-old girl. (Thankfully all forms, not just clitordectomy) On Thursday, Health Minister Hatem al-Gabali decided to ban every doctor and member of the medical profession, in public or private establishments, from carrying out a clitoridectomy, a
ministry press official told AFP. Any circumcision "will be viewed as a violation of the law and all contraventions will be punished," said the official, adding that it was a
"permanent ban"."

If both Emma and Daniel were not sleeping right now, I would be jumping up and down, screaming with happiness!

Other countries' laws against female genital mutilation.

My dosh! - but it could be worse! ;o)

As many of you have probably noticed by now, there is a new graphic at the head of my blog. If you haven't yet, take a gander.


As I live my life, meet people, research and learn things and experience the views of ignorant people I find that I no longer wish to live a complacent life safe in my own bubble. There are causes and issues that I feel extremely strong about. If you read my posts about breastfeeding discrimination you understand! :o)


I toyed with the idea of creating a separate blog and linking to it from here, but then realized that doing so would rather deflate the purpose on posting such articles at all. I feel strongly about these things and want to bring more awareness to them. These issues are a part of who I am. So I will be posting them right along with my family updates. If you feel uncomfortable reading them, please feel free to skip posts and check back later. If you don't agree with me and would like to discuss the issue, feel free to comment.

Since the dates are imminent I am posting about the boycott first.