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2 sleeping babies

David Lynch, I'd like to punch you in the face!

I just finished watching the stupidest movie and biggest waste of time EVER. How is this movie a "cult classic?" I'm pretty sure a child could come up with a more "creative" story than that and if I wanted to watch a video written by a child, I would watch You Tube. Oh, I'm so mad!
I realize after watching this movie that I cannot tolerate surrealism. I thought maybe the movie was being symbolic but it isn't. It's just stream of consciousness BS. It's like watching someone's bad dream. If I wanted to watch a bad dream, I'd go to sleep!

A visit with a congressman,

The following notice is on the website of the Secular Coalition for America.
http://action.secular.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27503

Action Alert: Stop Promoting Religion at the Capitol Visitor Center

Before the August recess, a resolution will be voted on by the House of Representatives that will require the Architect of the Capitol to engrave the words "In God We Trust" and the post-1954 Pledge of Allegiance onto the walls of the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC). References to religion and faith are already included in several of the permanent exhibits, and the words "In God We Trust" are even present in one such exhibit. But that's not enough for Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA) who is pushing for a larger, bolder display. Let your Representative know that you oppose his efforts.

Now I live in Texas, so I am used to seeing things like this. What caught my eye on this alert was the bills sponsor, Dan Lungren. You see, I met Mr. Lungren when I was in the 4th grade. He came to visit my class at school in California. Mr. Lungren's niece was in my class and we were actually quite good friends.

Oh, how I remember the excitement that was buzzing in our class that we were lucky enough to have the privilege of a congressman's visit. We spent days getting the classroom ready. A vote was taken on who, besides his niece, would get to walk congressman Lungren from the school office to the classroom. When he arrived we were all on our best behavior. I still remember his fancy suit and how tall he was compared to our petite teacher.

After his visit, the class wrote letters to Mr. Lungren, thanking him for the visit. Imagine our surprise when a few weeks later he wrote back! Each of our letters was personalized at the bottom replying to what we wrote to him. I had written that a congressman's job seemed hard.
The letter meant so much to me that I saved it all these years. (click to enlarge)

I feel such disappointment that Dan Lungren is the sponsor of the resolution. I completely disagree with having the engravings done, especially at taxpayer expense. It is such a clear violation of church/state separation and just another way to try to promote America as a "Christian Nation". My happy school memory is now tarnished. In his letter, the congressman invited me to visit his office in Washington, D.C.
I wonder, after 25 years, if the offer is still good.

Get off the computer!

A few nights ago I came into the living room to see Abe standing on the closed laptop which was on the table. "Get off the computer!" I shouted at him. Ben heard me from the kitchen and thought my comment was directed at Ada. "Hey," he said, "you can't yell at Ada to get off the computer for no reason." "I wasn't talking to Ada." I informed him. "Abe was standing on the computer. When I said 'get off the computer' I meant that literally - get off the computer."

A poem about allergies

Wouldn't it be nice to be
In a world with no allergies?

Instead, I have to be alert
To make sure the kids don't get hurt.

It seems there are peanuts all around
In sandwiches, desserts and on the ground.

It's hard to make Abe understand
That he can't have what others can.

I must keep Tommy away from ants
And Ada and Ben away from cats.

What allergies will belong to Ted?
The answer to this question I dread.

Me and Gym

Gym: Well look who's here...it's been a while.
Me: That's because I hate you.
Gym: Have you gained weight?
Me: Shut up, I had a baby.
Gym: Well better get up on that treadmill and start working it off.
Me: I don't want to.
Gym: Fine, leave. I don't care. I'm going to charge you if you are here or not.
Me: Yes I know, you evil !@#$%.
Gym: Well you did sign a contract.
Me: Leave me alone.
Gym: Look I have a TV in front of the treadmill.
Me: So what? I have a TV at my house.
Gym: My TV gets channel 8. Isn't that the channel you don't get at your house?
Me: There's nothing good on that channel.
Gym: The View is on right now.
Me: Who cares?
Gym: Hurry, get on the treadmill! They're talking about Tori Spelling!
Me: Dammit Gym, you win.

Doctor, doctor

Today Theodore went to the doctor for his 1 month check up. We switched some time ago from a pediatrician to a family practice doctor. The two doctors are so completely different. Here is a previous post about how it was taking baby Abe to the doctor.
At this visit with Theodore, the doctor did not ask me one single question about carseats, or smoking, or guns, or smoke/carbon monoxide detectors, or alone time with my husband, or sleep positions, or feedings, or dirty diapers. And he did not give me an infant care sheet.

Rather, he told me an interesting thing about the company that makes vaccines, Merck. Apparently they have some sort of monopoly on making the vaccines, so no one else can, and they stopped making the mumps vaccine. You can still get the MMR vaccine, which is a combination of measles, mumps and rubella. This doctor would prefer to give the vaccines separately since he feels it would lower the threat of autism. His son is autistic so he feels very strongly about this. This is interesting because at our old doctor there were articles posted in each exam room stating that there is no link between vaccines and autism and parents should not be afraid of vaccines. I have never felt that strongly one way or the other, but the doctors opinions are notably different.

How tall will your child be?

I used the child height predictor on Babycenter.com to see how tall the boys would be when they turn 18. According to the calculator:

Ben 5'11"
Tommy 5'8"
Abe 5'11"

Rest in Peace

The kids and I sing a lot to Theodore. While singing Rock-A-Bye baby to him, I began to wonder about the strange lyrics and why in the world anyone sing to a baby about falling out of a tree. Then I remembered about the time when Ada was a baby and was up most of the night crying, I found myself singing the song "Trust in Me" from the Jungle Book. Specifically the verse:

Please, go to sleep
Sleep little man cub
Rest in Peace

"What the heck am I singing?" I remember thinking.

It seems that Theodore does nothing but sleep (so far). Sometimes when he's sleeping I think of the Talking Heads song, "Stay up Late".

Baby, baby, please let me hold him
I wanna make him stay up all night

A baby story

I had my baby on Saturday, April 18. I woke to contractions at 4am and was reminded of the difference between the real ones and the fakes. Real ones hurt quite a bit more. These went on most of the morning but were not too bad and were not getting regular or close together. By the afternoon they had really slowed down and I was able to take a nap. I was not sure if the baby would be born that day or not. At about 6pm I had a very strong contraction and though the pain peaked, it never went away. This was shortly followed by another contraction and another. I knew the baby was coming fast. I informed David that we needed to leave right away. We got to the hospital about 6:45pm. I told the nurse that the baby was coming fast and she was great and got all the nurses to help. As soon as the on-call doctor came in I started pushing. It was very intense since the baby was coming so fast, there was not time to stretch out. The nurses kept turning me from one side to the other since the babies heart rate was going down due to being squished. At 7:20pm Theodore was born! He weighed 7lbs, 8oz which oddly, was the exact weight that my doctor predicted he would be. So far he is pretty quiet. You can follow the adventures of Teddy on his blog.

TAKS day. Tax day.

Today on the radio, the DJ's mentioned today was tax day. Tommy heard this and said, "No, TAKS day is April 28th." I had to explain that they mean t-a-x. TAKS is a test that Texas school children have to take.

In love with a smell

I usually go to do my grocery shopping late at night so I can go alone. It is at this time that the stores are restocking the shelves. There is a certain stock boy that smells exactly the way my husband smelled when I first met him. It is a combination of Drakkar Noir mixed with cigarette. Nowadays, my husband neither smokes nor wears cologne. However, this smell reminds me of the happy exciting days of young love and dating. I always smile to myself when I remember it.

I'm sure this guy is wondering why I always am smiling when I see him and why I push my cart a little too close to him. It's nothing personal. It's the smell I am in love with. I can't help myself.

Maybe everyone is "gifted".

The school district we live in puts a very big emphasis on providing special services to those who are what they call, "identified gifted". My daughter is one of those that are "identified". There are all sorts of resources provided by our district for both the parents of gifted and the gifted students. For students, there are many advanced classes and college credit classes offered. They even have their own PTA type group which puts on a symposium every year with several speakers and other information for parents. I have been to some of their meetings and they certainly do like to toot their own horn about all the wonderful things they do for the gifted kids.

I also have experience with the opposite end of the spectrum. Over the years, a few of my children have needed help in reading, writing and speech. To receive any help in these areas was quite difficult. I was told there actually was no help for writing and I ended up having to pay for private tutoring. Other services can take almost a year to get and not even have satisfactory results.

Last year at one of the meetings for the parents of gifted, the school representative was telling us all about the things they do for the gifted students. Besides the classes, each student also had some sort of gifted specialist looking out for them. We were told that if the child's grades began slipping the specialist would be called in to find out why. This person would check with the student to make sure that assignments were being turned in and their locker was organized and help if needed.

"Gee, couldn't EVERY student benefit from that?" I thought to myself. I began to wonder just how many "unidentified gifted" students there were in this district. Perhaps if every student were treated like they were "gifted", they would be.

50 days & A new blog

I can't hide it anymore. I'm having a baby in 50 days.
Even though he is not here yet, he already has a blog.

I'm a dog stalker

When I was growing up we had a Saint Bernard dog named Buffy. She was such a nice dog and great around us kids. When she got old, it was very sad for everyone.

I do not consider myself to be a "dog" person. After Buffy, my family did not get another dog. As an adult I've never even considered getting one. BUT-

There is a couple in my neighborhood that has two Saint Bernards. The first time I saw them (a few years ago), I came running out of my house. "I love your dogs!" I told the couple. I told them all about my old dog. I did not see them very often, but when I did it made me so happy.

Once they were walking by our house and I was near the window talking to David. I stopped in mid-sentence and screamed, "Look! The Saint Bernards are outside our house!" A few days later, David left to run an errand and called me from his cell phone to let me know the dogs would be walking by our house shortly. I waited by the window.

One day I was walking down the alley and I found out where the dogs live because I saw them in their backyard.

Yesterday, when driving out of the neighborhood, I actually gasped aloud when I saw that their house is for sale.

It took me 30 years to see a pattern

With my recent illness came some insight. Last week I had a craving for some sort of cherry dessert. I browsed the grocery store and settled on a cherry turnover from the bakery section. I had never had it before and it was pretty good. I ate the last one on Tuesday, which was the day I got sick.

Now the turnover had nothing to do with why I got sick, but for some reason I cannot even think of this pastry without strongly holding back my gag reflex. I know I will not be able to look at or eat one for a long, long time. So this food is now added to my list of things that I cannot eat anymore due to illness:

plain marshmallows
fresh apricots
peanut butter/chocolate candy (like Reeses)
ranch flavored crackers
craisins
cherry turnover

Now I have been sick plenty of times over my lifetime, so why do I have such a strong aversion to these foods? Why not some of the other foods I have eaten before getting sick like: pancakes, cheeseburger, yogurt, Starburst, Sprite, etc.?

I think I figured it out. Those foods on my list I had only eaten once or twice before getting sick. Therefore my brain/stomach is falsely associating the illness with the food. The other foods I had eaten many times before so my brain/stomach knows that they are safe. This is just my theory but I think it is true for me.

A Rock Feels No Pain

Otherwise titled: Getting sick during a power outage.
Or: Losing 6 pounds in one day.

So yesterday I was not feeling well for most of the day, but just ignored it. In the evening Tommy let me know that his stomach was hurting and went to lay down. Tommy quickly fell asleep and as we say about Tommy, "He sleeps like a rock." At about 9:30pm the storm sirens went off in our neighborhood. There is supposed to be some subtle difference in the sound of the siren that indicates either severe storm, tornado or air raid, but they all sound the same to me. So David got on the computer to check the weather report and within a few minutes our power was out.

We got out the flashlights, and I started to feel really sick, so I rested on the couch while the other kids ran through the house with flashlights, despite me saying, "Time for bed" or "Please go to bed" or "Why don't you get in your bed?" every time they ran past. Tommy slept through the whole thing and I was so jealous because I wished I could sleep.

Finally the kids went to bed and few minutes later I made my way to the bathroom in the dark and, well, lets just say there was a big mess. So I tried to clean the mess in the dark, while holding a flashlight. I had to stay up the whole night due to running to the bathroom approximately every 20-30 minutes.

In the morning I weighed myself and and I was 6 lbs lighter than yesterday. I went to the doctor today to learn the (not) surprising news that I am dehydrated.

Can't trust that day

Sunday, that is. Near my house there is a Chick-Fil-A, a fast food chicken restaurant, which is closed on Sundays. We also have a large craft/fabric store called Hobby Lobby which is also closed on Sundays. It just seems to happen that every Sunday I get a hankering to eat at Chick-Fil-A and then go to Hobby Lobby to browse around. Then I have to remind myself that I can't.

All Different

Ada likes peanut butter and jelly.
Ben only likes jelly.
Tommy only likes peanut butter.
Abe is allergic to peanut butter.

My nightmare did not come true

A few weeks ago I had to take a glucose tolerance test at the Dr.'s office. It was so unpleasant. I have taken the test before and I don't remember it being that bad. I had to drink an orange drink at home and then go to the office for a blood test. The drink is not that big but I could barely finish it. As soon as I finished it, I got pains in my stomach. All I could think about the whole way to the Dr. was how good it would feel to throw up. If your test shows that the glucose levels are high then you have to come back for a test that takes 3 hours. I have been wondering what my results were and on Monday night I had a dream that the Dr. told me I had to take the 3 hour test. In my dream I started to cry and I refused to make an appointment to do it.

Tuesday morning the Dr.'s office called me. Now they told me that they will only call for abnormal test results, so I KNEW why they were calling. "We got the results of your glucose test," the nurse said. (Oh great, my nightmare is coming true), I thought. "They were normal," (yay!) "But your iron is low, we have to call in a prescription." I was so happy at this news for 2 reasons. 1) I do not have to re-do the glucose test. 2) I get to eat more steak.

Ice Day

Today there was no school for the kids due to an ice storm. Some schools were closed yesterday, but not ours. I got up at 6am to check the closings and then turned off the alarm when I confirmed that there was no school. At around 7am the school's auto phone message called to tell everyone the news. At 8am I woke up to Ada wailing, "Why didn't anyone tell me?!"
Ben said he didn't need anyone to tell him because he knew the night before. He is magical.

When will Saw end?

I started watching the Saw movies after reading a message board post about the top 10 movies with a twist ending. I simply love twist endings. I had seen most of the movies on the top 10 list already except Saw, which I never would have considered before.

When I started watching the movies, Saw -Saw III were already out on DVD already and I only had to wait a month or so before Saw IV came out on DVD. Yes, there are twists in each movie, but each movie answers only some questions and creates several more. I had to wait a whole year to watch Saw V, which I watched last night. Of course that led to more loose ends so it isn't over yet. I just read that Saw VI is set to come out Oct. 2009.

At this point I am not even enjoying it. I have just invested so much time into it that I feel the need to finish the series.