June 2007 Update

Hmm... this month, I did a lot of driving... lol Mostly to the Houma/Thibodaux/Raceland area.

Roman (my nephew) had his 10th bday. My bil, Shane, also had a bday. For Roman, we celebrated by bringing all 15 grandchildren (my blood-related nieces and nephews) to JumpingKids. They... well, we all had such a good time!

Racquelle, my niece, was in a play... so, I went down to see her acting & singing. She was in The Jungle Book. It was held in the Jean Lafitte museum in Thibodaux. All of the kids in it did really well.

Jeremy had a scare. He called me while I was visiting (he came for one of the weekends I was down there but had to work the other weekends) and told me that he had thrown up blood! He was at his brother's house... so, he stayed there and left in the morning. I also left in the morning to come back home. He didn't go see any doctor... just looked up info online and in some of my health-type books. He seems to think it could be an ulcer. Funny thing, though, he hasn't had heartburn (which he did prior to the blood vomit) since that incident and he's been feeling fine. So, really, we don't know what happened. We do think that he must have irritated his stomach lining due to taking OTC non-steriodal anti-inflamatory meds (like motrin) for his knee that he hurt playing softball... since that's a side effect.

One really good thing is that Jeremy received a raise!!! woohoo!!! Yep! After being at his job for about a year, they finally gave him a raise! A $2/hr raise!

Wyatt turned 18 mths old this month :D He's such a cutie :) He still looks like a little man... hehe His personality is really starting to show... he's a little character. He already pretends play... like... he uses anything (even the kittens!), points it, and 'shoots'! Going 'pow pow' with it!!! Where'd he get it from? I've NO idea! Even Jeremy's video games aren't shooting games. We don't have play guns for them to play with either. Oh, and he just has to take his diaper off all the time. Recent pics of him are in his blog.

Ursula may be in Pre-K this year... that's gonna be crazy. Both of my girls will be gone during the day this school year... just me and Wyatt.





Oh, I also decided to go back to being a brunette. I like me blonde, but it was just that I'd have 2 inches of roots before getting them redone due to the fact that I live 2 hrs away from Cherie, my sister, who's a beautician. Believe me, if we lived closer, I'd keep my hair lighter! I just didn't like those roots! lol


Calista took the picture to the right. She also put the pearl necklace on me along with lipstick... she gave me a 'make-over'... LOL Excuse the black around my eyes... that's leftover mascara from the day before... I didn't wash it off good... LOL So, basically, that's me make-up-less and tired from driving...


And yep, there's Wyatt sleeping on my lap... after nursing, of course :)

Freebirthers dismiss fear and bring babies home

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSL2148514320070522

LONDON (Reuters) - They insist they're no superwomen, they have no special powers, and are certainly not pain or adrenaline junkies.

But 'freebirthers' choose to go through what some call the most painful and potentially frightening experience of a woman's life with no drugs, no midwife and no medical help.

Delivering their own babies at home, often alone, they dismiss what they say is "fearmongering" by doctors and midwives and confidently catch their offspring as they leave the womb.


"Birthing uses the same hormones as lovemaking -- so why would you want anyone poking and prodding you, observing you and putting you under a spotlight?," said Veronika Robinson, an Australian based in Britain who sees growing interest in freebirth among readers of international magazine, "The Mother".

To read the rest of the article, click on the link at the top!

My Kittens

Here's Momma Cat's latest batch of kittens. Six in all; 4 girls & 2 boys. This first pic to the left is right after she brought them home... she had them elsewhere... so, I set up a box outside and she brought them to us... they were about a week old there.

The rest of these pictures were taken within the last week. The kittens are so cute :) They have really cute faces and are very playful. Some are more friendlier than others. Some purr if you pet them :D

They're like 6 weeks old I think... :D hehe

This is one of the boy kits in these two pictures. He's a sweetie.

Thinking back, I really believe it was always seeing momma cats and their kittens nursing that made me see breastfeeding as 'normal'. We always had a plethora of cats and kittens growing up... because we lived on 10 acres of land and people would drop their animals off at our place... LOL We just fed them and took care of them while they were at our house.

This last pic of the kitty sleeping cracks me up... she was cleaning herself and fell asleep :D hehe

My Present

For my birthday, Jeremy came home with a photo printer! I love it! Since these past couple weeks have been financially lacking, I have to wait to buy photo paper. It did come with a few sample photo pages that I used. Let's just say that I can't wait to start printing!!! I'm way behind!!! hehe

Jeremy worked all 7 days last week, so this Friday, we should have a good paycheck! woohoo! Also, since we HAD to pay those other bills with the meager funds we had, these next paychecks will almost be free! Of course, rent is due on the 15th... I plan on getting photo paper, groceries, and The Sims 2 Seasons :D heh heh heh I can still wait if need be... but, I don't see why... Jeremy has 15 hrs of overtime on this check! Doncha just love overtime??? :D

I can't wait to get a new PC though... ours is okay... but it does crash often while I'm playing The Sims 2... even with a good graphics card.

What's cool, too, is that Jeremy doesn't get all irate when I talk about us buying our own house (or building it, for that matter). Maybe that means he's thinking about it too. Really now, we've been paying monthly rent for 6 yrs now...

I just hope Jeremy's work keeps having work!

About me... my lower back is still hurting... all day long... I'm taking calcium with magnesium, shark cartilage, and MSM daily (mostly). I'm noticing some difference... but... man... sucks. I don't like being in constant pain.

Its My Birthday Again...

Yay.

Its just another day... nothing planned. Nothing is ever planned. I don't expect anything either. Never celebrated my birthday growing up... not much has changed in that regard. Plus, we don't have much extra money to spend anyways... Jeremy's company has been slow since February... sucks. He has a baseball game tonight (every Friday night), so I know we're be there. And its not like I can drop Wyatt off at someone's house while we go out... the girls, yes. But, not yet for Wyatt. Not even if I nurse him to sleep first... he always seems to wake up an hour after I put him down and nurses again. So, yeah, no high expections on the birthday front. I think Jeremy will come home with something... maybe flowers. Probably food (we usually get take-out on Fridays). Maybe even the newest Sims 2 expansion pack (Seasons). But, who knows. If not, oh well. It'll be around later for me to buy when we have the extra money. Today is supposed to be when you feel your most powerful... I don't feel anything... maybe even numb (probably shows, huh).

Well, here's something positive... Jeremy and I haven't been arguing as much as we used to. I think it has everything to do with us now having cell phones. He calls me at least once a day while he's at work... sometimes 3 times a day. We talk more now that we have those phones. Crazy, huh? Never suspected that to be a bonus; definitely NOT complaining... happy that we are a better couple.

Happy Birthday to me.

Bosom buddies

I'm posting the entire article because I liked it :D

Bosom buddies

We're told that breastfeeding is the most natural thing in the world - but for children of two, three or four? Viv Groskop meets the mums who swear by late feeding (but not on the bus)

Saturday April 30, 2005
The Guardian

With blond pigtails flying, Peri runs in from the garden where she has been making mud pies in towelling pants. She would like a drink of milk, please, or nun-noo, as she calls it. She hops into her mum's lap, curls up her long legs and pulls up her mum's cardigan. Moving from left breast to right, she pulls and pokes, kicking her feet against the chair until she is comfortable, holding a breast with two hands. Sucking loudly and talking as she sucks, she eventually falls asleep, snoring. Her mother smiles contentedly and continues the conversation as if nothing had happened. Standing, Peri comes up to her waist. She will be three in August.

Peri's mother, Helen Butland, 36, from Wolvey, near Coventry, sees breastfeeding not just as a means of boosting a child's immune system, but also as a mothering tool. It's for feeding morning, evening and in-between times, if Peri asks for it, but it's also a glorified cuddle, for when she has a knock or scrape. Helen fed both her other daughters - Erika, now eight, and Frances, now five - up to the age of four, including during two pregnancies and periods after both births when she "tandem-fed" baby and toddler. There was a time when her middle daughter, Frances, then three, stopped feeding after baby Peri arrived, but then she started again: "She came over when I was feeding the baby and said, 'I used to have that - can I still have some?' So I said, of course you can. And after about half an hour of sucking, she was actually getting some again."

Helen is a full-time mother and nonexecutive director of the family business(husband Ian, 32, is an engineer), to which she will return once the children are all at school. Once a radical feminist, she is now deadly serious about the business of being maternal. Indeed, the expression "matronly bosom" could have been created for her. She has been lactating for eight years - "but I know other women who have been for much longer". Peri, she says, can feed as long as she likes - certainly up to her fourth birthday, just as her sisters did. Helen believes that babies should be allowed to be babies for as long as possible. She is only, she says, following the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Unicef guidelines, which state that breastfeeding should continue to two years minimum: "I do it in the knowledge of the long-term health benefits - protection against diabetes, heart disease, cancer." There is a benefit for her, too, she adds: breastfeeding mothers are less at risk from breast cancer.

She realises her choice is unusual - "I remember feeling shocked myself the first time I saw a woman feeding a child in outdoor shoes," she admits - but over time she decided it suited her and her children. She chooses not to mix with parents who don't subscribe to the same views: "Early on, I did seek out mother and toddler groups, but I found the disapproval from them quite a knock to me - not about breastfeeding per se, but about the way I do everything - sleeping with my babies, holding them all the time. Other mothers had rules about separation, cots and so on." Cots, she says, are cages.

Her view is that, after a certain age, babies will find their own way off the breast. Her philosophy after the age of two is "don't offer, don't refuse". Gradually, when the child is ready, they stop asking. She believes it has made her daughters more independent, because they have well and truly had their fill of being babies by the time they stop feeding. "When they're three or four, it's still so much part of their emotional needs. Ideally, the nursing relationship will continue until the baby outgrows the need. In their early years, a baby has a powerful need to be with their mother - it is only by fulfilling that need that it will ever go away. The risks of depriving them of that are evident in society today — alienation, diminished capacity for truly loving others. And it serves the marketplace that we grow up unhappy."

In a country where we have one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the developed world, Helen's experience is rare. She is one of a largely invisible group of mothers who practise "extended breastfeeding" - defined as feeding a child after the age of 12 months. In the US, these mothers belong to associations such as the Militant Breastfeeding Cult and IncitefulMamas. They breastfeed exclusively to six months, continue breastfeeding beyond a year and hate dummies, cots and prams (breast, sling and mummy and daddy's bed are best). American militant breastfeeders refer to themselves as "global lactivists", and if their spouse is supportive (which he would have to be) he is described as a "lactivist husband".

In the UK, extended breastfeeders are less aggressive and don't form a cohesive group, but you only have to peek into the internet forums for breastfeeding support organisations to see that these women exist in their thousands. Breastfeeding statistics count only babies who are fed up to the age of nine months - when 13% of babies are still breastfed, according to the most recent Infant Feeding Survey - so beyond that age there is no record of how many women are continuing to feed their children. (This figure would mean there were around 70,000 babies still being breastfed at nine months — and 530,000 on formula.)

Certainly the stereotype of the baby-addicted, neurotic breastfeeder puts some women off continuing. As one mother of two toddlers puts it, "It's going to bite, it's going to talk, it's going to walk - no way." However, Rebecca Kennedy, 38, from Kingston, Surrey, couldn't be further from what she calls the "hairy-armpits, grow-your-own-lentils" image of extended breastfeeding. With a supermodel figure, immaculately coiffed and looking about 10 years younger than she is, she is a walking advert for long-term "nummies" - as her boys called it once they could ask for it. Mother of Archie, 10, Hector, seven, Rollo, four, and Sorrel, 15 months, she fed all her boys to the age of three (including the first two simultaneously) and intends to feed Sorrel for as long as she likes. A former tax consultant in the City (her husband works in banking), Rebecca gave up her career when her first child was born and threw herself into full-time motherhood. She yanks up her Juicy Couture tracksuit top to feed Sorrel (who can talk, walk and has teeth, as well as long, bobbed hair held back with a pink glitter clip), and looks pretty close to "the most natural thing in the world" - the smiley catchphrase of every extended breastfeeder.

The myths about droopy breasts, biting and never ovulating again are nonsense, says Rebecca. Your breasts are affected not by breastfeeding but by your experience of pregnancy. You don't feel the child's teeth. In terms of affecting fertility, it depends on the woman - some ovulate at five months if they're still feeding, others not until 15 months. Despite Rebecca's evangelism, though, she is discreet. "Most people don't know how long I fed my children because I don't go around advertising the fact. If they do know, they are very surprised about it." She has always avoided feeding her children in public after the age of two ("I would just distract them or say mummy's not wearing the right T-shirt") because of adverse reactions.

She admits that lactating for 10 years with only a few months' break during her pregnancies has been tough: "Breastfeeding is a bit like eating Mars bars - the first one is delicious, but then the more you have, you start to feel sick. I have mixed views about it finishing."

You don't have to eat more, as you do with a tiny baby, to maintain your milk supply, but ultimately it is tiring, especially around pregnancy. So why does she continue?

"There is always a nutritional benefit to breastfeeding," says Rebecca. "The real advantage is if they get a tummy bug or something, they can still feed." Aren't they overly dependent on her? "I think that, by allowing your child to be with you, you allow them to leave you when they're ready. We never had the terrible twos - if they were hungry or frustrated, they could feed."

There is no medical reason why a mother shouldn't feed her child as long as she - and the child - wants. Dr Miriam Stoppard, author of The Family Health Guide (Dorling Kindersley), says the health benefits to a baby continue no matter how long they are breastfed. "Breastmilk contains a hormone that helps the digestive system," says Stoppard. "In breastfed babies, the system is then mature enough to take mixed feeding [with solids] and robust enough to resist allergies. Breastmilk also contains some great mood-enhancing chemicals - opioids, which make the baby contented and sleep well. And breastfed babies definitely cry less."

Psychologist Dr Ros Bramwell of the University of Liverpool argues that it is only our societal attitudes that militate against later breastfeeding. "The breast is very sexualised and people's attitudes to seeing an exposed breast are very negative - even in private," she says. "The issue of 'who are my breasts for?' can cause a lot of conflict in women. Emphasising the benefits of breastfeeding is great, but it doesn't address the difficulty of this problem. I think with extended breastfeeding, it gets worse - there is a huge conflict between the sexuality of the breast and using it to feed. The unusualness is what makes it shocking." This is also connected to our perception of children and how quickly they should grow up, she adds. "Breastfeeding is seen as something that is only for babies - we see it as a babyish thing to do."

Lisa Cavadias, 30, a pensions administrator from Flitwick, Bedfordshire, says that, on the contrary, her breastfed daughter, Marie, two, is more advanced as a result. Marie learned the baby sign for breastfeeding (hand squeezing the fingers, as if milking a cow) at the age of one and now speaks in seven-word sentences, including: "Please can I have some mummy milk?" (When asked why she likes mummy milk, she replies, "Because it tastes nice.") A sunny, salt-of-the-earth type, Lisa is more like the traditional 1970s breastfeeder: long hair, flowing, flowery dress with breastfeeding flaps, literally barefoot and pregnant. She obviously enjoys her relationship with her daughter - who is unusually bright and lively, stomping through the house in yellow Tweenies wellies - but it has not always been easy. "Once they get past a year," says Lisa, "they feed in all sorts of different positions. And she is a nipple-twiddler, which can be very painful. Sometimes I just want to say, 'I'm not just a breast, there is actually a mummy in here, too.'"

Lisa has had to contend with disapproval and hassle (she expressed at work in the early days, so her daughter could still drink breastmilk during the day). "I try to put her off feeding in public, because you get looks and comments once they start to walk. There have been comments I was meant to overhear: 'That's disgusting'; 'She shouldn't be doing that in here.'" Despite being eight months pregnant, she has continued to feed because her daughter enjoys it. "We hope it will help with jealousy issues," says Lisa. "She'll know that she is still my baby, too." Gaby Jeffs, 38, a video director from Herne Hill, south-east London, also faced opposition to her breastfeeding. Her son, now four, was fed to 13 months. Sitting at the kitchen table on her mum's lap, daughter Elizabeth, three, is still delving around in her mother's shirt looking for "boo-boo", although she gave up feeding a few months ago. Despite this, she is no more clingy than any other three-year-old, and within seconds is distracted, running off to fetch her own baby doll - whom her mother allows her to feed with a bottle, with reservations. ("That is quite extreme of me, isn't it?" says Gaby. "But you can't exactly let a child breastfeed a doll, so I had to give in.") "There were times when my parents were saying, 'This has gone on long enough.'" I got pleurisy and had serious antibiotics when Elizabeth was about 12 months, and you can imagine what everyone said: 'Oh, yes, now is the time to stop.' Also, Elizabeth has had problems with the enamel on her teeth - a gestational problem, it turns out - and the consultant at hospital said, 'Hmm, that's breastmilk for you.' In public, even now if I am carrying Elizabeth, she will put her hand down my top and I get raised eyebrows." As another glamorous militant breastfeeder (she and her mini-me daughter have huge, brown eyes and Louise Brooks bobs), she, too, hopes late feeding is losing its links with the "brown rice brigade".

Anecdotally, at least, there is a suggestion that their numbers could be on the increase. UK-based international lactation consultant Pamela Morrison "strongly suspects" there are a lot of secret late breastfeeders around. Late breastfeeding is like co-sleeping (having your child in your bed), she says - no one likes to admit that they do it. "There is extremely strong cultural pressure to wean an older baby and the pressure becomes more and more intense the older the child, more or less forcing mothers to 'closet-nurse'."

Valerie Goedkoop, 37, was one of these women. A doula and breastfeeding counsellor from Tunbridge Wells in Kent, who until recently ran Breast Friends, a support group, Valerie fed her first baby to eight months and the second to 19 months. "At the time, when I went past a year, I didn't tell anybody. I couldn't be bothered having the criticism. When someone makes a comment, it's often a negative one - which comes from ignorance or guilt. I think there are lots of secret breastfeeders out there. I think people do it in the evenings and don't tell anybody."

Numbers are also likely to be increasing because of birth trends. Nowadays better-educated, middle-class women are giving birth later in life - all factors linked to the uptake and continuation of breastfeeding. Morrison explains: "The baby with the greatest chance of being breastfed to a year appears to have a mother older than 30, who was educated past the age of 18 and lives in south-east England."

Abigail Thompson, 18, from Bolton, Lancashire, mother of Jake, 22 months, and Arabella, seven months, is a rare exception to these statistics. A full-time mum, her partner, Colin Doyle, 22, is the manager of a skip company. She left college at 16 to have her first baby and found out about breastfeeding by surfing the net. "I have never met a mum of my age breastfeeding. The information and support available to young mums is terrible. I had the frequent advice of 'give him a bottle of formula'."

Abigail was recently breastfeeding her daughter outside a cafe in the local precinct and was asked to "go and do that somewhere else". She regrets giving in to "the aggressive advertising of follow-on milk" with her son, and was determined not to let anyone stop her breastfeeding her daughter, whom she is now happy to feed up to the age of four. Everything she knows about breastfeeding comes from the internet — the only other breastfeeding mothers she knows are in cyberspace. She now expresses 5oz every two days for her son ("so at least he'll still get some benefits"), as she notices a direct comparison between her two children - Jake got colds as soon as he went on to formula; Arabella, who has been fed exclusively on breast milk, has never been ill.

Of course, the well-publicised crisis in the breastfeeding world is the small number of women who stick with breastfeeding in the first place, let alone to a year or beyond. In the first week, 69% of babies are breastfed. By the end of two weeks, that figure drops to 52%. After six weeks, it's 42%. At six months — the age at which all babies should, according to government guidelines, remain on breastmilk exclusively — only 21% are still at it. Despite the semi-closeted militant mothers, there is a huge stigma attached to feeding a baby beyond this age. The fact that we are shocked by anyone other than the tiniest of babies suckling a woman's breasts cannot help. The "bitty" sketches in the BBC2 comedy Little Britain, in which actor Geraldine James is seen feeding a fully grown David Walliams and squirting milk everywhere, represent a fear that persists - that breastfeeding is weird, freaky and embarrassing.

It is perhaps because of our bitty-phobic attitude that we lag behind every European country with the exception of Ireland and France. In Norway, for example, according to Rachel Myr, a lactation consultant and midwife at a hospital in Kristiansand, breastfeeding initiation rates are at 95% (compared with the UK's 69%), with 40% of babies still breastfed (along with solids) at one year. In the UK, the rate is less than 13%, and the figures don't even go up to a year. Myr says, "I have worked on a maternity ward for 16 years, and I can't recall ever having met a Norwegian woman who would willingly admit to not having a desire to breastfeed. We never ask them whether they 'want' to breastfeed. It is assumed they do. It would almost be like asking, 'And will you be doing your own perspiring, or have you decided to go with commercial sweat?'"

Longer breastfeeding is the average in developing countries (where five is a normal weaning age) and in certain US outposts. There is extreme and there is extreme. One US survey by breastfeeding guru Kathy Dettwyler suggested that the minimum age for stopping breastfeeding should be two and a half years, and the maximum seven years. Dettwyler's 2004 survey of 1,280 American children who had been breastfed beyond the age of three found that more than 200 children breastfed over the age of five (a few dozen fed to age eight or nine). In 2002, one Illinois mother was investigated by child welfare officials after she was filmed breastfeeding her eight-year-old son on the TV show Good Morning America. (Madonna declared at the time, "That's incest".) For even Britain's most militant breastfeeders, this is beyond the pale: most take the view that a child will self-wean by the age of four.

Morrison argues that our distaste for older breastfeeding is not a given - it's purely cultural and has existed only over the past 50 years: "In a society like we have in the UK, where most babies are breastfed for only a matter of days, weeks or months, we describe breastfeeding beyond one year as 'extended'. On the other hand, if we are thinking in global terms, where most young children continue to breastfeed for two or three years, we would describe most children weaning before that time as 'premature'."

Cultural resistance is slow to break down, however. Vicky Johns, 34, runs a Bosom Buddy network in Blandford Forum, Dorset. She fed her first child to 18 months, her second to the age of three. "Even at breastfeeding support groups, women don't tend to breastfeed the older ones. I was quite embarrassed about extended breastfeeding. It is something that is done in private. It's such a shame." She used to think that, with the breastfeeding awareness initiatives, attitudes were changing, but now she's not sure. "Now that my son has started school - he's four - and I'm back in the real world [with non-breastfeeding mothers], I don't think there has been a change at all. More people have started with breastfeeding, but they're not continuing beyond a few weeks."

The biggest obstacle to making longer-term breastfeeding seem at all normal is that living as these women do is not an option for many mothers. If you want your baby to be exclusively breastfed and you work, you need to spend time expressing milk in your workplace. By choosing to breastfeed your child - especially exclusively, if you want the child to have no other milk until after the age of one - you are effectively choosing to become a stay-at-home mother.

While women are bombarded with messages of the importance of continuing breastfeeding, the support system available to them is shaky: organisations such as the National Childbirth Trust (NCT), La Leche League and the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers are staffed largely by volunteers. The danger of bottle-bashing is a big problem: all the extended breastfeeders are keen to stress that what they do is their choice, and is not for everyone. Gaby Jeffs believes that if breastfeeding for any length of time was considered more normal, there could be an open discussion about the problems with formula versus breastfeeding: "We should be telling people not that breast is best, but that breast is the norm. And the bottle has risks. There is not much information about that tells you the truth - that with formula your baby will be more ill, will see the doctor more often, will have more chance of heart disease and childhood diabetes."

Meanwhile, back in Coventry, after half an hour three-year-old Peri slips off her mother's breast into a deep sleep. Helen Butland laughs when she thinks about her own previous attitudes to parenting. "I used to think full-time mothers were letting down the sisterhood." She herself never intended to breastfeed past three months, and here she is eight lactating years later. "I don't see what I'm doing as altruistic - I just want my children to be happy adults and to fulfil themselves in whatever way they want, and to be independent from me. I think that introducing premature separation is not going to guarantee those things the way this form of mothering does. I would like society to breastfeed like this because I believe it would be a better place — people would be emotionally fulfilled."

· For further information on breastfeeding, contact NCT's
Breastfeeding Helpline, 0870 444 8707; La Leche League, 0845 120 2918;
Association of Breastfeeding Mothers, 0870 401 7711.

Finally!

After going without my computer for pretty much a whole week (arrgghhh!!! - nah, it wasn't that bad... I used that time to read), I finally got it up and running. Ended up having to format it... but, the problem was when I began that process, it wouldn't complete it... the stupid ole blue screen would come up! I was afraid we'd have to bring it in to get serviced once again. And then, I started thinking... if we take out the graphic (Nvidia) and sound (Soundblaster) cards and THEN format it, would that work? And I'm happy to say, it did :D woohoo! I just had to add them in later. So yay for me... for thinking :D



I get to play The Sims 2 again as well :D I was missing them... lol



So, what was I reading while not on my PC? I FINALLY read Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince! I know, I'm behind on that... but, hey, better late then never... plus, I still read it before the movie came out! Shucks, I'm way ahead in those terms! :D Anyways, I LOVED it :D Of course, I love all of the books in the Harry Potter series and hate that there's only one book left!!! boo! But, I know, all things come to an end... at some time, right? (hmm.... The Simpsons haven't yet; which is cool, since I've been a fan since the Tracy Ullman show).



Ursula learned to ride her tiny 2-wheeler last week!!! We're all so excited! See, that means the girls can ride their bikes together and it also means that I can easily get a bike myself with a child seat and we can go riding down the road :D I'll love that as will the girls :)



Jeremy's 2nd softball game was last Friday. His team won their first game but lost their 2nd. And Jeremy hurt his right leg sliding into 2nd base :( So, he's limping around. Here he is at bat... before hurting himself :( I hope it heals up quickly!

I like that he's into some sport now... he really needed it. He was always an athletic person and I know he must love getting to play. His team consists of his co-workers.

Another good thing about him playing is that the kids get to play in the playground area with other kids. So, its been working out for all of us, really :D

And OMG... my 34th bday is coming up... man... Am I really THAT old??? Geez... Ancient, huh? I remember thinking how old people were when they were this age... lol Oh well, can't exactly stop the process. I'd like to think I'm aging well... but, I can see my face getting looser... losing that elasticity... getting fine lines. Sucks. I finally understand why people say that 'youth is wasted on the young' or something to that respect. What sucks more than my face aging is the aches and pains I have. I am not saying that they are directly linked to me getting older as much as old injuries showing up or vaccine damage (in my stupidity, I submitted to getting a tetnus shot as well as a rubella shot when I was 25, after giving birth to Calista)... or me not getting enough calcium. My lower back is almost constantly hurting. I need some chiropractic care. About a month ago, I started taking some calcium supplements along with a multi-vitamin and some other stuff. My bil, Hal, suggested shark cartlage and since I already have it in my cabinet, I'm taking that as well.

Lately, I've been looking at homes. Manufactored homes, Eagle's Nest homes, homes that are up for sale in the area we live in... I'm ready to move. Ready to have a house that is ours. Ready to live in a house with more room/space, storage. I want something with no less than 2000 sq. feet. Would be nice to have 4 bedrooms... 2 bathrooms would be okay. Ideally, each of us would have our own bedroom with walk-in closets. We'd have a toy room. An office. A utility room (washer & dryer area). That's all I want in addition to a nice-sized living room and functional kitchen. I guess we'd really have to just figure out WHERE we'd want to move to. I have land in Raceland but hurricanes hit pretty hard... do we want to even stay in south Louisiana? Maybe move a little more up north? Another state, even? Thankfully, Jeremy's a skilled laborer (pipe fitter/welder) now so, he can find work anywhere, easily. I'm just sick of living in this old ass house that's not old enough to be made well... kwim? It was made cheaply in the 80's.

I want a nice house.

Whew!

Okay, I just returned from the store, took another HPT and its NEGATIVE!!! woohoo! Man... while I was in the store, or actually, while driving there, I would tear up. You know, I love babies and me being pregnant wouldn't be the end of neither my nor Jeremy's world... the kids would LOVE for me to have another. And if I had been, well, then so be it. My major concern was actually for Wyatt. Had I been pregnant right now, I would feel I didn't give him enough baby time, ya know? And what if my milk would have dried up like it did during my pregnancy for Wyatt? I don't want him to wean before he needs to, ya know? I already feel badly for Ursula... she nursed throughout my pregnancy and all but since my milk dried up, she probably stopped getting milk around the time she was 2½... and I know most probably think I'm crazy but I really feel her health isn't as good as it could be... esp. when compared to Calista, who nursed for 4 yrs. Calista's barely ever sick and has never had an ear infection.

Anyhoo... that's my good news for today :D lol

A Little Freaked...

Why, you may ask... well... I took a pregnancy test last night and didn't wait for 3 minutes before returning to bed... it looked negative. This morning... the test looks funny... the positive part isn't a straight line... squiggly-looking. I believe I've read that you can't trust the home pregnancy tests after so many hours. So, I'm buying another one today... in a couple of hours I'll have the results.

Why would I be freaked? Hmm... because we've been practicing abstinance for the most part!!! LOL Seriously... and if we do 'do it'... Jeremy uses a condom. He always checks it afterwards.

Why would I take the test in the first place? Or, what would make me think I needed to take a HPS?

#1. Nausea.
#2. Lower back pain
#3. Frequent urination
#4. Fatigue
#5. Wyatt's been bending over, looking between his legs... old wive's tale... that's he looking for his next brother/sister... (and for the record, each of my kids did this while I was pregnant).

Along with that... I've been getting headaches. I hardly ever get headaches. That's not a typical pregnancy sign for me though... the above 4 are though. If I'm pregnant, than at least I know what's 'wrong' with me. If I'm not... WTF?

If I am... this was a bigtime 'Oopsie'.

First off, I was happy with having just 3 kids.
Secondly, I haven't even started my period back.
Thirdly, I didn't want to have a baby this close in age even we had decided to get pregnant again... Wyatt won't even be 2 yrs older than this one... if I am.
Fourthly, Do I even have enough patience for a fourth child??? OMG
Fifthly, Our house will soon get way too small. We live in a 1188 qf house; 3 beds/2 baths.
Sixly, I'll want to trade in my car for a mini van.
Sevenly (lol... don'tcha love my 'ly's? lol), I CAN'T BE! NOT YET, ANYWAYS!

To be quite honest... I actually suspected I'd have four kids. My sister, Aimee, says that she knows when she's not done having kids (she has 5) when she senses a child is missing and all are accounted for. I've been having that same feeling lately... like, I see all 3 of my kids in front of me, yet, it seems like one is missing.

If I am pregnant right now... This baby REALLY wanted to come through me and Jeremy NOW.
If I'm pregnant now, according to the chinese conception chart, if I conceived in Jan, I'll have a girl... if in Feb. or March, a boy.

Vaccines again linked to form of autism

http://www.news-medical.net/?id=22490


Medical Studies/Trials
Published: Thursday, 8-Mar-2007

New findings presented yesterday at a National Autism Association meeting bolster claims that vaccines may play a role in the development of autism spectrum disorders.

David Ayoub, MD presented data suggesting a correlation between mercury- containing vaccines and rates of pervasive developmental disorder (PDD), a form of autism, in Montreal.

The peak rate of one in 87 children diagnosed with PDD occurred following the period of greatest exposure to the mercury- based vaccine preservative thimerosal. A flattening of the rates studied is now emerging as mercury-containing vaccines have been gradually eliminated from the routine schedule.

This new data points out flaws in a 2006 study published in the journal Pediatrics by Eric Fombonne, MD, et al, which found PDD rates continued to increase even when rates of MMR vaccination and use of mercury-containing vaccines decreased. The study population consisted of a single Montreal school board that was an Autism Center of Excellence, suggesting an over- ascertainment of regional diagnoses. Dr. Ayoub and co-authors Monica Ruscitti, BA, and F. Edward Yazbak, MD broadened the data to include all five Montreal school boards.

The earlier study also reported PDD rates in children from Montreal, but MMR coverage data was taken from Quebec City located 265km from Montreal. The researchers confirmed MMR coverage rates actually increased in Montreal along with PDD, noting a sharper rise in rates after the number of required MMR shots doubled.

The Pediatrics paper claimed there was no exposure to mercury from vaccines post-1996 although several mercury-containing vaccines were administered well beyond 1996. "It's irresponsible that such flawed data was published in a medical journal. This new information confirms a relationship between vaccines and autism that can't be explained by better diagnosing or changing diagnostic criteria," said Karen McDonough, NAA -- Chicago president.

Drs. Ayoub and Yazbak detailed the Fombonne study flaws in letters to Pediatrics which the journal declined to publish. Editor Jerold F. Lucey, MD stated in a reply, "I believe the evidence of no link between MMR and Autism is sufficient. It's not worth publishing more on this subject."

"This dismissal of legitimate concerns regarding data affecting those suffering with autism is a disgrace," commented Ms. McDonough.

http://www.nationalautism.org/

How to Know Whether or Not You're Ready for Motherhood...

I found this on another blog (I know I've seen it a few times before but I guess it just hits home now... LOL) and felt I needed to repost it on my own blog :D

Mess Test:

Smear peanut butter on the sofa and curtains. Place a fish stick behind the couch and leave it there all summer.

Toy Test:

Obtain a 55 gallon drum of LEGOs (if LEGOs are not available, you may (substitute roofing tacks). Have a friend spread them all over the house. Put on a blindfold. Try to walk to the bathroom or kitchen. Do not scream (this could wake a child at night).

Grocery Store Test:

Borrow one or two small animals (goats are best) and take them with you as you shop at the grocery store. Always keep them in sight and pay for anything they eat or damage.

Dressing Test:

Obtain one large, unhappy, live octopus (they turn bright red when they are unhappy). Stuff into a small net bag making sure that all arms stay inside.

Feeding Test:

Obtain a large plastic milk jug. Fill halfway with water. Suspend from the ceiling with a stout cord. Start the jug swinging. Try to insert spoonfuls of soggy cereal (such as Fruit Loops or Cheerios) into the mouth of the jug, while pretending to be an airplane. Now dump the contents of the jug on the floor.

Night Test

Prepare by obtaining a small cloth bag and fill it with 8-12 pounds of sand. Soak it thoroughly in water. At 8:00 p.m. begin to waltz and hum with the bag until 9:00 p.m. Lay down your bag and set your alarm for 10:00 p.m. Get up, pick up your bag, and sing every song you have ever heard. Make up about a dozen more and sing these too until 4:00 a.m. Set alarm for 5:00 a.m. Get up and make breakfast. Keep this up for five years. Look cheerful.

Physical Test

Obtain a large beanbag chair and attach it to the front of your clothes. Leave it there for 9 months. Now remove ten of the beans.

Final Assignment

Find a couple who already have a small child. Lecture them on how they can improve their discipline, patience, tolerance, toilet training and child's table manners. Suggest many ways they can improve. Emphasize to them that they should never allow their children to run wild. Enjoy this experience. It will be the last time you will have all the answers.

Lately...

Just an update of recent events, thoughts, articles that's been on my mind or wanted to remember for later...

So tragic. I've been having this online friend, Leslie, for quite some time now... at least 8 yrs now. We've only met once in person in the past, back before Calista was even a year old. At that time, Leslie had only 2 children, both girls. I had invited her to our house for supper. We had a nice time. We had intended on getting together again... but, in that time, Jeremy and I have moved many times and she moved a couple of times. And then, when I would be able to go meet up with her, I either wouldn't have a working car or didn't have one at all. Anyways, we've kept in touch via email, blogs, pictures, etc and I went on to have 2 more children and so did she. Flash forward to this past Sunday. Her 2nd child, Elizabeth - now 10 yrs old, was riding their 4-wheeler and they aren't sure what happened, but she died. How sad. Terrible. She was with a friend of hers, both on 4-wheelers. Leslie told me that she had told Liz not to go past 2nd gear - no racing. Well, they go ride. Her 12-yr-old friend comes running back telling Leslie and her dh, Chris, that Liz needs them. Chris knows CPR and all that stuff, he's trained in it. There was nothing he could do. Leslie told me that the coroner said Liz was bleeding from both ears. The 4-wheeler was upright and Liz was laying next to it. They have no idea what happened. Leslie said that the 4-wheeler was in 5th gear... but, how strange, huh? And how terribly sad. Leslie had posted her obituary on myspace, that's how I found out... otherwise, there's no way I would have known. I wrote her and asked if she'd like me to go to the funeral home... I wasn't sure how appropriate it would be, ya know? Well, she wrote back saying she'd love to see me and to please come. So, I had to wait for Jeremy to get back from work since the carseats are in his car. I ended up just taking Wyatt. I went only for like half an hour. I didn't know anyone else but her, so I only had her to talk to and I didn't want to take up too much of her time; plus, Wyatt was getting antsy... he wanted to get down and play with the stuff on the floor. At the funeral home, Liz has tons of flowers, quite a few soccer balls, her best friend even put his handheld game system in there with her! Leslie told me a couple of times that she was glad I went. I'm glad I did too... to show support and friendship.

My girls like going next door to ride our neighbor's 4-wheeler, 3-wheeler, go-carts, etc... I am thinking 'NO MORE'. Is that too crazy? I was always leary about them anyways. They only ride the go-cart by themselves (its kids' size) and there's a seatbelt that they do use. But, I'm thinking that they don't get to get on the 4-wheeler unless there's an adult with them as opposed to just another kid.

I know, I know, you can't save your children from everything. I know. Personally, and I know many others feel this way, I want to pass on BEFORE any of my children do.

I'll finish up on this entry later... Jeremy just called to tell me that I need to pay the electric bill today... thanks for the heads up! So, now I have to get myself and the kids dressed... I'll be back :D

Okay, I'm back...

Then, last night, I dream that I can't find Calista. I'm crying like crazy and looking everywhere. I wake up without ever finding her in my dream. So, this morning, before she gets on the bus, I review with her stuff about not talking to strangers, not taking candy, not helping them find their dog, etc... and scream and run, kick, bite, poke their eyes, whatever. I hate when I have dreams like that.

In recent news...

I'm just copying and pasting the whole articles in case they disappear in the future.

I wonder what the end result of this will be...
Tomb could be of Jesus, wife and son

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The burial site of Jesus has been found and suggests he had a wife and son, according to highly sensitive claims in a documentary by "Titanic" director James Cameron and Israel' -born Simcha Jacobovici.

The claims inject controversy into the issue of resurrection central to Christianity and, if accurate, could reignite questions about Jesus' earthy family life popularized in the book "The Da Vinci Code."

Cameron and Jacobovici, an award-winning documentary director, said their research suggested Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had a son, Judah.

"DNA analysis conducted at one of the world's foremost molecular genetics laboratories, as well as studies by leading scholars, suggest a 2,000-year-old Jerusalem tomb could have once held the remains of Jesus of Nazareth and his family," a statement from Discovery, which will broadcast the documentary, said.

The tomb was located in Talpiot, Jerusalem, March 28, 1980 by a construction crew developing an apartment complex.

Scholar L.Y. Rahmani later published "A Catalogue of Jewish Ossuaries" that described 10 ossuaries, or limestone bone boxes, found in the tomb, the Discovery statement said.

Five of the 10 discovered boxes in the Talpiot tomb were inscribed with names believed to be associated with key figures in the New Testament: Jesus, Mary, Matthew, Joseph and Mary Magdalene. A sixth inscription, written in Aramaic, translates to "Judah Son of Jesus."

"Such tombs are very typical for that region," Aaron Brody, associate professor of Bible and archaeology at the Pacific School of Religion and director of California's Bade Museum, told Discovery News.

In addition to the "Judah son of Jesus" inscription, which is written in Aramaic on one of the ossuaries, another limestone burial box is labeled in Aramaic with "Jesus Son of Joseph." Another bears the Hebrew inscription "Maria," a Latin version of "Miriam," or, in English, "Mary."

Yet another ossuary inscription, written in Hebrew, reads "Matia," the original Hebrew word for "Matthew." Only one of the inscriptions is written in Greek. It reads, "Mariamene e Mara," which can be translated as, "Mary known as the master," the television network said.

Jacobovici, director, producer and writer of "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," and his team obtained two sets of samples from the ossuaries for DNA and chemical analysis. The first set consisted of bits of matter taken from the "Jesus Son of Joseph" and "Mariamene e Mara" ossuaries. The second set consisted of patina, a chemical film encrustation on one of the limestone boxes.

The human remains were analyzed by Carney Matheson, a scientist at the Paleo-DNA Laboratory at Lakehead University in Ontario, Canada. Mitochondrial DNA examination determined the individual in the Jesus ossuary and the person in the ossuary linked to Mary Magdalene were not related.

Since tombs normally contain either blood relations or spouses, Jacobovici and his team suggest Jesus and Mary Magdalene could have been a couple. "Judah," whom they indicate may have been their son, could have been the "lad" described in the Gospel of John as sleeping in Jesus' lap at the Last Supper, they argue in their
documentary.

Israeli archaeologist and professor Amos Kloner, who documented the tomb as the Jewish burial cave of a well-off family more than 10 years ago, is adamant there is no evidence to support claims that it was the burial site of Jesus.

"I'm a scholar. I do scholarly work which has nothing to do with documentary film-making. There's no way to take a religious story and to turn it into something scientific," he told AFP in a telephone interview.

"I still insist that it is a regular burial chamber from the 1st century BC," Kloner said, adding that the names were a coincidence.

"Who says that 'Maria' is Magdalena and 'Judah' is the son of Jesus? It cannot be proved. These are very popular and common names from the 1st century BC," said the academic at Israel's Bar Ilan University.

And this is cool:
Strange New Creatures Found in Antarctica

Andrea Thompson
LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.com
Sun Feb 25, 12:20 PM ET

Several strange creatures including a psychedelic octopus have been found in frigid waters off Antarctica in one of the world’s most pristine marine environments.

Others resembled corals and shrimps. At least 30 appear to be new to science, said Julian Gutt, chief scientist of an expedition that was part of the International Polar Year research effort set to launch on March 1. The researchers catalogued about 1,000 species in an area of the Antarctic seabed where warming temperatures are believed to have caused the collapse of overlying ice shelves, affecting the marine life below.

“This is virgin geography,” said expedition member Gauthier Chapelle. “If we don’t find out what this area is like now following the collapse of the ice shelf, and what species are there, we won’t have any basis to know in 20 years’ time what has changed and how global warming has altered the marine ecosystem.”

The expedition also found sea lilies, sea cucumbers and sea urchins thriving on the sea floor—these species are usually found in much deeper waters where food is scarce, but the ice shelves probably made food scarcer than it would usually be at that shallow depth.

Images of the newfound creatures:

Octopus
Sea
Squirts
Crustacean
Cucumbers

An opened seal

In the Weddell Sea off the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, 10,000 square kilometers of seabed was sealed off from the surface for thousands of years by the 100-m thick Larsen A and B ice shelves. When these ice shelves collapsed in recent years, the area was opened up to colonization by species that could not have survived there before [Original News Story].

The international team of scientists recently completed a 10-week expedition of the area. Using a remote operating vehicle, they were able to do the first comprehensive survey of life on the seabed. Before the ice shelves collapsed, the only access scientists had to the area was through holes drilled in the ice.

Ice shelves form when creeping glaciers reach the continent’s coast and begin to float on the ocean. They usually lose mass via icebergs that calve off and float out to sea gradually, but the Larsen A and B shelves both suddenly and surprisingly collapsed. Since 1974, a total of 13,500 square kilometers (about half the size of New Jersey) of ice shelves have disintegrated—a phenomenon linked to global warming, as temperatures have risen faster in Antarctica than anywhere else in world.

In general, the expedition found that animals were less abundant in the Larsen A and B areas compared to other areas of the Antarctic. Animals in the area were only one percent as abundant as other parts of the Weddell Sea, which Gutt suspects is somehow related to the availability of food.

New species?

One of the main aims of the expedition was to survey both indigenous life-forms and creatures that had moved in after the collapse to take advantage of the newly opened environment.

Gutt said that 95 percent of the animals the expedition found were probably indigenous and just 5 percent had moved in after the ice shelves collapsed, but even that small percentage indicated a shift in biodiversity and species composition in the area which will probably continue.

“Life at the sea floor obviously reacts very slowly to this very climactic change in the environmental conditions," Gutt said. “[It] needs hundreds to thousands of years until a new community has fully developed, if this will happen at all.”

One creature new to the neighborhood was the fast-growing, gelatinous sea squirt, which the scientists found in several dense patches.

Iceberg damage

The expedition also found scours created by icebergs that calved from the ice sheets and ran aground on the sea bed, destroying the life in the area, but the damage wasn’t as bad as expected.

“I expected more, because if there are thousands of icebergs disintegrated, or calved, in a very short period of only a few months, then I expected that everything would be destroyed. But it was not,” Gutt said.

The expedition actually found more evidence of disturbance outside the Larsen ice shelf area at points where many icebergs must pass.

But in the areas icebergs had destroyed, Gutt said, signs of life were returning.

Beautiful in Blue

Here's my kiddos :)

I took these pictures today.

I also have pics of the girls by themselves at their blog and Wyatt at his.

I took them in to take pro pics today; after I took these :)

Those will be in on the 22nd.

Oh, Calista's hair was so full of static! I kept brushing it and smoothing it down with my hands before each pic but... as you can see, it wasn't working.

The Saints!

Their playoff game has just begun and we're excited :D This is the first time in Saints' 40 yr. history to have come this far!!! woohoo! Playing the Bears. It would be so awesome if they win! People always look at the Saints as a lost cause. I'm hoping it will bring some positive reaction to both New Orleans and to our state. And plus, its always cool to be with 'winners' :D Jeremy just told me that Saints have only had 8 winning seasons! That's not a whole lot in 40 yrs. But, maybe this will be a turn-around for them. Shucks, tourism is always a plus down in New Orleans... they really depend on that.

I admit, I'm not a huge sports fan... but, I'm always rooting for the home teams!

On to another thing...

Calista may have a broken nose. Yep. Yesterday, our neighbor gave his son a bday party (small). There were two relatives of the bday boy that are like 12 and 13 yrs old... Well, one of them landed on Calista's face. I wasn't actually there because Wyatt was taking his nap...but, there were like 4 adults there. And I've told my kids many times that if there's big kids on the trampoline, not to get up there or to get off if they get up on it. I am pretty sure she's learned her lesson :( It really didn't bleed much. Jeremy says he's pretty sure its broken. Her nose is swollen on one side.

More Dreams

I remember 2 dreams from last night/this morning.

In one of them, we were eating. Lots of us. Seems like we were eating on sofas, watching TV, but maybe in a casual place... didn't seem like a person's home as it was a really big area. Anyways, we're eating and Jeremy stops eating and gets up. I ask him what's wrong and he puts his hand to his chest area and says 'heartburn'. Well, that's normal enough... no big deal. Jeremy leaves. I continue eating when I overhear Shane (my bil and Jeremy's best friend). He's like talking to Angele (his wife, my sister) and he says, "Heartburn? Yeah, right! That's Hailey over there!" I'm like, who? in my mind. I woke up shortly afterwards, so I didn't get to see what her face looked like or where Jeremy went off to in my dream. I had felt in my dream, that she was someone that he must have messed around with at some point... hoping it was before we were together, and perhaps even had some feelings for... that would explain his action. Either that or someone he messed around with while we were together and couldn't believe he saw her while I was there too... Keep in mind, this is all still part of me dreaming. This morning, I asked Jeremy if he knew any Hailey's and he's like, I know a Hane.... whatever that means... LOL So, I told him about the dream.

Second dream is kind of funny. I was in a classroom... my age now with others my age as well. Some of which went to school with me. I had a dufflebag with my books and purse in it. I remember looking in it, looking into my purse and my wallet and seeing that I had 2 $500 bills in there as well as a couple of $100's. I think it was like $1400 or so... can't remember exactly how much right now or why I even had that much money in my purse; on me!!! Anyways, I'm in my seat and I guess I'm feeling stressed and one of my classmates rolls this HUGE, gigantic joint... shaped it like a pipe even! LOL Reminded me of something from Cheech and Chong. lol Anyways, weed is pouring out of it. And they're passing it to me and I'm trying to hide it from the lecturing teacher! I take my 2 hits and pass it back. It was hitting too! LOL Then, someone from behind me gets my attention as my dufflebag is passed back to me! I'm like, where was it and why was it gone? This guy in the back of my line had it (a guy I knew from school, Christian). He, for some reason was looking in my stuff. He had seen my money and at some point, xeroxed them and put them back as well as the copies...??? Okay... I remember I kept counting my money to make sure it was all still there. I woke up around that time.

Tiny Update

Okay, update time:

We went ahead and formatted our computer's hard drive the other day. One cool thing about that is we get to use our Norton Antivirus again without paying for a new year! woohoo! hehehe

Jeremy and Shane (my bil/his best friend) went to the Sugar Bowl (LSU vs Notre Dame). Jeremy's dad surprised them by giving them the tickets; yes, they were very excited.

My sister, Angele, and her husband have to move to a very small apartment, so, she cleared out some stuff... we got her purple leather sofa, chair, and ottoman as well as one of her TV's, a huge, black, cast iron pot, & small freezer!

I'm guessing she was feeling very charitable and also gave me her Chi flat iron and bought me 2 bras from Dilliard's!!! Love the bras too!!!

Just wanted to add two pictures I took of Wyatt and Ursula from last night. Can't include bath pics of Calista... she's a little too old for that now!!! LOL For a couple more pics, go to both Wyatt's and Ursula's blogs.

I liked that one of Wyatt looking at Ursula... I love how he's looking at her... he actually goes to her... like, puts his hands up for her to take him.

Strange Dream

Alrighty, this morning, I was awakened from a strange dream by a phone call from my sister, Angele. I mean, I was smack-dab in the middle of it when one of the kids brought the phone to me in my bed.

Okay, the dream.

Lately, I've been having dreams of us being in a different house, right? Right. So, this time, I was asleep in my bed when something roused me. I look, and there's a small chest of drawers that also opens on top; like to store things there as well. As I look at it, I'm thinking how I just got Jeremy to bring it in the room because it was too heavy for me. Oh yeah, it was a rustic kind of green in color. So, as I'm looking at it from my bed, I see the top open slightly and some of the doors and drawers as well as a slight light coming out of it. Then it all shut as if it knew I saw it. I lay back down and next thing you know, a small drawer comes flying out of it and hovers above me, circling around and around. It finally falls right around my pillow. I am, naturally, freaking out. Now, for some reason, which I'm quite sure was all very logical while I was dreaming, my neighbors were in bed with me... sleeping, of course. So, I grab Jen's arm (who, incidently, is still in the hospital) and shake her awake so she could see the levitating drawer (obviously, this is before it fell by my pillow). Then, after the drawer falls, I shake Todd awake. Jeremy had already left for work... still can't remember why they were both sleeping in my bed though... anyways, he goes to touch the drawer and it shocks him unconscious. I'm like, 'great!'.... by this time, the green set of drawers/storage thingie is opening all of its doors and drawers over and over. Then, it also flies above us, as we were laying in bed... it starts circling above us too.
Around this time, Calista comes in and asks if she could go play with one of our neighbors (apparently, in this dream, we had a new family, black, and in the dream, I knew the little girl's name... can't think of it now). So, I tell her she can (figuring its better she's outside than in here with possessed furniture) but to stay in our yard. Then, I get out of bed and walk to the kitchen when another of our neighbors come knocks and enters the house (this neighbor is totally not real... no idea who she is)... I tell her she has GOT to see in my bedroom. Well, I bring her in and the storage thingie is on the floor again... with lots of glittery stuff on it. The drawers and doors were slightly opened... in fact, it looked like it had just fallen from somewhere... messed up looking. So, I'm like, great, you'll never believe what was just going on in here! And that's when Angele called me in real life! LOL I was so into that dream... I was all groggy and told her I'd call her back in a little while.
Whatever it means, no idea...

New Camera!

heh heh heh
Well, Jeremy knows me well & knows how much photography means to me, so he bought me another camera! He bought another Kodak EasyShare. This one is the Z710. Its like the first one I had (the one Kimber had given me) and that stopped taking the battery's charge and I exchanged plus $50 for the next one. This new one is a 7.1 MP with a 10X zoom :D So far, so good! AND I promise, this one will stay safe, out of harm's reach!!! I can't be buying a new camera every year!!!

I'll upload pics as soon as I'm able to... Blogger isn't allowing me right now.

If You Take Painkillers During Childbirth, You May Have Difficulty Breastfeeding

Another reason to give birth naturally!

Epidurals and other painkillers used to ease childbirth are linked with decreased rates of breastfeeding. This is the result of a new study led by Dr Siranda Torvaldsen, a senior researcher in the Facultly of Medicine at the University of Sydney, Australia.

Of course, there's more to the article... click the link and read :D

UTMB researchers discover breast-feeding overcomes genetic tendency to ear infections

Here's the link to the article and below is a snippet from it:

“This is a major finding, that breast-feeding neutralized the effect even in kids who had all the genetic polymorphisms,” Patel said. “Not only that, they were protected from recurrent infections even later in childhood, long after they stopped breast-feeding.”

Its cool how more and more evidence is proving how beneficial breastmilk really is.