Happy Halloween

Have you had a good scare? I certainly have today. Remember the freaky population boom on my street? And then the SURPRISE! TWINS! From around the corner? Well, next door neighbor with the twins had her babies last week, across the street will have hers whenever (technically due on Christmas Eve), and remember my other next door neighbor on the other side, due in March?

Yeah. Twins. Boy and a girl. Just found out today.

I'll be honest. This feels a little apocalyptic.

If my friend from two houses down ends up with twins (she's also due in March), I'm gonna maybe fork out the $85 bucks to get an ultrasound down at the mall, just for a little peace of mind.

I am pregnant, Do not even hint that I am overreacting! Not if you want to live

Have some purdy pitchers.

Birdie in all her Cleopatra glory.

Because I thought the red eyes with the red lips were cool.

A very serious Cheetah Girl.

A punk rocker who flatly refused to wear any costume until given the ultimatum in the church parking lot at the Trunk or Treat: "Costume or no candy." I think she balks at the terminology "be." As in "what are you going to be for Halloween?" Or, "why don't you be a witch?" She doesn't even want to be a big girl, or be my baby or anything other than Pearl. She only wants to be Pearl. Is all supposition on my part.

Boy from two houses down... very proud of mah handiwork here.

Short, With Bullets

*So yesterday was the first day since my trip down the stairs that I had any hope that perhaps I haven't done something permanent to my knee. Oh, and for all of you purists, if I did do something? The damage was probably to my MCL, that's the ligament on the inside of my knee. I will be surprised if I end up having to have surgery. Hopefully I can get myself rehabbed by the time I would be wanting to start running anyway! Is all speculation on my part... but I am feeling far more hopeful about it all. I will know more on Monday.

*Only now I realize that it's time to pack my bag for the hospital, for just-in-casies. And find a bed for the guest room. And hang a vanity light and mirror in the basement, and scrub the bathrooms (hasn't been done since the week before I fell.... EW!), and plan what the heck to do with the kids if I go early, and and and and and and..............!

*Pearl's birthday is the 9th, and there is the small matter of a cake; a point of pride for me that I be the one to make it. It may be a little less spectacular this year.

*As far as the induction goes? Yeah, I talked to the original doctor... it will be on Dec 3rd, or the 2nd if I am lucky and they can fit me in on their "surgery" day. I am annoyed but resigned, and at least gratified that the original doc had the grace to call me back himself and apologise.

Wanna Know A Secret?

.... Self pity is boooring, and I have been boring the socks off of m'self lately. Pain kinda does that to me.

It doesn't help that I spend all day every day with three small beings who not only don't understand why mama is being such a loser who won't do jack for them anymore (i.e. hop up and grab them a drink of milk whenever they want one, the second they want one) but she squawks and bawls every time they use her conveniently propped up leg to do chin-ups and cherry drops off of.

It's really tough to remember what the heck that big, funny contraption on her leg was for in the first place apparently. Was it a target? Climbing straps? Fashion? Heck if I can recall, where's my lunch, woman?

Seriously... I am not used to having to take care of myself at the same time as everyone else. All of my needs are either things that I have figured out how to fit in, or just defer. But the whole Rest-Ice-Compression-Elevation shtick that goes with a soft tissue knee injury don't fit or defer worth a shmelman. And there was another frakking-crap-melvin emergency at Dadguy's work yet again this weekend; he was stuck at work until after midnight on Friday, and yet again my Saturday disappeared into the dust. We don't really get a Sunday, so this next week blends into last week in an ugly sort of way. A depressing sort of a way, since in addition to it all I apparently get to be the freaky wife who is all "WHAT!? What do you MEAN you have to work for your freaking PAYCHECK while I need you AT HOME!?? Taking care of ME!!??"

Sigh... I know that cannot be fun, and yet there I was Saturday night when Dadguy finally rolled in around 9 pm to witness the "Oh my hell you're finally HOME!" weepy break down of the mama. The breakdown that I don't even know is coming until about a half hour before it starts. The half hour it takes for him to drive home after calling me to tell me he's on his way. The breakdown I usually reserve for when he returns from out of town trips.

None of this was helped by what happened Friday night after I had called Dadguy around 11:00 to tell him that I was calling it quits, and I would be passed out when he got home. He informed me that he would be at least another hour or so, and I started my bedtime routine of double checking all locks, drink of water, prenatal vitamin ad infinitum. It takes me at least a half hour to actually be in bed with the lights out from the time that I announce my intentions get there. So when I was sitting in bed putting my brace back on over my pj's and heard the door knob rattle I was pleasantly surprised that Dadguy had apparently decided to pack it in and come straight home after all, and kept half an ear out for the sound of the key in the lock as I finished with all of the straps and velcro. A sound that never came. So I headed for the front door to see what was keeping him. Did he drop his keys in the dark? Is he out having a midnight chat with our next door neighbors?

But there was no one on the front porch and no car in the drive. Huh. "That must not have been what I heard" I tell myself as I make another round of the entire house double checking all the window locks both upstairs and down. "Naw" I tell myself, "I heard something other than the doorknob." But I wasn't able to go to sleep after all, so I had the dubious pleasure of hearing, an hour and a half later, the sound of the doorknob being tested again, and it was the exact same sound I had heard earlier, only this time it was followed by the sound of a key in the lock and a Dadguy through the door. Creeped out? I know I am.

Hey, have I been promising y'all a belly pic? Check this out... I saw it and laughed my head off at it, no wonder I am already getting double takes and winces. No wonder I barely fit.... anywhere!

Y'all... I have five and a half weeks to go.
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Wuf...

Let's just temporarily rename this the All-Misery-Alla-Time Blog, because that would be fun, don't you think?

So I have PUPPS, at least that's what the doc tells me. I hope I have PUPPS, because if I do, that means that the misery will go away soon after I have the baby. But... if I have PUPPS, then it also means that I was pregnant the month before I got pregnant with this baby, and I miscarried.

Which wouldn't surprise me, because I was secretly positive that had happened anyway. Only now I have proof, because I have been living in misery with the itching since the start of February. I have been wearing black clothes to disguise the flecks of blood that you can see all over my sheets and pillowcases, because I scratch till I bleed.

Huh.. that also means that I have been pregnant for-freaking-ever... only with a short, two week break, one full week of which was taken up by me bleeding profusely. Y'all, I am sooooo ready to be done

And the preceding paragraph was a text book definition of TMI (too much information).

And then this morning I fell down the stairs, but RELAX no permanent damage was done! Don't ask me how though, cuz my right leg was bent at the knee at a most unnatural angle. As I lay at the bottom of the stairs howling (freaking out my poor girls and giving Dadguy a distressing good morning wake-up call), I actually was getting all torqued about first having to be pregnant while wearing a cast, and second I was furious because just on Saturday my FIL had found a screaming deal on a second hand treadmill, purchased it, and brought it to our house. That treadmill is my guarantee of freedom this winter after the baby comes, unless of course I break my piffling leg. My suspicion is that it was the relaxin, the hormone that causes a pregnant woman's joints and tissues to loosen and stretch, that saved me from a maiming. But the fact is, while it hurts like a beast, I can bend, straighten and even walk (limp pathetically) on it. Hooray for Tylenol.

AHAHAHAHAHAAAAA! Who knew that you were so much better off with my political posts!

* edit: turns out I am not so very sure that everything is OK with the knee... I'm gonna go see a doctor tonite. Surely he will smile tolerantly at me and tell me to keep up the ice packs and Tylenol, and go home already ya freak! Surely. Only I will already be humiliated because I will have had to expose my knee, which will expose my scabbed up shins (the PUPPS), and the fact that my legs are also amazingly hairy. Because I cannot shave without also shaving off all of my scabs. No...see, the removal of scabs, I save for my midnight scratching sessions because it hurts so good!

So anyway. If you are female and would like to read about someone else's pain, only... in a much less painful sort of a way, and more romantic sort of a way... go here. Just make sure you read it from the beginning. You will just DIE!

*edited again:  So I will be pregnant and in a huge brace for at least two weeks, at which time the doc will tell me if I have done something permanent... he said what it was that he's afraid I have done, some sort of injury common to football players.  He said three words, and I think one of them was "radial", but I cannot remember; have been pregnant in the interim.  But he cannot be sure until he can examine my knee when there is less swelling, and less pain.  We do not want me to have done anything permanent, apparently it involves surgery to fix.  Surgery equals not good.

These Faces!

I ordered some face paints from Snazaroo.com, they are even better than I had hoped. Plus painting these faces is something that brings great joy to the squirrels, yet I can do it whilst sitting on my bummie. I guess I owe ya some belleh pictures to illustrate why the "sitting" part is so important to me. I'll get around to it later... like everything else.

Y'all, I had to listen to a 27 year old gal whine about how much harder it is to be pregnant at the advanced age of "almost 30!" than it was at age 18.

Uh huh. Sux 2 B u chicky. Can you hear the sympathy just dripping off my every word?

Lets give you an idea of how I feel... yesterday I had the stomach flu, and I first realized what was going on about a half hour before I started hurling. Fatigue to the point that I cannot stand up to clear off the kitchen table, but must lean on the tabletop with one elbow as I stack everything into a pile? Body aches? Mid section in constant pain, accompanied by excruciating heartburn? Headache and dizzyness? Nausea? La! Am pregnant, what do ya mean stomach flu?

Luckily it was short lived, pretty much what LaLa had Sunday night. So approximately a 12 hour thing with minimum yakkage. Still, it was an eye opener for me that maybe it is not my imagination that pregnancy at 39 bites the big one. It helped that the Bishop's wife came to visit me this morning. She and I share the same first name and a similar bigger-than-life sort of personality, and we pal around a bit. She had made some homemade chocolates and came to share the bounty... she sat for a few and I pumped her for info. She had her last kid at the age of 39, and she let me know that absolutely, it is every bit as hard as I think it is. Probably there is nothing wrong with me, this is just what it feels like to gestate at this age.

We didn't discuss the L and D much. I already know that both she and her son died and were revived on the delivery table, but we are just gonna chalk that business up to Gestational Diabetes and ignore it from there.

Did these faces today. I think I'm already getting better.

Another LaLa Quote: "Mama? I fink that ev-wee-one doethen't like yuh name, tho we all call you "Mama.""

More Thinking

I really love Elizasmom. I have loved her mind and her writing from the beginning, and I love her willingness to listen and discuss. She has been supremely patient with me when we disagree, and I must admit, that for two people who share so much in common as we do, we disagree a bunch. And on some very basic issues. Trust her to pull out some salient points from my political post that really need some clarification!

As far as that political post, and I must agree with Dadguy's take on it,  it was all over the board and just skimmed in nearly every area; from the theological to the political to the economic portions, I zipped about like a dragonfly on crack.  So it's not surprising that Elizasmom response to that last post was so long; there was likely enough in her one comment to to provide enough for ME respond to, in three or four separate posts.

But there was a reason that my last post zipped about, the bugs on crack bit... but it's less about the speed and more about the coherency of my brain currently. And I have moved on to about seven other topics since I wrote that post BUT, one point that she brought out I really want to explore further.

"I am trying to phrase this delicately but I can't so here's the thing: to extrapolate from your allegory, do you really think it puts people on the side of Lucifer to say, you MUST respect these rules or face the consequences? I know that's overstating the case, and I am not even necessarily disagreeing with you, just playing (heh) devil's advocate. The whole not-regulating-honor-killings thing, that's not really working out for women in the third world very well. "

Au contrair mine souer!  I don't mean to give anyone the impression that the followers of God are in any way exempt from consequences, rules, laws and the like.  On the flip side, those who understand the workings of Eternity, understand that we are all circumscribed by law.  Even our Father and Mother who want nothing more that to have their children return to them are bound by the immutable Laws of Heaven.  

This entire section of EM's comment tells me that I need to explain in greater detail.  First: really, when I gave you permission to take my brief and edited version of what happened in the pre-mortal experience as an allegory, I may have done y'all a disservice.  It was no allegory.  It was a snippet of what happened.  I am not even going to soften what I now say by any language like "what I believe" or "I think."  Dude.  This happened, I know it to my very core.

First you ought to understand the importance of what Lucifer offered to us.  He offered us salvation guaran-freakin'-teed.  He offered us the chance to go down to this beautiful planet, get the mortal experience we needed, and return to our Parents as exalted beings, and all we had to do was agree that Lucifer was the bomb-diggity and give him the glory.  

Cuz here's the thing.... if and when, and under the Fathers plan it is not a matter of "if" at all, so when we sinned, we would become unclean.  Unclean things cannot dwell with the Father.  We would be unable to return, and we would be damned for all eternity.  How horrifying is that?  Also, Fathers plan hinged on there being One, a perfect being who would go down, live a perfect life and then lay that sinless life and soul down, He would have to conquer death and sin and be a propitiation for the sin of all.  Through means mystical and physical, this sacrifice would be enough for those that would repent and follow Him, that we could return to the Father.  And that One?  He didn't need to do it.  If He was awesome enough to accomplish the task, he was awesome enough to not need to bother.  Oh, and this Being?  He had to do it voluntarily... more of that "not  compulsory" bit that Truth is so in love with.

I don't know how or what Satan would do to force us to behave, maybe he knew a code of DNA that would take away our ability to sin.  Perhaps he knew of some way to program our minds a La Clockwork Orange so that we were unable to choose evil and wrong, like we would be too sick to do the deed, or even trying might just kill us.  But the guy was an amazing spirit, a chosen one, shockingly advanced from the spirits that you and I were.  He was the "Morning Star"  he was "The Light Bringer,"  and I for one believe that he could do what he said he could do.  I also believe that what he offered was wrong on a cosmic scale, it was blindness and pride and he was fooling himself if he thought for a second that we could return to Father and be of any use whatsoever.  We would have been duds.  Automatons.  Wretched neuters without light, without will, or at least without any idea of what to do with that will.

And as you are here on Earth?  You didn't buy his "plan" either.  Because after Lucifer pitched his idea, another One arose and addressed the gathered spirits.  He said that He would go and He would be that sacrifice that the Father's plan hinged upon.  He said it, and we believed it.  For He was as far advanced from the "Light Bringer" as the "light Bringer" was from us.  He was Jesus, He was the Firstborn and the greatest of all and oh....

...how we loved him, for oh...

...HE LOVED US.  

And then He said "I will do it, and the Glory goes to the Father."

And then the War in Heaven began.  Some say it was a War of words and ideas, but in the end Lucifer was banished from Heaven along with a third of the Hosts of Heaven.  A full third of us opted to follow the adversary into darkness, never to receive a body.

Does that sound like any kind of "no consequences"?  Ooof.  There are consequences to everything, for every choice that we make.  Existence turns upon human will.  Our will, in the end, is the only thing that we can give to our Maker.  It is when we align our will with His Will, that we unlock Truth, and Joy, and yes... Power.

And yeah... when we try to coerce and force another to be good or to do what we want them to do?  You got it... we have aligned ourselves with evil.  This brings all kinds of interesting things to the table when it comes to parenting, and I think that here, when we become parents ourselves we come to understand more about will.  Because no matter what?  You can discipline, you can mete out consequences, you can teach and love a child and encourage them to do what is right, but in the end in order to truly subvert the will of even a young child... you have to break it.  Can you think of anything more evil that breaking a child in that way?  Breaking a human in this way?

We are meant to choose.  We are meant to learn and grow by making good and bad choices.  We become exalted when we choose to follow our Advocate, and become more like Him.  But we also pay the consequences when we knowingly choose wrong.

Now you may think that there is nothing but good to come from a government garnishing your paycheck and making you set aside some dough for your own retirement... I mean, it's for your own good!  But here my problem with that... what if I can do a heck of a lot better by using that money to set up my OWN retirement through the means and avenues of my own choosing?  We will never know, because the choice of what to do with my $$ has already been made for me, and I am forced into it, there is no opt-out clause.  And it more than gripes my soul that today?  I am paying into (albeit via Dadguy's paycheck) a system called Social Security that will never pay me back.  The funds for this program are not self-sustaining, and will not make it till my retirement, we have pretty much been guaranteed that it cannot.  

What about Welfare?  Great idea huh?  What if I came up with a way that was a more effective way to care for, feed, clothe and shelter those who cannot help themselves, and get those who can back up on their feet?  What if I can do that more humanely and effectively and for 1/2 the exorbitant cost of what the Federal government is currently doing?  We will never know... again, taken from the private sector, bureaucratized and rammed down our throats in the way that others, and many of them NOT ELECTED OFFICIALS deem fit for public consumption, whether the public likes or wants or needs it.

It really must be said,  if you want to see how to handle Welfare... go talk to the Mormons, who do it faster, more efficiently and virtually for nothing.  If I could take the amount of $$ that the Feds garnish from Dadguy's paycheck and send it to Welfare Square in SLC, that $$ would go five times further than the Feds can make it go, feeding and benefitting the needy not just in America, but all over the world.  Perhaps it would go even more than a measly five time farther, I would love to see a study done on that particular question.

But I don't get that choice now do I?  Instead I MUST pay into the beast that is US Govt. Welfare.  Ew.  Because the Feds know better, and it's for our own good.

But, even with Welfare in the US, do the citizens of this country call their job done?  Heck to the NO!  Most people want to do good, they want to share and they want to see others cared for.  Seriously, I do not believe for half a second that helping those that need help is a thing that most humans need to be compelled to do.

Socialized medicine?  Hoo brother, do I want to get into a society that has standardised everything when it comes to health?  How long do you think that alternative medicine will last under Socialized medicine?  Am I looking forward to the hell that is an HMO to the power of six?  Run by the same losers who botched Katrina?  As a healthy fat woman, do I want to be told that I must lose weight or be penalized because according to the BMI I am obese.  Healthy, but obese.  The same BMI chart that is admitted to be deeply flawed by many major health organizations?  Seriously, my girlfriend is pregnant and is trying to avail herself of WIC... the WIC nutritionalist is trying to talk her into gaining NOTHING during the last trimester of her pregnancy even though her doctor insists that for the health of the baby, she must.  Dude.  This girl carries a few pounds extra, sure,  but because she was an athlete as a highschooler and is in top shape (she worked out for at least an hour a day up until a few weeks ago) those couple of pounds (10... perhaps 12) plus her muscles push her BMI number to read high, high enough to be just barely over the line for "obese."  This chick is "obese" like an  Olympic grade shotputter.  And even if she WAS obese to the tune of say... like me or bigger, the last trimester is not the time to go on a diet.... what kind of irresponsible tripe is the government trying to push here?

But as it stands, my girlfriend can opt out of WIC and lean on her family, or even LDS Welfare.  But if this same agenda is being pushed by the Feds and medicine were Socialized, what if she had no choice but to diet or face penalties?  What if all doctors HAD to go by the BMI whether they believed it was best for their patients or not?  What if they had to kow tow to the Allmighty Fed or lose their license?  Socialized Medicine is not the answer y'all.

Options.  Cooperation.  Free Market solutions.  Healthy Competition.

Government absolutely has a place in a free society.  There are laws that need to be enforced, such as "my freedom to swing my fists about, ends just short of your face."  Like Currency, like dispute settlement and monopoly breaking, like roads.  But most things and industries can be self regulating in a free market.  The market doesn't tolerate much BS, but then, the market is all about competition and a government in a free society is about cooperation.  Coercion has no more place in a free society or it's markets than it does in the Eternities, but we have become so bloody used to our choices being made for us in some of these areas, we hardly realize we are being coerced or that we are having our choices taken from us, for our own good.  Which is just fine so long as we happen to agree with what is "for our own good."  But what if we disagree?  We are hardly aware that so much of what is being done today, not only has no foundation in the Constitution of the U.S. of A., but in some cases goes directly against it.

Y'all I am seriously considering voting for Dell "Superdell" Schanze as Governor for UT... and that man is annoying!  

And fittingly enough with the motif of this past week of crap health for the Chaos Household, LaLa is up there barfing.  Gotta go!

The Body Politic: A Meme

I was tagged by Jen at Following the Road for a political post, and actually... she tagged me a while back, but I hadn't realized it because I hadn't read the post that she tagged me in. It was a political post and politics freak me out right now... yeah, I know, get over it and VOTE woman! I suspect that I am feeling freaky because some ideas that I have long held dear to my heart are sloughing away as a result of some serious reevaluation and an ad hoc education in economics. Economics as it applies to freedom and politics in general.

First you have to understand that I believe in this country. I believe in the Constitution of The United States of America, and I also believe that the founding fathers who pushed for, wrote, signed, and upheld that constitution, while imperfect humans, had actually been the recipients of revelation. And I do not use the word "revelation" lightly OR in jest. I mean revelation from the God that resides in Heaven, and the more that I learn about the Constitution, Freedom and Capitalism squares with what I know to be true.

I want you to stop right here and cut out that knee jerk reaction that you are having. Don't pretend that you are not now thinking to yourself "Oh freakin' LOVELY, another Conservative Christian Nutbag!" Hear me out in full please, I am being as clear as my faculties will allow.

I have as much right to base my political convictions in my moral and spiritual foundations as any atheist or secular humanist has to base theirs in theirs. I know this because this still is a free country, plus I used to espouse some pretty spectacular secular humanist beliefs, I used to be a Baha'i patchwork style agnostic-ish sort of a girl. Back then I could STILL see the "rightness" of the Constitution, and Liberty and Freedom... and as that was primarily during my formative teen years back in the late 80's, the Reagan administration and then the extension of the Reagan administration in the form of Bush... I was terrified of Big-Business-Heartless- Corporate-Greed. I saw Big Government as facilitating Big Business Evil, and therefore I assumed that I was a Democrat and a Liberal.

Heh... yyyeah. And then the Clinton Administration showed up... and it is here that I must admit that Hilary got my back up within the first two seconds of her husband's regime with her disparaging remarks about how she wasn't going to "stay at home baking cookies" and the following reluctant retraction. My mom was an educated, highly intelligent woman who chose to stay home and raise her six children, and anyone making derogatory judgements on that choice (and no matter the apologist retrofit, it was derogatory and meant in a dismissive way) was not going to win my admiration. Three months before Clintons second term, I joined the Green Party in NM. Not so much because I am a tree huggin' crunch bag... but as a way to send a message to Washington in regards to my dissatisfaction with the two party Status Quo.

and then...
and then...
and then...

No matter, all I am trying to communicate is that back in the day I could see the rightness of the Constitution and the ideas behind the start of this country. My problems were with the mess that was the government, no matter which party had control.

People it is NOT getting better. We swing back and forth between the Democrats taking power and extending Big Government and then Republicans stepping in to fix the mess, but for the most part... not dismantling a damn thing that the Dems have put in place. And then we as Americans believe the rhetoric of Centralisation, and Socialism and believe that we need more government to fix the mess that too much government has made. We get this sense of entitlement. Like that just because we are Americans and the folks down the street own a home... we deserve to own a home no matter the cost. Even if the cost is more loss of freedoms and $700 billion that will not even fix the problem.

We get this sense of Entitlement that leads us deeper into the morass of Socialism, because poor people deserve to not be poor, so we take from those that have. And then deeper and deeper.

So I am walking away from rhetoric and political hoopla, and most especially away from charismatic "leaders," sound bites and facetime. I walk away from Presidential Debates that feature smirking, eye rolling, finger pointing bookends of horse puckky. Y'all I am looking for Truth with that capital "T." I am going way back. Back before this mortality began.

And here's the thing... even if you don't believe in the literality of what I am about to tell you... I think you can get behind the idea that one of the things that defines a human being is the ability to choose. Choice. Free Will. Think of this, if you like... as an allegory.

There was a time when we were all beings of Spirit, and we lived in a place that I will call the Pre-Mortal Existence. God had organised us and created a world and had a plan for us to go down and be tested on that world. Tested to see what we would do, choose right or wrong. Part of that test was to receive a body, and our Heavenly Parents knew that we would inevitably choose wrong as part of that learning process. But there was another, a Being of Light who's name was Lucifer, and he had a different plan. HIS plan was to go down and by some means or another, he had a way to force every spirit to choose the right, some way to coerce this perfection out of each and every soul that gained a body, and we would all return to live with our Heavenly Parents, having done all that we were sent down to do. And we would give all the Glory to Lucifer.

Gods plan was to give us choice... and all the consequences that go with choice. In the end, we went with plan A... or the Plan of Salvation. The one that offers progression for the human race, as opposed to coercion or the removal of choice for our own good. Not even for our own good. Because in the end, there is no such thing as coercion for our own good.

The more that I learn about free capitalism, the more that I see a mirror of Plan A. Choice, accountability, natural consequences... progression. But true capitalism needs less government in order to work, not more. Under the tenants of Capitalism, we would never be in the "crisis" we are currently in. The "Economic Crisis" we face was caused by forced artificial loans, poor government oversite of it's own programs and interventions and NOW? Now the government has voted AGAINST IT'S OWN CONSTITUENCIES WISHES to award itself the position of arbiter and fixer of the huge mess that it has made, to the tune of $700 I-can't-wrap-my-head-around-the sum dollars.

And this is somehow a good idea?

And now we are faced with a Liberal Republican and his ideas of how to maintain a top-heavy and unconstitutional Federal government, and a Socialist Democrat who want to offer us change by extending governmental control and increasing Federal power and taking charge of giving us what we feel like we deserve.

And trust me... we will get just what we deserve. We will.

Ben Franklin was quoted as saying "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."

You had best believe that we will get what we deserve. Think about it... even if Obama is the saint that so many seem to be saying he is, he is stepping into an office that has term limits. Any extension of government that the man puts into place, if history can be counted on to repeat itself as it has done in the past few decades (and I think that it will).... a Republican Administration will take charge of those Agencies and Institutions in EIGHT SHORT YEARS. They will NOT dismantle the increase in centralized control. They will take it, grin, and proceed to do whatever the crap they think is right, and/or furthers their own agendas.

Do you hear me? To all Dems who villianize Republicans and the Republican Party... the Republicans will be in charge of what Obama builds, for better or for worse, and pretty much for certain if we continue on this reactionary path we have gone down as a country. Socialism is not the answer. Increased Centralization and Federalization is not the answer.

But there is an answer... and I am starting to think that the Constitutional Party has a good number of them. You want change? Let's take apart the Machine. Let's tell ourselves "NO" for a change. Let's work and do, and take personal responsibility for what happens. Let us choose, and make choices and be free.

So I am back to the idea that the current two-party system of government has failed us, and failed us big time. I want real change, for a change... and I am starting to mouth off about it, and I am only just getting started. I want less government, not more. I want a Constitutionally circumscribed government... and that means MORE than you may think it does. Or rather LESS.

I am never good at perpetuating meme's but I hope that all ya'll are thinking about this stuff anyway. If you post it, I will read it, just let me know by email or comment.

Yipes!

Holy smokes people... remember this post when I filled you in on the population explosion on my street? Well I didn't include my friend "L" who lives around the corner and down the street , even though she was due in mid October.

Cuz she doesn't live on my street.

So I was chatting with a mutual friend who asked me had I heard L's big news from last night? Knowing that the standard 20th week ultrasound had not given a gender (pesky umbilical cord positioning) for her baby, I assumed that she had had her baby, and her "big news" was boy or girl.

Yeah... her big news was boy AND girl. Is not apocryphal, urban legend stuff- is a fact, Jack. Personally, I was aghast. I mean, this woman only had the one ultrasound... but it was on state of the art equipment in the freakin' hospital that I plan on delivering in. Naw, I'll be honest, I am aghast because if it can happen once...

I cannot wait to hear the birth story.

Baby Drama

Ain't life interesting?

So after a few misses, I settled on an OB who has a practice in the town that I live. (He also has offices in two other towns). A five minute drive as opposed to the full 1/2 hour both ways commute to the doctors was a pretty big incentive, plus he has a good rep and takes notes on his laptop... whatever, I just want to get through this last baby and be done with the whole gestational, L& D, episiotomy blah blah blah. After four kids I am so done with being freaky or picky about too much. Just make sure I have a bed, an epidural and a few expensive machines that go "ping" and I am good.

Still... it seems a bit of a dirty trick to hook his practice up with some random other OB's practice from the town just north of here. And yet, in my 31st weeks visit... SURPRISE! NEW! DOCTOR!

Apparently I will be visiting with each of them every other visit, and this development would be no great shakes... I am easy. After all, I am the girl who let some random class of doctor student people come in and watch during the delivery of one of my kids. Cannot quite recall which kid. Only that the nurse asked about one minute after my epidural kicked in, if the class could come and observe. Dude, I was high on the euphoria of "Holy crap... felling nothing feels GOOOOOD!" So I said yes, and they quietly ushered the class in while I was pushing... so actually, I never saw the students. It's almost as if they weren't there. Only I know they were.

ANYWAYS... the issue I have is that the visit before this visit on Friday with Dr. New, I had begun my campaign for early induction. Dr. Old had actually agreed on a date, assuming my cervix was cooperative. And as my cervix is usually VERY cooperative, I took it as a given that we were a go for Nov 30th. So I told my mom. Who decided to come out for Thanksgiving and then stay for the baby.

Sigh.

According to Dr. New, the New policy is to do inductions at the hospital that I plan on delivering at (insurance, good hospital, delivered the other three there...) on Wednesdays. Which puts me going in on December 3rd. A full week after my mom arrives to celebrate Thanksgiving.

And by the by Mom... this is not a bid to get you to not come for Thanksgiving OR extend your stay up here unreasonably long. This is about me going from ranting and raving and stomping my feet about the INJUSTICE of it all... to realizing that it is what it is. Perhaps the kid will decide to show up on Thanksgiving Day, and really play hoopty with the whole arrangement. All facts that I know in my head, but it took a few days to get down to my grumpy, pregnant heart. Who knows. Maybe this is about giving my congregations women auxiliary a chance to do their thing. Who knows? Certainly not me, but I feel much better. I will be taken care of no matter what.

Mind you... I still intend to make Dr. Old tell me that he will not be doing the Nov 30th induction right to my face, because I roll like that. Not lettin' anyone off the hook with out the confession.

On a completely separate note, LaLa has really been enjoying her new found phone skills and is much faster than I am at running to answer a ring. Today she picked up a call that evidently had no one on the other end. She handed the receiver to me and said
"dayuhs no on on da phone. I guess dey must dist be pwactising."

Post On It's Way...

... I promise! I just cannot help but link to this article in the New York Times. The evidence is starting to mount up.

Dish Network

Fix the mans TV and give him a little sump-mm for his trouble already will ya? This is customer service, not rocket science.

*Edited to add: Ahhh! Now THAT'S better.

Princess of the Nile

This year at Birdie's school is the first year for the 4H afterschool program, and when they sent home the literature I thought "nice, maybe next year." And threw everything away.

Then two days later I realized that I had made a terrible mistake. The much desired and much lauded "Princess Party" was not going to just go away. She actually expected to be able to go.

I tried talking her into the Art Class, or the Cooking Class or even the Outdoor Games, but it was Princess Party or DIE as far as the Bird was concerned. I was not convinced and was quite sure that the class would not live up to the perfect experience that Birdie had apparently built up in her head. I have talked with other moms who read what the Princess Party class was about, heard their daughter's pleas, and signed their kids up for something else anyway.

I seriously considered doing that too.

Instead, I opted for the Life Lesson, and got the girl exactly what she asked for, and actually she has enjoyed herself even though I can tell that it isn't what she thought it would be. The thing that has most amazed her has been the length of the gals nails who was able to tweeze up chips of dry ice safely with her nails, in order to put the bits into each girl's decorated "Genie Bottle" to make a smoky "Genie" effect when a little water was added. It appears the class is going for the Disney Pantheon of Princess, and that week was all about Jasmin. Next week they will cover Mulan. This week they had a "Princess Tea Party."

The note they sent home with Birdie last week indicated that the girls were welcome to dress up a little as Princesses for the Tea; gloves, dresses and hats got mentioned. We have an extensive Dress-Up collection, if figured we send her with something.

But then.

The girls had decided that they wanted to be Power Puff Girls for Halloween, and I had agreed to make the dresses for it. I figured sleeveless sheath with a black band around it... that's within my sewing range. Throw in a pair of white tights, their black mary-jane Sunday shoes, a hair-doo and we are good to go.

Then they discovered the Power Puff Girls Z.

Shoot me in the head.

They wanted to be THAT for Halloween and I had to nix their dreams. Holy COW! That is waaaaay beyond my abilities to make times three in one month. Plus the cost of fabric. Plus. Plus. Plus! Yipes. So they went sadly back to their original request for the plain old ordinary PPGs. Until this last weekend when they got an eyeful of the wonder that is Store Bought Costumery, and now they are thrilled beyond measure with the coming holiday. AND I am off the hook for about the same amount of money that I would have spent on fabric. WHEEEE!

Birdie found a pretty amazing Cleopatra get-up that ticked her fancy, and LaLa got a shiny, soft, cheeta print dress that along with some ears and a tail that we already have, will make her the cat's meow. Pearl got a wee witches hat and broom that with some other goodies that we have in the Halloween Box downstairs will do nicely for a cute witch. Seriously, a great hat and a stick to whack people with, doesn't get better than that for a kid like Pearl.

Then day before yesterday Birdie decided that she wanted to wear her Cleopatra outfit for the Tea Party. There is an undeniable logic to the request... Cleo had to have been a Princess as some point before being Queen, why not go as her to a Tea? Am I a dork to be so proud of my daughter? It's not like there would be any horror or shame for her to go as Aurora her favorite Disney Princess, so why am I so delighted that she opts for Cleopatra? Because, lest there be any question about it... I am delighted. Like it's an outward sign of what a cool kid she is, something that I can point to and write a post about because she so very ROCKS!

So I got her outfit hemmed and to her this afternoon right before her afterschool dealie, and I got to peek in at the rest of the group in their finery. I realize that I AM a dork, as Birdie is the ONLY girl in costume past the point of a tutu and a pair of gloves. I am a dork because I am still so freaking proud of my little girl, alone in her cosplay and completely unworried by it. Enjoying herself.

My kids... they don't stand a chance. If you know Dadguy at all, then you realize this is true times two. No chance, and I don't think I care.