Happy Birhtday Zoe

Zoe's birthday was a couple of weeks ago. She is fourteen! I can't believe she is that old already! This is the first time I don't have a picture of the cake or the kid blowing the candles out. :( I went to Arizona, my step dad, Chuck, passed away sadly. I came home the afternoon of Zoe's birthday and we had a family dinner before Brent's mom took off south for the winter. Brent and Zoe made the cake the night before and we took it to the dinner. Brent even hosted a slumber party for Zoe and a few friends the Friday before! Well, "hosted" isn't exactly the right word. He was there, in charge, while the girls were over, a first for him. We are usually at home for the birthday cake and we forgot a camera when we sang to her and didn't even do the candles. I think she still had a good day. She wanted giftcards so she could go on a shopping spree, she ended up getting a "smash book" which is a scrapbook that has all sorts of fun doodads and it gets really fat after you fill it up so you have to "smash" it together. Zoe is such a beautiful, bright girl. She amazes me with her creativity all the time. I love her!

Some pics of the present opening:

Enough Already

You don't like Obamacare, I get it. Actually, I don't, but I get not liking something. The fact is it is law and has been voted on 40 times or something like that and still passed. Tea party people don't want to compromise. They don't care if the government is shut down anyway so why bother. Too bad they don't care that people are going to hurt financially because of this. Some facebook friends think it's the workers' own fault: They never should have taken a government job in the first place! They should have lots of money set aside to cover their expenses in an emergency! As if it is always so simple to do that. Just vote on a budget and deal with your Obamacare issues later. It's unfortunate that these teapartiers won't likely be voted out because they come from very republican districts or very gerrymandered districts. (I hate that they have ruined the term tea party for me, I used to have good associations with the Boston Tea Party and three cornered hats.) Hopefully, republicans will see them for the obstructionists they are and put some good republicans (by good I mean sane and not a$$hats) in office instead soon. Hopefully there is a lot of, "I think we might have made a mistake" thinking going on. Very soon, please. 

From a reader of this Ezra Klein story:

"In May 2007, 140 Democrats in the House of Representatives voted to defund the Iraq war. In September of the same year, Congress voted to increase the debt limit. Imagine if Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats had threatened to breach the debt ceiling unless Republicans agreed to defund the war. At that time, approval of the Iraq war was polled at 33% in favor and 64% against."

This pretty much sums it up:

Homecoming

My cute baby girl went to the homecoming dance tonight. I guess she is not my baby girl anymore.

first Day of School (2013 edition)

Isabella is a sophomore now. I can't believe how old she is getting!

Zoe is starting 8th grade!

And my "little" boy, Noah, is in fifth grade. Stop growing up. Just stop.

Caloregon

We just got back a few days ago from a trip to California/Oregon. We were right on the border, our hotel was in California but we spent most of our time at beaches in Oregon. The Redwood forest is amazing but it turns out the rest of the northernmost part of California is not so much. Well to be honest, we really didn't see that much of it so my apologies to Northern Californians. We just weren't that taken with Crescent City California and its foggy coldness. Though the wild, human loving grey squirrels were quite the attraction. Especially when one cuddled up to Noah. Noah leaned down to the ground, being distracted by the other eight squirrels surrounding us and accidentally gave the guy a good petting. Which made me screech of course, rabies you know. We love Oregon though (the whole Northwest, really). We'd move there given the chance. Maybe someday. Here is a slew of pictures for you picture lovin' types out there:

Happy Independence Day!

We went to the parade again, sans Brent. He had to work. He was probably better off though. It was HOT. Fireworks in the evening too and a nice 4th dinner.

Sometimes this place isn't too bad

Hmmph

Did you ever see that episode of Oprah where this woman was told her  baby daughter had a great chance of being mentally challenged so she put signs up all over her house, labeling everything and spent hours teaching her every day and there she was on Oprah years later celebrating her daughter graduating from college or getting a scholarship or some other major, impressive feat? I think that episode was a load of crap. Do I think it was bad that she put all that time into teaching her daughter? No. It's good she did everything in her power. But I don't believe her daughter was really learning disabled if this is how it turned out. We have put in hours with one of our kids trying to help her with her learning difficulties. She isn't anywhere near mentally disabled of course, but she does struggle. She is smart in her own right but some things, like math, are hard for her (really hard for her) and all of the hours we've put in aren't making her a math genius so far. I watched that episode of Oprah and I took some ideas and tried to do my own thing with my own kid. I made her letter of the day bracelets (kind of weird yes, there was no pinterest back then) and books to try to teach her the alphabet (she was three at the time). I read to her and did lots of other things I can barely remember years later. I'm not saying you shouldn't try but my efforts at the time were met with frustration. Frustration on my part, frustration on her part. She wasn't ready for what some of the kids in her little preschool were doing at the time. Now she is not ready for the math that others in her class are doing. So what do we do? Do we keep cramming kids through a hole, letting those that don't slide in easily fall to the sides? That is what happens. Or do we make different sized and shaped holes so everyone can fit and it doesn't become a sort of survival of the fittest free for all. I have my doubts that they are ever going to listen to me on this though.

Easter 2013

Who are these gorgeous people?

Happy Easter II

I like this post too.

Happy Easter

Marie Osmond on Marriage Equality: "“The God that I believe in is a god of love, not fear. I don’t tell my children if you’re not good you’re going to Hell. I tell my children that God will be there for them when they struggle. That’s the God I believe in…

I believe in (my daughter’s) civil rights, as a mother. I think my daughter deserves everything that she desires in life. She’s a good girl. She’s a wonderful child. I don’t think God made one color flower. I think he made many.”

I'm not one to normally quote Marie Osmond but I really love this quote and wanted to remember it. Yes, It's about marriage equality and her daughter but I love the quote just for the general meaning of it. I do believe God is a God of love more than fear and He put us down here knowing we come in all sorts of varieties and that is a beautiful thing. God sent us here to learn and grow and he sent His son Jesus Christ to be our Savior, to save us from all that pain that being mortal throws at us. Just a nice little reminder this Easter weekend.

And something about bacon

I'm feeling better this week. I'm thinking (hoping) that last week was rock bottom. Rock bottom for everything. I did modify my diet. Took out gluten, cut back on dairy, sugar and processed food. I feel much better and I'm unexpectedly down ten lbs. I was retaining a few pounds of fluid the last time I weighed in before this though. My mood is much better than it's been in a long time now and I'm going to adopt a more zen, screw 'em all outlook on life. :) So I'll stick with this diet for the month (that's the plan anyway) and see where I am then.

I finally gave myself permission to read a novel too and happened to stumble across one that looked interesting at the library last Saturday. I hadn't given myself permission in a long time because of school and the giant textbooks that I have to read. The book is called Sugarhouse and is a memoir about a guy and his wife renovating a former crack house in Sugarhouse, Utah. I know! Totally up my alley. It's like I was meant to find this book. I'm almost done and I don't find the parts about the trouble with his family in the Midwest all that interesting but mostly it's entertaining. It has two awesome lines I have to share: "...between shifts (at work) and school I cruise around Sugarhouse, one of two viable neighborhoods for liberal types who want to live in Utah but pretend they're still in America." and this, discussing where to go out to eat: "There's always Training Table, which was locally famous for having, instead of table service, phones at each table- a concept popular with, well, no one, but they make up for it in bacon." Training Table has the best bacon I've ever tasted.

And...now

Three hours on a heating pad, I'm ready to get up now.

What's that?

I've been feeling crappy about things for a long time. I don't feel like myself enough anymore. I used to be humorous. I was always slightly self-deprecating but still humorous. I miss my old self. Depression sucks and I want it gone. I have chronic pain too. It started about ten years ago, shortly after Noah was born. It wasn't very bad at first but it's gotten worse and worse. It comes and goes. I can control it sometimes with exercise. That is one reason I'm so "religious" about exercising. But sometimes I get injured, for example, right now I'm working through a back injury, and I can't work out like I was and then things go south very quickly. It feels like I have screws in the back of my neck that are being tightened too tightly. It feels like all my joints have been tightened too much with those screws too and everything is all stiffened up. Like when you do tighten screws on something and things get all pulled together unnaturally. There are a bunch of other things too. I spoke with a doctor about it once and just got the line about it being normal as you age. Most people I talk to don't feel like this though. I looked up things on the internet and talked to some people and I've decided to diagnose myself with fibromyalgia. Sure, I should probably tell a doctor about my self diagnosis next time I see one but it doesn't have a cure anyway. It doesn't really have any objective findings for a doctor to measure either, from what I've learned. (Objective findings. See, I have been learning some things at school.) Now that I think about it, I've been to the doctor for a few of the symptoms but haven't talked about the symptoms collectively. I've just discussed foot pain or dizziness or whatever. So I guess I'll tell the doctor what I think next time.So now that I have self diagnosed myself what do I do? I've read about dietary changes so I think I will have to try some of those out. The diet tips have included cut out gluten, sugar, dairy, processed food and nightshade vegetables. Sounds easy..................... I'm being sarcastic of course. I don't know if I can eliminate ALL of that. I could cut out gluten for a while, give that a try. I already do at dinner for the most part. I've got that down because of Isabella's celiac, of course. I could seriously restrict the rest too. So I can try things. I still feel that if I drop twenty pounds it would help.

Maybe I do feel hopeful a little. I can't control any actions but my own. I can sit and do nothing and fail. I can get up and try and hopefully see change. The other issues...I can't control other people. I'm a good person. I'm not a good what the norm is around here but I'm still a good person. If others can't accept me, don't want to accept those who are different, then I can't control that. I shouldn't have to try to be what makes other people happy when it makes me miserable. So there is hope. There is hope and writing still makes me feel better, even if it is cryptic and fishing. Now I'm going to go take some ibuprofen and get busy.

Happy V-Day!

Noah's Valentine box he made for school. Yes, we got the idea from pinterest but he added his own flair (the hands) to make it his own. I think it turned out pretty great!