don't litter

Scroll down a bit to see the contents of one albatross's stomach. So sad!

Plastics Kill Birds

Public Service Announcement

yeah, right.





My hope is that these ads might backfire. Perhaps all the people out there who are now unquestioningly consuming HFCS might see the ad and think, "Why is this even necessary?" and then they might start to notice how HFCS is in 99% of all processed foods, even "healthy" foods like granola bars.

I'm hardly a health-food purist and yes, I know there are a number of foods right now in my pantry/refrigerator with HFCS in them, and I think that truly in moderation, it's not going to completely sabotage your health. Really, the biggest problem is that it IS in everything. Additionally, the research has shown that it is metabolized differently than sugar. This could have significant implications. Our bodies have evolved with sugar for quite some time (especially fructose such as is found in fruit) and sugar should trigger a satiety point after a certain level of consumption. This is likely not true with HFCS. I do know that for me, personally, drinking a can of soda with pure sugar (i.e. Jones or "Mexican" coke) is much more satisfying than drinking a can of HFCS soda. It's very easy to overconsume HFCS products, where it doesn't seem to be the same with sugar. (Of course, some people would happily prove the exception to this.)

Anyways, if you are interested, this is a good article that doesn't jump to unfounded conclusions .

And I thought this spoof on the second ad was pretty clever.

ever feel like a bad wife?

this is good

stretched too thin

today was not a good day. Nothing terribly horrible happened, but getting up at 5:30 a.m., although a valiant effort to try and get a solid 2 1/2 - 3 hours of work in before the day "officially" began, probably didn't start me off with the best reserves to meet the demands of my life. Additionally, trying to sew a pioneer bonnet for Noodle (for Liberty Girls) when I couldn't understand a fair amount of the sewing instructions (where do they come up with these bizarre terms?) added to my frustration and my general attitude of "Kids, find something else to do besides bother me." Additionally, (perhaps I'll get all the way to "Multiplicatively"...that is what it felt like), David had a job interview today for a job I would be super extremely delighted if he got, so I was a bundle of nerves both before and after. (He said it was a good interview, though nothing stellar, and I haven't wanted to pester him beyond that. We'll know by week's end, though.) Anyways, it was just generally a rough day.

I commented on my teenage niece's blog last night that in high school one thing that helped me out a lot was realizing that sometimes you just have a couple of down days, usually every month, and you feel blue and crappy and there isn't a lot that you can do about it. The best thing to do is to realize, "Hey, this happens every once in a while and it is perfectly normal." The worst thing to do is to stew and beat yourself up and thing life has suddenly taken a nosedive. So, even with all of my own sage advice rolling around in my head, I still am feeling pretty rotten about this lousy day. It's definitely a day where I feel like I've bitten off more than I can chew without making a total mess of myself. I hate days when I'm a crappy mom. They just seem to spiral downward. Thankfully the kids are forgiving and we had a nice evening out with Nana & Pop pop. Still, I really hope tomorrow is better.

ha ha ha!!

this is one sneaky cat!

sometimes it hits me

I really am a grown-up. I am coordinating with my friend who is a co-director of a preschool/learning center to be the photographer for their pictures next month and I had that feeling of, "Huh, I must be a grown-up," wash over me. Obviously plenty of other things in life should make me constantly aware of that, but sometimes weird things trigger the sensation. Perhaps because taking pictures of kids reminds me of being a kid and getting my picture taken, and how "adult" the photographers were. I guess that's me now.

this movie looks good

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

It comes out sometime this fall.

Utah State Fair

Last Thursday morning, Joe (my FIL) stopped by and invited us to go to the Utah State Fair with him up in SLC. We happily obliged. We were babysitting our little friend for the day, so she came along. It was a lot of fun. Highlights for me were seeing the tigers (trained and well cared for, they raise awareness and money for tigers in India), cotton candy, and the little "peep show" to see the Giant Gator. The latter felt so old-timey--it was $1 for adults and 50 cents for kids. Yeah, he just laid there, but I did get to see him blink his funky eyelid and we saw him move his arm and head. Which I dare say is a lot more than most people got to see him do. Those reptiles certainly know the meaning of "chill".

And I've decided I need a goat someday. A cute little one. Not the kind with no ears, they weird me out a little bit. And nope, we didn't eat deep fried anything. We stopped at Wendy's before for lunch, and 7-11 for slurpees afterward, so the only junk we ate while there was two of the 18" tall cotton candy.

It was a fun, exhausting day, and I'm looking forward to next year! Oh, that animal sculpture behind glass is made entirely out of butter! (Spud was pretty excited about that, though I think only because it made his mouth water!)
























Sorry the pics are a bit pixelated...since there were so many I uploaded lower res versions.

best infomercial ever

because some people seem to appreciate these..

For Mary...

Palin defends her abilities

I didn't know if you had a chance to see this. :o)

i'm rubber, you're glue...

So that phrase from childhood (or PeeWee Herman, if you didn't use it in childhood..I don't think I really did, either) popped into my head yesterday as I was reviewing some recent encounters with Spud. Suffices to say, he has been a bit of a pill lately. For a not quite four year old, the little guy has amazing reasoning capabilities, which (lest you start thinking that's a good thing) makes it only that much more frustrating when he deliberately chooses to be unreasonable. It's difficult to capture in words exactly what he does, but he manages to take every single word of your request (okay, order) and either find a way to question its meaning or just blatantly misinterpret it. And this is of course done in that awful whiny tantrum voice, usually when I am trying to work and not wanting to be interrupted or distracted by whines and tantrums.

Anyways, the past couple of days I have been particularly patient and nonplussed during these encounters, and we seem to be averaging two or three a day. It has been a great example of how they say you need to keep your cool when dealing with children so they don't feed off your emotions. I give Spud sufficient explanation and if he persists with the fuss, I give him the option of removing himself or being removed by me (with a time out to follow). Every time, he manages to get control of himself and goes off after maybe 3-4 minutes, and while they seem like very long minutes, I haven't had to do much besides speak calmly. So, while his negative words and grumpiness may not be sticking on him (which is great), I do feel like it is bouncing off me.

We'll see if my rubberness can hold up. I hope so.

******************
An example of recent encounter:

Spud: "Mom, I want to have some root beer."
Me: "No, not right now, I'm working. Plus, we'll probably have root beer with dinner so you don't need any right now."
Spud, with a whine entering his voice: "But I'm really thirsty for root beer RIGHT NOW!"
Me: "I'm sorry, you can't have any right now."
Spud, now laying on the floor, angrily: "I WANT SOME ROOT BEER!"
Me: "Not right now."

Spud then begins the tantrum, including all the lovely phrases about how he hates me and I'm the worst mother in the world. After a couple of minutes of this, he says, loudly: "I'm NEVER going to share my popsicles with you. You'll come up to me and say,'Can I have a popsicle?*' and I'll say, 'NO!' And I'll never share with you."

Me: "That's okay, I don't really want a popsicle."
Spud: A bit more fussing
Me: "Now I need to get back to work, so you can either leave or I'll take you upstairs to have a time out on your bed."
Spud fusses a bit more and I restate his options. He then heads out of the office saying, "I'm just going to leave and I'm NOT going to have time out on my bed!"

And that was the end of it.

*The funniest part was, this line was said in a completely normal, non-tantrumy voice.

can't forget my other love

Stephen Colbert. My favorite pseudo-conservative

p.s. this is my 200th post this year! yay for me, a super blogger! (I make up my own qualifications to be called such.)

ha. ha.

(that's me fake laughing...)

I came across this tidbit about G. W. Bush today. Don't let the door hit you on the way out, buddy.

i heart Jon Stewart

Seriously, regardless of your political leanings, this is hilarious.

politics, schmolitics

Okay, so I don't think my blog is the greatest way to espouse my political views, mostly because the few people I've talked to thus far this political season seem to be deeply entrenched in their views and too prone to take offense. Also, it's just hard to convey things appropriately via the typed word, when things can come across harsher than they are.

My current politics in a nutshell: Don't like McCain. Don't like Palin. Respect Obama & Biden as people but yet don't know how I feel about them politically. And since I live in UT, am not sure if it matters one way or the other, since I don't know the last time this state wasn't overwhelmingly RED. ::sigh:: I do plan on investigating our more local races, though, as I want to make informed decisions in those.

Regardless of whose camp you fall into, I think almost everyone can appreciate this:

at the fair

A few weeks ago (sometime in August, I really can't remember when it was exactly) we went to the County Fair with David's folks. It was fun, especially since Joe loves to buy "fair food" and will happily shell out twenty bucks so the kids can ride some overpriced rides.

this is just sad

I already knew he was a big jerk, but I find the details appalling.

baby on the move

So this past week I've started really noticing when the baby is moving. I think he/she is finally big enough for me to notice. Which would also correspond to the fact that two weeks ago I didn't look NEARLY as pregnant as I do now.

Anyways, as excited as I am about welcoming this little person to the world in five months, don't expect a whole lot of pregnancy related posts on here, simply because pregnancy/childbirth is not one of my main interests. (It is a main interest of several of my friends, though. I have two doula friends and a hypnobabies instructor friend. And a few others who just really enjoy discussing it all.) But for the sake of satisfying any tiny bits of curiosity any of my faithful or occasional may be harboring, I'll tell you this:

I'm planning on having this baby at home with an awesome direct-entry midwife. She attended Spud's birth (he was born in our tiny 2 bedroom apartment) and it went so well I saw no reason to consider anyone else. Noodle was born in a hospital and I didn't have a very good experience with the nurses or my CNM (certified nurse midwife), so I was hoping for a better experience at home. And it was.

I had a dream about a month ago that this baby is a boy. Before that I was kind of hoping for a girl, so maybe the baby wanted to send me a message so I could be excited about him. Or it could have just been a random dream. It was pretty vivid, though, so it wouldn't surprise me if it was a message from the womb. ;o)

I've been feeling quite well since the first trimester ended. I no longer feel like I'll pass out if it's been an hour since I last ate, which is a plus. I also don't have to crash everyday at 3 p.m. for an hour or more. I started taking some better vitamins and added an iron supplement (a liquid one) and I think those have helped, too.

Hmm, I can't think of anything else related to this topic to share. See, it's a good thing I don't plan on blogging about it too much!