*This* is the stuff that freaks the hell out of me. These viruses where there's no cure, no vaccine, and a near 100% death rate. 75% of those infected have been children under the age of 5. Freaky, freaky shit.

Oh, the wisdom of our most Brilliant Leader. It never ceases to amaze me.
Let's see... why would Bush sell fighter planes to a country that took the enriched uranium we gave it and *surprise!* made nuclear bombs? Let's give them some planes that can then drop said bombs on its enemy, India. Why?

"The current arms deal with Pakistan is fueled, in good part, by the fact that executives at Lockheed Martin have said they'll have to shut down their Fort Worth, Texas, factory unless more F-16 orders come in by October."

Oh. I see.

LOL!
I was putting some new pics of Rhiannon up on her blog, and came across this one of us waiting outside IHOP in February. It totally cracked me up!


Cool chicks in shades!

Wow, a lot has been going on this week, but I haven't had time to blog until now. Of course, I just sit down to do it, and Beaner wakes up. She actually slept in until almost 8:30 today! I "wasted" the last hour reading in blissful quiet, sipping coffee. My idea of a good time, let me tell ya.
Yes, I drink coffee. Don't tell my midwife. I admitted to drinking one cup a day, but I must confess, sometimes it's two. I can't help it - it's a vice. And it helps keep me "moving", if you catch my drift, which I have a problem with anyway, letalone while pregnant. So this kid is going to come out hopped up on caffeine - there are worse things, I figure.

Anyway, I've had a great week! I shipped off a few candles (have another to go out tomorrow - a custom one for a friend's Spirit Guide), and we spent Tuesday out by the beautiful Red Rock Canyon right in the foot of the mountains. One of the women I know started a new group for natural, non-Xian, homeschooling parents, and a group of us got together to celebrate the Equinox. It was fun! Last weekend I was at a hypnobirthing class, which was fantastic for learning relaxation and proper breathing techniques, and we got to do several guided meditations, or "self-hypnosis sessions" as she called them. It was really great, and now I'm really excited for the birth of this baby. Only 6 more months to go! LOL

We just recently told Rhiannon about the baby, and she's excited. We told her she was going to be a big sister (we've been reading a Big Sister book), and that there was a baby in Mama's tummy, so she said "Really? Let me see!" and pulled up my shirt. So we had a little more explaining to do. :) She's been talking about "her" baby, and how she will be gentle with her baby, and rock her baby, and read the baby stories. Too sweet!
Last night she was so funny. She wasn't really tired at bedtime, but we put her down anyway (because we're pain-in-the-butt parents), and went to watch the last episode of the Sopranos, season 4, courtesy of Netflix. Hopefully they release season 5 soon, because we haven't seen any of that. We gave up cable, sheesh, two years ago now. Anyway, so we were watching TV, and we hear her little voice in the hall. So I went to pick her up and put her back in bed - she wanted to sleep in our bed, so I tucked her in there. I went to give her a kiss, and she said "What you eating, Mama?". Instantly I felt guilty as hell, because I was eating Gardetto's, which are her favorite, too, so I did what any parent would do. I lied. "Nothing Bean - you need to lay down and go to sleep." "Are you eating snacks?" "Just go to sleep." "Is Daddy in the rocking chair?" (His *spot* for watching movies is the chair, mine's the couch.) "yes, Daddy's in the rocking chair." "You watching a movie?" "We're watching a grown-up show." "You come to bed Mama. Take glasses off." LOL I told Dave this exchange, and he felt guilty too, since he remembers laying in bed with his parents up watching movies, and just wanting to hang out with them. But, we like our alone time, too. Just wanted to share how her little mind works. It's a trip.

Everything seems to be fine with the baby. My tummy is really pooching out already - it's actually kind of nice to start to "look" pregnant again. I did love my round Buddha belly with Rhiannon - until it weighed a ton. I remember wishing I could just take it off and set it down somewhere for an hour or two to get a break. I'm sure I'll be at that point by the end of this pregnancy too! It's all good though. I just continue to feel so blessed to be having this experience again! I look at Rhiannon and just can't believe I'm going to have another child soon. *happy sigh*

Talk given by Dr. Robin Meyers at an Oklahoma University Peace Rally, November 14, 2004:

As some of you know, I am minister of Mayflower Congregational Church in Oklahoma City.

We've heard a lot lately about so-called "moral values" as having swung the election to President Bush. Well, I'm a great believer in moral values, but we need to have a discussion, all over this country, about exactly what constitutes a moral value - I mean what are we talking about?
Because we don't get to make them up as we go along, especially not if we are people of faith. We have an inherited tradition of what is right and wrong, and moral is as moral does.

Let me give you just a few of the reasons why I take issue with those in power who claim moral values are on their side:

-- When you start a war on false pretenses, and then act as if your deceptions are justified because you are doing God's will, and that your critics are either unpatriotic or lacking in faith, there are some of us who have given our lives to teaching and preaching the faith who believe that this is not only not moral, but immoral.

-- When you live in a country that has established international rules for waging a just war, build the United Nations on your own soil to enforce them, and then arrogantly break the very rules you set down for the rest of the world, you are doing something immoral.

-- When you claim that Jesus is the Lord of your life, and yet fail to acknowledge that your policies ignore his essential teaching, or turn them on their head (you know, Sermon on the Mount stuff -- like that we must never return violence for violence and that those who live by the sword will die by the sword), you are doing something immoral.

-- When you act as if the lives of Iraqi civilians are not as important as the lives of American soldiers, and refuse to even count them, you are doing something immoral.

-- When you find a way to avoid combat in Vietnam, and then question the patriotism of someone who volunteered to fight, and came home a hero, you are doing something immoral.

-- When you ignore the fundamental teachings of the gospel, which says that the way the strong treat the weak is the ultimate ethical test, by giving tax breaks to the wealthiest among us so the strong will get stronger and the weak will get weaker, you are doing something immoral.

-- When you wink at the torture of prisoners, and deprive so-called "enemy combatants" of the rules of the Geneva convention, which your own country helped to establish and insists that other countries follow, you are doing something immoral.

-- When you claim that the world can be divided up into the good guys and the evil doers, slice up your own nation into those who are with you, or with the terrorists - and then launch a war which enriches your own friends and seizes control of the oil to which we are addicted, instead of helping us to kick the habit, you are doing something immoral.

-- When you fail to veto a single spending bill, but ask us to pay for a war with no exit strategy and no end in sight, creating an enormous deficit that hangs like a great millstone around the necks of our children, you are doing something immoral.

-- When you cause most of the rest of the world to hate a country that was once the most loved country in the world, and act like it doesn't matter what others think of us, only what God thinks of you, you have done something immoral.

-- When you use hatred of homosexuals as a wedge issue to turn out record numbers of evangelical voters, and use the Constitution as a tool of discrimination, you are doing something immoral.

-- When you favor the death penalty, and yet claim to be a follower of Jesus, who said an eye for an eye was the old way, not the way of the kingdom, you are doing something immoral.

-- When you dismantle countless environmental laws designed to protect the earth which is God's gift to us all, so that the corporations that bought you and paid for your favors will make higher profits while our children breathe dirty air and live in a toxic world, you have done something immoral. The earth belongs to the Lord, not
Halliburton.

-- When you claim that our God is bigger than their God, and that our killing is righteous, while theirs is evil, we have begun to resemble the enemy we claim to be fighting, and that is immoral. We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us.

-- When you tell people that you intend to run and govern as a "compassionate conservative," using the word which is the essence of all religious faith - compassion, and then show no compassion for anyone who disagrees with you, and no patience with those who cry to you for help, you are doing something immoral.

-- When you talk about Jesus constantly, who was a healer of the sick, but do nothing to make sure that anyone who is sick can go to see a doctor, even if she doesn't have a penny in her pocket, you are doing something immoral.

-- When you put judges on the bench who are racist, and will set women back a hundred years, and when you surround yourself with preachers who say gays ought to be killed, you are doing something immoral.

I'm tired of people thinking that because I'm a Christian, I must be a supporter of President Bush, or that because I favor civil rights and gay rights I must not be a person of faith.

I'm tired of people saying that I can't support the troops but oppose the war - I heard that when I was your age, when the Vietnam war was raging. We knew that that war was wrong, and you know that this war is wrong - the only question is how many people are going to die before these make-believe Christians are removed from power?

This country is bankrupt. The war is morally bankrupt. The claim of this administration to be Christian is bankrupt. And the only people who can turn things around are people like you -- young people who are just beginning to wake up to what is happening to them. It's your country to take back. It's your faith to take back. It's your future to take back.

Don't be afraid to speak out. Don't back down when your friends begin to tell you that the cause is righteous and that the flag should be wrapped around the cross, while the rest of us keep our mouths shut Real Christians take chances for peace. So do real Jews, and real Muslims, and real Hindus, and real Buddhists - so do all the faith traditions of the world at their heart believe one thing: life is precious. Every human being is precious. Arrogance is the opposite of faith. Greed is the opposite of charity. And believing that one has never made a mistake is the mark of a deluded man, not a man of faith.

And war - war is the greatest failure of the human race - and thus the greatest failure of faith.

There's an old rock and roll song, whose lyrics say it all: War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. And what is the dream of the prophets? That we should study war no more, that we should beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks. Who would Jesus bomb, indeed? How many wars does it take to know that too many people have died? What if they gave a war and nobody came?

Maybe one day we will find out.

Time to march again my friends. Time to commit acts of civil disobedience. Time to sing, and to pray, and refuse to participate in the madness. My generation finally stopped a tragic war. You can too!

-------------

Thanks, Roz, for passing this along. It is wonderfully articulate, and explains exactly what I feel about everything, only much more eloquently than I could ever say!

North Carolina confronts its history of forced sterilization.

It's amazing to me that this sort of thing happened in my lifetime. Forced sterilization of women (99% were women) - they targeted those who were most vulnerable and least likely to fight back; welfare recipients, rape victims, or if you were just considered lazy or promiscuous (I'm curious as to whose standards those two were measured). It also helped if you were black, since over 60% of those sterilized were black women.

I read about this being done in Oregon as well, although the targets there were mentally retarded people. Eugenics, they called it. "Good Breeding".

I just call it shameful.

Oh, NO! I was so hoping this would have a different outcome. That poor baby. Hopefully the sicko gets the chair (or gets brutally murdered in prison, after being raped and tortured). I've always figured that if people got done to them what they do to their victims, they would think twice about doing the crime.

"In a free democracy like our own, we use words as arguments, not blows. We talk to people and do not beat them. If we can't convince our children with words, we shall never convince them with violence."

~ Sixten Pettersson,
Swedish Parliamentary Minister
See "The Swedish Corporal Punishment Ban"

Ok, so if mercury pollution emitted into the *air* is linked to a rise in autism rates, how can they say that injecting it straight into our kids' bloodstream via vaccines (preserved with thimerosal, aka mercury) does not have any effect? (or is it affect?) In any case, they're polluting our kids for profit, and then expect us, the parents, to foot the bill since they are protected by the government against paying for damages via lawsuits. It's an outrage.
I seriously believe that within the next 10 years or so, everyone will look on the past 15-20 years of vaccination history with horror. I mean, the medical community used to x-ray pregnant women to get a look at the developing baby; they used to gas pregnant women in order to manually extract the babies; they gave pregnant women that drug to curb nausea, which, oops, interrupted the appropriate mechanism to cause long bones to grow, so their babies were born with hands attached to their shoulders and feet attached to their hips. But, hey, the women didn't vomit. Why do they continue to have such arrogance, and ignorance of history, to believe and swear up and down that mercury is not causing problems in today's children??? It's not like they have a great track record.

It just pisses me off. But let's keep polluting the Earth, and polluting our bodies, because we're all immortal and it's our Divine Right to do whatever the hell we want in pursuit of the almight dollar. This comes from the fact that the stinking GOP stuck the legislation on drilling in the Arctic National Refuge into a budget bill, so the Dems were not allowed to filibuster to stop its pasage. So it passed the Senate, and we are well on our way to completely destroying the final great wilderness our country has for 6 months worth of gasoline.

I've thought the chickenpox vaccine was a money-grubbing corporate idea in the first place. There is no need for it, and now this article is pointing out that it might cost "us" (the vaccinees) more money in the long run than it saves.

ps - we don't vaccinate, just so you know my bias from the get-go!

I got a new template for my blog!! I think it's beautiful, and hopefully it will be easier to read. :)

I'm doing pretty well - I'm in my 12th week already! That's hard to believe. Does that mean I'm out of the first trimester, or do I still have one week to go? I never could figure out that numbering system. It's starting to feel more *real* now - my tummy is pooching out, so I feel more pregnant, which always helps.

I'm also selling candles!! Yay! I put some info for friends on my Glow Diva Candles blog, and I'm getting a few orders through that. I also sold a couple candles from my store display, so I'm pumped about that too! People want to pay money for these things! Wow! Now to get more pictures taken and online... always something else to do. But I'm just so jazzed that this thing is going somewhere, I can't even tell you.

Rhiannon is still testing her limits and giving me many challenges per day. I'm hanging in there and sticking to my guns, and not letting her pull me into these battles of will. I could have ran screaming down the street today, though, I tell ya! Then on the other hand, she's just the sweetest thing. "Are you happy, Mama?" she asks me. Then tonight I was rubbing her back and she slid over so she could rub my back too. She also gave me the longest hug today, and said "I love you, Mama" before I said anything to her. And this is all in the same day. LOL Did anyone say parenting is a roller coaster??? I wouldn't trade her for the world. I also love my life, and love being home with her through all the ups and downs, even though I'm exhausted and wrung out by the end of the day. It's a good thing though. I love being a Mom!

Ok, enough mush from this hormonal crazy woman. Just wanted to pop in and say hello, and that everything is going really well. We got some bad news on Friday though; Dave (my husband)'s sister was about 2 weeks behind me in her pregnancy, and she went in a week ago for an ultrasound since she was concerned about some spotting she'd had. It turns out the baby was about 3 weeks behind in its development, with a very slow heartbeat. She went back on Friday for a followup, and there was no heartbeat. :( She has some health issues (a blood disorder to do with clotting), which probably contributed to the loss. She is doing all right - she's sad of course, but is hopeful that they will be able to manage the pregnancy more effectively next time she gets pregnant. I feel bad for her. It's never easy. It just makes me even more grateful for the blessings I've been given.

This is disgusting. They're feeding us propoganda packaged as "news" via the *liberal media* (ha ha) that they so despise. This reminds me of state-run TV - perhaps we're importing Iraqi techniques rather than exporting democracy??

And, the last line sums it up:
"... the government has found the best way to spin the news is to produce the stories itself."

It's our day today, ladies!
Here's to celebrating our femininity, our strength, our status as Givers of Life! Women rule!

----------
Barb pointed this out - it's from kvmr.org:

On this International Women's Day, women still receive less than 5% of the world's income, and own only 1% of its property, while supplying 66% of the world's labor. A woman's right to be educated, to choose the work she does, to control her fertility, access to health care, legal relationships, property and income, and to participate in the political process, are still widely restricted.

Yet--in the face of all the institutional, cultural, and political barriers they face, women still speak out, sing out, and hold up half the sky.

Yay! Finally, breastfeeding is hitting mainstream America!

I nursed Rhiannon exclusively for the first 6 months, and I can't even tell you how many people thought I was ridiculous for not giving her cereal by the 4th month, especially since she was "such a big baby". Well, if she's such a big baby, she's obviously not starving! LOL

I'm so giddy to see these articles in mainstream media!

I had my first official midwife appt yesterday, and everything is looking good! We heard a beautiful, strong, heartbeat (about 160 bpm), so it seems Pooky is doing just fine in there. I took Rhiannon, and my midwife (Jill) kept going on and on about her; how well she listens, what a doll, etc. etc. So that made me feel good, too. Jill has a large green parrot, a small dog, a cockatiel, and STAIRS (which are Rhia's #1 love) so the "listening well" ended as soon as I said it was time to go. LOL
I'm feeling good - the nausea is wearing off, although I am still tired. I only get dizzy and feel poorly if I haven't eaten lately, so I just need to keep up on that and I feel pretty good. And I'm not so tired - I can make it to nap time more easily now! lol

We are transitioning Rhiannon into her "big girl" bed now. I've been having trouble sleeping anyway, and Rhiannon started intentionally waking me up whenever she would wake for a minute in the night, so that was the end of that. As soon as co-sleeping doesn't work for everyone, it's time to stop! It's going pretty well so far, considering, although she asks every night if she can sleep in the "big bed". Her toddler bed is next to our bed, so she's not out of our room. She's actually taking to it really well, so I'm happy. Last night we both slept really well, so I'm hopeful that things will continue to improve. It will be interesting to see how she takes having the new baby sleep with us, but we'll cross that bridge when the time comes. I am buying this swinging hammock bed for the baby, so maybe if (s)he starts out the night in there, it won't be such an issue. We'll just have to see, there's really no way to tell. :)

Rhiannon's behavior has continued to improve, and we're getting better at the skills and methods from How to Talk..., I just love that book. We have definitely turned a corner around here! She's much more willing to listen to me now, and is also more willing to go off and play by herself, especially in the mornings. She's happier, I'm happier, Dave's happier. Life is good!