Chain mail

I was just reading T's reaction to dust's blog and I have to agree, chain email is really annoying. I get at least 4 a month from my step-mom. And I hate the warnings, that I have to forward this or else!! They are usually of a christian nature, but why would I want to forward it to my friends and annoy them?? I did recently forward this email from golden about sharing recipes, but I don't think it's the same thing.
I think it's been about 5 years since I started deleting those annoying emails, but how do I tell her to stop?

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Psycho Driver

I am so mad, I have to tell someone. I was driving to work at 6 am just now. The streets are deserted and dry so no reason not to go the speed limit of 30 mph. There was some guy (I know he was a guy because he got out of his car) in front of me going really slow so I got kind of close. He did one of those fast stops to see if I would hit him. The first time, I thought it was an accident, he was looking for a street and slowing and stopping. But after 2 more times, I realized I had a real jerk in front of me. He would go 100 ft and then stop fast then immediately repeat, like getting me to hit him would make his day. He wouldn't even pull over so I could pass at this point.

What makes me think he is a psycho is because I was staying back now, I had learned my lesson. We come to a green stoplight and he stops. I wait for about 5 seconds and try to pass on the right, he swerves over and almost hits me and then speeds through the light as it turns yellow. I was burning hot mad at this point. He gets out of his car and yells as I am stuck at the light and I am guessing, to look at my license plate. What could he possibly do to me with my license #? I didn't break any laws, if anything he did. What he did was vindictive and ethically wrong if you ask me. I am a little worried that I followed a psychotic guy too closely and now he has something that could lead him to me.

Playdates

Woogy is starting to have playdates with his friends from preschool. This is necessary because we don't have kids his age that live next door like we did in KC. For a while, a boy from our daycare was coming over twice a week, but he started kindergarten last fall. He was a bad influence anyway.

So yesterday, Woogy's friend N came over. All they did was play playstation though. I felt kind of bad. I kept trying to get them to do something else. When his mom showed up, I was kind of embarrassed. I don't want them to think I am a mom who lets her kids play playstation all of the time. I don't. Woogy only plays at bedtime with BB.

I just hope this doesn't start to "get around" so noone wants to come over to Woogy's to play anymore. Am I being paranoid??

Be Cautious about Movies!!

I heard from someone at work that I would probably like the Golden Compass, considering the movies and books I like. From the previews, it looks like The Chronicles of Narnia or something similar. So BB went to see it last weekend with Woogy. When he came home, I was shocked by what he told me. We need to be more cautious about movies apparently.

A couple of days ago, I received an email from my dad about the movie and how christians should boycott it, or at least be aware of the dangers. They are marketing it as a sci-fi kids movie like Narnia so it appeals to alot of people, but it is as far from christian as you can get. BB agreed. Below is a little info from the email and a link to learn more about the author, Pullman, a known atheist.

"The movie The Golden Compass starring Nicole Kidman is coming to theaters December 7th. It is based on the trilogy of books by atheist, Phillip Pullman, of England and is geared towards kids. He wants kids to denounce God and Heaven but he does it in a very subtle way that parents may not pick up on what his true intentions are. He believes that after the children and parents see the movie, they will purchase his books and therefore will spread his hatred of religion and God.
In a 2003 interview, Pullman said, "My books are about killing God." Please don't go see this movie! We need to get the word out about this movie and make sure that no one supports it! The link below to Snopes gives more information about the movie." http://snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp

Bob's Red Mill

We visited Bob's Red Mill here in Portland on Saturday. I kept hearing about it from people because they have a large line of gluten-free flours and products so I decided to try it. It is a very charming store, like you would expect to see in a small town. It is a big red barn with a water wheel and every one was very friendly. There is a picture of the owner on the wall of their cafe that adds to the charm .

Not only did I pick up lots of gluten-free flours for my holiday baking, but we had lunch there. I kind of forced BB because I wanted to taste their gluten-free soups and sandwiches. It was quite delicious. I had to buy their wonderful gluten-free bread mix after that. BB thinks it tastes like crap, but he hasn't tasted the other options out there either!!

We will definitely be back, for the food, atmosphere, and the charm.

Thanksgiving holiday

As I posted a few weeks ago, I cooked thanksgiving at my house. I dried out the turkey a little, but afterwards I found out I should have soaked the turkey in a salt solution for 6 hours??? It makes sense, scientifically, but I never would have guessed. I would say that, besides the turkey, everything turned out ok. I couldn't eat everything because of the wheat and dairy problem, but my guests did. My sister-in-law and my friend from work really hit it off. BB broke open some wine and everyone had a good time. They both drove my friend home so she wouldn't have to stand out in the night waiting for the bus.

After thanksgiving, we drove down to the coast and went hiking on friday. It was a beautiful, clear 60 degrees up at Cascade Head that day. They we went to the in-laws house in Newport that night. On Saturday, we drove down to Cape Perpetua. It was cloudy and a little colder, but Devils Churn was spectacular. BB may post pictures for you to see. It is an inlet off the cape where the tide comes in fiercely and "churns" itself in this big bowl area. Then we did a small hike on top of the cape that gives an amazing view of 70 miles of coastline. Of course we stopped at the outlet mall in Lincoln city for some christmas shopping.

Then before we left, we tried out the Hatfield Marine Science Center (next to the Oregon Coast Aquarium). It is donation only and quite a bit smaller than the Aquarium, but it had tidepools with skates that swam with their noses in the air which made them look like they were showing off for us. Nibbles stayed there to touch them about 45 minutes. They had a nice octupus in a tank that would spray the spectators with water that the kids really liked. They also had fossils, whale and walrus skeletons and lots of tanks with algae, fish, anemones, star fish, etc.... It was a nice place, educational too.

I got sick (probably from gluten) from having eaten out so much over the weekend, so I am not looking forward to going out of town anytime soon. It is much safer for me to eat at home.

Missing Kansas

Now that the holidays are coming, I am missing my family. We are missing our friends too ( YOU). Our new friends have yet to be as promising, although I am making close friends at my work through my bible study. My sister almost made plans to come up in December, but she decided to wait until the weather is better. I am making Thanksgiving dinner myself. My sister-in-law may come and I invited one of the researchers from the lab that is in my bible study who has no where else to go. She is from Iran (and she is a christian). BB isn't too happy that I invited someone he doesn't know, but I hope he likes her. Being alone for the holidays is a drag.

The kids are in a new sitter now. We have yet to determine how she is going to work out. It is about 15-20 more driving a day for me. BB has even more driving. Woogy is into transformers bigtime, thanks to BB. BB was a huge fan as a boy and now he is teaching Woogy all about them. Nibbles is obsessed with horses (Moos) and baby dolls and doing anything that mommy does like cleaning and making dinner, putting on make-up and talking on the phone. She still loves mama over dada. When will she grow out of that??? I can't even go to service at church, I spend it in her 2 year old class and I end up working every sunday since I am an official volunteer now. I always intend to download the sermons but I am too busy. Such is life.

Hearing from God

I have been praying for a lot of concerns in my life, that God would give me direction and clarity ( ie. our babysitter, our church) . I have not felt the Lord directly speaking to me very often in my life. One of the men in my bible study here at work is a spirit-filled christian, formerly a pastor of his own church, and he claims that God speaks to him all the time. I told him that this is a very rare occurrence for me, but my brother-in-the Lord feels that this is not the way it should be.

He believes that all christians can hear from God, we just need to pray that we hear Him, that we are sensitive to His Voice. So he and I have been praying for me for a few weeks now. I can't say that I feel terribly different yet. I have been praying about our church and BB and I have actually visited a few other churches besides Imago.

Yesterday we visited a spirit-filled church that was totally wrong for us. Woogy refused to stay without me and hid behind my back the entire time! He is very shy and is very resistant to change. He is still having potty training issues even now and everyone we talk to agrees it is because he is missing his old house, old church, old preschool and especially his cousins from KC. He mentions how much he misses them 2-4x a week! And with having to switch babysitters in a week, Woogy is going to be having a really hard time soon.

So we are at this church that is totally wrong f0r us and then we go to a later service at Imago. I work in the 2 year old class with Nibbles there, happy as a lark. Woogy happily goes to his class and BB goes to service to hear another enjoyable sermon from Pastor Rick. We talk to our friends after the service and then it hits me, this is where we belong. It's hard to describe. No, Imago is not a spirit-filled church and that is the #1 reason why I was looking for others, but I believe that God made it very clear to me that this is where we belong. I am almost sure it was God, but I am still skeptical. Does this show a lack of faith or just inexperience?????

The First Thanksgiving

As the centuries old holiday approaches, I often wonder what it was like. How did the first pilgrims celebrate that first thanksgiving. Did they eat turkey, cranberries and pumpkin pie? They obviously didn't watch football on TV or travel great distances to see family as we do. My in-laws are flying the 1800 miles east to see BB's sister and family. My office mate is flying to Pennsylvania.

As you can tell from the picture, I did a little research on the subject of thanksgiving and found out that they most likely did not eat cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes. Historians know for sure that they ate venison and some type of wild fowl. Here is a possible list of food they might have feasted on from www.history.com/minisites/thanksgiving.

Foods That May Have Been on the Menu
Seafood: Cod, Eel, Clams, Lobster

Wild Fowl: Wild Turkey, Goose, Duck, Crane, Swan, Partridge, Eagles

Meat: Venison, Seal

Grain: Wheat Flour, Indian Corn

Vegetables: Pumpkin, Peas, Beans, Onions, Lettuce, Radishes, Carrots

Fruit: Plums, Grapes

Nuts: Walnuts, Chestnuts, Acorns

Herbs and Seasonings: Olive Oil, Liverwort, Leeks, Dried Currants, Parsnips

Endless illness

Sometimes I wonder why God gives some people so many physical challenges and ailments. I am very blessed that I have a very healthy husband and son, who both rarely get sick. Unfortunately, little Nibbles and I have been sick most of this month.

Nibbles is having serious asthma problems. She has had two bad colds this month. With the first one, I got a call from my sitter saying Nibbles couldn't breathe. So I rush home and take her in to the pediatrician and she gets diagnosed with asthma. We have an inhaler for her now. But I had to use the thing on her constantly for a week and sometimes it didn't even help. So I took her back and they put her on steroids (prednisone). One week later, she gets another cold and the asthma starts over again. The worst thing is how she coughs when she is wheezing, all night long. None of us get any sleep. I give her the inhaler 2x a night when she is like this and it just barely helps. It has cleared up now, but just yesterday, she was having another runny nose, not even a week since she got over the last cold!!!

All BB has to say is that she must have inherited my immune system. It's true. I am not the healthiest person, even though I eat healthier than anyone I know and run everyday. I have had a sinus infection now for a month. I have learned that antibiotics do more harm than good, for me, and I resist going on them. So I am suffering, waiting for this one to go away on it's own. But I don't know how much more I can take. I have asked my church and bible study to pray for us, but a few more prayers would be appreciated.

Where is a babysitter when you need one?

We got a bomb dropped on us Wednesday night. Our sitter told us she is moving to California in two weeks. Now, she wasn't the best sitter we have ever had so I am not sure I will miss her, but BB and I will both miss her rates and her location. She was one block away and she was very affordable. And she is a christian who often asked us to keep her in our prayers. I often thought the Lord brought us into her house to help her out financially because a lot of her parents don't pay on time and she has had alot of financial problems. That's actually why she is moving, to get into a better position financially. They have family down there.

So, BB and I have been, quite frantically, looking for another sitter that we can afford. And we are not finding any that match our current sitter's rates. And we are finding most of those available are not close to us, so we would both have a much longer commute. We found someone almost as close to us as our current sitter, who BB went to meet yesterday. And except for her rates, she is perfect. We also went to visit another one yesterday who is about 20 minutes away from us, but she is not perfect for us. I am praying that God will open doors and give us clear direction in this matter.

And just last week in bible study, we were studying John and talking about God pruning us so we bear more fruit (John 15:2). One question asked when was the last time I felt pruned by God, and I had to admit it had been quite a while, maybe since we moved to Portland. So we all prayed as a group that God would allow us to bear much fruit in our lives and I am thinking, "How is God going to prune me to increase my faith?" He didn't wait very long, did He?

Photos of the kids

The kids have been going to lots of pumpkin patches and festivals this fall (4 so far). And there are horses or ponys at every one. Nibbles is fascinated with them, calls the horses " Moos". Here are a few pictures of the places we have gone.

Nibbles and the Terrible Twos

Nibbles has entered that age known as the terrible twos. And she is so much worse than her brother ever was at that age. BB and I differ a little in how we handle the 30 minute temper tantrums she is having.

She will get upset at something little, like not getting a toy she wants, and then she will go ballistic. Nothing will calm her. She'll take her clothes off, won't let you pick her up. If you try to touch her, she will scream and hit you and run off (this is a problem when she does it in public). I choose to ignore it if I can, if her behavior isn't causing problems, but often she does things like try to escape the doctor's office and I have to push her away from the door while she screams and hits me. I get looks from all the moms like I am handling it all wrong. The doctor's nurse put us in a special room to wait until the exam room was ready!!!

If it happens at home, it's often because she isn't getting to watch TV she wants so she will turn off the TV. I turn it on and she hits me, hard. So I spank her, and she screams and runs off only to return in a minute to repeat the entire scene. It's not like I can put her in time-out very easily in this situation. She won't stay. If I force her to stay in one area, she will hit me and try to squeeze by. The temper tantrums generally last until she is exhausted and collapses in my arms.

The worst timing of her tantrums was this weekend when we had family pictures taken. We almost cancelled, even though we had all dressed up and we were sitting in front of the camera. In one of the pictures, she is really puffy eyed and upset, but she calmed down a little, enough to take some pictures. But we didn't get the best ones because Nibbles wouldn't cooperate so we took whatever we could get.

Motherhood!

TOPOFF 4: Disaster Drill in Portland

We have been waiting for this day at my work for months. I have been to countless meetings about TOPOFF 4, so you would think today would be anticlimatic. It won't be though. For those of you who are not familiar with TOPOFF, it is an international disaster drill that will occur simultaneously at 3 locations today, Portland, Guam and Phoenix. Last year, it was in Seattle and according to our info it was a complete disaster of a drill, not in a good way though.

I am department safety officer for my lab so I have a big job. I had to determine, based on the location of everyone's office/lab if they would be a fatality or an injury. The dirty bomb will be set off 1/4 of a mile from our building ( simulation: the actual bomb will be set off at Portland International Raceway within a facsimilie of ground zero) Most of the people in offices facing ground zero, I killed off. And they get to stay in the building and play dead all day. But people in areas farther from shooting glass had to be injured. Only one person in my lab was willing to be severely injured. We will carry her out and transport her, somehow, to Emmanuel hospital, our sister facility, about 1 1/2 miles away. They have triage and decon tents set up for the exercise. We don't know how we will transport the injured as yet. Not enough ambulances for everyone during an emergency so the same is true during the drill.

The drill will have timed envelopes that will be released to us at 30 min to hour intervals explaining our situation to us. This should mimic what would happen in a true emergency. We don't know if our bomb will have radiation or biological agents, if our building will be structurally safe enough to re-enter at any time during the day. (We are playing out the scenario for 8 hours). Oh, yeah, it's supposed to rain all day of course. Am I looking forward to this, NO! Is it necessary and preparing us for an emergency, probably. Vice president Cheney and Dept. Homeland Security, FBI, and other acronyms will be around followed by media. I may be on TV, watch the news tonight!!!

Rough Week #2: Crying Nibbles

If you recall my last post, I spent last weekend getting Nibbles to stop nursing at night. It was hard, and I thought a couple nights of crying would do it. I was so very wrong. The problem is that she is spending half an hour to an hour screaming every night now. I don't know how long she is going to keep this up. Last night was as bad as the first night I said no. I am exhausted and I am sure BB is too. He came in last night after she'd been screaming for half an hour to see if he could help. I believe he asked Nibbles if she wanted to come to daddy since I was the cause of her crying. I think Nibbles is torn between being upset with me and wanting her mommy for comfort. She is used to mommy comforting her, not making her cry endlessly. So I am in for another rough week. Please keep Nibbles in your prayers, so she can get over this.

Rough Week

I have been feeling very melancholy this week. Not only did my parents leave last Friday, but the rainy season started the same day. My parents were here a whole week. I haven't spent that much time with my dad in a long, long time, about 12 years. I keep feeling sad because I never got to know my dad growing up so any time I get to spend with him is always precious to me. I am so much like my dad, we understand each other. We are both analytical, deductive reasoning people who like to go to bed early and get up early. Most of my personality comes from my dad, according to my mom (she told me this all the time growing up, but not in a good way since she grew to hate my dad).

So I have that on top of the rainy season just starting. I am new to this rain thing. We came in late November last year so I still got to enjoy a nice fall in KC. We got the kids rain boots and they need them all the time. There isn't a puddle safe from my kids, let me tell you. And unfortunately, I've decided that this is the weekend I am going to stop nursing Nibbles at night (we went to nighttime only feedings about 2-3 months ago). So I am in for a rough weekend too. I warned BB, if he wants to escape to his moms. Pray for me this weekend too. It's going to be a tough time, for me and Nibbles.

Brain Eating Amoeba??

This is hot off the internet. I couldn't believe it. It sounds like science fiction but it's true:
"A killer amoeba living in lakes enters the body through the nose and attacks the brain where it feeds until you die. According to the CDC, the amoeba called Naegleria fowleri (nuh-GLEER-ee-uh FOWL'-erh-eye) killed 23 people in the United States, from 1995 to 2004. "

I may never swim in a lake or river again!! BB will love that idea. It killed 6 people this year, mostly boys.

"The amoeba destroys tissue as it makes its way up into the brain, where it continues the damage, basically feeding on the brain cells. People who are infected tend to complain of a stiff neck, headaches and fevers. In the later stages, they'll show signs of brain damage such as hallucinations and behavioral changes."

I love science but this is scaring stuff. My boy loves to swim in rivers and lakes. He swam in about 5 of them this summer. What do we do??

Cool Photos

My dad sent these to me in an email. Some are pretty neat. Thought I would share them.

Starting Fresh

Yesterday, I blogged about how much my hubby loves the Simpsons. When I first met BB in college, he would actually try to emulate Homer a little. He ate in the dining center with me on weekends since I still lived in the dorms. And he loved doughnuts back then. He would see them and pretend he was Homer and drool saying "doughnuts". BB would often say "Duh" when something went wrong, and he has actually pretended to be "Angry Homer" with the kids to play around. (remember when Bart wrote a comic book character about Angry Homer who resembled the Hulk?)

So yesterday I wrote this blog and from BB's comments, I thought I terribly offended him. I was really upset, that my stupid blog had upset him so I erased all of my blogs determined to never blog again. When I got home, BB was not mad at all until I told him I erased my blogs. He was really looking forward to Dust's comments on comparisons between him and Homer. So I am still here, but wary of what I write from now on.