The Creature/Yoda/my little sweeties First Day of Kindergarten

He started kindergarten today and so far, so good!
His teachers seem awesome, seasoned veterans both.
He is finally at the same school with his brother, Yay!

Summer's End

Usually we go earlier, but this year we spent the very last week of summer (school started today) at Lake Winnipesaukee. It was a gorgeous and very relaxing week after a very ugly and stressful month of August. All 3 boys were super sick for 4 weeks and I wasn't feeling well either. My brother and I celebrated our birthdays together with some friends and that was a bright spot, but the rest of the month was Rough.

Today was my oldest boy's first day of 3rd grade and the Creature (now responds only to Yoda) has his first day of kindergarten tomorrow. I can't believe it! I am so happy with the school, the kids are very sweet to each other for the most part---old friends hugged my 8 yr old and a new friend put his arm around Yoda as we waited to pick up his brother. So... I kind of miss summer, had it been more like July was, bu I am happy to get back into the rhythm too.

There is a great post here, http://ebeth.typepad.com/reallearning/ on how the life of a mom is really not simple at all. I don't have 9 kids like she does, but I try to follow the plan God has for my life. The hardest thing for me is managing my time well and staying organized. I am building myself an office on my stair-landing, its going to be weird but I think I'll like it.

I've been listening to XM radio's 30 days of Coldplay while I do my domestic stuff around the house. I remember listening to them since the beginning of my mama life, when my first was born, it was "Yellow" and then when I lost Alistair, it was "The Scientist" and a many other good songs along the way. I'm not a huge fan but I do find them hard not to like, all the songs are calming to me--even the sad ones.
This is the part that reminds me of Alistair in "the Scientist,"


I was just guessing at numbers and figures
Pulling the puzzles apart
Questions of science, science and progress
Do not speak as loud as my heart
And tell me you love me, come back and haunt me
Oh and I rush to the start
Running in circles, chasing tails
Coming back as we are

Nobody said it was easy
Oh it's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be so hard
I'm going back to the start

I'm grateful for a great weekend at the reunion for my dad's company in Vietnam, The Delta Raiders. There were some soldiers there that he had served with and some that had come before him, some after. I got to meet 2 widows of Medal of Honor winners, here is the story of one of them, http://www.mishalov.com/Sims.html

I remember going with my dad to his very first reunion, back in 1983. I was 10 and it was just the two of us, we camped in a tent. When we got to Brown County state park in Indiana my dad disappeared to talk to his fellow soldiers and I saw him only briefly after that. I would try to sit and listen and some of the stories were very intense. My dad was lost in conversation the whole time, and its still like that now, 25 years later.

I grew up military and I rebelled, I was a teen hippie. A total pacifist animal rights type of chick. My dad was patient with me, but that must have been very annoying for him. When he gave a speech last night at the banquet, he explained the war and all of the men's place in it so well. I don't have the kind of eloquence my father does, but every single soldier there was important.

On Friday night there was a chorus of young soldiers from the base we were staying at. (Ft. Eustis). They were very talented and the sang a version of "American Soldier" by Toby Keith that was extremely emotional. One of the men came over to me and said, "You know, this is your dad's song." I was just thinking the same thing, it was also my family's life, my entire childhood. I didn't have a lot of respect for the military when I was growing up, but I do now and I am so proud of my Dad and all of the soldiers who fought and had to come home to such an unwelcoming country.

Its a real bummer not having a camera anymore! I feel like I am talking too much on here, :) So, an update on my ridiculous kidney stones. I saw the urologist today, my second one--the first was nice but extremely paternalistic and treated every patient the same in terms of treatment. The good news is all the stones are small enough to come out on their own and with a little narcotic help--that should work out fine. More later...

A Horrible Amount of Kidney Stones

I was thinking about re-naming the blog "A Horrible Amount of Kidney Stones," but I thought that might be weird & I am trying to keep this blog positive. This phrase is what a doctor in the ER said to me late last Friday night. After going in with a ton of pain (it was not the Worst pain though) and worrying it could be ectopic or possibly appendecitis, it was discovered through a cat scan that I have a whole lotta kidney stones. Luckily they appear small. I have to hydrate myself to another level, avoid extra salt ( I love salt!) chill on the xtra vitamin C & avoid dairy & meat in big portions. It definitely could be worse. I am actually enjoying the extra energy I am feeling from being super hydrated. Next week I go to a real urologist and get the lowdown on my plan of attack--probably just wait for pain & take drugs---but I'm looking into the homeopathic route too.

Its funny the difference one day can make.

My new neighbors actually seem really cool. I talked to both the mom & the dad, in the parking lot and on the playground. They are super nice, young and their kids are very friendly and sweet.

After a day where every mom I met seemed mean, today all the moms were really nice around here. The Creature happily made a friend at his Nature Camp so I stayed behind to meet his mom at pick up. I wanted to exchange numbers so they can play this summer. She turned out to be such a nice woman. She's Mexican, married to a New Zealander and they have lived in NZ, Mexico, CA & here together. She was a med student who dropped out and stayed home when her kids were born. She had 2 super high risk pregnancies and so we have a lot to talk about. :)

Then on the playground I met a brand new mama, also from Mexico, with a precious 2 month old girl. She asked me in Spanish if she could come over and hang out in the mornings. That will be nice too, I always wanted a coffee friend in the neighborhood.

I was scared yesterday about being a stay at home mama with the whole summer in front of me. Today I feel better about it & I plan on doing it one minute at a time.

I saw this on a mom's post on a message board & I couldn't resist.

I have to add that I'm very cautious about what I put here and I don't want to offend anyone. I don't judge parents who chose this surgery for their sons without having all the facts. Its only recently that this operation became standard, in the last century, and all of the information put out was strictly pro-circ, by doctors, the media etc.

If you look at the history of circ in the US this is a surgery that took hold in our culture as a "cure" for various diseases and disorders. Yet, a century later, every single "benefit" of circumcison has been disproven. The latest is HIV, 3 studies from Africa show that performing circs on adults can lower their chance of HIV transmission by 50%. If you take the time to read each study its obvious how flawed each one was and they are a little unethical too. The cut guys were home healing while the intact men were out on the town. Would an American man ever trust his circed status as his only protection against HIV? Why are Africans treated like idiots?


Circumcision is still a "cure" looking for a disease. The complications from this surgery, especially on a tiny newborn, far outweigh the complications of keeping the body the way it was designed. The adhesion rate alone is 70%!


More and more people are leaving their kids intact now, the rate in the US today is 50%--so locker room issues are not a good reason anymore. Because of problems our generation had with tighter circs, they are now cut extremely loose--to retain some of the frenulum (b/c the foreskin is a body part with parts & purposes like any other) so looking like Dad is not even possible. Who sits around comparing genitals anyway? :)

I think its important to be able to talk openly about things that are just nuts in the medical world. There are many examples of things that have been done throughout modern medicine's history that have been totally bananas--bloodletting, giving women big doses of hormones they aren't supposed to have in abundance anymore & then not expecting cancer. How about doctors in the 1940's putting women into twilight sleep to give birth? Routine, non-religious circ was first pushed in the era of bloodletting.

Nowadays an OB that does one circ a day can make more than $34,000 extra every year. The pressure to do it in the hospital can be pretty intense--I've dealt with it 4 times. The funny thing is that once I said no--the doctors and nurses thanked me for choosing not to. When else are you solicited for surgery on someone who can't consent? I can almost guarantee this surgery (for newborns) will be gone in 10 years. The other countries that once did it routinely dropped it once universal health care became standard---Australia, Canada, England. The human body is perfect and amazing in its design and it is totally unnatural to bring home a hurting wounded baby just because he's a boy in America.

Random thoughts

I don't have the energy or wherewithall for a normal post, plus my camera is sadly kaput--so a few things I'm thinking about today:

Why are people so scared of bugs that they will spray poison around their kids? Why would they spray the whole back of their house, isn't that the bugs world? So bizarre. My new neighbors are here and I'm not that excited so far...

Lil Wayne is oddly fascinating. His music is super cheesy but he has a certain appeal.

What is up with suburban moms being so unfriendly today? I had to ask 2 different moms if I could borrow sunscreen at my sweet Creature's nature camp and you would think I was asking for a pint of their children's blood. They seemed so shocked that I would ask. Then I went to Trader Joe's and was almost crashed into by about 6 different moms, I smiled--they scowled.

I had a huge uphill battle with my almost 5 year old today, my sanity was frayed and I was about to run out the door to freedom--but I got a grip and so did he. We worked together and he worked hard on helping himself become happy and he had a great day at Nature Camp.

This is a vision of Sunday brunch at Cindi's---mimosas for adults and mock-mini-mimosas for kids. Afterwards we went to the small Ren fest and it was a beautiful drive and a great hot day for it. The boys met the Queen and then came back, knighted, and met her again. It was lots of fun, with bawdy songs and many nice people.

This article makes some very good points about the 2 candidates and life issues.
http://ncregister.com/site/article/14981/

Improvement

Things are much better, I had my doctor check to see if I was healing well and I am. Sunday, the swelling went down a lot and now its almost gone. I did my usual Memorial Day thing of opening up a watermelon, crushing up the fruit and pouring in a bottle of Prosecco, a little citron rum, pink lemonade and an orange cut up. I bring this to a party and voila, its yummy and fun!

Surgery!

I got cut open yesterday afternoon, all along the inside of my cheek. I have had a lump in my cheek for a long time, but was only aware of it some of the time. It was spotted on a cat scan and then again in all of its glory on an MRI. My ENt Dr. got me thoroughly freaked out that it could be salivary gland cancer. Luckily, it turned out to be a benign hemangioma.

The nurses were all cool and the anestheseologist was a jokester, like most of them are whenever I am in the hospital. I have no memory of being put to sleep, I was having great dreams of cuddling with my youngest boy, and then I woke up abruptly and asked them when they were getting started. They had already finished! Getting cut into is never fun, but I am feeling very good that it was no big deal and I am concentrating on healing, taking my vicodin and trying to stay away from beer with vicodin. I hope everyone has a fabulous Memorial Day and be thankful that you don't have one big chipmunk cheek like me. :)

The last week has been a wild one. The gnarly picture you see below are the praying mantis eggs I hatched last Wednesday. These eggs sat quietly in my kitchen for 2 weeks, and then I came downstairs feeling the odd sensation of movement in the room, but not knowing where. I saw the wall absolutely covered with teeny mantis babies! At least 50 were on the wall, another 50 + on the floor and more babies were rapidly pouring out of the sides of the egg. Who knew my unruly Creature would be such a great mantis midwife? He safely carried every single mantis he saw on the floor outside while I worked the wall. Not even one leg was broken in the process and now all of them are happily growing and munching in the yard. I know they are insects but I am oddly attached to them, I'm hyped about my green gardening!

I cut my hair before the oldest childs First Communion and this is the only photo I have right now. The boys are all healthy and mostly happy(er) and its been a great May so far.

6

My second son, Alistair, would have been 6 today. I can't believe how much time has passed, it sounds so cliche--but sometimes it seems like yesterday and sometimes it seems like another person's life. The older boys stayed home from school and we took everyone to the cemetery and released balloons. This year we didn't plant flowers because they just get mowed down ayway. We had 6 balloons, but each small kid held onto their balloon until the last minute and one balloon got away from us in the car. So, it hasn't been a very perfect day, but that's OK. I'm grateful that 6 years ago I became the mother to this precious little soul. I can only hope to see him again one day.

Politics

This is a touchy subject these days of course, and there are big issues like the War and life issues that are so divisive---but I've been reading about Obama & McCain and there are lots of good things about both of them. I don't talk about who I vote for, b/c I find the whole thing so frustrating, I believe in voting Catholic but I am a Democrat for the most part.

Anyway, for the people who think McCain is too old--that man is fierce beyond belief! I think he might be invincible. He has been in 3 plane crashes, 1 power line collison, and then he was in a huge plane fire and explosion & badly injured. That was all before he was a POW for 5 years, according to wikipedia, "He was flying his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam, when his A-4E Skyhawk was shot down by a missile over Hanoi.[36][37][38][39] McCain fractured both arms and a leg,[40] and then nearly drowned when he parachuted into Truc Bach Lake in Hanoi.[36] After he regained consciousness, a mob attacked him,[41] crushed his shoulder with a rifle butt, and bayoneted him; he was then transported to Hanoi's main Hoa Loa Prison, nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton"." And he was tortured and held for 5 years!

What a tough guy! Whether or not you agree with his politics, this man is strong, and if he does have a temper, who could blame him? If you really look at the types of things (outside of military issues) that he and Obama vote for, they have a lot in common. McCain also came out and said he had lost faith in Rumsfeld a year ago. Here is one last thing I admire about McCain,"McCain made attacking the corrupting influence of large-scale contributions — from corporations, labor unions, other organizations, and wealthy individuals — on American politics his signature issue." That doesn't sound very Republican to me.

I hope whoever we end up with that universal health care becomes a reality in a way that's favorable to everyone, with the best possible health care easy to access for all Americans and immigrants.