If you want to join click here: ThredUp

What does bother me is the review process. When Kaylee was young I had in style clothes that didn’t fit her so others could wear them and look in style. But now that she’s older her clothes are lasting longer. And this means that her winter clothes in particular are from last season. I’ve had two reviews of her last season winter styles that say they’re out of date. And all I can say is, of course they’re out of date. I wouldn’t be giving away clothes that she can wear. And clothes that she can wear typically are in style and by the time she grows out of them they are out of style.

For a discount swapping site, people are expecting too much in my opinion. I give five star ratings even if it’s out of date styles as long as there are no stains.

Tomorrow we’re going to probably go to The Lakes and do their kids club and then maybe to the park unless Kaylee is not down for it. Thursday is another water play day and I really hope people show up to it. It’s the last time in the season to go to this water feature. Friday I think is free but I’ll figure something out. Saturday we have Home Depot and I think the MIL will be out as well. Sunday is church!

So in a few weeks we will be doing a dedication orientation for the baby’s dedication at church. With my former church all you did was email the pastor and pick a day. Apparently there is a whole class or something for Discovery. I’m fine with that to be honest. I just hope they aren’t expecting us to do much, especially for Brian since he’s not really a believer, he just goes because I go.

I’m looking forward to it. I mean it’s not like I’ll send out invites and so forth but I’ve wanted it done for a while now so it’s nice that it’s finally coming up.

We have our rooms booked for Thanksgiving. I have to remember to call Grandma and let her know that we’ll be staying at a hotel. If as many people are coming as I’ve been told (6 kids all under the age of 6) then I will need a hotel room. LOL! I’m looking forward to going to Arizona. I wanted to go to the Grand Canyon but it seems that everyone had determined that it’s too far so Flagstaff and Sedona are my only options for sight seeing. We’ll probably go to the Rim and I like going up into Strawberry as well just to look around.

I’m not worried about the drive so much because we’ve done it before. We’ll be caravaning with the parents (providing they don’t take the Jeep). I think it will be fun. I’m looking forward to getting away. A mini vacation. LOL! Just something different you know.

So there’s not much to talk about.  I scheduled an appointment with my orthopedist to get my back looked at again.  Shooting for getting another epidural done before the race weekend in October.  Hopefully it won’t hurt that weekend.  Booked the hotel for Thanksgiving and got the day before off.

Otherwise, it’s just SSDD.

I was thinking though about the dolphins just as I believe with any animal, if they’re being killed for food then I don’t see any problem with it. The thing with dolphins is the meat is deadly. You really shouldn’t eat it. Dolphins sit near the top of the chain in the ocean and eat a lot of fish. It’s a trickle up process. The fish eats whatever they eat. The dolphins eat the fish. This means the mercury content in a dolphin is nearly 2000x the recommended amount in the meat. So it’s dangerous and shouldn’t be eaten at all.

So why then are these dolphins killed? The explanation in the film was simple. Japan hates being bossed around by western nations so they’re fighting back in the other way possible. By continuing to kill and eat dolphins and whales they’re giving the rest of the world the finger basically. And then they fund smaller nations, those in need of money, and bribe those nations to not vote for sanctions and so forth. It’s pretty sad.

People really need to get involved and get the word out. Apparently this practice of killing dolphins is not widely known in Japan. Most of the time too the Japanese people don’t even know that dolphin meat is in what they are eating.

He talked of not being afraid of God’s plans for us. I think often a lot of us are afraid, or perhaps more so we don’t like giving up the control we think we have over life. But we need to give up that control to be able to reach our full potential and also be fully happy. Sadly I think that’s easier said than done.

Most of the time we want to know it all and know it now. I think this is typical of most people. It seems to be very common among our younger generations as well. That’s a whole other post which really has nothing to do with the sermon. But yeah sometimes we just have to accept that it isn’t all known to us and that we’ll have to wait to see what we get.

Once again for me it seemed the sermon came back to personal responsibility. Taking responsibility to make changes as needed. Taking responsibility to live properly. It’s always about being responsible.

What I found most interesting is Pastor Todd says we all need a hobby. We all need to be more than what we think we are. For instance I’m not just a mom. I’m a writer and a photographer and that’s okay. No matter what people want to say or think, having outside things, that don’t involve your main function in life, is good for you. Some people are of the belief that if you’re a mother you can’t spend time doing things outside of being a mother. That 100% of your time must be focused on your children.

Now I agree that the bulk of our time should be focused on our children. We don’t get the luxury of going out to party (not that I ever really did that). We don’t get the luxury of being too spontaneous but we can give ourselves a little free time, something outside of being a parent. It keeps us sane and keeps us from stressing too much.

I just thought it was interesting how somehow this weeks sermons tied into the actions and judgements of others that have been going on this week. These women who call themselves Christians but then act in such a manner that makes you wonder. But that’s all I’m going to do is wonder.

I am Kaylee and Annabelle’s Aunt. Pamala is my twin sister.

I will mostly be using this site to post my Nascar thoughts and ramblings. Starting with tonight.

So some thoughts from the last few weeks about Nascar.

The first one has to do with Tony Stewart’s attitude toward the print media. He’s generally real good with the television media, but he doesn’t have the greatest relationship with the print media. Why is that? It’s never necessarily been the best relationship. The print media is constantly looking for a story, and, well, Tony’s pretty darn good at giving them one. He’s hot headed and not very patient with anyone. Over the years, most likely because of age and experience, he’s matured, but that doesn’t prevent the frustration from showing itself on occasion.

This year Tony is looking for a new sponsor to cover the gap Office Depot leaves because they do not sponsor him full time on the car. He is asked weekly about the sponsorship outlook. First and foremost, with the economy the way it is, this is a very difficult issue, so he’s a little sensitive about it. I would think the print media would stop asking. I mean I’m pretty sure he’s not going to sit on it when he finds someone, so they will be notified. But they ask week in and week out about it and he eventually gets snarky. Then they have their story. About how Tony’s a disrespectful guy. How about not asking the same stupid question over and over again expecting a different result? Isn’t that the definition of insanity. Oh! And don’t try to bring Tony in to the drama that you create. He’s not going to have any of that.

Second item on my agenda: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Twitter this post with that tag and you’ll get hits. That’s how hot of an issue this is. Ray Evernham, former Jeff Gordon crew chief, said this week during an interview that Jr needed to learn how to communicate better with his crew during a race. He said Jr can win races, can win championships, but until he learns how to properly communicate the issues he has with his car he will not do either of those items. He also gave a very good suggestion on how to improve the communication between driver and crew. He said they should sit down and listen to the audio after a race. Just like football teams do, watch the tape! Apparently the crazies of Jr nation don’t think this is the problem because one of the best crew chiefs in the series doesn’t know what the heck he’s talking about. Yeah, sure, whatever you say.

Finally: Jeremy Mayfield

Does this guy ever go away? I mean really. A federal judge dismissed your case because 1) you signed a contract that releases Nascar of any liability and 2) because you absolutely failed to provide and real evidence of your claims. You kept saying you could, but would never turn it over. Is that because there is no proof? You’re suing your step-mother for wrongful death of your father, and in return she’s suing you (rightfully so) for slander. You owe your engine/chassis provider almost 1 million dollars and still have yet to pay your first attorney. What is going through your mind? People say that he’s a victim in this, but I doubt it. I don’t think a victim behaves the way he has. I personally think Nascar did nothing wrong. Mayfield failed a drug test. Whether it was a false positive or not is beyond the point now. He violated the substance abuse policy by not notifying Nascar prior to starting his Adderall prescription. Because of that alone he could have been suspended. He’s only dug himself one heck of a hole because of his issues, whether they be drug abuse or some other mental issue. It’s truly sad and I hope that Nascar can end it soon.

That’s my report for the day. Long I know, but it’s been piling up. I love opinions so please feel free to provide any. Please be respectful. If you can’t have a debate without insulting someone then please don’t participate.

Thank you! Goodnight everyone!

So we came home and I had to pull out the tools to fix it. Luckily we had wood glue so I could finish it even though I did it wrong. Here’s Kaylee with the finished product!

Becky wrote:

That’s one hairy child (the older one)! Dang!

Kaylee has a disorder caused by a genetic defect called Hyperinsulinism. Simply put she produces too much Insulin. I thought I had written something up on her disorder before but apparently not. I did write an article about it for Associated Content and it can be viewed at the link below.

Living with a Child Who Has a Medical Disorder
In late October 2006 Kaylee Ott was diagnosed with Hyperinsulinism, which is a genetic disorder, which causes the pancreas to produce too much Insulin, which can lead to low blood glucose levels, which causes seizures, brain damage and sometimes death.
Read More

Kaylee’s blood sugar is maintained with one medication, Diazoxide. Side effects of Diazoxide are:

The main side effects are initially fluid retention (increased swelling of the feet, hands, and face), increased weight gain from excessive water being stored in the body and in small infants, this can cause heart failure due to fluid overload.

A later side effect is the increased growth of hair on the body including not only the head, but also on the face, arms, legs, and back. This is not a sexual type of hair (pubic hair or underarm hair), but rather an increase in the normal body hair found in all infants and children.

Read More On Diazoxide…

We do find Kaylee’s excessive hair growth to be a problem. Mainly because the kids at her school call her dirty. And it’s not to say that they’re being rude, her hair is dark and thus she looks dirty and little ones don’t know to not say things. But Kaylee has recognized that her hair growth isn’t normal. She says it makes her a boy so that bothers her.

So what do we do about it? As recommended by her doctor, because I rarely do anything without clearing it with her doctor, we trim her hair off. We don’t shave her, I find that to be too extreme. We use a woman’s eyebrow trimmer. This is safest in my opinion because it can’t cut her and involves no pain. Plus with a trimmer you don’t have to deal with course hair.

Once a month we trim her hair. It’s been more this summer because hair tends to grow faster in the summer. We have to trim every part of her body. Although the drug information says it should only happen in certain areas, this is not so. It happens all over her body. We’re lucky though since she’s on a low dose of the medication it’s not as bad as it can be. I’ve seen babies on Diazoxide that have hair that is really long and makes them look like they have that disorder where you look like a wolf person.

It’s something we need to do sadly because of her disorder. It’s a part of life though. It’s sad that people comment on it though. What can you do? Luckily Kaylee’s too young to recognize people’s harshness.

On a side note I felt it appropriate to address the comment because well certain folks are going to be angry to see that comment and might reply nastily and I figured Becky or anyone who wants to make comments would like to know why certain folks are going to be nasty about it.

She took the shots well. I mean she was angry of course but took them like a pro. It became apparent that Annabelle will not be the kind of baby Kaylee was in regards to shots. Kaylee didn’t care as an infant. Never cried. Annabelle started crying the minute she was touched with the alcohol wipe! Of course Kaylee was sick and by the time she was well enough to be aware of shots, she’d been poked and prodded with needles so much that she really just didn’t care anymore. Annabelle will probably cry every time.

So on to her check up. The doctor isn’t too concerned about her birthmarks. To be honest I’m a bit optimistic that they’ve stopped growing because the one on her arm is already changing color to a darker purple and from what I read, when it starts to turn to the darker purples it’s done growing. So that’s good. The one on her neck is still bright red but hasn’t really grown in the last few weeks so I’m not worried. The doctor said they’ll go away anyhow in the next few years. Her marks on her forehead, which I rarely notice, he said will probably fade by 1 year. They were more bright at the office but she was angry and a bit cold so they showed up more.

She’s apparently eating normally which is great. I still don’t know to this day what exactly is normal and what isn’t. The doctor started talking about solids! Already. Seriously. He said at 4 months I can get her one small spoon full of formula-diluted rice cereal and then increase weekly. I don’t think we officially got Kaylee on solids until she was six months old. She was not interested in doing it until then. But this baby probably will be different. We can introduce yellow veggies around six months, well that’s my plan cause I think he said we could do it earlier if we wanted.

Now onto her stats:

Weight: 10lbs 13oz (up over 2lbs from birth) 50%

Height: 22.5 inches (up 2 inches since birth) 50%

Head: 15.5 inches (up 1 inch since birth) 69%

It is amazing to me that mothers feel the need to validate themselves through picking at others though. It’s sort of sad because the only real question you have to ask yourself to validate whether you are a good parent or not is, is your child happy, fed, loved? If you answer yes, them who cares how you do it? Who cares if you breastfeed them? Who cares if you have to work? They’re happy, fed, loved!

Dr. Laura said that you don’t blame the Internet for why people feel so comfortable bashing the hell out of others. It’s just the avenue that people chose to do it in. Because there are no real social consequences to doing it. You’re anonymous (well mostly but anyone can be tracked down). So it’s easy to go to a website or forum and make these judgements on others and you’ll never have to answer to anyone.

I’m lucky I think. I have a bunch of friends, many of us with differing parenting styles, but all friends with each other. And we connect and go through our parenting journey together. We don’t feel the need to bash each other and we are all accepting of our differences. We know just how hard parenting is and we know the support we get from each other is important. And hopefully we’re developing life long friendships not only for ourselves but for our children as well.

So I’ve made a decision. I’m going to stop visiting those sites with hateful mothers who validate their parenting by putting others down. Sadly this means two sites that I typical visit I will no longer visit. What’s really sad about one (which is a forum) is before we had our babies there wasn’t this issue. Then everyone had their babies and now there are tons of judgements being made. I wonder if it’s because before you have your baby you believe you will do things one way but that all changes when you have the baby. So I think there comes a lot of self placed guilt over not doing what you said you were going to and thus people feel a need to jump on others to overcome what they see as a bad thing.

Oh well. I’ll find someplace better to go. Or maybe this blog will be updated more. LOL! You know with those horrible photos of my children! I need article ideas. I wrote one on car safety for children. I’m thinking of writing another on this subject of Mommy Bashing and then I was thinking of writing one on how to stay sane as a Stay at Home Mom.

Stay tuned… I am uploading some pictures!

1. You can’t take photo’s of your children. There’s a limit. No one has said exactly what the limit is, but it’s not good to carry your camera around and take pictures of them all the time. Apparently that’s bad parenting because you shouldn’t document your child’s life in such a manner. Memories should only be in your head, not in photos.

2. Do not at all go on your cell phone. I mean ever. Talking on the phone, checking Facebook, checking Twitter, etc… ALL BAD! Doesn’t matter if your children are napping, or if it’s 5am in the morning and you’re just feeding an infant. Doesn’t matter if you aren’t even with your children.

3. If you decide to Homeschool, you need to do it every day, all day long. Children who are home schooled shouldn’t have breaks or time off to play.

4. You need to bathe everyday, and your children need to bathe everyday. If you are spit up on or get dirt on yourself or your children, they need to be cleaned and changed right away. Oh and never let your children wear the same clothes they wore the day before. Oh and NEVER let them sleep in their dirty clothes!

5. Never leave the house with an infant. They should be locked away inside for at least 3 months even though you may have an older child who will never stand for that sort of thing. But who cares, disease runs rampant apparently in the world so keep your kid inside.

6. Don’t blog. Because your child will hate you when they grow older and Google themselves and find that you actually paid enough attention to blog about the minor stupid stuff no one will ever remember.

So what we’ve learned is that you must pay attention 100% to your children, never do anything for yourself, and if you don’t do it exactly as that you’re a horrible parent.

And if it’s lost, this is pure sarcasm. This site is full of people who believe they are perfect and it’s starting to annoy me because none of what I posted above will ever effect a child in a manner that will hurt them. It’s sad that Mom’s judge like they do online. But it’s anonymous.

I’ve had a close call with a drunk driver before. We were lucky cause it could have been a lot worse, but the car in front of me got that part, we just got $12 of damage to the car.

I was at the Town Center waiting to turn onto First Street and was searching the radio for the Disney station for Kaylee, who was 5 months old at the time. I felt this shudder and I looked to my right to see a car go zooming by and run into the car in front of me. Both the car in front of me, the drunk driver, and myself pulled over.

I got out of my car and I was okay, there wasn’t any damage to my car so to me it wasn’t a huge deal. I pulled Kaylee out of the car, because I was going to wait to give my account of the accident for the other car, and the drunk finally managed to get the door to her car open and get out, and she looked at me, asked if there was any damage to my car, and I said it wasn’t much (it really wasn’t much), and then she laughed. Now I know some people will smile or laugh when nervous, but that’s one thing you don’t do with a mother when you literally were just inches from ramming into the side of the car my daughter was positioned on.

She went over to the lady who’s car she totalled and talked to her. That lady had her daughter following her, I think she was behind me, so she was there as well. They exchanged information. Then she came over to give me information and I said that I wanted the police there to take a report (I’ve seen too many People’s Courts to know that it’s a bad idea to not call the cops). She said that it wasn’t necessary and that it was minor which made no sense since the other car had to be towed away cause it was not drivable.

I knew then that I needed to call the police but I couldn’t do it with her in front of me. So I called Brian and told him to call the police for me. Then I took my time finding something to write on so that I could get her information. I was going so slow that she wanted to do it herself to get it done faster. I think in the mean time the woman’s daughter had determined that the police were needed as well and placed a call into the station. From what I understand there were 8 calls that night which one officer thought was excessive (I’ll get into that later).

Mall police showed up and that’s when the drunk kicked it into gear to leave. I told the mall cops that the police had been called and that I thought this woman was drunk and that she shouldn’t be allowed to leave. Luckily since her door wasn’t working very well she was having one hell of a time getting into her car and the mall cops managed to convince her to stay or else she’d be fleeing the scene of the accident.

When the police got there they talked to the woman who’s car was destroyed first. I overheard one officer say that he didn’t understand why 8 calls were placed to the police over a minor fender bender. To this day I think that officer was a moron. Cause we did the right thing calling.

I watched them give and the drunk fail each sobriety test. She literally was laughing through everything and couldn’t follow directions. Finally the officers came over to me and took my info and I asked if she was in fact drunk. He said yes, that not only had she had a few glasses of wine but she was on prescription pain killers which she had taken before she left the restaurant. He also said she was being arrested. I told him I knew something was off and he said it was good I called, because it’s better safe than sorry. Tell that to Mr. Officer who was complaining! LOL!

Anyhow I got a free car seat out of the deal. But to this day it still bothers me. The whole thing could have been worse all because some woman decided that she was above biology and could drink and take hardcore pain meds and she’d be just fine to drive.

And this seems to be the common theme with drunk drivers. They say one of two things, that they can handle their alcohol well or they had no idea they were drunk. Those that have no idea they are drunk are in my opinion just people who made stupid decisions. Those who say they can handle their alcohol or that it takes a lot for them to get drunk in my opinion are ignorant assholes who shouldn’t be on the road at all. They’ve somehow made the decision that they know better than what science tells us and they can do whatever they want.  Those are the fools who kill families and survive.

And I think too there is a lack of people who have the balls to prevent people from driving drunk. To be honest I’d rather lose a friend because I offended them, than let them drive drunk. My opinion is that anyone that has a drink shouldn’t be driving. I know it’s extreme but I just feel it’s better safe than sorry. But if you only have one then you’re probably fine. Once you pass the one drink mark, you need to rethink your driving abilities.

I’ll leave this entry with the following song:

Stopped to have a few at five now you’re crossing that center line for the third time
Second time like this this week had a friend ask you for your keys
You said ‘no I’m fine’
You sure do act like you don’t got a thing to lose
But every car you pass might be the one’s you take with you

{Chorus}
You’d give your last breath to your wife
Take a bullet for your kids
Lay your life down for your country for your Jesus for your friends
There’s a whole lot of things you say you’re living for
You’ve got to fight it somehow, stop and turn around
‘Cause this ain’t nothin’ to die for

So what’s the harm in a little fun
‘Cause you’re off to work before the sun everyday
And the inbox outbox locks you in and the money you make ain’t worth the time you spend to make your pay
The doctor says ‘man your numbers they don’t lie’
The graveyard’s full of folks that didn’t have time to die

{Chorus}

Straight through that guardrail up into that white light
You hear a sweet voice saying just this side of the other side
Just this side of the other side

You’d give your last breath to your wife
Take a bullet for your kids
Lay your life down for your country for your me and all your friends
There’s a whole lot of things you say you’re living for
You’ve got to fight it somehow, stop and turn around
‘Cause this ain’t nothin’ to die for

Ain’t nothin’ to die for
Nothin’ to die for
Ain’t nothin’ to die for

Some may think by my photos that Kaylee doesn’t get dressed. She does. First thing every morning. Whether she keeps her clothes on is another thing. Like yesterday I was taking pictures of Annabelle in her Bumbo seat and Kaylee wanted some photos taken too. So she wasn’t dressed. I often debate over posting pictures of her that don’t show her completely dressed, but in the end it’s judgement call.

I was listening to Bill Handle this morning as well and there was some talk about anonymous posting about people and business. I’m one to not post anonymously. If I’m going to post things online about services I disliked or opinions on people’s behaviors I’m going to put my name on it. I know why people are afraid to do that, because sometimes opinions can come back and bite you in the ass, but I deem it only fair that those I’m talking about can actually in a way know who I am. Plus it seems a bit immature to run around the internet and anonymously post things.

I am a bit disturbed by this trend of trying to sue people for defamation or trying to get harassment charges against people who do not speak highly of others. I’ve always been of the belief that what I post will always be disagreed with. There will be people who will think I’m an idiot, bad parent, stupid, you name it, I’ve probably been thought of it at least once. And that’s fine with me. It’s one thing to have someone literally follow you around the internet and stalk you (but believe me I’ve found that ignoring those people typically gets them to stop since they get bored with it when you never respond to it) online or constantly harass you, but it’s a whole other thing when someone is voicing an opinion on a message board or blog.

There is this trend to basically silence those who don’t fall in line with whoever or don’t have the same views. Instead of allowing debate and discussion people just want others to shut up and never speak. I’ve already talked about this in reference to what happened to Dr. Laura but it’s spreading all over the place. To think someone can lose their job for holding an opinion is just stupid to me. God forbid someone actually not think like the rest of us.

I’m looking forward to this new job and what it brings for us.