Save Sesame Street!

It seems like PBS is always fighting for it's life! Again, for the 3rd year in a row our President's budget proposal is slashing funding for PBS and even worse, Ready to Learn.

Personally, I believe that the free, educational programming that PBS provides is so important for our impressionable children! In my house, Big Bird is welcome at any time. Sponge Bob on the other hand, has a permanent ban!

How many of us grew up watching Sesame Street? I can still remember a lot of the little segments that are now non-existant. "There's more to a hero than his size, he's just a teeny little super guy." Well, okay, I'm not sure if that's the exact wording, but I know I have most of it right! Remember, he was the little fellow that lived in the cupboard? Oh and whatever happened to Guy Smiley?

I want my kids to be able to continue to enjoy the antics of those lovable puppets. I want them to be able to be an adult like I am looking back fondly on the characters they loved.

Dont let Congress take this away from us. Lets also tell them that this is enough! Leave PBS alone, for good!

If you want to help. Sign the petition at Mom's Rising. They already have over 500,000 signatures! Wouldn't it be great to see that number rise?

Want to read an actual news article on the proposed budget cuts? Go here and inform yourself!

Salmonella??

I have abdominal cramps. Tara has a fever and diarrhea. Could we have salmonella poisioning??

Honestly, I dont know, and I'm not going to the doctor to find out, because neither of us are severe enough for that. But I was on the phone with my mom last night complaining to her about how the two of us weren't feeling well. Five minutes later she called me back to tell me about the recall on Peter Pan peanut butter. She saw it on the news but didn't catch what product number to look for.

Today, before I even had a chance to check it out online, I read about it from Momma K. (Thank you, Momma K!)

Our jar has the incriminating number 2111 on the lid. So I will be tossing the jar and saving my lid for a full refund..as the above news link tells me to do. I sure hope I dont need my receipt!

This recall is also affecting Great Value peanut butter as well..so check those lids too for the number 2111. Its followed by a longer sequence of numbers, but those dont matter. Believe me, I double checked. I didn't want to waste a whole jar of peanut butter if I could help it!

I guess this will be the end of my love for Peter Pan. I sure will miss him. He's been my favorite since I was a baby!! I just can't see myself buying it again after this. But then again, I thought the same thing about Taco Bell after their lettuce problem, and I just ate dinner from there Monday night, so I guess only time will tell.

Valentine's Day = Overrated

Yesterday I wasn't online. I was actually feeling pretty good so I decided to spend the day catching up on laundry. So, today I had a lot of blog reading to catch up on. Wow, where there a lot of Valentine's Day posts! And a lot of those posts were from unhappy wives.

We dont really celebrate Valentine's Day here. Our anniversary is in two weeks, and we really feel that our anniversary is the day to spend too much money celebrate our love. Not Valentine's Day, the day that has become so commercialized that people feel that they HAVE to celebrate!

I don't need my husband to buy me flowers and gifts to make me feel special on Valentine's Day. I dont even need a card. Just the fact that he snuggled a little closer to me on the couch last night was enough.

In my eyes, Valentine's Day is a day to recognize your love. There's no need for expensive presents and/or dates. I dont need a stuffed hippo with wiggling ears to know my husband loves me, nor do I need to spend hours getting ready for an over-priced meal at an over-crowded restaurant for my husband to know I love him.

We told each other Happy Valentine's Day. We held hands while watching American Idol. And then we held each other while we fell asleep. It was the perfect Valentine's Day. No pressure. No hurt feelings. No stress over how to top it next year.

I love him. He loves me. That's all either of us needed to know yesterday.

Oh Hell No!

My Baby Shaker post was meant to be funny. I wouldn't want the contraption because I know how much a baby kicks when you're in your 9th month and I KNOW that the bells would irritate me. My husband LOVES me and he LOVES our children and unborn child. He really enjoyed being able to feel Hayden and Tara kick when they were inside of me...it just gets tiring after awhile..whether your the PROUD papa-to-be or the bloated expectant mother.

But apparently what my post really meants was that my husband doesn't love me and I have no family to enjoy my miracle with.

Vicki had this to say:

I have to say that first, having a "perfect child", I can understand why you would say those comments before even seeing something.

My first husband was not a nice person and pretty much didn't care when my stomach was turning upside down when our baby was in my stomach. He made me feel like he had nothing to do with the baby and I was all by myself. When our little boy kicked for the first time, I was excited, but he made the experience dreadful, He just didn't care. I am sorry if anyone has to have childbirth in that manner. I have been there.

I remarried and am expecting a little girl. My new husband surprised me with the baby shaker. At first I didn't understand it until we were sitting there one night and the bells rang. I moved because I felt the baby kick me but to have my husband react out loud before I did was wonderful. If you have a family to share the experience of life with you,…….. that is what the baby shaker is about. I have friends that have experience the kicking and the movement of my little girl with me and she is not even born yet. Now instead of telling them that my baby is kicking, they too, get to be there with me. Having friends and family that care to experience this with me is the most wonderful thing I could ever imagine.

I am sorry if you are pregnant and you have to carry this alone... you really don't have to be alone. I am not alone this time around.

Thank You Baby Shaker…....who ever you are.

Screw you, Vicki. I'm not alone, my husband loves me and I'm sorry if you picked a loser the first time around. But I didn't. And I dont appreciate you implying that I did.

Seriously, don't I have a right not to like something? Dont I have a right to tell you that I dont like the idea of something? Or that I think it's a waste of money for me? I believe I specifically wrote that you may not find the idea as amusing as I did.

That post was not an invitation to "feel sorry" for my poor alone pitiful self. I have 2 kids, a husband, 3 stepkids, a mother who lives 5 minutes away, a dad and a brother who visit from out of town, and aunts and uncles out the ass.

I couldn't be alone if I tried!

I'm Calling For A Hibernation

*updated link below*

I'd love to post all about the crazy stories that happened over the weekend, but it's too painful to do. I'll just say that I spent the whole day yesterday crying...and I dont care to elaborate more than that. I will add; it had nothing to do with anything my dad did. And Hayden had a wonderful party, he was unaware of everything else going on.

Today we're bracing for the huge snow/ice storm that is expected to hit us sometime tomorrow morning. I am begging my husband to cancel work tomorrow because of it. It's going to get nasty. The last time they called for a snow/ice storm like this, parts of our town were without electricity for a week. (We lucked out and only lost it for 16 hours.) If that happens again this year, we wont be so lucky. If we lose it, we'll probably be out for awhile since we now live in a rural area.

I know I probably sound like I'm overreacting...and I really hope I am. But, I'm pregnant. And in a pregnant woman's mind...a storm that's forcasted like this, has me convinced that no one I love needs to be out driving at all tomorrow.

I'm going to go make my grocery list now. Yes, I'm planning on being one of those crazy people at the grocery story tonight stocking up on obscene amounts of food and water in case the worst happens. ( I swear, I'm usually not like this...it's all hormones! )

Happy Birthday, Hayden!

Today my baby boy is 3. He's enjoying the fact that it's his birthday and he can not wait until his party tomorrow. He's so excited about the presents, the cake, getting to see family we dont get to see all the time, and did I mention the presents? Even his imaginary friend, Fish, is going to be in attendance.

Listening to all of his excitement, I just couldn't stop myself from reminising about the infamous 1st Birthday party that we threw for him. What H-E-L-L!


Since it was my baby's first birthday I had to go all out. I invited everyone we knew and went all out on the menu and making the cake. I was especially excited about the cake. I had made sure that for his entire first year he had never had a bite of any cake so that on his 1st birthday he'd really get to dig in and relish in his first sugar-high! I was so excited!

So the party got started at 1 in the afternoon. Of course Hayden had sensed all of my stress excitement and refused his nap before hand. Luckily we were having the party at my mom's house so she was there during the whole set up and was able to help me and keep Hayden amused while I set out the appetizers while finishing cooking the main lunch. Soon after getting all set up, our guests arrived and so did the gifts. It looked like Christmas morning in my mom's living room! Except it was ALL for Hayden!

We did the presents first and Hayden could have cared less. I wanted him to look at everything and sit nicely on my lap, but that was a joke. He spent the whole hour sitting on the floor playing with some annoying ball popping machine that a friend of ours got for him. Needless to say, it was my husband's idea to open that up before the rest of the presents were opened. I was not amused.

After presents came lunch. I was already a little pissed. Hayden was very pissed. He didn't want to sit in his high chair and he didn't want his hat on. (see above picture). As I was making up his plate, there was silence from the screaming demon behind me. I turned around to see my dad holding a fork and pure bliss written across Hayden's face.

No. He. Didn't.

I whipped around to look at my cake, only to find a forkful taken out of a corner. MY DAD HAD FED MY SON HIS VERY FIRST BITE OF CAKE! The screaming was heard even by the guests in the other rooms of the house. I was beyond mad. There was steam coming out of my ears and tears pouring out of my eyes. Who did he think he was? (you also have to know that my dad and I have a strained relationship, thanks to his drinking, and I didn't really even want him there in the first place).

In my eyes, Hayden's birthday was ruined. Ruined. I still haven't been able to forgive my dad for that. He wasn't invited to Hayden's 2nd birthday. But this year he is. I'm hoping it goes a little more smoothly since we're just having a big family dinner, instead of a party with everyone we know.

The only concern to me is that...my dad now lives 2 hours away. So he's arriving tonight and staying through Sunday...

Heaven help us all.

Anyway, Happy Birthday to my Baby Boy! I can not believe that you are now 3. I'm scared to blink, because if I do...who knows how old you'll be when I open my eyes!

Baby Shaker

One of my favorite things about being pregnant is reading all of the pregnancy and baby magazines with a renewed interest. I hadn't picked up a BabyTalk since Tara was about 3 months old until I found out I was pregnant again. I get bored reading them after awhile. It's like once you have that baby, who needs a magazine, you have living-proof of anything and everything those magazines have to say. But, when I'm pregnant(even though I have other kids) I love to read the magazines and dream about how everything the articles say, I will do...and of course I will in turn have a perfect pregnancy and a perfect baby.

While reading through a past issue if BabyTalk that my doctor's office had included in their "Congratulations Your Pregnant" bag, I stumbled across an advertisement for this.

If you start cracking up laughing, don't feel bad, I did too. Who knows, maybe you wont find it funny at all..but the thought of putting that strange contraption on my belly so that my baby can tell me "hi" is ridiculous!!

After checking out their website I got to laughing even harder.

Not since the sonogram has there been anything so exciting for parents waiting for their child’s birth!

Oh really? Do they really think a mother needs to put a huge eyesore on top of her already incredibly swollen natural eyesore to know that her baby is in their playing kickball with her ribcage?

Priceless to Capture on a still or video camera for precious memories!

I dare someone to put that thing on my belly and take a picture...go ahead and just try it.

In a way I'm not surprised that a man invented this. A woman gets to sit around all day feeling that evil spawn kicking the crap out of her insides precious miracle making it's life known all day every day; she doesn't need a jingle bell and waving flag to make that known. So, in theory, a father would love to have that life be known to him every possible moment that the mother does.

But then I remember very vividly while pregnant with both of my kids how I would jump and yell for Will to feel my stomach everytime the baby would kick. I remember the first few days of it being so exciting for us both. I remember Will getting totally bored and then annoyed with me that I would bother him every time. And then I remember me complaining after awhile because it was exhausting and painful and even a tad annoying. The thought of either him or I getting excited over a bell ringing during American Idol every few seconds makes me laugh.

I could just see it getting slammed against a wall by my husband because it disturbed our show one too many times. Or buried in the backyard because on top of me having to deal with constant kicking and punching, I now have to be disturbed by the tinkling of bells.

So no, I will not be investing $21.95 for the Baby Shaker. But if you're pregnant and would like some peace and quiet from your husband, this may be your ticket. Just slap that baby right up on your belly and let the jingling begin. I dont think it will take long before the novelty wears off and your husband heads for the solitude of his garage. And then you'll have the TV all to yourself!

Loving father, Ken Duncan; I admire the fact that you truly loved enjoying your unborn child. I think it's a great idea...just not for most of us hormonally driven pregnant women with husbands who honestly do not want to know how often their unborn child is causing discomfort to the woman he loves.

Oh and the name itself....well I can only say that I can just imagine the internet hits your site gets.

February, Dreaduary

It's February. The only month of the year that makes my head spin...even more than the holiday season. We have so much going on this month that this year I wish I could just skip it all. I'm tired. I'm nauseas (even while taking the Zofran). I just would like to skip February this year.

Both of Will and my's siblings have birthday's this month.

Hayden's 3rd birthday is this month.

Then there's Valentines Day.

Will and my's 2nd Anniversary is this month.

Oh, Super Bowl Sunday is now this month...didn't it used to always be in January?

Plus, this year I've got Hayden starting Sunday School, and although I'm really excited for it, it's just more things that we have going on!

It may not sound like a lot, but it really is. And I'm just too tired to deal with February this year. Oh how I wish I could just hibernate for this one month!