OH the agony!

I woke up Monday morning unable to move my neck. My neck and shoulder hurt so bad that I couldn't do much of anything. I went to the Chiropractor and she tried to fix me. It helped but I was still hurting Tuesday and today I am better still but a little sore. I am going back today to see Dr. Tobi again. Dominic has a small cold and is stuffy so he is not sleeping well, which means I am not sleeping well. Blah.

My friend and I cooked her 3 meals yesterday. She is pregnant and doesn't feel well or like cooking. Her husband is not a good cook. We made Stromboli, Pepper Sauce w/ pasta and Chicken Spinach Burgers. All were a success. It is more fun to do it together. She is coming with us to dance class today to watch Gioia dance.

Christmas presents

We did our family christmas this weekend. We will be at my in-laws for actual Christmas day, so we did our family gift exchange this weekend. It went really well. I think everyone got what they wanted. Kids got a train set, Gioia got a new Waldorf Baby and Dominic got a music instrument set. I got a neck pillow, clothes and new book. Massimo got his Dremel. I want to say before anyone thinks we are insane, I did not pay those prices for Gioia's baby. We bought them at a discount and made them ourselves. OHH!! And how could I forget Gioia got an art easel and long story short... I have green paint stained on my carpet. That was not in the master plan.

We had our KCAP christmas party and it went fabulous. I was worried cause the host has a smaller house, but it was almost 70 outside and so we were on the deck. The kids jumped on the trampoline and it worked out nicely.

Walmart

Walmart: You either love 'em or hate 'em. I was directed to an excellent website that discusses the evils of Walmart. http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/ I will be the first to admit that being a conscious consumer is hard work. Making sure that you try to shop only with companies that treat their workers/manufacturers well, basically support human rights issues and are good fair companies, well its hard work. It is something my husband and I have been trying to do for the last year or so. Our journey mostly started out as just shopping for natural bath and body care, this led us to smaller mom and pop or Internet shops, which led us to where we are now. I had not shopped at Walmart in well over a year, and was proud of it. Then a Walmart opened in our town. We have been there 3 times. Its convenience and NO MORE! We are renewing our vow to shop at better stores. Like HyVee, they are "employee owned" the employees at our local HyVee are so nice and helpful. The produce manager told me the other day if there is ANY organic product they don't carry and i want to tell him and he will get it. Awesome!

Unfortunately, for some people it is almost not an option to not shop at Walmart. Take my mom for example, they live in a small town. She works in a slightly bigger town and they have Walmart. They also have a good priced grocery store and I believe she gets her groceries there. But what about other household items? The grocery store carries them but at a premium. Also what about Christmas and shopping? It is basically the only store that carries kids toys and games, kids clothes, etc.. I much prefer Target but that means a drive to St. Joseph 30-60 minutes away depending on if its coming from home or work. It is such a dilemma.

Those who do have a choice in the matter however, need to snap out of the Walmart coma and start shopping other places. You don't need all the crap thats in the store. If all the people in large cities would start shopping elsewhere it would have a huge impact on the company. As for myself, my dollars may not effect their bottom line, by I am proud of myself for knowing that I am shopping smart and supporting businesses who have earned it.

P. Boo!

Dominics new word is "P BOO!" aka Peek a boo. :) He likes to play peek a boo and is so funny. He is also giving MMM UH (kisses). Tonight we had a funny display. I had a bowl of ice cream and was sharing with him. He would open his mouth and lean over to me. I would give him a bite, then he would give me a kiss MMM UH. Then he would laugh and make a stinky face! He is such a riot. Also he likes to dig in the trash. Not so cute. Tonight he grabbed a can out of there and cut his finger. I was making dinner. Putting a band-aid on a toddler is like putting a dress on a cat. Not going to happen.

Gioia woke up this morning, came out of her room and said "SHH!! I need to sleep in my bed." I said, Good morning do you wanna come downstairs? She said, "NO! SHH I need to sleep!" Slammed the door and went back to bed for 30 minutes. When she came out the second time she was nice and pleasant. HA HA!! I guess brother and I were being too loud. We rode bikes outside and went to the park today as well. It was AWESOME and in the upper 50's.

Panda Bear in my kitchen.

Gioia has been on a kick lately of wanting to "be" something. Here is a picture of her being a panda. She had to wear this to dance class last week and to Hy-Vee. She got some nice compliments on it at Hy-Vee. The rest of the week she has been a Giraffe. She has worn for 3 days straight a size too small halloween Giraffe costume. Also for your viewing pleasure a sleepy boy.

Mercury, Autism and the Global Vaccine Agenda

David Ayoub, M.D. goes through the relations of Mercury to Autism as well its connections to “National Security Study Memorandum 200”; for population control. Showing its shocking connections to today’s G.A.V.I. Are powerful forces really trying to help the poor people or could it be for another agenda; the sterilization of the poor? This is an upsetting video, so brace yourself.

Holiday fun.

We had a great weekend. We had a few families over for a dinner party. It was a great time. My sister and her husband came as well. They stayed the night, then Mel and I went and did some christmas shopping. It was good.

The holidays are in full swing for us. We have something going on every weekend of the month. A couple holiday parties, several family events and DH is taking the christmas week off from work, so we will get to spend lots of time with him.

Quote of the day

Here is the quote of the day! This sums up how the medical community treats parents on the vaccine issue.
"Pamphlet authors should determine the key points that the patient (or parent) needs to know to achieve the behavioural objectives. Nonessential concepts can then be deleted. The key is to write for the desired health behaviour, rather than for high-level knowledge."

Source: Pediatrics. 1996 Jun;97(6 Pt 1):804-10.
Parent comprehension of polio vaccine information pamphlets.
Davis TC, Bocchini JA Jr, Fredrickson D, Arnold C, Mayeaux EJ, Murphy PW, Jackson RH, Hanna N, Paterson M. page 809

Do you see what they are saying The key is to write for the desired health behaviour, not high level knowledge. AKA = tell them what will make them vaccinate, not the risks or anything knowledgable to make informed choices.

Gioia told me she has a new baby brother. It is her little purple hippo bath toy. She has been packing it around for days now. She plays with it and made it a bed. I said And Dominic he is your brother. She said, no he is my Dominic. So apparently he has been replaced.

Dominic continues to crack me up every day. Today he was playing with the toy hammer (wooden) and was gently bonking himself on the head then he would laugh and shake his head NO. Crazy man. He played and splashed in the bath today, then an hour later had a MASSIVE poop explosion and smeared lunch all over his face. Nice!

The cowgoddess strikes again.

Disturbing find of the week.

Most of you that know me well know that I research parenting issue A LOT. I want to make the right choices and the best choices for my family even if they go against the mainstream grain. Well I am reading a book published by a lady I know and it is about vaccines.

I will just highlight the points so this post doesn't get too long. You all know about SV40 right? It is the Simian Virus (monkey virus) that was in the contaminated Polio vaccines in the 50's.

Ok... Dr. Bernice Eddy found this out in the late 50's, and SV40 is cancer causing. She also discovered live virus causing paralysis in polio vaccines in 1954 and 1955. In 1955 she was relieved of her duties as Polio Vaccine Control Officer. The kept the vaccine on the market until the early 60's.

Quote:

At a medical conference in July 1998, Dr. Michael Carbone explained how SV40 swithches off a protein that protects cells from becoming malignant. This protein is not cancer-type specific, but cell-function specific."

Quote:

In October 1998, the Journal of Cancer Research suggested that the reason many cancers are now on the rise (it included only three varities, but commeneted that most others haven't been studied yet) is because SV40 is spread both sexually and from mother to child in utero. So you don't need to have received an SV40 contamintated vaccine to have been exposed to SV40. In USA, SV40 is found routinely in 23% of blood samples and 45% of sperm samples from donors.

So what that means is for those of us whos parents where born/vaccinated in the 50's. They then likely passed it on to us, which in turn I could be passing it on to my children. REALLY NICE. No wonder cancer rates are skyrocketing. I would like to know how people that vaccinate feel about this? Do you still feel that the risks outweigh the benefits??

Cottonball snowmen

So today we hosted our homeschool preschool-K group for winter craft day. We made snowmen with cottonballs and mittens decorations. It was really fun. We had 7 familys here so it was a packed house. Everyone brought muffins, snacks and food. We made crafts, read stories and played from 10am-till 1pm. The kids were great, tired and made awesome crafts. It was really fun. I am going to host an art/craft day once a month I think.

My friend and I are going to make some soap in the next few weeks to give as christmas gifts. She is going to teach me how to do it, so I can do it myself in the future. I also need to finish my other gifts for the family and DH needs to bottle his beer. We have a couple christmas parties coming up which should be fun.

Friday

This is heard in my hallway. "Little pig, little pig let me come in!!" Then the response, "not by the hair of my chinny, chin, chin." Gioia say, "then I huff and I puff..." Massimo opens the door and lets her in the bathroom with him. :) Funny family.

We got about a total of 8 inches of snow. The kids had a great time playing in it. There dad even pulled them on the sled. The baby would kick his feet for more when he stopped.

Let it snow! Let it snow!

4 inches and counting. We are expected to get as much as 1 foot of snow! Whew. Yesterday we had sleet and ice. Today the snow. It makes the roads really bad for driving. Massimo worked from home and I am glad. Gioia and Massimo went out sledding for about 10 minutes and decided it was too cold. The temperature is 12 degrees (feels like zero). BRRR!!! The craziest part is that on Tuesday it was 63 F. Kansas and Missouri have weird weather.

I am ready for Christmas! I love the holidays. I am ready for friends to come to dinner, presents to be opened, my friends Chocolate Oblivion pie I ordered (thanks Kenna!), drinks with my dad and stepmom and to take Gioia shopping for her daddy! I feel like we got the kids some really nice/good gifts this year that will get lots of use and last a long time.

Hot chocolate and Baileys Irish Creme.

So tonight after dinner I made us some Italian hot cocoa. Which is made with cocoa, whipping cream, milk and sugar. It is made thick like pudding and you can drink it or eat it with a spoon. It is sooo good. Well for MINE i added about half a shot of Baileys Irish Creme to it. MMMm...it was heaven.

I have the christmas cards done. I will probably mail them about the 1oth or so. I also think I have all my shopping done except for DH and I for each other. I am kind of excited because we actually made lists for each other and get to shop, not just already know what we are getting.

I got my hair cut and highlighted last night. I was very brave, took a risk and went to Fantastic Sams here in town. It turned out perfect. I am really pleased. I feel so much better about my appearance and self now. It is so nice. Who knew that feeling good about yourself cost 65 dollars including tip? LOL!

MM....Turkey.

Dh smoked a turkey for Thanksgiving. My dad, stepmom and brother came to dinner with us. It was really nice. We don't see them as much as we should. My husband also commented on how great of a kid Ryan is. He is so polite and acts like he genuinely likes hanging out with the family. I made Turkey Noodle soup Friday and it came out GREAT!! Soo tasty! Today we are putting up our Christmas tree and then later in the day going to our new nephews baptism. We did not go shopping on Friday. People are crazy and we really don't ever buy the "hot" items each year. We do lots of shopping online.

I'm DONE!!

Not me, Gioia. This is what she yells from the bathroom several times a day and someone comes and wipes her bottom. So today we were at playgroup and a friend was watching the children inside, the rest of the moms and kids were outside. Gioia needed to potty, did so and yelled I'M DONE!! My friend looked around, realized this meant her, and helped Gioia finish up. HA HA!! I said, thanks for doing that. My friend was like yeah I have 5 girls, no problem.

And on that note about modesty, she also stripped down at another friends house and the two little girls were running around in their birthday suits. We just laughed and the dads agreed that it was fine, as long as they quit by the teen years. HA HA!! I gotta love my Natural Family Living/AP friends, everyone is all ok with WHATEVER.

I forgot to blog yesterday, but here was the excitement. We went to Pump It Up, an inflatable jumping balloon gym. The kids loved it. D was saying Wheee! Wheee!! Meaning "that was fun, lets do it again!" It was cute. Gioia was going over this obstacle balloon, and down the slide when she kind of fell and caught herself with her left arm. She started crying and wouldn't move her arm. I knew it was dislocated because we "suspect" she has done this twice before. Each of the 2 times before we took her to the doctor they X-rayed it and said, its fine. The nurse said rotating it for the x-ray can put it back in place. SOOOO..... I asked her to stick it out. I turned it and heard POP and I FELT it pop back in. She stopped crying instantly. I said Bend it. She did and said thanks! and went back to playing! MAN! That was freaky! But now I am 100% sure that the first two times were real and the same thing happened. It was the same arm all 3 times now.

Baby talk.

My little guy is starting to talk and it is SOO cute! Today he was copying things we would do or say. First one was AHH-CHOO! I sneezed and he did it to. He would say Ah-choo and put his hand on his mouth. Then he was playing with daddy and sister and Daddy said Thank You, Dominic signed thank you and said Ank OOOH. :) PRECIOUS! He also says Apple which sounds like A poo. Hmm... all those kind of sound alike too. Funny! He does say Ball, Dog, Mama and Dadda. Oh I almost forgot he said Pappa last weekend.

Football mania.

Well the last two days have been spent with me listening to football on the radio. Saturday was Gallatin vs. South Shelby, Class 1 missouri high school football semi-finals. My brothers team Gallain Bulldogs, played their hearts out, but lost 24-27. So South Shelby will be going to the Dome to play. It is very dissappointing. The boys were pretty upset, but they had an undeafeted season and did excellent this year. We are all very proud of them. My brother has made All Conference, All District, and the radio dream team.

Today we went to church then I have listened to the Chiefs/Raiders game on the radio. For those that forgot, I have to listen to it on the radio because we don't have tv programming. The raiders have been ahead all game and now the last minute left they are losing. :( Yes, I am a raiders fan living in KC. It is a blasphemy to most people. Oh well, everyone knows I like to go against the grain. HA HA!

My hubby is home on vacation all week. It will be fun. Monday I have to get a filling done on my tooth, not fun. We are having my dad and his family here for Turkey Day. Then next Saturday is the baptism for our new nephew.

New phone.

I am getting a new phone. Sprint instead of Verizon. My number will stay the same, but I am getting a new (never been dropped, or chewed on) phone. Cool! I hope the service works as good. Since DH is a Sprint employee we get a discount and I have to take advantage of it.

Its that time of year again for holiday helpers and giving gifts. I am sending a few packages of kids shoes and clothes to a couple families and we are hoping to adopt a family for christmas.

I think I have been spending too much time on the computer lately and I can tell a difference in the kids behavior. So I am going to try to really watch my time online and try to do more crafts and stuff since we are inside so much more now.

Go BULLDOGS!

My brothers HS football team won Monday night. 39-9! They did a great job. Now they are playing this coming Saturday in the Semifinals. If/When they win ;) they will play over Thanksgiving weekend in St. Louis at the Dome for the state championship! We are all so excited. It will be a fun trip in St. Louis as we are staying Friday and Saturday, so some extra time for going around the city and sight see.

Week in review.

Well another week has past quickly. Thursday we went Letterboxing with our Homeschool group. It was 75 degrees out! It was a gorgeous day and the kids really had a good time. We found 3 boxes and could have found more if we had more time. I am glad we spent the day outside, since now it is in the 30-40's again. BRR!!

OK all I found our dream RV. Just in case you all think I am all talk, we are planning to do this next year hopefully. Sooner if I had the money, but alas it always come back to having money. Anyway, here is a look at what we are going to do. We will be doing it ourselves with a slightly different floorplan all our own, but this gives you the general idea. http://www.motorcabin.com/photos.html It is an 40ft charter bus converted into this. Standard witdth is 102" wide, (81/2 feet). I love it and can't wait to do it. We will be recycling, reusing and refurnishing a large majority of it.

What else is going on? Not much. We watched the movie Click with Adam Sandler. FUNNY and heartwarming, good flick. We were supposed to have a potluck with friends Sat. night but it got cancelled, due to sick kids. Bummer. My family is all in deer hunter mode. My dad and little brother both killed Does yesterday. Nobody else has gotten anything yet. I am sure the men are holding out for big bucks. :)

Politics.

I am so dissappointed I guess is the right word for it. Gardner voters voted to Annex the freakin property for the intermodal. I voted AGAINST IT! These idiots. You know what their campaign slogan was ??? Can Beat em. Lets Tax Em. A defeatist attitude. NIce. It was a by a huge margin too. 1100 for it and 2800 against it.

I am sure BNSF is really excited. Cause now they can build their HUGE warehouses and intermodal in Gardners backyard. And Gardner gets to pay for all the infastructure. They even have a letter from a developer saying he stop negotiations on a housing developement purchase because of the intermodal. SO it is already having a negative effect on our home prices and it isn't even built yet. DAMN IT!!

DH said, it really goes to show you that demographics are true alot of the time. Small town, intimidated by the corporate giant. He said if we were in San Fransisco or somewhere more liberal they would have said HELL NO you can't come in our town with your pollution and heavy equipment. But not Gardner. Thanks alot. Now I am seriously looking harder for that RV.

Oh and I am also sickened by the fact that Amendment 2 for Missouri looks like it is passing so far. I didn't get to vote for that one. I was against it. NOthing against anyone who might have voted for it. I just didn't like it. It goes against what I believe morally and religiously. I read the whole text in our hometown paper last week. It is very shady with loopholes that are bad. IMHO.

On an happier note, the house is in Democratic majority for the first time in 12 years. I don't usually vote for a party itself, however I think my husband is right that we just need a big change in our government and having a all house, senate and judiscial in Rep. is not a balance in the system. SO I am hoping this paves the way for better leadership. Lets all pray for the newly elected people that they will do a good job and be good people.

Another week begins.

Today we went to a friends house to work on some Christmas gifts. They are Waldorf Heavy babies, and I love it. We made them ourselves. I hope Gioia loves it. I won't post the pictures here, I will wait till christmas and post one of her with her new baby. They are weighted 2.5 lbs to feel more like a really baby. We ate lunch with our friends and played. These are some of our fellow homeschooling friends. Then the kids napped on the way home. It was great.

Tomorrow is Election Day. Everyone vote!! Gardner is voting on the Intermodal non-annexation. "I hope it passes, I hope it passes!" I also hope the Amendment 2 fails in Missouri. I read it and I don't like it. It is shady.

We took Gioia's halloween candy, let her pick 5 things, then the rest got traded in for a toy. We ended up with Lincoln Logs. She and I built a house with them. It also came with a tiny man and horse. She seems to like it. DH will be taking the said candy to work with him to dispose of. Thats it for today! Later!

Long time no blog.

Wow I really been slacking on the ol' blog lately. We have eaten WAY too much candy this week. Tomorrow we are going to trade it in for a toy. We will probably keep about 5 peices for her to have a treat this week, then all gone. We went to my brothers football game Friday night. It was AWESOME! They kicked ass 44-0, beating Princeton and winning the District title.

So we don't have tv programming. The reason is largely the commercials. BUY BUY BUY! Take Drugs for every cough and ache. Take vaccines for everything under the sun! KIDS, eat crappy sugary foods and get fat, sit on your ass and play video games all day. Its just junk and the shows on are not much better. We stick with movies. We can control content and no commercials, but we still get the entertainment value of watching a show. My mom said, Its the same as its always been. Well that may be true, but it doesn't mean our kids need more help being mindless consumers that think they NEED pizza rolls, a New expensive cars and toys or other junk.

Eating. I used to be one of those kids that LOVED to eat junk food. I wanted candy and crap all the time and as a high school and college kid I ate lots of it. Now that I have kids and have researched more healthy eating habits, we eat better than ever. As a young kid we never had sweet cereals, pop, or really any junk food of any kind. Now my mom buys all kinds of cookies, cereal, and junk for my brothers to munch on and it dawned on me.... we never had that stuff because it is extras and we were poor! Isn't it funny though? We actually ate better! I am glad we did. I still went through the natural kid phase of eating lots of it. I still have poor self control sometimes and eat that stuff. HOwever, at home we don't eat white flour, because it turns into sugar in your body and is very unhealthy for you. We ate lots of white flour at my parents house this weekend. We also only ate vegetables one time we were there and that is because I cooked them for the dinner. We ate 2 breakfasts and 3 other meals there. I also had 2 sodas and a buttload of candy!! AHH!! Sigh. It is a new week. I am going to do better and feed my family lots of veggies!!

This week I have my Moms night out. I am really looking forward to it. Also I am meeting with some friends for playgroup and to make christmas gifts.

Trick or Treat!

Halloween was a big hit! The kids had a good time. It was REALLY cold outside, so Dad and Brother went home early while Mom and Gioia went to a few more houses. Then we came home and passed out our treats to other kids. We gave out mini-Playdohs this year and they were a huge hit. I can't count how many kids ran down the sidewalk, Hey Mom I got Playdoh! :) Even the teens liked it, cause it had black and other funky colors. Here are a couple pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Arnica works.

Today Dominic was playing near the fireplace when he bonked is head against it. He cried and I thought he hit his forehead. Then I noticed it was the outside corner of his eye. So I remembered the Arnica, which is for bruises, sprains and such. Well I have it in tablet form. So I gave him some. Before i gave it the spot looked purple and was swelling up. 10 minutes after I gave it the purple was gone and it didn't look like a black eye in the making anymore. I gave it twice more at two hour intervals (as directed) and now it is almost unnoticable. It is just a small pink spot. I am impressed.

Tonight for dinner we are having Brats, Edamame and homemade Mac and Cheese. MMM!!

We watched Curious George this weekend and it was a huge hit. Very sweet kids movie. No one gets hurt or dies. My daughter was laughing out loud at the monkey doing mischeif. So we went to the library and got Curious George books. But she is asleep now.... the time change SUCKS with little kids. They got up this morning at 6am. :(

New baby

We have a new baby in our family. Simon Jude 8 lbs. 5 oz born Friday Oct. 27th. His parents are Sara and Alex (Massimos brother). Gioia and Dominic have a new cousin and I am an Aunt. :) Mom and Baby are doing good, should come home on Sunday. Welcome to the family little man!

Dominic got his first fat lip this weekend. His sister was trying to pick him up and they fell. He bit his lip and it looks like it really hurts.

Blah fall weather.

This fall rainy weather is so BLAH! The kids took turns with some bug this week. Both of them ran a significant fever for 24-36 hours and now they are fine. Weird. Dh and I managed to avoid it. I am excited about a project I am doing for Christmas gifts. I can't post what it is until after, because of grandmas and others who might read this blog. We had the Dance class Halloween party Wenesday. It was really fun and cute. Gioia was a fairy princess, beautiful as always.

The cuteness of the week is my little man giving kisses. He will kiss you, then sometimes laugh this fake laugh...ha ha ha. He also walks everywhere now and is getting pretty good at it. He also signed MORE today and NURSING/MILK yesterday.

Hey Grandpa whats for supper?

I been feeling like cooking this week. So far we have had: Homemade pizza with whole wheat crust, Spaghetti Carbonara, Veggie stirfry with Quinoa, and I made Homemade Whole Wheat bread. We get this amazing whole wheat flour from Soaring Eagles Farms, in Edgerton, KS. The couple Lee and Cindy are so nice, they homeschool and live in a Dome house they built, which is TOTALLY COOL! Anyway, they are our kind of people. We even looked at a property by them several months ago, alas it was walking distance from the train tracks. No thanks.

Things that make you go... AWWW!, AGGH!! or HAHAHA!

Some things make you laugh, scream or think AWW precious! It seems like that covers most scenarios. So I will update you all with that in mind.
1. Gioia tells her papaw "Papaw you got a big tummy! You got a baby in your tummy!" I tell her, No, only girls get babies in there tummy but papaw has a big tummy. Papaw says, "I am gonna put some beer in my tummy and see if it gets bigger!" HA HA HA!

2. My niece brings me a chunk of hair and says, I think Gioia did this with the scissors! (Definately an AGGHH!) I ask her about it. SHe says, Yes, I better do that again. (gets up to do it.) NO NO. We don't cut our hair with scissors, I say. Turns out ok, her hair is long and she is a natural at cutting her own layers.

3. Our good friends found out they are pregnant with #1. AWW!! They had a sonogram....turns out they are pregnant with #1 and #2. AGHH! or Aww!! Take your pick.

4. My sister found out she did not get accepted into nursing school (again). AGGHH!!

5. My little guy is walking! He will let go and take off. He is so happy about it, he thinks he is big stuff! AWWW! *sniff sniff*

6. My brothers H.S. Football team is undefeated. They have 2 games left of regular season. I really feel they are on the way to state! Go Bulldogs! Our family will be going to St. Louis to watch them play if they make it. WOO HOO!

7. On our way to Iowa, my husband is driving ($#%@) and we get to talking (no really?) and we miss our exit and drive 20 miles before realizing it. Which means we had to drive 20 back the other way, added a total of 40 minutes to our road trip with 2 toddlers. AGHHHH%$&@*!!!

Have a happy week everyone!

Busy week, Grandmas House.

Whew. We have had a busy week. Can't believe I haven't had time to blog. Monday we tried a new dance class. We didn't like it. They wanted the girls (3-4 year olds) to stand on an X and learn dance steps. Then they were surprised and frustrated when the girls were bored and running around the room. That sealed our decision to go to the dance studio in Olathe. It is wonderful. I talked about it last week. Tuesday we played at home since DH is on vacation.

Wednesday we had our dance class. Gioia had a great time. Then we headed out to Grandmas house. The kids love their Grandma and Papaw. We have a baby calf that was a twin and its mama didn't want him, so he is one the bottle. They have twin goats whos mama doesn't have any milk and they are on a bottle too. They still suck their mama, so maybe her milk will come in eventually. We have been playing outside and having a great time. This weekend we are off to Iowa to see the rest of the family. So busy, busy busy.

Vacation time!

It is vacation time for my husband. He has the whole week off and will hopefull get the two Fiero's in the driveway running. He got the first one almost finished and it runs. Yippee! Now on to the second one.

Saturday we went to Arts in the Arboretum. It was really fun. Gioia painted a rock, made a pine cone turkey, a fall leaves placemate and we took a hayride. We met some friends out there as well. Then we all when shopping and I got a bra. I need a new nursing bra. However, no one sells decent ones except online. Then when I get it, it is not comfortable and has pointy 50's style cups. No thanks! So I found out how to MAKE a nursing bra. I am going to use snaps on it instead of hooks. My friend has a snap press. I went to Victorias Secret found a nice bra and I am *crossing fingers* that it comes out nicely. Then we all went out for dinner. It was a really nice day. We also got Gioia an activity book at Borders. It has numbers, letters, and all kinds of Pre-K age activites. She loves it. When we were at Borders, she went over to an Asian father and daughter, involved herself in their book reading and even climbed up on the mans lap. She is so funny, doesn't know a stranger. That is why I have to keep close eyes on her when we are out and about. Its that great Attachment Parenting. She feels safe and secure in her world. Guess maybe we need to read a few books about strangers.

DH and I continue to kick around ideas about owning an RV, possibling a huge bus one and living in it. It would be so awesome. But then you have the downside of not much room for running around and playing. Surely, there is some inbetween we can find. We will keep our eyes peeled, ears to the ground and options open. It also depends on if he could someday work from home. We would like that regardless of where we lived.

AWW what a nice day.

Today was just an all round nice day. My daughter came in bed and snuggled and woke up baby and I. Then we went and made breakfast. After that we went to my friend Mountain's house for playgroup. On the way home we grabbed some pasta for lunch. The kids feel asleep in the car, i carried them in and crawled in bed with baby for a 2 hour nap! Yeah! I love naps.

New dance class.

We went to a new dance class today and Gioia had a great time! I am so glad. It is a few dollars more each week, but worth it if she enjoys it. They have a recital at the end, but we aren't going to participate because it is 100 dollars for costume and tickets. YIKES! She doesn't even know what a recital is. Maybe we can save up and do the recital next year. Hmmm... nothing interesting today I guess. No sugar again. Still craving it. My RN friend at the health food store, said I may have alot of yeast in my body from all my sugar bingeing before so I am taking probiotics to help put back the good bacteria. Hopefully soon i will not feel like killing someone for a chocolate shake! LOL!!

Rainy Day.

Not much going on today. Grocery shopping, Health store for teething tablets, post office. It is rainy and dreary, so we turned on the fireplace and made Banana bread. MMM! Doing good with my sugar free challenge. No sugar today, made the Banana Bread with Stevia (all natural plant sweetner). My AP (attachment parenting) group is really growing and planning lots of get-togethers lately. I am so glad. Had some excitement on our AP website the last couple days. Some lady joined that was a total religious fanatic, she even said all our kids would grow up to be sluts since we wear pants, tank top shirts, makeup etc... Even worse was that she was supposedly Catholic. We told her she was not a good fit for our hippie group that lets our kids swim in the buff and have all spectrums of religions.

We have field trips scheduled for the next few weeks to go Letterboxing, to Moon Marble Company, and possibly a Post Office tour. It is really great having other families with preschool and kindergarten age kids to do this stuff with. I think we have close to 10 families just from my AP group. Not everyone comes to everything, but we usually have at least 5 come. I think we are planning a rotating meetup, possibly with a theme, craft and snacks for the winter months.

The weekend!

The weekend flew by! So fast I totally forgot to post. Saturday we went on a hayride. My dad was rolling his eyes that we had to "pay" for a hayride. While we were in the city taking a hay ride and campfire, Mom and Dad were baling hay and taking the Orginal Hayride. LOL!

Sunday we went to church. We love our new priest. Then I was held hostage by the Kirby vaccuum salesman. To be fair, he did shampoo my living room carpet and deep vaccuumed my stairs. I have to admit, I am sold on the vaccuum. Just didn't have 1500 dollars to spend on a vaccuum. I am thinking that our vaccuum is 6 years old, the carpet 5 years. In a few more years both are going to need replacing, so we will get the new carpet and vaccuum. It will give us the time to save the money.

Dominic had a horrible night. He is cutting a top tooth, and his molars. Poor baby. I am exhausted, but its temporary. At least I feel good knowing that I helped my son all I could while he was hurting. I didn't leave him in a crib to cry. I don't know how people do it with cribs. Getting in and out of bed, standing and patting backs, etc... It was bad enough laying next to him in the family bed snuggling him and nursing him. Guess that is why so many crib users resort to the awful Cry It Out. Which in my opinion is horrible and abusive to a poor baby.

My sugar free thing is not going well. It is all my husbands fault. We went out for dinner last night and he ordered dessert. BAD!! Ok it is a new week and I am starting fresh. So far so good.

21 day sugar free challenge.

I am inspired by some fellow online mothers in the Mothering Community . We are all doing a 21 day sugar free challenge. Some are taking it very seriously and cutting out natural sugar (like fruit) as well. I am cutting out all refined sugar, white flour (which we do anyway) and sugar in foods. I am still going to eat fruit, just limited for this detox. Here are a couple interesting articles on why sugar is bad. Dangers of Sugar, Killer Sugar. Here is a quote from one article, "Because it contains NO vitamins or minerals it must rob them from the body in which it is assimilated, (like a parasite leaching the "life" from its victim)." A little dramatic but the point is still true. Sugar is one of those cummulative things. We are a pretty healthy eating family, but I can think of alot of things in my kitchen right now with sugar in them. Peanut butter, mayo, tortilla shells, bread, honey, maple syrup, cereal, the canned soup, ketchup, BBQ sauce. So it is a build up effect. It is not just candy and ice cream.

I know my kids may eat junk when they are older, or go to McDonalds (which we boycott). But my hope is that if they are used to eating this way, white flour free, sugar free, organic mostly, then they will have a firm background to come back to when they are parents or adults. Just maybe the McDonalds will make them feell crappy too.

On another subject, my "girl doggie" decided to drop her pants and pee outside last night. Like a good doggie should. Although, she really isn't a dog, she is a 3 year old. My husband started to flip out, but we took a moment and when she was done I told her that yes, doggies pee outside, but I would like it if she tried to use the potty. Then we laughed in private.

DH(dear husband) got pulled over last night. Our headlight was out, then he couldn't find the current insurance, oops...it was home on the counter. It started to get a ticket, until he found the insurance card that just expired a few days ago. So the cop let him go with no ticket. WHEW!

Indian food and scary teachers.

We had our MNO (Moms Night Out) last night. It went really great. 13 moms showed up. The mom with twins and two toddlers came and her husband made it just fine with all 4 kids. He deserves a hand for that! We ate Indian Food. It was a first for most of us. Me and 2 other moms split a family meal for 3 that came with appetizer and 3 different small portions of meals. We had Buttered chicken, Lamb, and Goat curry. OH MY! I have eaten goat now. Hmmm. I didn't really care for it. 50% was the taste, it was tender but fatty and 50% was mental. Ok maybe 80% was mental. But HEY! I did try two bites of it. My sister would be proud. The lamb and the chicken were wonderful and the service was the best I have had for a long time. All in all an A+ for the Indian place. Afterwards, me and my two good friends went next door to Applebees and had a drink. It was fun. We are plotting for a Karaoke night. That would be really fun.

We decided not to go to dance class today. I haven't paid for this month yet and I am thinking of switching to a different studio. My daughter has told me a few different times that the teacher is scary. I have no idea where this comes from but if she feels that way then we need to find a different arrangement. This morning she said she didn't want to go. SO we went to the park and rode bikes. She had a wonderful time.

I am planning to paint and wallpaper my half bath, maybe this weekend. It might have to wait until next week though depending on cash flow. Wallpaper is stinking expensive. Bah! The excitement is killing me though. I love to do home improvement things and this is going to make a huge difference in there.

Beautiful Day.

Today was a beautiful day. We met some friends for playdate at Antioch Park. Then the kids napped. Later we had dinner and went grocery shopping. Sounds really exciting right?? Funny, thing is I remember when we were in college and shopping was fun. We would go at like 11pm or 1am to Food-4-Less (aka Beer-4-Less) and buy groceries. We were about the only ones there and it was fun. Gioia is getting really good at riding her bike. She can pedal and steer now by herself. Tonight she was helping her brother walk. She would hold his hands and off they would go. It was so sweet. I videotaped it of course.

A lady I know had a baby today by C-section. They are both fine and I wish them the best but it really makes me sick about it all. She of course, was induced. The ONLY reason they induced her was because she was a couple days past due. Baby was fine, weight of baby fine etc... It was her first baby and the doctor talked her into inducing, which didn't work, which led to C-section. So basically, they ended up cutting her baby out of her because her doctor, not mother nature, decided it was time. GRRR!! I get so upset about it all.

Natural body care.

Our family has been working really hard over the last few years to get rid of chemicals we put in or on our bodies. I mean, why do we feel it is ok to lather ourselves with lotions or soaps that have all these preservatives and chemicals in them you can't even pronounce? The thing is that its totally unneccesary. There are tons of companies out there that offer natural body care products. I think we are finally switched over to all products that are good for us and rid of the other stuff.

For example we use shampoo bars and vinegar rinse for the shower. www.prairielandherbs.com We use lotion, shaving silk from my friend's company. www.naturalnewborn.com I use deodrant and facial products from this company. www.terressentials.com AND! My triumph has been that I am using mineral makeup and eyeshadow so that is switched over too. I got them from www.everydayminerals.com. Of course, you can also go to Wild Oats or Whole Foods to get these kinds of things. Also Burts Bees is pretty good stuff too.

It is true that it is a little more expensive, but I have found that the products last a long time and it is worth it in my opinion. It also makes it a little harder for people to give gifts, since we don't want a litaney of bath and body work baskets or things of that nature. But I say, I don't need gifts, just take me out to eat somewhere. :) Preferably somewhere with Cheesecake! LOL!

Small farms and RV's.

There was an article in the KC Star this weekend about small farms. How 80% of americas farms are these small farms. People from the city or big towns that move out to the country for some peace and quiet. I can relate. I love lots of things about the city, convience, activities, but I would also like a little square of my own for growing food and things like that. The article said that small farms can make $10,000 per acre growing organic food and specialty items like one man makes Goats milk cheese on his farm for gourmet stores and restaurants. AAH. I could go on and on about this subject.

We watched the little known movie RV this weekend. Starring Robin Williams. Man, it was pretty funny. Very "National Lampoon".We dream of hubby working from home, having an RV and traveling around to see the country. Go somewhere warm in the winter, Colorado in the summer, East in the fall to see the New England states trees turn colors and all that jazz. It would be pretty cool. Old folks got the right Idea. I hope I don't have to wait till I am old to do it.

Renfest and cooking.

This weekend was filled with family fun and COOKING! Remember all those apples I got. Yeah. I finally got them all done up into apple sauce. It was hard work for 3 quarts and 2 pints of apple sauce. I also made 5 batches of Beef and Veggie soup for cooking club.

Saturday we went to the Reneissance Festival with the kids and it was really fun. Gioia and her dad rode a camel. We ate a turkey leg, rootbeer float and saw all sorts of cool costumes. A funny lady gave Gioia a "dragon tear" green jewel when we first got there and it was the highlight of her day. Here are some pics of it all. And finally a picture of the "Fat toad" being himself! HA!

Dance and Apples!

Today we went to Gioia's dance class. We were 10 minutes late, but she did ok anyway. She told me once when we got there and once on the way home that she didn't like the teacher. I have been to every class so nothing "happened" between her and the teacher. Must just be something else that Gioia doesn't like. Hmm.. We scored on the way home! We stopped at a farmers house to ask how much apples were 50 cents a lb. But the lady gave me a 5 gallon bucket of apples with little blemishes on them to make into apple sauce FOR FREE!! Right on! We are making apple sauce and maybe a pie this week!

Here is a picture of the little guy showing his true Italian colors.

Why do I have a blog?

Well this is my first post. Wow. I remember back when this first started and I thought "Blogs are GAY! Why would you wanna put your thoughts out there where people can read them? " Well I am not sure why. It just seems like the right thing to do. I mean, I used to have a website where we wrote stuff for our family to read, posted pictures. This is really the same thing.

I have been thinking alot about the ways of the world, society and all that jazz. My husband and I and our friends (mostly AP and Natural family living families) have a different view of the world and what SHOULD be going on than oh.... 95% of the the rest of the people out there. This bothers me. Lets change the world. Shout from the mountain tops! But alas, I fear we would shout on deaf ears and I don't think I can shout louder than all the TV's in the world, which are a large part of the problem. My dad might beg to differ on how loud I can be though! :) I guess that is one reason for me to keep a blog. I can post my rantings and ravings. I think my husband might get tired of hearing them sometimes.

So a warning to the readers of this blog. I am going to post about the real me. The things I do and think with no apologies. Maybe that is why I am doing this, my passive aggressive way to break out of my former shell and show my true colors.