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.