tip of the day

When baking bread make sure you take the cling wrap off the loaves that have risen for the second time before you bake them at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.

Recap and my cute baby

Thanksgiving was great. We watched movies all day Thursday while Trav graded papers, I did laundry and cleaned the kitchen and we took turns taking care of L. We had dinner at my parents' house. It was a lot of fun and a wonderful break for me since L was always being held by someone, which means she was always happy.

Black Friday Trav left very early in the morning to go shopping. He hated the experience, about which I only feel partially bad. He was shopping for me, so I feel bad about that, but then he went out for breakfast with his mom. I always feel like weekends and holidays should be breaks for me, too, so when I'm stuck with a crying baby who refuses to take her nap I get annoyed that he's sitting around enjoying himself (although the service was bad and their food was cold).

We then headed to Trav's hometown for a feast. There was so much food left over, it was almost scandalous.

L is now crawling very well. She can sit up from a crawl (sorta) and she can pull herself up. Here's some footage from this morning. She gets kinda camera shy and doesn't perform well, but you'll get the point. The first video may not seem like much, but watch it to the end - she's so cute!

Thanksgiving

Good and gracious Father, thank You for the abundance of blessings you have brought to my life.

I am thankful for:

Travis, and the way that he loves me

L, and the love, cuteness and fun she brings to my life

My parents, and their support, care and love

My in-laws, and the way they have brought me into their family

My brothers and their wives, who are such good people

Katie, LB, Em, Liz, Jolene, Mia, Ash, Rach, Margaret, Sr. MC, Sr. MN and all my friends and family

Our home, our health insurance, Travis' job and job security, my job, MVV and our cars

Our health

The food You provide for us

Holy Mother Church and all the Sacraments

That You reign with Jesus Christ, Our Lord, and the Holy Spirit.

A very restful, peaceful, joyful Thanksgiving to all my readers!

My brother's wedding

My brother and his bride!

My brother and Matt have been friends since kindergarden. Matt was the first to cry during the vows - which set all the rest of us off!

Miss Jolene Kay flew in from LA to spend time with me, meet L and see Karl get hitched. We haven't seen each other since my wedding 2 years ago and it was wonderful to be in her presence again. She is such a great friend.

L with her uncle and aunt.

The mother - son dance.

L with Uncle Karl during the Dollar Dance.

Highlights of the reception:

- Karl sang "I Wanna Grow Old with You" from The Wedding Singer to Maureen at the reception.

- the entire bridal party "shoop-ed" behind Karl and Maureen during their first dance, which was My Girl.

- Karl lined us all up and had us do the Thriller dance. It was a hoot.

Karl and Maureen, I love you both and I am so happy for you! May God bless you with a lifetime of joyful years.

My nursing humor

Someone took us out for lunch and made a reference to L eating. I replied, "Drinks are on me for this one."

On a road trip my mother-in-law asked if I brought a bottle. "No," I replied, "but I brought two jugs."

When L's hungry and in the arms of a non-lactating person, we refer to that person as a "milk dud."


What about the rest of you moms, do you have any breastfeeding jokes?

I didn't really think it would be this hard

Last week I got a phone call from my LLL leader. It seems she's been watching me closely these past 6 months and it has been pretty clear to her that I'm struggling. While the phone call caught me completely off guard, I'm very glad she made it. I love being L's mom, but sometimes I feel like I'm drowning. I adore my daughter, but sometimes I feel so spent, like I'm running on fumes.

With the phone call I took a step back and looked at things - every day I feel stressed, overwhelmed, anxious, tired and angry. I noticed that I over-react and misplace my frustrations so much so that I felt silly (perfect example: how upset I became over the election). Often I angrily pray, "Why can't you just give me a break? Why are you putting me through all this? Can't you see that I'm failing right now and could use some help?!" I think the anger is the most surprising reaction. I definitely didn't expect to be angry.

I try to be grateful, hoping that it will make me more patient, compassionate and willing to let the housework sit and hold my daughter.

I don't want to sound like I'm complaining - I want to be a stay at home mom and I am very glad to have a husband who supports and wants that too. And I love my family. But, I just never knew to expect all this.

Have I ever told you that I hate mice

Yesterday Travis found mice turds all over the counters. He immediately patched up some holes in the drywall and I cleaned everything.

Problem solved?

No.

Today I heard a mouse in the kitchen and when I went out there I saw that I had left the door to the corner lazy susan cupboard (where we keep most the food) open. I heard it in there and then I:
put on my sweatshirt and shoes,
picked up L, wrapping her in a blanket and putting a hat on her,
walked across the street to our neighbor to see how he felt about mice and if he was busy at the moment.
He wasn't home
so I walked to the other neighbor's to find out the same thing, but he wasn't there either.

So I went home and called my mom who was no help - she just told me I had to go into the cupboard and get out the food. Hello?!!! What if the mouse touched me?!!!

She just laughed. A lot.

There was a long period of silence from the cupboard. (did I forget to mention that as I was talking to her L was safe in the living room and I was sitting on the island, broom in hand?)
So I decided to get down and see if the mouse was gone.

Top shelf - all clear.

Bottom shelf - mouse!!!! Right by the cereal!

I screamed like the girly girl I am, jumped or something and ran to the living room. In the process I hurt my ankle and my hip. As I sat on a chair and continued to freak out to my mom, L was beginning to look scared so I made myself calm down.

When I talked to Travis when his classes were done, asking him to come home early he, too, just laughed. He also told me to put on the leather work gloves, pick it up and throw it against the garage. I told him there was no way I would do that, to which he said I could at least put it in a container and he'd kill it. I then clarified that the part I couldn't do was picking it up. (If you think this is cruel, do not read this story.)

In the end, the only thing that showed any evidence of nibbling was the chocolate chips. They got pitched and everything else got wiped down, but only after Travis showed me that there are no holes in the cupboard, proving it was my fault for leaving the door open.

Quick Thoughts

James Blunt, The Streets (Brit rapper), Blink 182's Enema of the State, Jo Dee Messina, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Some of these were impulse buys. The list goes on and it is definitely time to get rid of some CD's. Some, though, I just can't part with, like my Saves the Day CD. I was a freshman in college and my younger brother and I just loved that album.

Every day L gets a little better at crawling and it's only a matter of time before she is really getting into our DVD collection and all my CD's. We need better storage, and I need to detach myself from albums I never listen to, ex - Puccini.

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Today Travis bought a 42" LG plasma TV with money from his grandparents. It's payment for a bathroom remodeling job he's doing for them. He is in love and I will not have his full attention for quite some time.

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My dad, who is a very picky eater, actually liked my sloppy joes. I was flabbergasted.

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Today I started Christmas shopping and I must say, so far, so good.

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Last night L stayed at my parents' house so Travis and I could get some sleep. Of course, I wasn't able to sleep through the night like I wanted to since my body clock is now used to waking up repeatedly throughout the night. But, L was a great sleeper for my parents - she slept by herself and only woke up once, at 2:30am (she went down for the night at 8:30)!!! She took a bottle "like she was a bottle baby her whole life" and then went back to sleep until 6!!! Mom thinks it's because of how warm she was so tonight we're making sure she is WARM.

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Please pray for us and the youth group that we lead at our church.

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My younger brother gets married this coming weekend to a wonderful woman. We're super excited about it all. Yay, K & M!!!

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My good friend, Jolene, is flying in from Cali for the wedding and is staying with us for the weekend. I am thrilled to see her again and to have her meet L. Jo is one of the best people I know and it is always fun and edifying being around her.

L Update

She's six months; 16.2 pounds and 25.5" long. She's super close to crawling, she's taken a couple of "steps" forward but mostly moves backwards or falls on her face.


She also has 2 little teeth. My big girl!

Cue Ricky Martin's She Bangs

Cue Ricky Martin's She Bangs

They're not "tamed" yet, and I have no make-up on in this picture. When I asked my Mom what she thought she said, "Well, it's different. With your hair all long you looked so pretty and sophisticated." And while it sounded like an insult, it wasn't supposed to be. She says I now look cute and girlish. I think I'm going to ask for a Sarah Palin do for my brother's wedding on the 22nd. Now that I have the bangs I think I can pull it off.

Screaming for 1/2 hour

L, when you scream at the top of your lungs it really stresses me out. When I pull off to the side of the road, climb into the small backseat of my small car and try to nurse you but you are too distracted by the bright lights of the gas station I give up and figure you're satisfied. But then, when you begin to scream some more, I become even more stressed. I have a throbbing headache and it's your fault. You should really work on turning it down a notch.

I've been in a funk lately, brought on by thoughts I can't chase from my head. They came about because of my reaction to the O family stance on abortion: I literally felt the need to shield myself and my daughter from B & M - to protect us from the violence that they think is okay. Of course I know that B & M would never perform an abortion themselves, but that they would condone one is enough. I am especially disturbed by M, a mother herself, and I wonder if while she was pregnant she was being healthy to take care of her fetus or her baby. I actually cried when I wondered what she would think of my miscarried son. Would she feel empathy or think that I was a silly girl. Both reactions seem wrong to me.

Jennifer at Conversion Diary, a former athiest and firm pro-choicer, wrote a post last week where she gives the litmus test to know if what is happening in your society is wrong or right as she made a comparison between the horror of the Holocaust and abortion:

Every decade or so, take a look around the society in which you live, and ask yourself if there is any group of human beings who are seen as something less than human. A big tipoff is if dehumanizing words -- terms other than "man," "woman," "child," "baby," or "person" -- are used to describe any category of people.

And if you ever see that going on, you might be in the midst of something gravely evil.

She acknowledges that the comparison is not apples to apples, and tries to be fair with the parallels. This week she has another post on the subject, going into further detail on how she had her change of heart and how she sees the subject now. She offers an abundance of links so you can "see for yourself" although they can be pretty gruesome.

Her statement, copied below, is what makes me so bewildered when women who speak of the sacredness of the womb and birth, especially those who are mothers themselves, support abortion.

Yet I noticed that when I became pregnant with my first child, I wasn't terrified of losing the "fetus" to miscarriage; I was terrified of losing the baby. When I was 10 weeks pregnant I didn't buy a handheld Doppler so that I could lie in bed and listen to the "clump of tissue"'s heartbeat; I was listening to my child's heartbeat.

I'm writing this post hoping it will make me feel better, but I feel like I need to do more. Perhaps I should channel my feelings into Elizabeth Ministry. What do you, my pro-life friends, do with your feelings on this subject?

While you're dancing in the street I'm trying to sleep

Okay, so I've been up since 3am with an upset stomach caused by worry and sadness. Sad because of things I've learned and worried that Obama will keep the following promise:

"The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That's the first thing that I'd do." -- Senator Barack Obama, speaking to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, July 17, 2007

I've come to the following conclusion - I don't care what he does with the economy, the wars, healthcare - I hope he's astonishingly successful. As long as he doesn't take away the right of moral objections for doctors, nurses and hospitals, fund abortions with government (meaning taxpayer, meaning MY) money, and make partial birth abortion legal.


Also - side note - if you support FOCA please don't leave a comment telling me so. I don't want to know. All it does is make me want to keep my daughter and womb far away from you.

Oh John, it was you we wanted.

Our house is really sad about Obama's win. But, Senator Obama, if you will be my president too, do this:
- do NOT make partial birth abortion legal again!
- be responsible as you pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan, being mindful that most of our current soldiers and veterans did not vote for you.
- be mindful that when you overly tax the wealthy they will make up for their losses one way or another, be it layoffs or raised prices for the rest of us.
- appoint a pro-life justice to the Supreme Court, should you get the opportunity

What I did 6 months ago

6 months ago, May 3rd, was L's birth day. Here's some pictures to commemorate what I did that day.

(Warning, these are the most "risky" pictures I've put up, but nothing too gross.)

This is Bernice, my midwife. She was listening to the baby through a contraction.

Her white little hands and feet are what knocked her down one point on the APGAR. Please notice my very red knees.

Holding my newborn - she was maybe an hour old.
Less than 2 days old.

6 months old exactly. What a cutie!

Please excuse me for being so bold as I say, "Well done, Me."

Okay, I'm sure you're tired of politics, too...

But my mom pointed out an article in Saturday's Peoria Journal Star where they endorsed Aaron Schock even though they basically think Sheldon Shafer is the best candidate. So I checked out Mr. Shafer's website this morning and actually, I think the PJS is right. So one day before the election I'm switching my vote from Schock to Shafer.

I don't consider myself aligned with any party, though, my belief in a smaller federal government makes me more of a republican, along with the way that republicans have always stood on the same side when it comes to my beliefs on marriage and abortion. However, they tend to miss the mark when it comes to the death penalty, environment, immigration and fair trade. That's why I was impressed with Shafer. If you live in the Illinois 18th (counties around Peoria, Pekin, Lacon, Morton, Lincoln and Jacksonville) please take a minute and check him out. He seems to be a good pick, especially if you're not a republican and not impressed with Callahan.

Trick or Treating and the Day of the Dead

Trick of Treating was a success! Between EC and our neighborhood we collected almost $70 for Unicef. Travis and I are both really glad we did it - not only did we get to show off our daughter, raise money for a good cause, score a couple of pieces of candy, but we also got to meet our neighbors! That last bit was so great! If you have trick or treaters yourself, I would highly encourage you to let them Trick or Treat for Unicef next year. We only had one house that didn't want to give, though we definitely caught almost everyone off guard when we turned down their candy.

Today is the Feast of All Saints, wherein the Catholic Church celebrates all those holy souls in Heaven. Tomorrow is All Souls Day, when we remember and pray for all our loved ones who have passed away (this is for everyone in Purgatory). There will be a Mass for the dead at 10:30 am at the Cathedral in Peoria on Sunday. Also, at 3:00 pm at Resurrection Cemetery on Allen Rd there will be a prayer service for all babies lost in pregnancy or infancy. We will be attending on behalf of Peter Mark. If you or anyone you know has lost a baby I welcome you to come. While it will be a Catholic service, anyone of any faith should feel comfort.