I miss you

Right now I'm missing my like-minded friends. Friends who believe in the spirit of the law instead of the letter of the law. Friends who I can talk to about the latest Oprah episode about Autism and vaccines and not have to back up my own opinions and thoughts with hard core facts because they have the same opinions and beliefs as me and completely subscribe to the same parenting philosophy as me. I miss my friends who have home births and VBACS and no medical interventions, who view birth as a natural occurrence, one to be loved and enjoyed. I miss sitting around and talking about the amazingness of water birth and listening to similar wonderful birth stories filled with positiveness and no regrets. I miss seeing nursing toddlers, little 2 years olds running around asking for Nani or Nana or Nummies or Mommies or Nursies. I miss it!!
I miss my neurosis of not accepting anything less than perfect for my child's education being completely supported and backed up. I'm tired of having to explain every opinion I have, and when I cant put my thoughts into perfect logical sentences I'm sick of my opinion basically being dismissed instead of attempt at understanding. I'm not one to subscribe to the notion of agreeing to disagree. I still love having dialogue about things. I love the debate. Some people might view that as anger or argument but that's not the case. I cant recall ever arguing with a friend over a difference of opinion. I might be passionate about something but that doesn't necessarily mean I am fighting.
I'm emotionally drained from the past couple weeks. I miss my friends in Arizona. I throw my hands in the air, at least for the time being. I'm done with expressing my opinions (in person, you'll still hear them on my blog). I'm going to try to be that person who sits back and listens and if my opinion is coaxed out of me then I will make it brief. Lets see how long this lasts. I'm voting not too long. But I'm going to try. So, Steve get ready for an earful at the end of the day.
PS. a bit of info about myself, if a blog ever doesn't make sense or there are spelling errors or strange things in it, just know I never re-read my blogs, I type them and then publish. So, what you get is the ramblings from my head, you get what you get.

A bone to pick (edited ending)

Ive got a bone to pick with Mitt Romney (Rep-of course).
As many of you are aware and maybe some others are not, I am LDS (Mormon). Not at all an 'in your face' Mormon. Very private about my religious choices, beliefs and value system. I'm not sure if that's my personality or what, hmmmm now that I think about it its not much my personality, I am usually very expressive about my opinions but maybe because I value other peoples choices to choose something so intimate and life changing. I'm definitely not one of those out to convert the world. I'm not even out to convert my husband. I'm happy where he is, I'm happy where I am, and we get along just fine, better than fine. We agree on some things, God, charity, agency, Sacrament, the suspiciousness of Noah and the Ark (and other Bible stories) "they'll put anything in that book" (Jose Vergara quote), we disagree on others, Modern day revelation, temples, tithing, etc. But it works for us.
Anyways, I veered a little.
So, another little fact about myself, I'm a huge advocate for breastfeeding. There are only a slight percentage of reasons in my book why someone shouldn't be able to breastfeed (I wont list them), but that's not to say that I don't completely respect a woman's choice to not breastfeed, I just don't understand it. I nursed Cailin until she was almost 3 and Avrie 2.5 is still nursing. I love it, its great for flying, an amazing bond (Cailin still remembers nursing, I hope she never loses that) One more fact about myself, I birthed both my girls at home with a midwife, surrounded by sisters and mom, and of course hubbie. So, in my mind I had it easy. This is about women who hospital birth who have to fight the system, resist the temptations and stand up for themselves and their families over and over and over again. (can you tell I don't have much respect for the medical community?)
Ok, so here is goes...
Mitt Romney, as governor of MA pressured his states Public Health Council to rescind a ban of free formula given by hospitals to new mothers and paid for by formula companies. Does everyone understand the complexity to this decision?
By not allowing formula samples in hospitals we are finally raising the bar for women in our society. No, I'm sorry, it is not OK to not even try to breastfeed your baby. It is not OK to give up just because it feels funny. You are obligated to try 110% to provide everything you can for your child, and if you don't want to, if its inconvenient, then don't have babies. By providing formula samples in the hospital we are first choosing to ignore the guidelines we supposedly subscribe to set by WHO (The World Health Organization) and we are giving women an easy out, when it gets a little trying in the beginning, 2am and your baby is screaming and wont latch on. Instead of working through it knowing it will get better. You grab that free sample lovingly (maliciously) given to you by the formula company. One thing leads to another 3 weeks later your milk has dried up your baby wont latch on anymore and you are walking around telling everyone you had a low milk supply "My body just wouldn't make enough" Oh, boo hoo and bull sh**!!
Background: In 2005 MA became the 1st state to prohibit formula sample bags in hospitals. Supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC).
Fortunately the Public Health Council in MA resisted his pressure and kept the ban.
Unfortunately he fired and replaced 3 members in the committee (I wonder what their vote was?) right before the vote and it passed. That's called playing dirty!
Just a side note...2 weeks later Mitt Romney announced a deal with Bristol Myers (largest formula company in the world) to build a $66 million pharmaceutical plant in...where?... Devens Massachusetts!!! Coincidence????? I THINK NOT!!!!!
How much do I hate formula companies? More than I can even verbalize. It ignites a bonfire within me that makes it necessary for me to breath into a paper bag. That's not to say that I don't think there is a time and place for formula. On the contrary, I think in the proper time and place formula can be a life saving manna. It is a spectacular invention. But it should definitely be the exception not the norm.
Lets not even go into Nestle taking their formula into remote villages in South Africa, getting children and mothers addicted, then leaving them with no clean sanitized water, no money to pay for the formula and no more breast milk left in their bodies. Nestle is personally responsible for millions of infant deaths in South Africa and other Third World Countries and no one is holding them responsible. Grrrrrrr!!!!! Why? Because big dollar companies are so intertwined in our government, you can't tell where one starts and the other begins. That's why they aren't held responsible. Because the committee set by the government to monitor and regualte formula companies consists mainly of board members from the formula companies. Ok class, can you say 'CONFLICT OF INTEREST'?
link : http://www.mothering.com/articles/new_baby/breastfeeding/formula-profit.html
Okay, so this is for all the Mormons out there who support candidates solely because they are Mormon or call a particular plumber solely because he is Mormon or make assumptions about someone solely because they are Mormon.
In the case of the politicians, generally speaking this is how is goes...if they are Republicans they are probably corrupt, if they are Democrats they are probably corrupt, so if you ask me the worst breed of politicians...are politicians. And that's my 8 cents about that!!!

My little helper

Don't we just love it when our kids have a surprise for us. Especially when that surprise is something helpful? Like a chore that we dread or a chore that they dread.

Every once in a while my "me me me me me me me" 5 year old will do just this.

Like this morning, I wake up to find a sneaky 2 year old nursing and my husband drooling all over my pillow. Cailin comes up to tell me she has a surprise for me and not to come downstairs. Immediately I know what she is doing. She's done this before...she was putting the dishes away for me. She's done this before but for some reason this morning's task was taking her an unusual amount of time. Turns out, she put away the dishes from the dishwasher like I had guessed, only mommy (me) had forgotten to turn on the dishwasher the night before. It was taking her so long because she had to wash every dish before putting it away.
Ugh!!

And the winner is...

I wish I had a prize.
Nasty, stanky, rotten, moldy, oozing, sticky, squishy...
Potatoes!!!!

Mystery smell

For a while now my kitchen pantry has had a funny smell, for actually a couple months. The smell, which has a slight fishy compost smell, has gradually increased in intensity each time I opened the door. So, one day in frustration and with a slight nauseated feeling I took everything out of my pantry and guess what I found????? NOTHING!!
That was a few weeks ago. Today, for a random reason unknown to me, I just happened to remove the lid to my crock pot. Obviously I'm not very addicted to my slow cooker. As the lid was slowly raised from the rim, a smell so hideous, so revolting, I thought for sure a small rodent, no, a large rodent was decomposing inside. Nope, no such luck.
What do you think it was???????

The family ATM

How pathetic is it on a scale from 1-10 to borrow $10 from your 5 year old child at 10 o'clock at night to go buy DQ Blizzards?
Don't be too harsh on your voting, I'm going to pay her back..eventually!