Here's what I think....

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Random Acts of Kindness

The family of Alexander Evertsen, an infant who passed away last year, has started a random acts of kindness campain. I read about it on a message board I post on and visited the family's caringbridge website (http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/alexanderevertsen), and I am incredibly inspired by the strength and will to do good in the world that this family has. I can't imagine losing a child. Through all the grief, they've thought of others - asking that each and every one of us perform random acts of kindness in Alex's name. I'd like to encourage all of you to visit the site and read more.

There is a request to print this out on a slip of paper when you perform the act of kindness:

*******************************************
This random act of kindness was done in memory of Alexander Evertsen 1/28/06-3/16/06 who was born with a broken heart to teach us ALL to Have a heart! Visit http://www.alexandersheart.blogspot.com/ and pass this slip on with your next random act of kindness!
*******************************************

Here are a few acts of random kindness you could perform, some harder than others - that can brighten someone's day, and help ease this family's pain. I'd encourage you to email the family and tell them what you've done. The family has small children and it would make them very happy to know that they're making a difference in people's lives.

1) Pay for the person's food/coffee/dry cleaning/toll behind you at the drive-thru. Ask the cashier to give the paper to the person.

2) Help a senior citizen or mother with small children out with her groceries. (Be careful with this one as they may be uncomfortable).

3) Have a neighbor that's busy all the time, has an illness, is elderly, or has lots of small kids? Prepare twice the meal you normally would and take half to them. Make it freezable so if they've already got dinner, they can save it for another day.

4) Buy the cashier at Target, Wal-Mart, or Grocery a bottled water or soda. Ask the manager if it's ok first in case they can get in trouble for accepting something from a customer.

5) Let people in front of you in traffic.

6) Take any opportunity you see to brighten someone's day. You'll be surprised how it brightens yours, too.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Topomax side effects?

I've been on Topomax for migraines now for about 5 months, and it's been an overall wonderful experience. It's the first medication I've ever had that worked wonders. I've not had a single migraine headache in the five months I've been on it. Before I was incapacitated for 10 days a month with a jackhammer beating my head. Try raising two kids while being unable to open your eyes due to light sensitivity. I was popping upwards of 15 Advil a day after my "good" meds ran out and the Dr's wouldn't refill them anymore. I can't complain, if the Dr. refilled the narcotics as much as I needed to take them I'd be a junkie right now..

That being said, I think I'm starting to experience some pretty negative side effects. I have not been to the gym now but once or twice in the last few weeks because I've got an overall feeling of numbness/pain all over my body ALL THE TIME. It never ends. No amount of Advil, Aleve, or Tylenol works. I had some Vicodin cough syrup for strep throat a few weeks back and that relieved it for two days. But a few weeks later, I'm still feeling it.

I did some online research and it fits the bill for some of the Topomax side effects - confusion, weird numbness, etc. There's one condition called metabolic acidosis that fits the "weird feeling" I've been having. I called my Doctor and asked them what I need to do to wean myself off the Topomax. They should call me back "within 24 hours".

I asked them to call me in my good ole' trusty prescription for Ultracet to help with the pain in case the migraines come back. This should also help with the "weird feeling" this crap is giving me while I wean off the Topomax. The scary thing about weaning off this stuff is the risk of seizure is pretty darn high. I'm hoping the changes in my diet and exercise routine in the last six months will mean the migraines don't come back at all.

I'll elaborate on that comment for those of you that don't know me at all - in the last six months, I've changed my life style dramatically. I only eat whole grains now. I do not eat fried foods anymore - rarely do I eat sugars. No more processed foods (well, only in moderation). I work out 6 days a week, about 2 hours a day. I eat 2 cups of vegetables and fruits each per day. Bad diet is the usual migraine trigger, so lets hope I'll get to let that Ultracet sit right there in my medicine cabinet until after baby #3 is born in a few years, eh?

Monday, October 8, 2007

Should Sex Offender Parents be Allowed in their Child's Schools?

I read an article today about a father in North Dakota who was convicted of a 2005 rape. He is a registered sex offender and a father of three. He is allowed on school grounds to vote in school board elections and for other official business, but he is not allowed to attend any extracurricular activities for his children. I'm going to look away, albeit painfully, from the fact that he raped someone two years ago and he is now free. I'm just going to focus in on the issue of sex offenders rights. As hard as it is to say, there are some parental rights everyone has, correct? The question is, where is the line drawn?

I couldn't find the copy online, but my daughter's district policy is as follows: If the offense was not against a child, the parent can come on campus during school hours to meet with a teacher in a private office away from children with an adult escort at all times. They are permitted to eat lunch with their child, also in a private office away from other children. If the offense was against a child, there are no school priveleges whatsoever, as the terms of their registration should keep them away from schools anyway.

Do sex offenders have a right to complain? Once time is served, and they are back out into society, their debt is paid, is it not? I'm trying to play devil's advocate here, because I am trying to think about the child here, and not the parent. How terrible is it to punish a child who's already got enough going against them because the parent is a criminal? Little Sue or Billy can't really participate in extras because Daddy did bad things to someone? The sins of the father...

Then there is the other side of me that is screaming "don't let a sex offender get anywhere NEAR MY DAUGHTERS!"

This is all I can write for now but I'd love to hear some other thoughts. That is if anyone reads my blog at all. LOL...

Spam Text Messaging?

I am normally pretty mellow when it comes to spam. It's mostly filtered out, and I can just delete the crap I get. Junk mail, I can throw away. No problem. But you know what really gets my blood BOILING?

At 12:26 AM, I get a text message. A LOUD F-ING TEXT MESSAGE. I have FINALLY fallen asleep after a crazy night involving my infant having a fever of 103.5, a trip to the ER, a long wait at a pharmacy, an almost-anxiety attack, and an all around piece of CRAP day, but I wake up anyway, open my phone (quite groggily at that) and open it up to see what idiot is sending me a text message at half past midnight on a Sunday.

TEXT MESSAGE
FROM: lvipbs@family.cc-net.or.jp
you cant argue with this business, RPDM, Rapid Fire Marketing Margie HTyson
Mon Oct 8 12:26 am

If I ever find Margie HTyson, she's going to have my cell phone removed from her rectum shortly thereafter.

Secondly, the exact same message came through exactly 8 minutes ago, prompting this blog. So now, I have to sleep with my phone on silent? Which voids my alarm clock, which means I have to buy an alarm clock? So I don't get TEXT MESSAGE SPAM? This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen and I am L-I-V-I-D.

In case you are wondering, in 2003, Congress did pass a law making this illegal. This is from the FCC website: In 2003, Congress enacted the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act to curb spam. As required by the Act, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted rules that prohibit sending unwanted commercial e-mail messages to wireless devices without prior permission. This ban took effect in March 2005. In addition, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) adopted detailed rules that restrict sending unwanted commercial e-mail messages to computers. To find out more about the FTC’s rules, visit http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/spam/consumer.htm.

There is a complaint form I will fill out, which the FCC won't really do anything about because these people don't exist or don't use their real names or they just hacked some poor schmuck who was looking at "free porn" that got spyware downloaded to his computer, and I'll still get the text messages, which will prompt me to turn off my text messages eventually, which sucks, because I really like texting my friends and family all day long. F U SPAMMERS! (Maybe if I speak their language, they'll listen?)

In the meantime, I'm going to google-hunt Rapid Fire Marketing and Margie H Tyson, and set my alarm for every hour tonight between 12 and 5 am and call them, text them, and drive by their homes and honk my horn. See if they text ME IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday, October 5, 2007

7 foods you should never, ever eat!

I stumbled across this article today - the advice is from eDiets. Read on:

-- eDiets has compiled a list of foods that they advise you to never eat. What made the list? Doughnuts, for being high in fat and sugar and low in nutrients; Cheeseburgers and fries, for being high in saturated (and possibly trans) fats, cholesterol and refined carbs; Fried chicken for also being high in saturated and trans fats; Oscar Meyer Lunchables, for containing processed meats and cheese that are high in saturated fat, not to mention refined carbs, sugary treats and massive amounts of sodium; Sugary cereals, for being low in nutrients, high in processed carbs and extremely high in sugar; processed meats for containing the least appetizing parts of the animal (blech) and being high in carcinogens (yikes!); and finally canned soup (really?!) for being often containing trans fats and being extremely high in sodium

So, the doughnuts aren'ts a surprise. Nor are the chicken wings or fried foods. Lunchables? Canned soup? Dare I say... lucky charms? Ok, I knew Lucky Charms were bad. I know. I won't buy them anymore.

Since losing 30 lbs in the last 4 months (excuse me while I brag a bit, I'm totally proud..) I've already cut out all these foods. I buy whole grain/flax cereals (Zoe's O's tastes WONDERFUL and if you have kids, feed them this instead of the regular crap- see amazon.com to order if you can't find it in a store) and turkey EVERYTHING - and we stopped eating most processed foods. After reading this, we'll cut out processed lunch meats, as well. Even on the weeks I've not been to the gym I've lost weight.

I think the secret is to find the things you like to eat and tweak them a little bit. And I'm sorry, but if you buy pre-packaged convenience foods, regardless of the reason, you will have struggles with your weight. Here are my suggestions for working families.

1) Buy 7 bags of frozen vegetables a week. Every night, zap one, split the WHOLE bag between everyone in your family, and EAT THEM! Don't add Velveeta please, your heart will thank you.

2) Turkey bacon, Turkey ham, Turkey burgers, Turkey Pepperoni, Turkey Sausage, Turkey hot dogs. Get all the protein you need, none of the calories, and nothing fried!

3) Shop the perimeter of the grocery store. The fresher the food you buy, the better you will do.

4) Stop buying boxes of crackers, bags of chips, etc. Instead, spend ALL that money you're throwing away on junk and buy fresh fruit. Put it in a pretty glass bowl on the counter so it's easily accessible to all in the family and let them snack from that. Do you know anyone who hates fruit? Besides, if the crap isn't in your house, you won't eat it. Imagine that!

5) Buy Dreamfields pasta. For a coupon, visit www.dreamfieldsfoods.com. They have a wonderful pasta with barely any carbs, tons of protein, and it tastes the same as yucky processed pasta. You may leave the perimeter of the grocery store to buy this. :-)

6) If you positively can't spend 15 minutes preparing some type of healthy meal at the end of the day, make two or three large meals on Sunday and freeze or refridgerate. Your grocery spending will go down, even with buying healthy food that is supposedly "more expensive" and your whole family will add years to their lives.

7) Get moving. None of this matters if you don't get your heart pumping and healthy.

The Loss of a Dream ... or is it?

Recently, my husband and I took an opportunity in Memphis, TN, and planned to move our two little girls to a part of the country that we knew nothing about. We visited the community and found that Memphis itself lacked the environment in which we wanted to raise our children. Just a hop away, however, was the beautiful community of Germantown, TN. We stayed there for several days, driving around looking at homes and schools, eating at local restaraunts, and admiring the sophisticated shopping offered in the tiny town. We fell in love. Absolutely in love - with this little town.

I had the biggest hopes and dreams about the type of people my children would become raised in such a quaint community - so close to city living - yet with the best schools and a close knit comminity. I would be a PTO mom - in a school where the PTO had 100% participation from parents for the last 8 years - and my children would grow up smart, confident, involved in extracurricular activities, etc. This would give them the foundation to go on and do whatever they wished, to be as successful as they wanted - we would be able to give them everything in this beautiful affluent community that was everything I'd ever dreamed of.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. My husband's employer found that his services were too important to the company to let go, and they gave him an offer we simply couldn't refuse to stay. So here I am, still in the kind of nice suburbs of Houston, TX. Did I lose my dream?

Look at everything I stated was important to me when I was fantasizing about the beautiful community of Germantown, TN. The dreams and excitement I felt weren't really about anything different from what Houston offered, other than the weather. Looking around the city, we've found several communities that are pretty darn close to Germantown in school quality, quality of life, and way better than Germantown in shopping. We're selling our home in the northwest suburbs of Houston to relocate to a different area. So the answer is no, I did not lose my dream. I just moved it about 10 hours south, by car.

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