Bugs Bunny, Bugs Bunny, RAH RAH RAH!

The reason I use the above title is because I just finished thinking the phrase that comes beforehand. Yup, a long post just got wiped out when I hit "publish" and "Fricka Fracka Firecracker" is kinda my way of not using vulgar language.

What was deleted?

A much-too-descriptive list of why this week is wearing me out. So now you get the slimmed down version:
Previously - Monday - School (We've completed 142 out of the 170 days that are required) and Bible Study. Tuesday - "Holiday" (He-Man turned 4 and Henry took us all to the Galleria.) Today - State House (details below) & church (started back teaching the class I was teaching before Captain was born.) Tomorrow - State House again and all 3 children have ball practice. Friday - pre-scheduled field trip with other homeschoolers to the Biscuit Stadium. Saturday - All 3 ball practice and a Health Fair. Sunday - Church and Toby Mac Concert (Pray rain comes before or after but not during because it's at an amphitheater!)

The following looks long at a glance but it's all copy/pasted/combined from emails floating around an email list I'm on. This is in reference to the public hearing at the State House today regarding HB199 which seeks to legalize and regulate Certified Professional Midwives in Alabama. It was an AWESOME event. I'm just too tired to re-cap myself so I thought I'd let you see what others wrote.

In a nut shell we PACKED the room by 9:30 with standing room only after that!!! It was a pleasure to witness such well-prepared, articulate speakers,
and I am not talking about the opposing side!!

The three "fors" gave compelling testimony -- a skillful blend of
(conscientiously limited) endearing, emotional testimony with bold,
factual evidence. I was impressed with the grace and professionalism that each
possessed and I think they are all a credit to the women of Alabama.
I would love to be able to give a description of their testimony, but
I am afraid I would not do them justice, so I will only say that they
were informative, effective and befitting of the role as our
repesentatives.

Ida, from NARM was wonderful with being able to answer all of the Committee's questions on ceritifcation/accredidation, statistics, and how midwifery programs are working in the other 42 states that have midwives. I would have been impressed even if she had been on the other side. My favorite quote from her was, "If you want to lower your infant mortality rates, stop sending your healthy moms and infants to other states to get their birth certificates."

The three "againsts" seemed to not know much beyond their scripted
diatribes about how allowing midwives to operate would be akin to
dooming the entire society of Alabama to medieval-like conditions.
According to the opposition, women should be forcibly made to give
birth in hospitals (because the furtherance of the human race is at
stake here!?!?).

The first doctor who spoke gave a brief summary of statistics, all of
which were eventually "debunked" so to speak, after it was revealed
that the statistics mainly reflected a high mortality rate throughout
the "black belt" and amongst women who take illicit drugs during
pregnancy. He even admitted that the other states with midwifery programs had lower infant and maternal mortality rates but said, (paraphrase)"There's no evidence that those states have lower death rates just because they use midwives."

The second doctor who spoke puts childbirth in the same category with pneumonia and heart disease. To paraphrase, he said something like, "Yes, childbirth is natural, but so is pneumonia, heart attack..." and something else I don't recall.
Er, call me crazy but someone who thinks pregnancy should be placed
on a list of "pathologies" should not be representing women's
interests.

The third to speak against it was a nurse-midwife and after some
confusion about which side she was on, she went on to explain her
opposition. To be honest, I quit listening about this point, but I
did catch on that two of her primary objections were these: NO births
should be in the home, citing that too much can go wrong; and that
CPM's lack the intensive nursing training that she equates with being
able to handle "any" (presumably inevitable) emergency.

Let me share the experience that best sums up the way the hearing went. I think this illustrates the mood of the hearing, the effectiveness
of our speakers, and the faulty logic used by the opposition.
At the hearing, a 50-ish, professional looking man asks to sit down
in the chair available next to me. We strike up a conversation. He
is a pediatrician prepared to speak in opposition to the bill and I
politely addressed some of his concerns (he had some
misconceptions). He spoke to me afterwards,(quote) "you know, this
really isn't as straightforward as I thought- and it (midwifery)
isn't as dangerous (or something like that) like the medical side
presents... (and still quoting) "I am really glad that I didn't have
a chance to speak out in opposition. Can you send me more
information?" He hands me his card- not only is he a pediatrician
bI tut he is xxxxxxx.

Hearing the well-versed testimony in support and the not-so-
articulate and lacking in data of those opposed really gave him
something to think about.

I think that many folks who went in there thinking they were opposed
to this left feeling like he did- wanting more information- and
entertaining the idea that this might not be such a bad thing for
mamas and babies afterall.

Alabama Mothers Deserve Midwives

This Is A big Week For Midwives & Alabama

Finally, the wheels are turning to make some changes in the lawbooks regarding homebirth midwives who want to attend homebirths in Alabama.

The Birmingham News had this great article on the front page of their paper today! Perfect timing!

Be sure to look at the photo gallery (in left sidebar of the newspaper website.) This picture is #8 in the gallery. It's the sign posted for parents who are left to bond with their baby at the Birth House in Ardmore, Tennessee, where many Alabama women travel to give birth in a home setting with midwives.

He-Man & The Cow

He-Man's turning four on Tuesday. I just can't believe it!

After waiting until nearly the last-minute to get plans firmed (because we had to wait for ball-practice schedules to be given out) we finally arranged for a little party at our favorite stop, Chick-Fil-A. Since we have tons of built-in friends in the shape of brothers, sisters, and cousins, we told He-Man he could invite 4 non-blood-relative friends to the party (we said 4 because he's 4, ya know?)(pic=He-Man w/Feff)

Anyway, it was a packed house but lots of fun. It was so nice having everything NOT at home :) Don't get me wrong, I really would like to be hospitable but with ball-season gearing up and of course with this Captain of ours, it was really nice to just feed folks where food is already prepared.

(pic=Brosnan & Ray)He-Man was so darling about all of his family, friends, and gifts. I was so happy for him today. And of course he makes us so happy EVERY day.

Cute sidenote about my PaPaul (not to be confused with Pa Gardener whom Uma renamed PaPa-Razzi today! LOL) - I don't think my PaPaul knew that I was TRYING to be stylish by having my tshirts layered. You know, the look where the under shirt is seen just below the top shirt? Well, my sweet grandfather told me I needed to pull my shirt down and I'm guessing he was thinking I didn't mean to show the undershirt?? Anyway, I found it very sweet. Of course, he might have just thought I was letting myself go with these post-baby-hormone-sweats and flabby mid-section. Or he might just think all of these kids have made me a little cuckoo! I can't imagine what would make him think that, though!

Finally, We Caught A Smile!

It took tons of tries but Ray finally caught Captain with a smile for the camera!

One Of The Coolest Things...

A Team Mannatecher is competing on Dancing With The Stars in Australia!!

As a huge fan of both of these things, I find it incredibly cool that they have meshed!

The Non-Scheduled Schedule

Since I rarely use the word "scheduling" when talking about an infant, for fear of someone thinking I follow or promote Ezzo's teachings, I will say that today was a good day in the "things-working-out-in-a-predictable-sort-of-way" department.

Captain and I went to Sunday morning services for the first time since his birth. We made it pretty much on time and if we didn't have such a long hallway to walk down (where we got stopped by lots of oohs and ahhs of wanting to see this new little dude) we would have totally made it into the sanctuary on time. We had hoped to make it early enough for Henry to sing in the choir but I messed that up by not being happy with my first outfit at home.

It was the being up early and at a scheduled time that was a big goal for today. I needed to let Captain nurse and then had to get up and showered before Henry needed to get up and showered, so that he could stay in the bed and keep our 1-month-old cozy and asleep.

After getting mostly ready, and getting the older kids awake and taking care of themselves, I was able to get my hair dried before the Captain woke up and was ready to nurse again. If I fit into my nicer clothes a little better, and if I had some more clothing articles that allowed for discreet nursing, I would have been ready in time to get Henry out the door earlier but it was the lack of trying on my choices last night that caused the blip in our time. But I must give a shout-out to the girls for helping entertain and even finish dressing Captain while Henry and I finished with our primping.

At church, Captain stayed quiet and dozed off and on during the whole service. He didn't even make one of those terribly embarrassing poop sounds! And he looked so cute the whole time, too! He was wearing a darling little cashmere jumper and would smile at me whenever he opened his eyes to see where he was...I wish I could have taken his picture!

In Sunday School (or as the current trend is turning, "Small Group") he was getting a little cranky so I nursed him. I was so pleased that no one (especially the teacher) seemed to think a thing about it. Of course, the seating arrangement was such that it's possible no one even knew I was nursing him but I think most did.

So he did GREAT on his first day at Sunday church (he's been on Wednesdays a couple of times so far.) If he seems to stick with this "routine" (ick word) it won't be long before I will be able to let the nursery keep him during Sunday School. I will give it a few more weeks to work him (and me) into it, though.

After church we went to the Trippes for lunch and visiting with some of the Trippe family that came in from out of town. I'll try to post pictures tomorrow.



Since Mama Gardener emailed me some pictures from yesterday's visit at her house, I will post some of those today. The fishing pictures are from a morning trip down to the neighborhood pond where Leland has been wanting to go fishing with Papa Gardener for a while. All of the kids caught 2 fish (except for Rocky who was still camping with Henry at the time) and He-Man was the winner of "biggest fish."

Here are some cute pictures of Captain and his admirers from yesterday, too.

Below are a couple of Leland:

Stalling My Bedtime

We're home after visiting with the Gardeners for a little while. Henry & Rocky are camping out (just one night) in the COLD and the rest of us are ready for them to be home. Even the dog knows they're not here. I am trying to make myself very tired before turning off all the lights because I don't want to lie awake for any length of time. Lying awake in a house without Henry makes my mind wander too much and I'd much rather just go to sleep the second my head hits the pillow.

Lucky You gets the benefit of my attempts to stall bedtime.

The house is a WRECK! It's so bad that if someone was in an auto accident, they could call their insurance agent and say, "I had a Stacy's house!"

Sigh...

I'm actually typing with two hands, tonight. Captain is sleeping soundly in the bed beside me and I'm staying up way too late with this laptop going through some email and, of course, blogging.

I'm not quite back to perfectly streamlined thought patterns so you'll have to continue muddling through random statements about the things going on 'round here for a little while.

You know I've mentioned the coolness of answered prayers numerous times before but let me just say it again. GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS! Remember that missing glove & helmet from a couple of days ago? Well, Henry and I (and probably the kids) prayed for the discovery of their location. We were hanging on to the hope that someone we knew picked them up from the ballfield and was going to get them back to us but after several days passed, we got discouraged. Well, we shouldn't have given up any hope because on Wednesday afternoon, before going to church, I got a call on my cell phone from a friend saying that a mutual friend had picked up Rocky's stuff and gotten it to her to give it to us! When we got to church that night, his helmet, glove, hat (that we didn't realize was missing) and Indie's shoes (that we thought were lost in a separate incident) were returned to us!! I can't tell you how good that felt. I know it might have been silly to be so upset about that equipment being gone but it was truly heart-wrenching. So we PRAISE GOD AGAIN for answering our prayers!!

OK, let's see...what else to blab about? Oh, the weight thing. Blech. I am at the stage where my belly is super-flabby and it just disgusts me. I was much happier with my body a couple of weeks ago when there was still some relative firmness (thanks to not completely-shrunken and re-positioned internal organs) but now that everything on the inside has toned up and squished back to its rightful place, the fat and skin are just reminders that I am SO much a Mom.

So, I have actually exercised two days. I've DVR'ed several episodes of "All-Star Workout" from FITv and have worked through MOST of it. Both exercise sessions were cut short because of a needy baby (I apparently have poor timing of when to start trying to exercise) but I think they were a good start.

I am trying to be more dilligent with my phytosterols to help me fight off the chocolate cravings but I've gotten slack on some days just from sheer busyness. I hope to keep going with the exercise thing but am aiming to start back with A3 when Captain gets about 4 or 5 months old. I'm waiting until that age because that's about when I remember all the other children became pretty predictable with a routine and became a little "easier" (for lack of a better term.) Since I believe with all my heart that A3 will be fine for me to take while nursing (doing own research and speaking with others who have looked into it as well) I'd still like to wait until that time so that I don't falsely accuse the supplement of any of Captain's frequent behavior changes. After the 4 or 5 month mark, I'll be better able to fairly judge how he reacts to me using it.

And I am very much looking forward to giving it another go. I had actually started the product for one month before I found out I was pregnant with Captain and REALLY liked it. So I'm trying to be patient with my body and remember that this fluffiness is just a sign that I have been blessed beyond measure and that if I can hang in there for a few more months, then maybe I can start to see myself fitting back into normal clothes.

Since I Have A Baby In My Arms

...I can't type very well.

But I can click and surf the b logs and take silly surveys.

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 70% Wonder Woman 65% Supergirl 55% Spider-Man 50% Iron Man 45% The Flash 40% Green Lantern 40% Robin 35% Hulk 30% Batman 20% Catwoman 15%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

Should I Write The Truth?

In an effort to be an uplifting and encouraging person, I am trying not to use this blog as a place to grumble and complain. However, today was such a rough day in so many ways that I feel as if I would be lying if I blogged and did NOT grumble about it.

No, nothing was life-threatening. Just normal, pesky stuff. Things like Ray & Indie trying to pull a fast one on me in an effort to get out of doing what they're supposed to do; kids watching TV and ignoring my telling them to get ready to go, only to make us scramble out the door later than we needed to; a poopy diaper while already running late; the discovery that Rocky's helmet & glove are not in the car; the realization that said helmet & glove were probably left at the ball fields Saturday; having to be cordial to two people (one by phone and one in person) who were compounding my running late problems; going to the wrong practice site for Rocky's practice and being even LATER; having to hike a mile from parking spot to ball field for Rocky's practice; realizing Rocky didn't put on his cleats in the car (which is parked a mile away;) nursing extremely patient (thank you CAPTAIN!) baby in car a mile away from Rocky's practice where I can't see what he's doing; walking back to the field only to find Rocky kicking up dirt and being left out of practice time because he doesn't have a glove (and is a lefty so can't borrow anyone else's;) feeling awful about the way I look because of baby fat and a too-rushed hairdo/ponytail; and lastly, feeling sorry for myself because Henry has drama practice for the Easter drama at church and won't be home until late.

But I'm not going to complain :)

Well, let me just say that prayer works. Henry took a minute out of practicing to call and check on me and let me know he had been praying for us. THAT was the key, I know it.

Miraculously, things on the ride home and at home were going very smoothly. I know the kids were making extra efforts to be sweet and helpful Dinner was enjoyable and at the table (rare on American Idol nights!) and everyone actually ate their beefaroni! YAY ME for remembering to separate out a portion for the boys BEFORE adding garlic and onions to the recipe because they will cause themselves to gag if they taste, smell, or see these things in their food. The partitioning of the food really made things go nicely at dinner time. Rocky even ate the big chunks of diced tomatoes!

Baths & devotional also went well. Believe me, I am praying some thanksgiving prayers tonight!

Forgive me for not doing the non-complaining thing very well.

Phillippians 2:13-15 NLT
13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

14 Do everything without complaining and arguing, 15 so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.

Fixing The Blog

It has come to my attention that lots of new people have started reading my blog. Most are friends but some are strangers (thanks to cool blog rolls and links from others and such.) Maybe it's the hormones of having another baby but something has kinda creeped me out (again) about having all the kids' names on here. So, even though it will be a long process and will not accomplish the goal for quite some time, I am working on editing all previous posts so that all names used in this blog are code names. I've only changed the names in the most recent 25 posts but I hope to keep working on it until eventually, every post uses these new names.

I would like to request anyone who posts comments to my blog also try to use the code names instead of real names. It is probable that I won't publish any comments that use real names (other than my own.)

There is a reason behind every code name but I won't be getting into that here. Some are easy to figure out but others might baffle you :)

I Have Wanted To Post For Days Now...

But Captain needs to nurse for massive amounts of time. I guess he's doing one of those famous growth spurts everyone likes to talk about :)

He IS getting bigger, I must say!

More when I have a chance. Ball season has begun so you KNOW I have lots to share, and very little time to share it.

Not The Most Current But..

 
Still a cute picture I thought you'd like to see!

I have FINALLY uploaded and ordered prints of the digital pictures on our camera. It was nearly 300 pictures! Way overdue. I had to get it done because my memory card was full and I can't let many more days pass before I take pictures!

It's sad that during all of yesterday's uploading and now today's blogging, everything is hunky dorry here but on TV I see reminder after reminder of how VERY fortunate we are that yesterday's terrible weather barely even touched us. It's so weird watching the big CNN, Fox, and other national/international broadcasts of Enterprise, AL. So sad. We really need to pray for them.