Parental Rights

EVERY American should educate themselves on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and its impact on the Parental Rights of Americans.

Parentalrights.org

The treaty can affect our right as American parents to decide our child(rens) education, religion, discipline, health care, etc. Instead that right is given to the government and the children themselves, but ultimately the government.

Little House on the Prairie

As I type our family is sitting down for our weekly (sometimes bi-weekly depending on the weather and the adults exhaustion level) Little House on the Prairie family viewing. Pa looks handsome as ever. Ma is graceful and beautiful. Mary is the typical first born aiming to please and excelling in everything. Laura learns life the hard way and in her own way. Carrie is sweet and cute. Nellie Olseon is mean and bratty as ever causing you to wonder however did her father manage living with her. Mr. Edwards always brings a laugh.

For my birthday in October I received the entire 9 seasons of Little House on the Prairie DVD set. I was a big fan when I was little and became a bigger fan when I began reading the book series to the boys. I am close to a fanatic now talking about LIttle House episodes with my mom friends and eagerly anticipating the next time I can sit down and watch an episode. Kyle and I spend several nights a week watching the episodes together before bed so that we can decide which episodes we will allow the children to watch.

Our family loves watching Little House on the Prairie for many reasons.
good morals and character displayed
The whole family (including Prema who can't hear and can't read the subtitles) can enjoy and understand what is happening in the show.
as we dream about slowly growing our own homestead, our kids see first hand hard work done in chores
the kids get to see the "old ways" of doing things
every episode is so relaxing to watch
real life situations are played out for our kids to see and we can discuss
one room school house with classical teaching which is how we homeschool

Half Finish.. Can You Find Us?

Click on the link to see video and photos from the race. I believe they must have taken pictures when we crossed a time mat and then they send photos that were taken at the time you crossed those areas hoping have caught you on film.

Action Sports International

We Made it- 13.1!

I completed the Disney World 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles) today with my sister-in-law Amber Cullum. We finished in 2 hours 31 minutes.

We drove to Orlando on Friday afternoon and got our race numbers and t-shirt and timing chip at ESPN Wide World of Sports. Kyle's parents, Sam and Amber with their 9 month old son Bennett, and Kyle, I and the kids stayed at a hotel in Orlando for the night.

Sam, Amber and I woke up at 3:45 a.m. to get ready. Sam was our chauffeur driving us to the race with the intention of going back to the hotel and coming to spectate with the rest of the family. Traffic was so backed up trying to enter the park that Amber and I got out of the car earlier than we had planned. We ended up crossing a wet drainage ditch and getting our shoes and socks wet, but we were able to use the bathroom a few times before we arrived at our starting corral just as they were singing "The Star Spangled Banner".

The official start of the race was 5:35 a.m. We were in the 5th starting wave so we started about 6:00 a.m. With each start Disney put off a fireworks and Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy cheered the runners on in their own running suits. 27,000 plus people were in the race. The entire race was a "sea" of people.

Some highlights of the race were:

- We saw Sam at the 1.5 mile. He has gotten stuck in traffic and wasn't able to leave the park.
- High School bands played in the start and finish where it was only woods and road.
- Running through through Magic Kingdom on Main Street and through the Castle.
- seeing all the Disney characters throughout the race (runners would stop and stand in lined to get their picture taken- we didn't)
- passing Al Roker from the Today Show. He and Meredith Vieira were running the race. We passed Al about mile 7 I think.
- walking times...we ran 10 minutes and walked 1 minute throughout the race. I needed the walking portions especially at the end.
-doing the race with Amber. I am happy she invited me to come. I never had run more than 3 miles that I can remember before the training. It is something I couldn't have done alone. It really helps to run with another person.
- seeing so many people running. Disney's Marathon was not cheap, but it is nice to see that it does motivate so many people to be healthy.
- FINISHING...I become overwhelmed with emotion and started to cry a bit. I couldn't believe I had finished. My legs were aching since about mile 8, so those last 5 miles were really hard.

The rest of the family never got to join us. Too many roads were closed and there were not that many places where family and friends could view the runners. Instead they stayed behind at the hotel and explored the area there. Sam was able to see us again at the 12 mile and finish.

Unless you are a HUGE Disney fan, which I am not, I wouldn't suggest ever doing the Disney Marathon mostly due to the cost and the really early start. However, I would suggest trying to do a 1/2 marathon especially with a friend or relative. It feels good to accomplish something you never thought you could do.

Sam has a few pictures I will post when I get them.

Exciting Cleaning Discoveries

I recently discovered how to clean a moldy water bottle that is tall and has a smaller opening, thus making it difficult to clean and a dishwasher that has hard water build-up.

Moldy Bottle Solution: go to http://www.ehow.com/how_4763280_clean-moldy-water-bottle.html
and

check out this site for all the ways you can use vinegar including the hard water stains in your dishwasher. http://www.vinegartips.com/Scripts

I am excited to learn new ways to clean and fix things so that I don't have to go and buy new. If I get the point of thinking about throwing things away to replace with something new I ponder my carbon footprint hoping for a good future for my children.

Their world and Ours

Isaac: "Mom can you call Grandma and Grandpa and Dad RIGHT NOW so that they can come see the horses before they have surgery?"

Me: "Do you really think I should call Grandma, Grandpa, and Dad so that they can stop everything RIGHT NOW to come and participate in your pretend world?"

Isaac: "Yeah!" (big smile)

Me: "No not gonna happen."

I've been somewhat irritated lately how the pretend world exists on the same level as real life and how the pretend world creates so much bickering between the boys when one of their worlds doesn't mesh with the others. For example, when they are arguing over whether or not you can feed a horse a peppermint or if one wins a pretend world race and the other loses.

My latest statement: "If you pretend world doesn't bring joy, than that pretend world cannot exist." Not sure if that is a good statement to make yet because I am still sorting it all out in my head since I do love their creativity and want to celebrate it.

Isaac's First Hospital Visit

Isaac had a loss of appetite on Friday night. Then on Saturday he began having intermittent severe abdominal pain. He had similar pain a few months back with a case of the flu so we thought we just needed to wait for the diarrhea to begin. Sunday the pain become worse throughout the day but still off and on and still no other flu symptoms. He was more tired than normal and sleeping more. The pain wasn't keeping him from sleeping. On Monday we took him to the doctor and she recommended an ultrasound at All Children's Hospital. The ultrasound confirmed that Isaac had intussusception in the small bowel. Basically his small bowel had telescoped into itself. The likely cause is a virus with enlarged stomach lymph nodes that pushed the small intestine inward just enough for it to collapse within itself.

The two possible procedures to correct the problem is an air enema or surgery. The surgeons decided to have the radiologist try the air enema first. They pass a tube up the rectum and blow air in the intestines. They gave only a 20% chance of it working given Isaac's age (usually intussusception happens in children younger than 2 years), the location of the blockage, and the duration of time it had been blocked (2 days). Within 5 minutes the air enema worked!!! The radiologists were shocked. Isaac was completely pain free and just a little tired from the days of pain before and procedure.

After the procedure Isaac and I stayed at the hospital for about 24 hours so that they could observe any changes that may occur when he ate. Next week Isaac will have another ultrasound to help determine if it was only a lymph node/ virus that caused the blockage or if there is something else that caused the problem.

Isaac and I are both happy to be home. We are grateful for the good hospital experience: a brand new hospital, nice nurses and doctors, and TV viewing.