To Know or Not to Know...

Should I find out the sex of the baby? I'm 14 weeks pregnant, the prime time to find out the sex of the baby is between 18 and 26 weeks. So I've got some time to think about it. We found out with Olivia because we had so much to buy (we ended up going gender nuetral with all the expensive stuff anyway) and because we were sick of calling her an "it." I've never been the type to have patience with surprises - I always wanted to open up my presents on Christmas Eve and you better not show me my birthday presents in the morning and then say, "Now wait til after supper..." But who knows. Maybe a surprise would be fun. It'll keep all of you guys on your toes, that's for sure. So, I've had people vote for every other important decision in my life (wedding dress, Olivia's first AND middle name) - okay, maybe not the REAL important decisions - but here you go. Another chance to sway me one way or the other.

When Is Abortion Considered Murder?

Joanna blogged a bit about this article, raising a good point. In the eyes of the law, how can this case be considered "intentional homicide of an unborn child" when abortion clinics do the same thing everyday, only without the scissors (but some of their utensils are still pretty barbaric). Joanna wondered if maybe the difference was the mother's wishes. Obviously, this particular mother didn't want her womb cut open with scissors, leading eventually to both her and her child's deaths. But wait - it's intentional homicide of an unborn child, not intentional cutting open of a woman's womb and removing a non-living thing. I think that wording makes all the difference. Otherwise, wouldn't she just be charged for the murder of the mother and maybe theft at the most?

And here's another article I saw today on the same theme. A mother forced her 16 year-old daughter to drink turpentine to induce an abortion! And yet her charges are merely "criminal abortion and first-degree cruelty to children" (and I'm assuming the "children" in the charge is referring to her daughter and not her grandchild). True, the baby seems to have survived, but shouldn't the charge then be "attempted intentional homicide of an unborn child"? I can't really see a difference. In fact, the only difference I see in motives between this woman and the murderer in the above story is that the murderer might have actually wanted to keep the child as her own, where this woman clearly wanted the child dead. Yet, this murderous grandmother will only get 10 years in prison at the most.

I don't get it.

Too Good To Be True?

Is Bin Laden dead?

Oh, and Olivia swallowed a plum pit. But don't worry, she pooped it out the next day.

Butter and a Skinny Belly

Butter:
Olivia ate butter yesterday. Yep, grabbed the stick right off the table. She was taking bites of it, and digging her little fingers all into it, and then threw it up on the floor in her bedroom. And no one saw. Josh was busy cleaning up her high chair and I was on the computer suffering from one of the many headaches that have become quite prevalent within my skull. Josh found her and when I heard him exclaim: "What do you have?!" I jumped up to see what my neglectful parenting had caused. Oh, just hardened arteries. Thankfully, I had just that day switched from margerine to real butter. So at least her little body knows how to somewhat handle that stuff. I had watched just a show on what not to eat (Oprah) and the top five were: hydrogenized oil (it means they put HYDROGEN in the oil to solidify it - HYDROGEN, PEOPLE!), enriched flour (it means they stripped out all the good stuff and put a little of it back in for appearances - go for the whole wheat, just the way God made it), high fructose corn syrup (they make it so that you never get full - that's why I could eat candy all day), salt (duh), and... let me check the notes I took... animal fat (any saturated fat is animal fat - I don't know specifically why this is bad, besides the fact that it's fat. I got distracted at this point in the show). Well, all that to say... Olivia ate butter. Yuck.

A Skinny Belly:
Okay, so I'm three months pregnant and haven't been able to go to the doctor yet. This worries me because I'm a worry wart. I have an appointment tomorrow to see if I can get on medicaid (Livi and I have no insurance), then I can find a doctor and finally put my worries to rest. But in the meantime, I have been to the WIC office twice, where they weighed me because that's really all they have the equipment to do to check up on us pregos. But they asked me what my normal weight was and I said (okay, this hurts to say on the internet of all places where anyone can read it) 140-145. But last month, when she weighed me for the first time to see what my pregnancy weight gain was, I was at 139! And today, a month later, I was at 138! Did I mention I'm a worry wart?! She asked about my appetite and I confessed that it's not what it used to be. Not that I've had morning sickness (much), just that when I sit down for a meal, I get fuller quicker than I used to. And I used to be able to keep eating even after I was full (if it was a favorite meal of mine), but I can't do that anymore! My gag reflex has gotten a lot more sesitive. So I'm eating less and losing weight when I should be gaining. I gained 40+ pounds with Olivia and never lost my appetite like this. BUT, on top off all that, I truly have been noticing my belly steadily grow outward. So I'm confident something's growing in there! (Since I'm eating less, it can't be that I'm just getting fat!) And I guess every pregnancy is different. But like I said before: Worry Wart! I'll be glad when I can get to a doctor and she can confirm for me that everything's normal.

Calm Down!

For some reason, I'm really into this Middle Eastern dispute between the Pope and Muslims.

The article I found today expounds on the Pope's previous faux pax a bit:

The pope on Sunday said he was "deeply sorry" about the angry reaction to his speech last week in which he cited the words of a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of Islam's Prophet Muhammad as "evil and inhuman" and referred to spreading Islam "by the sword."

Note that they added the "by the sword." I didn't hear the original speech nor have I seen it written down anywhere, so everytime they add a new quote like this, it's news to me. But in the same article, they had this quote by the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an extremist Islamic group that includes al-Qaida in Iraq:

The group said Muslims would be victorious and addressed the pope as "the worshipper of the cross" saying "you and the West are doomed as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere. ... We will break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose head tax, then the only thing acceptable is a conversion (to Islam) or (killed by) the sword."

Note the same "sword" reference. The liquor and head tax reference is explained in the article. If they had truly listened to the Pope's speech, could they truly be so ignorant as to prove him right like that? Maybe this was all taken out of context. I hope so!

Then the article brought up this memory:

The protests and violence have stirred up memories of the fury over cartoons that were published in a Danish newspaper of the Prophet Muhammad. Angry demonstrations took place in many countries, and some of the violence was directed at Western targets and Christian churches.

Remember that? Honestly, I'm glad I have a Savior who can stand up for Himself! I mean, come on! Our own country makes fun of Jesus - He lives in South Park for crying out loud!

Now Just Wait a Minute...

So...

During a speech last week in Germany, the Pope, quoting from a Medieval text, cited the words of a Byzantine emperor who characterised some of the teachings of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad as “evil and inhuman”.

And in response, Muslims firebomb churches? Who's point are they proving?!

Uh Oh...

The Pope's in truh-bul.....

Death after two-hour ER wait ruled homicide

Don't go to this hospital!

So who would get the prison time? The triage nurse?

My Trouble With Blogging

Is that I rarely have one thing to talk about. It's all a-jumble in my head. (Which, incidently also makes it really hard to come up with titles for my blogs.) Cute things Olivia does, problems I'm having with different appliances... and really that's about all that changes from day to day. We don't go out, we have no friends and no adventures. Unless you call a bike ride an adventure. We did ride through some sprinklers. Scary. I used to solely blog pictures and explanations of different funny/odd/cute things Olivia would do. But now when she does something funny/odd/cute and I go running for the camera, she stops and comes running towards me as soon as she hears the thing turn on. A lot of our pictures now-a-days are of her right up in the camera lens, reaching for it. I've had to become sneaky-sneaky with the camera. I hide it behind my back and turn it on while talking and then get down, flash the camera really quick, then hide it again. Which results in fuzzy pictures. None-the-less, here are some recent ones.

This is what Olivia looks like after her nap, watching I Love Lucy. She's a little bit of a zombie.


Here she is in her new fall wardrobe (Yay, jeans that fit cloth diapers!). I tried to get a pic of her facing me, but as soon as she turned around and saw the camera...


This happened.


Oh, yeah, and while Grandma and Grandpa Brooke (that's my side of the family - don't be confused) came to visit over Labor Day, They helped us buy a potty for Olivia! Not that she's ever used it, but when I can tell she's about to poop, I say, "Do you want to go in the potty?" and she heads towards the bathroom. So I thought it's never to early to try! She mainly just sits there and reads books.


And she has this weird thing she does recently. She covers herself with a blanket and runs into walls.


Isn't this adorable? And shocking that she let me take a picture of it! I'm glad, because it's rare she ever, ever lies down, and on a person?! I had to get photographic evidence.


And this happened just today. I can only surmise what happened: She had her afternoon juice sippy-cup. She always shares her afternoon juice with her baby doll. She saw her baby doll in the toy box, but she was futher away than she could reach. But does she give up?


But off of the Olivia-topic. Remember when I was talking about appliance problems? I have my fair share to choose from to blog about. For starters, our printer doesn't work. So when I needed to find the Farmer's Market in Lafayette, I Mapquested it, zoomed in on the complicated down-town part, took a picture of it and used my handy-dandy go-go-gadget camera as I navigated those tricky one-way streets. Aren't I creative? :)

I don't have a picture of this one, but I would really appreciate some input. Another appliance that has been nothing but a headache is our dishwasher. Over the weeks we've lived here, it has steadily turned our glasses and plates white with this strange residue. And it doesn't just rinse off. It has to be scratched off with a fingernail. Is it soap? Is it our hard water? I've tried with powder degergents, liquid detergents, the expensive Cascade liquid detergent, heated dry on, deated dry off - it just keeps getting worse! I finally resorted to handwashing dishes - but that's so annoying! We have a dishwasher! Or rather, a dish-dirtier. Anyone else have this problem? Anyone ever solved this problem? If not, ask your moms. I'm desperate. And I'm a housewife. Hehe.

And finally - the TV that Josh and Olivia were working on so hard. The problem was that the on/off button wasn't working. So Josh thought he could fix it by taking the whole thing apart (we know the truth - he just wanted to gut the thing to see how it worked). He solved the problem by removing the button entirely. Which left a gaping hole leading to circuitry, so that is now covered with tape. What's that you say? How do we turn our TV on and off without a button? (P.S. Olivia broke the remote a long time ago and no other remote will work. Josh blames the remotes, I blame the TV) We're lucky enough to have a freak TV that turns on when you press the volume up button on the TV. And to turn it off, we unplug it. So that's how Olivia helped Daddy fix the TV.

Bib Lit II Was Completely Normal...

5 Years Ago Today.

Even though the class at Taylor University started 31 minutes after the first tower was attacked, only one person come in with the knowledge of what had happened, and he didn't know very much. "A plane flew into a building" was how the news was broke to me. My first thought? Crazy crop-duster! I must have recently watched Independence Day. Then he clarified, "No, in New York, not Indiana." Someone said "World Trade Center," but to be painfully honest, I had no clue what that was. But I still didn't imagine there would be much damage. I still figured it was a small private plane that maybe took out a corner office. We didn't even realize there had been a second plane that had hit the second tower. We had class until 10.

When I got back to my dorm, the atmosphere was vastly different. There was a group of people in front of the TV in the lounge, and buildings were falling. It was confusing to try to figure out how many buildings had been hit, because the same two kept falling over and over. But it didn't matter how many times I saw those buildings fall, it didn't hit home with me. The biggest embarassment to my character and regret in my memory of that day came when Katie, the P.A. on 2nd spoke out in the silence, "People, we need to be on our knees." I'll never forget those words, and the feeling of pit of my stomach sinking as absolutely no one in that room, myself included, hit the floor. I don't know, maybe I'm not remembering right. Maybe there was just a pause that seemed like forever. Maybe people did react and pray. I just remember the stares she received and the awkward feeling that hung in the air. Shouldn't we have fallen immediately? Shouldn't we have been on our knees even before she said that?

Five years later, I am much more aware of the world around me. And more importantly, I am quicker at the draw when it comes to prayer, whether it be for people close to my heart or those thousands of miles away that I have never heard of before. And maybe it's the pregnancy hormones, but I have also been on the verge of tears more times today than on that tragic day five years ago.

Ah Ha....

I think I figured out how to get a profile pic...

I'll have to see if it worked tomorrow. Usually changes I make to Blogger don't take effect right away. I couldn't tell I'd added that movie about Olivia helping Daddy until the next day! Anyway, all I had to do to finally be able to add a profile pic was:
1) Find picture I wanted of Olivia
2) Open in Paint (Only picture editing program I have that resizes and then saves pictures!)
3) Resize in the "Stretch/Skew" category of "Image" menu, cutting in half twice.
4) Once the pic was under 50kb, I saved it.
5) Upload the pic to my blog.
6) Click on pic
7) Copy link at top of page
8) Go to Edit Profile in Blogger
9) Paste link in for Profile Pic (no other image hosting site I use (Yahoo & Dotphoto) has links short enough for Blogger, how annoying!
10) Save profile
11) View profile tomorrow to see if it all worked out alright.

Breast-Feeding Ruins Marriages?

A friend sent me this link which completely shocked me. I couldn't believe a self-proclaimed man of God could take this stance! I have always seen it as God-honoring to use my body the way God intended. Giving birth and breastfeeding are among the top ways I can imagine doing that. Now this rabbi thinks that by husbands witnessing either of those two events, they will be less attracted to their wives and the children will in the end suffer because they will not see love in their parent's marriage. What do you think? Guys, honestly, would you rather not see these two - in my opinion - blessed events? Of course it will change the way you see your wife; she is now a mother! But shouldn't you see your wife that way? Because that's what she is! But she is still your wife as well. And girls, would you switch to the bottle even if you had a strong conviction to breastfeed because it made that part of your body less attractive to your husband?

Olivia Helps Daddy

Josh was fixing the TV and Olivia insisted on helping, and she knew when she was just being placated.

Global Warming

We're all going to die!

Yellowstone!

Hope you enjoy our pictures and appreciate the fact that narrowing 300+ pictures down to 32 took me literally all day. So, with that in mind, there are 32 pictures below, so if you have dial up, you may want to go make yourself a cup of tea, go to the bathroom, watch an episode of Scrubs or three, and take a short nap while you're waiting. Sorry!

These pictures are backwards, because that's the order blogger puts them in. One of these days they'll realize the folly of their ways, but until then, scroll down and read up. Thanks! :)

Finally, after four long days, three *very* long nights, with two full memory cards, and one slightly sun-kissed baby, we head to Utah for Josh's satellite conference!

And a chipmunk!

And some butterflies...

The whole way to the Hidden Falls, people coming back warned us of bears they had seen. Josh wanted to turn around, but I convinced him to keep going. And we never saw any bears. Just a marmot!

Our little tree-hugger.

We found them!

On our last day at the park, we went on a 5 mile hike to see some hidden falls.

Livi was in love with our rental car, the PT Cruiser.

Josh was in love with these mountains!

Look, she shares! How sweet.

Here, Livi was in a good mood because she has her very own apple.

And here's the last leg of our journey - the Grand Tetons! (Olivia took the picture... j/k, she was napping in the car a few feet away.)

Here's more Mammoth Hot Springs. Hard to believe that there are times of the year when this whole area is covered with a beautiful steaming spring.

The Mammoth Hot Springs... it wasn't hot and there were no springs.

I especially thought it'd fly off in the breeze of this waterfall!

By the end of the trip, Livi was absolutely exhausted and a little sunburned. We had to teach her how to wear a hat. Every time we'd put it on, she'd rip it off. We'd just have to walk with a hand on her head until she forgot it was on. I'm surprised it's not at the bottom of some canyon.

Isn't this a great picture of Josh?

This was our humble home for four wonderful days and three loooooong nights. It got so cold at night I slept in 2 pairs of socks, a t-shirt, 2 long sleeve t-shirts, a hoodie, shorts, jeans, and under three blankets and still froze. And of *course* being so very first trimester, I had to get up at the coldest part of the night to go to the bathroom. Usually, I woke around 3 a.m. and tried for a couple hours to convince myself I really didn't have to go that bad and finally went around dawn. Yeah, not much sleep. Livi, though, slept great - snug as a bug inbetween Josh and me.

I can cook anything, anywhere.

Buffalo! (Yet another wild/living thing!)

A gorgeous rainbow at the foot of the lower falls.

Livi liked the Lake Of Fire.

And what is this? The Lake Of Fire? I always thought that would be underground...
Note all the dead trees in the background.

It's wild...and it's alive...it must be
WILDLIFE!


How about now?
Yep, it's Ol' Faithful.


Can anyone recognize this famous landmark?

There were so many dead trees, everywhere we looked. Apparently there was a huge forest fire in the 80's.

What IS a bacterial mat? And why am I not supposed to mark them?

She thought they all looked alike.

This is how Livi toured most of Yellowstone. She looks a little grumpy here because she's about to go to sleep. She was bored with all the steaming hot pools that smelled like sulfur.

More wildlife! Anyone know what kind of bug this is?

Yay, wildlife.


So here we are a Yellowstone National Park, ready to enjoy all of God's glorious creation! If you're reading this before seeing any of the pictures, congratulations, you can follow instructions. If not, grrrrr to you. You've ruined all the humor I worked so hard for.