Blessed

I forgot to share my blessing today! I had my hubby swing by Target on our way home and they had a sale. I picked up two dresses for Anna, size 3T for $2.98 each! That's a bit of a weight off my shoulders... especially post-crayon fiasco. *shakes head*

We'll also be moving here in a couple of weeks. We're going back up to WA and praying things work out better this time around. Maybe they will, considering Paul is going for what he's called to do... the ministry. We found a way in which he can merge both things, his talent for media and his calling. International Media Ministries. But he wants to finish school first. So pray for us! Let's hope this works out!!!

Pictures

Anna finally wanted to dress up! I was so excited hehehe!

Princess Anna...

Me and my sister Jennifer!!! I ♥ her!!!

Happy New Year!!!

Can you believe it's 2009!? I can't. This year, Anna will be turning 3, hopefully she'll be potty trained, she'll get more hair, learn to speak more, hopefully be sleeping in her own room... It's going to be a great year!

Do you have any plans for tonight? None here...

Word of the Day

tacit \TAS-it\, adjective:
1. implied or understood without being openly expressed
2. saying nothing; silent


On a side note, Bones returns in 16 (give or take) days on January 15th on Fox! =)

Wedding Dress Shopping

Today my sister Jen and I looked at wedding dresses. I was really excited that she was able to try on a dress this time. When we went to David's Bridal, they didn't carry any dresses her size. They had her dress at this shop. The very one she wanted. It was a 24W and I was almost sad that it would be too small, but it fit perfectly! I was so happy. She looked gorgeous in it, too. It was the perfect dress and the veil had a red ribbon around the edges. She looked so gorgeous! It was so much fun!!! I only sent two pictures from her cell phone to my email because my email is so disturbingly annoyingly long, so these are the two I sent to my email.

You can click them and they'll enlarge slightly. But not too much.

Words of the Day

Spanish word of the day:

doblar, verb:
to fold; to bend; to turn

English word of the day:

sacrilege \SAK-ruh-lij\, noun:
an intentional injury to anything held sacred; disrespectful treatment of something sacred

When You Must Not Breastfeed

Thank you to Sarah Scrafford for this wonderful guest post!

When You Must Not Breastfeed

There’s nothing babies want as soon as they’re born than to sleep and eat, and the only food that they want is their mother’s milk. Breast milk is a wonder of nature – packed with all the essential proteins, fat, sugar and water that babies need for their survival, it’s the only sustenance your baby needs for the first six months of his/her life. Doctors recommend that you breastfeed your baby exclusively for the first six months, after which you can supplement his/her diet with bottled milk and other baby food.

Breastfed babies have been proven to fall ill less often than those who have been bottle-fed; the antibodies in breast milk act as powerful stimulants on the child’s immune system and prevent him/her from contracting common illnesses like a cold and the flu. Breast milk is also known to be beneficial towards a child’s intellectual development, and the act of breastfeeding enhances the bond between mother and child.

Even with all these benefits that breastfeeding offers, there are times when it’s not advisable to put your baby to your breast, and these are:

• When you’re a regular smoker
• When you consume alcohol on a regular basis. If you’re still keen on giving your baby breast milk, do so only two hours after you’ve had a drink.
• When you are HIV positive.
• When you are a regular user of drugs like cocaine and marijuana. Besides making your baby addicted, they can have adverse side-effects.
• When you’re undergoing chemotherapy.
• When you are on certain drugs (consult your doctor if you’re not sure).
• When you have active tuberculosis.
• When your baby has a rare birth condition that makes him or her intolerant of lactose and galactose, sugars found in any kind of milk.
• When you’ve had a thyroid scan (the radioactive iodine will stay in your milk for weeks after the scan).

It’s ok to continue breastfeeding even when you are ill with the flu or when you have a cold. Viral infections cannot be passed on through breast milk.

You can continue to breastfeed your older child even when you become pregnant with the next one.

Immunizations to the mother do not mean that you have to stop breastfeeding.

If you’re not sure about any aspect of breastfeeding, talk to your doctor before you take any decision to continue or stop.

By-line:

This article is contributed by Sarah Scrafford, who regularly writes on the topic of Ultrasound Tech Schools. She invites your questions, comments and freelancing job inquiries at her email address: sarah.scrafford25@gmail.com.

Spanish Word of the Day

The English word of the day was nothing fantastic, so here is the Spanish word of the day:

diario, noun, adjective:
daily

la rutina diaria
the daily routine

Diario is used in a couple of useful phrases. First de diario or para diario, to describe something which is everyday or for everyday use:

nuestro mantel de diario
our everyday tablecloth

Este diseñador ofrece limitadas opciones para la ropa de diario.
This designer offers limited options for everyday wear.

Then, a diario to describe something which happens every day.

Va al gimnasio a diario.
He goes to the gym every day.

Please Pray for Kenny

Paul's cousin was just hospitalized last night right after the Christmas party. We saw him and talked to him and everything. He was OK then. But after he left, he went straight to the ER. He has a viral heart infection. He has a 2/3 chance of living. So it's pretty serious. Just keep Kenny in your prayers. Thank you!

Scale's Not Broken

I discovered today that I lost some weight. Actually, I knew that I had because my jeans were loose and I was fitting into jeans I had once called "unwearable" because of being too small. I stepped onto the scale at the family get-together tonight and when I read it I laughed and said that it was broken. WAY broken. But then Paul stepped on it and said that yeah, it was broken because it made him look ten pounds heavier than when he last weighed himself. I gave him a look. He always thinks he weighs less than he actually does and often blames it on the scale. LOL. And the second issue with that was that I thought it made me way too light. That didn't make sense. See what I mean? The last time I weighed myself I weighed 127. I think sometime after that I thought it said 125 or I assumed I weighed 125 because of my loose-fitting jeans. The truth of it all was that the scale said I weighed 120!!! O.o The last time I weighed that much was when I was a freshman in college. Actually, I'm pretty sure I weighed 127 when I gave blood that year... so it had to have been at the beginning of that year. It couldn't have been in high school. I was a stick in high school and I exercised a lot and ate very little... So I honestly don't know when I last weighed 120. It's kind of insane. But I'm wondering when my sweet tooth will return, or I'll have another child, or Anna will wean and I'll gain b/c of not burning so many calories with her, etc, etc, etc, and I'll no longer weigh this little. So, I'll just enjoy it for now! =)

Edit: If you're wondering how tall I am, I'm 5'1 3/4"

Edit: That puts me at a BMI of 21.9, or a "Normal" weight range.

Par-Tay

We had a great time at the family get-together. We saw Chloe (7 months) and Justin (18 months)... they're so cute. Anna had a great time running around, fighting over toys with Justin, and being terrorized by the dog. She kept turning around and saying, "No, Dog!" LOL! She's a very assertive little girl when she wants to be! Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos, but we did get video. I'll have to upload it soon! Maybe I'll find time to mix a Christmas Video with all of the footage we got for Christmas.

Christmas Party

Tonight is the Smith Family Christmas Party (That's Paul's mom's side of the family). It was postponed due to the snow. Which is almost completely melted off now. Outside it's raining. I actually missed the rain. The snow was such a hassle. But now, of course, there is so much slush and water in the parking lot. It soaks my shoes within a few seconds. I have no idea why the property management never cleared out the parking lot. Now it's such a mess!

Anna will get to see her cousins, which will be nice. One is a six month old (or so) little girl, the other is a little boy just about six months younger than Anna herself. Then there's a ten year old little girl that Anna followed around last year. I'm sure they'll be inseparable this year.

I'll update. Apparently we're leaving at noon and I haven't even had a shower yet!

Word of the Day

paltry \PAWL-tree\, adjective:
1. almost worthless; trifling
2. of no worth; contemptible, despicable

Christmas Pics

Anna loved her dress up trunk from my mom. She also got a couple of dollies, a V-Motion, Play Dough (don't worry that's a very ROUNDED butter knife), and two pairs of PJs. Se really likes her dollies and plays with them, makes them talk to one another and walk around (it's really cute to watch) and she loves her bracelets. I love that I had a girl!!! :D

Merry Christmas everyone! And thank you for the advice on the Crayon Fiasco. ;) I heard there's an Old Navy sale tomorrow (75% off... Maybe I can pick up some new tights, shirts, dresses, what-have-you... Hopefully I can get a few shirts, too. A few of mine were ruined, too.) *sigh*

Pretending & Art Work

Anna is such a funny girl to watch. She loves to pretend with her dolls. She got a Diego doll and a Dora doll for Christmas. She put them together and said, "Hi, Deeko. Hi, Baby." Then she walked them around... She's so funny! LOL. I love seeing her imagination working.

Here's some of her latest artwork...

(Top: 11/08 Anna colored in her Spongebob Bowl. I love how she colored in his teeth and eyes first. haha. Bottom: She drew this last night, 12/24/08. She started drawing circles, then drawing circles around the circles. I could hardly believe it. Then she started coloring in the circles. I guess I forget how fast she's growing up sometimes. It still amazes me!)

So Upset!!!

I'm so upset! So flipping upset! (As opposed to rollin' upset or walkin' upset...)
I washed Anna's clothes last night then put them in the dryer. Unbeknownst to me, Anna had stuck a red crayon in the sock of her WHITE tights. So... now a ton of her clothes have red stains that will not wash out ever! I had to throw away two pairs of tights and then a ton of her clothes have stains. I feel so... FURIOUS. I wanted to cry. We don't exactly have the money right now to run out and buy a new wardrobe for her. I'm so annoyed. I'm annoyed at myself for not checking her clothes properly. What was I thinking??? *argh*

Maybe going Christmas shopping will cheer me up? I hope so. I'm so mad right now. I try so hard to keep Anna's clothes stain free (I'm a little psycho about stains... I grew up with stains on everything!) So I'm really just... really, really MAD. Of course, I'm not mad at Anna. I'm mad at myself. Oh! *grits teeth* >.<

Ridiculous Snow

I am starting to dislike snow. It's beautiful to look at, yes, but now I think I prefer rain! After several days, I finally escaped into the great unknown (aka outside) and what happened? It took us 2 hours to drive what would regularly take 15 minutes. And it wasn't because of the snow, really. It was more the fault of the traffic + snow. People drove so extremely slowly. And perhaps it had to do with the season and people shopping. Long story short: We've yet to buy wrapping paper. I'm really annoyed right now.

Things She Says

I've written these notes in the past couple of days on things Anna has said:

Last night before going to sleep I started to sing. Anna put her arm around me, put her finger to her lips and said, "Mama, Shh! It's night-night time." Which sounded more like, "Mama, Shh! Idz nigh-nigh tie." She's getting so wordy any more. It's hard to believe.

"C'mon, Daddy. C'mon. Let's go bye-bye... Paul!"
Paul gets mad at me that Anna calls him Paul... ROFL.

*SNOW*

(Anna in the snow earlier this week.)

(Last Sunday. This Sunday it's too deep to go out.)

(Anna crawled up to her napping Daddy and fell asleep like this with him! So cute!)

It snowed 11 inches yesterday! And if that doesn't sound amazing to you, well it is. It's a big deal. It almost never snows in Oregon--in the valleys, that is-- and when it does, it almost immediately melts off. So, yesterday it snowed and snowed and SNOWED. And before nightfall it began to RAIN. So when I look outside right now, it's a winter wonderland, but all of the snow is basically frozen into a thick sheet of ice on the top 2 inches. It's insane. At a round 2 AM this morning, I went outside and ran around like I was a kid. It was fantastic. (Just don't tell anyone.) You take a step, and it breaks, step, break, step, break. It was good. Good times... good times. Paul thought I was nuts. But it really was a lot of fun.

Today, though, Anna woke up at 9 and then just laid in Paul's arms all morning and now she's STILL asleep at 2 PM. I'm thinking that she's not feeling well.

Vegan Dad

I found a cool blog called Vegan Dad who posts vegan recipes. If you don't know by now, I love trying out tons of exotic recipes. Different countries, different diets, etc. You should check it out. Who knew that soy could be so versatile? I know, I know... I already knew that, but this really shows you a ton of new ways to use those types of ingredients. I had a fun time scrolling through the blog and looking at recipes. :D


Does that veggie lasagna look delicious or what???? Mmm yum!

A Quote

"The night was clear and frosty, all ebony of shadow and silver of snowy slope; big stars were shining over the silent fields; here and there the dark pointed firs stood up with snow powdering their branches and the wind whistling through them."
- Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Well, Merry Christmas!

Time is flying by. I can hardly believe it!

Well, my mom is doing better. She has her balance back... not a hundred percent, though. It's showing like crazy here. There are so many storms, one after another. It's nice, but way too cold for me!

Anna seems to be learning phrases at a time instead of words at a time, which is really exciting, but boy she sure has an attitude. She isn't afraid to let you know what her opinion on things are. Sheesh.

We got her a V-Motion for Christmas! I think she'll like it. She always wants to play with the Wii! haha We got her a pair of Christmas PJs to open on Christmas eve, play dough, a candy cane, a book and I know my sister's family got her a Spongebob flashlight. That's enough presents for one little girl if you ask me lol.

Above, I uploaded a picture of me and a picture of Anna. I messed with them on Photoshop. :D

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Info On My Mom... (While I have the chance...)

Before I head out the door, (I'll be watching my mom for a few days), I just got off the phone with her and had a little more information on her condition. She's in Stage 3 Renal Failure. Which basically means that her kidney (only one of her kidneys actually works) is dying. If she stays as healthy as she can, then she might live out the decade. I'll be on her Last Wishes statement, making sure that when the time comes, that her wishes will be respected.

Right now I'm doing OK. I actually think that this is a much better scenario than can be expected. I know she's going to die. I've honestly thought she wouldn't live much longer, her health has always been poor, and it's somewhat comforting knowing that her death won't be unexpected (like my brother's death was. He died last December 4th of suicide).

Anyway, she's doing better. She said she went on a long walk today, in spite of her doctor's suggestion (as exercise would dehydrate her, which could be deadly), but she said she drank lots of water and I'm encouraging her to do so.

(GFR basically means the rate at which the kidney filters your blood. CKD just means Chronic Kidney Disease.)
----------------

Stage 1 CKD

Slightly diminished function; Kidney damage with normal or increased GFR (>90 mL/min/1.73 m2). Kidney damage is defined as pathologic abnormalities or markers of damage, including abnormalities in blood or urine test or imaging studies.

Stage 2 CKD

Mild reduction in GFR (60-89 mL/min/1.73 m2) with kidney damage. Kidney damage is defined as pathologic abnormalities or markers of damage, including abnormalities in blood or urine test or imaging studies.

Stage 3 CKD

Moderate reduction in GFR (30-59 mL/min/1.73 m2). British guidelines distinguish between stage 3A (GFR 45-59) and stage 3B (GFR 30-44) for purposes of screening and referral.

Stage 4 CKD

Severe reduction in GFR (15-29 mL/min/1.73 m2) Preparation for renal replacement therapy

Stage 5 CKD

Established kidney failure (GFR <15>

-------------

And one last thing before I sign off, Paul and I are looking at a thing called International Media Ministries. I'll write more about that later, as it's not set in stone, but I think that will be a good opportunity and it'll be great to do something... tangible for the Lord. I know He doesn't measure our 'deeds' like that, but it's something that has always been on Paul's heart (the ministry), so that might be something we will do in the coming years.

Thanks!

Thank you to everyone who left a kind comment on my previous post (two before this) about my mom. She's home now. She's very dizzy and weak, though. I'm sorry if I don't respond to your post, but I read them and I'm thankful! So thanks!!! :D

2 Pairs of Earrings for $5 Shipped!

I wanted to share this great deal where you can get two pairs of earrings for $5 shipped!!



Register on line at Dickielee.com (elegant fashion jewelry) for a $10 gift certificate use code "NewCustomer" then apply for a promotional crystal earring at the same time. They will waive S/H. Reg. $14.95 ea. (75% discount) You can't use the free $10 off on the FREE pair of earrings--but they have just about the same pair in their regular Earrings section for $14.95--so here's the breakdown:

1 Pair of earrings for $14.95 (or up.. they have some pretty dangly stuff)
1 Free pair of Swarvovski Crystral earrings
- Free shipping
- Minus $10 promo code

Equals $4.95 for TWO pairs of nice earrings!

I didn't do this part, but someone else posted that you can actually get 3 pairs of earrings for $4.95. If you click on special promotions, there are earrings that are free with purchase of two other pairs of earrings. Apparently the free earrings count as a purchase because I was able to put the additional free pair in my cart and the total for all three came to $4.95.

After you click special promotions, click buy 2 get 1 free.
OR TRY THE ABOVE for THREE pairs!


Anyways, this is totally legit and they want you to spread the news of their promotions. So if you do this, please put in the comment section that I referred you.

My email is sarahmarie [dot] pemberton [at] gmail.com

Christmas Break... So Much On My Mind

I'm sorry I haven't been on much. I don't mean to abandon this site. We will be moving at the end of this month and returning to college, we've celebrated birthdays and holidays, things are so incredibly busy! And my sister is currently engaged to be engaged right now! Moller is a nice young man from the UK and I"m so happy for her. They've been talking about marriage and children. It's so exciting! Also, my mom has been suffering from health problems. She should be getting out of the hospital today. A few days ago, she was hospitalized because she began to go into kidney failure. It was scary. She has asked me to go through her final will & decree, especially where it comes to life support and tube-feeding. I'm glad she chose me. I think I'm honestly the most... how do I put this? Stable? I can handle that kind of stress a lot better than my sisters. After my brother died, both of my sisters dropped into a deep depression, but I never did. I was able to handle it quite well and so I'm glad she chose me.

But as you can see, things have been a tad hectic. I will try to update as much as possible.