Crazy Lady!

Update below.

I just heard on the news about the single mom of 6 who had fertility treatments done and delivered octuplets. She is divorced, living with her parents (her mom filed bankruptcy last year) and now has 14 children. Yeah. FOURTEEN! I desperately hope that there is some information that can shed a more positive light on the situation but I cannot fathom what that could be. I am curious as to who paid for her fertility treatments and how the doctor justified providing those treatments in his own mind when she already had 6 children. I know it's a gray area because who really has the right to stop someone from having children. Where did the sperm come from? She was divorced in January '08 (according to the news), months prior to getting pregnant. Who is paying for the delivery and hospital stay for these 8 precious babes? Who is going to pay once they go home? How is this woman and her poor parents (and I don't mean poor financially, I mean I'm sad for them) going to raise 14 kids. I'm just astounded, flabbergasted really. Stunned.

I know, it's really none of my business but it's not as if I really expect her to come here and answer so I'm going to wonder. My personal opinion based only on the information that I have is that it was really wrong for her and her doctor to arrange for this pregnancy. According to the doctor on the news only two embryos should have been implanted as well so how did she end up with eight? I just have so much going through my mind. Knowing how stressful it can be on some days to have only three (beautiful, wonderful) children and with the support of my family and friends and long distance support of a wonderful husband. I can only think that this woman is actually mentally ill. I might think differently tomorrow after I sleep on it. But I doubt it.

Update: Found this article tonight.

Say What?!

A few weeks ago when the kids and I were at the library I found a book called Someday We'll Have Good Manners by Harriet Ziefert and I thought "that's great, it's always good to reinforce good manners" so I checked it out. Later at home I cracked it open with Gabe and Zion and started to read. I guess the "someday" in the title should have been a clue, this book is nothing like what I thought it would be (and now as I go back and read the inner flap I know I should never have checked it out). The book starts out "When we grow up, we're going to have very good manners." Each page has a statement such as "I'll be so polite." and "We won't barge in." and "We won't interrupt." which are all good things. Unfortunately underneath each picture is a drawing of two children demonstrating atrocious behavior. Doing exactly opposite of what the statement says. I kept thinking as I'm reading "OK, where is this going?" and asking Gabe what is wrong with each picture and hoping that the ending with have a good moral. The second to last page reads "Someday we'll be grown up. Someday we'll have manners." and I flip to the last page and it reads "But for now, we're just kids." (which I did NOT read out loud) and I say WHAT?!!!!!! How is that possibly OK? You don't give your child an excuse to get away with that crap behavior! None of the things the children demonstrated in the book are possibly OK at all, not for Gabe at 4 and not for Zion at 2 and there's no way in heck I'm waiting until my kids are adults to see them have good manners. I hate to break it to you people, if you don't teach your kids good manners when they are young, like straight from the womb, the likelihood that they will just suddenly develop them when they become an adult is practically nil. A rude child simply becomes a rude adult.

Why, why, why?! I just don't get it! This book isn't funny, it isn't useful, it's awful! The last thing kids need in our society today is another excuse to be self-centered and horrible. Children can be children and have fun and still have good manners. Harriet Ziefert, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Just in case you're wondering, this is how the inner flap reads: Of course these kids know how to say please and thank you! Of course they know how to wait in line politely and to give up a seat to someone who might need it more. They certainly know how to sit at a table and pass the food nicely. But will they? No way! That's for when they are grown up and boring! When they get older they'll have good manners, but for now...they're just kids.

Arg! Make it stop!



OK, rant over. We now return to our regular scheduled programing.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

This post has been a long time coming. I have had parts of it in my mind for it seems like a month now. I just wanted to give credit to some folks and boo hiss some others.

First the good and this is a big good. Kudos to the Armed Services YMCA for recognizing that the families of deployed reservists don't necessarily live close enough to a base/post to utilize the support and programs offered there. They came up with a wonderful solution and worked with the National YMCA and launched the Military Outreach Initiative which provides free or discounted family memberships and nursery to qualifying military families and personnel (and not just Reservists so go check it out if you are military). Yoohoo! Especially since we qualify!

The Bad - my local Safeway for getting rid of their car shopping carts. You know the ones that have the little car in front that the kids can sit in and pretend to drive while mama shops. Safeway used to be where we shopped exclusively but not anymore, not if I can't contain and entertain my kids. There are four other stores in town that either have car carts or have another option that multiple children can sit in so they are getting my business instead. When this happened about 4 months ago I did e-mail the corporate office and the assistant manager at the store and neither one gave hope that they would be replacing the car carts. They've had their chance, now their on my bad list for not responding to the needs of families. I know I can't be the only one who at least partially bases their shopping choices on this type of convenience.

But hey, I'm not as mad at them as I am my local Petco which is brand new. I've found that these chain pets stores leave a lot to be desired in general. Rarely if ever do you actually find an employee that knows anything about pets. Most of the time when I walk in to the fish section I know ten times more about fish than the staff. To give them a little credit sometimes I only know five times more than the staff. Last week, not only did I know more but this girl was so flat out rude that she earned Petco a bump up from merely bad to downright ugly. All I wanted were some whiteclouds. I waited forever for someone to show up in the fish section. When no one came around I finally got the attention of someone at the check out and he sent some one over. When she E.V.E.N.T.U.A.L.L.Y. showed up I asked her if they had any other cold water fish than goldfish. She waved her hand in the general direction of some other tanks and said "Just what we have over there." I told her "Those are tropical fish." and began to explain what I was looking for and in the middle of my question she turned from me and asked a pair of young guys what they needed help with. Wha'?! I didn't even finish my sentence. As in, I was STILL speaking to her. So I said "Fine, I guess I'll go shop somewhere else." and walked away and she did nothing to stop me. Fuming I went to pay for my other purchases since I really did need the dog and cat food in my cart. Conveniently the guy at the register couldn't get his to work and had to call the manager over so I took the opportunity to let her know how unhappy I was at her staff member's rudeness and what happened. Lacy I understand her name was, shrugged, turned and mumbled "Hm, I'll have to go ask her what happened." and walked off. Right. I have so much confidence that you're going to do ANYTHING! Arg! So Petco, there is a Petsmart just about right next to the YMCA where I take the kids three times a week now and not only is their fish selection considerably larger than yours but their staff is a million times friendlier (even if I still probably know more than them). I know. I used to shop their before the Petco went into town, but hey, I can be convinced to drive further for better service and your staff here in town is pretty convincing.

Knight Rider

My review. I'm a car chick. I loooove the rumble of a big ol' motor. The right engine sound can actually bring a tear to my eye. Honest. The original Knight Rider (from here on out let's just call it OKR) was one of my favorite shows growing up. The new Knight Rider fails to please. For one, the graphics are insanely cheesy. The stupid fire on the outside of the car (or any time they have a shot inside the car when it's moving - or any time any car is moving). Puleeeze! The OKR would have used real fire. And it would have looked so much better. Can't stand fake fire. Consider the latest three Star Wars movies (computer generated special effects) versus all three of the Lord of the Rings movies ("real" special effects). Based on that alone which was funner to watch. LOTR of course!

Two, Kitt turns into a truck? Really? I mean really? Come on writers, this is Knight Rider NOT Transformers. Gimme a break! Naturally the new Kitt would have new technology but transformation is neither necessary or desirable.

Three, what's with all the bare bodies and S. E. X. stuff? I want to watch to see a car do cool tricks not see some chick strip down to her bra and panties - or the guy strip either for that matter. Lame! When is Hollywood going to figure out that if you make a show worth watching you don't need all the trashy stuff.

Four, cheese. I hate cheese. And by cheese I mean cheesiness. Acting, plot, jokes, writing. Not all of it but enough to qualify as big time cheese. Lame.

Knight Rider gets two thumbs down for me and I'm kind of bummed about that. I really wanted it to be cool.

Bad Dog, No Biscuit!

I have a very naughty dog. Wanna know how I know? The evidence:


Exhibit A - green planter missing its plant. Exhibit B - remnants of said plant. I know, it's almost too grotesque for film.

Exhibit C - one guilty-looking dog. Notice he refuses to look at me.

Exhibit D - One Hungarian Hot Wax with fresh teeth marks, all greenery forcibly removed.

It is interesting to note that the green plant is completely annihilated yet the pepper itself remains intact but for these teeth mark representing only one bite. Perhaps the Hot Wax is really hot after all. Poor Towz. I suppose the shock of biting into this should be punishment enough.

She Doesn't Cry When She Pukes

When you are grieving over the loss of a loved one and in shock over the pending separation with another there's nothing quite like one of your children getting the puking flu to make you to stop living in your head and get you to deal with what's right in front of you. This morning Zion woke up with the puking flu. Actually I think she puked first in the middle of the night because it was dried in her hair, on her jammies and on her sheets. So she puked in the night and didn't even cry. Weird. She proceeded to puke up everything I gave her orally throughout the day. Water, juice, Pedialyte, crackers, Fruit Loops (which I gave her before I realized that she really was sick). It doesn't seem to phase her at all. She puked in her highchair, in the baby swing (which I was indulgent in letting her sit in this morning), next to the loveseat, on the loveseat, in her crib (twice), and in her chair in the living room. Each time she just got this look on her face like "hm, I really wish I would stop doing that." and stand there and wait for me to clean her up.

Interestingly, her sick personality is so different from her well personality. Well, as you know, she's all over the place, simply on fire with life and exuberance. Sick, she's passive and quiet and quite amiable. Well, she only comes to find me when she has a demand like "cracker!" or "cup!", sick she doesn't like to be more than 5 feet from me, preferable sitting next to me or on my lap. Luckily she didn't care which one it was because Gideon is going through a growth spurt and spent the day either nursing or screaming because he wanted to nurse. Cleaning up puke is bad enough but doing it while your newborn screams himself into hysterics is really, really not fun. So my list of accomplishments for the day was nurse, clean up puke, change Zion's clothes, scrub the carpet, do laundry - wash, rinse, repeat. You get the idea. Poor Gabe got the short end of the stick today. The squeaky wheel gets the grease you know and he simply wasn't squeaky enough to compete (thank God!) with his siblings. I'm hoping and praying that the flu will stick to Zion and not spread to any of the rest of us and that she'll be better tomorrow. Feel free to pray for us, too.

Right now I'm going to sign off and go send an e-mail to the makers of Pedialyte. Why in the world do they put colored dye into a product that parents typically only give their child when they have a stomach bug?!? Stomach bug = puking. Puking = vomit all over your things. Dye in the Pedialyte = dye in the vomit. Vomit all over your things = dye all over your things. Grrrr! Stupid, stupid, stupid!