Fruits of My Labor

Literally, for the strawberries, the fruits of my labor. That was rather fast, it supposed to be 30 days from blossom to berry, did a month really pass by, that I have ripe strawberries? I am pleased with the results so far, they are bearing large, almost store (pesticide ridden) size (lol) and damn tasty and pesticide free! Now, if only I can get Miss Rose to stop picking the green ones! Yeesh. She has discovered them and now I have to watch her like a hawk so she doesn't pick them all.


My peas, happily climbing the netting. We are awaiting fresh peas impatiently!

Aaaannnd my first red runner bean blossom! Its about time. These took longer than I thought, and the plants that I DIDN'T start inside, are doing the best. They have stronger, thicker stalks, broader leaves....I won't bother starting them inside next year, I will just plunk them in the ground come May long.

Purple lupines....oh I love these flowers. My mock orange that I forgot about lol. Just one of the bushes in the front, and I didn't remember what it was until it blossomed, and the smell is glorious, you realize why its found in so many perfumes, its amazing.
And my first real bouquet from my flowerbeds.

My dahlia, with so many stalky buds I can't count. It isn't the nicest looking plant,very spikey and stringy looking, but for cut flowers, my god, you can't beat it. And its so true. the more you cut the more it blooms, look at that thing! I wish I had done a couple more darn it. Next year.

My pansies...my favorites....


Other than that, I am re-reading my Harry Potters in anticipation of not only the movie, but the newest and last book as well. I forgot how different the books are from the movies, the little things that they just can't add in. I am having a great time reading them and can't wait till the kids are old enough to enjoy them as well.

I have a team meeting tomorrow night, then work Wednesday night and then my weekend is free, and I do believe my mom and dad are up for a visit. That should be a lot of fun, the kids will be so excited to see them.

Hope everyone's having an ok Monday!

~K~

Take a Moment, Send an Email

I am sure everyone has heard about the huge child abuse network that was smashed, children rescued and people arrested in the news lately. But while reading (and trying to ignore the awful details that the media loves to dole out) I came across a post about how the CEO of The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, (who headed this up) gets flak for not locking up every pedophile out there, and was encouraging people to email their support and thanks.

And I don't usually jump on a bandwagon, but this was worth posting. Their website is
http://www.ceop.gov.uk/index.asp, and contact email is enquiries@ceop.gov.uk.

I just want to say thanks. Thanks for doing a job that I can't even imagine doing, because I can't even grasp what you have to do day to day. Thank you for getting out of bed on the days that it must feel like evil is winning and you are only one small person in an organization trying to make a difference. Thank you for the kids you have saved, the tradgedies you may have prevented in advance, and the steel to keep on going after those you know are out there.

I know that abuse happens right around us, I am not blind. And that's not even going into thanking the people around me who work with children in my own city. But for years, predators have viewed the internet as a safety zone, a place to freely take advantage of children. This is a fantastic step in the right direction.

Now I am going to freaking hug my kids really tightly before I go to bed.

Rain Rain and More Rain

It can stop anytime now. Man, every few hours, there's a brief thunderstorm and then the sun. The backyard is a mudpit, the kids are ancy with colds which, it appears, Miss I. managed to pass on to several people at a birthday party on Friday. God, I was just kidding! I told Beckie that I owed her a cold, so trust my girl to pass it on to everyone. Yup, you can thank me later everyone. Next time I am dropping off K by himself. Aren't they old enough for unparented yet???? Sigh. Don't invite Karlynn, her kids super-infect everyone else's. Just call me the "party pariah" from now on, k?

Speaking of the two, here's a pic of them, albeit blurry, but a pic nonetheless. So cute when they want to be.



And a pic of my back flowerbed, getting there. My red runner beans and my honeysuckle aren't growing like I want them to, doesn't seem to be taking off like I thought. Hmmph. We shall see.

Other than that, we have lots on the go right now, between work and home and a weekend of sick kids and fighting off the cold myself. Ooh that sounded fun even to my ears lol! Ah, they were fine, good moods just sniffley. Mike and I are the big babies when sick.

Anyhow, will blog later when I have something to actually talk about.

Still Here...

Yawn, and meh and blah and blech.

Let's see. Well, I gave my notice at work, for my last day as August 1st. I am very wishy washy about the whole decision, thus the long notice. It really IS getting harder to manage my work time and Mike's, and I have found a babysitter, who is really nice and the kids like her. But its kinda pointless when my wages go to babysitting. I'm constantly tired because I still doesn't sleep well at night, K doesn't want me to go and clings to me,(that's something that just started, no idea why, he has been fine for 5 months) and I am always too tired to actually do much with the kids the day after I work a late shift. Mike has to be more flexible with his hours at work now, eg, staying later, so that leaves me weekends. No thanks.


But on the other hand, the cash is nice, I don't work that many hours, I have a great manager who makes me feel appreciated, the stock plans and employee discount are great and I am good at what I do, and I don't mind it at all, once I get there. And K is SO excited when the sitter comes because she has a little boy for him to play with, so its a fun playdate for him. But really, I don't have to pay for a playdate LOL! Oh well. The door is open for me to go back when I want, but still. It's not easy to leave.

But days like today, where (inbetween the rain!) the kids are running around happy in the backyard, playing with the watertable, and we have played and baked and had fun, well, pretty easy choice!

Anyways, this morning I baked some mini corn muffins before K was even awake, and mmm, were they goood! Drizzled a little honey over them, and K scarfed back 4! Even Miss I ate one, and she just doesn't eat anything lately. Next time I will make them with blueberries. AAaaaand, I have lupines! Weehoo! They are so fantastic the second year, I am so impressed with how they are turning out. I have lots more coming too, I can't wait.
And the wonder hydrangea. Still doing whatever it is trying to do. Not sure.

More Flowers...

Just more pics of stuff...

Looking down at my fern,its very trippy.

The front, slowly getting to where I want it to be.. Now if only the lilac and burning bush behind these would actually get taller than the damn fountain. Maybe next year.

I am not sure how I managed to take this picture, but I really really like it, the colorsand the dark background. I was thinking of blowing it up and seeing how it fared. I love how its all soft..

More flowers, K picked the fireweed when we were at Khazana's for lunch with Mike today. Mmm...good food...


That's it, I'm too tired to blog much. I will update the kids one tomorrow. Yawn.

My New Favorite Actress

Let's hear it for Maggie Gyllenhall!

Yup.

First's

Lots of firsts this week...

My first posey from my flowers. Can't call it a bouquet because its soo tiny! The flowers are in a toothpick holder LOL! But the dahlia is supposed to flower more profusely if you cut the blooms off, so I'll give it a shot.


My first Iris has bloomed, I have been waiting for a week now, and finally have one!

My first rose on my climbing rose.. I love the little fly on the leaf beside it.

And my first strawberries that I have done in completely organic soil....wonder if it will make a difference? There are also onions and yellow beans planted in the fourth one, here's hoping!

That's about it for pics, the bedding plants are in too, but those are the same ol's flowers that everyone has. I laughed when Charlynn commented on an old post about the Lupines being ALL over Nove Scotia, I guess they are considered weeds by some people out East too! And I try so hard to grow them here in my flowerbeds. But speaking of which, one of them looks ready to bloom in 2-3 weeks, which I am anxiously waiting for. They are so much healthier and fuller the second year, I can't believe the difference.

Other than the planting stuff, I am sooo tired from being out and about in the hot weather, and its just starting! I need a daily nap I tell you, I am soo beat by noon. And of course K won't comply and sleep a wink most days. Once in a blue moon I luck out and get him to nap.

Tonight Brett is going to ToysrUs and picking up a pool for us, he's taking Melissa's van since its a large one and it won't fit in the wagon. We bought a really nice netted tent as well,so we will set that up with the pool under it and we can all sit and enjoy it mosquito free! Just need that second deck to be put in...I don't think I am nagging Mike quite enough, we aren't any closer to building it than we were two weeks ago. Must up the nagging.

Oh god, must go get iced tea to survive until Mike gets home.....zzzzzzz.....

If You Hang It, They Will Come

Well, in theory anyways. K and I hung up our hummingbird feeder, they have been sighted in the Edmonton area as early as the 12th. Please don't ask me how I know that nerdy information either LOL. However my tree (which I STILL am clueless as to what it is!) has some fantastic leaves and should be flowering soon....

Long story short. My sister bought me a beautiful, blown glass hummingbird feeder for my birthday. Do I really have to explain what happened? Can't you all just guess? I am SO sorry Karami, it actually DID make it to the tree. Then it fell off. :( I think K was more upset than I was.


Unfortunately, that's ALL we have to entice them. Last night there was a chance of frost so we took all our sheets out and covered up the plants that are in the ground already. I love that the neighbors get a peek at my sheets, lovely. As you can see its hanging all lonely there, waiting. My scarlet runner beans have no support (you can see them drooping by the fence, planted all along there) because I can't find the right netting between incompetent staff and a general lack of merchandise. I will have to check Walmart out tomorrow, and then I might have to just go with another idea. Which I have yet to come up with...they should be SO fantastic looking once they are growing...the flowers are edible and beany tasting (should be interesting to incorporate into a salad) and the beans are supposed to be delicious as well.

I also need a cheap archway, preferably white in color. My honeysuckle needs to be planted and I want to train it to creep over an archway to the flowerbed in the picture above. That's going to be a labor of love... can you get them at micheals? Hmmm mebbe buy a wedding one when they have their 40% coupon out....

My list of things to do gets longer and longer....I keep forgetting to buy organic soil so my peas and beans can be as healthy as possible, I also want to do some strawberries in it as well. Stepping stones....plant my damn seedling outside already....

I am going to run out of summer again before I get this all done. (am I boring you yet?)

Other than that, things are fine. I worked Tues and Wed and that was really tiring going back right as soon as we were home. K was sick this morning, crying and feverish, and then this afternoon after a nap and advil, was right as rain. Running around outside, ate a huge dinner, went to bed nicely. WTH that was I have no idea.

Mike's out tonight at Brett's and took the Wii of course, too much fun that Wii! I had craft night tonight but I haven't had an evening at home relaxing in almost 2 weeks, so I was just not up to going out. So now I should get my arse to bed as this weekend is going to be killer weather and that means I can finish up a whoooole lotta planting and yardwork.

Article- What Do Stay At Home Moms Do

TELL ME ABOUT IT ®

By Carolyn Hax
Wednesday, May 23, 2007; Page C10

Carolyn:

(Best friend has child. Her: exhausted, busy, no time for self, no time for me, etc. Me (no kids): Wow. Sorry. What'd you do today? Her: Park, play group . . .)

Okay. I've done Internet searches, I've talked to parents. I don't get it. What do stay-at-home moms do all day? Please no lists of library, grocery store, dry cleaners . . . I do all those things, too, and I don't do them EVERY DAY. I guess what I'm asking is: What is a typical day and why don't moms have time for a call or e-mail? I work and am away from home nine hours a day (plus a few late work events) and I manage to get it all done. I'm feeling like the kid is an excuse to relax and enjoy -- not a bad thing at all -- but if so, why won't my friend tell me the truth? Is this a peeing contest ("My life is so much harder than yours")? What's the deal? I've got friends with and without kids and all us child-free folks get the same story and have the same questions.


Tacoma, Wash.

Relax and enjoy. You're funny.

Or you're lying about having friends with kids.

Or you're taking them at their word that they actually have kids, because you haven't personally been in the same room with them.

Internet searches?

I keep wavering between giving you a straight answer and giving my forehead some keyboard. To claim you want to understand, while in the same breath implying that the only logical conclusions are that your mom-friends are either lying or competing with you, is disingenuous indeed.

So, since it's validation you seem to want, the real answer is what you get. In list form. When you have young kids, your typical day is: constant attention, from getting them out of bed, fed, clean, dressed; to keeping them out of harm's way; to answering their coos, cries, questions; to having two arms and carrying one kid, one set of car keys, and supplies for even the quickest trips, including the latest-to-be-declared-essential piece of molded plastic gear; to keeping them from unshelving books at the library; to enforcing rest times; to staying one step ahead of them lest they get too hungry, tired or bored, any one of which produces the kind of checkout-line screaming that gets the checkout line shaking its head.

It's needing 45 minutes to do what takes others 15.

It's constant vigilance, constant touch, constant use of your voice, constant relegation of your needs to the second tier.

It's constant scrutiny and second-guessing from family and friends, well-meaning and otherwise. It's resisting constant temptation to seek short-term relief at everyone's long-term expense.

It's doing all this while concurrently teaching virtually everything -- language, manners, safety, resourcefulness, discipline, curiosity, creativity. Empathy. Everything.

It's also a choice, yes. And a joy. But if you spent all day, every day, with this brand of joy, and then, when you got your first 10 minutes to yourself, wanted to be alone with your thoughts instead of calling a good friend, a good friend wouldn't judge you, complain about you to mutual friends, or marvel how much more productively she uses her time. Either make a sincere effort to understand or keep your snit to yourself.

Write to Tell Me About It, Style, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071, ortellme@washpost.com.




I finally found a sentence that sums up how mentally draining it can be, and why those who don't stay at home (aka Mike) just don't get it sometimes.

It's doing all this while concurrently teaching virtually everything -- language, manners, safety, resourcefulness, discipline, curiosity, creativity. Empathy. Everything.

tired

Long time no blog. Its been a hectic and busy and fun and sad and everything 10 days. I can't believe how mentally and physically I am worn out. My mind just feels like mush, I haven't slept well in 10 days thanks to hotel rooms and beds that aren't my own, add a funeral and a driving a couple thousand kilometers, and well, hell, stick a fork in me. I am done.

I did some planting tonight, but aside from adding to my physical exhaustion, it actually cheers me up and refreshes my mind immensely. Mike thinks I am crazy and perhaps he's right, but I feel better after playing in the dirt for a few hours. My neighbor came over with her little girl for a bit and told me she heard frost was coming, I am going to have to look into that.I hope she's wrong LOL or its time to get out the bedsheets to cover the flowerbeds!

Walmart had the most fantastic plants out today, I bought snapdragons, marigolds, petunias and a couple peony's. The flowers are all gorgeous, they must have just been shipped in. If you need some, go to Walmart in the east end, the selection todays was amazing.

We bought a Wii in Dauphin, which just makes me laugh. We've wanted one since Christmas but just aren't the kind of people to stand in line for them when a shipment comes in. We just walked into the Walmart there and bought it. Crazy! We are really enjoying it tho, its SO much fun! After I finish blogging I am off to play it with Mike for a while.

Here's a pic of Kandice and Dan from the zoo that I thought was really nice. Kandice, your stomach is looking sooo wonderfully preggo! I should have taken some pics of it with all the nice scenery!

Thanks to Melissa for taking care of my plants and Luna while we were gone, it was much appreciated that I didn't have to worry about it. And there was almost no mail while we were gone so don't worry about not finding the mailbox LOL!

My laptop cord is broken so I have no links to anyone's blog or anything else till it gets here. This is my first time online in 10 !!! days other than messaging M to see how the plants and cat were doing and Facebook the other night. I have lots of catching up to do on all my websites!

We're going to relax at home the next few days, I work tomorrow and Wed night, but that won't be so bad I haven't worked in almost two weeks! Yikes. Here's to settling back into normal life again after 10 days on the road.

Love Affair

Mike is out tonight to see Everclear, Tupelo Honey and these guys, Marianas Trench at Cowboys here in Edmonton. If I had been smart and listened to their music before tonight, HE would be at home with the kids and I would be out. I have fallen instantly in love with this song, and working my way thru their album as I write.




Its much better without the words bleeped LOL, Its one that I have to wait until the kids go to bed to listen to.

And I put a link to Brandys music blog, on my links list (that's a pretty lofty place to be, I tell you) she's always naming the songs I hear on Sonic and can never remember the names to. Some great music on there, take a listen! And leave lots of comments, she's an attention whore, but we love her anyways!

Off to listen to more music.

Bone Weary

Oh my aching everything. First we spent the morning walking the trails at Rundle Park, then we came home and I did a ton of yardwork and planting. We dug out a small wee place for my climbing rose, planted 35 glads bulbs, weeded the front and back flowerbeds, hauled crap to throw out...and Mike decided to document it all in pictures.



So here's me planting my dalia, looking very impressed that Mike is recording it for posterity. All my pics had to be cropped because Mike was taking obscene pictures of my cleavage in all of them,except the one below where the plant is covering my cleavage. Last time he gets the camera. Perv.



But, I get to show everyone my bling! See those shiny dots on my kerchief? Its been bedazzled baby! Weehooo! Amanda bought me a bedazzler this Christmas (yes, you can still buy the bedazzler!) and this has been my only project so far. I like the way it looks so much (and matches my blingy shades) that I think perhaps I need to make another one or two in a different color. This is as crafty as I have time for people. Bask in my crafty splendor.

And Kade took this picture while I was weeding the front flowerbed. My irises are sure growing, just not as fast as I thought they would in the spring..

I'm sure there's more I wanted to blab about ,but I am just freaking beat. That was a lot of activity for the whole family today, the kids were in bed at 6:30/7 which was awesome for us. We all have a cold now, Ivy seems to have it the worst. The rest of us just have minor sniffles, definitely a cold, but nothing major. Probably because we have all been living on fruit and veggies for the last few weeks, strawberries especially which are loaded with Vitamin C. I loove plentiful fruit season. We bought a dragonfruit today, but the pics are on the kids blog. Take a peek they are pretty freaky but cool.

Shopping Spree

I should be watching my kids. Who IS watching my kids, come to think of it?

Meh. Anyhow, Kade and I went on a shopping spree at Holes last Sunday, courtesy of my giftcard from Auntie Kandice. And boy, did we have fun! Kade loves going to garden centers with me, he loves looking at the plants, the hoses (lol) the carts and the little outdoor playground they have there.

Me? I adore that place. That's my kinda place. If there are flowers and plants that I can't even pronouce and didn't know existed, decent price tags and friendly, helpful staff, that's for me.

So we picked up a Dahlia, something I have been wanting to try forever. This one will bloom (and soon, there are buds on it) pink with yellow, my faavorite color combination. They make excellent cut flowers, the more you cut, the more they grow back and they bloom all season. Perfect. I am going back for one or two more.

Then I found my scarlet honeysuckle, one of the few without berries. There's no use tempting fate by putting any berries in the backyard that shouldn't be eaten. This sucker grows to 20 feet tall. I think I will be doing a lot of pruning this year. It will be worth it tho, they are beautiful, attract hummingbirds and and not poisonous.

We also bought a John Cabot climbing rose which should be absolutely spectacular, a dragonfly ornament that Kade picked out and manure. You should have seen the look on Kade's face when I told him there was cow poop in the bags LOL!

And then, I found what I want to try next year. For a mere $60 for a 11 cm plant, you too can have ladyslippers in the backyard. Oh my. I think if I am going to even think about having these, that I will have to to do my research and start conditioning the soil this year, and then, um, spend a fortune on plants. Those are the kind that just "appear" in the backyard without your husband knowing. I am excited to try them, but not yet...

Salary cont'd

I found that article again just now, on a feminist site I enjoy (or used to) reading. I went and took a look at the conversations going on concerning it, and was actually pretty disgusted.

Why, are women the hardest on each other, more than anyone else? And it really bothers me, that on a feminist website, they are WORSE!! Much worse. Aren't you all supposed to be supporting every women's choice, no matter what, because its all about our choice?

There were women saying that moms aren't CEO's and don't run a group of 10 people, that mom's aren't shrinks and shouldn't even pretend that they can do that job, and oh god, one of them called it "Feminine Work" and I hope to God she was being sarcastic.

One woman said that because she did her own laundry, that it shouldn't be included. Ok, you come to my house and do my 2 loads a day compared to your 2 loads a week, and let's compare the time and effort on that. Better yet, if we are going to be assholes about it, lets compare her sending it to the drycleaners on her single power woman salary, compared to my laundry days.

Judge judge judge. I would like to know how many of them have done it. What also amazed me, is that women who have a job were given a value for their work beyond their physical workplace. Was THAT bashed? Nope.

Why do they feel they need to tear apart what mom's at home do, piece by piece, and say how unworthy each dollar amount is because mom's don't REALLY do that job. The ONLY one that seemed to have any value was "childcare giver" and "housekeeper"

From "FEMINISTS" . Fuck you very kindly, but those "feminists" are posers and full of self-righteous shit.

My Salary

The price of a mom: $138,095
A new report assigns a salary to a
stay-at-home mother, based on the jobs she does in a normal week.

What's a mom worth?
According to one new report, $138,095 a
year.
That's the figure in a report by Salary.com, which calculates the wages
that would have been paid a stay-at-home mom in 2007 if she were compensated for
all the elements of her "job." That total is up 3% from 2006's salary of
$134,121.

Moms who have jobs outside the house would earn another $85,939 for
their mothering work, beyond what they bring home in existing salary.

The
job descriptions that Salary.com used to determine a mom's salary includes 10
jobs that moms do on an average day: housekeeper, day care center teacher, cook,
computer operator, laundry machine operator, janitor, facilities manager, van
driver, CEO and psychologist.
Plenty of overtime In calculating a mom's
wages, Salary.com looked at the "overtime" that both working and stay-at-home
moms put in each week.

"Mom works multiple jobs and rarely gets a break from the action,
working an average of 52
hours of overtime," said Bill Coleman, senior vice president at Salary.com,
in a statement.

According to the Salary.com survey, stay-at-home moms work a 92-hour
week, with more than half the workweek spent in overtime.

Working moms, meanwhile, logged more than nine hours of "overtime,"
with an average 49-hour "mom" work week -- on top of their full-time paying
jobs.
For the Salary.com survey, more than 40,000 moms quantified their hours
per job description; Salary.com benchmarked the median salaries for each job to
the national median salary for each position as reported by employers.
The
final salary was calculated by weighting the salaries and hours worked in each
role.

Wow, no wonder I am tired all the time. Add on another 15 hours at Telus per week, hell, I'll be a millionaire in NO time!

Me me me me

Alll me. Kade was playing around with the camera today and took pictures of me, some of which turned out really nice! I was damn impressed to say the least! I never get nice pics of me, then he goes and takes a bunch of them!

So here, moi.

This picture made me laugh. My blank stare of sleep deprivation. " Wait, did I lose time? Did I black out? Where am I?"

On the other hand ,he has seriously taken some BAD pictures the last few days. He got ahold of my camera while I was digging flowerbeds. Needless to say my best side is NOT my ass bending over the flowerbeds LOL! I had to laugh at those ones. And no, you don't get to see them! I saved them to show Mike then deleted them forever.

Or the ones where I am coming towards the camera and giving him shit for having it LOL! Those are good ones too, scowl on my face, "Where the hell did you find it?" Or a big hand over the camera, which would be my hand taking it from him.

I need to buy a new one so he can have this old one and have fun.

Random Facts Tag For Cori

Random facts game that I will not play properly. I am supposed to tag people after this and then they have to post their own random facts, but screw that noise. So here's some random facts about me. There is no "we" in Karlynn. Homey don't play that. (OMFG I just dated myself HAHAHAHA!)

1) The tattoo on my right ankle is my birthday rune symbol, and it was on the first necklace that Mike ever gave me. (which is lost now, good thing I got that tat!)

2) I have an obsession with linens and bedding...I could change my bedroom decor monthly.

3) For the longest time, I couldn't pronouce the word vanilla and I swear I have to think about it before I say it even to this day.

4) I have been breastfeeding for approximately 1256 days now. I'm tired just typing that.

5) Oooh oohh I haven't had 8 hours straight sleep since Nov 21, 2003. At least. That's not including being pregnant with Kade. Now THAT tires me out thinking about it.

6) Before I even had Kade I dreamed I had a boy and named him Kincaide, but called him Kade. Mike wouldn't let me name him that, so Kade he was. Damn Mike's black heart.

7) I laugh when I tell the truth but I will look you straight in the eye and lie, so you'll never know!! Mwhahahaha!

Things

Mmm today was a long day... we met A & E (LOL at those intials, I must be dog tired) and walked from their house to the University, had lunch, rode the lrt, and then walked back again. That took 5 hours. Yeh. She is a house pervert as well so when the kids all fell asleep in the strollers we had fun walking back and meandering all over the place looking at older houses and making our comments LOL.

Then I went in to work for an hour...I think that is the record for my shortest time there....

Kade and I planted my Calla Lilly bulbs yesterday, now the only ones left are my glads. Then I will buy my bedding plants and see what I can do with everything, My Asters in peat pellets are about 2-3 inches tall already, the Foxglove and Canterbury Bell are about an inch. They need to get outside pretty damn quick here. Kade is so fascinated with the planting and dirt and it goes beyond the normal boy interest in all things mucky, the kid was WEEDING my flowerbed at the back...and enjoying it....making sure he pulled up the roots too...knocking off the dirt...like mother like son I tell you.

The wonder hydrangea is still budding, I found some bulb that I have NO clue what it was growing (dug it up by accident) guess we will see what grows. My irises are being watched impatiently ....bloom dammit bloom! My clematis are green at the base, but I think I am going to have to move my flowerbeds. Mikes gonna love hearing that. That south side looks pretty, but the north gets allll the sun. I am going to put my ferns etc in the shade and then move my clematis to the sunny side. The whole yard will be toys and flowers. Cool..

I dug out my bday present from my sister. The kids LOVE it and won't leave it alone. Ten million toys and a climber in the backyard, and they both want this garden ornament.

I think its hilarious that it has a bird on its middle finger....hidden meaning or am I just really overtired.... so here's Kade's "frog butterfly"


Off to soak in a scalding hot tub....my aching legs.

Outsourcing Breast Milk

They say breast milk is the perfect food for baby's mind and body. Studies
show that children who nurse may be healthier and happier and, if they
breast-feed for longer than seven months, have a higher IQ. Equally important,
many believe, is the intense bond that develops between mother and
child.
Which is one reason most American moms don't want to share the
experience with anyone else. Yet wet-nursing (hiring a woman to breast-feed your
baby), which most of the Western world abandoned in the 19th century, is making
a minor comeback among young moms. So is cross-nursing, in which mothers
breast-feed one another's babies. Both reflect several cultural trends: more
U.S. babies--upwards of 70%--are breast-fed than at any time in at least 50
years, more women work outside the home, and more young women undergo breast
surgery. Advocates argue that milk sharing lets women be good moms while
fulfilling other goals. Says Natalia Chang, 29, who has cross-nursed with her
San Jose, Calif., neighbor: Breast milk is "a communal commodity around
here."
Not everyone is comfortable with this freewheeling baby feeding. Milk
banks, which sell bottled breast milk, already make some people squirm; the idea
of physically breast-feeding a child not your own evokes even deeper taboos.
Rhonda Shaw, a sociologist who studies shared nursing in New Zealand, where the
trend is also up, says many confuse "adult meanings of eroticism with breast
feeding ... Sometimes people associate a woman breast-feeding another woman's
baby with pedophilia." Even the pro-nursing group La Leche League has concerns
about milk sharing because, in addition to helpful immunities and antibodies,
viruses can be passed through breast milk.
But women who share milk say it's
good for babies and moms. Lorna Medina, 30, who stayed home in Tucson, Ariz.,
after the birth of her child, also nursed the infant of her working sister for a
year. Medina says it created a unique bond with her niece, a preemie who needed
breast milk to grow. Chang says cross-nursing brought her closer to her
neighbor. "It takes female friendship to another level. You're trusting another
person to nurture your child," she says. And she adds that since she and her
husband don't live near family, "it's also a way of building that village or
community that a lot of us crave."
Even if you accept that cross-nursing is
for the collective good, wet nurses magnify the discomfort that many people
already feel about the wealthy employing less advantaged women to do domestic
duties. That's why the few women who hire wet nurses--mostly because they have
adopted, have had breast implants or reductions or have high-powered
careers--keep it a secret, for fear of being judged bad mothers. Still, Robert
Feinstock, who owns CertifiedHouseholdStaffing.com a Los Angeles--based agency that
supplies wet nurses nationwide, says demand has steadily risen in the past four
years, even though the standard fee of $1,000 a week is more than the average
nanny gets.
Brenda (whose last name is withheld to protect her clients'
privacy), 42, has wet-nursed 10 babies in the past seven years partly to help
send her own two kids to college. She has mulled over the social implications of
her work--because she's black and eight of the families she has worked for are
white. "A friend asked me, Don't you feel like you're the mammy?" she recalls.
But she finds her job fulfilling, and sometimes amusing. "If you're someplace
with the family and the baby starts to pull at your blouse or put his hand in
your bra, that can be embarrassing," she says, laughing.

Uhhh a $1000 US a week? Sign me up! I found the whole article really interesting.

Addicted To Facebook

Well, finally pulled myself away from that damn thing to blog, (ok I lied, its open in another window. whatever. its worse than crack )Well, for those of you who haven't joined, get yer asses over there www.facebook.com, and join. Come on, you'll be sooo kewl.

Its actually pretty interesting to see the pics of people that I went to highschool with, especially pics of their kids. Many of them I have seen in the past few years, and a few I haven't seen in forever. Its really cool and it pisses me off that I didn't invent it.

Then there's those few people where you see them and think "well shit, you aren't dead after all!" (D that's for you if you're reading this)

A few I had pegged as being gunned down in a barrage of drug dealing gunfire, maybe one or two drinking themselves into soft, dough-like visages of their former jock selves....the school geek becoming the next Bill Gates, the weirdo finally, just finally, stopping his mumbling about authority and doing something postal about it.

But the mediocrity of just everyone on there kinda stunned me....its babies and kids and spouses and houses and bears, oh my..... and god damned if I didn't just describe myself and my own life.

Not that mediocrity is bad. It just seems that, its just,well, all the SAME. Its just the sameness that gets me....2 children, a car and a house. Decent jobs, vacation once a year. Work and kids and work and kids and.... I always get this way when I think of highschool tho, I suppose. I was like this around our reuion. Where am I and what am I doing and how did I get so freaking Gen X middle classish. Sigh.

By the way, there's more of you on Facebook than came to the reunion! What the shit is up with THAT!

Alright I am rambling. I am off to see if anyone I know from highschool is posting on Facebook from jail.