30 before 30

Well, I'm 29 now. Here's my updated 30 before 30 list. I changed some of them. Arthritis limits me somewhat, like with learning the guitar. I changed some of the craft ones because when I couldn't think of 30 things last year, I finished my list off with some silly crafts from Pinterest. Anyways, here it is.

1- Read all of the books I own or get rid of them (I'll give myself 3 extras, plus any books I get for my 30th birthday).
2- Create and print a book of some of my blog posts.
3- Make at least one book for Brayden.
4- Research my book idea, decide if there's something worthwhile, and if there is, start writing it.
5- Make homemade pizza.
6- Have a baby, or at least be pregnant or trying. I'm very indecisive on this. When I started the list 2 weeks ago, it was to have another baby. Now I just don't know. Maybe it should be to make up my mind. :)
7- Try Thai food.
8- Go on a birdwatching expedition.
9- Eat at The Melting Pot.
10- Donate to Kiva.
11- Take a cooking class.
12- Milk a cow.
13- Save and plan for a 10th anniversary trip in 2013.
14- Go camping.
15- Go on a trip to somewhere in Utah I've never been (Moab, Bear Lake, etc).
16- Eat vegetarian for one month. I tried this in February. I made it halfway through and caved on Valentine's Day.
17- Make or buy a growth chart for Brayden.
18- Throw a cookie exchange party.
19- Make this family portrait this summer (around B's birthday).
20- Go on ten hikes.
21- Spend a night away from Brayden.
22- Do more canning this year and next, and maybe even attempt canning tomatoes (or tomato sauce). Karen, can we do this together? I'll need your help. :)
23- Organize photos taken since Brayden's birth by month and back them up. FAIL- Our external hard drive shut down. We'll send it in for data restoration sometime, but I am so glad I put so many pictures of Brayden on FB. I'll be making cds of what I do have very soon.
24- Buy or make a keepsake box for Brayden to hold trinkets like the hospital bracelets, coming home outfit, etc.
25- Make a surprise ball for Brayden for his birthday or Christmas.
26- Go to a play.
27- Make this Christmas decoration.
28- Introduce Brayden to Star Wars.
29- Go to the midnight showing for Harry Potter this July.
30- Sell condo and buy a house, if the market allows it.

1st day of Spring

Picking up bugs and running around! What more could a two year old

ask for on the first day of Spring?

Uterine control

As we all know, the Republican party prides itself on being all for small government. I'm calling bullshit. Why? Because they've made it perfectly clear this week that they want control over the uterus.

Presidential candidate Ron Paul said in an interview that "If it's an honest rape, that individual should go immediately to the emergency room, I would give them a shot of estrogen." Granted, this is more than I assume the other Republican candidates would "allow," but still. Honest rape?! I have no words. Lastly, for a doctor, he's pretty behind on his knowledge of contraception.

President Obama recently announced plans to ensure that birth control is covered with no co-pay by insurance plans. According to good old Mitt Romney, this is an assault on religion. The talking point of the right is that Catholic employers would have to pay for birth control when they are against it.I think Adam Lee of bigthink.com said it best: "This is the same thing as pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control pills: they interpret "religious freedom" not to mean, "I will not use birth control because my religion says it's not OK", but to mean, "I will not allow you to use birth control because my religion says it's not OK". They've twisted a person's individual right to abide by whatever beliefs they see fit into an aggressive demand to control the behavior of others."

The Diane Rehm show discussed this today. One of her panelists mentioned that IUDs have abortive-like qualities. I'm hearing that more and more lately. It's starting to make me feel like I'm in some reproductive dystopia where no contraception is allowed because it's ALL abortion!! I brought this up on a feminist LDS Facebook group I am in, and here is one of the comments I liked: "This kind of language is largely a "scare tactic" to exercise influence on women's health care choices. Especially since lots of other conditions can make the uterus less habitable for a fertilized egg looking to implant, like caffeine consumption. But nobody is running around telling ladies that their diet cokes have abortive-like qualities."

Between everything mentioned above, the Planned Parenthood funding issues, and the various "personhood" laws coming through state legislatures, I feel like the Republican party could use a new slogan: We're for small government, except when it comes to your uterus.

It is so hard to see your baby sick. I can't imagine what toddlers think while they are throwing up. He looked so confused at what was happening and why he or I couldn't stop it. Later, when it was just dry heaves, it seemed to scare him. When he wasn't actually sick, he sure tried to be happy. He played with his cousins who had stopped by real quick. As he felt it coming on, he would come back to me with such a scared look on his face. Eventually, we fell asleep on the couch- him laying on my chest. Just the way we used to sleep when he was really a baby.

He woke up this morning happy as could be. A little warm, but no other signs of sickness. He played, colored, and took a bath with his Dad. I can still tell it took a lot out of him though, because he's asleep and it's only 11:30 a.m. I hope he wakes up feeling even better.

Must watch

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak Pt. 1
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak Pt. 2
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

This is one of the best interviews I have EVER seen. I had no idea Sendak was such a grouchy old man, and gay at that.

Sendak- I didn't set out to make children happy or to make life better for them or easier for them.
Colbert- Do you like them?
S-I like them as few and far between as I do adults, maybe a bit more because I really don't like adults.

S-I'm a gay man.
C- I'm sorry, I must be mishearing you. You just said you're a gay man? Why are you allowed to write children's books? You're not allowed to head boy scout troops.

S on ebooks: $!$% them is what I say! I hate those e-books. They cannot be the future, they may well be, I will be dead and I won't give a $%!^.

  

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Indecision 2012 - Pander Express
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

Good clip overall, but I'm posting this for what happens at 3:40. I love him even more. Seriously- he's on my "list." Ryan Gosling and him have pretty much had the stop two spots for awhile now.

-Speaking of Ryan Gosling, Adam and I watched Drive last night. I can't get the trailer to embed, but here is the link. It was such a good movie. Suspenseful movie with an open ending. I don't always like open endings, but it works with this movie.

-I am reading John Green's new book The Fault in Our Stars. I mentioned his vlogs on YouTube to a friend and she had never seen them. Here's a funny one about honey badgers. Here's a somewhat more serious one about Kiva. His brother and him have also started doing crashcourse videos where they teach us stuff.

-I'll end with this one. Now, I'm crunchy in some ways (co-sleeping, extended breastfeeding, delayed vaccination schedule) but very mainstream in other ways.

Ten on Tuesday

1- I saw the movie J. Edgar this other day. He is such a fascinating character. The movie was okay, but I want to get my hands on a good biography of him. I'll have to do some searching on Goodreads.

2- I saw this print on Pinterest, and I feel like I have to share it here. I hope it eventually makes its way into the blog book I still need to make (a 30 before 30 goal).

3- Tomorrow starts my month of eating vegetarian as another one of my 30 before 30 goals. One of the reasons I chose that as a goal was to try to increase variety in my diet. Also, meat is an inflammation trigger for RA. Dairy is as well, but I'm hoping that at least reducing my meat intake will help. Anyone have any must-try vegetarian recipes? I plan on a lot of soups made with veggie broth rather than chicken.

4-I'll be making my first donation to Planned Parenthood tomorrow after we get paid. I've wanted to donate ever since the fiasco where they almost lost government funding, but never got around to it. After reading this today, I'm going to do it.

5- I lost 5 lbs my first week back on WW! I'm hoping to have lost at least 10 lbs by the time I start back at the library.

6- I so want to do this run. In fact, I just now showed Adam the video clip of the race, and we decided to plan our vacation around it. Neither one of us have ever been to Boise.

7- I've made a variation of this smoothie at least 4 times since she posted the recipe. I just use 1 cup skim milk, 1 tablespoon real peanut butter, 1 frozen banana, and 2 cups of spinach. It is awesome! If you like the Peanut Butter Mood smoothie from Jamba Juice, it's like that (just green and a little less sweet). I've been making green smoothies for years, but never like this one. When I go grocery shopping next, I might try to find a light chocolate soy milk or almond milk to try it with.

8- Yes, the sign above him says "Kid Use Only- adults: please don't sit on the log." In the picture, he's smirking like he knew what it said and did it anyways, but he didn't actually see the sign.Another parent and I had a good laugh about this at Gymboree.

9- One of my friends posted one of my favorite Colbert quotes on Facebook: "If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it,"

I got into into a mostly polite discussion about it with one of her friends. A discussion in which he called Christ a capitalist. I'm still laughing about it. With the help of some friends, I found this article to link him to. I especially like the ending: "In the end, though, it’s silly for anyone to argue that Jesus supported an economic system that he had never heard of or encountered—whether it’s capitalism or socialism. What Jesus did encounter was an economic society with a large gap between the rich and the poor, and at every turn he advocated one thing—that we care for the needs of others as much as we care for our own needs. Now, that’s a revolutionary economic theory."

10- One of my best friends had her fourth baby and first girl yesterday. I'm so happy for them. She had a planned unassisted birth. It's not something I would choose for myself, but if anyone is capable enough to do it, it is her and her husband.

Ten on Tuesday

1- I'm going back to work at the library! The newly rebuilt East Millcreek Library, to be exact. I've enjoyed being able to only work on a very part-time basis the last two years, but I need insurance. I am excited to help put a library together and get it open. Also, this is the library I grew up going to, so it's sort of special to me in that really cheesy way. I just hope my joints comply with the physical labor aspect of the job.

2- On a related note, I started Weight Watchers online two days after I found out about the job. I gained back all I lost after having Brayden and currently weigh more than when I had him. I should have started after that flare-up last summer, but at least I'm starting now.

3- I just got some Raspberry Hugs from the Valentine's candy section. So good! I know this doesn't fit with starting Weight Watchers, but I promise I am eating them within my points.

4- I chose The Fellowship of the Ring for my book club choice this month. I've always felt like the only English Lit major/graduate that has never read LOTR. I am enjoying it, but I'm glad I saw the movies first. I don't know that I'll get around to reading the next two, though.

5- Brayden and I painted this canvas for my Dad's birthday this week. I got the idea from Pinterest of course. Here's the original tutorial. I'm definitely repeating this project. I love the quote she did, and the idea she had to do it with the alphabet.

6- My boy is dealing with some growing pains. He's been waking up at night crying that his legs hurt. Poor little guy! Adam thought it was that he kept getting "charlie horses," but I'm pretty sure it's growing pains.

7- Brayden is catching balls now, at least 30% of the time. The other night, he put a bucket upside down on the ground and stood on top of it. Then he threw a football back and forth with my Dad. At Gymboree last week, he walked across a balance beam without our help. That kid has better balance than I do! I'd probably fail one of those walking sobriety tests.

8- He may be advanced in gross motor skills, but his fine motor skills are lagging behind. He can't peel stickers off the page yet without me getting it started for him. It's so interesting how kids develop and how they often fall behind in one skill set when they're advanced in another.

9- We had tile put down in our bathroom a week or so ago, and it looks great. The toilet, on the other hand, has been a pain in the butt (ignore the silly pun) ever since. I don't know what Adam did wrong, but the current problem (there has been a few) is that he can't get a certain screw out that has corroded, even after buying stronger drill bits at Home Depot. I don't think Adam and I could ever buy a "fixer-upper." We're just too clueless about home repairs.

10- Advice needed: We've got a long-distance company billing us $5 a month through CenturyLink. It started about 6 months ago, when Qwest switched to CenturyLink. This company called us asking us if we wanted long distance. Adam, knowing about the company being bought out, though it was the new company. The first month, we called to cancel. We have had to call every month since! The customer service agents are always good about issuing us the refund, but then the charge shows up the next month. CenturyLink has told us they can't do anything, which I think is screwed up since this other company is billing us through CenturyLink. They promised us when we called last week that it wouldn't be on next month's bill, but they've told us that every month. What else can we do to get this to go away once and for all???