Thursday, June 26, 2008

Just Fer Kicks

1. Theoretical Ideal Candidate (100%)
2. Stephen Colbert (campaign halted) (95%) Information link
3. Duncan Hunter (withdrawn, endorsed Huckabee) (87%) Information link
4. Chuck Hagel (not running) (84%) Information link
5. Sam Brownback (withdrawn, endorsed McCain) (82%) Information link
6. Tom Tancredo (withdrawn, endorsed Romney) (81%) Information link
7. Mitt Romney (withdrawn, endorsed McCain) (77%) Information link
8. Alan Keyes (withdrawn) (76%) Information link
9. Jim Gilmore (withdrawn) (75%) Information link
10. Newt Gingrich (says he will not run) (70%) Information link
11. Fred Thompson (withdrawn) (64%) Information link
12. Bob Barr (63%) Information link
13. Tommy Thompson (withdrawn, endorsed Giuliani) (63%) Information link
14. Mike Huckabee (withdrawn) (59%) Information link
15. John McCain (58%) Information link
16. Rudolph Giuliani (withdrawn, endorsed McCain) (52%) Information link
17. Wayne Allyn Root (is now Bob Barr's running mate) (52%) Information link
18. Ron Paul (concedes nomination not possible) (50%) Information link
19. Kent McManigal (campaign suspended) (47%) Information link
20. Bill Richardson (withdrawn, endorsed Obama) (26%) Information link
21. Al Gore (not announced) (24%) Information link
22. Michael Bloomberg (says he will not run) (24%) Information link
23. Mike Gravel (withdrawn) (22%) Information link
24. Hillary Clinton (defeated, endorsed Obama) (21%) Information link
25. Christopher Dodd (endorsed Obama) (21%) Information link
26. Joseph Biden (withdrawn) (18%) Information link
27. Wesley Clark (not running, endorsed Clinton) (17%) Information link
28. John Edwards (withdrawn) (17%) Information link
29. Barack Obama (15%) Information link
30. Elaine Brown (withdrawn) (9%) Information link
31. Dennis Kucinich (withdrawn) (6%) Information link
32. Alan Augustson (campaign suspended) (5%) Information link
33. Ralph Nader (0%) Information link

I guess my "ideal" guy doesn't really exist. Does he/she exist for ANYONE? Stephen Colbert for president?!

Take this silly test here.

Hat Tip and a prayer to Thorny

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Hmmmmm, Why Do People Think Catholics Are...

...you know...voodoo, magical powers, spells and witchcraft, cult, "Mary worshipers"?

Maybe it's stuff like this?

From the article:

"Brother Lawrence said he knows there are people who are skeptical about the powers of such holy relics, and the powder's mystery probably will not work on those who do not have faith."

Uh huh.

Hat tip: my mom who pointed out the article about the Holy Land by Mary Ann Kuharski (in The Catholic Servant that was in our bulletin) where she mentions that shrine. The rest of her article is lovely but this stuff is just silly..."Take one drink of rock powder per day (husband too) and soon you'll have a baby!". Sheesh.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Things To Do Before I Die

1. Finish half marathon.

Check.

Heehee! I DID IT! AAAAAANNNNNDDDD, I did it much better than I expected!

For all of the details and pictures, go to my training blog. I am posting all about it and will have that post up in a little while.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...things here at home were pretty tame as far as I know. Weazy stayed overnight at Trine's and Trine told her when she woke up how I did at the run. Weazy said, "She finished the marathon before I even woke up!". Tommy drank a bottle and followed his normal routine. I doubt he even missed me. He is such a good baby. I missed everybody! Butch had gotten home pretty early on Friday and I was home about 7pm on Saturday night. I was sooooo tempted to stay at the spa where we dropped off my sil's brother (who ran the whole marathon). It sure would have been nice to plunk my butt down into a nice, hot jacuzzi and get a full body rub-down!

I set up the pool before I left, so the kids had the first day of summer going in full swing.
We are getting to know our neighbors again now that the weather is nice and school is out. They drift on by to share in the summer fun often! Thomas likes the grass and tries to grab it with his pudgy fingers but it takes less time just to bend in half and bring his mouth to the ground, he's found!


Thursday, June 19, 2008

2 More Days Until Grandma's Marathon!

I have opened up my 1/2 marathon training blog to all readers so if you want to see my "training journey" from 2 weeks after Tommy was born until now...go check it out! It's kind of wild to see how the first few miles were pure torture and now, I can run 10 miles with really no problem! It was good to do and to show the kids that practice really does make (almost) perfect! It's also good to show people that doing something you HATE can yield fruits and is worth the sacrifice and suffering.

Okay... It's good to show ME that stuff. I wonder EVERY DAY if it's worth it but when my stamina is up, my heart is healthier, and my weight is down, I can keep up more easily with the kids? I KNOW it's worth it and I'll never regret the hour or so a day that I took to spend some time with the road. I pray while I'm running (had to give up my adoration hour since Tommy was born) so I could never consider it a waste of time (I never listen to music or anything).

My training blog can get ugly so be warned!

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

No Excuses

"But it's in my genes, I can't HEEEEELP it!"

Nope, check it out.

I've decided I'm going to live forever.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Is It Summer YET?

Last weekend we started to get ready for the city-wide garage sale. I usually get rid of everything in the house (Goodwill) but I decided to hold on to things this year and have a garage sale. The kids really like doing it and dream of the millions they'll make (really, it's usually less than 100 dollars total) but it's always an adventure. Our kitchen table (a garage sale find from about 3 years ago) was pitiful and covered in paint and marker so Butch took it upon himself to bring it outside on Saturday and sand it down and reinforce the legs for me. It's being used in the garage for the sale. With the breakfast bar covered in the clothes I can't stay on top of (with the garage sale going from Wed.- Sat.!) we officially have no place to eat. We're winging it but I can't wait until all the clutter is gone and we have our nice, non-painty table back! So, here are some pictures we took from last weekend up until tonight:
"Behold! The King of Drool!"

"It's GOOD to be King!"

"HEY LOOK! It's the ICE CREAM MAN! Quick, get some change!"


Weazy sports just one of the many "Fourth of July" shirts we'll be buying before the summer is done.



My studly man and his sander. I tell you, there's nothing hotter than a hubs who finishes a project!

Here are the clothes I DON'T get paid for folding and putting away:

Man, this is only about 2 days worth of freakin' laundry!

These are the clothes (and other misc. garbage) I HOPE to get paid for neatly hanging and displaying:







Mari has been having a ball digging in the 25 cent box the neighbor girl brought over to sell. She's been a "pin-cess" for a few days now. She hauls a purse around pretty much wherever she goes. She sure buys a lot of stuff for a girl who doesn't really make much money.

All that shopping (and POTTY TRAINING is busy work)!

Here are a few shots of my view from flat on my back in the driveway afer my run tonight (around 8pm). It was finally a nice day and night with no hail or crazy wind! Butch handed Tommy off to Weazy and she plopped him into my arms just as I was doing my sit-ups. They got to be kind of wet sit-ups with the King of Drool doing what he does best. He really liked being my hand weight!







Some of my friends ask me, "HOW can you RUN while nursing and taking care of all of those kids? How did you get in shape so fast?"
Well, I say that it's things like those that are demonstrated here...I HAVE to run because it's cheap and easy. I have an infant who sucks the life out of me every couple of hours and a toddler that yells, "I want a ride!" and hops on my legs every chance she gets. Combine that with the other kids who keep me hopping in every direction and a hubs who chases me around all the time?...
I can't HELP but stay in shape!

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Don't Give Water To Babies Under 1

I have never given any of my babies "sugar water" and for good reason. It's just empty calories and bad for their system. It just felt wrong to give them anything (besides the occasional bottle of formula if I didn't have any breast milk on hand if I was going away for a little while) besides breast milk for at least the first year or so. Here's some very good advice on WHY it's wrong to give too much water (even one bottle!) to a baby under one year old (this is just part of it, click on this link for more links and the rest):

Pediatricians at Johns Hopkins Children’s Medical Center sounded the alarm recently that water isn’t a healthful beverage to give babies under one year of age. Every year, they see healthy children being rushed to their emergency room suffering seizures after having been given water to drink. It takes very little water to lead to water intoxication in babies and tiny tots. As little as three ounces a day could be too much water for a child under a year old, said Dr. Allen J.Walker, M.D., head of the Emergency Department at Hopkins Children’.

As their notice said:


Too much water dilutes sodium in the blood and flushes it out of the body, thus altering brain activity, which can lead to a seizure. Infants under 1 year of age may be more prone to these types of seizures than older children because a young infant’s diet does not contain enough food sources to replenish the lost sodium. Also, an infant’s immature kidneys cannot flush out excess water fast enough, causing a dangerous buildup of water in the body.


Breast milk and formula are the best way to keep a child under 1 year of age who is not eating solid foods hydrated, pediatrician Allen Walker says, and straight water should be avoided. Over-diluted formula can lead to water intoxication as well. Electrolyte-enriched pediatric drinks are not recommended for routine hydration.


Symptoms of water intoxication in an infant include:

· changes in mental status, i.e., unusual irritability or drowsiness

· low body temperature, usually 97 degrees or less

· facial swelling or puffiness

· seizures


While these seizures generally do not lead to permanent health problems, they are preventable. A parent’s natural instinct in hot weather is to give their infant water to prevent dehydration, said Dr. Walker, but if they need extra fluid, breast milk or formula is best.


It’s not just the heat


There are two other serious reasons today’s parents may be increasingly inclined to dilute their babies’ formula or give them water: financial difficulties and food insecurity, and concerns about fat babies.


H/T Shelly

Saturday, June 07, 2008

That Ten People Meme (for Amy)

I'm supposed to name ten living people I would like to spend 10 minutes with.

Shelly already named most of the people that came immediately to my mind.
I'm going to stick to the order to only choose living people but I'm going to add what I wish our main topic of conversation/my main question would be...

10. Raymond Arroyo (his children and his job)

9. Pope Benedict (his shiny, white hair and what kind of shampoo he uses)

8. Kim Jong Il ("What's with the doofy hairdo and the ugly leisure suits?")

7. Bill Gates (I'd ask him for some money. He has lots extra.)

6. Mother Angelica (Her mother and her relationships with some of the people in her life and if she had any regrets.)

5. Don Williams (I'd just ask him to sing me some songs and I wouldn't talk at all.)

4. Fr. Corapi (I'd ask if I could give my confession and wait for him to yell at me but good.)

3. Any of the Medjugorje "seers" during their "apparitions".

2. Stephen Hawking (he just seems very interesting)

1. The Chief of one of the tribe of remote tribes of indigenous people they just spotted in South America somewhere. I think it would be interesting to talk to someone who's never known anything about civilization.

I could add many more people to this list but I stuck to the first ten I could think of.

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Huh? Crazysistersayswha?

Mari (loudly making an announcement at breakfast this morning: Mama! I wan nother one shweebuh!

Everyone: Huh?

Weazy: "Tree butt?"

Trina: Do you want another waffle?

Mari: NO! I got waffle wight heeyo (with a "duh" tone to her voice)!

Everyone: ?

Trina: OH! Mari you want more SYRUP?

Mari: YEAH!

Shweebuh=Syrup

Who knew?

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Tommy Toofer

He's only 3 months old!
(my earliest teether)



Yesterday, number one popped out and today he officially has TWO TEETH! I got a picture this morning of him with his fingers NOT in his mouth. He constantly sucks on his first two fingers of his right hand. He wasn't cranky at all for the past few weeks but he's been an absolute drool FACTORY. I have to keep bibs on him all of the time. Now I know why!

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Disco Sistah



Mom: Hey, Trina? Go check on Mari. She sure has been quiet in that classroom all by herself for a while now.
You KNOW what usually happens!

Trina: Naw, she's just coloring in there.

Mom: Uh huh, but WHAT is she coloring???

Trina: Okay, okay...I'll go get the camera!

(I think she did a pretty good job with Trina's makeup, considering she's not a professional makeup artist...yet.)