ARE YOU??
Sarah Palin can’t debate. End of conversation.
I’m dyin’ here. Onto my second glass of wine … can’t move the right side of my body due to sacroiliac pain … but yellin’ just the same.
BE INFORMED.
Stressed Much?!
Okay. I realize I have no room to complain as my life is amazingly lovely. But as my life continues to illustrate that I am Comedy Central for the gods …
BenGay on the sheets — there are few better scents to wake to. My husband and his all-powerful nose disagrees. So, I’ve got one of these on my neck for the pinched nerve from which I am suffering and an icepack tucked into my pants for the lower back stiffness I’ve acquired overnight. Seriously, what a catch am I?! Couldn’t move my head this morning and had trouble making breakfast as my lower back is arguing for equal attention. Picture the Queen of Gimp shuffling to the car like a 98 year old for my lame dropoff of children at school. I’m obviously improving slowly as I seem to be able to sit here for a moment to say hello.
As I glanced over my recent posts, I recognized a theme: I have become an activist. And a vessel for change. And a looney tune.
I’ve managed to thoroughly stress my body out, and she doesn’t like it! I’m losing sleep and hair and contracting issues like “neck spasms”. Lame, lame, lame, lame, lame! Luckily I have buddies who recognize my ablity to lose it over and over again — whatever the “it” might be at the time — and my friend Jess has advised that I read a book called MOMfulness by Denise Roy.
For all of you parents out there trying to balance kids, chaos, politics, school, soccer, PTA, piano, friends, fun, schedules, checkbooks, oil changes, and lawn-mowing … do yourself a favor. Find a book — ANY BOOK — that you can curl up with for a few minutes every day and lose yourself in. It doesn’t have to give you tips on how to be present in the present and it certainly doesn’t have to be another kid-friendly biography to hand over to your almost-8-year-old. NO. Sit down LAY DOWN and lose yourself in Fluff. Find yourself some fluff, friends. 5 minutes of Fluff. My new mantra. Oh — that, and “Yes We Can”.
Before you leave me and begin your affair with Fluff, check out Callie’s words. She brilliant.
Biden - Palin tonight. Grab a glass of wine …
Debates: WATCH ‘EM
If you are on the fence … spend some time watching what the candidates have to say during this incredibly important time. If you don’t think that this election is important, for whatever reason, YOU ARE WRONG. Educate yourselves. And check out Andrea’s blog for some articles worth reading.
You know where my vote’ll be.
Barack Obama
Blessed
Today marks the 2 year anniversary of our appointment with Dr. George P. Henry at the Reproductive Genetics Center in Denver. It was there — after 4½ days of not knowing how healthy of sick our third child would be — that we found out our Beanie was healthy. Beanie was our final pregnancy and perhaps because we were briefly thrust into that chasm that is scary and devastating, I am moved to check in with other families whose outcome has been different than ours. There are several blogs I check in on, and they are listed to the right of this post, under “Blogs I Read”. Take a moment to read their stories and do whatever it is you do — say a prayer, send out positive energy, meditate, empathize, send your love to someone you’ve never met – for we are better off for all those we let in to our hearts, minds, thoughts, and lives.
Big Week
- Beanie’s Luminaries
So we had a pretty amazing week last week. And I’m now coming down from my super-high to highlight our Stand Up Straight, Grand Junction event last Wednesday.
Suffice it to say that I was proud to talk with our group of 30 people and recognize that we are participating in the movement toward chage. And there are families and individuals in my community who will help me bring that change to Grand Junction. I was proud to walk with my neighbors. I am proud to call them my friends. I am honored to join them in our battle for true equality.
Yes, we were small-ish this year. Check back next year for bigger and better and brilliant!
Part of The Group
Peaceful Walk
Friends
Main Street
- Marching For Equality
Standing Up!
Reading Nana's Words
- Our Circle of Support
And in case you didn’t have a chance to read my statement that is visible on the national Seven Straight Nights For Equal Rights website, check it out here (by either clicking on the highlighted ”the national Seven Straight Nights For Equal Rights website” or the highlighted word “here”, Mom!) There’s also a post below that I wrote. Read it here.
Goosebumps and Electricity
What more can I say?! I mean, truly. I was 20 feet from the man who should become the next President of the United States. And everyone could feel the electricity in the air. The energy shifted and all attention and focus was on the message Senator Obama was sending. Sure, there was cheering. But more importantly, we all were desperate to hear every word out of his mouth because IT.IS.IMPORTANT. So, we quieted quickly. And it was positive and empowering and incredible and unfathomable. I get goosebumps anytime I talk about what I experienced yesterday and I tear up like I did standing with my children, watching history unfold. The possibilities are endless and the hope is insurmountable. My almost-8-year-old with remember where he stood as he listened to Senator Obama. My 5-year-old will remember the Colorado blue sky and the rocks she tried to adopt and that we were in the presence of greatness.
I could give you the whole rigmarole of how I missed both kids’ soccer games on Saturday to stand in line (with my 82 year old grandmother and dynamite mom, I might add!) for tickets to see Senator Obama, and then had my three children stand in line with me for hours and hours AGAIN on Monday to get through the 2 metal detectors they had set up for the thousands of people to get through. I could go on and on about how we got there, and where we stood and who we met (wonderful, intelligent people), and how Chad was able to meet up with us …
But this isn’t about any of that.
It’s about the goosebumps and electricity that rose up in all of us as Senator Obama took the stage. It’s about the compelling force that made us all feel like we could make a difference and be a part of something bigger than anything we’ve ever been a part of before. It IS about the tingle that creeps into my nose and forces warm, salty tears to my eyes when I breathe back in the possibilities of this nation and its promise. It’s about respecting a man and his values, motivation, and dedication to a nation’s people … and the respect that that brings back to the title: The President of The United States. And it’s also about what I saw and captured with my camera. Here is what my children saw:
Red, White, Blue, and Obama
- Colorado Sky and Obama
Change We Can Believe In
Just 20 feet away!
Senator Obama
My grandmother said this is by and large the most important election of her life. But it is of utmost importance to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren … those who are not able to vote and have a say in their futures yet. It is up to us to make the best choices for our children and their futures, my friends.
HE’s COMING!!!!!!!
He.Will.Be.Here. No joke. Senator Barack Obama will be in Grand Junction on Monday.
I’m still trying to catch my breath.
You can bet your sweet bippie that the kids and I will be there!
Lookin’ Good
Ask me.
Go ahead, ask me. Ask me how my “motivated-to-be-in-shape-by-the-time-I’m-thirty” process is going.
Go ahead, ask me. Ask me how my “motivated-to-be-in-shape-by-the-time-I’m-thirty” process is going.
It’s going this good:
Attempt 1
Something was missing.
Gettin' It Right
No, I did not eat the first bowl and help myself to the second, MOM!! I simply spiced up the original attempt …
Oh. And ask me how getting back into the swing of things with Chad on inpatient medicine for the month is going. Go ahead. Ask.
This was my lunch today.
Don't knock it 'til you've tried it!!
Any more questions?!!
Dates and Commitment
College. Dating. Find “The One”. Fall In Love. Graduation. Career? Engagement. Move In Together? Marriage. Newlyweds. Graduate School? Dog. Mortgage. Child #1. … Child #2. …
Is this how I envisioned my life plan??
Instead, our list looks a little something like this:
College. DATE (singular). Friends. Friends … with benefits? Child #1. TravelLodge. Graduation. Teaching5thgradeforayearwithnotraining/Pre-requisitesformedicalschool. Fall In Love. Engagement. Wedding #1. Child #2. Wedding #2. Medical School. Child #3. Mortgage. Residency.
I met Chad on August 26th, 1998. I was 19. We got married (the first time) on July 12th, 2002. I know it’s the date that technically “counts” (read: legal contract signed … in Vegas, of all places. Yeah, baby!!) because that’s when all was official, but my commitment to Chad was made long before that particular date. Our second wedding – where we had the ceremony, guests, and celebration I would associate with typical wedding festivities – was August 3rd, 2003. And those are the images I conjure when recalling our “weddding ceremony”. The anniversary of finding out we were having The Boy is incredibly significant — 4/4 at 4pm. Our future together techinically began that moment, whether or not we knew exactly what that future looked like doesn’t matter. I became the mother of Chad’s first-born child, and he became the father of my first-born child. Our lives would forever be intertwined. But I fumble for what is considered a wedding anniversary date in our culture because it’s just a date to me. One of many. I hope to have many, many more …
So what date to celebrate??
I’m not spending too much time thinking about it, to be quite honest! I am instead filling my days with as many memories as I can in hopes of making (almost!) every day worth celebrating.
