Home Again

Well, our trip back to my home town didn't quite turn out how I wanted it to. On Thursday, Harper came home from baby school with a runny nose. No big deal (or so I thought). By Saturday night, I was contemplating taking her to the emergency room. Don't worry. She's fine - just a respiratory infection and an ear infection. Although Harper wasn't 100% we did manage to do a couple things while we were home.

My mom and I took Harper to Boardman Park to swing on the swings. This kid loves to swing.

We also went to my aunts house to have dinner with my grandma, my cousin and her children, and my mom and dad of course. Dinner was soooo good. No one makes pasta sauce like my family does. The highlight for Harper was making a new friend.

We also managed to squeeze in a trip to a Boardman institution - Handles Homemade Ice Cream. This is the best ice cream in the whole world. If you think that your local ice cream is better, it's only because you haven't had Handle's yet. Celebrities like Oprah and Bill Cosby have it delivered to them. National Geographic recently named it one of the best ice cream shops in the country. I got a single scoop of cake batter ice cream in a sugar cone and the girl literally put three scoops of ice cream on the cone. When she handed it to me, I said "Is this a single scoop?" and she said "Yep." And guess how much it cost. $2.00, not $4.00 like all of the big chain ice cream places. $2.00. Perfect.

For as sick as Harper was, she was a real trooper. We'll just have to make another trip home to do all of the things we missed out on this time around.

Off The Grid

We are headed up to Northeastern Ohio this morning. Going to spend a long weekend with my family. Harper has a nasty cold and was up half the night, so the flight should be fun... Anyway, I'm not taking my laptop and I'll have limited internet access. So, I may disappear for a few days. But, I promise to take lots of pictures and tell you all about our trip when we get back. Talk to you soon!

She's A Rainbow

Harper and I rocked out to this song last night. It's my favorite Rolling Stones song. I think it's her favorite too (especially the Oh, la, la part).



Also, on a somewhat related note... Have you seen the newly released pictures from Tim Burton's version of Alice in Wonderland? Totally awesome. Can't wait to see it.

Earning Her Keep

Rob has to shine his police boots every day for the academy. Harper likes to help.

Work In Progress

I think I got negative parenting points over the last 24 hours:

 

   1. Last night I took Harper with me to the gym (she likes to play in the child care area with the other kids). While she was there, she totally had a poopy diaper blow-out. The child care workers must not have noticed it and I didn't notice it until I was putting her in the car. Totally gross. I put her changing pad thing down in her car seat so that she could sit on it on the way home (yes, I made my child sit in a very poopy diaper until we got home - she didn't seem to mind). I called Rob to get a bath ready for her, because she was going to need it. 

  

   2. After her bath, I let Harper stand on the bath mat while I dried her off. She likes to stomp her feet and dance on it. She took two steps off of the mat and totally wiped out on the tile floor. All while I was standing right there. Nice job, mom. 

  

   3. While driving to baby school this morning, Harper threw up in the car. She's not sick, just puked up the milk that she drank for breakfast. We were almost half way to baby school, so I decided not to turn around and go home to clean her up. I did pull over onto a side street to do a quick clean-up job (which wasn't very effective). When we got to baby school, I took her inside hoping that a little water and some paper towels would salvage her cute outfit. It was not to be. She smelled like sour milk. I took off her cute (but smelly) dress and changed her into her mismatched emergency outfit that we keep at baby school. 

Oh, well. No permanent damage done. I will try to do better tomorrow. 

They Say It's Your Birthday

Happy birthday to my mom! She's pretty fantastic and I'm excited to see her this weekend. 

Keep On Rockin' In The Free World

I heard a song on the radio in the car this morning and it made me think about some of the music I used to listen to in high school and college. Like a lot of people, music was very important to me back in the day. I would regularly sit down and listen to an entire cd while reading the lyrics to each song in the liner notes. I also loved making mix tapes. I don't spend near the amount of time listening to music these days. Maybe I should work on that a little. Here are the 3 musicians that influenced me the most back in the day. Leave a comment and tell me your musical influences past or present. 

1. Tori Amos - She's pretty much amazing - the perfect mix of provocative lyrics and beautiful melodies. Sometimes I have dreams that Tori and I are buddies. 

2. Neil Young - I think Neil is an acquired taste. What I like about him is that he embodies the phrase "Keep it simple, Stupid." His lyrics are simple. His melodies are simple. But together, they make up some of the most powerful and beautiful songs that I know of. 

3. Stevie Nicks - I learned guitar so that I could play and sing Landslide. End of story. 

BFF

Harper got a Glow worm last night.

The two of them have been inseparable ever since.

They ate together, they slept together, they watched morning cartoons together...

I knew Harper was awake this morning because I heard the music that the Glow worm plays when you squeeze it's belly.

I think this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

To Spank Or Not to Spank?

I might be opening up a can of worms today, but I'm going to do it anyways. My question for you is "Is it ok to spank your kids?" When I was little, my parents spanked me as a form of discipline. I can remember 2 distinct times that I was spanked. It hurt my feelings way more than it hurt me physically. However, it set the precedent that if I did something wrong, spanking was a possible consequence. I have to say that it was an effective discipline technique. All my mom or dad had to do was start counting and I knew that I better stop what ever I was doing or else I might get spanked. On a side note, I never knew what number my parents were counting to (10, 5, 3?) so by the time they got to 2, I made sure I was done being bad. Pretty smart on their part. Because of my experience growing up, I was pretty convinced that it is ok to spank your child.

However, recently I have begun to rethink my position. Harper has started to smack my hand if she doesn't like what I am asking her to do. For instance, if I take the TV remote away from her, she throws a mini temper tantrum and will smack my hand. When she does this, I immediately tell her "No hitting." It has occurred to me that telling her that it is inappropriate to hit is in direct contradiction to the idea of me spanking her (I haven't actually had to spank her yet, just thinking ahead for when the situation presents itself).

What do you guys think? If done in a loving and controlled way, is it ok to occasionally spank?

Bad Guys Beware

So, many of you already know this, but some of you may be wondering why my handsome husband shaved off all of his nice hair. Well, the reason is that he was accepted into the police academy. He's in his his 3rd week (of 22 weeks) of hell academy, and he's doing great. He admits that it's challenging, but he is excelling at the physical training and thinks that he just aced his first written exam. I knew that being a police officer was a good fit for Rob. I'm just really happy that he is excited to go to work every day. Now if I could only get used to his shaved head, we'd be in good shape. 

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

Harper went to her first official baseball game on Saturday. The Nashville Sounds are the minor league team affiliated with the Milwaukee Brewers. The game was great. The Sounds won in the 10th inning. Harper loved it. Every time the crowd cheered, she thought they were cheering for her. We had great seats - so good, in fact, that James Denton from Desperate Housewives was sitting right in front of us (although I no idea who he was until someone pointed him out to me). Harper was way more interested in the mascot, Ozzie,  than she was in trying to spot celebrities. She was also very interested in the ballpark food - even getting her first (of many to come) taste of a Coke Icee. She also watched her first fireworks display and loved it - not a single flinch. Outings like this remind me that we were blessed with a pretty good kid. It was a long night, but she was really good the whole time. We will definitely have to go to another game soon.

Someone's getting sleepy...

Sound asleep only to wake up clapping when the Sounds made a great catch. I think she's going to be an avid baseball fan. 

Kiwi

I saw this video the other day on one of the blogs I read and I keep thinking about it. I had to watch it a couple times before I understood what was going on. Here is a link to the original post. The author, Steve, has a great commentary on the video that I think is really helpful. Enjoy.

When the Science Hits the Fan - The Dark Side

As is usual for a Wednesday night, Harper and I had dinner with our friend Katie last night. During dinner, the topic of white meat vs. dark meat came up. I knew that there was a scientific reason for the difference between the two, but I fumbled the explanation. So...I looked it up this morning and here's what I found. 

Dark meat has more myoglobin (a protein that delivers oxygen to muscle tissues, very similar to hemoglobin) in it than white meat does. The more myoglobin the tissue contains, the darker it will be. 

Think of a turkey. Turkeys don't fly, but they do plenty of running around. Their leg muscles (drumsticks) get a lot of use, but their chest muscles (breast meat) do not. Muscles that do a lot of work and require a lot of endurance need more myoglobin than other types of muscle. That's why drumsticks are dark meat and breast meat is white. 

As far as the nutritional differences between the two types of meat, dark meat has more fat. This is again because these muscles require more energy (stored in fat) than white meat muscles do. However, nutritionally speaking dark meat isn't all bad. It contains more Vitamin A, B vitamins, and iron than white meat. 

Just wanted to give you some food for thought. Now that I've made everyone including myself hungry, I will be signing off. 

Pasta Pictures

Nothing interesting to say this morning. Here are some pictures of the kiddo to hold you over until I can think of something to tell you. 

Grounds For Change

I'm not really a coffee drinker. I'll have the occasional McDonald's iced coffee, but that's about it. My husband, on the other hand, is somewhat of a coffee connoisseur. Every month we get gourmet coffee delivered right to our door. While Rob insists that this is the best coffee in the world, we are about to make a change. We are going Fair Trade. 

The term Fair Trade can be applied to any number of goods. It basically means that:

• * Producers receive a fair price - a living wage for their goods. A minimum floor price is also set and abided by. 
  
• * Forced labor and exploitative child labor are not allowed.
• * Direct trade practices are employed. Importers purchase from Fair Trade producer groups as directly as possible, eliminating unnecessary middlemen and empowering farmers to strengthen their organizations and become competitive players in the global economy.   
• * Producers have access to financial and technical assistance.
• * Sustainable production techniques are encouraged.
• * Community development is a goal. Fair Trade farmers and farm workers invest Fair Trade premiums in social and business development projects like health care, new schools, quality improvement trainings, and organic certification.
• * Equal employment opportunities are provided for all.
• * Transparency is important. All aspects of trade and production are open to public accountability.

Sounds pretty good, right? But what are the real world benefits of Fair Trade coffee? Well, I'm glad you asked. 

• * Empowered by the economic stability provided by Fair Trade, members of the COSURCA coffee cooperative in Colombia successfully prevented the cultivation of more than 1,600 acres of coca and poppy, used for the production of illicit drugs. 
  
• * In Papua New Guinea, the AGOGA cooperative, is investing in a medical team to meet the healthcare needs of its isolated rural community. 
• * In the highlands of Guatemala, indigenous Tzutuhil Mayans in the La Voz cooperative are sending local kids to college for the first time. 
• * Near Lake Titicaca, in Peru, the CECOVASA cooperative is assisting members from Quechua and Aymara indigenous groups in raising coffee quality and transitioning to certified organic production. 

Fair Trade coffee is available in most grocery stores and coffee houses. Will Fair Trade coffee cost a little more than the Maxwell House that you usually buy? Maybe. But it seems worth it to me. We are going to start ordering from this company. But there are lots of other online outlets as well as local stores to get it. Look for the Fair Trade logo to know that you are getting certified Fair Trade products.

Please consider switching to Fair Trade coffee. A little change on your part can make a big difference in someone's life. 

40 Years and Counting...

My mom and dad celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary yesterday. They met freshman year of high school and dated for 7 years before they got married. I dug up some old pictures to celebrate them and their marriage (they may kill me for this). Enjoy. 

I think this was my mom's senior picture. Isn't she pretty!

My mom and dad always had cool cars (and still do).

Wedding day June 7, 1969

40 years later

Housing Crisis

We moved from Cincinnati to Nashville almost a year ago. We still own our house in Cincinnati. It's been on the market for over a year now and hasn't sold yet. That kind of sucks. We are currently living in a rather nice apartment in Nashville. Our lease is going to be up soon and we need to decide whether we want to sign another one (which of course, then rent has significantly gone up) or find somewhere else to live.

While we are certainly not hurting as much as some families, our own personal housing crisis has definitely effected me. This whole house situation has kept me up more nights that I would like to admit to. When we first put our old house on the market, I was sure that God knew what our time frame was and would make sure it sold in time for our move. I mean, God loves me, right? He knows what I need, right? It was Him that facilitated our move to Nashville in the first place, right? I was sure He'd come through. Our moving date came and went and the house didn't sell. And here we are, a year later, and the house still hasn't sold. The house that I love and that I would pick up and move to Nashville if it was physically possible.

I've been through several emotional phases over the last year regarding this situation. First there was hope. Then disappointment. Then stress. Then I tried to ignore the whole situation. Then stress. Then hope. Then more disappointment and stress. My prayer life also went through phases. At first, I was praying regularly to God asking Him to let our house sell quickly. Then I pleaded with Him. Then I stopped talking to Him about it. Then I would mention it every once in awhile. Now, I'm in the occasional pleading phase but mostly trying to ignore it.

I'm smart enough to realize that my timeline is not God's timeline and that He is probably using this situation to teach me about His provision. Blah, blah, blah. My head knows these things, but they haven't downloaded to my heart yet. Ideally, I would love to sell our house in Cincinnati so that we can buy one here in Nashville and put down some roots. But, I don't know what God wants. I'm trying to ask and listen. Your prayers would be appreciated.

4 Years and Counting...

Today is our 4 year anniversary. I think we're starting to get the hang of this marriage thing. Here's a little collage of what we've been up to over the last couple years. The music in the background is being played by Rob on cello and his grad school roommate Joe on guitar. Bet you didn't know he was that good. 

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When the Science Hits the Fan - Penguin Poop

Emperor penguins are ridiculously cool animals. Many of you have probably seen the movie March of the Penguins that chronicles their migration to breeding grounds amidst harsh Antarctic conditions. If you haven't seen it, you should check it out. It's actually a real tear-jerker. While it is utterly amazing that these creatures can travel up to 60 miles in winds that exceed 100mph and temperatures that routinely dip below -60F, that is not the subject of this post. Today, I would like to focus on another facet of the emperor penguin - it's poop. 

Scientists have recently discovered previously unknown colonies of emperor penguins by noticing their poop stains from space. I know it sounds crazy, but stick with me. Scientists at the British Antarctic Survey found this out by accident when they were looking at satellite images of their bases. A reddish-brown streak on the colorless ice was located right where they knew a colony of penguins were located. The stain was penguin poop. Because penguins stay on the same patch of ice for months, their poop collects in one area and is visible from space.

Using this unconventional yet effective method, scientists were able to scour satellite images of Antarctica for the reddish-brown stains and identified 38 distinct penguin colonies, 6 of which were previously unknown. Considering that scientist predict one third of Antarctica's sea ice will melt by the end of the century, this information will prove very useful in studying the effects of climate change on the emperor penguin population.