7 Quick Takes: Grumping Drivers, Silly Boys, and Cute Preemies

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Daniel had his 3 year old Well Child appointment on Wednesday. He’s looking good, has a healthy BMI, has a healthy curve on his growth chart, and was his normally chill self which was a rare sight for his doctor, especially during naptime. I’m bummed because she’s done with her residency in June. I’m happy for her to move on to bigger and better things (including her wedding in November — she had a lovely engagement ring that looked like it was a sapphire ringed with diamonds) but I’m sad to lose her. I first met her during our epic hospital stay last March when she was doing her PICU rotation and we ended up getting her as our pediatric resident. She’ll kick butt on her boards in October and I know she’ll be an awesome pediatrician when she goes into practice. Meanwhile… hey Katie, could you please come do a peds residency at UCD Medical Center?

— 2 —

To the white Ford F150:
It might be slightly safer if you waited until I was OUT of the lane before you try passing me IN it. You almost sideswiped my rear driver’s side and I would have taken the law into my own hands if you had hit me and something had happened to the cute three year old riding with me. You really don’t want to get between me and my cub.
Snuggles,
The white car with the Promise Walk ribbon

— 3 —

The lesson: never mess with University of Virginia grads. Apparently, public education actually works in states other than California. 🙂 And before I get a huge number of flaming comments, I’m the product of California public schools and Daniel is in an ABA class at a California state preschool.

And no, this video is not intended to be a political statement — I just enjoy her retort to the Speaker’s comment about “not speaking in little enough words for [her] to understand.” I admit to feeling like I need to use that phrase frequently (that is, speaking in small enough words) in comboxes and it’s awesome to see a rational and well-reasoned retort.

— 4 —

My parents are headed up on Saturday to deliver a frame for a raised bed for our garden. I know my mom is bringing up some tomatoes and I’ll pick up some basil plants from Trader Joe’s. I also need to start some pumpkins and perhaps a few other things. Our treasurer came over and rototilled it on Tuesday. We’ve had some rain so I’m kind of also hoping for no weeds.

— 5 —

I continue to be blown away by the awesomeness of Daniel’s preschool class. Not only does he have a teacher who LOVES her job (and it totally shows) as well as aides who love Daniel, I also have fellow parents in the class who are cool. One of the little girls in Daniel’s class came up and hugged him when he came to class on Monday and I met her mom on Wednesday. I was walking him to class when she walked by and greeted Daniel warmly. She then looked up and explained that she was this little girl’s mom. It was great to meet her and I’ve also talked with a few other parents while trying to teach our kids some basic social skills like waving good-bye and acknowledging someone talking to them. I didn’t realize how cool it was until today that I’ve got 10 other sets of parents who are dealing with the same stuff I am.

— 6 —

Brett’s adoption fund has moved up two orders of magnitude. We went from 1/25000 to 1/250 this week. Amazing what $100 will do, huh? Now for that other $24900… I’ve got some fundraising ideas but I also need to find him a mommy and a daddy. You can read about all of this at his adoption blog. I’ve also got a blogathon tentatively scheduled for July 27th and I’m trying to come up with ways to publicize it.

— 7 —

Need a reason to sponsor me in the Promise Walk? Is this one good enough?

Baptizing Daniel at 4 days old.

This would be Daniel at his baptism in the NICU at 4 days old. From left to right: my nasty-looking hand (dry skin cracking), Daniel, Jon’s hand.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

Some Thoughts on Extemporaneous Prayer

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Jeanne of Knowledge Hungry talked about some habits she wanted to change in her life and one of them was prayer. Quoting her:

Prayer. I have a habit of praying, to be sure. I pray the Liturgy of the Hours daily (morning, evening and night prayer), and I pray the Rosary at least four days a week. I??d like to pray the Rosary every day. Some weeks I do, but others I slack off. I??d also like to improve my ??informal communication?? with God in spontaneous prayer.

Being Lutheran, I can’t exactly help her with the Rosary other than suggesting she maybe schedule times to pray it in a day planner. (That would, at least, be my strategy.) I can, however, talk about spontaneous or extemporaneous prayer. It’s something I’ve seen some of the #Cathsorority ladies talking about on Twitter and as one who seems to be doing that kind of prayer most of the time these days, I’ve got a few suggestions for those who want them.

Oh yes… I should also mention that I’m a huge fan of liturgical prayer like Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Compline (night prayer). Lutherans do have these in our hymnals. (Trust me… I’ve done all three.)

[+] The way I seem to be doing much my extemporaneous praying these days is going through my blogroll. Not all the sites are blogs (most aren’t) but I still hit a number of personal sites. I have Brett (my Reece’s Rainbow child) in it so I pray for him when I hit his donation page. Another way it will happen is going through my Google reader. I might happen to see that Anna is having problems so I’ll pray for whatever those problems are, whether they be emotional or issues with her leucine levels. (She has MSUD and is waiting for a liver transplant.) Her mom has a blog set up for the whole transplant process and it helps me to know how to pray for her and for Anna.

[+] If I know something is coming up, I might put it in a scheduler on my laptop so I can look at it and see who needs specific prayers that day. Example: Katie of NFP and Me will be taking her boards in a couple months and if she tells me the date(s) (hint hint hint), I can put it in my scheduler and make sure I pray for her that day. I do the same thing if someone tells me that they’ve got a really tough doctor’s appointment or if someone tells me that they have another thing in their life scheduled that needs prayer.

[+] Twitter is another way I do the above two. I read my tweets pretty fanatically and if someone expresses something that I think deserves my attention, I’ll say a short prayer about it. For those wanting some words, I usually say something like this when someone is sick or has a medical issue: “Lord, you are our Great Physician and the healer of our souls. Bless _____________ and restore them to good health. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

This is how I do it. How do you do it?

7 Quick Takes: Cute Little Boys, Fundraising Pleas, and Human Rights Petitions

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7 Quick Takes

Spring has come to Sacramento which means the air conditioner is turned on again. Whee!

— 1 —

Is there anything better than eating Cheerios and watching Winnie the Pooh with a cute little boy on your lap? I think not!

Just hanging out.

(The little boy fell asleep shortly after this picture was taken. He loves to nap on someone’s lap.)

— 2 —

Daniel is fully adjusted to preschool. We had an hour of tears on Monday, maybe a minute of them on Tuesday, and smooth-sailing the last two days. He likes his teacher and aides and they are positively smitten with him. I’m so thankful that the local public school campus where they house the state preschool classes is only a block away and that the teacher for the autism class does it because she loves the kids. Next Friday, he gets to go to the local zoo with his class and I’m excited for him to experience his first field trip.

— 3 —

There are no words to adequately express my horror and disgust at this. In a nutshell, the dictator of Uzbekistan has ordered the forced hysterectomy of women without their knowledge or consent. Please join with me in signing the petition to Secretary of State Clinton to cut off U.S. funding from this monster.

— 4 —

My mom sent me an interesting article about an autism study conducted by the University of Washington. Apparently, there are differences in white brain matter present in kids with autism. This actually isn’t a surprise because we know that Daniel’s MRI last year showed some white matter abnormalities. I’m not taking this as a “surefire” sign that predicted Daniel’s autism but it is an interesting idea.

— 5 —

Anyone else excited for the crossover between Hawaii Five-0 and NCIS: Los Angeles? I’d prefer one with just the NCIS shows but I’ll take this one. I’m probably not going to be able to watch Hawaii Five-0 on Monday night as it conflicts with Hart of Dixie so I’ll just catch it online while Daniel is at preschool that Tuesday.

— 6 —

I have a blog set up for Brett. I would blog for him here but I have to use my last name to do that and I keep that off this site because it’s incredibly searchable. I also wanted a site where I could add his adoptive parents as bloggers if they so chose. Peacefulwaters.Org is the domain I use for various projects so it fit that I move a blog over there. I’m having a really bad time with the WordPress on it and I think I’ve re-installed it three or four times. Argh.

— 7 —

I have two weeks until the Promise Walk for Preeclampsia.

Support me in the Promise Walk for Preeclampsia

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

Meet Brett

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This is Brett.

Brett

Cute, isn’t he?

He lives in an orphanage in Eastern Europe. I found out about his status on Reece’s Rainbow thanks to Leila of Orphan Report. Leila is completely smitten with him but she’s already the Guardian Angel of two children and after prayer, I emailed them and asked if I could be the Guardian Angel for Brett.

According to his bio on the site:

Boy, born September 2007

Brett is a handsome young man who was born with CP. He is very smart, he gets around on his own by crawling, but he is not able to walk. Therapy will do wonders for him! He deserves to have a family!

From a volunteer who knows him: He plays with other children. He speaks with separate words. He understands the addressed speech. The boy is curious, likes classes. He loves when his nurse reads for him, he likes making pyramids.

The 4 year old sounds like Daniel in so many ways and I know from my experience with Daniel that with some physical therapy, he could learn to walk eventually. As much as I would love to take him home, there’s no way I could take care of both him and Daniel so I’m doing the next best thing: advocating to find him a “forever family” and fundraise so they can bring him home.

It takes around $25,000 for an international adoption and he only has $42.50 in his account to put toward said adoption. Please consider going to his page and making a donation.

There will be more posts about him in the future as well as a blog dedicated to bringing him home (once I get taxes done).

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: April 16, 2012

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Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY

Outside my window… it was sunny but now seems cloudy.

I am thinking… about where my printer cables are so I can print out my tax extension form.

I am thankful… Daniel is adjusting to preschool slowly but surely. He only cried for an hour today which is a huge improvement.

In the kitchen… some Bertolli soup for dinner, I think.

I am wearing… forest green v-neck shirt and capri sweats.

I am creating… tax files and this entry.

I am going… to hopefully find printer cables and stuff tomorrow so I can print out my extension form.

I am wondering… where they are.

I am reading… Style, Sex, and Substance: 10 Catholic Women Consider the Things that Really Matter by Hallie Lord.

I am hoping… I hear back from Reece’s Rainbow about being a Guardian Angel tomorrow.

I am looking forward to… the quiet of weekday mornings while Daniel is at preschool.

I am pondering… assorted things in my heart.

A favorite quote for today… ??I think we all sin by needlessly disobeying the apostolic injunction to “rejoice” as much as by anything else.” — C.S. Lewis

One of my favorite things… Crystal Light peach tea.

A few plans for the rest of the week: probably errands, taxes, and a massage on Friday.

A peek into my day… Daniel and I at Miwok Park at his last physical therapy session

Daniel and I at Miwok Park for physical therapy

Hosted by The Simple Woman’s Daybook

Rosen vs. Romney

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NOTE: I’m blogging to add my two cents on the whole dust-up and not to compare the merits of Romney as a candidate vs. Obama or Ron Paul or anything else. My commitment not to trash any of the candidates stands firm.

I’m sure this is going to be a SHOCKER but I agree that Hillary Rosen misspoke in saying that Ann Romney “never worked a day in her life.” Why, pray tell, do I agree?

1.) The way she phrased it made it sound to some like she was assuming that stay-at-home mothers don’t work. (Huh. I didn’t construe it that way and neither did a number of people I know.) What she probably intended to say was that Ann Romney had never worked a day outside the home in her life. Funny that I somehow figured that out when the mainstream media couldn’t…

2.) It is considered really bad manners to attack a candidate’s family. I mean, you can question whether or not Romney is correct in relying on Ann for advice on women and finances, but it is unfair to attack Ann Romney herself or to attack their kids. The same thing goes for Michelle, Malia, and Sasha — you can criticize President Obama and his policies but you sound really rude when you go after Michelle and the girls.

In the interest of being fair, Hillary Rosen did have a valid point in that Romney should probably be receiving advice on his policies on women from a female campaign staffer who is working full-time and raising her kids without the aid of a housekeepers and nannies like Ann Romney had. You could bring up her MS but then you’d have to bring up the fact that there are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of women in this country who work full-time and raise their kids while simultaneously dealing with autoimmune diseases like lupus, MS, rheumatoid arthritis, and fibromyalgia (the one I deal with on a daily basis).

According to just about every major news source, Rosen apologized and Romney graciously accepted her apology. Can we stop hating on her now?