Category Archives: Reece’s Rainbow

7 Quick Takes: More Vaccine Fun, Prison Chaplain to the Nazis, and Library Love

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

More from Simcha. Simcha posted something on Dr. Deisher, vaccines, and autism today which is worth a read. She brings up one of the things that drives me batty about a lot of the “vaccines cause autism” hysteria: their science is completely faulty.

This is also why I’m in the process of developing a shirt that says: “Yes, my kid is autistic. Yes, we vaccinated them. No, they are not on the GAPS diet. Please go away.” People are obsessed with pseudo-science (the “vaccines = autism” portion) and while the GAPS diet/gluten-free diet does work for some kids, it isn’t a magical cure.

— 2 —

Baseball. The Giants continue to be behind the Dodgers, a trend I’m hoping will reverse itself as I’m living in Dodger country. The Dodgers usually suck so this is kind of surprising. On the other hand, a few of the main people have been out with injuries this season.

On the other hand, the Cardinals are the top of their division so at least one of my two teams has a shot at the World Series.

— 3 —

Minister to Nazis during Nuremburg trials. I read an article on Henry Gerecke, the LCMS pastor assigned to be the chaplain for the war criminals being tried in the Nuremburg Trials, and it was very interesting. One of the questions raised is why men would be given spiritual care when they obviously didn’t give a crap about the 6+ million people they butchered. I also found it interesting that Pastor Gerecke would not commune the 11 men sentenced to hang unless they met his standard of repentance and only 4 did.

I was telling my mother-in-law about the article and she told me about Sunday school lessons in her Lutheran church in the 1950’s where they laid out what Jesus said and gave the hypothetical situation of what would happen if the government told you to do something that countered what Jesus said. The fact that many of the most ruthless Nazi war criminals were Lutheran did not escape the minds of American Lutherans.

— 4 —

Flu shot. I got my flu shot this afternoon as did my mother-in-law and Jon. I thought I’d go to Walgreens because of the program I mentioned last week but I have to stay after for observation due to my egg allergy so it was easier to go to Target where my mother-in-law could stroll Daniel around. (Our local Walgreens is tiny.) (You also should go read Angie’s post on this.)

— 5 —

Library awesomeness. Ann-Marie blogged today on how getting an email from the library announcing your item is in is like getting a free gift. I totally agree. I’ve been checking the library site daily to see if Laura Childs’ new books are on there… and they are. Apparently, someone in cataloging jumped the gun and put them on. I had to call my local library and ask sweetly (because the website was refusing to let me put a hold on them) and they added me to the waiting list. Hopefully, I will be #1 on the list when they arrive!

— 6 —

ID bracelet. While Daniel can point out his name and address on paper, he still isn’t able to say them so I started looking into getting a special ID bracelet made for him a few weeks ago. After Googling a bit, I came upon the company Road ID and found exactly what I needed. The order confirmation and shipping emails were totally accurate and even included some interesting facts on California. We’ve had the bracelet for the last two weeks and Daniel hasn’t taken it off and lost it yet — something I think is great considering this kid’s penchant for stripping stuff like that off. I highly recommend Road ID and I have a feeling we’ll be working with them for a while every time we move.

— 7 —

Brett. I have received word that “Brett” is finally home in the States with his family. Woohoooo!!!! 2.5 years of serious prayers are answered.

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

7 Quick Takes: The Exhaustion Fairy Visits, Scrapbooking Mysteries, and Back to School Night

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Brett. The seriously good news: HIS FAMILY IS FULLY FUNDED AND CAN BUY THE PLANE TICKETS HOME! After two years of praying for him, this is amazing news. God willing, his adoptive family will send me updates on how he does.

— 2 —

Kindergarten. Daniel is in his second week of school and seems to like it. I’ve run into a couple of his aides while out and about and they are in love with him. His transportation is worked out as of last Friday and I think today was the first day he didn’t get on the bus in tears. (I figured there would be a week of adjustment that way.)

— 3 —

Back to School Night. Jon and I went on Wednesday and got almost individualized attention from Daniel’s teacher. Jon was able to network a bit and it was a reminder for me that my kid is not that weird. It was totally up Jon’s alley (he is a people person and a networker) and he actually had FUN at the impromptu PTA meeting afterwards while I curled up into Laura Childs’ New Orleans.

They were talking about Common Core and the implementation at the school. As one who has the possibility of moving between states or halves of states, I’m actually all for the standardization of curricula and we’re being given the chance to review any Common Core curricula that our kids will be using. I know a lot of my homeschooling friends are up in arms over this and that’s understandable; but I’m not finding any problems with any of the material that I’ve seen.

And seriously, our kids are not learning how to twerk in PE like some people have claimed.

— 4 —

Laura Childs. I’m almost completely through her scrapbooking mysteries and have requested her Cackleberry Club mysteries from the library. Yes, she is that good. Her author website is here.

— 5 —

Exhaustion fairy. I somehow missed a dose of medication on Wednesday and had a really bad time sleeping that night so I spent Thursday like a zombie. My mother-in-law took one look at me when she and Jon got home at 6 and ordered me to go to bed. I wrote a couple of these last night but fell asleep typing. I’m still tired this morning but functional thankfully.

— 6 —

Bill Gothard. I’m reading stories on the Recovering Grace website and it’s showing me how much of a bullet I dodged when I converted. I had pen pals who were part of ATI and while they thought I was strange, I’m seeing that they were part of a cult. *shivers*

— 7 —

Bill Cosby and Victoria Osteen. Is anybody besides me convinced that Joel Osteen and his wife are the Christian version of Oprah? (By the way, my church attendance is *TOTALLY* about God, not about making myself happy.)

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

7 Quick Takes: Kindergarten, Grumping, and Murder Mysteries

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Brett His family passed court a few days ago and are now in the 10-day waiting period. They are, however, not fully funded and need $2500 added to their FSP before they can book their plane tickets home. Here is the link to their FSP. Could you please share it on your blogs/Facebook/Twitter and let people know that the number needs to read $13,000? Thanks!

— 2 —

First week of school. In case you missed my post on Monday, Daniel started kindergarten this week and it’s been a mixed bag. We love the school, his teacher, and the aides. What we don’t love: the transportation hell that we’re in. They hadn’t gotten him on any of the class lists last Friday so I had to bring my BINDER OF FUN down to the school to fill out paperwork and give them every recent evaluation of every kind. This also meant that they hadn’t gotten him routed for the school bus… and I’m glad my mom suggested I call and find out. Well… Claremont Unified decided to use their transportation instead of Bonita Unified doing it. On Wednesday, we put Daniel on the bus… which then refused to start. OK… one more day of taking him to school. We put him on the bus again this morning and it was fine… except that they screwed up the pick-up time and Claremont Unified decided not to call Daniel’s school back to let them know that they were dispatching someone. I realized that his bus was in front of me and called the school to tell them not to put him on the bus. The school secretary was spitting fire over the whole transportation screw-up (as I would hope she would be, given that Daniel is non-verbal and people had seriously screwed up) and I got a call from the principal personally apologizing for what happened.

Is all of this making me wish I homeschooled? OH HADES NO!!!!!!!!!!!! I have no regrets about putting him on a bus and sending him to school — I just wish the person coordinating this stuff (the special ed person for Claremont Unified) was actually competent. I’m at the point of asking for her head on a platter and I don’t think the people at Daniel’s school would mind helping me with that! (They’re pissed with her as well.)

— 3 —

Special intention. I had a seriously painful dental appointment today… and it was just the consultation. Blue Shield of California also screwed up my insurance so my dentist can’t even refer me out for treatment because they don’t know what insurance will cover or who of their endodontists I can see. Could y’all please pray that they can get their acts together so the office manager of the practice and I can hammer out a treatment plan on Monday? I’d also love prayers for my headache to go away.

— 4 —

Sleep deprivation. You know you’re sleep-deprived when you swallow your handful of night pills and then realize they were your morning pills for the next day. God willing, I’ll sleep OK tonight…

— 5 —

Baseball. The Giants are only 3.5 games back from the Dodgers right now. They could conceivably take the division if LA starts playing as crappy as they normally do. The Cardinals are also 2nd in their division though it’s fairly close with them and Milwaukee — only 1.5 game back.

— 6 —

Murder mysteries. I’ve gotten addicted to Laura Childs’ scrapbooking murder mysteries about a scrapbooking store owner in New Orleans named Carmela Bernard. There has already been some crossover between these and her tea shop mysteries and I’m wondering if her tea shop people (in Charleston) are going to make a trip to the scrapbooking store in New Orleans or vice versa.

— 7 —

Special intention. Could y’all keep praying for our special intention regarding ministry? Please and thank you!

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

7 Quick Takes: Literary Cats, Daniel’s School Sitch, and A Quote About Depression

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Brett. Brett’s family is facing court in the next few days to adopt him. Prayers would be appreciated.

— 2 —

Explaining suicide and depression. I blogged about my depression on Wednesday and I finally found the quote I was searching for:

— 3 —

Dormition of Mary. Today is the Dormition of Mary in the Orthodox Church(or Assumption if you’re Catholic) and one of my friends posted a link about how Protestants need to embrace Mary. I thought it was pretty interesting so I’m linking it up here.

— 4 —

Daniel’s school sitch. While I was in San Jose this weekend, the cogs were moving as far as getting things worked out for Daniel schoolwise. On Monday morning, I was on a walk with Mom and Daniel when I looked down at my phone and saw that I had 5 missed calls. One of them was my mother-in-law so I called to ask if she knew anything about it. She did — the person who was responsible for getting all of this worked out had called her and told her that Daniel was back in the school district next door to us and they had a placement at a school in San Dimas. I made the call to this person and found out what had been happening. Apparently, they try to keep the ASD (autism spectrum disorder) classrooms capped at 10 kids and they had an opening in this one. They’ll also be transporting Daniel to school and back which means he gets to ride a school bus and we’re not going to have to fight traffic.

His IEP was Wednesday and while the special ed person for our home district was there and screwing up Daniel’s information, the other people were sharp and on the ball with everything which makes me feel much better about all that has to happen.

Serious prayers answered here!

— 5 —

Baseball take. The Giants are now 5.5 games behind the Dodgers. *grumps* At least the Cardinals (my other boys) are only 2.0 games back from Milwaukee (the leaders in their division).

— 6 —

Cute kid story. My mother-in-law has family pictures on various bookshelves and surfaces which fascinate Daniel. Recently, she put the palm-jousting pictures down on a shelf where Daniel can see and reach them. He goes over to them and starts talking to them and when we’re gone, he goes over and says “Dada Mama?”. She’ll explain that we’re in the car and will be back soon. I saw him talking to the pictures yesterday and it was just about the cutest thing ever.

Recently, he has been taking the family pictures of us (the ones with him in them) off of the mantle so we put them down on a table at his level and he’ll take them and look at them.

— 7 —

Harry Potter/cat fun. My mother-in-law and I were talking about school stuff and she made a comment about “if an owl flew through that window and said something about school”.

My reply: “An owl delivering information about school would be a totally normal and rational thing.”

She looked at Edda, my black cat who she has renamed “Bellatrix”, and said, “But an owl is not going to fly through that window. And if one does, LEAVE IT ALONE! DO NOT MESS WITH IT!” Edda looked at her as if to say, “I am a literary cat and I know better than to eat any owls that come delivering messages.”

Yeah… I married into the right family, Lutheran clergy Mudblood that I am.

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

7 Quick Takes: Leaving on A Jet Plane, Orphan Prayers, and Trader Joe’s.

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Leaving on a jet plane. I’m sitting in the Ontario International Airport (California, not Canada) waiting to board a plane for this weekend. Pray for good travel mercies for Jon and I and also for Daniel who is being cared for by my in-laws. It’s the longest I’ve been away from him ever and I’m a bit unnerved. I’m incredibly thankful for my mother-in-law Victoria who is doing the lion’s share for the care.

— 2 —

Control Journal. Earlier this week, I got the idea to make a “control journal” for Daniel like you’d find on the Flylady website. It took me a couple days because I had to take pictures of the steps I take in doing stuff like giving Daniel a breathing treatment and I had to mark up the pictures with instructions but it turned out really well. If you think I should do a post on how I did it, let me know in the comments.

— 3 —

Awesome Trader Joe’s story. I was at Trader Joe’s by myself with Daniel a couple days ago and ended up in a checkout lane next to the automatic doors. Daniel’s stimming behavior is opening/shutting doors so this was a bit too tempting for him and so he made a run for it. In the process of trying to get him back and get my gift card out, I dropped my wallet and everything spilled out. The crew member checking me out looked at me and asked, “Is he autistic?”

“Yes,” I replied.

This crew member immediately grabbed another crew member, told him to watch Daniel for me, and helped me pick up the contents of my wallet and sort it. When all was done, he helped us carry everything to the car and asked me a lot of questions about Daniel and his autism. It turns out that he is a college student studying psychology and he recognized the signs. He made sure we got everything into the car, complimented me on how I was doing this all by myself, and told me that if I ever needed any help like this to just grab another crew member.

So… my deepest thanks to Thomas at the Claremont Trader Joe’s. You seriously made my day.

— 4 —

Why I seriously love Trader Joe’s and will give them my business at any opportunity. My experience in #3 is just the tip of the iceberg. I have never had a bad experience with them ever in the 4 years I’ve shopped there since moving back to the West Coast and part of the reason is that their employees are all really wonderful. They have mini-carts for kids with a “Customer-in-Training” flag on them and they are really helpful for teaching Daniel how to shop at a grocery store and what the names of various types of food are. (It also helps his gait to push the cart rather than riding in one of the big adult ones.) Their corporate culture is very laid back and their headquarters is a very plain two story building in Monrovia. (I interviewed to be one of their database people 4 years ago. I didn’t get the job but I can actually say I’ve interviewed at their corporate headquarters and that I was one of the top 10 candidates for the job out of the hundreds who applied.)

— 5 —

Huh. I checked Jon and I in on the Southwest Airlines site last night and when I got our boarding passes, Jon got position A-16 and I got position B-28. In what universe is that reasonable?!?!?!?

Southwest Airlines, BTW, is incredibly good with Daniel. We flew with them two years ago when Daniel and I went down to surprise my father-in-law for Father’s Day after not seeing him for almost 10 months. (Long story.) They were incredibly helpful in getting him on the plane and giving me help in schlepping everything.

— 6 —

Brett. The family committed to Brett (the adorable child on my sidebar) is in his country meeting him and the other little boy they plan to adopt. Pray for good travel mercies for them and a smooth stay with no bureaucratic hangups.

— 7 —

Another prayer request. Please pray for Hope, the adopted daughter of my friend (and fellow Lutheran pastor’s wife) Dalas. They got her home from her country and she’s currently in the hospital as they try to get her nutritionally stable. Dalas is living at the hospital with her and her two year old son and it’s pretty brutal.

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

7 Quick Takes: Autism Boot Camp, My House Panther, and the Giants Are #1

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

News on Brett. Brett’s family is overseas meeting him and Randall (the other child they’ll be adopting) right now. Pray for good travel mercies for them.

— 2 —

Amusing cat news. My mother-in-law has a nickname for Edda (my black cat): Bellatrix after Bellatrix Lestrange in the Harry Potter books. The reason: Bellatrix’s maiden name was Black. (She was a cousin of Sirius Black.) It fits Edda to a T. My little black cat has also become a little black bully and is antagonizing one of my in-laws’ tabbies who is living outside. I’ve been trying to tell her that she needs to be nice as she is a guest in their home. CATS!

— 3 —

Daniel news. My mother-in-law and I have embarked on a project to catch Daniel up as much as we can before he starts school for the fall. We went to Lakeshore Learning last Saturday and got some posters and books and are working with him throughout the day. We’re also working on life skills and adaptive learning so my little munchkin is dealing with potty-training boot camp and also things like learning how to drink out of a regular cup. So far, we’ve got the drinking from a cup memorized and we’ve managed to teach him days of the week/months of the year/how to use a calendar without any of the insipid songs/videos that his home teacher from the school district used.

— 4 —

Thoughts on Homeschooling. As I’m “homeschooling” right now, I’m kind of looking suspiciously at some homeschooling moms who talk about how they don’t want to send their kids to public school because they’ll miss out on all the stuff like reading Beatrix Potter with them and reading all the great literary classics in high school. Guess what? My mom worked full-time, sent us to private school (K-5) and public school (6-college)… and still did all of that with us. It’s called “being an involved parent”. Seriously, if you want to be a housewife, be a housewife and own that decision. Just please don’t try to rationalize your life decisions by using your kids as a pawn.

And for those who might surf on here and start a flame war about how I hate homeschoolers, my mother-in-law homeschooled my husband and sister-in-law from K-12. The woman has an “anything-they-can-do-I-can-do-better” attitude toward the public school system… and she *did* do it better. Both of them graduated high school at age 15, graduated college at 20, and have Master’s degrees in their fields. Believe me, I know a pretty decent spectrum of homeschoolers and homeschooling parents; but there are some parents who I just don’t respect because they’re living vicariously through their kids.

— 5 —

Baseball. My boys are #1 in their division and are 1.5 games ahead of the Dodgers. (They’re like 11.5 games ahead of the other teams in the NL West.) *sticks her tongue out at her husband* I’m hoping my boys keep doing well. Another World Series title would be lovely this October.

— 6 —

Summer in the desert. It was 104F today. *sighs* I hate heat. It’s why I never went to the state fair when I was living up north — it was always over 90F and I had no desire to walk around when it was that hot. I love four distinct seasons and am kind of hoping that we’re called to a place that has them for Jon’s next parish.

— 7 —

Speaking of such things… The circumstances around my “special intention” are heating up so please pray that things keep moving in a positive direction. Thanks!

For more Quick Takes, visit Carolyn at Svellerella who is guest-hosting this week while Edel is going on.

7 Quick Takes: Answered Prayers, Cat Drama, and Science Geekery

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Answered Prayers. Do you see the precious child on my sidebar? Yep… Brett. His adoption is fully funded now and his prospective parents are ecstatic. They head overseas later this month to meet him. I’ve been praying for this for two years now. My deepest thanks go to Becki who has loved him so incredibly much for these last two years, partnered her prayers with mine, and convened a panel of a bunch of us to find him a mama about two months ago. Girlfriend brought his FSP from $7612 to $14000 with her advocating for him and her networking. I’m grateful that she could succeed where I couldn’t.

— 2 —

Happy birthday, Nicholas! Dwija at House Unseen blogged about the first anniversary of her son Nicholas being born into Heaven. I unfortunately have at least a few blogging friends who have lost children and many of them never cease to surprise me in their joy, even on really painful days for them. This is one of those occasions.

— 3 —

Prerequisite baseball take. The Giants are one game behind the Dodgers and it popped up on my Twitter tonight that Lincecum was about to “no hit” the Padres again. I started obsessively refreshing Twitter and found nothing. It turns out that they weren’t playing tonight and the tweet was just letting people know that the specific game from this year was on CSN. Oh well… it was worth a shot. Hopefully, the Giants will flatten Miami and the Dodgers will start cellar-dwelling again so Jon can stop gloating.

— 4 —

Congratulations Marie and Brian! Mi amiga Marie of Catholic Coffee Talk is getting married this weekend in Ohio. Go leave her comments to congratulate her. Do it now!

— 5 —

Cat drama. On Tuesday night, I came in after sitting on the porch and talking to my mom on my cell phone to find out from my mother-in-law that Edda had sat at the door and meowed for me for a good 15 minutes. (Someone is a bit of a mama’s panther.) Last night, we had one cat fight after another with FOUL language uttered. Today, Freya went out and refused to come back in. We eventually ascertained that she was hiding under the water tanks and mother-in-law dispatched Jon with cat treats to go get her. No luck. She crawled under my car and after I got something to poke her out, she ran under the fence into the backyard. Eventually, I sat down 5 feet from her on the back steps and the little monster surrendered but it was unnerving, especially after she vanished for a day or two a few weeks ago.

I just went to go see if my in-laws’ orange tabby patch male cat Arthur (referred to by me as “the citrus cat”) was ready to come in and the Birman that adopted my in-laws decided to waltz into the house. He saw Edda and hissed at her but I informed him that proper Birmans do not use such language. (It’s a very strange cat-centric household.) He jumped up on one of the tables in the living room and allowed himself to be petted and cajoled into staying. (There is no doubt as to who the superior creature is here.)

**UPDATE** Arthur is in and the Birman went back outside after sitting and howling at the door for 5 minutes straight. (He’s an in/out cat and has so far escaped being eaten by something so I’m hedging my bets.)

— 6 —

Geekdom. In one of the black cat groups on Facebook, someone asked if our cats like boxes. Someone replied, “My cat is called Schrodinger!! OF COURSE SHE LIKES BOXES!!!”

I think my brain just exploded. #sciencegeek #catlover

— 7 —

Prayer request. If you’re following along with the whole “special intention” thing at home, keep praying and add on that I need help praying to forgive someone. Please and thank you. 🙂

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