Category Archives: Reece’s Rainbow

7 Quick Takes: Eclectic Stuff Week

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Ziva leaves NCIS. Yep, it’s true. Cote de Pablo, the actress who plays Ziva David, is leaving the show after her character is wrapped up this fall. Ziva isn’t my favorite character so I’m not as bummed as I’d be if Abby (Pauley Perrette) but still kinda bummed nevertheless. I’m just wondering what will be done with her character and how they’ll tie that particular end up.

— 2 —

Orphans. Do you see these three sweet peas?

First row: Brett and Iris.
Second row: Kaia.

BrettIrisKaia

Brett still needs a mama. Iris finally has a family committed to her. Kaia has a family committed to her who will be traveling to her country to meet her on July 26th! Click on their names to see their Reece’s Rainbow pages.

— 3 —

A benefit to singing. According to CNN, choir singers’ hearts beat as one. It isn’t completely surprising to me — when you’re that focused on your breathing and modulation of tone, your body gets into it. The best choirs function as a unit rather than as individual singers, after all.

— 4 —

Prerequisite baseball take. My Giants are at the bottom of the NL West. The freaking DODGERS are doing better and this is a fact that has not gone unmentioned by the fan of said team to whom I am wed. C’mon boys! Knock off the Padres tonight!

The All-Star Game is this weekend. Why yes, I will be annoyingly tweeting the entire game. 🙂 (Those who follow me on Twitter might want want to unfollow me temporarily.) Go NL!

— 5 —

Daniel’s ABA therapy. We’re back on track with ABA therapy for Daniel. He has established that he’ll work for tickles and he’ll try to get those tickles for free if he can. 🙂 It’s too bad his lead consultant is quitting next week because he loves her tickling him. We’re working on getting rapport built up with his normal tutor right now and I think he (the tutor) will do well once he and Daniel are used to each other.

— 6 —

Stop hating on millenials. If you haven’t read this, surf on over and do so. (Please surf back though.) It’s fascinating and I love how the author communicated his message.

— 7 —

For those who missed it… This is the zucchini of light from last week:

The zucchini of light

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

7 Quick Takes: An Update on Daniel, Hot Weather, and Interesting Posts This Week

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Update on Daniel. Everything went as well as things could go today. We had to be at UCD Medical Center at 6:15 am and though we were a bit late (the main hospital is a maze), it worked out fine. The Child Life therapists met us at the the desk while we were checking in and took us back. They entertained Daniel while we got him measured and weighed and then while they were taking blood pressure/pulse ox/hooking him up to monitors. He got to pick out two toys to play with and that kept him entertained until the Versed (which he took by syringe with no problem) kicked in. Our anesthesiology resident was lovely (and a former autism therapist before she went to medical school) and our audiologist (who I had met the day before) was great. I had a 2 hour wait while he was in the test and then we got the news that they did find something: mild hearing loss in Daniel. (More later.) They let Daniel sleep the anesthesia off instead of rousing him and while we were waiting, I talked to his nurse about his knitting/crocheting/quilting projects. (The conversation got started because the nurse was telling me about the pillows one of the nurses and her daughter make for all the kids to take home. Daniel’s has Sesame Street characters on it.) Daniel woke up and had some juice while we waited for anesthesiology to clear him to go home. He is now (Thursday night) his normal bearish self. As far as these things go, this was an absolutely painless experience.

— 2 —

So, about that hearing loss… I was suspecting that he wasn’t hearing things totally and this was actually a relief because it means that my suspicions were correct. Yeah, it’s not ideal that he has the mild hearing loss (something that was probably present at birth and missed on his newborn hearing screening) but he qualifies for hearing aids and between insurance, Medi-Cal, and California Childrens’ Services, we can get them paid for. It’s also one more puzzle piece in place for the medical mystery that is Daniel. It isn’t ideal but very little in my life is at the moment and I’ll settle for “we know what’s going on” rather than all of the “we have no freaking clue why this is the case” that I usually get. This will probably also affect his speech therapy because he’ll probably be able to understand the things his teachers and speech therapist are trying to do with him.

— 3 —

The next steps. The next step is an ENT appointment to look at this from a medical perspective and then we’ll meet with her for a hearing aid appointment where they’ll give us a boatload of information and do ear molds (so we can mold the hearing aids to his ears). I also really like this particular audiologist — she’s a warmer person than the other one we’ve had through UCD and she’s got other autistic patients who have hearing aids so it’s not like this is new for her.

— 4 —

All is well again. Wipeout is back this week. All is well with the world. At least they just pre-empted ABC shows for the NBA Finals instead of CBS ones — that would have been just brutal.

— 5 —

Orphans. Do you see these three cherubs?

First row: Brett and Iris.
Second row: Kaia.

BrettIrisKaia

Brett still needs a mama. Iris finally has a family committed to her. Kaia has a family committed to her who will be traveling to her country to meet her on July 26th! Click on their names to see their Reece’s Rainbow pages.

— 6 —

Blog posts of note. This week, I wrote about my experience with the Promise Walk this year, 10 things I live for, and five of my favorite passages of Scripture.

— 7 —

Hot hot hot! It was 97F today and will be 100F or higher for the next 5-6 days. This would be lovely if I didn’t have to be out in it. However, we’ve got the parish picnic tomorrow so I’ve got to deal with at least an hour of it in addition to whatever time I spend out doing errands and at Daniel’s WIC appointment tomorrow. I’m thinking that it would be great if Jon were called to a church in Alaska…

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

Blogging with a Purpose: 10 Things I Live For

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The topic this week: 10 things I live for.

God. The name of this blog comes from Luther’s Bible study method, the tagline is from The Magician’s Nephew, and the name of this domain comes from a prayer. It should not be a surprise to anyone that I live for God.

Daniel. I’m a proud mama. You don’t cross me when it comes to my bear child. His laugh has the power to make me forget every bad thing in the world and he is an incredible snuggler.

My cats. They’ve been with me since Jon’s internship and my first year of marriage. They are my “fur children” and I get testy with people who don’t get that.

Making good music. I don’t have a lot of opportunities to sing or play piano these days but I love singing with a good community or church choir and playing good classical music on piano. It moves me in ways that defy words.

Spending time with family. For once in Jon’s ministerial career, we’re within 2 hours of my family and I make the most of it, seeing my parents at least monthly if I can and my evil twin maybe every 6 weeks. We try to go down to be with my in-laws as much as possible as well.

Writing. It provides me with a way of sorting out my brain and exercising creativity. Occasionally, it provides some money here and there. Mostly, it just gives me an outlet that I wouldn’t have otherwise.

Helping people to treat life as sacred. I’m not the right personality type to participate in the March for Life, 40 Days for Life, or attend rallies against the death penalty at the state capitol building. (There’s also that whole “lack of time” thing.) I do my part by advocating for orphans.

Helping people find their gifts and use them effectively. My policy as a pastor’s wife is not to take any any leadership position in the church if a parishioner can do it better or has a huge interest in it. It’s why I’m not in charge of the women’s ministries, on church council (not to mention that being a huge conflict of interest), or organizing major events for the church. Luckily, we’re blessed with some seriously talented people and some who come up with the most creative things imaginable.

Preeclampsia awareness. Just finished my 3rd Promise Walk for Preeclampsia on Sunday. They had someone doing trivia there who had never heard of HELLP Syndrome and a lot of the statistics before she put together the cards. (She was the sister-in-law of the organizer.) When she asked my mom the question, I told her that I’d had HELLP Syndrome and her jaw dropped. It was a reminder that we have so much to learn about the causes and we have so many medical professionals to educate about it so that their patients might be safer and keep their babies in longer. (Up to 1/5 of women affected by preeclampsia lose their babies as a result of it.)

Showing grace in all things. It’s probably obvious from recent posts and exchanges online that I still have much work to accomplish in this area of my life but it’s my ultimate aim. Grace is an amazing gift from God and I want to share it with the world.

Now go see Becky and everyone else who is linking up.

7 Quick Takes: How Many Controversial Things Can I Say This Week, Promise Walk Sponsorships, and Grumping About Basketball

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

o.O I will readily admit that I had never pondered the theological powers of Superman before. The questions posed by Cari’s oldest son sound like the question from teaching Confirmation about whether or not God could create a boulder so big that He couldn’t lift it Himself. For the record, I’m with Lotus — Jesus is stronger than Superman.

— 2 —

The “Why I Am Not Homeschooling Daniel” post series. Post #1 started some good discussion and brought a few trolls to the blog. Post #2 served as some kind of explanation. Post #3 was all about my reasons for not homeschooling him. I’m also inviting people to email and tell me succinctly (75 words or less) what decision you made (public/private/parochial/homeschool) and why you made it so that we can crowdsource some ideas for Bonnie. Email me by Wednesday of next week (the email address is jen @ this domain) and I’ll print all the things that fit. **UPDATE** Someone just emailed me to tell me that Elena rebutted what I had to say to her. In the interest of fairness, I’m linking the rebuttal here. I still stand by everything I said 100% but I also would rather let y’all see what she has to say and let you draw your own conclusions.

— 3 —

More obsessing about food. Actually, it isn’t really obsessing as much as it’s reporting that if I eat in such a fashion as to not irritate the ulcers (which may have healed by now), my IBS symptoms go away. If I eat one thing on the forbidden list, I return to IBS hell. I haven’t had any Coke in almost a month and I still miss it even though I’ve found some alternatives that have less of a carb load and aren’t going to corrode my insides. I haven’t checked to see if I have celiac issues yet, mostly because I’m already having to limit my diet and I’m trying not to do too much at once. I’ll be with my parents this weekend and they have a scale so I’ll see if I’ve actually lost any weight at that point.

— 4 —

Orphans. Do you see these three adorable munchkins?

First row: Brett and Iris.
Second row: Kaia.

BrettIrisKaia

Brett still needs a mama. Iris finally has a family committed to her. Kaia has a family committed to her who will be traveling to her country at the end of July to meet her on July 26th! Click on their names to see their Reece’s Rainbow pages.

— 5 —

Hmph. Wipeout! was pre-empted by some stupid basketball game. NBA basketball is overrated and I say this even coming from a city that just fought tooth-and-claw to keep their team.

— 6 —

*facepalm* Could I ask a favor of the Catholic blogosphere? Could you please actually *READ* a news story in its entirety and not look for random soundbites to use as evidence that Obama is Satan? The FULL TEXT of the quote that everyone got so flipped out about yesterday is…

If towns remain divided ?? if Catholics have their schools and buildings, and Protestants have theirs, if we can’t see ourselves in one another, if fear or resentment are allowed to harden ?? that too encourages division. It discourages cooperation. (Source)

The word “theirs” in the phrase “Protestants have theirs” replaces “their schools and buildings”. He is referring to the fact that in most places, Catholics and Protestants live in separate neighborhoods divided by “peace lines” — barricades made of bricks, steel, and barbed wire. (I actually saw these in Belfast when I was there in 1998.) He is not calling for an end to Catholic education in general in either Northern Ireland or in the USA — he is calling for Catholics to integrate with Protestants for the purposes of working for peace the same way whites had to integrate with blacks in this country 50 years ago. Mining articles like that for soundbites is juvenile and shows an inability to play well with others, so can y’all please behave in a Christ-like fashion? I refrained from mining stories for Romney soundbites during the last election and I know y’all can do the same regarding Obama.

— 7 —

Promise Walk for Preeclampsia. Wanna sponsor me in the Promise Walk this weekend? Preeclampsia affects 1 in 8 pregnancies in some fashion and 1/5 of affected women lose their babies because the only cure is to deliver the baby, regardless of how premature they are. I’m blessed in that I had a doctor who caught it in time and got me transferred to the BIG hospital in Great Falls where my awesome high-risk specialist could do an emergency c-section and where there was a Level III NICU for Daniel. If you can’t sponsor me, please at least keep me and the other participants in prayer on Sunday morning.

Daniel and I at the 2012 Promise Walk.

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

7 Quick Takes: Fundraising, Baseball, and Eating Issues

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Kym’s Hysterical (not) Hysterectomy. My friend Kym DuPont was diagnosed with stage 1 uterine cancer a few months ago. They tried hormone therapy which ultimately didn’t work. The only cure at this point is a hysterectomy which she has to pay for out of pocket because she is uninsured. (Obamacare doesn’t kick in for people like her until 2014.) Surgery + anesthesia + everything else will be ~$60000 so she has a YouCaring.Com page up for it. If you can spare a few bucks head over there.

— 2 —

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

Baptizing Daniel at 4 days old.

That’s Jon and I at Daniel’s baptism when he was 4 days old. My little hand is on the bottom and Jon’s hand is on top. For those who don’t know the backstory, I developed HELLP Syndrome and they had to do a really quick ambulance transfer from my tiny town in Montana to the hospital in Great Falls that had a NICU and where my perinatologist was based. I was in surgery within 45 minutes to 1 hour after arriving and they delivered Daniel by emergency c-section at 29.5 weeks gestation. He was 14 1/4 inches long and weighed 1 lb 15 oz. at birth. Additionally, I had a 30% placental abruption that they discovered upon opening me up and was bleeding severely. (I just barely missed ICU admission because the HELLP Syndrome started resolving itself with the delivery of Daniel.) As a way of dealing with what I went through, I got involved with the Promise Walk in 2011. Preeclampsia is a condition that affects 1 in 8 pregnancies and we still don’t know the cause so I want to ask that you please consider supporting me (even $5) in this effort.

— 3 —

Orphans. Do you see these three adorable kidlets?

First row: Brett and Iris.
Second row: Kaia.

BrettIrisKaia

Brett still needs a mama. Iris finally has a family committed to her. Kaia has a family committed to her who will be traveling to her country at the end of July to meet her and spend some time with her as well as complete paperwork. Click on their names to see their Reece’s Rainbow pages.

— 4 —

Progress on the Whole Change of Diet. It’s been a hard week. Daniel is on summer break from preschool and is in “destructive toddler” mode. This makes it really hard to make food because I can’t leave him alone and he currently isn’t allowed in the kitchen. I’m trying to avoid processed foods as much as possible but it’s pretty hard because those are the convenient foods when you have little ones like Daniel. I’m also now finding out how many calories I was usually eating — a packet of gummy worms is 110 calories per serving… and a serving is 5-7 gummy worms, making the entire package around 770-800 calories! My head has become a calorie computer and it’s to the point where I could get really OCD about this whole thing. I don’t own a scale for a reason — I’d be completely obsessive about my weight and could easily cross over into eating disorder mode.

— 5 —

Baseball! *sighs* The Giants dropped two of their three games against the Pirates. Their effort yesterday was pretty good considering they were without Angel Pagan, the Panda, Marco Scutaro, one of their pitchers, and Bruce Bochy — 12-8 was not the worst they could have done. They shut the Pirates out today which helped. I believe they’re on their way to Atlanta now.

— 6 —

Entry in the works. I’ve been pondering a blog post on why I don’t homeschool Daniel in response to the annoying twits I occasionally encounter in the blogosphere who act like public schools are going to turn children into Communists and godless heathen or who can’t *BEAR* to be away from their children and not share in all their learning adventures. (Gag me with a freaking spoon.) I’m being judicious about it because I know so many moms who homeschool their kids and are lovely, well-rounded people like priest’s wife, Sara, Cari, Dwija, and Kelly. I’m also trying not to write it only because I’ve been stuck in a house with a four year old who has been having communication tantrums for 4 days and I’m counting down the minutes until summer school starts. (Autism is a freaking joy on occasion.)

— 7 —

Mani-pedi time. My pedicurist talked me into getting a mani-pedi tomorrow instead of just a pedicure so I’ll be doing that tomorrow morning. I have my hands in so much stuff that’s either gross or corrosive so I usually wouldn’t do it but I figured it’s worth a shot. After the week I’ve had, I’m looking forward to it.

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

7 Quick Takes: Prayer Requests, Whining About Heat, and Opinionated Rantings

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Prayer Requests. Lots of prayer requests for people this week in my life so if you’re so inclined, please pray for…

[-] healing for Hevel from encephalitis.
[-] healing for Josh as he spends another night in the hospital getting things back on track after severe nausea.
[-] emotional peace for Josh’s parents Alex and Susan in the midst of his illness.
[-] healing for my father-in-law.
[-] adjustment to some kind of schedule for my brother-in-law (Chris) and sister-in-law (Joanna) now that Joanna and Patrick (my adorable nephew) are home from the hospital.

— 2 —

Orphans Do you see these three adorable kidlets?

First row: Brett and Iris.
Second row: Kaia.

BrettIrisKaia

Brett and Iris need a mama and papa. Kaia has a family committed to her. Click on their names to see their Reece’s Rainbow pages.

— 3 —

Anti-smoking spiel of the week. Are there any of readers who aren’t aware that I think the term “smoker’s rights” is an oxymoron? Their right to smoke ends where my air supply begins which means that they effectively have no rights. This NPR story talks about the cost of employees that smoke and I can attest to this based on the complete lack of productivity of one of my co-workers in Montana. Between all her smoke breaks and the fines leveled by Customs due to her complete incompetence, she probably cost my company the equivalent of her salary yearly. (I have no idea why she wasn’t fired.)

— 4 —

Don’t make me turn this plane around! Apparently, 100 kids/adults were kicked off a plane headed to Atlanta because they wouldn’t sit down and turn off all their electronic devices. After several requests from flight attendants and the captain coming on and specifically announcing it to the kids, they still didn’t comply and were then told to disembark. They had to be squeezed onto later flights and I guess it took some of them 12 hours to make it to Atlanta. Southwest has offered them vouchers for future travel which I think is ridiculous because it’s punishing bad behavior. The kids should have complied from the beginning and it serves them right that they had to endure a bunch of transfers and more difficult travel. [insert rant about how this *never* would have happened when I was a kid]

— 5 —

Can we say “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face”? Apparently, there are churches who are cutting ties with the Boy Scouts because of the vote to allow openly gay scouts. OK… let me explain what this change *actually* means: The only big change is that openly gay scouts will still be able to earn their Eagle. There will be no orgies on camp-outs. Scouts will not be taught that being gay is totally acceptable — in fact, I’d kind of worry if my son came home from a Boy Scout meeting and told me that they discussed sex. I’ve been involved in both Boy Scouts (through my dad/evil twin/husband) and Girl Scouts for 25 years and I honestly can’t say that sex ever came up at any scout meeting. EVER. I worked on a camp staff that was 2/3 lesbian and I never knew that until one of my former co-workers brought it up a few years later. (I know that our girls were oblivious to it.) Scouting is a wonderful organization and both my husband and I are better people for being part of it. Heck, my husband was even a unit commissioner in Montana.

— 6 —

A good point. I read a brilliant article from Soujourners this week in which the author asked that people stop telling them what is anti-Christian. I concur. I’m a bit tired of people obsessing about how someone’s $tarbux habit is causing moral decay across the globe because $tarbux supports same-sex marriage. If you’re so completely offended by them, DON’T. BUY. THEIR. COFFEE. Support your local coffeeshop. Make your own at home. By the same token, the whole Chick-Fil-A debacle last year causes the same reaction in me — don’t buy their fried crap if you don’t like their corporate giving and don’t act incredibly self-righteous if you do decide to support them, claiming that it’s the “Christian” thing to do.

— 7 —

Hot Hot Hot! It’s supposed to be 110F here this weekend. Pray for me. I hate heat. I hate it! I hate it! I hate it!

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

7 Quick Takes: Tom Lehrer, Messy Faith, and Hating the Heat

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Tom Lehrer’s “Irish Ballad”. Only certain schools have internationally-renowned mathematics professors also teaching Musical Theater. UC Santa Cruz is one of those schools and Tom Lehrer is that professor. (Yes, I am totally proud to be a fighting banana slug!) Some of my friends were in the last university class he taught in 2001 and he used to sing his songs in class. My favorite of his songs has to be his “Irish Ballad” which talks about an Irish girl murdering her family in gruesome way and when the police come around, she admits to everything… because she knew lying was a sin.

It’s most likely NSFW and definitely NSFK (not safe for kids), especially if your last name is Donaldson.

This is Lehrer himself singing it.

In looking for a video of Tom Lehrer, I found this version by Ann Murray. I love it because she’s dressed up in her operatic finery… and singing something silly.

— 2 —

Messy Faith. This article had me at the title. I find that very few things are black and white — there’s too much grey in my world. I also have found that the more I read the Gospels, the more I am convinced that Jesus did not live in a nice little sanitized bubble. He lived in a world with very severe differences between the haves and have-nots and where those in power abused it. In other words, it was a world much like today. His means of death was also messy — crucifixion is the last punishment you’d want if you wanted a sterile environment. Lots of blood, lots of sweat, lots of tears.

— 3 —

Orphans. Do you see these two darling children?

BrettKaia

Brett (on the left) needs a mama and Kaia (on the right) has a family who needs help raising the funds to bring her home so she can start kindergarten (hopefully this autumn). If you can help out at all, click on their pictures. Please and thank you!

— 4 —

Cleaning up my diet. I can totally believe that the claims made in Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss are true. I’ve been focusing on a clean diet this week because of the ulcers and I’m totally craving a quarter pounder with cheese/fries/Coke right now. Our brains are being rewired to crave all these things and it’s disasterous for our waists, our health, and our environment. Granted, I am still using a marinade on my chicken that is produced by Wishbone but I’m finding that I like the plain chicken without the bun, the sauces, etc. Coke has been the hardest to give up but my fear of the ulcers in my stomach causing bleeding is keeping me on track. (Fear is a serious motivator.) It’s been hard to do this because it creates even more food issues and food guilt for me and I probably need to blog this out at a later time. I’m thankful for FitDay.Com — it’s been enlightening to see what I’m eating and what the actual portion sizes, carb counts, etc. are.

— 5 —

Not the stereotypical California girl. I’m fleeing to my parents’ house this weekend because it will be cooler than Sacramento. We’re supposed to come close to hitting triple digits this weekend where I live while the temperatures will be in the high 80’s at my parents’ house. I’m not the stereotypical California girl — I hate heat and I love rain. I also love four distinct seasons and actually miss snow.

— 6 —

Being so young to be so sick. I can guarantee you that I will start thinking about ways to kill you if you tell me that I’m too young to be so sick. Believe me… I’m totally aware of this and it just makes me resent it when you vocalize it.

— 7 —

Support me in the Promise Walk. I’m participating in the Promise Walk for Preeclampsia on June 23rd for my third year in a row. You know you TOTALLY want to sponsor me, right? I’m a survivor of HELLP Syndrome and doing this helps me to ensure that other women aren’t going to face the severe illness that I did or the after effects of high blood pressure and “preeclampsia brain” where I have short term memory loss to the point where my normally photograpic memory is no longer that way.

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