and baby makes 6!

Coconut, lime and all things good

Sometimes, this is what sailing looks like….

A bright, sunny day, winds 10-15mph, bathing suits on! We load up, cast off, and begin motoring out to the bay.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP. The engine alarm starts screeching. We look aft and see steam coming out. Steam is better than black smoke, but not what you want to see. It means that water is not being pumped into the engine to keep it cooled.

We heave to, head back, go through the routine of docking the boat and take the engine hood off to see what is what.

It is hot down below, and Bill loves to dig around in an over heated diesel engine on his day off.

I hang over the engine asking questions, trying to learn. Bill cuts his arm up trying to reach to the back of the diesel, and doesn’t even notice the bleeding.

After about 30 minutes, he finds 2 problems, fixes them, and I am saying “How did you know to look for that. Is it a recessive gene for diesel engine repair that I am lacking?” because, all of it bewilders me.

So, with the engine repaired, we cast off and head back out…..by this time Bill is channeling Captain Bligh because The Mood has been set. Cory and Bill set sails, with me at the helm, and the rule of “you must respond to my commands instantaneously or be yelled at” is put into action by El Capitán and I have flashbacks to those intense, gut wrenching days of racing Galveston Bay with Those Who Must Win At The Cost of Fun. I momentarily think about pushing him overboard.

Then The Wind From Hell picks up, we heal over and are a bit over powered since we failed to reef the main. Since I am already a bundle of nerves, this is the moment my youngest son (life jacket on of course) decides to go up on the foredeck and send me over the edge. Bill, feeling much less Blighish, tells him to stop and give mom a break and get back in the cockpit. Child back off deck, Bill apologizes for yelling……….

But, like I said, the Mood has been set, and I was ready to go back in. I was DONE. It was not fun.

Not everything we do together as a family is perfect. Some days are just doomed from the get go. Just because we live at the beach does not mean that life is perfect. Some days are as close to perfection as a mortal can get, no doubt….but others are what they are. Challenging, but certainly not devastating.

Once back home, kids fed and in their rooms playing, Bill and I shut the door to our bedroom, take showers and put a movie in. I grabbed some yummy smelling, after sun lotion. You know, the kind with coconut, lime and all kinds of delicious scents. I climbed onto our bed and stopped to look around and catch my breath. The shades were closed, the light was filtering in through the cracks in the blinds. Bill was kicked back on the bed, clean and fresh, tan against the snow white bedspread. I sat lathering lotion on my arms as the movie started and realized that, in spite of how the day had gone, here we were…happy and content.

The craziness and the joys are what make the variety in your life. I am learning that you choose which one to focus on. It is like taking a picture….you can, photograph what is lovely or you can focus your lens on the ugliness. It is your choice.

What do you chose?

She’s turning 5

This little, magical creature is having a birthday soon. Her party has been planned, invitations made and distributed.

At her request, there will be water involved……..being a mermaid and all.

Water, with a side of glitter.

Conscience

It has come to my attention that our President has decided to rescind a law called the Conscience Clause. 

The Conscience clause, originally called the Church Amendment, was put into effect shortly after the Roe vs Wade case, and is supported by both political parties. It allows for medical personnel to refuse to participate in an abortion if it is against their conscience.

By rescinding this law, the message that President Obama is sending out is this…Only those who chose abortion have rights.  Those same constitutional rights, the right to choose, are not extended to everyone, but only to a few.  If Obama has his way, my constitutional right to refuse to participate in an abortion will put me in jail and I will lose my license to practice nursing.   This means that if I work for a state funded hospital or clinic (which means anyone receiving Medicaid or Medicare) I will be required to participate in a procedure that I find unethical and against everything I believe in.  This is unreal. 

I personally would rather surrender my RN license than participate in this absolulely barbaric procedure. 

Which brings health reform to a new level.  If Obama thinks he has a health care crisis now, wait until he jacks with the very doctors who lovingly provide care to millions in our country.  Or how about all the private, rural hospitals that will close their doors before being forced to perform abortions?   Talk about a health crisis.  Lord have mercy, this is huge people.

I am sure you know that doctors are required to take the Hippocratic Oath. This oath is a solemn vow taken in which the doctor promises that they will “do no harm”. Did you know that the original wording stated “I will not give a woman an abortion remedy.” You can read the modern version here and much more in this great article.

I would like to pose this dilemma to you this way: You may support choice.  You may say that it is up to the mother to decide if she wants to abort of not.  But what if you were told today ”I am 22 weeks pregnant, and I don’t want this baby.  Thank you for supporting my right to choose….now scrub up and perform my abortion.”  Yeah, it gets a bit more complicated when you put it that way. For those of you who have no medical background, it might be easier to support something you know very little about medically. It is a messy, ugly thing, and you should thank your lucky stars that you don’t have to participate in the killing of a 2nd trimester baby. Ideology gets complicated when you are forcedto participate, which is what rescinding this law will do to me. As an OB nurse, I will be forced to participate in something that I personally find unethical and morally wrong.

I am very obviously Pro-Life. I am also one of the people that this law will effect adversely. So are you. If your President is allowed to do this, your rights to expedient, reliable health care will have its scope narrowed substantially.

Please go here and sign this petition if you support my right to choose. This will not effect yourright to choose, but it will effect mine. It would be hypocritical to support a woman’s right to choose abortion, but not my right to refuse to participate. I understand not everyone thinks the same way, and there are many different views on this, but I personally see abortion as the killing of an innocent life. In that light, I believe if I were to assist in an abortion, I would be involved in killing another human being. Um, yeah, that is something I cannot do.

I am an excellent nurse. I have never, in my entire 15 year carrier as an RN, made even one medication error. I will lovingly clean your festering, infected and contagious wound. I will enter your room to care for you as you hack TB all around it. I will wipe your head and hold you up as you vomit. I will coach you and rejoice with you as you give birth to new life, and I will hold your hand and cry as you take your last breath. I am an angel of mercy, but I will not participate in your abortion. I will surrender my license, the license that I worked my tail end off to earn, before I compromise my core beliefs. My inbox is receiving many emails from doctors and nurses who are professing the same.

When that happens, there will be one less nurse to care for you in a competent and loving manner. Now multiply it times 14, 000 or more. We are already experiencing a shortage of medical care professionals ….what is this President thinking???

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***adding some more info and links that will be useful to you:
Here is the full government text of what is being rescinded:

Apparently, numerous lawsuits had been initiated against practitioners who had refused abortion or sterilization service to individuals. Employees and students were being discriminated against for refusing abortion instruction, in spite of the Church, Coats and Weldon acts.. It had become quite a problem, especially with the aggression in which Planned Parenthood was seeking unlimited access to these procedures. They were also saying that Roe and Casey gave the right to a woman to receive these procedures from
whomever they chose. Roe and Casey DO NOT preempt Church, Coats and Weldon.

The law that is being rescinded is CRF 45 Part 88 and it defines and makes mandatory the compliance with Church, Coats and Weldon that was being ignored prior to this Title. Removing it will open the door to continued discrimination against health care individuals, students and others who practice conscience objection.

 BTW, conscience objection in the health care field is not a bad thing, nor is it new.  If a nurse refuses to administer blood products due to conscience objection, there are ALWAYS, and I mean ALWAYS others on duty to administer the blood products without compromising patient safety. In the 15 years I have spent as a nurse, I have never seen a patients health compromised by conscience objection and I have seen nurses peacefully practice this right. There are other laws, such as the Nurse Practice Act that do NOT allow for conscience objection if the patients safety is in jeopardy, and CRF 45 Part 88 cannot trump them.  SO the argument to patient safety is really null and void.

Righteously

You don’t have to prove your manhood to me constantly
I know that your the man, can’t you see
I love you righteously……

Think this through
I laid it down for you everytime
Respect me I gave you whats mine
You’re entirely way too fine”

The sexiest song, hands down that I have ever heard is Righteously by Lucinda Williams. Go upload it, ditch the kids, dim the lights grab your honey and hit play. Mmmmmmmm.

School

It has been 2 + months since Quinn went back to school, and since I can now talk about it without bawling, I thought an update was in order.

The first week he went back was Rough. Day one went well, but the rest of the week both of us were in tears. He missed me, and I missed him. There was also the issue of his teacher. She has a very dry sense of humor, and this is hard for an 8yo to understand. For Quinn, it came across that she was mean. So, we met with the counselor, talked with the teacher, and carried on.

Within a week or 2, he was well adjusted, happy and LOVED his teacher. His grades are in the uppr 90’s-100’s, he is reading on a 5th grade level and most improtantly, he is having a blast. I can’t tell you how relieved I am that the schooling we did at home didn’t just keep him up with his class, he surpassed the 2nd grade in every area save for spelling (he is on target for his age). Whew. So, all is well with my little Quinny.

Me? I miss him still. If he wanted to come home, that would be fine with me. But there is one thing……I am really enjoying some one on one time with Mia. We spend our days together doing crafts, some worksheets, going to the beach, shopping and whatever we feel like. It has been a nice, silver lining to a tough desicion.

I am now trying to decide if Mia will start Kindergarten at the end of August. She wants to and then she doesn’t. She talks about it all the time, because the 3 little girls next door that she plays with all go to school. We have several options to chose from….just not sure I want her to go at all. We have started a nice little homeschool co-op here, and she is meeting some sweet little girls who are also in her ballet class.

On the one hand, it would be nice after 14 1/2 years to have some time to myself during the day. I could load up my board and go surfing in the mornings. Exercise could be a daily thing again. Billy and I could have alone time every day at lunch and on his 1/2 weekday off.

On the other hand, my anxiety level with Mia is so intense, I am not sure if I could send her out to the care of others all day without flipping a gasket. And the plan and simple truth is that I just enjoy being with her. I am not sure I want to give that up.

Anyhow, there we are in regards to school. Oh, and for something to really weird you out…..we just registered Cory for high school. HIGH SCHOOL!!! Insane.

Where on earth does time go???

Stop it!

Another cold front is on the way, I have been informed. After a glorious week of blue skies and warmth, I am very much over winter now. I would like some serious heat….oh, somewhere in the 90’s will do…..to cook all the virus bugs floating around infecting at will.

Yes, Texas winters tend to be mild. Yes, I know it is -20 somewhere up above the Lone Star state. The thing is, we enjoy our heat here, and would like for the cold to quit blowing through now, thankyouverymuch. Get the gone, Arctic Cold Fronts. You sucketh. Bring on the scorching Texas summer, baby. If you are a sissy who can’t handle the heat and complains about it, well, Texas ain’t for sissies. Buh bye.

Mia is so much better today. She was one sick little girl and 5 sleepless nights in a row have taken their toll on us. Now I have it, and would like to blame He Who Comes Home From The Clinic And Does Not Change His Clothes Upon Walking In The Door, but that would only be because I am cranky and sick. Also because he went surfing today AGAIN and I could not go. *cough*jerk*cough* ;*)

Where’s my Pamprin Motrin?

A tiny, sick girl in a great big bed

In spite of high fevers since Wednesday, she will have memories of snuggling down in the great big bed with fluffy pillows, a mug of ginger ale, all her favorite movies on Mommy’s TV, and lots of love and attention.

Bill and I took turns staying with the sick one and were each able to get out of the house for a short time. Yesterday I hit Lowe’s for paver bricks, plants and pond equipment and on Saturday afternoon we made a pond for the turtles and some koi fish. Family came for dinner, and at around 9pm Mia’s fever spiked to 105. 105!*

Today we are still battling the fever, but it seems Motrin is finally winning….or the antibiotics are kicking in. A big huge THANK YOU!! to the “evil” pharmaceutical companies who make these drugs to keep my children alive and feeling better. Charge what you need so you can continue to do research and find cures for the illnesses that harm us. I will pay whatever it takes.

*Antibiotics on board (just in case due to the high fever), but it is likely the flu and will just have to run it’s course.

Uno, dos, tres…..catorce.

It is March. This is more of a question, than a statement. I think I missed February. While the rest of the world had one, I spent the month in limbo waiting for my better half to feel better. It is tough when he feels bad. Not only do I worry, but there is also that element of his usually happy go lucky attitude being on vacation. In it’s place is the quiet, subdued one that sleeps and watches Napoleon Dynamite over and over again. GOSH I prefer the Bill that is constantly groping me, pulling my hair in my face (annoying) and being a complete pest. When he does these things, he is feeling good. When he does not, well that is usually my first sign that all is not well.

It seems for the last 4-5 days all is right again….or it might be that he isn’t telling me he feels bad, but he is my pesky man again. At least he can make himself a dang quesadilla now (if you have not seen Napoleon Dynamite do yourself a favor and watch it. My family is now a family of ND one liners).

So, I skip from January to March. This month will be filled with sunshine, beach weather, oysters, sailing, surfing and tan children frolicking in the sand.

P.S. Thank you all for your comments and support. It makes such a huge difference to be able to come here and write about it and know that those of you who have been readers since the beginning can understand and support us.