Oh man has it been a bad week. 

About 2 months ago I got a new 08 Honda Civic LX Sedan.  I made a big mistake. If it weren’t for how uncomfortable the drivers seat is for me, I would be in love with the car.   I’m 5′3″, so I’m pretty short.  The drivers seat is not a power seat and therefore you can’t move the bottom of the seat (the part you actually sit on), but if I don’t tilt that part forward I’m going to go nuts for the rest of my 3 year lease.  Long story short, does anyone out there know how I can do this??? 

I’ve asked if they can convert it to a power seat and they said no.

I’ve asked if they can rig it somehow to tilt forward, they said no.

I’ve tried to make a custom pillow that I could sit on that would help, but it didn’t work.  

…going to the dealership today to talk to them face to face so they can understand how annoying this is… and see if they can somehow get me into a car with a power seat.

I have been amazed at the different news agencies picking up various stories about vaccines lately.  They still have a “vaccines are safe” undertone, but they are being written pretty open minded to parents who are starting to question the CDC, FDA, etc. 

I quit vaccinating Jude after her 4 month appointment because I started reading up on vaccine ingredients and just how they make vaccines and after a lot of reading/praying/thinking I came to the conclusion that for me, the risks outweigh the benefits. 

Between vaccinating against everything under the sun (including diarrhea!), using anti-bacterial soap/gel, slathering on sunblock on a daily basis, and prescribing antibiotics every time you go to the doctor our bodies are becoming week and not able to fight off a common cold!  Nature did not intend for us to live this way.

Here’s a few of the news stories I found out there…

http://www.aolhealth.com/health/womens-health/news/article/_a/could-hpv-vaccine-lead-to-paralysis/20080708112209990001?icid=200100397×1205403891x1200256875

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/28/health/28vaccine.html

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/05/12/autism.case.ap/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/03/24/autism.vaccines/index.html

(nothing like some un-related Anchorman quotes in the middle of your blog)

I love scotch

scotchy, scotch, scotch

here it goes,

down into my belly,

mm, mm, mm

I had some follow-up x-rays done this last month and the results were very surprising. 

The curve in my back has gone from 22 degrees to 8 degrees AND my neck curve has gone from -4 degrees to 15 degrees.  I might be a little off in my numbers, but you get the picture… my back is getting straightened out and my neck is getting more curvy (both good things)!

I have had many less episodes of sciatic nerve pain in my low back and down my legs.  Life is good.

Thanks Dr. Craig!

OK, so now that I’m over my “everything causes cancer” mood, where I had decided that I was going to get rid of my cell phone…I’ve decided to keep it.  My new cell phone plan, still with Sprint, but through the University actually ends up being pretty cheep and only about $15 more a month than a home land line would be.  SOOOOOO, since it’s good to have in emergencies, I’ll keep it.    

Chalk one more cell phone bill up to the Telecommunications industry.  Grrrr! 

So, I get kinda lost in the healthy-natural living crowd… lost like what they say just seems to make sense sometimes.  I don’t really understand any of the science behind it, but they tell me (mercola.com) that my cell phone is increasing my chances of having brain cancer… like, a lot.  Anyway, it got me thinking about how my $69.99/month “plan” magically turns into a $100 bill every month.  It’s amazing, really, how many “fee’s” they can get away with taking onto your bill. 

So, long story short, in my quest to live a more natural life in these very un-natural times, and to save some money in my very broke times… I’m turning my cell phone back in (for a fee of $150, of course) and going back to a good old home phone. 

Now… I just have to sort out how Jude’s plastic bottles are killing her. 

Ahhh, to be a Mom that cares is to be insane.

Jude was breastfeeding withen 15 minutes of being born.  We got off to a good start by avoiding pacifiers, avoiding drugs during labor, etc.  I pretty much didn’t stop breastfeeding my entire hospital stay… or so it felt.  All of a sudden you become a Mom, and your changing 4 “dirty” diapers and 6 “wet” diapers a day.  You’re charting what the “dirty” ones looked like and when they happened.  You soon come to understand what a true sleep-less night is while you lay in bed and stare at the little creature you’ve created with amazement.  There’s just so much more to “do” at every minute of everyday and you just simply never stop.  I was so focused on breastfeeding “by the book” and making sure my milk came in strong that I ended up having an oversupply of milk.  I went back to work when Jude was just 6 weeks old and spent my morning break, lunch hour, and afternoon break in an empty office pumping so that she would have breastmilk while she was at daycare.  I remember my best day of pumping I produced 19 oz.  during and 8 hour workday.  I felt like freaking SUPERMOM.  Jude always drank 3 bottles of 4 oz. while she was at daycare so she only needed 12oz.  so… you do the math and you see how I ended up with lots of extra frozen breastmilk in the freezer.  After awhile it was obvious that I had more than what Jude was going to consume and they don’t last forever in the freezer, so I started looking for what to do with the extra.  I was NOT going to throw away all that time and effort.  Any Mom that pumps can tell you that stuff is “liquid gold”.  I ended up finding a wonderful resource.  Milk Banks.  Milk banks take donor breastmilk, pasturize it, and give it to babies, usually pre-mie’s, that for whatever reason, don’t have their Mothers breastmilk.  IT SAVES LIVES.  There is simply No COMPARISON between formula and breastmilk, especially to a pre-mie baby.  

I ended up sending 130 oz.  of breastmilk to the Denver Milk Bank (http://www.bestfedbabies.org/mIndex.htm).  It is one of my proudest achievements of my life.

So, to give you some background on my back, for the past 5 years or so I’ve had pain (like shooting, sharp, nerve pain) running down my legs (Sciatic nerve).  I saw a back specialist after waiting two months to see him, because as I was told, he was “worth waiting for”.  He had his nurse take some x-rays of my back and told me “I would just have to deal with the pain”.  Literally, that’s the exact words he used. 

So after that, I went another 3 years until Steve recommended that I see a Chiropractor.  I eventually took his advice and went and found out I have Scoliosis… which means if you are looking at my back while I’m facing away from you instead of straight up and down, my spine is crooked.  Also there’s a bend in your spine in your neck and the ideal degree of curve is 42 (I think… correct me someone if I’m wrong) well… mine is -4.  So, come to find out, I’m all sorts of messed up when it comes to my back.  I started regular Chiropractic visits (3 times a week) and I’m feeling MUCH better.  I still have occasional pain, but nothing like before. 

When I had the visit with the Chiropractor where we went over my results of my x-rays, I was almost relieved when he said I had issues… like he was validating all the pain I had been in.  I wasn’t crazy, afterall! 

It has become a Saturday routine… sleep in, make breakfast, watch a little Noggin channel if I have Jude for the week, pretty much just be lazy until we go to the farm.  Branched Oak Farm is out by…. yes, you guessed it, Branched Oak Lake.  It’s about a 15 min. drive outside of Lincoln.  They have raw milk and it’s yum yum good.  I was a little nervous at first to be drinking raw milk, but after doing a little research on the internet, and thinking about everything I know about breastmilk, I was hooked.  It is whole milk so it’ pretty creamy if you’re used to 1% or skim.  Raw just means well, simply raw… it’s not pasturized, not homogonized, not anything.  Which means, without getting too scientific, it’s got all the good stuff still in-tact.  The other thing that’s great about Branched Oak Farm is that it’s out by the winery, so you can go get your milk from the farm, and go get hopped up doing a little wine-tasting all in one short scenic Nebraska drive.  Oh, and on todays trip we were told that about 20 of the cows are pregnant and due in the next few weeks, so now we’ll get to see cute little baby cows, or “puppies”, as Jude calls them when we go out to get our milk.  It’s MOOOO’licous.     

Hi everyone… welcome to my blog. 

More to come… I promise.  ♥