A "just 'cuz" baby picture.
Thomas was playing with Lindsey on the floor tonight, and I decided to break out the mic again and do some more recording. I just asked Thomas, "What are you doing?" and clicked Record. This is what ensued.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday strongly limited the power of the Bush administration to conduct military tribunals for suspected terrorists imprisoned at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The 5-3 ruling means officials will have to come up with a new policy to prosecute at least 10 so-called "enemy combatants" awaiting trial -- it does not address the government's right to detain suspects.
(emphasis mine)
So, I'm curious... do you think this ruling will put a damper on the "sky is falling!" alarmist cries of Supreme Court packing?
Yeah, me neither.
After having three babies you start to think you've seen it all. Then the fourth one comes along, and surprises you.
Lindsey loves her feet. She's really quite taken with them. None of the other children ever showed such fascination with or affection for their feet, but she just can't get enough. Roll her on her back, or sit her in the high chair, and she grabs at them and waves them around. Being a woman who now has more bandwidth than sense, I decided to do a short audio recording of her talking to her feet. So here is a 20-second (or so) clip of Lindsey crooning a love song to her toesies. I warn you, though - it's a pretty large file (almost a meg) and could take awhile to download. Baby Feet (please right-click, Save As, and you might have to turn your sounds WAY up).
Lifted from Ulrika:
Please leave a one-word comment that you think best describes me — it can only be one word long. Then copy and paste this into your blog so that I may leave a word about you.
I didn't like the pictures I took while I was in Texas, and it's not just because
my camera was on the blink (Sony fixed that
little problem on warranty - Go Sony!). I realized that I have become, for disinterest in a politer word, a fatass. My entire
family struggles with poor eating habits and serious weight issues, and I am no exception. I have long found it difficult - even
embarrassing - to shop for clothes that are flattering. I'm also seeing other weight-related issues that I'm just not willing to
accept anymore. I want to be healthy. I want to like what I see when I'm naked in front of a mirror. I want to feel desirable and
attractive. But most of all, I want to be around for a good, long time, for my family.
So, I've changed the way I live. I decided to take control of and responsibility for my eating habits. I'm not a dieter, because diets are temporary. Instead, I'm changing my tendencies. I started right after I got home. I guess you could say I've combined the "you don't need another cookie, fatass" philosophy with the "get up off your fatass and do something" routine. In a nutshell, I'm eating less and moving more. I don't count points, calories, carbs, or anything else. I don't have an "allowed per day" number of anything. Rather, I:
I've been at this for five weeks now, and have lost 17 pounds. The first week, I lost 10 pounds - wham! That's not real surprising, considering I ate nothing but crap in Texas and was working my butt off every day outside. Since then, I've lost two pounds a week, except for the fourth week when I lost a pound. Any doctor will tell you that a two-pound-a-week weight loss is healthy and sustainable, so I am THRILLED.
Now, I'm going to do something that women NEVER do - tell you my real weight. I started five weeks ago at 249 pounds. I am 6'1" and built like a bowling pin. I have thick legs, and always will - it's genetic. The thinnest I have EVER been at this height was 180, when I was in high school and playing two sports simultaneously. I never expect to see 180 again. My goal weight is 220, and I'm currently at 232 pounds. Only 12 more to go! I may find that I lose more after that, because these food/exercise changes are permanent, but I want to reach 220 by my birthday. I'm well on my way to reaching that.
This week was not the best. I had back problems much of the time, we had a LOT of running around for the kids, and there was pizza and birthday cake. Even so, because of improved eating habits, I was able to lose two pounds. The thing is, I can literally eat ANYTHING I want. I just can't always eat a LOT of some things. I still have ice cream, and chocolates, and pizza, and pasta, and chips. After all, a single serving of chips has no more calories than a granola bar. It's all about portion control.
I've not told many people about this before, because I didn't want to have to publicly admit failure. But I'm doing well, I'm feeling good, and so far I've had five weeks of my weight heading in the right direction. One interesting effect of telling people you're "dieting" is that they try to impress upon you their own favorite fad diet. I'll tell you right now - I'm not interested. I don't need pills, castor oil, glucose tablets, protein-loading, or any other wacky replacement for a good sense of self-control. I just need to keep doing what I'm doing, because that's what will ultimately get me to my goals of a healthier, sexier body and a good example for my kids to follow.
The other day, I realized our kids' names (Adam, Kayla, Thomas, Lindsey) increase by one letter in length for each subsequent child. I guess it's a good thing we quit when we did, or we'd never get our Christmas cards signed and mailed out!
I've decided to close Scrap-Poodle. It just wasn't growing fast enough to justify the continuing investment of time. I couldn't even get stores or consultants to put up free ads, much less to pay for advertising. Even after a year and a half, the subscriber database was only at just barely more than 1,100. I decided I'd rather spend my time doing other things, like learning C#, working on updating QuiltIndex.com and 2frogs, and (gasp!) actually scrapbooking.
Never one to be less than completely busy for too long, I'm back at the eBay thing. I've made a few bucks, and I think I'm starting to get noticed a little more by some of the regular buyers. I'll just keep making things and posting them, then hoping for the best. At least scrapping is fun again.
Yesterday was kind of sad - that's when I sent out the "I'm shutting down" email to everyone. I got several sympathetic emails (thanks!), one very, very touching email that I shall save to read whenever I think my work is crap, and a couple of feelers. Someone wants to buy the domain (I'm selling), and someone else wants to buy some of the content (again, I'm selling, so long as we can agree on terms). Kind of funny (not "ha-ha" funny, but "how pathetic is THAT" funny) that I couldn't make a dime on the site until I killed it. Oh, well - it'll help me recoup some of the losses I've had on that site over the years.
I'm moving the sketches, courseware, project directions, and other stuff to this site. It'll take some time, but at least it won't be lost forever. It would be really nice to find the time to do a complete reorganization/redesign of THIS site. Goodness knows, it's long overdue. Maybe I'll make that one of my C# practice projects, when I get far enough into the language to do some good. Mike's helping me. So, if you're a new reader here and you found me from Scrap-Poodle, welcome. I post about scrapping and stamping here sometimes, but also just about the vagaries of life as a mom to four small kids and wife to the most brilliant, forgiving man on the face of the planet.
So, another chapter closed on my life as an entrepreneur. You win some, you lose some. So it goes.
A good friend will package up some empty CD cases, at your request, for you to store your unmounted stamps in.
A great friend will stash bite-sized Ghirardelli packets in each case before shipping them.
Thanks, babe. *mwah*
I'm once again trying my hand at selling handmade scrapbooking layouts, albums, and the like on eBay.
I was going through my stash of quotes, titles, etc. looking for material for a new paper bag "Brothers" album, when I found this quote from Harmon Killebrew that made me cry:
My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, "You're tearing up the grass."
"We're not raising grass," Dad would reply. "We're raising boys."
This is exactly the kind of thing that happens when you governmentalize charity and relief efforts, both tasks that are better handled by privately-funded NGOs:
A $200 bottle of champagne from Hooters and $300 worth of "Girls Gone Wild" videos were among items bought with debit cards handed out by FEMA to help hurricane victims, auditors probing $1 billion in potential waste and fraud have found.
...
The GAO uncovered records showing that $1,000 from a FEMA debit card went to a Houston divorce lawyer; $600 was spent in a strip club and $400 was spent on "adult erotica products," all of which auditors concluded were "not necessary to satisfy legitimate disaster needs."
...
More than 1,000 registrations used the names and Social Security numbers of prison inmates. According to the GAO, in one instance, FEMA paid $20,000 to a Louisiana prisoner who listed a post office box as his damaged property.
Further proof that no good deed goes unpunished.
Today, Adam finished his lunch, went to the bathroom, then started the free reading portion of his schoolwork all on his own. (He finished his second Wizard of Oz book.) I didn't have to nag him to get started; by the time I had finished my own lunch he was already engrossed in the story of Dorothy, Toto, and the other characters. I was so proud of him, and proud of us for sticking to this homeschooling thing. Adam is comfortable with our routine, and he rarely balks at it (though he does still pronounce some schoolwork "boring"). He's leaps and bounds ahead of the curriculum he would be doing in a public school and showing no signs of slowing down.
Most importantly, he is an avid reader. He does more challenging reading in the mornings with Dad, to help stretch his vocabulary. In the afternoons, he reads silently on his own, under my supervision. He can choose virtually anything he wants, and he's now choosing chapter books meant for children twice his age. He does not see reading as a punishment, or a chore. He loves it, and always has. Homeschooling is time-consuming, difficult, and sometimes requires a degree of patience I didn't know that I had. But it has been so worth it. If nothing else, I have helped to give my son the gift of a love of reading, and if I had to choose only one thing for him to love doing, reading would be it. At least he has that.
If you do nothing else today, you should watch this.
"Sometimes I see my ass out of the corner of my eye." - My friend Kathy
