I'm an adult

ha, so funny...

Happiness and sunshine

My next move will be suing Al Gore, The One, and all other loony leftists for the lumps and bruises on my head from beating it against the wall every time they open their mouths or decide on a new policy. Well, why not?

1918 Flu Pandemic

I read The Great Influenza by John M. Barry at the beginning of the year. Wow, did it scare me. But it was very, very interesting and has convinced me of the importance of vaccines.

There is new light on why so many people may have died so quickly and so violently. Aspirin overdose.

The Journal of the American Medical Association suggested a dose of 1,000 milligrams every three hours, the equivalent of almost 25 standard 325-milligram aspirin tablets in 24 hours. This is about twice the daily dosage generally considered safe today.

The pharmacology of aspirin is complex and was not fully understood until the 1960s, but dosage is crucial. Doubling the dose given at six-hour intervals can cause a 400 percent increase in the amount of the medicine that remains in the body. Even quite low daily doses — six to nine standard aspirin pills a day for several days — can lead to dangerously high blood levels of the drug in some people.

Hmm. Quite an interesting lead. It's very possible that some people took 2, 3, even 4 times the recommendation to avoid death from the flu. As they say in the article, it's probably not the reason for most deaths but can explain some, particularly deaths of the young and very healthy.

Beef

Recently Whole Foods had a great sale on their organic, grass-fed beef. I stocked up and froze about 7 pounds. While purchasing it I did wonder where it came from. My husband answered my question by sending me this article. Yay for local foods!

I began incorporating grass-fed beef into our diet a few months ago. It is an phenomenol source of iron, protein, b12, choline, and saturated fats. Yes, saturated fats are good for you despite what you have been told.

This is one of the best recipes I have made with our beef yet. So simple, so good.

Be a Paul Revere

I have yet to read Mark Levin's latest book, Liberty and Tyranny, but hope to do so soon. However, I did take almost 18 minutes out of my afternoon to watch a thoroughly interesting and enlightening interview of him by Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds. Take time out and watch for yourself.

Beyond co-sleeping

So I wrote a month ago that we were going to transfer the little guy into his own room. Well, tonight will be night 4 of him sleeping alone. Yay! A little later than planned (there's that silly word again) but we did it nonetheless. And it seems like the perfect time for all involved.

Over the weekend I tried to put Rooster down in his new room for a nap. I figured the ideal way is to introduce him slowly. Well, after he fell asleep on his crib mattress (it's so, so small compared to his twin!), he rolled over into the wall and woke himself up. I nixed the slow introduction and moved his mattress into the room later that day (with Roscoe's help of course).

That night we did the regular bedtime routine except that he went to sleep in his new room. It went very, very smooth. We have played in his room every day for awhile so he knows his surroundings. He only woke up twice during the night (I can handle 2 awakenings) and slept 12 hours! Yes, I can definitely get used to the new arrangement.

I did feel a bit odd going to bed without Rooster right there, after all when was the last time he wasn't right next to me? Never. But after falling asleep I was fine. It reassured me that I could hear him just fine from across the hall. We both seem to have adjusted just fine.

9/11

We will never forget.

May all the victims of the terrorist attacks on this day rest in peace.

We did it...round 2 is next weekend!

Roscoe, Rooster and I went camping at the Great Sand Dunes National Park this past weekend. What an absolutely beautiful place! It was our third trip there; Rooster's first of course.

We arrived on Friday morning around 11:00, the perfect time if you want the pick of spots as there are no reservations. We set up the tent, etc., then had lunch and headed out for a hike. Several weeks ago we purchased a Kelty backpack to hike with Rooster, which has worked out quite well especially with the addition of a sun shade. On this hike Rooster was able to fall asleep - perfect!

We decided against a fire on the first night, opting to just enjoy a beer with the sunset. With Rooster asleep in the tent, we watched the sun disappear behind the Dunes. Unfortunately we had loud talking night owls next door who stayed up until at least 3 talking about how they don't like their general manager or the way their bonus system is set-up. Um, boring. So in the morning we decided to move to another campsite. Not quite the same view, but still beautiful. It actually turned out to be a bigger spread, softer surface and a better set-up (the fire pit was further away from the tent).

We hiked the dunes for about an hour around lunchtime. Since we have explored the highest peaks during previous visits, and because we (well, one of us) had a 25+ pound backpack on, we decided to stick to exploring the flat base area.

It rained in the evening for about one hour but cleared out for the rest of the night. Roscoe built a great fire while I put Rooster to bed and we enjoyed another beer in front of the fire for the remainder of the evening. The next morning was filled with breaking down camp and repacking the car. We did it in record time for having to do it with an infant in tow. We were on the road by 10 and had a fairly peaceful drive back home.

So, this weekend we are attempting round 2! With an added twist of course - we get to hike in 1/2 mile to our campsite. Yes, a bit burdensome but it will be plenty worth the quiet stillness of back country camping.

Why I keep reading RachelLucas.com

She has an amazing post on her visit to Oświęcim, or Auschwitz as it's usually called, and Birkenau.

One book I have read is on a Soviet soldier's escape from Auschwitz. I have read some, not a lot, but some on this topic and will never fully understand the horrors that occurred. May they never happen again.

US health care system at it's best

I could not imagine being forced to give birth in a corridor because there were no beds available at the hospital. Yes, a home birth is ideal and would thus remove the possibility of a corridor birth from ever happening, but home birth is, at best, a dream for most women. Even me, someone who used to desire such a thing.

Why did I change my mind? Because of the delivery of my son Rooster. Everything went fairly smooth throughout the 27.75 hours of labor; not exactly how I wanted it to occur (ha, when does that happen...) but we got to the delivery stage in good condition. Once he was born (~3 hours after pushing) he had an apgar score of 3 - very blue, not really breathing and had little muscle tone. He was rushed to the baby area as NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) nurses and doctor rushed to his side. While 4-5 people were working on him, 2 doctors (one resident and one supervisor) plus 1-2 nurses were working on me. My uterus would not stop bleeding and was having trouble contracting after the placental birth. Thanks to all these wonderful people (at least 7-9) my son and I made it through this stage of birth just fine. He was placed in my arms within 10 minutes with a score of 6 and we both made a full recovery.

It's times like this that I thank God that I have access to outstanding medical care.