Sep

29

interesting mommy study

Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment

I just heard about a study that was published recently in a UK medical journal. I would actually like to know more about it. It is apparently a very reliable source that conducted it.

Basicallly, it addresses women’s weight in between having babies. It says that if you have your first baby and don’t lose all the weight before you have the next baby your risk factors in that pregnancy goes up. They say they find more complications of still birth, and diabites to name two. They said the most significant part of this study is that it studied women who were healthy weight before their first baby, had the baby, and on average lost most of the weight but kept on around 7 pounds (which really isn’t considered a weight problem- right?) I mean 7 lbs over what your recc. weight should maybe be taken off, but it isn’t considered horribly you know. They said it is just really important that women try to get back to their pre-pregnancy weight before having a second baby.

My one question regarding that would be what about those people that get pregnant within a few months after having a baby (I don’t know how they do it, but people do :)) I mean I would assume women aren’t at pre-pregnancy weight by then. I wonder if having a baby that quickly increases risk in and of itself. Anyone know?

Also, My technical weight (not that you asked :)) Is in the “healthy range” for a 5 foot 8 inch 30 year old. However, I am not 100% certain on my weight, but I think i was about 7 lbs lighter before I got pregnant with Lukas. I wasn’t unhealthy then, but normally I am a little under the range for my height. So I wonder if that would count? I did go down to pre-prenancy weight after Owen though. Hm. I guess it would only really matter If I wanted to get pregnant right now. And that is not going to happen.

My Signature

Sep

28

Love this guy

Filed Under Uncategorized | 5 Comments

This is a picture of JJ and I from a little party we threw for miss meridith. I grabbed it from her Flickr because there are so rarely sweet candids of jeff and I together. Most often our pictures are posed and one of us looks good and the other goofy. :) I love this because it’s super real and super us. Awe I love him so much.

I might add that at this point I know what he was thinking…
as always he was amused with how awful I am with a knife. Every time there is something big to cut he always ends up taking over because I am so terrible with knives!

My Signature

Sep

26

Hello this is Gore…

Filed Under Uncategorized | 4 Comments

“Hello, This is Gore”

That was overheard in my minivan while Owen was playing on a pretend cell phone. This is not the first time I have heard him refer to himself this way… but I’m so baffled by it that it has taken many times for it to sink in. Owen knows his name is Owen, but he also calls himself Gore! Gore? Where the heck did he come up with Gore? I don’t know any Gores… I asked tonight at kids’club if there are any Gores- Nope. Gore? Gore? I thought, is he shortening “Gordon” from Thomas the tank engine? But he uses the name Gordon with ease when talking about traines. Gore? Does anyone know ANYONE with the first name Gore? Is global warming on his brain?

I have had so many mommy friends tell me stories about their child’s new pretend habits… I love pretending so I’m very excited for pretend play to come up with Owen. But Gore? I just want to know where he got the idea of Gore? I ask him about it and he just smiles really big and squinty at me. Every once in a while I catch him talking in the mirror to Gore. Gore only comes up when he thinks no one is paying attention. Gore? Gore.

I remember talking in the mirror when I was little. I remember I had a pretend friend named stacey. To this day I have no idea where I got the name stacy. I don’t think I knew any stacy’s but I sure thought it was a cool name. I thought about stacy’s world on the other side of the mirror often. I thought about her house that was the exact backward of mine. I wondered where she went when she left that bathroom mirror. I wondered if she had the same family I did. These are actual real thoughts that I remember vividly (funny how I forget so many other things!).

I had a VERY active imagination as a child. My elementary teachers often wrote. “elizabeth is very creative” on my report cards. I never quite understood how I could possibly be creative when I didn’t draw good, I didn’t write songs (good ones at least), and I was never considered “artistic”. But I suppose it was more my personality as a child that was creative. I believe it was probably my teachers’ kind attempts at describing me when they really wanted to say… “elizabeth is quite odd”.

Anyway, I do believe my little Owen (ahem) Gore, has inherited this oddness. For the most part this is great, I mean I LOVED all my imagination back then. I loved spending a long time wondering what then inside of the trolly’s tunnel on Mr. Rogers looked like. I loved dreaming about the world on the other side of the mirror. I loved going to school refusing to brush my hair and having to be talked out of wearing Olive green towels as clothing when I was convinced I was “the green cheif”!. (not exactly sure why I thought those olive green towels made me look like a green indian cheif?) At any rate, life was fun and carefree…. and that time in life ends way too soon.

I just wish I knew where “Gore” came from. But chances are Owen won’t remember either. I’ll just have to look for more clues and see if Gore pops up again.

My Signature

Sep

18

Catch up. September 17, 2006

Filed Under Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Hey Friends.

This is going to be a little bit of a bigger post because I’m going to throw a little life update- and then “activism” in. Not really activisim… but where my mind is going with this HPV thing.

First HPV.

I have been doing much MUCH research on this lately. At least when I have the time and the internet connection. I’m finding I am rather behind on this revelation I have been having. I would post links to everything I read :) BUT I realize we are all different people and most of you would not be interested in reading all that.

If you haven’t noticed… the pro-vaccine folks have been making the media rounds. They are basically saying all the same things I blogged on last about this. I was just surprised that everything was moving much faster than I presumed. Here is some extra info I did not have on my previous blog:
- this vaccine is a series of 3 shots they hope to eventually have down to one.
- it costs over $300.

Now as far as the evolution of my view on this.

I have been reading STD (and STI) statistics on the web all evening. I knew they were increasing… but it is so unbelievably out of control. I find this interesting considering The “SAFE SEX” campaign that was launched when we were younger would have led us to believe condoms kept us “SAFE”. What we were sold was false. The fact is HPV strains, though decreased by the condom use in some debatable studies, ARE still capable of spreading DESPITE the condom use. In January 2004 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finally admitted what many gynecologists have known for years: Condoms donÂ’t prevent the spread of a sexually transmitted virus (HPV). So what happened to that “safe sex” all those liberated culture leaders told us we could have?

In furthering the formation of my opinion I happened upon the Focus on the Family position on the issue. They articulate it best in my opinion (after being on many sites). Their main statement being what I now hold as my own.

“Focus on the Family supports widespread (universal) availability of HPV vaccines but opposes mandatory HPV vaccinations for entry to public school.” (http://family.org/corrpdfs/PublicPolicy/Position_Statement-Human_Papillomavirus_Vaccine.pdf)

In addition to this they stress the incredible problem this virus has become. They support the vaccine in that regard because it indeed will save lives. In going beyond that, they give some good tips for the parent to consider when choosing whether or not to give their child the vaccine. AND ways to approach the subject with your child (obviously when age-appropriate). If you are interested in those 2 articles go Here and Here. Among some of the persuasive arguments (for me) would be forced sexual behavior (date rape, rape, etc.), andobviouslyy your child may not choose the life style you would choose for them. I really do encourage you to read the tips on those links, they are a short read.

So all those considered… I still stand by and would want to educate my children (and obviously anyone else) that this alone is not protection against all possible diseases or a free card to promiscuous life-style. Though this vaccine will help fight these std’s and hopefully make a big dent… The only true “safe sex” is in a monogamous preferablyy married) relationship. We can’t as a culture/ society/ people just live playing catch-up on the consequences to these life-threatening life-styles. I just don’t see why there is such a backlash in liberal media to people that suggest thatabstinencee is the best way to lead our children. We can fight HIV/AIDS, we can fight HPV… but new diseases are going to spring up. Why not go to the root?

The positive thing is that you (parents) have the most influential say in your child’s life (even when they are pretending you don’t). Concerning Sex Ed, we can’t let schools substitute our position as parents to be in open dialog concerning sex with our children. We are the ones that should be guiding their ideas regarding sex, not the schools. Despite that, I do support some amount of sex education in school because unfortunately some parents are rather absentee in the lives of their children. I just wished there was no deception of “safety” when teaching children about preventives. The preventives are important, but not always guaranteeing “safety”. And I wish that more credencee was given to the FACT that abstinencee does guaranteee that safety. It is okay to educate that over-eating is bad for us, and smoking is bad for us… but not as acceptable to teach that casual sex is bad for us.

Enough of that, onto other things.

ROSIE O’DONNELL
Watchers of THE VIEW… what do you think? Do any of you even have time to watch the view? I have caught glimpses here and there and truthfully though rosie has her lovable moments Ii stress *moments*), She still manages to make me want to puke at other times. The worst was last week when she claimed that Christians were just as dangerous as Al Quieda… (UBL- USAMA BIN LADEN- 911…) She wasn’t joking either. She really meant it. And truthfully, I would no longer be tuning in b/c of that comment, except that it is often on in the locker room at the gym… so I can’t avoid it.

Now my life.
Things are going good. I love fall, everything about it. The ONLY thing I don’t like is how quickly it is over. This weekend we went to my grandfather’s cottage at Lake Erie. Owen has no idea how nice he has it. I think he thinks “lake” and “beach” houses are just a very normal part of everyone’s life. We started the summer going to my parents place in West Palm Beach. Then went to my Aunt’s lake house in Michigan. Then visited my childhood friend, Jordan, Parent’s lake house… and then the cottage this weekend. He is now asking for a lake house and a boat. HA. Sorry buddy. I love you. But we are just blessed to have friends and family that have those nice things. Be thankful.

Owen is now asking DAILY to go to the Toy Store. He has yet to realize that he can bring things home. Today he woke up from his nap happy as could be asking to go to “Toy Store” and then informed me voluntarily “I LOVE THE TOY STORE” and he told me this over and over. He is just so much fun. AND SO EMOTIONAL!

Lukas has quickly gone from crawling to learning how to climb. He has already pulled himself up on the first step going upstairs. He is so dang proud of himself, and as much as it is more work for me. I’m proud of him too. The kids are learning more and more how to play together AND how to fight. Funn times.

By the way… I let my 2 year blogaversary (blog birthday whatever) come and go (oops). Blog friends, I am so thankful for you. I have met some amazing people through this whacked out world of the internet. I havegottenn re-acquainted with old ones as well.

I was planning on posting pics from this weekend, but blogger is giving me errors. I will try again later.

Anyone else get a kick out of the fact that on blogger spell-check they always try to correct the word blog as ‘bloc’. You think they would add that word in!

Much Love,
Elizabeth (mommyzabs)

My Signature

Sep

12

UBL

Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Okay so i thought everyone knew UBL mean Usama Bin Laden cause the ‘press’ refers to him that way and it was 9/11 and all. Sorry for any confusion.

My Signature

Sep

11

HELLO!

Filed Under Uncategorized | 2 Comments

where the FREAK is UBL?
how does this guy hide so good?

My Signature

Sep

11

yet another 9/11 post

Filed Under Uncategorized | 4 Comments

So I have been doing what nodoubtedly some of the rest of you have… roaming my regular blogs to see what my friends are saying about today. About 9/11. Grief is so hard. The pain is so hard to get our minds, our hearts, our emotions… let alone our words around. But there is something in sharing this pain with our entire country. There is something about about all of us aching out loud… processing through cyberspace.

Me? Where was I?

I was in my apartment. I was suppose to fly that day. But not out of Nashville (where I lived at the time), back to Nashville. I was suppose to be in Michigan. The day before (9/10) I arrived at BNA (nashville airport) and checked my bags at skycap. As I was watching them get taken away my cell rang. The artist I was suppose to be running merch for ended up getting the flu and cancelling the show… I ran after my bags and “checked-out” of skycap. I went home pretty happy that I had an extra day I wasn’t expecting at home. Thank God we didn’t go. Not because I would have ended up on one of those flights- not that dramatic at all. The flight I would have been on would simply have been cancelled for a week and I would have either figured a way to drive back (at least to OHIO to see my parents) or have spend a week in a city I didn’t really want to be in. But that would have been small inconvenience compared to what was going on.

So instead of being stuck in Michigan I was in Nashville for a couple days before I had to head out to LA for some manufacturing. I woke up leisurly… and turned on the t.v. as I got ready to meet a friend in the Cool Springs Starbucks. I remember seeing a plane hit one of the towers and wondering how in the world a pilot could have done that. Wondering if maybe he had a heart attack or stroke and lost control? Trying to find a place to put it in my brain to make it possible. I finished getting ready and got in the car. I put on a local radio station to find that there was no music being played. Just people talking about the WTC ‘accident’. I was lost in my own random thoughs and was sitting on Old Hickory about to turn on th 65 South as I heard the announcer yell that another plain had hit the tower….

That’s when the complete disbelief sets in.

How could this happen twice? Isn’t that like lightning striking you twice? Not possible! I mean not if it was an accident. So quickly my mind (as many others) processed that this was a deliberate act. Our part of us was lost that moment. The part that was niave (not in a bad way) enough to think something like this couldn’t happen to us. I got to starbucks to meet my friend debbie and obviously we quickly caught up on what we had heard. Starbucks was unusually empty. The baristas had gotton out this tiny 7 inch-ish t.v. and put it out on one of the tables…. we gathered around. Somewhere at this point my memory is very fuzzy. (I have a huge tendancy to do this with horrific events.) But I know one tower fell… and another fell… then the pentagon… then a field in PA… And we sat, we watched, not quite sure when it would end. I know it was like life went silent. No one- even the newscasters… knew what to do or say about anything. No one quite even knew what was really going on yet. It was like getting stabbed and then getting stabbed again and again while you were slowly coming to the realization you were stabbed the first time.

After that who could work? I remember a prayer meeting. I remember prayer meetings all week. I remember not being able to fly to LA. Life was literally on pause while we were all coming to grips. Then they started trying to clean up as many realized if they hadn’t heard from their loved one, it was too long for them to actually be alive. I absolutely can not imagine that. I remember watching the death toll in the corner of the screen as there were countless images of the clean up. I remember countries that traditionally hate us cared for at least a day, maybe even a week.

When I did finally catch my flight to LA a week later…. it was so empty. SO EMPTY. Apparently people were scared… or they didn’t care to go anymore… I don’t really know what all the reasons were. But obviuosly people couldn’t bare to fly. I sat with 2 or 3 other passengers and the 3 flight attendents as we talked through it all on our 4.5 hour flight. They talked about what people in their industry were saying, about their training for those types of situations… (of course no one knew it could be that bad). This was a time where you just didn’t hesitate to talk to a complete stranger and hear their story.

I was on many flights after that. It was a season in my life where travel was pretty constant. Slowly, over the months, the flights were fuller. But it really did take awhile.

I was at ground zero a month or so after 9/11. If you went there at all I know I don’t even have to tell you the feeling. It was like you once again visited that place where life stopped. Where it was all way out of reach for our emotions to grasp.

I went to the fashion trade show I went to 2 times a year in February 2002 in Las Vegas… and it was like a ghost town too. Businesses just weren’t doing good. Especially tourism and retail.

Now, 5 years later… I rarely have a flight that is not sold out (on Southwest at least!). We have in some ways gotton back to ‘normal’. But that ‘normal’ is so different. It’s funny, I can barely remember what flying was like before 9/11. Remember how you could forget your I.D. and still talk them into letting you fly? That seems like a lifetime away. We often hear on the news our lives referred to has ‘pre-9/11′ and ‘post-9/11′. As if our generation lost a virginity of sorts. And it’s true.

That’s what my day was like. But here is some encouragement from the BIBLE. (thanks Andy)

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood since the earth was founded?

He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
and its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

He brings princes to naught
and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.

No sooner are they planted,
no sooner are they sown,
no sooner do they take root in the ground,
than he blows on them and they wither,
and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

“To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.

Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one,
and calls them each by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.

Why do you say, O Jacob,
and complain, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.

He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;

but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
– Isaiah 40:21-31

My Signature

Sep

7

velcro heart

Filed Under Uncategorized | 3 Comments

sometimes i think my heart is made of velcro.
i just saw a story on the news that made my heart hurt so much- literal chest pain.
then they previewed the next story coming on… and that hurt too.
it’s at these moments i picture my heart as one big velcro dart board with velcro darts being thrown at it.
of course not all darts are velcro so those bounce right off. but there are certain areas i’m so sensitive too.
especiailly ones where children are the victims. i hear things, then have such a hard time shaking them.
it causes me to pray. i dont’ know what else to do with it. these things are just too big for me. i’m so glad
i have Jesus.

My Signature

Sep

4

UPDATE on the HPV/ Cervical Cancer agenda.

Filed Under Uncategorized | 5 Comments

If any of you read my RSS feeds you may have caught a blog I deleted last week basically venting on things and anonymous source told me concerning the whold “did you know you could catch cancer from a virus?” mass marketing campaign. I took it down cause I really wanted to sit on it all longer. I was afraid that I was not voicing my opinion in a way that was clear. I in no way wanted to come off judgmental… but matter-of-fact.

The summary of what my friend with access to inside info. In the drug industry was that current research in Europe is showing that a vaccine for HPV (the STD I mentioned in that former blog) is INCREDIBLY effective. The long term agenda of the 2 companies manufacturing the vaccine is to see it REQUIRED for 10-12 year olds to attend school. This is huge money for the drug industry. Of course we know if they really cared (as they pretend to with their commercials) they would also state that the perfect prevention for STD’s is abstinence.

My friend Meridith sent me THIS ARTICLE that basically confirms what my friend told me. Please take a second to read this. It really will only take you a minute.

I have been mulling this over so much. Thinking and praying, praying and thinking. You see, we live in a culture that is more and more and MORE sexual with time. People are having sex younger. People are having sex outside committed relationships more. People are having sex outside of opposite sex relationships more. There is increasing sexual addiction. The internet is causing the pornography industry to soar to new heights. Sexual abuse, and predators are on the rise. All these things being FACT… there are reasons that this vaccine really is a good thing. STD’s, especially like HPV are INCREDIBLY COMMON, some calling it epidemic.

The flip side. No one seems to care about the root of the problem. No one seems to care that we continue to push sex EVERYWHERE. Studies show that things sell better when paired with a stimulating image. Because of that and our addiction to the almighty dollar we have as a culture sold our souls and plastered sex EVERYWHERE. So the symptoms… the sex addiction, increasing sex abuse, increasing STD’s, increasing infertility due to STDs, etc… we are trying so hard to catch up to.

But RARELY, does anyone want to talk about abstaining from sex, and keeping sex within the confines of marriage (I do agree with that 100%, but realize that this is a uncommon belief anymore.) No one wants to admit that when we sold a generation on the idea all we had to do was teach them about “safe sex” they would be okay, that we were wrong. If the safe sex campaign of the 1980’s and 90’s had worked why would the amount of abortions and sexual diseases be on the rise?

So my heart breaks over this issue. We live with sexual brokenness all around us. And I DO have so many friends with STD’s, some that have had cervical cancer even. And of course I want cures for them.

All that said- I don’t think it is right to REQUIRE our children to have this vaccine. And I’m going to stop my words right now on this… I want to hear from you. What do you think? I wish so badly people would “get it”. That the God that created us, knows something about the safest way to have sex. But I know that is too much to expect.

My Signature

Sep

2

Noah Steven- Please Pray.

Filed Under Uncategorized | 4 Comments

This sweet little boy’s name is Noah Steven. I have never met him, or his parents… but found this blog through a friend of mine. Please check out a link to his blog HERE and keep him (and his parents) in your prayers. I see this sweet face and read this blog and quickly try to imagine how I would react if I had been in the same position. Please Please keep this little one in your prayers.

My Signature

  • BlogHer Ad Network

    More from BlogHer

    Advertise here BlogHer Privacy Policy