Sunday, May 31, 2009

Senseless

David Bereit, National Director of 40 Days for Life, issued the following statement about the slaying of George Tiller at a Wichita, Kansas church:

"As a nationwide organization dedicated to peaceful
and prayerful solutions to the crisis of abortion,
40 Days for Life is shocked and dismayed by the
shooting death of Kansas abortion provider George
Tiller. Such violence against a fellow human being
is never justified, and 40 Days for Life condemns
this senseless act. We encourage people of faith to
join in prayer for all those affected by this
unconscionable action."

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Memorial Day Weekend and Watermelon

Just some shots of our weekend - a little late. My poor neglected blog!



"No, Therese. Like this"

Not sure if you can tell - but if you go back to this post you can see that I've cut Sophia and Therese's hair. Sophia was excited [she's been telling me for a while that she'd like to have it shorter] - while Therese.... cried.
I really feel badly for her - she wanted it long [and longer], but she also doesn't take care of it herself which makes for frustration between mama and dear daughter. It's not real pleasant to brush hair with tangles [maybe some food at times? :::shrugging shoulders:::] and to have the ear aches that come with the brushing. MY ear-aches... from her whining and moaning. So our bargain is this: You take care of your own hair - without all the fighting about it - and you can have it long. As long as you want it.
Fair? I don't think I'm being unreasonable.
And you'll notice in the pictures that it is still really long. Just not her kind of long
.
To Therese's credit, she is taking better care of her hair and will even attempt to pull it back. Hey, at least she tries :) We'll see how this goes.... ;)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And a couple weeks ago Joseph got so excited as he ran out the front door to go play to see that my rosebush had exploded with flowers. He ran back to the door, "Mommy the roses are out!" To which I was a little confused because a) he was SO excited and b) our neighbors last name is ROSE. The confusion was laid to rest when he appeared with two roses in his tiny hands -- one for me....
and one for himself. My first reaction was to reprimand him for picking my roses - but I saw his sweet face and sweeter gesture and just said, "thank you Joseph" [but kindly don't pick anymore ;)]

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Graduation

"I did it!" [can apply to either photo :) ]

congrats Kayla! We are SO PROUD of the young lady you've become. We love you!





Tuesday, May 19, 2009

That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles!

Okay - that's it! No more Thin Mints in this house!

I've been on the fence in my mind about buying GS cookies for the last few years - having heard how liberal they've become (the organization, not the cookies). That article seals the deal for me! Sometimes when we boycott some company it is extremely difficult to do so.... this time I'm jumping for joy [it always pains me to whip out almost $4 for a pkg of about 10 cookies].


This is definitely not your grandma's Girl Scout troop -- nor ours!

Friday, May 15, 2009

No Words

I have no words - GAG!!! -- perhaps if you do, you can leave them in the comment box.


Monday, May 11, 2009

Nothing Much... and You?

Well - I don't really have anything to say.... hmmmm. Let's see...

I read this and was happy that these graduates have an alternate plan.

And then there's this news. I'm glad that they'll be coming back on Tues. and Fri. this week. Them are some true soldiers there! [funny... it just dawned on me how ironic all these news stories are with the main event happening in the month of May]
Our oldest daughter will be graduating on Saturday. More of that to follow! [time sure does fly by though]

I'm gearing up to bid farewell to one of my best friends. I'm not sure I'll be able to hold it together :::sniff sniff::: . God plants people in your life... and then they're off again to inspire and impact another state! All 5 of their children have been born in different states. Why mess with a good thing, right? Anyway we've already got big vacation plans with them! It's a friendship to cross over many miles all right. And you never know.... there may be some kin-ship between us down the road! :) Who said arranged marriages were a thing of the past! At least we'll LOVE dd's in-laws!!

Oh and thanks to Elaine I went ahead and added my scrolled signature to my posts. Purdy neat.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Charlie Horse

Well, Charlie is now in a "big boy bed" - which only means that the crib turns into a daybed. My hand was forced to make the change... he started climbing out of the crib. Yikes! Out of 7 children he is only the second to climb out - Kayla held the title up until that point. I am definitely not ready for this - new found freedom on Charlie's part, that is. Let's see... he rarely will nap now. This is NOT good. Instead he'll find things in his room to occupy his naptime. First off he would just leave his room again and again and again instead of staying in his bed. I understand why he would do this, but I need him to be out of my hair for a while - so, he's got one of these on his door. On the inside. To lock him in!

Oh yeah - let me get back to the things that he'll occupy his naptime with... he'll pull all his clothes out of his wardrobe, tear his books up, tear his cardboard stacking blocks up, get into his wipies and throw them all over his room. I'm sure there's more - these things surely make my head spin. However none of those things compare with how I feel when he doesn't take a nap. I could handle the messes/distruction a bit better if he actually slept!


So sometimes he'll crash around dinner time ...

He's also doing a lot of this these days...
he'll share his opinion with everyone - especially his dislikes - by yelling, pinching, whining, crying, falling on the floor... yeah, these are the fun times. Not.
But he is still my little lovebug. There are still many tender moments in between fits and rantings. I need to remember that. Hence the reason for the following shots...

Friday, May 1, 2009

JodiSpeaks ~ Living the Nightmare

This was left in my comments on the Gardisil post:

My daughter, Victoria, has been ill since February 2008.

Here is some history. My daughter had her first Gardasil vaccination November 2007. Her second vaccination was in the beginning of February 2008. Immediately after her second vaccination, Victoria experienced severe diarrhea and was nauseous for about eight weeks. She had blood work done many times and doctors thought she had a virus.

On March 31, 2008, she had her first seizure. My daughter has treated with many neurologists, all of whom have not related her seizures to Gardasil. Meanwhile, there are quite a few hundred people that I have found over the internet through my numerous postings and through Erin Brockovich, and their daughters are all experiencing the same symptoms, which occurred after the Gardasil vaccination. We have actually formed a group and share our daughters' stories, symptoms and information.

My daughter has had CT scans, MRI's, MRA's, EEG's, blood work and was hospitalized at an epilepsy center in the video EEG monitoring unit for two separate weeks in May 2008 and September 2008. She was put on many different seizure medications. After the normal EEG results, she was taken off all medications. Her SED rate has always been high and she does have protein in her urine, but doctors do not seem concerned.

I was told that her red blood are small, but this apparently is not concerning either. My daughter has been seen by several neurologists, a psychiatrist, psychologist, several neuropsychologists, an immunologist, several infectious disease doctors, and also treated a at Wellness Center for a period of time. Wellness Center physicians believe that my daughter may have Lyme disease that was dormant until the Gardasil vaccine. Infectious disease doctors differ. Which doctors are correct? I have no idea.

My daughter currently experiences the following symptoms: non-epileptic seizures, migraines, fainting, tremors, twitches, numbness, intermittent leg paralysis and facial paralysis, tingling, staring or blank episodes, eye pain, joint pain, neck pain, back pain, memory loss, confusion, brain fog, regression, mood swings and chronic fatigue. She continues to have bouts of nausea and diarrhea. She has not been in school since April 2008. My daughter can never be left home alone. She can't go to school, go out with her friends or work or has little "normalcy" in her life.

She has very few good days and always says she doesn't feel good.I do not know which way to turn for help. We have seen so many doctors and I can't seem to find anyone willing to help my daughter. There are so many other young girls who have the same exact symptoms as my daughter and the one thing that all of the girls seem to have in common is the Gardasil vaccination.

We are on a fixed income, as most people, and we have expended many thousands of dollars in an effort to seek medical opinions and assistance. Although we do have medical insurance, it is very difficult to find doctors willing to treat my daughter who will accept our HMO. Also, there are no "traditional medical doctors" who will relate my daughter's symptoms to Gardasil as I am told "there is not enough information available" about the vaccine and doctors believe it to be "safe" . The vaccine has been available for less than three years.

Meanwhile, there are some doctors who are making the correlation between Gardasil and many of the girls' symptoms. However, the only doctors I know of right now are in California and Kansas. Other doctors are willing to "try" treatment, most of which is "homeopathic" in nature and extremely costly. Once again, I must reiterate that there are so many other young girls experiencing negative symptoms.

Each and every night, I check on my daughter many times in the middle of the night to make sure she is still breathing (like we ALL did when they were babies). I have a chime on her bedroom door so that every time she opens it, I know she has walked out of her room. I had a deadbolt put on the front door of our home with a key that can be removed from the inside. I never leave the key in the door for fear that Victoria will be confused after a seizure or when she has memory loss, and leave our home. (This has happened many times and she has been missing). When she is in the shower, I have to either stand outside the door and/or keep asking her "are you okay?"

Each day, I cry and wonder if Victoria will be next one to die from adverse reactions to Gardasil.

We are in desperate need of medical treatment for my daughter. I have run out of ideas, doctors to treat with and finances have dwindled. I do not know which direction to turn.

Any thoughts are most appreciated, especially from the medical community.

The National Vaccine Information Center is in the process of circulating a petition to have Gardasil investigated by the government. There are more than 15,000 reported cases of adverse effects from the vaccine which have been reported to the NVIC (many of the adverse effects are extremely serious) and approximately 38 deaths have been reported.

Please feel free to forward this information.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Jodi Speakman
(267) 939-0591
Jodispeaks@aol.com

P.S. My daughter's story was posted on the NVIC website. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/14/investigate-gardasil-vaccine-risks-now