Not Me Monday!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Hey look at this I managed to make it back for Not Me Monday! Not that I ever had any doubt I would be able to get everything back on track and get this posted tonight. I mean not things were EVER off track around here. I never fall behind, never let the laundry pile up and I never ever ever ever call my husband in the middle of the day whining that I need him to come home and make the kids lunch so that I can go back to bed. I mean being a mom that cant stand to go a day without working out and who always always always makes and eats only healthy food (small woodland creature foods I believe my dear friend MckMama calls it) for myself and my family means I never get sick or stressed out. 

So with this in mind, I was not so lazy this week that I put off turning in assignments, refused to pick up my camera or even go two days (how would that be possible) with out looking at the computer only to come back to find 75 emails in my mail box. It does not make me feel kinda a good to see that I am missed somewhere (even if it is only in email world). I guess now would be a great time to mention the fact that my kids are not walking around looking like bums because I'm to lazy to take them to get their haircut. I most certainly did not leave my husband with two outta three kids with double pink eye and one with a nasty head cold to go have a yard sale on base. I did not spend most of Mother's Day weekend away from my family trying to sell some junk (because my perfectly maintained home has no junk) so that we can actually get this house on the market. I am so not saying that my house isn't on the market. Nope, I said it would be on the market by the beginning of May and of course it is (or is not). Oh by the way, at said garage sale I did not refuse to put any sunscreen on my arms or legs resulting in a serious sunburn that has left me scared to death that about being in pain...

Lastly for a bit of fun... I was not offered a part time job at a very posh children's store this week and I am not even wishing that we would be here just a bit longer so I could take it. I am not bummed about the fact that we have finally found an amazing church only to be leaving it in a couple of months. No I HAVE NOT AT ANYTIME had second thoughts about leaving up here, because I have friends, a church, my kids school, a hairdresser, possibly a job, a nice house and the thought of what life would be like up here were we not attached to the Navy. Nope I'm so not scared of moving at all and I never ever even consider staying in WA. NOPE NEVER NO WAY NO HOW!!!

Happy Not me Monday Y'all!

And the winner is!!!!

The winner of this awesome chunky ring (who will totally be matching me btw) is Sara from Domestically Challanged. I totally pulled the name right out of a hat, which was easy since I only have three to choose from. lol OH well, I guess I will have to figure out some other way to get people to let me know they were here!

Comments!!!

Update: Okay, so here it is. My new favorite obsession is chunky rings and since this one is called Yellow Submarine, I couldnt resist. Violet from Wild Flower Design Studio does some amazing work with glass. Y'all should really check her out on Etsy. So good luck and I cant wait to see what y'all have to say!!!

Okay people I know your looking at the blog! I see you on my little realtime feed-it. But I dont know who some of you are!!! For Pete's sake someone from Africa looked at my blog!!! Please leave a little note, let me know that you were hear. Tell me how you heard about my blog and if you like it, hate it or wish I would go jump off a cliff... There may even be a prize involved for the most creative comment... Let me think of something while y'all flood my site with loving comments and I will annouce what it is by tonight. Then I will annouce the winner by Wednesday! Good luck y'all!!!

Not me Monday!

Okay, so I started my not me monday before I stared my rant on vaccinations... So its below it. Go down there and check it out... or not!

Mandi

Vaccinations

DISCLAIMER: You should know before reading this post that these are my personal feelings and some or many of you may not agree with them. I fully believe that everyone has the right to their own opinion. But this is my personal blog, full of my personal thoughts and I will post I how I feel about things on it. 

This is not a something that is always easy to talk to other mothers about. We all have our opinions about what is best for our kids and what isn't. I am only writing about this today because of a Law & Order that I watched recently. In this episode a young girl dies from measles because she played at a park with a kid that hadn't been immunized and passed on the virus unknowingly. I believe that vaccinations are important. I have had my kids immunized for everything except chicken pox. I spoke to my kids doctors and I spoke to other parents before I made this decision. Chicken pox are something that I feel like all of us went thru as a child. Chicken pox become more dangerous the older we get and doctors cant say for sure that after someone gets the vaccine that wont still get the virus. When Carolina was born it was only one shot, but by the time Laney was born it had changed (a couple of times actually) to kids needing a booster after a couple of years and possibly another one in adulthood. I worry about my kids not getting chicken pox as kids and then it always being something that looms over them. What if their kids get chicken pox. They wont be able to be 100% sure that they wont get sick. Where if they had gotten it as a child themselves they would be immune. I know there are bad cases of chicken pox, but as a child you itch and have a bit of a fever and then its gone right? As an adult it can kill you. 

But now there are other more dangerous and deadly diseases showing up all the time now that were supposed to be completely wiped out. I recently heard of actual cases of whooping cough! Whooping cough for Pete's sake. I don't feel like I have the right to tell other parents what is and is not right for their kids, but I do believe that my kids have the right to be safe. Measles kills... especially kids under 1 year that are to young to have been vaccinated for it. If I go to a park or to pick my kids up from daycare with my baby in tow I shouldn't have to worry that my baby is going to get sick and die from something that was preventable. What is the point of buying organic foods and working so hard to make sure there are no poisons or pesticides in your foods or in the materials that make your clothing if you are going to open yourself up to a deadly deceases that are a whole lot more dangerous then some parabens "could" be. I myself buy organic as possible and I try to give my kids healthy foods. We as parents already have so much to worry about. Do we really need to add to that by inviting these viruses into our lives when the medical world has found a way to protect us and our kids? What I really want is for my kids to be healthy. I don't know very many people that would go into a third world country without getting vaccinations or would even drink the tap water there because they know the risks of getting sick are high. By parents choosing not to vaccinate they are raising the risks of our kids getting sick here at home. 

In the same breath I will offer that I don't agree with "telling" a parent that they have to do something with their kids. And taking away their personal choices about raising their kids. I do however believe that they should have to FULLY understand the consequences of their actions. Why do vaccinations feel like something that just happens to our kids? Why is there not more time spent teaching people about them before kids are born? When did they become something so scary that parents would rather face the chance that their babies could contract these HORRIBLE diseases instead of getting them a shot in the arm? If there was a shot that could make your child immune to HIV or AIDS would you elect not to get it for them? If there was a single shot that would completely wipe out cancer from the world, would you not give it to your kids because there is a million in one chance that they could have an adverse reaction? Or even a one in a thousand chance? I'm sure I'm not the first to ask this question. But I would like to know what you think. Am I missing something? Is there some reason why making our kids unsafe and putting other kids at risk makes more sense? Or is this all more about not being told what we will and wont do with our kids? Is this more about not being told what to do? Is our pride really worth that???

Not Me Monday!

I forgot to put a link in to get you back to McMama's site so you can read all the other no-me monday post. So here it is! Enjoy!!! So I officially back to doing Not Me Mondays. I mean its not like I just haven't been doing them for no real reason. I'm sure I wont ever miss another Monday. I am so on top of things around here. Its not like I have turned in three assignments in the past two weeks late. I also haven't made my kids pb&j for dinner a couple of times over the past couple of days weeks. My kids were not thirty minutes late for preschool today. I did not take Laney to the mall today instead for coming home to clean up from breakfast. I most certainly did not just spend the last three hours while the kids were sleeping watching TV and writing a post that will most likely not make anyone mad at me. I also didn't just make Carolina go "clean" her room so that I could finish watching SVU on Tivo. I of course turned it off and put on something educational immediately. Of course I did (or did not)...

I am not even going to think about leaving the dishes in the sink for the night and catching up on my Tivo. Nope not me thats so not how I roll! Oh and just so things are clear I most certainly did not just put my kids to bed 20 minutes early so that I could take my first shower of the day. I of course get up at the crack of dawn so that I can be showered, dressed, spend some quiet time with the Lord, make a full breakfast and then wake each of my kids lovingly with a sweet song each morning. And just so you know I am sooooo not full of it.

Mandi

Another post about drawing?!?!

Okay, so this one isnt really about drawing. I mean its not like I am going to enlighten or impress  anyone with the amount skills I have learned over the past month. Just know that I have 2 weeks left of this class and for as long as it takes me to do these stinkin drawing I am not going to be the only one to see them. Well I mean my class sees them and my instructor sees them, but they know way to much about art to appreciate them. So I leave it to you my wonderful loyal friends, to once again tell my what a great job I'm doing and to not give up.  

Okay, its getting late so I better just get these bad boys on here. I actually have two to post tonight. Enjoy and remember I come to you for praise (not critique, I get enough of that in class thank you very much) so be nice!

This first picture is what I used to draw the piece right below it. The second one of Ben I just stared at him the whole time and told him not to move to much. He was driving the truck to Seattle on our way to sub ball!