old post from Bill Clinton

From Bill Clinton
www.clintonfoundation.org

Late last night, I arrived in Johannesburg, where I began my six-day tour of Africa to see my Foundation's efforts firsthand, learn from those who are making a difference, and hear the amazing stories of hope from the people we are touching through our work. I know many of you have been following the preparations for my journey at www.ClintonFoundation.org/Africa. If you haven't, I invite you to visit our site, where you can pledge your support, tell your friends about what we're doing, and read stories from the field on our blog. I just posted my first entry, and I look forward to reading your comments when I get back to New York.

The language of Nelson Mandela's tribe, Xhosa, has a word that perfectly sums up our work in Africa: Ubuntu. In English, it translates as "I am because you are." In this increasingly interdependent world, our fate is inextricably linked with the fate of young people of modest means who are eager to serve their community in South Africa, struggling farmers in Malawi, and Tanzanians who require life-saving AIDS medicine to survive. We have an obligation to help those in need and an unprecedented opportunity to do good in this world, but we can't do it without your support. Join our journey at www.ClintonFoundation.org/Africa

Sincerely,

Bill Clinton

P.S. How will you partner with us to make change in Africa? Leave your thoughts and comments on our blog.

pollyticks.com

pollyticks.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTGMlRX-dH4&mode=related&search=

well I feel like a fool

I must have missed the memo that said Pluto isn't really a planet. Wikepdia says, "Originally classified as a planet, Pluto is now recognised as the largest member of a distinct region called the Kuiper belt. Like other members of the belt, it is primarily composed of rock and ice and is relatively small." So, like I said, I feel like a fool! LOL When I was really young, I had this book called "Planets," and each page gave a summary of the nine planets. I loved that book because the pictures were so beautiful and the book itself was easy to read. I was like, in first grade or something I think, so it was very child-friendly. I wonder what the science books say now. I can only imagine how many times they need to change things regarding astronomy. In college, I attempted to take an astronomy course. I failed. But I did try!! It's just so overwhelming... I loved the class, but I had the hardest time remembering the names of all the moons and the different bodies in space.... it was so confusing! But I would love to sit down one day and just have someone explain it all to me. :)

allergies

wow. So I'm a member of allergymoms.com and received my newsletter containing a lot of really interesting info in it.
On area of interest that seriously made my heart skip several beats was this blog:

Peanut Allergy (over) Reactions
Filed under: Uncategorized — Gina Clowes | August 28, 2007 @ 2:19 pm (Views: 786)
I thought some of you might be interested in this bloggers view of peanut bans. For what its worth, I find the allergy parent community pretty evenly divided on bans, some supporting, others not. Some of us have other children who can and do eat peanut products. Others have children with multiple food allergies so that food bans cannot be the answer to keeping them safe.


Here’s a quote:
“I immediately contacted the school to find the name and addresses of the student(s) with the wayward genetics. They declined to give me that information citing something about privacy. But I wanted to know how many people could die if I fed my daughter peanut butter as part of her nutritious lunch. “

OMG!!! So then I strat reading the responses and they vary from

am a loving and caring mother and kindergarten teacher. There is a child entering my school with a severe allergy to peanuts. My daughter will be in this students class. My child loves peanut butter and eats it probably twice a day. To change is more than a minor inconvience.

I don’t want another child to get sick or die but someday we are going to have to draw a line when banning foods. My daughter is allergic to milk. My husband has a severe allergy to wheat and glutens. Wheat allergies are becoming more and more prevailent in the population. Will we eventually ban it too?

If I send a peanut butter sandwhich to school with my daughter, most likely she will be the one sitting by herself or singled out and she isn’t the one with the problem. This is a cold statement, but at what point is the allergy so severe that the parents say (or should say) I will keep them at home and make other arrangements, rather than inconviencing everyone else? Could schools offer tutors to go to the home?

to heartbreaking ones such as

A nut ban at school will lower and just about eliminate a schools risk of having an unfortunate death from anaphalaxis.

My 13 year old daughter died last year from her peanut allergy. The menu of the restaurant she ate at is 99.61% peanut free and guess what– the careless food preparer still cross contaminated her sandwich with trace amounts of peanut butter cookie. We miss her dearly every day.

Granted my perspective is tainted but why aren’t we doing all we can to protect our precious children? A ban is just one of the tools in the toolbox to protect our children. Education, raising awareness, emergency plans, training, etc. should also be part of every school’s plans. With education and awareness, maybe then we can eliminate careless food preparers because they understand the dangers.

The number of children with food allergies and multiple food allergies continues to rise. Change will come. I pray it is sometime soon.

So, being that I am a parent with a child that has life-threatening food allergies, I just feel like we're being pushed out to sea.

And I've MET people who don't take the allergies seriously. I've spoken to people who don't see what the big deal is. People who think that Josh and I are just hysterical parents...

They've never had to witness their small child swell up like a balloon, break out into hives, have his tongue swell up and wheezing all from barely licking something that he was allergic to!

I am thankful every day that Julius is no longer allergic to wheat and milk, but he is still severely allergic to legumes, nuts and eggs. Ingesting any of those could very well kill him.

And then to read about these people who suggest that MY child, along will all other children with severe food allergies, stay HOME and be TUTORED???? That THEIR child shouldn't have to 'punished' by not being allowed to eat foods that might KILL MY CHILD??? Holy crap, expand your child's food repertoire! There is more to life than peanut butter sandwiches!!!

I'm just completely baffled, stunned, angry, hurt, confused and pissed off about this.

crosses among other things

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/14/AR2007091402501.html

I read this article today and the guy in it sounded so much like me. I found it ironic that I had just mentioned this personal topic to Josh a few days ago.

I grew up in a very religious household. I went to CCD (continuing catholic...development? I dunno, something like that), had all my sacraments, etc. etc.... and as I got older and began to question the Church, I began having this silent struggle within myself, but continued going to church because my mom made me. And when I realized that I did not believe in so many things that the priests were saying that I was suppose to believe it, then I told myself that I could still go to church because what those "men behind the pulpit" were saying were just men. It wasn't God's words. God wasn't saying that birth control, abortion, homosexuality, premarital sex and later, stem cell research, was wrong. It was the guys running the show that was saying all those stuff.

I got married and continued going to Church. I prayed often. I was probably fairly religious. But slowly it changed. Not because my husband is Jewish. Not because a lot of my friends came from different faiths... but because I began to realize that I was tuning things out when I went to church. I was making excuses for things priests were saying that I didn't agree with... and when I became pregnant, my visits to church became less frequent. And when Julius was born, I pretty much only attended for Easter and Christmas. And that has remained.

For awhile I thought I could find a liberal catholic church. But when I googled it, all I got back was episcopalian.

My eyes were opened. So many extremists were killing people "in the name of God." People were judging others "in the name of God." People were HATING people, "in the name of God."

And that disgusted me.

So many hypocrites. So much politics. It was disgusting.

I believe in so many things that the Church says NO to. And I can no longer make excuses or tune out the things I want to tune out.

ANd I don't want to put Julius in a position where some guy in a robe who says he is preaching God's word, tell him about what he can and can't believe in and follow. I will not have some guy tell Julius that it's wrong to do this and believe in that and question this, etc. etc. NO!

So I'm at a point in my life where I'm feeling like the man in the above article from England. I feel loathing, I feel anger... I feel my blood boil when someone starts to talk about religion.

I'm not atheist. I still believe in God and somewhere in me I still believe in religion as a personal belief (and not as an organizational group that promotes judging others and living in a bubble).

I'm not envious of the people I know who are religious. I think I might be more envious of those who are not. Those who can easily shrug their shoulders when asked about God and heaven. I stare at awe at those people because they don't have to feel this burden.

So many years of having Catholicism shoved down my throat has made me jumpy and defensive.

Maybe when Julius is older, we might join an interfaith community. Who knows what the future brings? Julius knows about God. I've told him that much. He knows a bit about Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Josh has told him some about the Jewish faith. I think our son is pretty well-rounded. He's not like one of my friend's kid who can probably recite passages of the Bible.. but I would NEVER want that from my son.

One night when Julius was lying in our bed, we began talking about God and decided to 'pray.' And I made it a point not to just regurgitate a prayer. We talked. Julius talked to God. I talked to God. Josh talked to God. And it was nice.

That was nice.

That I can do.

you know what sucks?

I just typed up a very lengthy blog about music and dancing and videos and had links and... and... when I went to upload a photo of Julius playing his guitar, the whole freakin' screen closed. GONE! Poof!!!
I can't figure out when and how this happened, but for some reason, whenever a window closes (like when I'm uploading something and the upload is complete, or while in Outlook and the message sends and thus the window automatically closes), all the windows close!!
I've tried re-booting my computer and it doesn't do any good. I've looked through the settings and I just can't figure it out!!
Does anyone know what on earth I'm supposed to do to fix this?? It's seriously going to drive me insane.

pink

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/858884.html

Isn't this great? Though in my high school we never had any issues about bullying students who were homosexual (no one really cared who you prefered to sleep with... it was just amazing that you were actually fucking someone) But I know there must have been schools that did have those problems, which is just awful.

So how nice it was to read this about two high schoolers in Nova Scotia. http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/858884.html I hope more kids are like them. I would love to hear more about kids like these, or Marc Hall (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Hall) .... kids making a difference in this world by teaching tolerance, understanding and most of all, acceptance.

I do remember something from my first year in high school: we got word that a new 6th grader male student, (high school and junior high were in different buildings, miles apart) came to school wearing a dress. No one was fazed by it all. I think most of my friends just shrugged. It wasn't a big deal to us, which I suppose wasn't the same within other schools.

Geesh, it's hard to type when my three year old is singing in the top of his lungs... I hope this makes sense. LOL

art works

I remember in one of my courses at GWU we had a segment on art & children. It was really interesting because it spoke about how a child views him or herself in a self-portrait. It starts with a scribble, then as the child gets older, it's pretty much just a head, and then slowly more and more body parts start to appear and slowly it all becomes proportional.

Ken, my wonderful brother-in-law (http://www.kenflett.com/)once suggested that I have Julius draw a picture of me (when I had dyed my hair and my camera wasn't working and therefore couldn't share my new look with anyone via online). So yesterday I took it a step further and asked Julius if he could draw a family picture.

The black is our house. The orange is Julius (which is so amusing because when he was an infant he had wisps of red hair and we would call him Orange Julius), the red is me, and the green is Josh.

I found it fascinating just to watch Julius scribble the house, and then make mostly a head for each of us and more scribbles around it for the rest of the body.

Anywho, I wanted to share the picture with everyone :)

night terrors

When I was a little girl, I used to have nightmares and night terrors. As I got older, they decreased, but I still get them from time to time.

Last night I had one. Since I remember it, I guess it would be a nightmare and not a terror,... it was awful! I don't remember all of it...but what I do remember was that there was a monster.

I had to spend the night somewhere...and there was someone with me, but I can't remember who... and I think we fell asleep... or were about to fall asleep... when someone runs by and announces that the number to keep the monster away is two.

And then it gets really dark and cold, and then I suddenly feel something sharp scraping against my neck. So I quickly put my hand on my neck and I'm gasping out the number two between breath because I suddenly can't breathe very well, and the person next to me is grabbing onto me for dear life and we're both screaming "two!" and trying to breath quickly before shouting out the number again, and the teeth are so sharp and I suddenly feel sharp nails on my back and I feel my skin being ripped open and suddenly...

I hear Josh shouting for me to wake up because I'm screaming and thrashing around in the bed.

I open my eyes and I don't remember much of what happened immediately afterwards, but I remember that Julius was sitting on the bed just staring at me, and then he asked, "Did you have a bad dream, Mommy?"

And I said, "Yes, I did."

And then Julius gave me hug and said, "It's okay now, Mommy."

And I don't think anything could have made me feel better than his sweet hug.

And thinking back, I just have to sit back and watch my little boy in awe. What an awesome kid.

August...wait, almost September...wha?

okay, this month has truly breezed by. Maybe it's because I'm still in vacation-mode, even though I returned to work this past Monday, or maybe it's just too much fresh air... but is it really nearing the end of August? Holy crap, how did that happen?!

In any case, things are going great. Julius is officially potty trained (yes, applauds are welcomed). He pretty much was ready for it. He started sitting on the potty before we left to Quebec, and continued using the portable potty I bought for the drive up to Canada, and again, continued when we were in Mont Tremblant!! Returning home: not a problem.

It's fabulous. No more diapers. It's a fantastic feeling.

My little boy is growing up!!!!

pascale picard

Picard Pascale was performing in Mont Tremblant this evening. They were great! Julius LOVED them. The singer has such a great voice and the music was really awesome.
Julius was dancing wildly and even made a new friend. The two little boys were dancing around and having a great time!!! One of the roadies gave Julius a paper coaster with the band name and singer's picture on it, and Julius ran around the area with it in his hand and dancing with it. After awhile, he came back to get another coaster for his friend.
The performance was great, the songs were great, and everyone had a super time!

rewind

special thanks to Amy's old lap top...I am now able to access my photos from my digital camera!! So.... here is a photo of my new hair 'do!

We're actually in Canada right now: Mont-Tremblant to be exact. We're having a great time!! We drove, and let me tell you: Julius was an absolute angel!!!!

before I post some pics from where we are right now, I need to post a couple of pics that I wasn't able to upload before...

1. Julius on his big boy bike!


2. Julius at the Air & Space Museum



Okay... I think we're up to date now... LOL

And now we're having a fabulous time in Mont-Tremblant!! Below is a photo of the view from our deck

I don't get it

I know I should be sleeping. It's after midnight, we're leaving to Canada in less than seven hours... yeah, I should be sleeping.

But I can't sleep because I can't stop thinking of a conversation I had with a friend of mine today, er, yesterday.

So my friend tells me that her friend just left her husband because he confessed to watching porn.

Okay, now are you as baffled as me? Because when she told me this, I was pretty grateful I had my sunglasses on because I'm sure my expression was "What the fuck?"

This woman iss married to this guy.. they have two kids together.. she thinks he's watching porn on the internet.. he denies it. She persists. They end up going to a priest and he confesses in front of the priest that he's been watching porn on the internet. So she takes the kids and leaves him.

WTF?

So I'm trying to take the conservative perspective here, since obviously that's the side of the fence this woman is on, and I still can't comprehend how this can end a marriage.

And the craziest thing, is that MY friend agrees with this woman.

Yes, I know. I'm baffled.

Not only does she agree with this woman, but she is revolted by this man. Outraged that he did this. Horrified because he's watched her children before.

Yes, I know. I don't get it.

And now my friend's husband is worried and wants to disconnect their computer. Why, you ask? Because of the tempation. Like the big, bad, voodoo porn demon is going to get them.

So I have to ask, what's so bad with porn? Okay, so in this particular family, porn is bad. And therefore, in a strict, religious household, by engaging in watching porn, the sancity of marriage is voided? Doesn't sound very Christian-like.

But I'm trying not to judge. I want to understand. How can this ruin a marriage? Were they ever in love to begin with?

I'm thinking. If I was against porn, and I found out my husband was watching it...would I leave him? No.

What would I do if my husband was watching porn? Well, I'd either see what he's watching for some fabulous new ideas, or decide, "hey, whatever floats the boat." I mean, really, it's not like he's having an affair. What's the freakin' big deal about porn?

I'm trying to get it...but I just don't. And it's past midnight... and I can't sleep because I'm racking my brain trying to figure out how my friend can agree with this logic.

Berry Fun

Today we went berry picking! I've never been berry picking before, so I was pretty excited about the thought. Julius and I had a great time. The rasberries weren't ripe, so we picked blackberries and blueberries instead...and I realized something. Not only had Julius never eated a blackberry or blueberry before...but I never had a blackberry before either!And quite honestly, I don't think I ever tried a blueberry either. Something or someone told me once that I didn't like them, so I avoided them. Well let me tell you... THEY ARE YUMMY!!! I think I prefer blackberries though. Julius liked them better too.

Oh he was so cute! This boy was covered in berry juice. He gobbled so many berries up! I never had offered him any berries before because the child hates strawberries, and Josh is allergic to black cherries... so I thought, with all the allergies my son has, let's try to avoid the berries for awhile But then my friend Nicole told me that black cherries were in a totally different category than berries, so I went ahead and drove over to the orchard and we HAD SO MUCH FUN!

I wish my camera was working. There would have been some great pics.

RED

Yesterday I finally did it. I dyed my hair red and had it cut. IT LOOKS GREAT!!!! I love it. Sadly, my Kodak Easyshare was disconnected from my comp, and when I tried to reconnect it, it wouldn't work! It doesn't use a standard USB cable, so I'm pretty flustered on what to do. LOL But I'll continue brainstorming and hopefully will have a pic of me up soon.

Oh, another funny Julius story:

** Whenever we're trying to get Julius' attention and he isn't listening, we ask, "Are your listening ears on?" or "Where are your listening ears?" So.... this evening, Josh was asking Julius a question, and Julius was not responding. So Josh asked him, "Where are your listening ears?" Julius replied without missing a beat, "I lost them." **

HAHAHA!! He just cracks me up.

Oh, and being that I named this post "Red," it makes perfect sense for me to add
RED here.
If you haven't registered, you really should...

out of the mouth of...

so yesterday we go see Julius' allergist. I love this guy. He is the best doctor I've ever met. He is unbelievably amazing with kids and adults. Whenever Julius and I go see him, I spend so much time just LAUGHING!!! He cracks me up. And moreso, he knows what he's talking about. He is so calm one minute and then making Julius and I laugh the next. He rocks.

Anywho, so the doctor and Julius are conversing and then he asks my son, "Where are you from?" And of course, we are both expecting him to say the city that we live in... but instead he replies, "My mommy's tummy."

HAHAHAHA!! I never expected that answer. Julius is so awesome.

Live Earth 7-7-07

http://www.liveearth.org/

monday monday

we had a nice weekend...ending up going to the zoo. I know, I know, I had said that I hated the whole idea keeping animals in captivity and how horrible it is that people go there and gawk at these poor animals... BUT, Julius wanted to see a real monkey. How can I say 'no' to that? Of course when we finally see the monkeys, Julius exclaims, "That monkey is scratching his butt!" And that was the highlight of the entire trip for my son...and husband for that matter. I don't think I can decide who was more amused by the monkey: Julius or Josh.

I don't think I'll ever understand
MALE HUMOR

But nonetheless, everyone had fun.

stitch

it's been almost two weeks since I've had my lil' surgery. I'm feeling good. Sure I'm sore every night because I refuse to rest unless absolutely necessary, but I'm doing well... much better than my past five months of pain.

I've been told I have endometriosis. Surprisingly, there are so many myths surrounding this label. It seems to be quite an enigma to many people. And then there are others in the 'these women are just hysterical and weak' camp and therefore don't believe that the pain is actually real, or that if it is real, isn't as terrible as their patients claim. In other words, the medical field has an overwhelming amount of assholes working within them.

Endometriosis isn't an 'infertility' thing. Though many people do have fertility problems.. that's usually not the reason a woman goes to the doctor for. The woman goes to the doctor because she's in pain that doesn't seem to end. Funny that most people only know the label as "oh, so you can't get pregnant?"

One thing I've really been focusing on is alternative treatments...because being cut open (no matter how small the incisions are) fucking hurts. And though the pain is different than the chronic 5 months duration of pain I had previous...I wouldn't wish the new kind of pain of anyone either. Pain is bad. Very bad.

So I'm looking into acupuncture as well as an "alkaline" type diet that will promote a healthy chemical balance.

If anyone reading this knows someone with endometriosis, I really suggest they visit the Endometriosis Association website. It's very informative.

More celebrations

So on Saturday we had Julius' birthday party. It was a lot of fun: Julius had a great time!! And then on Sunday we had Josh's company picnic... more fun!! And lastly, Sunday evening we went to my in-laws house and Julius was given his birthday present from them... a race car of his very own. LOL!!!! The car even has a working radio! LOL I just can't believe the things Fisher Price makes. Anywho, I've attached a picture of my little racer boy.