30 Day Challenge: Day 19

30 Day Challenge: Day 19 - A talent of yours - BEING A MOM! Our society undervalues the importance of women and particularly mothers. I have been "Working" every day and night for the past three years, without ever having a single night off or a sick day.

Can you imagine the job description:
On 365/7/24. Overtime required. No sick leave. No vacation days. No breaks. No lunch break either.

Pay: None.
Benefits: Hugs and kisses and unconditional love <3

30 Day Challenge: Day 18

30 Day Challenge: Day 18 - Your Wedding



So I should post a picture of Josh and I, but since we got married nearly a decade ago, I can't find the right photo directory. I got this one elsewhere... :)

30 Day Challenge: Day 17

30 Day Challenge: Day 17 -- an art piece (drawing, sculpture, painting, etc)

30 Day Challenge: Day 17 -- click there to see all the stuff to post about every day! Ok, so of course, I would pick something about breastfeeding, right. :) Well, here's the funny thing...I remembered this sculpture sitting on a bookshelf growing up. Then after I had Claire I told my mom I would love to have that sculpture of the mom and baby. Here's the funny thing...I didn't even realize it was a baby who was nursing until my mom gave it to me about a year ago. I guess it's just a natural way to hold a baby. I asked my mom where she got it. She *thinks* it came from a garage sale of a LLL friend. (Your mom, Amy!) So I would love more backstory on it.

Bedhead

These pictures are so hilarious, that they get their very own post. Make sure to click on them and take a close look at Claire's hair.

Claire wakes up with some beyond serious bedhead every day. I call it her "Kate Gosselin" look.

30 Day Challenge -- Day 16

30 Day Challenge -- Day 16 -- A song that makes you cry (or nearly) -- "Christmas Shoes"

And this is a challenge to get on my blog and post everyday!

30 Day Challenge -- Day 15

30 Day Challenge -- Day 15 -- Your Dream House -- Click HERE to see a really neat house. It wouldn't let me copy the image!

30 Day Challenge - Day 14

30 Day Challenge - Day 14 -- A non-fictional book -- As Nature Made Him by John Colapinto. I would highly recommend reading this book. It's the true life story of a boy who suffered from a botched circumcision, so bad that his penis was so badly injured, that he was raised as a girl. It was absolutely fascinating, and I read the whole thing in one sitting (before kids of course).

30 Day Challenge: Day 13

30 Day Challenge: Day 13 - Is a fictional book. My favorite fictional book is The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel. Click on that link to read more about it.

30 Day Challenge: Day 12

30 Day Challenge: Day 12 - Something you are OCD about...

Well, considering, I actually HAVE it...hmm...here is a sampling:
worried about food expiration dates
lots of handwashing
dislike the number 13
paranoid about my kids getting hurt
lots of anxiety about driving
would never do anything "risky" like bungee jump...etc...

anyways...the list goes on, but more on that later! :)

30 Day Challenge: Day 11

30 Day Challenge, Day 11--a photo of me recently:

This is me with Alex snoozing during dinner in his pouch sling made by my friend Patty. I had full intentions of posting this last night, but when I laid down with Claire to gently parent her to sleep, I fell asleep too. I didn't even have my teeth brushed. This is unusual for me! I normally have lots of problems falling asleep. I woke up about 12:30 and brushed my teeth. LOL!

30 Day Challenge: Day 10

30 Day Challenge: Day 10 is a photo of me taken over 10 years ago:



This is with my older brother David, younger sister Holly, and little brother Richard. I was probably about 8 since Richie looks about 1.

30 Day Challenge: Day 9

Day 9 of the 30 day Challenge is a photo that I took:

Claire had her 3rd birthday and wanted a Princess party. This was her cake...a castle cake. It was cool because it has all the decorations that we washed off and she kept to play with. And the cool thing about this is that I took the picture in the frame on the cake. I plan to do a "Claire is 3 post" but I probably won't get to it for awhile.

Breastfeeding Study

So today I zipped down to IU campus to participate in a Breastfeeding research study on moms who are nursing infants under 6 months. And I got paid to be a lab rat. Awesome! So what did it entail? I kept a sleep log for a week. I did an extensive history on myself (health history, history of my births of my children, family health history, basic info about my family, babies habits/behaviors, etc, etc.) All this they mailed to me to complete ahead of time along with an IQ test.

Of course, Alexander's presence was required. When I got there, I nursed him. During the session they took a total of 4 saliva samples from each of us. I also was given a nose spray which was like the kind you'd take with a cold, but it contained either a placebo or oxytocin (think of the chemical given to induce labor which they call PITOCIN, the same as released with breastfeeding, etc.) So they are studying the effect of oxytocin on the women's brain. They are studying women both with and without PPD in this study. If you're interested and semi-local, or don't mind traveling a bit and have a baby nursing under 6 months/ish, let me know if you want to do it, and I can give you the hookup.

I was all about anything to help the "cause" right! Anything in the name of breastfeeding research/PPD research. So then I hopped into an MRI machine while leaving Alexander with a "trained professional caretaker." Claire was with the neighbors all day by the way. While in the MRI, I was shown several series of interesting photos. They were scanning my brain. Meanwhile, they made me a CD to take home with some pretty cool pictures of my very own brain! They'll be sure to alert me if they pick up a tumor or some other abnormalities...nothing like getting paid to get your brain scanned.

So what kinds of pictures did they show me? Well, I thought it was pretty interesting and cool to see what they were studying. Obviously, they were looking at "what part of my brain lights up" when shown certain pictures. There were items that were clearly supposed to elicit a pleasure response: beautiful beach sunsets, snowy white capped mountains, palm trees, weddings, chocolate bars, piles of gold bars, fancy jewelry, happy smiling babies, laughing babies, kids playing at a waterpark, hot dads carrying groceries, sexy firemen with muscles peeking out from an open firecoat, etc. I don't even know how many pictures I saw, but there was a lot.

THEN mixed in with all this were "yucky" pictures that would give your brain something to go "WHOA!" about. Now, if you don't want to read about yucky stuff, stop reading this post right now. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! Ok, so there were like car accidents, a boat sinking, a charred body, rotting animal carcasses, vomit all over a toilet/floor, a cat that was decaying, a woman who had clearly been raped/killed, other violent news-type footage. Anyways, there were also some "erotic photos" that you probably wouldn't want to tell your grandma about, but nothing I didn't already see when I toured the Amsterdam sex museum a few years back ;)

Anyways, it was simple and easy and a good way to help breastfeeding/PPD research. And they paid my travel too. Awesome. SO...if you're interested and localish...let me know if you want the contact info. Indy is only about an hour from IU.

30 Day Challenge: Day 8 WARNING: GRAPHIC PHOTO

A photo(s) that makes me sad is located here. I am not going to post it on my blog, as they are graphic pictures, but you can go to the blog site and see them. They are photos of 2 babies strapped down to be circumcised. Then it shows a freshly circumcised penis. If you follow me on Facebook, you might have seen me reposting some articles there. There is NO medical reason for circumcisions, and no medical organization in the world recommends it. Yet, doctors still do them. And even more astoundingly, parents CONSENT without having done ANY reading or ANY real research. Asking a couple people that are friends about it, is not research... Last year the rate for circumcisions in the US had dropped to 33%. There goes that locker room statement. Europe and most of the rest of the world does not circumcise their newborn males. Anyways...I know I'm preaching to the choir for the most part.

30 Day Challenge: Day 7

Wow! An entire week of posts featuring ME rather than just my kiddies! Impressive! Day 7 is a photo that makes me happy!

Oh wait! It is my kids that make me happy! This is Claire and Alex chilling outside. Claire is on my phone talking to probably Holly or my Mom!