A tale of a frozen family

I wrote a while back about our governor announcing her pregnancy, in her SEVENTH month and no one was aware of her pregnancy (and she’s a TINY woman!).  I cried and whined about how she takes the bar on motherhood to a whole other level and that she needed to act just a little bit normal to make the rest of us not feel like monumental failures.

Well… our governor had her son, a month early this last week and it’s stirred up quite the controversy among folks in the state (and outside the state for that matter).

This is an excerpt from www.adn.com  “Gov. Sarah Palin gave birth to her fifth child at 6:30 this morning at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, her spokeswoman said today.

The boy’s name is Trig Paxson Van Palin. He’s 6 pounds, 2 ounces.

“The governor’s labor began while she was in Texas, and I do know that she got on a plane and landed in Anchorage late last night,” said Palin spokeswoman Sharon Leighow.”

It turns out that Trig was born with Down Syndrome. Something that she was made aware of in early testing. Another quote from the Palin’s: “Trig is beautiful and already adored by us. We knew through early testing he would face special challenges, and we feel privileged that God would entrust us with this gift and allow us unspeakable joy as he entered our lives.

“We have faith that every baby is created for good purpose and has potential to make this world a better place. We are truly blessed.”

Now the controversy that has been flying around is the fact that her water broke during a summit in Texas and that she stayed to give a 1/2 hour long speech, then left and boarded an Alaska Airlines flight back to Alaska (a good 6 plus hours depending on your connections). The arguments stem from “that was incredibly risky and irresponsible, ESPECIALLY since they knew he was a DS baby, who are born with more complications” to “it’s her body, her choice”. There have been some pretty nasty comments flying around about the whole thing.

I’m of the camp that I don’t think it was the wisest decision. I can’t imagine a doctor on this planet would encourage their patient to board a plane for a long flight after their membranes have broken. Alaska Airlines would have never let her board had they known her membranes had ruptured.  A whole other argument has arisen that she openly lied by omission to the airlines, and what does that do for her credibility??

I am glad that the little man made it into this world without serious complications. He definitely has someone looking over him.

I spent all day yesterday sleeping, or lounging around.  I was POOPED!  

Saturday was our annual “expo” for our company.  It’s basically a trade show for all things children.   Since we run a children’s education company, it’s very beneficial for us to be there.  But it’s EXHAUSTING! 

During the day, we see over 15 THOUSAND children.  It’s complete and utter chaos from the moment we walk in, until we drive away.   It doesn’t help that someone apparently stabbed our tires while we where there too (grrrrr) which has now prompted the purchase of a new set of tires.  Not an expense we were looking forward to, just one day into my unemployment!  HA!

At any rate, I can’t put into words how amazing it is to spend all day with children, watching this reaction, over and over. 

They just get so amazed… and it’s just cool to see their little minds open up and learn.   It’s really heart warming, and I’m quite proud to say that I FINALLY made it through watching one of hubby’s stage shows without crying.  For those of you that know me, you KNOW that is a huge step.   I’ve been unable to watch our shows since the very first one I saw…. to watch the children get sooooo excited about what we do, sends me into tears every time!

God I love what we do!

Seriously… when did their customer service dive straight into the toilet???

I dropped off my laptop on 2/18. They told me it would be back by 3/4. I called on 3/3 (since I was going to be in the city anyway… it would have been great to not have to make another 120 mile round trip if by chance it was back). They inform me that they had to send it to HP (I broke part of my keyboard) and that it would be 4-6 weeks *sigh*

I decide to call, to see how much longer it’s going to be (annoyed in general that my beloved laptop has been gone so long). They tell me it’s there… I can pick it up. It’s been there for over a week, and evidently they don’t find it necessary to CALL people anymore… but I digress.

I go to pick it up. The geek says “did you bring it with a power adapter?” Well yes… because you guys MAKE us bring in the power adapter. I don’t have a choice in the matter… you demand it. Well… they somehow “misplaced” my power adapter and he tells me “I can have HP mail you one”. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? I tell him NO. He has a store full of HP laptops… he can find a power adapter. I told him to open a freaking box and take one out of there.. they can put it back on the shelf when HP sends THEM another power adapter. Or, they could take one off one of their floor model laptops and put it back when HP sends them a replacement. He tells me “but we won’t be able to use that computer at all if we do that”. REALLY????? You mean, you’d be able to use it as much as I can use MY LAPTOP… right???? I asked him to explain to me how my use of my computer is so much more insignificant than their floor model.

Long story short… he calls a manager… they open a box and give me a power adapter.

Next on the agenda was me asking him if they fixed the electrical connection (something I had mentioned in passing that I wanted them to look at). He says “yes, they replaced it”. and I say “did they replace the broken part on the keyboard… or???” and he says “they were suppose to fix the keyboard???” I tried to gain some level of composure and I told him quite calmly, that if my keyboard was not fixed… the broken keyboard that I brought the computer in for over a month ago… that he would see a whole other dimension of pissed off, that he had likely never witnessed before. (I had been standing at the geek counter for an hour at this point, my patience… was GONE). The poor kid was sweating bullets. He plugs in my computer, fires it up and starts to play with the keyboard… it worked…. I thought he was going to faint with relief. Poor kid. Evidently they just neglected to make any notation that they actually fixed it.

So I get the laptop home, plug in my *new* power adapter and discover that my computer is freakishly sluggish… like 1980s model sluggish and I have no sound.  I’m a bit upset by this, because this was NOT a problem it had when it went in.   So I call Geek Squad back again, they tell me that I have to again bring my computer back in so they can look at it.   I remind them that it’s a 120 mile round trip from my house to their store and gas is 4 dollars a gallon right now… I asked them to do the math.  At any rate… long story short, I took my laptop back to them the next day.

The new geek at the counter (it’s not considered in bad taste to call them a geek when the company is Geek Squad…right? OK good)  so anyway, the GEEK at the counter says that he wants to run a virus scan on my machine and to please come back in 20 minutes.  I figure no biggy…. the offspring needed a hair cut, and they had a walk in cutting place in the mall.  So, we get the kiddo all glammed up with her hair cut and return to the counter.  The geek says “we are going to need to run diagnostics on your machine.  I’ll let you know what we find and I’ll call you if we have to ship it out again”.  Imagine my surprise when 4 days go by and I’ve not heard a word from them.

Sooooo… I call my lovely geeks back and ask the status on my computer.  They tell me that they had to ship it off, but they didn’t document why, and that it would be back in 4-6 weeks.  *sigh*

I then… get a phone call, about 3 weeks later.  The new geek says “um yes… your computer is here and well.. um… we need your operating system discs so we can restore everything”.  I say “WHAT DID YOU DO??????” they say “we replaced your hard drive”.  EXCUSE ME????  so I say “you DID back everything up… RIGHT????”  DEAD SILENCE.  A few moments go by and then a sheepish “no ma’am”.   Remember that whole other dimension of pissed off that I spoke of before… well I got there… REALLY QUICK.  I told them that they needed to have a manager call me PRONTO.

So!  The manager calls me back and apologizes profusely for losing all of my data/files/LIFE on my computer and they have put in an urgent ticket to their service center to find my old hard drive and pull all of my data off of it.   He will also get the discs from HP to get my operating system back on my computer so I can at least pick it up and have a functioning computer and hopefully they’ll find my files.

So I make the trek back to the city to pick up my computer.  The manager assures me that they are moving heaven and earth to find my hard drive in California and that we should be able to retrieve the data.  Hands me my computer and I’m on my way.

Now you all aren’t going to believe this!  I get my computer home, fire it up … and guess what…. no really… guess!  I know.. I know… you won’t believe this… IT HAS NO SOUND.  The very thing I took it in for… THE NEVER FIXED!  Remember that whole other dimension of pissed off I had reached before???  Who knew I could reach a WHOLE OTHER LEVEL!  I was shocked… really… I was!   At this point, hubby is seeing RED.  He picks up the phone and calls the geeks again and demands that the manager call him first thing in the morning.

So morning comes.  I know this is going to be a HUGE SHOCK to many of you… but the manager didn’t call.  Hubby is spitting nails.  He packs up my computer, my *new* power adapter and hops in the truck, headed for blood at Best Buy!  He walks in the front door and the lovely greeter at the front says “good morning!” and hubby says “get me a manager and get him now”  I can only imagine how ghost white the poor kid probably turned!   Hubby got into a pretty heated discussion with the store manager for a while and then finally got to the point where the manager understood our frustration.   They made an agreement that they would work on my computer THERE and get it back to new and if they couldn’t, they would give me a new laptop.   They also confirmed that they weren’t able to find my hard drive… so everything from that computer (THOUSANDS of hours of research and bookmarks )GONE.. but I digress. 

A couple of hours later we get the call.   We’ll be getting a new laptop.  So hubby goes back and they rifle through what’s available for us, etc.  Hubby picked a computer I’m very happy with.  It’s nothing like my old one (much smaller, lighter, etc. and is better suited for what I’m doing now, since I’m not working anymore).   They load everything up and give us an additional store credit for going through such a miserable experience with them.

I will have to say, at the end of the day, I appreciate the service we received from Best Buy.  They really stepped up to the plate and made a very very very bad situation much better.  I still however, am leery of EVER sending ANYTHING to Geek Squad for repair EVER EVER EVER again!  I’m still under the impression that my four year old couldn’t have screwed up my computer as bad as they did… and for what??? to fix a freaking mouse!

Sorry for the long break there folks.  A lot has gone on over the last month or so.   I went back to work on the third of March.  By the 6th of March I no longer had feeling in my left arm.   I left it alone for several weeks chalking it up to a pinched nerve.  When the feeling (or there lack of) traveled down into my hand and fingers, I decided maybe I should have the doctor check it out.     I went to the doc and discovered that I have tension knots so bad that they have literally pinched off my nerve so bad that they can’t even get the reflexes in that arm to fire.  We had a long discussion about stress and the toll it’s taking on my body.

Hubby and I had several long heart to hearts about the situation, called upon our loved ones to get their opinions and just about everybody had the same thing to say… “quit!  it’s not worth it”.  Hubby’s business is booming and I’m so happy about that, but I was terrified to give up our steady paycheck…. but we decided in the long run, a big paycheck does you no good if you are dead.  It does my daughter no good if I’m not around to see her grow up and I’ve seen way too many people die from the effects of stress… so I took the leap of faith and my last day is tomorrow! YIKES and WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!

 SOOOOOO with that being said, you can expect me to be blabbering my big mouth here on a regular occasion again.  I have so many things saved up to talk about that have gone on over the last month.  I have a million or so pictures of the offspring to share, war stories with computer stores, more crazy Alaska activities that have transpired since my absence… basically I have a lot to say!  (I know those who KNOW me are saying “yeah, what else is new?? and I still love you anyway )

So… with that, I’ll shut up for today and I’ll be back with more stuff tomorrow!

Has anybody else been watching this?

It’s an english gentleman who is giving a 5 or 6 weeks series on TLC about weight loss. He has some pretty unorthodox approaches, but I figure.. you know what… it certainly can’t hurt! So hubby and I have both been trying to follow his principles for the last couple of weeks.

You can read all about it here:

Basically, his first week he covered the basics of the program.

Don’t deprive yourself of anything. When you are hungry… eat. Eat what you want, not what you think you should eat. But most importantly, eat consciously…. meaning, eat with no distractions (no tv, no radio, no reading, etc.). Studies have shown that people who eat at the computer, or in front of the television eat on average, 30% more than people who do not.

His methods are simple. Take a bite, put down your fork. Chew that bite for at least 20 chews. Savory the food. EAT SLOWLY. Listen for cues from your stomach. As soon as your stomach *thinks* it’s full…. STOP EATING. If you are hungry 20 minutes later, eat something… but listen to your stomach.

Hubby and I have been doing this for a little over a week and I can honestly say that I think we are both eating significantly less.

He doesn’t encourage weighing any more often than every 2 weeks. He feels we place too much emotion on what the scale says. So, I’m going to go one more week and then weigh and see what the results are.

I’ve talked briefly in the past about our governor. How she was rated the “hottest governor in the US”, she recently did a photo-shoot for Vogue. You can read all about that here.

On top of her general gorgeousness… and don’t get me wrong… she still holds a very close spot in my heart since the day she stopped me in the grocery store and told me she LOVED my Chanel glasses :), but it’s getting REALLY hard to like her.

You see… she just announced to the public that she’s expecting her FIFTH child. Now… one would say “dang her…. she looks really freaking good for already having had four children”. She’s got to be no more than a size 2 on a bloated day. Then one would have to say “dang… you go girl… I can’t imagine birthing my 5th child at 44″. Who am I kidding… I had Em at 37 and most days it’s a struggle to keep up with a 4 year old… and I’m not running our state!. But THEN… she had to drop the news that made me just…. well… HATE HER. The woman is SEVEN MONTHS PREGNANT and nobody in the capital was onto her. When she actually proclaimed her pregnancy, most of the capital dropped their jaws and said “she doesn’t even LOOK pregnant”. There have been a million articles about her pregnancy announcement. Here is just one of them. How does a woman with a frame so small HIDE a pregnancy for SEVEN months? I looked like I was ready to birth any day at 20 weeks. I seriously hate her! It’s just not fair! *insert serious temper tantrum here*

This is the first year that the spawn showed remotely any interest in all things “Easter Bunny”. So I figured it was time to pull out all the stops and let her have a blast.

They had a huge egg coloring event at the Elks Lodge. I figured…. “food coloring… being spilled all over… at someplace other than my house???? HECK YEAH!!!!”

The lady at the lodge was soooo awesome with Em. She instructed her how to color them, what to do with the wax pencils, how to mix them, etc.

I’ll admit… at first Em was completely perplexed about what needed to be done. “you want me to do WHAT with the egg???? ”

OHHHHHH okay! I can handle that!

Look mom… I’ve totally got this figured out!

Easter morning arrived and we had to have our own easter egg hunt. Living in Alaska can be a bit of challenge when it comes to easter egg hunts. It’s still a bit chilly, there is still a lot of snow. She was a champ though, and she had a blast!

And then it was back to the Elks lodge for the big Easter egg hunt and the meeting with the Easter bunny!!!!!

Now WHY won’t this child ever look at me when I take a picture of her????

She’s really good at looking straight into the camera when she THINKS you aren’t taking a picture. That is one of the really great things about the new bad boy camera… it takes like a gazillion shots a second, so I can actually CATCH HER looking at the camera

She made a few friends before the big hunt. They formulated their game plan. They were ready to attack! One thing I want to note… you see the girl in the green dress. She’s a full month OLDER than Em. It’s official… my child is a GIANT!

Then they were off. They desecrated the egg field in like TWO SECONDS flat! They all had a fantastic time and Em is now officially (finally) HOOKED on the Easter Bunny!

Okay… I know… tacky.. but sooo fitting!

I came across this today… Rubber girl

I think I heard thinks snap, crackle and pop on me just watching this girl. FREAKY!!!

I reserve every Thursday to give thanks for things in my life. A stop and smell the roses moment, that makes us all a little more grateful for the little things in life. I jumped on the band wagon from here.

This week… I am so incredibly thankful for the gift of being approved by the largest school district in the state. This will do amazing things for our company in terms of growth… and in terms of me quitting my 9-5. I am soooooo incredibly proud of my hubby for making this happen!

In the spirit of shedding pounds and getting healthier, I’m going to try and post one healthy recipe a week

This week I’m doing citrus halibut! SOOOOOOOO good!

INGREDIENTS
1/3 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
1/2-3/4 teaspoon grated orange peel
4 (4 ounce) halibut fillets
1/4 cup orange juice (I use fresh squeezed and then use the peel for zest)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS
In a nonstick skillet coated with nonstick cooking spray, saute onion and garlic until tender; remove from the heat. Stir in parsley and orange peel. Place halibut in an 8-in. square baking dish coated with nonstick cooking spray. Top with onion mixture. Combine orange and lemon zest and lemon juices; pour over fish. Sprinkle with salt and ground pepper. Cover and bake at 400 degrees F for 15-20 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.

Nutritional Analysis: One serving equals 142 calories, 3 g fat (trace saturated fat), 36 mg cholesterol, 237 mg sodium, 4 g carbohydrate, trace fiber, 24 g protein. Diabetic Exchanges: 3 very lean meat, 1 vegetable.