Saturday, November 29, 2008

My Photo Blog

Just an update...I dropped my camera in the surf!! a month or so ago. It still is operable, but my LCD looks like an unchanging cloud that doesn't dissipate. I am about to send my camera off for repairs, but I don't know if it can be repaired or not because salt I believe is corrosive, which really sucks.

I have updated my photo blog some with cell phone photos I have taken when I did not have my camera with me. I'm not that big of a fan of cell phone photos, but some of them I think take pretty good photos.

I do want to change my photo blog around, but then there are some pages I want to remain, and just add to. I may add other pages, and or take some pages away depending photos captured out there somewhere, and where creative thought my lead me.

I hate to be away from my camera, and I have delayed sending it off for repair because of that. What I hate I am about to do...I think, and I wonder if it's even repairable?

I could just kick myself, and I was so pissed when I dropped it at the beach that day. The tide was out, but the wet, saturated sand was enough to do the deed even as quickly as I reached down and picked it up!!! BUMMER!

Happy Thanksgiving

To Everyone, and a Happy Holiday Season to All! I wish you Peace, Love, and Happiness, and that we not forget the sick/suffering/starving (including unwanted animals), the less fortunate, our men and women who serve us, and have served us, and to not take for granted what we see and have all around us. Be the LIGHT in the World for all to see.

Love,
Amanda

He' 18 How did THAT Happen?!

From this: To this:
And This:


His Love Steph:



From Lil man Cute to Handsome:



Always my baby helping to prepare for baby (sister):





To the Loving Protective Brother Always:




We LOVE you Son-You're The Best-HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY!! But How in the World Did that Happen?
But always remember what the Buddha says: "Your Work is to Discover Your World and Then With All Your Heart Give Yourself To It."
Love,
Your Family..





Monday, November 17, 2008

She's 5 Now

She turned 5 on Veteran's Day November 11th, a day I'm happy that she shares with the many in uniform who served and sacrificed for a better world for her to be born in before she was ever born, and for those future veterans who are serving and sacrificing for all.


She's always been a mover and a shaker even before birth. I felt her wiggles at 9 weeks, and being my 2nd pregnancy I was sure of, but amazed/skeptical I felt so early, until she grew more. As those baby wiggles grew stronger I began to know the baby inside me better, and I knew I had felt her at 9 weeks. By 14 weeks she was thoroughly enjoying her boundless freedom. As the pregnancy progressed, and her boundless freedom was becoming more and more threatened she fought for room. My bump seemed to always be a moving, contorted bump more than just a bump.

She did not like to be "monitored" when Dr's or nurses strapped the belts around her when she was the bump of my tummy. She had to have her freedom as much as possible, and with the added restraint of the belts she was determined to fight fiercely for what little freedom she had left.

I kept a miserable cold from the 5th month until birth at one time being hospitalized I was so sick. Each day the pregnancy progressed the worse my misery became. Antibiotics or any medications or breathing treatments did little to quell my misery. I cried. I coughed. I couldn't breathe. I threw up. She never stopped moving. I was desperate for RELIEF. I call my ob crying, went to the ER. I went to my OB. I went to my MD. I went to the ER again, and was admitted. My sweet ob I heard out in the hallway ask "Where's my girl?" He came in,
and I begged him to get this baby out of me, because everyone seemed to think that whatever this cold was was not to go away until after she was "free." He checked my cervix, which with none of my pregnancies every cooperates until the end of time. So, here I am very pregnant, with a mover and a shaker fighting for her freedom, can't breathe, sore, tired of coughing, just tired, lying on my head to be prepared for lasix treatment, and subsequent breathing treatments, which helped very little. I just resigned myself to my fate. Cameron did not. I think all of that was her way of demanding her freedom!

2 weeks later we barely made it to the hospital before she won her battle for her freedom. She let me have the best rest I had had in months, and then she snuck up on me without me knowing. When she did let me know it was flurry of activity there-after, and then her sweet little calm self was lying in my arms, looking at me contently because she was free.

Not much has changed.

























































Friday, November 7, 2008

Please Visit this Blog

The disease of alcohol has many sufferers the drinker and the drinker's loved ones. If you know of anyone who is suffering from this disease, and they want help in their recovery process as they stop drinking this is a wonderful blog for them to go to for support! I haven't had the time to read all of it, but there is also a post titled "Tough Love-A Solution or a Problem? Addiction and Anxiety of the Sufferer and Loved one Will Bring Into Play."

He writes about who to turn to to survive the horror and depression of alcoholism, the multiple anxieties an alcoholic faces, do's and don't's of surviving the anxiety of alcoholism and depression, and many, many more resources, support, and through his own battles with this monster his willingness to be open, honest, and share that it is possible to be a recovering alcoholic instead of an alcoholic. He describes in detail the battles he has waged, fought, and won even with humour saying "it's not all dark." His sobriety counter says he's been sober now for 2,666d 12h 45min 38s. An Accomplishment indeed!!!!!! His blog is under Stacks I like to the right "Alcoholism-A Life Sentence" Check it out!

One of my Favorite Quotes Ever

Question with boldness even the existence of a God, because if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear...Do not be frightened from this inquiry from any fear of its consequence. If it ends in the belief that there is no God, you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its exercise.
~Thomas Jefferson