Monday, January 29, 2007

Bitty and the Teeth

Toddlers are so interesting. They get fascinated with one thing and stick with it and never relent. Our little bitty has decided that "teeth" is the number one priority. Or brushing teeth to you lamans. I have tried trickery (giving a play toothbrush with no paste and no water, just wetting the brush) to know avail. She will sit at home and every hour say "teeth"..."teeth".."TEETH". Please understand she was premature so her speach is just now starting. At 2 and half she speaks like a 18 mon old. We have her in the therapy but that is aside. Anyway, I speed most of my days in the bathroom at home between the potty and the teeth...and sometimes both. You know the books and docs say "choose your battles". TheBee thinks we should just let her scream about the brush, I think mainly because he is to lazy to get the darn thing. To me something as small as a tooth brush is not such a big deal. Just let her have it. Am I being to guliable? No obession over anything else just the teeth..WEIRD isn't it?

TheMama

The world we live in

I know I may get some heat for this post. But this my blog and I will support what I wish without being censored by others. That is my right as a citizen of the United States of America. As you read this please think back to the days after 9/11 and what we as a country called on our president to do...what did we demand those days? Why have we change our mind?

For the Soldiers

I would beg your indulgence on behalf of the soldiers
fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A study of people during World War 2, who had
undergone 60 days of continuous combat, showed that
98% of people became mentally unstable and suffered
from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). From these
results, researchers were most intrigued by the
remaining 2%. For a number of reasons these people
didn't suffer the same stress that the majority did.
They were classified into 2 groups. They determined 1%
of people were sociopath to begin with, and were
essentially insane when they got there. The other 1%
had something different.

To put it into perspective, 98% of people are defined
as sheep. These are the normal everyday people of the
world. Productive and peaceful. Then there is the 1%
of sociopath people who equivocate to wolves (think
wile e. coyote here) and prey upon the sheep. These
are the bad people of society. Then the last 1% are
sheepdogs. Those with teeth enough to stand up to the
wolves and protect the sheep.

The sheepdog is often misunderstood by the sheep
because by nature the sheepdog is a predator as well,
and in the absence of wolves this makes the sheep
nervous. They shun the sheepdog. But they always go
back to it when the wolves strike.

The soldiers employed in our countries, not just
Canada, but all allied nations, are representative of
the sheepdog. although we, like the wolves, are
trained and proficient to kill, we are bred to be
loyal to the sheep, and trained with the safeguard of
discipline built into us, so that when the time comes,
we will be precise in our application of those skills,
so as not to harm the sheep, and be a deadly deterrent
to any wolf stalking the flock.

The sheepdog would place itself into harms way
willfully and without second thought to protect those
sheep, and to that dog, failure is not the loss of its
own life, but the loss of one of its flock.

We as soldiers were asked this simple question in a
briefing before being deployed to Afghanistan;

"Are you prepared for the worst?"

Of course as the sheepdogs we were, we all nodded our
heads at the thought of dying in combat against our
enemy, but we were posed this scenario.

"What if they came and killed your children? Wouldn’t
that be the worst thing to happen to you? Are you
prepared for that?"

There was not one among us that could say we would
accept such a scenario to occur. The common target of
terrorism, with every country they have struck, they
have struck at schools. In 1974, a school in Israel
was attacked and held hostage by a group of
terrorists. The aftermath left 26 dead. 21 of which
were students of the school. Since then, the whole
Israeli school system changed. Schools were shut down
and rebuilt like fortresses. Teachers came to school
armed. Busses had armored plates added to them. It is
regulation there to have 1 armed soldier per 10
students on field trips, so frightening the attack
was. Since that time, no attack has succeeded, but at
what price? The country lives in fear of its children,
and the government spends millions a year sustaining
the guards and up keeping schools. The terrorism
succeeded.

Another more recent attack was on a school in Russia.
In Russia it is traditional to have a grand first day
of school. Parents show up with their children and
gather outside to welcome the next year. Beslan was a
small town where nothing exciting happens. During this
first day of school, the school was suddenly and
violently attacked by a large group of armed
terrorists. They took close to 1300 hostages and held
them in the school gymnasium. The older boys and
fathers were taken away as work details to fortify the
school. When they became exhausted they were shot and
the bodies tossed out of a 2nd story window. In the
gymnasium, mothers and little girls were raped
continuously for 3 days. The group was given no food,
no water, everyone defecated where they sat.
Eventually the screaming babies had gotten so bad, the
terrorists gave their mothers the choice to leave with
the baby or give it to the terrorists to take care of.
Many young children watched as their mothers left them
in captivity.

On the third day one of the explosive devices the
terrorists had set up detonated accidentally. The
Russian spetsnaz (Special Forces) attempted an ad hoc
offensive, losing 21 of their own. The terrorist
casualties counted at 49. 344 civilians dead, 186 of
them children. Countless others are scarred for the
rest of their lives, emotionally and physically.

The most horrifying discovery was made sometime later
after the terrorist ties were investigated. It turned
out that Al Qaeda had primarily financed and planned
the operation. According to Osama Bin Laden himself,
that incident was a trial run for what he promises
will happen to every crusader country.

Now, Bin Laden tries his best never to lie. So why
aren't we pulling our children out of school? Building
fortresses like Israel? Posting armed soldiers at
every street corner? Because of the two wars occurring
in Iraq and Afghanistan. They realize that to attack
now, would invite the wrath of the largest nations
armies into full play against them.

Coming back to World War 2, the allied nations sent
millions of soldiers to attack the axis powers, and
even though the casualties counted in the millions, we
pressed forward with the support of our nations people
and we finished the enemy. We put their backs to the
wall until they said "no more!" and surrendered. And
in the case of Japan, a constant guerrilla war was put
to an end by using nuclear weapons on its nation’s
city centers. So far were we willing to go to protect
our homeland.

Since then, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf war. The world
has watched as our nations fight, lose several hundred
of our own and the people of our country rose up and
demanded we pull our troops out of those wars and come
home. We did it time and again. Even the cold war we
backed down thousands of troops, dismantled thousands
of weapons. The largest, most powerful nations in the
world, backed down.

And again, they see the wars occurring in their
countries, and they look to our homes and see the
support for the troops wavering, As a handful of our
own come home killed in action. they can sense that we
will give up the fight soon, pack up and go home,
because our countries cannot bear to lose a few brave
and dedicated men and women for a war they believe
does not involve them. For once we leave these wars we
prove once again we have the weaker resolve to fight
them, and this is when they will strike us at our
homes.

Military intelligences have seen this is the common
reason why there hasn't been another 9/11 incident.
they need to win the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and
it is easiest to win at this stage in the game where
our forces are relatively minimal. They will bide
their time and wait for us to cut and run again.

The news stations report our casualties as front line
news. to date, there have been 42 Canadian soldiers
killed in Afghanistan. there is rarely a mention of a
successful operation, killing 163 Taliban fighters. no
details on the 42 Taliban prisoners, their leadership
shattered by yet another successful raid into enemy
territory. these are examples of the numbers coming
out of single missions we partake in.

The conventional forces we deploy in theater are the
most humane weapon we are using to fight the enemy.
the common soldier can target specific threats on
ground. distinguish between friend, foe and civilian.
The soldier on the ground can make a positive
difference to a citizens life in that foreign country.
However, we are but plan A.

The allied nations also have at their disposal,
weapons of mass destruction. from conventional
thousand pound bombs, to a whole intercontinental
nuclear arsenal. weapons without mercy to the citizens
of foreign nations, but completely effective at
eliminating the imbedded threat. to defend your
children, and the children of a nation, what would you
resort to? The internment of every middle eastern
ethic group within the allied nations, and the
indifferent bombings of terrorist states? would their
deaths even be upon the conscience of our leaders?
would it not be the acts of the terrorist
organizations, which warranted such a response?

This is not the most likely scenario to occur from
this. however, it is something to think about. how far
would we go to protect our children? Of course, we as
the allied nations like to play the good guys on the
world stage. we would much rather stay with plan A.
use a scalpel to remove the disease, rather than a
hack saw, but plan A will only carry on so long as
there is support to keep our troops fighting.

Our troops will fight. We will fight because we can
understand better than the sheep, the dangers the wolf
presents. We as the troops entered into our line of
work knowing we could die. we entered our work knowing
we were willing to put the lives of the people we
protect above our own. We are willing to make that
sacrifice so other may not have to lose their lives,
and although the sheep may not understand the
sheepdog's reasoning for doing this, the sheepdog will
continue to protect the flock. We are willing to do
our jobs and serve our country. It's time the country
stepped aside, and let us do our job.

-Private Jeremy Hill 2nd Royal Canadian Regiment

Forwarding Instructions:

If you truly believe in the message here, I would ask
you individually send this letter to those who would
listen. for it is far too often we ignore the FW:
attached to anything. please change the subject to
catch the recipients attention and make sure this
message gets out and support for the troops remains
firm in our countries.

Authors Notes:

the inspiration for this came from a seminar given to
the Canadian troops of Task Force 1-07 by Lt. Col.
Dave Grossman of the United States Army. His speech
was by far the most inspiring words and reasoning
behind what we are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
included in this email are the wikipedia links to the
two school massacres where you can find additional
links to more information, as well as the site
killology.com where you can find Grossman's books "On
Combat" and "On Killing", both are exceptional reads
for those wishing to understand the soldier and what
he does.

I'd also like to personally thank the soldiers and
supporters of all of the nations involved in this
fight against terrorism. Given enough time, we will
win this war. let us hope our sacrifice is never made
in vain.

http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Ma'alot_massacre

http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Beslan_school_ hostage_crisis

http://www.killolog y.com/

Sincerely,

The Mama

The Bitty adventures and much much more....

Bitty is still not going potty at school, we have tired the firly panties. She basically ran around the house all cute and dancing and than 30 minutes later peed on the floor. BLAH! TheBee's MRI came back absolutely clean!!! I am still trying to get my avon sorted out (YES I SELL AVON, anyone interested or need anything let me know). We are still trying to conceive with no luck, we have a script for fertility drugs but we have decided to wait til April to take them. We should both have a raise than, and so the financial issue should be solved. V is doing great and growing fast, she seems to learn more than I can ever think that I did at her age. I made valetine's baskets for the guys at my work thinking they would eat them up. No suh luck my guys are losers. The has is costing us a fortune cause the windows are way to old and are sucking cold air into the house. In some places it seriously feels like I'm standing outside. It totally bites. So now that I have all the bitching out of my system let's tell you the good stuff.

Bitty is so cute she lights my day. This weekend TheBee went out with her in her little Dora car and they had so much fun! She has a sinus infection so that's keeping her up, but she doesn't care she just keeps on smiling. It is so hard to be upset with her when she smiles. It is like the whole world smiles.

V is so inquistive when we talk on the phone (which is rare) she ask all these questions about the world around her. She is so smart and so good nature. I am so blessed.

TheBee caught a fever from the sunday school nursery but he seemed to be doing fine this morning. I am glad. We go to the dentist on Friday and get all that checked out. Keep your fingers crossed it doesn't cost a fortune.

On another note, does anyone know how to put a link to a post under your profile. I want one that says "The players" or something like that. This way whenever anyone new comes on they can read about us.

Thanks

The Mama

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Potty Training round 2

So we are potty training again. We had her going real good at the house, but than when she started school she completely stop. Now we got her going ti-ti again, and we are hoping she starts doing so at school. Yesterday they took her in every so often and she would just flush the toilet over and over. SIGH. How come she does it at home, even tells me when she has to, but at school it's a game? Someone have advice? i really want to get her trained before we get pregnant, or at least before the new baby comes. Because otherwise I will have two in diapers and that is SOOOOOOO bad.

Thanks

The Mama

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Some Background on The Bee

The Bee is my husband, He is 32. We were married for a good two years desperately trying to have our precious, and fighting most of the time for a myrid of reasons. Finally I got a OB who made it happen, and had lots of complications. She was born early in Oct of 04, she drained us emotionally and mentally. We had just started going back to a church a week before Christmas, and all was starting to look up. I had a job after a desperate search, and both girls were healthy and happy. Than the bomb dropped, and floor flew out from under us. It started like it normally does, headaches...on top of headaches. It was Sunday Morning, I had the girls dressed and The Bee said he was going to lay down because of this "terrible headache". A few minutes later he was literally crawling to the bathroom puking. TheBee had never been sick and even proclaimed he would never be in a grave situation. So this was totally out of the norm him. I packed him in the car and off the our favorite hospital we went. We had a intern, and if you anything about interns they love to run test. I mentioned that TheBee was having problems with speech and so he no shilantly suggested a CT Scan for what he thought was pallups in his sinus canvities. I had a infant in my arms cooing when the doctor walked in and closed the door. He said something, his lips were moving but it was like a train wreck hit me. There was all this noise in my head, and I shock it. I looked at Bee and he had the same look. I said, "what" and he repeated. I swear it was like out of a movie "Youuuuuuuuu Haveeeeeeee a TTuummmorr" I kept looking for the cameras. Bee rolled over and started crying, I didn't (which is all out weird for me). They left and I got on the phone in the hallway. I called everyone...church, friends, etc. We had such a full ER room there was not a empty space anywhere. Of course, our insurance decided to go to hell and refused to pay. But since it was a emergency he got surgery two days before our daughter's first christmas. He woke up with seizures, double vision, and short term memory loss. The vision is now clear, but he has truly changed and it still is problems in our relationship. The struggles between how much to help him and how much to let him "be the man" is very hard for me. The fight with specialist who didn't even know what was going on because their nurse answered all their calls, to the final stages of remission have been so trying on all of us. It has left our youngest unable to eject herself from my side, and our oldest talking about death. It is truly hard to comprehend what will happen tommorrow. And each MRI is like that tomb ticking again....he seems to deal with the whole thing a lot better than me. He always has, he laughed and joked durning and after surgery. When his mom told me to tell him in ICU that it was benign, I never did because we swore the truth. She has always held a spot in her that has never gotten over that, but she understands why I think. It is very hard to have the support when it has never been there. You will here me talk about Papa, that's The Bee's dad, who upon having to yet again bring Bee to the hospital for bleeding in his brain demanded I come pick up the youngest because "she was crying to much". I swear that mean has such karma coming. It has been a roller coaster. And again we wait.....

The Mama

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Bitty is doing much better now, it turned out that she was just cutting teeth. Such is life I guess. She is staying up all hours, and barely sleeping. I feel like she is a infant again. I go to the OB next monday to try to regulate my cycles. Hopefully he can make magic again. It is so crazy how easy it seems when your a teenager and aren't ready to be a parent. But when you are older it is so hard, and there are all these complications. The Bee and I are getting along wonderfully. It iced here all weekend so we spent most of the weekend lounging. It is so cold outside. But here I am. I am fighting with avon over returns now which totally sucks. I am so at the end of my rope I just don't want to sell anymore. Someone help me before I kill everyone.

The Bee has his MRI and CT tommorrow. Keep your fingers crossed on that. He also has a dentist thing cause his cavaties are causing him headaches again.

Thats all for now

The Mama

Monday, January 8, 2007

The puking monkey

Well we finally got over the cough and cold crap here. But last night after a very long day and a fight in the mall from hell we had the baby passed out at 8 pm. I was truly excited and got some sewing finished. But than the world opened up and my poor baby was covered in blue puke. It was SOOOOOOO gross. I pulled back the sheets to find her tried and worn out body covered in it. Needless to say she puked all night. TheBee stayed up with her so I could make it into work today. Three cheers for him!!! We have two evals with speech therapist tommorrow so keep you fingers crossed. Anyway....that's all for now.

The Mama
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