Pirate Facebook

Supa cool. Go to the bottom of your facebook homepage and select “English (US),” and change it to “English (Pirate).” You will not regret it :)

shoes, my love

I'm starting to think I might have a problem. I bought these shoes over the weekend. They are amazing.

How in the world did I get such a girly addiction?

Industrialized Childbirth

"Can it really be that one-third of women are unable to birth without high-level technological support?"

"The history of childbirth in America reflects a persistent trend of increased control by physicians and increased medicalization. Childbirth moves, first, out of the home, and now out of the vagina."

"Women can give birth at home unaided; at home with family or with trained assistance; in a birth center, either freestanding or hospital-based; in the hospital delivery room with trained assistance; or in the operating room where they are acted upon."

I read an article today that magically vanished off of a French website 5 minutes after I found it. It was about the industrialization of childbirth in America, and what a farce it is that hospitals claim that they give women autonomy in their childbirth options. I was just about to post it :( I guess someone didn't want people reading it...

A couple nights ago Trevor and I were talking about a mild pregnancy scare we'd had (not mostly by the presence of any action that generally leads to the production of babies as you might think, but mostly because it takes 5 months to get in to see a gynocologist--thus forcing me to run out of my hormone-balancing magic pills that prevent pregancy--AND THUS leading to my body freaking out and not functioning properly. Good insight into my ENTIRE LIFE as a "woman"). We were talking about what we'd actually do if we WERE pregnant (haha, that's another story too; why do we say "we are pregnant?"), and Trevor responded with his usual, "We would die." But I forced him to be serious--and it made me realize a couple things. I am terrified of being pregnant; I can't believe that I still have yet to fulfill the reason that HALF of my body exists. That isn't what I realized--what I realized was that it doesn't matter that I'm terrified. Thousands of years of women have birthed their babies, and we still have a sufficient population of women in the world :) And I also realized that I actually do believe strongly enough that natural childbirth should be safeguarded, that I can overcome my fears associated with it and do all that my mind is capable of to join the cause when I am pregnant. I haven't been able to put my finger on why I have been so intrigued by the whole "as natural as possible" idea, but I realized that it's sort of a spiritual idea to me. There's nothing else in the world, and nothing else in God's creation like the process and pain of childbirth--so why pass up the opportunity to experience God's strangest and greatest process? That's just my thought, anyway.

One part of the article mentioned that there are so many women in the world now who are mildly into keeping things natural--like women who buy cage-free eggs simply because it's something good but easy to do--who could really bolster the cause of more natural childbirth. That REALLY caught me off guard because I buy cage-free eggs! Wha? They're talking about me?! Our society is SO backwards. One half is conglomoratory and full of metal buildings, and factories and polution, and media and people who consume without thought but for their own comfort and ease. But the other half of our society today seems to be USING all those things to a different advantage. The media and advertising, the marketing for most modern businesses focuses on being green, being eco-friendly, being clean, being sufficient. It's almost TRENDY to grow your own food, buy cage-free, recycle, use reusable bags. Places like IKEA, Target, even Walmart have signs and posters up and products promoting recycling, and using less plastic, and using home-remedies, etc. I've noticed that these waves of change have effected some, but not all people. I bet some people barely notice any change in our society--or barely notice ways that they can be involved. I'll admit I'm on the brink myself. I'm not a crazed fanatic about the environment or our wasteful nature as humans--but I think there have been some great steps forward as a society lately that have changed some of the younger generation's perceptions about simple things to do to be less blind-consumers, while still confirming the notion that everyone can have their iPod and world wide web in their pocket 24/7. I think it's people like that--and even people like me--who can end up effecting the numbers of women who don't have elective surgery instead of childbirth. I hope that more natural childbirth can one day be added to the list of simple things people can do to save our society from it's industrial half.

Dear Season 6,

I miss Dr. Jackson.

Sincerely,

Becky

*If you don't understand, don't look it up; it will only embarrass me because of my crazy addiction.

Jordan and Sage

Went to the park today with my family and took some pictures of my nephew Jordan and my niece Sage. They were really fun to play with and super good sports about taking all those pictures :)

(There's so many, I don't want to put them in the right order... so they're sort of mixed up.)

Jordan was really into his surprise face :) He's actually pretty good at it.

Sage wanted to do it too.

Haha, I didn't notice this before, but it kind of looks like he's flipping us off! He was looking at a rock, actually.

He really wanted me to take this picture. We even tried twice :)

I gave her my necklace to wear.

Jordan was pretty good at hanging upside down. I got him to go with no hands, just hooked by his knees, on the monkey bars--he was pretty brave, considering it was his first time.

There's a bunch more, but these will do for now :)

They Just Grow Up So Darn Fast

I found out I probably wasn't supposed to plant so many seeds in one pot... It looks like I may have multiple trees growing. That means I might have to prune some of them out :( It kind of makes me sad thinking that I might have to end one of their little lives. My little trees have worked so hard to live. I hope soon I can let them move in with their decorative rocks.

Rearranging

I got some awesome $1 candles at Maceys and I wanted to rearrange my stuff to go with our new shelves/bookcase thingy. Here's what I settled on, but it took me a few tries to find the accent that Trevor and I both like. I was trying to incorporate some of those techniques you always hear about with threes, words, and triangles. Who knows if it actually worked--I just like it. Maybe that means it worked...

(soon those movies will be hidden, that will be nice)

I tried this too. I like this second best. I'll probably go back to this once our blossoms die. They look like they won't last more than a couple of days :( sad.

This was the first vase I tried. I like it, but I didn't like having two of the same vase on the shelf.

Yo-Bunches

All I can say is yum.

Yoplait has a new flavor--blackberry pomegranate. AND I discovered 4 ounce yogurts instead of the usual 6 or 7. They always seem like too much to me. And, if you can believe it, on top of ALL that, I also discovered Honey Bunches of Oats Just Bunches!

Seriously, try it. It's okay because that YoPlus stuff is good for you :)

Getting Used to Working Out

Week 3 almost done! After tonight, I will have been exercising for 3 weeks, and I feel pretty good. Last week I only got 3 of the 4 days in because on Wednesday we were down to one car. I have the feeling that Wednesdays are going to be the rough days for me because that's Trevor's day off, and he usually doesn't go to practice till 6:30 or 7, and that's RIGHT when I exercise. So I have to sort of CHOOSE exercise over seeing Trevor for the only hour I'll see him that day. But last night he didn't go to practice so I didn't have to worry about that.

I'm still feeling pretty motivated. I know this might sound sort of absurd, but I'm sort of sad I'm not seeing any results yet. In the beginning I told myself I probably wouldn't see ANY change at all for at least 1 or 2 months--but somehow I still find myself with a small bit of my hopes let down that I haven't lost a couple pounds or my clothes fit better or something. If anything, I feel fatter--my body is SWOLLEN! I know it's a good thing to have muscles forming again under all my skin, but my arms and legs just look puffier! Bah! Right now my body is still getting used to the work out so I'm still pretty exhausted at night. Come 9 o'clock, I'm dead, sprawled out on our bed, begging Trevor to rub my muscles. I've been focusing on my stretches afterwards more so my muscles will be less tight and sore, but they still get tired.

Some days I've been super excited to go work out after work, and others it's just been part of what happens after work. Just routine. I think I've only had maybe 1 or 2 days where I've been NOT in the mood--but as soon as I got there, I felt better. Haha, kind of like church.

This week my right knee and muscles above my knee have been sore. Some of you know, but I have a history of bad-knee-edness. I had a scope on my left knee when I was 15 when I was playing basketball all the time, and it sort of runs in my family to have torn cartilage. Anywho, I've just been a little worried that I might damage my other knee like the first knee. I've been feeling some pain in the muscles AROUND my right knee, but I'm pretty sure it's nothing in the bone. So I've been working those muscles a little bit more carefully to build them up. When I had the surgery on the left knee, they told me that as I strengthen the muscles around my knee, the bone and cartilage will have more support and will hurt less. I'm hoping that's the case now.

Enough about that.

The Living Planet Aquarium

Trevor and I went to The Living Planet Aquarium again this weekend. This is my third time, and I still love it. They've added a new section since the last time I went about the Amazon.

These giant sucker fish were in the Utah section. They're probably 6-8 inches long. Kinda weird.

Here's one of the eels. They're super long, you just can't see because he's all wrapped up in the coral.

Some of the long jelly fish. They take the best pictures!


These are some of the shorter jelly fish.

Here's a picture of the giant squid. You aren't allowed to use your flash on him because of his sensitive eyes, so the pictures really dark. But he's HUMONGO! Each of those circle suckers is about an inch or an inch and a half wide.

Here's the giant lobster. He's flash sensitive too. I think he was about 3 feet long.

One of the sleeping sea horses.

A few of the many many fancy fish we saw.

Sting ray! If you've never been to the aquarium, you can touch these guys as they swim by. Pretty nifty.

Shark! They have some really awesome sharks and dangerous fish there. This guy was like 4 feet long I think.

Here's a video of the shark and eel tank.

Hard to get a good picture of him, but there was a giant eel. His face was just pokin' out, but he looked to be about six inches thick.

Tropical fish in the pirate ship.

These were called 4 eyed fish. Their eyes have a film that splits them in to so that they can be part way above and under the water at the same time.

Sea turtles. They were climbing on eachother. They were pretty medium in size. 2 feet or so.

They had an electric eel section in the Amazon zone. They had a gage that tells you how electric he is at the moment. You could tell when he was just resting, when he was hunting, and when he was seeking a predator. Eels can emit the same amount of electricity as 6 electrical outlets at once! Um, yeah, pretty sure they could kill you.

Here's a video of some big fish they have there. It's amazing that fish can be so big, and these are SMALL compared to what's out there in the ocean.

This is the tree frog. He's all suctioned to the glass. Looks pretty gross.I never knew they could do that.

Here's one of the cooler looking poisonous frogs. I don't think I knew this before, that poisonous frogs aren't poisonous on their own. They eat other poisonous creatures and absorb their venom and poison into their skin. If you keep one of these kinds of frogs in captivity long enough, they'll lose their poisonous skin.

This is me, excited to be at the aquarium.

This is Trevor. Also excited to be at the aquarium.

You should go there if you can :) http://www.thelivingplanet.com/