Audiobooks

When Heather visited a couple weeks ago, her son had some audiobooks that she had purchase through itunes. I never knew they had adiobooks! After she left, i did some looking into what itunes had. They've got some great stuff. I'm so excited, because there are so many great books that i'd love to read with my kids, but just don't have the time to read them all. Now, they can listen when i'm busy, and as often as they want. So fun!

I just bought Shel Silverstien's Where the Sidewalk Ends. It's so fun, because he narrates it himself. I'll see if i can get one of them on the blog-player, later.

The kids are also in the middle of The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary. That's been fun so far.

I already purchased the book, Charlotte's Web, for school this fall, but i'm afraid of turning into a mushpot when Charlotte dies, & being unable to read it. So, maybe i'll get that one as an audiobook, also.

some other audiobooks that i'd like to get for the kids are:
Pippi Longstocking
Charlie & the chocolate Factory
Peter Pan
The Narnia Saries
The Little Princess

Any other suggestions?

Art class

one thing i'm really excited about w/the new curriculum I'm using, is a book called, "Drawing With Children" It's a kind of art curriculum that was designed for young kids. In it, the author talks about research that's been done that show that children who learn art in school, actually end up doing better in math & language arts than kids who don't. She's broken down drawing into 5 basic shapes, and says that just like you can learn to read music, you cam learn to draw. Very interesting. I think it'll be fun. :)

my rantings on precocious puberty

Yesterday was time again for Chloe's 3 month check with the pediatric endocrinologist. We discussed the results of her lab results last month. her estrogen levels have gone down quite a bit, as well as some of her physical symptoms. yay! however, the Doctor didn't have any input as to why she still has body odor. oh well. as long as the puberty is being held back, i'm happy.

had some interesting conversation with Dr. Lifshitz. As we were discussing how long Chloe would have to be on medication, he mentioned that the average age of puberty is getting younger and younger in this country. I already knew that it was pretty young (8 years is in the normal range, and some drs. are fighting to get that age lowered to 7!), what interested me was that he said, "in this country." Which means that the age is higher in other countries. --which says to me that this is an environmental issue, not just the way the human race is changing. So my question is: why do they keep lowering the age, and say that it's "normal." When it's not normal. something is terribly wrong with the children of this country. If it were normal, it would be happening all over the world. This is not normal. This is an epidemic! Why isn't anyone doing anything about this??

So...I asked the Dr. more about that, & he agreed that it's an environmental issue. So i asked what he thought could be causing it. Could it be the hormones they use in meat products (which has always been my theory)? He said that there's a lot of speculation, but nobody really knows for sure. There's been a lot of research into the meats, but he thinks it has to do with all of the endocrine disruptors (see this for more) like plastics, that are causing it. He siad that precocious puberty is getting more and more common. In his early days, all his cases were for delayed puberty. Now it's the opposite. It's all *early* puberty.

One thing he told me awhile ago, was that women tend to start their periods when they reach 100 pounds. So something he mentioned today was that countries that have obesity problems also have more cases of precocious puberty. Thought that was interesting.

And on another note... my dr. is a bit of an activist when it comes to insurance. He's a very well-known, and highly regarded doctor around the world (not to mention, the *only* pediatric endocrinologist within several hours of us). But Blue Cross refused to pay him a reasonable rate. So he refused to be one of their providers. That's all well and good for him, but that causes problems for us, since we use blue cross. After Chloe's last appointment, we sent the claim form to our insurance company, but they denied our claim. Today, Dr. L. asked how things were going w/the insurance, so I told him what had happened, and that we were still working on our last claim (3 mos ago). When I told him that I've never had problems with our insurance company before, he said, "that's because you've never had serious health problems before. Sure, they'll cover you for little things, but the moment you need any real help, they refuse. If we never needed any real help, we wouldn't buy insurance!" He told me to call them and tell them that we were going to get a lawyer, and ask *them* to find us another pediatric endo. in the area...

He also said that we should watch the movie, "Sicko." "Anybody who has someone with chronic illness, like Chloe does, needs to watch that movie so they can learn how to deal with their insurance company. "

All in all, a very interesting, and educational doctor visit.

new widget!

hey. check out the new widget i put on the sidebar of the page. scroll down til you see picture of the palm tree. it's a tracker to show all of the visitors! :) and while you're at it, why don't you check in toward the top, & sign the guestbook!

A visit to the Dentist

Monday, I took the kids to the dentist. I love my dentist. He's *so* gentle and soft-spoken with them. And they love him. Chloe cried on Monday, because I had to postpone her appointment. Even though she got a treat along with the others, she was heartbroken that she didn't get her check up. :)

So apparently, they have a rating system for how well the kids' teeth are brushed. The dentist said that Gideon brushes his better than most parents. Yay, Gideon.

We'll be going back to visit in about a week, because Gideon's going to need a palette expander. Apparently, the roof of his mouth is too narrow. As his body continues to grow, this could cause problems with is breathing, not to mention giving him a serious underbite. Gideon is very excited about getting a "brace thing". :)

Zachary will also be having a procedure done. When we noticed that he was tongue-tied as a baby, we asked our pediatrician about it, & he said that nothing needed to be done. the frenulum (the piece of skin that holds the tongue down) would just stretch as he grew. However, Dentist says that a person should be able to stick their tongue over their teeth a *minimum* of one centimeter in order to have proper speech. Zachy can't even do that. Also, he said that it's pulling the gums away from his teeth. So... we'll be "untying" zachy's tongue next thursday. eek!

Strung Out

You may recall that in my discussion about coconut oil, i was going to try using it on my face for acne. My plan was to give it a month's trial, to see how it worked through my hormone cycles. When I first started using it, it worked great! My face cleared up rather nicely. But a few weeks into it (right before I started my period), I broke out way worse than I used to. So I stopped using the cocounut oil, & finally decided to see a dermatologist.

When I saw the doctor last Wed., he asked how I would feel about taking an antibiotic. From my experience, antibiotics are pretty mild, & since i *never* take them, i didn't have a problem w/using them now. So the dr. prescribed "minocycline" for me to take 3X/day, and sulfer, for me to apply to my face.

After i read the pamphlet for the minocycline, i freaked out about all the potential side effects, the most common of which were dizziness, drowsiness, and headache. In the precautions section, they mentioned that you might not want to drive vehicles or operate heavy machinery while on this medication. WHAT? I thought this was a simple antibiotic!

well, i decided to try it for the weekend, & if i didn't like it, i'd call the doctor on Monday. Monday didn't come fast enough. All weekend, i was walking in a fog. I've been completely dizzy, and could barely stay awake. Very weird. By the time Monday ended, i had a dull headache that had been with me for a couple days.

The doctor says it's probably just an overdosage (!) and told me to cut back to one/day. So today, my haze has mostly subsided, and there's only a shadow of what used to be my headache. I keep thinking it'll all be worth it, if my acne goes away. But so far, it's worse than ever. (what's up with that? I'm THIRTY and have worse acne than i did as a teen??)

anyway... any desires i might have had to become a druggie have vanished with this drug.

back to school

well, now that my summer is having a bit of a lull, i thought i'd start thinking about the upcoming school year. I've chosen a curriculum that I found at the homeschool convention: My Father's World. I was very excited about it at the convention. It seemed to be much more simple than the last curriculum I used. And simplicity is my motto for my life right now. However, after reading through it, the last few days, I'm already feeling stressed. EEK! I just have to keep going back to the fact that God told me to do this, and that He is excited to show himeself strong to me, as I lean on Him. I'll be excited to reach the end of the year & be able to look back & see how God's hand was in all of it from the beginning.

Portfolio

One of the major assignments that we had in my photography class was a portfolio. We had to print up our ten best photos that we had taken during our semester, & turn them in. These are the one I chose. --Thanks, Linda for your help! :)

My buddy and me

Here are some pictures that Eric took of Heather & me when they were visiting. :)

You wanna go where everybody knows your name

When I take my kids to swim lessons, I have to pay an extra dollar so Zachary can swim, too. Last week was very sad because I forgot my wallet. In a desperate attempt to let Zachy swim, I asked if they would let me pay the next day when I brought the kids to lessons. They understandably said no.

contrast that to yesterday:

There's a local car wash that sells gas at cost, if you buy a car wash. So with our big ol' mammoth truck, the amount we save pays for the car wash. Yesterday, when I took the car in, they were packed. I waited for about 15 minutes to get in, & when I finally got out of the car, to talk to the man, i realized i didn't have my wallet. So i told him i'd have to go home & get it, but discovered that i was boxed in, and wouldn't be able to get out w/o going through the car wash. So i found the owner guy who was nearby, to ask him how i should go about getting out. I barely got the words out of my mouth, "I left my wallet at home...." when he said, "don't worry about it, you can come back and pay later." (!!!) This guy was willing to trust me to come back and pay a $100 bill, when the swim place wouldn't trust me with one.

All that to say that it's so nice to be a regular. What a relief it was to know that after going through the ordeal of cleaning out the car & getting the kids loaded up, etc, that i didn't have to go home & do it all over again. :)

iViva la Fiesta!

This week, our city celebrates "Old Spanish Days". It's one of the most exciting times of the year, here (after Summer Solstice). It started on Wednesday, but today is the BIG day. At noon, the main street will close down, and there will be a big parade. Many businesses close, to go join in on the celebrations. There's lots of food, concerts, and flamenco dancing. As you walk around town, you'll see little Mexican ladies sitting on sidewalk selling confetti eggs. This is the best part of Fiesta, in my opinion.

Chris doesn't like the crowds, so we usually don't venture out during fiesta weekend. Except for the short amount of time where we'll drive downtown, and jump out of the car just to buy some eggs, so we can crack them over each other's heads and yell, "Viva la Fiesta!" Then we go home, happy that we celebrated Fiesta another year. :)

today, Chris has gone motorcycle riding w/the big kids. I'm actually considering going to the Fiesta parade w/the little ones.... but if i do, i know I'll be sitting in traffic for hours to get back home... I think, instead, I'm going to to go Office Depot to buy school supplies for the upcoming school year. *sigh* I'm so boring.

Back from the Summer abyss

well, my life is somewhat settling down. Heather left yesterday BOO-HOO!! We had a blast together. And last week was the final week of my photography class. I really learned a lot!

I'll try posting my portfolio tomorrow, but today, you can see my photos for the "Alphabet assignment." We were to take the 3rd letter of our last name ("N"), and think of 3 words to photograph that started with that letter. I'm only going to show you 2, because I did "naked" for the 3rd. It was completely innocent, but wouldn't be appropriate to share in a setting like this. anyway.. here are the others:

This is one of my favorites from the entire class. Incidentally, I think Chloe looks *JUST* like I did at that age, in this picture.

Naughty

Nutritious

something funny, the teacher thought my letter was "B", and that my photos were "bad, banana, and butt" :)