ABC's of me.

I saw this on a blog and thought I would play along

age :: 35

bed size :: queen, we are downsizing!

chore you hate :: cleaning the bath room

dogs :: Oscar Miner wiener Dog

essential start to your day :: advil and pepsi

favorite color :: Chocolate

gold or silver :: silver

height :: 5'3"

instruments you play :: used to play the piano, would love to learn to play the guitar

job title :: stay at home mommy

kids :: Binky Boo or Ellie, Bugga Boo or SIlas, and Little Lilly Lu Lu or LillaBee or Lilly.

live :: Ohio

maiden name :: Rodgers

nicknames :: Thelma, Windmill-but those were both in High School. Haven't had one since

overnight hospital stays :: Ellie's birth, the internal bleeding incident, Silas' Birth, Lilly's birth

pet peeve :: when there are two doors and you are exiting a place and instead of using the other door people just at like you are in their way and wait for you to exit. I want to scream there are two doors use the other one.

quote :: lots of favs but here's one: "I screamed at God for all the starving children, and then I realized that all of the starving children were God screaming at me."

righty or lefty :: right

siblings :: younger brother

time you wake up :: this summer-whenever
once i get a schedule back 6AM

university attended :: University of Rio Grande

vegetables you dislike: cauliflower, Lima beans

what makes you run late :: i try really hard to be 15 minutes early but usually forgetting something and turning around to go back and get it.

x-rays you’ve had :: chest, shoulder, teeth

yummy food :: pizza, roast and dumplings, PASTA

zoo animal favorite :: giraffe's and hippo's

Save your self.

I was reading this article and I think over all it's a good thing.

Now I really don't want my child to be taught from someone I don't know how to put a condom on at the age of 11. So if I know it's coming I am going to show her/him all about it at home first and talk to her/him before they get hit with it at school.

But let's face reality. Kids are having sex at a very young age and my daughter will probably be in class with some of those kids. There are some kids whose parents will never ever tell them anything about their body or about sex. You say no that's not right. But the hard sad fact is that yes it's true. I can't tell you how many conversations I have had with teenage girls who say their mom has never told them about their body, and this is within the church. Let's think about all the kids who don't go to church and who don't have Christian parents who uphold the moral value of saving sex for marriage. It's going to happen. We can't expect everyone to abstain from sex. Especially when they have no moral issue with it. And some kids it's all they see or hear about and so it leads them to curiosity.

So I would much rather someone tell these precious babies how to be safe and protect themselves and maybe even give them a good reason to not have sex before marriage. I hope and pray that as they put more of these programs in the school they wont' forget about abstinence. Even if we don't all agree with it I feel like it should be taught. We don't all agree about the correct type of protection and other assorted things when it comes to the issue.

Abstinence is a choice just as everything else it.

I pray my children choose to save themselves for that special someone.

The getaway pt.1

Eli and I were able to escape for our 10th anniversary. We took the train from Chicago to San Francisco, what an amazing ride. Seeing the country like that was amazing! My first view of the snow capped Rockies was simply breathtaking. As we were climbing up into the Rockies to look back and see Denver as this little tiny spot with skyscrapers was neat. We went through 50 some tunnels. It was really cool waking up and thinking we were traveling through fields of snow. Ended up it was the salt flats in Utah. What a site seeing the sunrise over those, simply beautiful. I am really glad we did this and my only complaint for the whole train trip was my sleeping arrangements. I was scared to death I was going to fall and didn't sleep much, I got the top bunk.

When arriving in San Francisco 5 hours late we had a bit of an issue with the rental car but ended up arriving at our amazing hotel in Healdsburg around 1AM. This place was great.

The next morning we drove over to St. Helena to meet our friends Rob and Lilly Lewin. We had such a good day with them, one that I will never forget. Lesson learned for the day The Journey is Everything! It was good to be with friends. It was neat hearing Rob tell us about the different regions in the Napa Valley. We drove with them down to Napa. It was a neat little town. We had some amazing food and went into Tyler Florence's shop, his restaurant was closed. Several wine tastings happened that day. I found my favorite Winery of all the ones we went to. A case just arrived at our house, lol. We went back to the Lewin home for dinner made by Rob, the salad he made for us was so yummy! Then due to Rental Car issues we ended up in a 4 hour car ride with them. It was great just to talk.

The next day we discovered Healdsburg a bit and then headed back to St. Helena. We did some poking around and went to several other wine tastings. We had a good day.

The napa Valley was so amazing. Everyone was so nice and talkative. Everyone wanted to know where you were from and why you came to Napa. I love it there.

And then we traveled to San Fran. Not quite like Napa. More on that later.

Looking in her eyes.

When we first arrived in the city it was 10PM and I must say I was leery. I am not sure I had seen so many homeless people on the streets. They were digging through trash cans and fighting over their street corner. I was overwhelmed. Then morning came and things were different. Yes there were still homeless people out and about but not to the magnitude of the night before. They weren't the only ones on the street this morning. I was more compassionate and less scared and leery.

So we went about our day and then the woman stopped me in my tracks. Standing in line for the cable car she came up to us and ask for a dollar. I honestly didn't have a dollar on me. I looked her in the eyes and said sorry. As I looked in her eyes she was desperate. And yes 10 minutes after she ask me for a dollar she ask someone for a cigarette. So she probably wanted to buy a pack. The thing that makes me remember this woman was that she had an infection in her eye. I am guessing she could hardly see out of it. It was swollen and green puss was coming out of it. Yeah it was gross but she probably doesn't have a family doctor that she can go to and make it all better, like I do.

People who live on the street I am sure get sick all the time and get infections and such. They have probably built up an immunity to somethings but when it comes down to it there is something that will probably get the best of them and there will be no recovery. There will be no doctor to go to or family to fight for them.