Sewing machine

I never though to wonder, but it's cool to really know how it works now.

Babehs!

Hello, I'm Ani, and I'm baby hungry.

Scoff if you wish, but I think it qualifies as an addiction. Poor Alan has to hear about it all the time, especially when I tear up at little things like Playskool commercials or clips of babies on AFV.

I was watching a documentary the other day called The Business of being Born, and I can honestly say it's one of the best "alternative birth" (watch the documentary and you'll see how ironic that term is) documentaries I have ever seen. Sadly, that's probably because it's the ONLY one that is publicly available.

As a warning, this is a documentary about birth, so there are naked women giving birth everywhere, and you should not watch it if you have objections to boobs, bellies, butts, and baby heads. Netflix totally has it in their instant queue, so if anyone doesn't want to spend the $8 for the DVD from amazon.com you can totally come over to my house and watch it with me for the 5th time (seriously, it never gets old, and I learn so much every time I watch it).

I really really wish that I could find a doctor and a midwife as good as the ones Abby Epstein had in the documentary. I have NEVER seen a doctor that is that enlightened about birth. He admits that most births have no need for a doctor's intervention, and that outcomes for the vast majority of women (above 90%) who do not have serious complications, are BETTER outside of a hospital. Doctors are wonderful and necessary for those that need the medical intervention, and I wouldn't give them up for the world, but I do agree that medical intervention has gone too far.

I am so grateful for the wonderful advancements that medicine has made over the past few years. Lets face it, C-sections have saved a bunch of women and babies that would have not survived without that medical intervention, but they are actually part of the cause of our high infant and mother mortality rate. In the developed world (England, Germany, New Zealand, ect.) the US has the second to worst infant and mother mortality rate. In Europe and Japan, midwives deliver 70 percent of all births; in the U.S. midwives deliver a mere 8 percent of births. Coincidence? I think not!

Some may ridicule me for speaking out about this, having never had a baby myself, and yet, I have more experience than most first year medical students. I have been in attendance at 1 hospital birth and 3 home births, and I can honestly say that the atmosphere was so incredibly different. In one, there was screaming, yelling, medical malpractice, major bleeding, anxiety, exhaustion, and panic. In the other, calmness, peace, comfort, and better care for the infant and mother. Can you guess which one was which? In my experience, the home births were by far a better environment to bring a baby into the world.

Kind of a roundabout way of getting to it, but I am looking for a midwife. Because of the lack of demand for them, there are relatively few of them that can remain in practice for long enough to gain much experience, and the ones that do usually have mega long waiting lists, hence the looking before I'm pregnant. I'm also looking for a doctor who would be ok being my backup if something does happen to go wrong, so if you know one I would be happy to hear about them as well!

*Grump*

I dare you not to laugh. I just dare you.

I’ve decided that I’m going to be happy.

I've decided that I'm going to be happy.

I <3 John Bytheway! I know that most of his stuff is for teenagers, but the principals and stories he relates have just as much application in adult situations. For example, one of my favorites of his is "What I wish I'd known when I was Single". In it, he talks about people who interject their singleness into every situation.

"Hey, are you going to the concert this weekend?"

"Well, I really wish I had someone to go with, but I don't because I'm single"

Or

"Can you believe the construction on I-80 lately?"

"Yeah, the traffic gives me time to think about how I'm still single"

At first I laughed at it, but you know what? I realized that I'm that same way about pregnancy and babies. Maybe not quite that bad, but pretty close.


There's another part that stuck out to me, when he said that "An unhappy single person will almost never, by the simple act of becoming married, become a happy person" and it made me think, I'm somewhat unhappy right now without kinds, and I was definitely unsatisfied with being single, so what makes me think that just having kids will make me happy? I was an unhappy single person and I am not a very happy married person right now, so what needs to change?

The answer my friends, is that I need to change. Aubrey mentioned in her blog that happiness is more like a habit, and I wholeheartedly agree with her. There isn't a magical happiness fairy that sprinkles happiness on our lives like the last missing ingredient in a killer casserole. Happiness is like the hearty, homegrown-with-love starter ingredients. A little bit of paprika happiness is not going to help if your macaroni is rotten.


Call it a mid-year's resolution, but I am going to get into the habit of being happy. Not "I've got to put on a happy face for my friends" happy, but genuinely in-love-with-life happy. I think the biggest part of it will be getting out of my routine some more, and for Alan and I to spend more time among the living.

Wish me luck!

Jeremiah was a bullfrog!

It's amazing how influential music can be. I've woken up on the wrong side of the bed the past few mornings, and this morning was no different. I didn't take a shower because there is no water pressure (a pipe burst at out apartment complex Saturday, and still has not been fixed despite 2 plumbers), and I really wasn't in the mood to pour a few pitchers of water over my head, or wait for the tub to fill up. I loath baths unless they are specifically for the purpose of relaxation because I don't feel clean enough after taking one.  Anyways, I was driving to work and up popped Jeremiah was a bullfrog!  It's amazing how much of a difference a good mood song can make!  My whole day was just that much better because of it!

Everything Android

At the request of Shambray, this is a more detailed description of why I love android phones

The apps

Android allows you to download apps to your phone, just like the iphone (iOS) does, but there are some different pros and cons

+Most of the apps are free with Android

+ you can download a bunch of them, just depends on how much space you have on your phone

+ there is no restriction to the apps that can be developed with Android like there is with the ios. If there is already a similar app, iOS will not allow the second one, even if it's a better app. This means that Android has more duplicates, but you can find the one you like the best. Also, since there is more freedom with an app being released, the prices are generally lower to increase popularity of one over the other.

- Most apps cannot be downloaded and used from your memory card, they must be downloaded to the phone memory, so you cannot just increase your space to store more apps. I usually go through and switch out apps for games and such about once every 2 weeks

-There are less apps currently on the Android market than there are on the iOS market.

- Some apps really REALLY drain your battery, and the battery life is pretty short on my phone.

As far as apps I love:

Farm Frenzy - Game

One of the best live action games on the market, this one was so worth the full version (less than $3). You buy and raise farm animals, and produce different things with what they give you (IE, sheep give you wool, which you spin into thread, then weave into cloth). It has a bunch of levels, and you can set up multiple users with the full version. My siblings always steal my phone when I come over just so they can play this game.

ShopSavvy- Shopping barcode scanner

Anytime I see any shiny new electronic (cameras, laptops, dvds) I whip out this app, scan in the item, and find both locally and online (usually for nearly half the price on amazon.com). It even links up with the site it finds the item on, so I can order it right then and there. I'm amazed at how many barcodes it has stored, as I find almost everything from food to clothes to electronics quickly and easily. This is actually the app that inspired me to get my Android phone.

Google Maps - Maps/navigation

This app saves my butt on a fairly regular basis. Alan has his gps and I have my phone. I can pull the address from my contacts, and then it will give me turn by turn directions to the location.

The voice is a little robotic sounding, and it sometimes gives more information than needed (did you know there are apparently 5 different names for Geneva road?) but it does a great job in getting me where I need to go, and I don't need to lug around yet another piece of equipment around.

*In case you can't tell, I am really really proud of that picture

This one's for you Shambray!

Now seems like a good time to promote some lovely tutorials by some fabulous people.

First, this Family Tree picture frame by The Bird's Papaya

So cute! This would be adorable with pictures of each family member!

Secondly, this Receiving Blankets Baby Wrap by Shannon Makes Stuff

Her design is so cute and definitely would help keep your little ones snugly wrapped!