"Tis an ill wind that brings nobody any good"

In the last 3 months I've had at least 7 illnesses. It all started with the flu. Thank heavens we all had our seasonal and swine flu shots! I think maybe my immune system took an extra hit after that one, because I've since had pneumonia twice, (which I currently am gettting over), numerous colds, a strange leg infection... I've been on 3 separate courses of antibiotics. It's really not so bad being pregnant, it has actually been pleasant. Being sick and pregnant is a little different, but I feel very fortunate that I haven't had to be hospitalized. It's scary getting sick when you've got asthma, let alone when you have asthma and are pregnant. It's a good time to count my blessings, for sure.
We are so excited for our little one to come. I hope she waits a few days until I've recovered, though!

I'm free! I'm free!

Aah.

I'm not sure how to write up this post without sounding, well, unpatriotic and not very citizen-y. However, it sure feels nice to have less responsibilities.

I felt a deep sense of duty as far as trying to better our community and stand up for things that I believe in. So, a few years ago while at a caucus I accepted some political positions. I was the only one in attendance that wasn't moving, and as a result was elected as precinct chair, county delegate and state delegate. This translated into 5 to 6 important meetings a year, plus a few extras here and there. Then, a few months ago I was asked to serve as Legislative District Chair as well. This meant I was suddenly in charge of 25 voting precincts. This was a much busier task.

The other day I was trying to fill 5 vacant precinct chair positions. After looking over thousands of names, calling hundreds of people and leaving more messages than I can keep track of, I was a bit spent. So, when a few administrative glitches threw a monkey wrench in the works I decided that maybe it was time I re-evaluate my time. I was able to fill 4 of the 5 vacancies, which I feel pretty good about. However, I realized that I'm going to have a baby sometime in the next 3 weeks. When am I going to have time to run an entire Legislative caucus and hand out credentials before central committee meetings? Thank Heaven for my wonderful family. I resigned and feel much better.

I'm glad for the opportunities I had. I would definitely like to urge you all to get involved any way your circumstances allow. I don't think we should complain about the government if we aren't even exercising our right to vote. Even more so, I think most people would be quite shocked to find out how maddeningly persistent special interest groups are. They DO get involved, they DO run for offices, they DO voice their concerns and agendas to lawmakers, and the general public MAY NOT always agree with these agendas. So who cares if politics isn't your thing? Bettering your community is always a nice choice.

Humanitarian Aid for Haiti

Haiti is in dire need of emergency aid. For those of you wondering what you can do, the best thing is to donate to either the Red Cross, or to my favorite, LDS Humanitarian Services. 100% of your donation goes to the cause when you donate through this organization. Everything is done by volunteer work. You can go here to donate:

http://give.lds.org/emergencyresponse

Visit the following article to find out more:

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/

An early salute to the King

Today NiNa was really excited to tell me about a wonderful, good man she learned about in kindergarten: Martin Luther King, Jr. So, although the official day of oberservance for this brave man is still a week and a half away, I thought I'd share my favorite NiNa quote on what she learned about him:

"He made a march with the people and said, 'That's not fair! That's not fair!'"

Adoption

Some of our best friends are hoping to adopt.

They've got the cutest little 1 year old boy, and they are the sweetest parents.

For more information, click here:

www.somebodyismissing.blogspot.com

Refreshing!

With how cold it has been lately, it's hard to believe that, technically, it's not really winter yet. Officially, the first day of winter begins on the 21st of December. Brrrr!

In honor of the recent cold snap, I wanted to share some funny frozen stories, but I couldn't think of any. (Other than the time my arm freezer-burn stuck to the shelf at the grocery store when I tried to get a package of peas). I'm sure there are plenty of bitter cold incidents that happened over the years that were humorous, but I can't think of any!

So, instead, I'll just share a cold memory:

When I was a kid I lived 1/4 a mile down a dirt road in the country. The bus came at 7:27, and we had to be out the door in time to get down to the stop. During the frigid months, we tried to time it so we spent the least amount of time possible out in the freeze. It wasn't uncommon to have sub zero (Ferenheit) temperatures up at our mountain valley bus stop. At least I didn't have to walk both ways up hill to get to school. ;-)

There's a sweet Norwegian woman that goes to church with us, Liv, whom I always think of when the weather turns less than pleasantly warm. One particularly chilly day, I saw her and said something like, "It's freezing!" and she replied, "Yes, isn't it refreshing?!"

Now that's a breath of fresh air!

The end of October

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. I have pondered this holiday on occassion. There are some obvious counterintuities about celebrating this pagan holiday. However, I have never dressed up on ventures for candy in order to display pagan beliefs. A lot of holidays have deviated from their original intent, and Halloween's evolvement is a fortunate one. I don't like the gory-scary-naughty-unpleasantries that some have come to associate with this time of year, but it's fun to have a night where we can dress up and 'play pretend' for a while. That's worth celebrating, right?

So here are 4 of my favorite things about Halloween (in no particular order):

1. Cute costumed kids. Isn't that the best part? This year Ls was a dragon, and NiNa a flamingo. CUTE.

2. Pumpkin carving. This is a favorite tradition of ours.

3. Decorating. We hang finger puppet monsters from the ceiling, put home made grocery bag ghosts all over the porch, we've got a bat mobile (a bunch of bats on a mobile I made. Get it? Ha, I know). I always rig the door so when you open it a bat comes down in your face, and this year I rigged a kitchen cupboard so a spider did the same.

4. I used to love scaring people. Not little kids, mind you. Growing up, it was a frequent occurence to hear, "BOO!" followed by, "AAAAIIEEEEE!" We'd all laugh and run to where the scream came from to find out what happened.

Ah, wonderful Halloween. And next comes Veteran's Day, and then Thanksgiving. What a great time of year!

"Julie & Julia" an overdue review

I promised a review of "Julie & Julia" long ago. Alas, many of you have probably already seen it. So to be brief, I would have loved it, perhaps it would have been one of my favorite movies had it not been for all the foul language. :-( Perfect way to ruin a movie. There were parts I laughed so hard I cried, and it certainly inspired me to read Julia Child's My Life In France. (I loved it, by the way. Highly recommended. The ending was a bit slow, but she passed away before it was finished).

As part of a prize I won, I also received Julie Powell's "Julie and Julia", a mis-adventures-in- cooking book. I thought her idea of trying out all of Julia Child's recipes was ambitious, inspiring, interesting... and documenting it even better. I was very appalled, however, as I struggled through the first chapter and finally threw it down in disdain. It was littered with foul language and filthy speach. So sad. I gave it to my mom and she enjoyed it very much.

H1N1 Flu shot Fiasco. Or, my 15 minutes of anonymous fame.

Bright and early on Saturday morning, I drove to the downtown health clinic to dutifully get my swine flu shot. I left about 6:45 a.m. and neared the clinic by 6:5oish. There was an unanticipated amount of activity the closer I got to the clinic. Masses of people were walking towards it, and there wasn't any parking for blocks. Then the chaos started. People started jaywalking major roads against green lights to get to the clinic. Nevermind the risk of getting hit by a car, these people wanted shots! There was also gross violation of basic roadway laws, which tipped me off that this wasn't going to be fun. Then I saw the clinic. There must have been hundreds and hundreds of people in a jumbled line that stretched down the street. Although I had come prepared with a lawn chair, food and water and a newspaper, not to mention I was dressed for the arctic, I realized that there was no way I could stand in that line by myself.

What to do? Well, what any sensible person would. Send letters to the editor! (Just like Gram would).

I came home and fired off e-mails to as many applicable people I could think of, including Dr. David Sundwall, state Department of Health executive director.

Here's what I wrote:

Dear Dr. Sundwall, October 24, 2009

Today is the first available day I am eligible to get the H1N1 vaccination. I am 6 months pregnant, have asthma, and have a child who is allergic to eggs and can’t be vaccinated. I was astounded when I got to the downtown health clinic at 7:00 a.m. and there were already hundreds of people in line. There was no way I could stand in that line, by myself, and wait to be vaccinated. (I can’t stand for that long, and what if I had to go to the bathroom?! Getting there was hazardous, as well, as there were hordes of people jaywalking and vehicles disobeying traffic laws in order to get there faster). Perhaps there is a better way to organize a vaccination clinic.

I have a suggestion that I feel may help. Pre-registration. It would be nice if people could print out the forms necessary, or pick them up beforehand, and return them to the health department in which they wish the receive the shot. This could be done before flu shots are available. Then, the health department can determine the patient’s priority as far as how soon they can get the shot. The department could take down the person’s name and give them a number. Then, upon determining risk factors, could post in order the numbers representing patient’s available flu shot times. It would be like getting an appointment at a doctor’s office. This would reduce a lot of frustration on both the health clinic’s, and the patient’s, ends. I also believe it would be much more efficient and time saving.

Thank you for your consideration.
-K

Here's what he replied:

Thanks for sharing your experience, K. I related your plight in an interview with the SLTribune, ananymously of course, which was published in a front page article today. I'm sure we can do things better, and I wecome your suggestions. David

Hmm. I got this e-mail on Tuesday, yesterday, and had to look up the archive. Here's the link:

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_13634251?IADID=Search-www.sltrib.com-www.sltrib.com

I'll share a little of what was written about me:

__________________________________________________________
Sundwall himself witnessed Saturday's vaccination crowd at the 600 South clinic in Salt Lake City, where his daughter was among 500 people turned away. He received an e-mail from a frustrated asthmatic pregnant mother who has a baby at home. The woman's situation places her in three of the five target groups, yet she failed to get vaccinated after spending Saturday morning in line.
"Instead of just whining, she had an idea for pre-registering," Sundwall said. "We're learning on the job here. There has not been a mass vaccination like this since polio [in the mid-1950s]. We're taking notes, exploring ideas like registering so people in high-priority groups will get in."
__________________________________________________________

Yes, I was that "frustrated asthmatic pregnant mother". I was, however, mis-represented in that, as you'll note in my e-mail, I never said I had a baby at home. I have a 2 year old, yes, but I said I have an egg allergic child who can't get the shot. Also, I didn't stand in line nor say that I had. Oh well, I guess the news media likes drama.

We'll see if any good comes of this.

Random Recent-ness (or just plain current stream of conscious thoughts)

1. It's a girl! (Come February). Hooray! I really am pregnant!

2. Yay!

3. I have finally admitted to myself that, yes, I am a news junkie. How did this happen?

4. Ls + brand new box of Cheerios = huge mess. Did I not see this coming when I heard her in the kitchen? (Oh I wish I could post pics).

5. My posture isn't so great. Any suggestions? I am even more aware of this seeing as my youngest sister has the "posture of a queen gliding into the room". (Yes, she was told this recently. I was witness. And it's true. I got the slouchy gene).

6. I don't like to tell people I don't know well that I'm involved in the Republican party. I'm not into cataloguing, preconceived notions, 'so this makes you this' type of stereotypes. I just want to help my community, and for me this is a good way to get involved.

7. Myanmar! Free Suu Kyi!

8. Isn't Elizabeth Smart the dearest? Bless her.

9. I can't wait for General Conference. Mr. AH and I believe conference should be like the Mormon Superbowl (in that we should put on a spread of lots of yummy food in accent to the great event. Although we have held this belief for many years, we have yet to actually do the necessary prep. Alas for frugality and a touch of poor planning).