Fussy and Clingy

After spending an entire day being babysat, by his sisters and brothers, Joshua has been fussy and clingy. But he isn't just clinging and fussing at me. He is clinging and fussing at whatever bigger person is available.

Little Kids Lagoon Trip

 I promised all of my children that if we didn't go on a vacation this summer, I would take them all to Lagoon, the local amusement park. Because John is not a fan of amusements parks, and because I am very pregnant, we decided to do it in two trips. The plan became for me to take Rachel, Anya, and Joseph in June. That happened on Friday. After the baby comes, I will take, Ruth, Kate, Johnny, and Adam.

 I invited my fun sister-in-law, Rosanne to come along. She brought only her oldest child, Ada. I am so glad Rosanne could come. We had so much more fun because Rosanne and Ada spent the day with us.

 We started out the day in the kitty section. Anya, especially LOVED the Merry-Go-Round because she loves horses so much.  Rosanne and I  mostly watched the kids on these rides.

 After and hour or so on the kiddie rides, it was getting very HOT! Rosanne and I knew we needed to get the kids (and ourselves) wet and comfortable again. Fortunately, Lagoon has a mini water park that is included in the days pass. After some kiddie rides, we went swimming for a bit. I had Rachel, Anya, and Joseph wear their swimsuits mostly because I knew they would be upset if they got wet without a swimsuit. But, Rosanne, Ada, and I went swimming in our clothes. It felt sooooooo good. I am so glad Lagoon has that part. It made the rest of the day much nicer.

 Next, Rosanne and I switched off taking individual kids on faster rides that required an adult while entertaining the rest of the kids on some more kiddie rides. Ada was by far the most adventurous of the group.

 After that, we decided to stay together. We went on a couple of rides that all 6 of us could go on together and then spent just a few minutes getting wet again. (Did I say that I was glad they had things to wet you thoroughly ?)

 There was just so much to do there. We looked at the map about this time, and plotted what we would do. We stayed together and tried a whole bunch of medium (parents can take two little kids each on rides).

The train ride mini zoo was particularly neat. The big ship that always makes me feel nauseaus, was a hit with the girls, but it terrified Joseph.

 The girls went on again with Rosanne and I took a little sitting break with Joseph.

 There were a couple of fun, fast, spinning rides that the kids really enjoyed, and we went on them a couple of time. The rides that all 6 of us could go on together were the nicest just for that reason.

 Lagoon has this River Rapids ride that gets you really wet. I thought the kids would really like that one a lot. But it was a much longer walk to get to that one ride.

 On the way to the river rapids, ride, Ada said she felt sick. We stopped for dinner at a nice shady picnic area. The girls ate and ate and I managed to save a half sandwich for Joseph who had fallen completely asleep.

 After eating and drinking plenty, Ada felt better and we made it to the river rapids ride. I think Rosanne and I enjoyed that a lot more than the kids did. Rachel said that it hurt her bottom. (Silly girl).

After that was the tilt-a-whirl. Ada kept telling Rosanne to make it go faster and Joseph cried and repeated  over and over, "I hate this ride, I hate this ride." So when it came to the 150 foot ferris wheel only, Rosanne, Ada, and Rachel went on it. I didn't mind. I was feeling pretty tired and pretty done with rides at that point.  But the kiddos wanted just a few more before we left. So we redid a couple of rides and bought enough cotton candy for all the kids and all of their siblings. In the end,  we spent a fun packed 8.5 hours at Lagoon. I think Ada, Rachel, and Anya could have stayed longer. But Joseph and I were done and Rosanne and I both needed to get back to our other children.

I look forward to going with my big kids and riding the fun roller coasters without a big baby belly.

The Supreme Court Rules Obamacare Constitutional

I've spent a lot of time today reading everyone else's opinion on the Supreme Courts ruling over Obamacare. I am trying to figure out what this really means for the future of America and Americans. But, like the one million other commentators out there, I cannot figure it out.

The ruling itself is pretty easy to understand. 5 of the 9 justices decided the huge healthcare overhaul with everything in it is legal or rather "constitutional". The mandate that demands every American is required to pay for and carry health insurance is now considered a tax. (Some conservatives think this is good because it keeps the federal government out of commerce.) Also states are not required to expand medicare.

I very much worry about what this will cost families. We lived in Canada and have a sense of what social health plans mean, cost and do. And we don't like it. The poorest we ever had to live was in Canada. Taxes are extremely high. We paid one third of our $40,000 income, we had a family of 5 at the time, to income tax alone. Sales tax was at 15%. People really struggled to be able to save enough to buy a house and many people never could.

I worry about what this will do to the quality of our health care. The health care in Canada was a lot poorer there too. When we lived there, there were only 3 MRI machines in the entire country. We knew people with life threatening diseases that were put on long waiting lists for lifesaving medical tests and surgeries. The waiting list could be more than a year. Whenever the hospitals got busy with a contagious disease they just shut down the emergency rooms and once while we lived there, most of all of the hospitals. Often the hospitals would not have the necessary supplies. One church member we knew, took their two year old to three different hospitals in the city to get his mouth stitched up. As it turned out, none of the hospitals had  local aneasthetic. Their son had to be stitched with no anasthetic.

And here are some things that I just plain old do not like about Obamacare:

• Under ObamaCare, children can get free sex counseling, contraceptives, and abortion pills from Planned Parenthood without parental consent, even though the parent’s premium pays for them.
• Through ObamaCare, which was crafted with the help of Planned Parenthood, the government is attempting to coerce Americans to fund the abortion industry.
• Some ObamaCare plans can take $ straight out of your paycheck and put it in an abortion-on-demand fund. If just half of the plans take only $1/month, that could fund 2 million abortions/year.
• ObamaCare doesn’t just cover abortion-inducing drugs and contraceptives; it includes coverage of all types of elective abortions.
• Employees who don’t purchase ObamaCare will be fined up to 2.5% of their salary. And employers who offer plans that aren't ObamaCare compliant will be fined $100 per employee, per day.

Girl's Camp 2012

I miss them when they are gone, but I am so glad that they are given these fun experiences that I do not have to create!

I also love having them come home and tell me all about their experiences and all of the new things we have to share together. Being a mom of teens can be really fun.

Moving

Don't let the title fool you. We are not moving. This is about moving my pregnant body from point a to point b. I am 34+ weeks pregnant and everyday it is getting harder to move. This is my least favorite part about pregnancy. I can't do anything quickly anymore.

 It takes me a couple of minutes just to walk up the stairs. In fact, I try and avoid walking up and down the stairs too much. My older kids and even my husband will spend a lot of time in their bedrooms and I do not fetch them for meals or anything anymore because it is too hard to walk all the way up the stairs and to go to each bedroom and to tell each person we are about to eat. So I leave them, and they get the left overs or they just have to hang out where I am at around meal times. (Although I think they avoid this because I will have them help.)

Getting in and out of bed is really hard too. I have to kind of roll over and get my feet to the floor. I can't put myself into a sitting position from a laying position without a lot of pain. I sort of have to roll to my hips and scoot my feet to the floor. In that way, I can move from a laying position to a standing position. This takes a lot longer than just sitting up and getting out of bed. It is particularly hard when I really have to go to the bathroom, or a child starts crying urgently.

I can't walk very fast anymore either. Walking kind of hurts, it makes me pee, and I just can't go very fast. All of my kids down to the littlest can walk faster then me. Which brings me to, my old and tired out bladder.

Moving makes me pee: standing up, walking, whatever. I do not run, and I do not carry anything heavier than Joshua. I have to wear a pad all day. My bladder has had enough of all of this baby making. Fortunately it has always healed some after the baby is born.

I know from this point on moving is going to get harder and it is going to hurt more. The baby is still up pretty high which has been good for my hips this time around. But I know this will not last. Every week until little Arwen is born is going to be more and more painful. Moving is going to get harder and harder.

Dance Recital 2012

Anya and Rachel had their dance recital. They are so adorable, I just had to post a ton of pictures. They both knew their dances and did a good job. When we asked Anya about it, she said that she just wanted to be on stage the whole time. Rachel has been telling me how much she loved it and keeps asking me if she can be in dance next year.

Father's Day

Words cannot describe how amazing a father my husband is. He puts his all into our children and you can tell. I have amazing children because they have an amazing dad. I could not do this journey alone. I need his advice, counsel, and most especially his friendship. My kids need his attention, love, and teaching. John gives us all of that and more everyday of his life.

For Father's Day John

got a bolt 22 that he has wanted to teach the kids how to shoot. A couple of the older kids will go to the shooting range with John next Saturday.

And a very manly dinner of BBQ ribs, cheese-fries, and some steamed veggies thrown in to please the wife.