Because I think it's important.

I never thought when typing two links into my blog that I'd get so much feedback as I did regarding the use of hormonal contraception. I just jotted the links and thought I'd share why I personally don't use the pill. I know many people don't agree with me but I think it's good for people to thoroughly examine their beliefs. My personal belief is that life begins at conception and for me, using hormonal b.c. conflicts with that belief. Here's a quick outline of the three ways in which the pill works:

How Hormonal Methods Work
All hormonal contraceptives have at least three mechanisms of action. Artificial female hormones are the active ingredient in all hormonal contraceptives — estrogen and progestin. Some products contain both hormones and others progestin only. Using both hormones together is somewhat more effective than progestin alone, but the estrogen component is responsible for most of the serious health hazards associated with hormonal methods.

1. Hormonal contraceptives prevent ovulation. No egg is released so sperm cannot fertilize it. It is widely agreed that this is a major mechanism of hormonal birth control.
A woman may ovulate anyway.

2. Hormonal contraceptives may also prevent fertilization by changing the consistency of natural secretions in the vagina, making it harder for the sperm to reach the egg. It is not clear how effective this mechanism is in preventing fertilization.

3. A woman may ovulate anyway, and sperm may still reach the egg, resulting in fertilization. When this occurs, hormonal contraceptives make it difficult for the embryo to implant in the uterus by keeping the edometrium (lining of the uterus) thinned. This results in the death and expulsion of the embryo. Most scientists agree this occurs, but it is not clear how often. Some doctors do not prescribe hormonal contraceptives because they find this mechanism objectionable. (more info here)

--> So, to sum up--b.c. doesn't necessarily or always have abortive effects--more often than not ovulation or conception are prevented by the pill but sometimes when the first two steps fail the third fail safe of b.c. is to prevent implantation of the embryo after which the body gets rid of it. It took losing two babies for me personally to realize just how strongly I believe in fighting for the life of a baby at all costs--including the cost of inconvenient (and annoying) non-hormonal b.c. is (for me). And that my friends, is all.

Profiling A & M

The Importance of Being Earnest

Change is in the air

I've decided to make my blog a bit more "private" and am giving "code names" to my "family members."
Ah! I love "unncessary quotation marks!"
Amelie = Princess Rosebud or Wonder Girl or A
Maeve = Mavis Beacon or Wonder Baby or M
Steve = Mr. Wonderful or S, Mr. W, Honey Hottie Pants and so on
Got all that?
Oh! And *you* can call me Shelly =)
Anywho, please, if you refer to me or my family members in comments please use their
code names or initials.
That is all =)

The People At The Chinese Restaurant MUST Have Seen Me Coming

Pet Peeve #2: Parking Lot Peril

You know when you drive a regular car and everyone else in the world has huge mini-vans (oxymoron) or SUV's and you park and then you try to leave and you have to inch out of your spot

inch

by inch

by inch

slowly

ever so slowly

because you can't see around all of the tall vehicles and you think you're in the clear and then

WOOSH!
WHIZ!

SCREEECHHHH!

someone races behind you so they can get around your car before you can pull out fully and "block" them for a few seconds as you put your car into gear to go forward?

Yeah...I hate that.

Stinkin' fast car driving through parking lot people and large SUV sun blocking cars that make it hard to see.

Haha...but the jokes on them see--I get 35 mpg and they get 12 so I win in the end...

Or at least, that's what I tell myself.

Fin.

Water Water Everywhere and Not A Drop to....

Drink!

It's so gross and hot and humid and sticky and bleh outside and all I can think about is going swimming! Now, if only the magic pool fairy would do one of the following: A. move my family to haddon township B. build a pool in HH C. Send me a big check so I could buy a membership. =)

Kickin' it old school with my baby

I think M doesn't appreciate smushy face pictures anymore.

That is all.

Jazz Hands

My Jazzy husband put on a fun n' fabulous jazz concert last night with the kids from school. They did a fabulous job and A and M behaved beautifully! It's always like a little miracle when everyone is good and happy (especially when in a concert setting--yikes! remember what happened to me last time?!?). Yay for good, easy, enjoyable nights with my loves!

Sneak Attack

It's amazing how much pain and suffering this sweet little lamb causes at night.

I think she scissor kicked my face 15 times.

She's a regular karate master.

{or taekwondo, krav maga, judo or wushu}

But only by night.

During the day she's a mild-mannered baby.

Go figure.

Man, I love this show!

{America's Test Kitchen}

and it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I think that bow-ties are hot.
well, almost nothing.

Just Thought I'd Share A.K.A. Slightly Too Much Information

Why I Don't Use "The Pill"

or...for another perspective go here...

Total Recall A.K.A. "Sidewalks: Where Worms Come To Die"

I was outside splashing in puddles with A this morning and couldn't help but think back to my college days in Cedarville Ohio. I don't know if you've ever been to Ohio, but, if you have and stayed there any amount of time you would have learned that it rains there.

A Lot.

All the time.

It's the Seattle of the Midwest.

Or the London of America

of the rain forest of the plains states

or something like that.

It usually rained sideways too.

{This fact has absolutely nothing to do with this story but I just thought I'd share}

Anyways, after a rainstorm I remember that it became difficult to walk through campus because of the worm bodies (and corpses) wriggling furiously all over the sidewalks.

They were everywhere.

I don't know what it is about Cedarville and their abundant worm population but you've never seen worms until you've seen Cedarville worms.

They were always the huge kind too--not the tiny little two inch skinny worms--these were the "looks-like-a-python-ten-feet-long-and-3-inches-round" type of worms.

Some were alive and squirmy

some were dead and smushy

but none of them, none I say, were cute like Slimy from Sesame Street.

And the worst was when you had to hop, skip and jump your way around campus to avoid getting worm guts on your sketchers.

Urgh. Worm guts.

(And what's the deal with worms anyways? Whenever I see them I'm thinking, "Front or Back? Front or back?!? I can't make heads or tails of you!")

When you awoke in the morning you could tell it had rained because you could smell worm carcasses from your window.

But I digress....

So anyways, I was thinking about worms while I was standing in the rain and just had to tell you.

Aren't you glad I've shared?

I think I'll entitle my memoirs, "Sidewalks: Where Worms Come to Die and Other Interesting Oddities."

The End.

Alternate Theories

Rain
1. a type of precipitation, a product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that is released on the Earth's surface. It forms when separate drops of water fall to the Earth from clouds.

2. a force of nature which has the power to make any day on which it falls, the longest day ever.

that is all.

My Endless Love

Still trying to figure out what this button (in my mother-in-law's car) means...

unfortunately my *E*xtra *S*ensory *P*erception is off so I am at a loss.

hahahahahaha...

no seriously, what the heck does that stand for?

I'm officially in trouble...

my little (7 month 1.5 week old) M decided today that she needed to (pull to) stand up.

so she did.

{and she did again and again and again.}

and the first word that came to mind was........

*crap*

the end

Hay Bales to Highways Chapter 6: Willing, Wistful, Waiting and Wondering

Catch up on the rest of the story here....

For our first *real* date Mr. Wonderful and I went out to dinner at my favorite restaurant (Fridays) and to see a movie. Dinner was yummy and the movie was...well, awkward--so awkward that it would make a great awkward moments story but I'll just give you the reader's digest version and say that the first scene was a rather graphic, inappropriate, sex scene. Yikes. I shrank about 15 feet below the surface of the earth and covered my bright-red-ican'tbelievewe'rewatchingthisonourfirstdate-face and counted the seconds until it was over. Luckily the rest of the movie was totally normal. Don't even get me started on how annoying it is to have a fabulous movie with one awful scene.....Anyways!

We went out a few times a week for a few weeks and talked on the phone and all of those fun early-dating rituals. Things were going well and Mr. Wonderful asked me to the homecoming banquet where ALL of our friends were going to be. I was excited to go, to buy the dress and do the hair but feeling a little strange about it all because we hadn't really defined our relationship yet. We were just in that going places and having fun stage, ya know?

The day before homecoming Mr. Wonderful and I went out to dinner ( my favorite place again) and he slid a card across the table to me. I thought it was a little odd to be given a card for no particular reason from someone sitting directly across from me but got over it and opened it anyways. I wish I had a scanner so I could share this card with you--it was the sweetest thing I had ever read. Mr. W had written down all of the things he loved about me and how much he enjoyed spending time with me and had scrawled a thermometer type scale at the bottom of the page where I could "rate our relationship" from stone cold, just friends, dating, engaged etc.

It was perfect.

He was perfect (and is).

I love that our relationship began in such a formal, shy, conservative, PURE way. I told him I definitely wanted to date him exclusively and was able to sing from the rooftops (or through the dorm hallways) that night that we were "exclusive!"

I was a girlfriend to the greatest boyfriend ever. It was totally fab. Oh and in case you're interested the date was October 7, 1999 (forever emblazoned in my memory) =)

The next night at homecoming Mr W introduced me for the first time to some of his friends as his girlfriend and I was on cloud nine. It was a fabulous night! We were having so much fun with our friends! Nothing could dampen the evening!

Well, except for when we sat down to dinner an acquaintance of ours asked loudly in front of all our friends, "So, S, where do you see this relationship going?"

Oh man was I embarrassed! We had been an item for all of 5 minutes and were already getting grilled about where things were going...I mean, I had my ideas but weren't ready to discuss them with the Cedarville world!

We awkwardly changed the subject and enjoyed the rest of our evening. Although now, Nicki's question was ringing in my head--where was this going? Was this "it"!? *The* relationship! I decided it was better to enjoy the time we had together and worry about things later.

We spent the year going out frequently, attending church together, shopping, drinking coffee (and me spilling coffee), shopping, late-night-phone-chatting and just enjoying each other's company. Mr W was so fun and good and kind and *cute* and I was starting to feel that I loved him.

But he was mysterious.

And I was young.

I just wasn't sure if he really felt the same way about me as I did about him and was concerned that maybe things weren't going as well as I'd thought. It was weeks into our relationship before he sat down and formally asked my permission to hold hands! I mean, who does that? It felt so important and exciting and SPECIAL. (I always feel exciting and important and special when HE is around....).

I knew he was being respectful and careful but we'd dated for months and hadn't kissed! Or made any declarations of affection! However, I really felt that it was important to let him take the lead in our relationship and that translated into a lot of waiting.

and wondering.

and hoping....

My New Favorite

In a rare moment of genius I bought A Crayola's Color Wonder Finger Paint.

This stuff is freakin' fantastic!

I had purchased color wonder markers before because my sweet little one has little impulse control and likes to color herself with "pretty colors" and let me tell ya, cleanin' marker off a toddler isn't one of my top 10 favorite things to do!

Anyways! I decided to try their finger paint and it's really fun!

So go give it a try if you want your babies to have some mess-free, creative, time consuming fun!

I miss my beach hat already...