Is it August 3rd Yet?

I am sure that I am not alone when I say that I cannot wait for the election primary to get here so we can see fewer political ads.  Of course, I know that there will still be ads, but at least there will be fewer candidates.   Perhaps the ads would not be so bad if Wink Hartman had not started running ads back at the beginning of the year.  It's pretty obvious which of the candidates has the most money. 

Hartman's latest ad cracks me up.  He talks about how he signed a pledged card to run a clean campaign and to focus only on the issues, yet the ad is doing exactly what he says he is not going to do.  The ad does not focus on what his policies will be; instead it attacks his opponent by making issue of the fact that he did not sign the pledge card.  Also, there is actually another candidate running for the same seat.  Why does he not mention her in the ad?

Mixed Signals

It seems like every day on the news there is a story about the obesity problem in America, especially among children.  I heard just the other day that now teenagers are beginning to have gastric bypass surgery to help them control their weight.  I find it interesting that this has become a national problem as opposed to an individual one.

A news story I saw last night focused on how a school is helping children combat this problem by creating games that include the names of the fruits and vegetables that children should be eating.  I believe the idea is to make healthy foods "fun."  What the program did not appear to do is to provide the students with these foods to actually eat and learn to like.  After watching the news story, I was left with the impression that the kids would know about games to play and know the names of the foods they should eat but that their eating habits would not really change.   Wouldn't it be more effective to educate the parents so that they can begin providing their kids with healthier food choices?

It's no wonder that people no longer know what food to eat.  There are constantly news stories that tell us to eat one food, and then another story comes out to tell us not to eat it.  One day nuts are good for us, and the next they are too high in fat.  Mixed signals are also given in the commercials.  Can you name one commercial for a fast food restaurant (or any restaurant for that matter) that includes people who are overweight eating the food? 

This issue has become more important to me now that we are raising our own child.  I want to make sure that she eats well and know how to exhibit self control with the foods that she does eat.  I hear of so many stories of kids who will not eat a variety of foods that I wonder what our future will hold.  I am trying to do better job of eating a variety of healthy foods now since I am feeding her breastmilk and I hope that she will develop a taste for the different fruits and vegetables.  

Saying Good Bye

This last weekend we had to say good bye to our dog Mies.  Mies was the first dog that we acquired nearly 12 years ago.  We found Mies at the Kansas Humane Society.  At the time he was a little ball of white fur with brown ears, one of which sat crooked across the top of his head.  The Society thought that he would be about 50-60 pounds, but he turned out to be 100. 

Mies was a gentle dog, but he started off as crazy as they come.  It was not until we got our second dog nearly a year later that he calmed down.  Apparently, he needed someone to be a role model to.  Mies' favorite activity was having people pet him.  When he was younger, he would sometimes race with Kate while chasing tennis balls, but he seemed to prefer just sitting beside us and having us pet his head. 

We knew that he would not live to be much older than 11 or 12 years old since he was such a big dog.  Over the years he started moving slower, but he still would show signs of being as excited as a puppy when we would come outside to play with the dogs.  On Friday night, he was laying in the yard and could not get up.  Apparently his back legs just would not work.  He did get up later, so we thought that we would wait through the weekend and take him to our vet on Monday.  Saturday he began having more trouble getting up and around.  We thought about taking him to the animal hospital at that time, but we again thought that we could help him get through the weekend.  Saturday evening he began to go downhill quickly.  He could not get up at all and he had become stressed to the point that he did not appear to know we were with him.  Matt took him to the animal hospital at 1:30 in the morning.

We knew that our time with Mies would come to an end soon, and we are thankful that there was no doubt regarding his condition and what we should do, but saying good bye was harder than I expected it would be. 

Where to Begin

Someone asked me on Facebook if I had given up on my blog.  Not really.  At the end of my pregnancy, I had carpal tunnel in both hands, so typing was not very comfortable.  Then the baby came and we are still adjusting to our new life schedule.  I just laid her down for her first official nap (can one begin doing that at 6 weeks?), so I thought I would take a few minutes to create a post. 

I am trying actually laying her down for a nap because for the last week or so, it seems that Lucy stays up much of the day without really taking any naps.  She sleeps okay at night, but when the evening comes, she often seems confused if she is hungry or tired, so I thought that I would try actually laying her down in her crib for an official nap to see if that will help. 

I don't want to blog just about life with Lucy, but I have to admit that right now, that is what primarily consumes my thoughts.  Hopefully I will have other insights to share as well.