Remember that scene from Rocky where he gulps down raw eggs? Well, here is Simone with her favorite concoction. She prefers then unblended so she can go straight for the yolk.
It isn't unusual for her to fix herself her favorite snack if someone happens to leave the eggs sitting out on the counter.
So today as I was doing some work on the computer, she was in the kitchen fixing herself a lunch of raw eggs. Some of them cracked on the ground, so she dutifully wiped them up. And here she is all set to go. I can't believe she actually likes to eat them raw. After I got over my revulsion, I snapped a quick picture and then cooked them for her--she wouldn't touch them.
Hopefully with her prior episodes, she's built up a resistance to Salmonella.
Three years ago Miles developed a serious bleeding disorder from his MMR vaccine that caused me to rethink my stance on some vaccines. Anyway, here are a couple of videos that I thought were interesting. The first one is just funny. I had a good laugh when my sister sent it to me a few years back when we were in the midst of this.
I thought it was very interesting that cases of pediatric flu deaths went up after the Flu vaccine was introduced. I think a possible reason for that is because when there is a vaccine for a disease, there is a big incentive to make the disease seem really scary so people will buy the vaccine. All the scary statistics for something we never feared all of a sudden get reworked, inflated and thrown into the media limelight in order to pressure people to get the vaccine, and eventually to get the vaccine mandated. Not too long ago, Chicken Pox was just a normal disease we all got. Now, because of all the marketing and hype, it is something that many parents fear. Merck alone earned $4,278,000,000 from vaccine sales in just 2007. There is a lot of marketing going on, and a lot of it is in the form of newspaper articles, commercials, etc. You can see evidence of that in the new HPV vaccine. Nowhere in any of the marketing does it tell you that HPV is an STD, so if there is a real concern that your 10 year old could get an STD, go ahead and get it. But we are going to opt out of that one too. It will likely be mandatory in a few years, it already is in some states. It angers me that I have to pay to get exemptions for my kids to not get vaccinations for things like Chicken Pox, and STD's like Hep B and possibly HPV. I do not have Hep B, and there is no reason that my tiny baby should be required to recieve a potentially damaging vaccination for a disease that is caused by STD's and drug use, something we are not at risk for.
The part that disturbs me the most about vaccines is that while the scary disease statistics get thrown around all day long, the statistics of kids who do develop a reaction are not accurate. I found that out the hard way when I actually looked at the hard research and statistics to how those numbers were arrived at. Miles's disorder is rare, but not nearly as rare as the CDC is telling parents. And the worst part is that there is no reliable tracking going on at all so we don't really know what kinds of reactions that kids are having. Many times, doctors dismiss a parents claim that the child's health issue is even connected. That happened to me even though Miles's disorder is listed as a possible side effect on the package insert and on the governments own vaccine injury table. Even with that information, I had to be very proactive to get it reported. Another concern I have is there is no long term research on vaccines. If Miles acquired an autoimmune disorder three weeks after his immunization (the expected time duration that ITP manifests) could Vaccines be causing other autoimmune diseases that haven't been studied?
Anyway, I could go on and on about this. In fact, I did type up his story once, and it is a novel. In short, do your research. Don't bury your head in the sand like I did.
Here is Miles with the spontaneous bruises that cropped up after he develope ITP from his MMR immunization. His platelet levels were so low that blood would leak out under his skin from minor things like me picking him up, or holding his legs while I changed his diaper. He looked like he'd been abused and it was very sad for me to look at him like that. Medical expenses to treat this were over 20K. He had blood draws every few days to monitor his platelet count. I was told to watch him and take him into the ER for an MRI if he bumped his head because they were worried about him getting a brain bleed. He was 13 months. So bumping his head just comes with the territory at that age and I was pretty much a basketcase.
Anyway, I know there are lots of worse things out there and we are so happy that his ITP went away after a couple of months. It was just a really hard time, and a good learning experience for me.
Fortunately, he really enjoyed his stay at Primary Children's as you can see.
A house full of girls who are all vying for attention from the same guy, watching him date and make out with all those other women, and then having him publically break up with you while the whole world watches you cry?
Just watching it puts knots in my stomach. I can only imagine how poorly I would do on the bachelor. I’ve never been the kind of girl who could work the flirting thing. Thankfully Jared flirted enough for the both of us and it took all the pressure off me; which is how I like it. And luckily we had Kelli (his sister and my best friend) to pass the message along that I liked him too. All that resulted in our first kiss on the lifeguard station in Newport Beach--I thought I was leaning in, but he insists that I made him do all the work. Ah well, I've certainly made up for that. ; )
In Kindergarten, I did not partake in chasing boys, or being chased. I was one of the G-Force (remember the cartoon?). There were four of us, two girls, two boys. We were the rescuers and we rescued the kids who were getting chased. My ineptitude in the flirt department was obvious even then.
My first experience with mobs of girls chasing boys was at EFY. It was a lot like kindergarten. At the dances, a song would start, and all the girls would start making their claims. Seconds later, it seemed that every guy in the whole place was snatched up. I didn’t have too much preference and was way too proud to start mobbing all the cute boys for my chance to slow dance. So I’d linger for a little while then generally get asked to dance by some poor soul who didn’t make the cut. One time, I felt bad for a kinda awkward guy and asked him to dance. I regretted it later when he was clutching my back so hard I felt like yelling at him “bible width apart you sicko!” Anyway you look at it, those dances were pretty awful.
Then there were the dorms at BYU, my second experience with man-crazed Mormon women. My roommates were great at cozying up to the Family Home Evening guys and the Home Teachers. One of them would drawl out her fake southern accent “would ya’ll like a piece of PIE?” And I think I wanted to puke right then and there. I lasted one semester in Heritage Halls before moving off campus. I should have given it another semester, because I had a lot of fun despite the annoying roommates and their obsession with offering baked goods to every man that passed our dorm.
My last experience with this type of behavior before Jared rescued me from the dating scene was in Russia. I was among 15 American girls teaching English there for five months. After about month number 4, we were desperate for some cute boys. Who better than the American missionaries? Playing baseball on their P-day was something to look forward to. I laugh now when I think of the herd of girls all surrounding Elder Dove on the bus. There is just something about a guy who speaks English and can understand you. I for one did not participate in the fawning over Elder Dove. I think I wanted to, but just couldn’t get past the competition part--well and that little fact that he was a missionary. And though he was a really nice guy and cute too, none of the girls were nearly so enamored by him when there were so many other English speaking guys to choose from.
Which is how I picture the bachelor is. Once these people get out of the contest environment and are not so focused on preventing their pride from being shattered in front of millions of viewers, you get into the real world, and suddenly, that Bachelor guy isn’t so great after all.
I have at least one daughter who may end up a lot like me. Unable to flirt. But there is something great about that. We tend to attract the guys who like a little challenge and are persistant and confident. So, I guess it all works out in the end.
