I feel better

I read Janus's blog this morning and made Jeremy take the quiz, that way I could make sure it was not rigged. He scored more like I thought I would have scored so I took it again. Jeremy and I have a few different views like on stem cell, but other then that are on the same page most of the time. Well, I now feel like I can rest a bit and stop fretting about being a "closet democrat" like my cousin said lol! The first time I took this quiz I did it really fast and I had Liam on my lap. I guess the lesson of this story is do not take a political quiz with a 2 year old on your lap!


61% Mike Huckabee
59% Fred Thompson
58% Mitt Romney
56% Bill Richardson
55% John McCain
53% Rudy Giuliani
52% Tom Tancredo
52% Hillary Clinton
51% John Edwards
51% Joe Biden
50% Barack Obama
45% Mike Gravel
42% Chris Dodd
40% Dennis Kucinich
30% Ron Paul

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

WHAT?????

Are you kidding me? So I was curious and decided to take this much talked about quiz and was surprised to say the least! As I have been listening to the debates and following the election I keep telling Jeremy that I do not like or agree with Brarack Obama at all. I was planing on voting republican although it is a bit of a toss up between Mitt, Huckabee and McCain so I guess if you wipe off the Democrats at the top of my list, ha ha, then I think it would be a bit more accurate!


67% Barack Obama
66% Hillary Clinton
63% John Edwards
61% Bill Richardson
60% Joe Biden
59% John McCain
59% Mitt Romney
58% Mike Huckabee
57% Rudy Giuliani
56% Chris Dodd
55% Fred Thompson
49% Tom Tancredo
40% Mike Gravel
39% Dennis Kucinich
23% Ron Paul

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

PBS Frontline Bipolar in Children Special

Well, here I go again. I am going to vent about another special that was just on about bipolar in children. Tonight PBS aired a special called The Medicated Child on their Frontline series. It was an hour special that talked about a lot of the different aspects of the controversy over this diagnoses in children and about medicating them. While there was no new information given I once again finish the program feeling worse. It just seems to magnify all your fears and then leave you with a big question mark hanging over your head. Wouldn't it be refreshing to watch a program like this and leave with a feeling of hope and have been given some new information to help in our daily battles against this disorder?



Jeremy came home half way thru and we were talking after and came up with this conclusion about Lorenzo; We know he has a problem, we know he has had a huge HUGE improvement over the last few months on medication. The other thing I am painfully reminded of frequently is the fact that there is the factor of our "genetic loading". I know what life was like with my Dad growing up. He has never really been treated for an extended amount of time and he is worse now then ever. That is a constant motivation for me to do everything in my power to help Lorenzo. On a positive note there was a whole min. or two devoted to research being done that may show if they catch children young, before the disorder has shown its full fury that it may be possible to prevent it from becoming full-on bipolar. I hope this proves to be true! I was in such denial after the doctor told us he thought Lorenzo had bipolar, never did i think that my Dad's problem would transfer to my Child. To be honest, once I moved out and started College I never event thought about bipolar unless it was wishing my dad would stop and get some help.



They did end talking about cancer in children 30 years ago and how in order to be treated back then they had to be part of the clinical research study so that you had 100% of patients involved in the study. Due to this they were able to go from cancer in children being a virtual death sentence to have a 90-something % success rate. I have been saying this for the last 2 years!!!! When are they going to do something about this?

The Holidays

Wow, it has been a crazy few weeks here. I did end up catching the killer stomach sickness that the everyone else had but luckily I started feeling better When my family came out on Christmas eve. I was so afraid that we were going to get everyone else sick, what a great Christmas vacation that would be, but it ended with me! I did not manage to scrub the house before they came or get a lot of holiday baking done but it was so much fun to have 3 of my sisters here for Christmas. I have only spent one Christmas with them and that was about 5-6 years ago. It was a lot of work but a lot of fun to have a house full of kids at Christmas. We managed to do some fun tourist things while they were all here, we went to the Dole pineapple plantation, and we rode the Atlantis submarine (my favorite). After about a week here they left for home and we took last week off to rest and recoup.

I have had a ton to do for Church and a few sewing projects to finish up but I have not been doing any of it like I should. Do you ever have so much to do that you just end up doing none of it? I have to find some way to get motivated today as I have to have a few thing finished for church tomorrow. It did not help that I woke up in a not so good mood today. Liam would not go to bed last night and finally fell asleep about 10:30 in our bed. He was up about every hour last night and Jeremy decided to sleep in Liam's bed so he could actually get some sleep. I feel like I now need a nap.

I did manage to finish a few book this last month. Les Miserable's was by far the best, after reading that it was a little hard to get into the others without thinking how two dimensional all the characters' were and how poorly written the stories were. I was out of reading material and I decided to read a couple of the books Jeremy has given me as gifts this year. Poor Jeremy, He tries but he usually picks up some kind of paper back romance novel. if you know me you know that I hate to read those kinds of books. If I am going to read something I want to gain something or learn something from it and typically those paper back dime store books don't do it. Surprisingly I really enjoyed the one Jeremy got me for Christmas, the constant princess by Philippa Gregory was still a bit on the cheep romance side but it sparked me to do some other reading. it is about Katherine of Aragon, the first wife of King Henry the VIII. While it was a fictional novel it was based on the real characters' and after I finished it I had to go and research all of this royal family. I did learn some of this in school but I guess I am getting old as I did not remember a lot of it. But if you looking for a quick read that does not require any thinking it was good.

What a week!

All I can say is I have made it thru the night now I just hope today is better. We have been battling some terrible stomach bug the last few days. Liam started this whole thing on Wed. and is still throwing up. He ate a little last night and it all came back up in our bed last night.

Jeremy came home from work yesterday and did not leave the bathroom for a few hrs. I am sure half the neighborhood heard him hacking away. At about 3:00 he looked awful and was saying he wanted to go the the E.R. Well my first response was not a very nice one. I told him that stomach bugs were bad and he was going to feel terrible. Well, I ended up taking all the kids in the car and driving him to the doctors office. He told me he could not walk and that he needed a wheel chair and I told him he had to walk. Ok you now know how mean I am. It is just that when Jeremy gets sick or hurt he tends to be a bit of a baby about it. I guess I still have memories of being pregnant with Liam and making trips back and forth from the bathroom to the kitchen making Christmas dinner 3 years ago. Well to get back to the story, Jeremy made it into the clinic and they took one look at him and put him in his much wanted wheel chair and took him to do some blood work and get an IV started. I took the kids back home to see if I could drop them off at a friends house but we got stuck in major traffic (got to love Honolulu at 4:00) I finally made it back home and dropped Riley and Lorenzo off at one of the best neighbors you could wish for! I promised that the boys were not sick and that it was just Liam and Jeremy so she did not have to worry about getting the other kids sick. She was so nice and I really am thankful to have such good friends.

I got back on the road to go see how Jeremy was doing and what the plan was going to be. I got there and they were starting his 2nd bag of fluid and he was starting to look a little better. After 3 bags of fluid, and a few shots I took him back home. he was still hacking most the way home but I was prepared, I had our little trash can for him to use. It was not a fun ride home, we again got stuck in traffic but this time I got to hear, and smell, Jeremy the whole way home. I dropped him off and went to pick up the boys. It was now after 7:00.

I got them home and fed them and then put them to sleep to be woke up by Lorenzo a few hours later. Yes, you guessed it, he now has the same wonderful stomach bug as liam and Jeremy. So after a long night and not a clean sheet or towel later here I am hoping that Lorenzo did not get the family that watched him yesterday sick and in turn get our whole ward sick. We have our Ward Christmas party today and needless to say we will not be in attendance. I was going to send Riley with the Same people that watched him yesterday but I do not dare take any chances.

The bad thing is Riley and Lorenzo were picked from the School to take a limo ride to see the Holiday lights with a few other students and I do not think they are going to make it now. Oh well I should be thankful that it is this week and not Christmas. I hope they will all be better by then And That Riley and I will not have it by then :)

What a sneak!!!!

Jeremy is not very much fun at Christmas as he is a really big sneak and likes to ruin surprises. Last week he was up in the present stash and found a CD I was giving him. If that was not bad enough he then got onto the history on our computer and found the other gift that he is getting. He is like this every year and so I try to really do a good job of hiding things or when they are wrapped I put them in strange boxes or cover them with bubble wrap before wrapping so he has a harder time while he is snooping and shaking. I was really upset about this one though. I never thought that he would go through the history on the computer. I made special effort to delete all the emails because I know he looks through my email but he still managed to find out. What a stink!!! He is much worse then then kids.

On a better note Lorenzo is doing GREAT!!!! We started a new medication a few weeks ago and he is like a new kid, or I should say like the kid we always knew he was. he has been happy and has only had a few minor meltdowns which don't five year olds do that anyway sometimes? He still has a lot of anxiety and has been crying some at school but he is making leaps of progress as far as his moods and behavior are. He has just been a joy to be around!!!! We are so thankful that things are going well for him. It is just nice to see him happy and upbeat, not to mention having fun!

Music that hurts your ears!

We signed up or were forced into signing up for our wards Talent show/Christmas party in a couple of weeks so we decided that Riley would play the piano and Jeremy would accompany him on the bass. Well I decided to get my trumpet out and play a little and wow, I stink! It is probably only the 3rd time I have played it this year, but as I have not had any trumpet students out here I have really lost it. Jeremy was getting on me every time I would miss something (plus I was transposing and not very well) and to make a long story short I ended up crying. It really was not Jeremy, I was just upset that I could no longer play like I used to. It is strange that something that used to be so natural and such a big part of who I am is now something I do not even think much about. It made me a little sad. I am going to have to start practicing again, I just need to figure out a way to work it without Liam, he hates it. Oh, well I may have to wait until he starts preschool next year.