8/26/08

Trip around the World

First of all before I get to my worldwind (haha) adventures I want to clear up the previous post. I SWEAR that I didn't write it to get sympathy comments, it was just a sad/funny thing that happened that I wanted to document. So to all those who wrote the sweet comments...thank you they made my week!!! And I swear I wasn't fishing for compliments.

So now onto our trip around the world. Cannon surprised me with a road trip around the world! I was so excited as I have never been around the world before. So to start it off we loaded up the kids and my kid sister and headed out in our sweet ruby red rental.


We had some fun times...

and some sick times too.


I don't know if any of you realize just how many amazing destinations are just a few hours drive away. But I must have really been zonked because I don't really recall the ferry ride across the ocean, I seem to remember feeling a little carsick, but that could have been all the truck stop food we were eating. Who knew they had Popeye's in Europe!

So our first stop was Macedon. Hmm...I'm glad that Cannon has the internet on his phone because when we got there it was a pretty small and rundown town. But google confirmed our suspicions. Macedon was an ancient Greek city which would explain it's general lack of livliness.

Moving right along...next stop Amsterdam. I was really excited to see windmills, but I'm pretty sure they are a myth because all we saw were a bunch of cell phone towers. When we went into the center of town I was a little nervous for the kids to see the "ladies of the night" but was relieved because when we got there it was noon time.

Then we took a short drive to Rome which sort of confused me because I thought that Rome and Greece were closer together than Greece and Amsterdam...but then again I wasn't the navigator extroidinaire...love you Can! Rome was definitely nothing to write home about. The only Italian food we could find all along main street was a Pizza Hut...and let me tell you...it tastes EXACTLY the same there as it does here. Those Italians aren't so great.

Since we were in Rome we figured we'd head to Naples. Wine country...only one problem, we don't drink wine. Drats.

After our beautiful European tour (I don't see what all the fuss is about...everything is so Americanized and not at all expensive) we headed to the Middle East. It wasn't as far as I thought it would be. But when we got there I was a little confused as I looked around. Instead of seeing beautiful people with dark skin and exotic clothes all I saw were a bunch of white people carrying aroung big gulps....where the !@#$ were we?

"Can, where are we?"

"We're in Lebanon"

"Thats what I thought but I don't see a single Lebanese restaurant"

"Why on earth would there be a Lebanese restaurant in PA?"

Pennsylvania? What happened to my worldwind tour? Sigh...a girl can dream can't she? (PS all of these places are really towns in PA and NY)

After all the dissapointment we still had a blast on our trip to upstate NY and PA. We drove up to the Palmyra area and stayed in a cute lake town called Canandaigua where I saw the house of my DREAMS. (much like my trip around the world.)





They have a gorgeous lake and we stayed at a cute little B&B. Well OK it wasn't so much a B&B as it was a dumpy motel with a diner attached to it.

We spent the day in Palmyra seeing all of the church sites. It was so sweet to be in the sacred grove with my little family...and my preteen sister (raging hormones, mega attitude...you get the picture. LOVE you Lil!!) The highlight of the sacred grove was blackberry picking. It was SOOO gorgeous and serene. There was nobody but us and the berries. It made us wonder if Joseph and his siblings ever did the same thing.



Lil and I. Elyse was supposed to get Joseph AND Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ

This is what it looks like.


Nature at its finest. I love the woods and miss them soooo much.




We also stopped in Niagra Falls for the day. Unfortunately we didn't make it to the Canadian side which I remember being WAY better, but I wasn't sure of all of the passport rules but lets face it...why pay more for the same stuff.

Elyse loves finds wildlife wherever we go!



Since Cannon is a doting father he paid $5 !@#$ bucks to let Elyse "feed" the seals at the Niagra aquarium. I wish they would have told us that by feed they really meant toss sardines at blind and gimpy seals...no offense to any of you PETA members but its the truth.


I think if you ask the kids they will tell you that the highlight of their trip was right after Levi was car sick and we stopped at a reptile zoo. (PS when you stop at a grocery store in the middle of nowhere you just have to expect that they won't have any decent natural remedies. I found a homeopathic remedy that soothes upset tummies so I snatched it up without looking at the ingredients. It was too late when I read that it has my top two favorite ingredients methyl and propyl paraben! That stuff is in shampoo's! I will be calling the company to very politely ask why they are putting this junk in a homeopathic remedy, which is for children) (It wouldn't be a post of mine without some kind of rant now would it?)

So in order to get some fresh air we paid the exorbitant price of 10 buks a pop for a teeny tiny reptile zoo. But it turned out to be the MOST fun!



Thats what i thought it looked like too.



Poor little Levi didn't enjoy this too much.

The most fun were the Emu's (isn't this a reptile zoo??)Elyse and Lillian are a little nervous with all of the Emu's weird noises.

Strange looking things. That area to the left of its beak (the black with the white spot in the middle) isn't its eye...its the ear!

You could feed the Emu's for a quarter...what they didn't tell you was that they BITE!! I wish I knew how to post video...poor little Levi got his little sick hand nibbled. Anyway, everyone was shrieking and carrying on. SO.....


Elyse decided that the only thing to do was to shake her bootie at them...you show them Elyse!


We did lots of other stuff including eating "real homecooked" Amish food which was more like real outta the can and slapped on a plate food....but if I mentioned all that then this post would just be way too long ; )

8/21/08

Having 3 people in the past 6 weeks
ask you if you're pregnant: Sad

Crying when you realize why they
thought you were pregnant: Pathetic

Two nine year olds at the pool
telling you that you're "way skinny": Priceless

This really happened to me. The first time I thought it was a fluke...maybe it was the full and flowy summer dress I was wearing, the next time my cheeks were looking fuller...ok I can't explain that one and the third was just plain embarrassing.

But its amazing what a bit of positive reinforcement will do for a gal!

The convo at the pool went something like this with 2 girls named Alexa and Sophia.

A- So tell me about your wedding...who were you're flower girls?
k- I didn't have flower girls I got married in the temple...
A- wow, so you're jewish?
k- no I'm mormon like Sophia here
A-ohhhhhh
k-I had on a beautiful white dress...
A- cool, so do you still have it?
k- yes
a- so you can put it on for special occasions?
k- well, it doesn't fit me anymore
a- why not?
k- well...sometimes after you have 2 kids you get a little chubby and....
a and s emphatically-oh you're not chubby you're way skinny.

I almost cried.

8/10/08

Colorado

Cannon went to CO last week and had a blast with his friend Nick. He was only there for 3 days and was exhausted when he got back.



Mountain biking at Vail....it looks so gorgeous! He wasn't too happy about having to leave his sweet downhill bike at home and rent this crappy one, but he had tons of fun anyway.




Cannon hiked Longs Peak Mtn...it took 12 hours. Sounds insane especially when its at 14,000 feet and NYC is at zero. I am so proud of my guy even though I think that anyone who wants to hike for 12 hours is nutty. But he did it all the while feeling like he was breathing through a straw and only getting a little loopy from the altitude change.
At this point in the hike they were on all fours because it was so steep.


Breathtaking!

Sweetest Video EVER!!

Cannon said that I should start another blog for all of my "opinion pieces" and keep this blog for family stuff.....I disagree.

So once again I am posting something that doesn't pertain to our family but it is seriously the best video EVER! And just in case you are wondering my lovely friend Tara checked it out on Snopes and its legit.

Christian The Lion

8/2/08

Gardasil

I love my friend Kirstin's blog. She always has great info and tips. I have been reading quite a bit lately about the Gardasil vaccine for HPV. I completely disagree with it and find it incredibly ridiculous. Its like the chicken pox vaccine....who hasn't had the chicken pox? I had a Dr tell me that one of the reasons for vaccinating against CP is because it causes scarring...WTH? The pharmaceutical companies are just getting greedy. The other thing that makes me angry is that its going to be one more thing that we have to give our kids because the government tells us to so there will be tons more stories like these scary reports I am just pasting below what she has on her blog for ease. Also if you want to see a video there is one on my sister's blog here.

This is really serious stuff...it is already MANDATED in 2 states. Seriously, you're forcing parents to give their little girls a drug that only protects against 4 strains of a virus that you get from sexual contact. As Newman says: "oh the humanity" grrrr this really has me frustrated at our government and the moneymakers.

On a side note Cannon is in CO with his friend Nick and I am super jealous....not only is it because his wife is six feet tall and gorgeous (haha) but also because they have been playing in the mountains all weekend. (pictures to come)

From whattofeedyourkids.com

There are serious concerns about the safety and the efficacy of
Gardasil, which is a vaccine marketed to reduce cervical cancer. The
concerns about serious side effects and whether it is effective need
to be investigated by the F.D.A. An article in U.S. News and World
Report on July 2, 2008 titled "HPV Vaccine Blamed for Teen's
Paralysis" is about a 14 year old girl, named Jenny, who became
"nearly completely paralyzed" a month after receiving the Gardasil
vaccine. Her father is convinced it is the vaccine that led to her
neurological impairment. Judicial Watchdog is also concerned about theserious adverse affects--including deaths--that have been reported
from Gardasil. It is fascinating to read her developmental history,
because it might reveal the subset of kids who should definitely NOT
receive vaccinations that aren't absolutely necessary. Dr. Mercola
has a wonderful synopsis of this issue I read about on Journey to
Crunchville. I am reprinting it here, because like Journey to
Crunchville, I am too tired to sum up this complicated issue and he
has done a terrific job

From mercola.com:

Once you educate yourself and know the facts about Gardasil, the trutha bout HPV, and the statistics of cervical cancer, it will become quite clear just how outrageously useless -- and dangerous -- this vaccine really is.

The FDA, in not-so-rare form, insists there's no medical reason to be
worried about the side effects of Gardasil. "We're monitoring the
safety of the HPV vaccine very carefully, and the only adverse event
that causes some concern is fainting after the vaccine," says Robert
Ball, director of the FDA's office of biostatistics and division of
epidemiology.

He continues to say, "Higher rates of Guillain-Barré have been
associated with the swine flu vaccine and possibly with the meningitis
vaccine Menactra, but it is no more common in those who get Gardasil
than in those who don't."

Alright. Let's say you agree with the idea that the cases of Guillain-
Barre syndrome are pure coincidence, despite the fact that they occur
within days or weeks of vaccination.

But what about the deaths?

Infant deaths following Merck's rotavirus are routinely disguised
under the label SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). So what do we
have when healthy teenagers drop dead for no reason? SAD -- Sudden
Adolescent Death? Will that be the next big thing? Will there be SAD
campaigns, with physicians educating the public about proper sleeping positions until you're well into your 20's?

Let's get real.

I recently read a comment online from one mother who said she'd do
anything in her power to make sure her children were protected, and
she couldn't understand "the narrow-minded opinions" and "fear
mongering" of Gardasil nay-sayers.

"Would you rather your daughters died of cervical cancer?" she wrote.

Well, that's just it, right there! As I will show you, the chances of
your daughter dying of cervical cancer are already VERY LOW, and the possibility of Gardasil sparing them from cervical cancer is so RIDICULOUSLY LOW that no reasonable person could argue for the use of this HPV vaccine if they knew all the facts.

How Likely are You to Develop and Die From Cervical Cancer?

According to the CDC, cervical cancer used to be the leading cause of
cancer death for women in the United States. However, in the past 40
years, the number of cervical cancer cases and the number of deaths
thereof have decreased significantly. It is believed that this decline
is the result of many women getting regular Pap tests, which can find
cervical pre-cancer before it turns into cancer.

According to the U.S. Cancer Statistics: 2004 Incidence and Mortality
report, 11,892 women in the U.S. were told that they had cervical
cancer in 2004, and 3,850 women died from the disease. The American
Cancer Society mirrors these statistics, estimating that about 3,870
women will die from cervical cancer in the U.S. in 2008.

Well. We've already lost 18 girls, some as young as 12, in the effort
to spare them from the mere possibility of cervical cancer later in
life. Others have developed debilitating and potentially life-
threatening ailments within weeks of being vaccinated, and others
still have had spontaneous abortions or given birth to babies with
birth defects.

Also consider this: Cervical cancer usually develops in your late 20s
to mid 30s. The protection period of Gardasil is estimated to be 5
years. That means, if you receive your first set of shots when you're
10 years old, you'd need at least 2 to 4 additional booster shots to
make it through your 30s. And THAT means you'll have to expose
yourself to the potential side effects of Gardasil over and over and
over again.

But now to the real clincher, and I want you to read the following
section as many times as you need to let this truly sink in…

U.S. statistics show there are 30 to 40 cervical cancer cases per year
per one million women between the ages of 9 and 26, which is the age
bracket that Gardasil targets (and was tested on).

According to Merck, Gardasil was shown to reduce pre-cancers by 12.2%
to 16.5% in the general population. So, instead of ending up with 30
to 40 cases of cancer per million, per year, in that age bracket, the
HPV vaccine can potentially bring it down to 26 to 35 cases of
cervical cancer.

What that means is that you would have to vaccinate one million girls
to prevent cervical cancer in 4 to 5 girls.

Further, about 37 percent of women who develop cervical cancer
actually die from the disease, so vaccinating ONE MILLION girls would
prevent 1 to 2 DEATHS per year, at the bargain-basement price of $360million per year, plus potentially lifelong suffering for an untold number of women, which has no price tag.

Is this REASONABLE?

Understanding the HPV – Cancer Connection

There are more than 100 types of human papillomaviruses (HPVs). Of
them, about 40 types of HPV affect your genitals or sex organs, and
can cause genital warts, for example. 10-30 strains can lead to
cervical cancer. The remainder can cause to skin infections and common warts on your hands and feet.

The CDC web site states that certain types of HPV can infect your
cervix and lead to cervical cancer over many years. (This may be one
of the reasons why cancer rates keep dropping, because there's
sufficient amount of time to treat any abnormalities if you're getting
regular Pap smears.)

It also says that in 90 percent of women infected, HPV clears up on
its own within two years, at which point your cervical cells go back
to normal. It is only when the HPV virus lingers for many years that
these abnormal cells could turn into cancer.

Additionally, it's important to know that the vast majority of
abnormal Pap tests do NOT equate to cancer. Even abnormal Pap tests
showing pre-cancerous cells of the CIN II grade clear by themselves
without treatment 40 percent of the time.

And, current treatment of pre-cancers has limited the progression to
actual cancer to only 1 percent. So, just like the polio vaccine,
Merck's HPV vaccine is coming out at a time when cervical cancer is
already on a steady decline, and anyone who starts talking about how
Gardasil has reduced cervical cancer rates in the next few years is
likely talking absolute nonsense.

Informed Consent: Understand the Numerous Dangers of the HPV Vaccine

First of all, the Gardasil vaccine contains just four types of HPV out
of the more than 100 strains. So if you contract one of the 96+ types
that aren't included, you're out of luck. And, if you've already been
exposed to one of the four types of virus in the vaccine, it doesn't
work against those either.

This means that even if you accept the risks and get vaccinated, your
chances of getting some form of HPV are still very high. Whether or
not the HPV virus will lead to genital warts or cervical cancer,
however, depends in large part on the state of your immune system.

Gardasil, on the other hand, can damage your immune system, and can potentially lead to death. The main causes of death include blood clots, acute respiratory failure, cardiac arrest, and "sudden death" due to "unknown causes" shortly after receiving the vaccine. Again, 11
of the reported deaths occurred within 2 weeks of vaccination, and 7 within 2 days, so whatever the mechanism that induces death, it's quick and efficient.

Other side effects include:

* Miscarriages and spontaneous abortion
* Genital wart outbreak, even in patients who had tested negative
for HPV and genital warts prior to vaccination
* Facial warts and warts on hands and feet
* Anaphylactic shock
* Loss of consciousness
* Grand mal seizures
* Coma
* Paralysis

Says Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch, "Given all the questions
about Gardasil, the best public health policy would be to reevaluate
its safety and to prohibit its distribution to minors. In the least,
governments should rethink any efforts to mandate or promote this
vaccine for children."

It's also important to know that Merck has NOT evaluated Gardasil's
potential carcinogenity or genotoxicity.

There is currently no way of knowing how the HPV vaccine affects
fertility, birth defects, cancer, if it can pass through breast milk,
or if it can alter your genes or the genes of your future children
(genotoxicity).

However, five subjects who got the vaccine around the time of
conception had babies with birth defects, whereas no birth defects
occurred among the subjects who received a placebo. Likewise, earlier
last year when there were "only" 1,637 adverse reports, 18 of 42 women
who had received the vaccine while pregnant experienced side effects
ranging from spontaneous abortion to fetal abnormalities.

Also remember that you cannot sue Merck if your child dies after receiving the vaccine.

Drug companies have cleverly manipulated the government so that they are immune from prosecution. Instead they've made the U.S. taxpayers foot the bill for the hundreds of millions of dollars that are paid out to families of children who are harmed or killed every year from vaccines.

And even though it is nearly impossible to get one of these payments,
more than $1.5 billion has been paid out to affected families already.
So ponder on these stats if you haven't already taken a firm position
on the vaccine issue.

Good Example of How to Fake a Safety Study

In yet another less-than-ethical twist, Merck was permitted to use an
aluminum-containing placebo instead of a standard saline placebo.
Since Gardasil contains 225 mcg of aluminum, using an aluminum-
containing placebo may paint an entirely inaccurate picture of its
level of safety, since you're apt to get similar, detrimental side
effects in the placebo group.

In fact, about 60 percent of those who received either Gardasil or the
aluminum placebo had systemic adverse events including:

* Headache
* Fever
* Nausea
* Dizziness
* Vomiting
* Diarrhea,
* Myalgia (muscle pain)

Gardasil recipients had more serious adverse events such as
gastroenteritis, appendicitis, pelvic inflammatory disease, asthma,
bronchospasm and arthritis.

You should also know that aside from being injected with four types of
HPV proteins, girls and women who receive this vaccine also receive
the following adjuvants:

1. Aluminum adjuvants, which have been linked to neurological
damage including multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, and
Parkinson's disease

2. Polysorbate 80, which has been linked to infertility in mice.

3. Sodium borate, a main ingredient in roach killer.

How To Reduce Your Risk of Cervical Cancer to Virtually Zero

The following have been shown to be associated with increased risk of
cervical cancer:

* Nutritional deficiencies, especially vitamin A and folate
* Mineral deficiency (zinc, selenium, calcium and iron)
* Smoking
* Birth control use
* Douching

It is believed that smoking has more to do with the progression of an
HPV infection to cervical cancer than any other single factor, as
smokers with HPV go on to develop cervical cancer much more frequently than infected non-smokers.

Cervical cancer is also well documented to be caused by an infection
acquired through sexual contact. So in addition to avoiding smoking
and eating a nutritious diet, it is behaviorally avoidable.

According to a New England Journal of Medicine study, the use of
condoms reduces the incidence of HPV by 70 percent, offering FAR
better protection than Gardasil's protection rate of 12.2 to 16.5
percent.

As I've already mentioned, in 90 percent of all cases, your immune system is strong enough to clear up an HPV infection without ANY treatment. So maintaining a strong immune system is vital to beat HPV as well as any other infection or disease.


http://www.usnews.com/blogs/on-women/2008/7/2/is-hpv-vaccine-to-blame-for-a-teens-paralysis.html

http://www.jentet.com/pub_history.html