vacation
we’ve been visitingYellowstone, Jackson Hole and Lava Hot Springs the last few days. it’s been fun but the internet has been spotty. i’ll be back with regular posts when we get back to Denver.
first fig
my candle burns at both ends…
Month: August, 2012
August 10, 2012
live-blogging a road trip
we’re headed to my brother-in-law’s wedding today which means we’re on a road trip!
4:20 a.m. wake up. get ready and put final bags in the car.
4:35 a.m. wake up children. very grumpy and sleepy.
5:00 a.m. pull out of the garage.
5:30 a.m. stop by Krispy Kreme for a dozen hot, glazed donuts.
5:35 a.m. put in our book on cd. first book: Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.
5:45 a.m. on to I-75. turned the first dvd for the kids…teletubbies.
6:00 a.m. took pictures of the sunrise.
6:20 a.m. drove by Cheyenne, waved at my friend crazywomancreek.
6:30 a.m. changed the dvd to backyardigans.
7:20 a.m. kids are now watching the incredibles. only one tearful episode so far. not to bad.
7:58 a.m. happiness streak is over. valkyrie and lionheart are poking each other and screaming.
8:00 a.m. worst part of Wyoming?..hardly any cell service.
8:35 a.m. stopped for gas. saw bikers.
9:50 a.m. lionheart succumbs to sleep.
10:03 a.m. monster wakes up lionheart after laughing at the little einsteins.
10:20 a.m. in Margaret Atwood’s dystopian universe men are given a special power to make them equal to women and their childbearing power–a section of the book that mr. mraynes especially appreciated.
12:17 p.m. guess i fell asleep.
1:32 p.m. took a potty break. wait a second, you don’t have a driver’s license!
2:39 p.m. pulled into the Idaho Falls Hampton Inn. finally here. easiest road trip ever!
August 10, 2012
i am grateful
1. a curious little boy who fills my day questions about how things are spelled and why they are.
2. a work ethic.
3. my in-laws who write each other silly notes and genuinely like to spend time together.
4. the olympics. enough said.
5. a washer/dryer. I was remembering as i did 5 loads of laundry today that before we bought our house I did all our laundry at a coin-op. that sucked.
August 8, 2012
notes
my brother-in-law is getting married this weekend and needless to say, we are so excited for it! our family has not gone on any kind of vacation this summer because I have been working so hard on my thesis so it will be nice to have a little break. we leave on friday for Idaho Falls and then will spend a few days after the wedding with my in-laws around Jackson Hole and Lava Hot Springs.
the kids have been especially excited; they will talk to any one who will listen about our trip and we have spent most of the last month answering questions about the wedding.
monster has learned how to read and write over the summer and decided to use his new found abilities to write this note to his cousin Kate:
it reads: dear kate, just come too the wedding and play with Terra’s sisters and me and go too the big hotel too swim in the pool. love, georgie. Read the rest of this entry »
August 7, 2012
thesis thought #12
it is surprisingly awkward to try and explain to a university police officer that the reason you need to get back into an office you have locked yourself out of is that you have to finish writing a chapter in your thesis about disempowering and oppressive police tactics.
August 6, 2012
moderation in all things
i am at the Exponent today. come talk with me about being moderate.
August 4, 2012
plate licking good
to celebrate the weekend our family makes waffles every saturday. lionheart loves saturdays.
how do you celebrate the weekend?
August 3, 2012
my old friend
anxiety has been a near constant companion since childhood. sitting, uninvited on my chest, and whispering nasty things in my ear. at time i have pushed him off and told him to go away. he will stay away for a while but always–always–he comes back, wrapping himself around my torso and daring me to move.
over time i have learned how to move him, carrying him piggyback through my days. i have found that the busier i am the lighter he gets. this is the reason i have three children five and under, am pursuing a graduate degree, writing a thesis when only a capstone paper is required, actively engaged in my religious community, writing for three blogs and heavily invested in mormon feminist activism. when i am doing well at all of those things i barely remember that my old friend anxiety even exists.
but there are days. Read the rest of this entry »
August 2, 2012
obamacare and women’s health
i was very young when i got pregnant with monster, just 23 years old. we had been married for 6 months and during that time i saw my dreams of going to graduate school crash and burn. i was still in a state of shock when i got pregnant and that shock only increased when i found out that our insurance would not cover my pregnancy due to a logistical error we had made. even though we moved to a different state soon after i got pregnant and had different insurance my pregnancy was not covered because it was considered a pre-existing condition. mr. mraynes and i were just beginning our lives together and already we were looking down the barrel of a financially devastating medical bill.
i did some research and discovered a midwifery practice and birth center in Arizona that would cover all of my prenatal care and the delivery for just $2000. It was still a bitter pill to swallow but it was much preferable to the $15,000+ cost of a traditional pregnancy and birth. i will be forever grateful that we went this route as it allowed me to have the unmedicated birth that i wanted. nevertheless, there was one aspect of my care that made this dream of mine infinitely harder. they did not test me for gestational diabetes. i don’t know if their insurance paying clients got this service but i did not. i have a family history of diabetes, my mother is a type 1 diabetic and as such i had an increased risk. i should have been tested. Read the rest of this entry »
August 1, 2012
i am grateful
i would say that by nature i am a pretty pessimistic person. i don’t believe this says anything about my character, just that my life circumstances and experiences have shown me that the world can often be a hard place. this doesn’t mean that i don’t try to see the positive, i believe that because i struggle with optimism i need to work extra hard to illuminate these things in my life. (just like i believe optimists need to work hard to see other people’s struggles and sorrows even if they have not personally experienced this.)
i was thinking about this last night after i made several pessimistic comments about valkyrie which mr. mraynes immediately counteracted with positive ones. it wasn’t that i was being unloving towards my daughter i just momentarily let my concerns for her future overshadow the wonderful little girl she is.
first fig 