Nya's Young Einstein Party

Today we celebrated Nya's 9th Birthday. She wanted to have a 'Young Einsteins Party.' The decorations and idea we got from Design Mom's Blogspot. What could be more exciting than a gaggle of girls (and one boy) running around with chemicals?

Those of you who know me best, know that I DON'T bake. This is my attempt at brain cupcakes...

Fake Snow. . .Brrr!

We had to send them home with slime!

The only photo of the Happy Birthday sign. (Of course it didn't turn out!)

Dry Ice bubbles. . .

Corbin LOVED them!!!

What would the party be without film canister rockets? (You fill the canister half full of water, then add half a tab of Alka Seltzer, put the lid on, and BLAST OFF!)

Waiting for launch codes. . .

Here are the goodie bags....

My photo skills at their worst. . .

New Niece

Here are some photos of our meeting with my new niece Aliya.....

A Mother on a Mission!

Many of you know that I have been taking Corbin to regular Speech and Occupational therapy. Each week we have the privilege of meeting with the most amazing specialists. I've been astounded by how much improvement I've seen in only a couple of months. At each appointment, I'm given practice suggestions for things I can do at home with him. Many of the suggestions involve games.

Unfortunately, games are not cheap. (Especially when coupled with $300 co pays each month!) I've collected what I can, but it's adding up quickly. In an effort to help Corbin, and not pay retail prices, I'm posting the remaining list of suggested games.

Hopefully one of the six people who read this blog will see the list and think "Hey, I've got that game out in the garage and we never play it." If any of you find that this is the case, and would be willing to part with the game at a reasonable price, please email me. Don't worry about missing pieces, I'm adapting some of the games anyway. For pieces on games that don't need to be adapted, I can easily contact the company for replacements.

Here's the list:

Cariboo (made by Cranium)

Colorama

Boggle Jr.

Upwords (Doesn't need to be Upwords Jr.)

Chopstix (I haven't been able to find this one anywhere! I'm pretty sure they've quit making it.)

My intention is not to be pushy here, but for so long I've felt helpless, and this has given me the chance to feel like I'm doing something. I'm just so impressed with how much these activities seem to help.

Soccer Photos

Nya started playing soccer this year. She absolutely loves it (when she's playing forward.) She's still not fond of being on defense. Anyway, I just wanted to share a few pics. Nya is #2. None of the photos are very good. I'm definitely not the best photographer. . .I'm just happy to have finally remembered my camera for once!

Today they played a team that hasn't lost a game in 3 years! I hear they practice 3 days a week. Several of the girls on that team play for U9, as well as Nya's age division, U8. (Some of them were monstrously huge!) Anyway, we were glad the girls only lost by 7 goals. The final score was 2 to 9.

I don't think I've ever yelled so loud in all my life! At one point during half time I found myself telling Nya "Those girls are rough! Don't be afraid to get in there and man handle 'em! If they shove you, shove 'em back!" Nya seemed pretty surprised to hear me actually telling her to rough somebody up. When did I become so violent??? However, the pep talk worked! The other team only scored 1 goal during the entire 2nd half! Nya was much more aggressive after that.Here she is playing defense. The girl next to her is the coaches daughter. Luckily it didn't start raining until right after the game ended. I had a few more pics, but they were all too blurry to see anything. Maybe I'll get a better shot at next weeks game.

And The Winner is. . .

I'm pretty excited, since I had this name (and logo) before. Here is a sample of my business card. It's been several years, and I still love it. All I had to do was tweek it a little. Thanks for all the opinions, it really helped!

Local News

Nya's class was featured on the weather portion of our local news. I wanted to post the video clip, which showed Nya front and center, but this was all I could find on the website. Nya is pretty excited though.

Naming the Business, HELP!!!

I spent this past weekend at a doula workshop. After meeting a group of lovely ladies in my area, and realizing that I now have support and backup, I have decided to get back into Doula-ing. I've been taking a break for awhile now (sort of), after a really traumatic birth experience. (Traumatic for me, NOT for mom or baby ;)

In light of this decision, I have decided that it's time to get a business license. My biggest quandary, is what to name the business.

So, I have a few names I've been considering, but I'm also open to ideas and suggestions. Here are the names:

1) Gentle Birth (I like this one alot, I used it in NM. It's probably the easiest one, because I already have the logo. It just doesn't have the personal significance the others do, but it may be the most marketable.)

2) The Sacred Path (This one has particular significance, in that it's where I go in my mind while I'm birthing! Also, it could mean the actual birth path the baby passes through, or the sacred path of motherhood. I can visualize some great art for the logo on this one.)

* I took off the 3rd & 4th choices, since I really prefer the first two, and it appears as though everyone feels the same way.

So, you can see I NEED some help. I realize that my views of birth are a little outside of the norm for many women. I really want the name of my business to be something that the average woman would like. I don't want to choose a name that would seem too extreme and turn people off.

Which name do you like, if any? Do you have any suggestions or ideas for names I haven't considered? Please leave a comment with your opinion.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!! and Happy Birthing!!

Pass it on!

I just had to share with everyone my latest exciting news! (First off, let me answer the question that seems to be weighing on so many peoples minds lately. NO!!!!! I AM NOT PREGNANT!!!!!) As a side note on that subject, Brian says my desire to 'test run' new birthing methods is not a reason to have another baby. In an effort to be diplomatic, I'm taking his word for it. :)

Anyway, back to the subject. Mark your calendars! Grand Junction is having its first-ever Birth Fest September 11, 12, and 13th 2009! The birthfest will be focused on giving pregnant moms and families all of the goods, services, and resources available to them on the western slope of Colorado. BirthFest is sponsored by BirthSmart, a non-profit organization whose mission is to educate pregnant women on their birth options, because an educated mother has the best chance for an empowered birth. Our logo is, "Educate your belly." We are expecting around 1500 participants!

BirthFest will be featuring six incredible events:

• Birth, a play by Karen Brody at the Art Center
  
• A Birth Art Show- featuring the work of several artists
  
• Film Festival at the Avalon featuring the films "The Business of Being Born" and "Orgasmic Birth"
  
• Guest Speakers (Suzanne Arms author of the New York Times bestseller "Immaculate Deception" is the keynote speaker!)
  
• FREE Red Tent Birth Story Telling Festival
  
• FREE Vendors Expo in Sherwood Park (You can rest assured that HypnoBirthing will be well represented!)
  

Just thinking about this great event gets my heart palpitating! I will share more info as I get it. Otherwise, for anyone interested in learning more (or volunteering to help out) you can go to the website http://birthfest.org/

Giveaway!

My Sister in law Jennifer is very creative, and she's having a giveaway! This is her cute creation. To enter the giveaway, click on the following link: http://sjandcc.blogspot.com/2009/03/giveaway-your-dork-if-you-dont.html

My Project- By Nya

My project is for school. I decided to see which laundry soap would work the best, store bought or home made. To make the home made laundry soap we needed some ingredients. What we needed were different kinds of soap, hot water, a cheese grater, and a bucket. Next I grated one bar of soap. When there was just a little soap left in my hand, I looked inside the grater and there was a big pile of soap.Then we put the soap into a pot of 4 cups of hot water. I stirred until it was just bubbles. Then we got out a bucket and filed it with 3 gallons of water, 1/2 cup Borax, and 1 cup Washing Soda. After that we stirred it.

After I finished stirring it, we got two white shirts. Then we put mustard all over them. We washed one with store bought detergent. We washed the other with our home made detergent.

We marked the shirts on their tags with a "T" for Tide and an "H" for home. Here are our results. . .

The home made detergent didn't clean off the mustard. Neither did the Tide. In conclusion, both detergents worked the same. They both smelled good, but the mustard was still there. My mom is going to have to use bleach!

Chicken Dance?

This morning during breakfast Corbin asked me if I've had the chicken pox. I said "Yes, when I was a child I did get the chicken pox."

Corbin responded "If I ever get the chicken pox I will do the chicken dance and flap them away, those stupid pox."

I love him! Hopefully due to his having had the chicken pox vaccine, he won't have to worry about doing any flapping.

The Wind. . .

Last night we had a wind storm. The gusts were up to 66 mph. Here is a photo of our trampoline after the storm.

Considering it was straddling our neighbors fence upside down, I consider it to be in pretty good shape. I didn't get a photo of it on the fence. I was pretty shocked last night and didn't think to before we had removed it. In this photo you can see the corner of the trampoline, and the fence it was straddling. Part of the tramp was resting on the house to the left, while the rest was sitting on top of the neighbors truck. You can look at the photo and picture our trampoline sitting up there. Unfortunately, the screen on Nya's bedroom window was also ripped off, so I was able to take these shots from her room. The closeup of this rain gutter on our neighbors home shows you where the tramp was resting.
Here is a pic of what happened to our neighbors pergola. Unfortunately, they are both out of town.

I am just thankful the no one was injured in any of these situations.

The Epiphany

As a childbirth educator I like to think that every mom who takes my class is just thrilled with all of the extra handouts I give them. Unfortunately though, I realize this is a pipe dream. While I do get the occasional mom who wants to read everything she can get her hands on, they are few and far between.

So, in an effort to save myself the headaches of copying hundreds of pages that will never be read, and realizing the impact this is having on our earth, I have decided to make a change. So here it is, the unveiling of my new handout display.


This way, moms who want to read about circumcision, doulas, avoiding various interventions, etc. will be able to simply grab handouts from the pockets. I'm so excited about it! My life is going to be so much easier now!

Mentos and Spiderman

This morning I was sorting through some coupons I acquired at my mom's house last weekend.

As I rummaged through them, Corbin found a Mentos coupon and said "Hey mom! I want some Mentos and I have a coupon. Let's go to the store."

I asked him, "What about money? How would we pay for the Mentos?"

Corbin replied "Oh mom! You don't need money when you have a coupon, silly! But, I do want a Spiderman transformer, you'll need your purse for that."

Man he cracks me up!

Old Fart-ish?

Nya and I kicked off our training for another 5K yesterday. On the last leg of our run, I had a complete allergy attack. My eyes were watering, nose was running, I was coughing uncontrollably, and I kept sneezing. I mentioned something about Colorado just not agreeing with me and Nya said, "You know mom, it could be happening because you're getting to be a little old fart-ish." I was so shocked I started laughing in between coughs and sneezes.

I remember the days when I thought 30 something was old. . .

The Math and Science Center

Corbin and I went for a date on Friday to one of my favorite places here. It's called the Math and Science Center. Admission is very cheap (a major plus in my book) and kids are sure to enjoy everthing there is to do. We started off learning about the location of planets in our Solar System. Then we moved on to diesel engines and how they work. One of our favorite things was learning about solar power.

We LOVED moving things with magnets. And checking out the bees.

We really liked learning about ectoplasma. Magma was also pretty cool.

Here we made thunder noises!

We even made a tornado with our friend Nate!We blew really cool bubbles.This is Corbin's teacher Miss Karen. As far as I'm concerned she walks on water, so I just thought I'd share a picture of her. Unfortunately, Corbin wouldn't look at the camera!Finally, just as we were walking out the door, Corbin smiled for me. Acually, it wasn't for me, it was for the giant pinecones behind him, but who cares? I LOVE his smile.