About a month ago I posted to my blog and stated that I was going to have some “mommy topics” from time to time. I think it’s a good thing. I am going to try to do at least one a month! This next topic is probably one of the most serious ones I will put up. I contemplated this for a while. But then I got speaking with a friend and decided YES I NEED to post this… Even if I change just ONE mind, it’s worth it. So the topic… Circumcision!

Recently a friend of ours, his wife, my husband and I had a conversation about circumcision. The friend has three kids, two boys and a girl. We have two kids, one boy and one girl. When I was pregnant with my son I did a TON of research on Circumcision. I found very little to support the fact that it is a HUGE hygiene risk to keep my son intact (uncircumcised). I found little had to do with Religion as it once was a Jewish thing, but not so much anymore. I found MOST people doing it are AMERICANS! Other countries rarely preform the routine. But what really had me thinking was a conversation that we had with our friend about it. He did NOT circumcise his sons. I asked him why. Without ANY embarrassment or hesitation he replied “I am circumcised and when I have a full erection it hurts.” WHAT?!?! I was NOT going to do something to my son that is UN-DOABLE and have him suffer in the future. Of course I asked my friend questions and he answered, every last question. He knew that my son was about to be born and he could change ONE person. My husband and I had talked about it but never really decided anything. Here’s a video from Momversation to watch:

Is Circumcision Wrong?

So having watched that video, does anyone have any thoughts? Truthfully we decided NOT to circumcise. If my son wants to be circumcised (a body altering experience) he can chose to do so later when he’s older. I guess the part about circumcision that really annoys me is the reasons people chose to DO it. Hygiene (myth), because dad is, because most people are (myth), uneducated decisions. The truth is the rate of baby boys being circumcised is FALLING. Here’s a yearly chart. The average in tact rate in 2006 was 43.9%. Since then it was reported by Parents Magazine that it’s closer to 55% now. As for hygiene, I would honestly hope that one could TEACH their child how to bath and clean. If not you probably shouldn’t have children. The risk of STD’s does decrease, however, once again this can be easily solved by talking to your children about STD’s and the risks of unprotected sex. If you can’t do that then again, you probably shouldn’t have children. I can see the whole, look like dad, however, we were not as aware of things back then as we are now. Bottom line for me, Circumcision is an elective surgery. I would never but my newborn through and elective surgery, I wouldn’t circumcise my girl so why should my boy be … and to top that off, that’s the way he’s born and if it wasn’t supposed to be that way, then God wouldn’t have created males with the foreskin.

Please feel free to comment or not, with your thoughts!

Today was the kids birthday party. They had a blast. There was somewhere around 30 kids there. I wasn’t really counting and didn’t care to know the exact number. All I know was it was LOUD. We had a party at the roller rink here in town. It’s only open for parties on Sunday so we had the entire thing! What a good time the kids AND ADULTS had. They all skated and dance/skated like it was 1999!! Literally!! Some of the parents, our friends and I had gone there as children to skate. It used to be open on Wednesday nights, Friday nights, Saturday nights and Sunday nights. Now it is only open for parties and family skate two times a month. It is sad that it is gone now. But the original owner passed away and through the years we’ve (as in people/society) gotten more busy and more involved with our kids and grandparents these days work, sometimes both parents work there is just no one to tend to it full time anymore. The kids were of course stumbling some with skating, but some of the adults were on their behinds too. They are going to have some sore legs and back sides tomorrow. Unfortunately no hemorrhoids treatment will relieve THAT pain!! LOL Anyhow… The kids cake was a 2 tier candy coated fun cake!! Covered in fondant frosting that was lifted off (for lack of better words fondant is chewy and nasty tasting). So the layer on fondant was able to come right off and the butter cream was underneath. It was SOOOO amazingly yummy. The top tier was white cake with vanilla frosting, the bottom tier was marble cake with chocolate frosting! I had to cut the pieces HUGE to get most of the cake gone because I always go elaborate on the cake. I love HUGE BEAUTIFUL cakes!! My cake is always the highlight of my party and today was NO exception! Because my children are born 4 days shy of 3 years apart we do their parties together and have one nice huge cake. They got a ton of presents and gift cards. Tomorrow they want to go shopping, but I have no idea if I am up for that adventure. Right now I am enjoying and learning about my MAC. It did arrive, however I haven’t had much time to play on it. This is my FIRST post from the MAC. I’ve decided NOT to name this one yet. In the past I named my laptops… I had “Mean Green” which was my first Dell laptop, and then I got “Pinkie” {and me being the brain… it was Pinkie & the Brain… Get it?!?! HAHA!! I kill myself with humor} my second Dell laptop. I HATE Dell and I wanted to try a MAC. So I ordered it. I love it. So far.

Of course with the MAC I am having a HUGE learning curve. I need to seriously learn so much. It’s sometimes frustrating and I just want to turn Pinkie back on and be done. I am not sure who all of my readers is/are MAC users so I will just tell you a few of my issues {briefly} and if anyone has any tips/tricks I would be HAPPY to hear them.

1. The plug SUCKS! The wall part is HUGE and hates staying in the outlet and the part that plugs into the laptop itself is, well crap-tastic!! It’s magnetic and pretty much falls out as soon as you touch it. *sigh* Apple WHY? You have the most amazing things, but do *something* crap-tastic to it. The iPhone has a 12″ cord! It sucks too!!

2. The internet is VERY laggy. I tried Safari a few times and I thought maybe it was that. So I downloaded Firefox. Still no go. It’s laggy and seems like it doesn’t load anywhere NEAR as fast as Firefox did on Pinkie.

3. It’s downloading ALL my Gmail. Even Gmail that has long since been deleted. All the SPAM too. ANNOYING!!

4. The dock… *sigh* It’s either always there or “invisible”. I want it to stay, but under my windows. It doesn’t. When I maximize a window the dock is at the bottom and I lose part of my “expanded” screen size.

5. The mouse… *sigh* I obviously am used to a PC mouse and my mouse is working on the MAC, but it seems laggy. If I get a MAC mouse is this going to happen? Is it because it’s a Universal mouse? I don’t like and never liked using the touchpad on laptops.

6. Navigation… Where’s my stuff? I haven’t even TRIED to add anything like Photoshop to it yet. I’m confused as to wear my documents and things are or go… so I haven’t really done anything more then install Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger. And by the way… Is iChat different or does iChat use my AIM contacts? How confusing is that?!? The window says AIM buddy list, but I had to sign up for a mac.com address to use it???

7. Color… The screen color seems ummm OFF to me!?? I am afraid to edit photos on it because I am afraid the colors aren’t right. How can this be? Pinkie had a true color screen so this just seems a little more yellow-ish maybe to me?

I think I get a one on one with Apple to help learn some things. I am pretty sure it was with my purchase, but I can’t remember. Plus we don’t have an APPLE store in my city… We have authorized agents? Wonder if that works the same way? At this point, I do like the MAC, but I am frustrated and having a huge learning curve stumble. I wish I knew someone that had a MAC, was in my area, that could sit with me!! I am open to ideas, advise, tips, tricks!! I know some of my readers have got to know what I mean!!

Until tomorrow bloggers…

My life has been… CRAZY to say the least. I apologize to my readers for not keeping up better updates. I will try and nutshell as much as I can and I will try to keep up MUCH better with the updates!!

First, my dad. In case you didn’t read this post he has cancer. It’s a trying time for my family. We are going through a lot of changes and a lot of things. This is especially hard on me because I am daddy’s little girl AND because my brothers are not showing much support or concern. I will be there through every moment of my dad’s journey. No matter what. I just will. I am very family oriented and we have a SMALL family. My dad and mom, my 3 siblings. My husband has his mom and dad and 1 sibling. So it’s close knot because we don’t have a large family to depend on. My brothers are avoiding everything like it’s not happening or that they don’t care. I understand that everyone deals with things differently, but it’s hard for me. I know *IF* something happens they will regret it later. They don’t see that. Anywho… My dad had to see a dentist for his teeth on Tuesday. He got them all pulled. He only had 6 left, but they removed them. They won’t last through Chemo & Radiation so it was just best. He’s healing from that…. SLOWLY. On Wednesday, he had the PET Scan, which came back CLEAR for cancer anywhere, so that is good. On Thursday, he seen the surgeon. They inserted a G-Tube in his stomach. This is because his throat will be very damaged and he may not be able to eat by mouth. Sad, but it’s to ensure he stays healthy and nourished. He’s healing good, although very tired. I feel bad because we haven’t even started treatment and he’s so worn. He’s officially on disability at work too.

Next, my brother. On Monday my brother text me and said “Can you come and get me?” This was odd because he has a car. I replied and said “Where are you?” He replied “My apartment.” I replied “Sure, what’s up?” He replied “I am in pain and it’s not right.” I replied “On my way. Stay still till I get there.” Now I know it’s odd to have this via text and your thinking why didn’t he call… well when I got to his apartment I found he was completely out of breath and could barely breathe, let alone talk. He said there was a TON of pain in his left side. We got him into my SUV and drove him to the ER. There we sat from 2:00pm until 6:00pm. They ran a lot of tests and hooked up an IV. He entered up having a CT Scan at 6:00pm. At 6:30pm they came back in and said… Surgery at 7:00pm. His appendix was rupturing and needed to be removed NOW. But wait, his pain is on the LEFT not the right. His pain was displaced, and it is common. So at 7:00pm I called my mom up there, she stayed until 9:00pm when he was out of surgery and ready to go to recovery. I needed to leave so I did. He stayed the night and I picked him up the next day at 11:00am. He’s home and recovering and getting ready to eat his first REAL meal. They have you on liquid and soft diet for 3 days after appendix surgery.

Lastly, me! I am set to go see the surgeon and muscle specialist on Tuesday the 23rd. They will be taking a biopsy of my muscle from my left leg, thigh area. This has been HARD. I haven’t been able to take any Advil or Aleve. Only some Tylenol but not a lot. UGH! I take Advil daily so this is a struggle. I need it to get through the day with my pain and inflammation. I will know more once the biopsy is complete. I will update then! As far as my weight loss, that is going well. There are no diets for quick weight loss that have worked for me, so this is an ongoing work in progress. I will keep working on it. For now the Quick Trim and exercise is working. After the biopsy I won’t be able to exercise for 10 days though. That is going to be tough!

A lot is happening here in the next couple days. The kids birthday party is tomorrow. Mariah turned 9 and Alex turned 6, so we are celebrating tomorrow with all their classmates. My MAC laptop is on it’s way. FedEx site says “On FedEx vehicle for delivery” so I am JUST waiting…. impatiently!! I will have more to update soon!! TTFN bloggers!!

My oldest turns 9 today. I remember her birth like it was yesterday. I know all my readers are thinking, didn’t you JUST post a birthday? Yes, yes I did!! My son and daughter have birthdays 4 days shy of 3 years apart!! It makes parties fun at this house because mine is also next week!! Anyway… back to the Princess!! She’s learning so much and so fast. She reads chapter books, has started getting chin acne, has the attitude of a teenager, talks on the phone for over an hour at a crack, bosses the household around like SHE’S the adult, and wants to learn to drive. Yes, I will admit, she’s spoiled. She has everything her heart desires and even more. As the only grand daughter of 4 grand parents it was not easy to keep her from being spoiled. She loves it and enjoys every minute of all the attention. However, she is still a lovable cuddly 9 year old that LOVES her daddy. She’s the BIGGEST daddy’s girl I’ve ever seen!! To tell you just how much… her screen saver on her cell phone is a photo of her DADDY!!

Happy Birthday Miss M!! Mommy loves you SOOOOOO much!!