If They Only Knew....... :)

I found a great ad in one of my parenting magazines for Children's Motrin:

"I would kill to get some sleep right now. No really. Try me. Ok, so I don't really mean that but sometimes I secretly think it. If all us moms said exactly what was on our minds when dealing with our kids' high fevers, you might as well commit us. Actually, that's not a bad idea-at least it would be quiet. Hey, all we really want is for our kids to feel good again. We want to take that fever down. Way down. And then our crazy little kids can go back to being their crazy little selves, drawing on the walls and sticking their hands in the toilet." Use only as directed. Motrin.com

Smart ad, huh? This is how most moms feel and don't say it. We are not bad moms for feeling some selfishness here and there. I feel normal when I hear another mom talk about things like this. It keeps us from going crazy. If you don't have a mom to talk to, find one! It is your only chance. Thoughts are always welcomed on here and my way. My go-tos are AJ and my mom. Thank you. You two have made me a better mom.

I love you

Do you know that about a year ago I read a stat in a parenting magazine that only 88% of parents tell their children that they love them on a daily basis! That is crazy to me! ONLY 88% of parents?!!! I tell my boys that I love them at least 15 times a day each everyday, let alone getting it in one time a day! It sounds like I am judging, but I am! Tell you kids that you love them everyday, it doesn't hurt and it feels good. ha-ha My husband get the same treatment, so go ahead a let him know once a day, too. ( I am trying to be funny ha-ha)

My main objective for this post is to tell you a real quick note. This morning I was making breakfast for my boys, like I always do. :) Hayden likes to say, "Mommy......." I'll say, "What, baby?" Then he'll come back at me with an "I Love You." "I love you, too baby." He likes to go back and forth a few times, so then I did that to Wyatt. "Wyatt.....I love you." Wyatt smiles and for the first time, "Wuv oh." My eyes filled up with tears. I know as a mother that my children love me, but when they say it, I feel it every time.....every time. It made my whole day :)

On a More Personal Note.....

I am sorry I have been impersonal lately with all these articles, but I have been learning so much lately. There are two interesting subjects I will post as soon as I have time.


Hayden has this great and funny (in his mind) habit to run from me every time it is time to change his diaper. Today he slipped and hit his head hard on the hardwood floors. Thank goodness there is some give, because it was a bad and loud one. He was fine, but sad and huggable. He couldn't do much because, "no mommy, bonked me head." My dad was coming over to mail off something for me and I told Hayden that grandpa was coming over. "Grandpa M?" His eyes lit up and he was very happy. Hayden just LOVES his grandfather! He is so lucky to have all very great grandparents, but today Grandpa M was the cure to his downess. They went out to play tennis and mail off my procrastination of a package. It is so special that both boys get special time like that.

AJ and I were talking today, like we always do, and I LOVE-LOVE having both my boys, but they are different when they aren't together. Wyatt and I got enjoy our morning, because he wasn't competing with Hayden for my affection with clinginess and crying. When Hayden and I get time alone he is very mellow and sincere. I want my boys (and any future children), but separate. Does that make sense? Whenever the boys are going to be separate to make things easier, it doesn't really matter which one, because wherever we go they both behave very well when they aren't together. Very Strange!

But then AJ and I agreed that there are moments that my boys will interact and I will just melt. Even though, they would have been driving me nuts all day with the whining, taking of toys and so on, but that one moment of love and compassion is the most comforting feeling. It erases the 100 other insensitive things they may have exchanged previously.

When Hayden got hurt, Wyatt approached with the biggest embrace for his big brother, followed by a kiss and "sa-ry." (sorry).

Ahhhh melt.....

What Happens To Us When We Die?

I found this article very interesting. What are your thoughts?

"A fellow at New York City's Weill Cornell Medical Center, Dr. Sam Parnia is one of the world's leading experts on the scientific study of death. Last week Parnia and his colleagues at the Human Consciousness Project announced their first major undertaking: a 3-year exploration of the biology behind "out-of-body" experiences. The study, known as AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation), involves the collaboration of 25 major medical centers through Europe, Canada and the U.S. and will examine some 1,500 survivors of cardiac arrest. TIME spoke with Parnia about the project's origins, its skeptics and the difference between the mind and the brain.

What sort of methods will this project use to try and verify people's claims of "near-death" experience? When your heart stops beating, there is no blood getting to your brain. And so what happens is that within about 10 sec., brain activity ceases - as you would imagine. Yet paradoxically, 10% or 20% of people who are then brought back to life from that period, which may be a few minutes or over an hour, will report having consciousness. So the key thing here is, Are these real, or is it some sort of illusion? So the only way to tell is to have pictures only visible from the ceiling and nowhere else, because they claim they can see everything from the ceiling. So if we then get a series of 200 or 300 people who all were clinically dead, and yet they're able to come back and tell us what we were doing and were able see those pictures, that confirms consciousness really was continuing even though the brain wasn't functioning.
How does this project relate to society's perception of death?

People commonly perceive death as being a moment - you're either dead or you're alive. And that's a social definition we have. But the clinical definition we use is when the heart stops beating, the lungs stop working, and as a consequence the brain itself stops working. When doctors shine a light into someone's pupil, it's to demonstrate that there is no reflex present. The eye reflex is mediated by the brain stem, and that's the area that keeps us alive; if that doesn't work, then that means that the brain itself isn't working. At that point, I'll call a nurse into the room so I can certify that this patient is dead. Fifty years ago, people couldn't survive after that.
How is technology challenging the perception that death is a moment?

Nowadays, we have technology that's improved so that we can bring people back to life. In fact, there are drugs being developed right now - who knows if they'll ever make it to the market - that may actually slow down the process of brain-cell injury and death. Imagine you fast-forward to 10 years down the line; and you've given a patient, whose heart has just stopped, this amazing drug; and actually what it does is, it slows everything down so that the things that would've happened over an hour, now happen over two days. As medicine progresses, we will end up with lots and lots of ethical questions.

But what is happening to the individual at that time? What's really going on? Because there is a lack of blood flow, the cells go into a kind of a frenzy to keep themselves alive. And within about 5 min. or so they start to damage or change. After an hour or so the damage is so great that even if we restart the heart again and pump blood, the person can no longer be viable, because the cells have just been changed too much. And then the cells continue to change so that within a couple of days the body actually decomposes. So it's not a moment; it's a process that actually begins when the heart stops and culminates in the complete loss of the body, the decompositions of all the cells. However, ultimately what matters is, What's going on to a person's mind? What happens to the human mind and consciousness during death? Does that cease immediately as soon as the heart stops? Does it cease activity within the first 2 sec., the first 2 min.? Because we know that cells are continuously changing at that time. Does it stop after 10 min., after half an hour, after an hour? And at this point we don't know.

What was your first interview like with someone who had reported an out-of-body experience?
Eye-opening and very humbling. Because what you see is that, first of all, they are completely genuine people who are not looking for any kind of fame or attention. In many cases they haven't even told anybody else about it because they're afraid of what people will think of them. I have about 500 or so cases of people that I've interviewed since I first started out more than 10 years ago. It's the consistency of the experiences, the reality of what they were describing. I managed to speak to doctors and nurses who had been present who said these patients had told them exactly what had happened, and they couldn't explain it. I actually documented a few of those in my book What Happens When We Die because I wanted people to get both angles - not just the patients' side but also the doctors' side - and see how it feels for the doctors to have a patient come back and tell them what was going on. There was a cardiologist that I spoke with who said he hasn't told anyone else about it because he has no explanation for how this patient could have been able to describe in detail what he had said and done. He was so freaked out by it that he just decided not to think about it anymore.

Why do you think there is such resistance to studies like yours?
Because we're pushing through the boundaries of science, working against assumptions and perceptions that have been fixed. A lot of people hold this idea that, well, when you die, you die; that's it. Death is a moment - you know you're either dead or alive. All these things are not scientifically valid, but they're social perceptions. If you look back at the end of the 19th century, physicists at that time had been working with Newtonian laws of motion, and they really felt they had all the answers to everything that was out there in the universe. When we look at the world around us, Newtonian physics is perfectly sufficient. It explains most things that we deal with. But then it was discovered that actually when you look at motion at really small levels - beyond the level of the atoms - Newton's laws no longer apply. A new physics was needed, hence, we eventually ended up with quantum physics. It caused a lot of controversy - even Einstein himself didn't believe in it.

Now, if you look at the mind, consciousness, and the brain, the assumption that the mind and brain are the same thing is fine for most circumstances, because in 99% of circumstances we can't separate the mind and brain; they work at the exactly the same time. But then there are certain extreme examples, like when the brain shuts down, that we see that this assumption may no longer seem to hold true. So a new science is needed in the same way that we had to have a new quantum physics. The CERN particle accelerator may take us back to our roots. It may take us back to the first moments after the Big Bang, the very beginning. With our study, for the first time, we have the technology and the means to be able to investigate this. To see what happens at the end for us. Does something continue?"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20080923/hl_time/whathappenswhenwedie

The Re-opening of the 35W Bridge

The new 35W bridge opened this morning at 5am. I can't believe they got it up 14 months after the bridge collapse. Someone on facebook reminded me that this event took place today. She said she was a little hesitant that the bridge was put up so fast. That made me think also, it is safe to build a bridge that fast? If you think about it...Those workers have been working shifts day and night. I believe there was one night in the last 14 or less months there wasn't a night they worked. You can get a lot done when you have workers day and night. Road construction and such takes FOREVER because there are many breaks and not always workers on the site.

I went to my main newspaper source(online) Pioneer Press and found this article about the poetic feeling of the bridge opening. I think it is great to have that mistake fixed and I am sad that those people died (one of whom I indirectly knew), but I am hoping that traffic won't be as crazy around my house, since I live 2 blocks from Highway 280 (the alternate route of 35W). It will feel great to have some "normal" back into play. Things are changing people everyday.

Pedohiles: Protecting Our Children

I know that I have blogged about this before and it makes me sick to my stomach, but VERY impotant! AJ, my devoted Oprah Watcher, told me about Monday's show about child predators! It is sick and it makes me angry. I won't be holding back some of the information I found on Oprah's website. I wish I could just copy the whole thing, since linking to the site may expire in time. But it is very important to understand how really SICK these people are and how stupid it is to try and rehabilitate these people!!!! If you are not up for this subject, then stop reading. If you want to help out and be aware of this epidemic, please continue.

"Pedophiles take these images and trade them like baseball cards," says Christine, an analyst. "The violation that occurs within these files…it's horrific."What they see on a daily basis is so disturbing the center keeps an on-site psychologist to help analysts cope."We're seeing sexual abuse including oral penetration, vaginal, anal penetration," says Michelle, another analyst. "We see children with dog collars on their necks. Kids with plastic bags over their heads. Foreign object insertion with these children."By posing as pedophiles, agents like Claude Davenport have learned how these operations work. "They will get together, discuss activities that they would like to see performed and actually perform it on their own children," he says. "We've had cases where infants have been molested on live feed. When the violators are caught, their reason for using such a young child is because the child can't articulate the violation that they've received."Authorities have even discovered videos and manuals created by pedophiles that give instructions on how to molest and rape children just months old and how to get away with the crime. Some videos even use well-known cartoon characters to desensitize the children to rape.

For the past seven years, Flint Waters, a father of four, has devoted his life to patrolling the Internet to take down child predators as commander of the Wyoming Internet Sex Crimes Against Children Task Force. Four years ago, he and two other men—Bill Wiltse of the Salem, Oregon, police department; and Robert Leazenby of the Wyoming attorney general's office—developed a revolutionary software program that tracks computers trading pornographic images and videos of children. The program runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week and can pinpoint the specific location of offenders' computers. His investigations have led to more than 100 arrests, and more than 30 children have been saved. Although the program is highly effective, Flint says there are simply not enough resources available to law enforcement officials to help put predators away. "We're getting better at finding them, seeing who's out there," he says. "We're just overwhelmed by the numbers." When predators are caught, Flint says he's the one who interviews them. "They'll look you in the eye. They'll describe it. They'll get excited about their interest. They'll talk about how society just hasn't caught up and this is what they should be doing," he says. "I've arrested them, have them get out on bond and on the way home pick up another computer and get back online to find the material. … They don't stop." Danger isn't just lurking with strangers or at the playground—many children are abused by people they know and trust.According to law enforcement research, almost three out of four children who are sexually abused know their offenders—and 35 percent of the time the abuser is the child's own parent. "In some of those cases, somewhere, mom is asleep in that house and has no idea that this guy's doing this," Flint says. "Some of these guys are brilliant at the techniques they go through to hide what they're doing."Studies say that 30 to 40 percent of people who view images of child abuse online are also molesters. "There's a huge number of these guys that when we catch them, they're using it to normalize their behavior, to normalize what they're already doing with the child that's in their care," he says. "So they act out on their granddaughter or their grandson. They go through this guilt cycle. They get the videos. They see that everybody else is doing it, and they continue to act."

Now, Vanessa realizes the importance of making sure a close relationship never masks a dangerous situation. "I think parents sometimes have to move outside of their comfort zone," she says. "If your child comes to you and tells you, 'I'm uncomfortable with the way this person's looking at me or the comments this person's making to me'—no matter how entwined you are with their lives, if they're family or they're friends that you feel as family—you need to remove your child from that situation."Jasmine has a message for kids who feel that something isn't right but don't know what to do. "If you think something is wrong, go find someone. Tell someone," she says. "If they don't believe you, if you have to, tell a police officer, anybody you can trust. Because if you hold it inside, it just kills you. It breaks you down."

If you are enraged, disgusted and fed up with child predators slipping through the cracks, there is something you can do right now. Camille Cooper works with PROTECT, a group working to pass better laws to build protection for children, and says there is an important bill going before the Senate this month.Senate Bill 1738, the PROTECT Our Children Act, will provide valuable funding for child protection task forces. "If you don't put the money behind law enforcement and fund them and have more cops that are dedicated to going after these guys and protecting our children, we won't rescue these children," Camille says.

Click here to find more information on how to contact your senators and urge them to vote yes on Senate Bill 1738.

Camille stresses that it is important to contact your senators immediately and put pressure on the Senate before Congress recesses on September 26. "It passed the U.S. House almost unanimously. We have to get it out of the Senate. We need to go rescue these children.""This is not about politics," Oprah says. "It's about our children. It's a bipartisan bill supported by both Republicans and Democrats. I believe that it really is up to us to tell the Senate not to go home until you pass that bill."


Check out the whole thing, there are a couple stories and details I left out due to the legth of this blog.
http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/oprahshow/20080911_tows_predators/1

Another useful site to see if there are sexual predators in general in your area.
Minnesota Level 3 Sex Offenders

Dear Summer 2008....

It is hard to believe that your time has come and went. Summer is the only balance of our long winter us Minnesotans look forward to. We have had such an amazing Summer 2008. We all got some color on our Minnesota skin and lots of memories that we will take with us forever.

Thank you for Mayson at the beginning of the summer! She is the cutest little niece aka cousin for the the boys that we could ask for. Thanks for our first of many years with our Wyatt! He is the funniest and sweetest little guy we could ever ask for.

We very much enjoyed the weekend trips to Como Zoo. Hayden was finally old enough to ride many of the fun rides and Wyatt got to ride the train. They both really appreciated the animals that we saw and very much enjoyed seeing the butterfly exhibit. Hayden finally got to see his first Sparky the Seal show. The greatest thing we got to do together is ride the carousal.

I really loved being able to celebrate my birthday for a weeks time ha-ha I totally deserved it! I spent a night with my group of best girlfriends, went out to eat with my aunt Sue to our restaurant of choice: Red Lobster, I went on my actual birthday to Como Zoo with all the daycare kids and my dad and then continued the evening to spend with my mom and boys. Ronnie finally could slip away from work the following day to take me to Muffaletta's where we made the mistake, we think now twice, by ordering a pitcher of their yummy sangria. We were drunk by the time Ronnie's soup came.

The Fourth of July is always a great time at my aunt's house and at Lanford Park. Then our first real week long family vacation. We went to my cousin's cabin in Exeland, Wisconsin. I have to say it is more work to take the kids out of their environment for a long period of time, but it ends up being fun. Fun in a NON-relaxing way.

As whole, it is so great to have the Heer family. Besides then being a blast to hang out with they have a pool to cool the kids off and a great BBQ to feed us the good stuff!

The statefair is always a great time. Wyatt got to participate in the little hands farm with his big brother. The boys loved people watching with their nosey parents. There were weddings, Saints and Twins baseball games, BBQs and so much more.

Summer, you are even good for those rainy days when all you need is a day where you can put on a video or have an excuse to stay in one place. When it is nice outside, you just feel plain 'ol guilty staying in the house.

I don't really know where you go every year? I blink and it is fall again. Thank you summer for never letting us down. But there are still quite a few things to look forward to as Autumn approaches.....Thank you for another great summer! We shine a little brighter this year!

Love,
The Ambriz Family

Wyatt's Doctor Visit

I had another interesting day, but this time it was just Wyatt. I woke up and NEEDED a shower, it just had to happen. I was getting up to get Wyatt as he was waking up and Ronnie was getting up with me. Usually, Ronnie sleeps longer, because he doesn't have to leave the house until 8:30am. So, I gave him my face that must have said, "Where are you going?" He informed me that he had to be at work early! GRRRRR! Usually, he watches the boys, while I get a fast shower in. I didn't have a choice, I had to get a shower in. So, I got Wyatt up and brought him in the bathroom with me. I grabbed a couple toys, put the gate up and prayed he would stay distracted enough for me to take a 5 minute shower. Nope. Not going to happen. He starts whaling the minute I step in. He wants to come in, too. In hind sight, I should have stripped him down and brought him in, but it was too late, he woke Hayden up. I can't catch a break. Hayden was fine playing in his room, but Wyatt was mad and he was letting me know. He was so upset and nothing was making him happy, so I put him in his crib to mellow. My list of options were minimal with soap in my hair and my 15 month old that doesn't know the meaning of reason yet. So, I finished my shower within 5 minutes and put a towel on to go and get him. He was mellow and ready to come out. I was relieved. I felt so bad, but I remember having to do that with Hayden because he would get so frustrated at this age.

Hayden's room is right across from the bathroom, so I opened the bathroom door and finished getting ready. Wyatt began to cry and I looked over and he was playing with my BIG yoga/pilates ball like he always does. I told Hayden not to touch the ball because Wyatt was playing with it and that was that.

We all proceeded down stairs and I noticed that Wyatt had a bump on his head. "What is that?" It was above his ear on the hairline about 1/4 of the size of a golf ball. Did he bump his head when he cried? He sure didn't make much of it? I watched it for about an hour and it was hard. I began thinking, "what if it is hard because it is under his skull?"

I called the nurse. She told me to bring him in. I was sick. What if something is wrong? I called my dad and asked him to help me out with the daycare while I took Wyatt. I only had one daycare child that morning. so, that was lucky. I got in and the nurse asked a million questions and then I realized that he was due for his 15 month exam, too. Thankfully, the doctor was able to do it. Since I didn't know exactly what happened and I didn't see it, she suggested an x-ray and I quickly agreed. The radiology department had me leave the room and I was pacing the doorway and I could hear my baby crying while they took the X-ray. I am sick. He must be so scared, but the techs were excellent because he stopped and never cried for the rest of the process. The tech informed me that Wyatt was amused with the Ernie sticker that they let him have. I was relieved that he wasn't freaking out and scared the whole time.

We went back to the doctor side to wait for the results...He was fine. I was so relieved and happy that the swelling would go down in a matter of time. Wyatt is healthy and growing up fast. But I can't wait until this stage is over, because he gets hurt all the time. I have been trying to get pictures done and he keeps getting bug bites, scratches and bumps on his face. Ahhh, what a boy, what a day.....

Is it a full moon?

I have had an interesting kid day. Yeah that is a good way to describe it. First of all, I decided to potty train Hayden since I have a lighter work week. I am CLUELESS about potty training, I'll admit it(but I will quickly be denying it once I have accomplished potty training Hayden ha~ha) Hayden woke up this morning and saw the new Harley Davidson underwear sitting on the counter still that his Grandma H. gave him from the fair. So, I embraced the sudden interest he was showing in potty training. We put on those Harley Davidson eagle underwear and........then he peed through those, so we put on the motorcycle underwear and then he peed through those and then we went through the third pair in that package and continued through a a Gerber brand underwear and 2 Little Einstein underwear. Hayden said alot of sorries today, "sorry eagle....sorry motorcycle..." Having him sitting on the potty is horrible!!!! What am I thinking?! Why do I do this to myself.....he isn't ready, but I keep thinking he is, if I just get it done.
Grandma H. also picked up a cool ride around car which the kids all wanted to fight over all day. All is great getting Hayden and my newest member of my clan, Siri to share, but trying to explain sharing to my 15 month old, Wyatt was impossible. Impossible. Then Julianna, another sweet addition to my DC clan comes from preschool on a bus mid-day, but it was her first day, so everything is slower than usual. She didn't get to my house until an hour after her school let out! I was sooooo worried, so worried. Thank goodness she was ok, just late with dropping off all the other kids and the bus driver was getting to know the route.
My breaking point for the day was after all my DC children left for the day when I was trying to cook dinner and I went to check on the boys because they were being TOO quiet. Wyatt was at the gate with brown all over his face but it was slimy and thick. My first thought was that Hayden pooped and Wyatt got into it. BLAH....gag. Much less disgusting, but still AWESOME(that was in a sarcastic way) to clean up.....Markers everywhere and marker combined with snot. All the markers were out, the caps were off, and the tip of the markers were bitten off. I couldn't believe it. Wyatt loved it of course, and I asked Hayden why he didn't tell me and his response goes,"I don't know, see." He lifts his hands and he has evidence of participating in the marker joyride. To make matters even more interesting Hayden was poopy in his underwear. Unsuccessful potty training day and even more convinced in throwing in the towel, I call my mom to get out of the house and she offers to take the boys because she misses them. I feel guilty, but the temptation is too intense. Within a 1/2 hour I am at my parent's house and then on my way to my cousin Sara's house to "watch" the Vikings and Packers play. It was a nice break and after I was even more recharged. I even found out that I have a couple more fans of my blog. Quit complaining Sara and Jenny ha~ha....I try to get them out as often as ideas pop out. That was my day....how was yours?

It has been a bittersweet week. Another part of Ronnie's family died on September 3. His kind of, I guess step-uncle, Rick. It is very sad to see his cousins so sad, because he was a very important father figure in all their lives. Rick under went heart surgery about a month or so ago and did well and then all of a sudden on Tuesday, he had a stroke that he just couldn't come back from. My thoughts and prayers go out to them. I am sad to see Rick go, because he was a great guy.

The sweet part of this bittersweet is that yesterday was Ronnie and my four year wedding anniversary. I had a CRAZY day at daycare with lots of kids, but thanks goodness we could get away for dinner. We went to our NOW self pronounced restaurant of choice, Muffalettas. I had an excellent swordfish in a cabbage fluff and Ronnie had the duck. We celebrated by bringing a special bottle of wine to share and since none of the deserts were sounding good, we headed to Chianti Grill for desert. Before we headed over there, I finally made it to the jewelers to drop off my wedding rings to be soddered together. I am so excited to get them back! It was nice to play husband and wife and not mommy and daddy for the evening. However, the boys had a blast with Ronnie's parents. It worked out pretty well.

Life....I keep telling myself that there are good things that happens and there are bad things that happen, but if you realize there IS more good than bad, then you are living.

Stupid Protesters!

The Republican National Convention is being held here in good 'ol Saint Paul, Minnesota! I am not going to get all political, just to fore warn you. But I am seriously angry on how the protesters behave. Check it out for yourselves http://www.twincities.com/rnc/ci_10356224?nclick_check=1 The Right to protest and freedom of speech....blah, blah, blah, but these CRAZY people are throwing urine and feces at the police. I understand feeling passionate about something, but respect what others believe in, too. Or even respect a policeman demand for "orderly" protesting. OUT-OF-HAND! As clever Forest Gump would say, "That is all I am going to say about that."