Another Thing to Ponder

Three Things to Ponder:
1. Cows
2. The Constitution
3. The Ten Commandments

C O W S
 
Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that  during the mad cow epidemic our government could track a single cow,  born in
Canada almost three years ago, right to the stall where she  slept in the state of Washington?  And, they tracked her calves to their  stalls.  But
they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens  wandering around our country. Maybe we should give each of them a cow.
 
T H E   C O N S T I T U T I O N
 
They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq . Why don't we just give them ours?  It was written by a lot of really smart
guys, it has worked for over 200 years, and we are not using it anymore.
 
T H E   1 0  C O M M A N D M E N T S
 
The real reason that we cannot have the Ten Commandments  posted in a courthouse is this:  You cannot post "Thou Shalt Not Steal,"  "Thou
Shalt Not Commit Adultery," and "Thou Shall Not Lie" in a building  full of lawyers, judges and politicians..It creates a hostile work  environment.

~courtesy of Uncle Tony Tosti

Howdy

Busy week here at the Jenks house. We are actively getting quotes to build our addition. We paid for the plans last week. You can see it HERE. The first attempt the County Plan Review Committee was a failure. I have a much better appreciation for General Contractors. We are getting our ducks in a row, and hope to have more success next week. If that goes well, we may be able to start as early as a month.

I have to say - the plans look beautiful. Shaunna did most of it. I can not want to see the finished product. When all is said and done - we should have a place where we can live for a long time. I wanted a place where we could raise up to four kids, and still have a guest room. It will be cozy - but still feasible with this plan.

Tonight the Dibbles roll into town. We are going to catch the Blazers and Lakers tonight (those are professional basketball teams for Shaunna's friends). I am looking forward to it.

Election Spolier

Very funny short video, perfect for the paranoid...

HERE

WA residents - time to contact your State Reps

There is a new bill being proposed that would significantly raise the cost of registering a vehicle. This new tax is being proposed under the guise of emissions control. Details:

There is a bill that the Washington State Legislature is trying to pass in Olympia that, if successful, will directly add huge costs to our vehicle license fees. Everyone needs to know about so this situation so that you can contact your representatives and voice your objection.
The bill is SB 6900 and it adds an "engine displacement" fee to the vehicle license tabs upon renewal. The fee has a varied amount depending on the size of the vehicle's engine:

Engine Size (liters) Rate Schedule
Up to 19 $0
2.0 - 2.9 $70
3.0 - 3.9 $225
4.0 - 4.9 $275
5.0 - 5.9 $325
6.0 - 7.9 $400
8.0 or over $600

For each car & truck that you own, calculate the rate by matching the engine size in liters to the dollar amount. Add the amounts for each vehicle and you'll see that the average two car family will be paying $500+ every year in "displacement fees" on top of the normal license fees. If you have three vehicles, you'll be paying even more.

The average family is already struggling with the high cost of gasoline, electricity, food and everything else, and our lawmakers want us to pay more, thinking we have unlimited deep pockets. This will do great damage to the budgets of retirees on fixed incomes as well. Now is the time to be very vocal against this bill.

I have contacted all of our representatives, and I would encourage everyone reading this to do the same.

To view the actual bill - click HERE
To find your state reps and email them - click HERE.
- they will ask for your address and then show you your reps, and give you the chance to email them all at once.

Please email them and oppose this bill. It is bad science, and bad taxation. We have an old work truck we use once, maybe twice a month. We should have to pay the same about for emissions that someone who drives hundreds of miles each month. Personally I think that person should not have to pay either - but this bill especially penalizes families and the little guy. A gas tax would be more fair but our reps know that is a hot button and are afraid to touch that...

UPDATE: 2:45pm I received a prompt response on this issue:

"Hi Eric, you will be pleased to know that SB 6900 did not make it through the committee process before the deadline. In fact I don't believe that it was even given a hearing, that means that it will not pass this session. Please write again.

Jim 
Rep. Jim Moeller"

Especially impressive in that he replied so quickly - on a holiday...

CRISIS RESOLVED!

Time to Put the Kid to Work...

Curious what it costs to have a kid these days?

We got the initial bills from the delivery. Grand total - $16K.

The epidural ran $3K - which Shaunna reminds me was worth every penny...

Ends up being about $200 a hour while we were there. But I would say the nurses and staff at SW Washington were fantastic. Night and day different from Kaiser.

E

I got out of the house once...

It is pretty clear to all who know me that I'm not much of a home-body. I really don't know how I survived being homeschooled all my life, but it definitely didn't kick my desire to be out and about, around people. So now that I'm a stay-at-home mommy (and I'm grateful to be one), I must say I'm getting a little stir-crazy. It doesn't help that I'm avoiding public right now so that I can protect Eli (2-1/2 weeks old now) from germs during cold and flu season. I haven't been to church in 3 weeks and I think I've maybe been to a grocery store twice since his birth. (You know you're stir-crazy when going to a grocery store is like the most exciting thing you can imagine!)

So today I opened some old pictures to remind myself that I have actually been somewhere other than on my Living Room sofa. I feel refreshed. :)

In Seattle (Pike's Market). Eric bought me flowers.

In Venice (San Marco Square - where Saint Mark is buried). My favorite place in the universe.

Somewhere where the skies are blue. I love this picture of Eric! He looks so happy.

Hiking (something we probably wont be doing for a few weeks - at least until I don't have to stop and nurse Eli every 2 hours). That reminds me that I need to get a hiking baby carrier that fits Eric. Anyone know a good place to look beside REI? Can't wait to hike again!!!

On Mount Hood.

In London: hangin' on the gate of Buckingham Palace

In England: that's the London skyline behind us.

In Paris - I hate Paris

In Germany (Eric is behind my Aunt Sylvia)

All those places are great...BUT SERIOUSLY....
No matter how stir-crazy I am right now, I know what life is really about.

...being a mommy and kissing that sweet face is the only place I want to be!

Solutions

Sent via email to me today:

Everyone concentrates on the problems we're having in this country lately; illegal

immigration, hurricane recovery, alligators attacking people in Florida . .

Not me. I concentrate on solutions for the problems. It's a win-win situation.

+ Dig a moat the length of the Mexican border.

+ Send the dirt to New Orleans to raise the level of the levies.

+ Put the Florida alligators in the moat along the Mexican border.

Any other problems you would like for me to solve today ?

----------
Love it....
E

Labor & Delivery

Here are some photos from my laboring...

While hooked up to Pitocin...Eric and I took many walks around the hospital hoping to help my labor get going. Those walks were interesting...hearing women in labor (yikes!) and the sounds of babies crying...it all made things very real. I remember just thinking, "Oh my word, I'm going to be one of those ladies in pain any hour now...and then I'm going to have one of those babies crying for me. This is really happening..oh my word...oh my word...am I sure I want to do this?" Panic sets in.

Once my water broke, the contractions went from 0 to 60. Here is Eric holding me in between contractions (my contractions were less than a minute apart right away - thanks to the evil pitocin). My mom in the background sorta took over as my coach. She held a stop watch and told me how many more seconds each contraction was going to be. I swear, the sound of her voice was never so nice. I remember at one point she stopped talking to me and I cried, "Mom, please don't stop talking!" Eric was my breathing coach, mom was my stopwatch and my sister Kristine was the expert massager.

This is how Eric felt, watching his wife in pain (pre-epidural). Utter helplessness.

And here's how he felt after my epidural. Allow me to translate...
"THANK YOU GOD FOR DRUGS!"

Once I got my epidural our room turned into quite a hoppin' place. Friends and family came in and said hi. I was just laying there, feeling nothing, happy as a clam. Meanwhile my body was working overtime. I was fully dilated just a few hours later (4? I think)...but I didn't feel a thing. I was, however, shivering like mad. Even though I couldn't feel the pain, my body knew it was happening and reacted. Kinda a strange situation actually.

Here is my good friend (almost sister) Melinda saying hi.
[She was with me when my water broke]

The waiting room: Tony & Susie Tosti, Lee & Sara Hall and Melinda.

Jenksie being my support, love and friend. I love this picture.

Meeting our son for the first time.

Eric cutting the cord. Poor little blue foot! :)

Eli meeting his mommy - skin to skin time (thank you mom for doctoring the photos for us!).

He took about 5 seconds to calm down as soon as they put him on my chest. It was very sweet, he knew my voice and was soothed instantly by it.
It was weird - I'm not used to being the one that babies want!

The Jenks Family: Eric, Shaunna & Eli!


A few minutes after he was born...fast asleep on his mommy.

...and daddy is awfully cuddly too!

He looks like his daddy...full "pillow" lips. What a honey!

Wasted Vote

It is election season, and it seems to me most folks have already checked out. I keep hearing the phrase "wasted vote" thrown around. I am just going to say this -

the only wasted vote is the one not made.

We are privileged to live in a democracy where we have the opportunity to vote and influence government. That privilege carries with it a weight of responsibility. That responsibility is to vote your conscience. It burns me to hear someone to say they vote to candidate X rather than candidate P because candidate P "doesn't have a chance". Who gets to define - does not have a chance? It seems to me we are selling our vote, selling our rights, trading our responsibilities to the "experts" telling who is or who is not "a wasted vote".
I can understand folks voting "against" a candidate in the GENERAL election. But not in a primary. The primary is about ideas and principles. Shaping the direction the party should go and focus. It is not about the pundits deciding for us who has a better opportunity to beat the other parties candidate - who has not even been elected yet - but the pundits are picking for us.

Let me lay it on the table - we as a country need to wake up and realize that EVERYONE has an agenda. The media has an agenda - to sell more media. Of course they want a match up between candidate X and candidate Z. It is like the heavy weight fight of the year - GUARANTEED to bring in more viewers and SELL more media. It is not necessarily wrong - they have a vested interest in protecting / promoting their jobs. However the public has to wake up to this. I am not saying the media is evil. We have to have news in order to make informed decision. I a just saying

When the news informs of our decisions - we have a problem.

In other news - yesterday was the Washington state caucuses, which I participated in. Ron Paul won 20% of my precinct and 21% 0f the delegates out of our pooled caucuses. Romney won 40% and he is not actively campaigning. McCain came in second and Huck was a distant 4th. Ironically, Huck won the straw vote (had the most participates) but they were completely ignorant of the process, and bullheaded. They would not strike a deal with the Paul folks that would have gained Paul 3 more delegates and Huck in a tie for second. The Paul camp won the award for smartest campaign, leveraging 10 delegates out of 15 declared participates...

More Pictures

"I am a super model"

Shaunna and I love this picture. The sleeping prince, holding up his head....

Mommy Writes

Hi All!

Well, it has been one heck of a week for me. Eli was born on Jan. 28th - his actual due date. I was induced due to a complication of pregnancy. At first we thought all was well, but the last few weeks I had developed a terrible full-body itch...as though I had rolled around in a patch of poison ivy. When it first developed, my midwife said it was nothing to be concerned about. But after weeks of feeling like I had a thousand bugs crawling around under my skin we began to get concerned. I was finding myself lying awake every night scratching myself raw, unable to be relieved. It wasn't accompanied by a rash or anything - which seemed so odd.

Anyway, after 2-1/2 weeks of that insanity (and as I grew more and more exhausted and emotionally drained from night after night of 2 hours of sleep), Eric insisted that I see a doctor again about the itch. Saturday the 26th we went to the hospital (just expecting a consult) and discovered that I had developed a rare complication called choleostasis - in which the liver and gallbladder shut down and start storing toxins in the skin (thus the itch). The complication didn't pose much of a risk to me, but it posed a great risk to Eli...1 in 20 cases result in a still born baby. Naturally, the doctors felt it important to get him out as quickly as possible.

So we were immediately admitted and they started me on pitocin. Ug, nasty stuff! I was hooked up to pitocin from Saturday afternoon all the way until he was born Monday morning. It was quite a long few days. Eric, my mom, my sister Kristine and friend Melinda kept me company as I waited and waited for labor to start.

Sunday evening Eric decided to leave the hospital to go home for a quick shower and to feed the dog. Of course, after all the hours of waiting we thought nothing of it, but naturally that was when my water decided to break. Only Kristine and Melinda were there at the time - poor things! My labor went from 0 to 60 within about 30 seconds and I was crying for Eric. :( Thankfully we don't live very far from the hospital. Eric was by my side within 15 minutes.

Seven hours after my labor started, Eli was born. 7 lbs 9 oz, 20-1/2" long. He is perfect...cute fuzzy auburn hair and looks just like Eric. I swear, if it weren't for the red hair, I wouldn't know he is related to me at all.

Here he is: