Thursday, December 29, 2016

no one dies a day before

This is for those who are afraid to fly. No one dies the day before, gang. This stewardess died today, aged 66. in 1972 she was the only survivor of a plane that exploded mid-air. She was thrown thousands of feet and landed on a snowy hill. ONLY. SURVIVOR.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/world/europe/vesna-vulovic-died-flight-attendant-in-plunge.html?partner=msft_msn&_r=0


Sunday, November 06, 2016

burning books

Heinrich Heine, a German-Jewish poet, wrote: "Where one burns books, one will, in the end, burn people." This poet lived from 1797 to 1856. Was he prophesying? It took 8 years from the burning of books (1933) to the burning of people (1941) in Nazi Germany.

Saturday, September 10, 2016

Right before school starts

Well, that's it for me. That time of year when I wake up to the harsh reality that I am not a full time homemaker. The word of the day today is carpe diem. 
It's been such an exciting summer.
I've learned so much. There's so much more to learn. The rooster killing was the height of my summer. I NEVER thought I had it in me. Me - born and raised city girl.
I wish hubby could afford for me to stay home full time. 

Out, baby!

Please, no one tell me what's worse than being pregnant bc if there is such a thing, I don't want to know!

Little known fact:
The third trimester of pregnancy lasts 12 months. 
As for the last month, it comes up to 365 days. 

I'm at that point in the pregnancy where I begin to tell the baby, "Listen, kiddo, here's the tough truth - it's one person, one body. Non-paying renters not welcome."

On the other hand - I can't stop being amazed. 

That two people can simply grow another life is something I can't get over.

 There's nothing to it. Sex, a fun little thing every couple knows about. 

Next thing you know, there's a new life. 

Three weeks after conception, there's a tiny beating heart. That's a week after a girl misses her period. And that little thing will develop into something cute and cuddly we all know as babies. ... Well, ok, they're not cute and cuddly when they're first born. They have that knee face and that weird look that says, "ok... What the hell just happened here?" 
.... Sorry, I know, babies don't swear. 

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Head cut off

Life's been so hectic that just yesterday when I walked by the chicken coup I heard one of them come up with this gem, "I'm so tired of running around like Virginia with her head cut off."

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Before you have kids

So before you have little mobile babies in the house, you simply don't understand certain things. For example, I thought I was having a baby, not a home inspector. 
Alexandra gets into everything she opens every drawer she touches everything she puts everything in her mouth. A couple of nights ago she was looking under the carpets! I had no idea it to get so dirty under my carpets!
I also had no idea how many places in my house had spider webs. Well, they don't anymore. I vacuum early and often now. 
Holy cow, I thought I was a clean housewife. 
Also, where was my mind when I refused a baby gate "because I already have plenty"? There's no such a thing as plenty baby gates!!!!
I'm noticing I have no idea were baby safety locks. I always wondered why the heck people need baby safety locks why can't you just keep an eye on the baby? Well, newsflash, there's no such a thing as keeping an eye when the baby when the baby is mobile. No safety locks are enough. 

Monday, July 11, 2016

I’ll keep my Redbull, thank you!

Btw!!! Everyone be like, mimimi, you can't have caffeine while pregnant, mimimi! Guess what! I can have up to 200mg of caffeine a day!!! While preggo and while breastfeeding!!! A large sized redbull (16 oz!) has 150mg of caffeine! So guess what! I KEEP MY REDBULL! YOU KEEP YOUR MIMIMI! 😛 😛

New class

Every time I register for a new class I get butterflies in my stomach. And I think, "what am I doing? I'm too old to learn anything!" 

Does it sound crazy?... Am I the only one who feels that way?

Into a million pieces

The only reason babies survive their first year is that they are too cute. 
Little Alexandra managed to pull down and break into a million pieces the lamp we bought last year. Dean and I had spent 7 years looking for one of those lamps bc they don't make them anymore. 

7 years... Into a million pieces... Into the trash can. 

And here I am thinking I'm just glad the destroyer isn't hurt. 

Alex and Alex

I will have Alexandra marry Alexander. 

I actually mean George Alexander Louis...

You know, Prince of Cambridge. 

I still have to give my good friend Kate a call to make the final arrangements. As in, will she have to go to manners school? Do I have to kill off the loonies in my family? Etc etc etc. 

Tuesday, July 05, 2016

Catch 22 - wait or not to wait

It kind of bugs me that I waited so long to have children. 

Dean and I had so much fun together - just us. The idea of children/responsibility terrified me. 

But I'm sad that that will make us pretty old grandparents. If my kids follow my example I'll be a 72 year old grandmother. :-( if I even last that much!!! 

Monday, July 04, 2016

Sad Fourth

It's a sad way to begin Independence Day - finding your strongest rooster killed by a hawk. Dean thinks he sacrificed himself for the chickens. 

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Friends, not food

So, lately we have been trying to explain to Alexandra that books are friends, not food. She eats them very intently and passionately.

Monday, June 13, 2016

Thought I was clueless

Watching 3 men and a baby. Laughing my pants off. And I thought I was clueless. 

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Chicks!

And so it starts. Dean brought home 7 chicks last night. His dream is coming true. That's so exciting!

Sunday, May 01, 2016

Fresh or Compost ?

One major thing to change after I had a baby. It used to be it's not growing mold on it let's eat it. Now it's more like "it's not super fresh ? That's going to the compost pile."

Cute baby? Not so good.

I have to say this - having a baby as cute as Alexandra looks bad on me. 

Everywhere I go with her someone’s probably asking: 
“How did THAT lady make such a cute baby?”
Someone’s answering, “She's probably the baby sitter.”

Friday, April 22, 2016

Explain nonsense

 Someone, pls, explain to me. Am I getting this all wrong?
Why do people consider abortion to be a woman's health issue? Why would a Supreme Court justice talk about a woman's "fundamental right to terminate her pregnancy"? Why is it bad to offer those women alternatives to abortion? Why is it bad to make sure they see an ultrasound of the baby they are about to kill? Why are we making this about the woman and not about the human life - which doesn't belong to her - that she's taking away?
I understand choosing between the life of the mother or the life of the baby. Keeping one life safe is perfectly good reason for taking another. But most of the time this is not what abortion discussions are about. It's about not WANTING a baby for one reason or another. Why is this a right that any human being should have - to kill another because it's unwanted? 

Thursday, March 31, 2016

Life regrets


Life regrets - according to a tv show I watched. 

1-be themselves
2-not work so hard
3-spend more time w/ friends/family
4-spend more time being happy 

Don't ask me where I found these, but I thought they'd go with this post:

I don't laugh bc I'm happy, I'm happy bc I laugh.

You don't stop playing bc you grow old bc you stop playing. 

Friday, March 25, 2016

Baby in car seat

Word to the wise - don't load the baby into her car seat and then take off to the garage to load the car. 
My baby, who never cries.... Well she's got quite powerful lungs. 
The poor thing might have thought she'd been forgotten. 
I felt so bad. 
Worst mother ever. 

So I'm not crazy or evil after all



I met another mom that told me felt just as as I did when she was pregnant. 

She said she hated being pregnant, hated the thought of having this new person joining the family, and hated her body. She hated when people said congratulations, and hated when they commented on how pregnant she looked. 

She said she loves her baby girl, but she will not do it again in a million years. 

And I was listening to her and thinking "Thank you God. I'm not weird." 

Hated being single

a friend told me she loved being single... She said she hopes her daughter doesn't get married till she's 30+!!! :-o

I remember being single. 

I HATED it! 

I mean, I didn't hate my life. But I hated not being married. Not having someone to come home to.

Besides, Dean and I have done so much together... Things neither of us could ever afford if we were single...

I could never tell my daughter to not get married till she's halfway through her life. I hope she finds someone early in life. And grows old with that person. I say, wait to have children. Children tie you up. Spouses on the other hand... They are the best friend who never has to get up and go home.

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Easter bunny???

I was asked today if the Easter bunny was coming for Alexandra. And I was like "Easter bunny? (Thinking "holy crap, should I be planning on Easter bunny?")

I'm so not that kind of person! Easter bunny, tooth fairy, Santa Claus. Seriously? I want to puke. Right now.

My kids don't need Easter bunnies. 

I believe the kids should reflect the parents. And all this crap is just not me. I can't see myself teaching my kids something I don't believe in. Like the boogie man. 

As a matter of fact - why would I let my kid think Santa bought them something I worked my ass off to make the money for?

The day a kid of mine walks around happily bc Santa gave them something I paid for, I'll hang myself from the living room fan. 

Saturday, March 12, 2016

One second after


Apparently this book has even been discussed in the Pentagon. 

Bear with me, ok? Bc my mind is buzzing with ideas right now.

The story is about an EMP attack. 

Anyway, 

Book touches on themes that I've often wondered about, especially having grown up in a 3rd world country. 

I can't help but noticing how Americans born and raised here take so much for granted. 

They shouldn't. 

Here it goes:

1- the fragility of our high tech society.  

Think about it.

 Nothing is really concrete anymore.

 Everything is just chips, wifi - with a disguise of concrete to add familiarity and make us think we are still in charge. 

Think about the cars we drive. They're all controlled by computers. You can barely turn the wheels without the steering electronic assistance. 

Heard of the elderly man who died stuck in his car bc a computer malfunction locked the doors? Creepy. 

We've gone electronic on virtually everything.

2-how we have been so far removed from deadly diseases - eradicated in the US but not eradicated in the rest of the world. We don't even inoculate against some of them anymore. Really? Sounds dumb. 

3-our world is artificially death- and pain-free, our lives are artificially longer and healthier. 

We are sheltered from death and pain in every possible way. 

So many people live happy long lives with illnesses that not long ago were nothing but a short death sentence. 

We prolong their lives through a number of devices and medications. 

Just that all these devices are all dependent on this fragile high tech system we live in. 

It could be gone in a second. (No I wasn't trying to link back to the name of the book).

Diabetes for instance. I never knew diabetes could kill. In my world it's always been treatable. Asthma as well. And I don't think I'd be wanting to have any babies with everything that can go wrong during delivery. 

Think about epipens. Your kid's allergic? How many do you keep in the house? Could you get them again if every computer chip in the US was fried?

4-the amount of skills we have lost. Skills humanity took over 2 millennia to learn and accumulate. We've simply lost them all in less than 150 years. Why? Bc our high tech, chip-based, electronically-ran society doesn't need it anymore. 

This book mentions all these things. I was like "thank you! Why has no one else thought about that?"

Read it. 

Then do some war gaming together with your family. 

I don't want to become one of those crazy peppers, but i want to have an emergency plan. 

Most of all you want to keep your family safe. 

i.e. 

What if you and your spouse are at work? How will you two get home? 

Do you keep get-home bags in our cars? With printed google maps walking directions? With comfy sneakers to replace high heels?

Your kids in school? They should know how you will find them. 

Food... For the winter especially. Canning. Heirloom seeds. Spices. Salt. 

Books - paper copies. 

Photographs - printed ones!!! Especially of the kids - recent ones.  

Communications. HAM radio protected in some type of faraday cage could still work. 

I'm running out of ideas. 
 But if you're reading this and you don't think I'm a wacko, go ahead and throw some ideas my way. 

Wednesday, March 02, 2016

Country Roads Animals

Oh, country life. Cruising down Rt 57, almost hit 3 MOOSE hanging out in the middle of the road. 

Had I been speeding (as I usually do - despite my hubby constantly telling me to slow down), I'd be dead now. 

Maybe I should listen to my hubby and start driving more like a parent and less like an 18yo. LOL. 

So far I've had to stop for turkeys, moose, free range chicken, and a tiny poodle. Yeah, a poodle. At the West Granville village, there are tiny dogs that some times cross the road. that could be a joke.

Friday, February 26, 2016

Illiterate educators

Even scarier than the outbreak of zika virus in Brazil.
According to a news report 74% of educators in Brazil are functionally illiterate. And then we wonder why the country is the way it is. 
The people who should be teaching our population how to understand what they read can't understand what they read!!!
Makes me sad. 
I might really have come from the privileged class. 

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

call me stalker mom

Is it sad that every time my mom leaves the house with my baby I have the Find My Friends app open?

Call me a stalker.

 I always told my husband I was not going to be one of those parents! And yet... Here I am... Stalking my kid.

 I stalk my husband too. 

If the weather is bad, I stalk him all the way to and from work.

... I'm helpless. 

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Canceled trip

I'm sad today. 

I've canceled my trip to Brazil. :'-( 

my travel agent said not to worry - TAM is refunding pregnant ladies, and she'd try to get me a refund based on the fact that we are trying to get pregnant.

I know I did the right thing. But I'm really upset. 

My two BFFs were pregnant at the same time I was. We never got together. Now our girls are all born and we still won't get together. They are hanging out all the time with their babies and I am missing out on it. :'-( 

I've done a lot of reading about this zika virus. CDC and its Brazilian equivalent, news reports and researchers and doctors opinions all over Brazil. At first I thought it could just be mass hysteria. But the more I read, the more I realize no one knows what's going on. Everyday there's a new fact. One day situation looks harmless. Next day it could be the end of the world. 

E.g. At first only 41 out of 462 microcephaly cases have been linked to zika. Which suggests microcephaly might be related to another issue altogether. Then just the next day this number jumped to over a thousand. 

Also there's no data on how many healthy babies have been born to mothers who had the zika virus - a relevant question no one is asking. 

But... What if I am wrong? I'll never forgive myself. 

 I will be risking the life of my next baby. What if it turns out once you're infected, even in infancy, you'll never be able to have normal children again. Now I'm jeopardizing Alexandra's future. 

Plus, both sides of the family are worried sick.

When your family tells you not to do something and you do it either way, then something bad happens... You just can't forgive yourself. 

....

 There's a lot of misinformation out there.

A lot of it is just people intentionally trying to cause panic.

Here's an example:

Some idiot posted a video saying microcephaly in pernambuco (a state in Brazil where many microcephaly cases are happening) was caused by a shipment of expired vaccines against rubella that were given to pregnant women in the area. 

This man should be arrested. This is the equivalent of yelling "fire" in a crowded movie theater. 

Pregnant women can't be vaccinated against rubella!!!!

As a matter of fact there's very little reason to fear zika outbreak here in New England as well. 

Zika is transmitted by a certain mosquito, the Aedes Egypt - an old acquaintance of mine. 

As far as I know, Mr. Egypt lives only in tropical climates. 

That means no mosquitos that bite you here in New England can NOT infect you with zika. 

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Woman's Rights?

It really bugs me that the phrase "women's rights" is used by most pro-choice people to mean "abortion". I think it's a very dishonest way to approach the discussion. All abortion really is a human being killing another human being (who happens to be inside a human being's body). 

So it's not about a woman's right over her body. It's about when it's okay to take someone's life. 

I think you can't discuss this matter honestly if you don't call it what it is. 

Is it right to kill an unborn human being under certain circumstances? If so, what circumstances should those be? I am willing to discuss that, as I am willing to discuss any matter that involves life or death, because there are plenty of situations in which one must die for the sake of another.

But I am only willing to discuss that once we establish that abortion is about taking away a human being's life.

Most times I hear people talking about abortion as a woman's right it usually involves very selfish motives. "It's not the right time", or "the condom failed", or "I don't want kids", or "what kind of life will this child have?"... So are these legitimate motives to take away a life.

Thursday, February 04, 2016

Star Wars in Brazil

This globalization thing is really annoying sometimes.

I grew up in the 80s and back then Star Wars in Brazil was called Guerra nas Estrelas. NOthing special, just the name star wars in Portuguese language.

Well, none of the millennial's in Brazil knows what Guerra nas Estrelas is.

I was talking to my 17-year-old brother, who belongs to the state wide Jedi a league, and he had no idea what I was talking about.

Sorry, he is not 17. He is 19. I am so lost when it comes to keeping track of this boy's age!

Ok, so I kept saying the name in Portuguese and he was giving me this blank stare. As in, "What the hell is this show you talk about?"

Then I said, "Come on, you're a Jedi! You should know what that is." Still a blank stare. Eventually I said, "Star Wars!" and he said, "Oh! Star Wars!" And I said, "Whoa! What's going on here? We're from Brazil! We should speak Portuguese!"

No, my friend. Now everything is Star Wars.

Unless you lived in 80s. Then it's never going to be Star Wars. It's always going to be Guerra nas Estrelas. But none of the Millennial's will ever understand that, because to them it's always been Star Wars.

Saturday, January 02, 2016

Bustling metropolis

The place where we now live is such a huge bustling metropolis that we don't even have our own zip code. 

We frequently get mail where our address town shows the name of our neighboring town. 

Yes, we moved to the middle of nowhere. 
No, I was not too fond of the idea. But, yes, I knew what I was getting myself into. 

Friday, January 01, 2016

Dear Alexandra,

Even if you turn out blond, I'll keep telling blond jokes. Sorry. Good luck. 
Love, 
Vika  (your mom)

The most self centered posting this year has seen

Gone is 2015. Quite a roller coaster it was - full of ups and downs. I laughed out loud many times. I cried myself to sleep many others. Like most people, I sang my victories as loudly as I could and I hid my sorrows as well as I knew how. 2015 is forever gone, but not forgotten. Nothing that changed in it will be easily left behind. New house, new baby, new friends... But also drawbacks and the loss of loved ones, not only to death. Sometimes I did great at dealing with all these changes, other times not so much. Sometimes I really tried my best, others I just gave up and let people down. Sometimes I apologized, others I just said "wtf". 
Now 2016 is here. It's not a new beginning, it's a sequel. 
It brings with it new hopes, but also the consequences of the year that left us. Hopefully I've learned something. Hopefully I'll be a little better. Hopefully I'll still be around by the end of it. 
I've learned not to make New Years resolutions ... as I'm still trying to grow up and brush my teeth without being told.