I love Walmart

Well, its not always the best, but for right now, they're the best. I ordered my Graco SweetPeace baby swing and a Glider/ottoman set on their website, which listed both items for much less than any ads/sites/stores...(saved $50 on the swing!) And, the shipping was free with the site-to-store option. AND they already came in! Considering it's the Christmas season, it's a big deal that both items came in 2 days BEFORE the expected period even began. I picked them up yesterday, and decided to open them and make sure all the pieces were there, and in tact, which they were. Then I decided to put a few pieces together, and voila! Here they are:






Shmoopy still doesn't know what to think of the swing, but he likes to sit right next to me and watch it swing back and forth. The songs/water/heartbeat noises are cute too, but I will be using the I-pod option; the speaker is pretty clear, and loud.


*Tyrone is still clueless as to anything but his own tail which he has been chasing for the last couple days...only on the rugs though, since the flooring doesn't give him any traction.

Tennis Anyone?

Norman, John and Mom played tennis on Sunday at Queens Lake. It was a little cold, but I bundled up to tape them. They had fun (I think) but John and Norman are getting real competitive with each other...what with bowling, tennis and game nights lol. But when John wins, I always tell Norman, "Don't worry, John still belongs to the Navy," and that always keeps John's ego in check.*











Enjoy another sped-up video. Again, I missed a lot of the good "rallies" they had toward the end, but if John gets a membership at the tennis center, I am sure they will both improve and I'll get better videos.

Can you imagine...

your 13 yr old friend, neighbor, sister being exploited like this? What about your own daughter without you ever knowing? Why does PP do this...what motives could they have?





These cases aren't so 'isolated' anymore...looks like standard procedure for them.

My Quote of The Day 4

Robert H. Bork- "Slouching Towards Gomorrah"
Chapter 3: We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident; The Rage for Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

“[The Declaration of Independence] speaks in the vocabulary of natural rights, which many Americans find congenial, though without examining the full implications of that vocabulary...It would rather have spoiled the effect to have added ‘up to a point’ or ‘within reason’ to Jefferson’s resounding generalities.”

Enough said...although the Supreme Court (and many Americans in general) ignore the part about being "endowed by their Creator" with unalienable rights, most importantly LIFE. In keeping with their radical individualism and unrestricted self-gratification, they substituted (i.e. invented) a right to "PRIVACY" instead of a right to life.

Bowling Night 2008

Here is a stitched photo of our family bowling night, with our friend Kathleen: I sat out and happily watched to avoid hurting my back in these last 5 weeks I have. But I am a horrible bowler so it's probably best not to waste the money just so I can get frustrated lol. Enjoy the montage of bowling clips I made:

My Quote of The Day 3

Robert H. Bork "Slouching Towards Gomorrah"
(introduction)

“The defining characteristics of modern liberalism are radical egalitarianism (the equality of outcomes rather than of opportunities) and radical individualism (the drastic reduction of limits to personal gratification). These may seem an odd pair, for individualism means liberty and liberty produces inequality, while equality of outcomes means coercion and coercion destroys liberty. If they are to operate simultaneously, radical egalitarianism and radical individualism, where they would compete, must be kept apart, must operate in different areas of life.”

This quote is the most significant (in my opinion) of the whole book; it summarizes 'modern' (radical) liberalism in a nutshell, and exposes the huge contradiction of their mindset. He words it very well, but it did take me a couple reads to really understand. Everything they push for falls into the categories of either radical egalitarianism or radical individualism , but to truly embrace both policies is impossible because they counteract each other. Thus they must be separated for the convenience and plausibility of the left's 'cause'.

Radically enforcing any kind of policy that would guaranty that everyone ended up with the same amount of the same things regardless of what they truly merit (ties back to the first quote- "...distorts incentives by increasingly rejecting personal achievement as the criterion for the distribution of rewards”), is by it's definition unfair. While it may benefit the people who do not work or live responsibly, it is definitely infringing on the rights of the people who do work hard, do their share and more, while still receiving the same. That is unfair, in a democratic society at least, which is what this country used to be the epitome of. A prime example of egalitarianism gone wrong, is today's unnecessary and detrimental (even to the beneficiaries) affirmative action policies in school and workplace. Now we are leaning more and more toward a socialist 'turd-world country' (courtesy Michael Savage*).

And the other cause of the left is radical individualism- or basically, when convenient to their secular-progressive ideology, endlessly fighting for the individual's rights to offend; limitless self-gratification at any cost. The ACLU has the 'defining deviancy down' part down pat (that sounded funny i know lol*)- they are always finding the dirtiest debased cases to defend, from pedophiles to neo-nazis. Everything that is truly offensive and harmful is defended as 'free-speech', but something as innocent as an elementary-school kid praying is fought against, claiming their B.S. "separation of church and state," and distorting Thomas Jefferson's ideas regarding congress establishing any certain religion.

Democracy is never going to be good enough for them, so they fight on toward communism, thinking it will work. How many times must socialism fail before they realize Marx was wrong?

My Quote of The Day 2

Well, this is a long one only because there are really good points that all relate to each other. Take your time reading it- I have to re-read a lot of his writing!

Robert H. Bork "Slouching Towards Gomorrah"
(introduction)

“Emile Durkheim, a founder of sociology, posited that there is a limit to the amount of deviant behavior any community can ‘afford to recognize.’ As behavior worsens, the community adjusts its standards so that conduct once thought reprehensible is no longer deemed so. As behavior improves, the deviancy boundary moves up to encompass conduct previously thought normal. Thus, a community of saints and a community of felons would display very different behavior but about the same amount of recognized deviancy...

“While defining deviancy down with respect to crime, illegitimacy, drug use, and the like, our cultural elites are growing intensely moralistic and disapproving about what had always been thought normal behavior, thus accomplishing what columnist Charles Krauthammer terms, ‘defining deviancy up.’ It is at least an apparent paradox that we are accomplishing both forms of redefining, both down and up, simultaneously...

“Middle-class life is portrayed as oppressive and shot through with pathologies. ‘As part of the vast social project of moral leveling,’ Krauthammer wrote, ‘it is not enough for the deviant to be normalized. The normal must be found to be deviant.’ This situation is thoroughly perverse. Underclass values become increasingly acceptable to the middle class, especially their young, and middle-class values become increasingly contemptible to the cultural elites.”

Aside from realizing how most entertainment glorifies criminals and demonizes police, businessmen and people with any morals, I am sure we can all find real examples where our society has 'defined deviancy down', lowered standards, and chastised the 'good or normal'. Values of the middle-class, the family, and the Christian faith are all seen as not only offensive, but oppressive:

*The typical 'wal-mart mini-van' middle-class family is looked down upon as hicks obsessed with consumerism. (Not to mention the bourgeois 'capitalistic pigs' that run walmart right?)


*In Massachussetts 2005, a man named David Parker was arrested and removed from his kindergartner son's school. Parker objected to his 5 yr old son being indoctrinated with homosexual-tolerance books, but all he did was go to the school and request to be notified before his child recieved such unnecessary and confusing information at the age of 5. The school declined to making this simple agreement and he wouldn't leave the premises until they signed a contract for his modest request. After he was arrested, his house was routinely attacked by gays during "David Parker" rallies, simply because he wanted to be NOTIFIED about what his son was 'learning'.

*Just last week in the Washington state capital of Olympia, atheist groups displayed signs mocking religion next to nativity scenes. Apparently they are offended by the statues depicting Jesus' birth. Here is the sign they put up:
Which would you see as an offensive attack? A few plastic statues huddled in a stable, or a sign declaring that "there are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell"? If they are so confident in that belief, then a plastic baby in a manger shouldn't bother them.
What's next? Are they going to put up signs next to Santa Claus that say "there is no santa claus"??? Oops...I don't wanna give them any ideas...

My Brother Norman

*Until Lucas comes along, we will continue to torture Norman with the camera.*
I had this shirt made for Norman today--he can't wait to wear it to school on monday:


He's telling Susan to stop taking pictures of him:


His 'emo' look...he's gonna let susan cut his hair this week:

The other model in our house:

My Quote of The Day 1

Not that I fancy myself to be a popular blogger that people would care about reading my favorite quotes, I just really am liking this book and started saving quotes from each part that I like and I want to share them. I will probably only be taking them from whatever main book I am reading, so whoever continues to read them will basically get the whole effect of the book!

Robert Bork "Slouching Towards Gomorrah":
(introduction)

“Improbable as it may seem, science and technology themselves are under attack, and it seems highly unlikely that a vigorous economy can be sustained in an enfeebled, hedonistic culture, particularly when that culture distorts incentives by increasingly rejecting personal achievement as the criterion for the distribution of rewards.”

Although written in the 1990's, this more than applies to current times considering the housing/economy/bailout crap...I just read today that many 'homeowners' are intentionally missing payments to get financial help and lower rates/loans. That frustrates me so much! What about the people who actually are responsible and pay their mortgage payments in full and on time? Shouldn't we get some reward? I say give us major tax deductions!

Chubby Babies- Who Will Lucas Resemble Most?

Yup, that was us when we were chubby little babies. Now we're soon to be chubby parents and I wonder what attributes Lucas will have. I looked for a 'baby maker' site, but only found this site www.makemebabies.com but everyone's come out looking the same, and for some reason ours always turn out ginger! I'm sure if any of you guys try this out you will get some of the same results lol:


Well, at least we were always smiling!

Norman and the Weinerdogs in Color

Norman came over and played with the dogs a few nights ago, and I was playing around with the camera settings. I have had the camera for 3 years and still haven't used every setting lol. Here's Norman trying to trick Shmoopy by hiding the ball in one of the hats. It was too easy for him!


Shmoopy loved the attention, and even claimed Norman as his when Tyrone tried to get in on the action--





But they eventually shared-


I think the setting was kind of cool- I am sure there are better ways to use the "my colors" settings, but it was cool to make Tyrone look like he was an animated cartoon character!

The Graco Swing

We had been planning on buying this Fisher-Price "little lamb" swing, which was on sale at target.com for $149.99, and then we saw it was on sale for $119 at walmart and they have a free "site-to-store" shipping option:

And now that John gave me the go-ahead to order it along with the glider/ottoman set, walmart said they are temporarily unavailable and the price went up to $129. But thankfully I saw another great deal on an even better swing by Graco.
This Graco Sweetpeace swing had over 50 high customer ratings, and the video demo is pretty convincing of how comforting it really is for a newborn. Plus, whereas at target it listed at $179, walmart has it on sale for $136! That's a pretty big difference. It even has an MP3 hookup so I can continue to use make Lucas' playlists!

Click on the link below, and then click "watch a video demo" underneath the picture, to see all the features.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=7977230
It is also compatible with any graco carseat which is good to know if I don't want to disturb Lucas from the car to the swing. I like all the different motions and it looks cute too. So we ordered the glider ottoman set and the swing and with susan's employee discount, we saved $29 on the order, plus the shipping is free from site to store.
update:
This Graco sweetpeace swing was just raised to $189.99 on target! Boy am I glad I already ordered ours for $136 ($123 after susan's discount!*)Can't wait to get it- should be in before Xmas.

Needy Much?

I am having a hard time keeping myself from reacting like a brat about being a 'military wife.' Of course there is so much to be grateful for, specifically in John's case because he has served almost 6 years, and we have never been separated during our marriage for longer than 5 days, and we were able to talk on the phone during that week...and THAT was even hard for me. But now that the ship is nearing it's finishing touches, they will be doing lots of 'fast-cruises' and short sea-trial/deployments this month, and I broke down and cried last night.

This is the ship John currently powers...in the very bottom.

CVN-77 George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier

I removed some of this blog so I won't get in trouble regarding info on john's ship...just know that I miss John a lot, and his schedule is getting more and more hectic!

. I know there are so many 'at leasts' to think about (i.e.'at least he is not going to be in combat'), but considering I will be 36 weeks this Xmas, it's not totally unlikely that he may miss the birth. I realize how much I really depend on him and miss him, but I have matured enough since the beginning of our marriage, to know that I can't be a brat about it, when he's the one having to go through all of this and work even worse shifts on the ship...he said it will be 10 hours of work, 5 hours sleep, 10 hours work, 5 hours sleep etc...I don't know if I will be able to be in contact with him but I pray that the time goes by quickly for both of us, and that Lucas holds out for January.

The Lone Sailor statue Norfolk, VA
SO, I usually try to do something different when he goes away for a few days to make him happy when he returns. Like earlier this year when he went to Pittsburgh for 5 days, I went on a detox diet and lost 7 lbs and looked pretty for him. Another time I got my hair cut short because he liked seeing the back of my neck. I guess I need a goal to occupy myself with to distract me from the void he leaves. We are trying to see this as 2 last years of belonging to the Navy, and then we are homefree. But that time seems so much longer when we realize Lucas will be 2 years old!

BUT John recently heard through the grapevine at work that there is a shortage of the crew in upstate NY (where we spent our first 3 years) and they are offering to move some nukes (john's title) back up there for the remainder of whatever time they have left to serve- meaning no re-enlisting. And more importantly, meaning NO DEPLOYMENTS. Wouldn't it just be amazing if for the whole 8 years John served, if he never once had to go on a deployment? It would be a dream come true especially now that we have Lucas who will need his daddy there with him everyday. We don't know how much of this rumor is true, how likely it is that John will be chosen, or all the other details, but I am praying for it. It will be very challenging to get this house ready and sold, or rented out, and be financed for a property up in NY, where property taxes are HIGH, but it will be worth it to have Lucas' father with him during one of the most important times in his life, (~2years) when his capacity for learning is at an all-time high.

UPDATE: John found out from someone who talked to the detailer, that we won't be qualifying to go to NY; you have to have qualified a certain warfare thing which you can do if you are out to sea. Oh well..I realized moving back there would be a step backward financially..it would just be worth it to be together everyday. Either way, we still have only 2 years left and we'll get through it as always.

But I realize I have it worlds easier than many military wives, and need to buck up and deal with the challenges in the next 2 years. I just needed to whine about it to someone besides John, who is really the one getting screwed over. This month will go by soooooooooooooooooo slow now!

Your First Car

This is a tag I am starting on your very first car. If you don't have a picture, find one online of a similar car and briefly describe.

*-Mine-*
well, I didn't have a car until I was married in 2004,in fact this was similar to my mode of transportation prior to 2004:

But once I married John, I acquired this 2002 Chevrolet S-10:

It was fun and convenient for hauling things, but definitely got worn down from the NY weather, is a gas hog, and definitely isn't a family car. But John typically drove it to work, so we bought this 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt for me to use:

So technically this was 'my first car.'

*-John's-*
Well, I found this old picture which motivated me to write a blog about it. The picture is worth it! It's funny to see because this was John's grandmother's car, handed down to him when he was in high school. He drove this car to school and work (then taco bell) when we were enemies. I hated him and his cadillac! Little did I know, I would be picked up in this REAL gas hog almost everyday our senior year. It was like driving a boat. But very comfortable. Had an 8-track player in it too. It was subsequently sold when John went off to boot camp, but not before I had to see it in front of his family's house a few times while he was gone. I cried when I had to see his empty brown cadillac and know that he was miles away, and I thought I would never see or hear him again. It was so difficult for that year of 2003, but our goals and hopes all came to fruition not too much longer after that, and I still can't believe sometimes, especially after seeing this picture, that I am going to have John Hodge's baby! We are totally in love with each other, with Lucas, and with our life together. There is still so much more we have yet to experience, especially after April 2011, when he won't belong to the Navy anymore. I am very proud of us, and endlessly proud of all that John has accomplished and become. That is everything in a nutshell that this photo inspires*:


OKay, well I tag Brianne, Katie, Sarah, Iris, Jenny, + Ricky to tell about your first cars.

33 week update

I am 33 weeks + 4 days today, and had my routine appt yesterday. I can't believe I have approximately 6 weeks left until we get to see and hold Lucas, but I am very nervous about the pain and complications of childbirth. I am grateful not to have pre-eclampsia or gestational diabetes or anything that would cause pre-term labor or c-section as of yet. My next appt on Dec 23rd is when I will have more bloodwork and a strep test done to confirm that I am not a carrier of strep--if I am I will have to have antibiotics in an I.V. My glucose was normal and my doctor was surprised that my costco 'Nature Made' prenatal vitamins kept my hemoglobin up.
My belly measures 33 inches which is on target. I asked my doctor what she thought about my 4 lb weight gain since my last appt 2 weeks ago, and she said, "I don't do weight over the holidays. And you're tall so we tend to allow more weight gain and underestimate the weight of the baby." lol. My back is hurting pretty bad particularly around my spine. My feet are always hurting--partially due to my screwed up flat feet. My heartburn is horrid if not for Prilosec. I can't sleep (or do much at all)comfortably, and I get up at least 5 times a night to pee. Not just little pees either. Having lots of Braxton-Hicks contractions, which to anyone who doesn't know, is when my uterus (basically my whole lower torso) flexes hard by itself and feels like a big tight basketball. They aren't typically painful.
At the appt my doctor was able to find Lucas's head by feeling around (and pressing hard) and now I know why I see a big lump on my right side when I contract*! Hopefully he has enough time to get his big head down. So I am guessing I am feeling his feet/hands really low. He has always been pretty low; I haven't felt any kicks to my ribs or anything high, just low movements, swipes and kicks. In fact, I have felt (and seen) movement just under my skin where my pubic hair is...lol. Maybe that will mean it will be easier to push him out?!
Well, in any case, we are ready to meet him, I am scared to endure the pain, and John can't wait to take 'paternity leave'!

Oh! And we also decided on a different middle name..I never knew the middle-name was supposed to be a family name, so we decided to take my dad's and brother's name James as the middle name. John and I don't care too much for the nickname "L.J." but 'Lucas James Hodge' sounds nice.