My, How Times Have Changed

Yesterday, as I sat with my oldest son decorating a paper turkey with fall leaves and various glittery things I thought to myself, “WOW….I used to run a multi-million dollar business….and now….I’m gluing green sugar crystals to a turkey!”

Where, Oh where, will motherhood take me next?

-Chrysti

Happy Halloween!

This past weekend we had our annual Halloween costume party. Just thought I’d share a pic….

                 

Oh, who am I kidding….we look like this everyday!  Ha Ha Ha!

I Just Can't Stay Silent On This One...

I know I usually write in pink but this time, for ease of reading, I’m gonna do it in black.

I haven’t said anything so far pertaining to this election and normally I wouldn't but after watching this terrifying video of Obama, I have to ask:

Since when are children a “PUNISHMENT?”

The bible says that life is a gift from God. Psalm 127:3 "Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward." NOT a “punishment” people!

It is utterly amazing to me that Obama’s FIRST business in office will be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act. Really??? The FIRST thing? The Freedom of Choice Act will remove ALL restrictions on: Partial-Birth Abortion, Parental notification and Informed consent. There are so many things that a newly elected president could focus on and Obama says this would be his FIRST? That should tell you something about a person when their number one priority, once in office, would be to allow infanticide! That’s is NOT Gods way people! Obama insists that he is a “devout Christian” of “deep faith,” but his actions couldn’t be farther from that! NO Christian…a follower of Christ, that truly has the heart and Spirit of God living inside them would EVER make murder their number one priority! WAKE UP PEOPLE!

My biggest beef with the Freedom of Choice Act is with Partial-Birth Abortion. So….what is Partial-Birth Abortion you might ask? Well, Partial-birth abortion is exactly what the term infers. The baby is partially born before its abortionist-induced termination. 
 Two abortion physicians, one in Ohio and one in California, independently developed variations on the method by extracting the fetus intact. 
 The Ohio physician, Martin Haskell, called his method Dilation and Extraction procedure also known as D&X, Intact D&X, and Intrauterine cranial decompression. The public commonly uses the term PBA and Partial-birth Abortions. The procedure is usually performed during the last trimester of gestation up to the end of the ninth month. The woman's cervix is dilated, and the abortionist grabs the baby's leg with forceps. Then he proceeds to pull the baby into the birth canal. The abortionist then delivers the baby's body, feet first, all but the baby's head. The abortionist then inserts scissors or another sharp instrument into the back of the baby's head, removes it, and inserts a vacuum tube through which the brains are sucked out. The skull is compressed and the head of the baby collapses at this point and allows the aborted baby to be delivered lifelessly through the dilated cervix.

Is that graphic and gross enough for you? Do you honestly think for one minute that you could actually watch this procedure being done without vomiting and being purely disgusted and horrified? Do you think it’s painful for the baby? You bet it is! It’s not an embryo it’s a viable baby.

I believe that life begins at conception. Jeremiah 1:4-5 says, "The word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." God forms us and knows us before we are born. 
Though I don’t personally agree with Roe-v-Wade, I would like to point out that even that case recognizes that at the point that a PBA procedure is done the baby is “viable.” “Viable” means being able to live outside the mother’s womb.

In addition, I also follow the Judeo-Christian belief that “Thou shall not commit murder.” Exodus 20:13

You might ask, “Well, what about in the case of rape?” The truth is that only 1% of abortions are preformed due to the cause of rape. See these statistics below:
-95% are done as a means of birth control.
-1% are performed because of rape or incest
-1% because of fetal abnormalities
-3% due to the mother's health problems

Source: Central Illinois Right To Life

95% of abortions are done as a means of birth control! I don’t know about you, but that is a horrific statistic to me! It’s monumentally irresponsible. You might think it’s OK to perform an abortion in the case of rape but I would have to ask, “What about the baby’s rights?” The baby is ALIVE. I once met a man that was born out of a circumstance of rape and his mother actually decided to keep and raise him. He is an incredible man. What do you think he would say if you were to ask him, “Do you think we should have just killed you because you were a product of rape?” Do you honestly think his reply would be, “Oh, yes! I should have been killed. I should just go ahead and tell my wife and children that I’m better off dead since I’m a product of rape, apparently that makes me no good to any one.” How foolish is that thinking?

Partial-Birth Abortion is MURDER! I don’t care what party you stand for, Democrat or Republican, as far as I’m concerned this is not a PARTY issue it is a LIFE issue! It’s disheartening to me that this has become a “political” issue at all. Please don’t misunderstand me. I am NOT a hater. I DO NOT hate Liberals. I DO NOT hate people who stand for pro-choice and I most definitely DO NOT hate or judge people who have had abortions. My heart just simply breaks for the babies that are being killed. My hope and prayer is that we could stand together as a people, as a nation, and NOT tolerate murder. I realize this is one of those “hot topics” that some people will absolutely disagree with me on. But this is my blog and I’m allowed to voice my opinion. We still have freedom of speech in this country…at least for now…

-Chrysti

Kids Say The Darndest Things

I recently reconnected with an old High School buddy and he told me a funny story about something his daughter said to him and it got me thinking about all the funny things my oldest son Max has said over the last 5 years.  (Don't get me wrong, my youngest says funny things too but I'll post those another time)  So here’s just a few of my favorites:

1. (After receiving praise for something he did well) “I are advanced”

2.  “Is there a parade in my world?”

3.  “When I wake up early in the morning the light makes my head evil."

4.  (After telling me he would like to have 5 children when he grows up)  “I think I’ll have aunt Katie have my 5 babies, cuz she’s always got a baby in her belly.”

5.  “Does Jesus hear me burp?”

6.  (After being asked why he did something bad)  “Because I’m an evil genius!”

7.  (While praying)  “…we know you died on the cross, and you took away our sins, and that your love can kill anything…”

-Chrysti

Pooptacular!

Well, today involved yet another “Pooptacular” incident!  For those of you that don’t know about my youngest son’s last “poop incident” you can read about it in the entry titled “Beware of Quiet Time.”   BUT, for those of you who keep close tabs on my son’s poop history, we were blessed AGAIN with another episode of “toilet etiquette.”

My son yells to me from downstairs, “Mom….I dropped something in the toilet!”  As I head downstairs for a closer inspection, he informs me that after he pooped he was holding his popsicle in his mouth, by the stick, and as he was gazing upon the view of what he just left in the pot he dropped his entire popsicle in the toilet!  “I pulled it out with my hands mom”, he exclaims as he then puts one of his hands in his mouth of anticipation of what I will say next.  “Get your hands out of your mouth!”, I yell!  “I threw it away this time mom.  I didn’t eat it”, He says….as I’m thinking, “Well, thank God for that!”  So I made him wash his hands…..like a hundred times, and explained to him (once again) that things should NOT be pulled out of the toilet and put in your mouth…blah, blah, blah….will he EVER learn????

- Chrysti

Always Be Ready

Two nights ago some psycho set the park by our house on FIRE at 2 a.m.!!!!  They completely melted both a rock wall and a slide and burnt a huge portion of a metal climbing structure to a crisp!  They actually think it may have been one of the kids from the elementary school, which is entirely frightening to think that criminal acts are happening at such a young age! (Not to mention the fact that an elementary school-aged kid was out of their house at 2 a.m. and their parents didn’t know about it!)

Today, I was on my way home from picking up my son from school and low and behold channel 9 News was there!  They asked if they could interview some of us parents on the recent fire (I couldn’t say no) so I politely obliged.  Of course however, it was the one day that I had spent the entire morning on the phone with Karrie and hadn’t showered, my hair was dirty and in a ponytail, I had NO makeup on and was quite possibly the most skank-o-licious sight you’ve ever seen!  Perfect for T.V.!!!!  NOT!! Thankfully, when it aired they only showed a short blurb of me so my craptastic appearance wasn’t out there for very long.  It just goes to show, you have to be ready for anything at any time!  The one time you think, “Oh, what the heck…who could I possibly run into?” will most DEFINITELY be the one and only time you’ll run into the old classmate, people from church, the ex-boyfriend or better yet…THE NEWS!!!!  Lesson learned!

- Chrysti

Date Night

Last night my husband and I finally had our first date night in….(let’s see…how old is my oldest son?)...well, OK…it hasn’t been quite THAT long!  But let’s just say it’s been TOO long since our last date night. 

First, can I just say, “I thank God for grandmothers!”  I took both kids over to my mom’s house and they got to spend the night with her for one whole night!  The kids were excited…my mom was excited….my husband and I were REALLY excited!  To start off the evening we went out to our favorite Mexican food restaurant.  We actually enjoyed a meal without saying, “Stop that!  You’re gonna break that, put it down!” or  “SIT your butt down!” not even once!  We laughed, enjoyed each others company and actually had a normal conversation.  It was absolutely GLORIOUS!!!!  (thanks mom!)

Afterwards, we joined my sister, brother-in-law and some of their friends out at a Karaoke joint.  There were tons of people ranging from ages 21 to 71 (no joke…71!) all there just lookin’ to “hook up” (and sing Karaoke of course) I’m just glad I’m married…that’s all I’m gonna say.  Almost all of us sang and we had a great time but I gotta be honest, most of the time, I felt like Randy, Paula and Simon at one of those really, really bad American Idol auditions!  First off, you just had the completely off pitch people singing really bad versions of Billy Joel, Journey and other various classic rock songs.  I kind of gave them a break however because most of them are there with their friends, having a good time and aren’t taking themselves seriously. 

Next up however, was one of the “70 yr old posse” who tried really hard to sing a country song that at one point I thought I might recognize but I quickly decided it was both inaudible and completely unrecognizable! 

Then came a lady who, before her song even started, slurishly (I know that’s not a word but it’s the best way I can think to describe her tone OK?)  …anyhoo…she slurishly informed us, “Don’t get the flu shot!  It’ll make you really sick!”  Then, in her seemingly overly medicated stupor, she promptly began singing one of the worst ever renditions of Bonnie Raitt’s  “I can’t Make You Love Me.”   It was pure drunken classicness!  And just when I thought it couldn’t possibly get any worse…   

Up comes whom I will lovingly refer to as, “The Bongo Man.”   Yes you heard me right!  This guy actually brought his own set of bongos…to a bar!  And boy did he play em’!  He played the heck out of those bongos….and sang….many times…badly!  I guess he mistook BYOB as “bring your own bongos!”  So after about the second go around of The Bongo Man, this time doing his best “white boy” rendition of Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition,” I was done…”Check Please!”

-Chrysti