With the news of the vaccines-autism study being discredited all over the place lately, I knew it was only a matter of time before someone I knew and respected came out and said something that frustrated me.  Now, I'm not going to argue whether or not the study should have been discredited or whether it was a good study to begin with (for those who don't know, it was discredited for a possible conflict of interests, although science could never replicate the results anyway), but I am going to take offense at the suggestion that parents who do not follow the government-sanctioned vaccination schedules are idiots who buy into sensationalist theories by celebrities like Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey.  Here is the comment I left on this person's blog:

Avery and I had a childhood friend who developed seizures after her 2-year-old vaccines.  Those seizures eventually killed her when she was 13.  Just the fact that things like that CAN happen (the doctors agreed that she did happen to have an adverse reaction to the shots) gives me pause before I say yes unconditionally to all vaccines.  I know vaccines have a purpose and I know some are necessary.  My kids have had the DPT shots (primarily for the pertussis vaccine), pneumococcal, and meningitis vaccines.  However, we have decided that the others are merely superfluous.  The MMR vaccine is created using aborted fetuses and none of those three diseases is dangerous for an otherwise healthy child.  Chicken pox is also harmless to children (although if my kids haven't had it by their teenage years I will probably suggest they get the shot) and I see no need for my babies to get the Hepatitis B vaccine when they will not be sexually active for many years (and it's efficacy wears off after 6-10 years anyway).  We also don't follow the prescribed timing for vaccines either and feel more comfortable spacing them out so the child isn't getting large doses of chemicals injected into their tiny bodies at one time.

I do NOT believe that autism is directly caused by vaccines.  I do, however, believe that many childhood ailments, such as autism, ADD, ADHD, extreme allergies, mental illnesses, etc. are caused partly by a combination of several factors: lack of a healthy diet (including overuse of artificial infant formulas), overexposure to chemicals and unnatural substances (through vaccines, hormones additives in foods, hormones in our water, hormonal birth control, etc.), artificial and chemically engineered foods (artificial sweeteners, preservatives, over-processed foods, etc.), and the overall weakness of the body's immune system.  For example, some autistic children have found their symptoms drastically reduced when they changed to all-natural diets.

(I'm going to interject here and say that my point in talking about my theories of the causes of childhood ailments was not to say that it's a parent's fault if their child is diagnosed with autism or bi-polar disorder [obviously random genetics have something to do with it too], but to point out that there are quite possibly external factors that might have contributed to those ailments and we as parents shouldn't throw up our hands and say "oh well, so sad.")

Anyway, my point is to say that I (and many others like me) are not believers in the "all vaccines are EVIL" theory.  However, every time a doctor tells me I should give my child a measles vaccine, I must consider this: am I willing to to inject my child with harsh chemicals (mercury or aluminum [which has been proven to increase the risk for Alzheimer's btw], and formaldehyde), antibiotics, and a killed measles virus that will lower their immune system for several days making them susceptible to any disease-bearing germ they may come in contact with...all to protect them against a disease that has a 1 in 10,000 chance of killing them IF they contract it?

Please tell me my thought process AT LEAST makes sense to you.  Of all people, you should be sympathetic to what it's like to be a concerned parent who wants to do best by their children.  You don't believe in being brainwashed by the government or anyone else in telling us what's right for our kids.

(Forgive any typos...it's late and past my bedtime.)

I know we've been over this issue time and time again, but I wish more people (parents and non-parents alike) would be understanding towards views different from their own.  I may disagree with you over a certain issue, but I'm not going to call you a moron behind your back and think you're an awful parent for believing what you do!  If you have weighed the risks of vaccinating versus not vaccinating and made the decision to get all the vaccines, more power to you, at least you made an informed decision.  But telling me I am "willfully ignorant" and following sensationalized myths is liable to get me a little ticked off.

Sorry I didn't blog right after my doctor's appointment on Wednesday, but we had a rather busy day and then I came down with a nasty stomach bug on Thursday night. I'm still recovering, but I figured I couldn't keep y'all waiting any longer.

It's a BOY!!!

Yep, Kirk will have a little brother close in age to rough-house with and poor Shiphrah will have to settle for doing girlie things with Mommy, at least for a few more years.

So....boy names.  Gideon is probably our top choice right now, but Avery also likes Isaac, Titus, and Silas.

Thanks for the prayers, y'all!  I actually had a really good day yesterday...just a light headache for part of the day!  And my queasiness was minimal too!!  I'm thinking part of that had to do with the fact that I was out of the house all day and in and out of the fresh air (friend's wedding).  Maybe the stuffiness of the house is making my headaches worse.  Today I had a pretty ugly headache on and off all day, but it let up enough for me to get a few things done here and there.

Like I said in my last brief post, aside from how I've been feeling, everything really has been going wonderfully around here.  Kirk has finally gotten a reprieve from teething, so he's been sleeping much better and his overall mood has improved dramatically.  Shiphrah is keeping me on my toes with her need to touch and get into everything.  (Which she typically does when I'm holding Kirk...little booger.)  She also is establishing herself in her role as Big Sister and loves to boss her little brother around constantly.  I want her to interact with him, so I'm torn as to how to teach her to play with him without trying to play for him.  You know what I mean?

In other news, Avery got his vacation requests for the year approved this week so we are all set for our mini-getaway in May and his two-week vacation over Christmas!  I'm soooo looking forward to our getaway...it'll be the first time since our honeymoon that it will be just the two of us.  We haven't decided where we're going or what we'll be doing yet, but I'll probably start looking into that soon.  Is it bad that I'm going to be away from my kids on Mother's Day weekend?  I didn't realize we were planning it over that weekend, but now I'm feeling a little guilty.  Oh well, I guess they'll see me that night anyway.

So life is grand!  The only thing that's really been bothering me is my inability to balance everything appropriately.  I look at my "occupation" as three-fold: wife, mother, and housekeeper.  They're pretty much prioritized in that order too, so when things get tough, the house is what falls apart first.  But that irks me to no end because I feel like I should be able to manage.  I want to be a "Domestic Goddess" like the book Fascinating Womanhood talks about and be a wonderful wife, mother, and keep my house looking beautiful.  I know it's probably just God keeping my pride in check because I would have a HUGE head if I had it all together. But, like my title says, two outta three ain't bad, I guess.  I did get about half the dishes in the sink washed this evening before my back started screaming at me...so maybe by tomorrow night I'll have a clean sink again (for the first time in two weeks...sad, isn't it?).

Well, I'm getting sleepy sitting here and I still have to stay up until the laundry finishes in the dryer.

I don't usually do New Year's Resolutions...at least, not since high school...but I figured there were some areas in my life that need improvement that would be beneficial to make public.  For accountability and all.

In 2010 I resolve too...
- read my Bible and pray more
- soften my tone when I respond to my husband and children
- love my husband more
- supress my negativity and strive to be more positive
- appreciate the little things
- be more laid back and less up tight about everything
- be more merciful, graceful, joyful, and patient

I can't believe Christmas is on Friday.  I have a pile of Christmas presents sitting on the dining room table waiting to be wrapped.  I need to finish them if only to reclaim the table...poor hubby hasn't had a seat for three days.  I also need to stamp the last five of my Christmas cards so they can go out in the mail tomorrow.  The addresses are local, so they should get delivered before Christmas.  (The post office is open Christmas Eve, right??)  If not, oh well, I ran out of stamps and couldn't get out to the grocery store until today.

Our plans for Christmas are pretty simple.  We're staying in town this year, which means Christmas Eve and Christmas at the inlaws.  Remind me to take a long nap before Christmas Eve, because it's always a crazy mess of people (30ish?) crammed into one rather small house and Avery's family isn't known for being calm or quiet.  I love 'em though; those Johnsons are a fun bunch.  Christmas morning we'll open family gifts at home and then head back over to the inlaws for Christmas brunch and more presents.  Then Avery will head off to work and the kids and I will hang out with his family all afternoon until Christmas dinner.  Saturday we're hoping to head over to the zoo in the morning to spend time with some family friends we haven't seen in a while.  (Avery's best friend is home from Montana...he's in the Air Force and is currently training to be in the nuclear missile silos.)  Then Sunday my family is coming down here for the day and we'll go out to lunch after church and then have a little Christmas over here.  Avery took two hours off of work that day so we won't be so rushed.

Should be fun!  Oh, and speaking of gifts, mine is sitting under the tree taunting me right now.  This is the first Christmas in 5 or 6 years that Avery has actually bought me a gift and I have no idea what it is.  (Gifting is not his talent...he usually just buys me whatever I ask for...or we go shopping for my gift together.)  He's been teasing me about it for two weeks now and I'm dying from curiosity.  I have a few ideas, but the way he went about buying it really has me baffled.  (He made a phone call, had an appointment set up, and then had to go somewhere this morning to get the last part of it.)  I'm so excited!!  I haven't been surprised by a big gift since I was a kid...the anticipation is so much fun!

Before I go, I wanted to thank all of you who commented on my last post.  A lot of you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned needing to go to God first for that intimacy.  It is when my spiritual life is suffering the most that I feel loneliest.  When I'm spending more time in prayer and quality time in the Word, the lack of fellowship doesn't bother me nearly as much.  So that was a good reminder.  Also, my husband is my very best friend and I do look to him to fill those needs (after God), and that's how it should be.  But like some of you pointed out, there's something special about having a soul sister.  I'm sure God will bring someone into my life when the time is right, but until then I am very blessed to have an incredible husband, my best friend Kari, and my wonderful mother-in-law to encourage me.  (Oh, and I am planning on getting involved in a MOPS group pretty soon to hopefully meet some new ladies, since our church doesn't have any ministries to mothers.)