Little Grandma's

I will be 28 years old in a few days and never in my whole life have I been able to sit down with my Little Grandma (My Dad's Mother) and talk just the two of us.  Now I should probably expain why I refer to her as Little Grandma.  When my sisters and I were growing up we needed to find a way to distinguish between our grandparents.  My mother's mom was tall and my father's mom was more petite.  So we creatively named our grandmas Big Grandma and Little Grandma.

Anyway, this past weekend I ventured to my Little Grandma's to assist my husband and brother-in-law in getting my Grandpa's boat fixed up enough to be driven back to Fennimore in order to suprise my Dad.  Now I should clarify that my "assisting" with the boat entailed spending time with my Grandma and every once and a while her and I would check to see how the boys were doing.

It was the most enjoyable afternoon I have had in a long time.  My Grandma and I broke every social rule regarding topics of conversation.  We talked politics, reglion, social issues and after we tried to solve the world's problems we discussed Baby Hamann and some fun stories about my Dad and his sisters.  My Grandma turned 92 this June and I am so proud to be a grandaughter of, oh how did she put it...a liberal "rebel"!

Country Road

It is funny how the same action can give you two opposite emotions.  For me driving down my in-laws driveway gives me two conflicting sets of feelings; happiness and sadness.  As Reid and I drive into the yard of his parents' homestead I get this excited feeling in my heart.  I feel like I am home. I get to look forward to a break from whatever chaos was left back in Illinois.  Then like a sick joke at the end of our stay we drive down the driveway on our way back to Illinois wishing that we were driving in not out.  And it nevers fails that when we are making our way back to Illinois we see another vehicle somewhere in Wisconsin that is traveling the same way we are, east, but has a South Dakota license plate.  Without hesitation I yell to the vehicle to turn around because they are going the wrong way, home is back out west.

Drug Testing

Flordia passed a law that welfare recipiants must submit to drug testing in order to receive any type of aid from the government.  If they can not pass the drug test then that individual and his/her family no longer qualify for assistance.  Now I am not one to be up on current events and news, but I saw a post that several people had highlighted on their facebook status regarding Flordia's decision to implement this drug testing policy.  Many people commented their approval of the law because if people can be randomly drug tested for their job then why not mandate individuals that qualify for welfare help. 

At face value I agree, I mean if individuals are going to use drugs then why should tax money go to helping them pay for food and shelter.  There is however a huge flaw with this law.  The real reason that the welfare system exists is to benefit children, disabled and the elderly.  So specifically for children if their parents use drugs and are not able to qualify for social programs then ultimately the children are denied basics like food, shelter, and I am going to go out on a political limb and say healthcare. 

Now I am not saying that we turn a blind eye to the criminal acts of others, but instead of viewing the situation with the mentalilty that I should not help those individuals who can't help themselves and continue to make poor choices, maybe instead we view it as what happens if I don't help those who don't help themselves. 

We should not care for the people in our communities because it is the cheapest thing to do, but instead help others because it is the thing we are called to do.  Plus prisons are a much more expensive alternative to social programs no matter what politicians may say.  Preventative measures are always more productive and cost effective then reactive measures. 

T-Shirt

I am going to make a shirt that says...

"I am pregnant, don't comment on my size!"

I wonder if people will take the hint?

Garage Sales

This past Thursday and Friday I ventured to the famous or not so famous Waunakee garages sales outside of Madison, WI.  There really is no other way to accumulate tons of baby clothes without the insane cost other then to go through someone's garage!  Growing up I remember my mother having a garage sale every year, but I do not remember going to them.  So this adventure in garage saleing really has beeen my first adult experience  with it. 

At first I was really nervous about looking through other people's things while they watched.  It is weird picking through things that I want while leaving other things behind on the table.  We started our shopping at 7 am and finished around 5 pm, so I had plenty of time to get over my nervousness about the process.

Baby Hamann was kicking away while I was shopping which means one of two things: 1-Baby doesn't like shopping or 2-Baby was excited about all the clothes :)

Boy or Girl

I had a dream that Reid and I were sitting at a kitchen table and there was a little girl sitting on the table with dark brown hair.  The next day I took a pregnancy test and found out we were expecting.  A month or so later I had a dream that I was talking to my sister-in-law Elizabeth and she told me that she is so excited that I am having a girl and she hopes that she is having one too.  I told her about the dream, but she confirmed that she is not expecting :)

Three months into my pregnancy I dreamt that Reid and I were at the doctor's office and I was having an ultrasound.  They announced to us that we were definetly having a girl.  And a week ago I had another ultrasound dream that resulted in a girl baby. 

Baby wants

For the first three months of my pregnancy I could barely eat water. Nothing sounded good and watching TV turned into torture when any type of food commercial would come on. I lost weight and was concerned that I would never have a good relationship with food again.

My husband read that I should be eating protein so he would constantly ask me how much protein I had eaten that day and of course my response was, "Well, how much protein is in water, saltine crackers, and pizza hut breadsticks?". Oh yeah, I should mention that I craved pizza hut breadsticks of all things, very strange.

So now I am in my fourth month :) and the baby has been very hungry for all of the horrible guilty pleasure foods. Now, I really do not like eating fast food, but I think that the slippery slope of fast food joints is that once you start that habit it can be very addicting. So the first thing I craved was bacon, egg, and cheese buiscuits from McDonalds and then it was McDonalds cheeseburgers. I understand that I don't have to listen to my cravings, but when you have not been able to eat for several months you are really willing to listen to your body as long as it is hungry for something.