HOLY CRAP!!!

It’s like I could have wrote this article!!

Read, enjoy, love the nerd girl!

 

Please Help!

I’m posting here a blog I did for my other blog where I talk about my struggles with infertility.  Please read and if you can and are willing, please contact your representatives in congress!!

Hey all…I just found out about this today, RESOLVE’s Advocacy Day.  A group is going to Washington to fight for infertility coverage!  Click here to go to the main page for Advocacy Day.  Below I’ve cut and pasted a ton of stuff from their website.  You can go and read it there, but I thought I’d highlight some of it so you know what this is, and what you can do!

RESOLVE Advocacy Day: Why Me? Why Now?

Today we are in a unique moment in US history where the future of healthcare reform is being discussed in the halls of Congress. Together we need to make sure that the leaders of this discussion hear firsthand what those touched by infertility need in our healthcare system. There’s never been a time in RESOLVE’s 35 year history where we need you more than we do today. Grab your spouse, partner, best-friend or mom and join us June 25 in Washington D.C. 

On June 25, RESOLVE’s family building advocates will be in Washington DC in an effort to make family building more affordable.

There are ways you can help, today.

1. FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO A FRIEND
Share this email with family and friends asking them to sign up to become an advocate and stay informed.

2. FACEBOOK
Change your status to: “Today I’m donating my status to RESOLVE’s Advocacy Day–leading the charge for greater access to affordable care for infertility patients.” (Don’t forget to become a Fan of RESOLVE)

3. BLOG
Let your readers know what is going on in Washington DC this week. More information here.

4. TWITTER
Tweet to all your followers: “June 25 is RESOLVE’s Advocacy Day, visit resolve.org for ways to get involved.”

5. DONATE
Make a generous tax-deductible online donation today to help support our ongoing initiatives to increase access to affordable care.

The infertility community needs to be on the minds of our elected officials this summer as the healthcare reform discussions continue. We can’t do it without you..take action, be generous… and stand up and be heard!

Here is a way you can do something in your area!!!

Federal Legislation

• Contact your Representative and ask them to co-sponsor HR 697, the Family Building Act of 2009.
• Contact your Senators and urge them to sponsor infertility coverage legislation in the Senate.

Info provided by RESOLVE on Insurance coverage…click the link! Some info about Insurance coverage from RESOLVE

There is also a form where you can submit YOUR story for the RESOLVE group to take to Washington with them!  Below I’ve posted what I wrote for them to take.  I feel like by doing this I can help make changes.  I hope you will all do the same!

“My husband and I have been trying to have a child for 2 years. After a year of trying with no success I was referred to an infertility clinic. Shortly after my first appointment we learned that my insurance does not cover infertility treatment, only diagnostic tests. After about 6 months I was diagnosed with PCOS. From that point on, it has been a struggle and everything I can do to keep going in our journey for a child. In January 2009 we finally conceived a child through IUI. It had taken us almost $5000 in drug costs (which were not covered) weekly blood tests and ultrasounds (also not covered) and the actual IUI procedure (not covered by insurance). We were so happy. It had been a long road and we were pretty much broke, but we were going to have our child. In March of 2009 I lost my child. My insurance did cover my emergency room costs, hospital stay and surgery (d&c). However, now we are trying again. We’ve put another $3000 into treatments and medications. This is our last hope. If we are not pregnant (we will find out on June 29th, though I am not hopeful that it worked) that is the end of our trying. We are out of money now. We’ve spent every penny of our savings on this cycle. My husband is starting school in the fall to become a pastor, and we will have no extra income. If this does not work, we may not get another chance for more than 3 years. We want a baby so badly. My baby will be wonderful, beautiful and an amazing child. I can almost see him, I just can not get to him. It is so frustrating that the only thing stopping my husband and I from achieving our dreams of being parents is money. Money should not be a factor in creating life. People are every day making babies without a second though, though for all of us who are infertile, we want nothing more than our babies. It consumes our every thought, our every dream, our every day. The fact that we are not allowed to be parents just because the cost of our treatments are so high is unconscionable. Please help us to reach our goals. Please help us to be able to meet our babies.”

 

I love my Abbey…

…this is why:

 

Happy Birthday Hannah Banana!!

To my niece Hannah on her 3rd Birthday!!

 

Harry Potter, Memorial Day & Malcolm…

I’ve had a busy few weeks, and am just now getting around to posting about it!  I attended LeakyCon 2009 in Boston recently.  It was  a lot of fun, and I came home with the dreaded LC1F09 (or the illness everyone got from LeakyCon!).  I’ll try to give a run down of my time there with pictures!

My friend Abbey that I went to LeakyCon with is on the Leaky Cauldron staff, so I ended up helping out with a lot of the registration stuff.  We spent much time in the coat check putting together name tags and registration bags.  Here is a picture of what we did:

I even got a LeakyCon Staff shirt, though I’m not on staff!  I actually had a lot of fun doing that, even though at times it was stressful and chaotic during the actual registration.  I think we pretty much handled it well and everyone got in to the conference that was supposed to!

So the first day was just registration and then Opening Feast in the “Great Hall”.  Across the street from our hotel was “The Castle”…it was a huge building that looked like a castle in the middle of downtown Boston!  Unfortunately I didn’t get any shots of it from the outside.  Inside however, it was decorated to look like the Great Hall from HP!  It was really awesome.  All the tables were decorated in Slytherin green, Ravenclaw blue, Gryfindor red and Hufflepuff yellow.  Here’s a few shots:

The banners were amazing, though I’m still trying to figure out why the Slytherin banner was purple and green…I of course got tons of shots of the Ravenclaw banner, as I claim myself to be a Ravenclaw.  The Great Hall is where most of the big events of the conference took place.

Here is me and Abbey rockin’ it Harry Potter style at the opening feast.

And what would a party in Boston be without some street dancing?? (Abbey, MJ, Jeff and Josh)

The highlight of opening feast: finally meeting Hank Green of the NERDFIGHTERS!  You should seriously check them out the vlogbrothers on YouTube.  I’ve meet John 3 times now, but this was my first Hank sighting

So that was the first night…Abbey and I made our way back to our hotel room after a bit of chilling in the Leaky Suite.  We jammed ourselves into our air mattresses, tucked between 2 beds in the room.  We were sharing with 4 other people, so there were 6 people in a 2-4 person room.  Cozy.  The next day however we were upgraded!  Due to some issues with the hotel the Suite was upgraded, leaving an extra room in the suite and because the staff knew of our cramped conditions they offered it to us.  I unfortunatly forgot to take pictures of the sweet suite (get it??) but it was amazing.  We all had our own cot, bed, couch or air mattress so no one had to share.  And the room was huge.  On the other side was a huge kitchen, 2 large round tables, 2 bedrooms and an outside patio that was AMAZING!  Sure, sleeping at night was a bit of a problem since the LeakySuite is where all the staff hung out at night, as well as some of the confrence speakers and random attendees that tracked down the suite.  Often times the party didn’t break up until 4 or 5 in the morning.  I would usually put on my iPod to drown out the noise when I was ready for bed, which was about 3 or 4 am!  I did manage to get some shots of the balcony:

You can just see Boston in the background of this shot

Okay, so day 2 – I spent the morning watching a vender booth for Julie May who was at the key note speaker that day.  Abbey and I rode to Boston with Julie and Kelly.  Julie makes beautiful glass work jewelery and also prints.  She does some of the jewelery in HP colors, so I got some Ravenclaw color earrings   You should check out her website and order stuff!  That afternoon was “Nosh with the Nerdfighters” which I was in the front row for with Abbey.

And here are the Vlogbrothers themselves!  Hank & John Green.  They’ve emassed quite the following, and no wonder!  Their videos are hilarious, engaging, informative and they also do a lot of work to decrease “world suck”.  Gotta love them!

Oh, and Hank writes and sings songs.  Some of them Harry Potter themed.  Here is my favorite, and a little vlogbrothers dialouge, too!  Accio Deathly Hallows:

Sweet, sweet nerd music.  You should also check out DFTBA records for more nerd music.  It’s a record company Hank started to release the music of YouTube musicians.  I’m particularily excited about the Doctor Who band Chameleon Circuit!

Okay, so that night was the Wizard Wrock night at the Castle.  I’m not really a fan of Wizard Wrock.  I’ll listen to it when it’s there, but I don’t go seeking it out.  What is Wizard Wrock?  Well, you may have guessed, but it’s band who only sing and write songs about the Harry Potter world.  There are bands called: Harry and the Potters, The Moaning Myrtles, The Remus Lupins, The Parselmouths, Swish and Flick  and others…It was fun just to go and hang out with my new HP friends.

Here’s Steven.  Kelly found him in the hotel lobby day 1 and brought him up to the coat check room to help us with registration!  He’s now on Leaky Staff!  Go Steven!

And this is me and Abbey with Farrah LeWinde.  She is a lot of fun and managed to get Hank to donate a dollar to LeakyCon (you can see it poking out of her shirt…).

Here’s a shot of one of the bands.  I think maybe it’s Harry and the Potters?  They sang one song that I really liked (and one of the only ones I could understand the words) called “Bacon”.

So, Day 3 – I managed to get to some programing!  The first I went to was on Father’s in the Harry Potter world where I found myself defending Lucius Malfoy – who knew!  I’m also apparently on YouTube somewhere, as they were filming the session and the camera woman asked if she could film my answer.  I’ll try to see if I can find it!  I also went to a completly amazing session about the symbols and other liturature that influenced Harry Potter by John Granger.  He has a lot more books than the one I linked to.   You should check them all out

That night was the LeakyCon Ball.  Everyone got dressed up and rocked out to the music.

Me, Josh and Abbey in our fancy clothes!

They had the Department of Mysteries veil set up, so Abbey and I got our picture taken in front of it

And peeking under it, trying to find Sirius Black (the biggest question I have for the whole HP series is what’s behind that veil)!!

I had a great time at LeakyCon – got very little sleep, got swollen feet riding in a car for 20 hours on the way home and contracted the LC1F09, but I had a great time.  We got to Abbey’s place at 6:00 am Chicago time and crashed on Memorial Day.  We woke up at 1 pm to get ready for a Memorial Day party at Le Chateau Oiulmette.

We were both EXHAUSTED but it was nice to get back and see our friends and have some great grilled food!  There was also Smashminton to be had, which I did not play because I feared I would fall over from exhaustion!  Abbey got the LC1F09 very bad so she ended up sleeping during the party and went home early.  She’s just now starting to get better.

Enjoying the Smashminton…

Our host, Rev. Tripp in his seersucker and suspendies.

Of course, the obligatory foot shot, showing of my new Ravenclaw socks!!!

Sarah and Evy enjoying the game.

Here is a bit of video of the day at Le Chateau…Obsquatch and Trish trying to “team up” for some Smashminton glory!

Sadly, I didn’t make it very long at the party and we left around 8ish and I went home and went straight to bed.

The next day, Justin and I celebrated Malcolm’s 3rd birthday!  We have a tradition of going to our regular pet shop and getting Mal and new toy, then walking to the other pet shop that carries special treats and getting him a “cake”.  We then go home, sing happy birthday, give him is treat and then the new toy!  It was, of course, raining on his big day so instead of a big walk he got a car ride.

Waiting to go in the puppy shop…

Our pet store guy giving Mal some treats!

The cake…isn’t it cute??

And here we are singing to the Birthday boy!

I was sick, so you’ll have to excuse the shaky voice…

Well, that’s it for now.  Hope you are all doing well

 

RIP Ms. Milvina Dean

On Sunday, May 31, 2009 the last survivor of the RMS Titanic disaster died at the age of 97.

Milvina Dean was only 9 weeks old when she, her parents and her older brother set out for a new life in America aboard the ship.  Her father died aboard the ship but she, her brother and mother survivied.  Milvina of course did not remember anything about what happened that night, but listened to the stories from her mother and brother growing up.  You can read an article all about Ms. Dean and her life here.

Just as some of you may not have realized that I am a Wizard of Oz fan, I also consider myself somewhat of an amateur Titanic historian.  I even wrote my college senior paper about the ship and the fate of those on board, as well as a 25 minute long speech in High School (that was only supposed to be 15 minutes) with picture displays I made myself.  I’ve read many books, watched many documentaries and was a member of the THS (Titanic Historical Society) for a year.  In recent years I’ve let my obsession with Titanic history fall aside, but it’s never completly gone.  Anyone who’s been afflicted by the Titanic “bug” so to speak, who has been touched by the story, will tell you that it becomes an obsession and you can never get over it.  I’ve even put on my list of life goals to go down and see the ship some day.  Even though I’m terrified of boats, the ocean, and lots of people in tight spaces…all of which I would encounter achieving this goal.  Not to mention it would cost an arm and a leg and I’d have to know people to do all this.  I even flirted with the idea of focusing all of my studies on the Titanic and becoming a full fleged historian with a specialization in the Titanic and her sister ships the Olympic and Britannic.  That of course, never happened.  I’m sad to hear of Ms. Dean’s death and the history that has died with her.  May she rest now and perhaps, she’ll now get to meet her father and be reunited with her Titanic family.

 

Input appreciated

I’m having a little poll/contest over at my sewing blog.  I’d appreciate input from my Joy of Randomness friends!  Head on over to Hink for Ladies by MaeT to cast your vote!

 

Mickey Carroll

Some of you know this, thought many of you may not, but I’m a HUGE Wizard of Oz fan.  I’ve been collecting memorabillia of the film and books since I was 8 – 1988, when the film turned 50 years old.  Ever since then I’ve usually gotten at least one WoOz item for a birthday or Christmas each year.  I have quite the collection which, sadly, is all in plastic tubs in a closet right now because I have no where else to put it in my apartment.  Some day it’ll see the light again.

I just saw some sad news today.  Mickey Carroll, one of the few remainig actors who played the Munchkins, died yesterday at the age of 89.  I remember hearing about Mickey while I was growing up.  There were a few times when he was doing events near my home and I always wanted to go, but never could.  Of all of the Munchkins, if you ever heard of one it was Mickey.  He was very proud of the work he did on that film and did countless events, openings and greetings.  He will be missed by the Wizard of Oz fans.

 

I’M SIX YEARS OLD TODAY!!

Yup that’s right, six years ago today something special and wonderful happened…

THIS BLOG WAS BORN!

Who would have thought I’d still be doing this today, 6 years later?

Looking back on my first month of posting, they were pretty lame, but random!  And that’s what it’s all about people.  I spoke of my love for cheese, green M&M’s and He-Man.  Not to mention my hatred of clowns!  Good times…

 

Yup…that’s how I feel today…

This cartoon is hanging up in my office…for such days as this.

It’s GORGEOUS outside!!  My window is cracked and the scent of all the blossoming trees and flowers is wafting in on the warm spring breeze.  The sun is shinging.  It’s green everywhere.  I walked outside yesterday and it seemed overnight that spring had exploded!  After yesterdays rain, everything is alive and the smell is intoxicating.  This is why I love spring so much!

So…WHY THE HELL AM I STUCK INSIDE ON A DAY LIKE THIS??????  Stupid job…stupid having to make money…*scuffs feet on the ground pouting*

I want to be out with this:

and this…

sitting under this…

and surrounded by these…

Boo.