As Pretty as a Picture

It has been a much busier summer than I had expected; but then again it always is. It is always nice to just have some down time, which I was able to do yesterday....

It was Father's day and it was such a good day, filled with family and memories in the making. After visiting Jeremiah's parents, I arrived at mom and dad's house. I was really excited about my gift for dad; Jeremiah and I were laughing because, we got his father this Expository Genius of John Calvin (Jeremiah's idea of course) and I found my dad an awesome 1970's magazine of the Beatles at this antique mall. I think he really liked it, anyways....

The point of my blog is as the night closed to an end, dad and I, while mom watered the plants brought out the guitar and just sang on the front porch. My dad is like a living jukebox in the fact he knows most oldies and rock n roll (although I have introduced him to some new music), I just love that precious time with my dad. Singing and laughing... looking at God's creation around us and just enjoying every moment. I know now these moments are precious and few.

Next week, Jeremiah and I go to the beach with my bf Jospehine and Thomas; I am so excited. I am a beach baby! I love the water, the sand, and the whole thing, (Jeremiah once said he would like the beach if there wasn't any sand, water, or sun), so hopefully I can introduce him to the world of wave riding, boogie boarding, shell searching, nightwalks, and sandcastles! I will let you know how it all goes!

Till I write again,

Jessie

Greetings, I am writing from a small Computer

Jeremiah and I are embarking (don't you love that word) on our one year anniversary; I am also writing to you on what I feel like the smallest computer known to man (aka the dell mini) Maybe I just have big fingers but it takes me forever to type on this thing and somehow I will press a button and it will delete everything I have written, so it is highly probable that this post will not even make it to my blog. Oh well, we also got a wireless router and so I am typing from my bed, waiting on my sweet husband to come for the coal mines or the place where countless of you get you white mocha and frappuccino whatzies. I can't sleep without Jeremiah, many of you may find that endearing but I don't like suffering from lack of sleep, plus I miss him when he is gone.

After a year, I still get excited when I hear is ringtone (which is Thriller) announcing that he is on his way home. We are celebrating our one year by going to Indianapolis to see Wicked and toot around the historic district. We are staying in a Bed & Breakfast (I love these maybe one day I will devote an entire post devoted to B&B's.) Anywho that is what we are doing, I am just excited to be with Jeremiah and enjoy a relaxing weekend with my husband. Anyways this computer is doing crazy things and literally has taken my almost thirty minutes to type this blasted post. Anyways I have loved being married for a whole year :))) Besides following Jesus it was the best decision I have ever made.

Until next time,

Jessie

What a Week!

I knew I would be writing about this eventually. This week, specifically Wednesday night about 10:30 pm, I witnessed Calvin being born. I was so nervous about it all, I didn't even know if I could handle it.

I have thought so much about, just the whole wonderfulness of it all. I wish I had a camcorder with my thoughts on it so you could have experienced what I got to see. It feels like yesterday Amanda was sending my a picture of the pee stick and was deciding whether or not she was pregnant, looks like she was:)

Now over a process of nine months Calvin is here. I never realized I would be so emotional about it, everything was just amazing, from the doctors announcing she was ten centimeters to Calvin screaming his little lungs off.

One thing I will never forget is when the doctor layed Calvin on Amanda's chest for the first time, he was bawling, Amanda with the most sheer joy I have ever seen, took him in her arms, and said, "I feel like I've known you my entire life." Calvin calmed down and just looked and blinked at his mom. 

I was so glad I got to witness such a bond between to human beings. It was such a beautiful and pure moment. The Lord planned it all. 

I am so blessed to be an Aunt of three beautiful boys. 

A Faithful Poster

Hmmmm.... so much to say but nothing has been said. I thought when I made this blog I would write down all of these thoughts in my head but a lot of them I have found are not what I want to share with  the Internet.... I know right, now wanting to share my thoughts with the world... crazy! But there are a couple of things I want to share....

1. I love the library, for those who are movie/book/music lovers, which is most Americans, you need to go to the library, you would be so surprised. It is wonderful, I only know one person who truly understands what I mean! I have been really into the music lately, this week I definitely got the most random things; Duffy (I love her, that she is from Whales, and is simply amazing), Classical Greatest Hits (I was feeling risky), Debussy (thank you Twilight), Tom Waits greatest hits, Wicked Soundtrack, and possibly the greatest grooviest of them all Jazz for Lovers... beat that. 

2. Movies we got were Secret Window (you know Johnny Depp is amazing), A.I (not so much my favorite, and others we have not watched yet. 

3. Books: Definitely got some living green books thanks to Jo and the countless Wal-Mart commercials and the Blue Bloods. 

I don't care how cool you think you are the library is cooler, so go. 

Just a side note, I had not intention of writing about my love for the library, but hey you get what you get. 

Oh and Happy Easter, may you remember Jesus and the cross, not just today but everyday. It's something that we should never get over but stand in awe of our perfect, wonderful, Savior. So think about it, I promise it will and continue to change your perspective on your fragile, unpredictable life you are given.

"The blood of Jesus, it is like the Widow's oil, when it's all you have, it is all you'll ever need."

A.P.

Till I blog again, 

Jessie 

A little thing called the CPSIA....

These past few months have had a whirlwind of discussion concerning a law called the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA)- brought about by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). This passed on Feb. 10th, 2009. People in opposition to this law were relieved when a one year stay was granted-but it has become clear that it is only to manfucaturers and importers, not distributors and retailers. The wording also makes it clear you’re still damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
This act (feel free to read it here) will drastically affect the parents of children aged 0-12, and the people who make their livelihood from selling or making products intended for these children.
According to the CPSIA, any product that is designed toward this age range is required to be tested for lead and phthalates (a pretty dangerous plastic/chemical found in many toys. It’s what makes your rubber duck squeezable) and receive certification stating the item to be free of or below the legal limit of both.
That includes all clothing, baby blankets, toys (no matter the materials used to make them), bicycles, videos, and books.
Without the testing and certification, it will be illegal to sell any of these products. This law is also retroactive, which means things that were perfectly OK for you to buy your 6 year old two months ago will now also require testing. Anything sitting in the warehouses will have to be sent back and re-tested. Now, for places like Wal-mart and Toys ‘R Us, that’s fine. No big deal. They can afford it. But what about your local thrift store or consignment shop? What about that independent bookstore downtown? Your local library? Or how about these mothers trying to supplement their income by making beautiful children’s items by hand and selling them online?

Felt Cake Play Set By Little Bitty Bakery
Wooden Grasping/ Teething Elephant Toy By Little Sapling Toys

The CPSIA includes them all.
Thrift stores won’t be required to test their items, but they will still be required to follow the law. How should they go about doing that? According to a representative from the CPSC, they should “look at it” and have a “level of confidence” about whether or not it contains lead. When these resellers do eyeball an item and say that it appears to be below the accepted lead level, anyone that purchases that item and merely claims it had lead in it can sue them into the ground. That means that most thrift stores are probably not going to take any chances and will just stop selling children’s items. That is going to cause a lot of problems for people who can’t afford to buy new clothes every time their kid grows again. And what should the people who donate/consign their used things do? Why, put them in a landfill, of course.
*Video interview*
And blog discussing the troublesome issues with the interview.

Something that makes me personally even more sick is this law’s take on books. Any children’s book printed before 1985 is as of Feb 10th, 2009 considered to be a hazardous & illegal material. The government is forcing libraries to clean out their shelves and devastating the inventory of independent bookstores. Apparently, these books contain minute traces of lead in the ink and are now considered toxic. Testing isn’t possible because the procedure would require the destruction of the book. They clearly aren’t concerned with the fact that by the time a child ate enough of these “toxic” books to induce lead poisoning, he would already have died a few times over because of the incredible amount of paper in his system.
Just a week or two ago, I was at Jessie’s apartment, looking at some beautiful copies of assorted Beatrix Potter stories (The Tale of Jeremy Fisher, Squirrel Nutkin, and others) that were printed in the 1970’s. I hope Jessie plans on keeping them, because she will be in some serious trouble if she tries to sell them online or donate them to Goodwill.
*Links to books and the CPSIA-
Books, Testing Forms and the Coming Safety Bubble by The Common Room.
Article by Red Cardigan
Troubling piece concerning books & the CPSIA

One of the biggest problems of the CPSIA will be that this will eliminate nearly all home based businesses dealing in quality, handmade children’s products. I am an avid believer in buying hand crafted goods instead of cookie cutter products that are made poorly and from inadequate materials. If I can make something, or buy something made by another person, I do. And a lot of women and men who stay at home with their children rely on selling the products they make so that they can continue to spend time with their families instead of being at the office (or perhaps it’s because they aren’t even able to find a job in this economic slump). These individuals are not going to be able to afford having their products unnecessarily tested. They won’t be making enough money; they won’t be buying nearly as much; they may have trouble clothing their kids, because they are some of the people shopping at the thrift stores; and the economy will just keep plummeting.
Raise your hand if you think any of these items have lead in them-

Flapper Beanie By PDXBeanies

Oliver Octopus Plush By KileyKoala
The Shower Print By Talchen

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about keeping our children safe. The problem with the CPSIA is that it does NOT do anything that would ensure their safety.
I got this information from a fellow blogger- Organic Baby Farm.
I directly quoted this because I feel that she has already spent the time doing the research and worded it perfectly. I don’t think that I could paraphrase it and appropriately explain it.
How Much Safer Will CPSIA Make Us?

“First, I made a list of every recall that occurred in 2008. (Yes, it took all day. I have a twisted ankle so I needed an excuse to sit down.) I got the info from the CPSC's website and for each recall jotted down a short description of the item, the hazard for which it was recalled, the number of items recalled, whether CPSIA might possibly have prevented it, how many injuries and how many deaths resulted from it, whether the recall was voluntary or not, and a quick note about what types of injuries were sustained (so that I could distinguish between bruises and broken bones).Once I had my list in the spreadsheet, I set about analyzing the data. There were 388 recall notices (some of the notices had multiple item recalls on them, for example if they were recalling more than one color of item). Together these recalls represented 31,100,159 individual products, that resulted in 665 injuries and 7 deaths. Most of the recalls (76% of them) had no injuries or deaths associated with them. That means only 24% of the recalls happened as the result of an injury or death.

A quick note about voluntary vs. involuntary recalls. There was only ONE involuntary recall in all of 2008, and it was from a company that had had multiple large recalls in a short period of time and gone out of business. The company that bought its assets refused to conduct the recall, but the retailers jumped right in and went ahead with it, in cooperation with the CPSC. And this one recall was for a bassinet with a strangulation hazard, from which 2 kids had died.

Another point that bears making is that most, but not all, of the recalls for lead paint and lead exposure were ones that would have been prevented by CPSIA. 90% of them would have been (63), but 10% of them (7) were for items definitely not intended for children, such as key chains and candle charms. Wherever there was doubt whether an item might be a "children's item" I pre-emptively ruled that it was a children's item. So for example the Harry Potter bookends that were recalled for lead paint got classed as a children's item for purposes of my analysis. There was one injury from lead exposure from the non-CPSIA lead violations; I didn't count it as one that CPSIA would have prevented, because it was from exposure to a lead-containing adult product (a keychain, in this case).Of the 63 recalls that would have been prevented by CPSIA, only 1 resulted in an injury (a child ingested lead paint from a crib and had elevated blood levels of lead). This means that had CPSIA been in place for 2008, one child would have been helped.Think about that: all the expense to which we are going, all the ruination of all the businesses, all of that would only have helped ONE small child be safer.

Now think about how many children we could help if we instituted a lead paint abatement program. According to CDC data, in 2006 there were 39,526 children with blood levels of lead in excess of 10 ug/dl (the level of concern). If we are truly concerned about lead poisoning in children, why don't we start with the 39,525 children who did NOT contract lead poisoning from children's goods?”

Please, take a moment to write your congressman and your senator to tell them to join in against this act and pass an amendment through that will fix this devastating law.
Find your congressmen’s address here.
Find your senator’s address here.
Use this sample email.
Sign the petition here.
(it will ask for a donation afterwards, but you do not have to give)
Email the CPSC directly here.

You can read more of Jo's thoughts on her blog.

Hola!

Hello blogger world! A new post is coming oh so soon. This will be from a dear friend of mine, she has wonderful insight and has a lot to tell us!

Here ya go!

This is the girls, dad, and Tony, before the big surgery day. I just thought this was a neat picture.