Mother Superior Jumped the Gun

My head is spinning at the constant political buzz. My Dad,who is a life long politically active democrat, likes to give me updates from the nightly news. He always seems suprised that I am already informed from having my homepage set to BBC America. I can't quite escape political info even if I would like to. It has been kind of fun to hear all of the chatter about Palin and her elevation from hockey mom to vice presidential candidate. I had heard of her previously from a profile in Vogue, where she came off as a pretty impressive woman. I don't particularly want her anywhere near the White House, but it has been fun to watch such an odd ball choice ripple through the country. It is seems to be the only exciting thing McCain has managed to do during his entire campaign.
A day doesn't go by when I don't think about how I have no idea what is really going to make a person a good president. I actually thought that our current president seemed pretty moderate and reasonable 8 years ago. (Not that I voted for him). I do think Hillary Clinton would have made a pretty competent president. I believe pretty strongly in the power of government to have a positive impact in people's lives. As a member of the lower-middle/middle-middle class, I have benefitted a lot from government help. I don't really mind paying a lot in taxes. At the same time, I do think that libertarians have some really good points about the damage that bigger government can cause. I definitely know I do not want anyone in government trying to turn America into their idea of a Christian Nation. I just have to make the best decision I can and hope that our little constitutional experiment can hold together for a little longer. Since Washington is practically a guaranteed Obama state, I am a little envious of swing state voters, who seem to matter a bit more than I do.

Had me a blast

I know that I am not the only one who barely posts any blogs during August...just when I think I can't get any busier, something else pops up. The last few weeks have been all about working on enjoying time with the kids. We have gone camping in Olympic National Park and had two Japenese Exchange Students for a weekend. We got a trampoline for Hamda's birthday. I cut off all my hair. The Grandmas, the girls and I went to see Mamma Mia!! We have been enjoying watching the Olympics. The biggest event of August has been marking Hamda and Shkuri's one year anniversary as Biggerstaffs. We finalized their adoption in court. At the moment I don't seem to be able to reflect on the first year here; it's hard to imagine them not always being a part of our lives.

The kids seem to be a bit tired of summer now - they now utter "I am bored" with a frequency that was unheard of in June. I used to insist that I would never be a Mom who would want their kids to go back to school (I would enjoy every minute of my time with them), now I am really looking forward for September 3rd!!
On September 4th, I head back to Kentucky for a week of intensive courses on physical assessment and skills (learning to do a pap smear, sutures, and remove a cockroach from a toddlers ear, etc.). When I return, I am going to start my nine months of clinicals to finish up my Masters Degree. This is going to involve my normal M,W,F work schedule (which provides our family with health coverage), plus ten hour clinical days on Tu and Thu. I am very excited about my ARNP clinicals, but very anxious about working 45+ hours a week. I have not worked full time since Isaac was born, and haven't ever wanted to. Luckily, 3/4 of the kids are in school full time and both Grandmas will be there to pick them up from school. Ariel will take the kids to school two days a week and I will do the other three. The next two weeks are going to be a major race for me to finish my last course, check off my to do list, and complete all the kids back to school stuff. Such an exciting time!!
I have been thinking about all the things I can do to reduce stress and anxiety, and one thing I came up with is to stop worrying about the election. A patient went on ranting (among other things) for a long time about the evils of Obama and what he would do to this country...I kept my mouth shut about how crazy she sounded, until I realized that I have a similiar fearful response to what might happen if McCain wins. It is pretty stupid for me to feel anxious about what might happen in the future. I will cast my vote and hope for the best (which is of course, Obama) and leave it at that.

Mucho Miscellany

1. I think we may have figured out one way to have four kids without going a bit crazy. I am facing a 40 hour work week (1/2 clinicals, 1/2 work) in the fall, and had decided we needed a housecleaner. Instead, we all started cleaning the house together on Saturday mornings...Ar organizes the kids with a to do list, I clean the bathrooms. Of course there is some whining, but the kids all get their allowances upon completion, so it goes pretty well. I am very impressed with how well the kids can do things like mopping, sweeping, and vacuuming.
2. Never doubt the power of the jinx. Yesterday at work, I did the unthinkable. I uttered the word quiet at the end of my shift. It had been such a great day after two weeks of being slammed. You are never to utter the word quiet in a hospital. Within a half an hour - a patient went into a-fib and likely had a heart attack and my other patient had a blood transfusion reaction (which involves a sudden fever of 103 or so and rigors so bad he was shaking his bed).
3. Pandora Radio is one of the best things I have ever found on the web...a friend of Ar's was listening to it at http://www.pandora.com/. You can create your own radio station by picking one or two of your favorite songs and it streams songs they think you will like. I have Clash Radio while Ar has "Wicked Cool" and "Strange Folk". It plays a lot of music I have never heard, but really like - especially songs by decently well known bands that don't normally get played on the radio. I don't know why it thinks I like Belle & Sebastian, though, because I don't.
4. Hooray for summer and farmer's markets. I have a CSA share and am blowing the rest of my grocery budget in an orgy of fruit and berry eating. Yum. Tonight I have been struck by the dessert muse and am going to make a raspbery-peach trifle.
5. Tomorrow Ar and I are taking 3/4 of the kids to Vancouver, WA to sit in on a talk by Tom Sine, who wrote The New Conspirators and started the Mustard Seed House in Seattle. He is one of a handful of people on the forefront of the 'emergent church' that are community oriented and focus on social justice. It is right up the alley of what we have been doing in our home church group. My understanding of the bigger picture is a bit fuzzy...hopefully, we will all learn a bit more. One of my favorite books written about this type of church is Irresistable Revolution by Shane Claiborne.
6. I think we are going to have an outdoor movie night next weekend. We will probably watch Howl's Moving Castle. We are trying to pick a movie that is good for kids and adults - not an easy task.

Jiang & Ling

This weekend, our family hosted Jiang and Ling, two college students from Shangai who are here for a summer course. We were expecting two boys, but we enjoyed them all the same. We have one picture of them, but I happen to be taking off my wetsuit, and the picture will never see the light of day. We took them to the beach and around Olympia and had a generally nice weekend. I wish we had more room to host students more often. The weekend didn't end well, as Isaac has developed 'walking' pneumonia - he hasn't been too sick, but spent most of last night hacking ever ten minutes - Not very fun for either of us. Today, I spent my morning before work with him at the Dr.'s. After a few days of antibiotics, he should be good to go.

Swiss Family Biggerstaff

(or Wynoochee River Escapist Fantasy '08)

Camping Food

We are getting ready to take our 5 day camping trip to the Wynoochee River and I am planning our menu. Does anyone have any favorite camping food recipes to share? Favorite websites? We have a tent trailer and a great campfire spot, so storage is not a problem, although refrigeration is limited. Any suggestions would be great!

I was planning on posting about my very lovely birthday weekend, but this week has overtaken it - and not in a good way. Ariel's work has been a little slow, so I have taken on extra shifts to help out a good friend of mine at work - she has needed to go on leave as her husband dies of cancer. Then Matcha, our six month old kitten got attacked by a neighbor's cat and ended up with an infection and had to stay the night at the vets. I was more than a little suprised how traumatizing it was to have a sick kitten.
Today, my Dad got an official diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease. It was not a huge suprise - about four months ago, I noticed he had a tremor in his right hand (combined with general slowness, and just a sense that something was off) and told him that I was concerned that he had Parkinsons. Parkinsons is a brain disease with a wide range of severity, but most people degenerate until they are no longer able to move on their own within ten years. There are definitely worse diseases to get, especially for an almost seventy year old man, but it is a bad diagnosis. I haven't totally absorbed the reality of it, and I don't think my Dad has either. Everyone pretty much knows these days will come and all I can do is try and be there and be helpful. Someday in the future, I will probably have a better handle on it all.