Bullying From a Teenager’s Point of View–Bullying Poem

My niece is a poet and she has her own blog where she posts her poems as well as a few other things called Unique Poems and Thoughts.

I wanted to draw your attention to two of her most recent poems. A snippet is below with a direct link to the full poem. If you like her poetry, please take moment to click through and share your thoughts in her comments or perhaps follow her page on facebook.

“What's the worst part?
Knowing they were all watching,
some tried to help, but they went down too
there was no stopping them
they were undeniably and completely unbeatable
I tried, I yelled, but no one came
now I'm buried here,
deep in the ground
never again to make a sound
they shut me up like they asked.” 
– read full Bullying poem

The second one is titled Ugly.

"This one word has the power,
The impact to determine someone's next breath
Whether they will take it or not,
How foolish does that sound?
Well as silly as it sounds,
Its truer than true.
Life has never been simple
But this word and many more,
Are what make it hell to live.”
- read full Ugly Poem

I’m proud of my niece.

I fully believe in nourishing the creativity of the next generation.

World Breastfeeding Week–My Thoughts on #breastfeeding #WBW2012

Aug 1-7 is World Breastfeeding Week, designed to bring awareness to breastfeeding and help those who need help with it.

I am currently nursing my 16 month old and I nursed my other two children. My first child was bottled fed as well because I had to stop nursing at 2.5 months because of a medication I needed to be on.

I feel that every mom should try their hardest to breastfeed but I know sometimes a mom can’t and if they truly can’t, for whatever reason, then formula is an acceptable alternative. I do believe though that too many women don’t try at all or don’t try hard enough to nurse. It’s their life and their choice of course and I would never say anything or treat someone differently (and I usually don’t know why they are using bottles anyways) but I just feel that if there was more support and breastfeeding was more the norm more women would nurse.

Please understand that I am just sharing what I believe, I am not telling anyone they are a bad mom because they chose to formula feed. Your baby is being nourished and that is the most important thing. However if you never got past the early weeks of nursing which can be hard, you missed out on the wonder of breastfeeding. It’s like nothing else.

You will never see me shunning formula ads or anything radical. I just want to give support to those who do breastfeed or would like to or aren’t sure about it. I have thought about being a Lactation Consultant.

I am sad that most likely my nursing relationship will be over soon. My son is not weaning himself but I’m starting to get annoyed with his nursing behaviours (lately pinching me over and over again or getting on and off constantly. Plus now that he’s older, I would like to be able to send him for sleepovers to grandma’s house or leave for more than 6 hours.

I have a Pinterest board about breastfeeding, check it out! This is my favourite one:

Go ahead. Tell her to cover up. I'll wait over here.
Source: unprocessedfamily.blogspot.com via Kathleen on Pinterest

Comments Welcome as long as they are friendly. If you don’t like my opinion, that’s okay, but be nice. Also if you have a blog post up for World Breastfeeding Week, feel free to leave a link in the comments.

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

I just love watching The Cuteness imitate everything I do. She talks to and plays with her sister The Precious in exactly the way I do. She burps her doll by alternatly patting her and rubbing her back, just like I do with her sister. We stomp on the floor to get the friend who lives in the basement's attention and she stomps too.

The Cuteness is VERY observant and so when she imitates us, it's accurate down to the littlest detail. The way her face looks or the tone of voice used, it's exactly the same. It makes me highly aware of what I do and say because I know she will do it too.

It makes my heart melt to see her trying so hard to be like mommy.

The Family Unit

The newest issue of Reader's Digest just came in the mail today. The article under "That's Outrageous" got me thinking and I wanted to share my thoughts on the subject.

The title is The Family Unit: An Endangered Species?
Let me quote a little so you know what it's about:

"Earlier this year the Ontario Court of Appeal rules to recognize a
three-parent family: a mom, a dad... and another mom. "

"A.A. and C.C. were in a lifelong committed partnership and wanted to have a baby. A nice idea, but also biologically impossible: A.A. and C.C. are both women. ...the women called on their long-time male friend B.B. to provide the missing biological pieces. ...in February 2001 C.C. gave birth to a bouncing baby boy to whom the courts now fondly refer to as D.D."

Basically they all agreed that A.A and C.C. were to be the "primary custodial parents" and B.B. wouldn't have to pay any money but would be active in his kid's life. Later on down the road, A.A. asked the court to grant her full parenting rights and privileges. The request was denied but was approved after appeal.

"Interestingly, the Ontario Court of Appeal is the same court that, in 2003, declared the legal definition of marriage - the union of a man and a woman - invalid, changing it to include same-sex couples."

"We now live in a country where gender doesn't matter to marriage, and numbers don't matter to parenting, which leads to the question "How much longer before numbers don't matter to marriage?""

My response? What does it matter? I don't think the government should have any say in what constitutes a family. If two men want to get married, fine. If three adults want to co-parent a child, fine. If a woman wants three husbands, fine. Why should it be any body's decision but those involved?

Polygamy works for other cultures so I don't see it causing much problem here. As long as all those involved agree on how things work, why is it the government's business?

What's outrageous about that article is not that a three parent family was approved, but that the government still feels it necessary to put limits and rules on every aspect of our lives.

MMVA: Much Music Video Awards

You may or may not know that the Much Music Video Awards were tonight. I decided to watch it as nothing else was on. Honestly, I love music but have never felt the need to watch much programming ABOUT music, let alone award shows. I don't watch the Oscars or Tonys or Golden Globes or anything either. It's just not for me.

Actually, the thing I never got about award ceremonies was the 2 hour or more show BEFORE hand that shows all the stars showing up to the ceremony. I just didn't get what was interesting about people getting out of limos. However again, because there was nothing better to do, I watched the pre-show. I must say I was wrong. I probably wouldn't go out of my way to see a pre-show again but I enjoyed seeing what the artists looked like. Some I knew because of other shows or their music videos but especially for the groups, you don't really get a good look at them. They are usually moving too fast and it's darker. At the pre-show, I got to see them standing fairly still in broad daylight. It was a nice change. I actually learned a few things. Like Joss Stone is a girl and Alexisonfire are guys and Perez Hilton is actually a guy, not a nickname for Paris Hilton (go ahead, laugh at me, I can take it.)

The part I liked best about the award show was the live performances. I'm not too big on live shows usually because they often sound nothing like they do on CD where they have the benefit of special sound effects to make them sound better. For example I was disappointed when Fergie sang Fergilicious. It didn't sound good at all. Then there was The Used and Alexisonfire, who were pretty much just screaming. I'm sure it sound the same on CD. I couldn't believe it when at the end of the performance by the Used, they started saying the F-word over and over and the whole audience had their middle fingers up and shouting it back. That's just what I would want my teenager listening too oh yeah! NOT!

If anybody is reading this [ :) ], I'd like to know if you watched it or not. What did you think?

Strange and Funny Names

Where do our names come from? Well first names come from our parents but last names? Sometimes they are altered from what they are in our home language and when they are made more English, they are strange. Some people create their own last name. However they get that way, I've come across some STRANGE names. Just want to share.

Famous People
Ron Tugnutt, Hockey Player in the Columbus Blue Jackets

Actual First Names:
Stormy
Normandia
Fairy
Tigerlily
Wolf
Caspian
Imogen
Boniface

Actual Last Names:
Sacilotto
Hooker
Rump
Sumey
Butz
Weiner

Actual Mixed Names:
Sandy Beach
Margarita Drinkers
Al Dente
Barb Dwyer
Dick Finder (urologist lol)
Dick Trickle (NASCAR driver)
Dusty Rhodes
King Queene
Joy Rider



Some others:
http://www.namenerds.com/uucn/advice/legendsubmit.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/world/newsid_3706000/3706482.stm
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/strange/news-article.aspx?storyid=60632

Cleanliness is next to Godliness

I'm not a clean freak. I do something to keep my house in okay order everyday but I wouldn't say it's clean. I have stuff I haven't unpacked yet, dishes on the counter, laundry piled in the basement, books and papers all over the place and you can't see the coffee table. If I spent all my time cleaning, I'd have no time for my daughter or fun. However there is a fine line between an "I'm enjoying life" cluttered home and the "Come in and get a disease" home.

Now Clutter comes as a part of this but it's not my main focus. The people on TLC's Clean Sweep are hoarders and don't throw anything away so things pile up in their home. It definitely something that needs to be fixed as a clutter home is a cluttered life. But that's not what I mean.

The show How Clean is Your House is like what I mean. They don't show pictures of the house on the web but if you have ever seen any episodes, it's absolutely disgusting! I saw one where the 13 cats they owned had pooped all over the whole house. Everywhere and they didn't clean up after them. Another had dried crusty and smelly and moldy dishes all over the kitchen. Most of the people had a chronic illness of some kind caused by the dirt and mold. Toilets that are completely brown with guck.

I was just in a house recently that was gross. All the kids in the house were sick, if not from the house, it certainly wasn't helping. The kitchen floor was mucky, there was rotten food on the counters and the garbage STUNK! The baby toys were filthy amd the floor looked like it hadn't been washed in 6 months. How can you live like that? I know when I'm depressed I don't feel like cleaning but I could NEVER let it get that way. Once when I was really depressed my house got pretty bad, but still it was nothing compared to these homes.

When my mom was little, she was a house cleaner and took me with her on some jobs. This one house was the worst. The owners were in wheelchairs but that is no excuse. They were fully capable of keeping the house in decent order. The kitchen was so bad I was almost sick. Dirty plates with crust, rotten food all over them cluttered the WHOLE counter and table. The fridge had a few rotten pieces of food in it that looked like they had been bought 3 years ago. The laundry in the bedrooms was piled halfway up the wall so you had to walk ON the laundry to get to the bed. The laundry stunk so bad like someone had wet themselves in most of it. Get this, the dining room was spotless. Figure that one out.

I seriously don't get how anyone could live like this. So much bacteria can build in a mess like these people have and they could get really sick and pass it on to the rest of us. Their lives would be SO much better if they kept it clean.

There was a study with twins showing that messy houses lead to messy minds.

See Cleanliness is Next to Godliness from a Hare Krishna perspective. Not all links work.

Country

Note: Comments have been disabled for this post as I keep getting tons of spam comments on this post.

I am addicted to the Country Community! What I mean is the Country graphics community. I go to one webpage and browse, order adoptions etc... then see a link to another site and go there and then another and another and before I know it, it's hours later and I never even finished on the first site. Plus I wasn't even going on the net for that reason.

I have adoptions from country sites all over my webpages like here:
http://www.geocities.com/k_garber/adopt.html (ones from non country pages too) (update: no longer up)
http://snow.prohosting.com/kgarber/fadopt.html (and all my other season/holiday pages)

I just joined a country club: http://www.countryprimitivestop.com/club/ and I'm starting my own country graphics with quilts and stamps. I'm going to learn more about country graphics and pixels and start making adoptions. Maybe someday I'll have an adoption shop with purchaseware!

Check some of these sites out:
Cute Colors
Purdy Pixels
Kathys Kountry Korner
Seaside Treasures

Clouds

"Okay so what's the big deal about clouds?," you ask. A lot!

Clouds are just water droplets converging in the sky, but then if they are so boring, why aren't they just circles or ovals? What makes them form such strange shapes?

Who knows??? All I know is that I like to look at pictures of clouds, whether they form a figure or just a neat pattern or design. I didn't know there were lots of other people that felt that way too until I found this site:

The Cloud Appreciation Society

I love this site! Check out all the cool clouds!

Some of my favs:
Angel Wings
Face of Bob Marley
Dove in a Circle

Dalai Lama Turns 71

Today was the Dalai Lama's birthday. He turned 71. He is only one year older than my Father-in-Law.

How they chose the Dalai Lama's is very interesting. They believe that the Buddha of Compassion reincarnates himself into a new person after his "host" dies and that they have to find that person to become the next Dalai Lama. Often the person is just a child. In many cultures a child reigns the country/religion/culture.

Here's the story of how they found the present Dalai Lama:

In 1935 the Regent of Tibet went to the sacred lake of Lhamo Lhatso at Chokhorgyal, about 90 miles south east of Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. For centuries the Tibetans had observed that visions of the future could be seen in this lake. The Regent had a vision of three Tibetan letters, Ah, Ka, and Ma, followed by a picture of a monastery with roofs of jade green and gold, and a house with turquoise tiles. In 1937 high lamas and dignitaries carrying the secrets of the vision were sent to all parts of Tibet in search of the place that the Regent had seen in the waters. The search party that headed east was under the leadership of Lama Kewtsang Rinpoche of Sera Monastery. When they arrived in Amdo, they found a place matching the description of the secret vision. The party went to the house with Kewtsang Rinpoche disguised as the servant, and junior official Lobsang Tsewang disguised as the leader. The Rinpoche was wearing a rosary that had belonged to the 13th Dalai Lama, and the little boy of the house recognised it and demanded that it be given to him. Kewtsang Rinpoche promised to give it to him if he could guess who he was, and the boy replied that he was "Sera aga", which means in the local dialect "a lama of Sera". Then the Rinpoche asked who the leader was and the boy gave his name correctly; he also knew the name of the real servant. This was followed by a series of tests that included the choosing of correct articles that had belonged to the 13th Dalai Lama.

With these tests they were further convinced that the reincarnation had been found and their conviction was enhanced by the significance of the three letters that had been seen in the lake of Lhamo Lhatso: Ah could stand for Amdo, the name of the province; Ka for Kumbum, one of the largest monasteries in the neighbourhood; and the two letters Ka and Ma for the monastery of Karma Rolpai Dorje on the mountain above the village. In 1940 the XIVth Dalai Lama was enthroned.

From Tibetan Government: Dalai Lama

Links:
Tibetans Celebrate Birthday of Dalai Lama
Interview with Dalai Lama
Belief Net: Dalai Lama

World Cup

I'm not really interested in the World Cup and I probably wouldn't have even know it was going on if I didn't live one block from the Little Italy of my city. Just going down the street all you see is Italian Flags waving, cars honking, people shouting and Italians galore wearing World Cup shirts.

They are down to the last two games. Germany and Portugal are fighting for Third and Fourth Place while It's Italy vs. France for the finals. Even though I nothing about the sport, or the countries, I'm rooting for Italy, just because I live near the Italians of the city. I go to their stores, buy their foods so I support them and hope they win.

Links:

World Cup Blog
BBC: World Cup 2006
Yahoo Fifa World Cup

Happy Independance Day

Happy Independance day to all Americans. I hope you have a good holiday. I'm sure most Canadians don't really think much about the holidays of the US but I do as I live in a border city. So most of my TV channels are American and I can see the states from my house.

It seems weird to me to live so close to another country. When you learn the countries in school it seems like another country is so far away. Then you learn that the US is a country too and it's right next door. Perhaps if we had many countries near us like in Europe or Africa it would be different. However the US is the ONLY country next to us.

If I were to tell someone I'd been to another country, they would be thinking in another continent as well. But really, there are a lot of Canadians who have been to another Country, America. It's not that big of a deal. MANY people in my city go to the states everyday to work or go shopping. It's more like the next town than the next country. Is it similar for other countries that are neighbours? Do people in France and Spain cross the border often to work or shop? Or perhaps it's only that way with countries that speak the same language. Those in the UK or Ireland, do they have a relationship similar to Canada and the US? I guess I'd have to ask someone who lives there.