MaterniT21 and Me

So about three weeks ago we had our 20 week anatomy scan on the spawn. When my midwife gave me the ultrasound requisition form she had checked "suspect fetal anomaly" but she told me that they just check that so that insurance has to pay for it, not because they had any reason to think something was wrong. No one goes in for their 20 week scan thinking that something is wrong. They go in all happy and excited to see the baby and find out if it's a boy or a girl (or not, whatever your pleasure).

So Jeff and I went to the ultrasound and we found out that it's a boy. They also found out that he has a single umbilical artery, normal cords have three vessels- 2 arteries and a vein. Well Liam has one artery and one vein. Apparently it's not terribly uncommon and they recommend having two additional ultrasounds in the third trimester to make sure there is no growth restriction. My first thought was, "Well, I had a 10 lb 4 oz baby the first time, maybe a little growth restriction would be alright!" The SUA is also apparently a soft marker for other abnormalities and genetic conditions so they did an extremely thorough scan of all of his organ systems to check for other anomalies. They found no specific birth defects. Finally at the end of the scan they explained that when they did all of the physical measurements, his femur came up short in relation to his head size. Another soft marker for Down's Syndrome. They recommended that we talk to a genetic counselor about the findings.

After much back and forth in my mind we decided to see the genetic counselors. My arguments with myself were:

• All of his measurements were within the normal range except for his head, which was in the 91st percentile, so basically his femur was normal length and he had a massive head. I have a massive head. Jeff has tiny T Rex arms in relation to his height. He's probably fine. 
• Even if he does have Down's, he has no physical birth defects (heart, bowel, etc) beyond whatever mental deficiencies might exist and I wouldn't terminate the pregnancy because of that so why bother?
• I will not do an amniocentesis because of the risk of miscarriage, however small it may be.

So basically, I just asked Jeff, do you want to talk to them? He said yes, so I made the appointment.  

So we went off to the far off land of Beechwood to talk the the UH Genetics department. Basically, we talked for awhile about what the realistic odds of Liam having Down's Syndrome were. I did not have the quad screen done so they estimated my starting odds based on my age at about 1/890. Two soft markers on the ultrasound moved the odds to about 1/560 or about 99.5% probability that everything was fine. Then they went over our family history, no genetic conditions except Marfan's Syndrome (which they now want me to go get another echo, even though the one I had six years ago was fine). Then they told us about a new way of testing the unborn for chromosomal anomalies called MaterniT21. Basically, there are pieces of his DNA floating about in my bloodstream and this test separates the fetal DNA from the maternal DNA and then runs standard genetic testing on it. The only downside of this test is that it's new and it's still expensive after insurance. With our insurance plan, they said it would cost no more than 200.00 but it's non invasive, no risk of miscarriage and would give us a definite answer rather than a probability. 

We thought about it for a few minutes before deciding to go ahead with the test. Even though I had no intention of doing anything other than preparing for a special needs child if the results came back positive, I had no desire to continue torturing myself with "what-ifs" for the next 4 months. So the vampires took my blood, sent it off and told us they would let us know in 7-10 days. 

Well it's been a long 13 days (9 business) but the results finally came in this afternoon. Liam is fine. He has no extra chromosomes (21, 18, 13, X or Y) and he is definitely a he. Now all I have to do is relax and make sure he continues to grow on pace with that massive head! 

Recycled Crayon Ornaments!

So I'm not one to discuss Christmas before it's due time. Which is not before Thanksgiving. However, I'm making an exception this time for two reasons:

1. It's a craft and you need time to make it before your schedule gets crammed with holiday parties, concerts, shopping, baking, decorating, etc. 

     B. I wanted to take part in the latest Pintester Movement which is Christmas themed this time

I first pinned these ornaments even before I heard about the Christmas ornament theme because I saw them and I was all "OMG, THOSE ARE SO AWESOME!!!! MUST MAKE THEM!!!!!!!!!!" then forgot them until this came up.

So finally, last night, Makayla and I got ready to make them.

First, we sorted through her art roll (which is my amazing idea for organizing writing implements, if I do say so myself) and took out all the broken pieces of crayons. Then we peeled all the labels off the crayons and took the tops out of clear glass ornaments.

Photo bomb by Makayla

 The original post says to use a hair dryer to heat the bulbs but I have approximately 27lbs of hair and it takes about 3 hours to dry it with a hair dryer so I wash it at night and let it air dry. After the last hair dryer I had crapped out I didn't bother to replace it. So instead I decided to heat the ornaments up in my amazingly wonderful anniversary present counter top oven. I started out by setting it at 150F.

I let the preheat for a couple minutes while Makayla picked out some colors to go together. Then we broke off some chunks, put them in one of the ornaments and put it back in the oven.

We waited for the crayons to melt.

Cranked the temperature to 250F and waited some more until finally they started to melt. I waited until the crayons were mostly melted and then grabbed the ornament and swirled the hot wax around until the entire inside was coated. I should mention that to most people, this would probably be too hot to do bare handed. I'm not most people. I lost sensitivity to heat after spending a few years in powder coatings and being too lazy/ impatient to find the tongs to take the hot panels out of the oven after curing. So you might want to grab them with a towel or something. Definitely don't let your little fellas do this part. They cooled down pretty quickly and then we put the tops back on. They actually came out really great!

 I particularly loved how the white crayon added really nice highlights to the darker colors. Unfortunately, it seems that white was not a commonly broken crayon so we only had one of those. We tended to stick to three colors per ornament but more might be nice too, just keep in mind your color mixing or you might end up with a lot of brown ornaments!

Overall, I am thrilled with how awesome they turned out! We still have a sack of broken crayons to use so maybe I'll get some more clear glass ornaments and make another batch!

What you REALLY need for a baby: The Nursery

When I was pregnant with Makayla I spent weeks pouring over "registry checklists" and baby guides trying to decide what I really needed to buy/ register for. I had no experience with babies outside a couple baby sitting jobs when I was 14 and really had no clue what I needed. I ended up doing pretty well overall but there were still a few essentials that I missed and a few things that I really never needed. With Number 2, I did a quick mental inventory of what I had and what I hated and finished my list in less than a day. For fun, I went back and compared that to the registry checklist at Babies R Us and realized that there is a lot of fluff in there that you really don't need. So here is my very own guide to what you really need for a baby as well as what is nice to have and what you can skip. As I was writing this, I realized that to put everything in one post would be way too long, so I'm starting with the stuff needed to set up the nursery. Future posts will cover other areas of baby products.

The Nursery- Must Haves

Crib: I know some people do the whole co-sleeping thing but it's not for me. The American Academy of Pediatrics warns against co-sleeping as it may increase risk of SIDS or death by suffocation from blankets and pillows on the bed, etc. With Makayla, I also had a bassinet that she slept in for the first three months in my room. I didn't really need it. We lived in a one floor duplex and it would have been just as easy and quick to walk across the living room to the nursery as it was have her in our cramped little room. In our current house though, the nursery is on the second floor and I know that I'm not going to want to walk up and down the stairs every couple of hours to nurse him so I will be using both. As far as what crib to use, drop side cribs are out- they're not safe and have been recalled so if you have a hand-me-down crib and it has a drop side, don't use it. Personally, I love the convertible cribs that go from a crib to a toddler bed to an adult bed. I've gone through all of the iterations with Makayla and they have all been easy enough to convert to and I haven't had to buy multiple pieces of furniture every year or so as she outgrows the previous one. I bought furniture that is built to last, and I have not been disappointed. The only downside to a convertible crib is that you need a new one with each baby. 

Crib Mattress: It seems self explanatory but cribs don't come with mattresses, you have to buy that separately. I bought a two sided mattress, infant and toddler. Theoretically, the infant side was firmer and the toddler side was more like a standard mattress. I'm fairly certain the infant side would have sufficed for the toddler years. The important things to remember about crib mattresses are: they need to be firm and fit tightly in the crib. There should not be a gap between the walls of the crib and the mattress. Gaps are suffocation hazards for newborns.

Bedding: If you haven't heard, the latest in crib safety says that cribs should have nothing in them except fitted crib sheets. No bumpers, no blankets, no stuffed animals or toys. All of these things are said to increase SIDS risk.

• Fitted crib sheets: Most lists that I've seen recommend a large number of fitted crib sheets. I personally needed no more than two. One to be on the bed, one to be in the washer. 
• Waterproof mattress pad: Depending on the type of crib mattress you buy, this may or may not be necessary. Many mattresses are already waterproofed. If yours is not, buy two, one for the crib, one for the wash.
• Wearable Blankets/ Swaddling Blankets: I tried several types of swaddlers and the only one that I liked was the Halo Sleep Sack with Swaddle. They have velcro positioners on the back to keep them from riding up and you can swaddle easily and securely. I never got the hang of swaddling with just a blanket and I hated the Kiddopatumus swaddlers, they didn't stay put at all. 

Dresser/ Changing Table: I am a big fan of the combination dresser/ changing table. A separate changing table seems like a complete waste of money. After the baby is out of diapers what are you going to do with it? I've seen several types of combo dressers, as long as it's at a comfortable height, you can put a changing pad on top of any dresser.

Changing Table Pad: I've used several different changing pads. My favorite was one that was made of a dense foam (Kuster Jelly Baby mat) that wiped up easily. Several of the cheaper ones that I bought simply fell apart and shredded in a short amount of time (LA Baby, Summer Infant).

Glider/ Rocker & Ottoman: You need somewhere to sit when you're feeding the baby, reading stories or just snuggling. Choose whatever type of chair you're most comfortable in but make sure you get some type of footrest, especially if you're breastfeeding. It just made things so much more comfortable.

Nightstand/ Side Table: Somewhere to put a lamp- no one enjoys a bright overhead light in the middle of the night. Also useful to set up a monitor on and a white noise/ music player. It shouldn't be near enough the crib that the baby could pull the stuff inside the crib as it grows, it's more convenient and useful to have it near the chair, in my opinion.

Lamp: Like I said, no one wants to be woken up with a bright overhead light. A simple lamp is a necessity.

Hamper/ Laundry Bag: You need somewhere to put dirty clothes!

Trashcan/ Diaper Pail: I didn't go for an expensive diaper disposal system the first time around- I just used a smallish Simple Human trash can (small so that it had to be emptied before the smell got too bad!) and was as happy as one can be with a diaper disposal system. After Makayla was mobile, I found that I needed a locking lid because ain't nobody got time for toddlers playing with dirty diapers. I added a stick on lock designed for baby proofing things like refrigerator or washing machine doors. I know that Simple Human makes some now that have locking mechanisms built in. I used disposable diapers so if you're using cloth, I've got nothing.

The Nursery- Nice to Have Extras

Diaper Stacker/ Changing Table Organizer: Having an organized system to hold diapers, wipes, lotion, etc. is nice to have. It makes things easier to find and more functional. Plus it looks neater.

Curtains/ Window Treatments: Black out shades can be nice to have, especially if you have a baby who doesn't like to nap with too much light. Decorative curtains are cute and make the nursery prettier. Whatever type of window treatments you choose make sure they are cordless. If you have standard mini-blinds, take them down and figure out a cordless solution. Babies/ toddlers can strangle themselves not only in the pull cord of mini-blinds but also in the cords that lace together all of the blinds.

Storage Bins/ Closet Organizers: Bins can be helpful to store toys and stuffed animals (which you will always have too many of) and there are lots of nice closet systems that make things neater and easier, but they're not really necessary.

Decorations: While not strictly necessary, most parents will want some type of decor in the nursery.

Sound/ Light Machine/ CD player: Something to provide background/ white noise can help some babies sleep better. Makayla had a CD player with a CD of lullabies and a ladybug nightlight that put stars on the ceiling. She still can't fall asleep without them.

The Nursery- Things you DON'T Need

Bedding:

• Sheet Savers: Sheets are easy to wash. Don't waste your money.
• Bumpers: I know they're cute and I know that you're worried about your baby getting an arm or leg stuck in the rails but soft, pillow-y bumpers are a suffocation risk. If you simply must have a bumper, they make breathable mesh bumpers that prevent arms and legs from getting through the rails
• Quilts/ Loose Blankets: Loose blankets and quilts should also not be used in the crib. If you want to have one for decoration, so be it but really, babies shouldn't be too warm anyway and most babies stay plenty warm with a wearable blanket. 

Changing Table Pad Covers: Changing tables are for changing diapers. Changing table pads will get poop and pee on them without fail. It's far easier to just wipe up a waterproof surface than it is to change the pad and wash the dirty ones.

Of course, not everything needs to be new. If you are using hand-me-downs or purchasing things from thrift stores check www.cspc.gov/recalls to make sure that the used item has not been recalled. 

Pumpkin Pancakes

I woke up early this morning and really wanted breakfast but when I eat breakfast before Makayla is up on the weekends she gets super whiny and makes me sit in the kitchen while she eats, so it's best to just wait. While I was waiting, I decided to peruse Pinterest to see if I had anything delicious pinned that I wanted for breakfast. Well my breakfast board had these pumpkin pancakes that I pinned last fall and never got around to making. It just so happened that I had 26,000 pounds of frozen pumpkin puree from last years highly bountiful crop that I needed to start using. Perfect!

So when I went to make them I misread the recipe and ended up adding in 3 tsp salt instead of 1/4 tsp. Well that would have been awfully salty, even for me. So I dumped out the mix and only then realized that that was the last of my flour. I was all excited for pumpkin pancakes and now it looked like I was SOL. I perused my pantry and found the box of Bisquick- my usual pancake mix. So, I decided to wing it and make my own recipe for pumpkin pancakes. 

Pumpkin Pancakes

2 cups Bisquick 

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 cup pumpkin puree

Approximately 1/2 cup milk (enough to make it pancake batter consistency)

Mix all ingredients together until reasonably smooth. Pour on to buttered griddle and cook. Flip and cook other side. Put more butter on them, top with syrup, eat. Rejoice! 

They were quick, easy and delightfully pumpkiny. Enjoy!

P.S.- in case you don't have pumpkin pie spice on hand (McCormick sells a commercial version) here's the blend I made last year.

3 Tbsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp ground nutmeg

1 1/2 tsp ground allspice

1 1/2 tsp ground cloves

Mix all spice together, store in a little jar. Use for all things pumpkin.

Welfare

Today, something showed up in my Facebook news feed that shocked me. It was this:

WRITTEN BY A 21 YEAR OLD FEMALE.

PUT ME IN CHARGE . . .

Put me in charge of food stamps. I'd get rid of Lone Star cards; no cash for Ding Dongs or Ho Ho's, just money for 50-pound bags of rice and beans, blocks of cheese and all the powdered milk you can haul away. If you want steak and frozen pizza, then get a job.

Put me in charge of Medicaid. The first thing I'd do is to get women Norplant birth control implants or tubal ligations. Then, we'll test recipients for drugs, alcohol, and nicotine. If you want to reproduce or use drugs, alcohol, or smoke, then get a job.

Put me in charge of government housing. Ever live in a military barracks? You will maintain our property in a clean and good state of repair. Your home" will be subject to inspections anytime and possessions will be inventoried. If you want a plasma TV or Xbox 360, then get a job and your own place.

In addition, you will either present a check stub from a job each week or you will report to a "government" job. It may be cleaning the roadways of trash, painting and repairing public housing, whatever we find for you. We will sell your 22 inch rims and low profile tires and your blasting stereo and speakers and put that money toward the "common good.."

Before you write that I've violated someone's rights, realize that all of the above is voluntary. If you want our money, accept our rules. Before you say that this would be "demeaning" and ruin their "self esteem," consider that it wasn't that long ago that taking someone else's money for doing absolutely nothing was demeaning and lowered self esteem.

If we are expected to pay for other people's mistakes we should at least attempt to make them learn from their bad choices. The current system rewards them for continuing to make bad choices.

AND While you are on Gov't subsistence, you no longer can VOTE! Yes, that is correct. For you to vote would be a conflict of interest. You will voluntarily remove yourself from voting while you are receiving a Gov't welfare check. If you want to vote, then get a job.

Now, if you have the guts - PASS IT ON...I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO GET THIS BACK, IF EVERYONE SENDS IT, I WILL GET OVER 220 BACK!!! I WOULD KNOW YOU SENT IT ON!!!

There is just so much wrong with this entire rant that it's hard to even know where to start. 

• No one lives on beans, rice, cheese and powdered milk. As anyone who has ever tried to eat healthy can attest, junk food is a hell of a lot cheaper than real food. When you are receiving the average amount of food stamps, 133.85 per person per month, buying cheap food stretches that paltry amount farther. I spend around 150.00 a week on groceries for my family of three. Food stamps would only get us about 2/3rds of the way through the month, and we certainly wouldn't be eating well. 
• Forced sterilization? Fucking really? What is this, Nazi Germany? 
• The drug testing of Florida welfare recipients proved how useless this truly is. While you may think that this will save the government tons on money by getting all of those crack whores off welfare, think again. Only 2.6% of the people tested in Florida failed the drug test. The cost to administer all the tests was 118K, the amount that would have been paid out to the drug addicted welfare recipients was 73K. So the program ended up costing the state of Florida 45K extra dollars. Money well spent obviously.
• If there were a magical glut of government jobs that needed doing, we wouldn't have a 7.4% unemployment rate. This isn't the Great Depression when FDR created jobs by funding public works projects. There is no money to fund the necessary upgrades to our infrastructure.

Basically here is what I see that this person wants to do: Round up all of the people on welfare in to concentration or "work" camps, sterilize them and feed them beans. How is there ANYTHING right about that? These are PEOPLE! People just like you and me, who have fallen on hard times and need help getting back up again. That's what welfare is, it's a safety net so that if, (insert deity here) forbid, YOU lose your job, and you don't have any one to ask for help, you and your kids don't wind up starving in the street. 

And speaking of religion, I hear over and over again about how America is a Christian nation yet things like this prove that we do not act like one. If you know me, you know that I am an atheist but I know what Jesus said about helping the poor. Matthew 25:40 says "And the King will say, 'I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!" So tell me, if Jesus showed up tomorrow, would you also treat him like an animal?

If you look at your 2012 federal tax receipt you will see that for a 50K income family with 1 child, $73.48 went to food and nutrition assistance (including SNAP, WIC and the school lunch program). If you stretch that over a whole year, it's only 0.20 a day. 20 whole cents! If you add up all of the public assistance items in the federal income tax receipt (including food and nutrition assistance, TANF, and Medicare) it is still less than we spend per day on national defense. 

The common portrayal of the drug addicted "welfare queen" with 6 kids is a gross exaggeration. YES, there ARE people who scam the system but the overwhelming majority of people on welfare are not out to suckle the government's titty for the rest of their lives. Most people are just looking for help in a world where help is hard to find. 

Taking on arm knitting

So like a month ago, I participated in The Pintester Movement, courtesy of my favorite blog Pintester. I wrote about how not to make a homemade lotion. Well I got a ton of new readers so when Sonja announced that she was hosting The Pintester Movement 2.0, I knew I would be on board. The rules this time were a little more specific. I had to pick a post that Sonja had already tested. After a little browsing (and a lot of laughing) I settled on Arm Knitting because I've been knitting since I was like 10 and I have a the yarn stash of an 80 year old woman.

Except, I've never been accused of being a lady, so here's a picture of my actual yarn stash. Or.... stashes, I guess.

Don't you judge me! I made 15 hats and scarves for homeless people one year and it barely made a dent in the hoard. It's way more useful than all the liquor bottles Jeff has to display.

So anyway, I have the necessary supplies- my arms, and yarn. Since Sonja failed miserably in her attempts to arm knit, I went to the original pin's site, Simply Maggie where she conveniently posted a video tutorial. Unfortunately, I did not actually have the right kind of yarn (I recently used every last bit of my extra chunky yarn) and so I decided to use 4 strands of regular worsted weight yarn. I'd like to take this moment to point out that this is exactly why any knitter has a stash- 5000 kinds of yarn, but none of them is the right one for the project you want to start.

Step 1: Cast on. It's pretty much just like casting on regular needles. First, tie a slip knot, leaving a long tail. The way I've always thought of tying a slip knot is to make a pretzel shape then lift the bottom piece of yarn up and tighten the loop. Put the loop of the slip knot over your right arm and tighten it some, but leave it plenty loose so you can work with it. Honestly, it's easier to watch Maggie's tutorial than for me to explain how to actually do the casting on. So once you get it, you just loosely cast on enough stitches to make the scarf as wide as you want it to be.

Step 2: Proceed to knitting. This part is actually fairly easy. Hold the working yarn in the hand that has all of the stitches on it. Then, pull the first loop over your hand. Put your other hand through the loop you just pulled over your hand and pull a new loop through the first loop. Then put the new loop on your other arm. 

It was really hard to get good pictures since both of my hands were in use and Jeff was at school, so I enlisted my 4 year old's help. She didn't do too bad considering most of the pictures she takes are of carpet or crotches. It was here that I realized the fatal flaw in arm knitting. It really only looks good if you have skinny arms. I've made things on speed stix (or dildo needles, as Jeff calls them) using 4 strands of worsted before and they turned out great. But 4 strands of worsted on my chunky arms was not nearly enough. I feel that maybe with 4 strands of super chunky, it might look good, but as I was knitting I could see it was just turning out more like fishnets because there wasn't enough yarn to fill in all the space.

So anyway, then you proceed to make the scarf as long as you want, or until you get bored, either way.

Step 3: Binding off. Binding off is pretty much just like in regular knitting. Knit two stitches then pull the first stitch over the second stitch and let it go. Proceed until the last stitch remains on your arm then cut the yarn and put it through the loop on your arm, take it off your arm and pull the end tight. Here's my final product:

I guess I succeeded in making a scarf but it's not one I would ever use. It just looks like a whole lot of yarn wrapped around my neck. When you stretch it out, it makes a better cargo net. My wonderful husband, star of my other blog (Shit My Husband Said), says that I should turn it into stripper whore pants or maybe make some g-strings. If you have some super chunky yarn to use up and feel like spending an hour or so, you too can arm knit with a little bit of practice!

The Songs of my Life

I've been feeling nostalgic lately, probably because my 30th birthday is fast approaching. I've been thinking for the past year or so that I just don't relate to music the way I used to, probably because I'm in a happy, committed relationship and that got me to thinking about all of the songs that I've said "OMG! THIS IS MY SONG" to in my life. So here they are.

Music has always been a huge part of my life. I started violin when I was around seven and switched to viola at thirteen. In third grade, I started the French Horn so that I could play in the band as our school system did not have an orchestra. I played both of my instruments in the Northern Ohio Youth Orchestras for the majority of my adolescence. Mom played violin all of her life and both she and my Dad sang in the choir and played guitar. Most of the music I knew as a child was classical and the "oldies" that Mom and Dad played (Loggins & Messina, Simon & Garfunkel, John Denver, etc). One of the earliest songs that I remember was "Darcy Farrow" by John Denver (we always just called it the sad song). We always asked Mom to sing this one because she couldn't sing it without crying and I guess we were jerks and liked to make Mom cry.

When I was 10, Dad started listening to country and I fell in love with "Wild One" by Faith Hill. I think it was with this song that I started relating music (more specifically, lyrics) to my life. My parents would be the first to tell you I was a "spirited" child and "Wild One" just spoke to me. Well a couple years later, Dad stopped listening to country but I had fallen in love with it. I rarely told anyone that I listened to country for many years because it wasn't "cool". Telling people that I listened to classical was equally as weird but I couldn't bring myself to say I liked pop groups like N'Sync or the Backstreet Boys. I couldn't relate to them at all. I was kind of a weird kid, I liked to sew and spin wool on my spinning wheel and I played with dolls and my bazillion pets/ farm animals. I couldn't have cared less about the opposite gender until the summer before I started high school when I realized that the lifeguard at the swimming lake was totally hot and spent the summer pining after him.

There were many songs that defined my high school years. One of the first was "Don't Laugh at Me" by Mark Wills. Like I said, I didn't fit in with any of the typical groups at school. I was a loner, kind of a dork and a reasonably good student. I hated being made fun of but not enough to change because I'm stubborn as hell. Things started to pick up for me in my junior year when my sister started HS. Sarah and I had always been close and while she was weird in her own ways, she wasn't an introvert like me and I was already friends with her bestie Vanessa, the most extroverted person I know. So together we made friends with two other girls and formed the Quinto. We went on all kinds of crazy adventures together, well, as crazy as we could get in small town Ohio. One of our favorite things to do was drive out to Wellington under the cover of darkness and run through cornfields, clothing optional. Don't ask me why, I honestly couldn't tell you, but it was fun at the time. One time we were trying to get to the outlet mall in Lodi and ended up in Homerville aka the middle of nowhere Ohio. Since I was the oldest in the group I was usually the one driving, and so I chose the music. It always seemed like as soon as Vanessa got in the car "Come On Over" by Shania Twain would come on the radio and we would roll all the windows down and scream it at the top of our lungs. Also on the playlist was "Goodbye, Earl" by the Dixie Chicks, because songs about women murdering their abusive husbands are totally appropriate for teenage girls to yell while driving down Center Ridge Road.

Around this time, I also joined 4-H and met my first boyfriend. I remember laying in my tent at the fair listening to Rascal Flatts self titled album on a loop and feeling giddy in love. I also remember crying my eyes out several months later when we broke up and the songs that got me through it- "Why They Call it Falling" by Lee Ann Womack and "Without You" by the Dixie Chicks.

One of the best decisions I made in HS was joining Drama Club. It wasn't because I had any big plans of being a famous actress or anything like that. I don't really even know what inspired me to try out for that first play but in drama, I found people who were willing to accept me for me, which I guess is a little ironic since acting is all about pretending to be someone else. Maybe it was because we were all a little weird or maybe because we had a great leader as our Cap'n, whatever it was- it worked for me. I became comfortable with who I was and was not. My songs at this time were "Who I Am" by Jessica Andrews, "Dare to Dream" by Jo Dee Messina and "Born to Fly" by Sara Evans.

Of course I have my story of unrequited love, who doesn't? I was obsessed with this one guy for probably a two years. At the time, it just seemed like the timing never worked out. I played "Complicated" by Carolyn Dawn Johnson like it was my theme song. Looking back I realize that it was probably because he wasn't really in to me. Also in hindsight, I'm sure glad it didn't work out- he turned into an emotionally abusive ass.

Then in my senior year a series of things happened that let me know who my real friends and supporters were. I was a big fan of "Bad Reputation" by Joan Jett during this time. Side story- I first heard "Bad Reputation" while watching "10 Things I Hate About You", the movie in which I developed a life long obsession (his life anyway) with Heath Ledger. As bad as things were for me then, it has certainly shaped the person that I am today and though I can't say I'm happy that it happened, I am happy for the things I learned because of it. By the end of my senior year there was only one song playing in my heart "Ready to Run" by the Dixie Chicks.

So I ran away to college, escaped from my horrible parents and my annoying siblings and my small hometown and.... wait what? It didn't take long for me to realize how silly all of that sounded. I wasn't one of those girls who got to college and went crazy. My parents had never really tried to control my life, so it wasn't like I was suddenly allowed to do all the things I hadn't been allowed to before. Funnily enough, I went to college to get an education. I actually managed to come out of my shell enough to make friends with some of my dorm-mates (either that or they were just persistent enough to not let me hermit myself). I dated some, but mostly I went to class, did homework and went to work. It while we were in college that Sarah and I discovered Brigid's Cross, and Irish festivals in general. We followed the festivals all summer and fall, traveling as far away as Indianapolis but mostly staying in the Cleveland area. One of my favorite songs, sung by Brigid's Cross but originally done by Tommy Sands was "There Were Roses". The song is about Northern Ireland and the religious conflicts but I loved the lyrics "An eye for an eye, was all that filled their minds, and another eye for another eye til everyone is blind". I try to use this philosophy when I think about how I am treating others and remember that revenge is not the answer. In our festival years, I started dabbling with the bagpipes, because I didn't play enough instruments yet.

The summer after my "senior" year of college (I had to do one extra semester) my parents sent me out to Germany for two weeks to visit with my brother and tour the country. I did all that, and had a great time. I also had a one night stand with my (at that time, future) husband. Apparently, we both really sucked at one night stands. We stayed in touch and in September that year, I decided to fly out to Germany for the long weekend to go to Oktoberfest because I was about to graduate college and I hadn't done a single silly, irresponsible thing the entire time I had been there. My Zune was playing "You Will Be Mine" by Faith Hill. Well, Jeff got out of the Army that October and moved back to his hometown, conveniently only 2 hours from mine. When I graduated and moved back home that December, we started casually dating. We had our ups and downs and one time after he stood me up, I told him to fuck off and we broke up for awhile and "saw" other people. One song that sticks in my mind from this time was "Linger" by the Cranberries.

That winter, the company I was working for relocated it's R&D facilities to Nashville, TN. It was a major opportunity for me to move from temp to salaried chemist and though I didn't want to, I decided to make the move. At some point, Jeff and I has started talking again and I asked him if he wanted to move to Nashville with me. For some reason, he said yes and we shacked up in Tennessee. For the next year and half life was just like "This Everyday Love" by Rascal Flatts. We got engaged and then Jeff found out he was being recalled to the Army from the IRR. To avoid being sent to Iraq as "needs of the Army" he took a job with an independent contractor, but he still had to go back to Iraq. Just before he deployed, I got knocked up. During the next year, Carrie Underwood's "So Small" became my anthem. Well Makayla was born November 22, 2008 and she turned out to be the "best mistake I ever made" (Kevin Fowler) and I'm so thankful for her, even when she makes me crazy because she's a carbon copy of me. Jeff and I finally got hitched October 10, 2010. Our first dance song was "Lullaby" by the Dixie Chicks. Even though Jeff has a hatred for country in general and the Dixie Chicks in particular he let me pick the song I knew was perfect for us. I did compromise and allow our entrance to the reception to be the Imperial Death March.

Which brings us to today (minus another year of deployment in Afghanistan). We've been struggling with infertility for a long time now and conveniently, the Dixie Chicks sing a song for that too "So Hard" but most of the time I'd say we've got a good thing here. "When You Got A Good Thing" by Lady Antebellum.

Well I guess I was wrong. I do still relate to music.