October Book Giveaway Winner!

Thanks to all who entered my book giveaway for Charlie's four month birthday!



(I look like a tired mofo in that video. And don't even get me started on my hair. Or the fact that flickr cut the video off before it was actually done.)

Baby and Books (+ Giveaway!)

My neighborhood is having a giant yard sale this weekend. I only just found out about it yesterday when one of my neighbors offered me first pick of all her vintage children's books. Of course, I jumped on it, and thirty minutes later, this is what I had:



I love children's books, and I tend to believe that they just don't make 'em like they used to. Here's a small sampling of the treasures that Charlie will hopefully love when he gets a little older:






And I love all the illustrations!





So, being as it's a new month, Charlie's due to turn four months old next week. In honor of the cutest baby ever, I'm hosting another book giveaway. Leave a comment on this post telling me who your absolute favorite fictional character is, and you'll be entered to win a book of your choice from our Amazon book store. I will pick a winner at noon on Thursday, October 8.

Good luck, everyone!

Feels Like Fall

Happy October!

I love this month because it's when it really starts feeling like fall. The past couple of days things have cooled down from the most current heat wave, making it nice to actually go outside for a change. I love it when things turn cool here in Southern California, when I can put on long sleeves and bust out the apple cider and leave the windows open. It's almost enough to make us consider staying here forever.

October brings with it one of my most favorite holidays, Halloween! I am so excited for it this year. Last year, being in my first trimester of pregnancy, I enjoyed thinking about having a little one to dress up and share the excitement with. This year, I actually got to go out and buy Charlie a costume. So fun.

If you're wondering what he's going to be for Halloween, here's a little hint:



(My eyebrows in that photo - oh em gee. So glad I'm seeing my eyebrow waxing lady tomorrow. Those blonde bearskin rugs hanging out above my eyes are seriously weighing me down.)

Here's one of my favorite Halloween pics from my own childhood. My mom loves telling me the story of how I refused to be anything but a cleaning lady named Mrs. Beasley that year. (I'm not sure if I was two or three in this photo, but I'm guessing I was probably three.)



Classic, yes? The raincoat, the polyester pants, the glasses! I can't wait to memorialize all the special moments in Charlie's life. Here's another one in mine:



This actually was taken after the Christmas play when I was in second grade. I wore the pig get-up the following Halloween as my costume. I loved it! My mom actually made it for me, down to the cute little pig tail. There was a little headpiece that went with it as well.

I do have some goals for October. I have 33 unpublished drafts of posts for this blog, and I'd like to finish a few of them and get them posted. Additionally, I'd like to try to write a little something every day. I have recently returned to journaling a bit, which is actually less time-consuming than blogging, since there are no pictures to prepare, no links to search for. I love blogging, but I do also love the simplicity of journal writing.

Other things I'd like to do in October:

1) Finalize my thesis proposal and annotated bibliography.
2) Attend at least one ICAN meeting. I can't explain it, but I feel like I owe it to both Jewelyn and myself to do this.
3) Find a mom's group in my area.
4) Take Charlie to the pumpkin patch.
5) Edit some photos. Seriously, my Macbook desktop is covered with folders of photos that need to be processed.

What are your plans and goals for this month?

Happy Autumn, everyone!

More Ways You Can Help

Hi, everyone!

This week has been both amazing and hard. It's wonderful to see such goodness and generosity come out of such a horrific tragedy. Thank you so much for your continued support.

There are now more ways that you can help Philip and Gabby.

1.) Kim set up a P.O. Box to accept formula checks (any brand, even checks that are expired!) and diaper coupons (or even gift cards to places like Target!) -- basically anything that can fit in an envelope. Anything not used will be donated to The Liz Logelin Foundation. The address is:

The Jewelyn Okamoto Memorial Fund
P.O. Box 235971
Encinitas, CA 92023-5971

2.) A memorial fund was set up at Arrowhead Credit Union (thanks, Angelina!), and checks can be made out to The Jewelyn Okamoto Memorial Fund. They can be mailed to:

The Jewelyn Okamoto Memorial Fund
P.O. Box 235971
Encinitas, CA 92023-5971

3.) An address for those who want to send packages (larger than an envelope) has been established. This address can accept shipments from UPS, Fed Ex, etc., unlike the P.O. Box:

Brandi Futrell
c/o The Jewelyn Okamoto Memorial Fund
14928 S. Maple Avenue
Gardena, CA 90248

4.) And for those who would like to contribute via PayPal, that email address is 4jewelyn@gmail.com.

Philip, Jewelyn's husband, had this to say when he found out about all the support and prayers people were sending his way:

Jewelyn was so loved. I've been receiving messages to look at this board. I have never posted here before but I know Jewelyn was on it religiously. She considered everyone here a part of her family that have gone through so much together. Gabrielle will be in nicu till the end of the week but she looks beautiful. Just like her mommy. I wanted to thank all of you for your prayers and support. The family fund is something I would never have expected anyone to do for us. Before she slipped away I told her how loved she was. I don't think she realized just how much.

Thank you all.

Jewelyn's husband Philip

Here's the last picture that Philip and Jewelyn will ever have together:



And here is lovely Miss Gabby, who is still in the NICU but seems to be doing well.



They are a beautiful family, aren't they?

Thank you for all your support. You have truly helped make a difference for them.

A Call for Help

First of all, thank you so much for your support and all your comments on my last post. I have never seen such an amazing outpouring of support, much of it coming from people who never had the pleasure of meeting Jewelyn. All you have to do is click here to see how many people are thinking of Jewelyn and her family and spreading the word as far and wide as possible.

This little announcement is copied and pasted from here:

As many of you know, our fellow nestie and dear friend, Jewelyn, passed away on Sunday, September 27th due to an amniotic fluid embolism, just hours after giving birth to her first child, Gabrielle.

Gabrielle is doing well and will be released from the NICU this week.

Jewelyn's husband, Philip, is going to need all the help he can get over the coming months and years.

A PO Box has been set up to receive formula checks and diaper coupons. Any and all brands will be accepted, and whatever Philip doesn't use will be donated to the Liz Logelin Foundation.

Formula checks and diaper coupons can be sent to:

Jewelyn Okamoto Memorial Fund
PO Box 235971
Encinitas, CA 92023-5971

***

If you need to put a face to all this, here she is:



She was so excited to be a mom after having had a devastating miscarriage in 2008. We were all so thrilled for her. She was a passionate educator of unruly youngsters. She had the biggest smile. She loved rabbits. She was just a genuinely good, nice person who never had anything bad to say. We called her "sushi" because one of her screennames was sushi 'n' lumpia. To this day, it's hard for me to call her Jewelyn. She'll always be sushi to me.

We love you, sushi! Safe travels, my friend.

***

Thanks, everyone, for all that you've done in the way of support. My last post is still open for comments, and I'm still planning on donating $1 to the fund for each comment I get. Keep 'em coming! And please, keep spreading the word on your own blogs, through Facebook, email, and twitter, and whatever other means you can think of. We all appreciate your efforts so much!

(Photo from here.)

Sadness and Gratitude

So I said I was going to take a mini-break from blogging. Truth be told, last night I was in a sad state and I didn't feel like putting it out there for the whole world to read. Yesterday morning I went to a message board I recently started re-frequenting to check on a woman named Jewelyn that I've known casually for several years. She was due to have her baby girl yesterday, and I knew she was getting induced.

I was delighted to see that she'd gone into labor on her own. This was something I wanted for myself so badly, and we all know how that ended up... but that is beside the point. I'm glad that she didn't have to be induced, since it can be such a nasty business.

She had posted a new thread asking for labor and delivery advice from mothers on the board, and as I read through the thread, I found myself getting sad to the point where I was crying. Every single piece of advice to her felt like a knife in my heart. There were things said like "Your body was meant to do this" and "Cherish every moment, even the hard ones."

Clearly this advice was coming from people who had relatively uncomplicated labors. I couldn't help it - I took it really hard. After all, my body failed me during my labor, making it impossible for me to cherish anything about my birth experience. I felt so bitter about this innocent advice thread that I went and signed up at the International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN) website - it had become obvious to me that I needed support from people who had been there.

I spent much of yesterday with that familiar feeling of failure. I just felt sad, with all those awful feelings surrounding Charlie's birth washing over me.

This morning I went to check the board for a post announcing the birth of Jewelyn's baby. I was really sad to see that Jewelyn had had an emergency C-section. I felt awful for her, especially because I knew she had labored for hours. I posted something to that effect and left the board.

I checked back in maybe ten minutes later and was shocked to read that Jewelyn had suffered an amniotic embolism, had no brain activity, and wasn't going to make it. Childbirth had killed her.

Since finding out the news, this whole day has been lost. I can't think of a better word than lost. I can hardly think; I've been glued to the computer; I've been trying to make sense of this tragedy. And well, I can't make any sense out of a newborn baby girl without her mother and a husband without his wife. It is horribly, devastatingly unfair.

This has put my whole life, and especially my birth experience, into perspective. Yes, it was not ideal. Yes, it completely sucked. Yes, I will probably never really get over it. But I lived through it. And Charlie lived through it. What the hell more can a woman ask for?

Please, please, please keep this family in your thoughts. And if you feel so inclined, make a donation to Jewelyn's family through PayPal: the email address is 4jewelyn@gmail.com. It doesn't have to be much - even a dollar would be great. But they will need help.

And do something else for me, would you? Go hug your loved ones and tell them that you love them. You never know when your time is up, so cherish it. Make today count.

As for me, I'm going to get in touch with a local ICAN support group and start attending meetings. I want to move forward with hope instead of looking back with bitterness. I want to be a better person. Because when Jewelyn died, we lost a genuinely good person. We're all going to have to be better to make up for losing her.

***

For each comment I get on this post, I will donate $1 to Jewelyn's family's fund. So get to commenting, folks! And spread the word. Let's take care of this family.

30 Days of Happiness, Day 30: Clean, Green Livin'

My sister-in-law Mandy sent me a link to The Story of Stuff video last weekend, and I have to say, with Operation Purge in the works, her timing couldn't have been better. If you have twenty minutes to spare, watch the video. It's extremely inspirational. It talks about how our stuff (meaning our various belongings) is made and what impact this has on the world.

Taking care of the planet has always been important to me. Here are the things we currently do to live a clean, green lifestyle:

1) We drive small cars that eat less gas. In a perfect situation, we'd be able to exist with just one car, which would be a hybrid. We try to walk when we can. If we had a better public transportation system in our area, we'd definitely use it.
2) We use cloth diapers and wipes for Charlie. We do use one disposable diaper a day, to try to catch Charlie's morning poop, and when he does poop, we use disposable wipes because they clean him up more easily. We also use disposable wipes when we're out and about because they take up less room in the diaper bag. But most of the time, it's cloth.
3) We recycle. We recycle more than we throw away, actually.
4) We don't buy bottled water. Instead we have a water purifier on our tap, and we use that to fill our various water jugs.
5) We have reusable bags for grocery shopping. I tend to forget them often, but I never throw away the paper or plastic grocery bags. I use them for shipping out books.
6) We use eco-friendly laundry detergent and try to use either vinegar or Method products for cleaning (although we do have our fair share of chemicals in the house, which we will use up and hopefully never buy again).
7) We have a clothesline. I would love to use this more often if I could figure out how to make our wet clothes not come out stiff after being hung to dry.
8) We feed Charlie organic formula, and when he starts solids, I will be making his baby food myself. (I am seriously so excited about this.)
9) We shop at our local farmer's market.
10) We donate things and have yard sales instead of throwing stuff away.
11) When we get books, I try to get them through Paperbackswap. I built Charlie's entire library this way. It's a good source for getting rid of unwanted books as well.
12) We reuse things, like gift bags and tissue paper, instead of buying more. This goes for a lot of things around the house.
13) We print on both sides of the paper.
14) We try to turn off lights when we're not using them and regulate our air conditioner.

The video has also made me think of a lot of things that we can do to live a cleaner, greener lifestyle. Here are some changes we'll be implementing for our lifestyle:

1) We are going to start using reusable sandwich and snack bags instead of using Ziploc bags. Not to mention cloth napkins and cloth towels (instead of paper napkins and paper towels).
2) Once we're out of our vast collection of shampoos and conditioners and body washes, I'd like to see about making my own or just buying an eco-friendly version.
3) We'll buy things used more often. We just made a big purchase for Charlie on Craigslist this past week: an exersaucer!



It's in excellent condition, and we got it for an excellent price. (Please ignore the fact that it's made out of plastic.)
4) We will try to support small businesses more instead of big corporations.
5) Whenever we actually have a backyard that isn't made up entirely of cement, we'd like to have a garden.
6) I'd like to recycle my current wardrobe instead of getting rid of pieces and buying more. And when/if I do buy more clothes, I'd like to get them at thrift/consignment stores. Obviously I won't be wearing anyone's used underwear or shoes. We all have our limits!
7) And I'd love to learn to sew clothes.

Living a life that respects the earth makes me happy. I know that we could always be better at it, though, so give me some green tips of your own, please. Tell me what you do to save the planet.

***

Thanks for tuning in to my 30 (plus) days of happiness. It was a great exercise for me. I definitely was counting my blessings and I realized all that I have to be grateful for. Life is better to most of us than we realize, I think.

After posting so much in the last month, I think I'm going to take a short break away from the blog to try to catch my breath and get caught up on life stuff. See you soon!