Free diapers!!!

There's a coupon in several magazines this month for a FREE BumGenius All-In-One diaper with a $10 purchase of any BumGenius products! These are not the one-size pockets that we currently use, but it's still a great diaper, and to get one for free is awesome.

After lunch, I'll be running out to Barnes and Noble to try to find one of the magazines they ran the coupon in (Mothering, or Pregnancy & Newborn), and ordering two of these diapers, one of which will be free!!

How do you make me very happy? Free diapers. By the way, if anyone should feel so inclined to do this for us also, you can order by phone from Cottonbabies and send in the coupon. Orren wears a size Large, and we love ALL the unisex/boy colors. OK, just kidding. I don't really expect anyone to buy us diapers, but hey, if someone felt so-inclined, I'd NEVER turn it down!! ;-)

Boycott the circus!!

The circus is in town, and like every other time it is, they have tons of commercials on TV for it. Of course, like every other kid around, Erin wants to go. I have explained to her dozens of times that we do not support circuses, that they are very unkind to animals, and that if we go and see it, then we are basically telling the people who are mean to the animals that we are ok with that.

I don't think she understands fully. I think six may be too young to understand animal welfare. We're still trying, though. I don't think she understands why we prefer to eat wild game rather than farmed meats, and why we always buy cage-free eggs, organic milk, and things like that. (Hey, on an awesome note, we found a store here in where we can get organic and free-range beef, chicken, and lamb!) Even if she doesn't understand, it's never too early to try to teach the idea of animal welfare, and that each of us makes a difference when we vote with our dollars for the things we support.

Every kid wants to go to the circus, and I understand that. Maybe one day, we'll take her to Las Vegas to see a Cirque de Soleil show. It is a show of human talent and skill in acrobatics and theatrics, and most importantly, everyone in the show CHOSE to be there. Animals that circuses use do not have a choice, and are basically enslaved. It's awful, and this family won't support it. You want to see a circus? See an all human one. Support THAT with your dollars, not animal abuse!

Studly Saturday

A certain little studmuffin thinks he can fill daddy's boots. He still has a ways to go, but will get there one day... probably and then some!

Orren's appointment

Well, Mr. Orren Kiet went to the doctor today. It was actually his 1-year physical and shots, but we were a couple months late with it, which I explained in a previous entry. So basically, it went well. Orren is very healthy, and growing nicely. He's still tall and thin. At 14 months, he's in the 90th percentile in height, but has fallen to the 35th percentile in weight. I think some of that is that he lost some weight while he was sick, and has not quite gained it back yet. I'm not worried about it. Lots of kids are tall and thin. I would love for Orren to grow to be at least 6' tall as an adult, but I don't care too much about if he's thin. That's ok. As long as he's still very high on the percentile charts for height, then I'm happy. Even if he wants to play football (which we hope he will) it's ok if he's thin. Weight training can fix that. I'm glad he's still tall, though. That's important for a boy. Girls can be small and it's ok, but a boy needs to be big, or at least tall. I'm glad my boy is so tall.

Poor baby had to be a pin cushion, though. He got four shots, and a blood draw. They test for lead levels and anemia at a year, so that's why they had to take his blood. It took three nurses and a restraining board to hold him down for that. All the nurses said they couldn't believe how strong he is!! They said he's the strongest baby they've seen in forever!! I hate that he had to get his blood drawn, but I'm happy that he's extremely strong.

He totally flipped out when anyone aside from me had to work with him. He's got big time stranger anxiety. He got through it, though, and we're good until he's 18 months, and then he only has to get one shot, the same one as Erin has to get at about that time (Hep A, which is only required when you live on the border). He'll get his first one, Erin will get her booster. We'll be able to schedule her appointment at that time, too.

Oh, and I had them weigh and measure Erin while we were there. She's 3'9" and weighs 41 pounds! She gained 3 pounds since last summer, and grew an inch. So she's still tiny, but she IS growing, and that's good.

Savannah does it right.

Here's the news story. Make sure you watch the video, too, so you can really see how it is. I think I miss that the most about Savannah. Everyone there really loves the military. It's so obvious since one of the longest traditions is for soldiers to march in the parade on St. Patrick's Day, and for the spectators along the parade route to run out and kiss the soldiers as they pass by. You can see if you watch the video that the soldiers they talked to had lipstick all over their cheeks. It's tradition. In recent years, as beads have become a popular part of the St. Patrick's Day celebration, it's also become popular to put beads around the soldiers' necks as they pass by. So now they get beads AND kisses. Again, watch the video. It's adorable. Even the big tough Airborne Rangers can't help but smile! Plus, if you're a local girl, what's not to love about this tradition? How many days out of the year can you just walk right up to a hot soldier and kiss him?? Only St. Patrick's Day, and only in Savannah!!

Savannah loves the military. They really do. After leaving, I realize that. Granted, we are treated pretty well in many places, but the attitudes are different. Here in El Paso, the locals think we're cash cows, just here to save their crappy local economy. We make more money than the locals, but we aren't taking jobs from the locals, so they think we're their financial salvation. They try to scam us, and get every penny from us that they can. A military discount here is unheard of. If people see that you're military, they'll double the price because they know you can afford it. Some of the people resent us because landlords would rather lease to us than the locals because we're pretty much guaranteed not to be into crime, and we have steady income, and will be able to pay. To the people of El Paso, we are big walking bank accounts, nothing more. In Savannah, we were people, and that was awfully nice.

Mommy, you suck.

Soooo would anyone like to know what the worst part of having a baby born on Christmas Day is? OK, yes, it's the fact that planning a birthday party for him is a certain disaster, and he faces a lifetime of one present for two occasions. However, another drawback to it is that his 1-year doctor's appointment should have taken place during the time we were traveling, and so of course, in the shuffle of taking two children and a dog from the Mexican border to the Canadian border, what got lost in the shuffle? Orren's doctor's appointment, of course. What else would it be?

So I forgot about it for a solid month until early February, and then my parents were visiting, so I figured I'd put it off until after that. Then after they left, ever since then, the kids have been sick. Both of them had a cold, and then as soon as they got over that, and Orren seemed well enough to get his shots, they both came down with a stomach virus. He's still fussy as hell because now that he's stopped barfing nonstop, he decided to cut all four of his canine teeth at once (this kid cuts no fewer than two teeth at a time, usually four at a time), but that won't prevent him from being able to get his shots, so I scheduled his appointment today. I finally remembered to do so while the doctor's office was still open! (I usually remember it at about midnight as I'm lying in bed.) Therefore, Mr. Orren Kiet goes in for his 1-year physical and shots, just before he turns 15 months old...

Geez, I hope our pediatrician is understanding of why we're so late on this, or at least doesn't give me hell over it. On the good side, Thak may get out of going to work for the first half of the day since I scheduled the earliest appointment of the day! (Plus, the waiting time is almost zero if you go early in the morning. Not so in the afternoon.)

Happy made up Finnish-American holiday!!

Sooooo today is something called St. Urho's Day. St. Urho is entirely imaginary, made up by some Finnish dude in Minnesota in 1956 when questioned by an Irish coworker on why the Finns didn't have a saint like St. Patrick. So this Finn and this Irish guy made up St. Urho, and originally, St. Urho's Day was in May, but then, in order to keep up with the awesomeness that is Irish people, they moved their holiday to one day before that which I affectionately call "Irish Stereotype Day" (better known as St. Patrick's Day).

So basically, happy St. Urho's Day, everyone! Wear purple!

(Do you think that's why the Minnesota Vikings wear purple?? I mean, St. Urho was invented in 1956, the Vikings in 1961, so it's possible! LOL)

Oh, and if I don't get to it tomorrow, happy Irish Stereotype Day. Now, as soon as I finish this drink, I'm gonna go fight someone. ;-)

Stunning Saturday: Motorcycle!!

On this stunning 80 degree Saturday here in beautiful (haha!) West Texas, Thak is taking the motorcycle to be inspected so that he can get the new tags for it, and then start riding it to work in the very near future, thus saving us hundreds of dollars a month on gas. That's got to be the most stunning thing about motorcycles. They're so much cheaper than cars, and better for the environment, too.



So anyhow, here's a pic of the new bike... and me in my cute new motorcycle jacket! The jacket is another great story. This one guy I know (he's actually a friend's ex-boyfriend) was selling this jacket which had been worn only maybe 5 times, because he had bought it for his ex-girlfriend (not my friend, the one before her) and it was just drama asking another girl to wear it, so he decided to get rid of it at my friend's urging, while they were still together. Even though they broke up months ago, he still wanted to sell it, and since both of the girls who wore it were also 5'6" and 110 pounds, I knew it would fit me perfectly! He also threw in a pair of riding gloves for free. I scored over $250's worth of gear in totally new condition for $100. THAT is stunning. :D

And guess what! It's STUDLY Saturday, too. We can't talk about how hot this bike is without mentioning its actual owner....


Now THAT'S studly. Have a good weekend, everyone!

It's Women's History Month in the Army!

A Senate resolution this week celebrated women in uniform. I think that's outstanding. Also, in commemoration of Women's History Month, have a look at this website. It's awesome.

I think everyone should know the history of female soldiers, and how far we've come. Did you know that it was only a few years before I was born that female troops were even considered part of the Regular Army? Before that, they were part of the Women's Army Corps (WAC). Now, we all know that the WAC existed, and that they had roles in various conflicts around the world throughout the time they were active, but I think female soldiers today, and even vets my age, think of it as something that came and went forever ago. Many of us took for granted that we had the opportunity to serve our country as soldiers, I know I did, when in reality, it is something that all of us who have raised our right hand and sworn our Oath of Enlistment, with no thought to our gender, should be quite grateful for indeed.

I know that the more I learn about how recently the walls have begun to come down for female soldiers, the more grateful I am for the opportunity I had to serve in exactly the capacity I wanted. What a great thing it was, indeed, to feel the call to serve (you vets ALL know what I mean), and be able to answer it my way. Were I only six years older than I am, I may not have been able to do that. It was that recent that restrictions stood between female soldiers, and many of the jobs within the Army. Now, we can do almost anything, and maybe in another decade or so, there will be no walls left standing. Maybe we will be able to be recognized officially for the tasks we've been performing behind the scenes and off the radar screen for far longer than any of us could ever remember.

Molly Pitcher was the first female soldier (the military wives like to claim her, but forget that for now) and became that way by taking over her fallen husband's cannon, and fighting as hard as any of the guys to her left and right. As far as I'm concerned, that makes her a soldier, and an artillery soldier at that. No female since Molly Pitcher has served in a Combat Arms job (Infantry, Artillery, Armor, and Combat Engineers), at least on record, but maybe that will change within my lifetime. I know I'd love to see the day that real live modern day Molly Pitchers man the Artillery guns once again, in every rank from Private to Colonel! With the rate that my Army's been making progress, that day may come sooner rather than later.

The first female soldiers to serve AS SOLDIERS (not WAC's) in a war were our Gulf War vets. There were 24,000 female soldiers in that war, and two of them were VERY influential to me. One was my one and only female Drill Sergeant, whose job it was to drive convoys through every condition and many ambushes, and was only a Private, fresh out of training, when she earned her combat patch. The other was my Sergeant Major who was a Staff Sergeant when she set foot on Kuwaiti soil, and was responsible for a platoon of carpenters. These women were some of the first female soldiers ever to wear a combat patch on their uniforms, and I am so proud to have had the opportunity to serve with them. To this day, I reflect on the lessons they taught me. Command Sergeant Major B and Drill Sergeant C are pioneers. They, and their peers, paved the way for the many female soldiers who serve in combat today.

It is important to look at our history, but it is also important to think of where we want to be in the future. We have such a great thing started, and we mist progress. Beyond seeing more jobs opened to women who can meet the requirements, I hope the most of all to see a day within my lifetime, when female soldiers will be just as respected as their male counterparts. It is my biggest dream to know a day when female soldiers are not looked at as having suspect reasons for enlisting, and are looked at as exactly what they are, SOLDIERS, rather than any of the negative stereotypes that are cast upon us the minute we report to our units, and weigh on us heavier than any ruck sack we have ever carried. Will there ever be a day when a girl can say, "I want to be a soldier when I grow up!" and people won't tell her that's for boys? Will there be a day when a female PFC can call her squad leader to ask a legitimate question, and not have to worry about getting yelled at by his wife because she doesn't think women ought to serve with her husband? Will female soldiers ever be promoted at the rate of their brothers? Well, I hope the answer to all these questions is YES, AND SOON!!

While we, as a nation, still have a long way to go in the way of acceptance and treatment of female soldiers and veterans, we have come far, and I can safely say that I am so proud to be a FEMALE Army veteran!!! We have come so far, and I am so happy to have been able to be a part of it, even if it was a very small part. Serving my country in uniform, for all its hardships, was by far the best decision I ever made.


Strong eyes + Unbeatable math skills + Fast walking + Dark sense of humor = US Army Land Surveyor

Male or female, US Army surveyors are the best in the world!

Stunning Saturday: DIY

When we moved here, my nursery decor kind of went down the tubes because the stuff I made for Orren's room in GA didn't work very well for his room here. The windows were drastically different in size, and the rooms were just set up differently. Even so, today, I want to talk about nursery decor, and most importantly, how EASY it is to make your own, and have a unique nursery that will be the envy of all your friends.

If there is one thing I cannot stand, it is the baby equivalent of "bed in a bag", nursery sets which come in the same cliche themes everywhere you look, and are so popular that you're going to have exactly the same nursery as at least ten of your friends. Who wants to be one of the masses? Not me, that's for sure. I usually get my uniqueness fix by buying high-end brands which look nothing like the standard-issue Wal Mart and Babies R Us gear, but this time, it was ridiculous. I could not swallow paying $500 for a crib bumper, which I could as easily make myself, so I made the decision to do it myself.

Themes are hot these days. Some love them, some hate them, but whatever side of the fence you fall on, you can still DIY and have something totally unique and perfect for you. I happen to kind of like themes, so the first job was to think of what theme I may like to do. I came to a conclusion on this the night before I found out if I was having a boy or a girl. With a little input from Thak, I'd decided on a fishing theme for a boy, and french toille for a girl.

After deciding a theme, look at the more high-end nursery decor sites for ideas on what styles are new and hot. (Stella Maternity has really great stuff and is popular with celebrities!) When you find out what style you want to do, and have your themes narrowed down to one for a boy and one for a girl, then you can figure out how many yards of what types of fabric you are going to need.

Measure your crib, and figure out the dimensions of your bumpers, then determine how tall you'd like them. Make a pattern in these dimensions out of newspaper, accounting for seams. It will be incredibly simple. If you are doing multiple fabrics (and you should!) your patterns should reflect that. Instead of one large pattern, you will have a few pieced together ones. Still, it's quite simple.

After that, you need to do the crib skirt. You already have the dimensions of your crib, so that will be easy. Figure out what type of pleating or gathering you want in that. If you're having a boy, a simple single pleat in the middle of the front will probably be the most you'd want. For a girl, your options are a lot more plentiful. Measure from the bottom of the crib mattress to determine how long the crib skirt needs to be, and then make your patterns accordingly, accounting for what fabrics you want to use for each portion of it.

After that, you will need to do window treatments, and whatever type of those you want will vary wildly. You can probably figure this out on your own, but if googling a pattern for details would be easy, too. The method of figuring this out is quite similar to the rest. You measure your window, and then figure out exactly what you want where, then create a pattern, and sew accordingly.

Beyond that, you can make any number of other things, and it is all personal taste. I made a changing pad in a fish print, which is absolutely lovely. It's also one of my better recycling efforts since the middle of it consists of an old crib pad and a mini-quilt that I knew I wouldn't use otherwise because it had a big stain on it. These things, folded and covered with a nice fish print fabric make a soft, comfy changing pad that's held up awesomely to 14 months of use. You can also make organizing bins (they are so handy!), wall decor, letters, and anything else that seems to you like it would be a good addition to your nursery.

The day after I got my patterns made, and decided to do a color-block and multi-print look, we found out that we were expecting a boy. Before we went home from the birth center, we made a detour by the fabric store, and looked for any fishing prints that coordinated. We ended up changing to a general maritime theme because I found a set of prints that went together quite nicely, and had the most lovely ice blue and brown color scheme. They included fishing net prints and sailboat prints. Then I found a fish print for accents, and a reddish brown that coordinated with all the prints to tie it all together.

This is the result! (One of them anyhow... I did the whole room, not just the crib.) Color blocks were very hot the season I made this. The only thing I would have changed in retrospect was to use more batting in the crib bumpers. (Make them as thick or thin as you want with quilt batting. Don't cheap out on it. Getting the right stuff makes a huge difference.) As you can see, I did a single pleat in the front of the crib skirt, and otherwise kept to a simpler block pattern on the skirt than on the bumpers. I thought it all tied in nicely. As for sheets, sometimes it's easy to tie in your prints with sheets that are readily available, but that wasn't the case for us. I would have loved an ice blue sheet with this scheme, but could not find the exact shade, so we went with a simple white sheet, and it still looked really nice. This is always an option, and I would say, when choosing your colors, try to make sure at least one color is readily available in crib sheets. White, khaki, and lemon yellow are some good ones that you can always find.

Whatever will we do with only a 1.4% raise!! Woe is us!!

If you're on any social networking site, and have logged in within the past week, you've seen a page full of posts that look like this:

"President Obama has proposed a 1.4% pay increase for active duty military in 2011. This is THE LOWEST SINCE 1973! Nice to know that during a time of rampant inflation, while war is fought in 2 theatres, our men and women in uniform get A LOWER PAY INCREASE THAN WELFARE RECIPIENTS. Please repost if you support our troops!"

That is a direct copy and paste off my live feed. Literally half of it looks like that. Half. OK, I know, consider the source. Most of my contacts are military-affiliated, but even some of the civvies are posting this thing, so I'm pretty sure there's nobody on the planet who hasn't seen this yet.

OK, so 1.4% is a rather small pay increase compared to what we're used to, but when you consider that our economy is in the toilet, and government expenditures absolutely have to be cut in order to bring it back, it was only a matter of time before the military had to bear some of the brunt of it. Frankly, I wonder why they haven't cut MORE of the pork from the defense budget, and kept it only to a small pay raise. They still plan on raising the housing allowance (which is necessary in many places since landlords love to gouge military people on rent everywhere I've been), and I don't know what they're going to do with the food allowance, but I don't see it decreasing. Annual clothing allowances for female enlisted soldiers decreased, but only by like $40, and out of the about $600 that the allowance is these days, that's certainly not a very big deal on an individual level, but will make a big difference when added up.

I think a lot of the garbage they spend money on really needs to go. They implement these new family programs every year which are so unnecessary, and most people don't even use, yet they cost millions of dollars to run. Why on earth would they keep making these useless things? Sure, study after study shows that the families who have dealt with more than two deployments in rapid succession are facing the biggest issues (Shocker.) but the solution to that is NOT to start up ten more stupid programs. How about a REAL solution? There is one, and it's easy. Keep the word of the lawmakers who have been saying for years that they are going to find and deploy soldiers with no deployments, short tours, or a long time at home between deployments, and rotate the people who have been spending every other year deployed for the past half decade or so to non or less frequently deployed assignments. This is not only far cheaper than starting a bunch of idiotic social programs, but it is a real solution, not a bandaid.

Let me tell you, as the wife of a 3-tour OIF vet, and a member of the type of family the researchers seem to love to study these days, the LAST thing I'm going to do when things get difficult during a deployment is run down to the Army Community Services and let some civilians whose husbands have never deployed tell me how to live my life, and spout the same old platitudes about how we have to live for this thing that's bigger than ourselves. (Why yes, the government fatcats and their dirty agendas ARE bigger than me... Please tell me why I'm supposed to live for that.) The Army family programs are AWFUL, and honestly, they should be cut by at least 50% to start, and more each year thereafter, not increased every year. If you've got housing, a commissary, a PX, a few things to do (on-post bowling alley and movies, parks, running trails, etc), and the phone number for the unit's rear-detachment and FRG, then that is ALL you need. What's more, most of that stuff is practically free because it utilizes existing facilities, and people pay for most of the things (activities, groceries, goods, services), so the agencies at least break even, and in the case of AAFES, can fund other agencies like MWR. (So basically, what this means is that the PX funds the bowling alley, etc.)

It is possible to run an Army on a drastically reduced budget, and that's what needs to happen. I am in favor of the smaller pay raise, and would like to see the majority of family programs cut in order to decrease defense spending. I would also like to see them settle on one camouflage pattern that they will use for 20 years or so. There's a lot of pork in the defense budget, and it needs to be trimmed. It's not going to be comfortable, but that's the way it is.

Military dependents are the most ungrateful people alive. I've been consistently disappointed in all but maybe half a dozen that I've met over the past six years. They seem to think that they should get all this money when the rest of the nation is scrimping and pinching just to make ends meet. Why on earth should that be? Isn't it enough that the pay is still steady, promotions are still happening, and still carry raises, housing allowance still increases in response to cost of living, and you can still get free medical through the craptastic military hospital if a 20% copay on Standard (FREE insurance!) is too much for you?

During the height of the recession, when others were losing jobs left and right, and billion dollar corporations were crumbling daily, our household income increased by 30%. Granted, there was a promotion, and a HUGE housing allowance increase that figured into it, but the fact is, that ONLY happened in the military that year. While our civilian counterparts were arriving at work to barrages of pink slips, Thak scrambled for promotion points, and pinned (er... velcroed?) on a nearly unattainable rank for his job. I never once had to worry about how I'd feed us, or if my bank card would be declined at the commissary. When a lot of people were losing their houses, and downsizing drastically, we moved from a 2 BR apartment to a 4 BR house in a great neighborhood. Granted, my husband is better than most at this Army thing (there's a difference between "good at it" and "meant to do it forever") but the universal fact is that the military did not feel the recession beyond the gas pump, and even then, a lot of people just bought motorcycles, and avoided the gas gouging that way. They had the means to do that.

So military people, take your own advice and suck it up! 1.4% is still a raise, and you still have a job. Be realistic about the world's situation, and realize that just volunteering to put on a uniform does not make you (or more likely your husband) a saint worthy of the lion's share of everything. You love to talk about sacrifice, and how much you give for your country, but when it comes down to actually feeling a little bit of the necessary pinch in order to begin healing our broken economy, you can't say a single good thing about it. Where's your sense of duty and patriotism now, military wife, lower-enlisted soldier... scrappy old NCO? Where'd it go? Sure, it's easy to be patriotic when it comes with a giant tax-free (during deployments) paycheck that just gets fatter every year, but when it counts, it seems you're all talk.

Studly.

I was trying to take a picture of Orren in his new outfit from grandma, since it was finally warm enough to wear shorts. Of course, by the time I got around to taking the picture, daddy came home, and Orren wouldn't let him out of his sight, and of course, nobody is allowed to take a picture of anyone in Erin's general vicinity without her jumping in it, so that's what we have. However, Orren is still very studly in his new outfit.

You EAT that?

This post is different than others. At previous assignments, people were ok with the fact that I do things differently than they do. It was just an accepted fact that I ate weird foods that people had never heard of, but in a certain friend's words, "Obviously it's not harming you any. You're healthier than most of us." Right on, sister. I am healthier than really anyone else I know, and I believe it is because I eat pretty well most of the time. And yes, for me, eating well includes things a lot of people have never heard of. (I am still floored at how many people have never heard of tabouleh!) Before I came here, that was fine. Everyone knew that I wasn't interested in recipes from the usual suspects (Campbell's Kitchen, Craft Foods, etc) because I do not cook out of cans and packets, and that if I showed up to a potluck, it would be with a big heaping bowl of some vegetarian delicacy nobody had ever heard of. It was my thing, and my people were ok with it. Some of them even liked my food enough to ask for the recipes, or at least request that I bring it next time, too!

Here, it's nothing like that. I shop at certain stores that are a little more expensive than many other stores here in town. I have tried the cheaper stores, but I really could not find the foods we eat there. For one, I do use a lot of southern ingredients, and the only place to get those is on post. (FYI, for anyone reading this, southern does not equal fried and fatty. Do not stereotype me that way.) For another, I buy things like flax meal, kefir, and as many organic products as possible, and those things are only available in certain stores. It's just the way things are. I'm ok with the fact that we spend more on groceries than a lot of people. I'm also ok with the fact that we spend 1/10 as much on pediatrician bills than the others would if they were on our same policy (because our kids are never sick. Knock on wood.), and that I weigh roughly half what the cheap food shoppers weigh, and will probably outlive them by decades, and in better long-term health. This is NOT coincidental, nor 100% attributable to genes (maybe 50%, if that).

I'm not shoving these facts in their faces, though. I figure they own mirrors, and can see what their out-of-this-world consumption is doing to them. Why rub it in? Even so, they always tell me, when I so much as mention food, or going shopping, or meal planning (as in, "Well, I've got to get going now. I need to work on the menu for the next two weeks." or "I've gotta stop and pick up a few things on my way home."), that they save a bunch of money by shopping at Store X (not its real name). I have told them 150 times by now that I tried shopping at Store X, and was totally miserable because they barely had anything that I actually wanted to feed my family. Then whenever I say that, three more of them chime in about how there's no feeling in the world like saving money. At which point I'm tempted to say there's no feeling in the world like being thin without effort, and healthy without medication, but I hold my tongue... I always do when it comes to these fools.

The point is that they don't GET the point! They're so hell bent on converting me to their side that they are always just poking me with these little jabs at the way I live. No, I do not CARE that disposable diapers are on sale at Store Y. Have you EVER seen my son wear a disposable diaper? That's because he never has. Not once. I DON'T CARE that they have supersized boxes of Lucky Charms for dirt cheap at Store X. Do my kids LOOK like I feed them that crap? I really do not care how much you saved by buying all your groceries at Store X. I've seen what these people eat, and let's just say, it's not doing them any favors. I thought one in particular was in her mid-30's, and was SHOCKED when I found out she was 23. That's the most drastic case, but all the Store X zombies look at least 5 years older than they are. I don't know how old I look, but people tell me mid-late 20's, and late 20's is right, so obviously it could be worse. In any case, let's just say a dumpy woman who weighs twice what I do, looks 10 years older than she is, and drives around in her gas-guzzling SUV all day long, while wearing pajamas 24/7, is definitely not something I seek to emulate.

People live their way. I'm not trying to change them, and it's quite annoying that they appear to be trying relentlessly to change me. Maybe they think I think I'm better than them. On a human level, I don't. Do I think I am more knowledgeable? You bet. Better informed? Oh yes. Healthier, fitter, going to live longer barring freak accidents? Definitely. These are facts, though. Anyone with any knowledge at all of nutrition, or the human body, would cringe at their diets. I don't (openly) cringe when I watch them stuff their faces with three days' worth of calories at a sitting, but I surely do not intend to participate in their slow-paced mass suicide at any point this lifetime either! They need to get this memo, and fast.

The Vulture Friend

Does everybody have one? I think I have several. It's not totally a bad thing. Sometimes I just need to get rid of some stuff, so having people who are practically rabid for my hand-me-downs does come in handy at times. Sometimes it's incredibly annoying when word gets out that I just got something new to replace something I already had, and then get 20 texts asking for the old one. Sometimes I have no intention of getting rid of the other one since we're not done with babies yet, and I will get to use it again. I'm sorry, but I'm not inclined to turn loose something I probably paid hundreds of dollars for unless I'm 100% sure I'm not going to need it again.

All in all, I do find it amusing on some level, but at the same time, it's bothersome that when friends come over, they're always checking out Orren's stuff, trying to figure out what I'm going to be willing to turn loose of in a few months and what I'm not. (Here's a hint: I'm not turning loose of any of it. There's a reason we but top-of-the-line stuff. It's so it will still be in good condition for the next baby, and we will get our money's worth.)

I'm all for frugality. I save HUNDREDS on my baby gear by buying discontinued colors, or waiting for sales, or trolling for coupon codes on sites like retailmenot.com. In all honesty, ANYONE can do this stuff, and get really high-end stuff for very good prices. Sure, it's more than you pay for the junk they sell at Wal Mart, but not by as much as a lot of people think. I'm not even secretive about this stuff. In fact, I give this advice to EVERYBODY who expresses an interest in my stuff (which is almost everyone I know with babies and toddlers). I also make a real effort to find the best sales on the things that people are always hitting me up for, and to post them online where all my friends will see them, and to give them coupon codes that I get from certain brands for customer loyalty. I also call people's attention to it when new colors come out and a lot of brands put discontinued colors on sale, or like earlier this year, when a certain Italian stroller company I adore put out a new model and replaced TWO of their old ones with it, thus putting the two discontinued models on sale at the deepest discounts I've ever seen. Yet they still want to buy my stuff, probably for pennies on the dollar. Can you see my eyes rolling? You should.

I guess it's complimentary that people like my taste in stuff, and it's nice to know that when we are done with babies, and it's time to sell our baby gear, we won't have a problem finding buyers for it. Until then, it's us and the vultures.