I really, really wanted to keep today's post light-hearted. But, I am compelled to discuss the very serious matter of the fast food industry and how absolutely disgusting it is... and how appalled I am that people even eat at such places. :) I am being sarcastic... but I really do think most fast food is gross.
Last night my mom and I swung into the Wendy's drive-thru for some Frosty's. CHOCOLATE Frosty's, FYI - you have to tell them you want chocolate these days. Last time I just ordered a regular Frosty, it was vanilla. Since when did vanilla Frosty become the regular Frosty? Anyway. As we were in the drive-thru lane, I thought, I can't believe I am getting a Frosty - I can't stand Wendy's food.
It's true. I don't like Wendy's food... or McDonald's... or Burger King... the list goes on and on. At some point in my life, I stopped eating so much fast food and now I seriously can't even stomach it. There are a lot of places I can't even consider eating because the food is just so disgusting to me. You know I like lists, so why not a Top 5 list of my least favorite fast food restaurants??
5. Sonic - I think it would serve them better to not have so many windows into their kitchen. If I couldn't see the insanity going on in there, I'd probably eat there more often. But I admit that I am a sucker for a Happy Hour cherry limeade and tater tots with cheese. Blake always gets a hamburger and just the thought of it makes me gag.
4. McDonald's - I once went TWO YEARS without eating McDonald's. I even went without having lunch during a trip to Colorado because everyone wanted McDonald's except me and we didn't have time during our layover to go anywhere else. Now, I will eat McDonald's if I'm desperate (like when I had to eat McDonald's in HONDURAS because that was the only thing open at the airport). But I just had one of their McWrap's over the weekend and it was NASTY. Pretty sure there was an entire bottle of nasty ranch dressing tucked into one corner of the wrap... and of course I bit right into it. I also have to mention here that the Muscle Shoals McDonald's is terrible. I have eaten there three times in three years and have never had a good meal. Sorry, Golden Arches. You gross me out.
3. Wendy's - Again, not a fan of Wendy's food. I think it's because the Wendy's restaurants we have in town are all dirty. There was once a time when I would choose Wendy's over everything else. But they just don't seem sanitary and that grosses me out to the max. I did eat the whole chocolate Frosty last night and survived, so maybe they're not all that bad. It's just that the Wendy's restaurants here don't seem very clean and their employees don't seem very clean, either.
2. Burger King - I cannot even tell you the last time I ate at Burger King. And I used to have a bacon, egg, and cheese croissant EVERY Sunday morning before church. I have taken Blake to BK and just the smell when I walked through the doors was enough to remind me of why I can't eat their food.
1. Taco Bell - No, no, no, no, and NO. Can't do it. Some friends convinced me to eat Taco Bell back in 2009 and I have regretted it ever since. That was the last time I ate Taco Bell. Again, another restaurant that I used to love (Mexican pizza, anyone?) but I mean... it's just SO GROSS.
There are three fast food restaurants that do not gross me out - Chick-fil-A, Arby's, and Taco Casa. Chick-fil-A because the stores are clean and their employees are very friendly (and the food is good). Arby's because their dollar menu rocks and I love some curly fries - and their stores here are clean and employees are friendly. Taco Casa because it's Taco Casa - 'nuff said. And Subway is also good, but I don't necessarily count them as fast food.
Do you have any restaurants that just totally gross you out? Maybe next week I'll post about the sit down restaurants I think are gross... I'll just go ahead and tell you the Tuscaloosa Olive Garden tops that list!
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Friday, May 24, 2013
Four Months!
Wednesday marked Maleah's four month birthday, if that's what you want to call it! It is just incredible to watch a little baby grow before your eyes. To see her day in and day out and see the nuances of change happening more quickly than I'd like is a blessing I hope I never take for granted! Here's a quick update on our growing girl:
Look at that sweet little face! :) Love her. Okay, the update:
Stats: She weighs a whopping (sarcasm) 12 pounds 12 ounces - putting her around the 15th percentile for her age. Really!? She inherited Blake's metabolism, that's for sure. Mama doesn't have a problem gaining weight. She was 24.5 inches long - she has grown 4 1/2 inches since birth! That is amazing to me! We could tell she has grown in length because her footie pajamas were getting a little snug. :)
Eating: She's still eating every 3 hours (7a/10a/1p/4p/7p/10p), but that'll probably change as we introduce solid foods. We started her on single-grain oatmeal (instead of rice cereal, at the recommendation of our pediatrician) Wednesday. Our plan is to give her about a tablespoon of oatmeal at her 7pm feeding and then a bottle. We'll do that until next weekend and start her on it for breakfast (7am) in addition to dinner, and go from there. I'm not in a huge hurry for her to move to solids, but she honestly seems ready. She took right to eating! After the oatmeal, she will take about 4 oz of formula. Then we do her bath and a story and let her have the rest of the bottle (another 1-2 oz). We still do the "dream feed" at 10/10:30 and she takes the WHOLE thing (4 oz)! It fills her up until 7am! At all of her other feeds, she takes 5 oz of formula.
Activity: Little Chick can hold her head really well and can sit up while supported. I've held a couple of newborns in the past few weeks and it really is amazing how squishy and floppy they are compared to Maleah! It's almost hard to believe she was ever like that. But, she was... and now she's a growing girl! She can roll tummy-to-back (right and left) and back-to-tummy (right only, so far). We love watching her roll around. She also started squirming a couple of weeks ago. We can put a toy in front of her and if she wants it badly enough, she's figured out how to slither (that's the only thing I can equate it to!) until she reaches it! Pretty amazing, if you ask me! Maleah also decided that she does like toys. We were a little nervous for a while because she flinched every time a toy made a sound. But now she loves to look at toys and grasp at them and, on occassion, we've caught her purposefully moving her arm to reach for one. Usually we just put them on her hands and she fumbles around with them. But we can see the intentional reaching and grabbing starting to happen. Oh - one last thing - Maleah has A LOT to say. She's always gurgling and cooing and blowing raspberries!
Sleeping: During the day, Maleah doesn't really have any set naps. At daycare she just sleeps whenever she sleeps. This makes it hard to have "set" nap times at home. But, on the weekends she usually does pretty well on the Eat-Activity-Sleep routine where she eats, stays awake for about 1.5 hours, and then naps for 1-1.5 hours. Right now she still takes 4 naps a day - yes, FOUR! - but as she stretches her feedings, I'm sure she'll drop down to three longer naps rather than four short ones. She is also now sleeping through the night and has been pretty consistently since eleven weeks. But, now we're to the point where it would surprise us if she woke up hungry during the night. She does still wake up throughout the night and we usually go in and give her a pacifier to calm her back down. I have a feeling we'll be stopping this soon because she can go back to sleep without it if we are just patient. But we're so tired that we just go and give it to her and I'm afraid we'll be trapped in this cycle for a long time if we don't put an end to it.
Personality: As far as we can tell, Maleah has a pretty calm, easy-going personality. She doesn't get too terribly excited about much but she's usually not particularly grumpy, either. I'd say she's pretty mellow. :) She adapts really well to new situations - we can take her just about anywhere and she goes with the flow as long as we stick to her normal eat/activity/sleep routine. She will nap just about anywhere but I usually have to hold her to get her to go to sleep (and she doesn't nap as long). She eats just fine on the go - we've even had to feed her in the car seat a couple of times and it doesn't seem to bother her!
We are really enjoying this new phase with her. She's much more interactive, responsive, and independent. She loves ot play on her activity mat or sit in the bouncy and watch us make dinner. She's just a happy little kid and we love her!!!
Look at that sweet little face! :) Love her. Okay, the update:
Stats: She weighs a whopping (sarcasm) 12 pounds 12 ounces - putting her around the 15th percentile for her age. Really!? She inherited Blake's metabolism, that's for sure. Mama doesn't have a problem gaining weight. She was 24.5 inches long - she has grown 4 1/2 inches since birth! That is amazing to me! We could tell she has grown in length because her footie pajamas were getting a little snug. :)
Eating: She's still eating every 3 hours (7a/10a/1p/4p/7p/10p), but that'll probably change as we introduce solid foods. We started her on single-grain oatmeal (instead of rice cereal, at the recommendation of our pediatrician) Wednesday. Our plan is to give her about a tablespoon of oatmeal at her 7pm feeding and then a bottle. We'll do that until next weekend and start her on it for breakfast (7am) in addition to dinner, and go from there. I'm not in a huge hurry for her to move to solids, but she honestly seems ready. She took right to eating! After the oatmeal, she will take about 4 oz of formula. Then we do her bath and a story and let her have the rest of the bottle (another 1-2 oz). We still do the "dream feed" at 10/10:30 and she takes the WHOLE thing (4 oz)! It fills her up until 7am! At all of her other feeds, she takes 5 oz of formula.
Activity: Little Chick can hold her head really well and can sit up while supported. I've held a couple of newborns in the past few weeks and it really is amazing how squishy and floppy they are compared to Maleah! It's almost hard to believe she was ever like that. But, she was... and now she's a growing girl! She can roll tummy-to-back (right and left) and back-to-tummy (right only, so far). We love watching her roll around. She also started squirming a couple of weeks ago. We can put a toy in front of her and if she wants it badly enough, she's figured out how to slither (that's the only thing I can equate it to!) until she reaches it! Pretty amazing, if you ask me! Maleah also decided that she does like toys. We were a little nervous for a while because she flinched every time a toy made a sound. But now she loves to look at toys and grasp at them and, on occassion, we've caught her purposefully moving her arm to reach for one. Usually we just put them on her hands and she fumbles around with them. But we can see the intentional reaching and grabbing starting to happen. Oh - one last thing - Maleah has A LOT to say. She's always gurgling and cooing and blowing raspberries!
Sleeping: During the day, Maleah doesn't really have any set naps. At daycare she just sleeps whenever she sleeps. This makes it hard to have "set" nap times at home. But, on the weekends she usually does pretty well on the Eat-Activity-Sleep routine where she eats, stays awake for about 1.5 hours, and then naps for 1-1.5 hours. Right now she still takes 4 naps a day - yes, FOUR! - but as she stretches her feedings, I'm sure she'll drop down to three longer naps rather than four short ones. She is also now sleeping through the night and has been pretty consistently since eleven weeks. But, now we're to the point where it would surprise us if she woke up hungry during the night. She does still wake up throughout the night and we usually go in and give her a pacifier to calm her back down. I have a feeling we'll be stopping this soon because she can go back to sleep without it if we are just patient. But we're so tired that we just go and give it to her and I'm afraid we'll be trapped in this cycle for a long time if we don't put an end to it.
Personality: As far as we can tell, Maleah has a pretty calm, easy-going personality. She doesn't get too terribly excited about much but she's usually not particularly grumpy, either. I'd say she's pretty mellow. :) She adapts really well to new situations - we can take her just about anywhere and she goes with the flow as long as we stick to her normal eat/activity/sleep routine. She will nap just about anywhere but I usually have to hold her to get her to go to sleep (and she doesn't nap as long). She eats just fine on the go - we've even had to feed her in the car seat a couple of times and it doesn't seem to bother her!
We are really enjoying this new phase with her. She's much more interactive, responsive, and independent. She loves ot play on her activity mat or sit in the bouncy and watch us make dinner. She's just a happy little kid and we love her!!!
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Wednesday Confessional: I Cannot Watch the Oklahoma Tornado Coverage
I hinted at this in an earlier Facebook post after inadvertantly watching a video of a teacher and her students enduring the impact of the Oklahoma tornado. All you could see was blackness and all you could hear were the terrified screams of this teacher and her students. Just catching a glimpse of this video sent me back to my own experience and made me angry that someone would capitalize on such a traumatic moment. I am trying very hard not to be overly critical of this woman, but it baffles me why she took the video in the first place and why she would want to share that video with the world.
I understand that people are fascinated with tornados. Living near Tuscaloosa's own "tornado alley," I have exeprienced several in my lifetime. As a little girl, I remember being rushed to my aunt and uncle's basement and could see the tornado behind us as we fled our house. That tornado ripped off our front porch and destroyed my Fisher Price turtle sandbox. (I was really mad at that tornado!) But tornadoes were always so exciting - it meant rushing out of the house and bunkering down with my family. Surviving was like beating nature at it's own game! Storms and bad weather didn't bother me a bit. Until April 27.
(For those of you that haven't heard our story, you can read it here.)
After the April 27 tornado, I experienced severe emtional trauma (as did most everyone in our city, whether or not they felt the physical impact of the tornado). It took months for the nightmares and flashbacks to stop. It took over a year for me to be able to talk about what happened without reliving the whole ordeal. It took up until recently for me to actually be able to talk about it without feeling anxious or tearing up. And watching just the bits and pieces of the Oklahoma tornado coverage has reopened wounds I so desperately wanted to keep closed.
I guess the reason I am being hard on this teacher for videoing her experience is that, after experiencing myself, I don't want anyone to know what it's really like unless they have to. When I lifted my head that day after the tornado, I had no clue if the rest of my family was alive. I'm talking about the people I was with. It was so powerful and so loud and so dark, I had no clue what was happening just a few feet away from me. It was terrifying. Calling my mom, crying hysterically, saying "We are trapped, we are trapped!" was the scariest phone call I've ever had to make. Risking electrocution and carefully tip-toeing through dozens upon dozens of twisted and fallen trees just to be able to walk across the street was exhausting. Waiting for my uncle to literally run nearly a mile to my aunt's house to see if she and my cousin's five-month-old baby were alive was the longest hour of my life.
You see, it wasn't just the moment of impact itself that haunts me. It was the hours, days, weeks, and months that followed where the tornado still had its grip on me and on my loved ones.
It was awful and I don't want anyone to ever have to go through it or its aftermath. And I can't even begin to imagine what it was like for people who braced the storm, lifted their heads, and found themselves or their loved ones injured. Or found their loved ones dead. My heart just breaks for those who have endured such tragedy.
I cannot continue to watch the coverage of the tornado. I tried to watch bits and pieces but the video I saw today brought back way too many horrible memories for me to continue following that story too closely. The images and stories are too close to our own for me to handle right now.
Some things are just too hard to forget. I have realized this week that the April 27 tornado is not something I will ever be able to put out of my mind. It is always there. I will have always experienced it. It will always be a part of my story. The Oklahoma tornado has reminded me that there are moments we cannot ever forget no matter how hard we try. But I am learning that it is more healing to remember than it is to forget. But, remembering is not easy.
I understand that people are fascinated with tornados. Living near Tuscaloosa's own "tornado alley," I have exeprienced several in my lifetime. As a little girl, I remember being rushed to my aunt and uncle's basement and could see the tornado behind us as we fled our house. That tornado ripped off our front porch and destroyed my Fisher Price turtle sandbox. (I was really mad at that tornado!) But tornadoes were always so exciting - it meant rushing out of the house and bunkering down with my family. Surviving was like beating nature at it's own game! Storms and bad weather didn't bother me a bit. Until April 27.
(For those of you that haven't heard our story, you can read it here.)
After the April 27 tornado, I experienced severe emtional trauma (as did most everyone in our city, whether or not they felt the physical impact of the tornado). It took months for the nightmares and flashbacks to stop. It took over a year for me to be able to talk about what happened without reliving the whole ordeal. It took up until recently for me to actually be able to talk about it without feeling anxious or tearing up. And watching just the bits and pieces of the Oklahoma tornado coverage has reopened wounds I so desperately wanted to keep closed.
I guess the reason I am being hard on this teacher for videoing her experience is that, after experiencing myself, I don't want anyone to know what it's really like unless they have to. When I lifted my head that day after the tornado, I had no clue if the rest of my family was alive. I'm talking about the people I was with. It was so powerful and so loud and so dark, I had no clue what was happening just a few feet away from me. It was terrifying. Calling my mom, crying hysterically, saying "We are trapped, we are trapped!" was the scariest phone call I've ever had to make. Risking electrocution and carefully tip-toeing through dozens upon dozens of twisted and fallen trees just to be able to walk across the street was exhausting. Waiting for my uncle to literally run nearly a mile to my aunt's house to see if she and my cousin's five-month-old baby were alive was the longest hour of my life.
You see, it wasn't just the moment of impact itself that haunts me. It was the hours, days, weeks, and months that followed where the tornado still had its grip on me and on my loved ones.
It was awful and I don't want anyone to ever have to go through it or its aftermath. And I can't even begin to imagine what it was like for people who braced the storm, lifted their heads, and found themselves or their loved ones injured. Or found their loved ones dead. My heart just breaks for those who have endured such tragedy.
I cannot continue to watch the coverage of the tornado. I tried to watch bits and pieces but the video I saw today brought back way too many horrible memories for me to continue following that story too closely. The images and stories are too close to our own for me to handle right now.
Some things are just too hard to forget. I have realized this week that the April 27 tornado is not something I will ever be able to put out of my mind. It is always there. I will have always experienced it. It will always be a part of my story. The Oklahoma tornado has reminded me that there are moments we cannot ever forget no matter how hard we try. But I am learning that it is more healing to remember than it is to forget. But, remembering is not easy.
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