More on Stem Cells

Human Liver Grown from Stem Cells

Source of the stem cells? Cord Blood.

Stem Cell Research

I have many many thoughts on this subject, but today I will bore you with only one. (hey, if you’re that bored, stop reading!)

Republicans, in general, are NOT against stem cell research. What many Republicans are against is exploiting human beings for research – cloning humans to experiment on them – destroying human life for research. But we are generally FOR stem cell research – the very promising research on adult stem cells.

For reasons I don’t understand, Democrats (at least many of those running for office right now) want Americans to think that the only research worth anything is on embroyos. But I have heard many interviews with the people actually doing the research who believe that adult stem cells are where it’s at.

One thing that really doesn’t add up – if the research on human embroyos was really all that productive and potentially life-saving – if there really were cures just years away – why does that research NEED government money? Don’t you think that private money would just be flowing into it? The way it’s flowing into the research for adult stem cells?

One researcher on one of those late-night talk shows (I wish wish I could remember who) switched his research – against his preferences at first – from embroyonic stem cells to adult stem cells because his private funding sources did not want to fund the embroyonic research. Because they were reading his reports and the news was not promising. If he wanted to continue, he needed to switch to the more promising adult stem cell research. And now he’s been doing that for a number of years and has made more progress than he ever made with the embroyonic research.

Huh.

But the major initiatives, and the candidates trying to make stem cell research into a major issue (including our own Dem candidate for governor) are actually NOT supporting stem cell research – what they want is human cloning. Even worse – cloning humans for research. Yikes.

PS – who doesn’t like Michael J Fox? Everyone likes him. Everyone feels bad for him. It’s a horrible thing that’s happening to him. (and to my grandmother) But those ads are turning the election into an emotional issue – not an intellectual one. I hate that.

She works hard for the money

So, a few weeks into my job at JoAnn’s. I’m not going to quit. The first few days were REALLY hard, but Wally’s adjusted now and it’s not so difficult. Being around fabric makes me happy, and I generally am allowed to do whatever I want because they know I’m very productive. This means I get to put things away, organize, and straighten to my heart’s content.

It is kind of stressful having practically no down time together as a family, and that’s a serious drawback. But it’s only until the end of the year.

The other new employees (two started the same day as me and work more often than I do, and two who started after me) are coming to me for advice and help. Kind of flattering.

Favorite Customer Quotes:

“Hey! Fleece is on clearance for $4 a yard! So, two yards would be only, what, $6!!”
“Excuse me, can you tell me if this pattern says anywhere how much fabric we need?” (I wanted to reply with “please tell me you’ve hired a seamstress?” It was for bridesmaid’s dresses for her daughter’s wedding.)

“I wasn’t going to ask anyone this, but you look friendly.”

Mommy Sleuthing Update

In my last report, we were trying to figure out what the problem was with Wally.

I cut out OJ. It’s been nearly two weeks, no OJ. He does still have his “ice cream” (smoothie popsicles) but we cut way back on that, too. And here’s where we are.

Symptoms:
– much more difficulty than usual controlling his behavior.   This has gotten much much better. He seems to be making progress again on coping with negative feelings related to sharing toys, as well. And he’s back to being is usual, generally-compliant self.
– very aggressive physical play  As long as he gets sufficient appripriate physical play, this is much better.

– urinating in the bed at night   Well, I’ve been rousing him for a middle-of-the-night pee, so this has not been an issue, but that’s not to say that the problem is completely solved.

– very stinky pee  Much better.
– strange bowel movements (dark, smelly, lack of firmness)   No better at all. Very worrisome. Everything I read online about dark smelly strange poop mentions intestinal bleeding or ulcers.

– gassy.  he is still very gassy.

– whining     This is some better, but I think he might just be feeling whiny these days.

– smelly feet    This is all better.
– much more sensitive to people touching his head/washing his hair than usual.   We seem to be back to normal here.
– Thick peeling skin on his fingers and palms. Not dry, but almost like water blisters.   This is getting slowly better.

So, I think we might cut out wheat and/or gluten next week or the week after. We are considering seeing a doctor about his disturbing poop, but at the same time, none of us seem to be having healthy BMs lately, what with the change in seasons and all. TMI?

Chuck Norris

I have watched more than a few Walker: Texas Ranger reruns over the last year, and while they all follow the same very predictable format, there’s something appealing about the show, too. Mostly, I like the Christian message that flows through many of the shows. Various guest stars are more overtly Christian than Walker, but the show is not afraid of Christianity, and that’s refreshing.

Now Chuck Norris is writing editorials at World Net Daily. (which I do not visit, but Randy does.) I have read his few articles there, and really really like the man. Here’s a link to a particularly good one if you’re interested. PS, though Mr. Norris is a great martial artist, and a decent actor, the man is no great writer. So don’t be disappointed.

Hey now I have incentive to bore you with the mundane details of my life.

Thanks for the link, Jon. I’m sure my 1.5 readers will be just as thrilled as your 1.5 readers.

Christmas Crafts

This year, again, we’re going 100% homemade for Christmas presents. Here’s the first batch of gifts, all finished and ready to go. I even have the fabric gift bags done, though those are not pictured here. (But you can see them here. I’m swiping the SpongeBob and Scooby ones for these presents.)

First, raw-edge applique Tshirts for all of the kids in the family, except one teenage boy, who we deemed to be too cool for such a gift.

This is for Paige, my sister’s teenage daughter. I think it’s really cute! An interesting side note, I get Paige’s hand-me-downs. The child is very very tall and so beautiful. This is actually not raw-edge applique like the others. I mounted the circles to a separate piece of fabric, put them BEHIND the tshirt, sewed around the circles, then cut out the red Tshirt to expose the circles. I found myself mulling over whether this would work one day while driving, and am pleased to report that it turned out really good!

Yoda for my youngest nephew. I used white flannel on a black Tshirt and I think it looks nice. I hope it stays that way!! The pig is for neice #2, who likes pigs. She’s starting to outgrow the pig obsession a bit, but I couldn’t resist this cute clipart pig for her.

Flowers are for neice #1, I thought they were cute and without being too cutesy. The ballerina is for her sister, neice #3.

This flower is for Paige, I thought she needed two Tshirts. The elphant is for Wally. It’s a size 4/5, so it should fit him for a looooong time!

Next: Pillowcases. Pillowcases are fun, right? And they’re easy. I made all of these with French seams, so there are no raw or serged edges sticking out. They’re oversize, to make it easier for children to get their pillows in.

Hannah Montana for neice #1, who L-O-V-E-S this show. Lizzie McGuire for her sister, neice #3. There are iron-ons I made from images I swiped from the Disney website. I hope they last!

Star Wars for both nephews. Though they are about 5 years apart in age, they both love Star Wars.

Tink for Paige, and Bratz for neice #2. This was a toughie for me, as I hate Bratz because they’re whores. But she really loves Bratz, and her mom suggested Bratz, and didn’t really have any other suggestions. I struggled with this, but ultimately decided that if I want others to respect what we suggest for Wally’s gifts, I need to respect what they suggest.

So there you have it. It feels good to have these done. It took, all told, about a day and a half of work, a nice diversion from diaper sewing.

As a side note, I bought all of the Tshirts secondhand. Most of them came from the Salvation Army (and are all brand names like Gap and Abercrombie), the ones for Paige came from Once Upon A Child. They were the most expensive, at $2.50 each. The others were all $1 each. The fabric for the appliques themselves was all stuff I had onhand, scraps I’d been saving over the years. So, average Tshirt cost: $1.43

The pillowcases are all new material. I purchased the fabrics over the course of a few weeks using 50% coupons. The Bratz fabric was on clearance (go figure) for $1 a yard, and the Tink and Star Wars fabrics were the most expensive at $5.99 a yard (minus 50% makes it $3 a yard). The solids were all $.50-$1 per yard after coupon and discounts. Each pillowcase takes about a yard of fabric. Even after factoring in $2 for the 2 sheets of iron-on transfer paper, the average pillowcase cost is $1.91.

So, there you go. Presents for all but one of my neices and nephews for an average of $3.34 per child. (The oldest nephew will be getting a pillowcase, and then I’m going to make him candy like I’m making for all the adult men.)

Signs of Fall

Well, summer’s giving way to fall around here. This year, summer put up quite a fight, and we’ve enjoyed some lovely, warm days even into October. But it seems that we’re finally fully into autumn.

Every family marks the seasons a little differently. For our family, fall means more than football games and raking leaves. (In fact, we don’t do either of those things!) We mark fall in other ways:

– I switch from drying clothes on the line to drying clothes in the dryer. I love our clothesline. Starting in early spring, and continuing through fall, I hang most of our laundry outside to dry. (except socks, at Randy’s request.) But there comes a point in every year when, no matter how early I hang the laundry, it’s not dry by the end of the day. And it’s finally cold enough in the (unheated) basement (where I work) to run the dryer. The dryer vent runs through my office and the running dryer puts off enough heat to make it quite comfortable in there when it’s chilly.

– We move from mowing the grass to mowing the leaves. We don’t rake. (Trust me, if you had the number of old, large trees that we have, you wouldn’t either. I prefer to tell people that “if God wanted leaves to be in neat little piles in our yards, He’d make them fall off the trees that way.”) But unless we want a completely dead lawn and lots of rotting leaves in the spring, we have to mow.

– We do the annual switchover from screens on the windows to storms on the windows. Thus ushering in another week or two of gorgeous weather guaranteed to make us wish we could open the windows and air the place out. The plan is to do that this weekend, so get those Tshirts back out!

Well, uh, a good use for tampons?

Not sure what to do with your leftover tampons since you switched to the Diva Cup, the Keeper, or sea sponges? Try Tampon Crafts! Make a lovely bouquet for mom, or a toupee for dad. Or try these Halloween crafts to spruce up the house.

lies lies lies

So this was a headline on the radio just now “The flu arrives in Iowa about 2 weeks ahead of schedule. Health officials say that your only defense against the flu is the flu shot, but shipments have been delayed.”

OK, first, I find the idea of the flu arriving early, ahead of schedule, to be funny.

But your only defense is the shot? Your ONLY defense?

Hand washing. Homeopathics. Immune enhancing supplements. More hand washing. Basic hygiene. Avoiding sick people, encouraging sick family, friends, and coworkers to stay home. Avoiding places where lots of people congregate at peak flu times. Drinking enough water. Eating well. Sleeping enough.

All of these will help ensure a healthy immune system and defend against flu.