Life’s moving on…

Holidays: I had the week before Christmas and, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off work. I got to do all my shopping and go to Glendale Glitters with Lindsey.
Christmas Eve: I had to go shoppoing with Mom because she was so last minute this year. While we were shopping Dad and Ben were left at home. Ben had some Michalobe and Dad done 3/4ths of a bottle of Brandy and Eggnog. He was blitz when we got home it was very amusing. Rachael got some of his antics on tape. He was giggling and told us bras were cool, boobs were “fucking awesome” but vagina were the devil which he emphasised by flipping us all off. Additionally in his drunken craziness he started to clean his tool room and said I looked hot in my new outfit and said that Chelsea was a goddess amoung Rachael’s slut friends. Then we went over to Ryans house for dinner. I got to do magic tricks and impress the kids.
Christmas Day: They woke me up to open presents. I was fairly cranky. I got a lot of cute clothing and some stuff for the baby. Dad bought Mom a MP3 player and disguised wrapped it. He kept telling her it was a “11 inch oh baby oh baby” I was throughly amusing. Ben got me a DVD of Brad Paisley videos. It was cool.
New Year’s: I woke up at 10 AM and went on a 4 mile hike with Erica, Kathryn, and Casey. It was a great way to end the year, even though I got sunburned. In the evening I got to go to the Play Boy Bunny party with Lindsey, Ricky, Ashley, Kathryn and some others. I was a conservative bunny this year, but I looked stunning because I borrowed a dress that made me look not pregnant (a huge feat a this point, I am very baby round) and Ashley did my make up so I looked hawt. The highlight of the part was having a gay guy in a corset and fishnets get down on his knees and listen to my belly. I also spend a good deal of the evening with a fabulous looking drag queen. It was good times. I learned a life long lesson though. Don’t be sober among the drunks. It is not fun.

Work: It decent. Nothing real exciting happening. There is an old lady who is harrasing me. She used to follow me into the bathroom, now she just stares at me and gives me dirty looks all day. I talked with the manager about it and she said it was something I had to deal with on my own which pissed me off, so I went to human resources and our wonderful HR lady will be issuing her a harrassment warning. I am going to avoid that creepy old lady like the plague. Also there was some trouble when I was trying to request off my birthday. The manager said I couldn’t have it off unless I got one of the other supervisor to cover for me and 1 of the 2 people halfway trained to do my job is already working that day and the other was putting up a big stink because it meant she would have to stay an hour more so she didn’t want to do it. I was going to have to work it, but Kim (we love Kim) guilt tripped her into it as that bitch has taken 4 days off in the last month and no one gave her shit about finding someone to cover. Arg.

Family: Mom and I watched massive amounts of House. She also said if I continue to grow babywise I will explode. Ben is once again speaking to me. Rachael went to see Juno without me; it literally made me cry (I was all emo and hormonaly unbalance at the time anyway. Then we got into a fight over stupid Arbys.) It’s been dumb.

Social / Leisure time: I spent some time with Lindsey, Erica, Kathryn, Chris U. There have been some good times. I watched Walk Hard which was quite impressive, Enchanted, National Treasure 2. 

Click to enlarge

Medical & Baby Related:  This is a picture of what is going on inside right now. He is 27 weeks old, which means we just rolled over into the 3rd trimester.

This week he is about the size of a head of cauliflower, weighing in at almost 2 pounds and about 14.4 inches long with his legs extended. He can now open and close his eyes, and he sleeps and wakes at regular intervals, which I am very much aware of due to his wiggly nature.  His lungs are capable of functioning though still immature.

I am super-excited because other people can now feel him kick. At the last doctor appointment when the doctor busted out the measuring tap to see how much we’d grow he kicked her. I was so proud. I will now be seeing the doctor every 2 weeks until the last month when it will be every week. I go in for a blood sugar test on Jan 11.

I made Rachael feel his foot when he had it all pressed up against my side. It totally creeped her out and Ben just kept saying “Keep it away from me, keep it way from me.” The down side to all this movement is that it makes it very hard to fall asleep because he goes into “action movie mode” right as I am laying down. He was doing a little boxing movie move which was tearing me up the other night.

I got him a whole lot of outfits on ebay for less than a dollar each and then Victoria gave me a whole bag of adoreable stuff. She also gave me her breast pumps which would be weird, but she only used it once and she throughly cleaned it out and that will save me $50-$100 so I don’t care. I also was given some great baby stuff for Christmas including a mobile, a little fish bowl light up thing for the crib, tiny socks & shoes. I t is al so adoreable. Lindsey gave me prenatal yoga (which I haven’t tried yet, but Mom said she do it with me) and she gave me strech mark lotion which I admit I am in need of) Rachael and I got a super cool cake topper for my baby shower and we also got buttons for the family (it had mom-to-be, aunt-to-be, uncle-to-be, and Grandma & grandpa-to-be.) It was perfect, because I have 1 of each in my family. I also found the perfect crib at Walmart and can’t wait to invest in it.

My Favorite Characters:

Good stuff from Zits:

Rose is Rose:

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‘It’s the end of the year as we know it and I feel fine!” As 2007 comes to close I would like to take this time to review last years resolutions and accomplishments.

Last Year’s Resolutions

Here’s my list for this year:

As you make your resolutions I suggest reading this article: 
Organizing Your Resolutions

Now I like to take a moment for reflection on people who have made a big difference in my life this year.

To everyone else,
thanks for reading and
thanks for being a friend.

Here’s an update on Luann and her family.
I will do doing my own update soon:

Hijab on the Hardcourt

The 20-year-old Muslim has found a way for much of her life to balance practicing Islam and basketball, including wearing a headscarf and long pants on the hardcourt, even if it’s meant taunts from others as she blazed trails on her middle school, high school and college teams.

Fordson High School basketball player Fatima Kobeissi, left, and teammate Hyatt Bakri wait before a basketball game. — Carlos Osorio/AP

Now a college senior preparing for law school, she spends free time coaching Muslim girls. And she’s sharing her experiences to help give them the confidence to follow in her footsteps.

Experts and advocates say the number of Muslim girls wearing the hijab on the court, track or field is rising because girls are growing more comfortable pursuing mainstream activities while maintaining religious traditions. Similar patterns are being played out in other areas with large Muslim populations.

“They don’t see the barriers,” said Edina Lekovic, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles-based Muslim Public Affairs Council. “They take it for granted they can play in competitive sports … and work out the clothing issues at the same time.”

Students Have Been Called ‘Terrorists’

Even so, Bakri and current Fordson players say they’ve heard trash-talk that goes beyond the usual on-court chatter — calling them terrorists, telling them to go back to their own country.

Bakri said some coaches and referees have questioned whether she could play in a scarf and sweat pants, relenting only when her coach produced a letter from the Michigan High School Athletic Association granting the uniform modification. More recently, in one out-of-state college tournament, she said the referees wouldn’t let her play. The coach didn’t tell her why until after the game.

It’s reminiscent of a story that made international news in February, when an 11-year-old Muslim girl participating in a soccer tournament in Quebec was pulled off the field after she refused to remove her headscarf. The Quebec Soccer Federation backed the decision, saying it had been made in accordance with rules that forbid wearing anything that could cause harm during a game. (For more stories on this topic see Diversity.)

In the U.S., the National Federation of State High School Associations’ rules say state associations may allow a player to participate while wearing a head covering for religious reasons as long as it isn’t dangerous to another player and unlikely to come off during play. The rule-making federation allows for pants, shorts or skirts.

In Michigan, high school athletic officials approve requests from local districts to modify uniform requirements.
Mark Shooshanian, Fordson High School’s athletic director, said the uniform modifications have become a natural part of sports in Dearborn, home to at least 40 mosques. He said athletic officials always grant the district’s requests, but he’d like to see it part of the rules. “The hardest part for me is within our league there are 27 teams and still some of the coaches question the uniform,” said Shooshanian, who has been sending the requests for 15 years. “Why do I have to keep doing it?”

State athletic association spokesman John Johnson said the system “almost rubber stamps” requests, but requiring the letter provides a safeguard so there are no misunderstandings.

Bakri was the first athlete of the year at her middle school to wear the scarf and earned letters in basketball, volleyball, track and swimming. Swimming required the most creativity. She couldn’t wear a swimsuit in front of men, so she worked out a deal with her coach and athletic director to practice daily with the team but not compete in meets. The coach timed her during practice and awarded her the letter based on performance.

On visits to her former middle school, Bakri is hugged and thanked by students who have seen her picture on the wall. “It made me feel so good about what I’m doing,” said Bakri, who coaches summer leagues and teaches physical education part-time at a private school. “I never really realized how hard it was, especially at the middle school level. I figured I’m going to play basketball. … I never thought people might have a problem with it.”

Her sister, Hyatt Bakri, is a starting shooting guard at Fordson High. The younger Bakri says her sister motivated her to play “because she was so good — I wanted to be like her.”

The 17-year-old senior captain, who also wears pants and long sleeves on the court, says her sister and entire family help her deal with stares or snide remarks from people who don’t see past the scarf.

Hyatt Bakri and Fatima Kobeissi cheer
their team during the basketball game.
—Carlos Osorio/AP

“Some schools are used to seeing girls in the hijab, but other schools find it different, odd,” she said during a break from a recent practice. “After Sept. 11, they feel like we’re a threat to them even though we didn’t have anything to do with it. So they look at us differently.”

She said it also helps to have two teammates wearing a hijab: “They encounter the same thing I do but we just shake it off and play our game.” Teammate Fatima Kobeissi, a senior reserve guard, said she’s worn the hijab since she was nine and couldn’t imagine playing without it.

It might appear that comfort is a casualty for the covered players, but Bakri and Kobeissi run the drills like everybody else. Kobeissi says it gets hot in the gym, but “we’re all going to sweat.”

‘We Have to Be More Modest’

“Nothing in our religion says we can’t go out and do other things just like everybody else. It’s just while we’re doing it, we have to be more modest maybe than everybody else,” she said.

That’s a change from the on-court days of Summer Beydoun, who played at Fordson in the early 1990s and has been coaching for nine years. “When I played, there were never any girls that covered,” said Beydoun, in her second year as head coach. “Maybe back then girls weren’t as comfortable to wear the scarf and long sleeves and go out for sports.”

Ronald Stockton, a political science professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, reviewed 20 years worth of yearbooks at Fordson, where more than 90 percent of the students are of Arabic heritage. In 1980, he counted zero head scarves in class photographs. By 1995, it was 12 and in 2000 it was 52. He said an increase in Muslim students partly explains it, but it’s also tied to a movement among Muslims to wear the scarf as an expression of their faith. That rise in Islamic consciousness has met with a growing desire to get in the game. “You’re seeing girls who are more modern, born in this country, very comfortable with a range of thinking and lifestyles who are still covered,” he said.

Dewnya Bakri lets young players know she has no regrets despite the challenges. And taking the high road doesn’t mean getting rolled over. Bakri said when players on the opposing team insulted her scarf-wearing teammate during a high school tournament, Bakri dealt with it on the court. “I looked at (one of them) and said, ‘This is for you.’ I shot six threes in that game. I was guarding her and she scored zero. “That shut her down.”

Life goes on…

School: So glad for winter break.
Work: I love the new manaer Chris; she is great. We are having a holiday party on the 22nd and are close the 24th, 25th, 31st, and the 1st, all the good holidays. Victoria’s back from her materity leave, they fired the dead weight. Things couldn’t be better. There are lots of changes going on but I am  überhappy.

Family: Booner came down for the weekend. He and Mom and Dad went to a run on Saturday where Uncle Boone took a 1st place metal, Dad took 2nd and mom took 3rd for their age groups. Then on Sunday they were in a relay race where they placed 3rd for their age group. I was proud. We celebrated with lunch at Golden Corrale one day and Olive Garden the next. It was good times and Booner didn’t really pick on me at all for being pregnant, like we all though he would. Someone brought up abortions and he was very much against them so I think that worked in my favor. He like the curtin I put up in our bathroom as well. That made me happy.

Social / liasure time: I enjoyed quiet weekend with the family. Watched a wonderful movie with Kari Russel called Waitress with Mon and Rachael. Called and left Lindsey a bunch of messages. My friend have all but disappeared since I became pregnant. This should bother me, but I’ve got Erica and some great coworks, so it’s not all that bad. Additionally not having a social life has given me time to read. I finished 3 small novels this week.

Medical & Baby Related:  Image long bannanas, bags of sugar, coffee cans. That is about how long he is. The other night while I was reading on the couch I felt him roll over! It was hardcore. I am counting down the days until 3rd trimester and worrying about where I will have room to put him and all his baby encouroments. I am reading a wonderful book from the library called “The newly non-drinking girls guide to pregnancy: surviving 40 weeks without a cosmopolititan.” It is hilarious. Any one up for throwing a mocktail party. I will make us up some shirly temples, off-white russians, post-sex on the beaches, sexless-in-the-cities, chocolate maternitinis, protruding navels, zilch ‘n tonics and some stork-n-mommy specials and anything you can stick the word virgin in front of.. It a whole new school of bartending.

This reminds me:  I love my Mom.

Life

School: Took the last final today. Still need to registar for next semester’s classes and come up with money to pay for them, but I am super glad for a little time off.

Work: Constant changes at Precision.

Medical & Baby Related: We are at 23 weeks!  My son is now weighs just over a pound and measures almost 12 inches. He is rapidly gaining weight and will be for the next few weeks. He’s also getting plenty of exercise doing kun fu moves throughout the day. His fingernails and eyelashes have developed and he is growing more hair.  I am starting to get a little ’pregnesia.’ Feeling a little fuzzy and forgetful and sometimes just stupid. This supposed to be normal during pregnancy. I faxed info to DES, but I haven’t recieved a call so I am just going to have to go down and visit the office. I need to pop into the WIC office as will.

Oh Tiffany…



Back to Brad and TJ!

LUANN:

ZITS:

Sara, the redhead below, is Jeremy’s girlfriend (possibly exgirlfriend)
We haven’t seen her for a while. I am excited to see how this unfolds.


“Parents Just Don’t Understand”

Rose is Rose:

I had a good day today. I purchased my first offical piece of materity clothing yesterday. I worn it today and was told by at least 4 people that I looked good and was told by one person that I’d lost a lot of weight compared to one of the old pics I had posted. It was cool.

I found this T-shirt. It reminds me of Ben. We play this game called “I’m going to make a band called…”
I actually DO listen to bands that don’t exist yet. Like Modern Harlequinn. I love his Touch My Monkey album. My favorite song is the “Manilla Crayon.” I also listen to the Angry Gnome Militia, Buttless Frogs, Fat Chicks Need Not Apply and the Adjective Noun. I listen to the Beets as well, but they kinda exist. They had the Killer Tofu Tour in ’96.  “No other band made yodeling cool before The Beets and no band will make yodeling as cool as The Beets did.” To hear some of their best singles click here: myspace/thebeetsrock!