I Heart Governor Herbert

WOOT! In an update on my previous blog entry, Gov. Herbert refused to sign the bill criminalizing women who have miscarriages due to reckless behaviour. The bill was revamped, saying that it is against the law for anyone who is not a doctor to cause an abortion/miscarriage, but that the woman cannot be punished.

Seriously, awesome.

Also, another reason I like him is that he is of the opinion that all school districts in Utah should get the same amount of money per child regardless of whether the area is rich or poor. I agree. This comes from the recent split of the Jordan School District into two. The Canyons (who chose to split off) has a much higher tax base that results in a budget of about $2200/child. Jordan was left with the lower tax base which gives them $1200/child.

Not cool, folks.

It shouldn't matter where the kid lives, they should all have the same opportunity for public education. Now, if you want to send your kids to private school, fine, have at it. But as far as public education goes, being wealthy shouldn't mean your kids get a better education. Or having the luck to live near wealthy people. Kids in Utah are the future of Utah. All of Utah.

Oh, The Frustration

Frustration reigneth here in Utah amongst those of us who treasure women's rights. That includes me. I am terribly frustrated with the Legislature here for a number of reasons. Let me enumerate.

1-Sex Ed in Utah.
Rep. Steve Urqhardt from St. George, sponsored a bill here in Utah about Sex Ed.
Turns out Utah is an abstinence only state. Seriously. Also turns out that the rate of teen pregnancy and STD's in Utah is high. Somehow or another we are surprised about this. Seriously? Steve's bill would change the law to allow for more comprehensive sex education in school. Understanding the conservative viewpoint, the bill included an opt-out for parents who, for whatever reason, did not want their children getting comprehensive sex ed. See? Something for everyone. Those who believe comprehensive sex education is in the interest of protecting our children get what they want. Those who want to keep their children in the dark about sex get what they want. Everybody's happy, right? Wrong. The bill was not even discussed in the Senate. Just voted down and dropped. For shame Utah. For shame.

2-Women's rights as concerns pregnancy.
The Legislature just passed another bill that I find so appalling that it makes me sick. Current law in Utah allows for prosecution of persons causing harm to an unborn child. As in, when a woman gets an illegal abortion, the person performing the abortion can be prosecuted. If a woman is beaten, and it causes her to lose her fetus, the person inflicting the violence can be charged for the harm to the woman and the harm to the fetus. Basically, if someone causes the loss of an unborn child, without the consent of the woman, can be charged for the loss of that unborn child.

BUT, and this is very important, the woman herself CANNOT be charged.

Until now.

Now, the woman can be charged. I understand (sort of) the reasoning behind the change. The girl last year who hired someone to beat her up in an effort to end her pregnancy. Certain persons want her to be prosecuted. So, yes, I understand the reasoning, but I think it is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!!!!!! On so many levels.

Instead of considering what might have possessed this girl (and she was a girl, not an adult) to hire someone to BEAT HER so severely that she would lose her pregnancy and, oh, I don't know, figuring out WHY and HOW TO HELP HER, they choose to prosecute instead. That is smart. There is one level.

Next level. They want to prevent abortions. That is what this law is supposedly about. But, instead of doing things to help prevent pregnancy, like SEX EDUCATION in school, they just want to prosecute those who are accidentally pregnant and need to end it. Maybe, just maybe, if they considered that comprehensive sex ed might help prevent unwanted pregnancies, we could get somewhere. But no, dear heaven above, if we teach kids to have safe sex they will just go out and bang anyone and everyone!!!!!!!! HORRORS!!! I hate to break it to you folks, but fear of STD's and pregnancy does not prevent most kids (or adults) from having sex. If they are going to have sex, they are going to have sex, whether you not you give them the info to do it safely. This is proven by the high numbers of STD's and teen pregnancy abounding in our lovely state. If keeping the info out of their hands would prevent them from having sex, there would be no teen pregnancies and no STD's! Clearly, abstinence only education is not the answer.

3-And this is the one that REALLY makes me angry.
The law criminalizes any woman who recklessly or with intent causes a miscarriage. Of her own. Sounds kind of innocuous, no? But it isn't! It means that some random prosecutor, doctor, midwife, judge, nurse, whoever, gets to decide what is reckless behaviour for me. Say I have a miscarriage and in the midst of my treatment mention that I had been drinking Dr. Pepper. My doctor could decide that was reckless behaviour on my part and report me. I could be charged with causing the loss of my baby. Doesn't matter that I may be devastated by this loss and am probably blaming myself (wrongly) anyway. They will make it worse by slinging me in jail and charging me with the murder of my child.
What if I am out running while pregnant and fall and hurt myself and cause a miscarriage. Is that reckless? Should I be jailed?
What if I eat alfalfa sprouts on my deli turkey sandwich and end up with listeriosis?? I mean, it looks healthy, right? But it is pretty damn reckless, isn't it? I mean, doesn't everyone know that raw sprouts and deli meats can carry listeriosis? Oh, wait, probably not, since we don't talk about pregnancy and sex in schools.

And before you tell me that I am being ridiculous and they would never push things this far, let me tell you this. Not too long ago, a woman in Ohio became the victim of just such a law. She was very distraught, briefly lost consciousness and fell down her stairs. She elected to go to the ER to get the baby checked and while talking to the nurse about her distress, due to her husband's decision to leave her over the pregnancy, mentioned she wasn't sure she wanted to be pregnant.
Nurse told doctor, doctor called the police and she was jailed for two days. Two days, kids. She had two little ones at home who had to be taken care of, but no matter. She fell down the stairs and obviously must be punished.

Or how about this one? A woman here in the United States was told she needed to go on bedrest. She was a single mom, had other children and a job. She couldn't do bedrest, if she did, she would have no one to take care of her children and no money with which to pay for food, home, clothes, bills, what have you. But, instead of providing her with useful assistance, the state chose to prosecute her. For being unable to care for her family while on bed rest.

So, my friends, it is not that ridiculous. In fact, what it is, is dangerous. A slippery slope, if you will. What is the next step in the erosion of my rights as a woman? Telling me what I can or cannot do WITH MY OWN BODY while I am pregnant is beyond ridiculous and criminalizing it is incomprehensible to me. You can be that I will be writing a letter to the governor and to my representatives about how utterly ludicrous things are right now. I mean, really, we won't teach the kids about preventing pregnancy and then we will punish them for their lack of knowledge if they do get pregnant and happen to lose said pregnancy. That makes a whole lot of sense.

Stuff and Junk

Hey there, what's up? Thanks for dropping by! Hope you find things entertaining, at any rate. Won't you leave a comment if you drop by? Just let me know you have been here.

Did you watch the Opening Ceremonies? I am sitting in front of the tv right now, waiting for them to start. I love the Olympics. So entertaining. And I hope the USA kicks some trash. No offense to any international readers I may have. I'm just a wee bit competitive.

Watching the Olympics always brings back memories. The Man of the House and I were heavily involved in the 2002 Winter Games, as they were here in Salt Lake City. The Man of the House actually shot fireworks for much of the Games and then for the Closing Ceremonies. I gt to attend the Closing Ceremonies, which was seriously AWESOME!.

We both worked for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints prior to the games, making costumes for the VERY large show that the Church put on during the Olympics. I had an all access pass to the tunnels underneath the Church complex in Salt Lake City. That was also, seriously awesome. Tons of fun.

Then, shortly after the Games ended, we got married. Also, awesome.

Sadly, these games in Vancouver are getting off to a bit of a tragic start. A Georgian Luge Runner was killed in a horrible accident this morning. My heart goes out to his family.


So, I have been busy the last couple of days trying to get stuff up in my etsy shop. I focus mostly on boutique style children's clothes, although there will be some adult fashions in there as well. There isn't much up yet, but there will be more soon. Check it out at lillyblythe.etsy.com

I am still planning to do my lovely wedding website, but I need to finance said endeavor and am hoping this etsy site will help me do that.

Don't know what etsy is? You should totally check it out. It is a shopping site for handmade and vintage items, so everything in my shop is handmade by me. Hope you like it!

Also, I finally finished knitting this gorgeous tunic for my darling daughter, The Small One. What do you think?

From Drop Box

Okay, well, I think that is all for now. I will post again, soon. I hope so, anyway. I have some thoughts floating around in my head that I need to organize.

Post of Random

This is going to be a fully random post, so fasten your seatbelts and I hope you don't get confused!

I am sitting here with The Small One eating Nerds. Well, I am eating Nerds and she is pouring her Nerds between two boxes and eating the occasional few. And handing the occasional few to me with a reminder to not eat them all or she will spank my butt. Then she apologized and said she wouldn't really spank me, but make sure I don't eat them all!

From Drop Box

Too many Nerds will make your teeth hurt. In case you wondered.

My dear SIL, Kaytee, got me hooked on Overstock.com. Bad Kaytee! I found these shoes that I want for Valentine's or whatever holiday for which I can justify having them.
Here they are: Shoes of Fabulousness

From Drop Box

Ooh, pretty! Don't you think?

The Olympics are coming up very soon. I love the Olympics. Of course, they aren't quite as much fun as they were when they were here, but still fun. And, for fibre geeks like myself, it is time for the Ravelympics! Woot!

What are the Ravelympics, you ask? Simple. It is a contest in which all fibre geeks, like myself, who are members of the great and wonderful fibre community, Ravelry.com, pick a project that is challenging and try to finish in the same amount of time as the Olympics. Last Olympics, I made my first sweater. It was very simple. This year I am up for something a little more technical. Like this!

From Drop Box

I love this sweater. I have not decided whether or not to knit it in brown or cream. But yummy! It is from Vadis Designs, which is one of my FAVE knit designers.

I bought a new camera. A little Sanyo 1200. Sadly, my awesome Canon broke and I haven't gotten it fixed yet. And it will likely cost a lot to fix. And I needed a tiny camera I could stick in my purse, anyhow. I have been borrowing my Mom's camera and that of The Man of the House when they are around, but I really needed my own, for work. And for The Small One.

Speaking of The Small One, here are some more pics for your viewing entertainment.
Just because, you know?

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

And just for kicks and giggles, here is one The Small One took of me the other night.

From Drop Box

Oh, and I have thought of a new nickname for The Small One. I think I shall call her Miss Adventure. Because, you know, she is rather adventuresome, and said adventures often end...not goodly. ;)

Housecleaning is a sin

Okay, maybe not. But if you know me, and odds are fairly good that if you are reading this blog, you know me, or maybe not, I don't know. Anyway, lost my train of thought there for a mo'. If you know me, you will know that I HATE cleaning. I think I may have mentioned this recently. Or was I talking about laundry? I can't remember. But, I do. I hate it. It ruins my day. Most of the time. Here's the thing. Clutter? It makes me twitchy. Cleaning? Makes me even more twitchy. (On a side note, my husband generally hates clutter, was a neatfreak when I married him, as a matter of fact. Fear not, I have since corrupted him.)

Here is another interesting aspect of my enormously complex personality. I hate dirtiness worse than I hate cleaning. Does this make sense? I do not like clutter, but am a seriously disorganized person. I hate cleaning up, which results in largish amounts of clutter (I am also a bit of a packrat, but that is another post entirely). But I do clean up, sometimes. I really, really hate dirtiness. Nastiness. So, while I don't subscribe to submitted wifery (haha, inside joke) I do clean my baseboards. And my fridge handle. And the fact that the paint is wearing off of my cabinets and so they look like they are very dirty. It bugs me. Scunge bugs me, it is gross. So, my entire point is this; my house may be very cluttered (and it is) but it is not dirty.

That brings me to my second point. Have you seen my house? No? Here, let me show you some pictures.

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

It is adorable, is it not? My delightful abode is composed of three different parts, which occurred at three different periods in time.
The first part of the house, that consisting of the front room, dining area and what is now my studio were built around 1880. They have lovely thick walls and deep window wells. The exterior walls are adobe, faced with brick. The interior walls are lathe and plaster. What does this mean, you ask? Dust. Lots and lots of dust. The adobe breaks down, the plaster cracks, 100 and some odd years of dust leaks out of every crevice. The second problem. We have a wood burning stove in our fireplace. Heats the house deliciously, makes things oh, so cozy...BUT...oh, the ash that flies hither and yon when one opens said stove. Everything around the fireplace gets pretty heavily coated and it flies lightly about the entire area.

I hate dust. It makes me sneeze and it makes things look...you guessed it, dirty! Ewwwwww. Dirt. Yuck.

Problem number next. The second phase of the house, that consisting of the kitchen and bathrooms, was built around 1900. Back in the day, not having cars, there was no need for a garage, so the garage we have was an afterthought and therefore, not connected to the house. So, the entrance to the kitchen is straight out of the yard. Also? No mud room. This means that every bit of dirt on anybody's shoes gets tracked straight onto my floor, which foolish me for choosing it, is white. What was I thinking? Because, guess what?

DIRT! MORE DIRT! DIRT EVERYWHERE! I HATE DIRT!!!!!

Dirty floors, yuck. Dirt on the baseboards. Nasty. Dirt on the door from a certain Small One's grubby little fingers (not to mention the dirty fingers of the hardworking Man of the House). Ewww.

Are you getting the vision? The whole, entire point of this whole entire post is this. If you come to my house and see lots of clutter and think that I am a terrible housekeeper, you are right and wrong. It is messy, but baby, it is clean.

Teh Interwebz

Hi, my name is Tara and I am an internetaholic.

It is true. I am addicted. I would suffer terrible pangs of withdrawal if someone took my internet away. Goodness knows, I would get more done without it. Oh, that is a lie. I wouldn't. Before I became addicted to the internet, I could easily while away an entire day reading a good book. Now I while away entire nights reading said books, because during the day I am on the web.

I have one major addiction (and a number of smaller ones). The Big One? Ravelry.com. A website for knitting/crocheting/spinning freaks. Of which I am one. I knit, I crochet and I spin. And I am kind of a freak. See how that all fits together so nicely? It is like Ravelry was made for me! I know, I know, it doesn't sound that interesting. It probably isn't, unless you are a freak of the aforementioned variety. However, it isn't just about the arts that celebrate fibery goodness, it is an online community. Fibre is simply the tie that binds, as it were. I belong to, oh, I don't know, like a kajillion groups on Ravelry, but only two in which I am an active participant. One is a purely social group, and the other is a religious discussion group. Now, I find the second one purely fascinating because I am one of only two Mormons on said group, and let's be honest, our theology is rather different from the rest of Christendom. I begin to understand why a lot of the rest of Christendom do not consider us (Mormons) to be Christian. I think they are wrong, but I understand the thought process.

It is utterly fascinating to listen in, if you will, on a conversation between members of several different denominations and religions and see where they are similar to my own and where they are different. And, I gotta say, the more I learn about other religions, the more I am convinced I chose the correct one. The LDS version of the Gospel makes so much more sense to me than any other version I have encountered. No doubt there are many who would disagree with me, and indeed there are many who do, but I feel fine about that. I still know I picked the right one! Would you like to know more about it? My religion, I mean? Go here, mormon.org. It's pretty awesome.

Whaaaa?????

January 20 what? Seriously, I am like the world's worst blogger EVAR!
Are you wondering if we had Christmas? We did. It was lovely. I will post some pics.
Are you wondering if we are still around? We are. But, honestly, I think we are maybe just too boring for blogging? But then, I have to think, who do I blog for? Do I blog for myself or do I blog for my readers. Since I only have, like, 2 readers, I will have to conclude that I blog for myself. Not to denigrate my 2 readers, as I love them, but you know...
More people should read my blog, in my humble opinion, because, let's face it, I am pretty darn funny sometimes. Okay, maybe more snarky than funny, but still.
Here are some funny stories, no thanks to me, but more to my very amusing daughter.

There we were, standing in the bathroom, getting ready for the day. Likely it was Sunday, since I am very lazy and don't often actually do my hair or makeup (or that of The Small One) during the week. I was happily combing my hair or doing my makeup or possibly putting piggies into The Small Ones hair when she cranes her skinny little neck over the edge of my tub to give it a critical look. She gazes upon the white porcelain, then looks up at me. "Mamma, your tubby is a zaster." Uh, what? "Your tubby is a zaster! You need a clean it." I glance over at the tub. Not that dirty. Besides, as I told her, SHE was the last person in it, maybe she needs to clean it! She disagreed and gave me stinkeye. Hmmm.

Okay, that was just one story. I have been uber lame lately, and have not written down the amusing things The Small One says.

Oh, but wait. Just now, as I was writing this, the naken bummed child came in and sat upon my head and thereupon informed me that my head stinks. I asked why and she said because her naken bum was on it. Nice. For the record, I do not teach her these things. I suspect The Man of the House, but this cannot currently be proven.

Do you like to cook? I like to cook, and The Man of the House (generally) likes to eat that which I cook. However, I hate to clean. Hate. Like with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns hate. So, The Man of the House does the cleanup. Most of the time. Occasionally, I take pity and try to clean up myself, but let's be honest, that does not happen very often.
Don't misunderstand me, this is not to say that I leave a ginormous mess for him to clean up, I mean, I do put (some) things away as I go.
I have discovered, though, that what I consider easy, other people do not. I like to cook from scratch, and am kind of opposed to pre packaged food. I do use it, when necessary, but I don't like how it tastes.
I make up recipes all the time, but then I forget what I made, so, although I could have a nice repertoire of recipes, I don't. Kind of lame, don't you think? I would consider starting a food blog, but I can't even post on this one more than once a month, so a food blog seems rather like an impossibility, no?

Eating at home is good for a number of reasons. It keeps our spending down, it allows me to control what goes into it, and, sigh, it enables me to keep my calories down. Do you know how hard it is, though, to try and keep my calories down, whilst living in a house with two people whose calorie counts need to be high? Aargh! It is dreadful.
The Man of the House works so hard that he has a hard time keeping weight on, and if you have read my blog at all, you know that The Small One has eating issues, so high calories for them, low calories for me. That means healthy-ish meals and they get dessert.
I started exercising about 2.5 weeks ago. I am not an exerciser by nature. I don't like to sweat. Yeah, yeah, I could go swimming, but there isn't a pool at our Rec center and I don't have a gym membership, or the time to change into a bathing suit, go over to a pool, shower, swim, shower, dry hair, change, drive back home. And what to do with The Small One while I am gone?
I have a treadmill, which I have been using. I have been exercising about 1 hour every day, burning a good number of calories according to Sparkpeople. I have been watching my calorie intake and guess what? NOT A POUND HAVE I LOST. How lame is that? Seriously lame, that is how. I am not happy about it.
Yesterday, I treadmilled for over an hour and then forgot to stretch afterward, boy am I paying for that! The back of my knee is NOT thrilled with me.
I shall persevere, however. I suppose, even if I don't get thinner, at least I will get more fit, right? I will confess, though, that my motivation wasn't to get more fit, it is purely vanity. I want to be skinny again. The getting fit is just a bonus. Probably, I should be thinking the other way round. Oh well.