Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Innocent Until Proven Guilty

Lately, I find myself absolutely hating the media.  All aspects of it, but mostly, local news. 

The code of ethics for Journalists includes: The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues.  Far too often, I've found the exact opposite to be true.  It seems now, instead of giving a fair and comprehensive account of events, events are told in a manner that seems to serve a purpose for the journalist or the organization they are reporting on.

I do believe the Trayvon Martin case is an excellent example of what happens when journalists are so irresponsible with what their duties are.  I also believe it is a great lesson to the American people that just because someone on TV says it to be true, does not make it so.


When I first read the story about the racist white, over-zealous neighborhood watchman in Florida shot an innocent black teenager over a pack of skittles, my heart not only went out to his parents, but I wanted to know what I could do to show support over the obvious race crimes.  Even as I relayed the story to Dusty in the car, I couldn't help but question what really happened.


According to how the story was depicted, an innocent kid was walking in a gated residential area, wearing a hoodie and carrying some skittles and Iced Tea.  A racist, neighborhood watchman followed him through the neighborhood.  He was then unprovoked and shot him while saying racial slurs to the dying young man.


To me, that just doesn't make sense.  Zimmerman was 28 years old.  If he was a racist to the extent that he would shoot a teenage boy just for walking through his neighborhood, wouldn't he have had some history of racist actions in his past?  Would he have been arrested immediately?  Why would the police want to cover up any wrong doing?  Is it realistic to assume that in Florida, police do not care if black teenagers are shot and killed?


Rallies held all over the country demanded that Zimmerman be arrested and tried for murder.  Why were the rallies not instead for a more detailed investigation? 


Within the last week, more evidence has surfaced and more case updates have occurred.  Of course, they aren't being reported with the same enthusiasm as the racist white guy story was.


We've learned there were witnesses.  Witnesses saw Zimmerman getting into his car and Martin attack him from behind.  Punching him and breaking his nose.  He then got on top of Zimmerman and repeatedly banged his head into the ground.  While witnesses watched.  Why did no one attempt to help Zimmerman?  Then, there were cries for help.  Some argue it was Zimmerman and some say Martin.  I do not see how voice experts haven't figured out which one it actually was yet.   Martin attempted to get Zimmerman's gun from him (the gun he was legally carrying for protection), they struggled over it.  In the struggle Zimmerman shot and killed Martin.


Those are the facts so far.  I'm sure there are more details.  Some which are relevant and some which are not.


I do not think Zimmerman's race (oh by the way, now he is constantly being reported as having a white father and a Hispanic mother) or Martin's race played a role.  I do not care why Martin was suspended from school, and I do not think it plays a role either.  I do not believe that this is a matter for the stand your ground law.


I do think it is unfortunate that a young man died.  I do think that his parents want someone to blame, someone to hold responsible.  I do think that both parties could have handled the situation so much better.  I do know that I wasn't there.  


I feel for both families.  I am sure that Zimmerman wishes the whole night played out differently, and not because a country wants him in the electric chair.


I worry about what creating witch hunts in today's society with how easy it is to spread information will do for our future.  I do worry about what our country will turn into when "Innocent Until Proven Guilty" is thrown out the window so that the media can sensationalize a story.  I also worry about what effects this will have on throwing around the word racist.


It's bad enough that those who do not support Obama are automatically called racist, as though if your beliefs differ from his you are automatically disagreeing only because he is black and not because you are anti-socialism.  


I wonder now, if I report a suspicious vehicle (such as the white van in our area that was suspected of attempting to snatch children) and the drivers are black, I will be labeled a racist because my mother is white and my dad is Portuguese?  


Gosh, I really wish there was more integrity in journalism. 

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Samantha- 16 months old


This little princess is 16 months old.  She's growing like CRAZY. 

Maybe not as much physically, but watching her brain develop has been so much fun.

Physically, she's up to 23.8 lbs and I don't think she's gotten any taller.  Her head is still gigantic!

Samantha knows the majority of her body parts: eye, nose, cheek, chin, hair, head, belly button, eyebrow, ear, feet, toes, hands.



(Isn't that an adorable diaper??  It's the Bum Genius lovelace diaper and took me forever to find, but so worth it!)

She is SUCH a ham and will do just about anything for a laugh!  She loves to dance and "shake, shake, shake" and begs for "MoMo" (Elmo), and LOVES playing with Kaitlyn. 

She says Hi to everyone she sees and will continue to do it until you say it back.  She says "Byeee" and waves feverishly when she's ready to go somewhere.  She's learned to mimic just about everything we do, taking sister's temperature, opening doors (I know we're in trouble!) and loves to sit outside.

Samantha gets so excited when Dusty gets home from work and begs for him to hold her and share food with her, then an hour later is ready to slap him in the mouth if he tries to eat her food.

Samantha loves baths, wants to play in the toilet and loves playing dress-up.

To think we're already 1/4 into her second year completely amazes me.  I cannot imagine life before her.

Our weekend at home

This week, we've been to the doctor three times. Samantha's follow up on Monday, the ER on Tuesday and what should have been Kaitlyn's physical on Friday.

Friday started with me taking Kaitlyn to school and then making a mad dash to the DMV to make it to my appointment to renew my license (long story), only to find out that all systems were down. To kill time, I went into work. I returned back to the DMV, quickly passed my test while Samantha screamed and called Dusty to brag about my perfect score only to find out that he was on his way to pick up Kaitlyn from school. She was sick.

I met with Dusty and got Kaitlyn and went straight to her appointment. Her fever climed to 103.8 and had a nasty sore throat. He did the strep culture and home we went. When Dusty got home, I went and bought a new thermometer, the one you swipe over the forehead and I love it!! Both girls LOVE it.

Since the fever has remained all weekend with Kaitlyn and been on and off with Samantha, we stayed home. No parades for us :(. I went at lunch time and got the girls some shamrock shakes to celebrate, but mostly it was all about resting. Just like last weekend when Kaitlyn had a stomach virus.

To keep from going stir crazy, I went to work on the yards and yards of fabric I've been collecting and turning some ideas into reality.






It gave me a nice pile of new clothes for 2 special girls.  Of course, considering that their closets and drawers are stuffed to capacity, I don't know where to put them...

I've decided, Samantha's go to outfits this summer are going to be pinafores.  Could there be anything more perfect for showing off all our adorable cloth diapers (which I am hoping we'll be out of my next summer!!), be super cool in hot weather, and so versatile!

I made 2 so far, one with ruffles and a matching diaper cover and one without.  I have 3 other fabrics I want to get coordinating material for to make more.  I love that they only take 45 minutes (without ruffles, 1.5 hours with, including the diaper cover) and 5/8 yard of each fabric (for the size 2T, add another half yard for ruffles and diaper cover).





I made each of the girls simple skirts with hot pink pockets to match one I made their cousin for Valentine's day.  Kaitlyn LOVES this material.  I do too, I wish I would have bought more.



I turned 2 tank tops and some seersucker into fun (and easy) dresses for them.  My only regret is that I didn't properly center the back of Kaitlyn's (which I may fix, though I think I'm the only one that would notice) and on Samantha's, I was too impatient to look for white thread on the elastic.  Thanks pinterest for the inspiration!



And lastly, my most proud piece.  This one also took the longest at about 2 hours.  I didn't have a pattern, I didn't have a tutorial and it's the first time I did a button hole on my machine.  I totally winged this one.  I'm debating if I want to add a nice wide sash out of the gray.


Sorry the pics aren't all that great, I'll probably replace them later with ones off of a real camera.

How did you spend your weekend?

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Samantha's First ER Visit

And I have a feeling, it won't be the daredevil's last.

Samantha is STILL going through her "banging head on everything in sight" stage.  We discussed it with her doctor as recently as Monday at her follow up appointment (more on that, turning 16 months and life in general soon) and decided it was mostly likely just a phase.

On Tuesdays, we have dinner at the In Laws.  When we were getting ready to leave last night, I noticed a new wound next to the forehead bruises she had from banging her head on the table earlier that afternoon.  This time it was on her eye.  Little one decided to hit her head repeatedly on a table in the playroom and must have missed her forehead and got her eye instead.

A small welt on her eyebrow wasn't too concerning, but the bright red spot on her eyeball next to her Iris was.  A google search led to a call to the advice nurse who urged us to take her in to rule out a serious eye injury because of her age.

Dusty stayed home with Kaitlyn (who was in bed) and I took the sleeping toddler out to the ER.  The first one I went to had people laying on the floors, a 4 hour wait and was plain gross.  I walked in, turned around and walked out.  Telling myself driving another 25 minutes was well worth it.

And it was.  She slept through me taking her out of the car, again.  Slept through walking through the rain.  Slept through the band being put on her ankle and slept until I laid her on the scale.  23.8 lbs.  (Woo Hoo for weight gain!).  She was silent as a mouse when the doctor shone the bright light in her eye and asked a gazillion questions about her phase (he thinks it might be more of a sensory issue than a phase and suggested we watch it and report it at her 18 month appointment if it's still going on) and diagnosed her with head trauma and a subconjunctival hemmorhage.  He assured me that it was relatively normal and the head trauma that led to the injury was far worse than her bloody eye.  And, her eye may be bloody looking for a couple weeks, worsening before it gets better.

The doctor was amazing, thorough, compassionate AND had us out of there in 15 minutes, warning us to never go to the first ER again.  

Hopefully she'll learn a lesson and stop banging her head on stuff.  Then again, she was still doing it this morning so who knows!
  

Monday, March 5, 2012

Our Weekend

This weekend was absolutely gorgeous.

It had me craving spring.  It had me ready to put away every long sleeved item in the house and trade all those boots we have in for flip flops in every color of the rainbow.

I wanted to bask out by the pool, soaking up the sun.  But, instead of pretending that it was a beautiful, triple digit day filled with the need of excessive sunblock and umbrellas, we had things to accomplish.

Saturday was a beautiful day to have the windows open and get some spring cleaning done.  It was a perfect day to find a field of wild flowers and discover Samantha hates tutu skirts, even if I make pretty petti-tutu perfect for St. Patrick's Day photos.  It was a great day to get some pictures of the girls together, even if they refused to either smile or look at the same time.  Regardless, I did get what will probably be one of my favorite pictures of them together for a while.



It was the perfect night to get Kaitlyn signed up to Cheer this year.  And even more perfect to finish off with some Korean BBQ we got to grill ourselves at a super fun restaurant celebrating a birthday!

Sunday would have been a great day to run around like crazy, but it was also a great day to spend together, relaxing in the morning with all the windows and doors open.  And it turned out to be an excellent day to clean out Kaitlyn's room.  I do not understand how each and every month we can have enough stuff to fill a large garbage bag and bin of "yard sale" stuff (for our hopeful yard sale this weekend!).  And it ended perfectly with Sunday dinner with the family.

Of course, the only thing that would have been better would have been a better conclusion to last night's Walking Dead, but, what can we do?