Have truer words ever been spoken?

A friend loves at all times,
And a brother is born for
adversity. Proverbs 17:17

While reading in Varney's Midwifery Fourth Edition on page 189 I found a quote that hit the nail right on the head in light of the verse above.

"Many girls place higher values on the cooperation aspects of
games than boys do. Examining play-time activities of fifth graders in the 1970s
one researcher found that aggressive legal debates over the rules appeared to be
enjoyed by the boys as much as the game itself [40]. Girls, on the other hand,
viewed the rules as open to innovation and less significant than keeping harmony
among the smaller group."

Show me!

Show me Your ways, oh Yahweh;
Teach me Your paths.
Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
For You are the Elohim of my salvation;
On You I wait all the day.

Psalms 25:4-5

Yes people, I really did it!

Here's the evidence! These pictures were taken on Monday and Friday. Yes, it still looks just as clean to this very moment. Don't pass out on me now but I do plan to keep it this way. No use having to start all over! Jonah is next. I filled his tummy up today for about $30 and so cleaning him can't be nearly so bad. LOL. I'll try to remember to post pics of him when he's all done.

BTW, for those of you who haven't been in my room the thing over my bed is a mosquito net that some member of my family actually slept under in PNG! I have it looped up over my bed because it's too hot to sleep under this time of year!


During!

A civilian officially!

This is a few days late but I wanted to let everyone know that Alon is officially a civilian as of Sunday. He started a job on Sunday also. He's manager of a guest house kind of thing outside of Jerusalem.

The picture is of him in uniform with Esh. It's one of a very few good pictures of him!

Esh's platelets!

Hey everyone one!

Hallelujah! This week Esh's platelets were 118,000 which is a rise of 17,000. The normal range is between 150,000 and 450,000 but that's still a significant enough rise that they can start weaning her off of the steriods! She's VERY thrilled about that but please pray that her body does indeed kick in strongly and begin producing platelets on it's own. She's ready to be rid of the side effects. The steroids have been zapping her energy and making her swell and making her feel hungry all the time. Also, she's got a cold right now that she's trying to kick. So, while she got great news and is thankfully and excited she's still not feeling so great physically.

Shalom!
Melen

And the Verdict is. . .

Drum roll please!
















































I do at least resemble Helen Hunt! I got one vote of sort of, but only in pictures and the rest were "YOU DO LOOK LIKE HER!" or variations of that. So people, you have a movie star look alike in your midst. I will begin to sign autogrpahed photos when my salary reaches 7 figures. Until then, I am too busy to do such a thing.

Also, my car is named Jonah thanks to Amy who reccomended the suitable name! Thanks Amy, you get. hmm, a visit from Melen Hunt at your highschool graduation as a reward!
P.S. I'm posting this a few minutes early but I plan on being in bed before 12 am!

I MUST STAND UP!

Movie cover.


The real Sophie

I just finished watching Sophie Scholl with my family. It's a true story about a German citizen and her brother that lived in Munich, Germany in 1943. What makes their story noteworthy is that they stood up! They refused to stand by while they heard stories of Jewish and those deemed mentally retarded disappearing. What did they do? They started and underground resistance group called the "White Rose." They wrote pahmphlets and passed them out at universities. They wrote messages on walls for the German public. Their mission was to educate the German people and to cause others to stand up for fellow Germans. Human beings just like them that were being killed by Hitler and the Nazis. People with families, children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents. Sophie and Franz and others refused to let fear rule them. They stood up and fought. They got caught. They stood trial. Still they stood for what was right. They said what they stood for. They cried. They prayed. They pleaded with God. They were brave. They died for their cause. Praying that it was not in vain. At their public trial they knew what the outcome would be but they used their trial as a platform to tell others the truth. The Nazis wanted others to witness it as a warning but the Scholls used it to spread the truth. So other Germans would be that brave and stand for human rights.

The hardest scene to watch was when Sophie's mom and dad came to say goodbye. Her dad told her she'd done the right thing and that he was proud of her. Her mom looked her in the eyes and said, "My little girl. You'll never walk through the door to our home again." Sophie replied, "Mom, I'll see you again in heaven." Women lost their children due to them writing articles and spreading them out. Mrs. Scholl lost her two children in the same day. Can you imagine? Now, as we were reminded when in Israel at Yad Vashem (the holocaust museam) think not only of Sophie and Hanz Scholl but of the children and grandchildren they should have had. What would the children of such brave and moral people have done? Would they have been doctors? Sophie was a children's nurse. Would she have been there when your aunt lay dying at age 3? Would she have encouraged your grandmother as your mother was sick with a fever? Would their offspring have found the cure for cancer? Would they have harbored children being persecuted by other governments? Would their grandchild have been your best friend? The person to stand by you when you needed a friend? Would they have been the teacher that a child needed to love them? Would they have been the neighbor that baked cookies for you just when you were down? What would they have done? Each person that died was a whole world. They had families and future generations.

What were our parents and granparents and even great grandparents doing at that time? Were they complaining because there was no sugar because of the war? Were they griping about a rainy day when they wanted to have a picnic?

Now, look at America. Everyday more freedoms are taken away. Everyday taxes get higher. They require more vaccinations or make laws that take the rights of parents away. They make laws that make it hard for women to seek the maternity care they want without CPS being called. They take away our freedom of speech more and more. What are we going to do? We need more Sophie Scholls. We must not stand idly by. We must stand up for what is right. How? I don't know. Where? I don't know yet. When? We must do it now. Tomorrow will be too late. Pray. Petition the Father to show you how to act. I don't want to die having not stood for the rights of humans. It's time to stand up.

Thank you Sophie for your act of bravery. It was not in vain. You planted seeds for many to take courage and stand up! Thank you!



Sophie and Hanz Scholl and their friend and fellow White rose member Christopher Probst's graves.

Car wash part 2

I think my car now deserves a name after such an experience! I have no ideas though. Please give me suggestions!



Here's the rigged up fan set up!

Well, after I posted the adventure didn't quite end and Amy wanted me to post the rest of the story.

Since the seat was REALLY wet I needed to have a fan blow on it for a while. The hard thing about that is that my car is normally parked on the street and there's not plugs out there. We do have a two car garage so the solution seems simple, but that's just not so. My dad has a car, my mom has a van, and my grandpa's car is here too. It was determined that the van needed to remain in the garage and that my car would take the other spot. Well, the truck was in the garage and grandpa's car was behind it. Thus I had to move my car to behind the van and then move grandpa's car to in front of our house where my car had been. Then I had to move dad's truck to in front of the neightbor's house. Remember my car seat is still soaking wet so I'm driving in reverse a lot while sitting in the center seat. Then I put my car in the garage and grandpa's car in the drive way behind mine and then dad's truck behind that. Then I rigged up a fan to blow on the seat all night. All that took only about 15-20 minutes.

Adventures in Mel Land!

Guess what?
Okay, my dad has been telling me I need to go to the car wash because my car has bird poop on it and that can ruin the paint. Yesterday he brought me a ticket for a free car wash so today I decided I'd go and make my dad happy. I didn't have much time so I took my book with me to study from while waiting in line. . . Well, the person in front of me was the last one to get the prescrub because it was quitting time. Thus, I got no prerinse to get the bird stuff off. Oh, well. So I pull on into the car wash and it starts. I lean over toward the passenger seat and study. Next thing I know my left hip is soaking wet. Yep. The drivers side door now leaks profusely. As I unbuckle quickly I look for something that's absorbant. All I see is two of my jackets. I put the grey one on the seat to soak up the water there and hold the denim one up to the long leaky part each time the water goes by. The jacket helped but more than once it just guided the water straight down to my feet where it made splashing noises. Finally the car wash is over and I am now supposed to drive home while sitting in a DRENCHED seat. No, I refuse! So, while sitting mostly in the middle seat (good thing I have 6 foot long Barbie legs) I try to buckle back up and drive like a normal human being. Man, the way everything looks is so different from the middle of the car. I got home climbed out and guess what? Not one bit of bird poop had come off after that whole ordeal!!!!!! So, I had to come in and get a bowl of water and go scrub it off myself. The car wash really didn't do anything for my car at all. It still looks awful and I'll have to wash it myself as usual as soon as I get the chance. ARGH!

By the way. The picture was taken about a year ago. I found a fork in my car and decided to put on my best road rage face. However I do believe that pic was taken at the very same intersection that the carwash I went to today is at.

Okay time for a poll!

Please respond ASAP. The results will be posted on Sunday, April 15






Since the debate as of late seems to be wether or not I look like Helen Hunt I decided to end the debate with a poll. I'll post a pic of each of us and let everyone e-mail me their opinion. The address to e-mail is midwifemel@gmail.com

I apparently don't have any good recent pics of just me so I'm the one on the right! I added another one of me because Helen Hunt had pros taking her picture. So, I get two decent pics for her one professional picture!

She's 18 today! Congrats deary!

She's arrived! She's and adult (well some would contest that).

So many memories after having been friends for so long. Just be thankful that digital cameras didn't exist 13 years ago!

Thanks for being the most wonderful best friend in the whole world and for always being there. I love you bunches and look forward to our adventures together in the future.

Happy Birthday Amy!

Wow, we do need to spend more time together! I have hardly any pics of you on my computer.

Home from the hospital and Esh news

Well, Friday was an exciting day for Grandpa! He got to leave rehab! He spent the weekend with us since the weather was bad but is returning home to his apartment tonight. He's getting around very well with and without his walker. We're very impressed with his progress.

Ashley went back for more lab work today. The news was good in that her platelets are up to 101,000 from 96,000 last week but they were hoping for another big jump like last week. The nurse said that this is fine and normal and to be thankful that they hadn't dropped but she will have to stay on the steriods at a full dose for at least one more week. They'll gradually take her off over a 6 week time period so she's not looking forward to continuing on them since she's ravenously hungry all the time.

Yom Yaledet!

Happy 20th Esh!!!!!!

You've made it two whole decades in this crazy world and lived over half of those years in the best country ever! Keep getting better and smiling and laughing and of course SHOPPING for good deals.

I know you feel old but honestly it's not that bad. Just wait until you get even older like me. I mean the last 2 weeks has really shown me that turning 20 is nothhing and that later in life things hit you harder. J/K

Wish I were there to serve the birthday spankings but alas, I'll let Anni do it instead.

May you have many more anniversaries of your birth! May your mom feel many times better today than she did 20 years ago!

I love you Esh!

Here's a mirror into Esh's last year of life!

The woman that worked so hard to be able to share Ashley with all of us! Thanks Tammy!

Pesach 2007!

Our Pesach was wonderful! It seems every year we do something very different and enjoy whatever we do. This year we combined some traditional elements with what we did last year which was strictly Biblical. Last year we stood for the meal with our staves in hand and feet shod ready to leave in haste. This year we started off more traditional but with a definate twist. One sad thing was that as the Bells were preparing to leave for our house it was discovered that Luke had a fever of 103 so Mrs. Bell and Luke had to miss out on the festivities.

The evening started off with David washing everyone's feet as they entered. Then they went through the door way to the den and passed through the "Red Sea."


Passing through the Red Sea at the placing of the staff in the "water".


Dad placing the blood of the lamb on the door post.


David pouring the "wine."


David blessing the fruit of the vine

We took turns reading passages about each plague and mom had prepared visual aids for each plague such as tiny white beads for lice and she had Lawson hop across the room like a frog. . .

Mom telling a story


Lawson the frog


Lawson with "lice in his hair


Lawson reading about a plague.

That really helped everyone get into it a laugh and think about what it would have been like. We ate the bitter herbs which caused several people to make faces and some people actually enjoyed them and went back for seconds.


Lyssa after eating the bitter herbs

The lamb was wonderful! Mrs. Bell had prepared a wonderful spinich dish and delectable mashed potatoes. Someone else brought haroset which was delicious as well. After we ate several of us gathered to blow shofars and test out our skills.

David


Jim


Vicki


Lawson


Me


Landon


Lyssa


Leah
I think it took me the longest of anyone to make a sound but it was worth the work. Dad prepared several songs for us to sing including Dayenu, Go Down Moses, and Bechol Dor va Dor. We begged him to add on Ma Na Vu so that we could dance. We taught two others to do the dance and that made it even more fun. As 1 am approached people began to head for their homes but the three middle Bell kids spent the night. So, that was our Seder of 2007. Next Year in Yerushalaim?!!!!!


Lyssa,Me, and Leah



Lawson


Hooray for kosher marshmallows!


Leah and I









Lyssa found the afikomen

Lyssa with her prize!