Polio outbreak campaign, originally uploaded by coda.

So today was David’s appointment at the Health Department to file for the girl’s Religious Exemptions for their Immunizations. Before you FREAK OUT and tell me what a terrible mom I am for not protecting my children, allow me to enlighten you with our beliefs.

1. We are immunizing our kiddos, just not on schedule. We waited until they were older for MMR and the like

2. They aren’t getting the Varicella vaccine. Let them itch and eat cake.

3. And if HPV becomes manditory, they aren’t getting that either. Too many girls have lost their lives to that vaccine, not going to happen.

So off we went to the Health Department. Hmmm. It was…interesting to say the least. Don’t get me wrong. I am very happy with the program, it’s a wonderful program and helps many people who need it.

It’s the “health” part of it more than the “department” part that got to me. I can’t stand hospitals, waiting rooms…even the dentist skeeves me out. (Don’t get me started on places like malls and amusement parks, bleh). And the more stressed I get, the more germophobic I become. So going to “health” places when you’re already healthy…not a happy camper. Even worse when the place wreaks of urine.

So I stand in the hallway waiting to get called in, my nose buried in D’s arm pit, 30 minutes. Five minutes, we go in, sign the papers, get a few trees worth of literature and a talking to make sure understand our decision.

Because, you know, “religious exemptions” are the new ughs boots for babies. Most people don’t really know what they are or how they are made, all they know is they want them!!!! (Sarcasm.)

I’m under the assumption that most people applying for a religious exemption have done more research than those parents who blindly trust what is being shoot into their kiddos arm is for the best interest of said spawn and not the company that created it. Not all are bad, but we have our standards on the “put it in ‘em” category. Small pox, not something we want to take our chances with. Chicken pox? No Immune issues here, so we’ll take our chances.

The irony of it is two fold:

1. The paper they have you sign is more permission slip for them to pull your kid out of public schools in the event of an outbreak (and point many, many fingers) thanth a legal form of the grave necessity it is made out to be. A signature, a date, that’s about it. No address, no telly, no SS#.

2. They have you come into the clinic to do it, where all the creepy crawlies you are trying to keep away from your kids jump a ride back to your house on your shoes. Why not an administration office?

David laughs at me as we pull up to the house, I jump out of the car still moving, open the front door with my wrists, bolt up the stairs and bathed myself in purrell and lysol. The kiddos stayed at the MILs “just in case”.

~ Ga Ga in the Tropics,
Freak Show Shell

P.S. I was half expecting a battle, an evil, terrible hassle with all the horror stories floating around the internet, but the Health Department here is AWESOME! And “supported” our decision but reminded us if we changed our minds we could come back. I even discussed the HPV vaccine with the Dr. who was following the decision to make it mandatory (in TX, apparently). We didn’t go into detail about what religion (but I had my “Amish” answer all ready to go) or the fact we aren’t NOT vacinating completely.

I spent the last five minutes in my garden watching the ground move. No, it wasn’t sun stroke, I wasn’t dizzy…well, originally. But after I realized it was an inch and a half maggots nomming the rotten tomatoes I “fed” the bean plants last weekend I became a bit dizzy. BLEAH.

It’s funny, I’m so tolerant of the cute things in our little established ecosystem… baby geckos (EVERYWHERE), butterflies, I can even tolerate the caterpillars and the snails that eat through my passion flower plant. (But hey, there be no room for prissy plants…if you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen!) Sometimes I forget it comes with the not so pretty too, like ground moving maggots. BLEAH (sorry, that’s me puking a little).

Which brings me to my moral dilemma… my zucchini-melons are dying. (p.s. not a new hybrid, I just forgot where I planted the zucchini and where I planted the cantaloupe, so I just call all of them zucchini-melons, no need for species confusion, unlike gender…not so much a social construct) I have things eating them, and leaving black pellets (eggs? poop?). I feel like I need to kill them. I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to kill them, but then again I want a happy-little-peaceful-social-utopia-hippie-commune garden and war is not the answer. I’m getting an existential crisis from a bug.

Baby Green Bean, originally uploaded by shellgreenier.

The beans are here…

You love me, you really do. :)

Instructables features us again. :) Yay! Check us out on the home page (as of today anyway).

Happy Fourth, originally uploaded by shellgreenier.

Spent the first part of the weekend at Mimi and Paupkey Albury’s (the grandparents). Raiding the garden, eating chocolate and creating general havoc.

…and working? Yes, the net is back. We’ve been re-tapped into the ‘tubes. It was heavy going there for a while. Updates:

1. Won 2nd place at instructables. Got the shirt, wore it in the garden, got it muddy, waiting on the mp3 player. ROCK!

2. Braiding yarn with my toes. Yeah, the cantaloupes…I’ll explain it later in another post….with pics.

3. Sold my first plant on etsy. Hopefully it goes well.

4. Talking to E.w.Scripps about another project…want want want soooooo bad.

5. Getting bunches of new seeds soon, looking at the back yard going…now where can I squeeze another flower box. Will be getting rid of the large papason chair couch that has been with us since solaris was born. Oh sad.

6. Finally got my want and have lists together… always adding to them both though. As follows:

I’ve got a lovely bunch of cocnuts, originally uploaded by shellgreenier.

But it think it’s upside down. :( oh oh.

Spending a lot of time in the garden recently. I’ve started dividing the plants, taking clippings to start and planting more seeds. It’s been super rainy and everything but the tomatoes are loving it. The tomatoes are hating it, in fact, they think they are in hell. I think I am losing them. I don’t know what else to do for them. Poor things

I started selling pieces of my garden off on etsy. Check out the links to the left for more. I’m also open to trading for things I don’t have yet, so let me know if you are interested.

Cilantrp, originally uploaded by babygreenbury.

The plants are sprouting! We had a bit of rain and everything seems to be taking off. I’m so excited!

So this weekend, we took it upon ourselves to turn our backyard into a gardeny delicious hideaway. We initially were just looking for a place to get our veg on, but sitting in the quiet of the setting sun, surrounded by foilage and mosquitoes, Laur and I agreed the green added a little something that was missing before.

I posted a great instructables on the whole episode, you can find it here. We used the methods of Batholomew’s Squarefoot Gardening which lending itself, in a slightly tweaked form, perfectly to our small 200 sq. ft. backyard jungle.

We took the plants up a notch to make more space.

And made a citronella oil candle to keep the mosquitoes away. Thanks to Sappho’s Instructable for the know-how.

And got this great pic of D being a Screw-rus (related to teh lolrus) and Iz having lunch.

We also worked on a greenhouse/garbage hider, but more on that when it’s a bit more polished.

Meanwhile, Sol was in Orlando at Universal with Mimi and Paupky not appreciating her DoDo blanket and Puptea being stolen by Thing 1 and thing 2. Now she knows how it feels :).