HBD Weebsie

The weather held off :). Great birthday for Blake! Hope Sandy takes it easy on you Northerners!

Don't Get Screwed

1. Just another reason to do your best to pay attention to every single thing your doctor recommends in all situations.  I hope they are required to notify patients of the use of this when it's at all possible.  Things like this make me realize that I need to get serious about having a medical alert bracelet made for myself and wear it all the time.  This looks like something that could come into play in an emergency surgery situation - car accident, etc.  Nothing like a medical alert bracelet to make you feel young and vibrant ; )  Oh and nothing like screwing poison laden (in my case) hardware directly into your joints! 

My First Real Photo Shoot

This is good for a laugh, I promise you.  A co-worker and I had a professional shoot done Tuesday afternoon.  Our company recently finished renovations on expanded office space on the first floor and we're snazzing it up with a group photo of the executive team here.  A woman is leaving so they're taking her out of the pic and adding Tricia and me in.  I was surprised at how uncomfortable I was standing there by myself but we ended up getting enough good shots to choose from.  I'll post the final product when they finish editing.  Here's a link to proofs from the shoot and a copy of a page that was on my desk this morning that made me laugh pretty hard.  Some co-workers picked a particularly funny shot of me and penciled in their thoughts on what I should be saying - ha ha!

http://www.raybarbourphotography.com/cl.php?id=148&val=e03ede556bdac2b1

Shoulda Coulda Woulda

Every time I tackle a home improvement project, I get this nagging feeling that I missed my true calling. And today, hanging out with the HVAC guy while he fixed our gas heat unit, I finally fully connected with those feelings.  I am so totally supposed to be a tradeswoman (is that a word?).  I'm not even sure  which kind, although probably not a plumber - that has the potential to get too gross.  I just know I would be SO HAPPY working like that.  If I could go back and be 19 or 20 again, I would pick a trade, apprentice with someone and have the time of my life fixing, building...whatever.  I hung out with Mr. Tuck (HVAC guy) for 45 minutes, watching exactly what he did.  I was with him when he pinpointed the problem - he was excited, I was excited - IT WAS AWESOME.  We talked about HVAC units, we had lemonade, talked swimming (his granddaughter swam in the junior olympics in charlotte this summer).  I could have talked to him all day listening to everything he knew.  I almost missed the bus I was so into our HVAC unit.  And don't even get me started on Mr. Tuck - coolest person ever.  That's a whole 'nother story in itself.  Seriously though, I need to figure out how to retire so I can start my second career as a fixer/builder.  I have got to make this happen.

Weird - I just typed in "Mrs. Fixit" to grab an image to post with this blog and this website came up:

http://www.devinncampbellphotography.com/mrsfixit/

Granted, it's not devlyncampbellphotography.com BUT let's just say it's a fun coincidence at the very least : )

Redemption Is Coming

http://www.forbes.com/sites/melaniehaiken/2012/09/30/antibiotic-alert-the-drug-the-doctor-ordered-could-cause-deadly-side-effects/


Lots of press lately.  This article is SO much better than almost all the others.  It tells the truth, it lists the true consequences by name and it addresses the fact that all of this is far more common than anyone wants to believe.  I'm in tears having read this article.  Thanks to lots of hard work, the tide has finally turned and is flowing in all survivors' favor right now.  I hope with everything that I am that this will lead to true change, legally and within the medical community.

I HAVE experienced toxic psychosis
MY tendons ache every single day of my life
MY muscles don't work right anymore
I struggle constantly with the debilitating effects of massive neuropathy.
MY vision is scarred.

This COULD happen to you, this DOES happen to unsuspecting, innocent people including CHILDREN every single day.  If you feel comfortable sharing this link on your Facebook page, please do.  Real change is coming but it needs help to get here.  Feel free to make a personal connection tagging me or referring to me in your share.  As with any word of mouth, personal connections boost acceptance.  Thanks.

Marbles turns 5!

We have an awesome children's museum here called Marbles. We're there right now celebrating their 5th birthday. Here we are playing marbles at Marbles :). Ha! We've lost our marbles! Ok that's enough.

The School Board From Another Planet

Many of you have heard me go on and on about the ridiculousness our local school system (Wake County) has put this community and our children through in the last three years.  I registered Devlyn for kindergarten as a first time parent in the middle of an educational shit-storm.  Noone could tell us where our child was going to go to school and they changed the rules on us 3 times in the 6 months between registration and Devlyn's first day of kindergarten.  At that time, our school board was in the throws of an epic partisan battle, was being sued by the NAACP, our high schools were (and still are) in danger of losing accreditation and our county made national headlines repeatedly for everything from civil rights violations to outright asinine stupidity.  Luckily for us, we made some good, albeit scary, decisions at just the right time and got Devlyn into the school we wanted, an absolutely awesome school where he's thriving.  The county got a new superintendent of schools and things were looking up.  He brought about a lot of good change, made decisions to cut in places other than the classroom and took the heat like a man when some of those decisions backfired.  And THEN the board fired him in a closed session this past Tuesday for reasons unbeknownst to anyone!  I don't even know what to say at this point except what the fuck?!?  People (including me) are outraged, we're screaming about it at the supermarket, launching social media firestorms, picketing outside the school board offices, etc.  And at the end of the day, the only losers here are the kids.  Our schools will take a HUGE hit b/c of this.  A brand new year-round middle school right up the road we were hoping was to be built by the time Devlyn finishes elementary probably won't be built now along with several others...and the list goes on.  Here's an article from the News & Observer today that puts a nice dent in chronicling the complete insanity that is the Wake County School Board at this point.  Politics have no place in our public education system.  These people are CRAZY.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/09/27/2373617/wheeler-the-school-board-from.html