We’re starting a new feature here at The Imperfect Parent, where once a week we’ll post a photo of, as the title says, random crap. I’ll kick things off with a pic of one of my favorite things:

I can’t even remember now how Moose made it into our home — perhaps an inheritance from a long-dead aunt, or a drunken impulse buy at a Wisconsin gas station/cheese emporium/gift shop. Maybe it was even left here by the previous occupants, who knows. All I do know is that it’s 100 pounds worth of awesome.

Is the base really a slice from a birch trunk?

Oh, yes.

And it’s all hand carved?

Absolutely.

That’s nice and all, but what’s so special about it?

This, my friends:

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Today I read about a 12-year-old boy who wanted to be a girl. He/she convinced doctors and psychiatrists that he was a girl trapped in a boy’s body. This is creating an uproar amongst the ultra-conservative and religious right as they claim that this is a result of “homosexual agendas” and taking advantage of a confused individual to promote homosexuality. This leaves me with a head scratch. If he turns into a she, is she really gay if she decides to have relationships with men? I think not. I also don’t think this has anything to do with promoting a “homosexual agenda”. People are born with anomalies, abnormalities, disabilities and genetic malfunctions everyday, why would a criss-cross of x and y chromosomes be any different? Would you say to someone born with a heart defect that they couldn’t have corrective surgery because they would be promoting a cardiovascular agenda?

However, the real issue in my mind is whether or not a 12- or 14-year-old boy truly understands the severity and finality of the situation and the operation, and if they are mature enough to cope and reconcile with a host of very real and potentially difficult emotions.

I won’t even comment on how the taxpayers in Germany are footing the bill, because that’s their problem.

From The Daily Mail:

Even at the age of two, Tim insisted he was a girl trapped in a boy’s body.

And when puberty began to approach at the age of 12, he convinced his parents that something had to be done.

With their agreement, he became the youngest sex-change patient in the world, receiving hormone injections which arrested his male development

Now, at 14, Tim has become Kim – a blue-eyed blonde with a growing bust line who is allowed to wear make-up at weekends.

She has no boyfriends at present but her parents say she is interested in what, now, is the opposite sex.

Her treatment, which has cost £18,000 so far, is being funded by the German taxpayer.

Tim turned “Kim”, age 14

Photo from The Daily Mail

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I can’t believe its been 4 weeks since I started my weight loss journey. This week however, I will not be discouraged as I find the scale has not budged at all this week. Sigh. I still hold steady at 10 lbs. The scale does not however, reflect a lack of trying. I have not strayed from my Weight Watchers Flex Point diet, not even one tiny morsel of a cheat point was used.

So, what gives?

According to About.com, I just may have hit an early plateau:

Obstacles to Strength, Endurance and Weight Loss
Almost everyone reaches a weight loss plateau at some point in their fitness lives. The reason is that the human body works hard to keep energy intake and output in balance. In other words, your body does not like to lose weight (not a revelation, huh?). After your initial weight loss, your progress will slow down and eventually stop even though your exercise and food intake is consistent. The bottom line is that the very efforts you make to burn more calories may eventually slow it down.
Problem 1. Lowering your calories too much
Fact: It takes calories to burn calories. When you decrease your food intake, your body simply lowers its metabolic rate in response. This still allows the body to function properly, but ultimately your body requires fewer calories which creates hunger and prevents you from losing fat.

Makes sense, my body may be onto me; putting my brain into starvation and survival mode, but, could that be happening so soon? Or perhaps, it was because I had a respiratory cold last week and wasn’t able to walk or exercise or is it because I am so hyper-aware of my food, I might not be eating enough, suggesting it is indeed an early plateau?

This week I’m going to start with varying my exercise program and kicking it up a notch with exercise in general. Thank goodness this stand-still will not getting in the way of my determination, given that I’ve already made my goal of 10 lbs. weight loss a month, I’m lucky to have reached my goal. Hopefully, I’ll have some loss to report next week.

In the meantime, as promised, here is my one month pictorial update:

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UPDATE:

A three-day search involving hundreds of people in the Flathead Valley and beyond ended tragically Friday night, when the body of 3-year-old Loic J.M. Rogers was found.

It has since been reported that the toddler drowned in a septic tank only 10 feet away from where he went misisng.

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This time, it’s a 3 year old toddler in Montana that vanished from from his Grandfather’s driveway in the matter of just minutes.

Police are investigating local sex offenders. I don’t even know why there is such a thing as “local sex offenders”. Sex offenders should never be local. If someone has victimized a child, why, oh why, are they living amongst us???

Please let this little boy be okay.

From Fox News:

Loic J.M. Rogers was reported missing Wednesday night. His father said he took the boy out to the car at 7 p.m. Wednesday and went back into the house to get Loic’s little sister.

The father “said he was inside only for a minute,” Meehan said. When he came back outside, the boy was gone. The father said he searched for about 20 minutes before calling law enforcement.

An Amber Alert was issued Thursday.

“We don’t have a lot of leads, but we feel pretty strongly that there probably is foul play involved,” Meehan said. “That is based solely on the fact that we haven’t found the boy and we should have, under the conditions in the area we were searching and the number of searches and the number of people searching.”

Photo from AP: Loic J.M. Rogers, age 3

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Like a lot of kids, my youngest son is prone to blurting out riveting observations at any given time. Fascinating things like, “You’ve got a blue shirt on!” and, “Mom’s at work!” Thanks, Commandant of Perspicuousness! While hanging out in our basement playroom this morning, he pointed at the laundry room and said, “Penny [the cat] just went in there!”

I asked, “Went in where?”

“Into Mom’s Laundry!”

I like that. I like that very much.

This is common knowledge for us old timers, but here’s a tip to you newlywed men out there: if you want to someday be able to retire from doing laundry, simply feign incompetence. But this is not as easy as it sounds. If you are of reasonable intelligence you can’t go the bumbling idiot route or she’ll never buy it — for instance, a red sock in the load of whites is way too obvious. No, you have to be more subtle. Use a bit too much or too little laundry soap, use the wrong water level or temperature, forget the dryer sheets, and my absolute favorite, consistently fold items in a neat but completely wrong way. It will be a needling irritation that builds and builds until your wife banishes you from laundry duty forever.

You’re welcome.

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It is now coming out that Shawn Hornbeck may have been the one to push/pull little Ben Ownby into the white truck Devlin was driving, making him an accomplice to the crime (although prosecutors say that charges won’t be pressed).

Man, oh, man, this is one fucked up kid. I’m not saying it’s his fault, but man, he’s got to have some major issues! (Like, duh!)

From KMOV TV:

Law enforcement sources tell News 4 that Hornbeck was forced to help grab Ownby, and even push the boy to the floorboard of the white Nissan truck. We’ve also learned that Ben was held with a gun and duct tape.
Pediatric psychiatrist Dr. Robin Park says that Devlin would have had to desensitize and brainwash the Shawn for months to get him to do something so clearly wrong.
Police speculate that in Devlin’s eyes, Shawn, at age 15, was getting too old.
Devlin may have struck a deal with Shawn to help get a new victim. This did not surprise the expert.
Hornbeck’s family attorney says that Shawn will in no way be prosecuted for his involvement in the crime. The experts feel sympathy for a child who would go to such lengths.

I think there’s going to me a lot more shocking details to come. We don’t even know the half of it.

Click here for the video report.

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Although the heroic and presumably, hailed decision to kick a brat kid and her parents off a plane will surely end in some public apologies and lame protest, I have to say, I think this decisive move warrants a thumbs up in my book.

The toddlers parents speak to the Associated Press as published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

“We weren’t given an opportunity to hold her, console her or anything,” Julie Kulesza said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

The Kuleszas said they told a flight attendant they had paid for their daughter’s seat, but asked whether she could sit in her mother’s lap. The request was denied

She was removed because “she was climbing under the seat and hitting the parents and wouldn’t get in her seat” during boarding, Graham-Weaver said.

The Orlando-based carrier reimbursed the family $595.80, the cost of the three tickets, and the Kuleszas flew home the next day.

They also were offered three roundtrip tickets anywhere the airline flies, Graham-Weaver said.

No doubt, kids will have mental melt-downs here and there, but if this kid was hitting her parents, then she was just being an asshole and it’s not fair to the rest of the passengers to put their lives on hold for someone else’s kid, although I’m sure the parents felt entitled to it.

Personally, I’m sick and tired of the little 3-foot Princes and Princesses who are taught that their lives are more important than anybody else’s.

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One of the hottest tickets in town yesterday was of course the Chicago Bears playoff game at Soldier Field, but that didn’t stop die hard fan Mark Pavelka from scoring some choice seats. So when his wife, Colleen, realized the due date of their second baby coincided with the game date, she did what any loving wife would do: she had her labor induced two days early. I’m tearing up just writing this. We salute you, Colleen Pavelka of Palos Heights, you are a real American hero, an inspiration to pregnant women the world over, and a true Superfan.

(via Chicagoist)

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Feeling more and more MILFy everyday. I’ve lost another 2 lbs., which is way cool because that marks a significant milestone, the 10 lb. mark. 40 lbs. to go and it just seems so much more attainable that 50 lbs. for some reason. I can finally see myself getting back to pre-pregnancy weight, even if it took 4 years, at least I’m doin’ it!

I feel like Weight Watchers Flex Plan has been an invaluable training tool, but I can almost predict points and figure out what I should and shouldn’t eat without even punching it into their online database. I do it anyway, because it makes you just that much more aware when you write it all out (or type it in my case).

I was starting to get worried because I wasn’t feeling so hungry this week; it seems to be getting easier. However, considering I am still losing weight and not that hungry it proof positive that my body is adjusting.

The last 3 nights have been the first nights in months that I slept the whole night through. I have battled insomnia for most of my adult life so this is a major benefit and joy for me.

I know my next goal will be to integrate some sort of strength building regiment into my schedule. I really need to do crunches. God, I hate crunches.

Stay tuned next week — I’ll post my one month photo update!

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When atheists and Christians raise children together, the result is often times competitive and humorous when the atheist tries to squelch the faith that the Christian tries to nurture. My mother, an Evangelical Christian, uses every opportunity to influence our children to the disgrace of their atheist father. Knowing that her Christian-in-theory-and-not-practice daughter and her heathen son-in-law aren’t going to properly “church” her grandchildren, Grandma has taken it upon herself to save them from the wrath of darkness, evil and hell. She does this, oh-so-subtly, by mailing us Christian inspired merchandise tucked in between other gifts like a t-shirt or toy. One of the recent offerings was a CD of Christian songs sung by a group of children.

My children love this CD, bestowing upon my husband a feeling of helplessness and pure annoyance. Not only does our 3-year-old love to turn it up like it’s Freedom Rock, both our kids sing along with robust glory and without inhibition.

As I said before, I’m a pseudo-Christian (I believe from afar — Sundays are for laying on the couch until noon) so I find this incredibly amusing. Prescott — not-so-much.

One of their favorite songs is Who built the Ark?, a ditty about Noah and his wacky adventures. The chorus is supposed to be, “Who built the Ark? Noah, Noah! Who built the Ark? Brother Noah built the Ark!” Prescott, however, has bastardized the song and worked his influence into an innocent and spiritual moment by teaching the kids new words to the song. We now have kids that, while in public, have no problem belting out, “Who built the Ark? No one! No one! Who built the Ark? No one really built the Ark!”

So, it’s gonna be like that, huh? Wait until I sell Holden on God-camp this summer. We will see who’s able to influence these young minds more.

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