Vote NO on Embryonic Stem Cell Research in NJ

Vote NO on Embryonic Stem Cell Research in NJ

On November 6, 2007, the taxpayers of New Jersey will again be asked to pony up--this time $450 million to fund every anti-lifers' favorite white elephant, Embryonic Stem Cell research. Embryonic Stem Cell research involves the willful creation and destruction of viable human embryos for therapeutic techniques that, to date, have resulted in NO cures.

And of course, the NJ bill does not fund Adult or Cord Stem Cell research, a much more promising and less ethically troubling experimental treatment modality which to date has yielded 73 successful therapeutic uses.

Here in NJ, we're working to get the word out on the grass-roots level. Here's a link to a flyer that lays the issue out simply:

Vote NO on Embryonic Stem Cell research in NJ

I encourage NJ residents to print off copies of this flyer to distribute around the state.Even if you're not from NJ, please forward this link to family and friends living here.

All Must Follow Suit or Penalties Shall be Incurred!!!

I would like to direct everyone's attention to Beth over at The Chronicles of Mommia





This of course is the proper way to address me.....Comply or risk me taxing your sugar!!!



I could be a very manevolent Queen......don't push me!! ;)

Benjamin's Patron

Memorial: 31 March

Profile: Deacon. Imprisoned for a year for his faith, he was released on condition that he never speak of Christianity where he couldbe heard by any of the royal court. Benjamin then became a street preacher, proclaiming the word any place he could find people. For his obstinant evangelization during th epersecutions of King Varanes, he was arrested, tortured and martyred.

Born: Persian

Died: Impaled on a stake C. 424 in Persia

Canonized: Pre-Congregation

Name Meaning: Son of the right hand

A Frightening Proposition

I would never want this to happen, but if I gave birth today my baby would have a 70% chance of survival with no "damage". Those are pretty good odds!

OR....I could still have an abortion if I chose.

How does a person reconcile that???

NAUGHTY KITTY!!!!!

Our kitty has an addiction.....and we finally caught him in the act!!



Check out the expression of shame on his face!!! This is because he knows he has a nice electric fountain water bowl we got him...and yet still chooses this obscene alternative!!!!




Intervention will be held tonight. All who can come to offer their support is appreciated!!

This is Why I Love Dennis Miller

I don't even agree with him about most things, but he just cracks me up!!




I do happen to agree with most of this particular tyraid though!

Another Sweater from Grandma

Here is the latest Grandma creation. This is obviously for when Ben is older. I think my mom said the size was 12months, but we think it is a bit bigger than that...maybe 24 months! Snazy colors huh??

BRAHMS BRAHMS BRAHMS!!!

Last Christmas Cla's parents gave us a gift certificate for the Kimmel Center and it occurred to me that we had better use it before the baby comes! So I just purchased our tickets for:

http://www.kimmelcenter.org/cgi-bin/display_event.fcg?id=85AB402A:43.16914;org_id=2;event_id=2463

I can't wait!!!! Brahms Symphony #2 is an ABSOLUTE favorite of mine!!!!!!

Here is a snippet from the NY Phil....ohhhhh my goshhh....so beautiful!!

The New Mom-Mobile!

So, a few years ago my stepdad VERY generously gave us his 1995 Mercury Grand Marquis. Not exactly the type of car a young couple wants to be driving around in....but when you are as "thrifty" (cheap!) as we are we just couldn't pass it up. We have had it for a few years now and it has just under 150 thousand miles on it and the check engine light came on, soon after the ABS light came on, and then the brake light came on. So Claudio took the car in and the bill with parts and labor was over a thousand dollars.....plus the windshield was cracked and would need to be replaced in the next year in order to pass inspection. So we made a QUICK decision to forego the repairs and just get a new car.

Our dream car (as pathetic as it is) was a Subaru Outback....and we came home with the MOM-MOBILE:

We had almost no intentions of getting a minivan. But due to some weird circumstances (which include a head on collision between my stepdad and the owner of a car dealership) we were given a deal we couldn't pass up and so we have become part of the minivan phenomenon.

And best of all it has a DVD player!! LOL

We Are Pretty Sure...

that Benjamin will be just like the little boy in the red shirt. He even looks like Claudio when he was a little boy!!



We saw this commercial last night and Cla commented, "I HOPE my kid is that cool!" LOL

More Adventures with Apples

So I finally got to some apple recipes today. This morning I made some applesauce. It came out really delicious and couldn't have been any easier to make!

My next recipe was to make a "crustless" apple pie. Its not really crustless as you put stuff on top, but hey, I didn't name it.

I used this nifty apple peeler/corer. It makes the job so much easier and is fun to use. If you bake with apples a lot it is a MUST have! You can see it to the right on the picture below. You just put the apple on the spikes and turn the crank. So here is my heap of apple remains once I peeled and cored what I needed.



Here are my apples neatly sliced and well sugared and cinnamoned. Ready to go in the pie plate.



Here it is in the oven...getting yummier by the minute.



And it's done. Really doesn't look much different than before it was cooked! Hmm, I never made this before...I hope it tastes good!



Cla sharing the first bite with Bunny (our trusty cat).



Cla said it was very tasty. I haven't tried it yet. If I made it again I would do it in a square pyrex and add more crumbs on top...so it would be more like a cobbler. It was hard to get the crumbs to stay where they were supposed to on a big mounded pie plate of apples.

Hmmmm?

BENJAMIN IS WONDERING WHY GRANDMA HASN'T POSTED ON THE APPLE BLOG.....SINCE SHE WAS THE ONE WHO KEPT ASKING FOR IT!

HMMM, PERPLEXING!!

:P

Jamie of Yore

I found this pic on my computer the other day and couldn't resist posting it.

A Plethora of Apples

Since the weather was finally more Fall like (although not Fall like enough for my tastes!) my mom had the brilliant idea to go apple picking on Saturday. We went to Styers Orchard in Langhorne PA. It was REALY nice there. You get to take the hayride out to the orchard and back and apples were .49cents a pound....which I thought was a good price!



Here is Cla and me in the midst of our outing. Aren't we adorable?? Do I look pregnant yet? ;)



In addition to the orchard they had a very nice market up front complete with bakery. Cla and I had our hearts set on some apple cider donuts all day so we were QUITE pleased to see they had them. But when I saw they had MAMOTH size black and white cookies (a NY delicacy in my opinion) I just had to have one....and so I did :) It was quite tasty!



Here is the bounty of the days picking. We have eaten a few already. Tomorrow I am going to try my hand at apple sauce. After that we have some nice crockpot baked apples in mind. They come out so good and the whole house smells like apples and cinnamon. These are Jonathon apples I think they said.

After apple picking we went back to my mom's and she made delicious pulled pork in the crockpot with corn and yams and we had the donuts and a lemon crumb cake for dessert (from the Styers Bakery). A lovely day was had by all.



And for good measure another adorable picture of Claudio. He is just too cute not to take pictures of. And look at his red socks poking out from the bottom of his pants. For some reason I find that hysterical!!