Real change depends on us.

I know it's been a long time since I've "blogged" but when it comes to this subject, I really think more people need to be aware.  The agriculture in this country has changed in the last fifty years, and with it, has brought disease.  It's a really sad problem and the government is doing nothing about it.  Why?  Because the companies that are producing the dangerous foods are giving ridiculously large amounts of money to the government.

I became aware of all of this craziness by watching a ton of documentaries on Netflix.  Fat, Sick, & nearly dead, Hungry for Change, Vegucated, Food Fight, Forks over Knives, Foodmatters, Farmagedon, FrankenSteer, and Food, Inc.  All of these documentaries have opened my eyes to the horrors occuring in Americas food industry.

Americas agriculture has become a joke.  The farmers are being paied per bushel of product they can grow.  This means that they are doing everything possible to up the growth of the plants and in doing so, it greatly diminishes the quality of the product and, quite frankly, makes it dangerous for human consumption.  The use of chemical pesticides is slowly poisoning our country. 

When farmers grow product on one plot of land for years and years, it sucks up the nutrients out of the soil until there is nothing left to sustain the plant.  When that happens, the plants natural defenses against disease and bugs is severely compromised and they begin to have problems.  The farmers complain and go to chemical companies to get fertilizers and pesticides.  It fixes their problem, but creates a deadly one for the American people.  But hey, the government doesn't care because of the money it's producing!  The more the farmers can produce, the cheaper the produce is.

The biggest crop in America is corn.  It's a healthy and tasty veggetable.  But when it's messed with scientifically, you get a poisonous product.  And unfourtunately, that's what's happening.  You can find corn or a corn byproduct in almost everything these days.  Yogurt, salad dressing, bubble gum, milk, and much, MUCH more.  It's even in things like make up and toothpaste!  It's even used to make tires.  It's not bad when it's used in the things we don't eat but to put scientificallly modified corn byproducts in the foods humans are going to consume, it becomes poisonous.  Why do they do it?  Because it allows the production of a wide variety of food products for a ridiculously cheap price.  Then they sell the products and make not just millions, but billions.  It's the American people who are paying the price.

And even more shocking is the meat industry.  FrankenSteer was a very eye opening documentary.  They took cows, whos natural diet is grass and started feeding them grain.  Doing so can kill a cow if it's not done at a slow pace.  They have even gone as far as adding ground up animal meat and bones, including other cows into their feed!  That ended up creating Mad Cow Disease!  They have taken cows out of pastures and put them in feedlots where they are knee deep in their own fecal matter.  That in itself can cause a whole lot of other problems.  One of them being E. Coli.  Thousands of kids and elderly people have died from E. Coli and no one has solved the issue that causes the problem in the first place.  They pump cows full of growth hormones to shorten the time it takes to raise a cow for slaughter.  Those hormones remain in the muscle, and we consume it. 

The agriculture in America has become an efficient but deadly machine.  The only way to change it is to demand change.  How can you do that?  Buy organic food.  Yes, it's more expensive but it will become less expensive if that's what the majority of Americans want.  It's all about supply and demand.  When you shop at grocery stores, you're essentially voting.  Organic or not organic?  Natural or processed?

Real change depends on us.  Let's take matters into our own hands.

This tornado loves you...

Hello everyone.  First off, I should probably update on our little guys condition, especially since we had our last ultrasound over a week ago.  I've been slacking, sorry.  Little Jeremy Jr's CCAM didn't grow at all.  That's what the ultrasound Dr. told us.  So I'd say it's a pretty good sign.  He seems like he's doing alright in there.  He moves a lot.  We would still appreciate all the prayers we can get for our little guy.  Our next ultrasound is tomorrow.  I'll try to update faster when I have info.

I've been reading The Hunger Games series.  A friend let me borrow the books.  It's weird for me to read anything new at all because I tend to read the same several books over and over and over.  They just don't get old to me.  But I finally decided to try reading something new for a change.  They're really good.  They're basically about a nation that's under the rule of a very selfish and violent government.  I would recommend the series to anyone.  I'm currently on the last book of the series called Mockingjay.

Christmas Eve was the one year anniversery of my sisters death.  It was a sad day but we tried to keep our spirits high.  We visited Jill's grave as a family and left her lots of flowers and a mini Christmas tree that we decorated with battery powered lights and tinsel.  Christmas was great.  We opened presents and ate an awesome turkey dinner.  We played scrabble too!  Such a fun game!

Now that the holidays are over it's time for the RGIS work season to start again!  I'll be working through January but I won't be continuing with the job when the team starts traveling again.  I'll be quitting after six full years with the company.  I'll be a busy housewife/mom!

Ok, I'll leave you with a song.  This is 'This Tornado Loves You', by Neko Case from her album called Middle Cyclone.  Neko is great at painting a picture with the instruments and lyrics.  If you listen to it and close your eyes, you can imagine yourself in tornado alley, watching a lonely twister rip through town, looking for it's love. The lyrics are below.

My love I am the speed of sound.
I left them motherless, fatherless.
Their souls dangling inside out from their mouths.
But it's never enough.
I want you....

Carved your name across three counties.
Ground it in with bloody hides.
Their broken necks will lie in the ditch.
'Til you stop it.
Stop it. stop it. stop it.
Stop this madness.
I want you.....

I have waited with a glacier's patience.
Smashed every transformer with trailer.
'Til nothing was standing 65 miles wide.
Still you are nowhere.
Still you are nowhere.
Nowhere in sight.
Come out to meet me, run out to meet me.
Come into the light.

Climb the boxcars to the engine,
Through the smoke and to the sky.
Your rails have always outrun mine.
So I picked them up and crashed them down,
In a moment close to now.
'Cause i miss, i miss, i miss....
How you'd sigh yourself to sleep.
When I rake the springtime across your sheets.

My love I am the speed of sound.
I left them motherless, fatherless.
There souls dangling insde out from their mouths,
But it's never enough.

My love I'm an owl on the sill in the evening.
But morning finds you,
Still warm and breathing.

This tornado loves you.....
What will make you believe me?
This tornado loves you....
What will make you believe me?

Hope you enjoyed!  Thanks for reading!

Important information about our baby!

Here's a little update on things...be sure to read the last half of this blog.  There is some important information about our baby.

Last month, while I was on an awesome vacation in North Carolina, my mother in law threw me a surprise baby shower.  She volunteers at a pregnancy crisis center called Open Arms.  We had a tasty lunch and then I opened some presents.  We didn't know the sex of the baby yet so they made up two giant bags full of things I would need for a baby.  One for a girl and one for a boy.  I got to go through both of the bags and look at all the cute things.  It was such a fun time!  Thank you, Cindi!

Even Jeremy got a present!

We had the big ultrasound on Tuesday, December 13th.  It's a boy!  Our excitement was cut short though.  They found a problem with our little man.  They saw a bright spot in his lung and diagnosed it as a CCAM (Congenital Cystic Adenomatoid Malformation).  This problem can have several different outcomes.  10% of the time, the CCAM can shrink and disappear completely.  Less than 10% of the time, the CCAM gets bigger and causes heart and circulation problems.  They could do a surgery where they take the little guy out, remove it, and put him back in to continue the pregnancy but the chances of him surviving it are 50/50.  Thankfully, most of the time the CCAM stops growing at about 25 weeks while normal lung tissue grows around it, making the mass appear smaller.  He would be born normally and operated on in his first year of life to remove it.  Babies with this problem go on to lead completely normal lives.  Even though chances are he will survive this, we could still use all the prayers we can get.  We love our little guy and just want him to be a happy healthy little boy.

They're going to keep a close eye on our little guy.  We have to have an ultrasound every week for three weeks to see if the CCAM growth is slowing down.  If it turns out that it's slowing after checking on it for three weeks, we have to go in every 2-3 weeks to check on it until I deliver.  Our next ultrasound is tomorrow (December 20th).  I'll update when I have more information.

For more information on CCAMs, click this link.  It's a very informative website!  Be sure to click the "learn more about..." things.  They have the most important information.  Also, the videos have doctors that explain everything about CCAMs.  Be sure to watch those!

http://fetus.ucsfmedicalcenter.org/ccam/

Go for the throat

New blog!  My other one didn't have much success.  No one read it.  I guess that's really my fault.  I should spread the word that I even have a blog.  Anyway, I actually started this blog because I went to a relief society activity where we learned about journaling and blogging.  I figured I'd give it another try. 

Just a side note, I don't think anything I do is all that interesting.  I'm antisocial and pretty much just keep to myself.  That doesn't really make me very interesting, right?  Wrong.  I believe I'm quite interesting.  I may not be funny or witty or smart but get to know me, the real me, and I'm pretty sure you could stand to read this blog.

Just some background info on me:  I'm happily married with a baby on the way.  I'm 26 years old.  I love music.  If you've heard about a cool band out there, chances are, I don't like them.  I enjoy music that most people don't know, music that takes a brain to listen to.  Mainstream music is lame.  moving on.  I enjoy reading.  I'm very picky about what I read though.  I usually read the same books over and over again.  Same with movies.  I just don't get sick of anything, it seems.  If it weren't for my husband, I'd probably never leave the house.  He really motivates me to be an actual person.  He gives me courage to do things I never thought I could ever do.  I can honestly say that I've done more growing up and learning in the last three years than I have in my other 23 years of life.  I really owe that to Jeremy.  I hate politics.  I don't really care about any of that.  I don't want to know how screwed up things in our country are, it just makes life, I don't know...complicated?  I'd rather just shut it all out and believe that the world is full of sunshine and chubby cheeked babies.  Anyway, picture time!

  My husband, Jeremy and I

July 6, 2011

My family and I

My dad Lowell, brother Dan, me, mom Carol (I refuse to call you Bunny, mom)

I also had a sister (Jill) but she died Christmas Eve last year.  I miss her.

Jillian Renee Dunn

September 30, 1988-December 24, 2010

That's it for now.