Heard them on Glee doing Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal”. Like I said, I love cello music…

Eli Manning leads the New York Giants to a 21-17 victory over the New England Patriots in Sunday’s Super Bowl. GO GIANTS!!!

They quickly did a turn around because this is the backlash they have cast upon themselves. I don’t think they will ever fully recover because as Linda says so well in the video—they “showed their ass”.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

6 more weeks of winter? We haven’t had a winter and we are happy to keep it that way (going to be 60 today!)

The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club made their decree Thursday morning in central Pennsylvania: Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, and there’ll be six more weeks of winter. Right!

News broke yesterday that Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a well-known breast cancer charity, is no longer going to give grants to its Planned Parenthood affiliates because of “pressure from anti-abortion activists” and because “Planned Parenthood is under investigation in Congress,” according to this NPR article.

This is disappointing news. Planned Parenthood does a lot of good for women, especially in lower-income areas where they may not have access to a family physician. I thought that helping women was part of Komen’s mission. So why would Komen stop funding an organization that offered “more than 4 million breast exams over the past five years, including nearly 170,000 as a result of Komen grants?”

Susan G. Komen for the Cure claims that it is “the world’s largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists…working together to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find the cures.” It’s fine if they do not want to provide funding for abortion services, or other reproductive health services, because it is their right to focus on breast health. However, Planned Parenthood does a lot more than abortion services.According to their own numbers, only 3% of services offered are abortions, whereas 34% are contraception, and 76% of their services are focused on prevention.  What is it about providing nearly 750,000 breast exams each year—to a patient demographic in which 76% have incomes at or below 150% of the federal poverty level—that goes against Komen’s mission to “save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all,” and so on?

The Washington Post reported that “Komen said it could not continue to fund Planned Parenthood because it has adopted new guidelines that bar it from funding organizations under congressional investigations.” I remain skeptical of this explanation. Is this a common “guideline” for any entity other entity?

I understand that some people equate abortion with killing a person, so I know that this is going to continue to be an issue. I know that I can’t expect everyone to feel the same way about things as I do. Not everyone has the same kind of progressive values that Planned Parenthood and I have, but I can’t help but think that Susan G. Komen for the Cure is shooting themselves in the foot. They may be pleasing some people who are anti-abortion, but they are cutting themselves off from lower income and younger people who need medical services. They may find other organizations on which to bequeath Komen grants, but I doubt that Komen will be able to find any group that has such an extensive network of offices, contacts, and supporters as Planned Parenthood that has the same mission to provide preventative women’s health care to all.

As a final note, I can say that I learned some new things about Susan G. Komen for the Cure due to this latest news. Mainly that they look for other charities that use “for the cure” in their names and attempt legal action in order to halt them from using that phrase. There is a HuffPo article about it. You may want to sit down.

The main sentiment among the thousands of people posting online seems to be that regardless of one’s position on the issue of abortion, it is wrong to politicize women’s health. According to a new Polipulse analysis of online conversations about the issue, only 26 percent of people believe Komen made the right decision. Nearly a quarter of the people who expressed criticism of Komen’s decision online said they were going to pull their donations from Komen.

Linda is in the hospital. She got worse this weekend. Every time she gets up her blood pressure drops, she feels like she is going to pass out. Her Dr. said enough and admitted her today. Running many tests. Not Influenza A, no infection, giving her breathing treatments every 4 hours and pumping liquids in her, will have a heart echo tomorrow to see if there are any problems there. Her heart is acting like it did before her ablation several years ago. As yucky as it all sounds- it is where she needs to be. She has been sick since around December 15- she said enough!

Still waiting on results of the heart echo but they are changing some medication she is on and they want to see how she will do. Dr. wants her to stay one more day- she wants to go home- waiting till later today to see how she is doing on new meds and test results. Either way- she will be off work the rest of the week. She has had 4 breathing treatments and 2 full bags of fluids/nutrients. Father Ed and Jan are taking care of Bear today so he is not alone and I am at work where over 1/3 of our teachers and kids are out sick. One school district closed yesterday due to the flu. Today is suppose to be 60 degrees in Kansas City.

She is home, new meds, off all week, all test came back ok. Will be changing our diet(salt is an issue) and watching things…

Another win…Clyde won 60-38 against North Rose- Wolcott.

Kelsie (along with Mim, Clark & Sue) made rice crispy treats for the JV & Varsity basketball teams!

Kelsie is also selling Girl Scout cookies if you need any!

Farley and Nana are going to the gym together- way to go!

For Kay…

For Kris…

What’s up with you?

Wish I could go to sleep early and sleep!