Dear Landscapers...

Whatever you get paid. It's not enough. You all deserve a raise.






My bushes are trimmed, things are mostly cleaned up, but I TOTALLY DIDN'T ENJOY DOING IT. In fact, at one point, I thought I might die (not literally, but it sure felt like it). And if the King of Dirt is ever in the Cleveland area and in need of some pro bono work, please feel free to stop by. There's much more to do.

Happy Monday :)

Beads for Life

Christie from Baby Tea Leaves is having a contest to win a gorgeous necklace from Beads for life. You can enter the contest here.

BeadforLife eradicates extreme poverty by creating bridges of understanding between impoverished Africans and concerned world citizens. Ugandan women turn colorful recycled paper into beautiful bead jewelry, and people who care open their hearts, homes and communities to buy and sell the beads.

What a wonderful organization. You can find out more about it here.

So visit Christie to enter the contest and visit the website to see what Beads for Life is all about.

Save Ohio Libraries

Do you live in Ohio? Do you love your library? Did you hear that Governor Strickland is going to cut library funding by 50%?

YES.HE.IS.

I realize that the economy in our state is bad and that cuts have to be made in places. But cutting library funding by 50% is in effect closing down Ohio libraries.

THIS IS YOUR PLAN????

Children use the library for school work and for education. People use the library for job searching tools and here in Ohio that is desperately needed as we are a state with one of the highest rates of unemployment and if GM and Ford close more plants we could be a state with THE highest unemployment (perhaps behind Michigan). The Senior Citizens use the library as a gathering place and for entertainment. On fixed incomes they can come there to get books and movies for free (not free really, because they do pay taxes to keep the libraries running).

But cutting library funding by 50% would take that all away. The libraries couldn't function on 50% less.

Why cut a function that is so loved and needed by the people of the state?

You can go here to see what you can do.

You can go here to leave a comment on the Governor's Facebook Page

If you Tweet about it, make sure to use the hashtag #saveohiolibraries so we can get it trending.

It's going to take place on June 30th so we only have a few days to make our voices heard.

Listen Strickland, this is not a viable plan! You've done nothing since you've been in office, don't start making decisions now. You're only making huge mistakes.


Hey Gov, remember this photo???



You used to promote reading.

My last few weeks (in pictures)

also known as "Why I haven't been blogging" (or cleaning my house, or reading, or anything other than childrens activities - life has been too busy):

Last field trip for Older Boys school:






VBS - SonRock Kids Camp -









Father's Day at the Zoo (also known as spreading strep around Ohio):

























Add in here T-ball, T-ball practice, Baseball, Baseball practice, swim lessons, reading at the library, yard work, general errands, etc and life has been hectic. I think the boys getting strep is a forced shut down for us. Hopefully summer will be calmer from here on out. Hopefully.... A girl can dream can't she?

Happy Father's Day

It was a Father's Day to be remembered. No, we didn't buy him some expensive gift. Actually, we didn't even buy him a gift (except our love, and that's enough - isn't it?).

We went to church and then the boys decided that they wanted to take Dad to the zoo for Father's Day. The Zoo had a whole Father's Day thing going on today (construction vehicles, build a bird house with Dad, etc.) and since we are zoo members we get in for nothing (well, not nothing, we've already paid the fee) so I was all for it. We started off strong, but after a half hour into it the boys were fading fast. It wasn't that hot and it was crowded but not THAT crowded. Older Boy was looking totally green and saying his throat hurt and he had a head ache to end all head aches (please not a migraine like his Mama!). The Little Man said he was cold (it was 80 degrees) and he fell asleep in the wagon. Both boys were trying to hang but they looked awful and they actually wanted us to carry them at one point. So we cut our day short and ended up at the Minute Clinic at CVS. Thank goodness for the Minute Clinic. I can't say enough good things about this place. The Nurse Practitioner was wonderful. And he diagnosed the boys with strep throat through the quick test. The fact they were laying on the bench and the Little Man actually threw up was probably a clue that there was something terribly wrong.

So we are home. And quarantined. And thanks to Motrin and antibiotics they are starting to feel better.

But it sure was an interesting Father's Day. But isn't that what being a parent is all about? It sure is a crazy ride :)

(Due to VBS ending, the blog should resume relative normal activity)

Hi from camp

I'm at camp this week. SonRock KidsCamp (AKA Vacation Bible School). I'm in charge of the bible story for the 4-5 year olds (pray for me please).


The website for from the publishers is pretty cool and you can check it out here.

Today started off a little slow for me. I need to up my game tomorrow. I have 2 twenty minute sessions and my bible story took 10 minutes and that was with me stretching it as far as a I could (after that I just get to float as a helper which takes all the pressure off of me). Then they stared at me like I was the lamest woman alive for the next 10 minutes. I have a better plan for tomorrow. I hope it works.

I probably won't be around much this week. There's lots to do at camp and not much time for the internet. I hope we don't see any bears.....

Do you suffer from seasonal allergies?

In their ongoing work to empower Health Activists, WEGO Health is holding Community Insight Groups - online focus groups - for people who are active contributors to the online seasonal allergy community.

They are holding Insight Groups on Tuesday, June 23rd for people who suffer from seasonal allergies AND are active contributors or frequent visitors to health care communities. Insight groups will be held at noon and 6pm Eastern Time. All participants will receive a $25 Amazon.com gift certificate.

Please note: These groups will take one hour and are held remotely. Participants can join from anywhere in the country, but will required to be online and on the phone at the same time.

Not sure if you’re an active contributor? We’re looking for people who participate in online discussion forums, question & answer sites, blogs, Twitter, etc.

If you are interested, please complete a short survey to be eligible for participation.

You will be contacted, if you are a good match for this study. For additional information please contact us. All participants will receive a $25 Amazon.com gift certificate.

Check out a few great WEGO Health links on Seasonal Allergies:

• Join the Allergy Group
• Participate in the How can I Predict My Seasonal Allergies? Discussion
• Read about Sarah's experience in This one time...in 5th grade and share your own
• Comment on Lisa's post Global Warming is Making Me Sneeze!
• Learn more how seasonal allergies can affect your eating habits: Food-Pollen Allergy Syndrome
• Don't miss Amanda's recent post, Seasonal Allergies Attack!
  

Summer can still be a time for learning

The boys can.not.stand that they have to do school work over the summer. The Little Man technically does not, but I feel that if Older Boy does, then I can keep the little one occupied with a little "school work" too.

Older Boy actually as school work that he HAS to do for school. He has to complete Summer Solutions Math which we had last summer too and this year they've added Summer Solutions English and Writing Mechanics. If you do 3 pages a week you can finish the book by the end of the summer and the pages really don't take that long. He'll sit down and do them without much fuss, it's getting ME to get them to sit down and do them that needs some work. Last summer we were scrambling at the end of summer to finish the book. I'm hoping that I'm more disciplined this year.

Older Boy did really well this year in school. There are areas that he needs work (like reading and hand writing) but one that really stuck out to me was reading comprehension. His Iowa Test results came back and said that he was low in reading comprehension (although really high in math which is the exact opposite of me so go figure). The teacher said that it was nothing to be concerned about but that I may want to work with him this summer. So I picked up a few other things (much to his dismay) to work with him on this summer.

Brain Quest cards - This is more like a game. I saw these at Borders the other day and thought that they looked like fun instead of school work. They are also small enough to put in my purse so if we are at a doctors appointment or the Little Man's O.T. I can use these with him instead of making him sit down like school work. The ones I bought were for Grade 2 reading comprehension but they offer a lot of different options.

I also picked up Reading Comprehension Grade 1 from School Specialty Publishing. This book not only focuses on retaining what you read from the story but following directions too (the teacher said he could use some work on his listening skills and following directions and gave me some suggestions for that).

To help with his handwriting, I picked up Handwriting Exercises to Music by Callirobics. This looks fun and he actually can't wait to use this.

The Brain Quest cards, the reading comprehension book and the hand writing book are things that we can use during the entire school year. We don't have to push these this summer, but I want him to use them at least a little bit.

So now I have to find a way to make this all fun for just a few minutes per day. I really don't want his whole summer to be about work, but we need to work on these things so he doesn't fall behind and we can't forget about the mandatory school work.

And his suggestion was to join the summer reading program at the library. Of course what kid wouldn't want to sign up for this? If you read 15 minutes a day and turn in your cards at the end of the week you are entered to win prizes (from the Indians, Cavs, and other great places around Cleveland). It's all geared around ECO friendly activities and the kids are loving it. They even signed me up (yea, like I have time to read a book a week).

And for the Little Man:

He's signed up for the reading program, he has his physical therapy and occupational therapy ideas and I also have a Summer Bridge Book for him. And for him, that is more than enough. If I can get him to do that, I have succeeded.

But at this point, even finding the 15 minutes a day to read has been hard. Even if we do a small part of this, I think we'll be ahead. Except for the mandatory school work. I really can't let us fall behind on that again this year. That will be my work for the summer.

Living With Food Allergies Blog Carnival

The new carnival is up! It's hosted this time by the Allergic Kid and full of great information. There are yummy recipes, allergy lifestyle posts, and help finding coupons for special dietary needs. Hop on over and check it out!

Happy Dairy Alternative Month

I had no idea! But I saw this post today from Kate DeBevois from the Philadelphia Wellness Examiner and thought I'd share this little tid bit with those of you that avoid the "cow". This post has a wonderful list of "dairy free" sites to check out including one of my favs, Go Dairy Free (and IMHO the BEST dairy free website.

A few of my other favs that didn't make this list are:

Sue at Living My Dream

Sarah at No Whey, Mama - One of my all time favorite blog titles

And for dairy free items that we love:

Enjoy Life Foods - notice the coupon on the front page


Turtle Mountain, Makers of Soy and Coconut milk desserts/products

Rice Dream (Soy Dream and Almond Dream too)

Divvies - not something we've personally tried because they are not gluten free, but I've heard wonderful things about them

Silk soy milk and soy yogurt products

So happy Dairy Alternative Month! Enjoy your cow free life :)

(this post was cross posted at WEGO Health

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The Little Man strikes again

This child is making me gray before my time.

Yesterday we were gone all day running errands. At some point I finally remembered that I didn't really plan anything for dinner so I decided that pasta was easy and quick but I didn't have anything to put in the pasta. So we ran into the natural foods store to pick up 2 items that I needed and some sort of vegetable to add to the pasta. I gave the kids a choice between mushrooms and asparagus. Neither choice thrilled them, but they knew that something healthy was going in there and at least I was letting them have a say in it. They both agreed that they wanted asparagus and as I turned to grab it I hear a little voice full of anxiety call out, "Mom, can you help me get my fingers out"? "Can you help me get ______ out of...?" is just not something any mother wants to hear. You know it's not good. Out of what? How far is it stuck in there? Will we need tools? The jaws of life perhaps? Lucky for me this situation was not that dire. Turns out the Little Man decided to stick his fingers into these small grates that surround the vegetables (I'm assuming they collect water from the spray used to keep the veggies fresh). Only his middle finger and ringer looked to be stuck. He had a panicked look on his face and his brother looked a bit panicked too. Trying to be helpful, his brother reached over before I could stop him and yanked his fingers free. Yes the fingers were free, but now they were free of some skin too. So there we are standing in front of the mushroom display, tears flowing, sobbing (some from pain and some from fear I suspect), and blood gushing. I have a first aid kit in the car so I just wrapped the fingers in tissue and promised him some Fruitabu if he just held it together long enough for me to get the other two items and check out. We managed to whimper our way through the store with no other incident but if this and the Chipotle incident of 2009 are any indication of how the summer is going to go with the Little Man, full day Kindergarten can't come soon enough. I need a Nanny and a dye job.

A public service anouncement for the internets on sun safety

Here at the home of Chupieandjsmama we are posting a PSA for you today on sun safety.
I went to the dermatologist today to talk about
hair issues and continuing rash issues. Both were for a follow up. The appointment was to last a total of 5 minutes with "Yes, everything looks good, yada yada yada" and a refill for a prescription. Then I did myself in. I lifted my shirt to reveal my stomach and some of the resolving rash. The Doctor never even looked at the rash she just said "Oh, I don't like that mole. We need to remove that". And now I'm sitting here typing with a hole in my stomach.



Thus ending bikini season of 2009 (OK, you can all stop laughing now. I know that bikini season ended 8 years with child number one. I'm just saying....)

But many, many years ago when Chupieandjsmama was much younger (and much thinner) I did wear a bikini. And I used nifty tanning stuff like:

Tanning oil with no SFP:



Baby Oil, again with no SPF:



The ever important Tanning Accelerator with NO SPF (are you seeing a pattern here):



The tanning bed. Because it's better to fry from all sides, right?



I also had one of those metallic blankets and I loved to burn, burn, burn so it would eventually turn into a deep dark tan (and to be honest I'm challenged in the pigment department so I never really got a dark tan).

Wasn't I smart? NO I WASN'T. I was young and dumb and thought I was infallible.

So take a lesson from me, unless you want to walk around with a hole in your stomach, use your SPF.

To brush up on your sun safety see:

skincancer.org

kidshealth.org - sun safety

Sun Safety Alliance

Melanoma.com

The doctor said that my mole is probably nothing and that's a good thing. But I hope that by using sunscreen on my kids everyday this isn't something that they will have to worry about in their future. When you know better, you do better (I think I stole that from Oprah).

Please carry on with your regularly scheduled summer activities. That is all.

My open letter of apology to Chipotle

Dear Chipotle, staff and patrons of the Ohio Chipotle that we visited today around 12:30 pm,

I owe you a big apology. I can honestly say that I didn't know. My son said he was hungry and that he "really wanted to go to Chipotle again". See, with his food allergies, we are seriously limited to where we can eat out and this is a place that we have been to before. We ordered and the staff was great with his allergies (Thank You).
I should have known something was up when he wasn't eating, but was sucking down his apple juice in record time. It was only after the incident that he admitted to me that the chicken was "too spicy".
I also should have known that apple juice going down that fast is probably going to come back up just as quickly. And it did. And for that I am truly sorry. I tried to get him to the restroom quickly but failed in my mission a mere 10 feet from the restroom door. And as for the restroom itself, well, I tried to clean it up the best I could. Who knew that apple juice, 2 pieces of chicken and a couple of chips could do that??
Thank you to the patrons that didn't make eye contact as we quickly exited the hastily cleaned up bathroom. And thank you to the staff for only giving me a sigh and an eye roll when I informed you of the mess that we left in your dining room (sorry I forgot to mention about the bathroom, but I'm sure you are aware of it by now).
Thank you to my son for loudly saying "I puked in there. I puked bad" and "This place is the absolute worst and I am NEVER coming back" as I tried to blend into the walls as we made our way out the door (my head hung low, eyes cast down, look of embarrassment on my face).
Since you all were so good to us, I am giving you a present. We are never coming back. I personally like eating there, but now I'm sure that you will remember me as "the lady who let her kid puke all over our dining area" and that is not how I'd like to be remembered. So thanks for the Burrito Bowls (that I only had twice). I'll remember them fondly (Well, the first one I'll remember fondly, but this last one, not so much).
I'm sorry that we ruined your dining experience. It won't happen again (BELIEVE ME, it won't happen again).

Best Regards,
Crazed Ohio Mom and her apple juice loving 4 year old son


(And just for the record, I don't believe that it was any type of allergic reaction. He had no hives, no itching, no runny nose, no anything else, but as a nervous allergy mom, I gave him Benadryl "just in case").