Last night I went to a community meeting about a new park the city is developing near our house. The 27 acres is mainly wooded with a pond and walking trail through it. There is a 14 acre "meadow" that used to be a landfill. There are different plans being considered and the city held the meeting to get the community's input.
We broke into small groups and answered questions such as "In 10 years this park will be a success because..." It seemed to me that most people wanted to leave the land how it is and mainly wanted the city to just maintain the trails, oh and be able to let their dogs run amok. Ok, not really. They want the area to be an "off-leash dog park". I said the park would be successful if there were NO off-leash dog area. Two people in my group said it would be successful if the whole place was off-leash. Now I don't mind my kids being around dogs where I know the owner. But when we are at a park and a dog comes running up to them.... it terrifies them and me. Proportionally, it would be like an elephant bounding up to you and jumping on you. That would scare me! I also have no idea if some strange dog bites or not when he's at a park.
So this guy's solution? He suggested putting a fence around the playground so the children would be "safe". What? Yes, my 2 and 5 year old will only stay in the playground and not walk the trails. Ha!
Usually I am a pretty laid back person. But these comments drove me batty! So you're telling me that my child's safety is less important that providing a place for your dog to run around?
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
I have no title
This post is for my friend Karen, so she can remember what its like to potty-train a little boy. =) They are adopting an adorable little boy from Ethiopia and are waiting for travel news. Here is a diversion for you!
If you remember during our trip to Oklahoma, Joel developed a Urinary Track Infection (UTI). This is pretty uncommon for a toddler boy so the doctor wanted to run some tests just to make sure there is nothing anatomically wrong. Monday afternoon he came down with a high fever with no other cold symptoms. He also complained that his stomach hurt. So I made an appointment to see the doctor in the morning to do a urinary test to make sure the infection hadn't come back. Thankfully, my babysitter is home from college and could come over to watch the other 2 kids.
Tuesday morning I'm trying to get them ready so that I can take Joel to the doctor. I take Joel into the bathroom and set him up on the potty, sitting down. I leave and them come back to see that, yes, he had indeed gone potty but it was all over the floor. Little boys and their aim! Mess #1 cleaned up.
Then, while I was feeding the baby, Joel pooped in his underwear. Of course it was right when we had to leave to go to the doctor. I tried taking it off of him gingerly, but at the last minute he flung it with his foot to get it off. Smack, it landed on the cabinet, sticking to it. Loverly. A big gigantic blob of poop stuck to the cabinet. I almost threw up as I was putting it into the toilet. I flung him into the bathtub. Unfortunately he still had globs of poop stuck to his bottom. Now they were floating in the bathtub. He starts to finger paint with them. Nice. Meanwhile the clock is ticking for our doctor’s appointment. I’m so glad Stephanie was there otherwise I would have had a screaming baby and a laughing 5 year old hopping around.
I change, get him changed and we head out. In the garage Joel realizes he doesn’t have tiger. I put him in his seat and half way buckle him. He starts screaming for him. I take a once-over the house but I can’t find him, so I drive out. This sends Joel into hysterics. “GO BACK!!!! NOOOOOOO! GOOOOO BAAACKKK AAAAAAHHHHHH” over and over and over with screaming in between. Get on the freeway and traffic is backed up with Joel screaming. Finally I realize that he’s not going to stop and this is not going to help with the urine test. So I bribe him that he can get a special surprise if he pees in the special bowl and he stops crying. This works like a charm and he starts talking about where he wants to go for his surprise. Of course then the mommy guilt sets in and I wonder if this is indeed a good device to use. Then I remember that Susan does it, so it must be okay.
We get to the doctor’s office and now he’s at least sane again. We try to pee in the bowl with no luck. He tries really hard but nothing comes out. So we have to wait, drink, wait, drink then try again. Then wait for results. Once again I’m thankful that Stephanie had the baby and Micah. Thankfully the results were negative.
Get home and feed everyone, which was uneventful. Put Joel down for a nap. He gets up once or twice and I put him back down. Then he starts yelling for me. I go in and unmistakably smell it. He had pooped right on the floor of his room, with poop foot marks around the carpet. His wet underwear was flung onto his bed and his sheets were wet. So, I learn my lesson now and he goes back in the diaper.
Meanwhile Ethan is spitting up on me. Am I a Mommy or a toilet?
If you remember during our trip to Oklahoma, Joel developed a Urinary Track Infection (UTI). This is pretty uncommon for a toddler boy so the doctor wanted to run some tests just to make sure there is nothing anatomically wrong. Monday afternoon he came down with a high fever with no other cold symptoms. He also complained that his stomach hurt. So I made an appointment to see the doctor in the morning to do a urinary test to make sure the infection hadn't come back. Thankfully, my babysitter is home from college and could come over to watch the other 2 kids.
Tuesday morning I'm trying to get them ready so that I can take Joel to the doctor. I take Joel into the bathroom and set him up on the potty, sitting down. I leave and them come back to see that, yes, he had indeed gone potty but it was all over the floor. Little boys and their aim! Mess #1 cleaned up.
Then, while I was feeding the baby, Joel pooped in his underwear. Of course it was right when we had to leave to go to the doctor. I tried taking it off of him gingerly, but at the last minute he flung it with his foot to get it off. Smack, it landed on the cabinet, sticking to it. Loverly. A big gigantic blob of poop stuck to the cabinet. I almost threw up as I was putting it into the toilet. I flung him into the bathtub. Unfortunately he still had globs of poop stuck to his bottom. Now they were floating in the bathtub. He starts to finger paint with them. Nice. Meanwhile the clock is ticking for our doctor’s appointment. I’m so glad Stephanie was there otherwise I would have had a screaming baby and a laughing 5 year old hopping around.
I change, get him changed and we head out. In the garage Joel realizes he doesn’t have tiger. I put him in his seat and half way buckle him. He starts screaming for him. I take a once-over the house but I can’t find him, so I drive out. This sends Joel into hysterics. “GO BACK!!!! NOOOOOOO! GOOOOO BAAACKKK AAAAAAHHHHHH” over and over and over with screaming in between. Get on the freeway and traffic is backed up with Joel screaming. Finally I realize that he’s not going to stop and this is not going to help with the urine test. So I bribe him that he can get a special surprise if he pees in the special bowl and he stops crying. This works like a charm and he starts talking about where he wants to go for his surprise. Of course then the mommy guilt sets in and I wonder if this is indeed a good device to use. Then I remember that Susan does it, so it must be okay.
We get to the doctor’s office and now he’s at least sane again. We try to pee in the bowl with no luck. He tries really hard but nothing comes out. So we have to wait, drink, wait, drink then try again. Then wait for results. Once again I’m thankful that Stephanie had the baby and Micah. Thankfully the results were negative.
Get home and feed everyone, which was uneventful. Put Joel down for a nap. He gets up once or twice and I put him back down. Then he starts yelling for me. I go in and unmistakably smell it. He had pooped right on the floor of his room, with poop foot marks around the carpet. His wet underwear was flung onto his bed and his sheets were wet. So, I learn my lesson now and he goes back in the diaper.
Meanwhile Ethan is spitting up on me. Am I a Mommy or a toilet?
Friday, May 23, 2008
Amazon Fresh
Have you heard of Amazon Fresh? Amazon has jumped into the grocery business. As far as I know they are still limited to the Seattle area. It is BY FAR the easiest grocery site that I have ever used. Hands down, beats Albertsons and Safeway.
They stock an extensive array of vegan products that I buy for Micah. They are also very responsive to email requests. I emailed asking if they could stock lime soy yogurt as it's the only flavor Micah will eat. The next time I looked it was on there!
A unique aspect of Amazon fresh is their delivery system. If you order by midnight, you can have your groceries on your front doorstep by 6 am packed in coolers. Wow. You simply leave the coolers on your front doorstep and they will come by and pick them up. There is also only a $25 minimum delivery order to avoid paying for delivery. This was my main area of complaint with Safeway/Albertsons. I would go through and order all my groceries, only to find that the soonest I could have them delivered would be 3-4 days from now! I don't know about you, but I'm not that organized to order groceries 3 days ahead of time. On top of that, Safeway doesn't charge you until they deliver the groceries, which makes sense. However, if the sale price expires before you can get the groceries delivered then you get charged the higher price. Even if the product was on sale when you ordered.
All that to say is that Amazon is much more user friendly. I just hope they can make enough to stay in business and not go the way of Home Grocer and WebVan.
They stock an extensive array of vegan products that I buy for Micah. They are also very responsive to email requests. I emailed asking if they could stock lime soy yogurt as it's the only flavor Micah will eat. The next time I looked it was on there!
A unique aspect of Amazon fresh is their delivery system. If you order by midnight, you can have your groceries on your front doorstep by 6 am packed in coolers. Wow. You simply leave the coolers on your front doorstep and they will come by and pick them up. There is also only a $25 minimum delivery order to avoid paying for delivery. This was my main area of complaint with Safeway/Albertsons. I would go through and order all my groceries, only to find that the soonest I could have them delivered would be 3-4 days from now! I don't know about you, but I'm not that organized to order groceries 3 days ahead of time. On top of that, Safeway doesn't charge you until they deliver the groceries, which makes sense. However, if the sale price expires before you can get the groceries delivered then you get charged the higher price. Even if the product was on sale when you ordered.
All that to say is that Amazon is much more user friendly. I just hope they can make enough to stay in business and not go the way of Home Grocer and WebVan.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Christian-- and Devout Greenie
This article was in our local section of the newspaper today. It really resonated with me. It highlights a man who is a Christian who started a carbon offset business. From his website:
"We believe in God, no Gaia. The Earth should be protected because it is not owned by our human race, but belongs to God who placed us here as stewards."
Shouldn't we as Christians be the most "green" of them all? Regardless of whether or not global warming is happening, shouldn't we be good stewards of the earth that we have been entrusted with?
The article goes on to say how younger Republicans are disillusioned with the party because of this issue. I've heard of this movement other places as well. I think this group is also called "crunchy cons". Conservatives who are "granola". They don't have a home in either party.
Good food for thought. However, we haven't given up our Sequoia... yet.
"We believe in God, no Gaia. The Earth should be protected because it is not owned by our human race, but belongs to God who placed us here as stewards."
Shouldn't we as Christians be the most "green" of them all? Regardless of whether or not global warming is happening, shouldn't we be good stewards of the earth that we have been entrusted with?
The article goes on to say how younger Republicans are disillusioned with the party because of this issue. I've heard of this movement other places as well. I think this group is also called "crunchy cons". Conservatives who are "granola". They don't have a home in either party.
Good food for thought. However, we haven't given up our Sequoia... yet.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
When it Rains it Pours
We just returned last night from a visit to Oklahoma to see family. It was a very restful time and a great vacation away from cooking and cleaning and laundry. My MIL always spoils me and gives me breaks from all of my usual chores with the kids. We had a great time seeing family and visiting. The only problem is that Joel was very sick for the first part of our trip. We planned to stay 9 days but the kids and I stayed an extra week so that Joel could have more time to get well. He had strep, a urinary track infection AND a bad cold all at the same time. He was on 2 different antibiotics. Its only been the past few days that he is finally feeling and acting better. It was a scare for us because he was acting so sick and not getting better with the antibiotics. Why do things like this happen when you're out of town? We have an urgent care we visit in OKC and they had a chart history for him when we were in. Yikes, we've been there a lot!
Aaron had to fly home on our original departure date so he could return to work. Did I mention that my MIL spoils me AND is a saint? She flew back with me to help wrangle the kids. I am SO glad that she did too. We were suppose to arrive home at 1:45 pm and our flight didn't get in until 9 pm due to weather and missed connections. It was a VERY long day to say the least.
Aaron had to fly home on our original departure date so he could return to work. Did I mention that my MIL spoils me AND is a saint? She flew back with me to help wrangle the kids. I am SO glad that she did too. We were suppose to arrive home at 1:45 pm and our flight didn't get in until 9 pm due to weather and missed connections. It was a VERY long day to say the least.
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