General

Do you have a Pajanimals fan in your house? Jim Henson Pajanimals is giving away a Pajanimals DVD Gift Set in celebration of The Week of the Young Child, which was April 14-20, which recognizes that the early childhood years lay the foundation for children’s success in school and later life.

 

The theme this year was “Early Years Are Learning Years”. We know more than ever before about the importance of children’s earliest years in shaping their learning and development. Now more than ever, the needs of young children and their families are pressing. The Week Of The Young Child is a time to recognize that children’s opportunities are our responsibility, and that we need to commit ourselves to ensuring that every child experiences the type of early environment that will promote their early learning.

The Jim Henson Company believes in the value of developing skills in early life to encourage the youngest a life long love of learning. Their live action puppetry series “Pajanimals” features the adorable quartet of Cowbella, Apollo, Sweetpea Sue, and Squacky, and is a fun way to teach skills that preschoolers need.

Sprout’s kid-safe online platform, Sprout.com, offers printable Pajanimals Bedtime Activity Cards to help parents teach young children about healthy sleep habits and bedtime routines, and Pajanimals Routine Reward stickers which positively reinforce children’s bedtime achievements.

There’s also the new Parent’s Choice Recommended Pajanimals App, Pajanimals Light in the Sky, an interactive adaptation of the Pajanimals episode of the same name.  Developed specifically for two to five year olds, this fully 3D mobile app sells for $3.99 and brings engaging activities, charming music and adorable animation to your iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

To help celebrate The Week of the Young Child, the Jim Henson Company is giving away a Pajanimals DVD Gift Set that includes a copy of each of the Pajanamils DVD’s, which are available to purchase at Toys R Us. The DVD’s included are Good Night, Pajanimals; Meet the Pajanimals!; Pajanimals Playdate.

To enter the giveaway, use the Giveaway Tools form below:

Last week we had to go to Birmingham for Fabgrandpa’s colonoscopy. We live in Georgia, but we are actually closer to Birmingham than we are to Atlanta for the VA Medical Center. The traffic is not as bad going to Birmingham as it is going to Atlanta.

When Fabgrandpa got his written appointment confirmation from the VA in Birmingham, it said that they had a new parking deck, and included the address of it. We punched in the address into our Nuvi, and took off down the road. We got almost into the city limits of Birmingham when the GPS told us to take a right turn off I-20 at the next exit. Even though we knew it was wrong, we had been told to always trust the GPS, so we took that turn, and wound up lost in a residential area.

Got back on I-20 and finally got there. The elevator in the parking deck was out of order, so we wound up walking down four flights of stairs. I was tired when we got to the bottom! We got on the shuttle that takes you to the medical center, and arrived just in time.

Then took Fabgrandpa back to do the test, and I sat down and napped until they called me to go back to talk to the doctor about 3 hours later. Everything went just fine and he doesn’t have to have another colonoscopy for five years, which was very good news.

So, we got in the car, and started home, and found that I-20 east was closed in downtown Birmingham beginning at the ramp where we should have been getting on. We wound up driving around Birmingham for about an hour and a half before we found the right way to go to get home. By that time, I was just tired and ready to  be home. I got off of I-20 at the first opportunity and got on Highway 78, which is a two lane highway that parallels I-20.

I was driving because Fabgrandpa had been medicated for his colonoscopy. Aftter driving for about an hour on Hwy 78, I started looking for a place to use the bathroom, because my pouch was getting pretty tight from “air” in it. Finally, I saw a closed gas station, and pulled into the parking lot so I could burp that bag. I felt like it was pretty deserted and wouldn’t be a problem. Then when I opened the door of the car (because you DON’T want to burp a colostomy bag without opening the door), another car pulled up behind me. They just sat there, for what seemed like five minutes, and were making no effort to leave.

Finally, I just unzipped my pants and took out my bag, removed the clip, and let the air out of the bag. I was at the point of not caring if anyone saw it or not, because it was just the bag. If they had walked up to me they would have been in for a BIG surprize! Anyway, job done, we got back on the road, and finally got home. Oh, the joys of living with a colostomy!

I was just thinking today that for the last 13 years, April 1 has been the signal to start clearing out the closets and pantry and wardrobe, in preparation for moving down the road in the RV, to whatever destination we had decided on for the season. This year is different. We are going nowhere for the first time in over a decade.

Although I have known for months that our RV traveling days are over, yesterday just brought it home to me that we really aren’t going to go. It feels weird, different, almost incomprehensible that we are here in the house to stay. Every morning when I wake up, it still feels strange to be living in a house again. That this huge space with separate rooms, and a bathroom almost as large as the whole RV is ours.

The house isn’t really that big. It is two bedrooms, living room, kitchen-dining room combo. It’s maybe 950 square feet. We have only furnished it with necessities, so it isn’t stuffed full like our last house was. And because of that, it still echoes like an empty house when we walk around in it. It feels so roomy and big and spacious, like a mansion. But even with how big it is compared to the RV we lived in for so long, I feel like I’ve lost something. Maybe it’s my freedom to go wherever I want to go, or the thrill of discovering what’s around the next bend or over the next hill. I’m trying as hard as I can to be happy about staying here. After all, I’ve known since last summer that it was coming.

Many years ago, when my son was a newborn, my husband was given an early release from the Army, and my son and I were sent home on a charter flight from Germany. When my husband followed about two months later,I was so happy to see him! I was in such a hurry to give my son his medications for a cold, that I failed to read the labels. I had two prescription bottles, one for a cough medicine for babies, the other one was a poison if taken internally. It was camphor, to rubbed on his little chest. But, the bottles looked identical, down to the color of the liquids inside. Instead of taking time to read the labels, I inadvertently poisoned my little baby boy!

We quickly took him to the local emergency room, where the nurse induced vomiting, and he was fine. He didn’t have to have his little tummy pumped. We were lucky. A lot of kids are accidently poisoned each year, and don’t make it home to laugh about the experience later.

500,000 Times Each Year Children Get The Wrong Medicine or The Wrong Dose

 Today Safe Kids Worldwide® released a new research report that found kids are
getting into medicine at an alarming rate. Every minute of every day, a poison control center receives a call about potential medicine poisoning for a child age five and under. And 67,000 times each year, or every eight minutes, a young child goes to the emergency room for medicine poisoning. This is a 30 percent increase over the past ten years.

While most parents think they are keeping their child safe by keeping prescription medications out of the reach of their small children, the truth is that they don’t always keep ALL medications put away and out of reach.  Here are some tips from Safe Kids Worldwide to help you keep your little ones safe in your home. Share them with visitors and with those who care for your child outside of their home to ensure your child is safe both inside and outside of the home.

Put medicines up and away and out of sight.

• Make sure that all medications, including vitamins and adult medicines, are stored out of reach and out of sight of children.  In 86% of emergency room visits for medicine poisoning, the child got into medicine belonging to an adult.

Consider products you might not think about as medicines.

• Most parents know to store medicine up and away – or at least the products they consider to be medicine. But they don’t always think about products such as eye drops or vitamins, which may not seem like medicine but actually are. Look around your home to see what products are within the reach of children and may be harmful, then move them up and away.

Be alert to visitors’ medicine.

• When you have visitors in your home, offer to put purses, bags and coats out of reach of children to protect their property from a curious child.  Well meaning visitors may not be thinking about the medicines that they have brought with them in their belongings. In 43% of emergency room visits for medicine poisoning, the child got into medicine belonging to a relative, such as an aunt, uncle or grandparent.

Put medicines up and away after EVERY use

• It may be tempting to keep medicine close at hand when you need to give another dose of medicine in just a few hours. Accidents can happen fast.  It only takes a few seconds for children to get into medicine that could make them very sick.  Put medicine up and away after every use. And if you need a reminder, set an alarm on your watch or cell phone, or write yourself a note.

Read the label and know what’s in the medicine.

• Take the time to read the label and follow the directions on your child’s medicine.  Check the active ingredients listed on the label.  Don’t give your child more than one medicine with the same active ingredient.  Giving your child two or medicines that have the same active ingredient can put your child at risk for an overdose.

Put the Poison Control number in your home and cell phone: 1-800-222-1222.

• You can also put the number on your refrigerator or another place in your home where babysitters can see it.

To learn more about how to keep your kids safe, click here to watch the educational video, “Safe Storage, Safe Dosing, Safe Kids.”

“I wrote this review while participating in a campaign for Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Safe Kids Worldwide and I received a promotional item to thank me for my participation

Just because I haven’t posted in a week, I feel the need to at least write something about the nothing. Yes, not much going on around here at all. They did send Mama home from the hospital on Thursday. Then, on Monday, my sister asked me if I would go to Mama’s doctor appointment with her. Linda is starting a new job with the county sheriff’s department next week, so she will not be able to take Mama to her appointments for a while. So, Alan, my brother-in-law, and I will have to swap off that responsibility in the coming months. I have the first one that is coming up on April 9. I told them all I can do one day a week. I know that I can’t do anything two days in a row, or I will be confined to my bed in pain for two days afterwards. They all seem to understand.

While we were at the doctors office, sitting in the waiting room, I ran into a girl I have not seen in at least forty years. It’s sad that we were really good friends in high school, but then we went our separate ways after school was out. I remember going to the old Alpha Theater in Douglasville, with Lynn and Cathy when we were about fifteen years old. I don’t remember the name of the movie, but it was a western, and we got talking about what women did before they had brassieres. We were laughing so much that we got thrown out of the movie theater and decided to walk to the bowling alley, which was about a mile or so away. Anyway, I was telling my sister about that, and Mama looked at me and said “I never knew about that.” Yes, I know, Mama. Do you think I would have ever told you about it back then?

So, where were we? Oh yeah, the doctor put Mama on another blood pressure medicine. That makes four. FOUR. I asked him why she was on four medications that are supposed to lower her blood pressure and it was still high? It checked at 162/90 that day. He really didn’t answer except to say that each one of them acts differently.

I got two care packages filled up and addressed and ready to go, one to Canada and one to Maryland. I am hoping to get them mailed out today or tomorrow. I had good intentions of getting them delivered by Easter but that isn’t going to happen. Well, one of them could get there in time. Maybe.

I finally decided to file a medical malpractice suit. I talked with an attorney here in Georgia, and now they are talking with an attorney in Arizona to see if I really do have a claim or not. In order for there to be a case, I have to have “significant” damage.  I don’t know if my idea of “significant” is the same as their idea of “significant” or not. I do know that I am in pain every day. All day. If I do anything a normal sixty year old grandma would do, I hurt. I have to take hydrocodone four times a day, along with Aleve two or three times a day. I can’t put my own socks and shoes on. I can’t walk very far without being in pain. I can’t pick up my two month old grandson. So now, whether or not my pain is “significant” depends on two attorneys who do not know what it is like to be in my body. Y’all say a prayer that they decide in my favor, because without that decision, I can’t even file the lawsuit.

So, how has your week been? What are you up to? Where are you going? Tell me about it.

 

I wanted an iPad for a very long time, and since I won mine last summer I have been using it almost every day. It is especially quite handy to have when Fabgrandpa and I go on long road trips. There are so many game apps that I never get bored, no matter how many miles we drive in a day. Plus, being able to take photos and videos right from the iPad makes it even handier so that I can share my travels with my Facebook friends and family.

I play several games, including bingo for iPad. I have played bingo since I was a child and had a bingo game that my brothers and I got for Christmas. When I got older, I started going to play bingo at the local Catholic church. They had a bingo night every Friday night. Then, when we managed an RV park in south Texas, they had a bingo license, so I was probably considered to be the manger of the bingo hall. We offered bingo games two times a week, and they were very popular with the residents of the park, as well as with local residents. We filled every seat every time the bingo hall was open.

Now that I have the bingo for iPad app, I can play anytime. After I have run out of lives, and bubbles, and whatevers in all my other games, I can still play bingo! With the bingo app for iPad, you don’t have to register a credit card, so you don’t have to bet (or lose) real money. You just get to have the fun of bingo wherever you go.

Back on January 1 of this year, I know a lot of people made resolutions or goals to lose weight during the coming months. While I don’t make resolutions, but do attempt to make some goals for myself, I do need and want to lose a few pounds this year. I have been looking at activ8 X, a weight loss supplement, to help me kick start a weight loss and get me back into a healthy eating mode.

Last year when I was in the hospital, I lost fifty two pounds in thirty four days. That weight loss was NOT healthy for me, but because of the circumstances it did happen. I lost a few more pounds in the next couple of months after that, but once I got home and into a routine of sorts, I am slowly putting some of that weight back on. I am not able to do much exercise, so that walking or riding a stationary bicycle is not an option for me.

Activ8 X is the most popular weight loss supplement in Europe. It is taken as drops, so it gets into your system immediately, and goes to work faster than if you took a capsule or tablet. Made up of ten ingredients, it is a combination of proven ingredients that target all four areas of weight loss.

The Fat Burning ingredients include Capsicum, which comes from red peppers and chilis. Because Activ8X is in liquid drop form, the capsicum goes directly into the blood stream and does not burn your stomach like other products do that use it in their formulas.  Next on the list is Green Tea Leaf extract. It is a powerful weight loss supplement just by itself. The last fat burning ingredient is Beta Alanine,an amino acid commonly used in muscle growth supplements. Its primary purpose in  Activ8 X formula is to ensure that energy created by the extra fat burnt from the other fat burning ingredients is directed into toning up the muscles.

In addition to Fat Burning, Activ8 X includes two hunger control ingredients: Chromium and Grapefruit Powder. Grapefruit, one of the ten superfoods, is extremely useful for controlling hunger and cravings. The third component of Activ8 X are the Metabolism and Energy Boosting ingredients. These are Pyruvate and Garcina. The energy boost that comes from the garcinia plant extract comes from fat burning, so it is  an energy booster and as well as a fat burner.

Last on the list of ingredients are the Carbohydrate Blocking ones. Those are Grape Seed Extract, Panax Ginsing, and African Mango. Both of these ingredients help block sugars from getting into your bloodstream. African Mango works twofold: by reducing absorption of simple carbohydrates and by strengthening the body’s metabolism to limit conversion of sugar to fat.

With a 100% Money Back Guarantee that if you haven’t seen results in 10 days, what do you have to loose?