ho hum

What a boring day.  I think I have rearranged my desk 50 times, played with the kids, picked up the house, tried to take a nap, took a bath, half-ass got dressed and now here I sit.. bored out of my mind. I hate weekends.

It’s late

and I am unable to fall asleep.  Not exactly sure why.  Mostly boredom. Oh.. and the fact that since this pregnancy took off, I sleep more than a hibernating bear. Ugh.

I survived

The husband decided it would be nice to “get away” for a couple of days. I agreed. Where does he chose to go?  His mothers.  Okay, first off, this is not “getting away.”  This is “getting stupid.”  Why in the world would I want to go and spend 2 days with his weird ass family?  In short, I didn’t.  But I went anyways. Free food right?

 The first night was horrible.  Makena decided she didn’t need sleep, therefore, she kept us awake from 2 AM until about 6 AM and then proceeded to get up at the crack of dawn and play.  After finally giving up on the idea of sleep, we rolled out of bed to start our ultimately boring day.  We did nothing.  We sat on their patio, sipping sweet tea and yapping about who was pregnant, who was married, who was divorced.  Eh, you get the idea.  Now, to some people, this might seem like a nice little family escape.  They are my in-laws. Nothing is pleasent about them.  After three long hours of listening to my nephew scream at the top of his lungs and my MIL scream at him for screaming, I went to bed.

 The second day, it was better.  We came home that day.  In case I failed to mention, we are expecting baby number 3 in early February.  How many times can one person tell their family they will NOT be in the delivery room?  No, I don’t need my husband’s second cousins sister to hold my leg in place while I push. 

 Annoying ass people. But we survived and are now home.  THIS is a vacation.

Ignorance is not always bliss

                                                                          

So many times I hear parents make excuses for the reasons why their children are not properly restrained in the vehicle.  “My parents didn’t buckle me up and I am fine!”  “We only went down the street.  It took like 2 minutes.”

 Well folks, I am here to tell you that you are STUPID.  You are irresponsible, negligent, misinformed parents.  Your main concern when you have children is their safety.  That should be on your mind every single minute of every single day.  We wouldn’t give our children permission to ride their bike down the middle of the highway, so why do we allow them to be unrestrained in a gigantic ball of aluminum and glass?  Because we are L.A.Z.Y.

Here are some eye-opening statistics for everyone.

• During 2004, 7,810 passenger vehicle occupants under 15 years old were involved in fatal crashes. For those children, where restraint use was known, 29 percent were unrestrained; among those who were fatally injured, 50 percent were unrestrained. (NHTSA, 2005)
• It is estimated that 451 children under age 5 were saved as a result of child restraint use in 2004; if all children under 5 had used child safety seats an estimated 566 lives (that is, an additional 114) could have been saved.  An estimated 7,472 lives were saved by child restraints from 1975-2004.  (NHTSA, 2005)
• In 2003, 21 percent of the children under 15 years old who were killed in motor vehicle crashes were killed in alcohol-related crashes.  (NHTSA, 2004)
• Of the children 0-14 years old who were killed in alcohol-related crashes during 2003, 47 percent (209) were passengers in vehicles with drivers who had been drinking.  (NHTSA, 2004)
• Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for children from two to 14 years of age.  (NHTSA, 2003) 

Some more statistics for you…

• While 96 percent of parents and caregivers believe their child safety seats are installed correctly1, research shows that seven out of 10 children are improperly restrained.
• Using a booster seat is 60 percent safer for kids than being restrained by a seat belt alone.2 However, nearly 70 percent of drivers believe it is safe for children age eight or under to no longer be secured in a child safety seat or booster seat.3 Only 21 percent of children age four to eight are “at least on occasion” riding in a booster seat while traveling in a passenger vehicle.
• Children of all ages are safest when properly restrained in the back seat. Yet, six out of 10 drivers of children age 12 or under believe it is safe for children age 12 or under to sit in the front seat in front of a passenger air bag.4 And, more than one in 10 children under 80 pounds are completely unrestrained when riding in vehicles.

This is a wonderful site with a wealth of information.  Here you can get information on Child Safety Statistics, find a local Safety Seat Inspector and find out the laws and regulations by state.

www.seatcheck.org

 John Baptiste Moliére:  It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do.

It is not our right to have children. It is a privelage.  Armed with all the information about carseat safety, pass it around. Tell anyone that will listen.  It might not change the world, but it will save a life!

Every 12 minutes, one person dies because of a car accident. Every 14 seconds, a car accident results in an injured victim.

8:30 AM

It’s not even lunchtime and things are already crazy.  Charles didn’t realize the kids were up, so both of them were lounging in the bathtub dumping out all of my Paradise-in-a-bottle.  While cleaning that mess up, I heard a very odd sound.  Griding noises.  Come into the kitchen and tanner has his dads saw and is trying to cut my kitchen counter in half. Nice.. really nice.

Tequila.. take me away!

Between grouchy kids, lazy husband, mounds of laundry and one majorly jacked up ISP.. I am ready to drown in my own Tequila induced vomit.  The morning started off well, however, after only 1 hour of hair-pulling drama, I am ready to scream.  The kids… they are grouchy.  Makena is cutting more teeth (this will make 11) and Tanner is determined to make our yard a nudist Tonka site.  This throws us into the reason I have mounds of laundry!  My son can’t seem to keep his clothes on for periods longer than 20 minutes. My husband is lazy, but who’s isn’t?  I have accepted the fact that he is, and always will be, my nagging self absorbed co-signer of the marriage contract.  Of course, in my time of need my ISP decided it would be a fabulous day to be tardtastic and NOT WORK.  Did I mention that my MIL has an evil day planned for us tomorrow?  Two years of accumulated shit in her garage and she wants me to “help her” straighten it out. Uh.. not happening.  Unless she plans to come and clean my pig-stye of a house, teach her son some manners, train my son to wear clothes, figure out how to induce the presence of a tooth and beat the shit out of my ISP.. she will have no help from me.  Now.. where did I put that shot glass?

Introducing..

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My Babies.

So it begins..

For 2 days I wondered what I would call my new blog.  For 2 days, I was completely lost and unsure of what to chose. It had to be original, meaninful and un-dorklike. (did I succeed?)  I was chowsing down a Blueberry muffin and it hit me. Yes ladies and gents.. I named my blog after food.  I guess I am a dork.