Monday, December 14, 2009
Consequences of Raising Daughters
It wasn’t until our daughter’s were born that I realized how much more difficult it would be to raise a girl. Everyone had always told us, “girls are so much easier” “girls potty train quicker” “girls are less messy”… uh huh. Sounds nice right?
Well, they aren’t raising MY daughters. The truth is, my 2 year old daughter, Kaydence, is far more messier than my son. She won’t hesitate to grab some poo out of her diaper and squish it between her fingers or sit smack down in the middle of a mud puddle. Potty training? Not happening. Easier? If you mean not having to dress her because she’d rather run naked through the house or not having to feed her because she’ll climb 2 chairs, a counter and a cabinet to seek out mommy’s hidden cookies.
The real kicker to raising girls is the hidden talent they are naturally born with – the ability to manipulate you out of your cash with the bat of an eyelash.
Here we were, just casually walking through JCPenny looking for nothing more than a few small items and I mentioned that Emma was growing out of Kaydee’s old footed pajamas. As we’re browsing the racks, a Dora coat caught my eye because of the big SALE sign above. I said, “hey Jon, how cute is this Dora coat!”…he rolls his eyes and says, “yeah, it’s cute”.
I placed it back on the rack with hopes that Kaydee hadn’t seen it, but it was too late…”Dora, Dora, Dora…my Dora coat mommy, Daddy my Dora coat, put it on” and she starts stripping right there in the middle of the store.
We were fine and dandy with leaving the store without the coat until my husband turned it around to find it wasn’t just an ordinary Dora coat but a Dora Coat with a Backpack Accessory. And that’s when my husband realized he had no control. “oh daddy, my Backpack, my Dora” (in the sweetest, most pathetic voice a 2 year old can muster up)
The next words out of my husband’s mouth, “put it in the cart, but she HAS to wait for Christmas to have it”….HA HA HA…sucker! I totally would not have bought that coat, I’m immune to her…but daddy’s just aren’t.
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An article published by Cat, from
http://3kidsandus.com
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Buzzed Driving Is Drunk Driving
Did you know in 2008 impaired driving killed one person every 40 seconds?
That one person could be your daughter or your son. Your granddaughter or grandson.
One of the most heart wrenching car accident stories I have ever heard, belongs to that of Abby Rike who was on this season's Biggest Loser. In October 2006 Abby lost her husband, her 5-1/2-year-old daughter and her 2-1/2-week-old son in a fatal car collision.
Although the crash was not caused by a drunk driver, but instead by high speed, the story affected me greatly. I couldn't imagine how this woman who had lost her entire family at the hands of one irresponsible young man, could still be walking around let alone be an inspiration.
Since hearing Abby's story, I have made it a goal to, whenever possible, spread the word about safe driving.
Today, I'm sharing info from Global Influence and the Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving Campaign. Please take 2 minutes out of your busy day today to read and consider the following.
*****************************************************************
It's holiday party season - time to celebrate all of the exciting winter holidays with our friends and loved ones. Our mailboxes are flooded with invitations to parties and dinners and other holiday get-togethers. With these parties come food, fellowship, gifts, and in many cases, festive alcoholic drinks.
In 2008, nearly 12,000 people in the U.S. were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes - and during the periods around Christmas and New Year's, this number was particularly high, with 316 people killed in alchol-impaired driving crashes.
You can't help but wonder if lives could have been saved if people thought twice before getting behind the wheel. With the holidays approaching, it's important that drivers be reminded about the dangers of buzzed driving. Who knows...it could save a life.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHSTA) and the Ad Council are asking everyone to drive smart this holiday season and to pledge not to drive buzzed.
Please visit Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving on Facebook to get the latest updates and news. You can also visit the Buzzed Driving website where readers can sign a pledge to not drive buzzed, play an interactive game which demonstrates the difference between buzzed and drunk, and hear personal stories from people who have driven buzzed.
Follow @buzzeddriving on Twitter and join the live Twitter chat on Tuesday, December 15th from 2 -3pm EST where you can ask NHTSA experts questions about buzzed driving prevention.
While at holiday events, it's easy to lose track of a drink here or there - but this can be fatal. This holiday season, keep you, your family, and others safe by saving the number of your local taxi company in your cell phone.
Don't be ashamed to use it. Remember, this simple act could save a life.
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An article from http://2toddlersandme.blogspot.com
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Sunday, December 13, 2009
The Price of Children
· $8,896.66 a year,
· $741.3 month, or * $171.08 a week.
· That's a mere $24.24 a day!
· Just over a dollar an hour.
Still, you might think the best financial advice is don't have children if you want to be "rich." Actually, it is just the opposite.
What do you get for your $160,140?
Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
Glimpses of God every day.
Giggles under the covers every night.
More love than your heart can hold.
Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
A hand to hold, usually covered with jelly or chocolate.
A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites
Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.
For $160,140, you never have to grow up. You get to:
finger-paint,
carve pumpkins,
play hide-and-seek,
catch lightning bugs, and
never stop believing in Santa Claus. You have an excuse to:
keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh,
watching Saturday morning cartoons,
going to Disney movies, and
wishing on stars.
You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother's Day, and cards with backward letters for Father's Day.
For $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck. You get to be a hero just for:
retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,
taking the training wheels off a bike,
removing a splinter,
filling a wading pool,
coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.
You get a front row seat to history to witness the:
· first step,
· first word,
· first bra,
· first date, and
· first time behind the wheel.
You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren and great grandchildren. You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match.
In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God. You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits.
So . . one day they will like you, love without counting the cost. That is quite a deal for the price!!!!!!!
Love & enjoy your children & grandchildren!!!!!!!
====================================
An article from www.rogerknapp.com
====================================
Parent Poem - From God with Love
Children are a blessing sent from God above
For us to care and nurture and most of all to love.
God calls us to be parents and gives us all the tools
And when we feel like giving up, our strength He will renew.
Children are a gift from God that He so freely lends
To make it through the childhood years, on Him we must depend.
He must have a presence, you see it must take three
The parents, child and Christ at the center to be a family.
From childhood days to a child full grown
Their joys and hurts are a parent's own.
Times of joy and laughter and those times of tears
The times spent raising a child are surely the best of years.
There comes that time in life when a child will leave the nest
We must send them off with love and a prayer and leave to God the rest.
We've have shared the Word of God, we've taught them right from wrong
Now it's time to let them go and let them write their song.
The faith instilled, the examples lived, and the lessons taught
All gifts that we've given our child, which will never be forgotten.
There are many paths a child can take, right or wrong will remain unknown
But rest assured that in the end, they all lead back to home.
================================
Article from http://www.love-quotes-and-quotations.com
================================
For us to care and nurture and most of all to love.
God calls us to be parents and gives us all the tools
And when we feel like giving up, our strength He will renew.
Children are a gift from God that He so freely lends
To make it through the childhood years, on Him we must depend.
He must have a presence, you see it must take three
The parents, child and Christ at the center to be a family.
From childhood days to a child full grown
Their joys and hurts are a parent's own.
Times of joy and laughter and those times of tears
The times spent raising a child are surely the best of years.
There comes that time in life when a child will leave the nest
We must send them off with love and a prayer and leave to God the rest.
We've have shared the Word of God, we've taught them right from wrong
Now it's time to let them go and let them write their song.
The faith instilled, the examples lived, and the lessons taught
All gifts that we've given our child, which will never be forgotten.
There are many paths a child can take, right or wrong will remain unknown
But rest assured that in the end, they all lead back to home.
================================
Article from http://www.love-quotes-and-quotations.com
================================
Love You Forever by Robert Munch
A mother held her new baby and very slowly rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while she held him, she sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.
The baby grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was two years old, and he ran all around the house. He pulled all the books off the shelves. He pulled all the food out of the refrigerator and he took his mother's watch and flushed it down the toilet. Sometimes his mother would say, "this kid is driving me CRAZY!"
But at night time, when that two-year-old was quiet, she opened the door to his room, crawled across the floor, looked up over the side of his bed; and if he was really asleep she picked him up and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. While she rocked him she sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.
The little boy grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was nine years old. And he never wanted to come in for dinner, he never wanted to take a bath, and when grandma visited he always said bad words. Sometimes his mother wanted to sell him to the zoo!
But at night time, when he was asleep, the mother quietly opened the door to his room, crawled across the floor and looked up over the side of the bed. If he was really asleep, she picked up that nine-year-old boy and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while she rocked him she sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.
The boy grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was a teenager. He had strange friends and he wore strange clothes and he listened to strange music. Sometimes the mother felt like she was in a zoo!
But at night time, when that teenager was asleep, the mother opened the door to his room, crawled across the floor and looked up over the side of the bed. If he was really asleep she picked up that great big boy and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. While she rocked him she sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.
That teenager grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was a grown-up man. He left home and got a house across town. But sometimes on dark nights the mother got into her car and drove across town. If all the lights in her son's house were out, she opened his bedroom window, crawled across the floor, and looked up over the side of his bed. If that great big man was really asleep she picked him up and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while she rocked him she sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.
Well, that mother, she got older. She got older and older and older. One day she called up her son and said, "You'd better come see me because I'm very old and sick." So her son came to see her. When he came in the door she tried to sing the song. She sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always...
But she couldn't finish because she was too old and sick. The son went to his mother. He picked her up and rocked her back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And he sang this song:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my Mommy you'll be.
When the son came home that night, he stood for a long time at the top of the stairs. Then he went into the room where his very new baby daughter was sleeping. He picked her up in his arms and very slowly rocked her back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while he rocked her he sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.
(This was sent to me but originally taken from book by Robert Munsch.
I recommend his books. See: http://www.robertmunsch.com )
================================
Article from http://www.rogerknapp.com
================================
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.
The baby grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was two years old, and he ran all around the house. He pulled all the books off the shelves. He pulled all the food out of the refrigerator and he took his mother's watch and flushed it down the toilet. Sometimes his mother would say, "this kid is driving me CRAZY!"
But at night time, when that two-year-old was quiet, she opened the door to his room, crawled across the floor, looked up over the side of his bed; and if he was really asleep she picked him up and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. While she rocked him she sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.
The little boy grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was nine years old. And he never wanted to come in for dinner, he never wanted to take a bath, and when grandma visited he always said bad words. Sometimes his mother wanted to sell him to the zoo!
But at night time, when he was asleep, the mother quietly opened the door to his room, crawled across the floor and looked up over the side of the bed. If he was really asleep, she picked up that nine-year-old boy and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while she rocked him she sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.
The boy grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was a teenager. He had strange friends and he wore strange clothes and he listened to strange music. Sometimes the mother felt like she was in a zoo!
But at night time, when that teenager was asleep, the mother opened the door to his room, crawled across the floor and looked up over the side of the bed. If he was really asleep she picked up that great big boy and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. While she rocked him she sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.
That teenager grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was a grown-up man. He left home and got a house across town. But sometimes on dark nights the mother got into her car and drove across town. If all the lights in her son's house were out, she opened his bedroom window, crawled across the floor, and looked up over the side of his bed. If that great big man was really asleep she picked him up and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while she rocked him she sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.
Well, that mother, she got older. She got older and older and older. One day she called up her son and said, "You'd better come see me because I'm very old and sick." So her son came to see her. When he came in the door she tried to sing the song. She sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always...
But she couldn't finish because she was too old and sick. The son went to his mother. He picked her up and rocked her back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And he sang this song:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my Mommy you'll be.
When the son came home that night, he stood for a long time at the top of the stairs. Then he went into the room where his very new baby daughter was sleeping. He picked her up in his arms and very slowly rocked her back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while he rocked her he sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.
(This was sent to me but originally taken from book by Robert Munsch.
I recommend his books. See: http://www.robertmunsch.com )
================================
Article from http://www.rogerknapp.com
================================
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