Yesterday we made a trip to the art store.  This is a big deal for Abbi because the girl loves to do art projects.  And she loves stickers.  So, since Tim was going to be gone for a few days I thought we would pick up a few fun little art projects that we could do to make the time of ‘just us girls’ special.  Ok, that and I was thinking I could find a few things to keep Abbi busy for a few minutes to give me a mental break.

When we were headed to the checkout line Abbi spotted a bin of discounted stickers.  I’ve been holding off on buying stickers lately since I decided that the stickers Abbi always wanted were way over priced for the amount of stickers she was getting.  However, the discounted stickers she happened to find were packs of 100 sparkly stickers and she wanted the My Little Ponies.  One hundred sparkly My Little Pony stickers for $1? Done.  Put them in the cart.  This would for sure buy me 10 minutes of peace as she smattered all 100 stickers on a piece of paper, claiming it was a birthday card for Handy Manny.

Little did I know that those 100 stickers would be the death of me!

Unfortunately that little pack of 100 stickers are all little individual stickers that a 3 year old cannot peal off by herself.  Thus, every minute or two she comes running with a handful of My Little Pony stickers that she needs me to unpeel for her so she can stick them on the card.

Operation: 10 Minutes of Peace has backfired!  Somewhere the makers of these little stickers are laughing hysterically at the parents who thought they just got a rockin’ good deal on stickers that would keep their preschooler busy.  The worse part….

I’m totally thinking of going back and buying a few more packs of the Dora and Mickey Mouse stickers!

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And when I say “dust” I mean the dust accumulating while I don’t post. Things have gotten a little busy in my little world lately. I’m finishing up a site design for this really cute retreat center, I’m trying to get Go Go Gadget Mom up and running consistently, I’m trying to keep my email inbox from overflowing, and Abbi is starting school tomorrow.

Oh, and I’m moving this blog over to Wordpress. To some of you that may mean nothing. And those same people are probably saying “word-what?”. Let me just say that it is a long, tedious process for me because of the current platform my blog is in. All of my old post have to be manually moved over and, since I don’t have a lot of time to actually work on it, that may take a while.

Never fear, I’ll be switching posting again regularly soon. I’ll actually be posting as I make the switch. I just need to cross a few more things off the list first.

Ok, back to work!

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Hey, did you know that there is some sort of Health Care Crisis going on in our country? Ok, bad joke. Seriously though, I think we are in a crisis but I think you might be surprised to find out why I think it is a crisis.

First let me say that I think it is horrible that people in the United States are without health care. I think it is HORRIBLE that kids are without health care. But I’m not about to give up my rights as we look at a government controlled health care system.

My family and I tend to not follow traditional medicine. My girls don’t see a typical Pediatrician, except for the mandated school physical. No, we are some freaky hippie, live-in-the-trees kind of people. Although, I guess “freaky” is relative. I just don’t believe in randomly treating an illness in “hopes” that that is what they have or injecting more than 50 doses of something into my baby before she even enters preschool.

That being said, if my kid has a broken arm, yes I will get it casted. If they need medical attention, yes we will seek it. I’m simply looking out for the best interest of my child, despite what the pediatrician at Abbi’s birth or the government say.

While we were camping this past weekend Tim’s brother-in-law asked me, what would I do if Abbi’s preschool made the swine flu vaccine mandatory? Easy! I would pull her from the school. I would look for a school who did not mandate it or I would home school. The homeschooling option would be huge for me because I have no desire to homeschool my kids. But, if it is between homeschooling and shooting my kid up with a vaccine I don’t trust….let’s start cracking those books girls!

I didn’t really think much of the question though because, really, would a public school force a vaccine upon a kid? It’s not like it is a privately run school. This a public school. And, when I signed up my unvaccinated kid, they made no fuss and just handed me the waiver. Super. So no worries. Right? Right?

Not right. I’m getting more and more worried about my rights as a parent when it comes to health care. See, the biggest thing the government has going for it when it pushes government-controlled health care is fear. No parent wants to see their child get sick. Most working parents can’t afford for their kid to get sick as they would have to pull the child from school, find child care, or stay home from work on those sick days. More so, parents just don’t want to see their child hurting. It sucks. I hate seeing my girls get hurt or not feel well. And no parent wants to be told that some illness could take their baby away from them. Fear.

I’m scared, too, people. I’m scared that something might happen to my girls by not vaccinating them. But I’m also scared that some idiot will run a stop sign and smack into my van, injuring my girls. Does that keep me from loading them into the car to head to Target. No. Ok, the argument can be made that I take precautions (i.e. seat belts and car seats). I don’t see vaccines as a precaution though. It is 99.9% certain (as certain as anything in life can be) that, if I get into an auto accident and my girls are not buckled in, they will be injured. Not the case with vaccines. My daughter can get the flu without a vaccine (or even with a vaccine for that matter), puke a few times, and be fine 24 hours later. It’s happened.

Ok, that’s enough of my vaccine soapbox. I could go on and on. Honestly, though, I’m totally fine with you vaccinating your kid. I won’t look at you funny or pass any sort of judgement. That is your right as a parent. You are doing what you think is best for your child. I’m doing what I think is best for my child. Right or wrong, we’re doing what we can. What I really wanted to talk about in this rant was government. And how scary it is that government is slowly taking away our freedom to make those choices in the best interest of the masses.

It’s happening friends. The situation my brother-in-law posed to me while camping is happening. Not exactly in schools, but in general. “A new law just passed in Massachusetts imposes fines up to $1000 per day and up to a 30 day jail sentence for not obeying authorities during a public health emergency. So if you are instructed to take the swine flu vaccine in Massachusetts and you refuse, you could be facing fines that will bankrupt you and a prison sentence on top of that.” (via thebirdflupandemic.com). You can read that complete article, including a news clip interviewing Senator Richard Moore (Democrat from MA).

Fear. Scary. Getting the swine flu or, worse yet, my kids getting the swine flu – scary (again, I hate seeing them even the slightest big sick). Being forced by the government to inject myself, my girls, my husband, with chemicals that haven’t even had time yet to have the long term effects really tested; chemicals that we don’t even know if they will work on this strain; chemicals that may not even prevent you from getting sick; absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt, “scare me to the point of nightmares” scary. FEAR!

I’m scared. I’m scared for my kids. I’m scared for my rights as a parent.

Fear. Fear is a powerful thing. Fear makes you do things you might not normally do. Fear can make you vulnerable. Or fear can make you fight. Fear can make you educate yourself. Fear is powerful. Fear is making me write this.

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If you don’t know, and you probably don’t since I have yet to really mention anything here about it, I have another website that I just started. It is a site dedicated to gadgets and, more specifically, gadgets that are geared towards moms and kids. Yay! I’m hoping that someone will find it useful. Ok, at least go check it out! Please!

If you do go check it out you’ll find my review of some great new iPhone apps for kids. My 3 year old loves playing on my iPhone. She has a whole screen dedicated to her games and apps. And these three new apps have quickly become her favorite!

Old MacDonald by Duck Duck Moose: a fun and eduational app centered around the familiar song “Old MacDonald”. How does this app set itself apart from the other Old MacDonald apps out there? Oh, in so many ways! The characters are not your typical cow, duck, or sheep — not with characters like Pig-casso or a Cow philosopher on the farm. Each screen also features interactive characters! This is my daughter’s favorite part….read more of my review here!

Little Lala: This is an adorable audio book app about a little girl, Lala, who travels the world in search of food for her upcoming party. Let your child read the book herself or select the play mode to have the book read aloud…read more of my review here!

Little Lala’s ABC’s: Another great app from the makers of LIttle Lala. This app helps teach your little one their ABC’s with a flashcard presentation of the letter in both uppercase and lowercase, an animal who’s name starts with that letter, and the spelling of that animal’s name…read more of my review here!

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Abbi told me a few weeks ago that she wanted to go to Africa to see the animals. Ok kid, let’s go!

Ok, so we can’t actually pick up and fly off to Africa for a safari (not yet at least) but we could go to the zoo. And that’s what we did!

On somewhat of a whim, we packed the girls up and headed to the zoo this morning. We decided to head a little further south to Battle Creek to Binder Park Zoo rather than heading north to John Ball Zoo. We’ve gone to John Ball Zoo the past two years and thought we would give BInder Park Zoo a try. Although it was a little further of a drive it was totally worth it!

The zoo was a much more “natural zoo”. Animals were mixed in with other animals and it didn’t feel like little cages here and there. And, this is the best part, they had an entire Africa section!!! Africa here we come Abbi!

After a short tram ride we were in Africa. I loved that most of the animals were grouped together in a wide open prairie. Zebras. Impala. Ostrich. Gazelles. Giraffe. Birds. It was so cool to see these animals with each other, just like I would imagine it to be like in Africa. All that was missing were the predators…they were secluded in the zoo, much to Tim’s dismay.

The absolutely best part was that Abbi got to feed a giraffe! She loved it! All she wanted to see were the giraffes and then she got to feed them some lettuce!!! And she had no fear whatsoever, not even when that super long black tongue began wrapping itself around the lettuce she was holding. Loved it. LOVED. IT!

And Zoe got in on the zoo fun as well. No, she didn’t feed a giraffe. I’m sure if we had given her the chance she would have wanted to keep the lettuce to herself. Not that she likes lettuce exactly, it’s more so the fact that she wouldn’t want to give up something that she had. Instead we let her play with the goats in the petting zoo.

I think we all had a good time. It meant a day of no naps for the girls but they were really good about it. And, after going out to dinner with the Folletts tonight, they hit their pillows hard. With that being said, I’m going to push publish and head to bed myself!

If you want to check out more pictures from our time at the zoo, you can check them out here!

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