I write this post while riding in my van, doing 75 miles an hour across our state with all three kids in tow. This brings back many memories of driving cross country with my family as a child.

But things are much different now, as my children have a TV, DVD player, DS and who knows what else. I have memories of playing Mad Libs with my brother, listening to my fathers music (which became favorites of mine) and reading books to pass the time.

These things seem long gone now, as technology has replaced finding eye spy with your children. So are my kids lucky? Yes and no. I think I was lucky to not have the technology and just have my family as entertainment. I mean you’ll never hear “I remember back in 09 playing this great game of Mario on my DS…”

So this year for Mothers day my husband decided to get me a Blackberry. While I’ve been trying to forego it as long as possible, I decided to bbite the bullet and get one.

So far I like it a lot. One cool feature is that I might be able to blog remotely. I guess we’ll see if that actually works well or not.

With the three kids now, it should be easier to blog if I do it on the run!

Nesting is said to set in within the 5th month of pregnancy. This is a natural instinct that a mother is said to have where they end up cleaning a ton or organizing. Mainly it is said that it is a way for the mother to get things in “order” within her life before the baby comes.

I honestly did not have this when I was pregnant with my son. I think I cleaned really good one day a few weeks before he came, but that was about it. With this baby, as I’m now in my 35th week, I can see some of these “instincts” coming out. The interesting thing is that they have come out in my husband more than in me! Read the rest of this entry »

Well, after being sick for 4 days straight, they finally sent me to the hospital for fluids. Turns out that my body decided not to work quite right and the baby wasn’t getting that much food from me. So they sent me in to see if they could jump start my body back to where it should be.

A couple bags of fluids later I felt great, all of the contractions had stopped. So we were hoping I was on the mend.

But, sadly, a day and a half later my stomach was messed up again (and it’s still messed up). They want me to stay on the Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast (B-R-A-T) diet. Ya, seven days on that and I’m about to go insane. There’s not enough applesauce in the world to feed a pregnant woman!

There’s my update, hopefully I can kick this thing fairly soon! Ugh.

Many think that this makes no sense at all. Why go back to school when I should be working, in a down economy that’s probably the thoughts on your mind. But actually going back to school when the economy is down could be one of the best things you could do for both you and your family… Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever had one of those days? A day when you honestly just shouldn’t have woken up? A few days back my day was filled with a screaming 7 year old (seriously, they can get pretty loud), a crying 20 month old, my aching back, a dirty house, and to top it all off, the dog was covered head to toe in diarrhea. But it got worse…

A few things to think about this Christmas season!! Don’t forget the accessories like:

1. Batteries – Come on now, the thing has to be able to run

2. Games – I was suprised that many gaming systems don’t come with at least one game, so definitely get a game to go with it.

3. Holders – If you’re going to get a phone, you’ll need a way to carry it!

4. Flash memory- Come on now, you have to have this for cameras and computers. Trust me, you’ll need them!

I’m happy to report that our Christmas shopping is officially done for this year. I was actually done about a week ago, but we were still waiting to get some of the items in the mail, as the end of my shopping was all done online. I can honestly say that most of the presents were fairly straight forward, no silk ties in the bunch. Now it’s off to wrapping all of them. I remember when that used to be fun, but it’s definitely more of a chore now! Ugh.

These two terms were virtually unknown in the years past, now they are not only household words, but cropping up in a more regular fashion among adolescence. I always worry about these in children, as I think sometimes it is easier to diagnose using the terms ADHD and ADD than not to. But there are many options if your child has been diagnosed with it… Read the rest of this entry »

This is a quick follow up post to my Black Friday post. I learned that a man was trampled to death at a Walmart in NY. I must say, sometimes the human race appalls me. Honestly, this story makes me sick to my stomach. People freaking killed a guy and then shopped, complaining when they had to leave because of the mans death. The fact that Walmart hasn’t even issued a suitable statement tells me what I already knew, they care about people about as much as we care about cattle and they are officially ridiculous. We use cattle, we feed them and then eat them, that’s what we do. Walmart uses all of us as cattle and make a pretty penny doing it when they “come to harvest”.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the worker who died. I’m so sorry that occurred and I hold Walmart as responsible as the people that trampled the life out of that man.

Here’s the full story from the Orlando Sentinel via the NY AP:

Wal-Mart worker dies after being bulldozed by bargain-hunting Black Friday shopping stampede

By COLLEEN LONG | Associated Press Writer
8:30 PM EST, November 28, 2008

NEW YORK (AP) _ A Wal-Mart worker was killed Friday when “out-of-control” shoppers desperate for bargains broke down the doors at a 5 a.m. sale. Other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man, and customers shouted angrily and kept shopping when store officials said they were closing because of the death, police and witnesses said.

At least four other people, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, were taken to hospitals for observation or minor injuries, and the store in Valley Stream on Long Island closed for several hours before reopening.

Shoppers stepped over the man on the ground and streamed into the store. When told to leave, they complained that they had been in line since Thursday morning.

Nassau County police said about 2,000 people were gathered outside the store doors at the mall about 20 miles east of Manhattan. The impatient crowd knocked the man, identified by police as Jdimytai Damour of Queens, to the ground as he opened the doors, leaving a metal portion of the frame crumpled like an accordion.

“This crowd was out of control,” said Nassau police spokesman Lt. Michael Fleming. He described the scene as “utter chaos.”

Dozens of store employees trying to fight their way out to help Damour were also getting trampled by the crowd, Fleming said.

Items on sale at the store included a Samsung 50-inch Plasma HDTV for $798, a Bissel Compact Upright Vacuum for $28, a Samsung 10.2 megapixel digital camera for $69 and DVDs such as “The Incredible Hulk” for $9.

Damour, 34, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead about 6 a.m., police said. The exact cause of death has not been determined.

A 28-year-old pregnant woman was taken to a hospital, where she and the baby were reported to be OK, said police Sgt. Anthony Repalone.

Police said criminal charges were possible in the case, but Fleming said it would be difficult to identify individual shoppers. Authorities were reviewing surveillance video.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., based in Bentonville, Ark., called the incident a “tragic situation” and said the employee came from a temporary agency and was doing maintenance work at the store. It said it tried to prepare for the crowd by adding staffers and outside security workers, putting up barricades and consulting police.

“Despite all of our precautions, this unfortunate event occurred,” senior Vice President Hank Mullany said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those impacted.”

Kimberly Cribbs, who witnessed the stampede, said shoppers were acting like “savages.”

“When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling ‘I’ve been on line since yesterday morning,’” she said. “They kept shopping.”

A woman reported being trampled by overeager customers at a Wal-Mart opening Friday in Farmingdale, about 15 miles east of Valley Stream, Suffolk County police said. She suffered minor injuries, but finished shopping before filling the report, police said.

Shoppers around the country line up early outside stores on the day after Thanksgiving in the annual bargain-hunting ritual known as Black Friday. It got that name because it has historically been the day when stores broke into profitability for the full year.