Thursday, September 23, 2010

Memorial Reining Video

This is an awesome video - 16 year old girl doing a freestyle reining pattern in memory of a good friend. The horse has no bridle on.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Share The Love, Win $1000 Super Stash Diaper Giveaway!

http://www.clothdiaperblog.com/cloth-diaper-blog-super-stash-giveaway/#comment-50179

Check out this giveaway! This is a wonderful way to consider converting to cloth diapers - All you have to do is win! There are 12 ways to enter - Twitter, Facebook, Newsletters, etc. Grand prize is $500 gift certificate to the store to buy whatever you like. Now for me $500 would make a great diaper stash, however E. is using training pants/pullups now so we only use dipes at night and what I have will last until we are done.

If I was lucky enough to win, I would give my gift certificate to a neighbor mom who is going through a rough spell. Her husband was charged/accused/caught for messing around with his two stepdaughters (her daughters from first marriage). Mom has 4 kids total and is expecting another girl anyday. She possibly has already delivered but they have been staying elsewhere lately so I haven't had a chance to talk to them. Besides all the criminal stuff, which leads to divorce, and then a new baby, mom has other health issues and several surguries planned for the future. She is unable to work, yet was denied in a workers comp claim, so she is on disability and state/county assistance. Father to the 2 youngest kids + 1 newborn is not paying any child support until he is ordered to by court, and is contesting paternity of newborn. With his charges, he will see jail time and won't have a job to work at anyway.

So all in all, mom is in a rough spot right now and could use any help she can get. She expressed interest in cloth diapers and has some experiance with prefolds in the "way past", but hasn't dealt with modern cloth diapers. A nice stash of all-in-ones or pockets dipes would be wonderful and would save her so much money. So I have entered as many ways as I can and hope that my name comes up in the random number generator so that I can help this mom out in a pretty substantial way.

Monday, September 20, 2010

MN Carseat Use...Improving?

I came  across this article in our local internet site. Not a bad one, but it could have stressed some more up-to-date carseat data. Each state has different laws regarding the use of carseats, but the "best practice" recommendations remain the same regardless.

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=872981
More MN parents are putting children in booster seats


ST. PAUL, Minn.-- New crash data released Monday by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) suggests that more parents are putting their children in booster seats. DPS statistics say that during the years from 2007 to 2009, just 44 percent of booster age children, those 4 to 7 years old, were actually in a booster seat. Between July 1, 2009 and June 30, 2010, that number jumped to 59 percent, translating to more than 1,000 children in booster seats who suffered no injury.

Safe Winter Jacket Use in Carseats

To keep our babies safe, use the thinnest jacket possible under the carseat straps or zip the jacket over the straps. Check out Car-Seat.Org for more info.