duh

So, apparently, Disney is offering refunds to parents who bought "Baby Einstein" videos (read here) because, as it turns out, these videos featuring spinning toys, bright colors and geometric shapes, does not turn your baby into a genius.

I will be the first to admit that Adler watched some tv before he was two, maybe a few einstein videos, but I did not fool myself into thinking it was making Adler a smarter baby- it was for entertainment for him...and admittedly, a few minutes to fold clothes or get dinner started, or thumb through a magazine for me. I think its a pretty bad move on disney's part to even offer refunds. Almost every toy out there boasts some sort of learning experience and I am willing to bet that most of it isn't true. The truth is that at such a young age, most learning experiences come from interaction with parents or other caregivers. But hey, if they are willing to give the refunds, I am sure there are parents willing to take it!

Something is just not right about this

So, let me get this straight. If I pay off my credit card balance each month, just like a good consumer should, I will be punished with higher annual fees and termination of my rewards program?

This really makes me angry. I understand this proposed bill (already passed by the senate I believe) would be helping those who are in debt up to their eyeballs, that it protects those who have debt from being blasted with high rates without proper notice or from fees from going over the limit or being late on payments, but at whose expense? It is downright insulting to me that this bill is proposing to offset these protection strategies by punishing those who are being financially responsible.

I fear this is only the beginning.

I know errybody is sick of hearing about it

but, a kid in Adler's very small preschool tested positive for Type A Flu today, the same type, but not necessarily Swine Flu. I found that out after picking him up this morning! Right after I witnessed him slurping away on a plastic fried egg that he has gotten from another classmate. The child went for further testing but results won't be in for a week or two to determine if its Swine or not.

Either way, it stinks! Adler already has a cold and his immunity is not great, so any type of flu, Swine or not, is just NOT WELCOME at our home. Do you hear that? NOT WELCOME.

So keep this little one, and everyone else at our school, in your prayers. We really don't want a flu epidemic around these parts.

Oh sleep, how I miss you

Adler spent his first night in his twin sized bed last night. Really, it resembles a really big crib because we put bed rails on both sides and the end of the bed. Maybe a little over-protective, but his bed does sit up really high and we have hardwood floors too. Anyway, he went down at 8 and slept to 1 without a peep. I went to check on him once and he was snuggled all the way up against one of the bed rails, just like he did in his crib. Anyway, after 1, it was downhill. He woke up every 30 minutes to an hour. He wasn't crying to get out of his bed, but I guess he just woke up in an unfamiliar place and needed a 10 minute reassurance each time. And then of course, being pregnant, by the time I got back to bed, I would have to go the bathroom, and then the baby would wake up and want to play for 20 minutes, and then Adler would wake up again. The cycle repeated itself until about 5:30 this morning when he finally fell into a deep sleep until 8. I am hoping tonight is a little easier. I am feeling confident that it will be. Even though this isn't the easiest process, I am feeling much better that we are doing it now. I was starting to get anxious as we approach my due date to get this done.


Now I am realizing how spoiled I have become about my sleep. Its going to be quite a transition getting up every 2 hours again!



So, I know I am a few days late on talking about what's been going on in the news, but a few things caught my eye recently.
Let me just say Ex-Governor Blagojevich, really? A Survivor like reality show called, "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!" Do you think that will boost your credibility? Or maybe the fact that you requested your campaign funds, money that has already been called into question, to be used to help with your lawyer fees will help matters for you. (And I am sorry, but I had to include the picture that New York Daily News featured- they were wrong for that!)


And then there is Miss California's answer to the interview question asked by Perez Hilton on gay marriage. She answered, in a less than eloquent way, that she didn't believe in gay marriage. Since then, she has been the source of much spurning as result. After the show, apparently, there were fights and riots over it. The guy who runs Miss California said he was hurt and saddened by her answer, as that doesn't reflect the opinions of a Miss California winner. Just wait a minute, WHAT? Why even ask a personal, moral question like this if you didn't want an honest, personal answer? And since when does a beauty contestant's answers need to reflect the opinions of the politically correct majority instead of her own? It is she that is competing, right? I just find this whole thing completely absurd. I can't believe its even being called a scandal.

Peanut Butter Alert!

I saw this in the news about the peanut butter recall- just spreading the word!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28695782/?GT1=43001

We're Number One!

Well, add this to our growing list of things Mississippi is really good at, highest teen pregnancy rate.

Go USM!

So, I didn't actually attend University of Southern MS, but I did live in Hattiesburg for several years, so I have some sort of loyalty to USM at any rate. And E went there. And my sister graduated there. So, I think I can be proud of them for this too!

I read in my September issue of Parents magazine about a new paint (Nov 07) that is zero-toxin, zero-carcinogen and zero VOC (volatile organic compound). It is ultra-low odor and offers a line that is solvent free including the use of 100% non toxic colorants. I know what you are thinking, brown, off brown, and light brown, but no, they have over 1200 colors! And their prices are the same as your average gallon of paint, around $20 a gallon.

And the coolest part, it was created by the good ole' Polymer scientists at the University of Southern MS. Check out the website for Mythic Paint here.

I know as a first time mom, the fumes and toxins from the paint in the baby's room was a major concern of mine. Even though I used low toxin paint and painted my baby's room months before he came, I wish that this paint would have been around then. There is enough to worry about when the new baby comes; at least now we can mark this off that list!

Good to know

Apparently, there are a lot of people that will pay good money for your life. or rather your family, your friends, your house and car, your job....everything. At least that is what Ian Usher discovered when he decided to put up the entire contents of his life on ebay. The bidding ended yesterday with Ian successfully selling his life for $374,000, a little less than his asking price of $404, 000.

I just wanted to say that the world is absolutely mad. And how lucky are we that we get to sit back and watch the insanity?

You can read more about Ian's story and his up-coming plans now that he has no life right here.

moving up

So, Vicksburg's becoming a hub of activity and community events...

two things I am super excited about:

Vicksburg is getting a farmer's market to go from June 14-September- read about it here
I am totally envisioning myself as Keri Russell, taking Adler to the market every Saturday. I wonder if he would still fit in his baby bjorn. I might could stuff in there.

Disney Live! Winnie the Pooh is coming to the Vicksburg Convention Center in October- I got tickets this morning! Yay for something fun to do (okay, I know, logically, that I shouldn't be that excited about this one- but I am, for Adler's sake anyway!)

Home town celebrities

Adler and I will be signing autographs upon request- ha!

This was taken at our library's story time- I didn't think we would actually make the paper though!

I am just, so, speechless.

The Associated Press
updated 8:20 a.m. CT, Thurs., Jan. 10, 2008

NEW YORK - Detective Travis Rapp has seen his share of corpses, but this was new: two men wheeling a rigid, pale body down a Manhattan street in a red office chair, drawing a crowd of suspicious onlookers.
Looking out the window of the restaurant where he was having lunch, Rapp initially assumed "it was a mannequin or a dummy," he said. "I thought it was a joke, honestly."
A closer inspection showed that it wasn't. The man was dead, and two of his friends had hauled his corpse to a store to cash his $355 Social Security check, police said. They were arrested before they could get the money.
The bedraggled suspects, David J. Dalaia and James O'Hare, were scheduled to appear in court Wednesday night. Police said the men, both 65, were petty criminals with long histories of heroin addiction and arrests dating to the 1960s.
Friends dressed dead manThe trouble began Tuesday when Dalaia and O'Hare tried to cash Virgilio Cintron's check at a store in Hell's Kitchen on their own, police said. The man at the counter told them that Cintron had to be present to cash the check, so they went back to his apartment, which one of the suspects shared with the dead man.
Cintron was apparently undressed when he died, sometime within the previous 24 hours. Police said Dalaia and O'Hare proceeded to dress him in a faded T-shirt, pants they could only get up part way, and a pair of Velcro sneakers. They threw a coat over his waist to conceal what the pants couldn't cover, police said.
They then put him on the office chair and wheeled the corpse over to the check-cashing store.
The men left Cintron's body outside, went inside and tried to cash his check, authorities said. The store's clerk, who knew Cintron, asked the men where he was, and O'Hare told the clerk they would go and get him.
At about the same time, Rapp spotted the men and confronted them as they were trying to haul the body into the store. He said that even after he identified himself as a police officer, O'Hare told him, "I have to get my friend in here. I have to cash his check."
He ordered the men to back away from the victim. They feigned surprise when paramedics declared him dead, Rapp said.
"When they said, 'Your friend is dead,' they said, 'Oh my God, he's gone?'"
Several bystanders witnessed sceneThe scene played out on a busy Manhattan street as several people watched.
"I saw this guy sitting in this chair with his head back. He looked very dead," said Victor Rodriguez, 38, who was working at a nearby restaurant when he saw the commotion outside. "He looked very sick. His eyes were closed. He wasn't moving."
Little is known about Cintron, 66, who apparently died of natural causes. An autopsy proved inconclusive, the medical examiner's office said, and his body hadn't been positively identified as of Wednesday afternoon.
Relatives told police that he had recently been hospitalized for Parkinson's disease. Police said his rap sheet was long, with arrests for burglary, assault and drugs. Locals said that Cintron and O'Hare often frequented a food pantry down the street.
A telephone number listed for Cintron at the apartment he shared with O'Hare went unanswered. Police said they didn't have an address for Dalaia or attorney information for him or O'Hare.
Regardless of what happens to the defendants, they can take solace in the fact that they fooled one onlooker with the dead man disguise.
"He went in regular clothes. I didn't even know he was dead. I thought he was alive," said Gerit Ahemed, a clerk at a nearby deli.

glad to be living in the US of A right now

Every time I click on the internet today, the homepage news flashes of Benazir Bhutto’s terrible murder. It saddens and angers me not only for the sake of her family but for the men and women of Pakistan who don’t deserve to live like this anymore.