I don’t know about you but I could use a vacation!!
My dream vacation is on an island where I can lay on the beach all day, or go on an island adventure. Why do people go on vacations? There are numerous reasons for a vaca, some include marriage, honeymoons, visiting friends/relatives, getting away from work or relatives, or just going to have some fun. I think vacations are import for a well rounded person because everyone needs balance in their life!
I’m reading an article on the Top 10 Romanic Caribbean Retreats. The first on the list is Kamalame Cay in the Bahamas. It’s a 96 acre island with your own private beach strip outside your villa. It starts at $395. The second one is called Turks & Caicos: Amanyara. This one seems cool because you can go paddle boarding, kayaking, and swimming, and they also have live music twice a week. This one starts at $1,600. The third most romantic retreats is at the Antigua: Hermitage Bay. This is a newer resort that flows with gardens or fruit, veggies, and herbs. This starts at $1,400. The next one is Aruba: Bucuti Beach Resort featuring Tara suites and spa. This one looks super fun!! First of all its adult only, and its in walking distance of 20 restaurants overlooking the ocean. They have couples massages- on the beach. They also have horseback riding alongside the beach. Starting rates are $393! Sign me up! Okay, next on the list is Tobago: Villas at Stonehaven. This sounds so beautiful. It’s on a high bluff overlooking the Caribbean and tropical rainforest. This one sounds really personal and romantic because there’s not much to do but go into the rainforest or chill on the beach. It starts at $410. The next one is Jamaica: Round Hill Resort. It’s very stylish, the rooms are designed by Ralph Lauren. There is a lot of beach action here and that’s about it. Starting rate is $579. Next we have Dominica: Rosalie Bay. There are 28 suites which have mountain, ocean, river, or garden views. At this one you can go see the worlds second largest volcanically heated body of water. Sounds interesting. Starting at $250. Continuing on the list we have St. Barts: Le Sereno. This one seems more indoors-y. Not my style. Starting at $680. Ninth on the list is the Grenada: Spice Island Beach Resort: It’s more family oriented with some cruise along the coast. Starts at $618. The last one is the British Virgin Islands: Peter Island Resort. This one is romantic with massages and yoga. Starts at $740.
I liked all the cheaper ones better! They sound way more intimate I guess. Yay, It’s bed time. Maybe I’ll dream about the beach…
Friday, February 25, 2011
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park is a historic and adventurous place to be! It’s first visitors were in 1855, and the park sees 3 million people per year. Abraham Lincoln actually signed a the Yosemite Grant in 1864 to help conserve the park. Yosemite is located in California with 1,189 square miles of pure wilderness beauty. This park is any outdoors persons dream park! There are so many things to do! You can go back packing, biking, bird watching, fishing, hiking, horse back riding, picnicking, rock climbing, swimming, rafting, skiing, and ice skating.
Yosemite national park is also known for having natural rock falls. Many things cause rock falls, like glaciation, weathering, and erosions. Rock falls are a very dangerous thing that can’t be prevented or predicted. Over the past 150 years Yosemite Nation Park have recorded at least 600 rock falls. The death toll at the park averages at 10-12 deaths per year. Mostly these deaths are from drowning or falling but rarely from rock fall. Fifteen people have died due to rock falls at Yosemite in the past 150 years.
Scientists just recently started making actual data recordings of the rock fall in 2009 by laser scanning, computer modeling, and monitoring of the cliffs. With hopes to one day be able to predict rock falls. The first recorded rock fall just happened to be the biggest in 2 decades. If scientists could prevent rock falls they could be able to save lives by getting everyone to safety before it happens.
http://research.eerc.berkeley.edu/projects/seismicrockfall/docs/ModestoBee_689397.html
Yosemite National Park is a historic and adventurous place to be! It’s first visitors were in 1855, and the park sees 3 million people per year. Abraham Lincoln actually signed a the Yosemite Grant in 1864 to help conserve the park. Yosemite is located in California with 1,189 square miles of pure wilderness beauty. This park is any outdoors persons dream park! There are so many things to do! You can go back packing, biking, bird watching, fishing, hiking, horse back riding, picnicking, rock climbing, swimming, rafting, skiing, and ice skating.
Yosemite national park is also known for having natural rock falls. Many things cause rock falls, like glaciation, weathering, and erosions. Rock falls are a very dangerous thing that can’t be prevented or predicted. Over the past 150 years Yosemite Nation Park have recorded at least 600 rock falls. The death toll at the park averages at 10-12 deaths per year. Mostly these deaths are from drowning or falling but rarely from rock fall. Fifteen people have died due to rock falls at Yosemite in the past 150 years.
Scientists just recently started making actual data recordings of the rock fall in 2009 by laser scanning, computer modeling, and monitoring of the cliffs. With hopes to one day be able to predict rock falls. The first recorded rock fall just happened to be the biggest in 2 decades. If scientists could prevent rock falls they could be able to save lives by getting everyone to safety before it happens.
http://research.eerc.berkeley.edu/projects/seismicrockfall/docs/ModestoBee_689397.html
Friday, February 18, 2011
Why is it that when the weather gets nice we get sick!!
I hate being sick! I hate when my daughter is sick even more. She hasnt eatin in 4 days, she vomits if she even takes a bite of anything, she's had a fever of 101 all week, of course she has the cough that keeps her and everyone else up all night. I've missed school and work all week because I can't take her to daycare, which is fine I wouldnt't send her sick if they let me. So I took her to the doctor on Wednesday and they tested for strep, and the flu, both negative. Her doctors nurse is in such a rush and she is so rude to kids. This is what happend: The second the old rude nurse calls us back to get her weight, she rushed Lorelai to take her shoes off and hop on the scale. I've worked in doctor's offices before, I know everyone is in a hurry especially when they are short staffed, but there is no reason to treat kids the way this lady does. So Lorelai takes her shoes off without untying them because the lady is rushing her, and then when Lorelai needed my help to untie them so she can put them back on the nurse made a rude remark "that's why you untie them before you take them off ugh". This is the 3rd time i've had to deal with this nurse and I was about to say something. Finally we make our way to the room and I sit Lorelai up on the table and the nurse wanted to swab her throat to run a strep test. Lorelai has never ever ever had a problem with doctors or shots or swabs or anything, she actually enjoys talking to doctors and making them laugh. So anyway, Lorelai is 5 1/2 and she askes a lot of questions. The nurse told her to open her mouth and say "AH", Lorelai asked so sweetly "can I just open my mouth without saying AH?". The nurse walks out of the door and gets another nurse to hold Lorelai down. At this point Lorelai is very confused and crying and reaching out for me. I was so furious I almost punched the old nurse in her face. SERIOUSLY?! After that she just left the room she knew she better not come around me anymore. I love that doctor because she is really thourough, but I won't let that nurse come around her again. It's pretty obvious that lady needs to work in the ER in texas or something. I'm sure she is good at what she does but she clearly doesn't need to be working with kids! GRR.
Schools are crazy
I read an article at msn.com about this 6 year old boy being admitted into a psych ward for drawing a bad picture that said "i want to die". First of all, the dad is in a different country serving in the war, and secondly, the mother told the school not to admit her 6 year old son. Being a mother of a 5 1/2 year old let me just say that would be SO scary for someone to take my child away for days, against their will, with strangers.. that just makes me want to cry! The story from the mom is that the child plays video games and that's how he know's how to spell that, and she also states how the kid is already seeing a therapist because he has issues because of his dad not being around, and that she would have the kid seen that day if they didn't take him to the psych-ward. The school says that it was out of the mothers hands and they had already called an ambulance. Someone that commented on the article made a point about how schools don't give bullying a second thought or even call the parents about it, but they will send a child to a psych-ward without consulting with the parent. I disagree completely with the school on this one. Looking at the schools point of view however, that would be a hard descison to make. What is the point at which someone is in real danger for their life? Was the 6 year old really going to kill himself? Couldn't the schools counselor get in touch with the boys therapist to make sure what the mom says is legit?
I guess I can relate to this story. When I was in 8th grade my best friend and I got into a huge fight, splitting our friendship forever. Does everyone know that girls can be vicious?? What happend was I started hanging out with this guy that we both liked. So ya, that was pretty bad of me. To pay me back she told the whole school that I was a lesbian and she told a teacher that I tried killing myself. Everyone had my back about the whole lesbian thing, that i'm indeed straight. After I heard the rumors, I got called into the counselors office and my mom was sitting in there. I don't know why my mom was on their side, she probably just wanted to make sure I was "OK", but sure enough, they sent me to a pysch-ward. My dad was out of town at the time and didn't find out until that night. I remember there was a lot of weird people in there and I was really uncomfortable. My dad flew back once he heard the news and came to my rescue! Apparently it is very hard to take someone out of a pysch-ward before their time is up, but my dad doesn't settle for no. He got me out early the next morning. And guess what, IM ALIVE!! The rest is history..
I guess I can relate to this story. When I was in 8th grade my best friend and I got into a huge fight, splitting our friendship forever. Does everyone know that girls can be vicious?? What happend was I started hanging out with this guy that we both liked. So ya, that was pretty bad of me. To pay me back she told the whole school that I was a lesbian and she told a teacher that I tried killing myself. Everyone had my back about the whole lesbian thing, that i'm indeed straight. After I heard the rumors, I got called into the counselors office and my mom was sitting in there. I don't know why my mom was on their side, she probably just wanted to make sure I was "OK", but sure enough, they sent me to a pysch-ward. My dad was out of town at the time and didn't find out until that night. I remember there was a lot of weird people in there and I was really uncomfortable. My dad flew back once he heard the news and came to my rescue! Apparently it is very hard to take someone out of a pysch-ward before their time is up, but my dad doesn't settle for no. He got me out early the next morning. And guess what, IM ALIVE!! The rest is history..
Friday, February 11, 2011
FAMILY CURSE
Huntington’s Chorea
Huntington’s Chorea Disease (HD) is a hereditary, degenerative brain disorder, which there is no cure for. “HD slowly diminishes the ability to walk, talk, reason, and eventually the person with HD becomes totally dependant on others for their care. Huntington’s Disease profoundly effects the lives of the entire families emotionally, socially, and economically”. “Early symptoms of Huntington's Disease may affect cognitive ability or mobility and include depression, mood swings, forgetfulness, clumsiness, involuntary twitching and lack of coordination. As the disease progresses, concentration and short-term memory diminish and involuntary movements of the head, trunk and limbs increase. Walking, speaking and swallowing abilities deteriorate. Eventually the person is unable to care for him or herself. Death follows from complications such as choking, infection or heart failure.”
Every generation there are a couple people in my family that are born with HD, one of which is my mother. The person who has the disease is actually born with it, but usually they don’t start showing symptoms until mid-life. My mom grew up with a normal life, married my dad when she was 19, went to nursing school, had kids, then decided to be a stay at home wife/mother. In her very early 30’s one of her fingers started twitching all the time, and I guess that’s when they knew she had HD. Currently, my mom is about to have her 47 birthday this month (praise the Lord). Back in September 2010, she went to the hospital with aspiration pneumonia. That was the scariest point in my life up until this moment. Her dad died from aspiration pneumonia, he also had HD, age 57. It was a very serious ordeal. She was in the hospital for 2 months, ICU for a couple weeks, and then rehab for a month. My mom is 5’3, she’s never weighed more than 105 pounds. When she was in the hospital her weight dropped to the 70’s. That was when my family came to reality about how bad she really was, she has to eat soft food and she has to drink everything with thickener. Well, “Chorea” means movement, and that is exactly what she does. She is in constant motion, except in her sleep. Therefore she burns a whopping amount of calories and must consume a whopping amount of calories, which is very hard to do considering the types of foods she is limited to. Her dad, her uncles, and her grandpa also had it. There are various other people in my family that currently have it. Huntington’s Chorea is not openly talked about within my family. It’s like the family curse that will eat you alive if you even speak of it. By the way, Me and my sister have a 50/50 chance of having the disease.
I could probably write a book about my life growing up dealing with this disease, but most of the time I don’t like to think about it because it’s really depressing. The point is everyone will face many horrible realities in life, but we have to keep on moving, striving for happiness.
www.hdsa.org
Huntington’s Chorea Disease (HD) is a hereditary, degenerative brain disorder, which there is no cure for. “HD slowly diminishes the ability to walk, talk, reason, and eventually the person with HD becomes totally dependant on others for their care. Huntington’s Disease profoundly effects the lives of the entire families emotionally, socially, and economically”. “Early symptoms of Huntington's Disease may affect cognitive ability or mobility and include depression, mood swings, forgetfulness, clumsiness, involuntary twitching and lack of coordination. As the disease progresses, concentration and short-term memory diminish and involuntary movements of the head, trunk and limbs increase. Walking, speaking and swallowing abilities deteriorate. Eventually the person is unable to care for him or herself. Death follows from complications such as choking, infection or heart failure.”
Every generation there are a couple people in my family that are born with HD, one of which is my mother. The person who has the disease is actually born with it, but usually they don’t start showing symptoms until mid-life. My mom grew up with a normal life, married my dad when she was 19, went to nursing school, had kids, then decided to be a stay at home wife/mother. In her very early 30’s one of her fingers started twitching all the time, and I guess that’s when they knew she had HD. Currently, my mom is about to have her 47 birthday this month (praise the Lord). Back in September 2010, she went to the hospital with aspiration pneumonia. That was the scariest point in my life up until this moment. Her dad died from aspiration pneumonia, he also had HD, age 57. It was a very serious ordeal. She was in the hospital for 2 months, ICU for a couple weeks, and then rehab for a month. My mom is 5’3, she’s never weighed more than 105 pounds. When she was in the hospital her weight dropped to the 70’s. That was when my family came to reality about how bad she really was, she has to eat soft food and she has to drink everything with thickener. Well, “Chorea” means movement, and that is exactly what she does. She is in constant motion, except in her sleep. Therefore she burns a whopping amount of calories and must consume a whopping amount of calories, which is very hard to do considering the types of foods she is limited to. Her dad, her uncles, and her grandpa also had it. There are various other people in my family that currently have it. Huntington’s Chorea is not openly talked about within my family. It’s like the family curse that will eat you alive if you even speak of it. By the way, Me and my sister have a 50/50 chance of having the disease.
www.hdsa.org
teenager with medical marijuana
“SCHOOL WON’T ALLOW STUDENT WITH SEIZURES TO TAKE MARIJUANA PILL”
The story is, a teenager in Colorado has a neurological condition called Myaclonus Diaphragmatic, which causes him to have seizures in his chest and throat. The teen was prescribed medical marijuana to help control the symptoms. The school claims that under State Law the teen can’t take the marijuana pill, not even if he keeps it safe in the nurses office.
This just blows my mind. How many teenagers smoke pot?? Probably quite a few! I think that if that one student who was prescribed legal medical marijuana isn’t allowed to take his meds than they should be drug testing all the kids at the school and sending them home too.
The parents tried setting up a plan for the kid to where if he has a seizure he should go home and take the MJ pill, and the school said that it’s okay as long as he isn’t disruptive or showing signs of impairment once returned in school. There seems to be a lot of miscommunication within this situation because the nurse told the boy that it’s ok if he takes the pill and returns to school …as long as the school doesn’t know about it?! Why would it be a secret if the school said it was okay AS LONG as he doesn’t show signs of impairment.
In my option, I’m not sure I’d even tell the school my business. As long as the kid was taking the situation serious and not telling all of his friends that he gets prescribed marijuana, or distributing it to anyone, I would just keep it on the down low.
The story is, a teenager in Colorado has a neurological condition called Myaclonus Diaphragmatic, which causes him to have seizures in his chest and throat. The teen was prescribed medical marijuana to help control the symptoms. The school claims that under State Law the teen can’t take the marijuana pill, not even if he keeps it safe in the nurses office.
This just blows my mind. How many teenagers smoke pot?? Probably quite a few! I think that if that one student who was prescribed legal medical marijuana isn’t allowed to take his meds than they should be drug testing all the kids at the school and sending them home too.
The parents tried setting up a plan for the kid to where if he has a seizure he should go home and take the MJ pill, and the school said that it’s okay as long as he isn’t disruptive or showing signs of impairment once returned in school. There seems to be a lot of miscommunication within this situation because the nurse told the boy that it’s ok if he takes the pill and returns to school …as long as the school doesn’t know about it?! Why would it be a secret if the school said it was okay AS LONG as he doesn’t show signs of impairment.
In my option, I’m not sure I’d even tell the school my business. As long as the kid was taking the situation serious and not telling all of his friends that he gets prescribed marijuana, or distributing it to anyone, I would just keep it on the down low.
Friday, February 4, 2011
TATTOOS?
The night I turned 18 I was out driving around Independence, MO with a group of friends, It was mine and my friend Angie's birthdays. None of us had tat's and that night we were on a mission to get them! It was the most random decision i've ever made in my life. I'm a pretty spontaneous person to begin with so none of my friends thought anything of it. Most of my friends were, for my taste, kind of boring, always had to plan every detail of the day, never any random excitement, maybe that's why they liked me? To make a meaningless story even more meaningless, that night we drove around the city, and could not find one tattoo shop open!!!! Okay, so we probably only drove down Noland and into Raytown, but still, our mission failed. And I, to this day, still do not have a tattoo. Sad story huh? Angie, however, called me up two weeks later to say she got a tattoo in Colorado of a lady bug on her foot...
I love love LOVE whole body tattoos on most people. I just love that style. I could never pull it off, but if you have one, more power to you! I watched a couple episodes of a show where this guy travels all over the world to get tattoos. The tattoos he gets are like hard core, hand-poking-needle, have -to- get -initiated -in order- to- get -one, kinda tattoos. This man traveled into the jungle so an original head lord (people who cut off peoples heads) would give him a tattoo which his represented Honor, i believe, because he slit the throat of a hog.
Everyone has their own "tattoo rules" so to say. The ones I've heard my whole life are #1. "make sure the tattoo has meaning!", #2 "Never, under any circumstance get the name of the person you're with tattooed to your body" Apparently doing so means that your relationship with that person is doomed from that point on. #3. "Never get a tattoo when you're drunk!" That's an obvious one. #4. "Make sure you have enough money" I've seen plenty of people sportin half done tats, or not colored in ones, I guess that's your personal opinion. I'd want it all the way done though. #5. "Never get a tattoo in a place someone of importance might see" #6. "Make sure the person that is tatting you DOES NOT make a spelling error!"
I'm still planning on getting a tattoo some day. When I can make my mind up with what I want!
I love love LOVE whole body tattoos on most people. I just love that style. I could never pull it off, but if you have one, more power to you! I watched a couple episodes of a show where this guy travels all over the world to get tattoos. The tattoos he gets are like hard core, hand-poking-needle, have -to- get -initiated -in order- to- get -one, kinda tattoos. This man traveled into the jungle so an original head lord (people who cut off peoples heads) would give him a tattoo which his represented Honor, i believe, because he slit the throat of a hog.
Everyone has their own "tattoo rules" so to say. The ones I've heard my whole life are #1. "make sure the tattoo has meaning!", #2 "Never, under any circumstance get the name of the person you're with tattooed to your body" Apparently doing so means that your relationship with that person is doomed from that point on. #3. "Never get a tattoo when you're drunk!" That's an obvious one. #4. "Make sure you have enough money" I've seen plenty of people sportin half done tats, or not colored in ones, I guess that's your personal opinion. I'd want it all the way done though. #5. "Never get a tattoo in a place someone of importance might see" #6. "Make sure the person that is tatting you DOES NOT make a spelling error!"
I'm still planning on getting a tattoo some day. When I can make my mind up with what I want!
Gangs
Gangs
I was watching the show called Gangland today and that sparked my curiosity about gangs. I did some hours of research about gangs, how they start, what types of symbols they sport, what the initiations to get in and out of gangs, what local gangs we have in Missouri, and how to prevent your child from being in a gang.
Gangs have been around for a very long time. Original gangs however, were formed to protect themselves and their neighborhood. Somehow throughout the years it evolved into mass numbers of people joining gangs for money, drugs, trafficking, pimping, illegal gambling, basically gangs form to create a fast money flow for themselves. Gangs create fear of the community by terrorizing innocent bystanders such as random acts of violence like stabbing, drive-by's, or just picking fights on the streets or at schools.
The leader of the gang is the most powerful, and decides how much crime the gang members will do, how much money flow he wants, he runs the gang. The "hardcore" gang members are the older people in the gang that have seen the most action and can create the most violent gang activity. An "associate" gang member is one that looks up to the hard core gang members, and wants to achieve the hard core status. The "fridge" gang member is a drifter, that can't seem to commit to the gang. Finally the "wanna-be's" are just kids who aren't really in a gang, but they think gangs are cool and try to mock them.
Gangs will die off if they don't recruit more members. Members will go anywhere to find new, young, people to recruit. Places like schools, sidewalks, malls, stores, parties, ect. Why would anyone want to join a gang?? And why prey on kids and youth to join? There are many different techniques gangs use to build membership. The first way is by seduction. Gang members are known for dressing in a distinctive attire. They wear certain colors, or throw up gang signs, even have gang tattoos, they have money, drugs, girls, and to some kids or youth who have little or no guidance from parents, all of the material things a gang member offers looks appealing. At parties with youth who drink and get high and want to have the world ,but want it fast and easy, they look to gangs to fulfill the emptiness or thrill they seek in their life. Another tactic used by gangs to recruit new members is call "subterfudge". It basically means that gangs will paint a pretty picture as to what gang-life is like. Some will call it a club or just friends hanging out. Cohersion is a way gangs say "you join the gang or there will be consequences". If someone refuses the offer to join the gang they will beat them, maybe kill them, and their familys.Some people self recruit theirselves because they want to feel protected by enimes or other reasons.
Most importantly we can protect our children by gang prevention. Three ways you can almost assure your child won't join a gang are by stressing manners, making them join a club at school, being involved academically, and just good ole strong parenting.
http://www.gangsorus.com/gang_history.html
http://ln1.lincolnnet.net/users/lrttrapp/http/block/gangs101.htm
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