HOT TOPIC!!! HEAT KILLS!!!

I remember as a teenager my Dad went to the store and found an elderly women in a Volkswagen gasping for air!  She was locked in (for her safety) the windows were only rolled down about an inch.  I remember him describing how he tried to open the doors and they were locked, she was gasping and fading so fast.  They had parked in the RED ZONE because they were just going to run in for a minute!  After exhausting all of his possibilities… he told her he was going to kick in the window!  AND HE DID!!!  And she gasp a fresh breath of air… He saved her LIFE! 

I know I have said so many times that my Dad is my HERO, this is just one example of why.  He saved her life because they did not realize what could have happened to her in the heat.

Ok that was MANY YEARS AGO… there have been countless stories of pets and children and elderly people dying in the heat in a parked car.  We all have been educated on this over and over again!!!  WHY??? WHY??? Do we still continue to hear these stories???

EVERY YEAR… I am sickened by the stories I hear on the news or read on the internet about somebody leaving their pets, kids or the elderly in a parked car!!! 

HOW MANY TIMES DO PEOPLE HAVE TO BE HIT OVER THE HEAD!!!  I don’t care where you live!  When it’s getting warmer outside it is HOT IN YOUR VEHICLE… even in just a few minutes the temperature can rise and KILL!

Come on people…   NO MORE EXCUSES!!!  Don’t leave your Children, Your Elderly or YOUR PETS in the heat!!!  I don’t care if it’s a BACKYARD, a VEHICLE, or a HOUSE!!!  It only takes MINUTES!

Here’s another one from just the other day!

APRIL 11, 2011  DOG DIES IN HOT PARKED CAR

Only one dog was moving.

One was lying flat on the floorboard. One was showing clear signs of distress, heavy panting,” Altamonte Springs Police Department spokesman Robert Pelton said.Police were called and got into the car through an unlocked door. One dog appeared dead. The officer immediately poured water on the surviving pug.

Rescuers put an IV into the animal.

It was another hour before the owners came out. 

Bridget Casiano, 41, and Nancy Charrez, 47, said they had only been gone a few minutes, but parking lot cameras said they were gone an hour before security found the dog.It was a total of 2 hours 10 minutes before they returned to where they were parked, investigators said.”Within 50 minutes, that vehicle is going to be over 150 degrees, so you can only imagine what those dogs were going through,” Pelton said.Both women were arrested on charges of animal cruelty.”In just a matter of minutes, your car will reach 120 degrees. That’s just no temperature that any dog can survive in,” Seminole County Animal Services spokeswoman Diane Gagliano said.The windows in the black car were left down a few inches. Experts said that just doesn’t help.”Sit in your car, and it gets excruciatingly hot,” Gagliano said.The surviving pug is in foster care and doing well.

Ode to Granny, Talents of a Child

Growing up I was lucky enough to get to spend the summer in Oregon with my Granny & Grandpa.  It started out as a family vacation and then my Mom and Dad would go home and we (me and my sisters) got to stay for the rest of the summer.

My Granny was a women of many, many talents.  Married to my Grandpa for over 75 years, they met in a shoe factory in Missouri.  Soon after that she became a nurse.  I have heard so many stories from the nursing days but one of the most memorable ones was when she was the attending nurse for Sammy Davis Jr. when he lost his eye in a car accident on the way to Las Vegas to do a show.  As she told it, he was quite charming and gentle natured, she didn’t think a thing about the color of his skin, except to tell him that her daughter turns as dark as him in the summertime. 

She loved animals and children, and they all, big or small loved her.  There was just a way about her.  Everybody wanted to hang out at her house.  Even the neighborhood dogs wanted to move in to Granny’s house, one actually did, Benji, as she re-named him because he was like the dog from the movie Benji.  No matter how many times she would take him home he just kept coming back. 

I stood stiff as a board and watched as she talked to a wild deer “come on honey here’s a cracker for you” and the deer walked right up and took it out of her hand.  She also loved to fish and had a handfull of wigs she would throw on because we would head out so early in the morning “fishing wigs” she called them.   Then of course Grandpa had to build her a pond in the backyard so she could keep the catfish in it, they somehow became pets not to be eaten. 

And cook! No one, I mean no one could throw a meal together in no time and out of practically nothing that was delicious!  Once I saw her make a pie crust from the crumbs in the cookie jar, she had come through the Great Depression, and they didn’t waste anything! She was also a modern women, I remember her making a steamed vegetable platter she saw in a magazine, she cooked it in this new thing called a microwave.  Yes, my Granny could sew, cook, fish, she even played basketball in high school because she was tall for a girl, but best of all, she just loved.

After she retired she took up painting, oil painting, just a hobby.  She displayed some of her paintings at the Yaquina Art Gallery on the Oregon coast where she and her friends would take turns “babysittn the gallery”, she even sold a few. 

One of the greatest things she passed on to me was that I could do anything myself.  She had an empty dresser drawer in the spare bedroom that she would fill up all year with goodies for us.  When we pulled up to her house the first thing we would do, after all the hugs and kisses, was make a beeline for the dresser.  It was full of all kinds of things but most of all projects we could work on together.  I loved that, it’s probably the reason why I enjoy doing so many different things now. 

Because of my Granny I have always tried to have something for the kids to do.  Today I said to Lexi (8 years old) “we need to do a project”, she replied “I want to write a story”.  So while Lexi wrote her story,  I thought of my Granny, and the wonderful dresser drawer full of memories.  I have a lot of drawers in my house, filled with all kinds of stuff, and I’m just hoping that there will be some memories for them to take along the way. 

SCROLL PAST HAND WRITTEN VERSION FOR THE TYPED VERSION

“THE PRINCESS” as written by Lexi

Once upon a time there was a princess.  She was only 8 and her name was Sarha.  She would get every thing she wanted except a prince.  She was mad that her mom and dad wouldn’t let her have a prince.  So one day she begged her mom and dad for a prince but they both said no.  So when she got bigger she snucked out when her mom and dad where a sleep.  So then she started walking untill a boy came up to her.  She asked him if he could be her prince.  So the boy said yes so Sarha said meet me tomorrow and the boy said by the way my name is David.  So the next day Sarha brought him to her house.  So Sarha got her mom and dad.  Next she brought her mom and dad to the boy and Sarha said this is David.  So they sat down and talked and Sarha’s mom and dad where thinking that she was old enough to have a prince.  So they both said Sarha you can have a prince.  Sarha was so happy.  So she said thank you.  So Sarha asked David if he still wanted to be her prince and David said yes.  She was so happy.  So the next day she moved out of her mom’s and dad’s house.  Also Sarha said would you marry me.  So David said yes and so they would do everything together.  They said we are the perfect match.  They both said yep we are.  Also they would never yell at each other or fight at each other.  They were so happy together they both lived happley ever after. 

THE END

This, from an 8 year old!

New to the Hood...

 I Heart Mom’s!

I have only just began this new journey of blogging, I didn’t know a thing about it, still learning everyday. I started in June 2009, with the hopes of opening my heart and sharing some of my life, my experiences. And yes, I’m not going to lie to you, with hopes of bringing in a little bit of income along the way. I truly think that I might have something to bring to the world that could be of interest to somebody just as so many others have brought to me. Having been touched in so many ways by reading other peoples views on life. It’s been eye opening! Heart warming to say the least. And it is a wonderful way to stay in touch with the world outside of my own.

Today I read a post by Jennifer James founder of the Mom Bloggers Club that made me feel welcome as a new blogger.  It was just more proof of how great mom’s are and why I chose this place to hang out.

Motherhood, I can only imagine what a wonderful place this is, as I am only a mommy, of doggy’s and fish (OMG I just realized I forgot to feed the fish)!  I have only had the pleasure of experiencing kids of the two legged kind from other mom’s.  And for that I am grateful!  Thank you for lending me your children to enjoy.

What is Motherhood to me… Nurturing, Caring, Unconditional love, the ability to make all ends meet, always wondering if she is doing the right thing but never giving up, making a difference in the world with the life she has presented it.  Yes, that life, that you gave us, will make a difference in the world!  I think motherhood it is not only wonderful but a very courageous.  I totally admire and salute you! 

The Wonderful… just the fact that it can even happen, this is a part of you, your DNA, your gift to the world, your proof that God does rule (and if you don’t believe in God, please tell me how this all happens). It has got to be amazing!  The whole experience from learning that you actually have a human life developing in your body!  Feeling the movement, finding it so hard to believe that it is real.  WOW!  The delivery (as I have mentioned before, labor stories scared the crap out of me at an early age, so be careful what you say around young girls)!  As one of my friends once said before the birth of her first child “Ok then what do I do with it”.  But you always know what to do, why, because your a Mom. 

The Courage… just the fact that you have brought someone into this world!  I can only imagine that you hope that the world will be good to them.  That life is going to be an adventure and be as kind and tough on them as it was on you.  That they are going to make the best of it and realize the greatness it presents along the way.  You will instill values, with hopes that they learn from your achievements as well as learn from your mistakes.  

What I love about children, especially today, is that they are so smart!  On a daily basis I watch my great nephew Caiden (3 yrs old) learn and grow.  I love to experience this process and can only hope that I am a part of what he needs.  Everyday he brings a plethora of joy, love, anger and frustration to my life.  Joy,  because of the things he says and does.  Love, because he makes my heart feel so full.  Anger and frustration, because he won’t do what I have told him to do and I can’t figure out a way to make him understand.  Whew!  It’s a learning process everyday, a joyful process.  And at the end of the day I have so many reflections to look back on and say yes it was a great day even with all of the ups and downs.  All of them are magnificent, even though I am tired, happy, sad, whatever.  At the end of the day it was all worth it!  I learned, I felt, I lived!