Week 6 Blog 2

Well, did anyone else see the story on KY3 about the woman from Nevada that wanted to move a mattress? Check out this story that I heard on KY3 this morning.

" An 8-year-old boy is in a hospital after he and a mattress fell off the top of a car on Tuesday.   It also led to a felony charge against Michelle Koutz, 29, of Nevada.
A probable cause statement by a Nevada police officer says Koutz was transporting a used mattress on the roof of a Chevy Lumina and placed the boy on the mattress to hold it in place, but both he and the mattress were blown off.  The officer wrote that Koutz returned the youngster to his mother at a restaurant in Nevada and he was taken to the hospital in Nevada before being flown to Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City.
Koutz could face a prison sentence up to seven years if she’s convicted offirst-degree endangering the welfare of a child.  Her next court appearance is set for Oct. 27.

Really???? Who does that kind of thing???? Maybe this Michelle needed to sit her rear end on top of the mattress that was on top of the car and have someone come drive her across town. I guess I just don't get the rationalization in the whole thought process.

While searching for more information about this case on KOLR 10 and News12, I found another story about a 7 year old girl from Virginia that is recovering from alcohol poisoning after drinking hand sanitizer at school. The father of the child wants to hold the teacher responsible for her "accident". She says she was dared to drink the sanitizer by some of her fellow students.The father says if the children were being supervised this never would have happened. This is something that I can understand both sides. The father wants to blame someone but the teacher can only see so much.

The difference, in my eyes anyway, between the two stories is that in the first story it was an adult that actually put that child in harms way. The latter of the stories was not necessarily the teachers fault. I understand that the children are supposed to be under supervision but I also understand that you can't "catch" absolutely everything a child does.

I guess the whole point to this blog is because I am feeling sad that these children are having to endure such pain. I know these kids are more resilient than we are as adults but can you imagine going through such trauma before the age of 10 and at the hands of someone else?


I know there are many kiddos that go through trauma while they are young but there is a big difference between illness and brutality. My youngest son had spinal meningitis when he was 5 weeks old and that had to be one of the most terrifying experiences of my life but he was sick not mistreated. After seeing how he suffered I can't imagine actually doing something to him to make him suffer that much again.

This one goes out to all the kiddos in the world that are having to live through a traumatic experience....I CARE!!!!!!!

Week 6 Blog 1

Wow, if ever there was a time someone needed to believe in God now would be that time for a guy that works for my husband.

            I know I’ve told you several times that we have a painting company. The job that my husband is working on now happens to be the huge jet plane at the Monett City Park. For those of you that don’t know, this plane is really high in the air. I mean REALLY high.

            In order to get themselves maneuvered around this plane they are using a big lift with a pretty decent sized “basket” on it. Someone has to stay on the ground and operate the lift while the others are painting.  Most of the time, they climb out of the basket and stand on the wings of the jet, with today being no exception.

            My husband was on the ground operating the lift while his crew was up on the plane painting. He looked up at the plane and thought he would just move the lift over a little closer to where his guys were working. He thought he would go ahead and extend the basket as far as it would go just in case on of them slipped. If the basket was there maybe if it did happen they would be lucky enough to fall in the basket and not plummet to the ground. There is no place to hook a safety harness on this plane so you are just up there praying you don’t slip.

            Just seconds after he moved the lift and extended the basket, I mean literally seconds because he had just gotten the engine turned off, one of the big flaps on the planes wing, that one of the guys was standing on, broke and he feel right into the basket that my husband had just extended. He only fell about 4 feet as opposed to all the way to the ground. He was still injured and had to have about 25 stitches on his leg because he fell with one leg on and one leg off the basket and busted his shin. If he would have fell to the ground it is very likely he would have been severely hurt if he lived to tell about it at all.

            My whole purpose to this story is this….things like that do not happen because of luck, they happen because of GOD. Sometimes people need to scratch the luck proposal and look at what truly just happened. He is alive because GOD moved on his behalf. Not only did GOD make sure he fell in the basket, he also made sure that my husband placed the basket right where it needed to be.  I have been trying to get this guy to come to church with my husband and I for a long time now and I told him today that maybe this was his wake-up call from GOD and it’s time to give church a try.

           

Uninsured American's

As I was watching the news this morning I happened to catch a clip about a free dental clinic being set up in Springfield. They said that it will be open today and tomorrow. What I found to be so sad about the whole story was that people had began to form a line for the free clinic yesterday. They said there seemed to already be a full house for today and if you should want to be seen tomorrow you should probably plan on getting there as soon as possible and waiting in line all night.

It is crazy to sit and think about the number of people in this nation that are without health and dental insurance because of the sheer cost of it. Myself, my husband and my children being among those lucky few. My husband is self employed and I am a full time student and we simply can't afford the $3,000 per month it would cost to insure us and only one of our children. I say only one of our other children because our youngest has got severe asthma and we can't get him insured for any amount of money. Since his condition is "pre-existing" no one will insure him. Never mind the fact that he's had it since he was a few months old. The really sad thing is that the $3000 per month it would cost to get insurance would be the absolute worst coverage they have to offer.

I thought I would see how much the numbers have changed over the last year and this is what I found from CNN.  Can you believe that over the years of 2007 and 2008 86.7 million people were without health insurance at one point or another. Part of the problem is that some smaller businesses are not financially stable enough to offer group health insurance and poverty is on the rise. According to http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/13/news/economy/census_bureau_health_insurance/index.htm  the percentage of people that had health insurance through their employers fell to 55.3% from 56.1% the year before.

Here lies my question.....at what point does it end? At what point do those of us that don't have "employer provided" insurance get a chance to have some that is actually affordable? We really had to weigh our options. My youngest son's asthma medicine is over $650 PER MONTH. What are we supposed to do? It's either spend the money every month or he doesn't breath. There is really no contest between the two,but you know what I'm saying. Not to mention the specialist appointments and such, BUT as expensive as all those things are it makes more sense to pay out of pocket than to pay $3000 per month for crappy insurance and still have to pay almost all of what we are paying now.

I was watching a special on 20/20 or maybe it was 60 Minutes, but anyway, they were talking about insurance companies and having the right to refuse children for "pre-existing" conditions such as asthma. It was amazing to me the number of people that are in the same boat we are. How can these companies do that to these children that really need them? What would I do if I just simply couldn't afford his medicine? I'll tell you what I would do....I would starve before I didn't give him what he needed and believe it or not there are a lot of parents out there doing just that....starving themselves so their children can have the medicine they need and that is completely horrific coming from a nation like ours!!!!!!

Week 5 Blog 1

Oh my goodness, fall is in the air. I am so glad its official start is tomorrow (Friday Sept. 23) and it will be time to start decorating for the holidays soon.

Last year I was done Christmas shopping by the end of October and I don’t think I want to do that again. I guess it was nice to not HAVE to get out in the crowd but that’s what makes Holiday shopping the most fun for me. I think I actually spent more money than I would have had I waited until after Thanksgiving.  All the black Friday deals that just couldn’t be missed and all the other “Holiday specials” caused me to kind of go off budget a bit. My kids loved it, but my husband…not so much!!!!!

I think I am most excited for Christmas this year because my 20 year old son will be coming home to visit. When he decided it was time to leave momma’s nest he went way out of momma’s nest. I live in Monett and he moved all the way to San Diego CA.

I think taking him to the airport when he was moving was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I went from my baby boy living at home with me to not being able to see him for months at a time. Not only do we (my husband and I) miss him tremendously but his little brothers are super excited to see him. They all love each other so much and I am so lucky to have 3 great boys.

Korry (oldest son) just got a new iphone so we were able to do FaceTime for the first time a couple of nights ago. That, all in itself, makes the phone worth the money that was spent on it.  For those of you that don’t know what FaceTime is let me explain, it’s kind of like video chatting except instead of using your computer it is from iphone to iphone. You can see each other while you talk and it’s got to be the coolest thing since sliced bread. The two younger boys were so excited to be able to see their brother while they were talking to him. Of course, the youngest (Miles) was able to show his big brother all his papers he had done in the 2^nd grade that day and was so proud that his brother got to see them. Jacob (middle son) also got to show his brother some new things he was doing on his laptop and latest video games which made him extremely happy also.

Of course, last but not least, momma got to see her baby boy for the first time in months. It about makes me cry just thing about it. I am so proud of the things he is doing and he was so brave to move so far away from home. I was so worried at first then my husband sat me down, looked me straight in the face and said…..”he will be just fine, we raised him to be a good, responsible and sensible young man and all we have to do is trust that we did a good job with him”.  I realized right then that my husband was right! We did raise him!! Therefore I know that he knows what to do from here and trust that he will be just fine. It still doesn’t change the fact that I miss him terribly but it does make it easier to not lay awake at night and worry.

Deep Cleaning

So my husband and I have been doing some super deep house cleaning preparing for new carpet, hardwoods in the kitchen and dining room and last but not least painting. Well, the painting will be done first but you know what I mean.

It is so surprising how much clutter and junk can accumulate in homes over the years, especially in the kids rooms. My boys had a tremendous amount of clothes in their closets, until we cleaned them out that is. It is great to have such clean closets in the boys’ rooms but depressing all at the same time. I just figured out that both of them have outgrown EVERYTHING from their PJ’s and underwear to their jeans and long sleeves. It will be a fun and very expensive shopping trip but they have to have clothes….right?!

Another place that seems to collect a bunch of junk is kitchen cabinets. I had enough cookware, bakeware, and storage containers for 3 households. I would often wonder “what happened to that dish”, and think that I just sent it home with one of my sisters or left it at some other family function. Boy was I wrong…it was all buried in the very back of my kitchen cabinets. I really can’t figure out how all of it fit in there without falling out all over the kitchen floor but it did. We donated all of it that we didn’t need so it will help out some other family, which I am so glad to do, but geez why do I buy all those little gadgets with every intention to use them but never do? The “junk drawer” in the kitchen is another place that seems to eat things until it gets cleaned out too. I found receipts from last year in that drawer. I just know I’ve cleaned it out since last year and those receipts had to be hiding from me when I did.

Then there is the hall closet. WOW that was a job. I had more sheet sets, gift bags, candles, dust rags, vacuum bags, etc. in that poor closet. This one I have to put a little blame on my mother-in-law; (she can’t hear me right?); she hoards so much stuff because she always thinks someone may be able to use it someday. Well, that somebody and someday always seems to be my husband and I when she decides to clean her closets. I just didn’t have the heart to tell her no, but we finally had to tell her that we didn’t need anymore, although we did appreciate her concern for our household.

I guess the whole thing to keeping your house clutter free is not buying something just because it’s on sale or looks cool but because you will really use it.

Another great way to remain clutter free is to get new flooring because it basically makes you move out of your house, store your stuff somewhere until it gets done, then move back in the very same house. A lot of work but well worth it….or so I tell my husband anyway!

September 11 anniversary

This weekend marks the 10 year anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center Twin Towers and the Pentagon. I will be using three different resources for this post but it will not be from various websites but from a television program I watched that was from several different sources.

I think everyone probably remembers where they were when they learned of the nightmare that was unfolding in our great country. I was on my way to work and actually got a call from one of my assistants asking if we could go to Wal-Mart and buy a television so we could keep posted on the news. I picked up the television and once we had it set up we sat there speechless for most of the day. I remember the streets were silent and not much was going on. When you would see people walking down the sidewalk they seemed much like myself, in a state of total shock.

One of the television programs I watched this weekend was on Lifetime Move Network and was called “102 Minutes that Changed America”. There were several different people that had grabbed their video cameras and started filming as everything was happening. The was one family that was literally about 2 blocks away in there 52^nd floor apartment and where in so much shock it took them a while to realize they had to evacuate their apartment and it had to be done quickly. There were several people videoing just a few blocks from the attack and everything was in such chaos I almost couldn’t keep up with each story.

I know, we as American’s, will never be the same, but I am proud to say that I think it has made us stronger in a sense. The people that were actually standing at ground zero will forever be changed. There were so many lives lost and so very many heros.

I think I cried through the whole program. Some were tears of sadness, some where tears of being so extremely proud to be an American, and some where just that…tears.

I hope everyone took the time to think back and remember the people that lost their lives, both by the attack itself and the heros that tried to rescue those victims. It is quite humbling when you consider how fast things can happen in our lives. We all got out of bed that day and expected it to be a normal day. Rush here, rush there, and never taking time to really recognize what is important. Not a one of us knew that it was going to be one of the worst days in history until it was already over.

I challenge everyone that reads this to take a moment and say a little prayer. Not only for the victims, but their families as well. I think we need to also say a little prayer and thank God for allowing us to be an American. It is because of this great country that we get to do these blog’s and have our right to say what we feel.

Labor Day Weekend

What a crazy couple of weeks this has been. I love long holiday weekends but it always seems to make for a long week. Does that make sense to anyone but me? It just seems that everything is thrown off and I fight all week to get back on track. The long weekends sure are fun while they last though.  I think students that actually go to campus instead of doing everything on-line have a big advantage because most on-line instructors don’t adjust any assignments to counteract a holiday and there are several that NEVER recognize spring break.

Enough gripping about school. Did everyone have a good Labor Day weekend? I know my family had a blast. We decided at the last minute to spend the weekend at Big M and by the time we decided for sure, there where no more camp sites available so we ended up staying with cousins that had rented a gigantic cabin. We had a total of 8 adults and 8 children. It was a complete madhouse but was also a beautiful cabin, complete with a private swimming pool for when you got tired of the boat and the lake. I think my kids are still trying to swim in their sleep.

I don’t think there has ever been that many people on the boat. Thank goodness it is big enough to handle it and strong enough to still pull the kids on the tube and knee boards. We didn’t have any wake boarders this time around since that is usually my oldest son’s department and he is now in San Diego CA going to college.

It’s so funny to see the difference in the courage of the kids the older they get. I remember my middle son being scarred to go too fast behind the boat not to many years ago but now he “double dog dares” his dad to try and throw him off the tube, which seemed to be a pretty difficult task this time around. We had 4 teenage kids with us and between my husband and all my son-in-laws three of the four came out of the water trying real hard not to cry because when they did FINALLY get thrown off the tube they hit the water HARD! All of us girls, myself and my sisters, where yelling at the dad’s to take it easy and all the men turned into “boys” themselves and “it was on” as they put it. I have to say it was quite funny watching the boys and their dads battle it out in water sports. All us girls could do was laugh and pray no one had to make an ER visit. I think at one point I made that very comment…that an ER visit would put a kink in the entire weekend so maybe we better chill out a little, but the men where just like the children in the fact that they had very selective hearing that day.

All in all it was a fabulous weekend and I can’t wait for lake season to roll around again next year.