MUST READ...Online Internet Predators...

I received this email from a friend and I think it's worth a great read! Don't dismiss it because this scenario can easily happen anywhere to anyone who has access to instant messenger applications.

Makes one think....

EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ ALL OF THIS and HAVE YOUR CHILDREN READ IT TOO!

After tossing her books on the sofa, she decided to grab a snack and get on-line . She logged on under her screen name ByAngel213. She checked her Buddy List and saw GoTo123 was on. She sent him an instant message:

ByAngel213:
Hi. I'm glad you are on! I thought someone was following me home today. It was really weird!

GoTo123:
LOL You watch too much TV. Why would someone be following you? Don't you live in a safe neighborhood?

ByAngel213:
Of course I do. LOL I guess it was my imagination cuz' I didn't see anybody when I looked out.

GoTo123:
Unless you gave your name out on-line. You haven't done that have you?

ByAngel213:
Of course not. I'm not stupid you know.

GoTo123:
Did you have a softball game after school today?

ByAngel213:
Yes and we won!!

GoTo123:
That's great! Who did you play?

ByAngel213:
We played the Hornets. LOL. Their uniforms are so gross! They look like bees. LOL

GoTo123:
What is your team called?

ByAngel213:
We are the Canton Cats. We have tiger paws on our uniforms. They are really cool.

GoTo123:
Did you pitch?

ByAngel213:
No I play second base. I got to go. My homework has to be done before my parents get home. I don't want them mad at me. Bye!

GoTo123:
Catch you later. Bye

Meanwhile......GoTo123 went to the member menu and began to search for her profile. When it came up, he highlighted it and printed it out. He took out a pen and began to write down what he knew about Angel so far.

Her name: Shannon
Birthday: Jan. 3, 1985
Age: 13
State where she lived: North Carolina

Hobbies: softball, chorus, skating and going to the mall. Besides this information, he knew she lived in Canton because she had just told him. He knew she stayed by herself until 6:30 p.m. every afternoon until her parents came home from work. He knew she played softball on Thursday afternoons on the school team, and the team was named the Canton Cats. Her favorite number 7 was printed on her jersey. He knew she was in the eighth grade at the Canton Junior High School. She had told him all this in the conversations they had on- line. He had enough information to find her now.

Shannon didn't tell her parents about the incident on the way home from the ballpark that day. She didn't want them to make a scene and stop her from walking home from the softball games. Parents were always overreacting and hers were the worst. It made her wish she was not an only child. Maybe if she had brothers and sisters, her parents wouldn't be so overprotective.

By Thursday, Shannon had forgotten about the footsteps following her.

Her game was in full swing when suddenly she felt someone staring at her. It was then that the memory came back. She glanced up from her second base position to see a man watching her closely.

He was leaning against the fence behind first base and he smiled when she looked at him. He didn't look scary and she quickly dismissed the sudden fear she had felt.

After the game, he sat on a bleacher while she talked to the coach. She noticed his smile once again as she walked past him. He nodded and she smiled back. He noticed her name on the back of her shirt. He knew he had found her.

Quietly, he walked a safe distance behind her. It was only a few blocks to Shannon's home, and once he saw where she lived he quickly returned to the park to get his car.

Now he had to wait. He decided to get a bite to eat until the time came to go to Shannon's house. He drove to a fast food restaurant and sat there until time to make his move.

Shannon was in her room later that evening when she heard voices in the living room.

"Shannon, come here," her father called. He sounded upset and she couldn't imagine why. She went into the room to see the man from the ballpark sitting on the sofa.

"Sit down," her father began, "this man has just told us a most interesting story about you."

Shannon sat back. How could he tell her parents anything? She had never seen him before today!

"Do you know who I am, Shannon?" the man asked.

"No," Shannon answered.

"I am a police officer and your online friend, GoTo123."

Shannon was stunned. "That's impossible! GoTo is a kid my age! He's 14. And he lives in Michigan!"

The man smiled. "I know I told you all that, but it wasn't true You see, Shannon, there are people on-line who pretend to be kids; I was one of them. But while others do it to injure kids and hurt them, I belong to a group of parents who do it to protect kids from predators. I came here to find you to teach you how dangerous it is to talk to people on-line. You told me enough about yourself to make it easy for me to find you. You named the school you went to, the name of your ball team and the position you played. The number and name on your jersey just made finding you a breeze."

Shannon was stunned. "You mean you don't live in Michigan?"

He laughed. "No, I live in Raleigh. It made you feel safe to think I was so far away, didn't it?"

She nodded.

"I had a friend whose daughter was like you. Only she wasn't as lucky. The guy found her and murdered her while she was home alone. Kids are taught not to tell anyone when they are alone, yet they do it all the time on-line. The wrong people trick you into giving out information a little here and there on-line.. Before you know it, you have told them enough for them to find you without even realizing you have done it. I hope you've learned a lesson from this and won't do it again. Tell others about this so they will be safe too?"

"It's a promise!"

That night Shannon and her Dad and Mom all knelt down together and thanked God for protecting Shannon from what could have been a tragic situation.

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Work Work Work

Whomever coined the phrase "A mom's work is never done" really hit the nail on the head!!!! I feel like I've been going non-stop today! I get up, get the boy's breakfast, nurse the baby, change her, ensure the boys get dressed to their shoes, and then get them all into a safe place in the house so I can get in the shower for 10 minutes. We head out the door, I drop the boys off at school, then proceed to take the baby to my dad's store so he can watch her while I go and pick up Jacksons team's T-Ball uniforms. I go back to the store, pick up the baby, drop her off with my mom (who proceeds to take her back to the store so they can be w/my dad...why did I even bother to pick her back up?!?!) so I can get home to work. Then I log into a team meeting. Then I switch gears again and organize the team uniforms, get back to working, make dinner, get back to working, and now finally I can take a break and do something for me!

WHEW! I'm exhausted and the night is still young!

Working From Home or Stay At Home...Do we use the same excuses?

Here's a thought provoking question that on the surface may upset some people who are on one side of the fence or the other. So here's my disclaimer...by asking this question, I intend NO DISRESPECT and NO HARM to the readers out there. This is plainly for my own curiosity and because I have moments when I question why it is I stick to the decision and path I have chosen. I just want to see if there are other women out there who ponder the same thing I do or am I the only neurotic over thinker in this world?

My question is, do working moms and stay at home use the same excuses for not being the 1950s/1970s ideal image of "Supermom"?

My idea of a supermom:
1. Takes care of her children
2. Has an imaculate looking house
3. Looks great all the time
4. When unexpected guests drop by, welcomes them with open arms and good snacks to eat w/o having to do the 10 minute run and hide (of stuff).
5. Volunteers to help out at the kid's school, in the community, or even works outside the home.
6. Breakfasts and Dinners are always homemade.
7. She can bake incredible desserts from scratch.
8. She always appears happy and nothing bothers her.
9. She is the wife that your husband's friends wished they had.
10. She's the mom your kid's friends wish they had.

Yes, I know this list it daunting and probably unrealistic. But if you think about it everyone of us has a little bit of supermom in us. However we never seem to be able to pull it all together at once. I know my excuse for not having a clean house or a homemade meal on the table is "because I worked all day". I definitely don't bake from scratch...I barely bake and because of my work hours, I can't volunteer at my kid's school. So I start to wonder, would I be using the same excuse if I was a stay at home mom? Would I become a supermom? Or would my excuse for not having a clean house or homemade meal morph into "I took care of the kids all day"?

Your thoughts....

Well-baby visits

Both Jackson and Taylor had their well-baby visits this past Friday. Jackson is 36 inches tall and 30 pounds. Taylor is 26 1/4 inches and 15.4 pounds (she's a little baby, I can say her weight ;-)). The kids are growing so well. They both received shots and did marvelously...very little crying...Jackson didn't cry at all!!! Taylor's world of food will be opening up very soon. The doctor said she can eat a lot more table foods. Actually since I make my own baby food, she's been doing that anyway. But she can have all the veggies, fruits, rice (not just rice cereal), cereal, pasta, etc. He wants her to have a large variety of foods not. YAY!!! I had forgotten when it was that we could start her on Cheerios...now I know. Jackson has to learn boundries. Walking holding hands (which he does), stranger danger (he's kind of shy around new people anyway), street crossing safety (I gotta work on this one w/my oldest as well), etc.
the doctor also wants us to use toilet locks now that Taylor is mobile. Hmmmm, that'll be tough because Jackson has now comleted potty training and I don't want that to be an obstacle for him. I appreciate that the doctor wants us to be very cautious especially since in Tucson alone we have had 10 near drownings this year of children under the age of 12. But I also can't take any unnecessary chances with Jackson's progress either. I'm hoping that for now keeping the toilet lids closed and the bathroom doors closed will be sufficient.

Halloween Costumes

I'm proudly displaying the costumes that my kids are wearing this year. I'm really hoping that they'll get more than 2 wearings out of them!

Pirate Princess

An Incredible Sighting

Clone War Trooper

Halloween Costumes have been chosen

The kids finally decided what they were going to be for Halloween. I have a Mr. Incredible, a Clone War Trooper and a Pirate Princess. If I could figure out how to upload photos to this blog I would post the pictures I took.

The teeth are here!

Today, Taylor cut her first and is cutting her second tooth. She has actually handled the whole thing surprisingly well. It's october and now she'll have the "jack-o-lantern" smile in time for Halloween!

Family Calendar

Juggling 3 kids and 2 adult's schedules is tough. I am so grateful to have my own family calendar. I use the GO MOM! Planner by at-a-glance. Plug::: www.gomominc.com. On many occasions this calendar has saved us! This past weekend for instance we double booked ourselves and I forgot about it. Had it not been for the calendar, my boys would have missed out on a friend's birthday party. Everytime we get a new invitation or have to schedule something in advance, it goes into my calendar. The only bad thing about it...I have the master copy. I have tried printing out a monthly calendar and hanging it on the fridge but that piece of paper just gets covered by one of the kid's art pieces. I wish there was a way to keep my husband in tune to our calendar without me constantly having to send him emails about up and coming events.

Any suggestions?

Can't Sleep

I don't know about any of you but I find it very difficult to go to sleep when my husband is not home. We are still in the process of moving into our new home and as fate would have it, part of being in transition means that some nights we are sleeping in separate houses. I complain about the snoring and the tossing and turning but in all honesty, when he's not around, I really miss the snoring and tossing and turning. You would think that I would enjoy having a nice big bed all to myself but in reality, it's kind of lonely. Here I am up and it's almost midnight (Arizona Time) and I'm still wired. I can't go to sleep! When Tony is around, all I want to do is sleep. It must be a comfort level thing??? Any thoughts on this?

To buy or not to buy in bulk that is the question...

As always I am on a mission to cut our overall household grocery budget. But at the same time, I'm trying to lose the weight I gained while pregnant with Taylor. I have been reading many online articles that give the top 10 tips/tricks to losing weight as well as the top 10 tips/tricks to cutting the grocery budget. One item stands out as the major discrepancy between the 2 camps...Buying in Bulk...

The weight loss articles have in the top 3 tricks "don't buy in bulk...resist the urge to shop at co-op stores...etc."

The budgeting articles have in the top 3 tricks "shop in bulk...join a food co-op...join a family dinner co-op, etc."

Where do we as consumers draw the line? Do we risk our waistlines for saving money or do we blow the budget to lose a few pounds? It's a catch-22 and a never ending cycle.

So my question is: What do you choose to focus on budgeting or weight loss?