happylopezlady's Blog

Tonight during the 5:00pm news they showed the new public service commercial for Breast Cancer awareness.  This is a powerful ad.  It urges women at the end to get a mamogram if not for themselves for the ones that love them. 

This has been on my mind alot lately.  I have let my own health take second, third and now fourth priority.  As a mom and a wife my needs don't seem as important.  After seeing this commercial I realized that if I don't take care of myself how selfish that really is.  I think the last time I saw my Dr. my youngest was 1 and he turns 5 next month.  

Breast cancer has reared it's ugly head again in our own lives.  My step-mother survived breast cancer 13 years ago.  Now we all have to sit and wait to hear whether or not it's back.  She has to have the entire lump removed for testing because two attemps at a biopsy weren't conclusive.  I've been so proud of her because she quit smoking after their last visit here in July because my son saw her smoking outside and began mimiking her with his pretend cigarettes.  She did this to improve her health, unfortunetly she gained alot of weight.  I read an article the other day about how important it is NOT to gain weight after breast cancer.  Weight gain increases estrogen and which can stimulate the cancer cells.  I wish I had seen this article along time ago, but which was worse the cigarettes or gaining the weight?

Between the ad I saw tonight and the fear of losing my step-mother all over again, maybe this was the extra push that I needed to get into the Dr. and finally have my first mamogram.  I'll do this for everyone that I love and that loves me, as much as it scares the cr_p out of me.   Wish me luck!  

I was so upset when I heard the story about the Target in Lake Geneva firing the security guard that stoped the 16 yr. old shoplifter.

Then Target makes the statement "...is committed to providing a safe and comfortable environment for guest and staff.  We only make apprehensions under a set stringent criteria."

I have met Mr. Dean Babcock several times when he was a Delavan police officer and he is such a wonderful person and is passionate about standing up for children and their welfare.  When I shopped at the new Target store only weeks ago I felt a strong sense of safefy when I saw Mr. Babcock was a security guard.

Let me say that this now very public policy of theirs will come back to bite them in the rear!  Now shoplifters know how lienent they are in the enforcement of shoplifting.  This hurts all of us!  We all end up paying for theft by higher prices in the store. 

Mr. Babcock you did the right thing and should have been given an award not fired!   We need more people to stand up and do the right things instead of what "policy" tells them they should do!       

The three men attacked by the tiger at the California zoo taunted that poor animal!

In the former blogs about this subject I questioned whether alcohol was involved because of behavior I have witnessed myself at our Milwaukee zoo.  Now it has come out that all three had mariquanna and alcohol in their system. 

So do you feel that alcohol should be allowed at the Milwaukee zoo or is this just an isolated insident in California?

Have you ever witnessed BAD behavior at a zoo that involved individuals under the influence of alcohol?

HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY TO MY SON ANTHONY!  

    I was just watching the Morning Show on fox6  about materity leave for teens and whether teens that are pregnant should be allowed to attend regular public school classes.  

    The arguement against having them attend regular classes with other students was that it glamorizes teen pregnancy with all the attention that these girls receive.  (all the cute maternity clothes and then an adorable little baby and all the cute little baby clothes to go with that)  This can lead to other teens that are impressionable following in those footsteps.

    The arguement for not forcing pregnant teens into alternative schools was that it "demonizes" the mothers of these babies.  "We should do everything in our power to help support these young mothers to continue with their education."

    I think  that all schools should have a written policy on this so as to not be put in the postion to have to make a case by case decision or an "unwritten rule" about it.    I myself am curious now as to what is the policy in my school district.

    This effects every child at a school not just the one who is pregnant.  Schools have all kinds of policies against a students appearence at school.  Most policies state that if it is deamed distracting to other students the school may forbid it.  Thinking about the dress codes listed in my own childrens school, it is meant to protect the environment that all students are subjected to.  Preventing a child from wearing a mini-skirt or spaghetti strap tank tops or open weaved clothing at school is to try to keep the focus away from a sexually charged environment.    

    So should it be the right of a school to forbid a pregnant teen to attend regular classes and have them attend an alternative school?  How would you feel if this were your decision as a school board member?    

Has anyone out there ever bought a pair of MBT (Masai Barefoot Technology) shoes.  If so what did you think of them?  Were they worth the money?  Did you have any weight loss or pain relief?

Through the internet I have found a couple of places that sell them in Milwaukee.  The prices that I have found seem to be from $250 to $159.  These shoes are suppose to increase your muscle usage and help with posture and hip and joint pain.  I would like to tone my legs (especially since I have a pronounced pear figure) but also I experience alot of hip pain and it gets worse when I try to increase my activity.  

I'm not looking for a miracle cure but it would be interesting to hear if there is anyone out there that has any knowledge of these shoes and of their claims.  (I also found these on line at amazon.com) 

I'm sitting here kinda being a couch potatoe with the boys.  They are inside warming up from playing outside in the snow and I said lets see what's on tv.  I was sure there would be some really good movies on, it is December and on a Saturday afternoon there should be lots to choose from, right! 

Then as I scan the tv guide channel I see "Carrie" , "The Bone Collector" and "Kiss the Girls".  WHAT!  Did I just go through some kind of time wharp, did we just go back to October.  I would expect to see these kind of movies around that time of year but really, come on...it is the Christmas season.   

I guess I will put one of our movies on. (after they get done watching Scooby-Doo)

Is this really the kind of movies that Charter cable thinks their customers want to watch ten days before Christmas...or is this some kind of sick joke on their behalf!!!

Last year I started a new tradition that I wanted to continue with but have a limited budget.  We gave out x-mas gifts to every neighbor on our block.  It wasn't alot, a nice soy candle with a card with the greetings from all of us,  but with about 16 that we gave out this year that's not in the budget.   It was a great way of teaching kindness and generosity to our kids.  We loaded up our stroller and went door to door and had the kids place the gift bags on everyone's door steps.  It was supprising how many wonderful thank you cards and phone calls we received.

This year for Christmas we are cutting way back on the amount of money we plan on spending and have opted for some homemade (from the heart) gifts.  I just thought I'd pass some of these along incase there is anyone else looking for ways to give something without it costing alot.

The kids and I have been working on tree ornaments to pass out this year.  We used our cookie cutters and I made  Clay dough to make them out of.  I have an entire room that is our craft room so I always have plenty of paint and such. 

      CLAY DOUGH :  4 cups white flour, 1 cup salt, 1 1/2 cup water

      Mix this dough and roll out as you would for regular cookies.  You can bake these "ornaments" at 350 degrees for 1/2 to 1 hour depending on the thickness.  I actually prefer to make mine thin and put them in the oven on warm overnight to dry out.  (Sometimes they will puff up if they are baked at 350 degrees.)   It is so much fun to decorate these and have them to look at rather than eating up alot of calories!  Make sure you use a straw to make a hole to hang them from before baking and painting them.

Another gift idea is inspirational Wall Words.  If anyone has seen these on their web site(google Wall Words)  you will see that most cost between $40-$50.  Instead of purchasing these for myself I came up with a way to do them myself without trying to line them up letter by letter on the wall with stencils.  Buy a roll of clear contact paper and some nice letter stencils and paint your own then cut each word out and peel and stick up on your wall.  Everyone comments on mine in my house and you can't tell it's contact paper and then it can be removed if you later wish without re-painting.  Mine have been up for almost 2 yrs. and they have not yellowed or peeled.

Some examples of ones I've used:

Insanity is heredatary, you get it from your kids

Life's two best comforts, good food and a hug.

Always kiss me goodnight.

Good coffee is a pleasure...Good friends are a treasure.

Home is where you story begins.

Once you invest in the stencils in a script that and size that you like these can be made for pennys.                            

    Well we had a really great time on our Disney Cruise and I highly reccomend this cruise line,  I will get around to posting some pictures soon.

But it was what I came home to that has consumed all of my thoughts lately.  The day after we returned home I received three packages in the mail from amazon.com that I did not order.  After I opened the packages to see what it was I knew exactly who to suspect because these were "Zune Media players", one in each color!  It took me all day to search through my accounts and my e-mails because all of my passwords were changed!  Finally I found e-mails from amazon reguarding the orders placed and passwords being changed that had been put into the trash bin of the computer.  My own 15 yr. old son did this to me!!!  He placed alot of orders that he cancelled before they shipped, mainly because my Visa check card was declined because he had already drained the account.  All in all he took about $650 out of my checking account.  He had a key (that he was not suppose to have) and entered my home the very next day after we had left and came back several times using my computer to order things from my amazon account.  I went to the police...this may seem extreme to some parents. The only reason he was'nt with us on vacation was the fact that he insisted on moving out when he turned 15 and went to live with his father because he didn't like the fact that I came down on him so hard when he got in trouble for stealing at school TWICE!  Then he committed another crime after living with his dad and was now on probation so the police officer told me that his social worker would more than likely order him into detention for violating the santions in his court order to stay out of trouble.  Nope!  I find out through his sister that he was put on an electronic monitoring bracelet instead.  How is this punishment for what he did to us.  He confessed to the police, although he says he doesn't have the shipment that arrived before I got home, which of corse is a lie.  I have two media players that I was able to return but the third was sent through a different company and they state on their return policy that electronics including these media players are not returnable!  Out of the $650 that I have lost it looks I may only recoupe about $260.  Had he went through with more of the orders he placed he would have taken more than $3,000 from us, so I guess I'm gratefull he cancelled some of those orders!  But here we sit trying to scrape by and unless my returns show up in my account soon we won't be paying many bills this month.  How could my own kid do this and not even offer an appology?  And why is this not being taken more seriously by the system!!!....(until his crimes keep progressing and become violent?)   

I don't know why I still am suprised when people do things like this.  I guess I expect better character from the human race!

Last Sunday I was enjoying one of my favorite things to do, shop at Goodwill!  I was so pleased with myself because of all the great deals I was finding on shirts for my boys and my husband.  Life was great and I was so into my shopping and then I saw this really great Lands End pink robe, like new!  Score!  Then a really nice dress that I wanted to try on, so then I had to find an employee to let me into a dressing room.  The dress fit and I was ready to check out so I did.  I came right home and told the boys and my husband that I found them some great shirts for our Disney cruise coming up in a few weeks.  We started going through the bags and I realized I was missing the boys shirts, oh no I thought I'd left a bag at the check out so I went back to the store.  Nope!  I came home and counted the items and looked at the receipt, I had never paid for the shirts that I couldn't find.  Only then did I realize I didn't have the pink robe either.  Someone went through my cart while I was in the dressing room!  HOW RUDE IS THAT!!!  I was so mad, I had spent so much time and effort looking through rows of clothes to find those items and someone just thought it was ok to go through everthing in my cart and take what they wanted.  

It just makes you wonder what goes through people's minds when they do things like that, it was'nt really stealing because I hadn't paid for it yet but it is just such rude behavior.

Ok, I'm done, I just really needed  to vent my frustration.  Deep breath.........let it go right? 

I don't get out to the movies as much as I would like to so I get very excited when a movie I had wanted to see comes out on DVD.

My new favorite hands down has got to be WILD HOGS.  I have watched it several times now and have lent it out to many.  Anyone who has not seen it you need to run out and get this one!

  I couldn't help but wonder if any of the fox 6 "WILD HOGS" have seen this one and if so what did you think of it?  I remember that Vince,  Ted and one who's name escapes me (web team producer I think?) said they had a biker "gang" of their own and I was wondering if you guys had gotten together for a long ride together yet?  Which one of you would be closest to the charactor Duddley?  Who will be the first one to rat out the other as "Duddley"?

Katrina had a blog last week asking about whether or not we sleep with our children...

I saw this really interesting story about a Dr. that has completed this new study looking into 31 cases of SIDS.  With every single case he found that every baby had the same result on the hearing test done at the hospital when they were born.  Each baby had the same abnormal readings in the same ear!  They are looking into it further to see if they can prevent high risk babies from dying. 

While I think this is a really interesting study how would you like to be the parent that is told that after testing their babies hearing that they may be at risk of dying in their sleep and they may not be able to prevent it but lets keep an eye on it and see if this one makes it!  I was so afraid of this myself I can remember breathing alittle easier once the baby was 3-4 months old.

Check out this guy on YouTube,         http://mitchenglish.blogspot.com/2007
/07/biggest-thing-to-hit-youtube.html          Anyone who watches Mitch English on the Daily Buzz is trying to get him on the show for Monday.  (Just had to say Mitch is a fabulous funny guy and is someone I went to school with growing up in FL.)

I just had to share this recipe for anyone looking for a quick,  low-fat,  low-cal treat!

Brownie Muffins:

1 Box of Devils food Chocolate cake mix

1 15oz. can of pumpkin (solid pack)

Mix those two ingredients together, and nothing else!!!  I'm not kidding, you will be tempted to add something but don't.  Spoon into your paper lined muffin tin (I give the papers a light mist of cooking spray) and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

These wonderful muffins only have 180 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, 37 carbs, 2.5 fiber, 2.5 protein and if you count points with weight watchers only 3 points!