FLDS not looking too good...

Appeals court axes hearing on FLDS kids' relocation
The Salt Lake Tribune
04/26/2008

SAN ANGELO, Texas - A Texas appellate court has canceled a hearing set for Tuesday that sought to challenge a district judge's decision to send children removed from a polygamous sect's ranch to group and foster homes throughout the state.

The 3rd Court of Appeals said Friday that Tom Green County Judge Barbara Walther's order to move the FLDS children beyond a five-county area met statutory requirements. The Texas RioGrande Legal Aid wanted the higher court to stop the relocations of the children, which were completed Friday.

The court left intact a second petition filed by the legal aid society that argues the judge did not have sufficient evidence or hold proper hearings before deciding to keep the children in custody.

The state's Department of Family and Protective Services have until May 2 to respond to that petition, but has not yet set a hearing date.

Polygamous sect's kids in hospital, moms want answers
By Brooke Adams The Salt Lake Tribune
04/28/2008

At least nine children taken from a polygamous sect's ranch are or have been in the hospital and attorneys for most of the mothers say they have received little or no information about their conditions. Attorneys for Texas Rio-Grande Legal Aid (TRLA) are working to identify the children and the hospitals, and to arrange for the mothers to visit the children.

"We can't seem to get anyone on the phone with authority to make that happen and the mothers don't even know the seriousness of the situation," said Amanda Chisholm, a TRLA attorney.

The legal aid society, which represents 48 mothers, said one 2-year-old child lost a severe amount of weight while staying at the San Angelo Coliseum.

TRLA said the organization was told two days ago that the child was in shock and lethargic, but has received no new information since then about where the child is or regarding her current health situation.

The mother is not being allowed to be with this child or her other nursing children, Chisholm said. "We don't seem to be able to get in touch with anyone who can tell us," she said. Depending on the assigned caseworker, some FLDS mothers are being allowed to see their children and some are not, Chisholm said. Texas Child Protective Services said Friday that one child had been hospitalized because of dehydration.

A CPS spokesman Sunday said he had no information on the children. Texas authorities removed the children from the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado, owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, more than three weeks ago because of allegations of sexual and physical abuse of young girls.

The sect made another appeal to Texas Gov. Rick Perry this weekend for help. In a letter to the governor, FLDS member Willie Jessop said many children "have been left in critical medical conditions, resulting in permanent damage through threats, intimidation and ultimately separating them from their parents."

Jessop writes that even the state's expert witness advised against separating the youngest children from their mothers. He asks for an emergency meeting with Perry.

So far, Perry has declined to meet with the FLDS and has praised Child Protective Services' actions. The agency moved 462 children out of the San Angelo Coliseum last week, sending them to group and foster homes across Texas.

Chisholm said a master list of placements is missing names of two children taken from the ranch and TRLA has so far been unable to determine their location. She also said mothers who were nursing children older than 12 months were told their toddlers would be kept close by so they could continue to nurse or provide breast milk for them.

But some of those toddlers have been moved hundreds of miles away and Texas Child Protective Services has not yet given permission for the mothers to visit them.

"I've been scrambling for the past two days to find out the name of the person I need to call to get permission for my client to enter that facility to nurse her children," said Chisholm, who represents four mothers. "All we've been told is to wait until Monday when they assign caseworkers to individual families."

Some mothers have been unable to confirm where their children have gone and others have learned their children have been split up and sent to different locations. TRLA learned Sunday that a child thought to be in a group home was actually in a hospital.

Some mothers, Chisholm said, "are trying to, sadly, figure out which child needs them more, a child in the hospital or a nursing baby," she said.

Texas: 31 of 53 teen girls from FLDS ranch have been pregnant
By Michelle Roberts

The Associated Press
04/28/2008

SAN ANTONIO -- Texas child welfare officials say that more than half the teenage girls swept into state custody from a polygamist sect's ranch have been pregnant.

Child Protective Services spokesman Darrell Azar says 53 girls between the ages of 14 and 17 were living on the ranch in Eldorado. Of that group, 31 already have children or are pregnant.

State officials took custody of all 463 children at the Yearning For Zion Ranch more than three weeks ago after a raid prompted by calls to a domestic violence hotline.

CPS says there was a pattern of underage girls forced into so-called "spiritual marriages" with much older men at the ranch.

Judge to rule on which of polygamous sect's documents can be evidence
By Lisa RosettaThe Salt Lake Tribune
04/28/2008

SAN ANGELO, Texas - A Dallas appellate judge will begin a private review today of computer hard drives and 1,000 boxes of documents seized from the Yearning for Zion Ranch to determine which may fall under the protections of the clergy-penitent privilege.

The content of the boxes, stacked floor-to-ceiling high in a Texas Department of Public Safety room, includes letters written to FLDS Prophet Warren Jeffs, church membership lists and genealogy charts, medical records and hand-written notations pertaining to ongoing criminal cases. The documents were taken from the ranch, owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, in a raid that began April 3.

Defense lawyers Bob Switzer and John Fahle, both of San Antonio, began going through the papers two weeks ago, Switzer said after a hearing Monday before 51st District Court Judge Barbara Walther.

But the state asked for an independent reviewer to take over the job. Officials were unsatisfied with the pace at which the lawyers were reading the documents - it took Switzer an entire day to read about half of the papers in one box labeled "bishop's records" alone - and were concerned that they may assert privilege in an attempt to exclude evidence from potential criminal cases.

Going through the papers is tedious work, the defense lawyers said, because in some instances only a few sentences on a page are privileged and need to be redacted. Much of the material has no evidentiary value and does not serve the interests of the children, they said.

Walther said Justice Molly Francis, who sits on the Texas Court of Appeals' Fifth District bench, will begin examining the papers today to assess the situation and set up guidelines for going through them.

Meanwhile, FLDS mothers were expected on Monday to visit children being treated at the Shannon West Texas Memorial Hospital here. Cynthia Martinez, a spokeswoman for the Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid Society, said the state's Child Protective Services has set up a supervised visiting schedule for the parents. "We're definitely pleased with that," she said.

FLDS update: Under guard, sect teenager gives birth in Texas
By Brooke Adams

The Salt Lake Tribune
04/29/2008

An FLDS female whose age is in dispute delivered a boy in a San Marcos hospital Tuesday, accompanied by Texas Rangers and CPS workers, an attorney said.

Attorney Rod Parker, an FLDS spokesman, said Pamela Jeffs is 18 - the same age shown for her on a court document prepared by Texas Child Protective Services.

Jeffs is one of 26 females CPS has now classified as minors, an assessment that the FLDS said Monday was erroneous.

"Her husband is 22 and they are a monogamous couple," Parker said. He said Jeffs' husband is not at the hospital with her.

The couple also have a 16-month-old son, who is being held at The Children's Shelter in Austin. Parker said Jeffs is at the Central Texas Medical Center and that he had been told Texas Rangers and CPS workers were with her. "We're not sure what their intention is with respect to that baby," he said. CPS has allowed mothers to remain with infants 12 months old or younger who are in state custody.

Texas authorities have custody of 463 children from the YFZ Ranch, owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The children are in group homes and shelters throughout Texas. State officials removed the children from the ranch after alleging they were in danger because of the sect promotes underage and polygamous marriages.

Texas official: Evidence of broken bones, possible sexual abuse found in FLDS kids
By Brooke Adams The Salt Lake Tribune
04/30/2008

A Texas official said Wednesday that at least 41 children from the polygamous YFZ Ranch have had broken bones and some young boys may have been sexually abused -- allegations that drew rapid denials from the FLDS sect. Cary Cockerell, commissioner of the Department of Family and Protective Services, told a committee of Texas lawmakers that investigators don't have complete medical information on all the children but that the findings were "cause for concern."

He said also said the sexual abuse claim was based on interviews with children and journals found at the ranch. Salt Lake City attorney Rod Parker accused the department of putting out "misleading information" to malign the polygamous sect. Parker said some children in the community have brittle bone disease and that Texas Child Protective Services was informed of that.

"That makes some of the children more susceptible to broken bones," Parker said. "The mothers told CPS about that when they were taken in. They've known all along that the reason they might see higher incidence of broken bones was due to this condition. They have no evidence to support the implication it is due to child abuse."

Cockerell shared the information with the Texas Senate Health and Human Services Committee, which met Wednesday morning in Austin. In a document written report submitted to the committee, Cockerell described a "pattern of deception" that began in the first interviews with children and adults at the YFZ Ranch, owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Some refused to give or changed their names and refused to answer questions about ages and family relationships. Children were moved from home to home at the ranch to prevent investigators from speaking to them, he said.

The state's investigation also has been complicated by the children's fear of the outside world, he said. While in state shelters, women and children were tagged with identification bracelets but the "women and children removed the bracelets or rubbed the wording off them," the department's report said. Some women initially refused to let the children undergo basic health screenings and many teen girls declined pregnancy tests. Children also were coached to not answer questions, it said.

Texas officials raided the YFZ Ranch on April 3 after a San Angelo shelter said it had been contacted by a caller claiming to be a 16-year-old abused by her polygamous husband. Those calls are being investigated as a possible prank by a Colorado woman. But child welfare officials say they found evidence of a pattern of abuse at the ranch that justified removal of all children.

Newspaper carrier finds woman pinned by dead husband's body

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (AP) -- Newspaper carrier Bruce Pitts knew the elderly couple only by the prayers the wife made for him while he was working at night and in bad weather, but he felt something was wrong when the papers piled up outside their home.

"It was never like them to leave a newspaper in their tube," Pitts said Tuesday. "That wonderful, small voice inside me said, 'This isn't right."'

After his route early Sunday, Pitts went home, napped briefly and, with his wife, returned to Blanche and Fred Roberts' home, just outside Marion, Illinois.

They repeatedly rang the doorbells but got no answer. Pitts then eased open an unlocked side door and saw the couple about two feet inside, 84-year-old Blanche Roberts helpless looking right back at Pitts.

Her right leg was pinned beneath the body of her 77-year-old husband Fred, who apparently had died last Wednesday evening of a heart attack after mowing the lawn.

"The good Lord was with her. She was not scared, wasn't panicking," Pitts said during a telephone interview. "She was conscious, talking. Just peaceful. It was remarkable."

Her only request was for water. She knew her name and her relatives, but described her husband as "sleeping," said Pitts, who delivers the Southern Illinoisan, published in nearby Carbondale, Illinois.

Pitts described Blanche Roberts as frail and petite. Fred Roberts was a "good-sized man," according to Williamson County, Illinois, coroner Mike Burke, though he declined to be specific.
The coroner said Fred Roberts likely died of a heart attack, based on accounts from the Roberts' visitors that day.

"They said he was really beet-red in the face, that he didn't look good," Burke said.
Blanche Roberts was taken to a hospital in nearby Herrin. The hospital on Tuesday wouldn't confirm whether she still was being treated there; Pitts said the couple's relatives told his wife Monday that she was doing fine.

Pitts has delivered on that route for three years but said he never met the Robertses before Sunday. But he thinks fondly of Blanche Roberts, who often tipped him in letters and was known to Pitts and his wife as "The Prayer Lady."

In her missives, "Blanche would say, 'I've been praying for you at night whenever the weather's bad, realizing you're out in it delivering our papers,"' Pitts said. "We'd always say a little prayer back."

A Free Kitchen and Ice Cream, Too

I Scream For Ice Cream!


In honor of their 30th anniversary and as their way of saying "thanks for your business", Ben & Jerry's is offering a free cone on Free Cone Day, Tuesday, April 29.

Baskin-Robbins is dipping up .31 cent scoops on 31 Cent Scoop Night, Wednesday, April 30.
They are also donating $100,000 to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and ask for your support as well. What a great way to help out and enjoy a great treat and time with the family.


Dream Kitchen Contest

To keep ice cream night going at home, don't forget that Wednesday, April 30, is the last day to enter Sears' Kenmore Make-It-Spectacular Sweepstakes. The prize consists of a $27,500.00 custom kitchen makeover by designer Eric Cohler.
You can enter at Kenmore.com/kitchens.

Good Luck!



spoil yourself,
spoiledmom

Missing woman found; relative arrested

Update: Missing woman found Alive

BY DEB GRUVER AND HURST LAVIANA
The Wichita Eagle

Wichita police arrested a 48-year-old woman Saturday after a missing 89-year-old woman was found just after 3 p.m. at a relative's house in the 3300 block of South Chase, near 31st South and Meridian.

Virginia Judd, who has dementia, and her dog, Ruby, were reported missing from her home in the 6000 block of West School Street, near Sedgwick County Park, at 8:30 a.m. today.

"We're looking at a dependent-person abuse situation," Sgt. Steve Yarberry said. "She was basically left alone."

Yarberry said the arrested woman was Judd's relative, but he would not elaborate. He said police would release no further details this weekend.

A relative who was in Missouri when he heard that Judd was missing returned to Wichita and went to the home on South Chase, police said. The relative saw Judd's dog through a window, broke a window to get inside and found Judd lying on the living room floor.

She was taken to Via Christi Regional Medical Center-St. Joseph Campus for examination.

Search dogs had been out looking for her, and Wichita Fire Department emergency workers used a boat to check a lake behind her house, where Judd lives with her daughter.

Apparently this old woman's granddaughter meant to do her in! Can you believe the world has come to this, when an old woman isn't safe with her own grandchildren? We have plenty room in the jail for her. Throw the key away.

Police search for missing woman, Wichita Kansas

ALERT

The Wichita Eagle
BY DEB GRUVER

Wichita, Kansas, police are searching for an 89-year-old woman with dementia who has been missing since 8:30 a.m. today.

Virginia Judd is 5 feet 2 inches, about 90 pounds and has short white hair, Sgt. Steve Yarberry said. She was last seen wearing a purple jacket and pants, either a wind-type suit or a workout-type suit.

She is possibly not wearing shoes and had a small white fox terrier with black spots named Ruby with her. The dog also is missing.

Judd also walked away from her home in the 6000 block of West School on Friday, Yarberry said.

Search dogs were out looking for her, and Wichita Fire Department emergency workers used a boat to check a lake behind her house, where Judd lives with her daughter.

Rochelle Budd, who said she was the best friend of one of Judd's granddaughters, said Judd and her granddaughter were going to go get donuts earlier today. When the granddaughter looked, "her grandmother was already gone," Budd said.

Budd described Judd as "teensy-weensy" woman who is frail. She said her dementia had "gone to another level" recently.

Steve Hirsch, a neighbor who lives around the corner from Judd's home in Spinnacre Cove near Sedgwick County Park, volunteered to help look for Judd.

He said he'd been out running errands when he got home and noticed police in the area. He said he helped look in some ditches.

By 2 p.m., she was still missing.

Open Letter to Home Depot....

Beware of Home Depot's ONLINE SPECIALS!!


On April 4, 2008, I placed an online order for 5 lamps that were marked "ONLINE SPECIAL".

They were all different lamps, with the exception of 1, which I placed an order for 2, making my total item order 5.

One particular lamp was on sale for almost 90% off the regular retail. It was a lamp that retailed for over $250 and it was on sale for under $60!

In all, my total order, without the discount, came to almost $800.00 with shipping. After the "sale price adjustment", my credit card was to be charged $135 and change.

WOW!! I was so excited for the bargain that I had just "happened upon" while looking for something totally different on the site.

My fiance is a flooring installer/sub contractor and has a contractor's account with Home Depot, so you can imagine the amount of money his company spends there daily. (I will tell you it is well into the thousands of dollars monthly.) We also shop there at least bi-weekly, for home improvement and gardening items for personal use.

After ten days of my original order, I received an email stating my entire order had been cancelled. I was livid. I immediately called Customer Service and was promptly told that is was something to do with my credit card. (i.e. card co. denied). This is before the rep checked my order number, only going on the information that I told her the email said my order was "cancelled". (i have a very GENEROUS credit limit on my credit card and it is paid in full monthly)
After the rep looked up my order number, she informed me that one of the lamps was no longer in stock. Okay, well why not ship the remainder of the order? We do not do that. ??? I have ordered from many stores that ship the remainder of my order if something is no longer in stock or back ordered. Does Home Depot not want to make a sale just because one item is not available? I don't think so.

Mad, angry, upset, does not begin to describe the feeling. So now, that it had been 10 days since my order, none of the other items were available. I suppose not at the price they were listed for. I have a suspicion that they were never in stock to begin with.

The rep asked me what she could do to compensate. I replied, reorder the lamps for me. "I can't do that"
Okay, substitute items of price and likeness. "I can't do that".
In other words, there was nothing she could do.

I do not know if I was more mad that I did not receive my lamps or the fact that the Customer Service rep took it upon herself, without any information, that my order had been cancelled due to my credit card being declined. (Which it was not). Also, I did not receive an apology for this Rep's observation on her behalf without knowing any of the details before hand.

I know it was not the Rep's mistake in cancelling my entire order, and she did seem to be somewhat sincere. It is the fact that HOME DEPOT had her hands tied as well in what she could to to compensate me for the mishap.

HOME DEPOT, if you read this, I would like to be contacted and hopefully have this matter corrected.

My fiance spends a great deal of money with you and is contemplating doing business elsewhere.

Penis theft panic hits city...

Right: African penis gourd.

By Joe Bavier
April 24, 2008

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.

Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur.

Rumors of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo's sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings.

Purported victims, 14 of whom were also detained by police, claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear, in what some residents said was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure.

"You just have to be accused of that, and people come after you. We've had a number of attempted lynchings. ... You see them covered in marks after being beaten," Kinshasa's police chief, Jean-Dieudonne Oleko, told Reuters on Tuesday.

Police arrested the accused sorcerers and their victims in an effort to avoid the sort of bloodshed seen in Ghana a decade ago, when 12 suspected penis snatchers were beaten to death by angry mobs. The 27 men have since been released. "I'm tempted to say it's one huge joke," Oleko said.

"But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it's become tiny or that they've become impotent. To that I tell them, 'How do you know if you haven't gone home and tried it'," he said.

Some Kinshasa residents accuse a separatist sect from nearby Bas-Congo province of being behind the witchcraft in revenge for a recent government crackdown on its members.

"It's real. Just yesterday here, there was a man who was a victim. We saw. What was left was tiny," said 29-year-old Alain Kalala, who sells phone credits near a Kinshasa police station.
(Editing by Nick Tattersall and Mary Gabriel)

Kansas a longtime haven for chickens

Michael PEARCE
The Wichita Eagle
4/20/2008

Kansas has long been a stronghold for two of four original species of American prairie chickens.

• Greater prairie chickens:
For most of the 20th century it was said the Flint Hills held more of these than all states combined. Loss of habitat has greatly reduced the Flint Hills population but numbers have grown substantially in the Smoky Hills of north-central Kansas over the past 30 years.

• Lesser prairie chickens:
The Dust Bowl drought almost forced these birds into extinction across a range that includes Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico.
They recovered, but began to decline again in the 1980s, when huge amounts of sand-sage prairie were put into agricultural crops, heavily Above:booming cocks. grazed or tainted by signs of civilization.

Groups petitioned in some states to have them added to the threatened or endangered species lists. That did not happen.

Only in Kansas are the birds holding their own or improving their range and numbers. Right: booming cocks, mating season.

The CRP, a federal program that pays farmers for long-term plantings of prairie grasses where crops were once raised, is credited for an expansion of the Kansas population from southwest into west-central and northwest Kansas. That could change, parks officials say, if changes in federal policy result in a loss of CRP land.

• Heath hens:
The pilgrims probably ate more of these than wild turkeys at their first Thanksgiving.
The birds were abundant in grasslands from New Hampshire to Virginia until loss of habitat and over-hunting eliminated them from the mainland by 1870.

They thrived on Martha's Vineyard into the 1920s, when inbreeding, disease and a fire during breeding season took their toll. "Booming Bob," the last of the species, danced his last dance on a breeding ground in 1932.

• Attwater's prairie chickens:
These birds numbered around 1 million about a century ago on the coastal prairies of Louisiana and Texas. But lost habitat took a toll. They were one of the first species placed under the Endangered Species Act in the 1960s. Their numbers plummeted to less than 50 in the 1990s.

Texas and federal biologists and conservation groups are working to re-establish habitat and populations on private and public ground. The population now is approaching 300.

What's in a Number i.e.: How Safe is Your Child's Water Bottle?

I had a blog sitting in "draft" that I had started over the weekend about the safety of plastic water bottles. The ones that advertisers, t.v. talk show doctors, and "Greenies", (that I happen to be as well) just last year, told us to run out and purchase for our children, and ourselves. The reason? To cut down on purchased bottled water and for recycling purposes. I had started the blog after washing all of these reusable bottles that my kids and I use. Some could be placed in the dishwasher, some could not. I wondered "why". So I started researching. I came across BPA. This is in the plastic used to manufacture these bottles. And IT IS NOT GOOD.
Now, all of this information is all over the news, on television and in several articles, so I sort of feel cheated, that they got the jump on me. But I am still posting the blog that I did the research on.

The blog sitting in my draft column is dated April 10, 2008. For one reason or another, I didn't finish editing, I had a radiation treatment, and I didn't get it posted. On April 15, 2008, the National Toxicology Program’s (NTA) Center for the Evaluation of Risk to Human Reproduction released its draft report summarizing research about exposure to bisphenol A, or BPA.
This comes amidst Canadian media reports that Canada’s government is considering classifying BPA as a dangerous substance. This classification is dependant upon a research summary expected to be released later this week.

What is BPA?

Bisphenol A, commonly referred to as BPA, is a chemical found in polycarbonate plastic. Polycarbonate plastic, also known as plastic #7, is the plastic used to create many food containers, including baby bottles and water bottles. It is known to mimic the hormone estrogen and previous studies have reported findings that exposure could cause neural and behavioral changes.

Originally, these numbers represented recycling, and which container to use, depending on what type of plastic the product was made of. We are now hearing that numbers 3, 6, and 7, are the numbers in question. The catch here is, the bottles that "greenies" ran out and bought have mainly 7's on them. Certain baby bottles have at least a "3", and some have a "7". A "7" is considered to be the worst.

What is a parent to do? What do all these numbers mean? I will attempt to break it down, but there is a great site my title links back to that defines everything. (but keep reading my blog first)

Aluminum water bottles are becoming very popular and many manufactures now offer their own version. Common places to purchase them, besides the Internet, are at sporting goods or outdoor enthusiasts stores. As with any unfamiliar product, investigate the brand in advance. There has been one recall in October of 2007 for high lead levels in the paint on the outside of the bottle.

Soon after US and Canadian governments released current research about potential dangers from BPA bottle manufacturers and retailers begin changing or removing products.

Controversy continues as to whether the levels of bisphenol A (BPA) found in recent research, studies are harmful to humans. While governments and concerned citizens debate the level of dangers, companies that produce the bottles and retailers who sell them are acting. In the past week several companies have announced voluntary action plans.


Recalls


As of April 23, 2008, no company has publicly announced a recall of bottles. Many, however, are responding to public outcry and consumer demands for BPA-free alternatives. Some baby bottle manufacturers produce glass bottles, and a few already have BPA-free alternatives to both bottles and sippy cups. Sports bottles can be found in metal, but most plastic versions are still produced with BPA.

Action Plans

Though this is not an exhaustive list, the following companies have publicly released their intentions to meet consumer demands for BPA free products.

Playtex announced its intentions on April 18. Playtex already has a line of BPA-free infant products, and will change the rest of their products to BPA-free by the end of this year. To reinforce their intentions, Playtex is also distributing one million free samples of Playtex® Drop-Ins® Original Nurser Systems.


Wal-Mart announced its plans shortly after Canada announced its upcoming ban on BPA products. It immediately stopped stocking baby bottles, sippy cups, water bottles and other containers known to contain BPA in its Canadian and US stores. The company also stated it will phase out all products containing BPA by early 2009.

Toys ‘R’ Us, (including its Babies ‘R’ Us chains), also announced its plans earlier this week. In light of growing consumer concerns they are phasing out all baby bottles and other feeding supplies that contain BPA by the end of 2008.

Government Response

In Canada, all retailers are responding to a government ban on all BPA products that was announced on April 18. Though some companies, such as the Forzani Group, Hudson’s Bay and Canadian Tire Corp. anticipated the government ban and began removing BPA plastics earlier, all retailers in Canada are now expected to remove baby bottles and water bottles known to be produced with BPA.

The US Government stands behind the statements by the American Chemistry Council. They acknowledge that there is a negligible risk, but that risk is too small to initiate a ban or recall of products. However, they have also called for further scientific research.


Now, what do you and your family want to drink your water out of? And why is our government acting like there is nothing wrong? Again.....


References:

Playtex
The Washington Post

LDS Church turns down request to watch over FLDS

SAN ANGELO, Texas - A day after a Texas judge asked the LDS Church to help monitor prayer sessions of women and children of a fundamentalist polygamous group, a church spokesman said doing so would be inappropriate. Scott Trotter, spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said that the church has heard about the judge's request only through news reports and therefore has "no clear understanding of what, if anything, we are being invited to do."

In an e-mail statement, Trotter said it would be "erroneous to base any request for assistance from members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the basis that our beliefs and practices are close to those of this polygamous group because they are not."

He also acknowledged that such a request would not be fair, either to the polygamous FLDS, which "long ago chose a different path from ours. In fact, many in these isolated communities view us with some hostility as part of the outside world they have rejected."

On Monday, 51st District Judge Barbara Walther agreed to let women and children, who are being kept at the San Angelo Coliseum, hold two prayer sessions a day. Attorneys said that Texas Child Protective Services workers were monitoring and disrupting the sessions and asked that the members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints be allowed to meet privately.

Gary Banks, representing the state, said there were concerns that the women might discuss the ongoing investigation or coach the children if allowed to meet privately. Walther then suggested that the state ask a member of the local Mormon community to supervise the sessions.

The issue may be moot now, as state authorities began moving the women and children out of the San Angelo Coliseum this afternoon. - Brooke Adam

Judge denies Warren Jeffs a new trial

By Mark Havnes The Salt Lake Tribune
04/24/2008

Posted: 3:54 PM-Fifth District Court Judge James Shumate today denied polygamous sect leader Warren S. Jeffs' motion for a new trial.

Jeffs' legal team claimed his conviction for rape as an accomplice should be thrown out as one juror failed to disclose that she was a rape victim. When defense attorneys learned of the omission, they advocated for jury deliberations to continue with an alternate juror.

"The things we should have done, we didn't do," said defense attorney Richard Wright in court this afternoon.

"Jeffs had the right to a unity of verdict," he said. "The jury that convicted him can't be a conglomoration of jurors." Shumate ruled he didn't think replacing the problem juror had violated state law.

Defense attorney Walter Bugden said the ruling will now be appealed to the Utah Court of Appeals.

Jeffs, 52, is head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The sect's Texas ranch was raided April 3 and hundreds of children were removed.

In September, Jeffs was convicted for his role in arranging the marriage of a 14-year-old girl to an older cousin. He's now locked up in Arizona awaiting trial there.

FLDS update: FLDS moms to stay with babies in state care

The judge overseeing the cases of more than 400 FLDS children in state custody said this afternoon adult mothers of infants age 12 months and under should remain with their babies in the state's care.

District Court Juge Barbara Walther made the request of Texas Child Protective Services after receiving an update from the agency on its attempts to place the polygamous sect's children in foster homes or shelters. CPS agreed.

Earlier this week, Walther rejected a temporary restraining order request seeking to keep breastfeeding mothers with their babies.

CPS attorney Gary Banks told Walther this afternoon there are 18 adult mothers with babies 12 months and under. Placements have already been found for 16 of those mothers and their children, he said.

Walther also requested that CPS keep children older than 12 months in proximity to their parents so they can visit frequently. The judge rejected a motion earlier that would have required the agency to keep the children within a five-county radius.

"What this is, is when I take possession of a child, I take personal responsibility for that child, and I'd like to know where these children are," said Walther this afternoon.

Banks said there are 23 adult women with children between the ages of 12 and 24 months. Those women have 28 children collectively. Children between the ages of 3 and 5 will go to foster care settings, said Banks, and some children ages 5 to 18 will go into group settings.

The judge also told Banks she wanted the children to be able to exercise their religion and have access to the clothing they desired while in foster care. Banks said CPS is in the process of setting up educational evaluations for each child.

Banks told her it is urgent the children be placed into foster homes at this point, calling conditions at the San Angelo Coliseum where children are being housed "untenable."

Walther said individual hearings for the children will begin May 18, and urged attorneys representing sect members and those lawyers appointed by the state to represent the interests of the children to refrain from making filings with her at this point.

"We have four to five feet of filings, and it's very hard for me to go through five feet of filings," she said. She said CPS has been stretched "beyond belief" and asked the various parties involved in the case to be patient.

"No one wants to see these children separated from their parents," said Walther. "In a perfect world, that wouldn't happen, but this isn't a perfect world."

Yesterday, 111 children ages 5 and older left the Coliseum for temporary homes located throughout the state, according to CPS spokeswoman Sheri Pulliam. The agency has said siblings under age 5 will be placed together, and attempts will be made to place older siblings together.

Authorities late Tuesday finished taking DNA samples from all the children. The attorney general's office sent 10 technicians on Monday to the Coliseum to take the court-ordered samples as child welfare officials try to sort out the complicated family relationships at the compound. Roughly 500 samples were taken.

Spokeswoman Janece Rolfe said the testing at the Coliseum was completed late Tuesday, but technicians are still taking samples from parents in Eldorado.

The removal of the children is the latest blow to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The April 3 raid of the sect's YFZ Ranch was prompted by calls to a local shelter from someone claiming to be a 16-year-old girl being abused by her FLDS husband.

Texas Rangers have said they are investigating whether the call could have been a hoax perpetrated by a Colorado woman with a history of lying to police there. Court documents released today show one phone number used to place a call to the Texas shelter had been used by Rozita Swinton in the past.

Wordless Wednesday

Taking a Mom Day today. For your enjoyment, I have selected a "few" of my many favorite pictures. No story, just random pictures.


I hope it is as beautiful wherever you are as it is here. Hope you all have a great day!


Tail of two Kittehs.........




********************************


Swingin' on the porch.........




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SpoiledChild1....gettin' funky




**********************************

SpoiledChild2 my tomboy with nail polish. :)




**********************************************


And one day, not far from now, they will walk away, one last time.
Hopefully, they will return, wiser, thankful, and with the qualities and morals
we have tried all these years to instill into them.
We will know we did our job.
And everything will be good.



****************************************************************************






******************************


spoil yourself today



spoiledmom
chrissy

Free Flash Drive, Virtual Assistant, and a New Blog

From the Blogosphere:

Win One of 5 SanDisk Gator Cruzer 4gb Flash Drives:

Go to career and kids to enter.



'5minutesformom' is looking for a Virtual Assistant. If you, or anyone you know is interested click here.


Joy, from "Be the Weight you Want", tackles "Diet Cheats" and also takes on some of the more popular diets and diet fads.
You can catch her insightful blog here.


Have a great evening everyone. More posts and pictures tomorrow!


spoiledmom

DNA samples taken from polygamists' kids

By MICHELLE ROBERTS
Associated Press Writer

SAN ANGELO, Texas - Using cotton swabs and cameras, lab technicians began taking DNA samples Monday from hundreds of children and mothers - wearing long, pioneer-style dresses - in hopes of sorting out the tangled family relationships within the West Texas polygamist sect.
A judge ordered last week that the genetic material be taken to help determine which children belong to which parents.

Authorities need to figure that out before they begin custody hearings to determine which children may have been abused and need to be permanently removed from the sect compound in Eldorado, and which ones can be safely returned to the fold.

State social workers have complained that over the past few weeks, sect members have offered different names and ages. Also, the children refer to all of their fathers' wives as their "mothers," and all men in the community as "uncles."

The testing went on behind closed doors at the crowded coliseum where the children seized in the raid earlier this month on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints compound are staying.

The collecting of DNA is likely to take 10 technicians most of the week, and it will be a month or more before the results are available, said Janiece Rolfe, a spokeswoman for the Texas attorney general's office.

Rod Parker, an FLDS attorney, acknowledged that family names within the sect can be confusing, but said: "No one is trying to deceive anyone. ... It's not sinister." Instead, he said that because many of the sect's marriages are not legal, adults and their children may legally have one name but use another within the community.

The April 3 nighttime raid on the 1,700-acre compound probably frightened the children, said Ken Driggs, who has studied the sect extensively. "If somebody had taken the time to approach them in a way that was respectful, they probably would have gotten the information they needed," Driggs said.

The children will be placed in group homes or other quarters until individual custody hearings can be completed by early June. Officials said they will try to keep siblings together when possible, though some polygamous families may have dozens of siblings.

The testing will involve 437 children and possibly hundreds of adults. State authorities revised their count of the children from 416 as they developed better lists and discovered that not all the female members who claimed to be adults were over 18.

The testing will be more far complicated than that of the typical custody or support case.
In a typical custody case, "maternity is already established," Rolfe said, but in this case, researchers will have to determine the identity of both parents.

Each person who submits to a test will be photographed, and the inside of his or her cheek will be swabbed to remove cells for analysis.

The DNA sampling is an enormous undertaking for a state that typically tests only 1,000 children a year.

Some of the adults have ordered by the state of Texas to submit to testing. Others are being asked to do so voluntarily. But how many will do that is unclear.

Parker said he is afraid authorities secretly intend to use the DNA to build criminal cases. But state Child Protective services spokesman Greg Cunningham said: "We're not involved in the criminal investigation. That's not our objective."

Authorities believe the sect forces underage girls into marriages with older men. No one has been arrested, but a warrant has been issued for member Dale Barlow, a convicted sex offender who has said he has not been to the Texas site in years.

Attorneys for the children and the adults have complained that they haven't had enough access to their clients at the coliseum. Texas District Judge Barbara Walther ordered Monday that the women and children in the be allowed to use newly installed phone lines to contact their attorneys.

The judge also asked the attorneys to look for a Mormon volunteer to help watch over twice-daily prayers after attorneys for the women who remain with young children at the coliseum complained they weren't given enough freedom to hold their usual prayer service. CPS has said it has no intention of infringing on their religious rights but wants to be sure the women aren't conspiring to tamper with witnesses in the custody case.

"The way our clients pray is sacred to them, but it becomes less sacred when they feel people from the department are monitoring them," said Andrea Sloan, a lawyer for some of the women.
Walther suggested that volunteers from the mainline Mormon church - of which FLDS is a renegade sect - might be able to provide monitoring without undermining the sacredness of the services.

The attorneys for the mothers and children agreed to look for someone at a local stake who would be willing to help.

Happy Earth Day!

What are you doing today for Earth Day? You can do several things or just one thing to make a difference. Make sure you include your kids! Here are a few ideas to get you going.

Plant a tree, a bush, a garden or even some herbs or flowers in a pot
The girls and I did this yesterday.

Spend some time outside - on a hike, a walk, at the park - enjoying each other’s company, appreciating nature, and picking up any garbage you see.

Designate an "Earth Hour" every week where you turn off your lights in the evening for one hour to save electricity. We do this once a week where we go for more than an hour and play a board game, or go for a walk outside.

Talk with your kids about water consumption and how turning off the water while brushing teeth helps conserve it.

Encourage all family members to take shorter showers or consider filling up baths with a little less water.

Change your incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescent light bulbs to conserve energy and encourage the kids to turn off lights/TV when they aren’t in use

This is the only Earth we’ve got, let’s show her some love.

For more information about Earth Day, visit Earth Day 2008.

Giveaways, Mulching and Teeth

It is so beautiful outside this morning! My meds are actually working today and I feel more than half human. I hate the days that keep me confined to the bed and under the blankets. I start to feel....icky.

But for the past few days, I have felt wonderfully well, thank you.

It rained over the weekend, so there was not much outside time. I was just itching to get out there. I sat with Daisy longing out the window, now knowing how she and the other animals feel. Only glass holding you back from the outside world.

As we sat, I brushed her, and then I noticed it.
On the floor, beside the chair, her TOOTH!!
Mai puppeh lost a tooth!
Quick, Twitter the Puppeh Tooth Fairy!
I have always been a cat person, and still have a cat.
This tooth thing really bothered me. I had never experienced any animal losing a tooth.
After a call to Pet Dr. McDreamy, I was assured that everything was fine.

Puppeh Smile

Puppeh Tooth Fairy left Little Jacs Bil-Jac, Daisy's fav-or-ite.
I am suspicious though, I found another tooth a few minutes ago. Hmmmm.....
***************************************************
Yesterday, after homework and all the school gossip of the day, the girls and I worked outside in the yard. We re mulched--is it re mulched if you are adding more mulch to existing mulch-or just mulched either way? Anyway, SC2 loved getting her hands dirty mulching with me. I let SC2 broadcast the turf builder, while I plucked the already present dandelions out by the root.

SC1, stood there with perfect mani and held the garden hose. Okay, I don't know why she was doing that, but that was her contribution and I didn't knock it.

SC2's Glads are starting to come up and she is soooo excited.

Baby Glads

Forsythia

Hope you had fun checking out these photos.

Now head over to Kettle and Cup to sign up for Marye's great blog giveaway!

If you love tea, as I do, Marye's blog has a plethora of all things tea. I always find something interesting each time I visit, which is daily.

Enjoy your day and spoil yourself in it.

spoiledmom

chrissy

Canoeist missing in Kansas River

Associated Press

EUDORA, Kan. - Searchers plan to continue looking in the Kansas River Monday morning where a man has been missing since his canoe flipped over during a weekend outing with friends.

Authorities say 26-year-old Shaun Shaw of De Soto, Kan., was canoeing with two friends near Eudora Saturday when his canoe overturned at around 6 p.m. His companions ran to a nearby home to summon help.
By Sunday afternoon, Douglas County sheriff's deputies said it appeared the operation had become a recovery instead of a rescue. Searchers walked the shoreline while rescuers in helicopters and boats also tried to find the canoeist.

Shaw disappeared in eight to 10 feet of water about 1 mile from the Johnson and Leavenworth county lines.

Tracing the Polygamists' Family Tree

Texas social workers will begin conducting DNA tests today to identify the 416 children taken into custody from the fundamentalist Mormon ranch near Eldorado since April 3. A district court judge granted the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (TDFPS) permission to test the children last Friday, as the agency's custody workers continued to struggle with the serious, complicated task of determining which children belong to whom — a task further clouded by the fact that children and mothers gave evasive, shifting answers during interviews.

Genetic testing could be completed in as little as a few days, according to Howard Coleman, CEO of Genelex, a Seattle-based commercial genetics lab, which is not involved with the Texas case. It could take several weeks longer, however, to construct a family tree from the results. Once they are traced, however, the children's origins may offer a fascinating look at the family structure of the secretive polygamist sect, as well as insight into the emergence of a tragic birth defect that has plagued the community.

At the heart of the identity problem are the group's commitment to "celestial marriage" — polygamy — and its custom of allowing first cousins to marry. "Your family tree shouldn't be a wreath," says Randy Mankin, editor of the El Dorado Success newspaper, which unearthed the sect's Utah roots four years ago, when its first members, posing as businessmen, arrived in Eldorado under the pretense of building a hunting and game preserve. But the legal notices published in Mankin's paper listing the custody suits brought by the state against the Fundamentalist Church of the Latter Day Saints of Jesus Christ (FLDS) illustrate just how circular relationships are. Four surnames dominate the list: Jeffs (relatives of Warren Jeffs, the sect's imprisoned leader and "prophet"), Jessop, Barlow and Steed.

In the 1930s, two families, the Jessops and the Barlows, settled the area around Hildale, Utah, along the border with Arizona, where they founded the FDLS — and began handing down to their descendants a recessive gene for a severe form of mental retardation called Fumarase Deficiency. The birth defect has become increasingly prevalent within the FLDS community since 1990 when it was first identified by Dr. Theodore Tarby, an Arizona pediatric neurologist, now retired but formerly with the Children's Rehabilitative Services in Phoenix. He saw his first case when an FLDS mother brought her severely retarded son to see him. Tarby asked the mother whether any of her other children had problems, and she mentioned a daughter with cerebral palsy — testing proved that she, too, had Fumarase Deficiency syndrome.

The birth defect — an enzyme deficiency — causes severe mental retardation, epilepsy and disfigurement of features. "The retardation is in the severe range — an IQ around 25," Dr. Tarby says. Afflicted children are missing portions of their brain, often cannot sit or stand, and suffer grand mal seizures and encephalitis. Language skills are nonexistent or minimal. "I remember one little girl has a fascination with coins and the only word she could say was 'money,'" the doctor said. Families whose children are affected often avail themselves of state-funded medical care, consistent with the FLDS philosophy of seeking government aid — despite their suspicion of government — which they call "bleeding the Beast."

Until 1990 Tarby says he knew of only 13 cases of Fumarase Deficiency worldwide. Since, it has taken hold in the FLDS community because of intermarriage. "If you have two parents with the gene," Tarby says, "you are going to have a one-in-four chance of having a child afflicted with it." Depending on the severity of the disorder, children may die in childhood or may survive into early adulthood; if a person who has developed the disorder goes on to have a child, his or her chances of passing it on are one in two. But diagnosing the condition is difficult and requires extremely careful testing, the doctor says. His research, published in 2006, identified 20 cases within the Hildale-Colorado City enclave. "I would expect there are going to be Fumarase Deficiency cases there in Texas," he said.

State officials will not release any medical information about the 416 children in their custody, but one mother, giving her name simply as Sally on CNN's Larry King Live, described her son as "handicapped" and needing hourly care. "One of the mothers raised concerns about her child who had Down Syndrome," TDFPS spokesman Greg Cunningham told TIME in an e-mail. "That child has had a medical evaluation and has had one-on-one care." Cunningham says that the children in custody at the Pavilion, part of the city's civic center complex, have one caregiver for every three children. A small number of older boys have been moved to the Cal Farley Boy's Ranch in Amarillo, a privately funded home for needy children.

The FLDS community, by and large, rejects the idea that Fumarase Deficiency is caused by genes, according to Tarby. "They have their mythology about the condition. They think it's something in the water, or something in the air," he says. Before Tarby retired in 2007, FLDS leaders invited him to address the community about the disorder and how to prevent it. He told them that prevention would involve barring marriages between people with the recessive gene, or asking those couples to forgo children. He suggested that families discontinue having children once the disorder presents itself, or test for the gene during pregnancy and selectively abort pregnancies with the deficiency. All were approaches rejected by the FLDS. "It's not something they are willing to do," Tarby says.

Mega Meltdowns May Cause Twitter Fever

Ok, all the rage now is Twitter. I didn't want to hear about it, or know about it, purposefully. After mega meltdowns about creating MySpace pages and Facebook pages and the like, my tween/teen daughters, you know them as SpoiledChild1 and SpoiledChild2, came to me with many a conversation about some new web gadget that everyone has.......... I'm sure you know the story, but if not, I'll fill you in.


One given day in my own little world, my beautiful daughters come to me and I just know it is to hug me and kiss me and thank me for bringing them into the world. They want to know how I am feeling and how my day has been. Um, no.

Conversation went something like this:

SC1: "But you have your Blackberry, your blogs, your website, and EEEEVVERRRYYYTHIIIINGG. You won't let us have nothin'."
SC2: "YEAAHHH!"

SM: " I said when you are 16, we will talk again about MySpace but not until. There are "people" out there......

SC1: "Yeah, we want to talk to those people."
SC2: "Yeah".

SM: (about to have a nervous breakdown) "NOT THOSE KIND of people!"
SC1: "Our friends, we want to talk to our friends."
SM: "You talk to you friends at school everyday."

(this same conversation played out numerous times before they got their own cell phones.
Only then I could add "You can call your friends from the house phone for free.")
I love that line!!

SC1: "EVERYONE has it!
SC2: "Yeah, EVERYONE"
SM: "Maybe EVERYONE's Mom has room for two more."
SC2: "She's gonna say no." (She's very intelligent for her age...11)
SC1: "You never let us have anything!!"
SM: "I guess my love is not enough because I do not want something to happen by you talking to someone who is not who they say they are."
SM: "We have had this discussion before and you know the answer."
SC1: "uuuuumppph" (you know that teenage sound that you really can't put into words but makes your blood curdle when you hear it)
SC2: "Told ya."

SC1, deafted, yet again on the subject, almost marches off, then slows it to a quiet, but fast pace. SC2, stands grinning. She lives to see her sister defeated, unless she is somehow involved, and is defeated, too. This instance, it did not matter either way, she was there for support for either side.

Last night, after hugs and kisses with the girls, they finally were in bed. The dogs walked, The cat fed, my washer going full speed, I sat down to read my email and some blogs.

Then it happened.

I Twitter'd!

Get your Twitter or click on my title above.
Follow me.
Let me know,
and I'll follow you.

You can also click over on the Twitter Widget over there on the right.





spoil yourself

spoiledmom
chrissy

Seven Habits of Highly Successful Snackers

Take off your watch, strip the wall of its clock, switch off the blinking time display on your computer, and you can still pinpoint — practically to within nanoseconds — when 3:30 rolls around. How do you do it? Your stomach tells you, of course. Stuck in that seemingly interminable stretch between lunch and dinner, your stomach wants a little something. You could find a bag of M&M's or Doritos, wolf it down without even tasting it...and then get the urge all over again in half an hour. Or you could follow these commandments for snacking. You already know that thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's Good & Plentys, and thou shalt not kill a canister of pizza-flavored Pringles. Here's what else you need to know — and chew — to get you through to supper.

1. Fix Your Own Food
Even if you need to be tied to the mast of your shopping cart to get past the tempting call of those cellophane-wrapped, curlicue-topped cupcakes in aisle 5, you must resist. Most ready-made snacks are low in vitamins, nutrients, and protein and high in calories, fat, sugar, and sodium, which can inhibit the body's retention of much needed calcium. (Sports and protein bars are a shining exception.)
2. Eat a Balanced Snack
A pear instead of Reese's Pieces — you think you're being so virtuous. And you are to some extent: That pear is largely carbohydrates, but the ideal slow-burn snack has carbohydrates, protein, and, of all things, fat. Carbohydrates are metabolized first and deliver their calories fastest — just ask anyone who has binged on a handful of Jolly Ranchers, felt a sudden and frantic spike of energy, and suffered an equally sudden crash. Say, for example, you grab a quick snack of saltines, which contain refined-flour carbohydrates: As soon as they're in your mouth, the enzymes in your saliva go to work. In about 20 minutes, the carbohydrates are broken down into glucose, which peaks in your bloodstream, turning down your internal hunger alarm. Unfortunately, in about another 20 minutes, that glucose is completely burnt out or stored up, so the alarm starts ringing again. Fruit, which has more fiber than crackers, will take slightly longer to metabolize. To prolong the satisfaction, you need to add in protein and fat (they often go hand in hand), which take longer to metabolize. So eat that pear with a chunk of cheddar or some low-fat yogurt and you'll be set for a few hours.
3. Snack to Maintain Weight
Snacks can keep you from getting fat. There it is, even though it's the opposite of what your mother spent years nagging you about. According to a recent study in Scotland, eating snacks helps you control both your appetite and your weight, because when you don't arrive at the table famished, you're less likely to speed-eat, overeat, or just sit there emptying the bread basket into your gullet as fast as is humanly possible. (Another theory is that eating more frequently burns calories, because digestion requires energy, at least briefly.) Most women need about 2,000 calories a day, including snacks. Ideally, you would have five mini-meals of 400 calories, but that's not realistic. (Imagine riding roundup to get everyone to the table more often than you already do.) What's recommended is the traditional "big three," only slightly down-sized, plus two well-balanced mini-meals.
4. Keep Stress — and Hunger — In Check
You may recognize the symptoms of stress: fatigue, lack of concentration, short temper...a minivan floor littered with candy wrappers and sundae cups. According to a study from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London, students ate more snack foods and fewer fruits and vegetables when they were under pressure. What triggers a stress case's need to feed is the hormone cortisol, say researchers at the University of California at San Francisco. Cortisol is released during physical or emotional stress, and that increases one's appetite for carbohydrates, especially sweets.
5. Once a Month, Allow Yourself More
Is it that time of the month? Women are most likely to binge or overeat in the two weeks prior to their periods if they've ovulated (most women on the Pill do not ovulate). Menstrual flow is triggered by the secretion of progesterone, which is thermogenic, or calorie burning. Thus, without so much as lifting an extra three-pound weight — or finger, for that matter — your body burns more calories than it does during the rest of the month and your hunger kicks in to compensate. In a study at the University of British Columbia, women ate an average of 260 extra calories a day when they were ovulating.
6. Crave Calcium and Shun Sodium
You need to start reaching for the right white stuff — the milk bottle instead of the salt shaker, calcium instead of sodium. The recommended daily allowance for calcium is 1,000 milligrams, and most women don't come close to getting enough. What's more, the more salt you eat, the less calcium your body retains. For instance, one 3 1/2-ounce bag of cheese puffs contains 1,000 milligrams of sodium, which will cost you 20 milligrams of calcium, something an osteoporosis-prone woman should think twice about.
7. Drink Lots of Water
You've eaten lunch. You've already scarfed your snack. And all you want to do is curl up and take a nap. When you find yourself lacking energy like this, make your way to the water bottle and down a glass. Studies have shown that fatigue is one of the first signs of dehydration, and when you're run-down, it's easy to confuse thirst for hunger. Airplanes, cars, and office buildings are especially arid and climate controlled, so you may need to make a concerted effort to drink even more water than you usually do. And, as you know, that should be eight eight-ounce glasses every day. Now, get chugging. I love, absolutely love the new pre-packaged water add-ins. They come in virtually every flavor imaginable and are just the right amount for the size water bottle you have. They come in fruit flavored water, fruit tea flavor, and white and green tea flavored to mix with the water. They contain zero calories, or, at the most, 5, and no carbs, and no sugar. Many now are geared to holistic health, such as antioxidant, immunity, energy, metabolism, etc. Whatever they claim to do, I love them. My favorite for about a year has been Crystal Light's White Tea Blueberry.


spoil yourself,
spoiledmom
chrissy

Spoiled Sundays

It’s spring at last, and you’re itching to hit the open road. But all that yellow pollen is making the family sedan look like Big Bird on roller skates. By the time you’ve wrestled the chamois from Rover (loath to relinquish his favorite chew toy), excavated the bucket from the basement, and located some suitable detergent, you decide to just wait and go for a drive in the rain. Another option? Save time by storing a basic car-wash kit in a bucket in the garage. Here, you’ll find what to stock so you’re ready to drive into spring in style.

Another thought that came to mind was "Another Mother's Day Basket"


You can find a pretty metal pail at any crafting supply store. You can also buy a galvanized one from a major hardware center and have the kids decorate the outside with waterproof paint, i.e. hand prints, sponge dipped in paint and blotched all over the can in different colors. You could also alternate between sponge blotches and handprints. Use your imagination. (and your child's)

You will need a galvanized pail to do this, or a Rubbermaid-type pail, large enough to wash the vehicle and to place goodies inside.

Inside, place in fancy paper:

Window and All-Purpose Cleaner
To remove finger smudges (and dog slobber).

Vinyl Protectant
For the dashboard.

Car-Wash Shampoo
Because dish detergent strips away wax and protective sealants. Plus, a bucket to make your soap suds in.

Tire Cleaner
For the wheels.

Lamb’s-Wool Mitt
For applying car-wash shampoo. Also, a tire sponge and a synthetic chamois for drying. And when you’re done? Use a hose to rinse everything off.

Car Wax
Even though you don’t need to wax after every wash, it’s good to have car wax handy for the times you do.

Car Air Freshener
You can get these at auto supply stores but Yankee Candle sells some in their best scents and they last a long while! No imitations!!

Mom and kiddos will have a blast hosing down and washing the car the next time it is dirty and it will be time well spent with each other.

Another great gift idea!




Spoil yourself
spoiledmom
Chrissy

:)

Special Giveaway..Do not miss out!!

Co-blogged in ca-hoots with SpoiledChild1



Originally Written by Susan @ 5 minutes for mom.

Reprinted with permission





You will be wanting to spread the word, or the blog, about this fantastic giveaway. Even if you do not need this product, it is an amazing invention for someone with a disablity for it lets them enjoy the ability to ride a bike.



Since the Caboose is a completley unique product, most families who could benefit from owning one, unfortunately, do not even know it exists.



As bloggers, we have the perfect outlet for getting products like these out there to people who are looking for them or items like them. That is why we are are doing this special giveaway.



We have been selling Caboose Trailer Bikes on our Pedal Cars and Retro Collectibles site for the last year and the feedback we receive from our customers is phenomenal.



The Caboose lets kids and adults who have special needs finally experience the thrill of riding a bike.

We’ve heard from customers who have purchased the bike for family members who cannot ride a typical bicycle because of Down syndrome, Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Blindness or a host of other reasons.



The message is clear – The Caboose Trailer Bike changes lives.





Hear what Meg says:











We are just so excited about the ‘Caboose’. We never knew anything like this even existed for handicapped people.

This is going to open up a whole new avenue for something that’s great fun and very healthy for us to do with Robert.

I don’t know who’s more excited about Robert’s new bike.

Last night my husband and I took Robert out to dinner and, as we were walking into the restaurant, he stopped to tell anyone and everyone about his new Caboose. He didn’t even know some of these people. He just walked right up to them and said, “I got new bike — a new big, big bike.” He was so funny and so cute — he’s definitely thrilled too.

I would back this product 100%.

My husband and I are thrilled with everything!!!”- Sam and Meg







Another customer wrote to tell us:



“I must say that when I showed my wife the Caboose trailer bike she said, “I don’t care what that costs, you buy it.”

Our son is a delightful 8 year old boy with Cerebral Palsy.

I can tell you he will LOVE this caboose. Thanks again!”



That customer and his wife were thrilled to discover that the Caboose bike is reasonably priced at $249.99.



As the exclusive, authorized retailer, we work closely with the manufacturer to ensure the cost of the bike is as low as possible while still maintaining the high quality expected and required from such a product.





And another said:

“The Caboose trailer is an awesome product. We searched and searched to find a product like this.

We went to many major bicycle dealers, all to no avail. We have a handicapped child (95 lbs.) who is unable to ride a bike himself. He loves this bike!

I have told many friends who have kids with the same issues, yet nobody has heard of a trailer that can accommodate up to 200 lbs. The other trailers we found held up to 80 lbs.

You have made one young man very happy! Thanks.”











The Caboose bike comes in two sizes: one for 5 to 10 year old children and another that fits children over 10 years old up to adults aged 95 or older.



(The bike is perfect for elderly riders.)





You can read more about the Caboose Trailer Bike here.





As we hear more and more success stories from customers who have experienced the joy of



family bike rides with the Caboose, we feel compelled to spread the word so that everyone can have the chance to ride a bike.





We are going to give away one Caboose Trailer Bike on Monday, May 5th. The winner will have the choice between the small or the large size.

Because we do not want to let anyone miss a single day of spring bike rides, you can go ahead and purchase a bike right now, and if you are the lucky winner on May 5th, we will simply give you a full refund.





We understand that often folks hold off purchasing an item during a giveaway waiting to see if they win it. So in this case, we’re offering to give you a full refund if you have already purchased yours.

Our store, Pedal Cars and Retro Collectibles, is currently the only authorized online retailer of the Caboose Trailer Bike.

These bikes are extremely popular and we do run out of stock. In fact, at the time I’m writing this, we are waiting on a new shipment of the large size… it is due to arrive April 18th and we have a long list of backorders already in queue.

If you know someone who can benefit from a Caboose Trailer Bike, please do not delay. Place your order right away so that you don’t miss out. We currently have the small size for 5 to 10 year olds in stock and we are taking backorders for the large size for adults and kids older than 10. (It’s due to arrive April 18th.) You can still order the large size online, and we will NOT charge your card until we’re ready to ship the bike to you.

And remember if you are the lucky winner of our Caboose Trailer Bike draw on May 5th and you have already purchased a bike yourself, we will give you a full refund so that your bike will be free.

To be the winner, simply leave a comment on this post and tell us that you’d like to be entered in the draw for the Caboose Trailer Bike and if you have a blog, please link back to this post and to this Caboose Trailer Bike product page at our store. If you don’t have a blog, please still spread the word to your friends and communities.

If you do not need a trailer bike for a friend or family member, please still help by spreading this message.









Caboose Trailer Bike product page at our store.





Visit www.5minutesformom.com for more fun and information.



spoiledmom

chrissy