Posts Tagged ‘floor’

Granting Wishes at Sears

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

TThis post is sponsored, but the ideas, thoughts and ramblings are my own.

Since having kids, I turned into a big softie.   Yes, I’ll actually admit it.  I cry at things I never would have before, and I think about things that never would have crossed my mind before having kids.  I’ll be honest here — I get all teary eyed at Sears new commercials.  Their new campaign is about how one gift can change someone’s life.  Since I absolutely love Ty Pennington, I thought I’d show you what he had to say:

Okay, now that I’ve got myself composed again, I need to tell you what wishes Sears answered for my family. I was provided a $100 gift card from Sears that we were able to use this weekend.

Bill and I bundled the kids off early yesterday morning and headed off to Sears.  I luck out since Sears is actually walking distance from my house, and we actually shop their quite a bit — off the top of my head, we got a bench, our snowblower, and our lawnmower from there.  However, on this trip, we had no idea what we were going to get.  My Christmas shopping is pretty much done, so we were going to try to find something for the kids.

The first place we checked out was the outdoor decorations. Madison is always wanting more for our yard, and this isn’t something we spend a lot of money on.  Shortly after this picture was taken, Will decided to lay on the floor and talk to one of the deer that they had for a decoration.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the camera out fast enough to get that embarrassing photo of him.  Nothing really caught our eye in this department, so we headed over to toys.  Of course, there were a lot of toys to pick from, but really, my kids don’t need another $100 worth of toys right before Christmas.  Since the favorite part of any store for my husband is electronics, we headed to that department.

Once we were in electronics, my husband immediately walked towards the TVs even though we really don’t need one. Plus, $100 doesn’t really buy a TV (or at least not the ones he was looking at). Madison was being her normal hyper self running around looking at things until she saw the guitar hero bundle.  Yes, that is my whole family playing Guitar Hero in Sears.  Madison asked us if we could buy her the drums.

Now, the school district I live in has cut the art and music programs from the curriculum and will not be adding them back.  I have written many posts on this blog about how awful I think this situation is and how I feel that music definitely is a class that should not be cut.  My daughter loves to play instruments and sing.  I can’t imagine depriving her of it.  With the $100 Sears gift card, we will be able to fulfill her wish and give her the additional music support she will not be getting from our school.  Who knows — Madison may end up to be  talented singer, dancer, in a band, etc.  However, I’d love to give her the stepping stones she needs to reach her full potential.  (Plus, well, Guitar Hero is fun for mom and dad too.  Dad was all over getting it when I told him there was 3 Tool songs and Freak On A Leash by Korn.  I also need to add that the gift card paid for a portion of the cost of this bundle.  I paid the rest.)

Since we got such an awesome family gift from Sears, I’d like to extend this awesome opportunity to one of my readers.  Yes, I’d like to give you a $100 gift card to Sears to use however you like.

You can enter via blog comment, tweet or blog post:

Blog Comment:

I just need you to tell me what you think you’d want to spend your $100 on.  Head on over to Sears and let me know the item number of what you like.

Twitter:

I’ve made it super easy for you to Twitter about this contest.  Just tweet out this message:

RT @blm03 please grant my wish to win a $100 #Sears gift card – tweet to make your own wish:  http://urlbrief.com/8e0599

Blog Post:

You can also enter by writing a post about the contest and linking back to this post.  Make sure you leave a comment with the URL to your post, so I can count it as an entry.

Each tweet, comment or post counts as one registration.  You can register up to three times by tweeting, leaving a comment, and doing a post on your blog.  The winner will be chosen at random by IZEA based on all entries.  This contest goes until December 23 at midnight EST.  Good Luck!

Check out the other Izea Insiders for more chances to win:

BenSpark

Steven Sanders

Corrin Renee

Elizabeth

Laurie

Kat

Heather

Brett

Good week, good times, New York Times

Monday, November 17th, 2008

Last week was a pretty good week.  My week started off with an email from a New York Times reporter wanted to interview regarding a post I wrote about Amazon’s frustration free packaging.  Once I picked myself up off the floor, I emailed him back and told him it was okay to call.  I had a great conversation with their technology reporter, and I went on my merry way.  Seriously, my  heart was beating about 400 miles an hour while this was going on.  I asked for him to let me know when it gets printed, and I thought that was the end of it.

On Thursday, I was super surprised to get a call from the New York Times again!  This time they wanted to send a photographer to my house to get pictures of me and my kids!  I ended up with 2 hours to get me and the kids ready and clean the house.  It went well, I think, and I hope to find out soon when the article will get printed.

I feel incredibly blessed right now even though my mom is teasing about when Oprah is going to be calling.  :)

Kids In Church

Monday, August 25th, 2008

My cousin got married over the weekend, and since the wedding wasn’t actually in Green Bay, we had to bring the kids to church. Normally, this is something we tried to avoid if at all possible  However, I was ready and prepared.  I had several bags of snacks to keep they occupied as well as many toys.

I thought all was going well till Madison asked me about the sanctuary.  When you walked into church, there was a baptsim sanctuary on the floor.  It had steps.  Madison wanted to know why there were steps and if it was so she could go in there.  Needless to say, I was worried the rest of the ceremony if she going to try to make a run for it and try to go in there.  Next, we were waiting for the bridesmaids and groomsmen to walk in.  There was no music playing and the church was silent.  Will, of course, decides to start talking loudly.  I was almost ready to get my passport and leave the country, because I thought I was going to die of embarrassment. Lastly, Will decided to burp quite loudly during the mass.  I don’t think the whole church could hear it, but it sure seemed like it.  Remind me again, why should I bring my kids to church?

The Girl In The Window

Sunday, August 3rd, 2008

I have to thank Kat for showing me this story.  I have been debating if I should post about it tonight while I was still upset or wait till morning.  After reading this story, I am still in tears regarding this little girl. I have quoted the first part of the article, so you can understand the conditions this poor girl was living in.

Photo Courtsey of the St Petersburg Times

Just before noon on July 13, 2005, a Plant City police car pulled up outside that shattered window. Two officers went into the house — and one stumbled back out.

Clutching his stomach, the rookie retched in the weeds.

Plant City Detective Mark Holste had been on the force for 18 years when he and his young partner were sent to the house on Old Sydney Road to stand by during a child abuse investigation. Someone had finally called the police.

They found a car parked outside. The driver’s door was open and a woman was slumped over in her seat, sobbing. She was an investigator for the Florida Department of Children and Families.

“Unbelievable,” she told Holste. “The worst I’ve ever seen.”

The police officers walked through the front door, into a cramped living room.

“I’ve been in rooms with bodies rotting there for a week and it never stunk that bad,” Holste said later. “There’s just no way to describe it. Urine and feces — dog, cat and human excrement — smeared on the walls, mashed into the carpet. Everything dank and rotting.”

Tattered curtains, yellow with cigarette smoke, dangling from bent metal rods. Cardboard and old comforters stuffed into broken, grimy windows. Trash blanketing the stained couch, the sticky counters.

The floor, walls, even the ceiling seemed to sway beneath legions of scuttling roaches.

“It sounded like you were walking on eggshells. You couldn’t take a step without crunching German cockroaches,” the detective said. “They were in the lights, in the furniture. Even inside the freezer. The freezer!”

While Holste looked around, a stout woman in a faded housecoat demanded to know what was going on. Yes, she lived there. Yes, those were her two sons in the living room. Her daughter? Well, yes, she had a daughter . . .

The detective strode past her, down a narrow hall. He turned the handle on a door, which opened into a space the size of a walk-in closet. He squinted in the dark.

At his feet, something stirred.

First he saw the girl’s eyes: dark and wide, unfocused, unblinking. She wasn’t looking at him so much as through him.

She lay on a torn, moldy mattress on the floor. She was curled on her side, long legs tucked into her emaciated chest. Her ribs and collarbone jutted out; one skinny arm was slung over her face; her black hair was matted, crawling with lice. Insect bites, rashes and sores pocked her skin. Though she looked old enough to be in school, she was naked — except for a swollen diaper.

“The pile of dirty diapers in that room must have been 4 feet high,” the detective said. “The glass in the window had been broken, and that child was just lying there, surrounded by her own excrement and bugs.”

When he bent to lift her, she yelped like a lamb. “It felt like I was picking up a baby,” Holste said. “I put her over my shoulder, and that diaper started leaking down my leg.”

The girl didn’t struggle. Holste asked, What’s your name, honey? The girl didn’t seem to hear.

He searched for clothes to dress her, but found only balled-up laundry, flecked with feces. He looked for a toy, a doll, a stuffed animal. “But the only ones I found were covered in maggots and roaches.”

Choking back rage, he approached the mother. How could you let this happen?

“The mother’s statement was: ‘I’m doing the best I can,’ ” the detective said. “I told her, ‘The best you can sucks!’ ”

When taken into custody, Dani could not walk, drink from a cup, eat, or talk. She truly acted like a baby. After exhaustive rounds of testing, they diagnosed her with “environmental autism.” Since she was deprived of interaction for so long, the doctor believed, that she had withdrawn into herself. “In the first five years of life, 85 percent of the brain is developed,” said Armstrong, the psychologist who examined Danielle. “Those early relationships, more than anything else, help wire the brain and provide children with the experience to trust, to develop language, to communicate. They need that system to relate to the world.” As you can see, she was in bad shape. As a mother myself, I cannot understand not caring for your own child. There were 2 other boys in the house too! If you can believe this, the mother got a plea bargain so that she served no jail time! She has claimed an injury, so she doesn’t have to serve her community service time either! She also doesn’t understand why the state took her daughter away.

The couple you see in the picture above is Diane and Bernie Lierow who are her angels. When looking for a child to adopt, they chose her not knowing if she’ll ever be “normal”. I’ll be honest; I don’t know if I could have taken this on. Because of the love from her new family:

Is she okay?

Danielle is better than anyone dared hope. She has learned to look at people and let herself be held. She can chew ham. She can swim. She’s tall and blond and has a little belly. She knows her name is Dani.

In her new room, she has a window she can look out of. When she wants to see outside, all she has to do is raise her arms and her dad is right behind her, waiting to pick her up.

I wish someone could explain to me how we let this happen. The part that makes me most angry is that this did not have to happen. This girl’s life is possibly ruined since DCFS was called twice on this family when Dani was young, and they did nothing.  My god, what more do you have to do to get your kids taken away from you besides seriously neglecting them?!?  I tried to summarize this story the best I could, but check out the article.  Make sure you have some Kleenex available, because your heart will break for this little girl.  I know mine did.

The Demo Starts Now

Monday, March 24th, 2008

Well, not quite now. I am calling to see how much it is to rent a dumpster, so we can start demoing the room in the basement. However, I don’t know how long we need it for or how big of one we need, so I sound like a moron when I am talking to these people. I know Bill would rather be playing golf than messing around with the basement, but that room needs to be taken down before we can do anything.  We have a field supervisor coming out on Friday to inspect the basement, and then we will get the date of when they will install the drainage tile.  Once that is done, it is a mad dash to finish finishing off the basement before Will’s birthday.

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