Wordless Wednesday- Spring

I love Spring!

What is MRSA?

This was a question until about a month ago I could not have answered. Then Brookster came home with a note that a child in the community had been diagnosed with MRSA.

MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is a type of Staph bacteria found on the skin and in the nose that is resistant to antibiotics. More than 90,000 Americans get potentially deadly MRSA infections every year and in 2005, nearly 19,000 Americans died from MRSA infections. More deaths are linked to MRSA infections than AIDS.

There are two known types of MRSA. You may have heard of Healthcare-Associated (HA-MRSA), which occurs in hospitals and nursing homes, but a newer type of MRSA is Community-Associated (CA-MRSA), which has recently begun to spread in public settings like gyms, locker rooms, households and schools.

People can carry MRSA and not have any symptoms. These "carriers" can also transmit the bacteria to other people. MRSA can be easily spread through skin-to-skin contact and by touching contaminated items. This is why it is crucial to take measures to help reduce the spread of MRSA using these practical steps.

1. Scrub up - Wash hands frequently with soap and warm water for at least 15 seconds or use an alcohol-based hand rub sanitizer.
2. 
   Wipe it down - Use a disinfecting bleach solution to wipe down and disinfect hard surfaces. (1 tablespoon of disinfecting bleach diluted in 1 quart of water)
3. 
   Cover your cuts - Keep any nicks or wounds covered with a clean, dry bandage until healed.
4. 
   Keep to yourself - Do not share personal items, like towels or razors, that come into contact with bare skin.
5. 
   Use a barrier - Keep a towel or clothing between skin and shared equipment.

MRSA, like other staph bacteria, can cause a skin infection such as pimples, rashes, abscesses, boils or what can look like a spider bite. These infections are usually warm, painful, red or swollen.If you think that you or anyone in your family may have a MRSA infection, contact a licensed health care professional, especially if the infection is large, painful, warm to the touch, or does not heal by itself.For more information on MRSA and steps you can take to help reduce the spread of the bacteria, download our STOP MRSA Now Playbook here.

We live in a small town so when something happens to one the kids it like it happens to us. The little girl Kristin passed away a few weeks ago from MRSA. Her story is going to be on the Oprah show tomorrow. I chose to blog about this so everyone would be aware of the dangers of this infection and the symptoms. Please help me spread the word about this terrible infection. Thanks for helping me spread the word. If you have a chance watch the Oprah Show tomorrow to learn about this infection and some other infections as well.

Hug your kids a little extra tonight. I know I do because you never know what could happen.

Wonderful Spring Day

Today was the most beautiful day of the year here and what do you think we did????? I bet you have guessed by now. Yes we went to the golf course. I have a feeling that this is where I will be spending most of my time.

My dad got her started playing golf when she was 2. He always wanted her to play and I have tried to keep her playing. She is now taking lessons. She states that she would rather play golf then do anything else. Her coach told her that she gets to play with the high school girls this summer. You would that she had won the lottery. LOL She informed me today that she had to go get some new clothes and hats to match so she will look like the big girls. I just hope the big girls are ready to deal with an eight year old. I will keep you informed how that goes.

As long as she is having fun I am all for it. I grew up on the golf course as well but I did not have the love for it like she does. She has a calender and is counting the days down until school is out and she gets to play golf during the week. I hope I can hold out for this. This is also the reason that I have decided to be a SAHM. I do not want to miss a minute in her life. She is such an important part of my life that I was feeling like I was missing the big part of her life. Someone asked her today what she was going to do when she got older. She stated she was going to go to college, play golf and makes lots of money. Who knows maybe we have the next pro LPGA golfers on our hands. It does not matter to me I just want her to have fun and enjoy these times.

I think I am writing all over the place tonight and I am sorry but as a side note I forgot the sunscreen today and luckily she did not burn but I did. It is hurting so bad. Oh, well I am going t make a CVS run tomorrow for some sunscreen. I hope you all have a great weekend and enjoy your kids.

Fishful Thinking

I went to the mailbox today and there was a box from Mr. Youth. I had no idea what was in the box. I was pleasantly surprised when I found this in the box:



It is from the Fishful Thinking Ambassador program. Fishful thinking is great program and I am lucky enough to be one of the Ambassador. Brookster loves to play the games on the website. If you are wanting to know more about the program please just click the Fishful Thinking banner on the right side of my blog. They have some great activites that you can do with the program. If you have any questions about the program please leave me a comment and I will be glad to help you any way I can.

Kids can be gross sometimes

Sometimes Brookster amazes me. Today was one of those days. We were getting her lunch ready for tomorrow. She takes Jello or Pudding everyday and to save money I send one of my spoons with her. I was packing her lunch and put a clean spoon in her lunch box. She took the old spoon and licked it really good. I did not know what she was doing it seemed gross to me to be licking on a spoon that had been in her luncbox all day. That was not the gross part. She then went to the drawer where I keep the sliverware and started to put the spoon she had just licked in the drawer. I asked her what she was doing and she said she had cleaned it and was puting it away. I have to go now and put all of my silverware in the dishwasher to get them all clean. I will never figure out how an eight year old minds work.

Clifford Goes Big in the Community

BE BIG IN YOUR COMMUNITY!
Scholastic Inc. has launched ÒThe Be Big in Your Community ContestÓ in support of CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG¨ and the BE BIGª initiative. The contest calls upon kids, parents, teachers, and community leaders to submit their BIG ideas for creating positive change in their communities by demonstrating CliffordÕs Big Ideas; Share, Play Fair, Have Respect, Work Together, Be Responsible, Be A Good Friend, Help Others, Be Truthful, Be Kind and Believe In Yourself. The BE BIG Fund will help bring the winning BIG idea to life by awarding one (1) Grand Prize $25,000 community grant and ten (10) runner-up $2,500 community grants to implement the winning BIG ideas via HandsOn Network local affiliate organizations. Submit your idea at www.scholastic.com/cliffordbebig <http://www.scholastic.com/cliffordbebig> and remember....IT ONLY TAKES A LITTLE TO BE BIG!

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and the District of Columbia. Void where prohibited or restricted by law. Contest starts April 20, 2009 and ends on June 26, 2009.

ICarly Season 1 Vol 2 DVD Review

Brookster is never really excited when I get a package in the mail because she states " There is nothing I ever like" Well, this time was very different. I did not tell her that I was review this DVD. It came in the mail and when she saw it she starting jumping up and down so excited. She loves this show. She grabbed the DVD and placed in the DVD player immediately. She loved it.
She watches the show all the time and loves to go the website.

The DVD does not go on sale unto April 21, 2009. If you would like to preorder the DVD please go here or here.


DVD Synopsis:
You asked for more, so you’re getting more-more Season 1 of iCarly! Join Carly, Sam, and Freddie as they deal with all the craziness of school, growing up, and crankin’ out the best web show out there, iCarly.com!

Special Features include:
Behind the Slime with the Cast of iCarly
Behind-the-Scenes Extras
Special Bonus: Pilot Episode of True Jackson, VP

Needless to say this DVD was a major hit in our house and I would recommend it to anyone.
Thanks Erin for the opportunity to review this DVD.

Selling Avon

As some of you know, I have just recently become a SAHM. I have started selling Avon in order to make some extra money.

Avon is having a big mothers day sale. You can get the items pictured, a 7 peice train set with a 91.75 value for 9.99 with a 10.00 beauty purchase. This would make a great Mothers Day present. If you would like to have this item or any other item from Avon please go to my website on Avon. www.youravon.com/janahardin. If you have any questions please let me know. If you would like a Avon book I would be glad to mail one to you. Brookster and I would appreciate any orders that we can get.

Saturday Small Talk 6

I was doing some blog hopping tonight and found this at MomDot's.

Each week there is a topic and you list 6 things that go with the topic.

Today’s topic is “6 animals (domestic, wild, or exotic) you think would be fun to own as pets.” You can answer this with a list of 6 words, 6 phrases, 6 sentences, 6 paragraphs, 6 photos, 6 videos, etc . . .

I grew up on a farm so I have had a lot of the domestic animals, so I decided to go with some wild or exotic animals that I would love to have as a pet.

1.Baby seal. Who would not love that little guy.

2.Baby fawn. We see this in the field across the road and in our woods all the time.

3 Giraffe. I have always thought they were great animals. I would love to have one, but it would have to go when it got as tall as my house.

4 Kola bear. I remebering asking Santa for one of these one Christmas. Santa I am still waiting.

5White Tiger

6.Zebra.

Go on over to MomDot's and join in the fun. Can't wait to see what animals everyone picks.

Mee Wee Hip Hop Music for Kids Review

MeeWee is fun, exciting, and uplifting Hip-Hop music for elementary school age children. Through the years, nearly all Hip-Hop music and culture has been designed for adolescents and adults. These fans now have children who love the lively and energetic songs that they hear; unfortunately, most of the lyrical content isn't quite appropriate. Well, MeeWee solves that! With songs like "I Need A Hug", "Us Bus", and "I Can Be Anything", Hip-Hop fans who are six, seven, and eight years old have cause to celebrate. So do their parents, as they get their children ready to rap and dance to the beats and rhymes of MeeWee.

On their website they have a section for teachers where they have access to lesson plans that revolve around the songs.

Brookster really loved the music. I have now downloaded it to a CD so we can listen to it in the car. Mee Wee must be really good because it has trump the Jonas Brothers for right now.

If you would like to meet the characters of Mee Wee please click here. They are each unique and kids can relate to them.

The music is only available on the Internet. Please click here to find out more about buying Mee Wee Music. We love it at our house and I am sure your elementary age child will love it as well.

The My Natural Bamboo Collection - Review

I love when the UPS truck comes to my house these days. I have been getting a lot of things to review, but when I opened the box and found this cute little new friend I could not stop smiling.

Is he not the cutest little monkey ever. Don't you just want to hug him. My new friend is part of the new My Natural Bamboo Collection from Hosung.

The new plush line is hand-dyed with plants and minerals using Hosung's PureWaterWash and they are made from 100% unprocessed bamboo. The fibers are all natural, antifungal and antibacterial-- safe for our children

The animals come in four different types. The monkey, the elephant, the bear
and the Frog

The cute little 9 inch plush guys can only be found at Barnes and Noble stores,

and Barnes and Noble.com

The suggested retail price is 14.95. Any child you have to buy for and some adults would love to have one of these cute guys as a gift.

Long Week

I have so much to blog about but this week has been so busy with Brookster that I have not had time. She went on a Field Trip Tuesday to the zoo, that she is talking about. We have had some teacher problems that I had to take care of. She has a first year teacher and I know that is very hard. ( I used to teach so I was a first year teacher as well) This teacher however never sends home grades so I never know what Brookster is doing. Brookster normally makes straight A's but I like to know if she is having problems with a subject before the report cards come out. Brookster missed a day of school last week and I asked for homework to come home so we could work on it. Today the homework came home with a note that it is due in the morning. I almost lost it. The note was dated today so I know that Brookster did not forget to bring it home. (which has happened in the past). Her homework tonight consisted of 12 pages of math, studying for spelling words and read a story in her reading book. It took us over 2 hours to do homework tonight. The math pages was the surprise. I am going to talk to the teacher tomorrow. 2 hours of homework is to much for an eight year old. It is to much for a 38 year old as well LOL. It just upsets me that the math homework should have been sent home way before tonight. She missed a day 2 weeks ago before spring break so she could have sent the work home during spring break and we would have a week to get the papers done. Maybe I am overreacting but I am very tired after helping her with all that homework.
Thought I would tell you all about it so I could get it off my chest before I talked to the teacher tomorrow. I will let you know how it goes.

Go! Diego Go Rainforest Fiesta Review

A friend of mine's little boy was over the house the other day when I received a package in the mail from FedEx. Little D wanted to know what was in the package. I opened the package and he started yelling Diego, Diego, Diego. He was jumping up and down could not wait until I put the DVD in the player. I had no idea that Little D loved Diego that much. I put the DVD in the player and started it. From the moment it stated playing until it went off he did not move. He was glued to the TV. Little D is two and usually never still. I wish I had a picture of him sitting so still, but I was busy watching the DVD with him I forgot the camera until the end.

Rainforest Fiesta! Features four episodes of a the Nick Jr. series. Diego helps a porcupine,( which was Little D's favorite), rescues a flamingo, comes to the aid of a macaroni penguin and helps a llama get free from a trap. The DVD also features a "Count, Diego, Count" Game which is very cute. It helps teaches the kids counting skills. If you would like to order a copy of Go! Diego Go Fiesta go here.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Don't think that I could get in that shape anymore.

Crystal Garden

Yesterday was the first day of Spring Break and we had a blast. We started working on the Crystal Garden. (pictures are coming on that one) It is a lot more complicated than I thought something for an 8 year old would be. We had to go find rocks in order to grow the crystals on rocks. The directions said to be careful with the chemicals because it could what ever it touches. That makes me feel good about that part of the project. What 8 year old is neat when doing an activity. Water has to boiled and goggles have to be worn. This is a very complicated project but I am determined to do this project. We are still working on this project so I will keep you posted.

Yanni Voices Review

Yanni Voices would not be one of the CD's on my must have list, but that was the reason that I jumped at the chance when asked by One2One network to do a review. When I think of Yanni I think of candles and slow dancing, which is really not me. This time he was teaming up with 4 wonderful artists to sing along with his music. Yanni took 2 years to produce the collaboration with the four vocalists to create Yanni Voices.

I was surprised that I really liked most of the CD. I love Chloe the best. It is hard to believe with a voice like hers she is only 20. My favorite song was "Kill Me With Your Love" (Chloe). She has such a pure voice it is amazing.

I was not really into the classical music feel of some of the songs but overall it was a hit.

Yanni has teamed up with PBS. I have watched the DVD and I was very impressed watching them live. To see a blurb click here. For a schedule of when the show is airing in your area please check here.

The amazing Voices is going on tour. The show is coming to Nashville on April 22 and I am lucky that I am getting to go to the show. If you would like to see if Yanni is coming to a town near you please check the schedule.

I encourage you to give Yanni Voices a try. I did and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I like it . If you give it a try I bet you would like it too.

Sping Break

Brookster is on spring break this week and she has plans for every day this week. She said this was the first time that I have been home for h er spring break and she wanted to enjoy it. I plan on blogging about our adventures. Since I have not been released from the Dr I will not be going any where but there is so much we can do at home. Tonight we are going to start growing our crystal garden. I will keep you posted on how that goes. I am not sure how this is going to work since I am not very good with the Science thing and all, but for Brookster I am willing to try.
Hopefully I do not blow up the house. If you see something on the news about someone blowing up the house doing a kids science project that will be me. Off to start the growing process........

Blog Swap

Country Girl City Life is having a Blog Swap. You will be paired up with someone and then you will make them a gift basket/box of some of the their favorite things. I love to give presents and I love to receive so this is the best of both worlds. The price of the gift can not go over 30.oo. I love this idea and can not wait to start shopping for my new friend. If you would like to participate click on the Country Girl link above.

Children's Book give away

I loved it when I used to read books to Haley. She can now read all by herself. Thanks to BzzAgent and Claritin, I have a children's book to give away. "Casey and the School Day Sneezes" We have allergies in our house very badly. Brookster is allergic to so much bless her heart. She really related to the book becasuse she said it Casey was like her.

The story is about a little girl that sneezes all the time and does not know why. Casey gets upset because she can not do things other kids in her class can like pet the bunny. I really like this book as a why to explain allergies to your child. I also like this book because some the drawings are done by children.
I love anything that kids worked on as well.

If you would like to win this book for your child please leave an entry below telling about an allergy story from your family.

Extra Entries

1. Follow my blog

2. Twitt about this and leave a link

3. Blog about this give away.

The contest will end on Friday April 10th with a winner to be announced Saturday April 11th.

Giveaway winner

Deanna is the winner of the Saftey Cap give away. Congratulations.

Guitartrump

I am always amazed at how Brooksters mind works. I know her mind does not work the way mine did at her age. I was all into playing outside, chasing boys and playing. I did not like school. Brookster loves school and loves to learn new things. She is always working on something trying to figure it out. She is the type of kid that wants to take things apart in order to try to put it back together again. She also loves music. Even before she was born, when ever I played music she would move around. I could calm her down after she was born by singing. It should have not been surprised when she took her trumpet and some rubber bands in her room the other night. She returned a few minutes later with a new invention. The Guitartrump.

When you place the mouth piece to your ear and strum the rubber bands it sounds like a guitar, so as the name Guitartrump. She informed me that when she got bigger she was going to pay someone to make the Guitartrump and we would be rich. I asked her what she would do with all the money she was going to make. She said oh invent something else. Who knows one day you may see Guitartump on the shelves at Target or Toys R Us. When you see it just remember that little Brookster was the inventor of the new instrument.