Chookah

Fire Drills

A friend sent me a CNN video about children and smoke alarms.

Results from a Columbus Children's Hospital study using 6-12 year old subjects:

• 40% of children did not awaken to the tone alarm (using an alarm 4x louder than your standard home alarm). (what!!!)
• 96% of children awoke to the alarms that used their mothers' voices which told them to wake up and leave the room.
• 83% of children were able to escape from the room in time when awakened by the parent-voice alarm.
• Most childhood deaths in home fires are attributed to smoke inhalation.

I checked this product out on Amazon and read the three reviews associated with it.  This is one of my favorite quotes (from a reviewer who gave the product 3 out of 5 stars):

"I was sickened to say the least to find out that none of our three children, ages 8, 6 and 3 woke up during a fire drill to the traditional alarm even though we let it beep for 2 full minutes... I love the concept, however, when we did another fire drill using the vocal smoke alarm, again none of our children woke up.  Maybe [an alarm] that sounds like a bag of chips being opened, because for some reason they will wake up to that, but not to extremely loud beeping or this particular vocal alarm."

You gotta love and respect the honest review from a proud parent.

On a more serious note: I'm doing a fire drill with Sebastian tonight.... wait... tomorrow night.  That way his teachers won't suffer for the sake of safety.  I'll keep you posted on the results.

Fatty

It's official

GINGER IS FAT FAT FAT.

I knew she was getting chubby.  I knew that Sebastian was raiding the dog treat cabinet and giving her treats.  But come on!!

Scale at the vet says that she's 94 lbs.  That's 94 lbs. of lap dog.

Diet starts tomorrow morning.  Is there an Atkins plan for canines?

Note to Dad.

My birthday is in May. Nikki's birthday is in March.

Nikki called to pass along your birthday wishes - even though you bestowed them on the wrong daughter.

Thanks for the Birthday wishes (I won't hold it against you until next year). ;-)

A Merry One Indeed...

Christmas was great this year.  Good friends, good food and tons of family.

More stories to come, but the Toddler album has been updated with some of Sebastian's exploits.

I swear, if that kid calls me "Sunny" instead of "Momma" again... well... I'll take away his supply of bananas... (that'll teach him!)

Here's the initial round:

Happy Birthday, Grandma

Today would have been my Grandmother's birthday. (here's the slacker in me coming out) I think that she would have been 93.

Happy Birthday, Grandma.  I miss you, I love you, you would have been very proud to have met Sebastian.

(This is the last picture of grandma that we have.  She came to my baby shower and died two days later.  I hope that she had a good time seeing all of her family)

There are many of us who miss your spirit, your love and your fiesty lust for life.

(thank you for Sebastian's name, Aaron and I couldn't have asked for a better name)

I miss you and love you very much.

Baby Isabell

Thought that y'all might like to see Isabell as a baby (note the trademark Baker perma-bedhead).  She's about 18 months in these pictures.

Hey Cuz...

Aaron, Sebastian and I made the trek out to my aunt Joan and uncle Hollis' house this past weekend. We saw and cavorted with some of the cousins.

Here are some pics.

(this is Elisabeth Erwin - Ben and Sarah's little lady)

(this is Natalie - Josh and Lisa's youngest daughter)

(this is Rachel - Josh and Lisa's oldest daughter)

Stop the harassment, already...

Okay, okay.

Here are some pictures to (hopefully) placate the masses.

Give me a break, people, it's not like I don't have THREE weeks worth of laundry to catch up on.

Check it out - Lagoon, May 2005. 

With pictures like this one, isn't it worth the wait? ;-)

I am?

These are the results I got from one of those cutsie co-marketed online tests that are smattered all over the Internet.  I've cut out the co-marketing crap about saving for retirement at the bottom of the results. (I'm also not going to tell you what site I took the test on because I think that they're smarmy in their co-marketing tactics).

And yes, I took the test partly because I was curious.  Partly to view the other co-marketing content for a work project.

(my comments are in parenthesis - cause you know, I just can't keep my mouth shut)

Sunny, you've got what it takes to be a Creative Mom! (I do?)

Recipe for: The Creative Mom
Quote: "No problem! We'll just..." (we'll just... what?)

Ingredients:
A bunch of fresh ideas  (fresh, huh)
A potful of ingenuity  (pot calling the kettle black)
A dash of inspiration (isn't he a character in the Incredibles?)
Whatever's in the fridge (for the love of God, DON'T LOOK IN THE FRIDGE!!!!)

You're the type of mom who can make a prize-winning Halloween costume from cardboard boxes and old stuff from the garage (see, Isabell, being a bum is cool!), or whip up a tasty after-work meal from whatever's in the fridge (you mean from any take-out place in between work and home) and the cupboard (Nutter Butter's, anyone?). And what about your ability to make an earlier bedtime sound like a great idea to the kids? When there's a problem, you solve it—with wit and inspiration. (does inspriation come from the grocery store?)

You're a figure-outer (I'm no grammarian, but is this even a word?) and it shows in your creativity and innovation. Whether it's taking care of school projects or giving social advice to your kids (don't hit back, scream your GUTS out if she hits you again. Follow her through the house and don't stop screaming), when you put that sharp mind to it, you always come up with devastatingly (I don't think I like this word considering our recent fishtank disaster and budding toddler) clever solutions.

Tip: Don't slow down on the ingenuity when it comes time for cooking for the family. If you know they like something, don't make it over and over. Be creative. (creative and food don't compute for me) Think of other dishes that are similar to the favorites, (how many ways can you make mac n' cheese?) but with an interesting twist. It may lead to a world of new "mom, can we have?" requests. (already get these from the girls - can we have more treats?  Sure, guys, there's about 50 lbs of sugary treats in the pantry, knock yourselves out)

It's about $#*%(&@ time!

Finally.

Hawaii pictures are ready for your perusal.  I'll just chalk the delay up to the fact that I needed to find my "sassy voice" and add just the right captions.

It had nothing to do with the fact that I'm busy whining about my lack of fashion sense, wardrobe or the fact that there are still misogynists out there who think that I'm their secretary.

The link will live in the navigation and it's right here too!

http://chookah.typepad.com/photos/hawaii_2005/

Have fun!