Moira will be spending the day and early evening at a friend's house. In fact, Peggy (friend's Mom) will even pick Moira up from the reading program (friend is there too)! Woohoo! I have a Girl Scout service unit meeting tonight so I will pick up Moira after the meeting. Olivia is all sniffly, which explains why she was up most of the night and early morning Tuesday-Wednesday. ::sigh:: I think she is getting another ear infection. Poor kid. We were supposed to visit my Mom this afternoon but I cancelled the visit. I don't want her to land in the hospital again from Olivia's sniffles. For lunch, Olivia wanted crackers with butter. I tried a veggie wrap. Rice and Vegetable teriyaki. It was ok. Kinda. I had to drink a lot of water with it.. to wash it down. Heehee!

(link snagged via Heather) Wedding Enjoyed by No One But Bride

Morning everyone! Wow - it feels weird not to have blogged for a while... all 16 hours of it ::grin:: I want to say thank you to Joie, Joan, Danielle, Shelley and Kat for your kind comments. I just had to get away for a little while. The news stories about the children being kidnapped/missing just really struck me, somewhere deep in my heart. See, when I shop with the girls, I load the stuff in the car while Moira climbs into her seat. I usually put Olivia in her seat, buckle her, close the car doors and put the cart back. I try to park by the cart storage areas. What happened to the Chavez family could have happened to me, although the woman who snatched little Nancy was looking specifically for an infant. It almost happened to Joie. She encountered a situation which is a lot scarier than my "what if" situation. I can't understand WHY people do things like this. It boggles the mind - at least mine. The Amber Plan should be implemented in all 50 states. There is NO doubt in my mind that, due to the enormous publicity of the missing girls (Nancy Chavez and Jessica Cortez), it has played a huge role in retrieving those girls, safe and alive. The Amber Plan states: "The AMBER Plan was created in 1996 as a powerful legacy to 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, a bright little girl who was kidnapped and brutally murdered while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas. The tragedy shocked and outraged the entire community. Residents contacted radio stations in the Dallas area and suggested they broadcast special “alerts” over the airwaves so that they could help prevent such incidents in the future. In response to the community’s concern for the safety of local children, the Dallas/Fort Worth Association of Radio Managers teamed up with local law-enforcement agencies in northern Texas and developed this innovative early warning system to help find abducted children. Statistics show that, when abducted, a child’s greatest enemy is time."

QUANAH, Texas — A woman with a baby has been detained in this town about 125 miles north of Abilene, and police say the child may be Nancy Crystal Chavez, the 1-month-old girl snatched from a Wal-Mart parking lot Tuesday. I will try to blog later... I am not up to chatting right now...

ABILENE, Texas — A woman snatched a month-old baby from a van in a store parking lot Tuesday and drove away as the child's horrified mother held on desperately to the getaway vehicle. The mother was dragged more than 30 feet as the car sped away. She was later treated for cuts and bruises, police Sgt. Kim Vickers said. The abduction occurred about 4:30 p.m. at a Super Wal-Mart. The mother, whom police did not identify, had just placed her three children, including a 2- and a 6-year-old, into the family's van and was returning a shopping cart to a storage area about 10 feet away. She then saw her infant girl taken from the van and placed into a car. "The woman started screaming and trying to get the lady to stop," Vickers said. "The mom got there in time to grab onto the car and was drug about 30 to 40 feet." I can't even begin to comment.. my head is spinning..

Thank God.. oh thank God she is safe

Happy Birthday Allison!

Joan aka Da Goddess kindly answered my questions about the Cocodile Hunter. When and where did you meet the Irwins? I met the Irwins back on May 20, 1999. I was badgering the producer of a morning radio show about getting me in and he got me in! What were they like? Bindi was only 9 months old at the time. Sweet baby! Steve and Terri are just 100% real. Tell me about the fan club. I found the JeffMajor.com site that had a report of Steve's demise......wrote to Jeff and told him that was untrue....because I'd just met the Irwins and he put my letter up on the site. People started writing me. One lady had a Yahoo club. I joined. Then, I started my own. Fluke.....mine has more members. Actually, mine is the largest on the Net. I think the fact that I met them and that I really stand behind their message of conservation has helped propel the group forward When did your group start fundraising? When Steve's mom died, our group raised money ($400+) to donate to her Trust. I have a plaque hanging on the wall in my house now. Also, while this was going on, I was introduced to Pat, who runs Wildlife Protection Association of Australia. Tell me about WPAA and Pat. Pat's group was sponsored by the Irwins. Pat and I got to be friends and exchanged a lot of ideas on what we could do if our club joined up in his efforts. Unfortunately, just after that, his wife was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Somehow or another, Pat and I became very close. I was one of the only people he could confide in during the ordeal. He's a class act all the way. He would clean, feed, comfort his wife throughout her last months. He stayed by her side. Only I knew how bad it was. Sometimes, we'd exchange emails 20 times a day. In the end, he held her as she died. He's the most loving person I've ever come to know. I am sorry to hear about the death of Pat's wife. What happened after that? Following his wife's death, Pat sold his farm. The Irwins used the money from the merchandising and such to support, 100%, WPAA. They offered Pat a house at the zoo. That's where he now lives. I have a standing invite to stay with him. Pat has sponsored a kangaroo for the kids, sent presents....and we've sent him a million and one things as well. What about the events leading up to the movie release?(click here for the official site) So, the Croc Hunter movie release was approaching. A reporter joined my group. Asked a couple of questions. I emailed her back and next thing you know, I'd loaned her almost my entire collection of Croc Hunter stuff. Magazines, articles, photos, videos......you name it. Spenser, your son, is really into the Irwins. What did he give the reporter? My son also handed her a little stuffed croc for Bindi with a note asking her to marry him. (He gave up being Steve just before he turned 5.) Did the Irwins remember you? When the reporter met with Steve and Terri to interview them for the movie, they remembered my group and the donation. Then, they were FLOORED by Spenser's proposal. Our story ended up in the local paper and I'm sure we'll be getting a package from the Irwins sometime soon. Is that all? That's it. Weird stuff, eh?

Decided to run up to the mall (again!) tonight. The kids wanted McNasty's for dinner. Paul and the girls grabbed a table and I stood in line to order. While I was waiting to place my order, I was lucky enough to stand behind a young couple. The girl couldn't have been older than 15 but was dressed like most young girls - midriff baring shirt, hip hugger jeans and on her feet were weird looking platform sandals, complete with toe ring. Her suitor was approximately 5'10-6' tall, 17 years old and dressed in loose fitting jeans and a T-shirt. They looked like they could have stepped out of an American Eagle advertisement. The young girl resembled Sarah Michelle Gellar - blonde hair, pointy chin and nose and she REALLY looked like she needed to eat something. I was watching her constantly touch her date by either hugging him, rubbing him or leaning on him. Her constant need to touch him was pretty disturbing pathetic. At times, she would lean into him and he would respond by putting his hands on her ASS! WTF is THAT?? Thank God the kids were with Paul at the table. This was something I didn't want to explain yet. The most disturbing part - they KNEW I was standing right behind them. Like *I* want to watch her ASS get rubbed! Geez - we are standing in line at a food court, not taping Real (Underage) Sex! (Boy - Google will have a field day with that) I was almost hyperventilating I was so angry. I think I will work on building up my girls' self worth a LOT more. God help anyone who touches their ass. Paul and the girls went for a ride on the carousel while I returned (more) stuff to Old Navy. They met me in the store and I let Moira pick out a shirt for school. Out of a selection of at least 10 rugby shirts, she actually picked the very one I disliked (the colors were ugly) the most. ::sigh:: Oh well, she has to wear it. I asked her several times (in desperation) if she was sure she liked it. "I LOVE it Mom. It has my favorite colors!" Ack! Well, at least I can control all her other clothes. No pants that have images or words written on the ass. No backless shirts. No halter tops. No SHORT shorts or mini skirts. It makes me SO sick to see clothes for such little girls that are just not appropriate. There were plenty of examples in the mall tonight. Lordy I must be getting old. I can't take this. We didn't leave the mall until almost 9pm. The ride home was fun. The girls were playing some kind of game and were making each other crack up. I mean, they were laughing so hard they were snorting! LOL! They demanded to hear Bare Naked Ladies and we all sang along to "1,000,000" and "Pinch Me" and a few other songs on the cd. They finally got to bed by 1045pm. Oy - what a night.

I should get some work done around here. I just don't feeeel like it! ::grin::

The girls LOVE listening to this

Mornin' gang.. I crashed out last night. Lordy I was tired. Olivia has developed the habit of waking up in the morning and coming into my room. I can hear her doing this over the baby monitor. She stands by my side of the bed and watches me. When I open my eyes and look at her, she gives me a huge grin and says "Good morning Mommy". Now, isn't that the nicest way to wake up?

Moira has been in and out of bed for the past 3 hours. The last trip out, we took pity on her. She was coughing and sniffling quite a bit. So, she got to stay up for about 30 minutes and chugged a shot of Tylenol due to a sore throat. I just tucked her back in with a warning for her *not* to emerge until morning. I hope it works!

Acidman has now decided I am "a fine figure of a woman, despite living in New Jersey." Whatta hunk of man ::sigh:: Not bad for a southern boy.

Man - I can't believe the weekend is over. The bureau is almost finished. I can't wait to put my STUFF in it! Arrgghh! We have STUFF all over the place until it is complete. My shelves are up and just need a little bit of touch up paint. YAY! Then I can put more of my SHIT away.

I am burning a cd for myself. This will be the first audio cd I have created so I hope it turns out! Anyone have a particular CD burner program they like? I have NTI CDMaker. It came with the CD-RW drive. It's a bit of a pain in the ass to use. Moira's hard drive on her computer crapped out ::sigh:: Paul replaced the drive and is working on it now. How weird is it that we just happened to have a hard drive hanging around? I don't want to replace her computer... at least, not yet.

Dad and Millie just left a little while ago. It was so much fun. The girls adore them. I saw the new Lexus. VERY VERY nice. They got the Coach edition. It smell yummy inside - all leather!

Trading Spaces! Woohoo!

Taking a break right now. Paul and I have done a lot of work today. My brackets are all primed and painted. So are my shelves. I have some priming and painting to do in the bedroom. We are going to do that tonight. We just finished a fine quality meal of Sabrett hot dogs and tater tots. At least I had some broccoli out to even out the meal. The girls are sniffly today, poor kids. Olivia started wheezing so she is getting a nebulizer treatment. Ahh - nothing like an albuterol high! Wheeeee! She's outside now with an ice pop. She's like a freakin junkie with those damn ice pops. I think I have a ganglion cyst in my left wrist. It husts. Of course, now I have been bumping it constantly. I suppose I should get to the doctor and get it checked out. I'll update more later.. time for some coffee!

I an watching Crocodile Hunter on Animal Planet right now. Mary, a *really* old croc (over 100 years old) died. Here's an excerpt from Discovery.com: "And Steve suffers a huge emotional loss when Australia Zoo's matriarch crocodile, Mary, suddenly dies." Steve is bawling. He actually said he loved Mary like he loved Terry, his wife. Okayyyy... right.