Yesterday was the first day of school.  Owen woke up at 11pm the night before and has been throwing up every since.  Yep, a nasty stomach bug has hit our house on the first week of school.  Go figure.  My kids haven’t been sick once the entire summer (even with being in daycare a few days a week while I work).  Oh well, its how things work.

Connor woke up Monday and heard what happened with Owen and said, “yeah, I feel sick too”.  Sorry bud, but you’re going to school.  Wouldn’t ya know it, the school called an hour later and Connor got the distinction of being the first one this year to christen the floors with vomit.  Yikes.

More later.

We’ve grinned and beared it through “appletite”, “marriage-go-round”, “teethpicks” and “boyly” but the best so far happened just the other day.  My 6 year old came to me very serious and told me that the little girl across the street had something he really wanted.  He did his typical starting his sentence over and over again as he stumbled over trying to get his thoughts across and finally spit it out.

He wants a “diarrhea book”.  A what?  I said, you want a “diarrhea book?”  “Yep, a diarrhea book” was the answer.

It took me a second to realize he was asking for a diary to write his thoughts in.  lol.

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=23858

Read the press release.

Sign the petition to hold these companies accountable!

The marine scientist also shares information about farm raised fish and why some of it is less than desirable.  He also addresses which fish are bad for the environIf you have time, its worth listening to.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89807877

For the whole story on this toxic chemical that babies are exposed to daily,
check out the Bisphenol A category.

I’m currently splitting my orders between Vitaglo.com and Vitaminlife.com
You really have to continually check pricing. For instance, I order
MegaFood Essentials Mini Tabs for the kids..most places online are selling
this for around $27.00 (for 270) but I found it at VitaminLife the cheapest, at
$18.00.

VitaGlo.com had the cheapest Aubrey Organics, except for some Mens
Aubrey that my dh uses, I found VitaminLife to have the better price there. Weleda
toothpaste (2.99) was the cheapest I’ve found at Vitaglo.

Shipping is really decent with being around $5-9.

Top 10 Wal-Mart Worst Actions

From Walmartwatch.com

1. A judge fined Wal-Mart $18 million because the company provided incomplete and false evidence in a lawsuit brought by a woman who had been abducted in a Wal-Mart parking lot.
2. Upholding a $2.3 million verdict awarded to two women sexually harassed by a Wal-Mart manager, the judge said, the manager’s conduct was “outrageous and apparently Wal-Mart was aware of this, since his conduct was witnessed high-level [supervisors].
3. Federal judges in three states have fined Wal-Mart–as much as $120,000–for destroying evidence, withholding documents, and other violations in cases where Wal-Mart shoppers were either injured or a crime victim at a Wal-Mart store.
4. A jury found that Wal-Mart fired a white female employee because she was dating a black man, in a 1998 case.
5. A 14-year Wal-Mart worker was awarded $2.75 million after a jury decided store officials wrongly accused her of stealing.
6. Three existing community jobs are destroyed for every two new jobs at Wal-Mart.
7. Wal-Mart, the company that wrapped itself in the American Flag, is so patriotic it runs a Buy Mexican campaign.
8. Wal-Mart sold fake Tommy Hilfiger apparel to consumers after a judged ordered the company to stop.
9. Only 38% of Wal-Mart employees have company provided health insurance–compared to a national average that shows 60% of employees are covered by company plans.
10. After the FTC charged Wal-Mart with not identifying the country of origin on apparel items listed on its Internet sales site, Wal-Mart removed the items, apparently preferring not to disclose where the clothing was made.

More GREAT Articles

The Wal-Mart You Don’t Know
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html

FrontLine’s piece on Walmart
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/

WalMart Watch: A site keeping track of their injustices
http://www.walmartwatch.com/

Another watch dog site;
http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/

Congress report on Walmart
http://www.againstthewal.com/studies/millerwalmartreport.htm

Fox News and Walmart: It’s a Love Story
http://www.newshounds.us/2005/01/14/fox_news_and_walmart_its_a_love_story.php

Healthcare and Walmart
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/507169?src=mp

Do you shop at Wal-Mart? Wouldn’t you like to shop there knowing that Wal-Mart
follows U.S. child labor laws and refuses to profit from overseas child labor abuses?
Unfortunately, this is not the case.
http://go.care2.com/e/R2ZR/b9qg/vDLt

Think Walmart is organic? Think again!
http://cornucopia.org/index.php/wal-mart-white-paper/

Grist’s Blog on Why Walmart is Evil
http://www.grist.org/advice/ask/2004/11/22/umbra-walmart/

Walmart Sues Permanently Injured Employee

Excerpt:

Employers grab accident victims’ cash

Wal-Mart’s health plan sued an ex-worker, brain-damaged in a crash, to collect money from a settlement she’d received. It’s part of a trend in which companies aggressively try to recoup insurance costs.

By The Wall Street JournalA collision with a tractor-trailer seven years ago left 52-year-old Deborah Shank permanently brain-damaged and in a wheelchair. Her husband, Jim, and three sons found a small source of solace: a $700,000 accident settlement from the trucking company involved.

After legal fees and other expenses, the remaining $417,000 was put in a special trust. It was to be used for Deborah Shank’s care.

Instead, all of it is now slated to go to Deborah’s former employer, Wal-Mart Stores.

Read the above link for more on the story and you can also donate to the family at Walmart Watch.

They call me a box
But I don’t look like one
Inside me you’ll find letters
Check me daily for some

A place to cook
Not in the kitchen
Under my lid
Might be some chicken

I spin in circles but
I’m not a ride
The only passengers I have
Get dried

For a few years for Owen, I’ve printed out pictures as the clue (van, bike, oven, dryer, mailbox, etc).  This year, I’ll probably use short words.  Each clue takes them to a new place, which has another clue.  I try to make this last for a good 20 minutes and have them go back/forth, inside and out.  The final clue they search for is where their Easter baskets are!

They love it as much as I recall from my childhood. 

We had no blue as I forgot to buy the red cabbage which is supposed to make a really nice blue! Next time.

This is an egg in the beet juice. I cheated and used the beet juice from 2 cans of sliced beets I had in the cabinet. I added a few tablespoons of white vinegar and simmered it for awhile. It makes a nice pink egg.

The color to the left is the yellow from tumeric. I put about 1/2 cup of tumeric in a pot with about 2 cups of water and 2 tablespoons of white vinegar. I brought it to a boil and then simmered for about 15 minutes. My plan was to mix the blue dye and yellow dye for a green dye but since I didn’t have the blue, I figured I’d try the purplish color and yellow. The result was pretty good but the bizarre thing is that the dye actually looked orange but turned the eggs green!

Here is the an egg in the “green” dye;

And the result is below in the bowl with the other colors…not too bad!

And here’s a look at some of the eggs together. We used wax crayons to make doodles on some..and we also doodled on the finished dyed eggs with magic markers.

I made all the dyes first and we dipped/soaked the eggs at the table. The longer you let the eggs sit, the more colorful they are. It was fun all around!