Wives Club And Police Discounts

So I was feeling rather ill last week for about 3 days I had the WORST headache that would not go away no matter what I tried. The only thing I can take being pregnant is Tylenol, which I am allergic to so I can take NOTHING for fever or pain. Anyway, I called the nurse to see of there was some sort of magical prescription because I could hardly function and I wanted to "live again." The doctor recommended I up my caffeine intake a little due to the fact that I cannot take anything and caffeine works as a dilator. Well I had a little extra coffee and felt good, then I had some more coffee with lunch and felt FABULOUS! I was off to the store alone and feeling fine. That is until I whizzed right past a local squad not even realizing how fast I was going. I quickly looked down and noticed I was going almost 50 in a 30. Oops! Then the lights were behind me and I quickly pulled over. I know the drill, I was pleasant and apologetic and quickly handed over my ID. Two cops approached me and the one cop was sweet as pie and the other huge, hard-ass cop was not very kind at all. The sweet cop quickly noticed Cop Dad's business card in my wallet (strategically placed in good view of course) and asked me how I knew Mr. Cop. I told him that it was my husband and he started to hand back my license. Then the hard-ass cop grabbed it with a scowl and said that they had to go back to their car and check it out. Then asked me how long Cop Dad had been on in PD town. I told him almost 3 years. I also told him that my FIL and SMIL also work at the same PD (so shove it big meanie). The sweet cop was smiling at me and had an oh-brother-look-on-his-face because the other cop was being such a prick. They went back to the squad. Now you should know that I am a sahm and am a very careful driver most of the time. I even have a renew sticker on the back of my license (due to my excellent driving record) which has also been renewed several times since. I do not drive about carelessly thinking that I can and will get off no matter what cause I'm in the wives club BUT it has gotten me off a few times when I wasn't paying attention and the speed overage was minor every time, accept today. It is definitely one of the perks of the job. I think with all we LEO wives put up regarding parenting load, scheduling, stressed out hubby's, etc. with it is well deserved. So the sweet cop came back and kindly gave me my license. I asked him if they needed to enter it for a warning (because that's what the big mean cop said) and he smiled like he was going to laugh and sort of rolled his eyes and said have an awesome rest of your day, and sorry.

So, we have been wanting to go on a mini vacation with Little Buddy this summer in my second trimester because I am high risk and they suggest that the best time for travel with a normal pregnancy is the second trimester. My specialist said that the end of July would be fine and not to go to much later than that and also said the location was fine because there are plenty of adequate hospitals between here and there to take care of me should I need it. I had mentioned to Cop Dad that maybe we could try to go to Wisconsin Dells for a short stay during the week. My friend Becki and her family just stayed at The Wilderness with a bunch of family members in a condo and split the cost and said that they had a blast and loved it. So Cop Dad looked at the website for the prices, etc. The cost for the room that we wanted was $316 a night and we wanted to stay 2 nights. That total is not bad considering that we are not going anywhere else this summer and we do not want to wind up at a cheapo party hotel where toothless hicks are walking the halls with open liquor all night and have their doors open with music and or TV going. We have dealt with this before . . . . . . . no thanks! BUT, we do want to have money for gas, food, an attraction or two, and maybe a souvenir. So we kept looking.

Cop dad called me from the PD yesterday and told me that he was talking it over with some of the guys at work and few of them said that they stayed in Lake Geneva instead and actually got a police discount. So he was all over that. We have a few standards to make sure that this trip is even worth our while. Little Buddy has to have a separate room or a door in between: while is may not be completely necessary it is very desirable for when LB goes to bed at 9 and naps in the afternoon for 3 hours what do we do, he is a very light sleeper? This way we can watch TV or movies (etc. ) softly with the door shut and a white noise machine brought with from home. Then I though it would be nice to get a room with a kitchen. Not only can we save money for other things, but due to the stress that taking a toddler to a restaurant creates I would rather not put all of us through that 3 TIMES A DAY! Maybe just have one or two nice meals out. AND lastly, I wanted to go to a larger resort with built in water parks. This I thought would be fun for all of us plus it would get Little Buddy used to the water AND is a constant form of entertainment already paid for in the cost of the room.

Typically I am not a fan of loud, tourist type destinations, I like to go away from crowds and mini golfs and that kind of thing to quiet and beauty and little to no people. BUT, when kids are involved, this is what works. Can't wait til LB and ? are a little older and we can all go camping at the end of summer when the north woods start to get chilly at night. Camping in the heat with kids . . . . . . . no thanks. Anyway, he booked the room and it has a living room and kitchen and the bedroom is behind doors and their is a pull out couch, fireplace, and flat screen TV/DVD in the living room. I'm loving the police discount thing. Did any of you LEO wives know to ask for it or have you ever benefitted from it anywhere? Some places have it but it is not advertised and then some places don't have it at all. We can't wait!

Hot Times And Happy News

So it has been absolutely ridiculously hot here the last few days. The extreme humidity just exacerbates the heat issue. Today for example, we have a heat index of 105 degrees. Just walking to and from the car is sweltering and exhausting. Yesterday we tried to take Little Buddy to the pool. That was a nice concept but he is terrified of the water? We tried everything with no luck. We just ended up getting hotter and more frustrated standing inches away from relief with a hot, squirming, screaming 2 year old not able to even put our feet in because of the terror. Well, being an awful mommy I walked under the giant sprinklers at the kid part of the pool and then there was a screaming wet mad kid on my hip. OY! We are planning a family trip to the Dells to stay at a nice resort with several huge water parks at the end of July. Hoping that I can bring him a few more times and work our way into the water. Anyone have any suggestions? Then the day before we went to the zoo. That was fun but sooooo hot and another day of Little Buddy being way too hot and when I walked through the crowd mister that they have going in extreme heat, he was a basket case. We did have fun but the heat is so hard to do stuff in, especially little kids and pregnant moms in extreme heat.

Maybe I will try to set up the kiddie pool on the deck tonight or tomorrow and try that first. It's much closer to bath tub size and he LOVES baths.

Oh, yesterday was the 23rd. We went for our level 2 ultrasound to see of there were any issues with the baby. Everything not only measured perfectly, the baby's due date just from the tech entering the measurements in the computer came up only one day away from the due date. The skin on the back of the neck was fabulous and my cervix which is always under close watch due to having a bicornuate uterus measured over 4 centimeters. The say that 3.5 centimeters is normal so I am better than normal. Yeah!!! Cop Dad and I are so relieved. I thought for sure that they would find something, anything to pick on but nope! Everything is FABULOUS!

Been a lot busier lately. Summer means play dates. Now I have one day of the week designated to one friend for a play date and then one evening designated to another friend for an evening play date. Feels good to get out and be able to talk to other moms. Life is good. Tomorrow night another evening play date with my good friend Becki and her girls and then we will be having a girls night on Saturday night. Yippee!!! Just hope it cools down just enough to not be so dangerous. I love being outdoors and doing fun things, pregnancy in the heat is not so fun though. What have you all been up to so far this summer? Hot by you?

Bake Of The Day: Cranberry Nut Bread

I realize that this may be more of a cold weather bread but I had bought extra cranberries last Thanksgiving to make cranberry chutney and threw 2 extra bags in the freezer (and just cleaned out my freezer, I know, more nervous energy). So, I've been trying to eat a bunch of foods from the freezer lately. It isn't easy to find freshly bagged cranberries the rest of the year. This recipe is from my Aunt Mary's Mother-In-Law Ruby. So I call it Grandma Ruby's Cranberry Bread. It's pretty good if you like cranberries. My husband is not a fan and I did not attempt to give any to Little Buddy yet. I felt kind of bad thinking of him taking a big bite and having that sour look on his face after biting right into a cranberry. This bread is not my favorite quick bread. My favorite is zucchini but do not have any zucchini right now so just try to bake with what I have on hand. I am not going to type out this recipe cause I suck at typing. Though, if this looks completely wonderful to you and you'd like the recipe, I'd be happy to type it up in a comment for you. Really uses basic baking ingredients but you do need fresh bagged cranberries, nuts (pecans or walnuts) and OJ. The rest is butter, flour, sugar, egg that kind of thing. Yep that's my big bite mark out of the heel piece on the small plate and still warm with some butter. Mmmmmmmmmm!

I Grew Up With Drawstrings

I am a subscriber to the CPSC (Consumer Products Safety Commission). I have requested that I receive e-mails regarding any products for children that are recalled. It is nice because it is so hard to keep up with all that stuff that is recalled and you never know when an item that you use for your child is recalled for being unsafe or even deadly. I often get e-mails for recalled cribs, toys, jewelry and even clothes. For quite awhile I was getting several e-mails regularly regarding use of lead paint on toys or children's/teens jewelry. I often delete the e-mails after reading that they are for and looking at the pictures of the recalled items.

What I don't understand are all the recalls that I keep getting e-mails regarding sweatshirts with drawstrings. Where I find it to be very unsafe for baby clothes to be made with drawstrings I do not understand why they must recall sweatshirts with drawstrings for bigger kids. I raised this issue with two mothers I know the other day. One of them is a mother of a young teen, a 9 year old, and is also due with her third in September. The other mom has a 4 year old and a 1 year old and is thinking of adding on in the next year or so. Both mothers thought it was pretty strange how they are recalling all these sweatshirts with drawstrings, especially sweatshirts for kids that are old enough to know better.

Supposedly the drawstrings pose a strangulation hazard for children. Now I am 36 years old. I grew up with lead paint, hand-me-down furniture and clothing (flammable, drawstrings, etc.) I made toys out of wire hangers, played with my dads power tools, used the stove and oven and mixer at a young age, hung from trees with duct tape and rope, etc. I could go on but I think you get the picture. I just cannot fathom why they must be recalling and now sewing all children's clothing without drawstrings. What is up with supervision and parenting today? Really, I get the lead paint thing and the unsafe baby furniture and drawstrings on baby clothes. I for the life of me do not understand how I lived this long with minimal supervision once I "knew better." I definitely did my share of dumb things once I knew better like swallowing money, ODing on Flintstone Vitamins, eating Sucrets and Pepto Bismo like candy (my mother did not believe in junk food), hurting myself in various ways too. Still alive!

There have been several times that I put a hooded sweatshirt on Little Buddy and was frustrated that there were no drawstrings to tighten so as not to let gusts of cold wind into his ears. Some companies have worked around this by adding elastic to the edge of hoods which does help. I honestly think that there are enough ways for a kid to hurt themselves if they really aren't being watched or disciplined properly (mini blind cords, electrical outlets, etc.)

I think that since the CPSC has cracked down on unsafe products it has been a very beneficial thing that has saved hundreds of thousands of children's lives. I am very glad and thankful for that. I don't really understand why they have to recall things like children's beaded jewelry for being a choking hazard? Isn't that a given when you buy anything with beads for a kid under 10? Honestly?

It is very, very unfortunate and I am deeply saddened for the lives that have been lost due to products that have not been thought out better before being put on the market and sold to unsuspecting, loving parents such as cribs, bassinets, pacifiers, etc. Parents are putting their complete trust in these products and companies for their children.

Just wondered if you grew up and have lived to talk today about your drawstrings? Did you do stupid things as a kid like I mentioned? If so, please share. Do you think that recalling drawstringed clothing and beaded children's jewelry is ridiculous? What will be next shoelaceless shoes? Soft-edged children's scissors? Crayons without points? Bagh!

Nervous Energy

So lately I have a few things going on in my life that have my nerves on end. Cop Dad has been doing special training this week. One day in the Cook County Jail, (very rough place), and then a day working for Cook County Sheriff's Department working with Cook County Tactical Gangs Unit which put him in some of the slimiest spots in Chicago land. When I talked to him on his second day he was going to to a big drug buy from some thugs in a Chicago suburb. I typically don't worry for Cop dad too much. He's a very aggressive cop and is very good at what he does. He's a big guy and very strong and sharp both physically and mentally. I do worry from time to time and it's always in the back of my mind that one day things could change in an instant but I'm very confident in him from day to day and his safety. These two days I was worried though. Combine this with the fact that we have been dealing with the possibility that there could be something wrong with the baby. We have decided to pass on an amnio which would be the only way to know for sure besides birth. This now hangs over us wherever we go like a dark cloud. I go a few days doing pretty well, then, I have a bad day where I just can't shake the fear and worry. I think Cop Dad feels the same though he does not like to hear anything negative from me about it. We have decided not to share this info with most people in our lives. Mostly because there is no reason to get everyone all worried about something that "might" be. Another reason is that I feel that people with all their talking constantly about it on days I'd otherwise be doing well, will just make me more anxious than I would be if they didn't know at all. So we are hoping for the best and expecting the worst. We will be having a level 2 ultrasound on the 23 which can and may be able to show if there are problems or not. Still nothing is definite unless I had an amnio or gave birth.

This nervous energy thing is something I have always had. Whenever I have something in my life that is bothering me I get busy. I clean, cook, organize, purge crap, make gifts, etc. You name it, whatever I can do to keep busy and productive I'll do it.

In the last 2 weeks I have:
· Cleaned, reorganized, and purged crap from the garage and the shed.
· Cleaned out the medicine cabinet and linen closet (anyone need any unopened cough suppressant syrup or albuteral?).
· Gotten rid of various stuff around the house that I no longer like or use.
· Made 3 gifts for friends.
· Sent an actual hand written letter to a friend in Florida (can't remember the last time I did that).
· Baked brownies, chocolate chip bars, pumpkin bread, zucchini bread, brownies and brownies again (all from scratch and yes I do have a few but give most of them away).
· Made shrimp scampi (for the first time), pancakes (also from scratch), potato salad.
· Weeded approximately 2/3 of the yard, planted basil and nasturtium seeds, planted flowers.
· Had intentions of sewing pillow covers but do not have enough fabric in any one pattern for 2 18 inch pillows, BAGH!

I have my eye on many more things I want to clean out. I have been feeling a lot better now lately now that I'm in the second trimester just tired much of the time. Some days I get up with Little Buddy at 6:30 or 7 or so and feed him and me breakfast, wait til 9am, wake Cop Dad and go back to bed.

I think I get the nervous energy thing from my mother. She would always do this type of thing if she was worried or stressed. It really actually feels quite good to be productive when your brain is working on something. Just curious, anybody out there do this when their nerves are a frazzle? If not, how do you cope with nerves and problems that you can't get out of your head? Better go, I am personalizing a toiletry bag for my pal Becki who is in the Dells this weekend with her soaps in a Ziploc Baggie? The OB's office gave me a very nice black toiletry bag from the formula company so I am ironing on her initial and put little tassels on the zipper pulls, and now am going to fill the bag with a few overnight necessities that she may not already have. Hope she likes it :)

Asleep

The Verdict

We were so completely convinced that we were slowly being poisoned by the CO2 leaking from our oven which is less than 3 years old. The Sears Repair Man came and tested the oven. He explained that it was completely normal for a gas oven with electronic ignition to emit CO2 on start up. Sears allows up to 1000 ppm. CO2 release on start up. The fireman measured 200-300ppm on start up before turning off the oven. All gas ovens release CO2 on start up then once the oven pilot is lit, the CO2 goes back down again to almost nothing. How did the fireman not know that? He also took our CO2 detector and set it by the spot on the stove top where the CO2 comes out of. It NEVER went off. He said that everything checked out just fine with the oven. He also checked the new water heater before he left as I asked him to. Then charged us $129 to tell us everything was perfectly fine? Bagh! That's a lot of money for something I believe was the fire departments mistake. I asked him if the fire department knew about the CO2 ppm that was allowed on oven start up. He said that usually the older or more experienced fire men know about it. I think they should all be trained on this if you ask me.

Anyway, we reluctantly paid the $129 and left our CO2 detector hung right where it always had been and hoped it had just been a fluke or something. We still wondered why it went off when it hadn't for years and had purchased the stove and the CO2 detector at about the same time about three years ago.

We debated buying a new detector. Then about a few days after the Sears Repair Man had been here, the detector went off again when I took a shower. Cop Dad had it with the stupid thing and grabbed it off the wall and called the 800 number on the back. After much talk about installing new batteries, (three different sets), they finally decided that the detector was broken or faulty and are sending us a no charge replacement immediately. It is still in the mail and we are relieved that they are standing behind their products BUT still hurting for paying the $129 for the Sears Repair Man to test 2 appliances and find that they were operating perfectly. I just keep reminding myself that our lives are more than $129 and try to look at it that way.

Currently without a CO2/smoke detector upstairs and eagerly awaiting the arrival of our new replacement. I still think it is vital that everyone have one of these in their homes. Imagine if the unit was faulty and it never went off like it did. We could have died. If you really want a better picture of CO2 poisoning and more facts about it visit: http://www.cdc.gov/co/faqs.htm

Happy Birthday Cop Dad!!! (And Other Odds & Ends)

Today Cop Dad turns 31! Wow, still a whole 5 years younger than me no matter how you slice it. Not a big to do but still had a nice morning with him before he had to go to work. Woke up and made pancakes from scratch but needed sausage and OJ and did not want to be going into the grocery store looking all . . . . . well, you know. So, I just went through the McDonalds drive through and ordered some OJ and sausages. Ha! Funny, but it was cheap and worked like a charm. Then came home and started up the griddle. Sent Little Buddy upstairs to wake up Cop Daddy. We all ate breakfast together. I had a few pancakes, sausage, water and coffee. Then Cop Dad had several pancakes, sausage, OJ, & coffee. Then Little Buddy, oh my, ate more pancakes than Cop Dad (where the heck does it all go???), OJ, and sausage. Cop Dad was feeding Little Buddy and his jaw was pretty much hanging on the table as he continued to shovel more pancakes and more pancakes into Little Buddy's mouth. Wow!

He insisted like usual not to spend any money on him. BUT, I did hit Hobby Lobby and picked up the scrapbook, glue stick, and refill pages for all his newspaper articles and letters of commendation he has gotten in the last 2 and a half years he has been at the PD. He was completely floored that I remembered and loved it!!! This is a great gift idea LEO wives out there. He just went to an after work retirement party for a cop who had given 30 long years to the PD. He had his scrap book there and all the guys got to looks through it. He said it was incredible and he really wanted to start one even more than before. Oh, and BTW, Hobby Lobby has 50% OFF on their scrap books and page refills this week. I am not a scrap booker BUT this is an excellent deal for LEO or for the kids AND they have quite a selection to pick from.

Waiting now for the Sears Repair Man to fix our CO2 leaking oven. Supposed to be here anytime between 1-5 and it's 2:10 and still no call like they promised. Bagh!

Cleaned out the garage yesterday and trashed, recycled, and or Freecycled tons of stuff. Feels so awesome! The garage was getting so tight with crap and junk it was hard to get through part of it walking sideways. Soon that will no longer be an option for me with my ever expanding belly. We just need more room but 2012 is the year we are hoping to move so until then just need to keep the crap/junk to a minimum and keep reorganizing and shuffling stuff around.

Heading to Papa & Sessies (Grandpa and Grandma Leslie's) tonight after nap time OR after the Sears Repair Man is done, for spaghetti dinner for Cop Daddy's birthday. Yum! I really love when someone else cooks. The older and busier I get (AND more pregnant), the more I enjoy it, no matter what it is. We are pretty close with them and have not been able to spend much time with them lately. Yeah!

Where are you Mr. Sears Repairman? So I can cook and bake again and have my life back? (Tapping fingers on desk looking at clock). He sure as heck better not come at 5 and stay for 2-3 hours forcing us to miss Cop Daddy's spaghetti dinner at Papa & Sessie's. OK, rant is over I think he is here right now . . . . . . . . .
NOPE!!! Bible thumpers ringing my bell in the middle of the day and during nap time none the less. Bagh! I say live and let live and worship as you like but puh-leaze do not go door to door and try to force your church or beliefs on other's. Can't they just leave a nice little church leaflet on my door or something? My door says NO SOLICITORS, doesn't that mean church people too? We have a great church that we go to don't get me wrong BUT I do not agree with pestering people at their homes or invading other people's countries and cultures with their religious ways. I have no idea why we as Christians feel that our religion is superior to those who worship another God or the sky, the sun, the wind. Then there are those total goofs who believe that their denomination or their Bible church is better than mine. Sorry for rant again. Can't we all just respect each other? I think that's honestly why there is so much religious tension drummed up between people that are different in their religious beliefs that otherwise would have been silently happy to be "different." Does anyone hear me knocking?

*Hey Martha, here is yet another idea for your loser letters posts.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh

On day two of Cop Dad's day off I was rocking Little Buddy to sleep for his nap. As I softly sang Mary Had A Little Lamb, and my little lamb was just about asleep, I suddenly was alarmed with a very loud and ear piercing, "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh!" I realized it was coming from the fire/CO2 detector in the hallway and headed outside with a sleepy, now awake Little Buddy on my hip. He is old enough to walk but was shoeless and I wanted to get out of the house fast. As I called for Cop Dad out in front, (he was mowing the neighbor's yard), he answered and came over immediately. He ran inside and went up to find what the problem was. He then called 911 cause the firemen have very sophisticated testing equipment that can detect where exactly the CO2 in your home is coming from. I could not imagine where or what would be leaking CO2.

The firemen pulled up and went inside as we waited outside as we were instructed to do by 911. They were inside for awhile. I kept wondering what this could be all about. We have remodeled our entire home over the last few years and have all new appliances, furnace, AC, water heater, etc.

Finally they came out and waved us to come back in and told us that the CO2 was coming from our oven, but only when it was turned on. We have a new oven from when we remodeled our kitchen at the end of 2006. Totally weird. Then the fireman turned on the oven and demonstrated that it went to 200 PPM (parts per million) very quickly and kept rising if he didn't turn the oven off.

I am a sahm mom as many of you know and I cook and bake regularly. Almost every food Little Buddy eats is out of the oven. I also think food is healthier and tastes better when it is baked in an oven not in the microwave. Also Cop Dad's birthday is tomorrow and he said not to spend any money on him. I had planned on buying him a scrapbook anyway (for all his police articles and letters of commendation he has gotten already) and baking brownies or chocolate chip bars for his birthday treat as well as a batch for the guys on afternoons to eat in roll call. Homemade, plus I have all the ingredients and much tastier than grocery store cake.

So now we have the Sears Appliance Repair Man coming tomorrow afternoon. Brother, so much for the birthday treats, or Little Buddy's meals. Bagh! Thank God we have an excellent CO2 detector that works well and alerted us in time before illness hit us from CO2. Suppose we will have to have the fire department come and test again before using the oven again. I highly advise everyone to get a CO2 detector if you don't already have one.

Phew, just got off the phone with my awesome SMIL who also works afternoons with Cop Dad at the PD (as a CSO) who has agreed to make a birthday treat for roll call for him. She is an absolute gem. I hated asking her because they are always helping us with babysitting for Little Buddy and numerous other things too. Thanks Leslie!!!