4th of July Preparation

With all the recalls we've had over the last year of things made in China, I wonder how safe it is to trust them to make this stuff for us?!?! If you've purchased fireworks already, make sure to check for recalls! Click on the recall headlines to see the official recall notice with pictures. U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Website

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 3, 2008
Release #08-322
Fireworks Over America Recalls Fireworks Due to Shock Hazard
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.
Name of Product: Oh Chute Parachute with Streamer Fireworks
Units: About 84,250
Distributor: Fireworks Over America, of Springfield, Mo.
Hazard: The parachutes can become entangled in overhead power lines causing a shock hazard to users and bystanders.
Incidents/Injuries: Fireworks Over America has received one report of entanglement, in which a consumer's hand was burned and shocked.
Description: The recalled Oh Chute Parachute with streamers is a firework item with a light blue cylinder with white clouds. The model name is printed in triplicate on the front of the tube and FOA #2085 is on the lower back of the tube. This item is sold separately or in a box of four.
Sold by: Various fireworks stores nationwide from April 2007 through June 2008 for about $2.50 each and $8 a box.
Manufactured in: China
Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the product and return it to either the place of purchase or Fireworks Over America for a full refund.
Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Fireworks Over America at (800) 345-3957 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m, CT Monday through Friday, or visit the firm's Web site at www.fireworksoveramerica.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 3, 2008
Release #08-325
Black Cat Fireworks Recalls Fireworks Due to Injury Hazard
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.
Name of Product: Screech and Scream Fountain Fireworks
Units: About 20,000
Distributor: Black Cat Fireworks, of Prairie Village, Kan.
Importer: Shiu Fung Fireworks, of China
Hazard: The firework can produce a loud bang and unexpectedly scatter debris, posing an injury hazard to the user and bystanders.
Incidents/Injuries: No injuries have been reported.
Description: The recalled Screech and Scream Fountain is a firework item with a yellow and red cylinder with red balls. The model name is printed on the front of the tube.
Sold at: Various fireworks stores nationwide from October 2006 through June 2008 for about $7.
Manufactured in: China
Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the product and return it to either the place of purchase or Black Cat Fireworks for a full refund.
Consumer Contact: For additional information, call Black Cat Fireworks collect at (913) 649-0537 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. CT Monday through Friday, or visit the firm's Web site at www.blackcatfireworks.com

My Boys Like Chocolate Chip Pizza

Chocolate, Avocados & More!

I just happened to have my camera with me last time we were at Double Dave's and got some really cute pictures of David enjoying the chocolate chip pizza dessert. He was really getting into it! Notice he's going for the highest concentration of chocolate chips first? Dad was proud!

How about some Tiny Talk today? Last night, David was trying his hardest to stay awake & often that turns out some crazy, nonsense, rambling sentences. Here's an example:

Out there is Good Will. (pointing to the hall) I need to go to Good Will. (then suddenly breaking into song) God is Love!!! (then he suddenly stopped jumping & declared...) I have a mustache!

David is only allowed to take soft toys or books into bed - i.e. no cars in bed! One night he had a stack of 4 Cars books - Lightning, Mater, Sally & Doc. When he stacked them up, it resembled pretty thick book. He observed, "I made a Cars Bible!"

Discussing Uncle Bubba's birthday, which we celebrated last Sunday...
David: We're going to have an avocado at Uncle Bubba's birthday.
Mom: An avocado? I don't think so. Grandma has a lunch planned & I don't think she's planning on avocados.
David: Yeah, we're going to have an avocado! And I'm gonna hit it with my bat and make all the stuff fall out of it!

There ya go. Oh, and yes, Uncle Bubba did use the shovel when it was his turn at bat!

David has been attending VBS this week and his cousin, Will (brown shirt in the background above), is the helper in his class. It seems that David is really enjoying spending time with Will because he didn't want to go home with me today - he wanted to go with Will!

Elizabeth observed Muffin Tin Monday again for supper yesterday. She ate pretty good. Clockwise from the top left: strawberries, cubes of colby jack cheese, carrot sticks, unsalted & dry roasted peanuts, whole wheat crackers, and leftover macaroni & cheese. She ate all but the mac & cheese. She is so opposite from David!

.

Don't forget to enter my Giveaway for CPR Teddy Jr.!

It's Giveaway Time!!!

Will you remember CPR when it counts? I am so convinced that CPR Teddy can help, that I became a distributor in 2006. If you haven't heard how he works yet, here's the simplest explanation I have:
.
CPR Teddy is a teddy bear and a practice manikin for infant & child CPR. Of course, everyone should take a class with a trained professional, but then you should also practice on a regular basis so that you won't forget the skills. Never practice CPR on an actual child! The bear has voice prompts that walk you through the technique. An air bag in the bear's chest & a face mask allow you to actually give rescue breaths and see the rise & fall of the chest. A light on the bear during compressions alerts you if you're pressing too hard or too soft on the chest. It is recommended that you practice CPR skills at least once per quarter. With a bear in your home, you could practice as frequently as you wish... and a CPR Teddy bear is cheaper and less intimidating than an infant manikin.
.
CPR Teddy Jr. is a smaller version. He is not a practice bear. He is regulated by the FDA to walk you through the steps of infant or child CPR in an actual emergency! He has a clip on his head so that he can be fastened to a car seat, stroller, diaper bag, changing table, etc. This way he is always within reach. Junior will be released in December, but I am taking pre-orders now. I can hardly wait to get my hands on one of these, myself! This just in: CPR Teddy Jr. is also available to pre-order in Spanish!

I am running a special on my website, OneMothersLove.com, now through July 16: With the purchase of a CPR Teddy, you can add a pre-order for CPR Teddy Jr. for just $15.

.

But one lucky reader will win a CPR Teddy Jr. here!

.
To enter, visit my website, OneMothersLove.com, then come back here to leave a comment*, telling me what you like most about the CPR Teddy line. If the winner happens to have purchased the special on my website, I will refund the $15 for the Junior bear. The winner's bear will be shipped in December, or sooner if they are released earlier. The winner will also be able to select if you'd like your Jr. to speak English or Spanish.
.
I would be happy to answer any questions you may have about these products or any other CPR Teddy products, or for more information, please visit my website: OneMothersLove.com
.
Thanks for dropping by What's He Up To? and may you never have to use those CPR skills, but don't forget them either!
.
*If you're commenting to enter the giveaway, make sure to leave an email address or blog address for me to contact you!

Tiny Talk Tuesday & -NEW- Muffin Tin Monday!

I found my note from last week and am once again joining Tiny Talk Tuesday!!! Yeah!!!
.

As we were driving to church one morning, there were some dark clouds gathering in the sky. David said, "That cloud is full of darkness!" and then, "A dark cloud is hanging over my head!" Hmmm... that's an awfully deep sounding statement from a just-turned-4-year-old!

See David's description of his ephemeral art project on yesterday's post.
.

This morning in the car, I was talking to my best friend on the phone & I let the "s" word slip out... s-t-u-p-i-d. David said with a little gasp, "Mama, did you say that word? You shouldn't say that word; we're not supposed to say that word!" Thank you, my little conscience. I did apologize to him for saying it & admitted that I should not have said it. Luckily by the time we got to our destination, he forgot all about giving me a spanking!
.


Elizabeth is trying new words all the time. She's now saying, "Thank you" regularly when you give her something & it is soooo adorable!

.
We make the rounds each night at bedtime & she now says, "Nite nite, Da-did!"

.
We tried something new this week - Muffin Tin Monday. Below is the muffin tin I prepared for Elizabeth for supper. She was quite pleased with it! And I absolutely love that worn out old muffin tin!
.

Clockwise from the top left corner: leftover cinnamon roll pieces, Cheerios & Fruity Cheerios, strawberries, dried apricots, leftover whole wheat ravioli, and cheese toast.

Elizabeth ate everything except the ravioli and some of the Cheerios, as well as the remainder of the piece of cheese toast! She was hungry! I prepared a similar muffin tin for David & he was not so thrilled. He didn't like the fruit even being on his plate! I told him he didn't have to eat everything, but that it was there if he wanted to just give it a little try. All he ate was the grilled cheese (his was an actual sandwich) and the Cheerios. I think I'll keep trying this every once in a while just to see if he'll ever try anything new... or at least try something that he used to eat but refuses to eat any more!

Ephemeral Art

This month's KidMade Challenge: Ephemeral Art.
.

David & I took on the challenge and headed outside with our washable markers. We gathered some of David's favorite things - rocks - and set out to create.




David & Elizabeth were in our little pool so there would be a barrier from the chiggers. Here's the rocks that David designed:




I call this one "Mom Rocks" : )





We recently read Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig, so I made a magic pebble. (and I love how this photo turned out!)




Wikipedia defines ephemeral as "lasting only one day." Well, our rocks will stay colored until it rains, I guess, but David's second work of art truly was ephemeral!


And it easily washed off in the shower!


David's description of today's activity:

I wrote some rocks. I marked some rocks. And I was playing, getting rocks. Then I was marking my tummy! See I marked my tummy! (showing me his tummy again) And I'm brown!

Mmmm... Homegrown!

Diary of a Firefighter

Notes from Dad regarding last shift:

Yep... Another one. 6 working fires in 7 months. And I'm behind some of the other guys. This one was really good! I traveled from the coveted hot spot of Station 14 (like SAFD #5) to the much slower, no-fire Station 1 (like SAFD #2). We had the usual EMS runs.

Then....Tone hit about 04:45. It was us, Quint 9, and Engine 19 going to automatic aid with Haltom City (a suburb to the northeast). Quint 9 got on and reported back to us FW unit an apartment fully involved. It sure was. We got closer and saw flames - not smoke, not a glow, just flames. It was "lickin' the moon." Reminded me of Twohig. We parked and walked up to command. All of Haltom City FD, and units from Bedford and North Richland Hills were already on fighting. They had master streams going, Q9 was raising the ladder. There was fire shooting off the roof (like Honey Creek), out all the 3rd floor windows. That whole 3 story building was on fire.

Command tells us to get a ground ladder, ladder the 3rd floor balcony of a unit further down from the involved portion, and get a primary search. We threw up a 35' extension ladder - never thought I'd ever use a ground ladder that big - and went up. We had an all clear but fire was in the attic above us. Go down, get a line, go back up, wait for water. And wait. And wait.

Meanwhile the ceiling caves in, the trusses are sagging, fires rolling through the whole attic. Debris falling in catching the contents on fire and no water yet.

We finally got water. They let me have the nozzle and to war we went. Once we got the room and overhead knocked down we put a ladder up into the attic (which at this point was a rooftop deck) and sprayed more until we ran low on air. It was hot enough to melt reflectors on my helmet, and a reflector on my jacket. We stopped it before it jumped a firewall.

From there we climbed down, rehabbed, then went up and overhauled. While we were fighting the FWFD Batt Chief on scene called a 2nd alarm on it since it was now 2 buildings burning. We kept going until 06:15. They did dispatch other units near shift change to relieve us - mostly Battalion 6 stations full of retirees (37, 31, 41, etc.).

Found out later today there was a body found on a 3rd floor unit.

Here's the article on startelegram.com. I'm just glad he's safe.

You're Not Missing Much...

I was going to title this post, "You're Not Missing Anything" thinking of the house, but then I remembered the tomato I picked this morning & thought I'd rename the post... for Grandpa's benefit.

. I thought Grandpa might be wondering what was going on with the house construction while he's out gallivanting across the country. Absolutely nothing. Mr. Builder returned his rented generator and is now waiting for the electricity to show up.


How can electric companies get away with this is what I want to know. Deregulation seems to not be working for the people.

Let's go back to the beginning... First, the only company that could install the electric poles was Oncor. They needed their $7,000 plus before they did anything. Then when they felt good & ready, they surveyed the new power line. They had to file paperwork with the State to bring the line across the road. Then after a while longer, they sub'd out the pole installation, but failed to tell the pole installers the terrain, so there was a delay getting all 4 poles installed. A miscommunication between the pole installers & the wire installers made that a multiple day operation as well. Finally the power line was finished & Mr. Builder got his temporary pole set up.


Then the guy from Oncor called back to say they couldn't install the temporary meter because we hadn't selected our power provider. I really wish he had told us we'd need to have that done earlier. So I called Cirro, who we had used at our last house, and got set up. Cirro called back the next day to say the didn't service our road. They said to call the electric co-op out there. So I called the co-op & got set up. They called back the next day to say they didn't service our section of the road, but I should check powertochoose.org for more options.


From that website, we choose YEP, who no one has ever heard of - and THEY can service us. With 100% renewable energy, by the way. YEP says it should be done in 3-5 days.


The next week I called YEP back to see what was going on... because we couldn't tell that anything was going on! The lady said I had just set up service that day. Um... no... I set up service last week, this is the first time I've talked to you today!!!!! "Just a minute," she says. After jamming to some hold music that I grew up on, she comes back on & says, "I see what happened..." Something was not set up in the computer (some number that I think they had to get from ONCOR!!) and it just now refreshed in the system, so it looked like it was just set up. So how much longer? Wednesday. (This was Monday.)


Wednesday. Thursday. Dad called back this time & they say because some storms came through last Tuesday, all the meter crews were working on lines that blew down & they should get our meter installed tomorrow.


Friday. Saturday... still no meter in the box.


Meanwhile, week before last, Mr. Builder told us he was going to install the doors on Thursday. So Dad & I made 2 trips to get all the exterior doors & windows on Tuesday because he was working on Wednesday. The special order doors & windows were the first load & we off loaded them to the shed to get the second load of off-the-shelf windows. Mr. Builder told us that we could just leave the second load on the trailer, they'd be installed soon.


I think it was Monday of last week that Mr. Builder started installing our windows! David's & Elizabeth's went in first. That night I tested them out and couldn't hardly get David's to open & close. Elizabeth's went easier. Tuesday, they removed D&E's windows & installed the rest of the special order windows. Seems that the entire load (the 2nd load) of windows became warped while sitting on the trailer for 5 days waiting to be installed. Surely windows could handle being outside?!?!


So today, Dad & I headed back to Lowe's to return them & get replacements. The guy at the store said the packaging clearly says not to stack in direct sunlight. No return. OK... now I'm more patient than a lot of people I know, but I was getting upset. They should not have been stacked in the sun. They should have been installed when they were supposed to have been. Dad called Mr. Builder. I won't go in to all of that, but Mr. Builder called his friend who works in doors at another Lowe's store. In a little bit, he called us back & said to go back to the store and who to ask for. They're taking them back.


Here's finally some good news, God stepping in to give us some blessing on these windows - The store just put the credit back on our card and then Dad went to buy the new ones. The patio doors were $30 cheaper this week! So we're having them delivered (and unloaded) to the house on Tuesday morning and we still came out ahead! How about that?!


So, hopefully, we'll get our electric meter on Monday, doors & windows on Tuesday & the house will be rolling again.


I know this was a lot more wordier than usual, so I'll end with another picture for Grandpa. This was before I picked that one. I might get to eat another tomato before you return home...

PS - Happy Birthday, Bubba!

Father's Day: Part Two

Here's Dad with his 4th annual Father's Day collage. You can't see too much of it, but I wanted to point out that David watercolor painted the background paper for this year's collage. I thought it turned out really good.

It gets harder & harder each year to select the photos for this! There's so many I want to include! I got this great idea from my sister - click there to see her collages.

He also enjoyed David's card and has now finished off all the cookies! And just one more honor for Dad, here am I, his adoring wife, sporting a new "celebrate your spouse" shirt from From*me Tees. This one says, "My husband My Hero," which I thought was totally appropriate for my hero/firefighting husband. : )

.
On another note, I wonder if my blog is getting boring or something, because I haven't been getting many comments lately... even when I mentioned a giveaway a few days ago. What's up?!