The Internet can be a Very Scary Place

I have been on the Internet since I was in the 5th grade. I am 31 now so it was pretty new back then. I started out on Prodigy when it was just message boards. Looking back now I realized that I was a possible victim of solicitation of a minor. I remember  when I was on Prodigy, a guy asked me what my bra size was. I had no clue I was a naive kid. I said 50. No letter just 50. When I got AOL in the 7th grade I started going in to chat rooms. These were just town square rooms. I was 13. I would talk to these guys who I thought liked me. I felt special because they were like 17. I remember one in particular who was 17 or 18 could have been older. He told me that he had a sister my  age and I chatted with her. I never questioned if she was real or him on a screen name. I just thought it was so cool that this guy was talking to me. I am sure that is a common feeling for girls that age. He lived in Lakeland Florida and I lived in the suburbs in a nice community in Indiana.

There were other guys that would talk to me, some not so appropriately.  They weren't totally vulgar but more sneakily vulgar. There was definitely grooming going on too. That's basically where they get you to trust them and are really nice to you. The good thing is that they were all over the country and I wasn't stupid enough to send pictures of my body. Even good girls can be fooled. It is so important to monitor your children online. I hate to say it but trust is not enough. You can trust your child but you can't trust the other person. It doesn't matter what the kid says it could be all a lie. Pictures don't mean anything. Anyone can pretend to look like someone online. Teach your children when it comes to people online to trust no one.  I don't care if they are nice. It doesn't matter if they are cute. You don't talk to strangers when they offer you candy. You don't have private convos with strangers online. Even if they say they are a nun.

It really concerns me because even though we know more about online predators and pedophiles, with social media and everyone feeling the need to share every location and thing they are doing, it's really harmful. I see that kids have Facebook and Twitter who shouldn't. People are posting their private business with the masses. I think that Facebook and Twitter should tighten up their age requirement. Facebook and Twitter should require an actual way to verify age. Parents need to install monitoring software. This is not a trust issue. It is not a oh my kid is a good kid and wouldn't do that issue. It's a safety measure. If your perfect little angel becomes a victim of an Internet crime including bullying. You need a record. You need to be able to know who these people are in case there is something that needs your attention. If your child decides to meet someone online you need to know who this person is just in case. Some kind of contact number or an ip. Just having your computer in an open space isn't enough you can't watch them like a hawk all the time.

Your child probably will be mad if you monitor them with software. They may question if you trust them. You might have an argument over it. It's not a trust issue it's for their safety and when they are a parent they will understand and probably thank you. They will look back and think wow I really was fearless and did a lot of stupid things. Just as I did. I was totally fearless. I was a good polite kid and I did a lot of stupid stuff that people probably thought I wouldn't do. I thought I was invincible and nothing could hurt me.

The Importance of Security Systems

Your home is your castle and you have to be able to protect it. You have spent your hard earned money on buying things for your home and you don’t want anyone to break in and steal your stuff.  In this day and age home security is really important. When I was younger it was safe to leave your doors unlocked or your garage door open when you were not home and you didn’t even think twice. Of course we lived in a safe community. Now, you wouldn’t dream of doing that. Thieves are now going to those once quiet neighborhoods and looking for unlocked doors and open garages to help themselves. Especially now that we are so technology advanced with our smart phones, iPads, and 3DTV’s.  Unfortunately we are not sure about our safety when we leave our homes or go to sleep.   Thankfully there are the most up to date home security systems that will protect our homes from theft, fire, carbon monoxide, flooding and leaks. They also have sensors that will go off if your pipes burst. That would be great for when you go away during the holidays and you live in a cold climate.  It is like having someone home while you are away. I remember when I was young I had a friend with a security system and it was really sensitive and would go off if we shut her bedroom door too hard, which was all the time. We would get in trouble for that.  Now security systems are pet friendly so, now your crazy dog won’t set off the alarm if there is a bug or a ball they want to play with in your home.

Days of waiting for the alarm system guy to install are over. I hate having people in my home installing things. If I can do it myself that makes me happy, they now have alarm systems you can install yourself. You can get a wireless home security system. You don’t have to be an electrician to install it.  You don’t have to worry about all kinds of wires or holes in your walls to wire it.  You can actually take the system with you when you move, so it is really a great investment.  You don’t have to worry about moving in to a home where there is already a system and wonder if the previous owner gave it out to people or go through the trouble of changing it and being put on hold like you once did. Forget learning a new alarm system. You are already familiar with it and in the habit of turning it on.   You can have all of this protection for less than fifty cents a day.

I hope no one experiences a break-in or a fire and everyone stays safe in the New Year and always.

Teens are Drinking Hand Sanitizer to get Drunk

I was just watching the news. I have heard of teenagers, huffing paint, doing whip-its, which is with whipped cream cans, sniffing rubber cement, inhaling duster among other things while are all extremely dangerous. Now teenagers are drinking hand sanitizer.  I think that is disgusting. Hand Sanitizer is mostly ethanol alcohol so I guess they drink it to get drunk. It ends up having a really high proof, since the proof is the alcohol volume percentage times two. I think that is so sad, that kids feel that they need to get drunk so bad that they are drinking hand sanitizer.  Are they going to start making it hard to purchase? Of course a teen can walk in to the store and buy a bottle of hand sanitizer and the cashier will think nothing of it. Now, I am not sure why anyone would wanna drink it, have you smelled it? I have accidentally tasted hand sanitizer from using it and then eating and it is nasty.  It makes me so sad that kids will find any way they can to get high, or drunk without understanding the consequences.

I am not sure who gets the idea of doing these things. I know I grew up with Mr. Yuk and I know you aren’t supposed to drink things that aren’t drinks. I grew up knowing that there are poisons out there that will harm me and I learned not to drink things that are just handed to me. You don’t know what harm they can do. You don’t know if you will die.  You never know. Today, Noah and I were pretending his lamb was sick, so I gave him some imaginary medicine to give to her, well he ate it. I took the opportunity to tell him how you never take anyone else’s medicine; you only take medicine given to you by mommy or a doctor.  We have been talking about it a lot because he keeps asking for higher doses of Tylenol when he has a fever.

When I was 17, I met this girl who huffed rubber cement when she was 14 with her best friend. They went on a hayride that night, came back to one of the girls houses and huffed rubber cement and went to sleep, in the morning her best friend was dead. This is a very true and very sad story. No high or getting drunk is worth dying for or causing serious bodily harm.

Please talk to your children about the dangers of drinking hand sanitizer.

Why I Have Really Bad Car Anixety

The first car accident I was in, we were going to Target with my grandma Rose. It was January 2003, and we were rear ended by a teenage girl. I was the first accident I had ever been in and it wasn’t that bad. No one really had any injuries although we were checked out by the paramedics. It was really hard for the paramedics to ask my grandma the normal what day of the week, who is the president questions because her Alzheimer’s Disease was advanced. My second car accident was really bad. I know I wrote a little about it before. After the second accident, I had all sorts of problems. We were T-boned on my door. I had taken the full impact. I was beaten up and pretty much left to fend for myself. I was staying with my friend because I had apartment issues. Somehow, I was living there, even though I had my own apartment, and that meant I wasn’t able to really get any of her insurance benefits. She was found at fault. I am not sure if that was legal for them to do that or not. I definitely was entitled to pain and suffering and lost wages because I wasn’t able to start my job. When I called the insurance company, they told me I had to sue her. I was dumbfounded really, I mean she had been my best friend for over 15 years at this point. I remember saying to them so I have to get an accident lawyer and sue my best friend? I was really angry, and in pain, I mean I was the one who was actually hurt in the accident. I was lucky that I didn’t break anything because it could have been really bad. I had never really had any experience with lawyers because I had never even been in an accident at work where I would have needed a workers comp lawyer.

I know that both my old best friend and the other driver received a bunch of money, and I received none. It took them a couple years to even pay my medical bills. So, I received the phone calls asking for payment. I am not really sure why the insurance company felt like I deserved nothing. I wish I would have sued her. I say that not because of the money or because we were in a fight, but because I still have car anxiety. I still freak out in the car. It’s pretty embarrassing and I can’t really help it. I probably should have been able to get counseling. I am still severely affected to this day. I have always been kind of apprehensive when it comes to cars and motorcycles. I just chose not to drive and not to ride a motorcycle.

When I found out that in New Hampshire where my best friend Brandy lives they don’t have to wear motorcycle helmets, I thought that was extremely dangerous and that there are a lot of motorcycle accidents. I know here there is one motorcycle accident lawyer that I know of from their ads but there must be tons where she lives. I think that it’s silly not to wear a helmet when you are on a motorcycle, but people do it all the time and it often leads to serious accidents and even death. Please be careful on the roads and if you ride a motorcycle wear a helmet and always wear your seat belt, it could save your life.

Sorry, Your Email has been Compromised

Have you guys been getting a lot of e-mails about your e-mail address being compromised? I have.  It seems like a lot of the big-name companies that I have signed up for their e-mail newsletters lately have been compromised. I assume that's because they all used the same service called epsilon. I have probably have received at least five e-mails from different companies saying that they are sorry but your e-mail has been compromised. But it's only your e-mail not your information or credit card numbers and it also reminds you not to open e-mails and click on links from people you don't know. Which of course is a great reminder but at the same time it kind of bothers me because if my e-mail address is compromise what else could be compromised. It makes me leery to participate and their websites anymore. I personally already get enough spam e-mail as is I don't need more.

Some of the companies that I received e-mails from so far our target Walgreen's Hilton Marriott and HSN. I know it's just our e-mail and all that's going to happen is  that we might get more spam but NL hadn't felt like they should have done a better job about it. I really think that they should've been up-to-date where the best software where something like this would not happen.  Sure it could be worse it could be all of our credit card numbers and our addresses and then we would have people pretending to be us from Nigeria scamming other people and end up on shows like Judge Judy or the people's court. I know the chances of that happening are pretty small but you never know. I know I've talked about e-mail scams before and I'm not saying that the breaches in the is a scam but it opens us up to being scammed even more and you better know what the scammed are like obviously you're not going to a win 10 million trillion dollars from some bank and Japan or something. You know that is not going to happen like my mom always says that if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. And even though  it's been going on for 10 years, people still fall for that kind of scam.

How Safe is Your Water?

If you drink water straight from the tap, you may want to consider installing a whole-house water filter. Our public tap water supplies often contain tons of gross and unhealthy chemicals that can reach you and your family. In fact, there are said to be 35,000 pesticides containing 600 chemical compounds in various water supplies. Some of you may already know of certain chemicals such as chlorine and fluoride, but other toxins in your water may shock you.

In some areas, there are things like arsenic and methane gas found in the water. Chemical fertilizers used for farming and various pharmaceutical drugs are also commonly detected in public water. Although you may not taste it, these chemicals could possibly be in your tap water. The negative effects of bad water are very noticeable, even if you don’t know the cause. They can cause problems such as nerve damage, birth defects, and cancers. You certainly don’t want your little ones drinking this stuff!

It’s not healthy to shower or cook with impure water either. When you shower in water with water filled with chlorine, you may develop unpleasant symptoms such as migraines and irritated eyes and skin. You also increase the chance of long-term problems like pelvic or bladder cancer. When you cook with tap water you might think that you are eliminating unhealthy toxins, but this is not always the case. Certain chemicals can survive the heat and remain in your food. You don’t want your family drinking and eating dangerous chemicals.               

                                                                                                                                   Installing a whole house water filter will filter the water throughout your entire home.

To prevent these nasty ingredients from entering your household and affecting the health of you and your children, you may want to install a whole-house water filtration system. PuriTeam filters will provide your family with healthy, clean water free of chemicals and toxins. You not only remove the negative content when you drink your water, but when you shower and cook with it as well. When you install the system, you will have clean water throughout every water supply in your household. If the health of you and your family is a priority to you and your family,and learn more about the benefits of a water filtration system.

 

Medibag Review!

Kids end up getting scrapes and cuts when they play. Short of putting them in a big plastic bubble it will happen. It is really important to have a first aid kit for times like these. I don’t know how many times I have had to search for bandages even though I always seem to put them in a normal place. It is really hard when you need a bandage fast and you can’t find them. I didn’t have a first aid kit. I had most of the items in a first aid kit that I kept in a container but it never seemed to stay in there. So, when I had the opportunity to try out a Medibag from Me4kidz.

I was really excited. I have been looking at first aid kits since I found I was pregnant with Noah and he is almost 5. I couldn’t find one I liked, I am allergic to latex too. A lot of items in first aid kits have latex bandages in them. While Noah isn’t allergic to latex someone has to put the bandage on him and I would prefer not to have those in my home or on my child. I can’t resist hugging and kissing him.

Here is what is in the Medibag First Aid Kit:
(12) Assorted Kid-Friendly bandages
(12) Junior bandages
(12) 3/4" X 3" Sheer bandages
(20) Antiseptic Wipes (sting-free)
(6) 2 X 2 Gauze Pads
(6) 3 X 3 Gauze Pads
(2) Knee & Elbow bandages
(1) Anti-Itch Ointment
(2) Antibiotic Ointments
(1) Burn Gel
(2) Hand Sanitizer packs
(1) Instant Cold Pack
(2) Blue Kid-Friendly Exam Gloves
(2) Fingertip bandages
(1) Plastic Disposable Tweezers
(10) Application Swabs
(1) Sting Relief Pad
(1) Emergency Information Label
(20) Kid-Friendly Fun Stickers
(1) First Aid Guide
(1) Kid-Friendly Organized Doctor's Bag
(1) Coupon for a Free 45 Item Refill Kit

Noah pretends to get hurt so he has an excuse to use the first aid kit. I ended up actually hurting myself by scraping my foot on a spindle of DVDs. It really hurt and my skin was still hanging on to the sides of the DVDs from when I was putting all the videos of Noah when he was a baby. I had Noah pretend to be Doctor Noah and had him help me put a bandage on my foot. He did such a great job fixing me up I gave him one of the stickers from the Medibag. It was so nice not to have to look around the house for a bandage while I am attempting not to bleed on the carpet. We both really like the Medibag because it’s so practical, latex free and fun. I really like the kid friendly bandages enough that I use them too. They stick really well too. The bandage on my foot made it through the shower without falling off. Noah really likes the stickers. If you are in the market for a first aid kit, I hope you check out Medibag. They also have travel sized first aid kits called Medibuddies that would be great for your purse or the car.

For more information and to see the other products Me4kidz has please check out the Me4Kidz website.

Thanks to Me4Kidz for providing my family with a complimentary Medibag to review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

If It Sounds Too Good to be True.....

I am watching Cops today. Yes, I love watching Cops, it was the same one I have seen a million times. If I was in a dark room and that “lady” would speak I would know her voice without seeing her face. She is the one that says Excuse my beauty. Well, I notice a commercial for a website called Bid Rodeo. I was like ok I will check it out. I put in the code for the 10 free bids and started bidding. It was such a waste of time and such a scam if you think about it. You have to pay for your bids. You can bid for free on Ebay. Everything goes up by a penny. Not only that but they extend the end time each time someone bids. Let’s crunch some numbers shall we?

Each bid raises the price by a penny, that undoubtedly sounds like a really good deal seeing as you can bid on ipads, ipods, and Amazon Gift cards to name a few. Well, me being the skeptic I am, was thinking where is the catch? I thought it might be extremely high shipping, no it seemed about normal. I thought what the hey I’ll use my 10 free bids just to see. After the clock just kept winding down and adding more time. I started imagining those people that were counting down the clock as if the space shuttle was about to take off, to win their prize. Of course someone out bid them by a penny and the vicious cycle went on and on.

Out of curiosity, I wondered what the prices of the bids are. Some of the items included what the company calls bid packs. So, then I scoffed at the ridiculousness of this website. You can get 800 bids all for the low price of FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS ( which is equal to 8 dollars of bids) Now here comes the math.

I will use an ipod for example since that is what I used my bids on:
Let’s say you and another person each bid each bid 800 times for the iPod. You are the only two bidding and it ends at 16 dollars even. You also have to pay the bid price plus shipping. You might think Yay! I just got an iPod for 16 dollars plus shipping in reality, you paid 516 dollars plus shipping for the iPod. The company made $1000 of the iPod through the bids. You could buy an iPod and an iPad for $516 I am assuming. I don’t own an iAnything. Let's also remember that even if you bid you are NOT guaranteed to win anything. After you bid 800 times you might end up empty handed, with nothing to show for your $500.

Two pieces of advice:
If it sounds too good to be true, than it probably is. My second piece of advice is If it doesn’t make sense than it’s not true.

I am sure Bid Rodeo will in fact bilk innocent people out of their money with promises of cheap goods. These are just MY OPINIONS, you can decide for yourself. I just felt like I needed to warn my readers.