Cleaning vomit out of carpet

Last night, I woke up to a soft thudding noise coming from my daughter's room.  Thud..thud.......thud.  This is not all that unusual since my girls sleep in beds pushed up against the wall and tend to kick the wall during the night.  However, the noise didn't stop and so, I got up to check on them. 

As I walked into the room, I noticed an awful smell.   I looked up at the loft and saw my daughter's face looking down at me.  Then, she opened her mouth and down it came, smacking into the carpet below.  I think I stood there a little bit before I realized what was happening. 

No one tells you that you should have a ledge with some must have items up in a loft bed.  We have the shelf, but we were missing the small bowl that I now know is a must have! 

Well, my husband and I spent the next 3 hours cleaning up vomit from the carpet, sheets, walls, and toys that got hit by the spray falling from the bed.  Ugh!  What a site!  Did I mention that a small bowl is a must have in a loft bed?

Anyway, the other must have in this type of situation is baking soda and a good carpet cleaner.  Sprinkling baking soda over the mess helped neutralize the odor which is so important!  You do not want to get sick yourself.  Another trick is to spread some Vicks underneath your nose.  That Vicks odor is strong and much better than vomit smell.  As for the stain, my husband went out that night and bought a Bissell SpotBot.  It sucked up all the nasty stuff and cleaned the stain perfectly.  It even has an automatic setting that scrubs for you.  I love this thing! 

So, if you are thinking of a loft bed or bunk bed for your kids.  Remember that kids get sick and may not be able to make it down the ladder in time.  To avoid a nasty waterfall of yuck, put a small bowl up there and get a SpotBot! 

New Year's Resolutions

New Year's Aftermath

I actually look forward to New Year's Resolutions.  They give me hope for something better in the new year.  Once a resolution is chosen, it remains to be seen whether I will actually follow through.  My track record is not good, but the year always starts out with promise.

The key to picking a good new year's resolution is to find one that you look forward to completing.  This makes working out a bad new years resolution for me.  I rarely look forward to working out, but I do look forward to specific activities that involve working out.  Playing a sport, walking or running with a friend, and even taking on my daughter on "Just Dance" are work out options for me that don't feel like work.  I have a much better track record of completing "work out" resolutions when they don't involve a generic amount of type at the gym.  Those will fizzle out for me by February.

A new resolution we are making as a family this year is to have at least one family fun day a month.  I am hoping most months we are able to squeeze in more than that, but we will make sure at least one day happens!

• Family fun day ideas

I am really excited about this one!  I am hoping the whole family will look forward to what we will do each month.  Even though my kids are still in Elementary School, it's easy to fall into a rut doing the same things over and over again.  This resolution should help us discover new things that we like to do as a family.

Another healthy resolution that doesn't involve working out, does involve medication.  I am notorious about taking myself off prescribed medication early.  This tactic makes flare ups worse when they happen.  So, this year I am resolving to stay on prescribed medication for the period it is prescribed.  Seems easy enough, but we will see how this one goes.

• Why you should stay on prescribed medication for it's duration.

What are your new year's resolutions?  I would love to hear them.  Maybe, you will inspire me to do something new this year.  Please share with a comment below, and Happy 2012 everyone!

Top 10 lists from 2011

I must admit that I am a sucker for top 10 lists at the end of the year.  I usually look up a couple and proceed to quiz anyone that seems interested.  Baby names are always a lot of fun to look up since they really do change from year to year.  It's fun to see the new standards, like Olivia and Sofia, take over the top spots.  My other favorite list to check is the top box office domestic gross movies for the year.  By checking by amount of money made at the box office, you can eliminate subjective lists based on opinon of what movies were the best.  Let's face it, who really agrees with the critics choices anyway? 

So, to save you some time, here are my favorite lists for 2011.

Top 10 Boy Baby Names

1. Jacob

2. Ethan

3. Michael

4. Jayden

5. William

6. Alexander

7. Noah

8. Daniel

9. Aiden

10. Anthony
Read more on FamilyEducation: http://baby-names.familyeducation.com/popular-names/boys/#ixzz1i4gTznQ5

Top 10 Girl Baby Names

1. Isabella

2. Sophia

3. Emma

4. Olivia

5. Ava

6. Emily

7. Abigail

8. Madison

9. Chloe

10. Mia
Read more on FamilyEducation: http://baby-names.familyeducation.com/popular-names/girls/#ixzz1i4gjkvQP

Top 10 Box Office Domestic Grossing Movies for 2011
1.  Harry Potter
2.  Transformers
3.  Twilight
4.  The Hangover 2
5.  Pirates of the Carribbean
6.  Fast Five
7.  Cars 2
8.  Thor
9.  Rise of the Planet of the Apes
10.  Captain America

and I have to add #11 since it was a favorite of mine this year....The Help.

So, quiz your friends, have some fun looking back at 2011, and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays

Do you say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays?  Ah...the great debate at the end of the year, at least for businesses.  Each year, we hear of another business mandating that it's employees say one or the other.  The endless dialog about not wanting to offend anyone with wishing them a Merry Christmas if they are not Christians is, well, a bit absurd. 

If you are a Christian, would you be offended if a Jew said "Happy Hanukkah?"  These are just greetings, warm wishes.  So, why do we get all bent out of shape over them?

If the United States is a country of religious freedom, then why can't we express our religious freedom in our holiday greetings?  If we are Christians, what is the harm in saying "Merry Christmas?"  The argument that this greeting is a statement about denying other religions or ideologies is just not true.  Isn't religious freedom not having to hide your religious convictions?

In fact, is this really even a problem for the average citizen?  Outside of the business world, U.S. citizens greet each other with "Merry Christmas," "Happy Hanukkah," "Happy Kwanzaa," and "Happy Holidays."  I have yet to see someone offended by these greetings, outside of business, even if their religion was not a match to the greeting being offered.

Why not let the employee decide what and if they want to extend a specific greeting to customers.  Has this country gotten so enmeshed in legal nonsense that we have to walk on egg shells even when we speak?  If someone at Walmart says "Merry Christmas" to you, say "thanks."  It's not an overall statement about the religiousness of Walmart.  It's simply one person telling another to have a joyous day. 

So, let's just get over it already and enjoy our religious freedoms even around the holidays.

Growing out of an egg allergy - Yes!

My son has already received his gift for Christmas.  He can now eat baked egg!  This may sound like a little thing to you, but to him, it's HUGE!  No more special treats at school when someone brings in cupcakes or cookies.  No more saying "no thank you" to birthday cake at parties.  Now, he can say, "Yes!"

When I tell people about this change, I often get asked how I know he has outgrown the allergy.  How can I be sure?  To explain, lets start with the severity of his original allergy.  He was diagnosed with an egg allergy due to welts and hives that appeared on his face when he was a toddler.  We took egg out of his diet and everything cleared up.  Problem solved.  We have not worried much about anaphylactic shock with his egg allergy since his reaction to blood and scratch testing was mild and there was never an instance of difficulty breathing for him with egg.  The prognosis was that he would be a good candidate to grow out of this allergy (80% of children outgrow egg allergies).  So, the goal has always been to do a food test when he got older.

His last skin prick and blood test showed a decrease in his egg reaction.  There still was a reaction, but it was slight.  Knowing this, I had a cake made with 2 eggs for a family birthday party and let him have a piece.  There was no reaction.  Several months later, I let him have a cookie with eggs baked into it.  No reaction.  Recently, we decided to test him, at home, on a regular basis.  We decided to give him one item with baked egg once a week, on the weekend, during the day.  The weekend was necessary so that if he had a reaction, he had the rest of the weekend to recover.  During the day was necessary because we did not want him to have a reaction near bedtime.  For three weeks, each Saturday, our son had one baked egg item with no reaction! 

Our home is primarily egg free already since my daughter also has an egg allergy.  So, my son was not going to get items with egg in them very often.  It was easy to keep his egg testing to once a week.  What this has really done for him is to open up his options at school and outside our home. 

We did call our allergist regarding our testing.  They told us that we did not need to come in for blood testing to confirm our findings.  In fact, research has shown that scratch and blood testing are not very accurate.  It only gives you a percentage chance of a reaction.  However, they did warn that egg baked into an item is very different that egg on it's own.  The protein in egg is altered when baked into an item which changes the allergen and can affect a person's reaction.  We were warned not to give him direct egg, such as scrambled eggs, without a formal egg challenge in a doctor's office.

• Why you can eat pancakes with egg baked in, but not scrambled eggs.
• Prevalence and resolution age of food allergies

If you think that your child may have outgrown his egg allergy, check with your allergist about testing him with baked goods.  Depending out your child's past reactions, they may encourage you to do this at home.  Otherwise, your doctor may opt for a more formal in office food challenge.  Always check with your doctor before testing a food allergy on your own and always make sure to have your emergency medication available.

Growing out of his egg allergy can just in time for Christmas cookies season!

Asthma flare ups in the winter

Once the frost hits, the outdoor allergens lessen but my asthma does not!  Turn on the heat, turn on the asthma.  If you have allergic asthma, then you have been there.  A couple of rescue puffs during the day and all of a sudden you are also taking them before bed and during the night as well.  The most frustrating thing is that the triggers can be very difficult to find.  Is it the furnace kicking on?  Is it the dust stirred up from the Christmas decorations?  Pet dander trapped inside?  Scented candles?  Fireplace? 

• Does cold weather make asthma worse? 
• Do you need allergy medication in the winter?

Allergic asthma can be hard to pin point.  Sometimes all I know is that the air seems "close" and stuffy, and that fresh, cool air is what I need.  Opening a window or stepping outside in the winter, can do wonders for me in those situations. 

However, when it happens at my own home, it is particularly frustrating.  I can be fine all day and then experience a flare up haphazardly.  The best thing to do is to get started on my seasonal maintenance medication.  Generally, this will take care of the sporadic flare ups in my own home.  Singulair has been great for me.  I like it because it is not another inhaler, just a simple tasteless pill. 

If I would stay on my maintenance medication all year round, I may not feel these asthma flare ups quite so much.  However, isn't the goal of all asthmatics (after your symptoms are controlled) to get off as much medication as possible?  I think I will still stay on the seasonal plan.  I just need to be better about starting on time.

Thanks Mom and Dad

By the title of this blog, you might assume that I am being sarcastic with this post.  I'm not.  I love Thanksgiving time since it gives everyone the chance to reflect on the good things in life.  Combine that with eating some good food and what's not to love?


Well, I'll admit that getting together with family can be as aggravating as it is enjoyable.  And, parents can be the cause of some of that aggravation.  Whether you feel that you are still not living up to their expectations, or you just don't think that they appreciate you, it has become quite common to blame our parents for our bad moods over the holidays.  Not only common, but easy.


Instead, this Thanksgiving I am giving my parents some much deserved praise.  I am blessed to have parents that are still together.  In a world where our public figures are making cheating and living together in place of marriage the norm, I am thankful to my parents for working through the hard times with each other.  Their relationship has become the foundation of our family.   Something my sister and I can count on. 

Thanks Mom and Dad and Happy Thanksgiving!