Wednesday, February 23, 2011

*No Excuses

Warning: I am about to go on another one of my rants.....if you are not up for it, you may want to exit here. This is stemming from the death, last night, of a 6th grade boy at our Middle School.


Various viruses have plagued our tiny little town since Christmastime. I know that no matter what school, in what town, in what state....you will have epidemics that just seem to spiral out of control, but this......this is really starting to make me literally MAD. I am sorry to say, but I have to put a lot of blame on the parents as well as the school district.



Parents:

By God, if your child is coughing everywhere, is throwing up, having diarrhea, fever.......KEEP THEM HOME!!!! And KEEP THEM HOME until your child has gone 24 FULL HOURS without any of the above ailments with NO MEDICINE TO PREVENT IT (like Tylenol to bring down fever). Number one, if your child has those things, chances are he or she is going to get at least one other kid sick and from there, another kid sick and it goes on and on. While most kids can handle a little virus here and there without residual harm, there is always the chance that there could be a compromised immune system or complications (like in this heart-wrenching story of Trenton Lindsey). If parents would just KEEP THEM HOME, this would not spread around like wildfire to the entire school district and town.





School District:


When you send home letters to the parents stating how many days our child has missed and threatening that they will not pass because of excess absences (9 days in a semester), SOME parents may feel pressured or bullied into knowingly, sending their UNWELL children to school for fear of the recourse. While I understand that there are state and district rules/laws that need to be followed, I also believe that this holds those rules/laws responsible for sick children attending school and infecting other children! At what point does the district want to take action and fix this mess? If a child has made up all work and tests, also has passing grades, and the parent has sent notes acknowledging the absences (so as to not let truancy be excused)........THEN DON'T SEND HOME THREATENING NOTES SAYING OUR CHILD WILL POSSIBLY FAIL IF HE OR SHE MISSES ANOTHER DAY OR TWO!!!!! These notes need to be reworded, desperately!

I am so sorrowed and my heart is beyond heavy....it is broken for the family of Trenton. We are so sorry to have lost him. But I can not help but wonder if his risk, in any way, could have been minimized.


And also, as a side note, viruses are not resolved with antibiotics. You can not just take medicine and be "not contagious"......it will have to run it's course. For example.....Pink Eye....real true pink eye is called Viral Conjunctivitis. There is no miracle medicine to make you not contagious. You can get some eye drops from your ophthalmologist to help relieve the symptoms like itching or pain, but you can not just get some antibiotic drops and have it go away or be contagious free. Bacteria based illnesses are treated with antibiotics. There is a difference. 

*A teeeeny bit of thoughtfulness





Our wedding is in June. You would think that it will be plenty warm and the last thing on any one's mind would be cozy socks and blankets, but I got worried. Our wedding begins at 6 pm, festivities will go until 11 or 12, and it is all outdoors, overlooking Lake Huron. I worried that some (ladies especially) would get chilled and/or their feet would be begging to get out of their shoes. So I decided that dozens of cozy socks








 and super big, soft blankets would be perfect.




What types of unexpected things did you do or have at your wedding?


Thursday, February 17, 2011

*Sneak Peek of Wedding Programs




Joe and I made these programs.....while I am not sharing ALL of the pages inside them yet, I will share the outer cover and first two pages. I designed and printed the 110lb card stock, then Joe cut them all perfectly to size, I zig-zag sewed (yes, sewed) them together with gold thread and voila.....our programs.



Monday, February 7, 2011

*Guest Book Love Letters





Since our wedding is a destination one, we are only having immediate family and a handful of close friends attend. I couldn't find a reason to have a "guest book", being that I know every single person that will go and I can tell you every name and address off of the top of my head.....(well, except for James and Rachel- they just moved and James must not know it yet, because he hasn't answered me.....and Salyna's Family......They have only been in pencil all of these years because of their nomadic ways....but now, since buying their first house....they are in pen!!).....okay, so I got off track there.....the guest book......

What do people do with a guest book after the wedding?? Is it for people with hundreds of guests who want to look in the book years later to see if so and so went to their wedding?? I don't get it! So.....I made a love letter book. I found a guest book that I loved for it's texture, size, design and color.....then I gutted it. I took out all "guest book" pages...... you know....... the pages and pages of lines for people to sign?!



I picked out loose pieces of card stock with different textures and colors. I had Joe use one of the "guest book" pages as a template and he cut the card stock to fit the book just like the original pages had. I punched the holes in all of them and made the new book.





I bought a box of 50 discounted "thank you" notes. I tore off the front half of the card that said "thank you" and threw them away. With the blank -back half, I used two different types of decorative scissors and cut around the edges to give it a more fun feel. Then I took a rubber stamper and two ink colors of the wedding and I stamped different patterns on all of the blah....blank -white envelopes that came in the "thank you" note set. After I finished stamping all of the envelopes, I used acid free, double-sided adhesive and I stuck them onto the pages that Joe had cut for me.



Now, everyone (all 30 people), can write a little note to us and put it inside an envelope and we have a true "Guest Book" of love letters from our nearest and dearest!! So when we want to look at our book in the future, we have sweet notes of love and encouragement from those who have made us who we are now.