DYING EASTER EGGS

Why did the Blonde having trouble dying Easter eggs?

She started off with organic brown eggs.

That's not a joke, that is really what I did.

I just wasn't thinking. Those are the eggs we have, so that is what I used.

Did you know that vinegar will completely eat away an egg's shell if you give it enough time?

Another fascinating little tidbit I learned while trying to dye brown eggs.

CALL YOUR FLORIDA REP TODAY!!!

Please call your State House rep today and tell him or her to VOTE NO on the HOUSE BILL 7189.

A lot of you probably don't know what is going on and this is something that WILL effect you and your children.

What is it about? Click on this link for more details from UTD (United Teachers Of Dade).

It makes everything based on FCAT scores.

Teacher pay. Firing. Everything.

Remember that no matter how good the teacher is, if the parents at home don't care, the student will not excel.

Parents need to make sure their kids do their HW.

Parents need to care how their kids do in school.

Parents need to discipline.

I just called to thank my representative, Julio Robaina (State House District 117) for opposing it.

It took 2 seconds. You can also e-mail.

Link to phone numbers

Link to e-mail addresses

Don't know who your rep is?

Try this link to Florida House Of Representatives.

Now pull out your voters registration card and see what your STATE HOUSE district number is.

There are several Districts in Miami, so don't assume. You need to look it up.

The senate version of this bill, SB6, already passed. It is extremely important that you call today and ask your friends and family who live in Florida to do so as well.

THE PUPPIES WERE ADOPTED

Chris found good homes for them.

In fact, the girls are cousins and the puppies will be able to see each other once in a while.

We did learn something though. We are very fortunate that Shadow and Chili (who my father adopted as adult dogs) get along so well with Bobby the cat (otherwise known as Lucifer Himself.)

I think that when they do go looking for a Shadow replacement, they will look for puppies a little younger. That way, they can be trained about the cat.

HECKLE & JECKLE

Yesterday was a very long story.

Short is - My parents might keep the 2 puppies that got delivered to me with my mail.

I have an awesome mail lady. Her name is Suzy. Whenever she has a package for me that is too big for the mailbox, she comes and knocks lightly on my front door. She doesn't ring the door bell because she doesn't want to wake the baby, if she is sleeping.

Yesterday Joey was awake and while we were talking, 2 black lab puppies came up and said hi.

They were 4-6 month old (think BIG puppies) and had no collars. They were a boy and girl and were also not spayed or neutered. That right there tells me they are stray.

Let me take this moment to say:

If you own a pet, and it is not spayed or neutered, then you are an AHOLE!!

I called 311 and made a stray dog report to have Animal Services pick them up.

DON'T YELL AT ME!

I have a nice pair of dogs and that's enough. Besides, Mark can't wait for these 2 to die. He says no more dogs after that. Also, a nice set of puppies like these would very likely get adopted. There are a lot of groups that work with Animal Services to get as many animals adopted as they can. Animal Services has to put down HUNDREDS of dogs a WEEK, and that is NOT their fault. There isn't enough money to pay teachers, you think there is enough to feed and house a gazillion animals indefinitely? It is the fault of everyone of you out there who has a unneutered or unspayed pet. Don't talk to me about being pure bred, or only being kept on a leash or inside or in a fenced in yard. Dogs get out, fences get jumped, shit happens. If we all spayed and neutered our pets and only got new pets from the Humane Society or Animal Services, then we wouldn't have this problem.

311 said it would take 1 to 5 days for them to pick up the animals. (The guy was out later that afternoon.) In the meanwhile, I introduced them to my dogs, and they got along well (and a lot of dogs don't.) I then called my dad to tell him how my day was going.

"Puppies?" "What kinda puppies?" "BLACK LABS?" "Wait a minute... do you think they belong to someone?" "Are they cute?" "Do they have webbed feet?" "What are they like, do they get along with your dogs?"

I went through a game of 20 questions with both my dad & Chris. Basically you can't say the word "Puppy" around a Craven. So I I took them to the vet to see of they were microchiped. They weren't. I called back 311 and canceled the pick up. I also talked to Animal Services and e-mailed them a FOUND DOGS flyer to put up in their facility, on the off chance that someone lost these puppies. But the diarrhea poo they made in the back yard told me they had never received their puppy vaccines and still had the worms they were born with.

All the people I spoke to (vet's office, animal services, humane society clinic) said it sounded like they were freshly dumped. Someone's dog had a litter and they couldn't find homes for all of the puppies. They kept them while they were cute and little, but now they were starting to get big and troublesome so they drove out to a nice neighborhood and dumped them... hoping a nice family might take them in.

I took them to the lost cost clinic in the South Dade Goverment Center parking lot and got them their 1st round of puppy shots. When my dad got home, we went a visitin'. We wanted to make sure that Shadow and Chili didn't mind them; Dad didn't want to disrupt his happy pair of dogs.

They weren't sure if they wanted both, just one, or none at all.

Chili, my dad's german shepard mix, is an uber-dike. She is a female dog who lifts who leg to pee. She must be dominate of all other dogs that come in. She has an abrasive personality, at first with other dogs. Then, when she has established her dominance, she just wants to play. The puppies past the Chili test (not all dogs do.) Shadow doesn't care how many dogs are around, as long as Dad pets him first and longest. Dad took them all for a walk and they did fine together. Watching all of them play ball was hysterical. Shadow would plow through the puppies like a bowling ball through pins. Even with 4 dogs, Shadow got the ball 9 out of 10 times.

They are a happy, smart, good natured pair of puppies. But it is was coming close to decision time. So naturally the best decision is to delay the decision. As of last night, the plan was to keep the dogs a few days. In a few days they would be more comfortable, well fed and de-wormed, giving their true personalities time to shine. Then they would probably just pick one.

As of this morning, Chris thinks he may have found homes for them. It should be noted that the puppies DID NOT like Chris's cat Bobby. The rest of us said Bobby could stand to be taken down a peg or two and could just stay out of the back yard. Chris's response was "Hhmmphh!"

IF my parents were to keep the pair, my dad wanted to name them Bonnie & Clyde.

Mom and I like Heckle & Jeckle better. (The 2 black crows in an old cartoon)

JOEY'S CABINET

I really have gleaned so many good ideas out of the parenting bible:

What To Expect The First Year

Below is yet another good idea. In your house full of child proof everything, give her a cabinet that she can open. Let her make a mess of it, pull things out, put herself in, whatever.

I can do the dishes thanks to this cabinet.

And make dinner.

And loads of other things.

Now I still keep some things in there she isn't allowed to play with, like the ziplock bags. But that is a good lesson in "No." You can't have that, but you can have everything else.

DIAPER UPDATE

I realize that I never did my summary after my diaper challenge.

Several months ago, when Joey entered size 4 diapers, we started having trouble.

We have always used 7TH GENERATION or EARTH'S BEST. Those are the environmentally friendly disposable diaper options. (The cloth diapers didn't work for us, see previous blog.)

So I went out and bought some PAMPERS and HUGGIES and compared them to the ones I already had trying to find one that fit Joey well.

My daughter has a big but.

HUGGIES suck. Particularly the Little Movers that are tapered for the more active babies. Leak city. The Snug & Dry were better, but not as good as the Pampers. (Hurts me to say, because I like Mickey on the diapers.)

I must give PAMPERS credit, especial the Baby Dry.

But after comparing them all, I'm back to 7TH GENERATION. They fit almost as well as the PAMPERS, but don't have all those harsh chemicals next to my baby's skin and are better for the environment.

1ST TIME IN MOMMY'S CAMERO

KISS ME, I'M IRISH!

UH-OH

It's amazing how many things "Uh-Oh" can mean.

"I dropped it by accident."

"I dropped it on purpose (now pick it up for me and I'll drop it again. Isn't this game fun?)"

"You dropped something."

"Phone is ringing."

"Oooh, that surprised me."

"Ooops, my bad."

"That was loud."

When Joey said "Uh-Oh" for the first time, it was cute. It was cute the first 1000 times. It's not so cute now. We are really trying to get her grasp the concept of words "drop" and "phone". That is usually what she means by "Uh-Oh."

1ST BIKE RIDE

It was REALLY windy that weekend in the keys.

How do you like her hair, huh?

Haven't even started moving yet, but she knows she should hold on tight!

Daddy took her on her first bike ride.

But Mommy went faster. :)

AMERICAN GLADIATORS

GOIN' FISHIN'

Okay, I'm ready.

Everybody in the boat!

Fine, they don't wanna put a boat in the water, I'll walk down to the end of the road and go fishin' there!

Hmmmph!

MADISON CHASES JOEY

Joey LOVES Madison. Madison can get her to laugh easier then anyone. Except maybe Daddy.

Here is Madison chasing Joey around the room making her cackle.

YOU KNOW YOU WANT IT.

I don't care how much candy you try to bribe me with, I'm not giving you the number to my hair dresser.

CRAVEN - MEYERS AT SF RFK 2010

Sorry so late in posting these pics, they were on Mark's camera.

Here are the pics from the South Florida RIDE FOR KIDS 2010 that was held on Valentine's Day.

The Craven-Meyers family were able to raise $6,265 for the PEDIATRIC BRAIN TUMOR FOUNDATION.

We all also volunteered that day.

Below is Dad, me & Terry Horner.

Dad was a registration greeter and I was a sorter/receiver.

Kathy handled the checks.

You can see all the bikes waiting to start in the background and in the foreground you can see a bike with a sidecar. The sidecars carry the "STARS" of the day, the children undergoing treatment.

Andy, Rick, Chris, Dad

Terry, Kathy, Mark, Me, Maria

The Craven-Meyers squad.

THE WAR WITHIN

This the title to the LAST PAGE article in this week's TIME magazine.

I have also reposted it below.

This is happening and everyone needs to know and TALK about it.

If you can find the time to e-mail or call your representatives and ask them to be more vocal about it, that could help. There needs to be more pressure on the pentagon to illicit some change.

What does it tell us that female soldiers deployed overseas stop drinking water after 7 p.m. to reduce the odds of being raped if they have to use the bathroom at night? Or that a soldier who was assaulted when she went out for a cigarette was afraid to report it for fear she would be demoted — for having gone out without her weapon? Or that, as Representative Jane Harman puts it, "a female soldier in Iraq is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire."

The fight over "Don't ask, don't tell" made headlines this winter as an issue of justice and history and the social evolution of our military institutions. We've heard much less about another set of hearings in the House Armed Services Committee. Maybe that's because too many commanders still don't ask, and too many victims still won't tell, about the levels of violence endured by women in uniform.

The Pentagon's latest figures show that nearly 3,000 women were sexually assaulted in fiscal year 2008, up 9% from the year before; among women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, the number rose 25%. When you look at the entire universe of female veterans, close to a third say they were victims of rape or assault while they were serving — twice the rate in the civilian population.

The problem is even worse than that. The Pentagon estimates that 80% to 90% of sexual assaults go unreported, and it's no wonder. Anonymity is all but impossible; a Government Accountability Office report concluded that most victims stay silent because of "the belief that nothing would be done; fear of ostracism, harassment, or ridicule; and concern that peers would gossip." More than half feared they would be labeled troublemakers. A civilian who is raped can get confidential, or "privileged," advice from her doctors, lawyers, victim advocates; the only privilege in the military applies to chaplains. A civilian who knows her assailant has a much better chance of avoiding him than does a soldier at a remote base, where filing charges can be a career killer — not for the assailant but the victim. Women worry that they will be removed from their units for their own "protection" and talk about not wanting to undermine their missions or the cohesion of their units. And then some just do the math: only 8% of cases that are investigated end in prosecution, compared with 40% for civilians arrested for sex crimes. Astonishingly, about 80% of those convicted are honorably discharged nonetheless.

The sense of betrayal runs deep in victims who joined the military to be part of a loyal team pursuing a larger cause; experts liken the trauma to incest and the particular damage done when assault is inflicted by a member of the military "family." Women are often denied claims for posttraumatic stress caused by the assault if they did not bring charges at the time. There are not nearly enough mental-health professionals in the system to help them. Female vets are four times more likely to be homeless than male vets are, according to the Service Women's Action Network, and of those, 40% report being victims of sexual assault.

Experts offer many theories for the causes: that military culture is intrinsically violent and hypermasculine, that the military is slow to identify potential risks among raw young recruits, that too many commanders would rather look the other way than acknowledge a breakdown in their units, that it has simply not been made a high enough priority. "A lot of my male colleagues believe that the only thing a general needs to worry about is whether he can win a war," says Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez of the Armed Services Committee. "People are not taking this seriously. Commanding officers in the field are not understanding how important this is."

But there are some signs that both Congress and the Pentagon are getting serious about this problem. It is now possible for victims to seek medical treatment without having to report the crime to police or their chain of command. More field hospitals have trained nurse practitioners to treat the victims; more bases have rape kits. "More than ever," Sanchez says, "I believe that our leadership at the very top is beginning to realize that they need to be proactive."

According to a report by the Defense Task Force on Sexual Assault in the Military Services, the progress made so far remains "evident, but uneven." The failure to provide a basic guarantee of safety to women, who now represent 15% of the armed forces, is not just a moral issue, or a morale issue. What does it say if the military can't or won't protect the people we ask to protect us?

By: Nancy Gibbs

CHILD LABOR

I was cleaning out the fridge and Joey wanted to help. So I gave her a folded paper towel and she climbed right in there and did like she saw Mommy doing.

Consider the video below to be her resume. Any one interested in some cheap child labor, you know how to get in touch with me.