One world

    "In my opinion I belive that the world has become too small for all our boarder's, what is the point of it? Why are the world leader's determined to keep us apart?
    I believe that with enough people together, standing as 1 that we can make the world and all it's "leader's" realize just how small it really is and that we are all a part of it. If change is going to happen we must stand tall and together.
    I believe that we don't need boarder's, boarder's around the world is the cause of ALL the war and pain and suffering. If we were one without boarders nobody would be dying because they don't have enough to eat and nobody would be suffering because we would all be 1. Without any boarder's we are one, everyone is family and everyone will look after us, no more starving children in Africa, no more of our vetrians staying homeless on the streets. If the world were one there would be no need for war and the wealthy would actually help the less fortunate. If the world were one we would all live in a better place, a place where we didn't have to worry about our children being kidnapped for we would look after each other.
   This is the world I want my children to have the world i think we are all entitled to. Please stand with me to demand change, it can happen if we want it bad enough.
   WITH ONE WORLD WE HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO LOOK AFTER EACH OTHER AND THE RICH WOULD NO LONGER BE ABLE TO TELL THE REST OF US HOW TO LIVE...
I BELIEVE A CHANGE IS POSSABLE AND I BELIEVE CHANGE CAN HAPPEN NOW....."

Help the sick and injured

I want to change the laws in parliment. If a person is forced to leave work due to illness or injury they only get 15 weeks unemployment, but if a person quits for the right reasons they can get unemployment for up to 50 weeks. Please click on the link and sign the petition. Show Canada you care.
<a href="http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/help-the-sick-or-injured.html%22%3EHelp the sick and injured in Canada Petition | GoPetition</a>

What has the world come to?

Where is a disabled person in Canada supposed to go for financial help?

     At the age of 5 I went to the hospital for a “routine” operation. I was there to have my tonsils removed. Unfortunately for me the Dr. I had turned out to be a hack. While putting stitches in my throat he messed up and the stitching needle punctured my Carotid Artery (One of the main arteries’ in the human body.)

     Unbeknownst to me or my family, I was sent home. While at home and over the course of a week the artery in my neck slowly seeped blood down my throat and into my stomach. I woke up at 5 in the morning and ran to the bathroom where to mine and my mother’s horror I began throwing up the blood that had pooled in my stomach.

     Wrapped in a strawberry shortcake blanket my mother rushed me to Sick Kids hospital in Toronto, Ontario. As the Doctor came into my hospital room I continued vomiting blood. The blood was coming out faster than anyone could believe. Even the blood that the doctor’s tried giving me came up. In the end I lost over three quarters of my blood that is supposed to be in my young body.

     As the doctor’s worked feverishly hard to pump blood back into my tiny little body, I suffered a mild heart attack and a major stroke. Also during that time the doctors lost my heart beat and I was officially proven to be clinically dead for 31 minutes. When the doctors brought me back I quickly fell into a coma where I remained for nearly 2 weeks.

     During that time my mother was told that I would never wake up I would be on some kind of life support for the remainder of my life.

     To all their astonishment I did wake up and very quickly began doing all those things the doctor said I would never be able to accomplish on my own, things like eating speaking and even walking. During my stay at the hospital I surpassed every body’s prediction of just how much I would be able to do on my own.

     Upon release from Sick Kids hospital I entered a rehabilitation center where I resided for approximately a week before finally being able to go home. At home the rehab didn’t stop. Three times a week my mother drove me to Erinoak where I saw a physical therapist and a child psychologist. Being a disabled kid in school was well, let’s just say was not a very fun place.

     Due to the doctor’s incompetence I was able to sue for malpractice. The trail began then the long wait to hear the judge’s verdict. At the same time that I was going through this ordeal I met another girl who was about my age and she too was suing for malpractice. In her case she had broken her wrist, in order to put the cast on and set her wrist properly the doctor had to break her thumb. Because of the way her thumb had been broken when the cast was removed she was unable to move her thumb at all, for this inconvenience when all was said and done in her case she was awarded 1.2 million dollar’s.

     In my case I completely unable to use my left hand and all and my arm seemed to have a mind all of its own of its own. In school my left arm would stiffen and go straight up in the air, it was nearly impossible to make the muscle spasms stop. I walk with a promadant limp and dressing myself was nearly impossible. For all my pain and suffering I was awarded against two hundred thousand dollars from the doctor. In 1984 when all this happened to me, my mother (a single mother of two) was denied being able to claim child disability benefits for the simple reason that I was not on a special diet.

     As my eighteenth birthday approached I grew more and more excited I dreamt of all the money I was coming into and began making plans. I was told that with interest and stuff that by the time I was of age to receive the money it would have grown to well over five hundred thousand. That of course was not the case. When I picked my cheque up from the court house I was disheartened to see that it was only a little over three hundred thousand instead of the five I was told would be there.

     At the age of eighteen when all my friends were out having fun I was in meetings with a financial advisor. I was advised that my best bet would be to put the money away in an annuity. I did as advised and put most of my money away into an account that would pay me $1149.51 each month for the rest of my life. At eighteen I thought I was set. In fact the only money I did spend on myself was to buy a car, a bunch of C.D’s and my dream a drum kit.

     When I was 21 years old I had my first child, a boy and a year later I had my daughter. Due to my disability and the fact that I can’t use my left arm very well, looking after the children by myself was nearly impossible and for that reason my husband was unable to work. He had to help me look after our children.

     In 2004 I went to community services here in Nova Scotia, at that time I was told that if I received $200 less a month that disability benefits would give me $900, a nanny to help me look after the kids, and gas money so that my husband could go out and find a job, but because I got that extra $200 I didn’t need any help from anyone, and didn’t receive help.

     For years we struggled to get by just long enough until both children were in school, at that time my husband went out and rather quickly found a job and financially things began looking better. After working steady for nearly four years with a back that he broke as a kid, the doctor made him stop working when his arms kept going dead on him. It’s very hard to cut on a large table saw when you can’t trust your body to work properly. And because of his bad back working in an office is out of the question, it hurts to sit for long periods of time, even harder for him to stay on his feet for hours on end. Having no alternative Tim had no choice but to stop work. Right away he filled for CPP (Canada Pension Plan) and began unemployment sick benefits. For the past summer we scraped by making do with what we had. At the end of September sick benefits ran out. Now because he was forced to leave work and filled out the paper work for CPP we aren’t receiving any money from his end. It’ll be December or January before we find out if he is even accepted for the CPP disability benefit.

     This is how sick our country is, if Tim would have just went to unemployment and not applied for CPP he would still be receiving a cheque from our government, but because he is sick and unable to work sick benefits run out after only 15 weeks, while regular unemployment runs for 52 weeks.

     In the beginning of September my younger brother came to live with me. At home in Ontario he was always getting into trouble, so bad that his mother had to place him first in a government run disciplinary school that my mother found out from CAS (Children’s aid society). In order to help him and do what she thought was right my mother moved away from Toronto where my brother was a ward of the state and moved back to his small town of Tilbury Ontario. My mother thought he would do better in a small town, unfortunately her plan didn’t quite turn out and Cody was right back into causing trouble and became verbally and physically abusive towards her. Feeling desperate and not knowing what or how to handle the situation and after four years of working side by side with C.A.S. my mother put him on a plane and sent him to me in Nova Scotia.

     Once he got here the C.A.S worker in Tilbury told me that C.A.S. in Nova Scotia would help us financially with raising a third kid. We were told that C.A.S. would help us to buy materials needed to finish a room in the basement so that he would have his own space, they told us they would help us get him a counselor and said they would help with whatever money he might need for school and even help with gas to get him back and forth from games and practices. After many weeks of calling the C.A.S of Ontario finally sent my brother’s fill to C.A.S. of Nova Scotia where I was informed just yesterday that Cody has never been involved with C.A.S in Ontario therefore they couldn’t do anything to help us. My brother spent three years in a group home and my mother never received the child benefit for him because he was in the care of Ontario. How does that make sense?

     Out of desperation and the need for cash I called community services hoping that I would qualify for disability benefits, but to my surprise the province of Nova Scotia doesn’t have disability benefits. I was told that I needed to apply for income assistance (welfare), not wanting to but with no other option of to community services I went. As it turns out I am $33 over their budget so they can’t help me. Now my husband and I are forced to take less and less of the medication needed to keep muscle spasms at bay, we can’t afford to take what is prescribed. After many phone calls and sleepless nights I was able to get a little bit of hope. Community services came back and said that they MIGHT be able to help out with the cost of our medications but first we need to do a whole lot of running around so now I am working on getting those papers ready.

     Last week a social worker came and visited the house and we told her our financial situation she was shocked. She said that we were being ripped off by all branches of our great government. I should be receiving $205 each month because I am disabled, but I haven’t received a red cent from this great land of ours. A very good friend of mine who became disabled in her mid twenties gets over $700 each month and her husband has a great job working for the government.

     So there it is this is our struggle and I am sure there are more of you out there I am positive that its stuff like this that has gotten the entire world to protest.

     On another note I have also been involved with a group called The National Benefit Authority. They are a group of individuals that work hard to get money for the disabled that the government owes them. According to their records the Canadian government owes me over thirty thousand dollars, but the only way I am able to get it is if I have a taxable income of twenty thousand dollars or more. I don’t even make $15,000 a year.

      SO I ASK WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE THE DISABLED AND POOR IN THIS WORLD SUPPOSED TO GO FOR HELP?

      

If it sounds to good to be true it probably is..

 My name is Kimberly MacEachern and I live in Nova Scotia Canada. I am writing to you today because I have a story I think you may be interested in. I am a new author and like hundreds before me I made the mistake of signing a contact with a company called Publish America in Maryland Baltimore. I think this story would have great interest to you because of how Publish America works. They send out contracts that are complete lies, they don’t mean anything and now they are not even paying their authors the royalties owed to them. I am writing not only for myself, but also for all the other authors who have been fooled by this scam. Even though money is owed to us we are willing to let that go if we could just get the rights back to our own books. Could somebody help us to get our rights back from Publish America and worn other authors out there the scam that is Publish America.

This is my story, and many other people have a very similar story.

     1. Yes there are many discrepancies between the Publish America web site advertising and the actual contract.

     2. Breaches of contract.

      A. My official book date release was supposed to be August 22 2009, and was not made somewhat available until the end of September, and even now it is still not available where it should be (i.e. Amazon.com, chapters.com).

     B. Was told that if I bought a certain amount of copies of my book then I would get the royalties from that sale. I wasn’t given any.

     C. Publish America in their contract stated that they would issue a press release-that was never done.

     D. I was also told that my book would be available for my local book store to order and as of today my local book store am still unable to order copies.

     E. was also told that I would receive 8 % in royalties in February and August of each year for copies sold. I have receipts from family and friends who bought the book through the Publish America website, yet I just received a statement informing me that I have sold 0 copies of my book.

     3. No my book did not make it to Barnes & Noble book stores.

     4. No the shoddy editing was not accepted. I paid $50.00 to fix the errors that they made and the book still is full of them.

     5. The overall presentation of my book wasn’t too bad, but I was asked what I would like to see the cover look like after I told them they gave me something totally different then what I wanted.

     6. Yes customer / author services are extremely unsatisfactorily. I am still waiting almost a year for answers to questions.

     7. My book is very over priced.

     8. My book is very under marketed.

 9/10. My royalties also have been extremely unreported. I know for a fact that my book has sold at least 50 copies to family and friends through there website, yet Publish America states that 0 copies have been sold.

     11. Sales statistic’s on my book are not accessible to me, because the whole sellers of Baker & Taylor along with Ingram still don’t have copies of the book  and there for are not being sold. All the books that were purchased by family and friends were done so through Publish America’s website.

    12. As far as I know my book is not for sale or advertised under a different name.

    13. The only e-mail’s I ever receive from Publish America are one’s in which they are trying to sell me copies of my own book. And yes I feel very pressured to by copies. If I buy (X) amount of copies then that same amount would be donated to my local schools, library’s, and book stores. The latest deal was they would send a copy to Stephen King.

    14. Yes I was asked to provide Publish America with a list of people to announce the release of my book to, but they didn’t follow through and nobody received a single e-mail.

    15. I am right now trying to break my contract with Publish America and to get my rights back.

    16. I have not found the publishing credit’s to be attributed to anyone besides Publish America.

     All I want is for my contract to be null and void and to get the rights back for my book along with monies owed to me. I just want to start over, am open to suggestion’s and or advice anyone might be able to give me.

     My pen name is Kimberly MacEachern. My e-mail is kimmymac@seaside.ns.ca, and the name of the book that I had published with Publish America is a children’s fantasy book called

Tales from Areallia: The Keeper’s. 

        

The hollidays

     I think I found out what is wrong with the world today.

     We are a society filled about worrying about tomorrow instead of today, now this is my reason for thinking this way.

     Back in the middle of August I took my 2 children Dustin 10 and Cassandra 8 out to get their school supplies and a new school outfit, but what I saw sickened me. All the stores around here, like I’m sure they do everywhere were using their store front windows for advertising. On this day in August we saw much more than we bargained for. On one side of the window display and that side of the store was filled with back to school. The windows were painted with school books pencils apples and desk’s, the other side of the window as well as the store was decked out in Halloween, yes that’s right I said it. The middle of August and on one side of the store we could get everything we needed for Halloween, costumes, make up house decorations, skeletons and ghosts.  

     Are you kidding me? Here people are concerned about getting enough money together so that their children could go to school feeling confident and here are all these stores reminding the children as well as kids that Halloween is right around the corner, well almost. See they skipped right over Labor Day, and what ever happened to Thanks giving? Instead of skeleton’s ghosts and grave yards don’t you think we should take some time to think about and celebrate what Thanks giving is about instead of just passing over it?

     Last week I had to go and do some regular shopping for your everyday needs. I had to go to the grocery store, Wal-Mart and the Dolor store. Again what I saw shocked me although it shouldn’t have it really did and it really bothered me. All the school supplies that were all up in the front of the stores were moved back to make room for you guessed it Halloween, but worse than that only half the section was filled with Halloween, the other half was filled or being filled with Christmas decorations. But I think the most disturbing thing I saw that day was when I went to the bank, did you know that inside my local bank branch already they have a Christmas tree, not just a tree but one that was fully decorated complete with Santa Clause sitting in a sleigh under the tree.

     This bothered me for more than one reason, first off it bothered me that here we are not even at October first and here the banks are already cramming Christmas down our throats. We live on a small island and jobs are scarce most people here worry about living day to day and here the bank is already getting people to worry and get scarred about how they are going to make Christmas happen for their kids, I just don’t think it’s right.

     But the biggest problem I have with all this is not the fact that people are already decorating for these holidays but that they are forgetting about the important ones in between. I mean in August yes we have to think about school, but in September shouldn’t we also take the time to recognize what happened that horrible, horrible day 10 years ago. September 11 2001. I’m not even from the United States and I am very fortunate to say that on that nightmare of a day I personally don’t know of anybody who perished then, but I do firmly believe that, that day should be put aside in remembrance of not only all those who lost their lives that day or their family but we should also be thinking about all the brave men and woman who have enlisted in the army just because of what happened that day. In October time should be taken out so that people can think about what truly is important, their family friends, health and having a great time. In November we celebrate Remembrance Day. In this house anyway it is treated and respected as it should everywhere. We wake up early watch the Ottawa celebrations and observe 2 separate moments of silence. One for 11:00 am in the maritime's and again at 11:00 am Ottawa time. We then spend the day as a family and talk about how lucky we are not to be in the middle of any war zone, we talk about the 2 world wars and teach our kids about the wars now in Afghanistan and Iraq. We tell them that if it weren’t for those brave men during the world wars then we would have nothing.

     So this is why I am so pissed off. I believe if you’re going to be decorating months in advance for the “commercial holidays then the stores and people as a whole should at least show a little respect and put something up in their display windows to remind us about all the other and family oriented holidays should also be displayed. This is just my opinion, but I must say it really does make me sick thinking about what kind of message we are sending our children.

What is it with kids today?

     What is it with kids today?

     When I was a child I could easily amuse myself with any simple little toy. In fact my favorite was the old toys we use to get in the McDonalds happy meals and dinky cars. For hours I would build a city out of playing cards, use my comforter like a mountain and be content to play all day long. I was set. Whenever I got the latest toy or newest game I would play with that for hours to. What I am trying to say is that when I was a kid we had to find ways to entertain ourselves, and the toys back then are nowhere as good as they are today.

     I understand with each generation the toys get better and better, but now it seems like there is a lack to choose from. My 10 year old only wants electronics. He wants an i pad, an i phone and a cell phone. My 8 year old is following in the same steps. I try to give my kids everything I can, for that reason Dustin has 2 guitars and Cassandra has 2 pianos. They both have their own cordless microphone and a whole room devoted to just playing with instruments, unfortunately they just gave up 3 years worth of music lesson’s said they didn’t want it any more.

     On top of that they both own almost 2000 Lego pieces and can create anything from a car to a space ship to an entire pirate army as we also have pirates of the Caribbean Lego set. My son (who loves to build) also has 3 or 4 different K’nex sets with motors that I am positive he could create anything he put his mind to and 4 different car models to put together. My daughter has everything and more then you can imagine of littlest pet shop series along with whatever she needs to make enough bracelets to last her a lifetime. She to also has many things to build with and many, many craft supplies.

     Along with all the toys inside we also have an acre of land in which they are basically able to do with what they choose. We have a steep hill in the back the only problem is its covered in bushes, the hill would be great for tobogganing or snowboarding yet they refuse to go out and cut down what they need. We are also surrounded by trees and a large forest in the back. We have a ton of scrap wood in the yard and told them go build a fort, a tree house, go build something. To date all they have done is just move the wood from where it was out of the way to where it is in the way. The middle of our front yard. Another thing they own that I would have loved as a kid is their very own van. We had an old van that didn’t work any more so we parked it in the yard and said “Here you guys can use this to have fun in.” Do you think they spend any time in it? The answer is no they don’t.

     So I ask again why is it when I was a kid I could have hours upon hours of fun playing with the simplest of toys and yet our kids own nearly everything under the sun and if they’re not playing those damn video games all I hear is, “I’m bored I’m bored. We have nothing to do.”

     What is wrong with our kids today?

Update on our new life.

   Okay time for an update.

   It’s been two weeks since my little brother moved in with me and I am very happy to say that it seems like all the kids are adjusting fine. Sure they have their moments but kids always do. We sat them down the other day when everybody’s frustration level was at its highest and had a family meeting. During the meeting both Dustin and Cassandra were able to speak their minds. They were happy to finally be able to express their feelings and opinion’s. It’s an adjustment, but one that I think is going very well all things considered. Cody was also able to speak his mind and express to us what he was use to so now I am trying to incorporate that into our daily routines. After the meeting each of the kids came up to my husband and myself and said thank you. They really needed to get a couple things off their chest and we worked out a few issues we were having.

   In school Dustin has begun playing the baritone in the grade 5 band, Cassandra is happy that she will finally be able to join the school choir, and Cody, well I am amazed at just how well he seems to be doing. He is waking up in time for school, getting his homework done and then he enjoys playing with the kids.

   Like I said it is a big adjustment and to be honest I don’t think I knew what I was getting myself into but now things are starting to slow down and life is returning to its new normal I am happy to say I am pretty sure that this move was great for all involved. I still struggle with not enough time in the day, but I am getting better. Besides I think time is something I will always struggle with.

   Now that the school year is on its way I am sure there will be more difficult times ahead of us but also a bunch of fun times. I can’t wait to see what the future holds.

BULLYING IN SCHOOL'S

   What happened to zero tolerance in Canadian schools for no bullying?

   That is what I would really like to know. Last week a very close friend of mine’s daughter had her lunch spit in. For the past three years this little girl has been bullied and teased by the girls in her class. Over the past few years I can’t count the amount of times this friend of mine has gone into the school to try and resolve this problem but to no avail. So when her daughter came home crying because someone spit in her food and the girls keep calling her names, and the poor girl is stuck sitting beside these same girls in class, into the school my friend went again.

     Hoping to fix the problem this friend of mine decided that she would just go and directly speak to the teacher, explain things to the teacher so that at least her little girl didn’t have to sit beside her tormentor’s.

   Walking into the front of the building this friend of mine was stopped by the principal.

   “Don’t worry that problem I discussed with you about your daughter has been fixed” He said angrily.

   “How can the problem be fixed? She is still sitting beside the girls that pick on her and when you brought the girls into the office to talk to them about spitting in her food the girls denied it and you also yelled at my daughter at the same time. You fixed it alright.” My friend said “My little girl came home crying because she was yelled at by you and the two girls blamed her for everything.”

   The principal’s response was to get right up in my friends face point a finger at her and yell. “I told you I would look after things.”

   “Then please tell me why my little girl is still sitting beside the bully’s and can you please explain to me why you yelled at my daughter? And doesn’t spitting in someone’s food an automatic suspension? My friend asked.

   “I told you I would look after it. You are really pissing me off now.” This wonderful elementary principal yelled at her again his face two inches from hers and pointing his finger again.

   “I want my daughter moved away from those girls by the end of the day.” My friend yelled back furious by how she was being treated.

   When her daughter came home my friend found out that not only was she not moved away from the girls but both of her children were followed around the school by the principal who spend the day looking down at them and making them feel uncomfortable.

   Now this friend of mine needs to figure out how to not only deal with this principal for the next three years but also needs to speak directly to her daughter’s teacher.

   Again I ask what happened to zero tolerance.

   In my opinion I think this principal needs to be fired for not only allowing bullying to continue in his school, but also for the way he, himself is trying to bully the parents and children himself.

   What is happening to the world?

Finally Cody is here...

     First off I would like to apologize for not being around much. Just last week our lives were thrown upside down, and although I am not complaining it is still frustrating. Last week because of problems at home, my little brother Cody has come to live with us.

     Cody is 15 years old, and so far so good, I am both happy and proud to say that he seems to be adjusting to his new life. He came from a small town in Ontario to a clump of houses in the woods, the nearest store is a ten minute drive, and the mall is almost an hour away.

     On Friday he began his first day of school at a new school in an entirely different province, his life has been drastically changed I just hope for the better.

     As I said earlier I will never complain about having him, I have wanted him since the day I moved out on my own for that reason alone I am thrilled he is here. I do however have two children of my own a 10 year old boy and an 8 year old girl. I am happily married and have a heard of both cats and dogs. I have never raised a teenager before.

     Now I feel as though the balancing act I was performing before just well enough to function has now fallen completely to pieces. When taking my brother in I don’t think I realized just how different our lives would be, and personally I don’t think anyone would know how different things are until they experience it. I now have three kids to get ready for school, three to make sure they get their homework done, and right now my writing has been put on hold.

     I don’t mind one bit it’s just a little frustrating not being able to find time to put my thoughts into words but I am positive that we will all soon be well adjusted to this new way of living, and things will fall in to place.

     So I am afraid to say that until such time to where I am able to focus again on my writing my blog will remain slow. Bye for now.

                                          Kimberly MacEachern

     

Untittled

                                         We grow up without a clue,

                                       Some wishing they only knew.

                                     Now awaiting the fear each day,

                                  Never knowing if things will be okay.

                                                     Love hurts,

                                              Yet it feels so good.

                                                Take me as I am,

                                               Not for how I look.

                                    Not knowing right from wrong,

                             A painted picture told me to stay strong.

                                    Expectations that grew so high.

                       A feeling that something inside of me has died.

                               Leave me alone, or I’ll run from you.

                            Let me rest and I might make it through.

To whom it may concern

To whom it may concern
I was wondering what it takes for Children's Aid to do something about a
child in danger. As far as i can tell it will have to be the loss of a life
before they do anything. Recently Children's Aid was called on a mother who
is mentally abussing her kids and they won't step in. The mother is on drugs
has partys all the time and forces her children to watch pornograghy.
Multiple family members have called with concerns about this family and the
children are still there. If we are supposed to teach our children that if
they are in danger they should tell someone they trust. In this case one of
the kids went to the principal of her school and told her about the abuse
going on at home and also said very plainly that she was afraid to go home,
the sick part is instead of taking the child to a place where she felt safe,
children's aid told the mother what her child said and was sent home. now this girl more afraid than ever to speak.
Please send this to everyone you know

This is the blog that greeneyes_31 is so upset about....
I ask you where in this blog does it say I was taking about a family member. I could have taken this story out of a news paper or from a television news report.......
I wonder why she thinks its about her!

Kids today

   What is wrong with the Canadian justice system?

   When I was a kid we were a lot more afraid of our parents and the police, because they did things. If you broke the law you knew you were in for it, you never talked back to your parents for you were afraid they would back hand you, but that is definitely not the case today. Our youth can get away with anything. I heard of a 17 year old boy who murdered an innocent person and all they got was 3 years in prison for it. I’m sorry I don’t care what age you are if you do the crime you must do the time.

   Now-a-days a kid can back space cakes put whatever drug they can get their hands on bake it in a cake than pass the cake around to friends at school. His only consequence was a couple days’ suspension from school. Really is this what we are teaching our children they don’t have to listen because whether you have a record or not anybody under the age of 18 gets nothing but a lecture (which I am sure goes in one ear and out the other) and a slap on the wrist.

   I know of a 15 year old boy who has been nothing but trouble since he turned twelve. He began stealing from his parents first than began smoking and it wasn’t long before his parents couldn’t handle him. He became violent throwing things around and cursing out everybody in ear shot of him. Sadly children’s aid became involved after the police showed up a couple more times because of his yelling and screaming. Children’s aid informed his parents that he might be better off going to a school for troubled teens, only allowed to come home on the weekends if he behaved during the week. Hoping this would help his parents reluctantly agreed and off to the school he went. Upon graduating the school the boy wasn’t any better. In fact he became worse, he learned a lot from the other kids in the school and when he got back home there was no controlling him.

   Thinking a change of scenery would help the boy’s parents moved out of their home and rented an apartment in a completely different neighborhood. At first the move seemed to work, the kid began going to school regularly and even started doing chores, but it didn’t last long.

   Within a couple months of the move and with children’s aid still involved the parents were informed if they couldn’t handle him than maybe a group home would be good for him. Maybe he would realize how good he had it at home and straighten out. Again sadly that didn’t work.

   Fed up with the kid and his attitude his parents were given the advice from other family members that he needed a good swift kick in the ass. Unfortunately one time while the cops were at the house again the police informed the parents that if they laid a hand on him than they could be charged with assault.

   For the next year and a half the family had to deal with children’s aid appointments along with an out of control kid. While in the group home the boy learned that he was completely untouchable and spent his time harassing and cursing at the poor staff of the group home. In the group home the workers can only tell the kids what to do and if they didn’t listen then they didn’t listen. During his stay in the group home he ran away four times scarred the female employees and even trashed the house. He was then charged with causing damage up to $5000, his punishment was to write a letter to the staff apologizing for what he did and promising never to do it again.

   Fearing that the group home was doing more damage than good they pulled him out hoping maybe if he were home he would settle down like he promised, instead he was worse. On a particular bad night this kid went after his sister and physically put his hands on her. He was charged with assault. He had to go to court where the judge order he take anger management classes and get counseling; he was also given a probation officer that he needed to check in with a couple times a week.

   After everything this child did the parents tried but to avail to take him to his appointments but he refused. His consequence for not complying with what the judge said was nothing, his parents tried grounding him taking things away and threatening to leave him in the care of children’s aid. More times than I can count neighbors called the cops fearing somebody was being seriously hurt. The cops would show up calm the boy down than leave again.

   Just recently the cops brought him home at 5 in the morning. He got picked up for breaking into cars, his punishment again nothing he was just returned home. Less than a week after that the boy again threw a fit and again fearing somebody was getting hurt the cops again showed up at the door. Once again they calmed him down and left.

   So I ask what is with the kids today. They don’t listen to their parents, skip school, mouth off to anybody, break the law over and over again and still nothing. When I was a kid if somebody did half of what this boy has done they would have sent them to juvenile hall. What are parents supposed to do? You smack your kid your charged, your kid won’t go to school your charged, and you yell at them they ignore you.

   So again I ask what is a parent supposed to do?

One Wrong Turn

      Shelia and Jake were the best of friends and have been for most of their lives. Unfortunately they had a hard time making friends, this did not bother Jake, he was happy and content as long as Shelia was by his side.

      Shelia on the other hand wanted more and was thrilled to be starting high school, she seen as a way of starting over. She yearned to be one of the popular kids and for the first time in her life it seemed this goal was attainable.

      Within the first couple weeks of school Shelia found a group of kids who accepted her. Soon she and Jake were invited out for a night of fun. Shelia was ecstatic, but Jake didn’t like the idea. To please Shelia and against his better judgment he agreed. It turned out to be a night that changed their lives forever.

Now available for download @ authorstand.com

The Camping life

    I just got back from the best vacation I have ever had. My husband 2 kids and I hiked out to a great camping spot and spent 2 days surrounded by the sun, surf and unfortunately the jelly fish.

    We began our trip early Friday morning. Pilled everything we needed into the van and drove the 5 minutes to reach our destination. With the van in park and packs on everybody we headed out. Both Dustin age 10 and Cassandra age 8 carried nearly what they weigh for the entire 3 km hike out to our favorite point. Although we have made countless day trips out there this was the first overnight trip, our packs were made heavy by the extra water and food we had to carry. Our 2 dogs also made the trip and enjoyed themselves although next year I am determined to get a couple doggy saddles so that they can help carry what they need. As Dustin pointed out they have four legs and we have 2 lol.

   Once we hiked out and got everything set up the real fun began. Despite being in complete and total fog during our hike and first day out there I couldn’t have asked for anything better. The kids got along, shared everything, and did everything they could think of to help out, but I love the way they treated each other. It was the first time in months that they went a full 3 days without fighting.

   Instead of fighting our kids spent the whole trip hiking, poking at jelly fish, and making a large table.

   I think what I like best about camping, is the fact that the rest of the world seems to no longer exist. You’re out in the middle of nowhere not a soul to be seen, and if you are as lucky as I am you get to spend time alone with the best people in the world. Out in the middle of nowhere life is simple, food, shelter and water that are all that matters. There is none of this trying to keep up with the joneses stuff. And a few raggedy pieces of drift wood turn into the fanciest of coffee tables and where we all get along. I love the fact that we had no television, phones, video games or even any form of music.

   Saturday night we sat in front of our tents. With the Atlantic Ocean on both sides of us, we watched in amazement as to the Sun set to our left, and a full moon rose to our right. Perfect we thought life can get no better. Without the distractions of modern day life getting in the way I can sit here and honestly say that during our camping trip I learned much more about my children than I have the last 2 months of summer vacation. We all had to work as a team to make it out there and had to stay working like a team for the entire trip. It’s the only way to go, camping you needs the help of others and everyone shares. Many lesson’s can be learned from a camping trip and I believe that if the entire world were forced to go on a trip like the one I was just on then the world would end up being a much better place. I can’t wait for next year so that we can do it all again. Nothing beats spending undisrtacticting time with your family. It’s a great way to reconnect with one other and make your family foundation that much stronger.

   As I said earlier it was the best time of my life.

  

Not enough time

   My dream’s and my goal’s in life is to raise two great productive children and get my name well known as an author. I love writing and have so for as long as I can remember. Now that I have work I feel needs to be out there because I believe my writing can help change the world (or at least I like to think so), so here I am.

   I have this new blog found a few author sites that I really like, and have finally begun getting a few more of my short stories out there for people to read, but here is the problem. As I join and upload stories so that people may down load them later I learn that I would get a larger number of people reading my work or my blog if I read other peoples stories and blogs and take the time to comment. Now I am not trying to be rude or insulting but I find it almost impossible to find enough time in the day that I can dedicate to writing just to satisfy my need to write, so I ask how am I going to find the time to read other author’s stories who also post on the same site?

   Don’t get me wrong, I really don’t have anything to complain about and I am sincerely trying not to sound as if I am. I guess I am just trying to figure out how to spend my time more wisely so that I am able to find more time to read other piece’s of work.

   I am just saying with the regular everyday activities that come along with being a mother and a wife it’s hard enough find time for me, a quiet moment in which I can write my thought’s down. It’s usually nine o’clock at night before I am able to even get back to which ever writing piece that I am currently working on. I guess I am asking if any of my fellow authors have any tips for how they magically create the extra time in the day for all their activities, I’d love to hear from you. I am open to anything except give up on sleep; although it’s beginning to look like that might be a thing of the past lol.

     

Crazy few days

Wow, alright so this has been a crazy couple of days. The kind that never seem to end. It all began on Saturday, we were heading off for the flea market the next day so I had to go and around make sure everything was in the right box and that we had everything before we put it in the van. We spent the rest of the day trying to convince our children not to going around and spending their money before we even left the building.

   On Sunday we were awake extremely early for us and off to the flea market we headed. Before we are even able to get our boxes loaded off the trolley and onto the table, a swarm of vultures was aimed straight for us. Before I could even turn around other venders there that day had completely crowded us. They were in this box, pulling things out of that box all the while I had what sounded like 50 people at my side screaming what do you want for this? I swear all my best items were sold than in the middle of the furry and the worst part is I was so damn flustered and completely not ready that most of the stuff ended up being sold for much less than I had wanted or even what they were worth.

   Despite the rough and extremely hectic morning the flea market turned out to be somewhat I success, the kids were happy and I guess at the end of the day that’s all that matters. Of course living where we live whenever there is a large crowd of people the 50/50 tickets are brought out and most of the time we hear of a new draw, like the winner gets tickets to a local game or movie, but it’s not too often you hear of them changing how the winner is decided.

   This year we did not enter the regular 50/50 draw, instead we joined Bessy’s lottery. What is Bessy’s lottery? Well I’ll tell you. Bessy is a cow that lives here on Cape Breton Island. Anyway, once a year they keep Bessy in the born long enough to clean all the cow patties from her field than with that done they divide the field into a grid, each grid has a number and if the cow does its business in your numbered grid than you when close to $6,000. My husband of course had to enter “How can I not if there is one lottery I have a shot at winning at it has to be one that I get shit on.” He says. Sadly we did not win, but all the proceeds from this draw went into a scholarship fund and every year they hand a couple lucky students a scholarship. We did not win, the draw was on Sunday and we haven’t heard anything so we lost oh well, am so happy that it’ll be at least another year before I am at the flea market with a table of my own.

   After an exhausting day Sunday I was looking forward to having a relaxing Monday, but of course that would not be the case. Recently we discovered a flea on one of our cats, great fleas just what we need. Off to the vet we headed we purchased the flea stuff that goes on the back of the neck for all 5 of our animals, a small fortune, but well worth we thought. We have 2 dogs 2 cats and a new kitten. After a week we noticed that the flea stuff we have already given them wasn’t working because they still had the horrible little creatures crawling all over them. At the pet store we bought flea shampoo safe for cats and dogs, the good thing about this was that we could apply it to the animal while they were dry eliminating having to torture our animals any more than they needed to be.

   I sure didn’t realize what a big job this was until after we had already gotten started, and once you start you can’t stop. First we had to get our son’s room completely cleaned out, bed sheets, dirty cloth’s, vacuum the floor and spray the room down with the flea killing solution. Once this was done I hurriedly began the next load of laundry. The day began around 10 am and we didn’t stop again until nearly 9 o’clock that night. We had stripped every bed, washed every and all pieces of fabric possible swept and vacuumed the floors countless times and in between all this took one animal at a time and applied more than enough of the stuff to kill any and all flea’s. Needless to say it was very long, back breaking hard work, but I am now happy to report that we have officially gotten rid of all our flea’s and are completely flea free once again….

   It takes a few days to recover after surviving the past couple of days, hopefully I’ll have something more interesting to say tomorrow. For now I am off to bed.
Nighty night

Scratch and win lottery tickets

   Come on, you know it’s your guilty pleasure too, those damn lottery scratch and win tickets staring at you at the cash while you’re paying for whatever it was that you originally came in for. Normally you can resist the temptation walk out and feeling proud for not breaking down and buying one, but occasionally that itch inside you just gets the better and the next thing you know you’re walking out the door proud that you think you have picked the winning ticket it was just screaming your name. Out to the car you march and put it away for later all the while the thrill of hoping and wishing you did indeed pick the winning ticket or at least one that would pay out a couple hundred dollars.

   Hours later or whenever you pull out the ticket and begin to once again get excited maybe you’ll win. Last night I broke down and bought one of those scratch to win lottery ticket I hunkered down and chills of expectation and excitement coursed through my veins. Eagerly I scratched the ticket to reveal letters I needed to complete the cross word. With three words only revealed the best I could hope for was a lucky letter in the bonus section to give me that one crucial letter that would at least afford me a new ticket. With abaeded breath and anticipation the bonus section was revealed, but what I saw did not please me at all.

   Normally in the bonus section when scratched you could reveal an extra letter “Conrad’s you win $2” or “Good Luck”. These are all things I am very use to seeing and have come to accept, but what I scratched last night appalled me. Instead of the usual bonus phrase the bonus section I scratched out said, and I quote. “Bonus, you helped raise millions for the gaming corporation.”

   Are you kidding me? Really?

   I mean the descent thing to do would have been to say “Good luck, or Try again”. Instead they rub your nose in the fact that you were once again fool enough to buy their product, and worse than that they are basically thanking you for making them more “rich”.  

The Visit

   When you go to the Dr.’s office you expect to wait at least a little while right? 15 maybe 20 minutes before you get into one of the exam rooms than what usually another 10 minutes before the Dr. actually enters the room. On a good day let’s say the total time spent at the Dr.’s office is almost an hour. Not too bad, I think an hour out of the day. Anyone can handle that right?

   Normally the office has a side table full of out dated magazines and a few children’s book.  That at least is what I am use to. You know the routine sit down get comfortable and try to read an article or two from a magazine that you care absolutely nothing about. This is what I expected our first visit in the new Dr.’s office to be like, but instead of magazines on a stand we found novels. Yes my friend that’s right novels. Thinking it was a joke I sat down only to sadly find out that the novels were needed. It actually is an outrageous amount of time to spend waiting for a 3 minute visit.

   But what if you enter the office, your first time seeing a new Dr. Of course your nervous, you don’t know this Dr. and they don’t know you yet here you are in the office with your health at their hands. Around the waiting room you begin looking, hoping to find some clue as to how the Dr. is based on the patients they see. At least that’s what I do, but the waiting room; regardless of where you are in the world all seem to be the same.

   As I look around what I saw the same thing that I see in every Dr.’s office. First you’ve got the old couple, they sit closest to the door to make sure they see you as you walk in, than they spend the entire time starring you down like you just stole their last $20. Then you have the couple that talk so loud I’m positive people outside can hear them and by the time they are called into an exam room you already know their entire history, how they met, who their related to, what they like and what they like and don’t like. Then you have the people who weigh triple what a normal person weighs. Now don’t get me wrong I have nothing against overweight people, but if you are overweight than the least you could do is where some cloths. There is always that one person who shouldn’t be but of course is wearing the smallest possible pair of shorts they can find to go along with the skimpiest shirt they can find. Are you for real? Please I really don’t want to be able to make out every roll on someone’s body. People really need to learn what acceptable attire for the public is. My favorite people in the office are the ones who are convinced they’re your friend despite the fact you have never seen them before, but that doesn’t stop them they just continue speaking. They tell you why they are there and the next thing you know you know their entire medical history than if there is still time out with the wallet they bring out and have to show you all their pictures of everybody they know.

   Now I don’t know about you, but when it comes to having to go to the Dr.’s office I would much rather be left alone, because aside from your own problems that brought me there in the first place the office also has its own distinct things wrong with it that you have to somehow learn to deal with.

   The sterile smell that always seems to be the same in every office. That same smell that guaranties if you weren’t feeling sick when you first got there you sure did by the time you left. If that’s not bad enough you already feel sick, yet somehow some way the office makes you more tired annoyed and feeling worse.

   Can somebody please explain to me why with all the technologies we have today why we can’t make the Dr.’s office a place you want to visit instead of a place to be afraid of and dread knowing that you have to go. Come on people it can’t be that hard to make a Dr.’s office inviting. Maybe even inviting???

Is it that hard??

  

The yard sale

   Yes, it’s that time of year again.

   Yard Sale season. The time of year when most Mother’s and house wife’s or Dad’s haul out all their junk they have been collecting to earn a little extra dough. You know the saying somebody’s trash is another person’s treasure.

   Because we live in the country a yard sale isn’t the best way to go about it, so instead we head of to the local flea market. We rent our table and sell our things.

   Now my kids are more than generous, don’t get me wrong, on many occasions they have donated toys to the hospital, woman’s shelter’s and value village without a single complaint. They did it very happily, but we usually donated whenever the kids out grew something so that it was almost immediately out of the house, but just in the past couple years they have been wanting to go to the flea market. That way the money they raised from selling their old toys (Which by the way are very well taken care of) could go towards doing things during the summer they want to do, like going to the carnival, store or just to have.

   The problem however is not the storing, but when I actually book the tables and have a date. In the storage room I go and haul out all the things throughout the year the stuff we don’t want anymore.

   I bring it all out and begin the long cleaning process. Anyway upon getting everything cleaned and somewhat organized in boxes, girl stuff, boy stuff, kitchen stuff, odds and ends, is when the trouble begins.

   The kids come running into the room and see boxes filled with shinny toys. At once they HAVE to check it out. Going through the boxes they find things and get made “What why are we selling this? I love it.” they cry despite the fact that they handed it to you just a few months earlier, and it’s the toy you had been waiting forever to get rid of because whether it’s on or off every time you pass it the toy makes it’s annoying noise and makes you nearly jump out of your own skin.

   The next thing you know have of what you had in boxes lands back into the rooms and how can you fight them it is after all theirs right? Then in walks you significant other and they to feel the need to go through everything. “Why are you selling this? It can be useful.” They say regardless that before it landed in the box for the flea market it spent three years in a cupboard in the kitchen never being used.

   Before you even leave the house you have already gave back nearly half of what you had been waiting all year to get rid of. Well at least half of it is going that at least makes me happy. It just really gets under my skin when I do all this work get everything ready just to have it returned to the stuffed room it came out of.

   Most years we do sell over 95% of what we bring but then the husband or kids decide to walk around the flea market, just to see what there is and before you know it they have gone out and bought more junk to replace what we just got rid of…

   YARD SALES, FLEA MARKETS WHATEVER THE METHODE IT’S ALWAYS A FIGHT AND YET EVERY YEAR YOU CONTINUE TO LOOK FORWARD TO SELLING YOUR STUFF…

   I JUST LOVE FLEA MARKET’S as long as I’m not trying to sell anything and have a ton of room to bring home what you know will end up in the trunk of your vehicle by the end of the day.

Is she really a he?

   A few weeks ago, my daughter Cassandra brought home a cute beige coloured kitty. “Can we keep her?” She pleaded. Being a sucker for animals I agreed, and checked the kitten over. She was just about 7 weeks, clean, and eating on her own.

   Perfect we thought. Now we could even out the male to female ratio in the house. You see we already had two male cats and a male dog, our latest addition before the kitten was a female puppy. My daughter was ecstatic a girl kitty all her own. The kitty moved in and very quickly made its home in Cassandra’s room. (Which by the way is painted a very bright pink colour.) The kitten was named Rascal and just as faithful to Cassandra as a golden retriever is to its owner. 

   Recently we discovered fleas had moved in and we now are in the process of getting rid of them. Our two dogs and three cats were all treated with a flea product that goes directly on their skin, the medicine guaranteed to get rid of all fleas and eggs and tics. Unfortunately that was not the case so because we need to wait to treat them with anything else for at least a couple more weeks, it is for now a routine to wake up and each morning and every night go over the animals with flea combs trying to get rid of them.

   Cassandra came screaming into my bedroom this morning. “Mom, Dad says that Rascal is a boy.”

   “That can’t be.” I assured her

   Quickly I talked to Tim who said yes Rascal was a girl, we made a mistake. Not believing him over to Rascal I run, and sure enough I flipped the poor kitty on its back and starring boldly at me are what can be described as definite male parts.

   That’s right for almost two months now our poor kitty Rascal has been called she and treated very girly like even living most of her time in the girlish bedroom.

   And there you have it: SHE REALLY IS A HE!!!