Florida residents that did not use all the voluntary prekindergarten hours during the regular school year can send their pre-kindergarten child to summer school to use those 300 hours. The operative word is “voluntary”. This is not a mandatory thing, but if you feel that your child can benefit from the program during the year you are more than welcome to use those free hours this summer. According to a Tampa Tribune report, “Hillsborough County is gearing up for six weeks of 10 1/2 -hour school days beginning June 1. That includes a half-hour nap. Pinellas is ready with a plan that includes seven-hour, 40-minute days, including a rest period, starting May 23.”

• Hillsborough County Voluntary Pre-K information
• Pinellas County Voluntary Pre-K information
• Pasco and Hernando County Voluntary Pre-K information
• Polk County Voluntary Pr-K information

Due to some pressure and concern of parents about the “Gay Straight Alliance” club in Hillsborough county, a task force on school clubs has adopted new requirements for students to be able to participate in any school affiliated club or organization.One of these requirements is that the parent will have to give written persmission before his/her child can participate in any club. As, a parent I welcome the addition of this clause. No matter what the activity is, I would like to know what my child is doing.

According to the Tampa Tribune the The New Tampa Community Council want to include Wesley Chapel in their New Tampa community. For those that do not know, traveling on Bruce B. Downs East will lead you through New Tampa and then Wesley Chapel. The same person, Frank Margarella, that coined the name “New Tampa” 15 years ago is pushing for the inclusion of Wesley Chapel in New Tampa.

• New Tampa Community Council Web site
• Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce

A science fair experiment done by a 12-year-old middle school girl at Benito Middle School showed that ice from several restaurants had more bacteria than the toilet water of those same restaurants. Now things that hmmm…. ewww…. and uhh…..!! I said many times that the drink taste like___, but I did not know how right I was.Well, I have to salute her on that Science experiment. I don’t think I ever made that much of an effort on my science projects. Which liquid freezes fastest is as far as I went.  So you do your thing Jasmine Roberts, show them that sistas are doing it for themselves,yeah.  All those that grew-up in the 80s sing the song or hum the tune.  You know you remember the song.
You can read the article yourself.

Girl’s Science Project May Make You Rethink That Drink Order

Have you heard of infant potty training? I first came across the concept after watching a news piece about it on a local Tampa Bay station. Apparently people begin to potty train their children while they are still infants. One site, Infant Potty Training Webring, describes the whole concept of what they do. It has worked for some moms.

Another web site describes the, Infant Potty Training and Elimination Communication. It’s worth a try for you new moms out there with infant children. If you can have this become part of their everyday life now, you won’t have the trouble of potty training a tantrum filled 2 year-old.

Years ago I was told by my mother never to wear black to a wedding. However, in late 2004 I went to a wedding and the bridemaids were all wearing black dresses. What is the proper thing to do? If I can wear black I will. Most women have that black dress that make the rolls not so rolly and the pudge not so pudgey. After having the kids I need whatever I can to make me look a little slimmer here, there and everywhere. According to a about.com expert it depend on the time of day, and location. Well, I still am unsure.

Apparently the “Mommy Wars” are when moms draw lines in the sand and fight about whether it is better to stay at home with the kids or workoutside of the home. What mom has not fallen victom to the “Mommy Wars.” There is no mercy for the innocent bystanders, even they become casualties in this never ending battle. It seems that women are always fighting fo equality and wanting to be seen as equal to men. But the problem is that we[ women,XX-chromosome carriers] do not treat each other equally.We need to learn to respect each other and not look down on each other. We should be working together so that we can learn from each other and become better people; people that we want are children to respect and be proud of . STOP the “Mommy Wars”

My husband was driving last Friday and the car was flooded. Books that were in the trunk of the car were damaged. Now we owe the library money for that.

The car is working now. We still need to have it looked at by a professional to see if there is any damage we cannot see. I will tell you that there is a lot of damage that we can smell. The car is stink, stank, stunk. We ride with the windows down. During the day windows down is not that bad. But since the cold front that came in yesterday, it has not been good having those windows down.

But it must be done, because my car stinks.

My insurance adjuster came to the house to look at the roof damage we had from last Friday’s heavy rains.  The guy seemed nice.  He was polite and he smiled.  But, he is in the business of saving his company money.

I don’t know how much it will actually cost to repair the roof, but it seems a lot more than what the adjuster wants to give us.  I thought I was paying for home owners insurance so that in the event that there was damage they would actually pay for repair or replacement.

I don’t know if the insurance companies have gotten a lot stingier since the last two hurricane season or if they have always been this way.  This is the first time that I have needed their assistance with my house.  Now it seems that I need assistance dealing with the insurance company.

Even before the child is outside of the womb parents start the competition. “Well, my obstetrician is the greatest.” “We plan to have a water birth at home.” “Actually, we plan to do an under water birth ocean birth with the dolphins, while caring for rescued manatees.” It can go on and on. It is ridiculous and I am soo tired of it.

You have the no pain medication vs. medication during labor group. You have the C-Section vs. the vaginal birth group. Breastfeeding vs. Bottle. Stay at home parent vs. Working outside the home parent. The list can go on and on.

It may be hard to believe by some, but grown adults have gotten into argument over these things. Feeling have been hurt and friendships have be soured all because one parent thinks their way is the right way and everyone should follow it because that is best.

Maybe it is insecurity that makes parents do this. If others are doing the same thing the parent feels validated and feels she is making the right choices. On the other hand, if someone is doing the opposite the parent feels invalidated and feels she is doing the wrong thing. Parenting is a trial and error thing and maybe we look for little cues. But it is wrong to want everyone to be like you and do everything you do. This competitive behavior feeds into the live of our children and end up hurting them the most.

Do not get me wrong. Ambition, drive and determination are all wonderful things, but when we have to look down on someone else to get ahead there is a big problem. We are all parents trying to raise our children to be successful and well adjusted adults. Let’s call a truce. I have my white flag up waving it high. Let all the parents wave their white flags together. No more competition among parents. Wouldn’t life be a lot easier and our children grow to be a lot saner if parent learned to get along and end the competition.

Driving while your young child without a child safety seat is dangerous and against the law. Florida law requires that all children under the age of 5 to be “properly restrained”. More information can be found on the State web site.

These laws are there to protect children and what is more precouse than our little children. Keep them safe and remember to buck-up.

Who am I to deny pop culture? I watched parts of the Super Bowl. Pittsburg fans are rejoicing across the globe, while Seattle fans are going through several stages of grief. It’s hard for me to watch the end of a game; especially something as monumental and highly celebrated as the Super Bowl. Somebody has to lose the game. Somebody has to go home sad and dejected and I feel for those that don’t win.

Some fans can just rejoice with the winners and chase the thoughts of the losing team out of their minds. Not I say the emotional empathizer. Is there counseling for the team that does not win? If there isn’t, I say there should be some type of therapy. To make it so far and then have that dream taken away. Who wouldn’t want to cry? Many players do cry and that makes me want to cry.

And the ads this year was nothing cry over. It was mainly a yawning experience. Did the advertisers just give up this year? It felt like a why even bother trying advertisement kind of Super Bowl. Nothing really would go down in advertisement memory. Wait…I did like the Sprint Cellular phone commercials. Those were good.

This years Super Bowl was OK and the football was good too.

Today they crowned the 2006 Strawberry Festival queen. She is a 17 year-old high school senior. Congratulations to her and her family for the win.

Well, for all the rest of us that means a win too. Strawberries are on sale and in season. My family will be going to get our strawberries on sale. Their are some that do not like fruits, as impossible as it is for me to believe. I can not get enough of the fruits. So hail to the Queen and hail to Strawberry season.

Can you believe how long it rained in Tampabay yesterday. It can down all day long. One thing I have to say it is great for the grass and plants. Cars got flooded all over Tampa, including my husband’s Altima. What a day. We even had a roof cave in at a Bed Bath and Beyond in Pinellas County.
The rain did come done some more today, but it was not as bad as it was yesterday. Hopefully my husband and the many other who had their cars flooded can have a quick and inexpensive car repair.

But for now here are some links for those looking to salvage a flooded car.

• DRYING OUT YOUR FLOODED CAR
• Is a Flooded Car Necessarily Junk?
• Car Water Damage Questions

I watch the Super Bowl for the ads. For the most part, they are more interesting than the game itself. Now, let’s not make every commercial raunchy-that is so played out. Sex sells, we all get that, but who isn’t tired of seeing half naked people on the television. I know our public school system is not that great, but we are not all dumb zombies waiting to drool at naked bodies on the TV. Can we have a little creativity this year? Can you make it something worth remembering?

So all you advertisers this is your pre game speech. Let’s make this a Super Bowl like no other. Let is be the ad that everyone talks about the next day and all the bloggers blog about for days and days. Now get out there and show those ads.

Super Bowl Official web site

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