June is Internet Safety Month

How careful are you on the web?? What are your kids doing on the web? Think about it and do some research yourself about keeping you and your kids safe. Here are some great links to check out:

http://www.netsmartz.org/index.aspx
http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/net_safety.html
http://www.safekids.com/
http://www.fbi.gov/publications/pguide/pguidee.htm
http://www.safeteens.com/
http://kids.getnetwise.org/
http://www.surfnetkids.com/safety/

These are only a few websites with great information, but you the parent are the first line of defense. Be a smart parent, in this world of tech everything now we have to have some tech savvy to keep up with our kids. I have a Facebook page myself and even signed my teenager up for his own page. He and I are friends on Facebook, so I know what he is doing there and he knows what I am doing. I see his friends list, pictures, groups etc. and he can see mine. If you are suspicious about your child's internet activity, then communication with them is the key. Now is the time to open communication and lay it all on the table, before something happens that you will regret later.
Be safe and stay safe online and off!!
~~Leslie~

~~Once upon a Booster Seat~~

I am alive today because I wear by seat belt!! My 5th birthday party
The Little Princess age 3

Once upon a time,
there lived a little Princess that had outgrown her little girl car safety seat, with the 5 point harness, and was ready to move into a "big girl" booster seat just like her big Princess sister. The little Princess and her Royal Mommy set out on a journey to the booster seat store and picked out the perfect one, a pretty pink high back booster with little royal fairies on it. The new booster seat was installed into the Royal mini-van by the Royal Mommy who just happened to be a certified car seat safety technician and off they drove to the Royal kingdom. The little Princess soon learned that all she had to do was push a button and "click" she was able to get out of the seat belt. Much to the Royal Mommy's dismay she was able to get up and wave out the window at all her royal subjects so much easier while standing up unbuckled. The Royal Mommy was most upset with this behavior and decided to sternly and swiftly warm the little bottom of the little Princess every time she decided to get out of her new booster seat. This went on for a week until the little Princess decided it would be better to stay in her new pink booster seat, buckled up safe and sound, than to have her bottom warmed up by the hand of the Royal Mommy. Her little royal tooshie was starting to get a might bit sore, and the Royal Mommy was getting very grouchy. The Royal Mommy also explained to her how much safer she was in her seat, belted in correctly.

That following Monday afternoon, not even a mile from the castle, a terrible thing happened. A very large bus/RV made a poor choice and pulled out directly in front of the Royal mini-van causing a crash. The Royal Mommy was kept safely in her seat by the seat belt she was wearing. The airbags kept her from hitting the steering wheel or dashboard of the Royal mini-van. The little Princess was also kept safely in her little pink booster seat by the seat belt since she had decided to be safe and keep in on correctly. Both the Royal Mommy and the little Princess had many bumps and bruises, but both are alive today. The seat belts and airbags in the Royal mini-van did their jobs working together to keep the Royal driver and passenger safe to live another day in the kingdom. The poor Royal mini-van did not survive and the Royal daddy was most upset, but glad his family is still here today. The moral of this story: Little Princess's should always ride in their car seats or booster seats, installed correctly with seat belts on, so that one day they can meet Prince Charming and live happily ever after.

True story: by Leslie Block RN(the Royal Mommy of the Little Princess);)

The Rest of the story...

As I promised from the previous post....

The rest of my story is another

reason why I am so passionate about the prevention of injury and share my passion with others whenever possible.

One lovely sunny Monday afternoon a couple of years ago, my youngest daughter and I got into the van and started on our daily journey to pick up the other 2 kids at school (this was before we started homeschooling). My hubby had just left our house a few minutes ahead of us in his 18 wheeler, headed for the mid-west for several days. He was driving a truck long distance then. I turned left onto the same road that we traveled daily,only seconds from our house, rounded a curve and started down the hill when I spotted a very large RV bus that was just about to turn into the RV dealership on that same road. I just knew that he would not pull out, he had no time to turn. I was so wrong, I watched with slow motion horror as that big RV pulled right out in front of my van. I was going about 45 mph (the speed limit) when I had to attempt to slam on my brakes, but went straight into the side of that bus. I remember that the van hit so hard that the rear end almost rose higher than the bus and flipped over. Everything in the van was thrown forward, including the extra booster seat that my other daughter would ride home from school in. As the van came down to a complete stop, all I could think about was my youngest daughter in her booster seat just behind my seat. All I heard was silence then a blood curdling scream out of her small body,she was so scared. I could barely get myself up and out of the van and run around to her seat, I had to get to her no matter what. I picked her up and made a quick once over to check for any obvious injuries. Not even a scratch was on her little body, her booster seat and the seat belt had done their jobs well. I was covered in bruises and abrasions from the seat belt and the airbag that deployed. But we were alive!! and that was all that mattered. Without the seat belts and the airbag I truly believe that both of us would have died that day, the impact of that crash would have thrown both of us out of the van and into the side of that bus. Hard to survive that mechanism of injury as I have seen many times before as an ER nurse.

The driver of the van only had one thing to say........"I thought I could make it" well he thought wrong and could have killed somebody with that poor choice. Thank goodness his bus was empty

that day, my van made a huge dent in the side where an elderly resident would have been seated.

In my next post, I will tell you the story of a little princess and her booster seat, the very same little princess that was with me that day in this crash.

Until then, be safe and always remember to buckle up and pay attention to the road. PLEASE!

You just never know when someone making poor choices will cross your path.

~~~~Leslie~~~~

To Be continued.......

What happens when you combine

a beautiful sunny day,

a mother and her daughter,

a minivan (that was paid for)

a driver who made a poor choice,

and a very large assisted living RV bus

I will tell you in

my next post...................

to be continued.

~~~~Leslie~~~~

Blogging Construction.....look out!

What a mess!! yes and and probably all of the crash victims ended up
in the ER or in the county morgue. Why you ask? who knows , but
I can bet ya that a lack of education on somebody's part played into
this horrific crash. Was it a drunk driver, a distracted teen on a cell
phone, a distracted mom whose kids were all screaming "mommy"
"I'm hungry"or just somebody being stupid. It is a sad reality that
a little bit of education can prevent the senseless loss of life, I have
been an Er nurse for close to 20 years now and have seen the terrible
outcomes of bad choices. That is my purpose for this blog, to help
share some education along with some humor (since the humor of
an ER nurse is a necessity and a tool). So come along on my journey
in blogging and I hope you can learn something to share with others
along the way.
~~~Leslie~~~~
aka "Captain Chaos"