Parenting Tips, Parenting Blog for Working Moms, Columbus OH Mom Blogs

Godiva and The Lady Godiva Program

admin — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 04:43:32 +0000

Who doesn’t like Godiva? I have to admit chocolate happens to be the only food that I can hardly resist. Godiva in particular is my true love. It is my great pleasure to spread the word that Godiva is sponsoring The Lady Godiva Program, an international philanthropic that celebrates inspirational women locally and nationally. How does the program work? Every two years Godiva will select a Lady Godiva Honoree. This honoree represents someone who is fully dedicated to the community thorough her leadership, generosity and selflessness.

Lauren Bush Lauren, chief FEEDer and Co-Founder of FEED is the first National Lady Godiva honoree. She represents everything that Lady Godiva is all about. Through her passion and leadership to charity, she and the FEED program have provided school meals to children living in 62 countries. In order to support her charity, Godiva will partner with FEED to provide 10 school meals for children in cocoa producing regions of Africa.

The Lady Godiva Program is also available locally. You can nominate someone who inspires you through her work by visiting www.ladygodivaprogram.com. Nominate her today and she could win $10,000 towards her cause.

For more information, visit www.ladygodivaprogram.com.

When You Can No Longer Care Your Dog

admin — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 04:38:03 +0000

This week I made the hardest decision I’ve ever made in my life; I decided to give up my 14 year old dog. I met Cotton when he was about 2 years old. My husband actually bought him from a breeder before we met. He was such a smart cute little dog and knows all kind of tricks and commands. Yes, my husband taught him really well. I threw him birthday parties, sometimes I put him in a little carrier and went with me to places. He was my baby for sure.

Once I had my son obviously I had to split my attention between the two, but I still considered it was fair. One time we even took him to Chicago with us and stayed at a dog friendly hotel. I still cared for him just as much. However, over the past two years things turned for the worse. He had gotten really old and cannot hold his bladder much longer. He’s constantly having accidents in the house. I think his mind was deteriorating a little bit. Sometimes when we took him outside, he wouldn’t go potty. Then we’d think ok… maybe he doesn’t need to go. Sure enough a few minutes later he would have accidents in the house. It seems like he didn’t understand when we took him outside, he needed to go to the bathroom. Or sometimes he would pee but wouldn’t poop or vice versa. Then we took him inside and he’d have accidents.

Things took to its toll once I had my second child. Here I was trying to hold the ship together taking care of a hyper five year old boy, a baby boy, and working full time, yet I was constantly cleaning after him. Having accidents in the house was an every day thing. My husband and I were at the end of our rope as I was constantly stressing out having to clean after Cotton, my husband was constantly stepping on his pee, and our wood flooring eventually got ruined from being peed on overnight. I ended up putting doggie diaper on him every night. It helped with the pee sometimes depending on the thickness of his hair, but doesn’t really do anything with the poop. Eventually, I found myself becoming more and more resentful towards him for that reason. Never thought in a million years that I would be in this position, I had to choose between Cotton or my family. I feel like a failure. I realized I can no longer take care of my dog. His health has demanded more time than I can anticipate.

After talking with a few friends, I was faced with these options:

Sending him to a dog shelter, which was definitely a big no no to me. God knows no one will adopt a 14 year old dog and if we send him there… he will be euthanized
Keeping him but leaving him outside while we’re not home

Even though option 2 might sound better, but is it really the best for him? He’s never been outside for a long period of time and all the sudden he had to be exposed to the heat and cold in the final years of his life? Thursday night while searching for another alternatives, I stumbled into a dog rescue group for his breed called Havanese Rescue, Inc. I found out they do foster care for senior dogs and that they don’t euthanize them unless they are being aggressive or in terrible health. So I filled out the form explaining my situation.

On Friday the lady from Havanese Rescue Group, Inc (HRI) called me. I explained to her my situation again and to my surprise, she was very understanding. When filling out the form, I was a little worried that they will judge me for abandoning my dog. It was hard enough for me to do this, the last thing I need is someone to judge me. She told me caring an older dog is a commitment and giving him up to a rescue group, who can find a good home for him will be the best solution for Cotton. They have so many people who went through a strict guidelines to become foster parents and can give so much loves and attention to him. She asked me to send a picture of him to make sure he’s a Havanese. After sending the picture and told her that Cotton is current with his shots and his Heart Worm test came back negative, he was accepted into a Foster Care and she’s trying to find a home for him.

Sunday morning, the lady called again and told me that they found a home for him. The foster parent actually lives in Cleveland (I’m in Columbus) but agreed to meet halfway. After we talked to the foster parent, we agreed to meet in Mansfield. I was crying the whole time we were on our way. I couldn’t believe everything happened so fast, but also believe this is the best decision for Cotton. After meeting the foster parent, I was relieved because she seems like a nice lady. She saw my two boys and said she could see how busy my life is. I gave Cotton away, gave all his stuffs (bed, food, bowl, etc), and said good bye. I cried again and said how sorry I was, but he’s better of with someone who can take a better care for him.

These days I still think about him sometimes. Good bye my ‘lil friend! You had been a huge part of my life. I had to give you away because I love you….

2012 Mission: Decluttering Our Home

admin — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 04:43:38 +0000

For the past couple months, I have been sort of abandoning this blog. The reason is I’m trying to decluttering our house, get rid of stuffs that we no longer use. Once we tackled that, we can start renovating our kitchen.

So here’s my to do list of areas that I need to get rid of:

1. My hubby’s DVD collection

I swear he got roughly around 1000 DVDs. This would be my biggest challenge. I’m planning to sell it as a lot, but first I have to take a list of inventory. I told my husband that since this would be my blood and sweat, all the proceed goes to my pocket. :)

2. Sell all the baby stuffs

All those ginormous baby stuffs that taken so much space, I couldn’t wait to get rid of them. I finally did it at a consignment sale, which will be covered on the next post.

3. De-cluttering my office

My goal is to turn it into an office/guest room. Right now, we have a huge L-shaped bookcase that I don’t think we need. I want to get rid of the bookcase, create a shelving unit in the closet, and move the content in the bookcase into the closet. This way we have a room to put a daybed or sofa bed in the area where the bookcase is sitting right now.

So much to do… so little time. Not mentioning it’s 10 times harder trying to do things around the house when your 5 year old and little baby won’t leave you alone.

Love Northwest

admin — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 04:58:27 +0000

Written by Sherri Hicks

I love living in the Northwest but this weather is really starting to get to me. I like being outside as much as the next guy but it’s always raining or icing or something terrible up here no matter what time of year it is. I do like being able to ride a bike to work and that so many restaurants have al fresco dining and I’ve gotten a lot more into outdoorsy activities like hiking and mountain bikingand whatnot. But for me it’s less about being outside and more about being DRY which is not a good combination when you live in Oregon! I like my job a lot and it allows me a lot of flexibility. I spend some nights with my clear wire portland catching up on old stuff and some days I just take off because I can – that’s the kind of office I have…you don’t have to be in your cube if you’re getting your work done, and that’s nice. I love being here but I’m going to have to talk to Mother Nature.

Inflatable Party Place Columbus, OH

admin — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 04:15:08 +0000

My son just turned 5 last week, and let me tell you… it took me months to plan his birthday party. As the date was getting closer, I got so busy at work that I almost cancelled it. But then I felt bad because I really wanted to throw him a birthday party. To me, five year old is another milestone leaving a toddler age into the “big kids” era.

Anyway, I really wanted to have a birthday party at an inflatable bounce house party place. We planned on inviting a few of his friends from school whose parents I barely know of, and I was a little leery about entertaining the guests. After doing some research, I found three reputable inflatable bounce house party places in Columbus, OH.

SuperGames

Location: Worthington, OH
Price: $250 for 30 people
Length of playtime: 90 minutes; Party room: 30 minutes

Pros:

Since it’s located in Worthington, it’s the closest one from my place
Allow to bring your own food (any type)

Cons:

The number of guests allowed (30) is actually include adults. I have major issue with kids birthday venues that are charging adults. This is truly a deal breaker in my case. Parents at kids birthday parties don’t typically enjoy sliding or bouncing off these inflatables. They are there to chaperon the kids! Having said that, you do want parents to be there to make sure the kids are safe, or calming them down when they get hurt. So charging parents or in this case including them as a part of 30 guests is completely absurd in my opinion!
Bring your own plates and utensils

Kingdom of Bounce

Location: Easton
Price: $250 for 25 guests (not including adults and the birthday child)
Length of playtime: 75 minutes; Party room: 45 minutes

Pros:

Location is pretty decent, plus it’s very close to Easton in case you want to shop after the party
Party supplies and utensils are provided

Cons:

No outside food allowed other than cake, dry snacks and individually packaged drinks

Pump it Up

Location: Plain City
Price: $239 for 25 guests, 80 minutes playtime, 40 minutes party time
or
$199 for 15 guests, 60 minutes playtime and 30 minutes party time

Pros:

Of all inflatable places in Columbus, Pump it Up is the only one that offers option for a smaller party
Party supplies and utensils are provided

Cons:

Location is a bit out of the way
No outside food allowed other than cake, dry snacks and individually packaged drinks

After much consideration, we decided to go with Pump it Up. We just wanted to have a small party with a few of his friends from school and some close friends. Having said that, Pump it Up Classic 90 package is perfect for us. For $199 my son had a blast with his close friends. The party was from 3:30 to 5 pm. Cake and snack was served to all guests including the adults. I must say though, the party time is not long enough to include opening up presents. So that was the biggest mistake I made, trying to rush opening up presents and taking pictures with a bunch of 5 year old getting in the way. Arrrgghhh…. I was just about to lose my mind! We didn’t have enough time to open all of them, but at least we got a few pictures of him and his friends.

One party down, next one is coming up! I’m throwing a birthday party for my baby, who is turning 1 this Summer. :)