Friday, December 28, 2012

Oral-B Professional Precision 5000

If you know me, you know I hate the dentist.  I hate going, in the last 2 years between cancer treatments and pregnancies etc. my mouth took a proverbial beating.  I just spent thousands of dollars getting my mouth back in order.  I needed to find something that made my mouth get and feel dentist clean and fresh everyday.

The Oral-B Professional Precision 5000 rechargeable toothbrush is the amazing tool that made my mouth feel like I had just come from a cleaning at the dentist every day and night.  It was great. 

I had never used an "electric" toothbrush before.  I had always just used a regular toothbrush.  My gums would bleed, I'd have cavities, loose teeth, and gum infections.  All of this changed with the use of my new Oral-B Professional Precision 5000.  My mouth felt dentist office cleaning clean everyday!  Who doesn't love that feeling?!


I absolutely fell in love with the Oral-B Professional Precision 5000 rechargeable toothbrush.  It made it impossible to not take care of your teeth.  It came with a handy clock/timer.  That in addition to telling how late you're running in the morning, it syncs up with your toothbrush, times your brushing, and and alarm goes off if you're applying too much pressure with the toothbrush.  The oscillating, rotating and pulsating movements of the toothbrush were epic in getting my teeth clean like the dentist everyday.  I loved running my tongue along my teeth morning and night.

I am so happy with the Oral-B Professional Precision 5000  that I would recommend it to everyone.  It was a great find, and a healthy mouth, is one of the most important things you can do for yourself.

Oral-B is offering a $20 mail-in rebate on select power toothbrushes November 18  through December 31, 2012 (Please visit www.oralb.com for details)

Rebecca
 
I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Modern Mom on behalf of Oral-B and received a product sample to facilitate my review
 


Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Ringing in 2013 Knott's Berry Farm Style

After a great 2012, and my toddlers starting school, and entering KIDHOOD, and spending a lot of our fun time at Knott's Berry Farm for Easter, Mother's Day, 4th of July at Soak City, Camp Spooky, and Knott's Merry Farm.  There is no other way I can think to usher in 2013 than with a Family Fun New Years Eve at Knott's.  The fun starts at 10am and will go all the way until 1am on January 1st!

This will be our first time taking the kids out on New Years Eve.  But I'm sure, as Knott's they always do my kids will have nothing but a good time.  We are going to watch "Happy New Year Charlie Brown" at the Camp Snoopy theater, we can still catch "It's Christmas Snoopy" skating show if we want too.  What I can not wait to see is "Snoopy's Magical Night of Lights" until 1am.

The grown up fun will continue up until 1am with Salsa and Country Line Dancing.  There will be instructors for those of us with two left feet!   There will be live performances from a popular band. 

Of course there will be a countdown and aerial fireworks display to welcome in 2013.  You can't have a New Years Eve without a little sparkle and fun.  I know after this year of our annual passes that Knott's never disappoints in the fun department. 

So join us and the Camp Snoopy folks, and those of us old enough to stay up until 1am and ring in what promises to be a great 2013.

Happy New Year.

Rebecca


Monday, December 17, 2012

Media Malpractice and Autism

Sandy Hook Elementary School saw the most unspeakable evil and tragedy at the hands of a madman on Friday, and my thoughts and prayers go out to all effected by it.

As I heard the news on Friday I ran to get my kids from school, I just couldn't NOT pick them up, I had to be with them. I was full of anxiety and just wanted to love all over them.

I had to turn the news off at the first mention from ABC News, "Shooter was autistic - with personality disorder". The same thing happened the day after the Aurora, CO shooting. Joe Scarborough of MSNBC said "These shooters are young, white, men, possibly autistic, loners". Well Joe, you're a jerk.

 On top of an overwhelming sadness for these poor babies, teachers, and school officials taken from their families, I'm so pissed off at the media for their blatant malpractice and lack of research on Autism.
Piers Morgon on CNN had a psychologist who stars on a BRAVO reality show listening to millionaire cocktail queen Bethenney Frankel whine about her poor pathetic life GAWD, blathering misinformation about Autism. Yeah, that's a great source to give you information about Autism, my GAWD. Piers Morgan then goes on to say how autistics are missing something in the brain. WELL THANK YOU PIERS. You and your over weaning ego have solved the mystery of autism. He also stated they are unemotional and unaware of right and wrong. That expert opinion of his is just mind blowing! I wanted to reach through the TV and punch his arrogant pompous English accent right in the throat. Him and his arrogant smug look on his face set back autism acceptance by years.
So as other reports are stating Autism is a mental illness, personality disorder and behavior disorder. Over and over to the point of nausea. The whole thing was sickening at how lame most of the media now is at their jobs.

As the parent of 2 small children with autism, I am pissed that the entire media has set back autism acceptance and awareness years. These children have so much social stigma on them already, so much to fight through just to do what typical children do. It was all shoved to the back of the bus by the large sweeping statements made by many bloating windbags who did nothing but damage an entire community of people by their false misleading, misguided and uninformed reports. My son does have public temper tantrums and outbursts, and can at times be aggressive. I get the stares, I have had friends stop bringing their children here to play, what we really need to do is throw psycho killer on top of the stigma they have to carry on their tiny little shoulders. Thanks a lot media. I thought your job was to tell a story of what happened? Clearly not your practice anymore. They literally set back the acceptance and understanding of autism years.

As I lost most hope for those in the media CNN's Dr Sanjay Gupta proved to be the voice of reason via social media. On his twitter feed "Something needs to be clarified, there is no evidence of a link between autism and planned violent behavior". Then Anderson Cooper took to the airwaves to debunk the myths being reported about autism. So to Anderson thank you, to Megyn Kelly thank you, to Dr Gupta, we appreciate your truth, support and common sense in your reporting.

And I think as the talking egos got the picture via social media that they lit a fire that they were not going to control the rage they brought out in autism parents, the phony "clarification" starts coming in. Fox News today had a panel of parents of children with Autism on Megyn Kelly's show "America's Newsroom". Megyn Kelly "Autism is not a mental illness but a neurological disorder." And believe it or not that is not very hard to research. That exact definition is on the CDC website, the Autism Society, Autism Speaks. So clearly our media and the so called journalists and anchor people no longer like to work they just want to report something first.

My heart hurt for my kids and then I was just overwhelmed with the thought of if a shooter came into my kids class. My son cognitively would not know what was going on, he would not receptively understand instructions from the person trying to hurt him or help him. The sensory overload of his nervous system would probably cause him to do something that would end up costing him his life. THAT IS THE REALITY OF AUTISM that the media is missing. These kids are more likely to be the victim, the helpless, silent victim of a crime than the perpetrator.

The pain that I feel for these children with autism that now have a new battle to overcome. They now have to fight their way out of the reports of idiots that know not what they speak. There are too many people that take the media seriously and will now be afraid of people with autism, will make more of a stigma on the kids than they already have. I have a friend that always tells me "Your kids don't play with mine" "They don't share", "They don't want to be friends with my kid". I have to constantly fight that kind of ignorance, and now I have to be an advocate for all the kids and families with autism that our kids aren't going to turn Psycho Killer. Thanks for that Piers, you're a GEM!

This is a tragic event for so many and we should not lose focus on that. However, the media has a responsibility to use their platform to inform the public. It does not have the right or invitation to fill minds of masses with information that is incorrect, especially when it has the capacity to hurt many more.

I will always pray for Newton.


Rebecca

I Will

As I have wiped tears from my eyes all weekend thinking of the parents of the children who were murdered on Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT because of the feeling of powerlessness over evil.

But I can not send my kids off to school today feeling powerless, I need to put in my head the things that I can do to help keep mine and other kids loved and safe.

I will empower my children
I will be kind to people
I will do my best to help those struggling
I will hug my children and love them everyday
I will be aware of the surroundings
I will make myself a known figure on campus
I will do my part to teach kindness
I will look for children and adults in pain and try to be a means to help them
I will not live with my head buried in the sand
I will point out those that are suffering or seem to be in pain or anger to those that can help

I may not be able to prevent a psychotic madman from doing unspeakable things, but I can if make the community aware, that is doing something.

I want to make the world a place that I want my kids to live in, and it isn't that place right now.  The parents and families of those 20 little souls that are in Heaven, were just walking through life doing their normal routine and in 1 minute their lives were crushed.  Why? Why? Why?  What did someone not do?  Where did a life go wrong?  What was missed?  Why? Why? Why?  The only true right answer is that Evil will always find away.  Evil is powerful and evil is baffling, and shocking and unexplainable to most.

I can't live being a part of the why, I have to be part of an answer, a solution, or what is the point of living in a community? What did this teach me?  Be kind and aware of those around you and love your kids even when he shredded all my Christmas cards that I addressed and stamped last night.  LOVE THEM, make sure they know you love them all the time no matter what. 

I don't know why, I just know that there are those out there hurting and crushed and maybe love and kindness is at a shortage and we need to more hugs and less dirty looks and fist a cuffs. 

God Bless Sandy Hook Elementary and Newtown, CT.  I pray in all this there is comfort somewhere for you and peace in your hearts and a relief of your pain.

REBECCA