Made in China

Buddy is a big fan of trains and for awhile, he was obsessed with the Thomas and Friends trains. He still likes them, but he doesn't live and breath them anymore. We've got our fair share of Thomas trains around here and if you've got kids, you've undoutedly heard, some trains have been recalled because the trains' paint contains LEAD, which is TOXIC to children.

This entire situation is so strange to me. First of all, these trains are not cheap. Before any discounts, they cost between ten and 20 dollars each -- and you usually have to buy them at specialty toy stores. Targ.et and Walm.art don't carry them. I would understand a lead scare if the toys came from the dollar store, but obviously that's not the case. Secondly, it's 2007. Why are we still using lead paint?

Oh wait, these toys were made in China.

I ran across a newspaper article that said all 24 of the toys recalled this year so far were made in China. When I read that, it reminded me of an interesting and timely coversation between Buddy and I a couple of weeks ago.

Buddy also loves dinosaurs. Some of the nicer brands have a label on the bottom of the dinosaur that says what kind of dinousaur it is. He's got quite a few cheaper ones, though, that simply say "Made in China" on bottom. He'll hold up a dinosaur, ask me what kind it is, I'll look at the bottom and tell him "Allosaurus" or whatever. But if it says "Made in China," I'll tell him that. Well, he got this new little toy butterfly and asked me what kind of butterfly it was. I had no idea, so he turned it over, read the bottom himself and said, "I think this is 'Made in China.'"

At the time I thought that was pretty funny. But the past few days I've started to think that far too many of our children's toys are being made in China. My little three year-old who can't read a darn thing except the phrase "Made in China" kind of made that obvious.

And if that's not scary enough...

Here's another scary situation for children. We enjoyed a VERY enjoyable weekend in Seattle with some good friends. We did a lot of fun things, including going to Pikes Market. It was really crowded like usual, especially since produce is fabulous now, the weather was perfect, and it was Saturday. If you've been there, you know how crowded it gets around that world-famous fish throwing booth. Right outside that area, a man sat, apparently hoping to make balloons for children. The area directly around this man was completely desolate because WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD LET THEIR CHILD TALK TO HIM? My gosh, I hate to be rude, but this dude really creeped me out. Even my son who will talk to anybody, walked by without asking for a balloon and said, "Mom, is that guy a pirate?"

Sweet and Tender Hooligan

On Saturday, Jr and I met some friends down at the fire station for the community fair. We saw fire trucks, the life flight helicopter, and Jr got to dig a hole with a full-size backhoe. Then we went to check out the police car. Instead of jumping into the front seat of the police car like the other kids, Jr opted for the back seat. I was not surprised and I told the police officer that unfortunately, this will probably not be the last time he'll be in the back of a police car.

Wheel Chair Rides

The other night I was watching the news and they aired this story. It was fortunate that he guy wasn't hurt, but I can't help but laugh when I think of all of the people who were driving and looked over and noticed that they were being passed by a guy in a wheelchair. It sounds to me like the wheelchair manufacturer should make some high-speed tires. Here is the story:

A young man has quite the story to tell after his wheelchair got lodged in the grille of a semi truck, which pushed the chair and the man inside for five miles down a road.

Muscular dystrophy forced Ben Carpenter, 22, of Alamo into a wheelchair eight years ago. He was on one of his twice-weekly outings, this time in Paw Paw around 4 p.m. Wednesday.

As he crossed Red Arrow Highway in front of a semi truck, he didn't make the traffic light. The truck driver apparently didn't see Carpenter and a collision occurred, causing the wheelchair's handles to become lodged in the truck's grille.

Carpenter remembers the sound. "Kind of like train cars coming together, something like that," he told 24 Hour News 8.

Unable to hear Carpenter's cries for help over the hum of the diesel engine, the truck driver continued down Red Arrow Highway at speeds of approximately 50 mph.

"It was fast, I know that. Faster than this chair was made to go," Carpenter said.

"I was thinking, the cars keep going by and nobody bothered to stop."

But they were calling 911.

The Michigan State Police Paw Paw Post and Van Buren County Central Dispatch began receiving strange reports of the situation. Police initially thought the report might have been a prank until they started receiving more calls.

Time was running out on Carpenter as the dark streaks on the road were marks left by the smoking tires on his wheelchair.

"I was probably thinking that this is going to keep going and not stop anywhere, 50 or 60 miles somewhere. What if I end up in South Haven? I mean, I would have been dead way before that."

Luckily for him, the truck driver stopped five miles down the road at Ralph Moyle Trucking Company, which owned the truck.

"If I had gone any more miles, the tires would have been gone all the way," Carpenter said.

When troopers arrived at the scene they discovered Carpenter unharmed and unfazed by the incident.

"I was happy. Thank God it was over," Carpenter said. "I thought it was kind of like a fair ride. I don't remember feeling any bumps though. I must have, but the road must have been pretty smooth."

Police approached the driver and advised him of what happened. The driver did not believe them until he stepped out of the truck and saw Carpenter still sitting in the chair.

One trooper on the scene said, "You could work another 90 years in law enforcement and never see something like this."

Everybody said they are just glad no one was injured.

Authorities say no charges will be filed.

A Toddler's Worst Insult

G and I have the worst luck when it comes to going on dates. First of all, when we were "dating," we never dated much. We were in college, very busy, poor, and had lots of mutual friends, so we did a lot of "hanging out" and "studying" together. And quite frankly, there's not much to do in Provo anyway besides the dollar theater and campus activities. And who wants to do either of those.

Nowadays the majority of our "dates" involve adoption meetings. I'm not sure which is more pathetic: our dating life then or now. Since Buddy has been born, 95% of the time we hire a babysitter or arrange for my parents to watch Buddy, something goes terribly wrong. It's almost become a joke in our marriage. My parents are busy and live 30 miles south. They are willing, but it's not always the most convenient to have them help. We don't hire a babysitter often because it gets expensive, plus we run into hassles every time we try to go out. Somebody either gets the stomach flu the day the babysitter is supposed to come, G has to suddenly work late, the babysitter doesn't show up, we can't find an available babysitter in the first place, or we get in a fight and suddenly don't want to hang out with each other.

Yesterday I hung out with my mom all day and when it came time to leave (because I had a very exciting adoption meeting to get home to...), she asked if Buddy could stay. She suggested I call after the meeting to see how Buddy was doing, but if he was fine, he should spend the night.

He didn't have any overnight supplies, his beloved Teddy was at home, he didn't have any medicine, no pullups for sleeping, nothing. Plus, besides the meeting, G and I didn't have anything we needed or were dieing to do that night. In my wildest imagination, I couldn't imagine how this plan would work, but between my mom's persuasiveness and G's pressure, I agreed.

When I called to check in, I asked Buddy if he wanted to spend the night or have me come get him. In true Buddy quickness he said, "I don't want you to come get me. I want you to go to the zoo and get eaten by the hippos."

Where on earth did that come from? I guess he was fine with this, but I still wasn't.

After a major anxiety attack, a fun dinner, and the boring meeting, we found ourselves with Slurpee's and taking a late-night drive up in the hills to an exclusive neighborhood overlooking Portland. That gave us the bright idea of going mountain biking in the morning. So we went home, G dusted off the gear and lubed everything up. It had been awhile for me, so I was anxious to see how my new-improved strong legs would handle the hills.

Wouldn't you know, when we got up this morning, it was pouring down rain. Seriously, we have the worst luck. Thinking wishfully, we drove the 45 minutes up to the mountain in case the canopy of trees somehow could shield us from the torrential rains. Yeah right.

So, while the cat's away overnight with grandma, once again, we manage to do nothing.

The good news is, Buddy did miss me and when we picked him up he said he was glad I didn't take his advice and head for the hippos.

We've got a full calendar this month: We have another adoption meeting/"date" planned for this week and a temple/wedding reception/"date" planned for a couple of weeks. Should we make dibs on what'll go awry next time?

Arrrr! Matey!

Last week I got an e-mail from a co-worker informing a few of us that she was dancing in a pirate group for Rose Festival. She mentioned her pirate name. Not wanting to be out done, I quickly located a pirate name generator and proceeded to send it around the office. Within minutes we all had new pirate names. You can call me Captain Tom Cash. In any event, I got thinking about the pirate thing and thought that I have a 3 year old who loves pirates so what would be harm in going to watch some of them dance.

So, on Saturday we headed on down to the waterfront. When we got there a group of pirates were on stage singing pirate songs. Finally, the dancing started. All of the people were dressed up to some degree or another, including my co-worker, and they danced around while happily beating their sticks together. After a couple of rounds, the kids were getting restless and wanted to see the pirate ship, so we left. The show was entertaining.

The kids had fun and the rest of us were amused, so all things considered, the activity was a success. The only ramification is that since then, Junior's been sporting an eye patch that he got from one of the pirates. Because it throws off his depth perception he's been running into a lot of things around the house.

Life Lessons

The second installment. No one wants to see you walk naked around the locker room. This is a phenomenon that I do not understand. I don't care how good you think you look, no one wants to see it. The other day I was at the gym and some dude was walking into the shower. Instead of wearing the towel, he had it thrown over his shoulder. Then, he actually stopped and had a conversation with another dude who was actually in the shower. Not only that, most of the guys that do it are overweight and hairy. Not cool. Don't do it, it's not cool.