CPRMom

A few weeks ago I was invited to have a table at an employee health & wellness fair.  I got to meet a lot of really nice people.  Many of whom were parents of infants and young children.  I was able to teach several in what to do if their infant or child was choking.  All in all I had a great morning and am so happy to have been able to teach everyone who was interested in practicing or watching. But one thing did make me sad.  One of the new moms said she had taken a local course just a month or so beforehand that was offered by a different AHA Training Center than mine.  It was advertised as Adult, Child & Infant CPR and with a new baby at home she really wanted to learn Infant CPR.  She said the instructor covered Adult CPR AED in great detail, but then rushed them through Child and Infant CPR AED, barely covering it.  She said she felt unsure and  less than confident that she would know what to do in an emergency at home.  ...

My blogging skills have been lacking lately.  Not because I have nothing to say... if you know me you know I'm just full of things I could easily discuss.  I've been busy writing for others, stressing over the move of my domain to a new web host, converting to a Word Press site and a myriad of family things have just kept me plain old busy.  I've also become addicted to Kindle books which I read on my laptop or droid.  Not the most productive of addictions.  My class schedule is starting to fill up a bit too which is a good thing. But today I finally did something I said I was going to do and have been meaning to do.  I'm taking a step in the right direction .... literally. I registered for a 5K road race. Now before you think ... "dang, she's a runner?"  The answer is No.  I am not a runner.  I registered as a competitive walker.  I walk a lot around town, I like to walk.  I need to be in better shape and what better way to...

In every class I watch the participants fiddle with the ears or jaws of my mannequins.  That's where the faces attach to the mannequin body.  I think people like to fiddle with them because I don't actually stretch the faces over the pegs.  Mostly because on the adult mannequins they don't stay on the pegs, and on the infant mannequins it just ends up tearing them. But everyone loves to fiddle.  Sometimes they even start to peel them back.  So I'll fill you in on something. All the instructors peel the faces off their mannequins after every class. Yup, we do!  Sounds gross I know. But that's so that we can clean them very well.  The mannequins are cleaned after every class.  It's not just because we want you to have clean equipment to practice on (we do!), we have all each made a substantial investment in our training equipment.  Keeping it clean helps it to last longer. Some brands of mannequins the faces don't peel off, on some their ...

I wear a lot of hats.  If you read my bio (on the right side of this blog next to my pic) you'll notice I have a family, small business and I mentioned that I volunteer.  In addition to Girl Scouts I'm also active with our local School Supporters and that includes helping organize our largest fundraiser of the year, a 5 mile road race. This is the hat my mom made me. My favorite hat is the one I wear this time of year when it's really cold.  Its a real hat, not a figurative one, its the one my mom made for me.  I think if your mom makes you a hat your should wear it.  But while I really like my hat, it's not actually what this post is about.  I'm writing about my running hat,... sort of.  I'll state up front I'm not a runner. I help organize a race, but I don't run.  Someday .... yeah right.  I'm shooting for competitive walker.  Anyway when the temps get really cold outside and I wake up to single digits on the outdoor thermomet...

I was reading a post on one of my fav blogs,  Masshole Mommy this morning and she wrote that she had a friend who once kept a tree up until April.  April is a very nice name of some of my friends and my brother's really nice girlfriend.  But April is not a good month to still have up a Christmas Tree.  It got me thinking about my last post, Please water your tree , that had the cool video of 2 flaming Christmas trees.  I'm obviously a sucker for videos of things on fire, because I have another video of a flaming tree plus a room and contents fire at the end of this post.  But the last video I posted show the differences between how quickly a dry tree went up in flames versus one that had been watered.  The thought of someone leaving their tree up until practically Spring really got me thinking about the fire hazards and the potential for danger. Even a freshly cut tree will dry out at some point.  And at some point it will not drink as much water...

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is a video worth? Please water your Christmas Tree, make sure you are using safe UL approved lights and don't anything flammable near the tree. From the National Fire Protection Association :  This NFPA / UL video demonstrates the flammability of a dry Christmas tree vs. a tree that has been watered regularly. Facts & figures Between 2005-2009, U.S. fire departments responded to an average of 240 home fires that started with Christmas trees per year. These fires caused an average of 13 deaths, 27 injuries, and $16.7 million in direct property damage annually. Christmas tree fires are not common, but when they occur, they are likely to be serious. On average, one of every 18 reported fires that began with a Christmas tree resulted in death. A heat source too close to the Christmas tree started one of every five (20%) of these fires. Eighteen percent of home Christmas tree structure fires were intentional...

We all get a lot of chain letters in our email.  And despite their dire warnings of what will happen or not happen if I don't forward them ... I delete them.  But yesterday I received this one.  I'm not forwarding it via email to fill someone else's inbox, but I liked the message decided this was a good place to share it. To realize The value of a sister/brother Ask someone Who doesn't have one. To realize The value of ten years: Ask a newly Divorced couple. To realize The value of four years: Ask a graduate. To realize The value of one year: Ask a student who Has failed a final exam. To realize The value of nine months: Ask a mother who gave birth to a stillborn. To realize The value of one month: Ask a mother Who has given birth to A premature baby. To realize The value of one week: Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper. To realize The value of one minute: Ask a person Who has missed the train, bus or plane. To realize The value ...