I feel like I’ve been posting long drawn out posts lately. Or short strange little things. Or stuff about other people’s stuff. While I know, deep down you’ve all been wondering about the randomness of my days!

So, here goes…

1. I’ve had McDonald’s to eat two nights in a row. Before that, it’s probably been six months since I visited the Golden Arches. I think my arteries are upset.

2. I finally picked out some bedding for the pirate. I’ve been eyeing it but hoping I could see it in person first. The reviews on Target.com said it was cuter in real life. Let’s hope they aren’t lying…or blind..

Here’s the skirt:

And the bumper:

The quilt isn’t all that. But you never use the silly thing anyway. So, I’m thinking of painting one wall in the nursery chocolate and the other two light blue. What do you think?

3. Lydia was at Camp Primo last weekend. (Post coming ASAP, I promise.) And while she was there, Les and I pricelined the Westin in downtown Atlanta. That means I got to sleep until 10:30 TWO DAYS IN A ROW. Heavenly, indeed.

4. I forgot about my Healing Choice giveaway winners. Only 4 people entered! Based on the comments, I’m going to give away my book, too. So we’ll have 3 winners. AND I just emailed Random House to see if they happen to have a 4th book lying around so everyone can win! So, I’m about to email my 3 winners. And if Random House is up for it, I might be emailing a 4th winner soon!

5. Don’t forget about the tetanus-vaccine-widget. I’d love for you to copy it onto your blog! Leave me a comment if you do, so I can thank you properly.

6. I haven’t been answering emails or visiting blogs lately. Somehow I’ve been online but not being able to do what I want online. I’m going to try to remedy that this week. You know, between cleaning, playing doctor with Lydia and trying not to fall asleep because of the pirate.

7. Oh, I went to the doctor last week. For my THIRTY-TWO week appointment! ACK. And I talked to the midwife AT LENGTH about natural childbirth, etc. I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER. I feel like I got permission to tell them exactly what I want and the understanding that I WILL get what I want. She kept telling me, “I think you’ll have a much better experience than last time.” Yay!

8. In case you didn’t know, bee had her baby girl!! She still hasn’t posted any pictures….grrr….but I guess she’s a got a pretty good reason. But still, you might want to leave her some congrats (and some gentle nudging in the picture department.)

9. Let’s see…uh, my house is a mess. I went to a luau last night at Kristen‘s. I spent $100 at Whole Foods today. We’re selling our gas-guzzling truck today. I decided I don’t want Lydia to take gymnastics after watching the Olympics. I think reading would be a better sport.

10. That’s it. I’m sorry. It’s all I’ve got. If you made it to ten. You are just…well, bored.

WAIT!!!

ONE MORE!

11. JOSHUA WON SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE. The world is a wonderful place. *sigh*

Random McRandom is a post from: ohamanda.com

I just updated my vaccine post with a WORKING video and a new donation widget created just for the Pampers Mommy Blogger Event. Would you click over to get invovled?

Thanks!

for my feed readers… is a post from: ohamanda.com

***updated with new donation widget and hopefully, the video is working!***

Uh-oh, the dreaded V-word. Vaccines. I know enough about them to be afraid, but not enough to ditch them.

What I do know is that vaccines have eradicated many diseases in our world.

One such disease is tetanus.

Tetanus? Is that even a thing anymore? Who’s ever heard of someone who has tetanus? Not me.

Well, until I went to Cincinnati. Until I met (!) the President & CEO of US Fund for UNICEF, Caryl Stern. Until I saw the video diary of Bryan McCleary, Director of External Relations of P&G and his trip with UNICEF to Angola, Africa. Until I read that 140,000 newborns and 30,000 mothers die each year from this preventable disease; a disease that has been preventable for the last FIFTY years!

Maternal & Neonatal Tetanus (MNT) is one of those diseases that’s just lurking everywhere. It’s transmitted through dirt and in the air and passed through open wounds. Open wounds like UMBILICAL CORDS. Many infants in third-world countries are delivered in mud huts with no clean water available. Umbilical cords are cut with whatever sharp instrument is around instead of a clean knife. Then packed with mud to stop the bleeding. And within 5-7 days, they die from tetanus.

It’s not a silent slow killer either. It’s marked with muscle rigidity, muscle spasms, inability to eat and seizures triggered by light and touch.

LIGHT and TOUCH.

Imagine your newborn baby, having muscle spasms and whenever you tried to comfort him he had a seizure. It’s horrifying.

Pampers has teamed up with UNICEF to end tetanus. Period. Since the year 2000 UNICEF has already eradicated it in 11 countries. It’s not out of the question because each vaccine only costs FIVE CENTS. One nickel. If you buy a pack of Pampers (with the below sticker on it), they’ll donate one vaccine.

You know, I don’t usually get involved with big charity organizations. My passion is not cancer or animals or storm victims. I’m glad someone is raising money and support for each one of these issues. But it’s not just me. I’m passionate about families and kids and Godly values. I’ve posted about Compassion because I want people to give their money to help raise kids to LIVE in this world but also to LOVE God.

But when I saw this video (I’m about to link to it…) of children dying when they are SIX days old, I was impelled to act. They just should not show a video of a newborn baby writhing in pain to a pregnant woman. It’s cruel and unusual.

Normally, big companies that give money makes me kind of irate. I mean, a movie star giving away 1 million dollars when they made 13 million on one of 3 movies they made last year, doesn’t impress me. (like uh…this.) It doesn’t motivate me to give when a company says they’ll give away one penny for every upc code I cut out, save and mail to them. It’s just false generosity. Why don’t they just donate the money and send out a press release?

Well, I wanted to ask the Global VP of Pampers Baby Care, Jane Wildman and Bryan McCleary this same question.

But before I could, they showed us the video (the link is coming…) of Mr. McCleary’s visit to Angola to see UNICEF’s progress with tetanus vaccines. They told us about the contest that P&G had so that 2 employees could travel with Mr. McCleary to Angola. They told us stories about their employees who were in “puddles” after watching this in-house video. We heard about these same employees who are saving their nickels so they can in turn save babies. And to top it off, they donated 1,000 vaccines in MY name. And 1,000 vaccines for each of the Mom bloggers that attended this event.

That’s only $50. But it’s 1,000 babies. 1,000 precious bundles of joy. 1,000 lives that God knit together.

I finally spoke up and said, “One of my biggest pet peeves is companies who have false generosity. But listening to what you guys are doing behind the scenes with UNICEF makes me motivated to give. I want to save babies with you.” (or something like that. I’m sure it wasn’t that expressive…)

So. Now, that you’ve heard my heart-gush. Here’s the video. Remember, this was an in-house video just for P&G employees. Not a marketing ploy. We had to beg them to give it to us. (Thank you, Amanda at PainePR!)

[youtube]R0ii6r6DiQI[/youtube]

Did you watch it? If not, go back and at least watch the first 40 seconds. That’ll do it.

Now do you see why I’m writing this forever long post? Like I said, I had to act. So, here’s my idea.

In honor of the 1,000 vaccines that were donated in my name, I’m going to challenge you my dear readers and friends, to match that donation. I’d like us to collectively donate 1,000 vaccines to the Pampers/UNICEF tetanus fund. I’d like us to save 1,000 babies from tetanus. But to show you how serious I am (and to encourage you, too) I’m going to start it off by donating 1,000 vaccines personally. Will you partner with me?

If you’d like some more info, check out Pamper’s site and some of the other bloggers that were at the Pampers’ event. Kailiani tells a story about a mama in Mozambique and how her baby is alive thanks to these vaccines. Christine at Boston Mamas has an articulate (we haven’t seen that here in awhile…) retelling of our entire experience. And check out Stacy’s fantastic post, too.

By the way, if you’re here because of the word “vaccines” and want to argue their safety—please don’t. I am not an expert on Pampers, UNICEF or tetanus. Nor am I an employee of either organization. I’m just a mom who wants to help babies.

Vaccines & More Vaccines **updated** is a post from: ohamanda.com