Isolation

It has been a while since I posted, but I am currently participating in a bird flu vaccine study that has me in an isolation unit for 12 days so I am planning lots of posts over the next several days. The study is being done by the University of Rochester and is an investigational nasal vaccine. This is the second time it has been tested on humans and so far most volunteers have not reported symptoms. Those who have had symptoms reported them to be very mild and localized (stuffy/runny nose). I received the vaccine yesterday morning and have had no symptoms at all. The reason for the isolation is that the vaccine, like many vaccines, contains weakened, yet living flu virus. By keeping us isolated, it keeps us from spreading this into the general population and causing an outbreak.

The isolation itself is not terrible. Obviously, I have Wi-Fi and I planned ahead and brought lots of stuff to do with me. The food is hit or miss, sometimes it is great and other times it is terrible. I planned ahead for that too and brought a bottle of Red Hot and some sea salt with me so I am able to doctor up the not so great food and make it much more palatable. Plus, we set up the home computer and the laptop with Skype so the kids and I can at least see each other during this time.

I am sure some of you are asking yourselves why in the world would someone volunteer for this. I wish I could give you a noble answer and say I am doing it for the greater good of mankind, but that would be an outright lie. The truth is, I am not a fan of flu vaccines for those who are not at high risk. My family and I do not routinely get any flu vaccines at all. I do take comfort in knowing that if there is a massive outbreak of bird flu in the near future, that I will be one of only a few people vaccinated and therefore able to truly assist my community. However, the real reason I am doing this is that the pay was phenomenal and with my dear husband recently losing his job, we really need the money. I have also educated myself on medical research over the years and I know that while the medications are investigational, they are generally pretty safe. In fact, my husband participated in one a few years ago that was for high blood pressure medication. By the end of the study, his blood pressure was back in a normal range and his frequent nose bleeds had stopped. Eight years later, things are still the same for him.

If you have ever considered participating in medical research studies, I encourage you to look into them. Some do require you take an investigational medication, some you may get the medicine or you may get a placebo, and some are simply a matter of donating your blood for study. My kids and I are also currently participating in a family flu study where twice a year we go and have a vial of blood drawn. We also record any flu symptoms during flu season and if one of us has flu symptoms, we go in for a nasal and throat culture. There is no requirement to get the flu shot and no medications are given through the study. The best part is that each time we go in, each child receives a $25 Toys R' Us gift card and I get a $25 check. Plus the past two years, they have also given me a $30 Wegman's gift card during our spring visit. With 4 kids, that equals over $200 in Toys R' Us gift cards each year for doing nothing more than giving a little blood.

Win a Bra Makeover

Did you know that 7 out of 10 women regularly wear a bra that does not fit them properly? Not only can this ruin the overall look of your outfit and cause discomfort from digging and bruising, but it can also be the cause of back and shoulder pain. Well, Playtex is coming to the rescue of 10 women by giving them bra makeovers, complete with a professional fitting in New York City and free Playtex bras. To enter, or to nominate someone else, visit http://www.playtexbramakeover.com/ .

*Disclaimer*
By posting this information, I am entered into a contest to win a free bra from Playtex. I did not receive any compensation for this post and thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Winner: Zippity Doo Hair Care products

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

46 

Timestamp: 2010-05-09 21:26:56 UTC

I apologize for the delay in announcing the winner of the Zippity Doo Hair Care Products. Congratulations to Dina N!

Happy 30th Birthday Sesame Place!

This past Saturday, Sesame Place, in Langhorne, PA, opened for the 2010 season, kicking off their 30th year. We were fortunate to be invited by Sesame Place and Mom Bloggers Club to attend this fun-filled day. When my 9 and 7 year olds heard about it, they reacted by saying it was for "babies", but I think they had more fun than the littler ones.

So here is how our day went:

We stayed at the Sheraton Bucks County which is across the street from the park and offers a free shuttle all day that is solely for Sesame Place. Watch for a follow up post as to how wonderful the hotel was. The shuttle brought us to the park just after opening at 10AM. We spent the first part of the day riding the "dry" rides, like the Vapor Trail (roller coaster) and Elmo's Flyin' Fish. The little ones were excited to go on all the rides, but once the rides started, they did not like them so much, even with mommy and daddy right next to them. After a little while, we went back to the hotel and changed into our swimsuits so we could go on the water rides.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous and reached a high of 90 degrees. The water rides were a welcome relief from the heat in the middle of the day. We rode the Sky Splash as a family and the little ones did ok on it, but they enjoyed Slimey's Chutes even more. Their absolute favorite "ride" was Big Bird's Rambling River and the little guy even fell asleep half way through it. Below, is my baby girl on it for the second time, later in the afternoon.
She claimed this as her 2nd favorite ride after the carousel. I guess she is just not into the high excitement rides :)

At 1:00, we met up with the other mom bloggers from the Mom Bloggers Club for lunch at Big Bird's Riverside Pavilion. It was neat being able to see all the bloggers together and meet so many great people. The kids really enjoyed it when Grover and Zoey came and joined us for lunch. Well, most of them did. My little guy thought Grover was trying to eat him when he went to kiss the little guy's head. He got really scared, but then threw a handful of chewed up potato chips into Grover's mouth for Grover to eat instead.

After lunch, we went to play in Ernie's Waterworks. All the kids were having a great time, until the little guy was accidentally knocked down by another little boy. He hit his head on the concrete pretty hard and a goose egg immediately appeared. An EMT came right over and escorted him and my husband to first-aid while a supervisor waited with me as the girls hurried to get dressed. He then brought us over as well. I was amazed at how wonderful the people in the first-aid office were. Each child that came in was treated in the same manner while their ailment was quickly treated and they were on their way. They were not coddled, but their "injuries" were treated as very real, whether it was a head bump, a skinned knee, or even the start of a blister. While, the first aid station is not a planned stop for anyone visiting a park, it is comforting to know that Sesame Place has a competent and compassionate staff running theirs.

As the day was winding down, we still had one big thing on our agenda: the parade. I had read online that kids visiting the park could be in the parades and I was able to get both the older girls signed up for the 7PM one. We reported the parade "step off" at 6:30 and the girls were given vests to wear and wristbands. The wristbands were so that I would be the only one to pick them up at the end. As we were waiting for the parade to start, all the characters came out into the little area and we were able to have an intimate meet and greet with them. The meet and greet is included in the Big Bird and Super Grover Season Pass, so there were a few other people there with us, but there were little to no lines to meet the characters.

















Here are some of the pictures from the Meet and Greet and the girls in the parade. If you look close, you can the little guy's head injury in the picture with Bert.

















We had an amazing time at Sesame Place and I hope that all of you will be able to visit them soon. I also want to say thank you to Sesame Place and Mom Bloggers Club for this wonderful opportunity.

Product Review and Giveaway: Zippity Doo

"Why treat lice, when you can prevent it?" This is the motto of Zippity Doo's line of children's hair care products. We have been fortunate enough to not have had to treat lice in our home, but know many people who have and I hear it is a difficult and unpleasant experience. Several of them have even had to resort to shaving all the heads on the household, moms and daughters included, and who knows the side effects of those expensive chemical treatments? In comes Zippity Doo with their line of hair care products that use natural ingredients to prevent lice from infesting our children and our homes.

Zippity Doo has 5 products that can used separately or together for a stronger defense. There is a shampoo, a conditioner, a leave-in detangler, a styling gel, and a shield spray for hard-to-wash surfaces such as hats, helmets and backpacks. The products are gentle enough for daily use and work as well as their "regular" counterparts. The ingredients include anise, rosemary, tea tree oil, sage, and rosemary (each product has a different combination).

We enjoyed these products very much. They smell wonderful and while they are not the typical, chemical fruity/candy scents, the kids still enjoyed the blend of natural scents. The bottles state that they also help protect against "other insects" as well, so I am thinking about buying some more to use during the summer to see how it protects against those darn mosquitoes.

Zippity Doo products can be found at CVS.com, Value Drugs and other drug stores and hair salons.

Would you like to win a set of your own Zippity Doo products? One person will win one bottle of each product to use themselves. Even if you are not exposed to lice or other insects, these are wonderful hair care products. To enter:
- Tell me who you use these products on. I am not ashamed to say I will be using these this summer to avoid those bugs. (mandatory entry)
- You can earn bonus entries (one entry for each that you do) subscribing to my blog, following my blog, or sharing this giveaway via your blog or other social networking site. Please leave an extra comment for each bonus entry. The winner will be chosen on May 8th and they will have 48 hours to get back to me or a new winner will be chosen. I am not sure what time I will choose the winner on the 8th, but entries will be accepted up until the drawing. Good luck!

***Disclaimer: I received a set of the Zippity Doo products for this review, but my opinions are my own. No monetary compensation was received.***

No more anonymous comments

I have made the decision to stop allowing anonymous comments in an effort to stop the spam I mentioned the other day. I know some of my readers do comment anonymously with legitimate comments and to you I apologize, but I am getting several spam comments each day from others. I appreciate your understanding and continued support.

Blogging help needed

I am hoping that a seasoned blogger might happen upon this post and be able to help me. I have been receiving comments in Asian writing (I tried an online translator and they are always gibberish/spammy comments), on one particular post, daily for a few months now. All my comments are moderated to avoid spam so this is mostly an annoyance, but I would like to know if there is a way to block this from happening. I prefer not to resort to using captcha and I would rather not block anonymous comments. The only solution I have been able to come up with is to delete the post that keeps generating these comments, but I am trying to avoid that as well. Do any of you have any suggestions? Thank you in advance for your help.