Imagine that Water was a Luxury and not a Right.

Mexico has serious water accessibility and supply issues.

They are not alone in their plight. However, in Canada, we are fortunate and it doesn't seem to affect us as much.

As it does here in Mexico.

March 2007. I remember it like it was only yesterday. The beginning of 36 days without water...

Found: The Next Wayne Gretzky in Mexico?

Innocent Enough...

How Common is your First Name? Did you Make the List?

All through primary and high school there were three Sarah's in my class. The trio were known as "Sarah the Swimmer", "Sarah the Skater" and me, "Sarah the Skier".

Interestingly, we were all elite athletes in our respective sports.


I also went to school with 4 Jennifer's, 3 Amanda's and 2 Brenda/Laurie/Karen/Susie's. There weren't any out of the ordinary names. I would have remembered.

Nowadays, there are still a ton of common names in the class, however, there are definitely a ton of names that stand out on their own.

I thought it would be interesting to see what were the most common names in the USA in 1971 (http://www.weddingvendors.com/baby-names/popular/1971/) and compare them to those 40 years later (http://www.babycenter.com/popularBabyNames.htm?year=2011). Note that rankings are in "babies per million".

Have Kids, Will Travel...Safely: Part 1 of 3 on Child Seat {Safety}

The following is part one of a three part guest post on Car Seat Safety. Rene is a certified Car Seat Technician in the Province of Ontario. She is posting on her own merits, not as a representative of any one specific organization.

We all love our kids and we want them to be safe. With this in mind, I figure the only reason that people are not securing their kids correctly is that they think they are doing it properly, even when they are not.

When I see a parent with a child who is not travelling safely, I don't know what to say. We may think that we want what's best for our kids, but, you don't want some stranger telling you that you're doing something wrong. Especially when it could insinuate that you don't care about your child(ren).

What to do?

One answer is to guest post here, outlining some basics of car seat safety.

Some of The Basics

Emergency Meeting with Sir Topham Hatt and Friends.

If the title of this post gives you no idea what I'm talking about, you probably don't have young kids. Either that or you're living in a van down by the river.

Remember our Christmas in September post where we surprized the kids with a Thomas the Train table and all the fixin's!?

Yes, it is still their favourite toy to play with.
No, that's not the point of this post.

As part of the package, we received 17 VCR tapes documenting the trials and tribulations of the life and people on Sodor Island. To some it may be imaginery but to my kids, Sir Topham Hatt, Thomas and all his friends exist.

And that's where the problem lies.

The kids are at an impressionable age. Since we don't have tv or frequent toy stores with them, I hadn't really had a chance to see it in action until now.

I was shocked.