Recently my oldest son had a terrible cough and since there’s been some cases of whopping cough in the area, I was worried.  In case this has ever happened to you, here are some whooping cough facts to help you figure out what’s going on with your child.

Whooping Cough Facts

• Whooping Cough is another name for Pertussis.
• Whooping Cough is a highly contagious respiratory disease.
• Whooping Cough is known for uncontrollable and violent coughing.
• Whooping Cough most commonly affects infants and young children.
• The best way to protect yourself against whooping cough is to get immunized.
• Whooping Cough “coughing fits” can last 1-6 weeks but as long as 10 weeks and has been called the 100 day cough.
• Whooping Cough can cause serious illness and possibly death in infants.

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It’s time of the year where coughing can be an issue…but what is a real cough definition?

Here is my favorite cough definition from the freedictionary.com

To expel air from the lungs suddenly with a harsh noise, often involuntarily.

You may want to check out my post about .

If you’ve followed me for the past couple of years, you’ve gotten to see my family grow with family pictures taken by. This year I think the pictures turned out great-and I’m having a hard time choosing which to go on our Christmas cards!

If you’re local to Hampton Roads, I suggest checking out .  She can do just about anything theme you’d like and she is AHHHMAZING with my boys! Since neither one is a fan of sitting still, it’s difficult to get a nice family shot of all of us looking at the camera.  Basically Chris and I have to sit and smile the whole time hoping that one or both of the boys look!  Angela was able to get quite a few of them looking this time around since she told them there were “super heroes hiding in the lense”.  Here are some of the shots she has gotten of us in the past-but remember, she’s wildly creative and if you don’t have an idea, she’ll get one for you.  Plus she does a terrific job at more traditional poses as well!  Below is last year’s Christmas pic-it makes me giggle every time I see it!

I’ve not mentioned it much, but we are in the middle of moving.  Everyone knows moving can be stressful and a pain in the butt, and I totally expected that.  What I didn’t expect was one disaster after another, after another, after another, you get the point.

Allow me to tell you just the major things that have gone wrong (it would be the world’s longest post ever if I told you all the tiny disasters as well).

• We sold our house in 3 days.  While this is awesome, it was not expected and we had very little time to find a new home.
• The appraisal came in lower than expected and the buyer’s funding was in question so we thought the deal was dead-then with 10 days left before the scheduled close the money came thru for her and we had 10 (TEN) days to find a new house.
• We found the new house only to get a pretty bad inspection report and had to rent several storage units.
• House hunting again with only 4 (FOUR) days left before we had to be out of our “old” house.
• My grandfather passed away in the middle of the chaos and I had to go out of town for the day.
• Finally found a new home but we can’t move in for another 8 days so we’ve been “homeless” for the past 2 weeks…fun times with a 2 and 4 year old…but this leads to me to what moving has taught me about friendship.

We’ve been undeniably blessed by friends in the last couple of weeks.  We’ve had friends calling, texting, and emailing to make sure we’re ok and to see what we may need.  We had friends allow us to stay at their house for an entire week while they were out of town, we’ve had family house the kids and I the past week while more friends have allowed my husband to stay in town with them so he can work…and for next week yet another friend has found us an apartment to stay in.  Bottom line, our friends ROCK!

With these experiences and generous offers I’ve truly learned who our friends are.  I’ve been blown away by niceness from most.  Seeing the way that most have really stepped in to help has restored my faith in people and it’s helped me create a list of what friendship is…

Friendship is opening your home, your beds, your family time to others.

Friendship is a hug, a kind word, and a simple “I’m sorry you are going thru this”.

Friendship is asking “How are things?” not because you want to hear the long answer, but because you know your friend needs to vent.

Friendship is offering your friend whatever you are capable of…knowing that a simple cocktail can sometimes help!

Friendship is saying, “Bring your kids over here so you can get things done, better yet, tell me where you are and let me pick them up.”

Friendship is taking the time and energy to help you brainstorm solutions to your problems.

Friendship is not saying “I told you this would suck”.

To those who are reading this that are my friends-and who have helped in whatever way you know how-THANK YOU!  Please know I am always here for you and your family and although I know you don’t expect payback, I will find a way to show my thanks when this mess is over!  To those of you who don’t know me personally, but who may have a friend going thru a rough time-please take the time to offer them help-remember it only needs to be as simple as a hug.  Don’t you want the same when you find yourself needing  a friend?

Disclosure:  This is a sponsored post

There are lots of people who would love to make a living buying, selling and creating their own unique kinds of jewelry. The reason for this is simple: jewelry is almost universally loved, and it has been an important part of a wide variety of cultures since ancient times. Whether you want to keep, sell or create your jewelry, there are certain things you should keep in mind. Especially when it’s never been as simple or accessible to .

By following a few recommendations, you’ll be able to dramatically prolong the life of your jewelry. For example, always make sure that you take off any jewelry you might be wearing when performing manual tasks. If you want to give your jewelry proper maintenance, make sure that you buy special polishing cloths and liquid solutions that won’t cause any damage. If ever in doubt, hire a professional’s services to clean up and polish your jewelry. Maintenance is very important if you intend to sell your jewelry at any given point.

Semi-precious stones, crystals, fake pearls and glass are all excellent materials to create imitation jewelry. With some skill and the right selection of materials, it is possible to approximate authentic jewelry that will fool almost everyone. Nowadays, it is very easy to create your own imitation jewelry. Websites such as EBay are an excellent source for imitation materials, in case you want to make this a hobby or even a business.

You’ve probably thought about selling your jewelry to make an extra income. If you’re selling imitation jewelry, your best bet is setting up a website to sell your merchandise. If you want to sell authentic jewelry, a different set of steps should be taken. First of all, forget anything about selling to pawn shop owners. This is probably the worst method of jewelry selling there is. Pawn shop owners will try to low-ball you into selling your jewelry for ridiculously low prices, just to make lots of profit from it later. Their methods of appraisal should always be taken with a grain of salt. The same also holds true with most jewelry shop owners. They will offer you low prices for your precious jewelry. Jewelry shop owners are most likely only interested in the melt value of your jewelry, and won’t care about any craftsmanship or beautiful designs.
If you’re serious about selling jewelry, the first step you should take is hiring a professional appraiser.

If you’re looking for an accurate appraisal, hire a professional if you think your jewelry is worth it. Once you know what your jewelry is truly worth, you can try selling it online, which is usually a better idea than selling locally.

**UPDATE** This pledge ends tomorrow!

We lost our beloved dog last year and plan on getting a new family member soon-and it will be from the pound or a breeder.

There is a new campaign from the that wants you to help  Here’s a message from the society:

Pet stores that care about puppies don’t sell them. That’s because the majority of pet stores that sell puppies carry dogs from cruel and inhumane puppy mills. Puppy mills are like dog-making factories with the mother dogs spending their entire lives in cramped cages or kennels with little or no personal attention or quality of life. When the mother and father dogs can no longer breed, they are discarded or killed. Consumers who purchase puppies from pet stores or over the Internet without seeing a breeder’s home firsthand are often unknowingly supporting this cruel industry.

This is a terrific cause to help protect puppies-I already took!

Now that’s an interesting title of a post uh?  But think about, REALLY think about it…would you kill for your kid(s)?

This past weekend we attended a BBQ and a guest brought a pet, a really cute, but very hyper dog.  There were 5 young children at the event and the dog had a ball chasing the children.  This was not a problem until he began nipping at them.  Then, faster than we could get to him,  one of those nips became a bite.  A real bite, with real bite holes and real blood-and real tears and screaming.  In the next few seconds, things got a little crazy-with the dog owner grabbing and yelling at the dog, me grabbing my screaming and crying son, the host running to grab bandaids and ointment, and my husband chasing after us inside the house.  In the heat of the moment there may or may not have even been mention of harming the dog.

So the next day, after much peroxide and neosporin (every mom knows how much fun that is) everyone was much more calm.  The doctor had put my son on precautionary antibiotics and I was changing the bandaid on the bite when I got to thinking. How far would I go to protect my children.  Would I harm an animal or person who was actively trying to hurt my child? Could I actually kill for my kids? The answer is absolutely.  No doubt about it.

Am I a law abiding citizen? Absolutely.  Have I always been a “rule follower”?  Pretty much, yep. However, my job as a mom is to love and protect my children and I will do anything in my power to do that job.  Do I hate guns?  Absolutely?  But have I gone and taken training in order to use one to protect my home and family? Absolutely.  Do I love animals?  Yes. But if one is on attack towards my child and my choice is between the animal and my child-that animal is going down.  The term “Mama Bear” seems rather weak for the strength of feelings I have about protecting my children.  Even before becoming a mom, people knew I am the type of  friend and family member who has no fear of protecting and sticking up for the ones I love.  But now that I get called “Mommy”, world watch out-you hurt my children <on purpose> I’m coming  after you!

So, what are your thoughts?  Would you kill for your kids?