2009

ONLINE ARTICLE- Quick Trip: The Couch

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Quick Trip: The Couch  Oct. 31, 2009 Copyright ARLADEAN ARNSON Originally published on Triangle Mommies blog at http://www.trainglemommies.com .

 

It could be your couch, davenport, or chesterfield, a nice armchair, a comfy beanbag one or a chaise lounge; it really doesn’t matter what you’d prefer to sit in while taking your quick trip.

 

It is the beginning of the busiest time of the year and you really should take the time to sit. You can read or watch television. You can enjoy a cup of coffee or working with your hands by doing crochet or needlepoint. Please, just have a seat.

 

My quick trip is to the couch. It is a lovely couch. I call it my “Cowboy Couch” because of its warm brown leather and its worn patches. It sinks just so in all the right places.

 

Sure, I have a wonderful red reading chair with ottoman in the same room, but sometimes, it is just the couch that is calling.

 

Now, why is my quick trip to the couch? Well, the only other escapade this month was to the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro. It was lovely and because of the cooler weather the animals were out-and-about. The male Elk was trumpeting up a storm towards the bison that live in the same area to keep them away from his females. It is mating season. But, I have told you all about the Zoo already and most of you have been there too.

 

So, I decided to highlight we mamas never take for granted, a seat. While sitting, we experience a time where we actually think, or plan, or dream and just be ourselves.

 

Which is your favorite seat? Is it in the kitchen, the living room, your out-of-doors patio, or in your car? Please join me, and have a seat!

 

 

ONLINE ARTICLE- Family Outing: 2 for 1 Adventure in Raleigh

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Family Outing: 2 for 1 Adventure in Raleigh, NC Oct. 11, 2009 Copyright Arladean Arnson Originally published on Triangle Mommies blog.

 

What to do? What to do? I have THREE “Flat Stanley”s that have traveled to our house from far afield that need to go home in the next two days. We haven’t done anything interesting at all in the time they have been visiting. And, my son really wants bring Daddy on his first Letterboxing adventure today, Sunday, the last day of the weekend.

 

Hey, I know what to do! I will jump onto the computer and find out if there are any Letterboxes in downtown Raleigh so we can hit the historical parts, take some pictures with the “Stanley”s, learn a little more about North Carolina, and take my husband on his first Letterboxing adventure!

 

Now, if you have read this far and have no idea what a “Flat Stanley” might be and you have never heard of the fantastic outdoor activity of Letterboxing, I congratulate you on your enthusiasm for my writing!

Flat Stanley is a book written by Jeff Brown and illustrated by Tomi Ungerer and published in 1964. The story is of a little boy that unfortunately gets flattened but sees the bright side of his predicament. He ends up being able to go around the world being mailed by letter. There is a string of stories to tell of his adventures.

This story was so popular that in 1995 a Canadian teacher started The Flat Stanley Project. This effort encourages children around the world to find out about each other through the mailing of paper dolls that either look like Stanley from the book or images of themselves!

My son and I received our three visiting paper dolls from a family of homeschoolers in Texas.

Now, what about Letterboxing? The easiest way to explain it is that it is an outdoor activity where a box or bag containing a notebook and a homemade stamp is hidden in a public place like a park or even a parking lot! To get the clues on where this box is hidden, one would log onto certain web sites that have them listed. Using the clues, the seeker finds the box, stamps his own notebook with the homemade stamp, leaves an imprint of his own stamp in the letterbox notebook, and then “reburies” or re-hides it for the next adventurer. Then, when the seeker gets back to the computer, he can log that he had found the box!

We started off our adventure by heading downtown to the NC Capitol Building. We walked around the grounds of the Capitol as we looked for the perfect place to take our “Stanley” picture. We stopped every once in a while to read the many and varied statues. Did you know there were three Presidents of the United States from North Carolina? Yes! But, I am going to leave you to look up who they were!

I noticed that a light was on inside the Capitol and I took a few steps to see if the building was indeed open on a Sunday. Yes! We were in luck. After checking in with security, we made our way around the building going up and down the staircases and peeking into rooms. I highly suggest a visit to the Capitol, especially if you are not from North Carolina.

Making our way out of the building and around back to our car, my son wondered if we were going to find any Letterboxes today or are we going to just hang around all the old buildings! Letterboxes were next!

There is a beautiful old and very historic cemetery right in downtown Raleigh and that was where the two Letterboxes were for today’s hunt. There are many other Letterboxes hiding in downtown Raleigh, but being October, I thought a trip to the Oakwood Cemetery would be just the place to get us in the spooky mood! Of-course, by day, Oakwood Cemetery is not spooky but a lovely garden where families actually bicycle together on a Sunday afternoon. We even saw a family flying a kite there too.

Following our clues, we started out for our first Letterbox. This first one was found under a bush and being held there by a white rock, near a beautiful old Oak Tree. The homemade stamp was of lovely oak leaves! How appropriate for our day in the “Oak City”! We left our mark, my son’s stamp of a little lamb, in the notebook and “buried” the Letterbox again where we found it.

The second, we found out, was very complicated, but we followed the clues in the car instead of by foot which would have taken us all over the southern part of the Cemetery! After a few minutes of circling around, we found the Camilla bush with the cute turtle nearby! We stamped our mark and gathered our treasure in stamp form of a flower emblazoned with an “A”. Hid the box for the next Letterboxer and drove out of the Cemetery happy to have found both boxes!

We ended our downtown adventure with a snack break at Krispy Kreme Donuts on Person Street. Of-course, this was another fine place to take a “Stanley” picture!

So the next time you have a quandary of how you are going to do two or three projects at once, remember there is ALWAYS a way to do it! We did it with a camera, a car, a Capitol and a Cemetery!

 

For more information on Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown please go to your local library or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Stanley .

 

For more information on The Flat Stanley Project go to http://www.flatstanley.com/ .

 

For more information on Letterboxing research it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letterboxing .

 

Or visit sites on Letterboxing: http://www.letterboxing.org/ and   http://www.atlasquest.com/ .

 

The official tourism site for Raleigh, NC is here: http://www.visitraleigh.com/ .

 

Krispy Kreme’s official web site is here: http://www.krispykreme.com/ .

 

 

ARTICLE-Not All Parents’ Frustrations Calmed by Court’s Decision.

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NOT ALL PARENTS’ FRUSTRATIONS CALMED BY COURT’S DECISION. March 1, 2009 Copyright ARLADEAN ARNSON Published on personal blog.

The US Court of Federal Claims has issued three decisions on February 12th about the safety of vaccinations and the onset of Autism in young children. All three Special Masters found that the claimants have failed to prove their claims. Special Master Vowell went as far as to say, “[the] Respondent’s experts were far more qualified, better supported by the weight of scientific research and authority, and simply more persuasive on nearly every point in contention.” (ftp://autism.uscfc.uscourts.gov/autism/vaccine/Vowell.Snyder.pdf)

The US Court of Federal Claims has nationwide jurisdiction over any monetary claims against the US government. Its jurisdiction has been broadened several times including in 1987 via the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act to include the injuries attributed to specified vaccines.

The first case, Cedillo vs. Secretary of Health and Human Services, sought entitlement for three separate issues: the MMR vaccine causes Autism, the MMR vaccine causes Gastrointestinal Dysfunction, and Thimerosal in the MMR vaccine causes Immune System damage. The second case, Hazlehurst vs. Secretary of Health and Human Services, sought entitlement for the issue of a combination of Thimerosal and the MMR vaccine directly causes regressive Autism. The third case, Snyder vs. Secretary of Health and Human Services, sought entitlement also for the issue of a combination of Thirmerosal and the MMR vaccine directly caused, in this case, a development of a pervasive developmental disorder [PDD].

What these three cases have in common, the onset of Autism in a young child, has been a matter of wide debate for over 10 years. A quick look at the articles about the seemingly jump in reported cases of Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders [ASD] is alarming.

The correlation of this jump and the new vaccines ordered in the late 1980’s seemed a likely connection. However, now with the Court’s decisions, has the last hope for the parents who are looking for answers for their children expired?

Several articles and blogs have appeared since the decisions that say that not all is lost and the debate is not over yet!

Some bloggers, like Jay Gordon MD, are angry at the decision. In his post at the Huffington Post (www.huffingtonpost.com) he states, “They [US Court of Federal Claims, Special Masters] were disdainful and unscientific in their approach and did not gather the needed evidence”. He thinks that “they should have insisted on further studies to assist in the decision-making process”.

This week’s online edition of the Age of Autism (http://www.ageofautism.com) sites two related court cases and several US Federal agencies with interests in this issue. The court cases, by the way, highlight two defendants who won their fight and will receive compensations for their injuries.

This publication also reports that the US government and other top research institutions are in favor of looking deeper into the “vaccinated vs. unvaccinated child” issues and “the health impact of the immunization schedule”.

Another important figure, Barbara Loe Fisher the Co-founder & President, NVIC, stated in her watchdog groups response that appeared quickly after the announcement by the US Court of Federal Claims, that there is hope through renewed interest in further research. She shows us that The Special Masters in the US Court of Federal Claims can only make decisions based on printed medical evidence yet most of the current printed research is funded by the government or the pharmaceutical companies. Although this dichotomy exists, the US Department of Health and Human Services still supports ongoing research. She calls for independent researchers without ties to industry or government agencies concerned about protecting the status quo”. Ms. Fisher adds, “Science is not static but evolving.” And, this is a positive statement.

While many other bloggers and writers across the nation tout that the decision is a “victory for practical medicine” as Terry L. Mitchell writes in the American Chronicle (www.americanchronicle.com), still others say the Court’s decision has liberated researchers to now “intensify the scientific search for autism’s cause” (http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20090216/OPINION11/902160303/1004/OPINION).

So, the debate seems to continue. “Free and fair discussion will ever be found the firmest friend to truth,” G. Campbell once wrote. Parents will still be able to rely on there being a lot of information to sift through and understand in their quest to help their children gain healthy lives.

ONLINE ARTICLE-Outing Afield: Airlie Gardens, Wilmington, NC

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OUTING AFIELD: AIRLIE GARDENS, WILMINGTON, NC April 2009. Copyright ARLADEAN ARNSON Published on Triangle Mommies blog at http://www.trianglemommies.blogspot.com .

We all know of Wilmington, the historic jewel on the coast of North Carolina. We all know about the beautiful homes untouched by the Civil War and the bustling port city at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. We all know about the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher, The Children’s Museum of Wilmington, the boardwalk, the beaches, and in April, the Azalea Festival. Wilmington has a lot to offer.

There is one place, nestled in the coastal area by Wrightsville Beach, which is off the beaten path for most tourists. This place is Airlie Gardens. The Gardens are at 300 Airlie Road, near the intersection of Hwy 76 and Hwy 74 near the Causeway.

Airlie Gardens was first planted by Sarah Jones in 1901 and further transformed by the German landscape architect Rudolf Topel in 1906. The Gardens span 67 acres and are separated into several themed areas including the Showcase Gardens, Pergola Gardens, Camellia Gardens and more.

There are oak trees over 400 hundred years old living in the Gardens, a freshwater lake that is home to swans, and a tidal creek overlook for visiting school children to learn, first-hand, about this delicate ecosystem. There is even a famous artist connected to the Gardens. Minnie Evans worked and painted at Airlie Gardens. Her paintings highlight the Gardens in every season and every light.

Instead of writing a step-by-step account of the full afternoon, these few pictures will have to tell the tale.

[photos]

We stayed a couple of hours, enjoying the grounds and the weather. A few hints if you wish to visit for yourself: bring a stroller for the little ones, bring a picnic, and do not forget your camera!

Sometimes going further afield is worth the trip!

For more information about Airlie Gardens please visit the web site at http://www.airliegardens.org .