Know Where Your Main Power Switch Is!

Safety note to self: Know where all of your Main's and Shut Off's are! Had a small electrical scare tonight. Apparently tree trimmers or a branch hit the above ground power line going from the pole to our home. Made for a weird evening at home as my husband was Mr. Mom tonight. A special thank you to PG&E for their very prompt arrival and diligent work to ensure we had power. Our son was already asleep and luckily is of the age where he doesn't require much, but it made me think of the many who are on oxygen and/or have durable medical equipment that runs off of electricity.

Always make sure you, your family and caregivers know where the power Main's/Shut Off's are for your home. We are lucky and only our ancient answering machine died. It passed a mere 3 days before the one at Costco does on sale that we have a coupon for. How's that for luck?

Also, always have a back up plan if you do have durable medical equipment that needs to run off of electricity. A generator or other is necessary.

No updates on Baby Kaleb from his surgeries today. I am in full faith and prayer that all went well. I can only imagine how totally spent the Schwade's and extended family are. My very best to them!

Wishing all of you a fabulous weekend!

Love,
NM

For my husband...thank you!

A special thank you to my hubby today! I am very blessed with an ultra supportive husband/best friend. I had a long day at work and then dinner with a friend (same thing tomorrow) and he has wrangled the home front for me with no complaints. Of course, my being gone ups his XBOX time, but hey, I'll go with that flow! Thank you honey! You are truly amazing to me! I love you!

Love has so many degrees it is absolutely amazing. Love for your parents; love between friends; puppy love; first loves; broken hearts; butterfly love; friends with benefits kind-of/sort-of love; falling in love; love being a parent; loving yourself and finding a passion so strong that you just have to go with it. Love is limitless; if you let it be. I am always amazed when a new degree of love finds me. I wasn't looking for my husband when he found me. I wasn't interested either; but in one simple date I was hooked and in love and here I am. My love for my son...now there is some powerful love! He can melt me in seconds and my heart would literally shatter if anything ever happened to him. I love him so much it scares me. My new passion to do something with my life. To really do something and make a positive difference...there is a new degree of love. It is fascinating, powerful, scary and alluring all at the same time.

As I continue to blog, I will share more of myself and my heroes and how I ended up here. I think it will help clarify a lot of my sudden drive and explain who I am.

For now, it is late and I need to get ready for bed. I have some heavy praying to do as Baby Kaleb has a big day tomorrow with two surgeries.

Many prayers & blessings and much love Baby Kaleb. I already believe you to be a miracle and blessing and believe that your love and message are ever so powerful! Tomorrow will be a good day for you.

Love,

NM

New Myspace for W.H.I.M. (Women Harmonized In Movement)

Welcome to W.H.I.M.! I am excited to see which direction this goes and how it grows. If you would like to be a part of this amazing group, great or small, please view the new myspace page and select "add" to be added as a groupee/member. I am still working on a forum for interested women to have profiles, pictures and be able to interact, so stay tuned!

Update on Florida laws. It has been discovered that there isn't a way around not being able to use funds donated to the Schwade's PO Box for a vehicle. However, new movements are happening so please hang in there with me. More updates coming!

A Body Shop fundraiser through Traci Young will be happening soon! You can pamper yourself and help a good cause all at the same time! My goal is $2,500,00! Please help me make it! The central coast will sure smell good! MMMMM! Mango Body Butter!

Short and sweet...I am curling up with a good book tonight.

Love,

NM

What do you Drive?

What do you drive? Most of us don't realize what a privilege it is to live in a free country where we can have a license, own a car and hop in it and drive any time we choose. For the most part, people everywhere have cars and can get around. But what if you didn't?

Being a child of a disabled parent, I know the challenge that transportation can pose, especially with wheelchairs and durable medical equipment. Not everyone can go out and buy a mini van or SUV (new or used) and have to rely on what they have and what public transportation is available. For those of us in California, there isn't much available.

I know my blogs may sound a little harsh, but I am simply asking you to think. I am asking you to stretch your mind a little further beyond and walk in someone else's shoes, or ride in someone else's chair (or push someone else's child in a specialized stroller) for a day. I love that for Rape awareness and a fundraiser they have an annual "Walk in Her Shoes" event where men dress like women and walk a mile or two in high heels! It is truly awesome! The men are generally great sports about it and it opens up pure awareness to a small part of being a woman!

I am asking for your time, your prayers, for you to send this to everyone in your email address book and on your myspace, cafemom and any other web site pages and I am asking for $1.00.

Yep, I said it! I want your money! I want you to dig under your couch cushions, in your pockets, in your car, the bottom of your diaper bag or where ever for $1.oo and the reason why is this:

My myspace friend, Michelle, has a new myspace page up and running! The link is: http://www.myspace.com/onedollarforkalebsnewcar

Michelle is working hard to get companies in her area to donate towards a new family car for the Schwade's. Go Michelle! You can read her blogs and progress on this page and post comments and provide kudos! Please pass my blog and her myspace page around as they more eyes that see this provides the best exposure and best chance at obtaining this goal for Baby Kaleb and his family! The idea is for each Kaleb support to hopefully donate $1.00 towards a new family car that will transport his specially fitted stroller as their current vehicles will not. Kaleb has A LOT of supporters and if each person donates $1.00 this should be a goal that is easily achieved.

The issue of Florida law and using donated funds to purchase a car is still in review, but that will give you time to rustle up a dollar!

What drives you?

I can tell you what drives me!

Looking at my son's blue eyes every morning and hearing his voice call out, "mommmmmm?" It makes my heart melt and if I couldn't see his eyes wide open or hear his angelic baby voice, it would rip me apart seven ways sideways. Baby Kaleb has spoken to my heart and a seed has been planted. Will you help me grow?

I am collecting dollars and will send to the Schwade fund PO Box noting each person donating, or you can donate directly.

Thanks to Traci and Dana for posting comments and joining my cause! I know you are busy mom's and I deeply appreciate your sharing my vision and dream!

Much love to you and yours!

Possible new Group - Open for Comments

My drive is in motion and I am considering the beginnings of a new group. More details to follow in this blog. I wanted to share with you that a dear friend of mine from high school, Traci, has offered her support from her Body Shop business! I cannot tell you how thrilled I am! It is this type of love, prayer, joy, belief, banding, generosity and selflessness that reminds me that great leaps begin with small steps. Thank you Traci, I am going to take you up on your offer! So, Body Shop party at my house soon to have a great time and support a great cause! Mango Body Butter is my personal favorite and I know you will find a favorite too and have a great time with other amazing women!

My motherly heart is in total overdrive and along with myself, I know Kaleb is calling out to the masses. I have met some fabulous women on myspace.com and I am so impressed with how people are coming together! This child fights for his life, but also for a cause and for awareness. His family fights for their son, for their faith, for their sanity, some sense of privacy and even for forgiveness for the person who committed this unthinkable act. They really are hero's to me because I know my faith would be beyond tested and I don't know how I would size up.

Every day with my son is now a new day. I look at him differently and I am constantly reminded that one mere second could vanish all that I cherish. Again, I don't live in fear. I live in reality and I don't want my blogs to be misunderstood or misconstrued. I do leave the house. :) I just have a new view on things and get out and do even more! So...a new group. Yes!

W.H.I.M

Women Harmonized in Motion (or Movement) which sounds better?

whim
–noun
1.
an odd or capricious notion or desire; a sudden or freakish fancy: a sudden whim to take a midnight walk.
2.
capricious humor: to be swayed by whim.
[Origin: 1635–45; short for whim-wham]
—Synonyms 1. whimsy, vagary, caprice.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source

That pretty much describes it! A sudden desire to MAKE A CHANGE and a DIFFERENCE!

My idea/goal/dream is for women to join together, meet, support events and causes; coordinate fundraisers; get to know each other; celebrate womanhood; motherhood; life; and have other types of events for ourselves...maybe mommy & me's or GNO's (Girl's Night Out) etc.

I am calling all women! All ages; kids (of all ages) or empty nest and free; working mom's or SAHM's; all backgrounds; all everything. A few of you know I am going to call you and inquire on your member status and you know who you are. :)~

I am working on building a web forum as we speak. If I cannot get it up and running quickly, I will create another myspace for the interim.

Please DO comment on this blog and let me know what you think. If you wish to not receive blog notices via email, please email me and I will no longer send.

Please continue to pray for Kaleb, his family and SBS Awareness. According to Kristy's update today, he is doing better, but going to be busy this week with various activities. I hope to hear more soon about a "Car for Kaleb" and will work with Traci and Body Shop to get that ball rolling.

Hug and kiss your family today and above all, love them and tell them so!

Always remember that the future comes one day at a time. -Dean Acheson

The "Wheels" are going round and round!

Good evening!

Apparently the laws in Florida, which are designed to protect both the party in need and the party donating, do not allow funds to be used for the purchase of a vehicle. So, a very clever woman named Michelle, whom I "met" on myspace, is putting some very exciting things in motion in an effort to find a way to help the Schwade family obtain a new/used vehicle. A different vehicle is needed to help them transition to a more normal life when Kaleb comes home and can use his new specialized stroller.

As most of you know, I can absolutely relate to this as my mom has Multiple Sclerosis and is wheelchair bound. She utilizes an electric wheelchair and although they are becoming much slimmer and compact in design these days, they are still rather bulky and heavy and you either need a lift on the back of your vehicle or an adapted vehicle in order to transport one (or it's rider/owner). We have neither and rely on special programs and it can often be quite the challenge so I have great passion for doing anything I can to help the Schwade family get the things they will need to adapt to their new life with their beautiful baby!

Please continue to pray for Baby Kaleb and the Schwade's and if you feel moved and compelled to donate, you most certainly may do so to the post office box listed in my previous blog or you can visit Kristy Schwade's myspace page. If you prefer to wait until the wheels are more in motion and I can provide more details, that is fabulous too.

Please do post comments on my blog. I do read them and am genuinely interested in what everyone thinks.

If you can help with spreading Kaleb's story, please feel free to share my blog.

If you would like to help with any brainstorming and/or fundraising efforts, please, please, please contact me.

One woman raised over $50,000 for Kaleb! Wouldn't it be amazing if we could send Kaleb and his family a gift of even $50?

I am going to create a new website, similar to cafemom, but only a fraction of the size. I am thinking of Cali Mom's Care or other if this spreads outside Cali? Suggestions? Interested? I would like to create a little board for local mom's who are interested in making a difference. Mommy groups and boards rock and I love mine, but I am moved to do something more... care to join me?

Much love and many blessings!

Yes, I am going to be annoying! Help for Baby Kaleb!

Life sometimes moves you in a direction that you never expected and usually, when you least expect it.

So here I am.

I am the mother of a beautiful blonde and blue eyed toddler angel who is independent and sassy and who's latest and greatest phrase is "stop it!" Wonderful. *grin*

I wish that phrase was much more powerful than it really is. I wish life was less convoluted and as easy as picking out which bear book to read or which colored sippy cup rocked my world.

I have no complaints; trust me. My life is, and always has been, more tailored towards the drama side, but it doesn't compare to a lot of others out there. I am thankful for my mother, my brother, my husband and my son. My nieces and my nephew on the way. My extended family and my friends. I am blessed and I know it and I am grateful.

Are you grateful? I am sure you are, but I am going to ask more of you and your already busy and buried life. I want you to take a few moments to stop. Completely stop and look around. Have you kissed your wife or hubby lately and really (and I mean really) expressed how you feel about them? Have you really hugged and kissed your children lately? How about those parents of yours? Have you called them up and said hello and by they way, hey thanks for everything; I love you! How about that good friend you keep putting off because they will always be there?

It's time. Don't wait. Stop whatever is so import, like online bill paying or that sports game or that load of laundry and make sure those people know how much you care.

Now I am going to ask even more of you. One more thing. It will be very small to you, but it will be life size to someone else.

Take a moment to read the following story via any of the links provided below and read through to the bottom:

Snopes:

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/medical/kalebschwade.asp

MySpace URLs:
http://www.myspace.com/helpkaleb

Brief overview of the story:

My Name is Kristy Schwade and my life at this point is not anywhere near normal. My Son, the light of my life is fighting for his very own life in ICU and has been since May 9, 2007. He is suffering from Shaken Baby Syndrome by the hands of someone who is not in anyway related to him or us. I have 100% faith in God that my little boy will be the one that SURPRISES all of the doctors. He is strong and we have to be strong for him.

Kaleb was recently fitted for a specialized stroller, which is amazing news! However, it won't fit in the Schwade's vehicles. Kaleb supporters everywhere are banding together and asking that people donate $1.00 (come on people, you can give up a Starbucks once this week!) to help the Schwade's purchase a vehicle to accommodate Kaleb's new stroller. What a dream come true for them to be able to take their baby boy to the park again!

Please find it in your heart to help. $1.00 is priceless for this family.

When I look into my son's eyes, I ask God to be with us always and to bless the Schwade family and baby Kaleb. May Kaleb be lifted up into his arms and my God hold him close and protect him for further harm. May his little body heal and his spirit persevere.

As posted on the Help Kaleb Myspace Page:

The most important way to help is to PRAY for Kaleb's recovery! Secondly, you can donate funds to cover medical expenses, lawyer fees, and other expenses by donating to the Help Kaleb Fund. 100% of funds will be used to help Kaleb's family.

Please make checks payable to "Kristy Schwade", and send to:

PO Box 291494

TAMPA, FL 33687-1494

OR just use the Make A Donation button to donate instantly to Kaleb's mothers Paypal account with a credit / debit card.

(helpkaleb@hotmail.com)

Thank you for your reading my blog and for your time! Many blessings to you and yours!

NM