Living the majority of my life without traveling, created a person who never had much interest in traveling nor experience new things. I was rather settled in my life in a small town, of course, I honestly didn’t want to live here my whole life, however, being that I was living within my own comfortable shell, packing up and moving was out of the question.

I remember my first and only trip to Florida around thirteen years of age, my step sister, my mom, my mom’s boyfriend, my sister and I drove down the 21 hour drive to stay a week near Disney Land. The fun times we had were certainly priceless staying at a cute condo or resort area and experiencing Disney Land. This trip was the only trip I had ever taken and again, we drove down instead of flying.

I always had this fear of flying, I firmly believe that only birds were meant to fly, not humans. After starting my Happily Blended Blog and it becoming a huge success, I had to make a decision to fly or not to fly in order to further my blogging career. I made the decision just last year, to fly and I haven’t looked back.

All ready to fly again and again the sky is the limit and hopefully I can spread some of my kids wings by allowing them to travel and experience other ways of life so that when they are grown adults, they are not like me, stuck in my small town ways and able to fly free to make a home of their own whenever their heart desires!

A new vehicle makes me think twice about where my children should sit. We pulled up and checked out a Ford Taurus Wagon, having never seen one up close I was curious just how many buckles there were in this vehicle. As some know, I went from having a van to no vehicle, but I do have three kids with one who is a total grumpy butt and needs his space on trips.

Looking at the Ford Taurus Wagon, I wasn’t sure if it would be a good fit but it seemed to be in great shape and it was able to seat my children comfortably. This car has a rear facing seat behind the normal back seat, which seats two people buckled in.

At first I thought the idea of my two older children sitting back there would be great, they even loved it, but then as 24 hours passed, I started to get concerned about being rear ended. I mean, I can assume a rear facing seat car would have some safety features in it to protect from such a bad accident, but then again I don’t know and my kids lives are not something to mess around with.

I made a decision to put the seat down and tell my five year old it doesn’t work right so as to avoid him having to sit back there and it went over fine. I haven’t had any issues and I honestly explained to my nine year old how I felt it wasn’t a safe idea to have her and her brother back there on a regular basis but on occasion they certainly can sit back there.

I don’t know what I will do about the rear facing seat, probably look up safety features in this vehicle and see what it lists as ideas of who and what age and weight/height should sit back there as well as any additional features that may have been done to the back windshield glass as a way to help avoid a fatal injury with a rear ended accident.

For now I am reaching out to all of you – do you know anything about those pop up rear facing seats that some vehicles have? What are your thoughts on it?

Just last night I was saying how I feel like I need to just cry and let it all out. So much is going on that makes me sad, this sadness is deep right to the center of my soul. I have hope and I have faith, but that doesn’t make the sadness subside, it’s there deep within.

I am a strong person. I can handle a lot of situations that get tossed in my direction, but sometimes even the strongest of people hit their limit. That is me. I am at my limit and feel like if only I had a local girlfriend to come hug me hard, just hold me and let me cry on their shoulders I would feel relieved.

There’s nothing to talk about, nothing to write – I’ve gotten it all out of my head, but it’s the heart that is deeply saddened and for this, the only solution is a long, deep cry. So I will pull out the tissues and bury myself in a blanket to just let the tears flow so I can move forward and be stronger to be the mom and person I need to be for my family.

Guest post of the week by Brittany Booker

I love to travel, but unfortunately I don’t have much of a budget for it right now. I got a pay cut at work last year, so there went my yearly vacation. I’ve been trying to find ways to go on vacation and spend less money, and one of the ways to do that is to find a friend who lives somewhere interesting and go visit. It saves on hotel and food costs, which are a big chunk of every vacation. My roommate from college moved to Nashville last year, so I called her to see if there was a good time for me to come out. We set a date, and I planned all the things we were going to do. I don’t mean to be judgmental, but when I got there, I wash shocked at how horrible her neighborhood was. I was worried about her, so I suggested she research Alarm Systems Nashville to see if a home alarm system would be right for her. I feel bad because I think she was really offended, and that was not my intention. We had a great time while I was there, and I hope my comment didn’t ruin our relationship. Hopefully she will stay safe and everything will work out for her.

I have no clue what I call this sickness going around, when kids at school started to go home sick from throwing up and my daughters friends were reported being home sick I assumed it was just some stomach bug or flu going around. Me, never getting my flu shot due to lack of insurance, I try to steer clear of germs the best I can. The kids have had their flu shots though.

It all started with reports of people missing from work where the boys’ Dad works, then it was the five year old waking up sick as a dog on Saturday. Dad and I had symptoms for days of the bug but never had thrown up. Still to this day the adults have no thrown up but the five year old had a 24 hour throw up spree and now, today the three year old.

Please say the nine year old, Mom and then Dad do not get it either. Please spare us from this awful sickness going around. I will take the symptoms minus throwing up any day.

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