JetBlue & Others Assists The Orlando Pulse Families.

This just has me in tears I couldn’t imagine this being the last text from one of my Babies “Mom I’m gonna die”‪

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — It had been an evening of drinking, dancing and drag shows. After hours of revelry, the party-goers crowding the gay nightclub known as the Pulse took their last sips before the place closed.

That’s when authorities say Omar Mateen emerged, carrying an AR-15 and spraying the helpless crowd with bullets. Witnesses said he fired relentlessly — 20 rounds, 40, then 50 and more. In such tight quarters, the bullets could hardly miss. He shot at police. He took hostages.When the gunfire finally stopped, 50 people were dead and dozens more were critically wounded in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Mateen, who law enforcement officials said had pledged allegiance to Islamic State in a 911 call around the time of the attack, died in a gun battle with SWAT team members.

Thank God for JetBlue & other local organizations:

JetBlue is providing free seats on its available flights to/from Orlando for immediate family and domestic partners of victims who were killed or injured. Those family members and domestic partners requiring travel assistance can contact 1-800-JETBLUE for details.

Today, JetBlue announced the offer on its blog and Twitter under the banner #WeStandWithOrlando. “Our hearts are with the victims, their families and friends and the Orlando community,” the blog post read. “This weekend’s events are felt by all of our 19,000 crewmembers, many of whom live in, work from and travel through Orlando—one of our focus cities—at Orlando International Airport, our Orlando Support Center and JetBlue University.”

“Like many of you, we continue to watch reports of the Orlando nightclub shooting with great sadness. Our thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones.

We want to do our part to help the victims of this tragedy, as well as support the Orlando community through this difficult time.

o JetBlue is providing free seats on its available flights to/from Orlando for immediate family and domestic partners of victims who were killed or injured. Those family members and domestic partners requiring travel assistance can contact 1-800-JETBLUE for details.

o A fee waiver is in place for customers traveling to/from Orlando who need to make last-minute changes to their travel plans.

o For JetBlue crewmembers impacted by this event, we have activated resources to assist and are offering a donation program. Crewmembers can visit our internal website, hellojetblue, or talk to their crewleader for more details.

o JetBlue will make a charitable contribution to support the victims and their families.”

Deadliest Shooting In U.S. History: Suspect Purchased Guns Legally, ATF Says

Orange County Sheriff’s Office, Florida   Local law enforcement agency · 13 hrs ·

We thank the legions of supporters who are reaching out to the Orlando community!!
As the investigation remains active and open in the horrific Pulse nightclub mass shooting, here are some resources and links available to the public.
•Orlando officials are identifying the victims and notifying their families. The names of the victims will be added to this link:http://www.cityoforlando.net/blog/victim….
•The Department of Veterans Affairs is providing emergency mental health assistance to Veterans, employees, and the general public in wake of the mass shooting. An Orlando VA Medical Center Mobile Medical Unit is located at the Beardall Senior Center, 800 Delaney Ave, Orlando, 32801, or call 321-277-6672.
• Blood donations — OneBlood has reached capacity for blood donations, so no further donations are immediately needed. However, anyone interested in making an appointment to donate in the near future can go tooneblood.org/donate-now/ or call 1.888.9Donate.
•Funds for victims and families — Equality Florida has set up a GoFundMe page at Gofundme.com/PulseVictimsFund.

For a complete list, visit http://cityoforlando.net/victims

 

No matter what Omar Mateen’s reasons or ties were, he was a terrorist who committed an atrocious hate crime against the LGBTQ community at an Orlando gay nightclub, Pulse.

This is a massacre of persecution.

Grieve all you need however you want. But do not let hateful people make you live in fear.

Friday Four: Baby Sitter Money Tips

 

One of my  daughters is a private baby sitter.  She is CPR certified and has taken many continued education classes so she may remain in high demand. She’s a natural! As a big sister to five younger siblings, she’s able to baby sit for moms groups, business meetings, private parties, and now she now assistant other doulas while at the hospital serving laboring mothers.

Having a quality, trusted, babysitter is very rare. The process of finding one is a headache alone. But when you find one, many wonder, how will they pay for her.

And guess what? It’s only getting higher! While I don’t agree with that, I do believe that a great baby sitter is worth a good penny.

It costs to learn new skills,training, certifications, transportation to and from service locations and it’s also a symbol of  proper expectation.

My daughter charges up to  $12.00.per hour.  Her clients LOVE her. She brings toys, books, loads of energy , experience in autistic, multiples, and newborns. She also hires other teens like her to help as needed. Most people like her prices, everyone don’t. It’s usually the ones that want her, but can’t afford the rate. The comfort and well being of your child will always be your number one priority, but quality childcare doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. Follow these tips and find an option that works for your family.

1. Share Your Sitter- If you are planing on hanging out with your friends, why not share the baby sitting cost. It does a couple of things. It gives the kids an instant play date, and saves each parent money.
2. Barter- My daughter loves getting her nails done, nice shoes, and great food. If you have any of these things, ask to trade instead of using money. Teens like my daughter will accept. Just ask  first to verify it’s acceptable. With both the teen sitter  and her parents.

According to UrbanSitter’s 2014 Childcare Rate Survey of nine large metro areas, the average babysitter wage paid in New York City is$15.34 per hour while in Denver it’s $10.84 per hour

3. Join a progressive mom group. – Queen City Stay At Home Moms offers discount child

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care rates to their premium members.

4.Take The Credit.     If you use registered child care or pay a babysitter to care for your children, you can deduct at least a portion of your expenses for income tax purposes.

1. • Expenses are deductible for the care of dependent children, under the age of 16.
   • Babysitters may be related to you (but not a parent to your child) and must be over 17 years of age.
   • The child care deduction is limited to two-thirds of earned income, or $4,000 a year per child aged seven to 16; $7,000 a year per child under seven years; and up to $10,000 a year for each disabled child.
   • For details of child care options in your area, contact your province’s child care licensing agency.

Bonus- Sign up for a Flexible Spending Account
If your employer offers this option, use your Flexible Spending Account (FSA) to set aside money for child care. You can include up to $5,000 before taxes

In closing , be strategic! At The Big Sister, most families look for care during the summer. The more affordable and experienced caregivers get grabbed early and day care slots fill up quickly. Start your search soon and don’t wait until the last minute.Well, there you have it! You have no reason to avoid date night away from the house, a business meeting at home ,or a fun Moms Night Out! You can afford it!

PLEASE READ- From Care.Com- Great Area- Fee based Information! 

Friday Four: APPLE CAMP (Intro To Coding for Kids)

Whitney Houston sung it best, children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way….. 

The middle boys spent 3 days with the great folks of APPLE to learn a bit about programing! Since my skills weren’t the best I figured I would take advantage of a free workshop offered my local store. The invite read:

 Apple’s program is for kids ages 8 to 12 and focuses on teaching kids to “shoot their own footage, create an original song in GarageBand on an iPad, and put it all together in iMovie on a Mac.” The workshop runs over three days, with 1.5 hour classes. At the end, kids can present their masterpieces at the “Apple Camp Film Festival” and take home their completed movies.

Oh yes, we’re in! Any type of computer programming can help kids develop problem-solving and critical-thinking skills rings my ears to join in! It encourages them to be not only consumers of technology but also creators.

This drag and drop programming opportunity for the boys was awesome. Here;s four reasons why every child should participate in one coding class!

1. You get a chance to learn something new, It may spark a inner techie in you!
2. The child gets to explore on someone else’s technology. Your Ipad and tablet will be safe. No repairs to worry about. You couldn’t be in better hands than at the place where the sale began at. On top of the will learn a new skill by professionals.
3. Being proactive in your child’s education/ intelligence wellness helps them become life long problem solvers. In other words, they will think better. N more running ont walls.
4. Build on that. If your child enjoyed it, encourage him to keep going. Do you know how many people have computers? They will never be broke or bored! As technology evolves, so will his income, learning, influential opportunities

Also check out these links:

Problem Solving Games-  Here are three games that my kids have particularly enjoyed. They teach basic problem solving ideas in different ways:

• Magic Pen (wait 15 seconds to see word “play”)
• Fantastic Contraption
• Auditorium

Programming Tutorials From Made With Code by Google: Google’s Made With Code project has a mission of encouraging girls to pursue careers in computer science. The Made With Code projects are easy to follow, and if your kids are completely new to coding, don’t fret. There’s something for both intermediate and beginning coders. Plus, there are even more tutorials in the Resources section with new offerings released periodically.

Many students don’t have access to computer science courses until college, and that’s a missed opportunity to introduce younger students to programming. There are many tools out there that provide a great introduction to computer science for students, but here are a few of our favorites.

First, here’s a story about a 9-year-old writing full-blown iPhone apps

Coding For Kids directory

Like the Apple CAMP- these are FREE:  These use similar controls to drag blocks into a workspace, but it only runs on the iPad. The controls and characters are not as extensive as Scratch and Tynker, but Hopscotch is a great tool to begin helping students without coding experience learn the basics of programming, logical thinking and problem solving.

Scratch   Tynker  Hopscotch  Coursera.org

Daisy the Dinosaur      Cargo-Bot  AND HERE FOR MORE

About APPLE

Get your little ones in a class right away! They are NOT too young to learn.