Dorothy's new home

After many trials and delays, Dorothy made it to her new home this week at the Sci-Tech Children's Museum. While she was delivered on August 18th of this year, changes and delays kept Dorothy in a locked facility across town from the museum until this week. The museum will now be completing work in the new weather science area around Dorothy and we cannot wait to visit her. Click on the film strip to watch Dorothy enter her new home. Many thanks to Mr. Gudenas!

HAVE A TWISTED HOLIDAY

Website problems?

Aplus, the company that hosts our website, has been at this for 30 hours. Our website is still not working properly and we want to apologize to everyone that is trying to reach us via the site. Use info@chasing4life.org as an address and please be patient. We are not getting solid answers from the company and we know that many of you are attempting to access the web site pages. So are we.

Wednesday is like a Monday

This morning our server is having issues so our website is down for a bit this morning. If you went to the site and saw that we don't exist, it's just an ugly rumor, they say they will have it up again soon. 2 ways of looking at this: #1. Inability to work this morning #2. Inability to work this morning.
Hmmmm. Gotta find that coffee cup...

Halloween Safety

While we all want Halloween to be just as scary as possible, there is no point in making it dangerous and there is no reason to make the danger REAL.

This blog is supposed to be about safety and preparedness, so with the Halloween holiday upon us, let’s get down to business.

Growing up, Halloween was one of those holidays that we did not always participate in. The family bounced back and forth between the history of Halloween and our religious beliefs so it was a pretty confusing time for me as a kid. By the time I became an adult, I had decided that I was going to celebrate Halloween like nobody had ever done before. I went to every haunted house, every maze, and went to several Halloween parties. As for my kids? I sent them out trick-or-treating with the biggest plastic pumpkins I could buy!

We cleaned up! We had candy for two years! A year later, while sitting around eating stale Bit-O-Honeys, I began to think about how irresponsible I had been all in the name of “celebrating”.

Parents of trick-or-treating kids can get so caught up in the fun themselves that they might forget some simple safety ideas that could save everyone some trouble. Here are some things to remember…

Know where your kids are at all times. Have you been watching the news? What a great night for child abductors, huh? Unattended kids distracted by mobs of other kids and adults, decorations and candy… they are quite a target. There has been some sad stories in the news lately, so know the route your kids are taking, accompany them if at all possible, or make sure they are in a group.

Make sure the costume is safe. Can your child safely look both ways before crossing the street with their mask on? Can they run in their costume? Defend themselves? I know, I am sucking the fun right out of your idea to dress your kid in a large silver balloon costume like he’s from Colorado, but think safety!

Know what activities your kids may be taking part in. I have some older kids that will not be trick-or-treating and I want to know WHERE they are going and WHO they are going with! As the father of several teenagers, I have figured out that the older the kid, the dumber decision.

Do not assume that the mall functions are safe. GO WITH YOUR KID.

Set a curfew. Make it very clear that you expect your child home at a set time. Any tardiness will indicate a problem so you can act quickly. Take a picture of your child in their costume before they leave the house so you have one should anything happen.

Explain to your children the difference between tricks and vandalism. Spooking people can be fun, but vandalism is not acceptable.

Think about the weather. Make sure that you do not sacrifice health for a cool costume. The forecast for 32 degrees has TOTALLY ruined my plans to go as a belly dancer.

Lastly, make sure your child has a flashlight with them. The way it looks to me, the night should be partly cloudy which will obscure the coming full moon on and off.

Be safe, enjoy the holiday. Give out cool candy. Peeps left over from Easter are NOT acceptable.

Elizabeth was found today

The body of missing 9-year-old Elizabeth was found in a wooded area near Missouri's capital city today, two days after she was last seen walking from a neighbor's home. According to the latest news, the suspect is a juvenile.

The sheriff did not give any details on how Elizabeth died or about the juvenile in custody except to say that the person lived in the area west of Jefferson City and was older than the girl. Police said Elizabeth's body was found just before 3 p.m.

A bog of Blogs

Wading through the daily grind of this organization can sometimes be quite tiring. We try very hard to keep you all informed as to what we are doing, where we are, and what we have been doing, but time only allows for so much.
We are in the middle of our 500 4 Life Campaign.
What this campaign entails is 500 events in 4 months. Can you imagine? Yep, there is no sleep available right now. On top of that, this is the time of year we look for supporters for next year. With our calendar horrible out of date, the blogs are really the only way to track us right now.
This year's sponsors seem to have forgotten to check in, which is frustrating, and we are looking for very key sponsorships for 2010. We need a wireless sponsor, a tour title sponsor, a Chasing With Heart sponsor, a merchandise sponsor or partner, a vehicle sponsor, a mechanical sponsor and a tire sponsor.
If you know of an opportunity or interested party or corporation, let us know and help take the load off!
As I said, the blogs are the very best way to keep track of what we are doing. We have something for everyone...
For our Homeschool Blog, CLICK HERE.
For our Team Blog, CLICK HERE.
For our Fan Club Blog, CLICK HERE.
For our new KRVN Radio Blog, CLICK HERE.

Oh yeah, before I forget, you can always Tweet your heart out and get up to the minute news from the road on our Twitter.

No, we do not have a FaceBook. I do not like being poked.

Stay in touch, we'll try to do the same.

Attention Homeschoolers!

If you have not checked out the new homeschool blogsite, stop on over and see what is going on! CLICK HERE to take a look. Gotta link you want to share for the new site? Send it our way!

Update

This leg of the tour is coming to a close today in Mundelien, Illinois. The last several weeks have been incredible and the schedule for next year is filling rapidly. We want to thank everyone that has patiently been waiting for meetings and phone calls and we want you all to know we appreciate understanding the heavy schedule we have been under.
Beginning next week we will be working hard on next year's tour dates and will be updating the tour schedule. If you are considering a date for the months between January and June of 2010, NOW is the time to send in an email- Monday we will be solidifying much of that time period's schedule!
Many thanks to folks that have been so wonderful on this leg of the tour!
Watch here for the pics from this run- we'll have them up within a few days.

Stop in the name of the law!

What a 24 hour ride.
Last night, after a full day of great events, Alannah and I returned to our favorite little lodge for a good night's sleep before our long drive to Illinois. As we started to drift off, there was a sudden banging on the door of our room. Only the police can knock on a door the way they do...they must have a class on that at the academy.
Two officers awaited as I opened the door.
Yep. Just our luck. Turns out they were hunting a couple almost matching our description and driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee...same year, same color.
We did not get a lot of info from them, and they nicely apologized for disturbing us after a few tense moments, but after getting back into the room, we checked online to see just who we were mistaken to be...
Wow were we pleasantly surprised! Turns out that authorities were hunting a 22 year old male and a 24 year old female!
I was so excited I said to Alannah, "HEY! I looked 22 today!"
I was not the only one excited.
"And I looked 24!" she said.
I went to bed feeling younger. She went to bed feeling older.
All in all, a good but very strange day.

From the road...

(Photo is from Decatur County Public Library)

Every once in a while you find a librarian that stands out amongst the rest. today, at the Henderson County Public Library in Lexington, Tennessee we met such a woman. Dinah went all out in promoting her events today. Upon arrival, the first thing we noticed was a pile of disaster kits behind the counter. What a suprise! She gave away 50 kits today to the first 50 folks that walked in the door! The entire day we were escorted by emergency personnel and our morning event was great with a receptive audience of not-so-senior citizens!

It was good to have someone that caught the vision of partnering in an educational effort and truly made an effort to connect the community using their library. We are looking forward to being back in Lexington soon.


Tomorrow we head on down the road for Central Illinois, but for the night we will recuperate a little at our favorite spot in the woods, the Terrace Woods Lodge in Paris, Tennessee. Dale and his wife are great people and this has become one of those "havens" for us. We want to thank them for their hospitality and kindness every time one of our team stays here.


It is hard to be away from home for such great lengths of time and it is nice to know that when we travel, we are among family still. That family is definitely growing.


Due to the demand when we tour, we have created a new homeschool blog which you can find in the left-hand menu of our main site (http://www.chasing4life.org/). Our goal is to begin posting the links, tips and advice we have been handing over as we tour. The number of homeschooling families taking advantage of our tours is growing and we have so much to share it just made sense to create a new place just for them.


In the wake of this weekend's bad weather and tornadic activity, please remember that there is only two tornado seasons: this year and next year. Take cover when those sirens blow, don't let the holidays distract you from what you have learned. Take some time this week and have a tornado drill with your kids, check your home disaster kit, and make sure you drop us a line when you have chance. Always good to hear from family.


Stay safe

Tour Update

We're tired, but very pleased with how the tour has gone in Tennessee. We have made new connections and we have booked several weeks in 2010 where we will return here to tour once again. If you are interested in finding out how effective and powerful these tours are and why our team is continually touring, make sure you contact us via the website soon as dates are limited and special tour offers exist right now!
Are you looking at becoming more involved in disaster response work or in volunteering your skills or time toward an educational effort? We are looking for you too!
Snow found its way to Nebraska this morning so we won't lie to you and tell you that we wish we were on our way home yet...let it melt first. Record snow fall was recorded in North Platte this morning so its hard to believe that we are almost to the anniversary of the Oconto tornado and the ground is white like Christmas!
The storms here yesterday were a handful and navigating the flooding streets of Clarksville proved a challenge but it will be the cold snap throughout Illinois this week we will dread the most...
As this tour draws to a close next week, we have already begun to work on the next leg of the tour in Iowa. Watch for news about the 72 Hour Experiment, the tours and new members all coming soon.

Click for glimpses at the tour

DUE TO A SCHEDULING CONFLICT WITH THE FILMING OF "CHASING WITH HEART" THE 72 HOUR EXPERIMENT HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED FOR LATE OCTOBER. FOR FURTHER UPDATES KEEP CHECKING THIS BLOG.