The Land of Ozz

We recently went through the task of rearranging car seats for our kids. Riley is moving into a booster and Josiah has out grown the infant car seat (carrier). We have a fairly nice Britax that we got when Riley was less than a year old. It is in good condition and has never been in a vehicle when an accident occurred. The seat is nearly six yeas old and I was wondering whether or not the seat is still usable despite its appearance. I have heard that car seats expire. Is this a true statement?

I probably would not have even given this a thought but rather let common sense dictate whether or not to replace a car seat. But, sometime last spring we had a fire rescue team at our church one Sunday afternoon doing inspections on the installation of our car seats for anyone who wanted to participate. Ours were all installed and being used correctly, but the technician did give me a little feedback that I found interesting. One of the things he told me was that Riley’s Britax seat was expired. “DO WHAT?,” was my reply. This guy proceeds to tell me that car seats expire after five years. Don’t get me wrong. I get the concept. These things are made of mostly plastic and plastics can become weak when it gets pushed and pulled on enough. The belts can become weak when they get enough acidic spit up, juices, and other foreign substances on them over the years. All that said, you would think that the manufacture would have this plastered all over the boxes that these things come in. After all, that would equate to a fresh sell ever five years. Anyway, I heard what the guy said and went on about my business since this just did not seem to make sense to me. How can you you pick a number and say that in X number of years a car seat will expire? In my opinion you can’t.

Here’s the thing about those expirations. There is currently no federal law requiring that child safety seats have an expiration date. I have also found no state laws referring specifically to expiration dates. If you find that a seat has an expiration on it, you are not likely to get put into jail for using it past its expiration date, but you should certainly contact the manufacture to make sure you understand why they put that date on the seat. A report from AAA says that you are required by most state laws to “use seats in accordance with manufacturer’s instructions.”

Yes, some seats have expiration dates on them? Why? The explanations vary. Maybe the seat nmaufactures are trying to ride the wave of fear created by the technicians who tell us that the seats to expire. Many “convertible” car seats are sold touting that they can be used for 5-35 lbs rear facing and from 20-50 lbs forward facing. Those seats would need to be replaced before one child outgrew them if they were to expire in five or six years. For instance, the average boy will reach 20 lbs between 8-9 months of age based on the CDC Clinical Growth Charts that most of our pediatricians use. That same average boy will reach 50 lbs at about 7 years of age. That means that the average male child would be required to get a new seat before reaching the maximum allowed weight for most convertible seats simply due to an expiration.

The bottom line is that opinions rather than facts seem to be driving the five or six year expiration dates. The expiration age varies depending on who you talk to. Some Child Passenger Safety Technicians claim to have been taught that seats expire after five or six years depending on who trained them. One organization that offers certification classes for these technicians says, “Make sure the safety seat is less than 10 years old (preferably less than five), the expiration date stamped on the plastic has not passed, and it has never been used in a crash.” Reference

From left to right: Sherry (aka Mrs. Ozz or Mommy), Josiah, Caden, Hank (aka TheOzz or Daddy) and Riley

I am introducing the family because you will be seeing more of them on The Land of Ozz in the near future. The Land of Ozz will begin some slow changes over the next few weeks. Mrs. Ozz has expressed a desire to begin blogging. We talked and decided that having her join me here on The Land of Ozz is the better solution than creating and maintaining a whole new blog. My posting has been light anyway and the readership has declined as a result. Mrs. Ozz will be blogging on some of the same general topics plus much more. As a result of the “more”, I plan to add sort of a His and Hers blog roll as well as a His and Hers category list. I also hope to offer feed subscriptions by author.

So the “Ozz” in “The Land of Ozz” will begin to take on a new meaning. The blog title moving forward will represent the Ozz family instead of just one Ozz (myself). The blog design will be reflecting some changes too. I more than welcome the feminine touch to the look and feel of this blog. Mrs. Ozz has been reviewing WordPress themes and I expect to make a change to this blog’s design in the next week or two.

Our family hosted a pizza party this passed weekend. The party was very family friendly and did not have any beer, but did end up with a deer. More on the deer in a minute. We had about twenty five friends over for lunch including their children. It was a great time to celebrate the beginning of a New Year. The weather was great for grilling the pizza. Sherry and I have decided to make this an annual event. We intended to have the party on New Years Eve, but ALL of our boys ended up sick enough to be put on antibiotics a few days before the big event. Our two oldest, Riley and Caden were even put on breathing treatments due to wheezing. The big plan was to have a mock up of the “ball drop” at 7PM on New Years Eve in celebration of Zulu New Year. The Zulu New Year was an idea some of us dad’s came up with we would not miss out on the coming in of the New Year…somewhere.

Anyway, about the deer. The big event of the day for me came when I sat down with my good friend Chad after most of the guest had departed. Chad and I were enjoying the cool breeze on the screened porch as we looked out over our backyard into the wetlands protected area behind our house. Chad asked if I had ever seen any deer in my backyard or in the wetlands. I told him no, but I had seen deer tracks. He went on to tell me about the deer he saw in his backyard a few days earlier. Well, it was about 5 or 10 minutes after Chad asked me about the deer when we both just happened to be looking in the same direction at my next door neighbor’s yard. My neighbor has a privacy fence and we were entertained by the leaves swarming up over the hight of the fence as he used his leaf blower. Then, in the flash of an eye, a full grown whitetail doe came flying through my yard (front to back). I could barely believe my eyes. I told Chad that I was so glad we were both looking in that same direction at that moment because he would never have believed me if he had not seen it for himself. I have lived in this house for six and a half years and never once seen a deer. I had not five minuted earlier told Chad as much and then there comes a deer out of my front yard.

A few minutes later my new neighbor from three doors down came walking up. He introduced himself and asked if we saw that deer run through the yard. He said it came running right past him as he was sweeping his driveway and then it took a hard turn into my yard. I think he was as surprised by it as we were and maybe he just wanted someone to verify that he was not crazy.

It was an unbelievable end to a great pizza party to see a full grown deer run through the yard at 2pm. I think the next time Chad comes over, I would like for him to ask me if I have ever seen bags full of $100 bills fall from the sky into my backyard.

One of our family’s favorite things to do during the holidays is to bake. This year we plan to carry on the Christmas season baking tradition by creating the Gingerbread Train once again. Last year was our first attempt and it was a huge success.

There are plenty recipes on the Internet to for building gingerbread houses and gingerbread trains. We got our recipe and templates from FamilyFun Magazine. Their online version gives detailed pictures of the entire process in addition to the train part templates and a gingerbread recipe that will make enough dough for two train cars.

Here are a few recommendations that we think will make the project even more fun:

1. Make extra train cars.
2. Use different candy to decorate.
3. Assemble the train on a movable surface.

In the event you prefer building a gingerbread house, check out Simply Recipes for instructions on How to Make a Gingerbread House.

It seems that there is a new tax law in South Carolina. The picture on the right shows a portion of the receipt my wife brought home from Wal-Mart this weekend. I was so shocked by the tax amount, or rather lack of tax, that I called the Wal-Mart store to ask if their registers were malfunctioning. The lady from the customer service center at the Goose Creek Wal-Mart enlightened me on a new tax law that removes the sales tax from our grocery bill.

This new tax code supposedly went into effect on November 1, 2007. Did it get buried on page 23 of section Q of the local paper? While I do not watch much TV, I would have expected to hear about this on the radio or maybe at work among the idle chatter. Is it possible that this tax cut came in so low under the local radar that no one even knows about it?

For a family that spends about $600 per month on groceries, this will help us to the tune of approximately $40 per month*. That is sweet. That is another date with my sweetie each month. If we share a “Tour of Italy” at Olive Garden and only drink water, we might even be able to squeeze out the sitter’s wages for a couple of hours. This tax savings will be put right back into the economy as far I our house is concerned. Thank you SC State Government!

*Note: Not all of our grocery budget is spent on unprepared food so the tax cut will only affect approximately 95% of our grocery budget. This sale tax change only applies to unprepared grocery items “that are eligible for purchase with US Department of Agriculture food coupons.” Source

How the IRS helps me save 50 cent per gallon on gas.

The time of year has arrived when many US employers kick off what we call in the civil service “Open Season”. This is a time of the year when employees are allowed to make benefit changes that may not be allowed at any other time during the year, with a few exceptions called qualifying life events. (i.e., death, birth, marriage, adoption, etc.) One of the most useful, but often overlooked optional benefits that many employers offer is the Health Care Flexible Spending Account. Through these accounts the IRS allows for tax payers to have money withdrawn from their paychecks pre-taxed to later be used to reimburse medical expenses. In 2003 the IRS extended the coverage of these accounts to include over the counter medications and medical supplies. Many employees avoid this program because they do not fully understand it and are scared of the possibility of loosing unused money. This is a valid concern, but in y opinion, those who avoid flexible spending accounts are leaving money on the table.

So what does a flexible spending account have to do with gas prices?

I am glad you asked. One of the allowed categories of medical expenses in the flexible spending account is called transportation. The general guidelines for the transportation category are as follows:

“You can include in medical expenses amounts paid for transportation primarily for, and essential to, medical care.

You can include:

• Bus, taxi, train, or plane fares or ambulance service,
• Transportation expenses of a parent who must go with a child who needs medical care,
• Transportation expenses of a nurse or other person who can give injections, medications, or other treatment required by a patient who is traveling to get medical care and is unable to travel alone, and
• Transportation expenses for regular visits to see a mentally ill dependent, if these visits are recommended as a part of treatment.

Car expenses. You can include out-of-pocket expenses, such as the cost of gas and oil, when you use a car for medical reasons. You cannot include depreciation, insurance, general repair, or maintenance expenses.” Source: IRS Publication 502

With this one benefit our family is able to offset our gas costs by an average of 50 cents per gallon based on $3 per gallon prices. I will add a disclaimer for our situation, but that does not take away from the fact that an average family can cut gas prices by 25 cents per gallon or more with a flexible spending account. My disclaimer is that our son Caden sees an above average number of doctors on a regular basis so our transportation expenses are more than double that of a normal family of the same size as ours. That said, I have broken out a separate line in my calculations to show how a “normal” family would be saving 25 cents per gallon on gas even if Caden had not seen so many doctors this year. The “extreme” column represents our situation with Caden’s appointments.

The IRS allows for 20 cents per mile to be reimbursed through the flexible spending accounts. I have included a little chart to show how much gas costs per mile based on a vehicle’s MPG rating and the price per gallon at the pump.

Below is how I calculate the 50 cents per gallon savings on the year. The numbers used here are based on six months worth of transportation expenses with an average of 16.5 miles one-way to our medical service providers. I used Google maps to determine the distances. We completed 55 trips for medical purposes at 33 miles round trip on average for a total of 1814 miles in approximately six months. (Shown below in the “Extreme” column) There were 29 trips averaging 28.6 miles not including Caden’s appointments. (Shown below in the “Normal” column)

You will notice that our adjusted price per gallon of gas price is now at $2.51 based on the original $3 per gallon purchase price.

There are a few notable items.

1. The better mileage your vehicle gets the more you will save per mile. I actually used conservative numbers for our car so the actual savings for us is well above 50 cents per gallon on the year.
2. The vehicle that my wife drives averages less than 10K miles per year of driving. The higher the percentage of miles driven for medical purposes will increase your savings. If your vehicle is used only for medical purposes, then you would likely end up making money.
3. Higher gas prices will mean less savings unless the IRS adjusts the mileage rate for 2008. The rate went up from 18 to 20 cents last year.
4. If you drive a vehicle that gets terrible mileage or if the price of gas goes up faster than the mileage rate, then you would be better off taking the actual expenses in reimbursement instead of the 20 cents per mile allowance.

Participation in a Health Care Flexible Spending Accounts should be approached with some caution. Any money put into the accounts pre-taxed must be used for expenses within the plan year or the money will be forfeited at the end of each year. I had planned to get an implant this year that was going to cost about $1800. The implant could not be scheduled this year so I ended up with $1800 more in my flex account than planned. This led me to start combing through the list of reimbursable items allowed by the IRS to see what I could use to retrieve some of my cash. The transportation expenses were a great discovery that I was not aware of even though I have been a faithful flex plan participant for more than 10 years. The transportation expense reimbursement along with regular co-pays, over the counter medications, deductibles, and other medical expenses is allowing for me to utilize the entire $2100 that I diverted into my flexible spending account pre-tax this year. My total tax savings will be as much as $588 based on a 28% tax.

I encourage you to investigate your benefits package to see if it includes a Health Care Flexible Spending Account. If you are already a member, then I hope you are making use of the transportation category to save you some cash on gas.

This little guy is a handful of joy.

This is a picture of me holding Josiah the latest addition to our family. Josiah is six weeks old today.  He is as beautiful in person as he is in the pictures.

You can read more about all of my three sons on Caden’s Page.

The posting has been light over the past few weeks. On top of doing some behind the scenes coding for GrowingKids.org, I have been preparing for the latest addition to the Osborne camp.  Josiah Joseph (JJ) was born this past Friday, August 10th at 8:24PM.  He weighed in at 8lb 10oz and is 20 1/2 inches.  Josiah did create plenty of excitement when he arrived and I posted much of that story on Caden’s Page in the past few days.   There are also a few more pictures of all three of my boys on Caden’s Page.

“Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.” Psalm 127:3 (NLT)