Happy Thanksgiving

Well, it official.  My sisters, sister-in-law and I are NUTS.  Down right crazy.  We braved the crowds and went black friday shopping at WalMart's 12:01 am sale. I got a few things but my favorite is the bicycle for Troy for his birthday.  I am so excited about that!  I do have to say that people are down right crazy.  Oh man.  Erin decided that she would like something to eat and a quick McDonald's drive thru turned into a rediculous 30 minute wait.  Then about half way home, we almost hit a herd of cows, literally by the hair on my chinny chin chin.  I got to bed at 3:30 am and was up at 7, needless to say I am tired.

Thanksgiving is usually a low key holiday for us.  This year, I made the whole dinner and all then later we went over to my dad's and ate some more!  I made a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  The sage and garlic turkey,sausage stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, green bean casserole and dinner rolls.  We had pumpkin pie loaded with Cool Whip for dessert.  It was fantastic.  Rylee loved it.  Troy broke out in hives from who knows what (a little benadryl and he was fixed).   We went around the table and said what we were thankful for.  Troy said "peanut butter sandwich", haha, it's been his favorite lately.  This is a photo of my scrumptious turkey.

It's been a while since I posted about what has been happening in our family.  Rylee's big testing is coming up, Tues Nov 30th.  They are testing her for Growth Hormone Deficiency.  We will then discuss why this is, what the treatment is, who we see next...those kinds of questions.  Then Dec 1st, I have been subpoenaed to court.  First time I have ever been to court and I HAVE to be there.  In August 2008, I became a Notary Public.  I am bonded and all.  In October 2009, I had a family come in and I notarized a will.  Now, after a death, there is a controversy over that will and I am the main witness.  That darn Notary.  Since then I have been much more leery of what I am notarizing.  I am nervous as all get out.  I have to make it through Rylee's testing first and pray to the high heavens that nothing goes wrong at that appointment.  That attorney does know that she has this big testing and there is always a possibility of something going wrong, especially with Rylee and her "damaged" organs. 

Lately, I have been crafty.  A while ago, when I started making Halloween costumes, I got fabric to make Christmas stockings for our family.  I finally got them made.  They are so darn cute. I spent $16.95 to make those.  I already had the interfacing so I just had to buy the fabric.  I still have to put our names on them but I think I am just going to get those iron on sheets and print them on. So for about $3.50 each, we each has personalized, custom stockings, can't beat that!

 Troy and Kristopher's stockings

 Rylee and my stockings

 Weston's stocking

Last weekend, I decided to make an apron because I don't have one.  It turned out so cute!  I had so much material left over, that I decided to attempt to make Rylee a dress.  It's a pillowcase dress and it's so cute.  I just love it.  She looks adorable in it though I didn't get any pictures of her wearing it.  It cost me just under $10 for the 2 yards of material and I still have quite a bit left over.  So for $10, I got an apron and an infant sized dress.

2 weeks ago, I spent my sunday at the sewing maching and made 1 panel for the kids bedroom window.  I have 3 more to make for their room and 4 for ours.  I couldn't stomach spending the $10 per yard for the fabric I wanted for the kids room.  I wanted something colorful yet still go with the grayish, silvery paint we got to paint their room.  I found those most adorable fabric for our room and there again I couldn't spend that much money just for curtains.  The designer fabric was 30% off so I got them for about $7 per yard.  So instead of getting the 10 yards that I needed (2.5 yards per window), I got 4 yards of the designer ($7/yard x 4 yards = $28) and 6 yards of muslin ($1.39/yard x6 yards = $8.34 for a total of $36.34 for 8 panels to cover 4 windows...not bad!).  I had a picture in my head of how to would turn out.  It looked awesome.  Now that I have my pattern down from making the first one, I need to get crackin' on the other 7, ugh.  And we need to get those rooms painted.

I also made curtains for my kitchen sink window and a valence for the dining room window to match.  Cute right?  I made both of those for about $7. 

I also made a WI Badger wreath.  The tulle cost me $6, the styrofoam wreath $3 and the "W" for $1 for a total of $10.  I decided that I needed to make a wreath hanger to go with so for $7 I made one.

I also made this twined "K".  The twine was $2 and the letter K was $1 for a total of $3. 

I made these jars.  I spent about $2 per jar, used the same roll of twine from the letter K above, $1 each for the finials, $1 each for the spinals and $.50 for each of round bases for a total of $13.  (I still have to attach the bottoms to the jars but one of the jars are bubbled so I am trying to figure out how I am going to do that.)  I got the rocks from the dollar store so $2 there.

I had so much fun but I think I am taking a break from crafting for a bit.  I need to get our bedrooms painted and curtains made and hung.  I am excited to see the finished project.  It's on my too do BEFORE christmas.  I got the ideas of the twined K, Apothecary jars and wreath hanger from Shanty2Chic.  Right now they have not 1 but 2 giveaways that I am excited about. The first giveaway you'll see is for Gorilla glue.  That stuff is amazing.  They have some great epoxy glue.  The other giveaway, I will extremely heartbroken if I don't win, is for a Silhouette Machine.  Oh my goodness, I want one of those really really really bad.  It would make my crafting so much easier.  You probably ask, why the Silhouette versus a Cricut? Because, you get patterns and such online for $.99 I believe for the Silhouette versus the Cricut cartridges for $60+. 

Here are a few more overdue photos.  My little Weston is not so little anymore.    He is battling a cold right now and just got over a nasty ear infection. 

Our Journey with a Preemie Princess

Last year, I wrote this post for Premature Awareness Month Bloggers Unite event on November 17, 2009.  In the last year, we've been busy.  We successfully made it through RSV, cold and flu season without any major illnesses.  In February 2010, I found out that I was pregnant...again, due September 8, 2010.  This pregnancy was a rough one.  I had major morning sickness, achiness, Braxton Hicks since week 13...I was just miserable the entire time!  In April 2010, Rylee started seeing a GI doctor and nutritionist monthly.  We have tried many different diets and medications.  So far, since February Rylee has gained 1 lb.  In the end of July, Rylee started vomiting again.  Her GI doctor and nutritionist decided that it would be best to have her head measured.  I rushed her to the local clinic at closing time, had her head measured and sent off to the Children's Hospital in Madison.  By 9 am the following morning, they had reviewed it and called.  They wanted her there right away to have a brain scan done.  The scan showed that her shunt had indeed quit working.  She was scheduled for the surgery the following morning, July 30th.  It went well and we were able to come home the 31st.  On August 2nd, I went to work like any other Monday morning.  I had contractions all day but chalked it up to those Braxton Hicks.  I had a regular 34 week OB appointment at 3:30 pm.  I got in the car and started to the clinic, which takes 35 minutes to get there, when those contractions started to hurt a little.  I told the nurse when I got there and got this look like "you are not in labor!"   I was doing a doctor rotation so a new doctor whom I had never seen before came in with her head in my file.  She looked at me and said "oh my gosh, ok...how long have you been shaking?"  She called an ambulance to take me to the hospital since I was no longer in any shape to drive and I was 3 cm and 90%.  Those EMTs, both men, wheeled me out of the clinic on a stretcher through the OB waiting room.  I probably scared the daylights out of those waiting expectant moms.  I was 5 cm and completely effaced when I got to the hospital.  Weston Robert was born 5 weeks, 3 days early.  He started grunting with each breath and had some trouble catching on to eating.  He spent 19 days in the NICU.  5 days after bringing Weston home, I noticed that an incision from Rylee's July surgery was broke open and there was a black something inside of it.  The next day, I took her to see Dr. Alison who was extremely upset by this, got us an appointment at the children's hospital for the following morning and instructed us to go to the UW ER if if broke open again, bled or could see the black "thing".  As of Monday, we found out that Rylee's shunt was exposed and she needed an entirely new shunt.  Dr. Bragg (the new Neurosurgeon) tapped her shunt for infection and instructed us to be back in the morning for surgery.  I was extremely nervous that morning.  They took her back and it seemed like forever before we got an update.  Dr. Bragg came in and said that she had just closed Rylee up and getting ready to clean her off, when the phone rang.  It was the lab, saying that Rylee's culture from the shunt tapping the afternoon before had grown out for positive strep coag.  So Dr. Bragg, went back into surgery to remove the shunt, place a PICC line, and place an EVD.  Rylee was in the Pediatric ICU for 8 days before undergoing another surgery to put a new shunt in.   Today, Rylee and Weston are healthy and happy.  Weston has completely caught up with his age.  Rylee is lagging about 12 months behind.  They wear the same sized clothes and diapers.  It's like having twins.  The last 22 months have been hard.  As a mother, my heart has broke many times watching my child go through test after test.  Whenever I have a "down" day, I think about her toothy smile, infectious laugh and the mere fact, that truly against all odds, she is here with us.  We don't know what her life expectancy is but she will have the best life we can give her.

Too many babies are born early.  The cause of Rylee's prematurity is unknown.  There are problems with her heart, lungs, kidneys, intestines, brain, feet, hands...could these have been prevented if she was a full term baby?  We'll never know.  Give a baby a chance, donate to the March of Dimes.  Do it for Rylee!

I made a quick little video of Rylee's last 22 months.  Enjoy!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Lots of STUFF

Happy Tuesday everyone.  It's not so happy for me.  Sunday, I woke with a horrible sore throat and terrible head ache.  I spent much of Sunday with a fever in bed, sleeping.  I woke on Monday, without a fever or headache but still an awfully sore throat.  As yesterday progressed, I became feverish, achy body, light headed...so I broke down and called the doctor.  I have strep throat.  Never have I had such pain in my life.  Dr. Alison prescribed me some amoxicillan and wrote me a note to stay out of work today.  I took my amoxicillian and went to bed.  I woke 12 hours later covered in hives.  Apparently I am allergic to amoxicillian.  They're going to get me some different antibiotics and steroids for the hives.  Glad I wasn't at work today.  Right now, I don't have a fever just quite itchy and sore. 

Next order of business is the month of November.  November is Prematurity Awareness month.  Do you remember my post about my little miracle last year? Click here to read it again.  November 17th is Prematurity awareness day.  I will blog that day with Bloggers Unite about not only Rylee but her little brother Weston too.  1 in 8 babies are born premature, support those babies on November 17th by blogging or donating to the March of Dimes or by simply wearing purple.

Moving on to the holidays.  We recently celebrated Halloween.  I am not really sure this constitutes as a holiday but boy did Troy have fun. We got all the kids dressed up in their costumes.  We went to the assisted living facility that my grandma is at to visit with her.  Then we ventured over to my dad's, my aunt and uncle's, and my dad's wife's parents (did you get that?  They also are my bosses!).  We got home in time for the trick or treating.  Rylee, Weston and I stayed home to hand candy out while Kris and Troy went Trick or Treating.  I watched from the door as he went to the first house, the lady on the corner.  Aren't these the cutest pirates you've ever seen?  I am so proud of their costumes.  They weren't hard to make but I made them all by myself.  They turned out better than I thought. Rylee had a pirate tutu. So cute!

Thanksgiving is right around the corner.  This is the 3rd or 4th year that Kris and I have just done Thanksgiving as our little family.  I love this.  It's a day of deliciousness, cozy house, jammies, great food, family, football and BLACK FRIDAY ADS!  I don't exactly have my menu planned out yet but we'll be having the usual turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie.  I love cooking for my family and can't wait until their older.  My sons will tell their wives, make that like my mom!  HAHA!  I have never been one to get up early and do the black friday events.  The crowds bug me.  But I think I am going to attend this year with my sister, sister-in-law...whoever is going before I work that day.  I don't know what I will get if anything but we'll see.  I am pretty I went like 5 years ago and didn't get anything, just helped out my sisters.

Speaking of Christmas shopping, had I be on the mend, Kristopher and I are going to go do some Christmas shopping this weekend.  I am excited to spend some time with him.  He's been wonderful to me, especially the last couple of days.  My in-laws are wonderfully taking ALL the kids, so we can have some time away.  Plus, Santa needs to get the stuff to our house without children seeing it.  Here's a sneak peek into what Santa and Mrs. Klaus (we spell things with Ks around here, not Cs!) plan to pick up on their day out....

 Smart Trike for Weston or Rylee, not quite sure which one yet

 

Train set for Troy - Santa and Mrs. Klaus plan to set this up so it's play ready Christmas morning

We may also be getting our hands on a play kitchen so a shopping cart and play food and dishes may be in order too.  

Before Christmas we are in major need to purge purge purge some toys.  They are overtaking our home and we can't possible add anymore unless we get rid of some!

It's not going to be a very expensive Christmas but it's going to be a great one.  We have much to be thankful of like always.  Don't forget about Prematurity Awareness day on November 17th, wear something purple.