11 Things about '11 that I am excited about!

This year, instead of a post like Last Year's; which was neither sad or happy, it just was, I want to focus on the things we are looking forward to most in 2011. While 2010 was one (for the lack of a better word) HELL of a year we are hoping to put that behind us and leave it a distant memory. So with no further adue our list.

Top 11 Things for '11

11. Visting more family out of town

10. Play dates with friends when he can actually leave the house

9. Weight loss before getting pregnant (see #3)

8. Finishing my schooling and getting a medical transcription job to work from home

7. Keegan walking and Talking-although first we have to crawl

6. Less trips to Riley and more trips to fun places like the zoo

5. A neice or nephew to grow up with Kee

4. Starting my crafting business-Kee to My Creations

3. Baby #2 being conceived

2. Trip to Florida with our Family

1. Health and Remission

So here out with the old and in with the new. While this year has proved to be one of hardest of all of our lives, I think it has made us the people we are destined to become. It hasn't been easy and I wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemy but it is what it is, here is to praying 2011 proves to be healther, happier, and easier than 2010 was!

Found this quote and I think it is perfect for our New Year's Montra:

There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.- Albert Einstein

With Love!



Wordless Wednesday

Merry Christmas!

This year I am exceptionally Merry. I can't tell you that in the past I have been the same. It has been years since I have felt the Christmas spirit, and I can tell you EXACTLY why this year is different. We get to celebrate our Christmas AT HOME with our family, as a family, and Keegan is here.

I started my shopping rather earlier than I ever do. There are probably a few factors for that, one being we didn't know when we would be "home" from the hospital and for how long. Also because I needed to budget what and how I was going to spend my "allotted" amount. I was also stuck in the hospital with Keegan for 6 weeks straight then two weeks at RMH with nothing to do but watch TV and cruise the Internet. So I think it was around July or so I started picking things up. First it was a T-shirt here or a mug there. I found GREAT photo deals on Snapfish, shutterfly and Vista Print and also free samples from some of my favorite blogs that came in handy for stocking stuffers. I have definitely learned how to be thrifty this year.

With that said, since I started so early I also got done exceptionally early which has really given me a chance to not stress about the gifts and getting them shipped to our families but concentrate on what Christmas is all about and enjoy being home with my husband, son, mom and sisters (and my brother in law too of coarse).

I found a great website called freecycle.com. Evansville happens to have one and I have begun giving away things left over from our charity yard sale to people that could and need this stuff. I found a lady collecting for our Rescue Mission (its a homeless shelter for men). I found all the coats I could, Ry cleaned out his closet, I gave all our million hospital pillows we took home, spare blankets we had accumulated, and I cleaned out our pantry so these gentlemen would have some food. It was amazing to be able to give things that we no longer had use for to people that really needed it. This is the email I got from the worker lady that picked the stuff up on Wednesday:

Thank you so much for all the goodies.   Several pillows and blankets, 3 coats, and a few other things all went out in the first few minutes we were open!   The people were so thankful to get the pillows and blankets.  And the coats will definitely keep some of them warm!   The food will come in handy for the food baskets we give to those in need. 

Folks like you are a blessing and allow us to do what we do.  Please thank your husband and friends for the donations also.  God bless you all.  Have a wonderful Christmas and a healthy new year.   You have certainly carried out the true meaning of Christmas with your donations.

If we can be of any help to you, please let us know. 
 I in no means did this to get recognition, I just wanted to share how good it felt to help others in need. Last year my family had decided that instead of buying for one another which can, and for some reason always get out of control, that we would adopt a family. Well we threw that idea out the window when Keegan got sick because well, quite frankly we have had the year from hell and we thought we deserved to have a good Christmas. But I think God, Santa, Jesus, or the Great Divine thought otherwise.

I came across this post that a friend shared on facebook and just knew I had to help. I read the post and contacted Jenny immediately. God had meant for me to read this post and donate b/c within hours I got a donation on our blog for almost the same exact amount that I donated to a mother of 4 children who works at the waffle house for three dollars and something cents an hour. The children's father hasn't been around and she gets no support from him. She wasn't sure how she was going to do Christmas until this post came up. I sent her a Wal Mart gift card overnight for her to spend so the boys would have a Christmas. I feel fortunate that so many people have helped us this year that I just had to do something. Does this make me a saint? Hell no. Does it make me a better person? No, but it did warm my heart in knowing that I helped someone who otherwise would have had to explain to her children ranging in age from 11 down to 5 why Santa didn't come this year. No this doesn't make me better than you or my next door neighbor, it was just something I felt compelled to do and so proud to be a part of. Jenny was actually on Canadian TV yesterday talking about how huge this thing turned out to be. You can check it out on her site.

So with all these things: Keegan being home, families being helped, a roof over our head, and thousands of people around this great country that love and care for Keegan as much as we do-Merry Christmas! It has been one heck of a ride this year and we are so glad we get to celebrate together with food, drink and family!

May you and yours be as blessed and may you have a Merry Christmas filled with Love,

Wordless Wednesday

Do I have smoke coming out of my ears?

Warning: This post is not a happy post, if you are looking for a pleasant puppy dogs and rainbows post please wait utnil tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday.

Now onto a very important topic that I am sure many of my readers will find intresting and very upsetting.
Backstory: My mother in law was fighting Breast Cancer back in '04, it was then that I turned to Susan G. Komen and their efforts to raise money to help my mother in law's case. I donated, walked, you name it I tried to do it in the name of Breast cancer and all the brave women fighting worldwide. With that said, it was brought to my attention by my friend over at The Sartins via The Layla Grace Foundation, some intresting information about The Susan G. Komen Foundation.

The article that Cassie shared, and thus has gone viral on facebook between a lot of my friends is this one.  It goes into great detail how the foundation (that is what we are going to refer to them as for the safe of typing it all out) has gone to extreme lengths to go after/sue small little mom and pop foundations that use "for the cure" in their title or activites.  According to this article on The Huffington Post dot com, the foundation has filed legal action against over a hundred  smaller entities that use the term in their heading, example: Kites for a Cure.  According to this article the foundation came after them hard and heavy. They were fortunate to have lawyers want to help with no charge and fought the foundation to win! (Good for them!!) However, they have to make sure that all there advertisement and such bears that it is for "lung cancer" so people don't think its associated with the foundation. Absolutely. Ridiculous! They can also never use the color pink in anything? But as someone quoted in the article adds, where is the line drawn, what if they use Carnation pink or Magenta for a specific purpose, will the war start all over?

Its also pointed out in the article that the money "the foundation" is using to pay for these big ticket lawyers is money that has been donated to the foundation for research purposes. Although they claim this is only a small percentage of the funds received, when I donate to a certain organization or cause I want to know that it is going for the better good, not to help destroy other charitable organizations.

I.am.livid! There is no other way to put it and I am not going stand for this. From now on, I am not going to particiate in any, I REPEAT any Foundation related events. I also vow to NOT purchase products that give percentages to The foundation i.e. yogurt, kotex and such. You should also be aware of this article. You be your own judge. But I am making a vow to myself and all the people fighting cancer worldwide, like Keegan, I WILL NO LONGER support The foundation, this is appaling and I am not going to stand for it!

Whats that? You're Home?

We are HOME! I don't know if I can believe it myself but we are here. Resting comfortably in our own home in Evansville. Monday morning we (my mom, myself and Keegan) got up early and headed over to Riley for our 9:30 MRI. I had already pre-packed most of Keegan and I's belongings and were just waiting on the "go ahead" from our stem cell doctors to head on home.

Keegan's MRI didn't officially start until around 10:30, an hour after it was scheduled to start-which was very frustrating. He had to be sedated (of coarse, he always is) and was gone in the back for 2 hours! When he finally came out he was REAL cranky so mom and I attempted to give him a bottle of water thickened with apple sauce. He wanted nothing to do with it, our nurse needed him to take something before she would let us go so we laid him down and let him "rest" with the bottle. He then began devouring it. After we were released from MRI we practically RAN up to the third floor in clinic for our weekly stem cell appointment.

They drew his blood, he finished his bottle, and the nurse practitioner and Dr. Haut came in to talk to us about the "plan". He said everything looked great (minus this nasty skin rash he can't seem to kick) and that "preliminarily" the MRI looked unchanged and stable. This helped to ease my fears but when they did let me know that Dr. Shih still needed to read it along with a radiologists and they would call me, I think my heart skipped a couple of beats, I just HATE not knowing.

I basically told Dr. Haut we were ready to leave and that I had most of the apartment at Ronald McDonald house packed up. He kinda snickered and said, I am surprised you don't have the car loaded yet! So exciting to hear the words HOME. I hadn't slept in my bed since October 16th and it was LONG overdue.

We went home with a Hemoglobin of 8.5 which is "okay" but not great. They told me to watch his irritability and paleness and to let them know if I saw either. We left the HEMOC clinc last Monday and the nurse practitioner was gonna email me our next appointment date and some advice from our nutritionist on weaning Kee off the pump.

Verdict is, We are headed back to Indy on Monday the 12th for a clinic visit, I am nervous because they are saying its supposed to snow on Sunday, I would hope the major roads will be clear by Monday morning but nonetheless, I drive and Impala (no 4 wheel drive this year!). Wish us luck, my lil sister is going with me cause I hate traveling alone.

I have a few special posts coming up and are very excited to share. Sorry this post is kinda dull with no pics. I haven't been good about pics lately. I think its because I still trying to adjust to a new normal.
Thanks for hanging in here and welcome to my new followers I have had the pleasure of meeting through the blog hops I have participated in! 

Talk to you soon!
Love,

It's a funny thing....

I thought that I would let ya'll know I have been contacted by Overstock.com to feature them in a blog post and add links to some of their products. After which I would be able to provide my readers with a 10% off coupon code. I find this funny and odd all at the same time. I am not a giveaway blog, I am not a "featured product" blog, nor am I a blog that reviews products. I blog about my life. My life that is ANYTHING but normal.

I was contacted by a PR person to do it. I was kinda like "well what's in it for me" because honestly I don't think Overstock has very good prices and have NEVER bought anything from them. I always find better deals at Amazon.com or ebay.com. This particular PR rep never said anything, so, I apologize to all my followers but that is not what this blog is about (not that it would be if I was compensated) but this blog is about life; about living life with a child that has a disability. Not about the next best sale at Overstock.com.

I don't know how she got ahold of me. I don't know if they google pages with so many hits or what. I obviously don't have thousands of followers publicly like some of the blogs I follow do. So I don't know why me but I am sorry, I can't bring myself to do it and whats 10% anyway? 

Hope Everyone is having a joyous Holiday Season, I myself can't wait to get the go ahead to head home, its almost been 2 full months since we have stepped foot in our own home!!!

Love,

Wordless Wednesday