Signazon.com Review

A few weeks ago I was contacted by a marketing representative at signazon.com asking if I would be interested in reviewing one of their awesome products. I of course jumped at the chance.

There were so many items that sparked my interest that it was hard to make my final decision.

After much deliberation on my part I finally settled on one of signazon's canvas prints. I've wanted a canvas print of our family for quite some time now but I've either not had the money available or just haven't gotten around to it when I did.

I'm so glad I picked the canvas print. My experience with signazon went very smoothly, shipping was quick and my product arrived without any shipping damage thanks to lot of wrapping precautions.

I am in love with my print and I was so excited to receive it. I've gotten lots of comments from family and friends who have seen it as it's much bigger and more beautiful in person. For now it rests a top of our entertainment center but fingers crossed, next year it will grace the wall of our new home along with a few more prints from signazon.

1st Day of Preschool

This little lady started her first day of preschool last Monday. She was so excited to be going to school that she could barely see straight. I had her shirt made for her and she told me she wanted to wear a skirt with it so that is what we did. 

Little sister had to wear a skirt to match. Next year at this time I'll have two babies in preschool. 

Mommy, little sister, and her mamaw took her to school on her first day and as you can see by the picture, we didn't leave quick enough for her. She now rides the school bus to and from school and it's all she talks about. Every bus she sees is her school bus. I love this baby so much and it's tough on mommy putting her on the bus all by herself and sending her to school with people I barely know let alone fully trust but it's a part of her growing up and I just have to trust in the Lord to keep her safe.

A Mid-Week Random

* Addison will be starting preschool very soon. I hope. We opted to send her to our school districts preschool program and it's becoming a bigger hassle than I anticipated. She has an hour long assessment tomorrow morning where they will decide if she has any learning disabilities or decide if she will be a good fit for their typical peer program. I will find out next week if she has made the cut and then she will get to participate in a play date with her peers where the final determination will be made. I'm thinking she won't be in school until September and seeing everyone elses kids already starting preschool has me on the anxious side. I'm calling around to other preschools this afternoon to have a back up preschool in case this one doesn't work out. The girl has her back pack and lunch box all ready to go so we're ready to do this thing!!

* I decided in July that I was tired of fighting with Addison and her hair. She would wake up with a rats nest of tangles every single day and wouldn't keep her hair pulled back. It took some time but I bit the bullet and had her hair chopped off to right past the shoulder. And after another morning and Cadence being hysterical getting her hair done, she has a very tender scalp, I decided it was time for hers as well. Cadence's was cut to her chin  and gone are all of her curls. I may or may not have cried as they were chopping it off. Her hair was beautiful and sitting there as they were about to begin I about had an anxiety attack...lol. I had to remind myself that it will be easier for her and less painful so I pulled myself together.

*Daniel has been traveling a lot lately. He was gone all last week and while I don't tend to miss him during the day since I'm used to him not being here, the evenings are a different story. I miss the adult interaction and talking about our days.

* We've planned a surprise birthday party for the girls at the Great Wolf Lodge in February. I'm so excited I can barely see straight. Four days of nothing but fun and splashing with close family. We'll have a smaller Princess party for the rest of the family the weekend after we get back. Just cake and a few snacks.

* Speaking of birthdays...I'm turning the big 3-0 next month. Daniel is getting me a hotel room in our town over night the Saturday before and me and some close female family members are doing some early Christmas shopping, dinner, and then hanging out at the hotel pool. I'm ready for a night away from my children...lol.

* Our garden is about done for the season.We're still getting an assortment of peppers, okra, and some cherry tomatoes but that's about it. Now we're patiently waiting for when we can harvest all of our pumpkins. We have a ton.

* We have never been cat people but when we rescued Sophia from the side of the road in June while out searching for Bandit things around here have changed. I haven't been enforcing the "she stays outside on the porch rule" quite as much. In fact she occasionally sleeps inside at night. Not only are we becoming lenient with her but we've become the neighborhood cat gathering. We now have two outdoor cats which we know belong at the farm across the street but I swear they are here at our house more than their own. We've named them and everything.

* Now that the official announcement has been made I can share the news here on the blog. I'm going to be an auntie again. My sister Nikki is expecting her third child this March. Apparently we like to have our children in February and March in our family. Hopefully in a couple of years I will be able to announce that I'm expecting my third child but Daniel is still a work in progress.

Family Vacation 2013

As I mentioned in a post right after Christmas my uncle Dan and aunt Robin gifted our entire family with a trip to the Great Wolf Lodge and Cedar Point for the first week of August. We've been back for a few days now and it's hard to believe that it is all over. It went by so quickly that I feel like we weren't even there. Plans are already in motion for a week long trip next year and I can't wait.

Here are a bunch of pictures that I wanted to share!

A mid-week random

I haven't posted in awhile and I figured now would be a perfect time to do so as we have had a lot of exciting events take place this past few weeks.

* I'm still recovering from my ostomy reversal surgery in April. I've recovered from the actual surgery but now I'm just dealing with the side effect of having a foot of my intestines cut out and then having a bag for a year. Can somebody say lots of bathroom breaks?

* For once, someone other than myself in this house needs surgery. Daniel is having his gall bladder removed next Friday. Selfishly it's going to be nice to not be the patient this time.

* My brother Steve got married on June 1st in Cincinnati. We made the decision to stay overnight that Friday instead of driving the hour and a half drive back home with two sleepy children. We were very busy those two days but everything went off without a hitch and I must say, we all clean up nice.

* While we were at the wedding we had our friends keep Bandit. As we pulled into their driveway that night to pick Bandit up there was a driveway full of cars and people running frantically around. Bandit had run away ten minutes before we arrived and they couldn't find him. Exactly one week later, Bandit finally made his way back to their house. Last week was horribly frustrating for us but we became pretty popular on Facebook as everyone was sharing his story/picture and were out looking for him. We passed out over 500 flyer's and combined with all of our friends and family, probably spent 48 hours looking for him. We're so relieved that his sorry butt is back home.

* During the Sunday Daniel and I spent looking for Bandit we found a new addition to our household. Sophia Loren, the kitten has made her way into our hearts and the girls are very smitten with her. Never in a million years did I think we would ever own a cat but our hearts which were already breaking for Bandit, just couldn't leave her sitting on the side of the road. I love her so much!!

* Our garden this year is looking AWESOME. I can't wait for it to start producing more than a few strawberries here and there.

* In seven weeks we'll be taking our big family vacation to Cedar Point. We are all so excited we can't see straight. The trip was a gift to all of us from my aunt and uncle for Christmas this past year and they were kind enough to invite my mother-in-law along for the journey. I can't wait to see the girls faces with all of their cousins and Daniel is excited to spend a day fishing on Lake Erie.

* The process has started for Addison to begin preschool this fall. She has her preschool screening on August 21st to check for any learning disabilities but it's just a formality to make sure she doesn't need to be in the special Ed class. She is very excited to get a back pack and to ride the "cool" bus. Also, the bus will be lello, not yellow...lol. I need anxiety medication just thinking about putting her on a bus and then her walking into school and into her class all without me. When did my little baby get old enough to go to preschool?

The Little's

It's obviously very tiring to munch on some chips while watching "tatoons."

Addison Grace. This child is so precious while she sleeps. It doesn't happen as much when she's awake.

Addison Grace and Cadence Leah. I pray that they will be best friends for life!

This little girl makes me laugh like no other. She picked her own outfit that morning and her leggings are actually my socks from the hospital...lol.

Surgery #2

I've been a little quiet lately but I wanted to give an update just to have on hand for myself to look back on.

I am a week and a half out from having my second surgery to reverse my ileostomy and mucous fistula stoma. This recovery has been a lot worse than my first surgery was but I can already see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I insisted on having a PICC line put in for this surgery and it meant that I had to arrive at the hospital at 8 a.m. on Tuesday morning. Even though I'm practically a professional at having these things put in, I still almost had a panic attack half way through the procedure. They do not hurt as the area is numbed before anything is started, but it's very uncomfortable when they are inserting the line and testing to make sure that it's properly placed. The doctor and nurse do their best to talk you through the process to help keep your mind off of it but I still tend to get overwhelmed. I have had a different doctor each time I have had this done but I've been blessed to have the same nurse each and every time. She is a kind woman who prayed with me after they were done.

I went in to this with a very heavy heart. I received a frantic phone call from my step-mom on Easter Sunday regarding my mammaw. She is in complete kidney failure and has been in and out of the hospital and rehab center for the past several months. They rushed her to the hospital ICU that Sunday with an infection and they didn't expect her to live through the night. By the time we were done celebrating Easter at our home and I was ready to head out to be with my family I was notified that she was starting to stabilize. I made the decision to stay home so that I could begin the prep for my surgery. First thing Monday I headed to the hospital where I spent the better part of the day with my family and mammaw. I was fortunate to have been given time alone with her so that I could say my peace with her and I was so lucky to know that she acknowledged my presence by moving and trying to mouth something to me.

I knew going in on Tuesday that there was a chance that she could pass during my hospital stay and that I would be unable to attend her funeral. God was looking over her and she has pulled through and has been moved from the ICU to a regular hospital room. I can't begin to tell you how much better I felt during my hospital stay knowing that she was out of the woods for now.

Going back to Tuesday I was given some anxiety medication to help calm my nerves and I spent the next several hours in pre-op with Daniel and my sister Nikki who had come home that morning to be with me and our mammaw.

I don't remember much once they came to get me because they give you even more drugs to relax you before they even head to the operating room. I do remember moving from my bed to the operating table and that was it until I woke up in the recovery room. I don't remember anything of that day or the following after my first surgery so it was nice to be coherent so much sooner this time.  My surgery started at one and by 5/5:30 I was being wheeled to my room. My room with a roommate.

I had a very bad experience during my first hospital stay a couple of years ago when I shared a room with someone. I was a crying mess insisting on getting my own room. I think I even threatened to go home if I had to share a room with someone this time. By that time my aunt Robin was with Daniel so between laughing at my nonsense, they managed to calm me down. Thankfully I was given my own room by midnight that night. My poor nurses were doing their best to get that room clean and actually had the box fan I requested in the room trying to dry the floors.

My nerves were much calmer once I had my own room. I know I sound like a brat but believe me, I was justified in wanting my own room. A Crohns patient recovering from surgery with bowels that aren't working properly should not be forced to share a bathroom with another patient and I'll leave it at that.

The next few days were the same, just different days. I had a lot of pain that they had trouble getting under control. The morphine pump I had just wasn't cutting it. I think by the time I left the hospital I was on a dialdid pump, percocet pills taken orally, and was given another pain medicine via IV every four hours. My pain this time was horrible. I have five different incisions and the incisions where they reversed my stomas were the worst. I guess I had torn my ileostomy twice because of the weight I had gained and doing to much. I have to lose weight asap to prevent tearing open my incisions from the inside out. I have to wear a brace around my stomach for the next three months and I'll take it if it means that my insides are going to split open from the inside out.

The first few days after my surgery I spent quite a bit of time in the bathroom. I was expecting that hence why I insisted on getting my own room at the hospital. My pain is finally easing up but my appetite has taken a drastic turn. While I had my ileostomy food went through my system so quickly that I was pretty much always hungry. Combine that with being stuck at home with lots of temptation and not being able to do as much physically as I would like because of my prolapsed ileostomy...I ate a lot and gained a lot. Now, I have no appetite at all. I'm seriously forcing myself to eat so that I don't get sick and once again, I'm back to taking my ever loving time eating anything. I'm such a slow eater. Wednesday night my aunt Robin stopped by after work to sweep and take out the trash for me and she splurged and order us some pizza for dinner. I'm pretty sure it took me about three hours to get down to slices of pizza and two bread sticks.

Like I said, the recovery this go around has been rough but I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm so excited to see how I'm going to feel in just a few weeks. Now I get to deal with my anxiety about bathrooms outside of the home...lol.