I almost forgot....

to update you about the horrible flu we had. It wasn't the SWINE flu .... althought my kids do act like little piggies at times!

Jessica, Austin and Karl are all feeling MUCH better. Karl is still coughing some but at least is able to sleep and work. Austin has been back to school for about a week and is catching up on his school work. Justen is coughing a little here and there but I think it's mostly allergies at this point... in fact, I wouldn't be surprised is Karl's cough is allergy related too. Jessica is still on prednisone but I'm going to call her pulmonary doctor today and see about weaning her off of it. It is making her puffy, ornery and she REALLY can't sleep at night. Fortunately Brandon and I didn't get the cough. My voice was raspy and my sinuses are still giving me some trouble (not extreme) but I think it's allergy related too. I have these same problems every fall and every spring. Lucky me!

I am so thankful everyone in my home that was sick is getting better. I'm exhausted from taking care of everyone while they were sick. I think I need a vacation. My older brother and his family are going to Hawaii later this month. I wonder if I can fit into a VERY LARGE suitcase and go with them? haha!

Thank you for checking in on us and I'm sorry I didn't update sooner. It's been a rough few weeks.

((hugs)) to you all!

Updated on Jess, me and Computer viruses!

I took Jessica to the Peds Cardiologist on Tuesday and the visit went pretty well. We were there quite awhile for tests and we still have to go to the lab for blood work. They did an EKG and an Echo. Everything looks about the same as last year: her right ventricle is very large, aortic valve is leaking between mild-moderate range, shunt is open and working. We discussed her pain and the fact that she is in pain 99% of the time... sometimes her level is up to 9 1/2 (according to Jess) and she cries when it's that high. The pain sometimes wakes her up during her sleep and then she can't get back to sleep for awhile. The Cardiologist reminded me of his conversation with the GI doc and since there isn't anything they can do to prevent the pain, he recommended sending us to a pain clinic. I'm hoping and praying that they will be able to make her more comfortable and increase her quality of life. I haven't had a chance to call them and set up an appointment yet but I hope to do that in the next couple of days.

We had to cancel an appointment with the psychiatrist yesterday since Jess must have gotten overtired from the visit to the Peds cardiologist and didn't get to bed until after 3:00am. She then woke up a couple of hours later in pain and didn't get back to bed until 8:00am. I didn't get to bed at all that night so I had to try to sleep when she did during the day and then after her aid came in the afternoon, I had to take another nap. I ran out of one of my own pain meds and have been in such pain. Fortunately Karl was able to pick it up at the pharmacy so I'm taking it again.

I saw my primary care doctor for my fibromyalgia and he sent me for blood work, etc. I haven't heard back from him yet but I'm supposed to schedule my annual female stuff. yuck! But it needs to be done. My doctor told me that two of the best things to treat fibromyalgia is sleep and exercise and I'm not getting much of either. It's frustrating to not be able to be on a regular schedule but there's not a whole lot I can do about that. Jessica and I were talking about feeling left out. She feels left out a lot since she can't go and do what her brothers can do and they rarely play with her. They are boys and not very interested in girly things. Good thing that her home health aids can play Barbies and Pokemon games with her. She really enjoys that. Anyway, back to my story, I was telling Jess that I felt left out a lot when I was in High School since my mom was sick for a long period of time. I took care of my younger siblings after getting home from school and I had to cook dinner, bathe my youngest brother who was 2 yrs old at the time and get him to bed... after that I had to stay up to do homework and then get up early the next morning to go to band and school and start all over again. My youngest brother even called me "Mom". My friends were out having parties and hanging out while I was home being a mom. Jess asked me if I ever wondered if I would get married and be a mom and I said sure... ever since I was a little girl I wanted to get married and have a family. She asked me, "You probably didn't know that you would have a daughter with heart problems, did you?" I responded that if I had my choice of a bunch of babies, I would have chosen her. I'm so glad that I'm her mom. Jess hugged me and I asked her if she would choose me for her mom and as we were embraced, she nodded yes. I told her that we were supposed to be together as a family and we will be a family forever. She then started talking about what a great dad she has and brothers, grandparents, etc. She just loves everyone so much.

Well, it's 3:30am and Jess hasn't gotten up since I put her to bed about an hour ago so she must be asleep.... and I'm about to fall asleep here at my laptop. Oh, speaking of computers... our family computer has been down for over 2 weeks now. It crashed and I found a virus but couldn't get rid of it. Karl took it to a place we had worked with before and they found over 200 viruses! Austin has recently downloaded a game online (without permission) and we wonder if that was one of the major viruses. They guy at the shop had to completely wipe the hard drive clean and reinstall windows, etc. He said that one of the viruses had disabled the Windows updates so we started getting more and more viruses. WHO DOES THIS? The last virus had a window pop up that looked exactly like Windows and it wouldn't allow you to start windows without entering your credit card number... and it said that it wouldn't be charged. We knew that was a scam and after finally being able to access our AVG anti-virus, we found multiple Trojan viruses but we couldn't get rid of them. I hope other people are smart enough to not put in their credit card numbers when that thing pops up!

As if we don't have enough going on, I'm struggling with dental and medical insurances denying payments for things they should have covered. OY! What a pain.

Thanks for stopping by..... and if you get a chance, hop on over to my craft blog: FancyCrafty{Me} where I''ve uploaded a few new cards. If it weren't for my crafts, I'd be in a loony bin, so thank goodness I have that!

Life's a Bit Rough Around Here

But that's the way it goes. Miss Jess is in a lot of pain every day. The first thing she says to me when she wakes me us is: "Hi Mom. I feel HORRIBLE! and flops down onto my bed." I help her in the bathroom, make sure she's taken her carafate (meds for her tummy - has to be taken on an empty stomach) and give her some morphine. When it's time for her to eat, sometimes all she can eat is jello - or even just 1/2 of a small jello cup. She will drink some soda though. The last few days she has wanted a "Ham & Cheese Hot Pocket" so that's what she's had. She has eaten the whole thing or only left a bite or two. I'm so glad we have found something her tummy can handle. That is until she gets tired of them. She eats off and on during the day and will have a few snacks at night. I have to make sure she eats enough of her tummy will be in extra pain later. She gets morphine several times a day.... and she gets tylenol too.

Her sleeping is less than desirable... even if she gets to bed by 2:00am (which is early) then she will sometimes get up just a few hours later in pain and needing morphine and sometimes needing to eat. Sometimes she will go right back to sleep and sometimes she is up for several hours. Other times she may get very emotional and not even get to sleep until long after sunrise or even after Karl and the boys get off for the day - maybe 9:30am. It's getting to be hard work just to feed her and help her get her rest. I sometimes feel like I'm caring for a 130 lb, 20 yr old newborn with the schedule she has.

On top of all this my fibromyalgia has been acting up - as it usually does this time of year - and my poor body just can't figure out WHEN or HOW to sleep. I can't take a sleep aid because I have to be able to help her if/when she gets up. She takes enough sleep aids to put both of us out for 12 hours but that's another story. LOL!! Sometimes I stay up even after she is in bed because it is the only time I get where nobody is demanding my attention or needs something. I know it's not a good idea to do it too often - my body is really wanting to sleep right now, for instance - so I had better hurry.

The big news that I've been dreading posting is that Jessica really does have Ischemia of the bowels - both the GI doctor and the peds cardiologist checked out her CT scan. So in layman's terms... the artery that takes the blood to the gut is narrowing and she is getting less and less blood flow to that area. On top of that, due to her sturcture of her heart, she gets much less oxygen in her blood than normal so that's double trouble. Ischemia can cause pain (severe pain), diarrhea, constipation, an obstruction, necrosis and death. The only way to fix it is to do surgery and replace that section of the artery.... except that with Jess, that's not possible. Her whole artery system is going bad. Her whole bowel system is going too... She has to have 1 1/2 - 2 times the normal adult amount of Miralax just to keep her pooping every day. The only treatment possible is to give her morphine for the pain and more Miralax to keep her "going". The things we need to look for is vomiting and blood in her stools. These are signs that her intestines are necrotic and she probably won't survive more than a month or two. The GI doctor said that if that happens then we need to make the decision as to whether to take her to the hospital, call hospice or both. WHAT? I can't imagine her hanging on for a full 2 months while vomiting, etc. Karl and I have talked about it and if it comes to that point, we may have to discontinue all treatment except for pain relief. That would mean taking her off her heart meds too. Her previous pediatrician told me recently (when I told him about Jessica having 10,000 PVCs (arrhythmias) every day and her risk of ventricular tachycardia - he said, "that would be the best way for her to go, really"). He didn't say it in a mean way, he had been through all of Jessica's ups and downs including strokes, lung bleeds, etc. He meant it in a positive way. V-Tach would be fast. The GI thing..... not so much.

We have been chocking on this news. It just seems we get over on hurdle and we are faced with yet another way for her to die. I just don't want my baby to suffer. She has already been through so much... I just want her to be happy.


On the other hand, Jessica has been spending a LOT of time with Marcus. They go to Disneyland every night and ride all the best rides, have races as to who can eat their cotton candy the fastest and laugh and laugh. They even get to ride on Jessica's ride that she invented called "Genie's Magical Lamp". Several years ago Jess came up with the idea for this ride and has wanted Disney to make it. Every day Jessica gives me a hug from Marcus and I tell her to give him a hug back from me. She told me that every time she dreams about Marcus, it makes her sadness that he died go away a little bit more. I told her that I think it's awesome that she gets to spend so much time with him.... much more time than when he was alive. I also told her that Marcus is telling her that he is OK. {She has told me that the first few times she dreamed about him, she was crying and he asked her, "why are you crying?". She would tell him that it's because he died and that she missed him. He would then give her a big hug and smile and tell her that he was OK and that she didn't need to worry about him.} We talk about how he is having fun in heaven and he will be there for her when it's her turn to go home. Jess said that she isn't afraid at all when she is with Marcus. She even goes on the biggest roller coasters with him and doesn't get scared when in real life she is very afraid of heights and hates going on rides. I asked her if she has her oxygen on while going on the rides with Marcus and she said, "No! And I don't need my glasses either". She even said that she RUNS to him and they give each other a big hug. She says that everyone at Disney know her and Marcus and they let them go to the front of the lines and they don't have to pay either. LOL (it's just like Jess to be the center of attention and the center of every one's hearts!) Karen (my sister - Marcus's mom) told me that Marcus always was a daredevil and he loved to go on roller coasters so I'm sure he is enjoying his trips to Disneyland with Jessica too. Marcus missed his only opportunity to go to Disney when his band went but he was too sick with his cancer to go. Jess will never get to go to Disney - at least not while she's awake! LOL She is really glad for these dreams. I am so thankful for her dreams too. I miss Marcus. I miss Karen and her family too.

I am so grateful for my family and my friends. I can't get through this without you. It's been difficult lately with my being sickly and not being able to get out much. Seriously - sometimes I walk out to get the mail just so I can say that I went outside that day. I really need to try to go for walks... even short ones to try to get my mojo back. I have been making some cards and I did get to go to a card class last week. I am completely enjoying my new craft room that my dear, sweet husband built for me. I need to get it cleaned up a bit and post some pictures. You will be drooling! LOL

Thank you so much for stopping by and if you get a chance, head on over to my craft blog, FancyCrafty{Me} and oooohhh... and ahhhh... over my cards. :-P

Of course any prayers would be gladly accepted and appreciated.

((hugs))

Thanksgiving

I've been such a bag blogger lately! I'm so sorry! Life has a way of taking over and unfortunatley I don't always get to blog as much as I would like.

We had a wonderful thanksgiving! Justen and Ravyn both had to work in the evening/night and weren't able to make it. :*( Karl had to work too but was home early enough that we were still able to get together with family afterwards and have a good time.

Here are a few pictures:
The MEN

Chuy, Grumpy Gramps, Stoobie, Karl and John


The GIRLS:
Marissa, Natalie (in back), Julie and Jessica in front


Karl teasing the girls
Marissa, Jessica and Julie (my sister Alice in back)


The silly girls
Marissa, Julie, Jessica and Natalie
Notice Brandon being silly in the background between Julie and Jessica's heads. LOL! My brother John and Karl in the background to the right.


Yay! Brandon finally got to be in a picture with his sister. Silly Marissa kept popping her head up every time we tried getting a picture with Jess and Brandon.


The BOYS:
Austin, "little" Stuart being held by Brandon, and Jesse. Baby Hyrum was alseep and didn't make it into this picture. We got plenty of pictures of him later.


Jesse playing his violin.


My youngest brother, Stuart, and his wife Clarissa (who is expecting a baby in the Spring! yay!)


My youngest sister, Alice, and her husband Chuy


My "middle" brother, John, and his wife Mandy. They came from CA to spend Thanksgiving with us. They also announced that they are putting in paperwork to adopt a baby. YAY! We are so excited for them. :)


And here's Me with my sweetheart, Karl. I'm the oldest girl and 2nd to the oldest of my siblings. Ignore the silver streak in my hair... I'm going for the Pepe Le Pew look. LOL!


Here is Alice's baby, Hyrum. He is 4 months old and couldn't be cuter!



Hyrum is such a happy baby but he doesn't like to smile for the camera. It took a lot of skill for me to get these two of him smiling. hehe! Don't you just want to smile looking at him?


Here is Mandy with Hyrum. We figured she needs some practice for when she gets a baby through the adoption agency. :D Hyrum was so intent on grabbing the red cups so he was given a clean cup to play with. He kept grabbing at it and it would go flying so his dad put the cup on top of his hand. He was also going after his red teether. He was the life of the party.


We all had such a great time at Alice's house and the food was very tasty. Jessica really had a great time playing Barbies with her girl cousins. Of course she got very worn out and is still trying to catch up on rest (me too!), but it was well worth it.

Oh goodness, I just realized that I didn't post any pictures of my mom! My mom was the only one who remembered her camera so of course she took most of the picures. (I took the ones of Hyrum). I'll have to look through my pictures and see if I can find any of her.

My birthday and a great story!

First I want to thank everyone for all the birthday wishes. It really made my day! I had a lovely birthday. The night before my birthday a friend of mine and I went to a scrapbooking crop at our local scrapbooking store. We get to go to free crops during the month of our birthdays and our birthdays are 3 days apart. :D So we went and had our fun. The next day I had many emails and messages here on my blog wishing me a happy birthday! It was so fun! My sister's birthday is the day before mine and while I was out scrapbooking my sister and mom tried to call me. I told my sister several years ago that it's not fair that every year I call her on her birthday and then she doesn't need to call me the next day for mine. So this year she and my mom decided to call me on her birthday and surprise me! How fun is that? Since I wasn't home they talked to Jessica. She enjoyed talking to them. My mom has been helping my sis for about a month since Marcus's cancer came back and she will be going home next week. She will probably spend a day or two here in town so we'll probably get to spend some time together then.

Karl took me out to dinner on my birthday and that was really nice. The day after my birthday I got to go to church. It was so good to go again! It's been awhile since I've been able to go either because I didn't have anyone to take care of Jessica or I wasn't feeling well myself. I also got some phone calls and a couple of cards in the mail wishing me a Happy Birthday. Thanks everyone for making my birthday so great!

Here is a great story for you. If this doesn't make your day, nothing will.

There is a little boy named Derek Andrews who lives in Clarence NY...right outside Buffalo.
He is presently 7 years old and will turn 8 in October. Derek has a muscle disorder and doctors told his parents that Derek would never be able to run or play sports.
Apparently, however, no one ever told Derek.
He plays hockey at the Amherst Pepsi Center , baseball and soccer in Clarence, and participates in gymnastics. Maybe the word 'plays' is a bit misleading.. Derek was on the baseball league all-star team, the ice hockey select team and was the leading scorer on his soccer team! All despite that condition that continues to weaken the muscles in his body.
To make the story even more heartwarming, after winning a local bank's essay contest (who in the world writes essays at 7 ????), Derek used his prize money to put on a magic show at Children's Hospital, help organize a book drive for a Buffalo school and buy supplies for elephants at The Buffalo Zoo.
Derek's uncle says that Derek has been nominated for 'Sports Kid of the Year' by Sports Illustrated for Kids and is now a top 10 finalist. I can't think of any more deserving kid than this boy. To help Derek achieve that honor, all you have to do is vote for him at the following web site Sports Illustrated Kids

It literally takes 15 seconds to do. You are allowed to vote as often as you wish.

My Life.... busy as usual

Oh My Word! I can't believe it's been more than a month since I updated this poor neglected blog! Soooooo much has happened... but then again, it is my life! LOL

Let's see.... what has happened:

Jessica: Had a birthday, turned 20 years old!!!!!!!! I can't believe it! The big bad CHD (congenital heart defects) that tried to take Jess multiple times while she was an infant, and again as a child, as a teenager we almost lost her ... but she has made it to "adulthood!" Something Karl and I never dared dream would happen. Of course she is still at the level of a 7 yr old but she has lived for 20 years and that's a huge accomplishment! I'll post pictures soon... I promise! Jessica's wisdom teeth are trying to come in so I'm going to have to get her in to see her dentist. He said that he will take a look but who knows if he can do anything about it.

Justen: Justen and Ravyn have decided to post-pone their wedding until December. After taking a look over living expenses, etc, they realized that Miss Ravyn needs to have a job and help financially before the wedding. It's a huge reality check, isn't it? I think that one of the hardest part of growing up is having to provide for yourself and your family. Karl and I struggled financially for quite a few years and still have to watch what we buy. It's rough going sometimes but I'm sure that Justen and Ravyn will do well once they get everything in order. We are still so happy that Ravyn is going to be a part of our family. At least it won't be so hot in December! The wedding pictures will be less likely to have sweaty, melting wedding party in them. They wedding cake won't have to be served in glasses because it melted either. hehe! I am so glad that we have more time to get everything together, too. Ravyn and I are making her bouquet... I have a picture of her holding her partial bouquet but I think I'll wait until it's completed before I post a picture of it.

Brandon: Poor Brandon has to have oral surgery on July 30th. He has an adult tooth up on the palette of his mouth which has to be surgically uncovered. They will attach a small chain to it and then to his braces and it will slowly pull that tooth down. When it's time, the baby tooth which is in it's place, will be pulled and the adult tooth can come down where it should have gone in the first place. This is the eye tooth and the oral surgeon explained to us how important the eye teeth are. According to the x-ray, his wisdom teeth are ready to be pulled too so we are going to do all that at the same time. It makes sense to sedate him only once and have him recover from surgery only once. I feel bad for him since I know how hard the wisdom teeth extraction is. I had it done one summer while I was in HS and my family went on a trip 2 days afterwards. I had the choice of either going with them or staying for a week with my aunt and uncle. I decided that I might as well go on the trip so I did. It wasn't the most enjoyable trip I've ever been on but I survived! Brandon will survive too. He also has a birthday coming up on July 28th! He will be 15 yrs old. We are having his party on the 25th. He is going to get the Mario Kart for the Wii. Yes, we broke down and let Jessica buy the Wii last month with her government money. Karl and I swore we'd never buy it and at least WE didn't. haha... j/k of course. Since Jess doesn't feel well enough to go out much we figured she should be able to use her money to buy something to help entertain herself. If the kids fight over who gets to play it then nobody does. We've found which games are too strenuous for her to play and which ones are OK for her. She gets so "blue" so easily, we have to watch her or she will be trying to catch her breath and looking like a purple grape. Poor kid.

Austin: Austin is doing well. He is involved in scouts and does his calling really well at church. There's not a whole lot going on with Austin except that he told me that he needs some "Mom and Austin" time. I have been very preoccupied with so many things that I guess I haven't spent enough time with him. He wants me to watch a movie with him so we will definitely have to do it! He and I really need to start a walking program. We are both feeling the effects of not getting enough exercise and being around food all day (all night for me).

Karl: Karl has been working his cute pattootie off hard. He's taken some off-duty jobs, had his schedule changed around and around, and helping out an officer who was involved in a near-fatal accident. Actually, I have spent some time with the officer's wife too. Officer Bobby suffered severe head injuries and wasn't expected to survive. It's been 3 1/2 weeks and he is recovering from his other injuries but his brain has a lot of healing left to do. He recognizes his wife and can walk but he is still very confused and emotional. Please pray for him and his wife, Kristi, that they will get through this. They have two small children who are staying with grandparents (who live out of state) right now. This is an amazing couple and we really hope that Officer Bobby will make a full recovery.

Karl has also been working on my craft room & laundry room and it is now time to do the texture on the walls and ceilings. One of our friends has a texture machine and is supposed to come on Saturday to make a huge mess texture the place. I'm so stressed excited! At least after the texture is done, dry and cleaned up... all we have to do is paint and put in the flooring - - - then I can MOVE IN!!! Do I dare hope?

Nancy: is in great need of a gardener... or more likely a crew of people to rip out tons of weeds that have been growing since the monsoon season started. I'm also in need of a maid... or someone with a back-hoe to clean out my mess of a house! The monsoons have brought the much needed storms to our area but of course my fibromyalgia doesn't like storms so I've been dealing with pain. Lots of it. I also have no time to myself except for the times I stay up after Jess goes to bed. Some times it's not until the wee hours of the morning. I'm not kidding. Look at the time stamp on this post. I started this post at around 3:15am and it's now 3:57 am. But I digress.

My sister, Alice, had a baby boy last week! Joseph Hyrum Vivaldo. We got to go and visit them and pass the baby around. He was 3 days old and soooooo cute! Poor Alice looked tired so we didn't stay terribly long. (we also respected her enough to not take pictures of her at this time) Our crew - of 6 7 (sorry Ravyn, I almost forgot to count you!) can take a toll and anyone! Jessica was so proud of herself for being able to hold such a tiny baby. Justen and Ravyn got to hold him too. I think Ravyn was a little surprised that Justen knew how to hold a baby so small but I reminded her that he held his younger brothers when they were babies and he has also held other baby cousins.

Here is Jessica... so proud to be able to hold her new cousin!

Jessica and Hyrum

Ravyn taking her turn holding Hyrum while Justen waits his turn.

Jessica playing with her other cousins, Jesse, Julie and Marissa - who are all so proud of their baby brother. (Jess had an extremely late night that night and has not been up to par since. Going out really wears her down and she has to have recovery time.) But she had a great time that night and it was all worth it!

And last but not least....

MY BABY!

She's a 2005 Nissan Altima. Karl has been stressing out so much over the price of gas and the fact that our SUV only gets 10 mpg! This car gets 22 - 31 mpg, can fit all 5 of us and the oxygen goes in the trunk. Karl is so smart... he figured out that the oxygen tubing can come through a crack in the seats from the trunk... the seats can fold down and make the already huge trunk bigger so that is an awesome way for Jess to have her O2 and it not be in the way. We still have the SUV for the times that she needs her motorized wheelchair - which would include trips to the doctor, the mall, or any other long-distance walking is required. She doesn't need it to go to some one's home so here we were (in the picture) getting ready to go to grandma & grandpa Jensen's house on the 4th of July. (pictures of that fun event to come later too!) Karl has been so much more relaxed at the price of gas now that we have a much more economical car. We were able to put 1/3 of the price down so our payments are very reasonable. It's a beautiful car - inside and out. Only 30,000 miles on it and still under warranty. Sorry guys... it's ALL MINE! (Well, I let Karl drive it from time to time though... hehe!)

So anyway... these are the major updates that I can think of... and now that it's nearly 5:00am and it's starting to get light outside, it's time for me to go to bed. No, I'm not a slow typist... I just got to playing with the SD card that can fit nicely into my laptop (which I am using right now) and I downloaded 3 month's worth of photos. Now I need to transport them to my portable (pretty) hard drive. :) *I'm soooo spoiled!!!!*

The Start of Something New

Ahhhhhhh, to be young and in love.... remember how it felt to first fall in love and everything is new? I remember being young and falling in love with a special young man. This young man didn't have a job, he had come home from his mission early because he was very sick and he wasn't sure what he wanted to be when he grew up. But I saw beyond that. Waaaaay beyond that. ;) We prayed about getting married and our answer came back a resounding YES! So we did.




We did what we needed to do to secure jobs for both of us and we started our lives out together. We lived on love, hope and faith.... because heaven knows we had no money! hehehe... and here we are today... almost 23 years later... older, wiser, (heavier) and more in love now than way back then.



We have been through sooooo much over the years... having our first child when we had been married barely 10 months didn't help us financially or emotionally, but there he was. He was our sweetie. Our sweetie who is about to turn us into IN-LAWS! That's right. This post isn't about Karl and me, but about Justen and the love of his life, Ravyn. We found out today that they are engaged and planning a wedding in August.



So there's a picture of what it's like to be young and in love - and about to begin a whole new life together. I wish them well. I wish them peace. I wish I had a genie to pay for the wedding! hehe... but seriously, Ravyn is a sweetheart and I've never seen my son happier. (By the way, he has had a hair cut since that picture.) I'll have to get another picture of them soon.

I thought of Lady and the Tramp when I was thinking about what to write tonight. I love that scene when they are sharing the spaghetti... anyway, here is a little video that I found and it reminds me of Justen and Ravyn: The Start of Something New: Staring Lady and the Tramp

Hair

In April of this year I had 10 inches of hair cut off and donated it to Locks of Love. I did so in honor of my nephew, Marcus, who is battling brain cancer (who is doing very well right now, by the way).


At the salon right before the big SNIP!


This is my friend, Lisa, who happens to work at the salon. She is about to cut off my hair.

This is my "after" picture.


Here is the back. All that curl is NATURAL!! Who knew? It hasn't ever been this curly before. Could there be a perk to getting older??? (please let there be SOMETHING good about getting older.) I should add that I have had my hair short most of my life and have always had to have perms to have curly hair. The last time I had a perm was 5 or 6 years ago (if not longer) and that hair has long since been cut off. It's always been wavy but not curly. I like it!

7 Random Things About Me

I got tagged by both June and Jennifer for this meme. Does that mean I have to do it twice? I don't know if I have 14 random things that I haven't already told about myself here on this blog. Jennifer says there are "rules" but June didn't mention anything about it... just random things so I'm going with June's tag. I'm not much of a rules person when it comes to being creative. Or lazy. lol

1. I had the leading role in "Oklahoma!" when I was a senior in High School.
2. I don't enjoy cooking very much.
3. I was in a motorcycle accident when I was 14 years old and broke my nose. I was pretty beat up and suffered from a concussion. I blame all my faults on that accident. lol A helmet saved my life.
4. I have always wanted to be a mom and have a large family
5.I met who was to be my future husband while on a date with his best friend. ooops!
6. I love being a stay-at-home mom.
7. I am the second oldest of 6 children but am the oldest girl.

Ok, now it's my turn to tag 7 other bloggers! Muwahahaha! I tag Jenny HaHa, Emily (I thought it might give you something to take your mind off Gabe's upcoming surgery), Julia, Karin, Christine, Rene and Chelle.

Of course if you want to do this meme and I didn't mention you by name then go to it! Just let me know so I can go and read it.

Me