Why having no life can be a wonderful thing

So, lets start with saying having no life doesn't mean not living. You are living, breathing, eating, sleeping...you get what I am saying right? Even though meeting Jesus does sound pretty cool. What I mean about not having a life is you are not out every night, you don't go to bars, you rather read in pj's than go to the bars, etc. It's funny because so many people say its such a bad thing and make fun of people that are like that. They might say "You need to get out more, you have no life" or "Staying in again?" Let me first tell you a little bit about myself.

When I was younger I wanted to be one of the popular girls so bad. Don't get me wrong I was friendly and (mostly) everyone liked me but I wasn't popular. I loved cheerleading and sadly I never made varsity even though I really wanted to. I was actually pretty good too. Did I need improvement? Yes, but I was dedicated and wanted it so bad. I partially blamed not making the varsity team on not being popular. I wanted to be one of the girls that got invited to all the cool kids parties. Now I look back and see that it was such a blessing that I wasn't popular and "had no life."

The reason behind that is I made some really good friends. I didn't have 10 girls that I was acquaintances with and that half of them talked behind my back. I had a couple good friends and one best friend. My best friend from high school and I are still best friends to this day. Not being popular made me realize who would be a true friend to me and who wouldn't.

Plus when I finally did get invited to all these parties, at the time I thought they were cool. Now looking back I realize that they weren't cool at all and I made a lot of mistakes at them. Hanging out with people is fun. Drinking and making a fool of yourself might be fun for those couple hours but it's not cool the next morning.

http://meetville.com/quotes/tag/trying/page8

Another fun fact about me is I am 26 and have 3 crazy but beautiful and wonderful kids. I feel like I am always on the go and never have any time to do anything. Right now my kids are napping at the same time so I have a little bit of peace but usually I cannot write a single blog post without one or all three wanting something. I can barely do anything without one child crying or throwing a fit. I am one of those types that love to read and I do read, a lot. I end up having to read books a couple times (or watch tv shows) to really be able to recall what I just read because I have to be doing a million things at once. I am 26 people, I should not have memory problems.

When you get older and have crazy kids of your own, you are going to revel in any peace and quiet you can get. To those people that can just stay home in their jammies and read a whole book in one night, I am so incredibly jealous of you. Going out is even a hassle how. Do I like to go out every now and again? Of course, but its a lot of work and if I could just sit on my butt without having to do anything and "not have a life" for a second, I would in a heartbeat! Especially if there are cookies involved. Chocolate chip to be exact.

When I was younger I always wanted to be doing something. Not homework, that's boring. Reading? That's for losers that have nothing else to do. I want to be out with people and not be one of those weird homebody's and dare I say it? Have no LIFE! Now thinking back to my high school days I really should have been the one reading all the time and doing homework. Yeah going out is cool but being smart is one of the best things you can do in your life. Being smart and dedicated to school gets you so far in life. You learn more and can do so much more with your life. I already had Bridgette when I went to college and I did great but just think if I applied myself more in high school and not think about who I could hang out with or what I can do to not be a loser.

Trust me, what you do in high school besides school work doesn't matter. Stay in, read some books, spend time with your parents (because hey parents are people too), and be one of those ones that have no life. You will appreciate the time out when you get it and you will be 10x more prepared for your future. I know my perfect day now without my children (because hey, my perfect day with kids would be going to Disney World. Holla!) would be spending it in a comfy chair, not having to worry about anything, with a great book in my hands to read, and all the chocolate chip cookies in the world. Especially with nobody to beg me for half of my cookies. Notice how I didn't say going to bars, or hanging out with a bunch of people?

I hope this all makes sense to you guys. I have been thinking about this a lot lately. I just wanted to be able to convey my message right. Even though I have my moment of silence, it's still only a moment. While I am in my moment I am also "watching" a tv show, playing a trivia game, talking to my husband, and making dinner.

Peace and Love,

Powers Christmas 2014

It's now four days past Christmas and I am finally able to put this post together. This Christmas was a rough one but still a good one for the kids. We are preparing Eli for his surgery so sadly after Bridgette's birthday party we had to tell everyone we cannot have guest anymore and not go anywhere for Christmas. It was extremely hard to do but most people understood.

 One side of my family is dealing with a whole bunch of medical issues themselves so they understood completely and we are all going to have to delay our family Christmas indefinitely. If you could do me a favor and pray for my family especially two of my aunts that are going through a really tough time I would really appreciate it. All I can say is I HATE cancer.

The other side of my family were all able to get together at a hall and have a great Christmas there. I told my dad that I was really sad I couldn't make it and he understood. He knows that getting Eli's surgery is one of our top priorities and we cannot have him exposed to a lot of germs. From pictures on Facebook it looked like a really great time and hopefully we will be able to attend more in the future.

We had two (yes TWO!) Christmas trees this year. I was so excited that my mother in law brought us another one when we moved in. I am also grateful that we had room for both. One Christmas tree I decorated myself (with a little help from Emme) and the other one the kids helped. Here are the trees:

Bridgette had to stand in front of the one she helped with for a picture. For this Christmas we opened presents on Christmas Eve. Bridgette had to go up north for Christmas so we decided to open them when Brad got out of work at two. The kids had a pretty good Christmas. Brad and I decided not to get presents for each other this year since finances are really tight right now. We just bought a house and Brad switched jobs so we wanted the kids to have a good Christmas. We got some awesome presents from his parents though and his Aunt even sent us presents from Alaska! I thought that was cool. Here is our gift opening. Don't mind Emelia, she has been not wanting to wear clothes lately!

Bridgette and I decided to make Brads presents this year too. We made him an after workout cream for his muscles and an after workout bath soak. He has been really dedicated to working out and Bridgette came up with wanting to do that for him. Also Bridgette got a cool paint set from my cousins Michelle and Tracy so we decided to make him a painting.

He loves Mario so I did the outline and Bridgette painted it. I think we have a little artist in the making. Brad loved it!

On Christmas day we left a couple presents for Emelia and Eli to open and spent the day doing not a lot. Eli was a little bit under the weather. His nose was extremely stuffed up so I had to suction it a couple times. Then by the end of the day he had a fever (of 104 degrees) so I rushed him to the ER. He ended up having an upper respiratory infection poor guy. I hate giving medications to the kids. The doctors told me it was viral and gave me a prescription for an antibiotic. I said thanks but no thanks since it wouldn't do anything for him anyways. I did give him ibuprofen but I have him half doses and monitored his fevers. A fever is your bodies way of getting rid of the infection and while they can be serious if they rise too quickly or get too high I personally don't mind them having a fever. 

 I also used Young Living's peppermint essential oil to help keep the fever down to a decent temperature. This time last year I would have been running to get that antibiotic (even though I knew it wouldn't work) and giving him both Tylenol and ibuprofen constantly to try to make him feel better. I am glad that I don't have to do that anymore. He was feeling cruddy for a couple days. I let him sleep a lot! Then on Saturday my essential oils order came in and what do you know, it was all stuff for being sick and for energy. I started diffusing the sickness oils right away and applying them. By the end of the day he was feeling a lot better and his fever only spiked once during that night with that being the only time he even had a fever. I was so happy. He is feeling a lot better now. Here is a pic of the little guy that I took yesterday:

I am glad he is feeling better and I hope this wont change his surgery. They told me he absolutely could not get sick and it seems this is the worst year for it. Everybody and their brother is sick. Not to mention every time Bridgette comes back from being up north she is sick. She has been coughing all morning and has a runny nose. Hopefully she doesn't pass it a long to everyone like she did the last time she came back. 

Our Christmas trees are all taken down and now Christmas 2014 is just a past memory. Emelia has been telling people Merry Christmas still but I think that is cute. I am excited to be able to have many Christmases with our three kids and hopefully next year will be more merry instead of being sick! I hope everyone has a good New Year's and as always if you could please say a little prayer for Eli, especially now, I would appreciate it. 

Peace and Love, 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BRIDGETTE!

Today is my 7 year old's birthday! I cannot believe she is already that big! It is 7 am right now and I decided to take some of the extra streamers and a balloon that I used for her party and decorate the door. Here is what it looks like:

I am so excited for her to wake up! We had her birthday party this past week and 7 of her classmates showed up a long with my two nieces! We made some crafts which I am starting to post about in my other blog. If you want to know how to make Elsa's Magic Snowballs click here! Here is a pic of Bridgette opening up her presents:

I decorated our whole entire house in streamers too. I think I am going to make this a yearly thing where I try to come up with new ideas to decorate with streamers. I was going for a royal/ castle looking theme in the frozen colors. Here it is: 

I think it turned out really good. I am excited to see what else I can come up with! I decided that I was going to write what I remember about Bridgette's birth. It was a really rough birth and pregnancy so I really don't remember a lot. Bear with me. Okay, here we go:

The first three months of being pregnant with Bridgette I threw up every day multiple times a day. I lost about 20 lbs! It was crazy but I would have dreams that I was having a little girl. I just knew she was a girl but I actually didn't find out that she was until a week before I had her. 

When I was around 4 months pregnant we got into a really bad car accident. I was the passenger and all I remember before it happened is seeing blue and gray. A truck with an empty trailer hit us head on going 50 mph. I remember getting out of the car and feeling wet so I put my hands down where I was wet and all I could see was blood. 

I was terrified and an ambulance took me straight to the hospital. Luckily, the seat belt and Bridgette were positioned just right where instead of hurting her it got my bladder. It flattened my bladder like a pancake and I peed myself/ was bleeding for a couple days but other than that I was fine. I just remember being so mad at the other driver because he almost killed Bridgette. That is until I found out that the other driver passed away from the accident. 

After that I didn't drive for a couple months and had to go to therapy for it. I am still terrified of driving and vehicles. On December 19th at a doctor appointment I found out I had preeclampsia. I had to go into the hospital and get an ultrasound to make sure Bridgette was okay.That is when we found out Bridgette was indeed a Bridgette. I was scared but happy that I was having a little girl. I also had to get a steroid shot for Bridgette's lungs to make them ready if she was born early. She wasn't due until late January/early February so they wanted to make sure if she was early she would be fine. I had to immediately go into work and tell them I was on bed rest until Bridgette came. I was working at McDonalds so bed rest was fine with me. 

At three in the morning on December 23rd I woke up in extreme pain. I couldn't talk and I could barely breathe. They had me come in immediately. I was put in a triage room and they did an ultrasound on my abdomen where they found out my gallbladder was twice the size as it normally would be. They also did a check on my urine and found out it had a lot of protein still in it. All I remember is the doctors talking about if I would make it to Saginaw hospital (about 30 minutes away) by ambulance since it was a high risk hospital. They were too afraid I would have a seizure and then they would loose both of us. They decided to take me in for an emergency c-section. Bridgette was 34 and 4 out of 7 days gestation so my 19 year old self was extremely terrified. 

At 10:40am she came into this world. Her crying was such a wonderful sound. That's how I knew she was okay. Bridgette was 5lbs 4oz, and such a little thing. They didn't let me see her or hold her while I was getting put back together and they immediately put me in a room afterward. They hooked me up to really strong pain medications and I really don't remember much. According to my mom I was not in good shape. My vitals were going crazy and they even had to kick my dad out of my room. I do remember one thing though. I still didn't get to see my baby! Luckily the nurses took a picture of her and I was able to see that. Here is that picture:

On Christmas eve a day later I got to meet her because I was doing a lot better and wanted to breast feed her. That was an awesome Christmas present. She ended up getting jaundice and we were in the hospital for about a week. It was awesome to be able to take her home. 

When she was two months old she ended up getting RSV and was in the hospital for another week. She stopped breathing a couple times and that was terrifying. It was a rough first couple months for her. I am still amazed that she is as strong as she is today. It's amazing what our little ones can endure. I still cannot believe she is now 7. Well everyone is up and someone (hint:me) has to make breakfast. Here is a pic of the birthday girl:

Happy Birthday Bridgette, we love you so much!

Peace and Love, 

The final countdown!

Yesterday was an extremely long and stressful but at the same time great day. It definitely didn't have the best mom moments, I did a lot of mom fails yesterday. 

I got to go to my MOPS Christmas party which was the great part of the day! I got to make some cute little crafts one of this was this: 

Isn't that so cute? I also made some sugar scrubs and got to eat. My only regret is not eating more because the food was so good and I didn't have to make it which makes it 100x even more tasty. We also did a white elephant gift exchange and I got a cute little frog statue that said welcome. The best part of the holiday party was I got to meet Amanda! The inspirational woman that I wrote a post about a few post back. You can read that post here. We gave each other a hug and it was so nice to put a face to the name. I am looking forward to growing our friendship and helping out with whatever she needs!

That was the fun part of the day and I should have just stayed there at ate but alas I had to go to a hematology doctor appointment for Eli. First of all I forgot to grab an extra plate of food for Emelia since the doctors appointment was at 12:30pm. Total mom fail right there and let me tell you I got an ear full from little Emelia about it. So, we arrived at the doctors and little man got his finger poked. He did not like that and it seemed to have bled forever! 

After we got the blood needed we got to go meet the doctor. Nicest man ever! If your child goes to Beaumont for any blood issues I HIGHLY recommend Dr. Berman. We found out little man needs to have an iron supplement daily and has to have three shots a week to increase his blood count. The great news about that is since I am a certified medical assistant, I get to give him the shots instead of having drive to Beaumont (35-40 minute drive) three times a week. It is both a good thing and an absolutely terrifying thing! I am very nervous to start doing that. 

If you know me personally you know that I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life. After high school I decided to wait until college to figure stuff out and then got stuck in that limbo and ended up having Bridgette a year after I graduated. She is what really pushed me to be better and do better. I have always loved health sciences and anything about the human body so I decided to start off with going to school to be a medical assistant. Well my last semester and during my internship is when I found out I was pregnant with Emelia (I actually found out at my internship!) so Brad and I decided that I should be a stay at home mom for a while. It seems like God has things happen for a reason though because even though I am not an active medical assistant, having that training has helped so much with Eli's craniosynostosis. I actually understand the Doctor jargon and now I have found another way to be able to put my training to use. 

Our appointment got out at around 1:30pm then we went straight to Beaumont's pharmacy to try to fill out the prescription for his shots. Well sadly I didn't have the right card that I needed to fill the script and I had to make a bunch of calls and finally they went to go see if they could fill it. By the time we got home it was 3pm! Emelia still didn't each lunch and she was not a happy camper. Plus I totally failed in the dinner department and couldn't make the slow cooker chicken that I wanted to make. Luckily Brad understood and stopped by Meijer to get dinner stuff but I felt so bad about everything! 

Sadly they couldn't fill my script at that pharmacy and hopefully we can fill it by today with a specialty pharmacy so I can start him on it. He has the perfect blood cell count which is 11 and we want it to be in the 14-15 range to try and prevent a transfusion which always happens with this type of surgery because its a very bloody surgery. That is a good thing though because the healing rate is quicker because of that and there is less chance of infection but still hearing the word transfusion is terrifying. 

We are finally coming to the end of this whole ordeal and I am both relieved and terrified. I have been under so much stress with this all and having to deal with many doctors but in the same breath I don't want my baby to have to have a surgery. I have felt like such a bad mom to Emelia and Bridgette because lately I have had a short fuse and I have had to spend so much time worrying about Eli that they are suffering because of it. I feel like I cant be spread out anymore than I am. 

Right now my kids are crying bloody murder so I guess my blog post is done! Those kids make great timers!

Peace and Love, 

All Good Things Come To An End

Yesterday was the last day of growth group with my current group. I know my church does growth group every fall and winter so our next one will be in January but it still makes me sad that for now our Wednesday nights just became open.

This falls growth group was about parenting and it felt so nice to be able to sit down and talk with parents that are a lot like us. It is nice to know NOBODY knows what they are doing! If you are like me you see all these parenting blogs that tell you how to do things and be a better parent. You think "Wow! They really have their act together!" but really behind closed doors they are probably just as lost as you and I. Being in my growth group I was able to see that through the other parents that I would have thought had their act together. 

Moving 2 hours away from everything I have known since I was in first grade was really hard for me. What made it harder was the fact that I was a stay at home mom so I really didn't have much opportunity to make a whole bunch of new friends. I was blessed that Bridgette started Kindergarten and I was able to volunteer there to be one of the class party planners and was able to make friends through that and through my daughters friends parents. Some of my very good friends now I made through her school.

Now I have been blessed again to join a great growth group with awesome people! I was so nervous about starting this growth group because I  have made many mistakes and haven't been going to church my whole life. Would I be able to open up? Would I be judged? It really did terrify me to join. I was so blessed to choose the group that I did. They are fantastic people and I opened up a lot. Actually I opened up a lot more than I should have but I have that fantastic thing called diarrhea of the mouth and I always tell people my whole life story. 

I was never judged once, even though I have made a lot of mistakes. I had gotten so much encouragement and prayers for Eli, that has truly blessed me. Best of all I have made new friends, which being a stay at home mom has been very hard to make friends. It also opened up my mind to different things. One mom in my group homeschool's her kids. I never in a million years would have even thought about homeschooling my kids. Sending my kids to school= freedom for me! I will take it and Bridgette has been flourishing in school. It is nice to be able to talk to her and see that not every kid is same and some don't flourish in public schools because they learn way to differently. I am way more open minded to homeschooling my kids now. I really commend her for doing that for her kids. 

Another mom we found out is expecting her second baby, well third if you count her step-daugher. Her and the group leaders, which are the children's pastor and his wife, were the ones who I thought had their act together. They still are wonderful parents but with talking with them they tell me about the struggles they have had. The parenting struggle is real, people! It was nice to bounce off ideas of what we do back and fourth off of each other. Nobody is a perfect parent, but as long as your trying you are a great parent. Another couple has teenagers so it was nice to hear things from veterans in this whole parenting arena. Having teenagers both excites me and terrifies me. 

We have had so much fun doing this. If you think twerking is something that shouldn't be done at a church function, you are wrong and should go talk to my husband. We love to play this game called head's up and twerking was one of the things they had to act out. It was men vs women and that came up to act out. Well my husband did it and I have never laughed so hard! It was nice to have our kids play with other kids and be able to have a little bit of adult time. Eli's surgery is next month right in the middle of the new growth group series but we are still planning on joining as soon as we can. The new message series and growth group is called "Transformed" its a whole church wide thing so if you wanted to see what the Bible and God is about come out to Heritage Church (www.experienceheritage.org) if you are in the Macomb, MI area. 

This has been an awesome experience for us but as they say, all good things come to an end. That isn't a bad thing though, it just means that you get to have many new beginnings. 

Peace and Love, 

Finding Strength When Your Heart Breaks

My thoughts and prayers have been with a family at my church for a while now. The mother is in my MOPS group and even though I haven't really gotten a chance to know her, she is such an inspiration to me. She has given me permission to share her families story because it really has been on my heart for a while now. Here we go...

August 24th is when I first heard Amanda's story. We have a group on Facebook for MOPS and she made a post on there. This is her post that she shared with us:

"This week has been a tough one. At the beginning of summer we learned that despite me getting the paraguard placed shortly after meghan was born I became pregnant. With a successful removal and numerous ultrasounds following we thought we were in the clear. I was given the option to abort this baby but trusted God had a plan for this child and even though with the high demands of Meghan and my other three children I put my full trust in God. My pregnancy has been uneventful and as I looked forward to finding out if our baby was a boy or girl my excitement grew.

We opted for the screening test to screen for genetic disorders. It came back positive for trisomy 18. But I was assured by many those are typically false positives.

I promptly made an appointment at u of m for a level two ultrasound last Monday where we received the devastating news our baby has what is called Limb Body Wall complex. In our baby's circumstance that means he has a small head, tiny chin, his heart fills his very small chest cavity, his lungs are not developed, all his other organs have formed outside his abdominal wall. He has severe scoliosis, and two club feet all of this is due to a lack of umbilical cord forming. This is not a genetic disorder but rather a anomaly that happens 1/40,000. There is no cure and it is 100% fatal.

Again given the choice to terminate him I am choosing to carry him as long as God allows. His heart beat is strong and he loves to put his precious hands on his cheeks. I may go to term which will be January. I have to believe God chose me to be his mother for whatever little time I have with him. We were able to find out through a blood test he is a boy.
Please keep our family and my other kids in your prayers as they are very sad we won't be able to bring him home.

Owen Isaac Plunkett"

She also posted this picture of him

After I read that post my heart just broke. I just thought how strong of a person she was. To be honest, I really don't know what I would do in that situation. I don't know if I could have the strength that she has and not going into a deep depression. For her instead of thinking "why me?" she decided to put her sadness into something to help others. Let me tell you, I know I would have had the "why me?" moment. Eli has his condition that I have cried and prayed over and even then I have asked "why him, why me?" and then put all my time and energy focusing on what I needed to do for him. I haven't even thought about how many other babies are affected by crainiosynostosis and what I can do to help them. Amanda was not like me, her heart flowed outward to help others. She has become an inspiration to me and I hope now that I can have my heart flow more like hers instead of just focusing on my issues. 

Amanda started a page on Facebook called Owen's Gift. The link to it if you want to find out more is https://www.facebook.com/owensgift after finding out that precious little Owen wasn't going to survive outside of the womb she started to think about other families that have to go through the same thing. She was worried about what to dress little Owen in, if he came early. She was lucky to have friends that know how to knit and crochet and could make something for him but she started to think, what about the other moms that have to go through this? That's where she came up with the idea of Owen's gift where people can make and donate handmade baby items to be given to grieving families. 

Please if you can go to that page to find out more and if you can help out at all Amanda can add you to a group on Facebook too. I have been praying for Amanda and her family from day one. I couldn't even imagine going through what she has gone through. 

On December 5th little Owen was born. She made a post on our MOPS group a long with the Owens Gift group and page. It read "Owen Isaac Plunkett went to heaven at 12:52am. Shortly after my water broke. After a very hard labor and delivery he arrived into this world at 5:59am. Surrounded by love. He is 3 pounds 15 oz and 13 is inches long. And Amazing. Thank you for support." I cried for most of that day. My heart just weeps for her and her husband. Here are some beautiful pictures of Owen that she has shared: 

He is so perfect and just a gift from God. He has touched so many lives around him. Amanda was telling me that its amazing how perfect he is for how sick he was, I couldn't agree more. He is one gorgeous angel! Since Owen's passing this family has been on my mind a lot. Its hard for me to write a lot of blog posts but it is a sort of therapy for me. Today I decided was the day I was going to post about this and with Amanda's blessing I am so glad I am able to. With everything that is going on in our daily lives I just pray that each of us can take the time to think of others. 

Peace and Love, 

The Religion Battle

I just have to post a "rant" type post today. This is a topic that I have been thinking about a lot lately, and that is really close to my heart. I am what I would call a friendly person and I love to meet new people. My Facebook friend list is growing daily it seems and I am quite sad by what I see in my news feed. It seems like there is now a huge battle between people with religion and people without religion. So, before I give you my take on it all, let me tell you a little bit about my story:

I was born on a cold October day....just kidding. I am not going to tell my whole life story, just my finding God and Jesus story. I have gone to a lot of different churches. Catholic when I was in preschool, a Seventh Day Adventist church is where I went to when I was a little older for vacation bible study, Wesleyan is where I went to when I was a teenager (my boyfriend at the time went there), a Presbyterian church after I had Bridgette, and now I have gone to two non-denominational churches. I have always felt God in my life, but it was really hard to find a place to learn about him that was right for me.

My mom never went to church. All the churches that I had gone to were because I needed/wanted to go. I needed to learn more. My mom believes in God but she does waver sometimes and she doesn't like to be judged so she didn't want to go to a place that would judge her. Also she is a very independent person. She has never been married, and hates it when people tell her what to do. That is one of the things I admire about my mom because she is a very strong person and I love how she doesn't do well with being told what to do. Her mind is hers and when its made up there is no convincing her to do any other thing. Her and my dad never were married, so you can see where judgement would play in. She is not a perfect person (which nobody is) but she didn't want to go to a church where they would judge her and then tell her to blindly do things.

I did follow in my moms footprints in one way. My oldest daughter was born out of wedlock and in going to church I was always afraid of being judged. When I went to a church I didn't really try to know the people or have them know me because if they knew me it would mean they would judge me. You see it a lot, if you do a certain type of sin (which everyone sins btw) you are judged and some churches wont even let you go there anymore. I didn't want that.

 I felt really pulled to God right before I met my husband. I was with someone that didn't want to go to church or learn anything and it was hard for me to want to go to church because of that. Little by little (with the help of prayer) I realized that he was not the one for me. It wasn't just a religion thing either it was a whole person thing. He just wasn't it for me. I was introduced to my husband by our best friends. His best friend was dating (now married) to my best friend. We started off by being friends and then our relationship deepened. It felt right and in less than a year we were married and had our first child together. Even though our relationship was rushed, I wouldn't do it any other way. 

Anyways, my husband showed me a great non-denominational church. He was born and raised in religion and always went to church. It was literally God answering my prayers. My husband brought me closer to God and I can never repay him for that. If I have questions he always answers them and even though we don't see eye to eye on everything, he has always told me what I needed to know. He has showed me that there are great churches out there. When we moved two hours away it took us a couple months to find a church. We found it with Heritage Church in Sterling Heights. Our church is now a home to me. I learn so much there instead of being preached at and judged. I was baptized last year and I am participating more and letting people get to know me and it is great! 

That was a summary of my religious journey and for what I am about to say, it think it is extremely beneficial for you guys to know my journey. The battle is becoming more real each day. I see it all the time if your a Christian you are stupid and if you are an atheist you must be an awful person. Let me tell you something, I know a lot of Christians. Some of those Christians are the smartest people that I have ever met. I know of brilliant scientist that are of the Christian faith. My pastor loves to learn much like I do and he has taken time to read a lot of books. He knows so many scientific subjects and because that he is great to learn from. He has taken time to truly study, plus not many people can say that their pastor was kicked out of seminary school! Rock on you rebel! On the other side of the coin I know a lot of atheists or non-believers in God too. They are some of the most kind hearted, caring people that I have ever met! They hate to see people in pain and they defend others with everything in them. 

I have argued with an atheist about religion. She called me stupid and I said I rather be stupid than go to Hell. Looking back at that now, I am so ashamed by how I acted. There wasn't even a need to argue about anything. She can believe whatever she wants and I will do the same. I know I am not dumb, and who am I to tell her shes going to Hell. She could be on her death bed and find Jesus. That was wrong of me. You see it often though. You see it with debates between people of science and people with faith. You see debates even between the different religions. It's quite ridiculous. Why does anyone need to be proven to be right? A persons religious journey is their own. God doesn't want us to just follow blindly because someone told us to. He wants us to study and truly feel it in our hearts. 

To me its quite sad on now how the whole world views Christians. Did you know that even Gandhi said "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." That is heartbreaking. The Bible says do not judge so why is it so common for us to judge? There is a saying that you collect more flies with honey. To me that is so true. If we want people to find God and truly love him like we do, we HAVE to stop telling people that they are bad and wrong. Everyone sins so why is that a person who is homosexual more chastised than a person who has been divorced for the fifth time? No sin is worse than the others. They are all equal in sin. How about we stop looking at a person in the sins they have committed and just seeing the person as a person. The whole reason why I think we were put on this earth instead of being sent to Heaven is to help find the lost. To help more people reach Jesus and Heaven. I personally think we are doing it so wrong, and something has to change. 

On the other flip of the coin is with the atheist. It is quite common for them to lump all people of religion with each other. Just because I believe in God does not make me the same as other Christians that you see in the spotlight. I do not condemn anyone that has sinned. This might loose me some friends but I am 100% in the fight for equality for homosexuals. I believe that LOVE is more powerful and if someone is in love than who am I to tell them that they are wrong. That is just silly. In the Bible it tells us to love one another and to not judge. We should follow in Jesus footprints, he would be seen with the "sinners" and he showed so much love to everyone. Not an ounce of hate came out of him towards anyone that had committed any sins. That is the type of Christian I want to be and to lump us all together is not right. Believing in something higher does not make us stupid. We should be able to pray in schools if we want, its affecting nobody else besides us. To me why not teach a little bit of both creationism and evolution and have people decide for themselves. It is wrong telling a person what they should believe based on what they believe.

The main thing I want people to get from this post is a persons journey is their own. People come to find things in different ways. Nobody should be pressured to choose anything and we all need to show love and kindness no matter what our religion is. Stop arguing about what people should believe and what is right. Show love and compassion and answer things when asked in a loving way. I believe that there are a lot of people looking for answers so why show them ugliness. People have the right to believe what they want, its their choice not yours. In the end it doesn't matter who was right on the earth, the outcome is still the same. 

Peace and Love,

What a week, what a week!

Hello there! This week has been an absolutely crazy week! I haven't even had time to make it to write a blog post until now!

So lets start on last Wednesday! Hubby had that day off and he raked leaves with Emme, let me tell you we have a ton of leaves in our front yard! Here is a picture of that:

They did such a good job! Eli's developmental nurse, Shelly, came over. She weighs him, measures his head, and sees how tall he has gotten. He gained an inch in length (now is 28.5 inches long) and he weighs 19.6 lbs. He is such a big boy! He also is right on track with his development! He could almost sit by himself and whenever Shelly asked me questions about what he could do she was extremely happy about how his progress is coming. He even surprised both of us right after Shelly asked if he had been saying anything he started to say "ma ma ma ma!" That was awesome and I am totally claiming those as his first words! Eli is doing great and that makes me so happy, I truly feel like God is answering our prayers. 

That night we had growth group. If you have never attended a growth group with a church I would highly recommend it. It is an awesome form of fellowship and you get to meet pretty cool people. Our topic is parenting and let me tell you, I always feel like I am 10 steps behind on this whole parenting thing. It's hard being a parent and for me I feel like its really difficult to try and make the right decisions. Being in this growth group, I see that it is a common thing to feel like that. I feel like through this I am finding a way to not only bring my kids closer to God, but also am learning a lot more about parenting. 

Last Thursday we had a trunk or treat at my church. I was so unprepared with Emelia. I had Eli's costume and Bridgettes all ready but I totally slacked with Emelia's. So, I found a pretty dress and went into the dollar store to see what I could find. $4 later and a little bit of hot glue I had an Autumn Fairy! Here is a pic of the costume:

Not bad for completely last minute and being rushed.  This is the first year our church (Heritage Church, out of Sterling Heights MI) had the trunk or treat. I of course forgot to take pictures of the actual event! Ugh maybe next year! We were expecting there not to be too many people there but it was absolutely crazy! They had 40 something cars there and over 600 pieces of candy and by the time we were finally able to get out and go trunk or treating (we wanted to eat dinner first) they were running out and over half of the cars weren't passing out anymore because they ran out. It was nuts! Next year we are going to sign up to pass out candy and decorate our car. I want to have a Dr. Who theme because I am a huge dork/ I love Dr. Who! My husband can be the 10th doctor, I could be Rose, Emme can be the tardis, Bridgette can be a weeping angel, and Bubs can be a dalek. If what I just said sounds like a different language, then watch some Dr. Who! It's on Netflix!

 Also last Friday I got extremely sick. At first I just felt tired (which I am all the time since a certain little boy keeps me up a lot!) then my throat started to hurt, then I got a huge headache, and my night ended with me curled up in a ball on the floor with 102 degree temperature! It was not fun and the next day I was feeling a lot better, but I had a sore throat. Now I am on antibiotics for my throat and still having issues with my breathing. Thank goodness for my oils or else I know I would already be in the hospital with some sort of bronchitis or pneumonia!

Hopefully this week is better and these antibiotics kick in soon! We have growth group tomorrow, then a doctors appointment on Thursday, then we have Halloween! Yay! I hope you all have a great week! 

Peace and Love, 

School is Indeed Cool Folks!

Hello there! We just got back from a very cool program that my daughters school does. They invited all the kids from kindergarten, first grade, and second grade to come in tonight and have a fun time with food, magic, and games! It was all free, which I was definitely digging that. The fact that I didn't have to make dinner, awesome! So, let me start from the beginning.

We arrived at the school at 6 and we got to have a nice dinner together. They had noodles and sauce, salad, and bread. They also had brownies and cookies. I may or may not have had about 10 of each....yeah I have a sweet tooth. I got to meet a couple other moms from different classes and Bridgette got to point out some kids in her class. It was pretty cool. 

After dinner we all went into the gym and there was a magic show! The magicians name was Tom Plunkard whom is an award winning magician that does magic shows at different schools! I wish we could book him for our kids birthday parties because he did a great job and I would love to have him do a magic show for our kids and their friends. I don't think that we are the type of family to book a magician though, we will see. Anyways, he was very funny and the kids loved him. Plus he had two live doves and a bunny, he couldn't go wrong! If your child has a chance to see him or book him for a birthday party, I highly recommend it!

After that we got to play educational games. One cool one was based after bowling. What it had in it was ten frame playing cards. They had a certain number of the 10 frame filled in and your child had to count what number was it in and if they are right they got to take a bowling ball (a bingo chip) and they got to put it on their 10 frame mat. In the cards they had strikes (gives you a ball for free) and gutter balls (takes one away). First one to 10 bowling balls on their mat wins! I thought that that was such a cute (and fun) game and it was educational too. Another game was you would pull up a card with a word on it and you had to pick out on the mat what word rhymes with the word on the card and you also had to say another word that rhymes. Brad got to play that one with Bridgette and they had fun with it. At the end of the night they gave us a bag that had all the games in it plus more and they even gave us some Halloween things. We had so much fun at it all and feel blessed that the school offered it for us. 

Emelia had tons of fun tonight too and she got to enjoy doing everything that sissy was doing. Eli just kinda chilled out but all three kids were super good. Nights like tonight really lets me know how blessed I truly am. 

I also wanted to talk about yesterday. I went to my MOPS group and we got to find out what animal our personality was. I am an otter. Here is a pdf of the test if you want to find out what animal you are: http://smalley.cc/images/Personality-Test.pdf 

You go to there and you fill out the first page. You look at the total scores for each row and the row you got the highest number in is what personality type you are. The first is lion, second is otter, third is golden retriever, and forth is beaver. You get to learn a little more about each personality trait and if your spouse does it with you then it can really help you understand them.  I thought it was really cool and dead on for me. My husband is a lion, I know this because I know my husband. He doesn't even have to take the test and I know what he would score higher in. 

An update on Eli is this month we don't have a whole lot going on. We are having his developmental nurse coming next Wednesday and I have to make a 6 month well child visit for him. He has been doing really well so he didn't have to see the craniofacial surgeon this month. Next month though is going to be nuts. He has to have a CT scan where he will have to have anesthesia, I am kind of freaking out about that. Then he has to see the craniofacial surgeon. Then our original neurosurgeon was sadly not able to do the surgery so now I have an appointment to meet with his partner that will be doing the surgery instead of him. At the end is our monthly meeting with the developmental nurse. Busy busy busy. I really cannot wait to be able to put this all behind us and be able to just enjoy our little man. Thanks for listening folks! 

Peace and Love, 

Dealing with Craniosynostosis

Hello there! So, I wanted to tell you a little bit about something that my family is dealing with right now. It's one of the reasons I decided to write a "diary" style blog, it will give me a place to collect my thoughts and be able to relieve my frustrations. My son is 5 months old, almost 6 months. He has a condition called craniosynostosis. Here is a picture of him on his birth day.

I will start at the very beginning. Eli was a scheduled c-section because I wanted to get my tubes tied. No more babies for us, Eli is our last! We woke up super early (like 4am) and had to be at the hospital at 6 to pre-register and get prepared for the surgery. 

It looks like I am smuggling a basketball, but that is our big boy in there! The c-section went well and we had our baby boy before we knew it! He was a perfect little man! He had all 10 toes and all 10 fingers and didn't have any issues at all. We noticed during our stay at the hospital, that one of his eyes opened more than the other. The doctors kept on assuring us that he was healthy and doing great so we left it at that. 

After the first week home I looked at his skull more closely. I noticed that one side was a little bit more pushed forward than the other one and one of his eyes was still opening more than the other one. I made an appointment with his doctor and then he suggested we go see a craniofacial surgeon. I called two hospitals by us, Beaumont and Detroit Medical Center, after talking to both we decided to go with Beaumont. 

www.beaumont.edu

I had to get an x-ray done of his head before the appointment. That was rough and little man definitely didn't like it. We survived though! Then we went into the Ian Jackson Craniofacial Clinic and met our awesome nurse Jennifer and our doctor Dr. Chaiyasate. It took me forever to learn how to say his last name, now I am a pro. When we walked in there were dozens of people standing in the hallway. Come to find out they were all there to see Eli and take a peek at his misshapen head. All of the doctors there was quite overwhelming. We were hoping that our son had plagiocephaly, which would be from him laying on his back to sleep. All he would need is a helmet and he would be fine with no surgeries. When I first met Dr. Chaiyasate he had this look in his eyes that said it was more serious than that and he said "You will go through a lot with this, but don't worry its fixable." I already looked on Dr. Google and I had a feeling it was craniosynostosis, that statement confirmed it for me.

We caught it very early and I was hoping that all they would have to do is a simple surgery with an endoscope. There is less risk with that procedure and the healing time is a lot less. Unfortunately we found out that his was a little bit more detailed and he will have to have the full surgery. If you are wondering what craniosynostosis is, it is a condition where some of the joints between a babies skull closes early. It can be very serious and it can increase pressure in the head. If not taken care of it could cause blindness, seizures, brain damage, and even death. When he showed us the x-ray it was like time slowed down. On Eli's left side his sutures closed and it is going all the way to his eye so they will need to reshape by his eye. He said that he would have to do a surgery where they open up his head from ear to ear and actually have to remove bone and shape it. 

http://weillcornellbrainandspine.org/condition/craniosynostosis/symptoms-craniosynostosis

That was terrifying for us. We were so overwhelmed, but the doctor and nurse were great. It was nice to hear our nurse Jennifer has a daughter that had craniosynostosis and had to have the surgery. She did great through the surgery and has no mental delays. It was really nice to hear that and its great that I have somebody there that can relate to me about it and help me not only understand, but deal with it emotionally. It was also awesome to know that Dr. Chaiyasate is a great doctor and he has even been in the news numerous times helping people. He has always been positive, but honest. I am able to know that he has a good prognosis, but prepare myself if the worst does happen.

That day, I refused to cry. I just told myself that there are a ton of children in this world that have a lot worse to deal with and that this is fixable. My husband still worked in retail then so he was at work a lot. He worked every other weekend too and he had to work the weekend after we found out. I think the first time I cried was during worship time at church. I cant even remember the song but it really made me think about stuff and let the flood gates open. I tried to hide it from other people ( I didn't want anyone thinking I was a nutter) but it felt right to do it then and be able to pray to God in his place of worship. So many people try to hide who they are when they go to church, but really that's a place where you should let it all out. Since then I really am trying to see the bright side, and staying positive about this situation. 

http://theartistoflife.com/blog/design/craniosynostosis-onesies-t-shirts-cranio-kid/

Now a days we have been extremely busy. We take him to his normal doctor appointments but then we also have to meet with the craniofacial surgeon frequently and we have a developmental nurse that comes monthly. I also will have to meet with a hematologist (blood doctor) to prepare for the surgery and I have met with a neurosurgeon that will help with the surgery also. Sadly, our original neurosurgeon found out he couldn't do the surgery so I have to meet with another neurosurgeon soon and she will help Dr. Chaiyasate perform it. His surgery will be in January so we still have a little bit to go and prepare, for that I am thankful. 

I pray for Eli daily, and our church is also praying for him. I really do believe in prayer and it seems to be working. Eli is registering at above his age at all levels. Dr. Chaiyasate told us that the best thing we can do for him is to put weight on him. We are doing that quite well! He is bigger than a lot of babies his age and almost as big as his two year old sister! They wear the same size diaper and Eli is an inch from growing out of his infant carrier! He is such a ham and loves to laugh and smile. I feel so blessed that he is in our lives and if this is the only difficulty we will have with our kids, I am okay with that. I will definently keep you guys updated with him and if you can take any time out of your day and say a little prayer for him I would really appreciate it. 

Peace and Love, 

A little bit about us to start of with

Hello there! My name is Jessica and I will be pretty much telling you all my life story. I have a lot going on in my life right now and I feel like a blog would be a perfect place to write down whats going on, my thoughts, my feelings, and about my life. I seem to be forgetting a lot as of lately and I feel this would be a great way for me to remember it all!

So to start off let me tell you about myself and my family. I have three amazing kids. My eldest is Bridgette and she is 6. She is a diva and can be quite a handful, but she feels deeply and cares about everyone. Not to mention she is a great big sister. My middle is Emelia, she just turned two. She knows what she wants and when she wants it. Like her sister she can also be a handful. She is such a great sister and she loves her family a lot. My youngest is Eli. He is going to be 6 months at the end of this month. He is such a good baby and just loves his sisters to pieces. He is already such a ham and always has a smile on his face.

I am happily married to my husband Brad. We were married July 13, 2012 and yes it was on Friday the 13th. Yes I was pregnant with our middle child, and the wedding was absolutely amazing and everything I have ever hoped for. It was a total DIY wedding and I wouldn't have had it any other way. Maybe one day I will do a post about it. My husband's best quality to him is that he has such a great sense of humor. That is what attracted me to him right away. Not to mention he is very good looking, I/others have compared him to both Justin Verlander and Ryan Reynolds. He is such a caring person but not afraid to be tough and tell you how it is.

Next I guess would be a little bit about myself. First of all I love God a whole lot. Faith is a huge part of my life. It wasn't always a big part of my life. I always had it, but I didn't make it a priority like I do now. I was baptized last year and it was amazing. Now I look to God for everything in my life and I feel so complete and I know I am on the right track. I went to school to be a medical assistant. During my last semester of school and during my phlebotomy internship is when I found out I was pregnant for Emelia. After a lot of talking about things, Brad and I decided it was best for me to be a stay at home mom and put my career on the back burner. It was such a hard decision because I worked really hard in school and love medical assisting, but it was the right one for our family. I just started to become an essential oil addict (aka Lemondropper with Young Living Oils) and I am really enjoying it. I love what the oils do for my family and it is so much fun to be able to spread the word about them. I love it when I hear about how much people are truly being helped by these oils. Nothing can compare to it. I am really friendly and outgoing, but there are times where I can be a bit of an introvert. It's hard for me to talk on the phone, it is a struggle to even call in for a pizza. I am super socially awkward and weird. I don't get mad easily but when I do its hard for me to talk to people, I am always afraid that I will say the wrong thing out of anger. I am stubborn as all get out. I am right and even if you are actually right, your wrong. When I love, it's with my whole heart and I care about everyone, not just those that are close to me.

That's just a little bit about me and my family, I can't wait to be able to share more.

Peace and Love,

Photos credits go to Ashliegh Allen and Kendra Titus.