high five for friday!

Woo!  It's Friday!!  Time for another link up with Lauren from From My Grey Desk!  This past week was a bit of a whirlwind, and frankly, it doesn't feel like Friday.  But anywhoodles, here goes!

1.  We took our last minute trip to Ohio (roughly 10 to 12 hr drive) to see my sister-in-law and pick up a CUTE puppy!  Mackenzie handled the trip really well.  We watched lots of movies and she took a couple decent naps.

2.  I bought some fun pretties from Hobby Lobby yesterday... I'm thinking a little diy yarn garland is in order - along with some words for the wall above my desk & a really cool metal tree for my gallery wall!  Pics of the finished projects will come soon...

3.  I got a new nail polish from Ulta, called Island Hopper.  I love it!  I was wanting a mint polish, but found this one instead.  

4.  Our freezer is PACKED.  And I mean that... it's packed.  Like, if you don't fit everything in there perfectly, it keeps popping open.  Seriously.  Needless to say, we had a very successful Costco trip the other evening.  :-)  Megs loves her some foods!

5.  My cousin is getting married tomorrow.  I'm not looking forward to the drive (about 2 hrs), but it will be nice to see family that I rarely see.  Let's just hope Mackenzie is well-behaved!


So, that's it!  I'll leave you with one more picture to fill up your "cuteness" meter till I can post more.  Here's my girl sleeping the morning we headed back home.  She kept turning her music on (see upper right) and finally passed out.  Check out that belly button!  :::dies:::

xoxo

Back in the swing with a "friend" to join me

Back from our mini-vacation/roadtrip!  It's good to be home and to sleep on our nice bed instead of an air mattress.  Back to our extremely messy apartment - to find a letter from our apartment complex that we need to have toys picked up and under sinks cleared out because sometime today, between 9 and 5, they are coming in to do pest control.  Ugh.

So, we did a quick sweep of the apartment, got unpacked and got a load of laundry done.  There's still a lot to do, but it's good enough for what they are coming in for today.  And, as luck would have it, I have a friend joining me today.  His name is Allergies or Cold.  

Sneezy, itchy, drainage (yuck), sore throat, stuffy nose.  Fun.

I'm back at the office today... was late as usual.  Good thing I work for my dad and he loves me and won't fire me.  At least I hope not.  I can't ever seem to get here on time.  Every once in a while, I'll come in right at 9.  I have yet to do my main Tuesday project - payroll.  I have the timesheets sitting in front of me, but I procrastinate.  It's super hard to get back into the swing of things after time away.  

Our time in Ohio was nice.  Mackenzie handled the trip really well.  It helped that we could watch movies.  But we had a great time visiting with family.  Got to see where my sis works, so that was fun.  Had lots of good food.  Visited German Village and waited around 2 hrs to get in to a sausage place.  I had a ham & cheese sandwich on a pretzel bun (delish!) with green beans and spaetzel (which are little pasta things... really yummy!).  But I was in a bad mood from waiting so long and having to try to keep a 3 yr old entertained and not go crazy.  Managed the first two, but I think I lost some sanity that night.  I'm not very good at trying new things, so when we finally got to sit down, I was overwhelmed with all the "weird" things and couldn't concentrate and nothing looked or sounded good.  Finally settled on the ham n cheese and was pleasantly surprised.  I don't like pretzels, so I was going out on a limb.

~~~

The puppy.

She's SO freaking adorable.  At 9 weeks, she was 19.2 lbs.  She's a big puppy, but she's a fluff ball and loves playing with Mackenzie.  She was a good girl on the way home, too.  Only cried for a little bit when we first left Monday morning, but after that she was quiet, except for the occasional squeak of her toys.  :-)

Just chillin'

Forever Friends

So, that's about it.  Mackenzie was very excited about "take MY puppy home."  I gained around 5 lbs on the trip... time to get back to losing some weight.  I also caved and drank soda while there.  So, back to water for me!  

How was your Labor Day weekend?  Anything exciting?  Any weight loss tips for me??  :-)

xoxo

"New" toys

So, I am in the middle of unpacking some boxes today, when I find my old barbie box - complete with Ken and Barbie.  My mom hung on to them all these years so that I could pass them on to my daughter some day.  

Now is "some day."

Mackenzie had a blast playing with them this afternoon, trying out the different outfits and playing with the fold down table and chairs in the case.  Yeah, it rocks.

Tonight, I went in to find Barbie topless and Ken dressed down to his skivvies, sitting at the table.  I asked Kenzie what she was playing with, then had to run to get Drew so that he could see.  It went something like this:

Me:  Kenzie, what are you playing with?
Kenzie: My play with the boobies.
Me: **silent giggles**  Drew, come here!  Kenzie, show Daddy what you got today!
Kenzie: My got some boobies!

Toddlers - gotta love 'em!  I'm dying over here with her language and blooming personality!

3 Years

We've been on this journey 3 years now.  Ups & downs & lots of turns & zig-zags.  But it's been worth it.  Seeing our Mackenzie grow & blossom into a beautiful little girl has been such a blessing.

If you don't know or don't remember the story of how Mackenzie's birth day came to be, let me do some remembering for you...

Back in 2009, I was going into my 2nd year of coaching the colorguard team at the high school I graduated from in 2003.  I was pregnant - due in the middle of October - and was finally feeling good, aside from the swelling.  But the swelling was normal, right?  I thought so.. so I wasn't concerned.  Band camp was just wrapping up and we had a band/parent picnic dinner Friday evening, August 7th.  I had a picture taken with my assistant coach and saw that my face looked fat.  Weird.  Anyway... moving on with life - happy happy, I'm pregnant, not puking every day, multiple times a day - life was good.

That weekend, I got a horrible headache.  Like... bad.  Tylenol didn't help.  oh, back up a sec - thursday the 6th, I had my regular checkup with my doctor - the protein levels in my urine sample were elevated, so they made me take a big jug home (fun, lemme tell ya) and instructed me to do a 24 hr urine test.  I didn't want to do it at the office the next day and during band camp, so I asked if I could wait till the weekend and turn it in Monday - they said that was fine.  Ok - so headache. bad. tylenol didn't help.  Monday, I went to work, still had the headache.  Tuesday morning, I got up to take my shower, got the water running & all the sudden, I didn't know what I was doing.  I got my shower once I figured it out and drove the 30 minutes into my office.  I sat there with my head on the desk until about 9:30 or 10 when my dad said that I didn't look so good.  He took my blood pressure with his wrist cuff he had in his office.  Something like 190s/145s - I don't remember exact numbers, but it was high.  Too high.  He thought maybe his cuff was off, so he ran home to get the arm cuff.  Same numbers... what is going on??

Dad had me call the doctor, but my doctor didn't have any openings, so I explained what was going on - extreme headache since weekend, blood pressure says this - so they got me in with another doctor.  Dad zooms me out of the office and to the doctor (about 20 min drive for a normal person lol) and calls Drew on the way.  I collapse into a chair once inside and Drew walks in right as they called me back.  I stood up and tried to turn to head back and my foot kept getting stuck on the chair leg.  I couldn't get my body to function correctly.  I remember laughing about my "stupid foot" getting stuck.  The office had to call the lab to get my results of the urine test - while they did that, they had me get a sono from my friend, Mel.  She did some quick measurements - turns out something was wrong and she was behind in growth a little bit - but she was ok.  Mel wanted me off her table asap, afraid I would start seizing right there.  I got a wheelchair and was pushed back to the room where I got the biggest blow of my lifetime.  

I was sick - very sick.  I had what they called "pre-eclampsia" and they needed to deliver Mackenzie within the next 24 to 48 hours.  First thing I thought was "what about her brain??"  I had just been reading about development and that her brain wouldn't have had time to develop fully.  I went into a tailspin.  The lab reports came back - over 3000 - they flag it at 300.  Yes, that is three-zero-zero-zero.  Immediately, they sent me over to the hospital across the street and admitted me.  The last thing I remember is being wheeled into a room of some sort, being lifted onto a table and then telling them I thought I was going to throw up.  They handed me this little kidney-shaped bowl and I thought "whatever..."  I started throwing up and that's all I remember.

When I woke, I was in ICU - I don't know how long I was out - but I was filled in on details slowly.  I was not only PRE-eclamptic, but I went into the full mode with 3 grand mal seizures.  They called a code blue on me.  They didn't think I was going to make it.  Mackenzie was born via emergency c-section at 11:51 am.  She came out kicking and screaming - clearly not happy about the situation!  She would be spending the first 5 weeks of her life in the NICU, growing & getting stronger.  She had no real health issues, praise the Lord! She was 2 lbs 9 oz and a tiny 14 inches long.  She was beautiful.

I continued to have health problems.  The team of doctors could not get my blood pressure under control.  The only cure for pre-ecclampsia is to deliver the child.  But mine wasn't working correctly.  They finally got it under control within 4 days.  I finally got to see my angel baby.

Little did I know, I wasn't out of the woods yet.  Through all of the testing they had to put me through to figure out what was wrong, they discovered something else.  A little thing called Postpartum Cardiomyopathy.  I was rushed to the cardiac floor and put on all kinds of new meds.  Basically, it meant that the lower part of my heart was barely functioning.  They aren't sure what caused it - it may have been a problem I've had for a while, or it may have been caused by my extremely high blood pressure.  I couldn't pump breastmilk for Mackenzie, I couldn't go see her while connected to all the heart monitors.  It was awful.  My sister & sister-in-law were amazing.  They gave a gift that not many are able to do.  They gave Mackenzie their own breastmilk.  They pumped for me, so Mackenzie could have the best thing for her while she was so tiny.  I will love them forever and always for their gifts.

Fast-forward a couple weeks.  After my 10 or 11 day stay at the hospital, I was released to go home - without my baby.  After two weeks, my followup appointment with my cardiologist showed a miracle from God.  My heart was back to normal!  I had to stay on my meds for a year though, just in case.  As of today, though, my heart shows no signs of the trauma it went through just a short 3 years ago.  However, because of the conditions I had, both the ecclampsia (not just pre) & the cardiomyopathy, I was advised not to have any more children.  There's another big blow.  I always pictured having at least 2 kiddos and I was crushed to think that may not ever happen.

We made it through the traumatic times only by the grace of God.  The fact Mackenzie and I are here today is a miracle by itself.  I was supposed to be on the road with my sister to Idaho for a dear friend's wedding.  I was doing her makeup, and my sister was doing her hair.  If this all had happened on the road or just a day later (we planned to leave Wednesday morning), we might not be here today.  God is SO good.

And just look at her now!

Being goofy with Momma!

Mommy's birthday & Texas Roadhouse - sitting w/Daddy

My favorite pic of the two of us.

La la la la - Kenzie's world

Happy Birthday, my sweet Mackenzie!  Three years down, LOTS more to go!  I love you!

xoxo

Happy Birthday Mackenzie

Dear Mackenzie,

Three years couldn't have gone by any faster than these last three with you.  Your daddy and I have seen you grow, stumble (literally - remember that broken arm 2 years ago??), and really just blossom into a beautiful little girl.  I can't wait to see what the next 3 years bring.

I pray for you, Mackenzie, that you might know the Lord & his deep, great love for you.  I pray that you love him in return & learn to do good things in his wonderful name.  I pray for your future - for the man you might marry one day.  That he be blessed with the opportunity to grow up in a family of love, like you, and be taught to love the Lord with all his heart.  I pray that you never be tainted by the evils of this world.  It's a scary place and I pray that it never changes your sweet, innocent spirit.  

Thank you for loving your momma when I lose my temper with you.  You helped me to see the beauty in the little things.  I may not be the best momma out there, but I know that no one else could ever love you as much as I love you.  Never forget that!

And so, as you leave your "terrible" twos behind you and bound into your 3s and above, I pray for you that you remain safe and loved and keep getting and giving those "big squeezy hugs!"

I love you with all my heart,

Momma