Relax a little...

I added a playlist to my blog. It's all instrumental, some classical some not. This type of music just completely relaxes me when I'm stressed out and that's what I really need right now. So kick back, put your feet up for a few minutes and just let the calmness roll over your body.

Pay it forward....

I love getting "sussies"! What is a "sussie" you ask? A "sussie" is an unexpected gift....a surprise....a special little treat!

So here's the rules:

I will send a hand made gift to the first three people who leave a comment on this post requesting to join the "pay it forward" exchange. All the gifts will be made and sent out sometime soon within the year. How exciting to not know when your surprise package will arrive! What you need to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS PROMISE TO POST THIS SAME 'PAY IT FORWARD' MESSAGE ON YOUR BLOG (your blog must be active in order to play). YOU WILL PAY IT FORWARD TO THE FIRST THREE PEOPLE WHO COMMENT ON YOUR BLOG.

Thanks to Jen G. for this fantastic idea! I can't wait to see who responds. I promise to make each "sussie" unique for each person who is receiving it. So come on people! Sign up and get in on the action.

Today is a better day...

Even though Tony woke up several times last night, he was able to get more sleep than he has the past couple days. He even backed down to one pain pill every four hours this afternoon. He's definitely feeling better today. The swelling is the big issue now. All of his fingers have turned black and blue. Holly took one look and said, "Daddy, that's gross!". LOL! I hope that the worst is over. He'll have to go to the doctor late next week to get the stiches out and get a cast put on.

We're home...

Tony's home and resting (not comfortably though). He's in a lot of pain. When the surgeon got his wrist opened up, it was much worse than he had originally expected. It took him about 2 hours to re-build Tony's wrist and put a 6" plate and (6) screws in. His wrist bones were shattered into more than 50 pieces, some of them so fine he said they looked like specks of sand. But the surgeon is pleased with the outcome. He is going to have about a 5-6" scar running from the palm of his hand about half-way to his elbow. The good news is the doctor is quite optimistic that he will have full-use of his wrist and hand after it heals.

They were not able to cast it today because of the tremendous swelling and the number of stiches that were put in. So I will take him back to the doctor in about a week and they will remove the stiches and put a cast on at that point. Here's a pre-surgery pic.

Update...

I just got off the phone with the surgical nurse at Belton Research. Tony will be having surgery today at 12:00. They are going to have to put a plate in his wrist. I'll post again tonight after we get home and let everyone know how he is doing. He's going to be laid up for quite some time I'm afraid.

ER here we come!

OK, so I got a phone call from Tony as I was sitting in his parents kitchen with the kids eating a sandwich at 5:30 today. He sounded a little panicked and asked me to meet him at home to take him to the emergency room for an x-ray because he hurt his wrist at work. Not really knowing what to expect, I left the kids with Nanny and Papa and went home to wait for Tony. When he pulled up he got out of the car and I saw his hand. (He'll kill me for telling this story, but I'm going to anyway..lol.) Apparently as he was running to his car in the parking lot at work, he tripped and caught himself with his left arm. It was swollen twice the size it should be and the accident happened only 45 minutes earlier, so I knew it was going to be bad.

I put him in the passenger seat and we headed to the hospital. I guess I should have started by telling you his car is a stick (kind of hard to drive without 2 good hands...lol). So we get there and they check him in and take him to an exam room. I really hadn't looked at it very good at this point, but what I saw next pretty much sent chills up my spine. When he lifted his hand to show me the underside of his arm, you could see the bones in his wrist poking out in a way that they shouldn't. At that point I knew this was going to be bad. So they finally took him back for an x-ray and within 15 minutes, the ER doc had come back and said that he had already consulted with an orthopedic surgeon. That made Tony cringe.

Needless to say, they showed us the x-rays and he had 4-5 hairline fractures half-way up his arm and the gap between your bones (which allows you to flex your wrist) was non-existent. He crushed all the bones in his wrist together and they had been shoved a good 1 to 1-1/2 inches to the left of where they should have been. They put a half splint on his hand and gave him some painkillers and I brought him home. Not an hour after I got home, we got a phone call from the surgical nurse telling us that she will be calling at about 9:00am tomorrow morning after she has a definite time for his surgery.

He is in a lot of pain right now, but he's trying getting a little sleep. I'll be camping on the floor next to him because I deathly afraid of rolling over and hitting his arm. There are a couple of pics below, but I didn't post the one that grossed me out. Notice in the second picture how it looks like his arm goes straight into his hand without any definition of a wrist what-so-ever with two big lumps on either side (those are his bones people! EWWW!!!). This just shows you what a number he did on himself.

I'll post again tomorrow after the surgery and let everyone know how he is doing.

For those of you who have girls...

Fair warning. I took Holly with me yesterday to get a mani-pedi at the salon. She's hooked. For the next hour she bugged me asking "When are we going back? I will need to get a different color that will match different outfits." LOL! I've created a monster! It was pretty cute watching her "reading" Cosmopolitan getting her fingernails and toenails done. She thought she was the biggest thing in there.

What a Beautiful Weekend!

Here's a couple pics of the kids enjoying the beautiful weather this weekend. Spring fever is definitely setting in! I only got a couple of pics of Brody because he took off to play with his friends up the street, but that didn't stop Holly from having a good time. :)

Some New Layouts

This is Holly's first date with Daddy. February 21, 2009


We helped Brody & Holly's cousin Zoie celebrate her 6th B-day at Aarons family fun center. They had a blast bowling, playing arcade games, and eating pizza. Plus this is a great pick of Brody that he is sure going to love later in life...lol! February 21, 2009

Come Join Me!!

I spent most of the morning yesterday at the Scrapbook Workshoppe finalizing the details of the two classes I posted about earlier. But that's not it. She invited me to be on her Design Team for the store! Now I know that that doesn't mean much to most of you, but it's a big deal! Which means that I will be doing a lot more of this kind of stuff. I'm going to try and keep everyone updated on upcoming events(admittedly I'd like to suck some of you into this world...lol...CHRIS!). Below are the details of the first two classes:

Scrapbook Workshoppe
1701 W. 40 Hwy
Blue Springs, MO 64015
816-228-4944
www.scrapbookworkshoppe.com

Easter Circle Mini-Album Class
Friday, April 3 - 7:00 to 9:00pm
Cost - $23.00




Love Acrylic Album
Friday, April 24 - 6:30 to 9:30pm
Cost - $45.00



To register for any of these classes you will have to go to the store and pay in advance. If you are interested and cannot make it there before the class, let me know and I'll help you out. I'm up there every week anyway...lol!

I'm really excited about this and I hope that some of you can join me. I'm going to be doing at least one class per month.

Some exciting news!

I finally broke down and agreed to teach a few classes at Scrapbook Workshoppe (a local scrapbook store in Blue Springs). One of them is the clear acrylic Love album I posted earlier and the other is an adorable little circle mini album for Easter. I don't have the definite dates yet, but I'll post the details when I get them. The Love album class is going to be $35 and the Easter album class is going to be $15. If you are interested in learning some new techniques and using some really cool new products, please join us! I can't wait! :)

Love Acrylic Album

I finally finished a project! Last Friday night I sat down and just did it. I find it hard to get motivated when scrapping by myself. But I was in the mood...lol. I think I'm going to submit this as my first class to teach at my LSS (local scrapbook store). The owner has been asking me for quite sometime, but I was just not ready. I might as well give it a shot. It's doing what I love and making some extra money at the same time. How can you beat that?!