Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Next card kit available soon....

Thank you all so much for the sweet notes regarding Taylor! It meant so much to me to read your supportive words and helped me get through a tough time. Taylor is doing much better each day, I'm amazed at how quickly children recover from these type of things. She just came down the stairs by herself for the first time! We are hoping that she will be able to go back to school next Monday, but we'll see in a few days how she is feeling. I don't want to rush it and risk hurting it again, she has a pretty large cut on her lower abdomen...(I know...too much information...I'm sorry!)

In other news, my next card kit at Create My Keepsake will be ready soon. Here is one of the cards I created for it. This kit is loaded with fun goodies! You can check out the photos of the kit contents at the Create My Keepsake blog. Papers are some of the new Scenic Route Sonoma and Sassafras Lass Hog Heaven, also included are lots of extras...chipboard, rub on sayings from Melissa Frances, buttons and tags from Creative Cafe, cards and envelopes and some fun die cut shapes like this yellow flower shape:
I hope you will grab one when they become available on Sept. 15th for non-members (sooner for kit members). You will find it on Sept. 15th at Create My Keepsake under "monthly kits", and then "current kits".

I've been SUCH a bad blogger friend and I just want to say thank you to all of you who have honored me with this fun blog award recently!!
One more fun thing: this Friday (and each Friday from now on), Create My Keepsake will be hosting a fun sketch night! Each Friday a new sketch will be posted and you will have 24 hours to participate/create a layout from the sketch to be entered into a drawing at the end of the month! You can read the details here in the forum: Scrappy Formulas. Come and join us!

Well, I must be getting back to chores, etc. Thanks for stopping by today! ~Danielle~

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Life is precious....

First of all, I just want to say thank you so much for all your well wishes and support during the last few days. Things have been hectic, but are now slowly calming down. This post isn't scrappy related, but I just wanted to let you know that Taylor is doing much better, and your prayers have been wonderful for her.

We went into the hospital on Thursday at 7:30 and they started the surgery on Taylor at 8:30. I was able to go in with her while they put her out (which was another whole experience in itself if you've ever done that, you know what I mean). They called us at 11 and said the surgery went well. They put her in recovery and we were able to see her. She was still out, but came to now and then. (Was pretty much delirious at that point) She had to stay there until 3:30 because they didn't have any hospital rooms available. BUT I'm so glad they kept her there, because it was awful in the hospital room. She was so out of it and in such pain and our nurse was terrible, didn't help us out much at all. I tell you, this is the hardest thing I've ever had to go through as a mom. She cried and cried and I just felt helpless that I couldn't do much of anything for her. She vomited throughout the night and couldn't keep anything down. They did a caudol (not sure if I spelled that right), which is like an epidural so it would numb her from the waist down, but after that wore off, she was in a lot of pain again. Anyhow...my husband stayed the night with her, because my little Kati who just turned 3 wouldn't stay without me. (She's attached to me at the hip!) He said it was horrible. She was vomiting and nobody was helping him, even after he paged them several times and went out in the hallway to get the nurse. She had to share a room with another little baby who cried and cried. So neither Taylor nor hubby got much sleep.

The next morning, the dr. said she could go home that day (Friday) if she ate. So we finally got her to eat something, and she came home yesterday afternoon. She is doing much better now, but still has a catheter in until Sunday and can't move around much on her own. We bought her a Wii to keep her occupied a bit. She has to stay out of school for a week, and no gym class or hanging from the monkey bars for 6-8 weeks. So hopefully all will go well and she will recover soon. It has been quite an experience to say the least. But I may have to go through this again with Kati who has a birth defect in her heart.. but they can't do surgery on it until her heart is fully grown. I think the hospital stay is just as traumatizing for them as the actual surgery. Our nurse on Friday was absolutely the best! She helped us tremendously and was so kind and caring.

Taylor has to miss the first week of school. Her teachers were so sweet, they sent Taylor a get well note that everyone in the class signed, so that was so nice! I'm really looking forward to this year with them!

Going through all of this, I am reminded just how precious life is and to appreciate everything. Give those loved ones a big hug right now and tell them you love them!

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Grandmas....

...are the best, aren't they? I woke up this morning and had an idea for this layout, so I got up early and worked on it, I couldn't sleep a wink last night anyway. Taylor's surgery has me worried. Actually it has her worried too...she woke up at 4 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep. It's going to be a long week, but hopefully all will go well. Oops, O.K. back to grandmas..... what would we do without them? Kati and Taylor both really adore my mom and it just breaks my heart that we can't live there and be closer to her and my dad. Unfortunately the economy isn't as good there, and we would be struggling if we lived there. So I know we are better off here, but it was so hard to leave them when Taylor was one year old. When we were there visiting a couple of weeks ago, Kati followed my mom around and loved to help her garden! They would be the best of buds if they could hang together more often!
Grandma's Love:

I really want to focus on doing more layouts, even if they are simple and quick! Supplies used here: background paper, chipboard letters, rub on saying: Melissa Frances. Felt: Fancy Pants. Rub on swirls: Glitz. Flower: craft supply and button is Basic Grey. I'm off to do some painting today, we put in a new patio door and it hasn't been painted yet, maybe I can cross it off my to-do list today. Have a great day! ~Danielle~