Busy, excited, and great weather!!

We have been busy lately with life especially with this weather being so nice.  I have been able to take Bray on walks and to the park.  Today he had a picnic lunch out in the backyard, he thought that was pretty special.  This week we were able to go to Matts game and Bray had a great time!! At first he did not understand that he could not go out on the field with daddy but he got over that and had fun.  Then after the game he was able to go on the field and join daddy in the huddle.  He did not understand that he had to stand there and be quiet so he was running to me and yelling.  It was so funny to see him to excited, he also distracted the football players but o'well!!  The only bad thing about going to the football games is that we do not get home until really late and he has to get up so early that he has a hard day the day after.

This weekend I think we are taking him to he Dallas Arboretum to see all the pumpkins and so I can practice taking pictures!!  I finished my photography class and I was sad to see it end, I am hoping to be able to take some more classes and now that it is so nice outside I want to go places and practice.  I am so excited to take pictures of my friends nieces, and that shoot is taking place next weekend.  I have gotten some props for this shoot because one is an infant so I have been doing a lot of research.  I made a tutu, got flowers, headbands, a hat, very pretty deep purple blanket, and some sheets for a back drops.  I am really hoping to get a lot of practice and for this to become more than a hobby, we will see what happens in the future and until then I will have fun with it!!

I am getting really excited because The Walk for Alzheimer's is coming fast!! I still need some donations to meet my goal and would appreciate any donation.  If I can get 25 people to donate $1 it would help me meet my goal.  We got shirts made and they turned out awesome!! Here is the Link to my page for donations.  If you donate $100 you will receive a free tshirt made by  Ton Tons Gifts.  You should go check her out she makes some awesome things!! She just made me a cute shirt and Bray a cute shirt.  Here they are:

Please feel free to spread the word about Alzheimer's and my blog.  Hoping to help raise awareness and make my family proud.  Thank you to everyone who is reading my blog!!  Feel free to leave comments and follow my blog, I would love to read other blogs so feel free to leave your link in my comments.  Have a great weekend!!

My Inspiration to Raise Awareness for Alzheimer's

My Grandma Iris Kepner is my inspiration for raising awareness and walking to support the Alzheimer's Association.  I have had first had experience seeing what this disease does to someone.  My grandma was an amazing person; she was caring, smart, loving, loved to travel...I could go on and on for days.  She loved to play the piano, she was valedictorian of her class,  and she was a nurse.  My mom and my aunt followed in her foot steps and also became nurses.  I always loved to go visit her and my grandpa when I was younger.  They would always have deer in their backyard, I loved their house, and I got to see cousins and my moms side of the family.  My cousins and I would always go down in the basement to find old toys to play with, I would always be scared going down there because it was dark but we had a lot of fun.  Every year we would go to the Ozarks at then end of the school year and stay in a cabin on the lake.  We would all look forward to this trip every year.  We stayed at the same resort every year and we would go fishing, play games, and just spend time together.  I have such great memories and I am glad that I can share them with everyone.

I still remember when she was first diagnosed with Alzheimer's and she knew she had the disease and it would make her so frustrated.  She would try to remember something and get upset because she knew why she could not remember.  It was very hard to see her go though this.  My grandpa took great care of her and he made her have the best life possible while dealing with this disease.  She started to forget who people were, where she was, and how to do daily life tasks.  He still tried to make her life normal by taking her to my high school graduation and still going to the Ozarks.  As the disease progressed she was unable to travel or be left alone; she needed help with everything.  My grandpa hired a lady to help take care of her and she eventually became like part of the family.  She helped take care of my grandma until it was too  much and she had to be taken to a nursing home.  I hated to see her losing her battle with Alzheimer's but she had it for over 10 years.  When we would go visit her in the nursing home she was unable to talk but we would still talk to her, we would wheel her around the nursing home to go see the birds, we would attempt to play the piano for her....she loved everything we did for her and you could tell.  I would always talk to her and even when she could not speak or remember she would also whisper "Mercy Marcie", this was the nickname she gave me.  It always was so exciting to know that she knew we were there with her.  She would always perk up when she would hear the piano being played and when she could hear the birds chirp.  I hate having to remember how bad she was during the end but I love having those memories of visiting with her, brushing her hair, and putting lotion on her face.  She finally lost her battle with Alzheimer's and is not suffering anymore.

 If I can do anything to help spread the word about this disease, raise awareness, and raise money to help research more about this disease I am going to do it.  Watching this disease is horrible and no one should have to die from it.  From now on I am going to walk for Alzheimer's and try to raise as much money as I can and walk in memory and honor of the many who have this disease and the many that have passed away.  Unfortunately my Grandma Iris is not the only family that suffered with this disease; her sister, my Aunt Margie passed away from it and my Grandma Genie is currently living with it.  I also have many friends that have or had family members with it.  Please forward this blog to anyone you  know to help spread the word, if you would like to donate to help me raise money I would appreciate anything.  Here is a Link to my donation page.  I know not everyone is able to donate so please pass this to anyone you know to spread awareness.  ***Thank you to my awesome friend at Ton Tons Gifts on facebook for helping me out.  The first 5 people to donate $100 will get a free t-shirt from her!!!***  She does amazing work!! Go check her out on facebook and tell her I sent you!!

Thank you for taking the time to read this.  Here is a recent picture of Bray and I love it!

 

Walk to End Alzheimer's

I just wanted to let everyone know that this year I am doing the "Walk to End Alzheimer's" with my two girl friends.  This is very important to me because my Grandma Iris (my moms mother) suffered with this disease for close to 10 years, Margie (my Grandma's sister) passed away from it, and my Grandma Genie (my dad's mom) is now suffering with this horrible disease.  It is a horrible thing to have and it is also very hard on family of those affected.  I am wanting to help raise money to fund research and was wondering if anyone would love to donate to this great cause!  If you are unable to donate I understand and I hope that you would at least pass this on to people you know so that we can spread the word about this disease.  I set my goal at $200 but I would love to go way beyond that goal.  Here is a  Link to my walking site and you are able to donate any amount you would like.  I would truly appreciate anything that anyone may be able to do, if you are able to I would love people to share my blog with friends, family members, or fellow bloggers to get the word out.  Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and for your support.

Mini Vacation!

I love it when we can go to Big Spring for the weekend and visit with Matt's parents because it is always nice to get away.  When we go it seems like it is a break from the real world because I do not have to worry about anything.  Last week was a great week because Matt's parents came in town and took Brayden back with them so we had a couple days without him.  It was such a crazy week with working and doctors appointments that it was so nice to be able to have a girls day on friday with some of my most awesome girl friends.

I first had to go to my endocrinologist appointment to get the results back from my lab work about my thyroid...it was not the news I wanted to hear.  My blood work had changed but not in the way that I had hoped.  I found out that I have Graves Disease (click here to read about it) and that leads to a hyper active thyroid so I am also hyperthyroid.  Good news is that it can be taken care of with medication or some type of radioactive iodine therapy.  The doctor said that I have a very mild case so that I should be able to take the medication for year and it should put it into "remission", if the medication does not work then I have to get that other treatment that he said will "kill it".  The only down side is that I could be allergic to the medication I have to be on and there are some pretty severe side effects.  This medication can cause liver damage and a really low white blood cell count which can cause me to get sick a lot and if I get sick I can get really sick.  If any of these things happen I would have to do the iodine therapy.  I know that many medications have side effects but this one has to followed closely with my doctor.  The funny thing is that when I went to go pick up my medication I ask the pharmacist what it was because I forgot to ask the doctor, and when she told me I just laughed.  I am on methimazole which is what cats take for there thyroid!!! Another good thing is that I am on the smallest dosage, one pill once daily and he said that when I get my blood work done again to see if the meds are helping that I might be able to go to every other day.  So I will start these meds tomorrow night or wednesday when I am with people in case I have a reaction to the medication which is likely because I am allergic to a lot of medications but at least I just generally get rashes and so not have a severe reaction.  I am happy to finally have a diagnosis because I knew that I have not been feeling right but it seemed like no one understood how I felt and chalked it up to being a mom and working.  Well....haha...I was right, there was something wrong!! Now that I am getting it treated I am hoping it start to feel better and can get back to normal.

Anywho!! After my appointment I went to lunch with Heather and Kim at Cozymels!! I ate way too much!! It was nice to be able to go out and be able to talk during lunch about what all was going on and just catching up with each other.  I did not have Bray kicking, yelling, and whining.  After lunch I went home to pack, rest, and clean up the house before going out to dinner.  I then met Justine and Dana at the mall and we ate at the Cheesecake Factory.  We had a great time chatting it up and being able to spend time together outside of work which is nice.  We had a great dinner with some red velvet cheesecake for dessert.  So.....I obviously have been slacking this last week with my weight watchers (I am back on track tomorrow)!!  After dinner we went to Claire's and Justine and I got our ears pierced again.  It is so funny because I was so nervous even though I already have three holes in each ear.  All in all it was not bad but my ears are still very tender but it does not help when Bray has hit them a couple times.  As you can tell I had a great friday thanks to my wonderful girl friends!!! It feels great to get out and have some ME time and I am hoping we can do it more often.

Saturday morning we got up and were on our way to Big Spring!! We got there and Bray was so excited to us but he was having such a great time with Grandma and Paw Paw.  We were able to just relax and spend quality time together.  Of course we got to drive around and see the animals.  Bray just loves seeing the cows, buffalo, llamas, emus, and horses.  He always wants to get out of the car and try to pet them  but this time we stayed in the car because they were so close to us.  I was able to practice my photography skills once again and if I do say so myself I took some great shots but I still need to do some editing.

Sorry guys but your stuck seeing my pictures!! Hope everyone had a great weekend and got to enjoy family time!! I am hoping to be able to blog more once school ends and we get into a routine.