Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Spending Pennies on Pretties

I'm frequently told (and with great appreciation) how beautiful MD is and how stylish she is. We always hear "oh my, she looks like a little fashion model, where do you get her clothes???"

Here is the thing. We are a single income family with three kids and a hefty cheer tuition to pay ;) We absolutely do not spend a lot on our children's clothing but I do get creative and am willing to shop at resale stores! If it's not used, it's most likely a Target clearance or a huge score from Zulily.

**If you haven't signed up for zulily, do this NOW! go to www.zulily.com/invite/minidiva and check out all the amazing offers for the whole family!**

This outfit is the perfect example!

The plain black long sleeve tee, black 'leather' jacket, and polka dot tutu are all Cherokee from Target. They were all on sale plus there was a 25% off Cherokee boys and girls clothes on the Cartwheel App! The skirt was under $4 and the jacket under $20(originally around $40). Her adorable boots, Lucky Top brand,  were an amazing find on Zulily for under $10. A great look pulled together for under $40 from head to toe including the jacket isn't bad in my book!

On Another Note--

This weekend I went through ALL of my photos on my computer and realized I have not gotten any prints in FOREVER and guess who has great deals going on right now....SHUTTERFLY!!!! Yes, I'm ordering hundreds of prints and I can't wait to fill albums! Also getting the hubby a custom gift for Father's Day!!! Don't let it sneak up on ya!

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Mom Win #319: How to store school projects and crafts.

Guess What?! Tomorrow is the last day of school here for our Mini Diva and I am so excited for my summer break with my girls! (MD's little brother will remain in daycare since the wait list is nearly a year long and I don't want to fight that battle again!)

So, now that the school year is over what do I do with all MD and her little brothers 'crap'???

I found the cutest way to keep all of the kids school projects with out all the clutter and mess of actually keeping all of the kids school projects!

Throughout the year I took pictures of their arts, crafts, work sheets, homework and more! Saved all of the images to a SCHOOL WORK folder on my desktop and then today I went on Snapfish.com, which is having 50% off with code  50May15, and created a custom photo book using images of some of my favorite things.

Check it out...

http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/projectshareewelcome/l=7164531022/p=1314211432222812185/g=7958934022/cobrandOid=1000/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/otsc=SYE/otsi=SPBKlink/ 

I'm very excited with how it turned out!! Let me know what you think!

Sunday, May 10, 2015

What do you mean?!

I don't have a lot to report on our sass-a-frass MiniDiva this week. I've been home in Minnesota while her dad stayed with the littles in Georgia. 

Tuesdays MD has cheer until late in the evening. It was just her and I so we stopped at the store on our way home to get a few things we needed to make Guacamole. Lime, Jalepeno, Avacado's and a large tomato. We should only be there 10-15 minutes. 

We were on our way to checkout when I realized I forgot a Lime. I told MD hey, lets go grab a lime quick, ok and she replied "What is a lime, I've never had Limes" I was in the middle of saying a lime is like a lemon but green when my phone rang. It was my dad. He isn't one just to call and chat so I figured it was something somewhat important and answered. 

He was crying. He never  cries. Keep it together, keep it together...I had to keep it together. MD was with me, holding my hand and we were in the middle of the grocery store. I couldn't lose it. My heart started racing and I immediately thought something happened to my mom. If it were anyone else my mom would have been the one calling me. I hadn't even seen or noticed she had called just before and I missed it. Was she in a car accident? Just tell me already! He had a hard time getting anything out other than my name and I swear time stood still while I began panicking and imaging every single scenario of tragedy. (I have quite the imagination and do this on the regular without any prompt. Probably my worst characteristic) Except this one.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE HAD A STROKE" 

My little brother, he’s still a baby. He’s 23 years old, he just got engaged to his beautiful girlfriend of the last 2 years, he’s in perfect health and we had just talked a couple of days ago, he was SO excited about his placement test results for college. He's doing so much with his life right now. 

 

 This doesn't happen to someone so young. 

At this time I honestly didn't even know where MD was. I dropped my basket, covered my face and just gave up holding my composure. My dad kept talking but I was sobbing too hard to even hear what he had to say let alone understand. I knew he was on his way to Minneapolis in a chopper, he wasn’t able to talk, he had been at work and HE HAD A STROKE. 

A woman shopping had stopped and was standing with MD holding her hand when I finally thought to make sure my poor mini was here and probably scared out of her mind. She was fine. Staring at me. When I finally looked up at her she started telling me it’s ok mommy, it’s ok. Uncle is ok. She hugged me and kept saying it’s ok. I felt horrible. My 6 year old was consoling me. 

She is such an amazing little person. She did not shed one tear even though I could see she was scared, too. She held my hand, gave me love and pet my hair. She was my rock for a good half hour. 

I cried some more then found my way to the front of the store holding MD’s hand. I called my husband begging him to pick us up. We didn’t get our groceries, the basket stayed there on the store floor and somehow my genius little MD knew to grab my wallet out of the basket, carrying it through the store. Standing outside waiting for my husband I called my mom and found out what I could and told her I was on my way. Somehow. 

My husband packed up our 2 younger littles and made his way. IT TOOK FOREVER. I couldn’t stop crying. Actually, I wasn’t even crying …tears and snot just effortlessly flowed. He had already been working on ways to get me to Minnesota by the time he picked me up. 

My amazing little family…MD’s little brother continued to tell me he loved me on the way home. He isn’t one to say I love you often so when he does it’s that much more heartwarming. MD insisted everything will be fine. She heard my conversations, started to comprehend her uncle had a really bad owie and KNEW everything would be ok. Her uncle was strong so he would be fine. 

I went home, packed and booked the first flight I could while my husband tended to the kids making them dinner and getting them to bed. MD finally broke and wanted me to lay with her. While she lay there crying I held her and repeated her own words back to her. He is strong and will be just fine baby. She wanted to pray so we did. I said a prayer for my brother and for my family on there way and she followed up with her own. 

I repeatedly tried calling our biological mother and stepfather with no success. All the while checking on my parents and little brothers fiancĂ©  and their 6 hour drive to the hospital my little brother was traveling to by chopper. I was losing my mind at this point. 

I made it. I met my parents and his fiancĂ© in the waiting room while he finished his scan. His neurosurgeon team came out and explained everything. We made our way upstairs to see him and I lost it one last time for good measure. 

Fast forward a few days, a hundred tears, zero sleep and roughly a half dozen doctor introductions. HE IS GOING TO BE FINE. It is going to be a long journey and he has a lot of recovery to do but he is going to be fine. He has something called an AVM and will have to have surgery to remove it once his brain heals and cools down from all the stress of the hemorrhage. He is still struggling with speech but it’s coming back to him more and more every day. It certainly creates no barrier for his smart ass comments and/or jokes. 

Thank the lord for so many things. For the speedy action of his bosses that most likely saved his life, if nothing else his quality of life. For the location of his AVM  not permanently interfering with his abilities. And for his amazing neurosurgeon who is very gifted and the best at what he does as well as his amazing demeanor and ability to explain things in laments terms.

Our mom has set up a caring bridge site where you can read more about what happened, my brothers progress and leave well wishes. Our family will be setting up a donation account to help with the immense cost that will be associated with the rehab, surgery, rehab again and all other recovery.  In the meantime please continue to pray for a speedy recovery and that my brother keep his high spirits. It’s amazing to see someone go through so much and still laugh like he was. He is much stronger than I could ever be and I admire him. 

Here is the caring bridge site. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/dylaneason 

Much Love, 


Heather

Saturday, May 2, 2015

My Whole Heart

Guess What....MD's Daddy is back home!!!!!

I'm not sure why, but the 2 weeks he was gone this time were so hard on me. MD's little brother really struggles when he's not home and he definitely acted out much more this go around. Which makes it hard on EVERYONE.

MD had her schools Field Day this last friday and I was not able to go because her little brother had therapy. SHE WAS SO UPSET. and I felt awful. she cried. I cried. It was a mess. By the end of the day she forgave me and all was right in the world again, thank God.

Not only was I struggling with the task of juggling our 3 littles but I was just really missing him. It might sound horrible but normally I don't have a strong sense of missing him when he takes these short trips because I am constantly trying to keep up with life. I'm too busy to miss him if that makes sense? This time I did. Maybe I just like him more these days, haha! JUST KIDDING!


He got home in the middle of the night last night and MD was SO excited when she came in my room to wake me up this morning and saw her daddy sleeping. We had a pretty relaxed family day and went to a community yard sale this morning, went for a walk after nap time and are grilling burgers for dinner tonight! I love these days. There is no rushing, no schedule to keep and that prevents a lot of our daily frustrations. MD dressed herself this morning. She was definitely the belle of the.....yard sales. ;)

We also drew the winner for our Sesame Street Live give away! Congratulations to Ramona Holland! And thank you everyone who shared :) 
 

MD has made the Youth 1 cheer team this year! We are so excited and so proud of her to only be 6 years old, 1 year into cheer and making the youth team! With the new team comes a lot of new expenses. Sweet MD would love to ask for your sponsorship in the 2015-2016 cheer season. When I asked her why she thought it was important to her to have these sponsorships and to continue cheer she said what do you mean. I explained saying well, why do you love cheer or why do you want to stay in cheer and she replied because CHEER MAKES ME, ME. IT'S MY WHOLE LIFE. Ha, says a very dramatic and enthusiastic 6 year old diva <3 If you are interested in sponsoring or sharing her page please visit http://www.gofundme.com/t3sky4

Much Love <3