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17 is our Winner!

6/10/2011

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        Congrats to our very first drawing winner, Rachel Hardesty!  She was our 17th entry today.  I just have to tell the story behind this drawing and why I flipped out when Drew picked 17.  We decided to write down all of the numbers on slips of paper so we would be super fair.  My Mom and Dad were visting, and they thought it would be fun to try and predict the winner.  They both wrote down the number that they predicted.  They showed each other and it was.....

17. 

So funny!  Then Drew reached into that box and pulled out...

17!!!

What are the odds!??!?!  Crazy!  Rachel you were destined to win this Luggage Tag.  Congrats my dear!
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My Drew

6/8/2011

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I was washing dishes yesterday and my oldest son, Drew, brought this block to me.  "Mom, look at this!  These are my teeth marks from when I used to chew on this when I was a baby."  He held it up for me to inspect, and I agreed that this was the case.  He then says, "I don't even have those baby teeth anymore!  Cool!"

Moments like these make my heart hurt a little.  I'm not ready for Drew to be 7.  There are days (like yesterday) that I will look at him and think "How did this happen so fast?  Weren't you just toddling around a few days ago?" 
I mean, just look at the cuteness:    
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Me and Drew at a few weeks old. (I had HUGE babies.)
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Learning to crawl
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His 1st birthday. How can we have had 6 more already???

My sweet baby Drew is now almost as tall as my shoulders and wouldn't be caught dead hugging his Mom in public.  He plays baseball, wrestles with his brother and dad, and reads all of the time.  

Don't hate me for saying this, but I feel like life is a little bit too easy around here these days.  No diapers, no paci addicts, no bottles, no sleepless nights.......A new normal has set in.  Our challenges are no longer sleeping through the night but getting along with his brother.  Talks about not hitting people have been replaced with talks about girls he likes.  His blocks and fisher-price toys are long gone; their spots now filled with Legos and DS games.  

Part of me wants to go back, the other part of me doesn't.  As much as I miss that little baby I cuddled with, I also love talking to the kiddo that he has become.  I am so stinkin proud of him.  I know that 7 years from now when  he is a teenager I will yearn to go back to where I am today.  I will be wishing for 7 again.  I guess my point is you have to learn to enjoy the moment.  Every day is so special with them, and you can't get them back.....  don't waste them wishing for yesterdays.  It's fine to look back, but don't stay there long.  You might miss something amazing here and now. 
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Coming Full Circle

5/26/2011

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Today was my Ben's checkup at Riley Children's Hospital.  If you are new to the Wades or just don't remember quite clearly why we were there, go read the post below.  I'll wait....



Welcome back.   I don't really think about Riley much these days.  In fact, it usually only crosses my mind in 3 different situations.  

1.  When I check on Ben at night.  I still count his breaths and check his pulse.  I'm not sure if I will ever be able to quit.

2.  When I get the reminder phone call that Ben has a check-up.

3.  When I see the kid's show "Imagination Movers."
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Number 3 throws you, doesn't it?  You see those sweet blue jumpsuits the Movers are rocking?  Well, when Ben was transferred from our hospital to Riley they sent the Riley Ambulance.  The Riley crew who got him ready to go, rode with him in the ambulance, and made sure he made it safely to the NICU wear jumpsuits almost EXACTLY like these.  I can't help but flinch when I see them.  I am taken back to sitting in my hospital bed, telling my baby goodbye, and hearing their reassuring words that they will take care of him.

Today was a very important day in our Riley journey.  Ben got his routine EKG and then we met with his heart doctor.  He looked at me with his wise, wonderful eyes and said, "Well, since he has done so well these 4 years, you don't have to come visit us anymore."  We were free!  We were done!  I was floating on air as we walked out of that office today.  

To say goodbye to our wonderful Riley, Ben and I walked around and I told him about all of the memories we had.  We visited the gift shops, rode the glass elevator, and talked about the huge stuffed animals in the lobby.
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This is Ben and me (and our celebratory kitty we bought at the gift shop) in the lobby. Drew spent a lot of time playing here with his grandparents.
 When we were done, we had to walk back to the outpatient wing of the hospital where our car was parked.  I was soaring.  We did it!  We were officially done!  We might have been skipping a tiny bit.  Then we rounded the corner....

And ran straight into the blue suits.

I tried to keep my eyes on their faces.  I tried to will myself not to look down.  But I couldn't.  I gazed down at the tiny, plastic isolette they were huddled around.  I saw the tiny hands, the tiny feet, the tubes, the machines.  

This is someone else's day 1.

Somewhere there is another mother on her way to Riley to meet her child just like I did 4 years ago.  I know how scared she is.  I know what lies ahead for her and her family.  I know how broken she feels at this exact moment.

"Mama, why are you crying?" my sweet Ben asks.  "It's just something Mamas do sometimes, my love."  

I prayed the whole way home for that Mama.  For her child.  For their family.   I pray that they will grasp onto God and let Him carry them through like he did us.  

If you are ever looking for a charity to donate to, Riley is wonderful.  They are saving lives today.  Everyday.  It's easy to forget them when life is back to normal and easy.  Everyday there is someone else who is beginning their Riley journey.  I'm so thankful ours is finished.  Now it is time to ask, "How can I help?" 
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Click on the wagon to visit Riley's homepage
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Vintage Blog: Circa April 2007

5/26/2011

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Hello there everyone!

Yesterday we brought home Mr. Ben Wade. He is so beautiful! We wanted to let everyone know we are so thankful for all of the prayers that were prayed for our sweet baby boy. He has had a rough start, but he was a fighter! 

For those who don't know, our Ben has been at Riley Children's Hospital for the past 2 and 1/2 weeks. When he was first born everything seemed fine. He was a screamer!! We even got to hold him for just a little bit. At first he just needed a little oxygen, then he needed to be in a isolete with a lot of oxygen, and then his right lung colapsed. They put a chest tube in his lung to help relieve the pressure and put him on a ventilator to help him breath. When the doctors at Bloomington realized that our little guy was so sick, they transfered him to Riley. He was 1 day old. The docs from Bloomington said he had "respitory distress syndrome." It meant that because he was a c-section baby he still had a lot of fluid in his lungs. They called it "wet lung." That was causing all of our problems.

At Riley things got worse. Ben went into pulminary hypertension. This is were the lungs get stressed and decide they are going back to how things were in the womb. (Where mommy made all of the oxygen). They shut down. This is super dangerous because if your lungs don't oxygenate your blood, then organs like your brain, heart, etc. don't get the oxygen they need. They put Ben on a different ventilator called an occilator. It was so scary. It gave Ben really short, quick breaths. He looked like his chest was just vibrating. They also had to paralyze him to keep him from fighting the machines. We couldn't touch him. Everywhere we looked there was something hooked up to our baby. Even with all of this help, Ben's oxygen levels in his blood were still dropping. The top of the other lung started to collapse. The doctors were very honest. Our boy was critical, we shouldn't leave the hospital, and he was "touch and go." 

The last resort was a scary machine called "ECMO." Basically they stop the baby's heart and lungs and put them on a machine that filters their blood for them. Not very many babies survive very long on echmo. Plus there are serious side effects. Our Ben was so close to going on this machine. The echmo team was there Sunday and Monday. The orders had been written for Ben to be put on this machine. The medicines for Ben's echmo had been ordered. The decided to give Ben a few more hours...and his numbers started to increase just a little. Little by little he got stronger and stronger. He went back to the first ventilator after about 5 days. Then after 4 more days they took him off completely. Our little boy was breathing on his own!! We had to stay a little longer because he had to come down off of all of his drugs he had been on, and he had to learn how to eat. We walked out of that hospital yesterday with a healthy baby boy. The only side effect Ben has is a fast heartbeat. They gave us a beta blocker and think he will only need it for about 6 months. Other than that our boy is healthy! It is amazing after all he has been through that he is a happy bouncing little baby. We are so thankful. Words cannot describe. We know that this is a God-thing... a true miracle. The doctors and nurses at riley were amazing too....they worked so hard to save Ben's life. The Ronald McDonald house gave us a place to stay and food to eat. When something like this happens, you are awestruck by the kindness of people. It was the hardest 2 1/2 weeks of our lives...but it has strengthen our faith more than anyone could imagine. 

And Drew!! He is the best big brother ever. He is a little shy about holding Ben, put he adores him. He did so well through this whole thing. We are so proud of him. 

Thanks guys again for all of your prayers!!!!!
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My Easter Purse

4/24/2011

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        Happy Easter everyone!  I hope it was lovely for each one of you.  We had a wonderful one here.  However, I've had to hide the chocolate eggs from my sight because I couldn't stop eating them!   

       Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays.  Probably #2 with Christmas being the first.  I really wanted to make a super chic bag for Easter Sunday's church service, and I had the perfect one in mind.  What is it you may ask???  The Amy Butler "Blossoms" bag.  It a free online bag pattern (those are always the best) that I found about a month ago that I have been dying to try.  I finished it last night (midnight, mind you), and I don't believe I will be making it again.  Don't get me wrong; the bag is FABULOUS.  It was just so hard.  Here are the pros and cons:


Pros:
1.  It looks and feels so awesome.  Love, love, love it.  The handle details are so intricate, and the liner set-up is so cool.

2.  I learned a new interfacing technique.  Amy Butler uses a combination of woven interfacing with Peltex that I have never tried.  It made a very firm, structured bag.  


Cons:
1.  This bag almost broke my Industrial Heavy Duty machine.  We are talking major layers; major bulk.  I broke Heavy Duty Needles,which I have never done before.  One even broke and shot a needle shard at my neck.  I ended up wearing my boy's Nerf safety goggles to finish it.  (Yes, Bart made fun of me too....) 

2.  The cutting stage of this bag took TWO HOURS.  There were so many intricate, small pieces of fabric and interfacings for each piece.  Yowsers.  

3.  This bag took so much fabric and interfacings to complete.  I don't want to think about how much moolah went into this bag.  Yikes.  

4.  The instructions were hard.  Granted, it did say "advanced" on the pattern, but that really isn't my complaint.  After making it once, I really feel like I could make it much quicker the second time.  The problem lies in the hard to understand instructions.  Lots of words, not a whole lot of pictures.  There were a couple of times I would read something and think, "What???" and then try what I thought she was saying.  After I had attached the piece (wrong) I figured it out on my own.  A simple photo or explaining sentence would have helped so much.  I still love you Amy, but this pattern exhausted me this weekend! :)



Here is the link to the free online pattern if you feel like giving it a whirl!
http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/2010/09/free-amy-butler-pattern-blossom-handbagshoulder-bag/

So, I am not making this bag to sell.  Sorry P&P fans out there.  I do have to post pics.....it's just too fabulous of a bag not to.  Here it is!
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    Author

    Lori.  Momma.  Noonday Ambassador.  Avid coffee drinker.  Lover of good music and books.  Former seamstress and teacher.  Wife of 13 years to Bart and the mother of Drew, Ben and Lincoln.     

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