Craft Room Reorg

My craft room is my happy place! I always wanted this room to be super cute BUT functional. Many great organizational tools are super functional; however, they often times are not cute lol. Here is what I ended up when I decided to get my act together in the craft room! I used my Cricut to label each drawer so I can always ensure that tools go back exactly where they below. I also made vinyl labels for the drawers I used to organize my vinyl. I also included a few "before" pictures and a time lapsed video of me tackling this project.

What purchased:

• 5 drawer system (HTV and 651 storage)
• Extra long 3 drawer table top systems
• Mini 5 drawer table top system
• Fabric Bins

Pantry Reorg

When I hired A Clean Slate Home Organization and Cleaning Service  I told her that I eventually wanted to tackle my pantry and craft room. About 3 months later we decided it was time. Liz sent me a few pins that laid out her vision for my pantry along with Amazon links for what I would need to purchase. The weekend before she planned to start the reorg I went through my pantry tossing bad, stale and expired stuff. I  cleaned the bottom of the pantry and then left the rest to her. I was very impressed with what Liz had done when I came home from work. She told me I would need to work through where I wanted certain things based on the needs of my family and I did just that. After a week of swapping bins and shuffling things around I felt good about how things looked. I originally thought I would use my Cricut to make vinyl labels for everything; however, the chalkboard labels seem to be working well for me. I can easily erase labels and re-write them based on what I purchase or what snacks my kids are into for the week. I also painted the inside of one of my pantry doors with chalkboard paint. This allows everyone in the family to jot down things we need throughout the week. I also added a few different organizational tools throughout the kitchen that made life a little easier (draw organizers, fridge bins etc). Happy organizing! :)

These are the things I purchased:

• Large Containers (cereal, flour, sugar)
• Small containers (bread crumbs, baking powder)
• Small plastic baskets (Asian, Italian, Mexican) 
• Large Wire Baskets (chips, cookies) 
• Clear Bins (cereal bars, fruit snacks, oatmeal) 
• Door Pantry Rack
• Can rack
• Chalkboard Paint
• Black Utensil Bins
• Clear Extra Long Utensil Bins

Unicorn Poop

What do you do when your daughter loves unicorns and the poop emoji? Um.....make Unicorn Poop valentine treats for her to give out to classmate....duh!! 🤣 These cute lollipops came from Amazon and I added the eyes. I used my cricut to create the tag and added a little ribbon.

Oscar the Scarecrow

Oscar the Grouch

Here is my entry for our neighborhood's scarecrow contest.  I found the trash can from Walmart, stole the pumpkin off my front porch and grabbed "trash" right out of my family's hands before they were really finished with the product lol. I was really pleased with how he turned out and at the end of the day Oscar is really my inner ego!!

A few things:

• Paint- 2 bottles of mini acrylic paint 

• Face- template found on google, felt sheets cut out using my Cricut and hot glue onLid-attached using floral wire inserted into the top of the pumpkin  

• Trash-hot glued on around the base of the trash can  

• Sign- card board with vinyl letters cut using Cricut 

 

The 3rd and Final Act....

Thank Heaven for Little Boys

So this is the labor story of my third child and only boy. If you would like to familiarize yourself with my “background” lol you can check out my post Movie Poster Pregnancy Announcement” post . Since making that announcement we found out at 12 weeks that I was carrying a baby BOY! Since I was considered high risk (developed Preeclampsia at 39 weeks with my middle daughter) I was given the option to have the Harmony Prenatal testing done. The harmony testing is a DNA blood-test that measures the risk of Down syndrome and other genetic conditions. The test also offers the ability to reveal the gender of the baby. We received the results about 4 days after my blood work was completed and we were able to reveal to our girls lol. Since the reveal Khloe has absolutely fallen in love with the idea of having a little brother, but it took a few months! I left the name choice up to my husband. We had always talked about baby being a third as my husband was a junior and I had actually fallen in love with “Tre” as a nickname. As always my husband threw me for a total loop when he decided against naming his first (and hopefully only) son after him. We ended up agreeing on the name Carter Jaxon “CJ”. Knowing the gender and having a name all before 18 weeks was a major win for my anxiety lol.

Smooth Sailing

I honestly had a good pregnancy. I felt pretty good most days and my OB would always praise me on my weight and BP each visit. I gained a total of 28 lbs throughout my pregnancy and many people would say that I didn’t even look pregnant until about 38/39 weeks……I guess that is when I “popped”.  After recently having lost 160+ lbs in the months leading up to conception the weight gain during pregnancy was an emotional battle for me. I ended up stopping my normal gym routine in the second trimester due to pain/pressure associated with vulva varicose veins. I came to terms with the fact that I would probably gain 25-35lbs, but I would work hard to lose it once baby was born. Easier said than done…...I know I drove my husband, sisters, and friends insane constantly talking about my weight gain lol. Anyway, Preeclampsia did not rear its ugly head with this pregnancy and I am forever grateful for that.

Officially on Maternity Leave

I started maternity leave on a Monday May 15th, 2017 at 39 weeks exactly. The following Tuesday my OB swept my membranes as I was dilated to 2 ½ cm, was 70% effaced, and Carter’s head was at a -2 station. She also gave me an induction date of May 31st (41 weeks & 2 days or 40+2) if I happened to go that far overdue. As a result of the sweep I started having cramps and became very uncomfortable that evening. I was so glad I was no longer working as I couldn't imagine feeling this bad at work.

Wednesday morning I woke up to “bloody show” around 6am. I was nervous and excited as I thought it was a sign that labor was near….clearly it was not though lol. Around 5:30pm I started experiencing mild contractions as I prepared food to grill out with my family for dinner. I was able to finish helping my husband grill and sit down with my family to eat even though the contractions and pressure were present. I ended up excusing myself from the table early as I began to feel real uncomfortable from the contractions.

Prodromal labor…..don’t nobody go time for that!

Upon excusing myself from the dinner table I went into my bedroom and began to use the contraction timer on my cell phone. I pulled out my birthing ball and sat on it while resting on the edge of my bed. After having two inductions and two failed epidurals I decided I would try to labor at home this go round as long as I could to prevent the need from having to get potocin to help progress labor. Anyway, I am sitting in my room with the blinds closed thinking “This is it…..Carter is coming tonight!” At this point the contractions were coming about every 8 minutes and lasted about 30 seconds. They were about a 4 on a pain scale of 1-10. In between contractions I started doing little things to “set the mood” for what I though was the beginning of my labor. I made the room really dark, lit candles, and powered on my “Nature Sounds” station on Pandora. I was really relaxed and calm (which is rare since I actually have a medical diagnosis of anxiety). I sat on my ball timing my contractions until about 10 pm. At this point they were getting further and further apart (approximately every 15 mins). I decided to get in bed to get some rest just in case I ended up at the hospital at some point through the night. I woke up around midnight and realized the contractions had completely stopped. I was confused and a little embarrassed. I had updated my sisters, mom, and a few close friends about what was going on. John had also called his mom. At this point I was worried ppl would think I was a hypochondriac lol. Anyway, I went back to sleep.

Thursday morning (39+4) I woke up to more bloody show. I was encouraged all over again and was certain Carter would come at some point throughout the day. John decided to work from home and I got the kids off to school/daycare as if it were any other normal day. I decided to Google “consistent contractions stop after a few hours” and blog posts/articles/web thread about “prodromal labor” took over my screen. The term wasn't totally new to me as I had seen other expecting moms from my May 2017 Facebook group post about it. Of course I knew it was real…..I just didn't think it would happen to me. Reading up on this annoying phenomenon made me feel better about what had happened…..I confirmed I was not indeed going crazy lol. The day came and went and all I experienced were irregular contractions accompanied by annoying pressure. Midday I received a random call from my OB office. It was a nurse calling to tell me that my scheduled induction needed to be push back a day (June 1st/41+3) due to a more dire case at the hospital. While I had her on the phone I shared with her my experience from last night and how I was currently feeling. She gave me a few suggestions to get contractions going again (walking, sex, etc) and joked that it didn't look like I would even need my induction date. She also told me that if I had more bloody show I should call back as they would want to check me or send me to L&D to get checked. I ended Thursday still pregnant lol.

Each wave has a purpose 🖤

I woke up Friday May 19th (39+4) around 2am still very pregnant and with no contractions in sight. Carter had been very active through the night (as normal) but now his movement caused me occasional pain and discomfort. With 3 days until my due date I began to question why the hell I was still pregnant lol. Maybe he would be a due date baby…..bc after all I knew exactly when I conceived (down to an 18-24 hour window lol). Based on conception date he was due May 23rd and based on LMP he was due May 22nd. After seeing so many moms in my fb group who were due around the same time as me, on the same date as me, and even after me post that their babies had arrived I will admit I began to become a little bummed. I began to wonder if something was wrong with my body. Having 2 previous 39 week inductions with my girls this go round made for the longest I'd ever been pregnant…...BLAH! As usual around 3am I was browsing social media on my cell phone as John snored. At about 3:35 am I had a mild contraction. I told myself I would time the next one. Then around 3:47 am  I experienced another one but missed timing it due to browsing social media on my phone lol. At this point I opened up my contraction timer app and waited. Another one came 9 mins later and lasted about 40 seconds. After about 27 minutes of no action I put my phone down and attempted to get some rest before Alasia’s alarm would go off at 6am…..I had 1 hour and 30 mins.

Happy Birthday Carter!

So Alasia’s alarm went off at 6am and I got up to use the bathroom. I started tracking the contractions again and they were coming like every 6-8 minutes but were only lasting about 30 seconds. I woke John up and told him what was going on and how I wasn't sure if this was real this time.  I proceeded with getting Khloe ready for daycare (put out her outfit, packed her lunch, and prepared her oatmeal for breakfast). John left around 7:15 am to take the the girls to school and daycare. While he was gone I “labored” in that jetted tub of mine that I love soooooo much lol. I will admit that I started  to get concerned bc at one point the contractions were coming every 2 mins but were only lasting 30-40 seconds. John got home around 8:15 am as I was getting dressed. The contractions were still coming frequent but the duration was still very short. I made the decision to head to the hospital. En route I was silently crying bc the contractions were so painful and I was also anxious about being sent home (if I was indeed experiencing prodromal labor again). We arrived at the hospital around 8:45 am and the nurse checked me in triage. I was 6cm dilated and my bag was bulging. I was admitted and moved to a room. Apparently the hospital was busting at the seams as I took the very last L&D room. I told the nurse I was planning to have a natural delivery but an epidural was not completely off the table. She went ahead and gave me an IV in case things headed in that direction and to give me fluids. Around 10:00 am she took me off the monitors so I could labor on the birthing ball and said she would come back at 10:30 am to check on me. Once she left I had about 3 extremely painful contractions and I told John that I didn't think I could do it anymore. He pressed the call button and the nurse came in. When she came in I was in tears and told her I think I needed an epidural. She said let's check you first and maybe that will help you make a decision. She checked me and I was fully dilated and my bag was still bulging. She frantically called for the doctor and began to prep the room. She told me that there was no time for an epidural as the baby was coming NOW and I was totally fine with that…...in fact that is what I wanted to hear lol. The doctor came in and had John help her pull down the light etc. She broke my water and told me to start pushing. I pushed one time for like 45 seconds and she told me to grab my legs and do it again. After the second push Carter just popped out. Carter is perfect (I think he looks like me) and I feel great. I definitely avoided Preeclampsia and my BP post delivery is great.  My L&D nurse told me she was truly amazed at how composed I was during labor. She said she has seen a lot of births and mine was definitely special…….that really means a lot to me.

Movie Poster Pregnancy Annoucment

The Idea
So my husband and I knew as some point we would have another child. He came into our marriage an automatic father as I had a 9 year old daughter and our youngest was literally baking in the oven as we said our vows lol. Around our 2 year anniversary we began to discuss when we would try for our next bundle of joy. I was very adamant about not having 2 children in daycare and he didn't want a huge age gap between the baby and our youngest. The spring of 2015 my husband was given orders to go to Korea for a year. As you can imagine that put a huge wrench in our plans. He was stationed in South Korea from August 2015 until August 2016. When he returned this past August Baby #3 became a reality. This pregnancy has been very special as it was the first one of my pregnancies that was planned. Although I love my 3 year old and soon to be 13 year old they were surprise blessings. Anyway, this summer before my husband returned to the states I began to search Pinterest to get ideas on how I would announce when we finally got pregnant. I immediately ran across these movie posters and fell in LOVE (links embedded in the images)! They were creative and hilarious....... and I knew I had to do one!

       

The Process

After reading a few blog post I found out that the key to achieving this look was to have a good quality photo. I turned to Groupon to find a photographer that was reasonably priced and had good reviews. There I found Eddie and Patty Photography.  The morning before our appointment with the photographer I had my family practice our pose a few times using the self-timer feature on our Cannon DSL. I printed off a copy of our best pose along with the two pinterest examples above to show the photographers. Eddie and Patty came to our home and took several shots of us in our bedroom. They were super friendly and I knew right then that my vision would come to light. Once I received the digital images I worked with my husband to chose the "best" image. It was tough as the BEST one didn't capture my oldest daughter's face bc of how she angled her body. Anyway, we selected the second best and I move on to create the movie poster in Photoshop. I started off by blending the image with a white background. After that I created the text on the poster layer by layer. I am not very proficient in Photoshop so I had my husband by my side to help guide me and give me all the Photoshop short cuts.. I was very please with the finished product.

The Final Product

Those that know me and my family will instantly get the humor here. However, for those that don't really know our little family well......you may need a little explanation lol. As I mentioned earlier this will be my first planned child (fertile myrtle apparently). The last time this happened my husband and I went to Vegas to celebrate my 29th birthday and brought a little something back lol. Anyway, let's start with me in the movie poster! For starters, I am obsessed with cakes made by the wholesaler "Sam's Club", so yes that is a Sam's club cake I had made especially for our photo lol. Sour cream and cheddar Ruffles are by far my favorite chip and I also love dill pickles. Simply put....I love food and that has not changed with this pregnancy. I can't say that I've really gravitated to particular foods, but I do have weird and random cravings at times. Now on to Alasia, my soon to be teenage daughter. Alasia also loves food also (what can I say?....she got it honest from her mom). Alasia repeatedly gets caught sneaking food to her room or eating the last of my favorite snacks around the house. So that should explain her portion of the photo. Moving on to Khloe.....my beloved 3 1/2 year old preschooler. Khloe is a HANDFUL, period end of story! She is extremely smart and her language often compares to a child well beyond her age..........BUT she often works my last nerves. She is full of energy and I swear she never slows down. I can count on Khloe to get into some type of mischievous pretty much daily. This movie poster captures her personality perfectly!  Then there is my dear husband John. John is by far one of the sweetest, happiest, and laid back individuals I've ever met in my life. I'm still not certain how he puts up with me as a wife lol. The shirt he is wearing probably is exactly how he has felt since the day I told him I was pregnant. He also lets our children get away with high way robbery (-_-). Lastly, we started the process for building a house in May of 2016 and we are scheduled to move in early December which explains the boxes. Originally, we were going to have a guest room on both the second level of our home and in the basement. Now with the baby we will only have one guest room and turn the other extra room on the second level into the nursery. So there is our movie poster announcement in a nutshell :-)

Lot Sold Picture!

So the girls didn't know about until we got our official loan approval! My oldest probably thought I was having an affair after the countless "appointments" I had over the past 2 weeks where she has been left to babysit her sister lol. Anyway, I thought it would be cute to take them to the homesite and having them flip over these signs (that I made) would be a nice way to break the news to them. picture!

I created these posters using Word! I used a black chalkboard background and various fonts on Pinterest. I sent the images to Staples and ordered  16x20 colored engineering prints. Then I backed them onto black foam board. Lastly, I took regular white chalk and smudge it over the front to give it more of a chalkboard effect.

The memory of the picture will last a life time though. I just wish my husband was here to be in the

Simply Lemonade Teacher Appreciation Gift

As I mentioned in my previous post I am doing a little gift each day for my girls' teachers this year. Tuesday's gift is a little thank you that just may quench the thirst of any over worked and underpaid teacher. It's not much, but I thought the idea was super cute. I was able to get the lemonades for $1 at the commissary and I found the cute tags already made on Pinterest. I've seen others add a cute paper straw for a nice finishing touch!! 

Extra Gum Teacher Appreciation Tag

This year I decided on doing small thoughtful gifts each day for Teacher Appreciation Week. I saw the extra gum idea on Pinterest. I decided to go with the fruity flavor instead which required me to make my own tags to keep the color scheme thing going. I made two different versions: one ideal for teachers of younger students and the other geared more for older students!!!

Extra School Teacher Template

Extra Daycare Teacher Template

Safari Diaper Cake

 

I made this super cute 3 tier safari themed diaper cake for my cousin's shower. Of course I scored the Huggies diapers at a good deal using coupons and CVS extrabucks etc. I picked up the ribbon and wooden animals from JoAnn's and Micheal's. I think this one is my favorite :-)

 

Deployment Wall

So my husband left on August 8, 2015 for a 12 month tour in Korea. After 2 months I finally finished the wall dedicated to him. I ordered the poster from an Etsy shop and then used a Groupon for PrinterPix to have it printed. I purchased the two clocks from Target and ended up painting the blue one bc it was originally teal. The AM and PM tags will be swapped daily as they are on hooks! Although my 11 year old loves it, I think my 2 year old needed a constant visual of her daddy :)

4 Tier DIY Diaper Cakes

So I made these cute diaper cakes for a set of twins. Their nusery will be grey and purple. It is important to be rather strategic with making these creative masterpieces. I recieved two diaper cakes with my youngest daughter. One was at my friend/family shower and the other was at a work shower. Fortunately, they did not consist of the same sized diapers. One cake was made of size 1 & 2 diapers and the other were size 3s. This was perfect!! The size 1/2 cake was displayed in her nursery for the first 2 months of her little life.....then I busted into that bad boy when diapers were running low lol. After that I was able to pull out the size 3 diaper cake and display it in her nursery for about 2 more months until she was a little bigger. So diaper cakes serve two purposes: decoration AND well you know......diapers lol.

Diapers
Always ask the recipent what type of diapers they are using for their baby. People get really picky about this. I started off as strictly a Pampers/Huggies girl.....but one time Luvs were on sale for pennies and I bought those suckers lol. I will say that Pampers Swaddlers are the best for making these cakes, because you don't have to worry about those annoying patterns showing once your cake is finished. For the twins' cakes I made a size 2 (pictured above) cake using Pampers Swaddlers and a size 3 cake (pictured to the right) using Pampers Baby Dry. I scored a really good deal on the pampers from CVS.


CVS
purchased: (4) Pampers Jumbo Pack of Swaddlers on sale for $8.99
used: (4) Pampers $2.00 off coupons (coupons.com)
recieved: $10 CVS extra bucks (diapers qualified for a spend $30 get $10 ECB)

oop: $29.91

*second transaction
purchased: (4) Pampers Jumbo Pack of Baby Dry on sale for $8.99
used: (4) Pampers $2.00 off coupons (coupons.com)
used: $10 CVS extra bucks (from previous transaction)
recieved: $10 CVS extra bucks  (diapers qualified for a spend $30 get $10 ECB)

oop: $19.91

So I scored 256 diapers for $40! (a box of 148 Swaddlers go for $34.99)

*I only actually needed 3 packs of diapers per cake.

Other Materials

The base of the cakes are the cake thingys people used to sit edible cakes on. You can pick them up from any craft store. I used about 8 different grey and purple ribbons for this cake. I got a few different ideas online and thought mixing diffeernet patterns would be cute. I also used the shredded colored paper to cover the visable diapers for each layer. Lastly, I found two purple flower pins that I used as toppers. I was very happy with how these turn out and I hope the mommy to be loves them as well :)

Teachers Paint Bright Futures

This year I found this cute idea on Pinterest. I picked up some OPI from Marshall's (they were in two packs for $5.99), found some ribbon in my craft box, and created these easy gift tags. I ended up with a super cute, inexpensive, and thoughtful Teacher Appreciation gift! What teacher would't want a pretty shade of OPI for spring and summer? Below is a PDF file for the labels. I made two different color schemes. Enjoy :)

Teachers Like You Paint Bright Futures.pdf

Tonsillectomy- My Recovery Story

Why a tonsillectomy?

As a teenager/young adult I often got strep throat a few times each winter. Then when I got mono when I was 22ish my tonsils grew to an enormous size and never went back down. Since then I've dealt with reoccurring episodes of tonsillitis, strep, laryngitis, bad sore throat etc. In March I met with my ENT and he agreed that a tonsillectomy was indeed in my best interest. I decided to have the surgery over spring break and then took an additional two days off from work the following week (my doctor recommended 10 days). My mom came up for the week to help out with the kids and my husband took a week of leave. Below are my daily post of my recovery. I found a lot of blogs helpful in preparing for my tonsillectomy. I would like to think that I have a rather high pain tolerance, I really don't have the job where I can take 2 weeks of leave (Special Ed teacher) , I have small children, and my husband is a shift worker in the Army. With that said I hope someone out there can relate and finds this helpful :) 

Surgery Day- Tuesday April 7th

So I had to report to the surgical center at 6:30 am on Tuesday April 7th. Prep included a urine sample, an IV, basic vitals etc. I met with my ENT and Anesthesiology and shortly after 7am I was saying my goodbyes to my husband as they wheeled me to the OR. I told my husband "see you on the other side" which apparently freaked out the medical staff. I clearly meant the other side of the facility which was the recovery area lol.  About 15 minutes later the doctor met with my husband and told him everything went well. 15 minutes after that my husband joined me in the recovery room and 15 minutes after that I was getting in the car and leaving. As I am typing this it has been about 2 hours since the procedure. It feels like I have a really bad sore throat BUT I am not in any real pain. On a scale 1-10 I would say a 3.

Things I had ready to go after surgery:

• 3 reusable ice packs
• 1 refillable ice pack
• Humidifier
• Gum
• Pellet Ice from Sonic/medium cooler
• A variety of Italian ice, icees, Popsicles, and sherbet cups in my freezer
• Stool softener

Update 9:38pm- Thanks to another blogger we stopped by Sonics and got 3 bags of their pellet ice AND a strawberry slushy for me after leaving the surgical center lol. Next we picked up my meds from the pharmacy and got home around 10 am ish. I was pretty good until 1pm. I think at that point the anesthesia began to wear off as I became hot, nauseous, and had a horrible headache. Originally I thought it was the pain meds so I neglected to take any. I ended up giving in and taking it (Diaudid) and following it with Promethazine for nauseous. Things got better after that. My hubby ran out and got me some Wonton Soup which I let cool for like 20 mins.....it gave the crunchy noodles time to get soggy. For the rest of the afternoon I tried to take naps, but really couldn't drift off good for fear of my throat drying out. I would sit up often to sip water. I also did salt water gargles about 8 times today. Throughout the day I iced my neck/ears and chewed gum periodically. I will give an update tomorrow morning on how tonight goes :-/

Day 2- Wednesday April 8th

Last night went very well. I slept for 2-3 hour intervals waking up to take meds, drink, gargle and to change the ice pack on my throat.  I took pain meds around 11:30 pm. I am really trying to space them out as my doctor only gave me 35 pills. I moved my Humidifier so that it blew directly on my face lol and I had a freeze pop around 1am. I woke up for good around 8:20am. I took an ibuprofen and did a salt water gargle. Afterwards I fixed me a breakfast of eggs, grits, and a slice of toast (yes, I still have my normal appetite...for now). Right now it is 9:35am and my pain is a 2 on a scale of 10. It honestly only bothers me when I swallow. I am still keeping myself hydrated with water and I'm chewing gum. I've read horror stories about how day 2 is the turn for the worst with recovery. I feel so good that I find that hard to believe but I am anticipating it. I feel so good that I feel I could actually make the gym.....clearly I'm not though :)

Update: 5:30pm- So today has continued to be a pretty good day. I can't really say I've been in "pain" but more of an extreme soreness of my tongue, throat, and ears. The soreness is even worse when I swallow. I would give this dull soreness a 4 on a scale of 10. I've continued with my salt water gargles, sipping water, chewing gum, my humidifier etc. I've only taken pain meds twice today and ibuprofen twice. I am still taking my 10 day course of antibiotics. I ate some wonton soup for lunch and a few icees here and there. I am actually dreading eating something for dinner bc my mouth is so sore. It's like all the muscles have been over worked or something. I'm currently icing my ears and my throat with ice paks and a wrap.

Day 3- Thursday April 9th

So last night I had to sleep sitting up as my uvula is so swollen it is hard to breathe laying down. I was very tired and lethargic as the evening continued. I woke up around 3:00 am

with the dreaded ear pain everyone talks about (5 out of 10) . So far the worst pain I've experienced. I decided to take some pain meds and ice my ears. Today I start my steroid....apparently I take them only 3 times during my recovery. I really hope it reduces some of the swelling.  I'm up in pain and the rest of my family is sound asleep :'(. I really don't have an appetite.....I'm eating an Italian ice right now just to soothe my throat. That in itself is very painful to get through.

Update 2:30pm- the first half of my day I was very dizzy, nauseous, and tired. I couldn't sit up for long periods of time without feeling sick. I did manage to get down a little broccoli & cheddar soup around lunch time. Little naps helped me feel better. I honestly think I felt this way from the back to back pain meds I had early this morning. As a result I think I'm going to lay off them and keep Ibuprofen in my system. My ear pain and throat pain have reduced since this morning. My husband purchased me some throat spary and stool softeners this morning. Both have done their job! I'm feeling so good that I am planning to head to the store this evening then have some froyo :)

Update 8pm- Froyo was a huge mistake.....it hurt my throat and now I am paying for it :(

Day 4- Friday April 10th

So I got a 4 hour stretch of sleep last night. I was pretty excited about that. I did awake to some pretty moderate ear pain though. I took some more ibuprofen and iced my ears. Day 4 and 5 have been apparently the turn for the worst on most tonsillectomy blogs. I keep hoping that I will miss this stage completely. Last night eating was a very daunting task as my mouth and tongue are so sore. So I decided to make a waffle this morning......and it appears it isn't going that well. It hurts like hell to chew let alone swallow *sigh*. I read that heat will help with the ear pain. So I've wrapped a heating pad around my ears with an ACE bandage lol......the heat feels great! I sent my husband to Dunkin Donuts to get me an iced coffee....I figured sipping would go better than chewing! Curious to see how the rest of the day goes. I must admit I'm pretty nervous about when my scabs fall off :-/

Update 3:50pm- Okay so today has been the worst pain wise. An 8 on a scale of 10. Heat works for a while but nothing takes it away. I broke down and took a half a dose of my pain meds just now. I thought I would feel better after a nap but I don't. Honestly I've been in bed all day and when I walk around for too long the pain is unbearable. I even cried a little today while my husband tried to console me. The thought of food hurts and all I keep thinking is that day 5 can't be this bad :(

Day 5- Saturday April 11th

Last night continued to be horrible. I took my pain meds back to back every 3-4 hours with ibuprofen in between. I applied heat to my ears continously. It is 2:30 am and I just woke up to take my next dose of pain meds......the ear pain I woke up to is like a 9 on a scale of 10. It appears today will indeed be a repeat of yesterday :( I honestly didn't think this recovery was gonna hit me like this. I thought I was strong and would have a relatively easy/speedy recovery. No need to continually repeat how much pain I am in. Just know I'm hurting bad and I'm starting to worry about being ready to go back to work Wed. I need a miracle to happen :-(

Update 8:00pm- Today has been rough. I only left my bed to use the bathroom, get ice packs, or use the bathroom. I was very loopy most of the day bc I resorted to taking my pain meds continuously. I will say around 6:30pm my husband brought me some warm pita bread and after that life turned around for me. I had also taken a pain killer around 5pm so idk which caused my turn around. Of course my throat hurts when I swallow but I have no ear pain. I hope this continues into the night and into day 6. This evening is giving me hope!

Day 6th- Sunday April 12th

I woke up at 3:30am to use the bathroom and I felt pretty good. Mild throat pain when I swallow but no real ear pain. This was the same last evening until I fell asleep. Could I have past the peak of pain? I feel as though Jesus himself touched me and healed me at some point while I slept lol. I haven't had pain meds sice yesterday afternoon, but I went ahead a just took some ibuprofen incase I started feeling bad. My daily pic does look as if I've been losing scabs and an uvula is no longer "really" swollen. I haven't choked a scab or coughed one up like other bloggers wrote. They are just slowly and quietly leaving :). I do think it is more painful to eat with the scabs coming off. Everything burns even ice water!

Update 1:05pm- My mom left heading back to NC today mid morning. Both of my girls cried and she was crying too lol. After that we went by Lowe's to get some materials to prep our flower beds for planting next week or so. I came home thinking I was going to be able to assist my husband and 30 minutes into it I was light headed. I thought food would make it better but I didn't make it through 1/4 of my chicken slovakia sandwich when I threw in the towel (this is something I can usually down in less than 5 minutes). So I went back to bed and iced my throat and put a heating pad on my ears.  That evening we had beef stew, mashed potatoes, and cabbage for dinner. In order for me to eat any of it I had to numb my throat with a throat antiseptic. I love food and I never imagine how one day I wouldn't be able to eat food bc it hurts lol. Overall, today has still been so much better.....I just think I over did it bc I felt better.

Day 7- Monday April 13th

So I woke up at 12am with my throat on fire. Apparently, I hadn't drank any water since like early evening and it had dried out. It was really painful and the dreaded ear pain is back. I take this to be that my scabs are continuing to fall off. I'm still off my pain meds so I'm taking ibuprofen as needed for pain. I think I may call my doctor to rule out that I have thrush. My tongue still hurts and has a white film on it. Anyway, all of my colleagues head back to work today after spring break. I still have 2 days to recover and then I'm back with them. I can already tell you I probably won't be 100% to go back but I'm going anyway. 

Update 11:30am- So I was correct......I have oral thrush as a side effect of the antibiotics I am on. My doctor prescribed me an anti fungal lozenge I have to slowly dissolve in my mouth for 15-20 minutes 5 times a day for 7 days! Eek! This nasty case of thrush probably explains why my tongue hurts sometimes more than my throat. Anyway, overall I feel pretty good. I was able to eat a mcmuffin and hashbrown from McDonald's this morning. It was uncomfortable and it took like 20 minutes but I got it down. I'm feeling more confident about returning to work on Wednesday now, although I may still consider taking a half a day.

Update 6:07pm- So I decided to do yet another update. This afternoon I was tired of laying in bed all day so I walked to pick up my daughter from daycare (only about 30 minutes both ways). Clearly, my body wasn't ready for this as when I got back home my throat instantly started hurting and I was back in bed icing it. After this I looked to my husband with tears in my eyes and told him I felt sorry for myself. Every time I feel that I am getting "better" I end up taking a step backwards. Of course I knew this was major surgery and that I knew my body would need to recovery properly, but honestly I've never been this set back by a procedure. I am also 4 months into losing weight, eating healthier, and going to the gym and now I am just sitting on my butt. My experience has caused me to reconsider having my 11 year old daughter's tonsil removed this summer. I honestly don't want her spending a few weeks of her summer vacation feeling like I currently feel. When she is an adult and her tonsil still bother her she can decide herself to have them removed. Here's to another night of icing my throat, ibuprofen, heating pads on my hears, and waking often to sip water. Tomorrow is my last full day of recovery before I go to work, maybe miracle will occur......just maybe.

Day 8- Tuesday April 14th

Last night was pretty bad. My throat and ears hurt all night and I didn't get much sleep. I think that the medicine treating my thrush is making me nauseous too! I'm honestly over feeling bad and I hate telling people I still don't feel well when they ask how I am doing. I feel like a big baby! I slept in til 7:30 am which worries me because I need to leave my house by 6am tomorrow morning for work. Today is my last full day home and I've been up working on some paperwork. For some reason I am really tired so I think I am about to lay down for a bit and then pick back up later. I haven't had much of an appetite this morning so I neglected to eat anything for breakfast. I'm not in a ton of pain but I really feel like shit. My doctor was correct when he said I needed 10 days off from work. Of course I thought I was superwoman and figured I could go back sooner. Blah! 

Update 3:18pm- Today has been a real drag. I managed a mid morning nap, finished my paperwork, ate lunch, and was back in bed. I still feel horrible......my mouth, tounge, throat, ears, and head all hurt. I went with my husband grocery shopping  (usually my chore) and it was so freaking draining. He is putting away all the groceries as I sit on my phone typing this. My plan is to go to bed super early tonight so that I can have all my energy for work in the morning. I'm taking leave around 12pm and I have a follow-up appointment with my doctor at 3pm. I hope day 9 turns things around for me.

Day 9- Wednesday April 15th 

It's  5:17 am and I just got up for work. I slept pretty well last night minus throat and ear discomfort. Today I take my final dose of  steroids. I think knowing I am coming home mid day will help me get through the morning. I'll give an update a little later once I get home.

Update 6:40pm- I really don't want to jinx myself BUT today was a great day. My throat magically stopped "hurting" for some odd reason.......I mean I had a burger for lunch. I will say I had a horrible migraine headache that wouldn't go away today. It started around 10 am and with ibuprofen, Excedrin migraine, and added caffeine through the day I still have it at almost 7pm. With my migraines I am extremely sensitive to sound and light. I ended up putting cotton in my ears to alleviate so of the discomfort.  Don't get it twisted (I'm not complaining) bc today was heaven compared to the hell I experienced the last few days. As far as work went......I made it. Very happy I went into it knowing I would take a half a day. In a perfect world and a different career (I teach) I would have stayed out the rest of the week and returned on "day 14" which would have been Monday. I'm definitely not telling my ENT that I neglected to stay out of work for the full 10 days when I go for my 4 week follow-up :-/.   Anyway, tomorrow will be a full day back for me and I hope all goes well. I followed up with my doctor regarding my thrush today and it is slowly clearing up. I still have 5 more days left with my medication.

Day 10- Thursday April 16th

Woke up with some throat and ear discomfort. I wouldn't call it pain.....just extremely uncomfortable. Not sure how last evening everything was fine and now this morning it's a problem again. I'm sure my ears will be super sensitive again today and I will need to plug them with cotton. I already took ibuprofen about 45 minutes ago in hopes that it will kick in and help me get dressed and out the door this morning.

Update 5:30pm- Eating dinner tonight was extremely painful.....food and water bother burned my throat. I honestly feel like crap. At work today I noticed that my throat/tongue (idk which) would begin to swell and I would lose my voice when it was time for my next dose of ibuprofen. I guess it reduces the swelling and manages the pain which then affects my voice??? I don't exactly know how or why BUT that is my observation lol. 

Day 11- Friday April 17th

Last night was HORRIBLE! My ears and throat hurt all night long. I know it is probably because I used my voice at school the last two days. This morning was rough also. I woke up around 4:30am and took my dose of ibuprofen. Chewing and swallowing continue to be painful and slow. I've been eating normal food for the last few days bc even soft foods burn my throat. I figured I should at least eat what I want if everything is going to hurt :-/. One thing I really didn't expect with this recovery was the lack of energy I would have. I've felt really tired the last few days and really wished I could stop what I was doing and take a nap. I guess that is the reason all doctors recommend that you take a good 2 weeks off from work.

Days 12 & 13- Saturday and Sunday

So I woke on day 12 with the normal sore throat and achy ears.It appears my tongue is back to it's normal color......so I assume I am finally free of thrush!  It is still was uncomfortable to eat breakfast as chewing and swallowing both still hurt. I'm not sure what the heck they did to my tongue during surgery, but I am starting to think it will never be normal again lol. Anyway, after sitting on my but for almost 2 weeks I did decided to return to my dance aerobics class at the gym on Day 12. I will admit I did not have the energy or enthusiasm that I usually do during my workout, but I finished the class (and burned 656 calories). This I believe was the turning point in my recovery. The rest of day 12 went great. My voice was 95% back, I didn't have to take ibuprofen, and I really felt great. I also got the BEST sleep ever (well since my surgery) that night. I didn't wake up with a burning throat and I didn't have to sleep elevated. Day 13 (Sunday) was even better!! I went to the gym this morning for my weight lifting class and ran several errands. It really just feels like I have a really sore throat and eating still isn't the most pleasant task. Tomorrow will be Day 14 and will start my first full week of work post op. 

In Conclusion........(lol)

Whatever you do make sure you take a FULL 2 weeks off from work!!!! I thought I was superwoman and honestly thought I would be okay to return on Day 9. Although I did return (half a day) I wish I had listened to my doctor and taken the leave he suggested.  This surgery is tough on your body and requires a lot to ensure that you completely recover. Thankfully, I didn't have any major complications accompanied by trips to the ER. If I could got back in time I would have never started taking my prescription pain medication. My doctor did instruct my husband to have me start off with ibuprofen and if I couldn't take the pain to use the pain medication as a last resort. Of course I didn't listen and ended up sick and constipated as a result of taking it. After a few days I noticed that my pain level was no different on the pain meds than it was on ibuprofen.

I think I still have several days of this sore throat ahead of me, but I know that it will be all well worth it once I am fully recovered. I hope my blog post helps anyone preparing or in the midst of a tonsillectomy! I MADE IT!!!!

Khloe Turns Two: A Peppa Pig Party

My youngest daughter (Khloe) continues to prove to me daily that she is the total opposite of my oldest daughter (Alasia). Now as parents you know that your children are different, but raising them together day in and day out only proves this notion further. As a toddler Alasia loved cartoons that sung and danced (The Backyardigans) or ones that talked to you....you know crowd participation (Dora the Exlporer)? Well.......Khloe's favorite cartoon is about a family of pigs that live in the UK lol. This is how I came to plan her second birthday party with a "Peppa Pig" theme. It is extremely hard to find anything Peppa Pig related in the US, then you have Peppa Pig World in the UK. Yes, it is a real amusement park solely based on the show lol. If only I could fly my family to England so that Khloe could experience this ha! Anyway, below are pictures from the party. I hope they are helpful to any parent that may eventually be faced with planning a Peppa Pig party.......NOT in England! I tried to link items I bought throughout the post.

Invitations

Etsy was a huge help with this party. I found a listing for the below digital image and I received the image within like 48 hour. I then sent the image to CVS and ordered 4x6 photos for like $0.08 each. Lastly, I used mailing labels to adhere to the front of yellow envelopes. 

Clipart

Props

I wanted to make some props for the party so I turned to cardboard. My husband and I used a cardboard box to make Peppa Pig's house. We used it to frame the toddler bounce house that we used at the party. My husband made a PVC pipe frame that we used to adhere the house frame. This was like a $30 investment that I will be able to rearrange and use for future party backdrops.  to I also used a recycled box to make another mini house to decorate one of the party tables. 

PVC Pipe Frame

Khloe and her little friend enjoyed paying in the Peppa Pig bounce house. I found this toddler bounce house at Walmart for under $50 and it actually fits in my living room.

 Menu

So my personality (sometimes I think I am Type A, OCD, and histrionic all mixed in one lol) wouldn't allow me to serve food that didn't somehow connect with the show. With my husband's help (he pays more attention to Peppa Pig when it's on than I do) I created menu items that each related to some character on the show. Although, it seemed like a weird combination of food, it ended up being a rather tasty spread. I used clipart and Microsoft Publisher to create these menu tents.

Party Setup

So I made like 5 sketches of the party setup in the weeks leading up to the party.  It allowed me to color coordinate everything and perfect my table setup. Funny thing is I actually forgot it at home the day of the party lol, however; I had studied it so much I believe it was etched into my memory!! I would recommend anyone planning a party to make yourself a little sketch so you will know what goes where etc.

Table Sketch 

So here is the actual setup. I ordered the background poster from Esty. It is apparently super expensive to print postersthat large......luckily I had a Groupon for a poster print from Printerpix that I used for this. I also ordered the paper garland from Esty which I used to line the front of the table.

Khloe's grandpa photo bombed this picture lol.

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I ordered the cake from Sam's Club for a pretty low price of $32. When I went to pick it up I realized that the top layer was white instead of yellow. The cake decorator had already left for the day and it was no way it could be "fixed". The manager compensated me by giving me the cake for $15. I then went to Joann's and bought some sugar sheets and used them to make the yellow, blue, and red, dots that you see on the top tier of the cake. I also added Peppa Pig figurines (found at Toysrus) to the cake to make it a "Peppa Pig" cake. Laslty,found this beautiful cake stand at Home Goods and I just realized yesterday that I able able to change out the ribbon.......great investment!

Large Red Trays: Target

Blue Egg Trays: Walmart

Green Bowls: Dollar Tree

Veggie Platter: Walmart

Yellow Cardboard Platters: Micheal's

I ordered these Peppa Pig cookies from Custom Style, LLC. She is extremely talanted and can make ANY cookie vision come true and will ship the cookies to you. I googled Peppa Pig cookies and none of these came up in my search.......talk about unique. If you would like custom cookies made for any of your events please contact her.

Peppa has on a party hat on some of the cookies and is jumping in muddy puddles in the others.

Here I displayed the house I made (which clearly got beat up since I made it in January lol) with "muddy puddle" cupcakes. I found the grass cupcake shelves at Micheal's. Peppa Pig and her family LOVE to put on their rain boots and jump in muddle puddles lol. I didn't think it would be a true Peppa Pig party without including this detail, so I displayed Peppa Pig's yellow rain boots on this table. Apparently it is super hard to find yellow kid rain boots on the internet. I ended up ordering them from Zulily.

                                    

I ordered the Peppa Pig party hats and plates from Amazon. I also decorated table with green tins of Goldie Fish Crackers (gold fish) and Teddy Bear's Cookies (teddy grams). I ordered plastic drinking cups with lids and straws from Amazon for the kids to use. I decorated them by adhering labels I created in Microsoft Publisher. Lastly, I used a stuffed Peppa Pig Khloe got for Christmas to hold balloons as the center piece. I ordered the Peppa Pig balloons from Etsy as well. I found a party rental store that rented out kid sized tables and chairs........they were the perfect size for Khloe and her 1 guest. Yes......after sending out 12 invitations to friend only one kid came to the party lol (but that is a totally different post for another day). We were very thankful that he came as she had a great time playing with him.

Here I used flower windmills (Dollar Tree $1) and metal buckets (Target $ bin)  to create table center pieces. I also printed a few images and framed them with frames from Target ($1)

Peppa Pig Shirts

So of course I had to order family shirts for the party lol. I ordered them from Esty as well. The shop owner makes tons of other character shirts and shipped them super fast.

Overall, I think Khloe had a great time celebrating with friends and family. She received lots of fun toys and TONS of clothes (which makes mommy happy). No more parties until she turns 5 lol