The headache that wont go away and some GREAT news!

I have had a wicked headache for 2 or 3 weeks! It was gone yesterday but it is back with a vengeance today. The past two weeks I have also been dizzy and nauseous, either just a little so that I feel mildly sick or so bad that I am curled up in a ball and can’t move or eat. Today is mild, but with the headache it feels worse.

But I wanted to let everyone know how our trip to the UW went this morning. After more testing and a REALLY big packet and questionnaire for me to fill out we then found out what group we are in. We are in the treatment group!!!
So that means every Friday for the next 13 weeks I will take the girls down there for parent training classes, and Ava will be in childcare through them. (She loves it there, she totally thinks we go for her!) And after the parent training classes are done they will send someone out to our house 20-25 hours a week for her ABA therapy for 2 years! Along with that they will continue to monitor her and assess her throughout her childhood. And she will be able to continue going to her speech and OT once a week and having the birth-3 specialist come to our house.

This is just so BIG. I was preparing for us to be in the monitoring program only and so I had started to investigate different treatment programs in our area. There were 2 that had been suggested by our speech therapist, one was not accepting anyone at all. The other was conducting interviews now for 3 possible openings this summer. We knew that we would be able to get her treatment but we had no idea how long we would have to wait. The average wait for treatment at the UW is 6-9 months. So it looked like no matter what, if we weren’t chosen to receive treatment then we would be waiting.

When they told us today it was a huge relief. I did not want to cry because I have been crying every week and I can barely get out sometimes what I am trying to say. But when I was driving home I would get teary eyed and then it would go away, and just repeat itself over and over the whole way home. Because this is a research program we also do not have to pay anything for her treatment. The birth-3 program is paid with our tax dollars, so really we are paying but we don’t pay extra for that service. And we are lucky that our insurance covers her speech and OT and PT. The 2 years of free treatment is such a huge blessing.

I don’t know what I did to deserve such a wonderful blessing. We have really been lucky with everything at the UW, being accepted in the research at all, being able to get the diagnosis and now being in the treatment program. For as difficult as everything has been, this has been pretty easy. This is really just unbelievable right now.

I have to thank everybody for their emails, cards, thoughts and prayers. You have helped lift me throughout the past couple of weeks and I know that your prayers helped. THANK YOU!!!!!!

Mornings are beautiful!

I just wanted to pop in really quick and say “hi”! I had ordered that 9,000 piece Cosmo Cricket scrapbook set from QVC and it came yesterday so I was completely sidetracked by it! Sooooooo pretty! Soooo many items! So many possibilities!

Tomorrow morning we find out what group we will be in at the UW. Another busy morning! But I thought I would show you what I get to see every morning; jammies, bed head and girls full of energy! And yes, Ava plays Yoshi on the Nintendo DS! I felt guilty at first but she is darn good at it! And surprisingly it can buy me some stamping time!

Happy Thursday everyone!

Happy birthday!

Yesterday was Ava’s fourth birthday. Which was a little bit harder because time has gone soooo quickly, I sometimes miss my little baby, all pudgy and cuddly. But I can’t be sad because I love the little girl she is becoming!

The day started out with a giant dragonfly balloon, which she is still playing with today:

And for her cake we got a little curious george topper. And the cake was totally against me, the top layer split in half and then when I was frosting it the cake was crumbling. So I had to spackle the top layer together and the back side with a TON of frosting. So the cake has a really ugly side! But luckily it still tastes DELICIOUS!

And Ava was very excited to blow out the candles, and a really great shot of the ugly side of the cake!

And a cute picture of Ava and Audrey:

And Audrey going for some cake, which she didnt have more than one taste! I’m wondering if she is my daughter……she didnt love the chocolate!

And the funniest picture of them all. First I have to preface this with the fact that Ava NEVER eats this way. She is extremely anal about her food and getting food on her mouth or hands. She bites the spoon when she eats yogurt so it doesnt touch her lips. And she also takes a napkin and cleans the edge of her toast if the jam isnt even. So when I turned around from cutting all the cake I was more than shocked to find this:

Went right past the fork and straight with her hands! She wasnt even this messy as a baby. Totally cracks me up, it must have been REALLY good!

This birthday has been her most exciting for her. A package from Gymboree came with new clothes and panties right before dinner so she tried on her new clothes and hair clips. But I made her change back into her “old” clothes cause I had a feeling the cake might get messy. And she also scored some new music instruments from my mom; a tambourine, CYMBOLS and a TRIANGLE. It is very LOUD!!!!!! But she loves it so I will put up with it.

And soon I will put in my large Stampin Up order and get her a couple sets that she has been eyeing, the bugs and that new set with the rocket. It’s a good thing I’m not a “real” demo cause I don’t memorize the whole catalog.

Anyway, I have 2 projects that I need to do by Monday and then I’m still working on my list of 25. I think I have 18 or 19 left and hopefully I’ll get 3 out of the way tonight! I should have something crafty or card related to look at tomorrow. Thanks for letting me ramble on about my sweet pie Ava!

This is very difficult for me (a very long, non card post)

Since I have become a mother I have been passionate about autism. Learning about it, trying to support causes to find cures. And just trying to understand it. I have never known why it is that I’ve been fascinated by it, just that it was something that I was pulled to.

The statistics for autism are horrible,

• A new case of autism is diagnosed nearly every 20 minutes 
• One in every 150 children born in the US has autism 

Yesterday, my youngest daughter Audrey was diagnosed with autism.

This was something that I felt coming for some time. I had brought it up with her pediatrician at 12 months and again at 18 months. But because Audrey smiles and makes eye contact it was brushed off. Nearing her 2 year checkup I realized the drastic differences between her and our older daughter Ava. I started to read about the milestones for 2 year olds and Audrey did not measure up. The more I read, the more the signs pointed to autism. Again, at her 2 year checkup we told her pediatrician our concerns. We were given a referral to a speech and occupational therapist to help her speak, but she did not believe she was autistic.

I spoke to my therapist about this and she was able to connect me to an advocate, who could help us. And yesterday was when we saw her and got the diagnosis I had known for the past 2 months.

We are in a very small minority with our health-care. Sean works for Microsoft, and because of that we are able to have advantages that most families don’t. While I am beyond grateful, I also feel terribly sad and guilty. I know I shouldn’t, but I do.

We are lucky that Audrey has fantastic eye contact, smiles and mimics. These are her strengths and we are fortunate she has them. She had her first speech and occupational therapy appointment today and they were able to get her to say something that sounds like “bubble”. I was beyond happy.

I didn’t feel right about not sharing this. I have been public with my concern for autism awareness and this just didn’t seem right to keep to myself. At first I thought it was a cruel joke, that I had been so drawn to autism only to have a child affected by it. But now I realize that I was drawn to it so I could recognize it and help my child when others wouldn’t have seen a problem.

This week has been very bittersweet for me. I had the MFT guest designer spot win. I got the “golden ticket” from Gina K. But then I find out my fear.

I know that this is not cancer, and she is healthy. So please don’t think I am trying to be dramatic. But this is also the first time I have ever had to deal with something like this. Ava was hardly ever sick, I think she has had 4 colds in her almost 4 years. I am grateful and happy and I feel blessed that Audrey is as well as she is. But it will take me more than 24 hours to feel ‘ok’ about it.

I’m going to leave this post with a few pictures of my baby girl. Thank you so much for reading my loooooong post.

The secret is out

I am a DIVA! Well, if you know me in real life then this isnt a surprise! But I actually get to wear that title today, haha!

The MFT design team is hosting scrapbooking challenges on SCS today and I was asked to join! How could I say no!!! So be sure to head on over to see the rest of the inspiring scrapbook pages and challenges, HERE.

And here is the page I made. I used my youngest daughter, Audrey’s birthday picture for the layout. And the background was created with Kim’s fabulous digi papers!

She’s cute, huh? The cupcakes and balloons are from “Icing on the cake”. And we just got our new camera so I was able to get a super close up of the cupcake detail:

My challenge is to use faux stitching on your page! And if you want some bonus points, throw in some digi papers! So go on……get scrappin!

The DEETS:

Stamps: Icing on the cake-MFT
CS: pretty in pink, pale plum, white-SU  kiss digi papers-MFT
Ink: palette noir
Accessories: dimensionals, liquid pearl, stickles, buttons

The first dentist trip

Allow me to interrupt the scheduled craft posts for a little Mommy bragging! My girls and I all had a visit to the dentist at the same time today. Sean was with both the girls while I was in another cube getting cleaned.  Audrey pretty much was there to say “Hi” but Ava got the full service! And she did AWESOME!!!!

She has been excited about going to the dentist for months now! There is a Berenstain Bears episode where Brother and Sister go to the dentist, and we have been watching that almost every day now. Ava acts it out and pretends to have a loose tooth, even faking a lisp “I have a looth tooth”. And then she has a Dora book about the dentist that has helped build even MORE excitement. When we told her she was finally going you would have thought we were telling her she was going to Disneyland…..she could NOT wait!

Here are a few pictures of my girls and the big day today:

In the big chair

Starting to get excited:

How Audrey kept busy while Ava was in the chair:

Ava helping use the mirror:

Getting her prized new toothbrush!

And one because she looks so cool!

Anyway, their teeth are tip top and Audrey will get the full cleaning in a year. I on the other hand have an emergency appointment on Friday.  Even though I have no pain in my teeth and my tooth care is great I have about 12 teeth that are VERY bad and cavity filled. It seems my years of abusing myself with my eating disorder have finally caught up with my teeth so some serious intervention is needed. 

It was pretty interesting to me, the Dentist sat down who I had just met and said “We need to talk about your diet”. Frankly it seems that’s ALL I talk about and I felt like giving her a number! Get behind my dietician, trainer and therapist and I’ll see when I can fit you in.

Anyway, my girls did great and I just had to share my pic’s! Hopefully my appointment on Friday will go as planned and my teeth can be salvaged.

A few gifts and photo ideas

So a couple months ago when Papertrey first unveiled their Holiday sets, they also started to sell some clear frames from Making Memories. Now the plain are sold out but I got the polka dots because I knew I was going to put my girls pictures in there and dots are cute for girls, right? Anyway, we got the girls Christmas pictures and Audrey’s 2 year pictures back this week and I decided to put a few of Audrey into the frame and make little gifties out of them. I mistakenly only bought 4 frames, so that means not a lot of people get this cute gift. So I am making sure that for Ava’s 4 year pictures to buy more than that!

I cut the picture to 1 3/4 squared then placed it on the back. The backs of the frames have a small ammount of adhesive so when you lay your photo on it, it clings just enough to keep it in place. Then I placed some glue dots on the back of the polka dots at all 4 corners and a few in between, then  a 3 1/4 square of almost amethyst on top of it. The dotted frame is AWESOME for hiding the adhesive since the glue dots fit behind the white dots.

And here is what my sweet gal looks like in her cute little frame!

I thought I would break down my experience for you in case you hadnt seen these or were wondering. At $2 a pop, they sure make an easy FAST and cute little gift.

And now something not as fast or cheap, LOL! My dream journal that I made with my bind it all:

This is a Christmas gift for someone who doesnt visit here, so I am safe. But I’m still not saying who it’s for! Anyway, I made 3 of these today, all different. I used the measurements Nichole had on her blog HERE. Only I covered it in my yummy ‘ginger blossom’ DSP instead of stamping and painting it.

I also used my tab punch from SU to punch the glassine bags. I tried using a circle punch and it didnt punch smoothly, but for whatever strange reason the tab punch worked AWESOME! I think it might be the curve of the punch, whatever it worked. And it was less work than the way she suggests. After 30 bags, my punch is still here and working so Im ok with taking a risk.

I adhered swarovski crystals, half back pearls and fire rhinestone brads to the front of the journal to dress it up. Im hoping they will like it! I was pretty proud of it and wouldnt mind getting something like this!

I still have another bag of nuggets to wrap, and a ton of candies to fill into bags and then I am DONE with the out of state presents. And everything will be mailed out sometime this week, hooray! Then I will work on the people who live here…..it never ends. (well on Christmas Eve it will, Im not crafting all night!)

I hope you all had a great weekend!

The DEETS:

Stamps: Spiral bouquet-Papertrey
Ink: ruby red, river rock-SU
CS: ginger blossom DSP- SU white-papertrey
Accessories: half back pearls, swarovski crystals, fire rhinestone brads, bind it all, tab punch, glassine bags, tag corner punch, white ribbon, sponge, dimensionals.

My sweet Audrey

My little big one, Audrey turned 2 on November 28th. Unfortunately her and Ava had been sick with a nasty cold for a few days so it was a little miserable for her. She had zero interest in her dinner and spit it all out or wiped it all over her face. And when the delicious Boston cream cupcake came out, she didn’t even taste it. So I thought I would share a couple of my favorite pictures from that night and a recipe!

Here’s my little messy faced Audrey and Ava, who looks a little devilish after the candles are blown out. This picture just makes me smile because Audrey is just SO out of it, and Ava just looks……kind of evil.

And here she is with her cupcake and no idea what to do with it. It comes from partially being sick and us not feeding them sweets very often.  But Ava is old enough to know what to do with a cupcake, after all she has been around the birthday block more than Audrey.

Brooklyn vs Boston Cream Cupcakes
Recipe from ‘Vegan cupcakes take over the world’ by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero

Cupcake ingredients:

1 C soy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 C all purpose flour
2 TB cornstarch
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 C non-hydrogenated margarine softened or 1/3 C canola oil
3/4 C granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract, caramel extract or more vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pan with cupcake liners.

Whisk soy milk and vinegar together in a measuring cup and set aside for a few minutes to curdle.

Sift flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl and mix.

In a separate bowl use a hand-held mixer at medium speed to cream the margarine and sugar for about 2 minutes until fluffy. Beat in vanilla and other extracts, if using. Then alternate beating in the soy milk mixture and dry ingredients, stopping to scrape the bowl a few times.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake 20-22 minutes until done. Transfer to a cooling rack.

Vanilla Vegan Pastry Creme:

1/2 C soy milk
1/2 tsp agar powder, or 1 1/2 tsp agar flakes (this is a sea vegetable and can be found in the Asian aisle at the store near sushi supplies and tofu)
4 tsp arrowroot
6 ounces soft silken tofu (about half a package of Mori-nu) gently pressed to remove excess water
1/3 C superfine sugar
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Pour 1/3 C soy milk into a small saucepan, keep the remaining milk in the measuring cup. Sprinkle agar powder over the top of the soy milk in the sauce pan and cook mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil and reduce heat and continue for about 4 minutes. The agar will be dissolved and the soy milk will be smooth and a spoon dipped into the mixture doesn’t have any undissolved agar flakes or powder sticking to the spoon.

Whisk the powdered arrowroot into the remaining soy milk in the measuring cup. Pour the arrowroot mixture into the agar mixture in a steady stream, stirring the whole time. The mixture will cook and get very thick in 1 to 2 minutes and when done it will look like thick pudding. Remove from heat and set aside. Place it in the refrigerator and allow it to set for at least one hour.

Crumble the tofu into a blender, add the sugar, salt and cooked arrowroot mixture. Blend til creamy. Add vanilla extract and blend again. Scrape the micture into a covered container  and put in the refrigerator to chill and firm up, at least one hour.

Chocolate ganache topping:

1/4 C soy milk
4 ounces semisweet chocolate chopped
2 TB pure maple syrup

Bring the soy milk to a gentle boil in a small sauce pan. Immediately remove from heat and add chocolate and maple syrup. Use a rubber heatproof spatula to mix the chocolate until it is fully melted and smooth. Set aside at room temperature until ready to use.

Assembly of cupcakes:

Make a hole in the center of each cupcake by poking with your finger. Very gentle wiggle your finger inside the cupcake to make the hole larger.

Fit a pastry bag with a large round or star tipped nozzle, then fill bag with firmed Vegan Vanilla Pastry Creme. Fill the bag only halfway to make it easy to handle.

Fill each cupcake with pastry creme, trying to get as much filling as possible into the cupcakes. The cupcakes should feel heavier when filled. Remove any excess filling on top by wiping with a knife or your finger. Spread the tops of cupcakes with the chocolate ganache topping. Chill for an hour before serving.

**If you have any questions about the ingredients or about making these, feel free to email me or leave a comment here. These are SUPER yummy, fluffy, rich, dense and just plain good! I hope you try them, and if you do then let me know!**

The card that almost killed me

The sketch on the MFT board this week was super tough, it had a rectangle, a circle and a wavy line! SHEESH! A couple day’s ago I got inspired about the wavy line and the circle but got stuck on the rectangle. So I stopped and tried to find a way to incorporate a rectangle into my design, but I couldnt. So I went ahead and made a card anyway.

There are a few little elements in this card that kept getting lost! Those pesky little sea shells and that hat! I have no idea where they went, maybe stuck to my feet, but I had to remake them several times.

Finally after working on this sketch for several days and remaking things over and over I am happy it’s done with. But I am also happy with the card. I really like some of the elements I used to make it and I am proud of how it turned out. And since there is so much going on I thought I would explain how I made it.

Instructions:

1) I started with a piece of Papertrey white CS and cut and folded it to standard size.
2) Next I punched out 3 scallop circles in scrap CS and then cut them to make my clouds. I held one at a time in place as I sponged “soft sky” around it. I ended up with 3 clouds and extended the “sky” to almost the bottom of the card.
3) Then I cut a piece of bashful blue CS to 4.5 x 5.5 and put it in my swirls cuttlebug folder. Then I trimed it where I like the pattern for waves.
4) I then accented the waves first with waterfall stickles and then again underneath it with lace stickles to make the seafoam and set it aside to dry.
5) I stamped the gal, seashells and hat in graphite brilliance ink and heat set it, then colored them in with my copics and cut it all out.
6) Next I cut a piece of white CS to 5.5 x 2 and then tore the edge. I sponged the whole piece in creamy caramel ink, then randomly with a little chocolate chip ink for the sand. I sponged more chocolate chip ink around the torn edge for contrast.
7) Then I took a small sponge and used white craft ink along the torn edge, then poured white EP onto it and heat set it. With the chocolate chip more heavy under the white it makes a nice shadow.
I then adhered the waves and sand to the card and then adhered my seashells and lady to the card. I used dimensionals to adhere the hat, giving it some shadow.
9) Next I inked up the sentiment with my black SU marker to fit it in a circle punch, (1 3/8) I used my paper piercing tool to punch a hole in the “I” for the crystal brad. This was layered onto a so saffron scallop circle and placed onto the card with dimensionals.
10) Finally I stamped the birds in the sky with brilliance graphite ink.

I really need to clean my desk so that I wont loose so much small stuff next time and spend half the time looking for it! I hope your week is going well!

The DEETS:

Stamps: By the seashore-MFT
Ink: brilliance graphite black, creamy caramel, soft sky, white craft
CS: Papertrey white, so saffron
Accessories: 1 3/8 circle punch, scallop circle punch, white EP, copic markers, ice rhinestone brads, cuttlebug embossing folder, lace stickles, waterfall stickles, sponge.

Happy hatch day!

Today was Audrey’s 2nd birthday, Hoooooooooray! She and Ava are still sick, but doing better. Although she had no appetite so her birthday dinner and cupcakes went uneaten. I will sift through the pic’s later, there are some super cute one’s! We made a veggie pizza and boston cream cupcakes from “vegan cupcakes take over the world”……SOOOOOO GOOD! I may post the recipe for them as well, just so yummy!

For her birthday I wanted to make her a special card. The Miss Spider books and DVD’s are big players in our house. Both the girls love them. When I first saw the ‘Garden Whimsy’ set I knew I wanted to use it for Audrey’s birthday, probably when I send out pictures to our family. So I decided to use that set to make her a card as well.

I wanted to make this card really dimensional and have a lot of little touches. So the little snail trail, the “dew” on the tulips, the crystals on the butterfly, grass, crystal flowers. All on shimmery white CS! This card makes me happy! And here’s the inspiration for it:

The miss spider family have a special song that they sing for birthdays, which are called ‘hatch days’. Here’s the lyrics to the song that the girls like me to sing over and over to them!

Have a happy hatch day we hope your dreams come true
Your hatch day is so special cause that’s when we met you
Spiders will be singing, beatles will be winging
Everybugy’s singing “happy hatch day”

Everybugy’s party is on the day they hatch
So crawl or fly or skitter, there’s fun in sunny patch
Spiders will be singing, beatles will be winging
Everybugy’s singing “Happy hatch day”

Happy hatch day my sweet Audrey!

The DEETS:

Stamps: Garden Whimsy-SU
CS: old olive, pretty in pink, shimmery white-SU
Ink: regal rose, old olive, almost amethyst, bashful blue-SU
Accessories: dimensionals, corner rounder, sponge, swarovski crystals, crystal stickles, crystal effects, velvet blossoms