Have yourself a "Funky Retro Holiday"

Well I have officially done it. My very first solo kit it done and in the store for sale. YAY. Now I just sit back (scared to death nobody will buy it LOL) and wait. Anyway Here is a peek at it. Use this code FunkyRetro-BlogGift and it will save you 25% off the price of the kit. It's good for the 1st 25 people people. You can pick up the kit Here at NDISB.com In other news. Thomas & I took the day off yesterday. We went out to luncg and to go see Happy Feet the movie. Thomas Loves it and was pretty good for the whole movie.

First dentist visit & Blog winner!

OK OK sorry I didn't post this last night. I got sidetracked watching deal or no deal and Hero's. For my little shopping spree challange the winner is....drum roll please.....Amanda. She guessed $427. My actual amount spent on all those goodies was $478.89, I saved a heap shopping the Black Friday sales! Well Thomas went to the dentist Saturday for his very first dental check-up. He was so cute. No cavities! That is always a good thing. I was just a quick look over and a get aquainted type of thing. He will go back in 6 months for teeth X-rays and a more complete check up. Kit by Kim Christensen, Rad Collection. Template by Gina Miller. Tooth element by Theresa Hernandez in her Fairy tooth kit.

The price is right!

Wow I am one tired mama, but am to amped on caffine to sleep. I finally got myself to bed just before midnight last night. Oh T-day dinner was so yummy. So anyway I set my alarm clock and went to bed. I got up at 3:30 this morning to go shopping of course! I left Thomas home for the 1st leg of the serious do or die, sleep deprived, crazy people shopping and then picked him up at 9:30 to go out for lunch and more leisure shopping. So here is what I bought. (I'll itemize it all below to make it all easier) Here is the game! You get to guess the dollar amount I spent. Post a little message in the comments section with your guess. I'll leave it open for guesses through the weekend/Sunday night. Who ever is closest to the actual dollar & penny amount will get my new upcoming kit "Funky Retro Holiday" which I hope to have in the store the 1st part of the week, for free as well as some other goodies and your choice of a Gift Certificate to Shabby Princess, Jen Wilson, or Gina Miller. Happy guessing and please please leave a way for me to know who is who. Anon posts come up as that anon, and I have no way of contacing people thru blogger so leave an encrypted email like mine is mystical_morningATmsnDOTcom. That way I can know who is who and how to send them their goodies. OK here is the itemized list of the goodies I bought. * one Maxtor 300 Gig external hard drive *2 toddler stage board games (cooties and ice) *1 20-pack of hotwheels cars *3 5-packs of hotwheels cars *3 hotwheels motorcycles * one portable DVD player * Portable DVD player case *5 packs of double sided matte paper (50 sheets per pack) *2 boxes of hershey pot of gold candies *2 small stuffed toys (woody and buzz) from the disney store *one craftsman flexible drill/screwdriver shaft *stocking stuffer pack of play dough *a 1Gig flash/jump drive * one Dale Jr beanie hat * 2 diecast car playsets (one resuce and one construction) * one tonka dumptruck * one dancing princess barbie *one jumbo tin of mixed popcorn *one 6x6 scrapbook with 2 sets on page refills * bath & body works wallflowers (2 units and 4 boxes of refills) *three (yes three) 12 inch Bikes and a run down of misc clothes bought * 4 pairs of toddler pajamas * 1 south pole shirt * 2 4 pack of mens boxer briefs * one men's belt * toddler fleece pullover * toddler pullover sweater * one toddler T-shirt * two 10-packs of socks (one toddler & one ladies) and one thing no pictured because Thomas was real good and I let him pick it for himself and he took it to bed. One Disney store talking tractor toy from the movie cars. Happy guessing and I hope every one had a wonderful and safe holiday. Hugs

Surgery and a cute layout.

Well I went with Gerald yesterday to see his Neuro-Surgeon. Good and bad news, but much better than we were thinking. We've tried everything from cortisone shots into the disks (ouch), physical therapy, seeing a physiatrist, Taking every combination of painkiller and anti-inflamitory known to man and Gerald continues to get worse, not better. I was wanting straight forward answers about the surgical procedure, how long, length of recovery etc, and he couldn't give us the details. I can understand why, because at this point all the Dr knows from the MRI's is there is buldging and problems, but doesn't know how many nerves are involved. So he needs to get another Mylogram. He had one over a year ago on his low back, It is done as outpatient in the day surgery section. They are going to inject him with radio-reactive dye, and then tip the bed up at a 45 degree angle so it runs to his head and neck. They will then do a PET/CT scan. The radio reactive dye makes it so they can see which nerves are having troubles and which ones are ok. From there the Dr says we come straight back upstairs to his office to look over the results. As he will have them in his office withing minutes after the procedure. Oh the miracle of digital Imaging. Gerald last MRI was digital, and TJ's chest X-ray when he was 1 and got Pneumonia was digital. The hospital is very high tech. So after the mylogram we will know which way the Dr will operate on Gerald neck. If only the nerves around one disk are involved they will operate from the back of the neck. They will remove the disk. Widen the canals in the vertebrae with a specialized drill, and then insert a piece of "bone" where they get bone or faux bone from I don't know. I didn't ask. I will next appointment. The bone is a spacer essentially where the disk was. Over time it will heal itself to the upper and lower vertabrae around it and fuse the whole section together. Now if more than one set of nerves is having issues because of the disks they will not operate from the back. The reasoning is they have to remove the disk to get to the nerves/nerve canal which means multiple fusions and that means severe loss of mobility in the head and neck. Dr said think Frankenstein here. So in that case they operate from the front of the neck. Operating from the front is a lot more dangerous and has a lot more risks, but on the upside because they are going in from the front they don't have to remove the disks and fuse them and such so the healing and recooperation time is much shorter. He will come home in a soft cervical collar. and depending on pain tolerance can even go back to work part time and on light duty about 2-3 weeks after the surgery. In this procedure they carefully slice open the front of the neck and through the muscles in the neck, peel them all away to get to the bone, and then drill out the nerve canals much wider. The discs will still be angry and swollen in his neck, but there shouldn't be the pain and all the numbness in his arms from the pinched nerves since they will have more room with the canals drilled bigger. They stitch everything up and done. Like I said the recovery is really quick compared to the other. We were just so afraid that he was going to have a long and painful recovery from a surgery that didn't really work like in Gerald's lower back. He had 2 surgeries there about 10 years ago and the last surgery when the disk ruptured he was laid up for 6 months. The Dr said they have better technology and procedures now, and also back surgeries always lake longer to heal because the back is in your core, you use it and abuse it even when you don't mean to. So naturally it just takes longer. if they operate from the back it can still be 8-12 weeks before he is feeling better because the bone has to heal and he will be in a lot more pain. So for the time being we are waiting for his insurance to approve the Mylogram which could take up to 2 weeks, and then we can schedule the Mylogram with radiology, which is usually about 2 weeks behind. So we are guessing that mid December he will get his Mylogram and then we can get the specifics and make a plan about the surgery, which again requires approval from the insurance (2 weeks there) before the surgery can be scheduled. I'll keep everyone updated. With all that said here is a cute LO of TJ's second bithday. I was having such a hard time with his birthday photos because I just didn't feel inspired to scrap them. Until I saw this adorable template from Nina. It was given away at this weeks birthday chat for Tania at NDISB. I altered the temp a bit, but this is the finished product. Papers are by Michelle Coleman at Scrap Artist.

Cars, Apres Ski, and the Flu!

Well I am finally over having the flu, YUK. Been sick pretty much since Halloween. I am happy to announce that Toy Story is no longer in heavy rotation at the house. It has instead been replaced by Cars the movie. It takes atot to endure that movie over and over and over. Well the new NDISB newsletter goes out today. I'm proud of myself for meeting deadline even with being sick, and then last night dealing with all the Keely stuff I still managed to meet deadline. I am working on a new and exciting format for the newsletter. Prolly to be released with the January issue. New year new newsletter! Anyway this is the monthly collab kit for November called Apres Ski Lodge. It is so pretty I love all the cozy Pastels. You can get it at the NDISB.com store as soon as the newsletter hits. and here is a layout I did using the kit and one of Nina's templates for the November sketch challenge.