Cervical Cancer Awareness

Alright friends-this post is more of a personal one from my family to you all. I am helping my wonderful sister in law with this new project and we need some help. Let me fill you in:
3 months ago, my sister in law, Brittany, received some devastating news that she has been diagnosed with cervical cancer. I can't tell you how she felt, but I can tell you that the news hit us like a ton of bricks. She is only 27 years old and is one of the healthiest, and bravest people that I know. She took a huge leap of faith and dug deep for some courage and  wrote a little story to share with everyone, so I'm going to share it with you instead of me telling you the details.

"Those of you who know me well know I am a fairly private person. So, it takes a good bit of my courage to share with you what my family and I have been going through the last few months.

About 3 months ago, I was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is a very survivable disease and I was diagnosed at an early stage. However, I was told at my first oncology appointment that the current “gold standard” treatment for my condition is a radical hysterectomy. Maybe this isn’t so daunting for the majority of cervical cancer patients as most women are diagnosed in their late 30’s and early 40’s and have already had children. However, at 27 years old, I was devastated. I expressed my desire to have children to my oncologist who told me about an option at MD Anderson in Houston, Tx that could potentially preserve fertility. I recently found out I was a candidate for a brand new research study that would still afford me the chance of becoming pregnant.

Without research like that being performed at MD Anderson, I would most likely have undergone a radical hysterectomy and been unable to bear children at 27 years old. I share my story with you to raise awareness of the importance of research in cancer treatment. As a way to give back, my family and I are selling handmade ear warmers/headbands to raise funds for cancer research. The headbands will be of teal color to represent the cervical cancer ribbon. All proceeds will be donated to the Foundation for Women’s Cancer.

My family and I are incredibly grateful and blessed to have been provided this opportunity. Please help us in spreading the word in hopes of raising funds so we can pay it forward."

Without research, doctors would be jumping to solve these issues with such drastic measures. Please help us with our goal to spread the word of how important other options are for cases like Brittany's. We are truly grateful that she has amazing doctors to take care of her and that research like this has allowed her to keep her ability to have her own children someday. 

Our teal handmade, knit and crochet headbands are avaliable for purchase at my Etsy shop. You can also contact me directly if you would like. We can make them for both adults and little ones- 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the Foundation for Women's Cancer. We hope to raise at least 1,000.00- so please help us reach our goal and spread the word! 

Although you may not know her, thank you for supporting my amazing sister in law in this journey, our family is incredibly grateful.
xo

 Etsy Shop

Kids bounce back...like rubber bands.

Now that it has been some time and I'm over the traumatizing injuries we have encountered, I wanted to share some thoughts with you all. I have always been told that babies (kids, rather) are incredibly resilient. I've had encounters to prove that saying to be true, but never really thought too much about it until recently.
During Kaden's 18 month wellness check, his pediatrician was concerned about his lack of weight gain. He didn't gain any weight from 15 months to 18 months and he didn't measure on any of the percentiles. So she wanted us to adjust his diet to cut out all processed foods, all sugars (unless natural) and he can only have whole wheat. Side note: we eat pretty healthy as it is now. Yes he would have juice occasionally, organic granola bars, kids yogurt, the occasional treat. So this didn't seem like a huge change for us. We were told to come back after 6 weeks to see if he gained any weight and if not we were going to have to get blood work done to possibly rule out any thyroid issues and or celiac disease issues.

So we went back, and he's still a little guy. He also started walking in between his two wellness visits, so he has been burning calories left and right, but he has a good appetite. She still wanted to do blood work and I agreed to make sure we don't have to worry about anything. Well, it took 5 people, 3 and different attempts to try to draw enough blood for 4 vials. Have you tried to wrangle a 1 1/2 year old to have a needle shoved in his hand? I don't recommend it. We had to try his hand because his veins are so small they couldn't find any in his arms and his hand had the only 'big enough' one. I say this with all seriousness- I was more traumatized than he was. I literally had tears in my eyes throughout this process and I finally said enough and hugged the bajeezes out of him. By the time we got home a few hours later (after a play date in between) he seemed to have forgotten all about that morning- but I didn't.

Fast forward to two days later. I brought Kaden with me to my kickball game since we have all moms on our team and we help each other with our kids while we all play. There was an accident where Kaden was leaning on the fence and fell forward and ended up biting down on his bottom lip, hard. Our first busted lip. After we sat and waited for it to stop bleeding (and praying it does so we didn't have to get a stitch) he got up and walked around, saw a slide, pointed at it and said "weeeeeee" (aka slide) so who was I to tell him no after that incident? He took a little longer for this boo boo to be forgotten, only because certain foods would burn when he ate them-which I totally understand. I've busted my lip quite a few times.

Earlier this week, our new friends Rachel and her son (from Stickers for Mommy) invited us over for dinner and for us to take a look at her consignment sale preparations. Kaden and Callum played, ran around and laughed together. Kaden ends up falling (my kid is still learning the world of balance) onto his lip (again) and we have a small busted lip. Tears and blood came, hugs were given, few minutes passed and all was right in the world.

This kid is entering a whole new world of injuries. As he should be. He is climbing on everything, and it will only be a matter of time until he starts jumping off things. I just can't believe how much this kid has been through already from being poked and prodded every day in the hospital, his shots, falling, swallowing a penny and who knows what else will be coming our way. But he wakes up the next morning with a smile on his face every day and is ready to take on the day, every day. I truly believe that kids are so resilient, I see this every day and I think that these little people are sometimes stronger than us as adults.

Roseola + Essentail Oils = GIVEAWAY

When your baby gets a fever or gets sick, I think it is one of the worst feelings in the world-especially because they can't tell you what is wrong. Over the course of 18 months, Kaden has yet to get a high grade fever...until last weekend. After he woke up from a 3 1/2 hour nap on Saturday, he felt like he was on fire. Normally he is a little warm waking up because he still is a belly sleeper and his room can get warm with the afternoon sun. But on the safe side I took his temperature and it was 100.4 (pretty high for him) and he was really snugly (not his usual behavior) so we were able to have him swallow some Tylenol.

Side note: Kaden hates Tylenol. Refuses to swallow it. So I don't really give him any for teething or shots or any of that unless he really does need it-like for a high fever. However, I do have peppermint essential oil to help with fevers if I need to.

I coughed the fever up to molar teething and didn't think too much of it as long as he was eating and drinking...until 3:30 am on Sunday. He woke up crying which made both of us jump out of bed because he never wakes up unless something is wrong. Turns out he wanted a hug and some snuggles which I was happy to give.  Sunday morning, he wakes up with a rash. When we were in California, he had a slightly similar looking rash but it was due to the dryness of the desert. We thought it this was heat rash since he's been so warm sleeping even with no blanket and cotton pj's.

Sunday's rash

Throughout Sunday, we kept taking his temperature and it had gone up to around 101.4 and hovered around 100-101 throughout the day. But the no-medicine-ninja was on full force and spit out every attempt we gave. I tried disguising it in juice, a smoothie, a slushie, yogurt, no go to all of them and I wasn't about to wrestle him on something that he obviously didn't want nor did he absolutely need.  Now you can call me crazy but I know babies are strong and their bodies are working hard on fighting bugs off naturally so I try to let his body do it on his own. I know that if his fever spiked to 102 or higher we needed to take him in, so we watched him and checked every few hours. He seemed to be acting fairly normal, a little more tired than usual though.We kept making sure he was drinking fluids since his appetite has gone down (again I thought teething) and gave lots of snuggles and hugs when he wanted them.

I talked with a friend later that day and she mentioned that her daughter had the same thing happen to her when we all were in California and it turns out her daughter had Roseola. My first thought was.."Roseol-a-what-a?!" She said it was a viral thing, so we couldn't really give him anything and it had to run its course. So I hopped online to read up on this and the articles basically said: a fever can occur for about 2-3 days followed by a rash and since it is viral illnesses, it just needs to run its course. Kaden needed to drink a lot of fluids and rest basically.

 When the word 'viral' was thrown out, I thought about my good ol' essential oils.  I pulled out my On Guard oil (immune booster) and put a few drops on the soles of his feet and gave them a good rub. Since his fever was hovering, I pulled out my peppermint oil to help with his fever. A couple drops of that as well went on the soles of his feet with a good rub.

Monday's rash

We took his temperature before bed and his fever had gone down-happy day! Monday morning I repeated this after he woke up, before nap and before bed and the same thing Tuesday. And by Tuesday evening his rash was gone and he was back to himself.

Tuesday's lack of rash (a little pink from the bath)

I can't help but think that my all natural essential oils helped both his fever as well as his rash.  Peppermint oils has been used as a solution to fevers as well as a myriad of other health concerns. On Guard is a blend of wild orange essential oil, combined with clove, cinnamon, eucalyptus and rosemary offer a fragrant, natural and effective alternative to synthetic options for immune support. We have used On Guard to battle colds for all of us as well as prevent any other bugs coming our way. 

John calls my oils 'hippy dippy' oils, which makes me laugh but he quickly follows up with "but they do work!" SO I want to share one of my favorite oil blends with you! I'm giving away a free 15 ml bottle of dōTERRA's Protective Blend: On Guard. It is a must in your medicine cabinet for everyone of all ages, especially with kids heading back to school and germs flying around! Use it topically on the soles of feet, put a few drops of it in your morning coffee or a few drops in a diffuser to inhale! This helps battle germs while fighting bugs (including viral) in an all natural way! All you need to do is enter using the Rafflecopter giveaway below :) If you have any questions about dōTERRA or essential oils, send me an email-I'll be happy to help! 
*when you share the blog on Facebook, please make sure you tag either the page or the link to this post so I can see it! Thanks! :)* 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

PiYo- week 1

Hello everyone! I made it through the first week of PiYo with a lot of 'snap, crackle and pops' from my joints. I came across this program when a friend mentioned it on her Facebook page. (Side note: I have yet to meet her, we both are Military Spouses so by default we can share common interests and become friends at a rapid rate.) She is a Beachbody coach and also big into fitness, eating healthy and clean while taking all sorts of life obstacles into consideration during the process. Now I have quite a collection of workout dvd's as well as a mini gym in our basement so I really have ZERO excuse-except I haven't found a program that really sticks with me besides Pilates and recently yoga. The local yoga studio has both classes and I love it, but the schedule is hard to keep as well as a membership commitment due to our lifestyle (not to mention the price that comes with it). When Lauren told me about PiYo, which is a combination of both workouts, I was intrigued! After the first week I have come to the conclusion that I need to work on my flexibility. Luckily this program works on your flexibility along with strength training with your own body weight. We were instructed to take measurements along with weighing ourselves. I haven't seen any difference yet in my body, but I have noticed a difference in my muscles getting less tense. I know everything takes time and this challenge is 60 days.  Lauren has been running an accountability group following the schedule as well as the meal plan that is with the program. Sticking to the meal plan has been a little difficult since I have to take John and Kaden into consideration but I'm making it work and they get to eat healthy foods, so it seems to be a win-win for all of us! I finished my workout earlier during nap time and I'm expecting to feel some sore muscles tomorrow which is a great feeling to me. I'll keep you all updated as the workout schedule continues-

xox