**UPDATE**

I can't even begin to express how much love Cort and I feel from everyone! THANK YOU to everyone for the kind words, thoughts, prayers and acts of service in our behalf! We have three different people taking turns watching our kids kids today- one of those had to end up wathcing them an hour earlier than expected this morning, one of them switched times with another to make things work better and the third one is doing it last minute (with a half days notice) because another one got sick! How is that for helpful neighbors! All have been loving and willing to help with not a complaint. We have had offers for meals amongst other things and truly feel so lucky to be living in an area where we can get so much help, especially since we have little family around. My in-laws just left on a service mission assignment so it is hard asking others for help. It is truly a time when I miss living near my family, but seriously, it does not get better than this with neighbors!

So seriously, thank you from the bottom of our hearts! THANK YOU!

Now, Cort's surgery went well. Right now we are sitting in a recovery room. They are waiting for him to fully wake up where he can sit up. I told him on the way here that while he is "out of it" I am going to make him promise me all kinds of things...texting on my phone, some new clothes, etc. HA HA! Anyways the surgeon came in and met with me after the surgery and told me that everything went perfectly, exactly how he expected it to. The recovery is 5 days after we go home- so Cort has the whole week off. He is very pale and obviously very tired, but otherwise looks fine. His ear is completely covered in what looks like a shoulder pad, so I have no idea how much swelling there is yet. The swelling will take a full 5-6 weeks to go completely down and it will also take that long for us to know how sucessful this surgery was. Because there is swelling around the tube we just put in, it pushes on the tube, somewhat closing it a little with the pressure. So once the swelling is down, the tube will have nothing pushing against it and can therefore be 100% effective. So we shall see how things go.

I will update more as soon as I know something else, but for now, we are just waiting it out. Thank you again for all the love, support and prayers! We feel truly blessed!

Now for your visual entertainment...I needed a good smile right about now, so here are some cute pics of Keaton enjoying some chocolate fondue...

It turned out to be a bath night that night! :)

The BIG DAY is almost here...

Cortney goes in for surgery around 10am tomorrow (monday) morning, so please keep him and our family in your thoughts and prayers throughout the day and I will let you know how things go as soon as I can. Thank you already for all the thoughts and prayers thus far and thanks for the upcoming ones! We love you all! Wish us luck tomorrow that this really works!!

Kyler is *almost* 7!!

At 6:42 (ish) in the morning tomorrow, March 20th, Kyler will be 7 years old! I cannot even believe it! 7 years ago I became a mom for the first time and I know I fit the typical stereotypical comment when I say "it goes by so fast" cause it DOES!

So we knew throwing Kyler's birthday party today was best since next weekend Cort will be recovering from surgery and we just don't know how he will feel. Naturally Kyler wanted an ALIEN party. Naturtally. So an Alien party he got!

And here he is, almost 7 years old. WOW!

This is typical.
I must say, my space ship invitations turned out UBER-COOL! You can't read the font here, but it says "We're going out of this world for Kyler's 7th Birthday Party" and other really cool spacey/alieny things. :)

I have made a tissue paper pom-pom decorative thingy once before just to see how hard it would be, but I didn't actually put it together or do anything with it. So this week I had a friend come over and offically show me how to make them so I could have super cool space/hanging decorations. Totally not necessary, and to be honest, Kyler didnt really care that much. "cool mom" was about it- BUT I LOVED THEM! Ha! And for the record, they were SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO easy. And cheap. And easy.

A different angle.

Cool looking alien cake right?! I know! ha ha. It was fun.

Close up on the eyes. Don't they scare you?

Okay, now THIS was the best part of the whole party. The game my mom either invented or learned from someone else. But when she came in October, she did this with the kids and it seemed fitting for todays theme. You put gummy worms on a plate and cover it with whipped cream (from the spray can) and the kids have to eat it, dig through it with their face! Talk about cool boy stuff! So I told the kids it was alien guts and all of them loved it and did it. There was one super cute little girl who put her hands in and that was it, otherwise, everyone dug in!

Seriously fun times.

Opening presents. I love how all of them get so involved!

All the kids (and must I mention that two of Kyler's bestest friends got strep and couldn't make it, so we were missing them!)

Finally, singing Happy Birthday and blowing out the candles.

It was a super fun party but I am SO GLAD it's OVER! WHEW! More than anything I am so glad to have Kyler in my life. He is such a sweet spirit and I am so grateful for him. I will have to post a little more on him later cause now that the party is over I am headed to a girls night out. It's been a long week and next week will be even longer, so I am gearing up tonight! Happy Birthday to my sweet Kyler!

Another Review and Giveaway!!

I can't believe I was ever nervous or hesitant to do a review/giveaway...cause I LOVE THEM!!

Check out the newest review and giveaway on my wipey cases!!

http://takeitfrom-me.blogspot.com/2011/03/lizzyluu-designs-review-giveaway.html

The Surgery

So, I know I have posted bits and pieces before about my husbands disease, but here is some detailed info...

Ménière's disease is characterized by the following symptoms:

•a rise in the level of endolymphatic fluid in the labyrinth of the inner ear
•hearing loss that comes and goes
•a sensation that the environment or oneself is revolving or spinning (vertigo)
•ringing, buzzing, or hissing noises in the ears (tinnitus)
•a feeling that the ears are blocked or plugged

--This description doesn't show vomitting, so let me just add that one in myself...

About 2 years ago, Cort was on an airplane when his ear clogged. Several days later, it still hadn't unclogged and he suddenly had a massive vertigo attack. The room was spinning, he could not stop throwing up and was sick for several days. And when I say he was sick...I mean can't even walk or get up from the very spot he has collapsed in--it is so bad. He went to several different specialist because he could tell it wasn't your usual bout of vertigo/sickness- something was going on. He was diagnosed with Menieres disease and put on a different range of medicine's that don't help much. He was told that if you can just get through the first year, the symptoms will mellow out and you won't be sick as often. Well, that has not been the case for Cortney. He goes a month at a time being sick. Usually his symptoms last for at least a week to a month and the last time he was sick, he lost 9 pounds in one day!! (I don't lose even close to that when I get the flu...I could only dream that going through something so horrible would help me on my diet!! ;)) It really isn't funny and there is no upside to this. It is terrible for him. It's not just the throwing up...its the constant ringing in the ears, hearing loss, hearing going in and out, throwing up and all the above COMBINED and AT THE SAME TIME!

It has been hard on the whole family, but especially Cortney. First we learned about a surgery that would sever the nerve in his ear. Yes, he would be deaf on that one side, however, it would eliminate the disease and he would be cured! He truly was considering it when he learned of a different surgery...

Endolymphatic shunt surgery is one of the surgical procedures available to treat Ménière's disease, which is also known as endolymphatic hydrops. The surgery is based on the theory that the disorder causes the inner ear to become overloaded with fluid and that draining this fluid will relieve the symptoms. The fluid is drained by opening the endolymphatic sac, a pouch located next to the mastoid bone at the end of the endolymphatic duct. The endolymphatic duct is a canal that leads to the inner ear. Then a very small silicone tube is placed in the membranous labyrinth of the inner ear to drain excess fluid.

After all the numbers come back, it is estimated that there is an overall 60% chance of curing the vertigo. We'll take it!! Especially because there is NO RISK involved with this surgery. The only risk is there is a 0.5% chance that there could be some hearing loss...which Cortney already has.

So the surgery is scheduled for Monday the 21st (a week from today). We are so prayerful and hopeful that this will at least significantly reduce the attacks, if not eliminate them completely. We are so grateful for all the thoughts and prayers that have been with us during these past two years that Cort has struggled with this. And all we can ask now is that you keep the prayers coming...at least on Monday!!

We'll keep you posted!

All about Kyler...mostly.

It has been a busy past two weeks. We have been keeping busy with all the normal things of life, combined with some fun projects and changes.

To start...Playdough! HA. Well, just normal fun things to do around the house, but the kids got really creative this particular day, so out came the camera!!

By the way, Brayden said this was ME! Nice!

Next up: ME=Creative Genius! I have to admit, when Kyler came home from school telling me he was doing a project on snakes and needed to dress up like a snake...I'm like...WHAT?! How in the world do you dress up like a snake? The teacher said it could even be something as simple as sweats in the color of the animal...but I couldn't go THAT plain...sooooo after doing a little internet searching, which I happen to love to do...I came up with an idea...or rather took bits and pieces of ideas I read. ENTER Kyler with a super cool snake wrapped around him...making scary faces of course!

Come on now, isn't that the coolest super real looking snake you have ever seen made for FREE? Well, at least HE thought it was cool ;) So, now we have pictures of him IN a snake cage at school...

With the other like animals.

In the performance after the "project."

His personal part of a song about a pig...he was cute! And SO BIG!

As if that wasn't enough in the Kyler category, he had yet another performance at school for ART. Keaton LOVED it! Every kid that walked on stage, Keaton yelled "Hi Kyler."

We couldn't get many pictures because the choir director was right in our view, but we managed to get a few cute ones.

And there you have Kyler, Episode 1...cause Episode 2 will come next week after his 7th Birthday. Yes, 7th!! I cannot even believe it.

So what else has been going on? Well Kyler and Keaton basically switched rooms. We didn't move anything but their beds to see if Kyler truly does want his own room and if Brayden and Keaton can manage well together. The first two nights and morning afters were difficult with Keaton and Brayden. They didn't want to go to bed and then would wake up super early...but I think we might actually be mellowing out into a normal schedule again. Maybe...so a few more days of trying this out and we will decide if this is for real and can move dressers, etc.

I've also been busy making more wipey cases, organizing some things around the house, getting plans organized for Kyler's Birthday...AND preparing for Cortney's upcoming surgery. WHICH I have decided deserves a post of it's own. So more on that in a day or two.

Needless to say, we have been BUSY! More later.

Giveaways, Finally

So I have finally hopped onto the bandwagon of "giveaways." I have never done one before today but have finally given into it-- So today is my first of several reviews/giveaways with my wipey cases.

Check it out and enter to win one for yourself or to give away to someone else!


http://corner--house.blogspot.com/

Hope YOU win!

Check. IT. out.

So I updated my baby business blog with some of my new cases...and let's just say THIS one is getting rave reviews~

It is so super cute, yes I know. Can you believe I made one even CUTER than this that I sold right away and the fabric was this little strip that I don't have any more of and can't find anywhere online?! Oh the drama! (You lucky dog Kristina!)...Anyways, go see some of my new wipey cases for yourself, order one if you like...just remember you can change any of them around any way you like from changing the bow, changing the color of the ribbon or something else- I also do custom designs- you tell me what you want and I will make it happen! Have fun snooping around :)

lizzyluu.blogspot.com

Zumba, the color Red and Good Food!

Ever since I discovered Zumba, I have slowly gone to more and more classes...it is WONDERFUL! However, I have found myself not getting ready as many days. I have always (at least since I can remember) taken the time to shower, get myself prettied up NO MATTER what- my house can go a little bit dirty, etc. because I have always felt that doing that little something for myself, like taking the time to get myself ready, helps me to feel better about myself, among other things. So, typically I go to aerobics Mon, Wed and Fri, and Tuesdays and Thursdays I do something else, one of the those days usually Zumba. Lately I have been doing some Zumba classes on the days I also do my regular aerobics. This makes for me getting sweaty and gross, then taking the time to get prettied up, then getting sweaty and gross later. It takes too much time! So instead I have been putting on a cute hat, body spraying myself, combined with some lotion and deoderant and changing my clothes and calling it good. I HATE it! I am not going to lie, but then really it doesn't make sense to do things any other way since I am going to work out again later.

Anyways, why am I rambling on and on about this? Because the other day Cort was out of town so I couldn't go to Zumba. It was fine, no biggie. But I got myself absolutely prettied up to the best of my abilities- I wore my favorite color, of course, which is RED and then I decided I better take a picture of myself to capture the moment of me looking like a normal human being. Especially since on this day I have nowhere to go, so it was the day of all days I could have stayed absolutely gross! ;)

The funny thing is I just couldn't keep a straight face for nothing- cause who just randomly takes a picture of themselves to post on their blog with no other explanation than they got ready for the day????

So there you go. And there I go...and speaking of Cortney being out of town...50% of the time when he goes out of town, we have pancakes for dinner. It's pancakes, cereal, something easy peasy. The other 50% of the time, I make something fabulous that my husband doesn't like and won't eat (he is picky). While he was gone for these few days, I made fabulous meals every single night!! And while dinner was cooking on this same day that I happened to look as fabulous as I could, I decided it too deserved a picture taken since it is so incredibly YUMMY.

It's my mom's Hamburger Hawaiian. Served over steamed rice. MMMMMMMMMMMM. What a great day it was indeed. And to make life even better, the weather was great too! It has been a pretty great week! Hope the same for you. ;)