MY SUPER BIRTHDAY WISH LIST

SO I THINK IT IS ONLY FAIR WHEN IT COMES TO YOUR BIRTHDAY TO BE EVER SO PICKY ON WHAT YOU WOULD LIKE :) I HAVE HAD PEOPLE ASKING ME WHAT I WANTED FOR MY BDAY WHICH AS OF TODAY IS ONLY 11 DAYS AWAY! AAAUUUGGGHHH.

1.) A SMOKER - ( I KNOW THIS SOUNDS FUNNY BUT IN THE SOUTH BARBECUE IS REALLY BIG AND ALMOST A STAPLE AT MOST HOMES-  I COULD DO SOME BBQ CHICKEN OR SOME PULLED PORK - YUMMY!)
2.) NEW TENNIS SHOES - ( ADIDAS ALL THE WAY - I WOULD LOVE TO WEAR NIKE BUT MY FEET ARE NOT AS NARROW AS SOME SKINNY PEOPLE OUT THERE - THE GOAL IS TO GET A GOOD PAIR FOR ONE OF MY NEW RESOLUTIONS OF WALKING 4 DAYS A WEEK.)
3.) STARBUCKS OR JITTERY JOE'S GIFT CARDS - ( SUCH A TREAT TO GET SOME OF THAT HEAVENLY TEA OR COFFEE AT SUCH A ASTRONOMICAL PRICE)
4.) GAP GIFT CARDS - ( WHO DOESN'T NEED SOME CLASSIC CLOTHES TO GO WITH MY NEW SUEDE LOAFERS!)
5.) A PAIR OF BLACK TOMS - ( SO COMFY AND SO COOL!)
6.) A GARDEN BOX FOR MY VEGGIES - ( LOOKING FORWARD TO HAVING A GOOD GARDEN THIS YEAR THAT FEEDS THE FAMILY AND IS A GOOD EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITY FOR MEGAN.
8.) FABRIC FLOWER BIB NECKLACE - ( ON ETSY, I AM SO IN LOVE WITH, THEY ARE CUTE, UNIQUE AND HANDMADE AND MAKE A STATEMENT TO ANY SHIRT OR PLAIN DRESS!)
7.) OF COURSE ANYTHING THAT MY SWEET GIRLS MAKE FOR ME IS ALWAYS WANTED, LOVED AND TREASURED!!!

SO THAT IS MY LIST - HOPE I GET SOME OF THESE THINGS!!! IF NOT WHATEVER I GET I AM SURE TO LOVE :)

COOKIES, COOKIES, COOKIES

This year the Souza's came over to decorate Christmas cookies for Santa. The kids had a blast and the Little's decided the would decorate their face :) I love having them over - cause it always is a laugh fest when my brother is over!

CHRISTMAS TIME AT THE BLOOMS

Got the Christmas tree up and two very happy little girls - waiting for Santa to come....well at least one of them is, one just cannot wait to see what mom and dad got her :) We also have a special elf come visit us, his name is "ELF-CUS!"

Megan's new little shop

 Megan decided that she was going to do a little shop of handmade hair pins and earrings. She has business cards she has made and already has a clientele list. Her store is called " Just Bloomin Around. " I encouraged her since it was something good for her to do - to keep her up and work her hands since they are so sore. Well at my Christmas open house she walked away selling just shy of $100.00 worth - wow is right! Then she showed them to a friend of mine who purchased some and a soriety bought 23 pairs from her since their logo was an anchor. Since then she has sold to some of the hospital staff and was told last night to put then in a little store in watkinsville, on main street. I cannot believe how well she is doing and she loves to do it. I am gonna post her pictures. She sells the regular earrings for $3.00 a pair, fabric earrings are sold for $4.00 a pair and the hair pins are sold for $4.00 a pair. They each come wrapped very cute and she is already working on some for different upcoming holidays :) I hope you all enjoy and if your interested, please let me know.

 (Owl hair pins)

 ( Rose earrings - these come in all colors)

 (Square rhinestone hair pins, they come in round also)

 (Giraffe hair pins)

 (Blue and White chex earrings)

 (Funky Fabric earrings)

(Yellow check earrings)

 ( Glass Hair Pins)

 ( More glass hair pins)

 (Cupcake earrings, these also come in hair pins)

 (Anchor earrings)

 (Butterfly hair pins)

 ( Fabric and Button hair pins)

(Safari hair pins)

NOTHING KNOW YET!

Went to the doctors on Wednesday - for being Children's Health care - they certainly were not nice to my sweet girl. I think I could have punched the lady at the lab. They ran a bunch of tests and labs and now it is the sit and wait patiently time to see if they can figure something out and even then it may not show up a auto immune disease or arthritis. REALLY?????

As soon as we find out anything we will post - at least we were told that some of her sed rate did come back elevated which shows inflammation :(

Julia and Joe

I just had to share these amazing pictures of Julia and her Joe. This is her buddy, her best friend. She has such a love for this little man. She has been riding Joe and rode him at a competition in September. She won 3 first places and won junior champion and it was her first competition. We all love you and to see Julia have this special bond with him is priceless - well so is this little one in her uniform :)

GLUTEN FREE

Yes the Bloom Family has gone totally gluten free for our health and also in support of our Meggie Sue! It is amazing how much healthier it is not to eat all that, well how can I say this......"CRAP"! ha ha ha. So far I made my first quinoa with veggie dish - simply amazing! Looking forward to see what else I can whip up :)

READY FOR WEDNESDAY

Well it feels like forever that I have had time to post anything to this blog - but can I just say I am so ready for Wednesday. Wednesday is when I take my sweet Meggie to the pediatric rhuematologist at Children's Health care of Atlanta. I hope that we get some sort of answers that will lead us to a good path of treatment. Since I have been researching the Internet as made my mind spin out of control. Meggie has her awesome days and then she has her horrible days. Some days I look at her and it is like the old meg is back and others are just hard to see her in pain and uncomfortable. I have noticed that she cannot go up and down the stairs that much anymore. Someday she is lucky to go up 2 times. It has taken a toll on her back. Oh I so do look forward to some answers. With all that said I am so happy to say since Megan has been dairy and gluten free her migraines have been gone for a couple of months. She still has her daily headaches but no migraines which is a blessing. I am so thankful to everyone that has been there for us and for all the prayers for our family and Meggie.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2012

This year Megan was going to go like a vampire queen but whenever we tried to glue the feather eyelashes on, they kept falling off. It actually was pretty funny. Instead she ended up going as the Lady in Black. Julia went as a queen. Don't ask me what she is doing in this picture, she is a riot! It was fun trick or treating with our dear friends the Harpers. We always have a great time :)

Sunday at the Pumpkin Patch

Sunday we took the girls to our pumpkin patch in 5 points which is our regular spot to pick them out! This year we decided to get a tall skinny one instead of a round one. We went to carve it out last night and realized it had a crack in it, needless to say it broke open and was a mess. RIP skinny pumpkin! Luckily both girls had smaller ones so they carved those instead last night. We also had our first fire of the season, which is always so cozy. Girls are looking forward to tonight and Trick or Treating!!

2 WEEKS 4DAYS

2 weeks and 4 days migraine free - wooohooo!!! since we stripped all the gluten and dairy Megan has not had a migraine. We are thrilled, needless to say. She still has achy and painful bones and is nauseous daily but we are trying to get to the root of that problem now. We still have good days and bad ones - but the good days seem to be lasting longer :) Thank you everyone for your prayers

PICTURES....PICTURES

I had the girls pictures taken yesterday as a birthday surprise for Marcus since his birthday is November 3rd. The girls had a blast doing it and the photographer Emily Truax is amazing :) She sent me one picture as a teaser until I get the rest. After looking at this one - I can only imagine how good the others might look.

(Red Pony Photography)

THE LOVE OF MY LIFE

WITH EVERYTHING THAT OUR FAMILY HAS ENDURED FOR ALMOST A YEAR, I HAVE BEEN BLESSED TO HAVE MY BEST FRIEND RIGHT BY MY SIDE. I AM SO THANKFUL FOR SUCH AN AMAZING MAN - WHO LOVES THE LORD WITH ALL HIS HEART, NURTURES, LOVES AND CARES FOR ME,THE GIRLS AND SON IN A WAY THAT IS UN DESCRIBABLE. AS MY FRIENDS AND I CALL HIM - "HE'S SUCH A GOOD MAN!"

REARRANGING "HOMESCHOOL DE BLOOMS"

WELL, WELL, WELL! After I went home yesterday I looked at Megan's space and thought she needed a brighter area along with more room. So there was a bit of a change at the Homeschool De Blooms - I set our dining room back to normal which also now became our regular eating table and removed the kitchen table from the eat-in area. She has two large windows now and it is bright and cheery. Maybe she will get to see some deer this winter! We also were able to make little one an area with her own table. She loves it cause that is her homework station and she feels so important. It is the little changes that make me happy :)

(Our new classroom set up)

HOMESCHOOL DE BLOOMS

Yes you read that right - "HOMESCHOOL DE BLOOMS!" Marcus and I decided to homeschool Megan this year, with everything going on with her. Marcus and I are her teaching coaches at home while everything else is done with workbooks and computer. She has face time with her teachers and attends live classes that way. So far we are very happy with the decision we have made to do this. The schooling is a little more flexible - and we have already learned some things that we did not know before. It has been nice to do science experiments that the whole family has been able to watch and learn and I also enjoy the art program. Megan defiantly has a knack for art.....who knows where that will lead to? Little sister wants to be part of the whole thing when she gets home - like a little assistant, when she is not playing horse :)  Sweet Julia made the picture below for Megan for her classroom. It is a picture of both of them. You can also see a picture of her homemade classroom - She has a nice big window by her desk. I am sure there are going to be days where we want to pull our hair out but with prayer and understanding I think we will be just fine. Looking forward to some special homeschool field trips!

(Julia's painting for Sissy)

(Megan's Classroom)

WHEAT AND DAIRY FREE!

Per our doctors orders Megan has been on a strict dairy and wheat free diet. We also have done gluten free, no high fructose corn syrup, no carrots, no peanuts and no MSG. We are beginning to see a change for the better. She still is having headaches and her bones still ache but this has started helping a little - which is a blessing. We are doing good in the morning times and now know to be close to home or at home come afternoon and night time! We are so thankful to our friends and family who have been faithfully praying for Megan to get better and for us to find the cause of these problems. We have one more week till we get the ANA and ESR test.

WCA Angels

As you all know we have had to pull Megan out of school and she will be starting home school this week. Our Julia will still be attending Westminster - which we love so much and of course think it is the best school ever :) Recently I received a call from one of the mama's of the school and I let her know that Megan was not in school anymore - her response was I know, she will be back but do you think we still cant love on you? I was so touched by that. Some of the mama's have decided to make and deliver us meals on Tuesday and Thursdays to give us a little break. Needless to say this has been such a HELP and is so appreciated more than anyone will know. These mama's are my WCA Angels. Thank you ladies so much for going out of your way to help our family and for praying for us. You all are blessings to our family.

Good Ole Pedro

This year Marcus, Megan and Julia decided to make a homemade scarecrow - We decided to name him Pedro. I don't think it will scare anyone away - I think when people see it, they actually may feel sorry for us! Hope you all enjoy!!!

GREAT MORNING, ROUGH NIGHT

We thought it would be a good idea for Megan to take a horseback riding lesson as part of therapy. Nothing major or too intense just some nice trail rides with a precious horse named Butterscotch. She loved it so much and fell in love with her. She is a beautiful palomino horse. She did great but by mid day her headaches started kicking in and needless to say that it went down hill after that. She got sick, bad tummy aches and headaches. She finally fell asleep. I hate that she feels so bad. I cannot wait to get some answer and just have her feeling better.

We are looking forward to her starting her homeschool - Wow did I just say homeschool? I am very excited that she has this opportunity even though I know she misses WCA alot. At least our little is still ruling the school :) :) Our big day starts October 10th!!!

WHAT IS GOING ON???

As you all know we are still trying figure everything out with our sweet Megan. Last Thursday we ended up back in the ER. That is always fun.......NOT!!! Today Marcus took Meg back to Atlanta for another doctors appointment. What we found out today is that her Thyroid is low and she is starting Iodine for that. We are also upping her B complex and removing all dairy, wheat, peanuts and carrotts completely from her diet. Her body is completely whacked out and is reacting poorly to all of this. We are slowly going to try to incorporate some exercise into her schedule. In 4 weeks she will have some more testing to check auto-immune. We are praying that she stays up and does not get depressed since it is so hard on her and to be constantly sick takes a toll on your mind and body. We have good days followed by some bad days. We now know that Megan typically is better in the morning and fades mid day. I wanna thank everyone that has been praying for her and our family - we appreciate it so much and are so grateful to each and everyone of you!