Merry Christmas!

Today was the last day the shop will be open until next year... It has been busy and I am so thankful for that! On top of starting that new venture, Christmas is just a busy time anyway... but I love it.



We spent last Saturday with Kevin's mom's family and then had my mom's side over Wednesday night. Tomorrow night we go to Kevin's dad's house and then Santa comes, of course! Christmas morning is always my favorite... there's just something about sleepy eyes, full stockings and opening presents in your pj's. Sometimes I wish I could stretch time so the day would go just a little slower...


Thank you to all our family and friends who have supported us these past few months... we could not have gotten threw through without you. I hope that each of you has a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy 2011!

Want $1000 bucks to Ernesto's Jewelry?

Come see us tomorrow anytime from 10am to 5:30pm and enter for a chance to win $1000 gift to Ernesto's and some great other prizes! No purchase necessary!

MIA

Sorry I have been MIA for awhile...Last week sure was a busy one!

On Monday, we slapped up the last coat of paint at the store and installed fixtures.


On Tuesday, we cleaned and put out the product and some of my sewing tables were installed. (Thank you Korpi Family!!)


On Wednesday, I made my first dollar.




On Thursday, we served over 1800 (no that is not a type-o) cups of Wassail... and won People's Choice 3rd Place.


On Friday, we tried to fill in some of the holes in inventory for Gruene Market Days and packed it all up.


On Saturday and Sunday we spent selling it all in Gruene!

A big thank you to all our friends and family who helped us make it through the busiest week ever~ We could not have done it without you!!!

So much to be thankful for...

Update: Alejandro's surgery was a success and he is recovering well. Thanks to all of you for adding him to your prayer list!

Things have been busy around here... very busy. We just wrapped up Weihnachtsmarkt and it was so much fun! Here are a few peeks from the show.


It was a BIG success and I am so thankful for all those who came out and LOVED our stuff! Makes all the designing, cutting, pressing and sewing worth it!


We spent the first part of last week recovering from the show and getting the store ready. It is coming along though it will be down to the wire on December 1st!

Then we ate turkey and headed to Marfa for some much needed R&R... oh, and hunting of coarse!


Parker took his first mule deer and it was awesome! I am so glad that it all worked out because he will be in Dallas when we go back after Christmas. This was his only opportunity and boy did he make the most of it!


Maya got the stomach bug on Sunday and she started getting sick at the beginning of our 7 hour drive. Poor thing... nothing worse than having it come out of both ends while being stuck in the truck for 430 miles. After everything though, I am thankful that it is the stomach bug. We have been through so much worse lately...

Well, the rest of the week will be spent preparing for the soft opening and getting that sewing space up and running. We open on Wednesday and will be a Wassail stop on Thursday night. Pop in and say hello if you are in the area!

Prayers for Alejandro

Please pray for Alejandro and his family today...


He will be having major open-heart surgery (one much more extensive than Maya's) and he is 2 years old. Rich and Angie are good friends of ours and it kills me to know what they are going through. Please pray that God wrap them in peace and carry them through this...

I will post an update when I know more.

...let us go right into the presence of GOD with sincere hearts fully trusting Him...for GOD can be trusted to keep His promise.

Hebrews 10:22-23

Her Brain, My Store

So... we went to the neurologist the other day to get a glimpse of that infamous MRI and didn't see it (again). BUT, we did get to see the actual doctor, so that was a plus. He was impressed with her recovery in such a short time and expects her to make a full recovery. Yay for Maya!
She is still not back to 100%, but we get closer to it everyday and I thank the Lord for that. He is amazing!


The doctor said that as far as strokes go, hers was in the best possible place and it was the best possible kind. She is no more likely to have another stroke because of this one, though he showed some concern about her being put on bypass again anytime soon... so we won't even go there!!

Switching gears... here are a few pictures of the store!




It's coming along quite nicely and I am hoping to open on December 1st. Wish me luck!

MOPS Mart 2010

Come see us at MOPS Mart this Thursday! It is always a great show with many "mom-owned" businesses. It also benefits MOPS, which is a really cool group of moms...

See you there!

Boring

We had our one month post-op cardiology appointment today. Maya was very excited because she LOVES Dr. Brownlee. She knows that no shots are involved so she is always in a good mood for these appointments. They did the usual height/weight, blood pressure, pulse ox and EKG. She has gained all the weight back that she lost before her surgery and during her hospital stay, and that makes me very happy!

Then Dr. Brownlee came in and began his exam. This is the part that always makes me a little nervous because this man hears amazing things with his stethoscope. He heard the hole in her heart when she was two weeks old and knew what side it was on and how big it was. I know that he can tell just by listening what is going on inside that little body. While the echo cardiogram confirms his suspicions and takes measurements, these first few seconds usually tell it all. So he listens for a while and then he says, "Well Maya, your heart sounds pretty boring now..." And at that point I knew I could relax a little bit :)

After the exam, we headed over to the echo room and he took some measurements of her heart and compared them to the previous echo done about a month ago. Her heart is already shrinking and the valve is holding up nicely. Praise the Lord!! Her left side measurements (the enlarged part) have gone from 38 and 25 to 32 and 23 in the past month. Kevin wanted to know the amount of leakage before and after surgery and Dr. Brownlee said that the valve had a 70% leak before and has a 3% leak now. I get goosebumps now from just typing it.

He said that Dr. Kup did an amazing job- he is impressed with how well he was able to repair her valve and having no replacement or foreign material is amazing. This confirms what we already think about Kup. He is a truly talented surgeon.

He took Maya off of one dose of her Lasix. Now she will just take one dose in the morning. I know that she is getting better because Lasix is always the beginning stage of treating heart failure. When they started her back on it last year, I knew that surgery was coming. When they doubled the dose and then moved it to twice a day I knew that surgery would be soon. So to take her off one dose (with plans to eliminate it in three months) makes me want to jump for joy!

So there you have it... our little Maya has a boring heart and I just love that! She is doing great and is starting to get back to herself again. Our prayers have been answered and we are so blessed that her little body has healed. Thank you all for your prayers and support on this journey... we could not have asked for anything more.


But I have trusted in Your faithful love, my heart will rejoice in Your deliverance.
Pslam 13:15

International Quilt and Fabric Market - Houston,TX

This place was amazing... and intimidating! There were so many cool booths that I never would have had time to see them all. Companies from all over the world come to Houston once a year to show off their latest and greatest.


Michael Miller fabrics... I buy a ton of fabric from them...relatively speaking of course! I sat down at one of those tables and got a sneak peak at the new Spring Line. Really cute stuff!



Here is Patty Young... she's a designer for Michael Miller. Don't pay any attention to the people... it was Halloween!


Here is Riley Blake...


Very cute stuff. I will probably be adding that to Simply Adorable's fabric stash very soon.



Can you see the floor? These guys actually brought in wood flooring. I can't imagine doing that for a show! Looks awesome, though!


And here is Amy Butler-- probably my favorite designer of all time. She was there and I must say that I was a little star struck. Though I'm not sure how much of her new line I will be using. It is really cool, just a little more adult and home dec-ish.

And finally, the BIG boys... Robert Kaufman. I would have loved to sit down at one of those 20 stations and filled out an order. But I found out that the opening is 2 grand, so I'll have to wait until the store is up and running. Maybe next year!


And there it is! I'm official, ha!

Busiest Week Ever

I just wrapped up the busiest week I've had in a long time...

My normal sewing has been stepped up to three days a week and I'm trying to get all the things for the store up and running. We have BIG show in November and getting ready for that is always a ton of work.




This week at the school we had a PTA meeting, Music Program, Red Ribbon Week, Book Fair and an Honor's Assembly! Here's a picture of Rain for crazy hair day.



Also, our school sold over $51,000 in cookie dough that was handed out on Wednesday. Crazy, I know! Only two families did not come to pick it up so that was amazing. I'm really lucky to work with some awesome ladies on PTA. Thanks, girls!



Kevin was out of town all week doing an enrollment and that is always tough. I miss him, don't sleep well and kids act like a bunch of monkeys! He came home on Friday and then we decided to go to Houston.

This weekend was the International Quilt and Fabric Market at the Brown Convention Center. It was really cool. (I'll post more on that later)


We also took the kids to the Museum of Natural Science. I've never seen a dinosaur before! The kids LOVED it! We also saw this really cool 3D Imax movie called Wild Ocean. Sharks were literally swimming all around us.


Then we headed home and got ready for our annual Trick or Treat Hayride.

Maya was a DCC, Rain was Frankengirl and Parker was a piece of pizza. Oh yeah, did I mention that I made two Halloween costumes this week?


Sheesh! Now I'm trying to talk myself out of eating all of my kids Halloween candy. Wish me luck!

One Month

It's hard to believe that one month ago this little girl was in the PICU recovering from her surgery... The Lord is amazing!

Today she had her Fall Party at Mother's Day Out and she was a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader... She actually let me put these rollers in her hair. She was so excited because she has pretty straight hair and I just don't ever curl it.

That's a lot of rollers...

Here's a picture of Rain 3 years ago when she wore this outfit for Halloween. They really do look so much alike!

And Rain had a BIG day today, too. At her school, every nine weeks the students get rewarded for their academics, attendance and behavior. Each student who meets the criteria is given a special T-shirt, and stars to iron-on to it. After they earn their first shirt and stars, the next nine weeks they get more stars to add to their shirts.

The kids get so excited and work really hard to earn their shirts. Today, Rain earned her shirt and stars for A honor roll and behavior. (She missed a day while Maya was in the hospital)

The classes also get awards for having the cleanest room (voted on by custodial staff), being the best in the hallway (voted by special areas), best attendance and best cafeteria behavior. The special areas also hand out "golden" awards for the classes that give the best effort. Today Rain's class won "Hallway Heros" and the "Golden Shoe".

Here she is with her best friend, Valeria after the awards assembly. I can't believe that she is already in second grade. Where does the time go?

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Jeremiah 29:11

Dr. Kup

Last Thursday we went to see "Dr. Kup", Maya's heart surgeon. It was nice to finally sit down and talk with him about the whole process from start to finish. He is an amazing surgeon and we feel truly blessed that he is Maya's doctor. There's just something to be said for a person who has held your child's heart in his hands... twice.

He seemed really happy with Maya's progress (from the stroke) 3 weeks out. He said that he went back and looked at the logs for the period of time that she was on bypass and saw no dip in the oxygenation levels. They use a very precise brain monitoring system, and he said that it is common to have dips in any case, but there was not even a small one in hers. So still no answer on what or when the stroke occurred. Maybe we will get some answers when we finally get to see her MRI on November 10th. It is all in the past and nothing can be done about it, but if she needs a future surgery-- I don't even want to think about that.

He said she looked great and told her he would miss her... as much as I like him, I hope I never have to see him again! We will continue monthly check-ups with our cardiologist and he will be the one to monitor her progress from her on out.

We had PT on Friday and Maya had not had a good night. But when Alicia came she was all smiles- Go figure! Here she is doing some exercises in her Bebe Gear that my friend Katherine made her. Isn't it adorable?

I'm so happy that we have hooked up because she LOVES to sew on knits and I totally don't, so it's nice to trade. One of her daughters, Jacqueline, was a model for the last shoot. She's so cute!

If you like Bebe gear, check her out on facebook. She posts new pictures everyday of her latest and greatest creations!

We have an OT evaluation tomorrow and PT after that, so Maya will have a full day :)

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances,
for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Big Steps

This week we have made some BIG steps forward...

Maya had her first full day of school on Tuesday and she made it the whole day. YAY! It started out pretty rough, though. She cried and cried the from the time I started to fix her hair until she and Daddy left. Then more crying on the way, and of coarse when he dropped her off. Her poor teachers! Not only do they have to deal with all the other stuff, but now she having meltdowns, too? Luckily, they are two of the sweetest and most patient women I have ever been around, and after a little distracting, she was good to go! Thanks Ms. Candy and Ms. Shari for loving her like you do!


Yesterday we had our first Physical Therapy appointment. Maya's therapist, Alicia, is amazing. She worked with Maya for about 45 minutes and she does a great job of mixing work and play. It's kind of like Maya has her own personal trainer.


They worked on the whole body, but did focus on her legs more. She did exercises to strengthen her hip and practiced going up and down on her step stool. Alicia was very pleased and said that she felt like Maya had already improved since she had done the evaluation on Friday. Praise God!


In other family news, Rain lost one of her top teeth two days ago... well, I mean, Daddy pulled Rain's wiggly tooth out with some fishing line... This is a BIG deal for her! All of my kids have been late on loosing their teeth and she is the last person in her class to loose her top ones. The tooth fairy forgot to leave money in her pillow yesterday morning-- I guess I should call the 1800 number and complain :) But this morning she woke with this and very excited!


We have our post-op appointment today with Dr. Kup and an occupational therapist will be evaluating Maya on Monday, so I'll keep you posted on how that goes... Thanks for stopping by!


"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."
Hebrews 11:1