the one about a math problem

What do you get when you add two bored little boys on school bus,
and a sharpie marker??


Well, you get this...

the one about baby Bronson

I came across a blog today that has touched me so deeply I cannot go to sleep without sharing it with you. A blog that if it weren't for my husband, I would have skipped over.

Brett reads my friends' blogs faithfully. One of my friends mentioned this story on her blog. I glanced at it, but didn't have time to read it. So I didn't. Brett told me today that I needed to take a minute, sit down and read this story.

I am so glad I did, and if you have children, (and even if you don't!) you MUST read this story. This family is going through something so heartwrenching, so real and so tragic, we all need to take my husbands advice and take a minute, sit down and read!

Once you get to the blog, scroll down to the post on Feb. 1st, 2010. Here is the link. Get a box of tissues ready!

Thanks Amy, for sharing! And thanks Brett, for making me read!

the one about the SuperBowl and my sister

I gotcha with my title, didn't I? I don't have a sister. Well, a real live biological sister, that is. I do, however have my Brynn. She is my sister-in-law and one of my very best friends. We are married to brothers, and both of us will argue that we each married the best brother! And we will agree that we are thrilled that we didn't marry the other brother, Cory! HaHaHa!!! Neither Brynn or myself have sisters, so we decided years ago that we would just be each others adopted sister. We have also adopted our husbands' sister, Talia, as one of our sisters. The three of us are so happy to have each other and we share such a special bond. I don't know what I would do without these girls.

Early last Friday morning, Brynn's mom, Wendy, passed away. I feel so bad for Brynn. She is very close with her mom. Wendy has had many health problems and has really struggled over the years. Brynn has done everything possible to help her mom. Wendy passed very unexpectedly, but also very peacefully in her sleep. Brynn's family is doing quite well considering the circumstances.

Friday evening, my mom and I took dinner to Brandon and Brynn. When I left, Beau'D wanted to come home with me and play with Quayd. We decided to go swimming at the rec. center. After swimming, we took Beau'D home and Brynn invited us to eat dinner with them. It was so nice. The next night, Saturday, there was a UFC fight on pay per view so Brandon invited Brett to come watch it with him. I wasn't to interested in the fight, so I went to see my Brynn. When I got there, she was working on a project for the funeral. She was doing some photo collages and she was having a creativity block. I was excited to get my hands on something crafty, and I think she was happy for the help. We finished the project and it turned out very nice. Once we finished, she was just spent. I could see it in her face. She looked at me, sighed, and asked if I would come lay by her in her bed and cuddle. I was happy she asked! We went in her room and got the bed all ready. Just as we were getting comfortable, the guys emerged from the basement because the fight was over. No cuddling for us. :( We stood in the kitchen and visited and decided to get together for the Superbowl the next night. We made food assignments and invited Brett's other siblings, his mom, and Brynn's dad. Sunday afternoon, we headed over to Brandon and Brynn's. Three nights in a row! Of course, Brynn and I were not into the game at all! SO here are some of the things we did instead. Brynn read a book. We watched Twilight. We made a bed on the floor and got our cuddle on! Ran to the store. We had LOTS of delicious beverages! We ate things that were NOT on our diet.

I waxed Brynn's eyebrows and face, and I gave her a pedicure. It was such a fun night!

The kids had a blast running around, eating non-stop and making a huge mess!

Brynn's dad, Tom, was right in the middle of all of the kids!

Brycen rolling on the love sack.

Sweet Little Kelby. He is such a good boy!

The boys of course watched the game, but they also had some type of wrestle mania thing going on.

Talia's boyfriend, Chance (in the darker colored shirt) and his buddy Pat (in the red).

Beau'D trying to referee Brandon and Chance.

They were also having wars with a marshmallow gun, drank LOTS of delicious beverages, ate lots and lots of food and made a huge mess!!! After the game, everyone cleaned up, I washed all of the dishes then we headed home.

We have had a blast with Brandon and Brynn and their family the last few days. My poor little Brynn. I feel so bad for her. I feel bad that we have been at their house everyday for the last 3 days and we have made mess, after mess, after mess! But we have cleaned it all up and we have sure had fun together. I guess that makes it worth the mess, right?

the one about my latest heart info

As most of my friends and blog stalkers know, I have a weird heart issue. It was a rare thing that was brought on by my one and only pregnancy. I don't really talk about this much, not because I don't like to, but because I HATE for people to feel like I am a sympathy seeker. I feel like this is the hand I have been dealt and I am really ok with it. Everyone has their issues and problems, this just happens to be mine. If you don't know my story, and you are interested to read about it, here are the links to my blog posts about it.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Obviously you can tell it is a pretty long story.

Anyway, I went in for a check up in November. No biggie, just standard yearly refill the meds, etc. I actually went to a new doctor this time. He comes to our local hospital and he is on our insurance. Our insurance changed and my Doctors at the U were no longer on our plan. I always hate going to the cardiologist because I am always the youngest person in the waiting room by about 50 + years! And they all look like they are on their last leg as they are lugging around their oxygen tanks and wheelchairs. When I went in the exam room and met my new Doctor, he was shocked to see me looking so young and healthy. He said after consulting with my old docs and reading my chart, he expected to see someone more sickly and unhealthy. We talked about everything I had gone through over the past 7 1/2 years. We also talked about the severity and rareness of my disease. He explained to me that they are learning more and more about this disease and that basically, Peri-partum cardio myopathy (PPCM) is curable. Congestive heart failure (CHF), however, is not. People with PPCM and CHF can live a normal MEDICATION FREE life, as long as certain steps are taken to prevent a relapse. He also said that as long as my heart Ejection Fraction, the amount of blood that your heart pumps with each beat, has not decreased, I would be considered cured of PPCM and could stop taking medication. The day I was life-flighted to the U, my ejection fraction, or EF, was 27%. A normal EF is somewhere around 55-75%. I was told it would never get above 40% ish. It would be impossible considering all of the damage that occurred to my heart during and after my pregnancy. Two years later, my EF had increased to 55%. My Doctors were shocked and thrilled. I was actually in the "normal" range. My heart was still enlarged and "sluggish," but still amazing news. At that point, we discussed going off my meds, but decided it was still a good idea to stay on it for prevention. With all of the new research, it was determined that the only "prevention" is no pregnancy. My new Doctor ordered another echo just to make sure it was still around 55%. I went in last week and everyone was amazed to find out that EVERYTHING had become normal and my EF had gone up to 68%!! Unbelievable!!! So, I get to go off my heart medication!!! This is the best news I had heard in a long time. It sounds easy to be able to just quit taking medication, but that is not the case with this medicine. It is a Beta-Blocker and that makes your heart beat the same rhythm no matter what. It took MONTHS to build this up in my system. I started with 0.650 mg, then 0.325 and finally got it up to 100 mg. It is one of the hardest medicines to be able to build a tolerance. I was literally a zombie through this transition. My body hurt everywhere, I was weak and so tired. Once I got used to 100 mg, I was pretty good as along as I didn't miss a dose. Miss a dose = feel like total crap again. There are many side effects and limitations with a Beta-Blocker, but one of the worst for me has been the unchanging heart beat. If I do any type of cardio exercise, my heart rate never changes. That means that as my muscles work harder and need more oxygenated blood, they don't get it. No matter what. So I tire very quickly! Of course I am thrilled to get past that and be able to exercise, take cold medicine, have more energy etc. etc. etc. But I am very nervous about the transition. I was told getting it out of your system is easier than building it up, but it is still rough. Starting last Thursday, I was directed to cut to 50 mg. It has been a rough couple of days, but I am surviving. My last 50 mg dose is Wednesday and then.... NOTHING! I will be done! I can't believe it. We were sure I would be on this FOREVER! Really, this is a huge deal for me! My energy level has suffered, but I know that in a month or so, it will be over. I am so so so happy, scared, excited and nervous, among other emotions. I don't like thinking that I will be "back to normal," because I feel like there is no normal. Everybody's "normal" changes all of the time. Normal for me before all of this happened when I was a 23 year old woman, is completely gone. Normal for me as a 30 year old woman on heart medication is almost gone. So I am excited to find a NEW NORMAL! And I am excited to finally share this info with you. I have only told about 4 people because I don't want people to feel sorry for me and see me as a sickly girl with a weird heart thing. I want them to see me as Mandy. Brett's wife. Quayd's mom. Mandy.

the one about taking a pledge

I am not a huge Oprah watcher, but I did happen to catch it the other day. I was shocked by what I saw. It was about people who text and talk on the phone while driving. The statistics were SCARY!

I used to text in the car, but had a couple of close calls and heard about a few terrible accidents of people who were texting and driving, so I had pretty much quit. But I was still guilty of talking on the phone in the car. Honestly, I felt like I was a good enough driver to talk and drive so I didn't think twice about it. On Oprah's show they showed how when you talk on the phone, you miss a lot of things. You can't focus on a conversation and every detail on the road. EVEN with a hands free set. Scientifically, it is just too much for your brain to process. Everything my look normal, but your brain is actually blocking things. Well that "thing" it is blocking, could very likely be somebody's child in the road. Or your child in the road, or even MY child in the road. Very scary. I took this episode very seriously and I think you should too.

To take the pledge like I did, click here.

For more information and a link to Monday's episode, click here.

the one about ROCK BAND!

We totally love playing Rockband. Its one of our favorite games on the Wii. On Christmas Day night, we went to Brett's brother Brandon's house and played for hours. Brandon and Brynn have a huge projection screen TV and it is so fun for the Wii. The pictures didn't really work, but see that huge white space behind Brandon??? Yah. That is the screen. You can kind of see it behind Quayd in this picture.You totally feel like you ARE the Rockband. Of course we are good enough to really be a band, but, whatever.

This is Brett and his crazy brothers!
Brandon rocking the whammie! Brett on drums and me on the vocals!
Me, chillin with Finn.

the one about ice skating and sledding

I am so behind on my blogging. What is my deal? Oh well. I will try to catch up a bit. I have to post these pictures of quayd ice skating because he is just so dang cute. The pix are from Brennen's Birthday party but I just love Quayd's cute little face! Have you even seen anything sweeter??? Ohhhhh, I love this kid!




Sledding. I love sledding. Truly. One of my fave activities. We went the day after Christmas and had a blast. We took Brayden and Brennen and met up with our friends, the Wallis's. I didn't have the best luck on this adventure. I wrecked a lot, white washed myself, my boots had terrible traction so I had H#@! getting up the hill, among other difficulties. The most memorable event, however, was going down the hill face first on my belly on an inflatable mat. I hit a bump not far from the top and popped my mat. So the only thing between me and the bumpy hill was a thin piece of plastic. I was going really fast and hit a very large bump that had been converted into a jump. Ouch. And I am pretty sure I left my uterus on the hill. I was quite sore for several days, but you know what? It was worth it. We had a blast!

me and my Finny

Brett and the boys starting down the hill on a huge tube

Look at these cute boys!