Thrifty Decor Chick Giveaway

We interrupt this regularly scheduled issue of not blogging to mention a fantastic giveaway.

I love this blog!!! thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com
http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/2010/11/silhouette-craft-cutter-giveaway.html
I love everything about her house and her ideas are affordable and adorable. This weekend she is giving away a Silhouette. Wouldn't you like to win it? Of course, that is if I don't win it. :)

August 25

Hi. It's been one year. What do I do with today? I remember ALL of today last year, so it keeps distracting me. I even remember what I was wearing, where I parked at the hospital, etc. I keep tearing up, but I'm really glad how it all turned out. It's nice to go through today and not think about the great chance of losing my baby today. You might laugh or think us weird, but we are going up to the hospital today as a family to eat dinner. The food in the cafeteria was pretty decent and held a lot of memories for us. I want to go up to the NICU to say hi but I always get nervous thinking they forgot about us. We'll see. One thing I know for sure is this August 25 will be miles better than last year. Knock on Wood

Random Important Numbers

39-days I spent in the hospital

107-days Sara spent in the hospital

8-number of rooms I stayed in

2-number of awesome parents that stayed with Noah

$880,000- rough estimate of Sara's bill (I still think that is way too cheap.)

39-number of times I went crazy

1-number of paint by numbers I completed

### (lost count)-number of awesome friends and family who showed their concern through cyberspace (That's you!!! :) Thanks.) and face-to-face

Thanks everyone.

I'm in LOVE!!!

....with coupons!!

Last week, someone I know posted that they got 40 boxes of pasta for free!! Well, about $.10 per box since she bought a mass amount of coupons off of ebay, but still!!

I was so intrigued because I have always wanted to use coupons but they truthfully intimidate me and I didn't know you could buy mass amounts of coupons.

So, I went on and bought coupons for pasta, beans, and Mission products. Guess what I was able to get for $27???? 51 items!!!!! I know. Wow. :)

10 boxes of pasta (spaghetti, linguine, & rotini)

17 cans of refried beans

4 cans of black beans

6 cans of pinto beans

2 large bags of tortilla chips

6 30pks of corn tortillas

6 10pks of flour tortillas

51 items=$27

I know it's not an all-time record in couponing but I am pretty tickled pink with myself. It makes me giddy. Now on to next week's deals. I know Danny is wondering what he got himself into now.

Here is a picture of all my beauties:

Medical Woes

We have definitely had a busy week when it comes to our children's health and well-being.
On Tuesday, Sara had to get some tests done to see if her surgery worked properly. She had a surgery (only on Dec 28) to prevent her "life-ending" acid reflux. Since she no longer had acid coming up, she also could really have no burps coming up. A few weeks ago she started burping and now burps like a grownup. She hasn't burped since the day of the surgery so it worried us. Though she's probably grown out of the reflux by now, "life-ending" is still a worriesome thing. Of course I could of gotten the results back yesterday but her doctor decided to take the whole week off so we won't hear anything back until at least Monday. I know at least the examining doctor said it looked like she had a hernia. Not trying to think about it, but if it was serious she might need surgery. Again. The hospital. Again. But we'll go with no for now.
On Wednesday, Sara was assessed for a helmet. She preferred her right side in the NICU and since she was there for 3 1/2 months, that side became significantly flat. Attempts at home to correct it with holding her up more often, repositioning her, etc. have proved fruitless. Now she will get a helmet because the flatness is affecting the growth of the rest of her face.
Now today, both my children screamed all day. That was fun especially because I'm starting to not feel well. Sara has a goopy eye, cough and runny nose. Noah had a runny nose and a cough and REALLY irritible but that was it. Danny and I took them into the walk-in clinic (since stupid doctor was out). I was mainly concerned about Sara because of her past. Well, she ended up getting meds and Noah is currently in the E.R. with Danny. He was having trouble breathing and his saturation levels were low. So far I know that they've given him two breathing treatments and an X-ray. The X-ray showed that he has pneumonia so they're going to give him a steroid, wait an hour, and then decide if they need to admit him or not. I'm exhausted but can't sleep. It's already 10 at night. I know it's a rule that children do not get really sick until it's nighttime.

I've often wondered if I caused my children to be so sick so often because I have had a lot of problems and I am ALWAYS the sick one out of Danny and I. I wonder if children just get sick this often, if it's the season, or if it's me. I mean, my kids get sick at least twice a month. I'm tired of it and just want a miracle cure but that would be too easy now wouldn't it? I'm going to go stare off into space now because I can't sleep.

Morale of this story: Please stay healthy and medically boring. Thank you. :)

Noah's Hats

Throughout Noah's life, he has loved having something on his head. Granted, sometimes we put something on his head (like the yellow one below) and he didn't know to object. Truly, that's about the only one he would actually dislike. Some of his hats are traditional. Some are different. I can't even find pics of his two FAVORITE hats: a halloween bucket and a bowl-like thing that has faces on it. I must say the first picture with Noah & Danny was taken by the wonderful photographer Elise Taylor. I'm not that good at taking pictures. You can see in the pictures as Noah got older his taste in hats became more creative. He may soon sign a contract with Target....

Noah presents his hat collection:

(These are in no particular order in his life.)

Wow

In getting our taxes ready (you can count medical mileage), Danny and I figured out that during Sara's and my hospital stays we drove at least 12,000 miles!!!! 3 zeros at the end!

Wow.

Place Your Bets

Ok.....so more like place your guesses. The word "bet" seems to imply that if you win you get a prize. Yeah.... We all know how on top of things I am, so I don't want to leave another person hanging. (And yes, Priscilla and Tara I am aware that you are anxiously awaiting your prizes. They will come...eventually. Just don't hold your breath. They are in my house. The prizes just seem to lazy to leave. I'll have to kick them out soon.)

Danny & I are still awaiting Sara's final bill from her hospital experience. "Experience" sounds more fun, doesn't it? So I'm curious, what do you think it might be? I will give you a little background to help you form a decision.

-My hospital bill for basically just sitting on my butt for almost 6 weeks, a few tests, and giving birth was around $119,000.

-With the few partial statements that have trickled in, Sara's bill is up to at least $300,000. (Mind you, the statements barely cover anything.

-Sara was in the NICU from October 1, 2009 until January 15, 2010. Danny & I once read in an OLDER book that a bed in the NICU could run around $2000 a day!!!!

-For at least 2 weeks, she was on a ventilator. This is the most intensive breathing aid. (She wasn't breathing on her own.)

-What was written on her discharge papers as her "discharge diagnosis"(everything she had or experienced):

-ASD (basically a hole in the heart)

-prematurity (30 weeks)

-Suspected NEC (necrotizing enterocolitis, literally means "death of tissue" and "inflammation to the small and large intestines" This was NOT fun thinking she might have it. The small progress she was making at the time was set back pretty far.)

-anemia

-apnea of prematurity (short episodes of stopped breathing)

-unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia (Don't you love medical terms. To put it simply: jaundice)

-Retinopathy of prematurity (potentially blinding eye disorder)

-suspected sepsis

-apnea and bradycardia, Respiratory Distress Syndrome

-massive reflux (They finally thought Sara might have bad acid reflux after they tried to discharge her twice & on both those days she decided she didn't want to breathe anymore. I believe they said around 7% would be a high amount of acid reflux occurence. Sara had 50%.)

-Coxsackie/Rhinovirus infections (hand, foot & mouth disease and the common cold, When she had these, we have to dress up like doctors with the mask, gown, & gloves. I was quite amused by playing dress up.)

-Sara had numerous tests including ultrasounds, echocardiograms, Xrays. She had to have 2 spinal taps. I lost count of how many IVs she had. Remember, they would charge for every material they used on her. One time, it took them at least 5 times to get an IV in. Grumble, grumble.....

-Finally, due to Sara's acid reflux causing "life-ENDING episodes" she had to have surgery to basically wrap the stomach around the esophagus to prevent acid from coming up. While they were there, they also fixed her umbilical hernia.

So, do you have a guess? Did you get lost in all of that? Sorry it was so long but she was in there for a LONG time and rest assured I know I am forgetting some stuff.

What do you think?

PS We have occasionally received notices of how much the doctors would charge to look at her for about 2 seconds to 10 minutes. These would range from around $250 to $1800. Yes, you read that correctly. :)