Downtown Holiday Jacket and Pant GIVEAWAY!!!!

Downtown Holiday Jacket and Pant GIVEAWAY!!!!

The Link to darling clothes!!

I don't know why the link didn't show up on my post so I will just type it out. Really this is so fun. Check it out. www.kandykissesboutique.typepad.com

Darling custom clothes!

A friend of mine always has the cutest custom clothes for her girls. She had this on her blog and it is so fun. Visit the site! They are doing a give away on black Friday starting at 7 a.m. A fun prize every hour. I would love to win for Hopie!! For some reason I am challenged and cannot post the advertising pic I wanted but really such cute stuff!!

Bloody ice cream!?

So, today I had a Dr. appointment with my ENT to make a plan of attack on my balance problem. I will let you know if anything helps. He had some ideas I hadn't thought about. Anyway, Bern stayed home for a few hours in the morning and worked from his computer and then went to lunch with us at Artic Circle before he had to go visit customers and deliver some product. Hope was so funny! Bern had to take a phone call and went outside to talk. Hope came over to the table and the following conversation was this:

Hope: Where's Bern?

Me: Daddy is talking to somebody on the phone outside for work.

Hope: And then he's going to come in and eat lunch and play?

Me: Daddy is finished with his lunch. He'll come in for a minute but then he has to go work.

Hope: Poor Berny.


Also, while Berny was outside she asked me if she could have ice cream and I told her she could after she finished her lunch. She said, " Nilla with blood on it." She wanted a vanilla cherry topper. Sometimes she says the cutest funniest things. Well, I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving tomorrow!!

Twilight !!!

My sister in law Diane and I went with all the crazy women to see Twilight last night at midnight. It was so fun! We even had our picture taken with these models that the movie theatre had hired at Thanksgiving Point who, by the way, were supposed to look like Edward and Jacob. Not so much, but it was fun anyway. They were raffling off t shirts and other twilight items. So, Diane and I thought we would be watching this with a bunch of 12 year olds...To our surprise, most of the fans were grown women and only a handful of high school girls. There were a bunch of prego girls who had t shirts on that said Edward's Baby( I thought that was pretty clever :). One of the funniest parts of the night was when the gawky 16 year old boy employed by the movie theatre came to make an announcement prior to the movie starting. I don't think he probably ever had a room full of women screaming for him. So, the movie was definitely fun but probably could have been made a little better. There were a few character flaws that I thought were kind of funny, like Charlie, Bella's dad, was way too young to play that part. Also, when they run up the mountain, it's hilarious. Diane and I were cracking up. The villians were very well done. I guess it's hard when you have a certain idea of how the characters are supposed to look and they are a little different than what you expect but overall I think the movie was great and would see it again. Thank you to my KK friend Kacy who got us tickets! You're awesome.

Birthday Cont.

Hope's Birthday and Uncle Rick

This year Hope was spoiled as usual. She turned 4 and I can't believe that tiny little thing I brought home from the hospital on my birthday is a 4 year old sassy little girl. We are so lucky to have her. She is the funniest cute girl and says the sweetest things. She is always telling her dad and I that we are her best friends. While she still has challenges with sharing sometimes, She is the sweetest little girl and loves her family and friends to death. She is really good at interpretive dancing.. and loves her ballet class. This year we bailed on having her party at our house and decided to meet at godfather's pizza. It was a real treat this year because some of my family was here from Pennsylvania. The following are some pictures of her birthday.

So Sick of this!

I hate that this balance thing has become a big focus of my life so unless I have an epiphany or it disappears I will not be writing about it anymore. I know, WHEW! It's just having plans to get stuff done and then not being able to accomplish it all or having a constant ringing sound in my ear is a constant reminder even when I try to ignore it. Anyway, I have said my piece. Please stay tuned for cute new pics of Hopie's birthday as soon as I retrieve them from my parent's computer.

Balance disorder update...

Notice I am not calling it vertigo. This is because rarely are my symptoms an actual spinning vertigo. It is more like a state of constant imbalance that sometimes is better and sometimes worse. So, You all are probably going to laugh but I was googling mal de debarquement because it is one of the diagnoses my ENT is considering. I found this MdDS support group on yahoo chat forums. I am telling you these people are so amazing. Most of them have had this syndrome for months to years and have done a lot of research. I basically told my story and by the next day had five responses. I am not sure if I have MdDs because my problem seems to be more when I am in motion not when I am still. However, this group of people are fairly well educated about different type of vestibular disorders(affects balance). One of them referred me to this Dr. Hain's website. He is a MD in Chicago that does a lot of work with balance and hearing disorders> So now there is a fourth diagnosis I want to talk to my ENT about called a perilymph fistula. Basically, it's a hole between your middle ear and inner ear and can be caused by barotrauma and has been found to occur in people on the descent of a flight. Sometimes the hole closes on its own but it accounts for most of my symptoms and if it doesn't close sometimes they can patch it in surgery or tubes help to equalize the pressure. I am sure this is what you all wanted to read today but I am so excited to have found some possible answers. Sorry if it is pretty technical but I really didn't know how to explain it better. Berny says I use medical terms too much and makes fun of me but oh well. That's who I am.

Election Day Continued

As the vote rolls in and it looks like Obama has won the election, I am a little defeated and disappointed in the American public. While I wish that I could celebrate with the rest of the country the true achievement of having an African American president(Mixed African - American, White), I am really worried about where his economic policies and tax increases will take us. I wish that race hadn't played such a huge roll in this election and people looked more at the candidates record and policies. That being said, I hope that he recieves some true inspiration in guiding this country because he is our president for the time being.

Election Day!

I am a little... a lot worried about the turnout of this election. I just wrote a huge comment on this blog of someone I don't even know because I felt she was a little mislead although I respect her opinion. But I've got to tell you, If Obama wins this election there will be some crazy changes to the fundamental principles of this country. I really am worried about whether or not the new president will uphold the constitution and our rights as citizens. Socialistic/communism is not the answer!! On a somewhat lighter note, my balance tesing came back mostly normal except for one test but they don't know what it means and it doesn't help that on the day of the testing I was feeling pretty good because my ear popped the night before. Today has been a pretty off balance day but oh well what can you do. My ENT is not entirely sure what is going on. There are a few diagnoses that we are looking at. A prevalant one is mal de debarquement and it can last from months to years. Sometimes physical therapy helps so I am going to try that. Also, he is going to have St. Mark's (at my request) review my MRI to make sure there is no acoustic neuroma which is a benign tumor on your eighth cranial nerve which can affect your balance and hearing. The third diagnosis we are looking at is otosclerosis in my right ear. The theory is as the bones fuse in my ear, I gradually will have hearing loss and the toxins released when they fuse can make you dizzy. The only problem is I am not a candidate for surgery for that until my hearing becomes a lot worse. Right now, there is a small problem with the hearing in my right ear but that can also be from scarring( ear infections as a child). So, Crazy life but at least we're working towards a goal. Oh and I don't know if I said before but my heart is fine:normal echo, normal ECG monitoring. Anyway, Life still has to go on and heaven knows it will. Love you all.

Halloween Fun!

This year we decided to hit the grandparents early and to spend the rest of the evening in our neighborhood. Sorry to all of the fam we didn't visit on halloween but usually our holidays are spent running from one house to another and we decided we're going to start doing things a little different so it isn't so stressful for us. I have to say, I think our costumes turned out really cute. Hope was the cutest Tink even though she whined about her bun hurting her head. That only lasted until we started trick or treating and then she started having a lot of fun. Luke was a perfect little Peter Pan and Bern was awesome as Captain Hook. I, of course, was Wendy. Grandma Breinholt was a witch and Grandma Wardle was a snow princess. We carved pumpkins the night before. Berny is way better at it than I am so he carved the kids' pumpkins. We also got to spend time with our friends and neighbors for dinner and games. So yummy! Amanda, I would like your Cafe Rio Pork recipe. I got pretty dizzy towards the end of the night and Luke was getting onery so we came home a little earlier. Bern and Hope stayed and played. We really had a lot of fun!