Answers

Only a couple people asked questions about me, so here goes my answers.

Has your loss brought you closer to your family and/or friends? So many are mixed on this so I was just wondering.
There are so many answers to this question! For myself and my husband, it has without a doubt brought us closer together. Sometimes I look at him and think about that song that has that line in it that goes, "And I thought I loved you then." Sure, we've had our fights and arguments, but everything that we have been through has brought us closer to each other then I ever imagined we could.

As far as family and friends, it's really a toss up. Overall, I have lost a few family members and friends along the way. I simply choose to end all contact with someone that refuses to acknowledge MJ. It's pretty sad that it's come to that. I don't understand how family, close family could pretend that MJ never existed. These family members (who shall remain nameless) didn't call and didn't come to his funeral, among so many other things that have happened since we lost MJ. The same goes with friends, I haven't even spoken to two of my bridesmaids since we lost MJ. One called and one sent a card, but I haven't heard anything from them since. And like I said in my previous post, I am in no way not taking any blame - friendship is a two way street, but at the same time, they should have been there when I needed them to - and they weren't.

The months just after MJ brought me further and further away from the rest of my family (except for my husband). I pushed everyone away and I just couldn't cope with how the world goes on, while I was standing still. It caused some relationships to suffer, because so many people just wanted to help me, but I didn't want their help, all I wanted was to whole up and remove myself from the world. Just in the last few months, things have gotten so much better. I am getting better emotionally, and I am working things out with those people that I pushed away. It's taken almost a year, and while I'm not quite there yet, someday I will be. And the people who still support me and love are the only people I want to be around anyway.

Do you work outside the home? If so, what do you do? Also, you are so great and I'm glad we have "met" even on such sad circumstances. Thanks for doing so much to raise awareness for CDH AND helping NICU parents!
I do :) I work for Friends University in Topeka, KS. I recruit for the associate, bachelors, and master's programs at our campus. I love my job and what I do. I think that education is a very important key to success and I am very glad that I can play a part in giving that to some people. I am also currently working on my master's degree in leadership and management. I have about a year and a half left in my program, which I am very excited about. It feels good to be back in the classroom, I think I enjoy it more now then I did in my undergrad work.

Since there weren't a whole lot of questions, here is a little bit more about me:
I grew up just outside of Chicago, IL, in a suburb called Mundelein. I played softball my whole life, and ended up getting a scholarship to Benedictine College, in Atchison, KS to play there. When I went there I thought it would be for four year, and then I would move back to Chicago and start my career. I never calculated falling in love and finding a husband! Willie and I met when I was a sophomore and he was a senior. We each took a class called Country and Social Line Dancing (I took it for fun, and he took it as a graduation requirement for his Physical Education degree). We got paired up as dance partners, and the rest as they say is history! We then moved to Kansas City, MO and lived there for a year before moving to Topeka and starting our family. We have two cats, Cammie and Charlie, and one dog, Lola. I swear each week we change our minds about moving or staying in Kansas! Part of us wants to move and get the heck out of here, and the other part wants to stay here and build our life. We just can't decide! I know that somehow, someday, it will all work out and wherever we go and whatever we do, it was meant to be. I always like to say, "If you want to see God laugh, tell him your plans." Life is so unexpected!

Questions

I have seen this being done on a few other blogs and I have just loved to read them, so here is my turn!

I am going to give you all the chance to find out a little more about me. You can ask me questions and I will answer them all in another post. You can ask me what ever you want, it can be about Will or MJ, or my husband, or family, or anything really!

I am looking forward to answering all of your questions, so start asking away!!!!

We Did It!

Well we did, we delivered all fifty bags yesterday. I want to keep all of our pictures and tell how it went all in one post, which I will do later tonight. We got home yesterday and were tired and met some friends for dinner, so I wasn't able to post and upload pictures. But I wanted to let everyone know that we did it. So in the meantime, until later tonight, here is a fun game to play. And you will get to know me a little bit more.

99 things
Another fellow blogger, Lisa did this and thought I would join in the fun.Here are the rules: Bold the things you’ve done and post on your blog!

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightening storm
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishin
g49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Got a tattoo
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

So until this evening, here's a little bit about me :)

New Layout! (Plus other Random Thoughts)

So I wasn't really digging the layout that I had, but I totally love this one! The reason why I didn't like the old on was because you had to scroll all the way down to see my profile, followers, blog list, etc. I like that you can see it on the right hand side now. Plus, this one is way cuter!

This past weekend we did one more thing for the bags, which was a lullaby cd. I had seen on another CDH families facebook page that they played lullaby music for their son, and I thought it was a great idea. I was out and about on Friday and saw a lullaby cd for only $2! Then I got crazy and had to buy everything to make 50 cd's. Which cost a lot more then $2! All in all, it probably cost about $1.50 per cd, so I don't think that's a bad price at all.

After our news article came out, a lot of people have contacted me to donate items, which is fantastic! I am super excited about this. I hope that everyone follows through with donating things, because if so, we should have four people donating itmes, and one group of people donating. Which could get us a lot of donations. Either way, it at least got the word out about MJ's Memories and people were able to read about my beautiful baby boy.

Tomorrow we leave for Nevada for Thanksgiving! I am very excited to see Willie's family and visit them. But it is bittersweet because I always imagined our first trip out there with both of our babies. I even used to stay up at night thinking about how we were going to be able to handle two babies in an airport. So going out there will be very hard for me. The holidays in general scare me to death. I really don't want anything to do with them. I just want to fast forward five weeks and have it be January already. We are not decorating this year, nor do I want to.

We will be very busy after we come back from Nevada getting ready for our big Art Show on December 5th. We will have to make a ton of bracelets to get ready to sell. I really hope that we do very well at this next show. The last one we did, we sold 24 bracelets, which totally surprised us. Our goal was 10 bracelets. And that one was super small, and not very well advertised. This next one is very well advertised and will have three times the amount of people there. Plus it is pretty close to Christmas so people will have an extra reason to buy stuff. My sister and her boyfriend are coming to help us, which will be very needed! Although my sister and I already have plans to leave them at the table for a bit while we go shop! Just to give you a mental picture, my husband played college football and her boyfriend just finished his senior season playing football in college - so they are both very manly, big men. When we leave them these two will be selling bracelets, its already making me laugh!