layouts to share

I have a few layouts to share that I created earlier this week. Two for Ally Scraps and one for fun. I wish I would have had more time to scrap this week, but it wasn't in the cards.

I just love these beautiful papers from the Bo Bunny Alissa Collection! The cool and fresh colors scream Winter to me, so that's how I used them. :) I got these from the Ally Scraps store, they are selling out quickly, and I totally see why!

I also created a fun page of Skye and Kara goofing around with some of the awesome papers from My Little Shoebox (which you can also purchase from Ally Scraps).

It was a long week with Ashlyn; two trips to the ER; Monday, which didn't give me anything but hope that things were OK (which they turned out not to be) and then again on Wednesday which came to be a very long afternoon. She had a pretty severe allergic reaction to the Chlorascrub Swab they used to start an IV. It was quick and scary and really made her anxious and upset. Before the iv was even completely in, her entire right arm was red and covered with hives that had spread all the up to her neck and chest area and she had difficulty breathing and felt faint. It was freaky and just like on TV things moved quickly. Thankfully Benadryl worked, even though the redness and hives were slow to pass. She had a small and immediate reaction to the alchol scrub the last time she had a blood draw, but it wasn't anything like this. I thought it might have been a fluke, but I guess not. No more alchol swabs for her. The poor girl is severely constipated, which is puzzling because she's not eating all that much and has been taking a laxative twice a day for months now. We stayed a while and they drew more blood and helped move things along (if you know what I mean) and then we followed up with a Dr. on Friday. She has been referred out to a Peds. GI over at Children's Hospital in Seattle where they will evaluate her as well as do a Fructose Intolerance test. Since it was late in the day Friday, I didn't get a chance to speak to anyone, so I am hopeful that I will hear something early this week from the clinic there. We also did more aggressive cleansing with her starting Friday night and all day yesterday, which doesn't seem to have worked as had hoped. She is still experiencing severe stomach pain and is still doubled over in pain and her colon is squeaky clean. I thought for sure she'd be feeling like a new person today and ready to eat and be able to go to school without any pain tomorrow. I am really heartbroken that this is not the case. Maybe she'll perk up as the day progresses. At this point it's just more hurry up and wait, because there really isn't anything else that can be done other than wait for a GI visit.

I am not a patient person and all this waiting around with Ashlyn is going to push me over the edge. It's hard to see her suffer so and not know what is causing this or even how to go about helping her. I scour the internet a little bit every day looking for anything that might help explain things. To make me feel like I can do something to help her, but, I am not a trained medical person, so I can look up what I know for sure and try to make sense of things that I have no understanding of and try to make it all make sense (does that even make sense?) I don't look for things to make something fit, because that is pointless, but I am looking for connections so I can at least be informed and maybe can have a deeper understanding of what might be. I have learned a lot about things by the tremendous and overwhelming amount of information available on the net, especially blood tests, and even though I cannot make sense of it all together as a whole (without coming to things I do not know for sure that are bad and ugly and I am not going to even think about because I am not a dr. and I can't go there, but they are always there anyway. I just have to keep reminding myself that this could be nothing or it could be something and that something is unknown for now) however, analyzing the bits and pieces I can decipher and trying to figure out how they work together is interesting and I can at least feel like I am doing something, even though that something is not anything that is helpful.

I am struggling to keep it together, but I have 4 other children at home who need me and i think this is what keeps me going. I know that they are stressed about Ashlyn's health as well and this on top of school is a lot for them. There is a thick blanket of tension around here and i am trying to keep things as carefree and light as possible for the girls. I am thankful that I have scrapping as an outlet, even though I am not feeling as creative as I would like. I have also been spending more time reading... I can escape to something that isn't mine with a book, even though I tend to be drawn to books with heavy topics that are not cheerful and upbeat.

Enough of this rambling. I am going to go make the most of this beautiful day!

Take care