Debut of the Queen Bee Classics Etsy store!

I am proud and very pleased to announce today's debut of the Queen Bee Classics shop on Etsy.com

Please visit my shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/QueenBeeClassics?ref=seller_info

I hope you have as much fun browsing as I did knitting and creating these items. There will certainly be more to come, so make sure to bookmark the shop or add me to your favorites!

Bee Classy!
Dara

A very quick Ortho update

I just had a nice talk with a friend. Actually nice talks with 3 friends today. I've said it at least 20 times today about Owen's Orthopedic appointment... "I don't want to talk about it." And I still don't. I also know that a lot of people are thinking about and praying for our family and who really care about Owen. Those people deserve to know the gist of what happened. I apologize that all I can give you right now is the gist. This has bowled me over, left me sad, confused and hurting. Oh and very angry, with no one to aim that anger at.

Owen sees his Orthopedic surgeon once a year for follow ups for his congenital short femur. They take x-ray, measure his body as well as his bones on the x-rays. Last year his femur was about 2 1/2 cm short and his tibia was maybe 1 cm short. The tibia has never ever been a concern. His doctor had every reason to believe that it would be left alone. Wrong.

Three main things happened today, all of which are very upsetting to me as his mother. 1.) His tibia is now 2 cm short and will also have to be lengthened. Twice. 2.) His doctor is considering doing the surgeries at different times than she originally though. Instead of 8ish and 14ish, she is now considering 5ish and 9ish. I can't even talk about all of the reasons that a leg lengthening for my 5 year old makes me cringe and want to be sick. Last year, it was something that was being done by some surgeons in the orthopedic community, but his doctor wasn't convinced. Today she told me she has done it quite a bit and Owen may be a candidate for early lengthening. 3.) Owen was born without an ACL in his left leg. As Owen's body has grown and developed, his orthopedist has been able to gain more and more information from his body. Today was the first time she knew that both bones would be lengthened, and that the weakness in his knee could be an issue with that. She will have to worry about subluxation of his knee.

I'm sorry, that is all I can manage for now. Intellectually I can process these things and have very rational thoughts. Emotionally I am a wreck. One of the things I hear a lot is "it could be worse". Do people think I don't know that? Guess what, this is MY worst, OUR worst. Please try to understand that.

Follow me!

I have taken a plunge. I have decided to follow a dream. A dream that I ended up modifying slightly to fit my lifestyle and that of my family. My dream for about 7 years now has been to have my own knitting shop. That would obviously be a huge undertaking, involving renting retail space and acquiring quite a lot of stock, i.e. very expensive wool. For quite some time I looked at this dream as something that I would maybe do someday. Years have passed, my boys are growing rapidly before my eyes, I certainly don't have more free time- I have much less. This is in no way a complaint. I always knew I wanted to be a wife and a mother. I enjoy the reality of my marriage growing and changing. How could I not? I am married to my best friend. I feel eternally blessed to be able to watch Carter and Owen grow, learn, and change. I love that I have such a huge influence in the fact that they are morphing into kind, caring, loving young boys before my eyes.

Time flies and life will continue to surprise us as our family of four continues to grow and change together. (By grow I do not mean to imply that there will be additions to our family. It is most certainly complete!) I recently decided to really take a look at myself, who I was and who I have become. I am not just a wife and a mom. I have my own interests and passions that make me who I am. Some of those things have naturally taken a backseat in the past few years. Again, I am not complaining. It is the way things had to be and the way things should be. I feel that I am in a very good place, and it is time to follow my dream. Even if it is a modified version of the original idea.

Without further ado, I am happy and proud to announce the establishment of my new business, Queen Bee Classics. I will be primarily selling knit jewelry and button jewelry. It will be fashionable, funky, beautiful, chic, and most importantly classy. I am beyond excited about this new journey and hope that you will follow along with me. I am working furiously to create quality items to add to my Etsy shop. I look forward to sharing my creations with you in the very near future.

I will certainly keep you in the loop. To stay apprised of the happenings at Queen Bee Classics please follow the blog for my business here: http://queenbeeclassics.blogspot.com/
Please follow my Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Queen-Bee-Classics/

Thank you all for your continued support. I look forward to sharing with you my art, created with so much love!

Accident

Until Tuesday I had never been involved in a serious car accident. A few minor fender benders, but other than that I had been very lucky. Well, there is a first time for everything.

Tuesday morning I had an appointment in Waxhaw, about an hour away from where we live. On my way home, at about 11:30 am I was driving on a very busy, notoriously dangerous road with a lot of intersections and traffic lights. Because of some extenuating circumstances involving the two people in one of the other cars involved in the accident, I do not feel that it is a good idea to go into details about what happened at this time. In other words, because of these people we are dealing with a great deal of annoying complications. As if having a serious accident is not enough. I am very lucky that my husband is taking the reins as far as handling the insurance aspect of the accident and also corresponding with the police. As of now it is not necessary for the police to question me further, but I will not be surprised if it does happen. For the record, they won't be questioning me because of anything that I did wrong.

I am writing this post as I rest uncomfortably in my own bed at home. I was very blessed not to have sustained any severe injuries. I spent about 7 hours in the hospital and was sent home, ordered to remain on bed-rest for 3 days because of my neck and back injuries. I am not supposed to sit for more than 10-15 minutes. I hurt my neck (whiplash I would guess), sprained my left wrist, hurt my back (hence the bed-rest and also being advised not to sit for too long. Apparently that will cause more stress on my spine and slow the healing) and have a few abrasions from the seat belt and air bag.The outcome could have been oh so much worse, and I am so thankful that I am ok. I am not even thinking about the car right now. However, for inquiring minds, the general opinion is that it probably will not be totaled. Fingers crossed.

Since I had neck and back injuries, the extent of which were not known at the scene of the accident, I was put on a back board in what the EMTs called C-Spine Precaution position.

If you know me, you know that I am claustrophobic, I hate hospitals and I hate ambulances even more. There was definitely some panic going on. And by the way, the EMTs telling me that I was causing more tension and stress for my already injured body did not help in the least. I was glad my x-rays all came back fine and extremely glad to get off of that back board. I will take a stretcher with no straps confining me any day. Really, I'm hoping to stay far away from hospitals for a long time to come.

Unfortunately, in addition to still being in pretty awful pain, I am also having a lot of emotional issues as a result of the accident. It was just so scary. It is scary to think of what could have happened, all the things that would have made it worse. Of course I am trying to change my focus, but I am having nightmares and flashbacks nonetheless.

One Week Later

You may know (either because you have met them, or because I have talked about them or written about them here) that until last week, we had three dogs. We are dog people. A week ago today we had to say goodbye to our shih tzu, Stella. We were lucky in that her breeder agreed to take her and work toward finding her a good home. I am still so sad, but it was the right decision. Within one week she bit both boys. Now being such a small dog it isn't like she could maul them, but when she bit Carter she almost broke the skin. It was not fair to have the boys getting bitten, being worried about it and telling me "Stella is mean. I want her to live somewhere else." We made the right decision, but it is so hard because she wasn't a bad dog and it is so strange no having her here. It does help knowing that she is in a good home. We are back to being a two dog family. We have Maggie, a sweet and loving Golden Retriever who will be nine later this year; and Brock who is a little over two. Brock is an English Bulldog, and just the most gentle loving dog. The phrase "big dumb animal" applies pretty well to him. He just lays around lazily most of the day. He does really enjoy being loved. For example he doesn't realize how big he is and will sit on our laps any chance he gets.

I feel lucky to have my other two fur babies as I come to terms with the decision we had to make to say goodbye to Stella.

Time Flies

You know the saying... "Time flies when you are having fun." While this is certainly true, I have found that being the parent of two small boys, time flies in general. The boys are growing up so fast. I find myself making a conscious effort to slow down and enjoy each moment. I've decided that part of keeping these early memories alive involves doing a better job of keeping up with this blog.

Last week marked an anniversary for Owen that I will never forget. Wednesday the 18th marked two years since Owen's VCUR was resolved. He was scheduled for the first surgery that morning, during which Dr. G was to be removing the stent that had been placed in his ureter during his bladder reconstruction that was done in October. He had surgery on November 20 to remove both stents, at which time we were told that the reconstruction surgery did not repair the reflux as it was intended to do. He had to put one of the stents back in until he had a plan in place as to how the problem would be dealt with in the end. During a post-op appointment after the November surgery, Dr. G told us to get through the holidays and they the second stent would have to be removed. It was a terrible time for us, waiting and not knowing what to expect long-term.

On January 18, 2010 we headed to the hospital feeling very sad, worried, overwhelmed and defeated. Our hopes for a cure for Owen's VCUR had been dashed. We were in contact with two other pediatric urologist who were the best in the country. It was time figure out the best thing to do to allow him to reflux and at the same time allow his body to accommodate the amount of urine that was going to have to be held in his urinary tract. Dr. G came out into the waiting room instead of meeting us in a conference room as was customary. He was holding the x-ray from Owen's post-op VCUG and exclaimed with extreme excitement and disbelief, "It is fixed!" What?! What is fixed? The VCUR can't be fixed, that was not even mentioned as possibility. It was true, after a 1cc shot of Deflux, he was no longer refluxing! It was the best news we had ever received and the most difficult case of bladder reflux that Dr. G had ever been able to fix. When I asked how it had happened, Dr. G said there was really no medical explanation. It was partially a case of his body having more time to heal, but mostly we had received a miracle.

Of all of the dates etched in my memory in relation to Owen's health journey and his 8 surgeries, this is the date that I will forever remember as the day that our prayers were answered.

The Big S-I-X!

I can't believe it. My first baby is six. Six years ago today, Carter was born and I was given the great gift of motherhood. He has brought so much joy and love to our lives in these six years. I couldn't be more proud of the little man he is becoming. We are so blessed to have him as a part of each of our days.

This year, Carter is very excited that his birthday is New Year's Eve. He knew before that the two occasions occurred on the same day, but never seemed to care before. We have had lots of fun playing with his new Wii and Mario Kart game. His goal is to stay awake until midnight. He is, after all, a very big boy now! We love you up to the stars and back Mr. C!