I Gave You Words/Field of Cradles
Preeclampsia is a disease that does not discriminate against race, ethnicity, sexuality, religious beliefs, social/economic class or age. It affects as many as 1/12 pregnancies and is characterized by high blood pressure and kidney failure. If left untreated, it can cause liver failure, seizures and stroke. The only known "cure" is delivery of the baby, regardless of gestational age. Preeclampsia is responsible annually for approximately 500,000 infant deaths and 7,500 maternal deaths.
Field of Cradles is an art exhibit that will be shown at the Boston Promise Walk for Preeclampsia. The project honors the lives of those babies lost to this terrible disease, using the parent's own words to describe their feelings and experiences to create works of art to spread awareness. If you live in the Boston area and are interested in participating in the Promise Walk and/or Field of Cradles art exhibit, please visit: http://promisewalk.org/pfpw/fundevent.asp?nnaffundid=34
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Social-Networking Addiction, Not Just for Adults!
Hello, my name is Mindy and I'm a social-networking addict. In fact my blog post is being typed with my thumbs via my Droid between facebook updates! But I'm not the only person in my family who suffers from this condition -- my husband is overtly addicted and our two-year-old daughter, Lily, is already showing signs. Today she grabbed my phone and said, "Mom, I on facebook." Before requesting the Gummybear Song and funny kitty montages courtesy of the YouTube app. Even Baby Tatum wants in on the action, drooling on my Droid whenever given the opportunity. A family of 'tech-junkies', as my hubby would describe us, the only known treatment is an updated facebook status until someday we find a cure! ;p
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Couponing Made Trendy ---- Extreme Couponing
As a mother of two little girls and a wife of a husband who was laid off for the majority of last year, couponing was a natural resource to feed our family and save a buck. I had began my couponing endeavors in September of 2009, more for fun than anything, and by April of 2010 my new found hobby had become a necessity. I've enjoyed collecting coupons from several people and the newspaper and printing online coupons to ensure savings of at least 50% on all shopping trips just to make ends meet.
Life before babies equated to my husband and I spending money frivolously, having fun and not really thinking about the consequences. We were living the American Dream. It was common place for us to spend between $200 - $300 on a single shopping trip. I saw women in lines using coupons and thought they were cheap and simply had too much time on their hands. But as the Coupon Diva on Extreme Couponing would say, "Honey, you ain't never been broke enough to coupon!" She was right, I was living in a fantasy world that would soon come crumbling down. By January of 2008 I was pregnant and expecting a beautiful baby girl, at this point we started slowing down our spending quite a bit, but couponing was still out of the question. On August 28, 2008our beautiful daughter was born four weeks early and we resorted to credit cards to buy the little things we didn't have that we thought we HAD to have for a new baby.
The next year went pretty smoothly, but we became increasingly conscious of our spending and in September of 2009 we decided it was time to start paying off our American Dream (debt) in anyway possible. We met with a financial planner and he told us about "The Grocery Game" in passing. I was intrigued and promptly Googled it the very next day. I learned about the world of couponing, the shift in thinking, and my couponing craze began. The next month my husband was laid off of his commercial plumbing job for 8 weeks before being called back to work for several months before yet another round of layoffs which led to the end of his plumbing career.
I was pregnant, had a small toddler, a husband and myself to feed on a very meger budget. The girl that once spent upwards of $300 a week on groceries had a budget of $100 per week (and that was being generous). This is when I put my couponing skills to the test. Using the online database and my coupons, I was able to ensure that my family had plenty of food in the cupboards at all times, despite the lack of income we were accustom to.
Thankfully, my husband now has a fabulous job working for the Ball Corp. making as much as he did before, I'm still teaching and we have two beautiful daughters. Despite having the ability to spend full price on groceries, I feel like I'd be crazy to actually spend that kind of cash when I could get at least 50% off (on a bad trip) and upwards to 101% off (on an extremely good trip). I'm not an extreme couponer, I'm a mom. I find good deals, I stock up on them, I use coupons to get the deals, but I don't buy 1,000 products.
I find it funny how in the past month since Extreme Couponing has aired how popular the concept of couponing has become. Couponing is TRENDY! Who would've thought? It'll be interesting to see if people will find the thrill in couponing that I have found or if it'll just be a fad waiting to expire with the rest of the coupons they printed in the moment.
Life before babies equated to my husband and I spending money frivolously, having fun and not really thinking about the consequences. We were living the American Dream. It was common place for us to spend between $200 - $300 on a single shopping trip. I saw women in lines using coupons and thought they were cheap and simply had too much time on their hands. But as the Coupon Diva on Extreme Couponing would say, "Honey, you ain't never been broke enough to coupon!" She was right, I was living in a fantasy world that would soon come crumbling down. By January of 2008 I was pregnant and expecting a beautiful baby girl, at this point we started slowing down our spending quite a bit, but couponing was still out of the question. On August 28, 2008our beautiful daughter was born four weeks early and we resorted to credit cards to buy the little things we didn't have that we thought we HAD to have for a new baby.
The next year went pretty smoothly, but we became increasingly conscious of our spending and in September of 2009 we decided it was time to start paying off our American Dream (debt) in anyway possible. We met with a financial planner and he told us about "The Grocery Game" in passing. I was intrigued and promptly Googled it the very next day. I learned about the world of couponing, the shift in thinking, and my couponing craze began. The next month my husband was laid off of his commercial plumbing job for 8 weeks before being called back to work for several months before yet another round of layoffs which led to the end of his plumbing career.
I was pregnant, had a small toddler, a husband and myself to feed on a very meger budget. The girl that once spent upwards of $300 a week on groceries had a budget of $100 per week (and that was being generous). This is when I put my couponing skills to the test. Using the online database and my coupons, I was able to ensure that my family had plenty of food in the cupboards at all times, despite the lack of income we were accustom to.
Thankfully, my husband now has a fabulous job working for the Ball Corp. making as much as he did before, I'm still teaching and we have two beautiful daughters. Despite having the ability to spend full price on groceries, I feel like I'd be crazy to actually spend that kind of cash when I could get at least 50% off (on a bad trip) and upwards to 101% off (on an extremely good trip). I'm not an extreme couponer, I'm a mom. I find good deals, I stock up on them, I use coupons to get the deals, but I don't buy 1,000 products.
I find it funny how in the past month since Extreme Couponing has aired how popular the concept of couponing has become. Couponing is TRENDY! Who would've thought? It'll be interesting to see if people will find the thrill in couponing that I have found or if it'll just be a fad waiting to expire with the rest of the coupons they printed in the moment.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Denver Promise Walk for Preeclampsia
As most of you know, I developed severe preeclampsia and HELLP Syndrome at 36 weeks gestation, which resulted in an emergency c-section and the birth of my premature daughter, Lily. My body was deteriorating at such a rate that the doctors were forced to transfuse me three times with blood platelets to save my life. Lily was small, 4lbs 10oz, but was strong enough to avoid a stay in the NICU. My body began to slowly recover and after four days in the hospital we returned home together.
After her birth, I wanted to know as much as I could about this mysterious disease and stumbbled across the Preeclampsia Foundation's website. The website not only provided me with a wealth of information about preeclampsia and HELLP syndrome, but their forums gave me a place to connect with other survivors, to heal the emotional wounds and find strength to pursue another pregnancy. Today I continue to participate on the forums to pay it forward to other survivors, to give them hope for healthy pregnancies and arm them with knowledge.
Three years later, I'm proudly co-coordinating the Denver Promise Walk for Preeclampsia to help raise awareness, find a cause and a cure for this disease that threatened the life of myself and my beautiful daughter Lily. All proceeds of the walk benefit the Preeclampsia Foundation to fund research to find a cause and cure, provide information to patients and doctors, and to maintain their website (which I've found so incredibly useful). Please register to walk with us on June 26th, 2011 at City Park in Denver or donate today! www.promisewalk.org
Join Team Boo and HELLP me find a cure for preeclampsia and HELLP Syndrome!
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