It’s amazing how many songs are actually played with the same simple four chords! While stalking a certain celebrity who shall not be named *cough* Zachary Levi *cough* buzzing about twitter this week I stumbled across this group and I have to say they’re all sorts of awesome! Well actually, they’re called The Axis of Awesome and this video is called 4 Chords! I for one would definitely go see them if they showed up here in Tampa!
Enjoy!
Oh and btw…
I know this week is movie themed so I’ve included this link to a post I did about a movie we really enjoyed! I’ve also included its awesome theme song below by Westlife called Safe!
Some days I feel as though I have it all together and others not so much! This week has felt particularly tough, laced with anxiety and stress! I’m always worrying about the next seizure, school issues, anxiety and just the everyday things life throws at me! I feel like I need to occassionally take pause… and let it all go! I have so many things on my mind, things I need and want to do, yet it feels as though many of them are out of reach at the moment! I have to remind myself to relax and keep putting one foot in front of the other!
I’m very grateful for all I have and the people in my life, there are just some days I want to pull the covers over my head and shut the world out! Maybe I’m just getting older and less tolerable? Or… maybe its just some days I feel overwhelmed and need to take a breath, to start over?
Today I picked Foo Fighters Walk because it sums up how I’ve been feeling! In the words of Daniel Tosh (Nice plug? I know right! And it was free, you’re welcome!)…
I’ve always wanted to attend the national walk for Epilepsy held annually in DC, but each year something seems to come up that prevents us from going! We were unable to attend again this year due to hubby’s work schedule and because finances were tight! So… when my sister-in-law told us about a local 5k/1 mile fun run The Epilepsy Services Foundation hosts each year called the Hare Racing Experience we signed up right away! We forwarded the race link on to our family and friends and soon we had a nice little group joining us for the race!
On the day of the race we all had a case of butterflies, but our jitters quickly disappeared and were replaced with excitement when we saw the number of people who had shown up for the race!
It didn’t take long for my husband to find Meg’s Aunty R, Uncle J, Pop pop who were all gearing up for the start of the 5k race!
This was hubby’s first 5k and we were so proud of him!
Meg and I wished daddy luck, snapped a quick picture of him holding our Talk About It sign…
and then they were all off and he was lost in a sea of runners!
Meg and I headed off to the track field to find her cousins who would be participating in the 1 mile fun run with us!
The time passed so quickly and one by one our group crossed the finish line!
My anxiety was up and down throughout the day, but I was determined to push through it!
I wont lie there were definitely moment I wanted to run and I don’t mean in the 5k or the 1 mile, I wanted to sprint like a gazelle to the nearest exit!
I managed to keep it under control and before I knew my nerves were gone and we were lining up for our 1 mile fun run!
Meg was excited her uncle and cousins were running with her!
She flashed me a smile and then she was off…
and she did really great!
before I knew it she was lapping me!
She crossed the finish line with her cousins and high-fived her Aunt and Uncle!
I was so proud of my baby girl!
Everyone did a great job and we feel truly blessed to have such caring family and friends that are willing to talk about it!
Friday night, I was beaming with pride as my little Moo, ever so nervous, took to the stage in her first big role debuting as Toto in The Wizard Of Oz!
Nervously turning her earring and smiling at the crowd, she was determined to be the best little Toto she could!
Amongst all the butterflies, we noticed she’d completely forgotten to take off her bright purple sunglasses!
Bless!
Later we told her it made Toto the coolest dog in town!
As the play went along I saw her nerves disappear and her confidence grow as she let out each ruff, ruff and performed alongside her cast mates!
I chuckled along with the crowd and snapped pictures as cows swirled around her head during the tornado scene.
My heart melted as I watched her sing “we’re off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of oz!” and skip down the yellow brick road with her friends!
On the second night, as she entered the stage, she wasn’t nearly as nervous as she had been on opening night! She had a beautiful confidence about her and I felt a lump in my throat as she turned and gave me a thumbs up in the middle of the play!
Well done Meg, well done! There aren’t enough words to express how proud I am of you!
Sunday we were home getting the pool cleaned up for summer and I decided to pull out my camera and play around with it! I took these pictures in a low light with a higher ISO and I love the way they turned out! I’m still learning how to use my camera and normally my indoor photos come out all sort of wrong, so it was a pleasant surprise to finally capture some really nice shots indoors!
A little while back I happened to be on the Tampa Bay Parenting website, looking for things to do in our area, when I happened across an Enter To Win section! Curious I clicked on the link and came across a contest called Family Most In Need Of An Adventure! I thought to myself, we could really use some time away, decided to enter and began to pen our story. I also learned that if we won our story would be published in the April edition of the magazine, which would give us an oportunity to talk about epilepsy and spread a little awareness to our community! Finally I shared our entry with friends on Facebook and Twitter asking them to vote for our story and boy did they come through!
On March 13th I received this email:
Thanks for sharing Meghan’s story in our Family Most in Need of An Adventure.
It’s my pleasure to inform you that you are the Grand Prize winners of the contest. We are going to feature your story in the April issue of Tampa Bay Parenting Magazine that will include a photo of your family. We have scheduled a photo to be taken of your family at Busch Gardens on Monday, March 19 at 10am. I will give you a call first thing tomorrow morning to confirm that you have all of this information.
Also, someone from our editorial staff will be contacting you tomorrow as well to arrange a phone interview.
I look forward to speaking with you!
At first I was over the moon and quickly headed to Facebook and twitter to thank everyone who voted for our story and then…
My mind began to picture every family ever photographed on a roller coaster and I started to panic a little!
I looked at my husband
”Oh My God what if they want us to take a picture on a rollercoaster?”
My husband laughed and told me to relax they weren’t gonna put us on a rollercoaster and went on to mumble something about me over thinking things. He was right the next day the editor called me and informed me we’d be having our pictures taken at the Busch Gardens Animal Care Center on March 19th, which just so happened to also be my hubby’s birthday.
On the day of the photo shoot we arrived at Busch Gardens and were taken to the Animal Care Center where we met David Estevez (TB Parenting Magazine’s Editor), the photographer and Jose Dominguez from Busch Gardens. We were given Busch Gardens Aprons and the photo shoot was underway! Jose introduced us to Burko, the Australian Cuscus and cut up fruit for Meg to arrange on a platter! We had so much fun!
After we were finished with the photo shoot we were told Busch Gardens would be sending us our prizes in the mail and we said our goodbyes! We had arranged for Meg’s cousins to meet us at the park because we thought we were getting our passes that day and Meg started to get a little upset because she didn’t think we were going to be able to stay at the park. I wish I could remember the girl’s name at Busch Gardens, but I went back and explained our situation to her and she was amazing! Within a few minutes she got the okay and gave us instructions on where we could pick up our complimentary day passes!
We had an awesome day at the park and we’d like to send out a big Thank You to Tampa Bay Parenting magazine and Busch Gardens for the opportunity to get away as a family and just enjoy ourselves!
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I feel like in the last month there have been a lot of great things happening for us, so this week I picked an old song that kinda summed things up for me!
Purple Day started with a little girl named Megan Cassidy and her dream to spread awareness so that others with Epilepsy wouldn’t feel alone! Within a few short years and with the help of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc… her dream has become a global reality!
So what exactly is Purple Day?
It’s a day (March 26th) when people around the world wear purple or create purple projects within their community to support someone they love and/or talk about epilepsy! Last year my daughter’s cousins threw her a purple picnic with lots of purple treats!
This year we’re making purple cupcakes, having another Purple Day Picnic and talking about what to do if you ever come across someone having a seizure!
So… I thought today on the blog I would post a first aid guide to seizures!
So here goes…
What To Do In The Event Of A Seizure
1. First check to make sure the person you believe to be having a seizure isn’t choking.
2. If the person having a seizure has fallen and you can see they are visibly hurt call 911.
3. Try to remain calm, even though they can be scary to witness, most seizures only last a few minutes. Time the seizure, if it happens to last longer than 5 minutes or the person has multiple seizures call 911.
4. Do not hold the person having a seizure down, even if they are thrashing about, and DO NOT PUT ANYTHING IN THEIR MOUTH – they will not swallow their tongue!
5. Try to make the area around them safe by placing something under their head and removing any objects that could hurt them.
6. If you can try to turn them on their side as this will help keep their airway clear of saliva or incase they get sick during the seizure.
7. Try to pay attention to what they are doing! Are they swallowing repetitively? What body parts are moving? Are their eyes moving in a certain direction? If it’s a persons first seizure all this information can help an Epileptologist!
8. Check for a Med Alert bracelet/necklace! Sometimes these items will display allergies or give information about who to contact!
9. Often times a person coming out of a seizure is still in a confused state, they may not realize what happened, be a little out of it, embarrassed or scared. It’s important to talk to them calmly and let them know they are safe.
10. Make sure the person is fully alert before you give them food, drink or leave them.
Knowing this information is important as there are over 3 million people in the US who live with epilepsy, 50 million people around the world and 200,000 new cases every year!
There are also 50,000 epilepsy related deaths per year!
So what can you do on March 26th to support Purple Day?
Here’s a list:
Get seizure smart and know what to do in the event someone has a seizure
Wear Purple
Tweet a fact about epilepsy and add the hash tags #PurpleWave2012 #PurpleDay
Talk About It
Blog About It
Have a purple picnic
Attend a Walk or 5k in support of epilepsy
Do a penny drive with your school to raise funds
See if your school or work will have a ditch the duds and wear purple day
Most importantly treat a person with epilepsy no differently than you would treat a loved one or a friend!
I once told a good friend of mine who has five children, two with infantile spasms, I thought (still think) she is an amazing woman! I praised her because her journey with Epilepsy has been much harder than mine and yet every time I see her she seems to have it so together; she’s always had such a strong faith and just an air of strength about her. It wasn’t until she sent me a heartfelt letter laying out all the truths and fears she had and would face in her lifetime that I understood we weren’t so different! We actually shared a lot of the same insecurities and fears, she was just a little better at hiding it on the outside than I and truth be told that letter only made me respect and love her all the more!
Let me be the first to say I have insecurities, I definitely have fears and I’ve become an expert at the what if… game! There are times I’ve doubted my strength and felt as though my faith was broken. I’ve had moments where I’ve felt I needed much more than I’ve supported my family and friends. I’ve been hurt by a person’s insensitive comment and resisted the urge to tell them exactly what I thought and instead tried to reason with and educate them. I’m all to familiar with that sucker punch in the gut, where you feel helpless, can’t catch your breath and all you can do is cry, because it’s the only thing you have left in that moment! However, I’ve also come to understand it’s during these moments, after that release, we’re able to pick ourselves up, dust off and draw strength from places we didn’t even know existed! We see our child’s smile, the comfort they find in us, their innocence and realize we have to keep moving forward no matter how difficult it might seem, because they need us and simply put we love them!
I always envied how strong I thought my friend was, but I now understand her need to make everything look okay on the outside. Without trying to sound to much like Lady Gaga, I have come to appreciate that we all have a poker face of sorts, not necessarily because we want to, but sometimes because we have to! The alternative would be to bare our souls and share how vulnerable we really are! I wonder though, is that such a bad thing? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think we should walk around with a dark cloud over head, telling every stranger we meet all our life afflictions! But when and if we decided to share our true emotions with someone in similar circumstances, I think it will enable us to connect and empower each other to become stronger, because we’ll realize all those insecurities and fears we’ve been feeling aren’t a lack of strength at all, in fact they’re quite normal!
Yesterday we were going to head to the bookstore but wound up hanging out at my mum’s house! I love her garden almost as much as the kids do and it was a gorgeous day out! Mum gets lots of birds and squirrels that are fun to take pictures of and I keep playing with the ISO on the camera to try to capture some water shots of her fountain (still working on those)! So here are a few of the shots I took yesterday unedited and straight out of the camera!
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