Celebrating 30 in NYC

New York. Where to begin? New York was simply amazing, but then again, it always is. I know I've never been to Seattle, Chicago, Boston or LA, but you can go ahead and put me on record stating that NYC is my most favorite city in the US!

This vacation was much needed for both Tarl and myself. Not just for us solely but for us as a married couple too. You see, 2016 has been hard, truly difficult. With the passing of my mom and then Cadence's diabetes diagnosis and then her celiac diagnosis (we're gluten free now!) and late nights, early mornings, appetite fighting, carb counting, all the while being emotionally unhinged because moms passing is still fresh, it's been hard!

We had this trip planned and booked prior to all of those bad things happening. Then they happened and we still decided to go because #1 you couldn't get your money back and #2 we really wanted to go. Then the hurricane hit us and my husband works a job that requires him to stay. The hurricane hit the same day our plane was supposed to fly out. Oh well. We re-booked and celebrated the beginning of November, and you know what? It was wonderful!

The weather was great. A perfect chill in the air. Fall leaves were scattered all throughout the city, especially Central Park. The skating rink had just opened at Rockefeller Center and we even managed to see a few businesses with their Christmas lights up.

We did lots of eating. Lots of walking. Lots of looking up. It's funny but true, that tourists spend a majority of their time in NYC looking up, but the architecture in the city is truly amazing.

This is my third trip to NYC. The first two times we stayed in Times Square and I hated it. It's so loud and too crowded. This time we stayed at a wonderful hotel (The W) right off of Lexington and it was great. The hotel was beautiful, the staff was amazing, and it was centrally located within a walking distance of everything. Central Park, 5th avenue, Times Square and Herald Square were all within a great walking distance. Tarl and I both agree'd that we would stay in this hotel again in a heartbeat. 

This trip was just what we needed. We got to relax and spend one on one time together for four days straight. We got to eat dinners without carb counting and worrying if it was gluten free or not. We adore Cadence and we are blessed to have the opportunity the Lord has given us with these diseases (because that's how we look at them, opportunities. These aren't disablements as they are manageable and we learn so very much in the process.)but the break and togetherness we had was amazing and something I will always cherish. 

I am so fortunate the Lord chose him for me. I couldn't imagine doing this life with anyone else but Tarl! Sweetheart, if you're reading this, thank you for being my most favorite travel companion. I pray we have many more opportunities to freak out together while we're 35k feet in the air!

When Life Changes In An Instant

So rewind to last week. I had noticed that Cadence was drinking water, lots and lots of water. Which, as parents, we think is a great thing, right? Except this was more than thirst quenching, this was almost bathtubs full, like she could never quench her thirst. It was then my motherly instincts kicked in and I started google searching excessive water drinking and article upon article had stated that excessive water drinking is a huge sign of Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes.

My dad and brother-in-law both have Type 2 so they have the blood glucose machines at their home. I couldn't get Cadence in my car fast enough to go and check her. It was hard trying to get her to prick her finger. The thought scares me as an adult, I can't imagine that of a 7 year old child, but she sucked it up, and sure enough the machine read high. My heart fell to the floor right there in my sisters house because I knew, even without an official diagnosis, what we were looking at.

At this point it was 8pm and all doctors offices were closed, so I called the after hours nurse at our pediatricians office and they told me to immediately go to the hospital ER and take a bag. Within 10 minutes of arrival, another finger prick, and a urine sample we had her diagnosis, Type 1 diabetes.

We were escorted up to the children hospital where we stayed for two days. We learned all about Cadence's new diagnosis, what causes it, how to manage it, what to expect, etc. We also learned that it is becoming more and more common here in the US. Over 200,000 people get diagnosed with it each year. When we were admitted, there had been a 17 year old, 10 year old and 18 month old all that day admitted for the same exact reason. Heck, there are three kids in Cadence's school who has it!

As a parent my first question was, life expectancy. Thank the Good Lord Cadence, as long as her diabetes is managed, can go on to live to be 100 years old. She can go on to be whatever she wants to be (except for a fighter pilot in the military - that's the only thing you can't be when you have T1D). I felt an immediate weight lifted off my shoulders. Although my dad has it, he has Type 2, which is where you watch what you eat, take a pill, and try to exercise. Type 1 is different because your body produces absolutely no insulin, so you have to take injections daily. Type 2 diabetes patients bodies can still product insulin, as long as they take care of themselves.

My second question was what other damage will this do to her other organs, and again, same answer. As long as we take care of her, and manage her insulin and diet, no other organs will be damaged. I know a guy who has T1D and is having some issues in other areas of his body because of it. This same man is also known for never checking his blood sugar and rarely taking his insulin injections. Catch my drift?

After our questions were answered, Tarl, Cadence and I went on a huge educational journey all about T1D. We met with doctors, nutritionists and diabetic counselors. We learned all about how to manage the lows (hypoglycemia) and the highs (hyperglycemia). We have to carb count, everything. You ate a carrot? Better carb count it! Just in case you were wondering, one carrot stick is one carb.

Sweet girl has to get her finger pricked before each meal and whenever she isn't feeling right (think tired, nauseas, dizzy, etc.) She also has to have 4 injections every day. Once after breakfast, lunch, dinner and the last before she goes to bed.

She has aced the sticks! She is no longer scared at all of the needle and she can now prick her own finger to check her blood glucose level. Leaps and bounds from how far she came last week when my sister first checked her. When you have no option but to be strong, you realize how strong you can truly be! Cadence has far superseded the strength of a 7 year old in my opinion. She's already back at school, playing and learning with all her friends. She's currently doing homework as I type this.

I know there will be scary days, especially when she gets sick. From everything I hear diabetes is very manageable, but when you get sick your body automatically gets higher levels from being ill, so you have to change your insulin dosage accordingly. We're most definitely dreading that first cold of the upcoming winter months, but I know we'll get past it.

When I first heard T1D all I could think was Steel Magnolias, the movie where Shelby dies in the end after having Jackson, her son, from it, but Bethany, our diabetic counselor, totally reassured me that the movie came out in the 80s and diabetes has come a long ways since then, a long ways! In fact, Bethany was diagnosed herself at age 5, she is now married, runs marathons for fun and is making major bank as a diabetic counselor for the children's hospital.

I also learned about several celebrities who have T1D. One of the Jonas brothers was diagnosed at age 13, a famous ballerina (I can't remember her name), Hallie Berry, Bret Michaels, Jay Cutler, even a USC Gamecock football player. Go Gamecocks!

Tarl and I were scared, hell, we still are, because this is new and something that is going to take months upon months to learn and perfect, but after being in the children's hospital for two days, we realized how blessed we are to come out with a manageable disease, some parents aren't as fortunate.

September has been one heck of a month. Cadence received this diagnosis 11 days after my mom passed away. I know the Lord only gives you what you can handle and apparently He thinks I can handle a lot in September :)

I know this is going to be a journey and we have a lot of learning to do, but I also know that the Lord has a plan for every single thing and this plan He has prepared for Cadence long before she was ever a thought in our head. Long before we were ever even married. Long before we ever even met. I cannot wait to see her succeed with this and I pray she grows to teach others all about it! 

when there are no words left to say but God is good!

I'm not sure if anyone still reads this blog of mine, and if not, that's okay because today this blog post is for me. I'm using this as an outlet to get out all of my thoughts on these past couple months. Without a doubt, this is the most difficult blog post that I have ever written. I'm not sure if this will be my last, but for this moment, I'm focusing on the present, the now, let me begin...

My mom was diagnosed with COPD back in February 2012, although she had the disease long before the diagnosis was ever given. Basically what started as shortness of breath turned into a three week stay into the hospital where 13 of those days she was on life support, hanging onto her life, as we, the family got "called in" to say our goodbyes. But, the good Lord had far better plans for her, and she came out of the hospital, walking and talking! God is good!

Once she got out of the hospital in March 2012, she had several more hospital stays throughout her time. That's the thing with COPD, one day you can be perfectly fine, and the next you're gasping for air and can hardly breathe. It's scary as shit, there's just no other way to put it. It's scary for her as the one with the disease, and scary for us, the family, watching her with this horrible disease. But every single time she persevered and came out on top, walking and talking and spending more time with her family. God is good!

Fast forward to May this year, four short months ago. Mom was having one of her flare ups so my dad took her to the hospital, where they admitted her. This is nothing unusual, as most times, she got admitted. This time however was much different. She got put on life support, again. We were called in, again. Said our emotional goodbyes, again, and then a few days later she came out, woke up and was smiling and eating lightly. A few more days passed and she went back downhill and on life support, again. After a very long stay in the hospital, she got out. God is good!

Although she did get out she lost all of her muscle function and had to go to a rehab facility to gain her muscle function back to learn how to walk again. Anyone who went through everything she went through would have to gain their strength back, even a healthy person. We were happy however, she was out of the hospital and the rehab facility was closer to home so we could visit her far more frequently. God is good!

After two months in the rehab facility, with slow strides on getting her to walk again, mom started to feel ill one day so they kept a close monitor on her, but unfortunately she wasn't getting better. In fact, she was getting far worse, so they rushed her to the closest hospital where she was admitted. Turned out, she had pneumonia, which is bad enough itself but for a COPD patient, it is AWFUL! The hospital had gotten her pneumonia under control somewhat. She wasn't in much pain and her breathing wasn't terrible like it had been on occasion, but there was only so much that the hospital she was in could do. That's when they suggested mom be admitted, two hours away, to a hospital who specializes in cases like hers, where a patient who is immobile, can get the care they need and also get rehabilitated to learn to walk again. We weren't too keen on the long commute, but, if it was best, then that's what she needed, so the decision was made and off she went by ambulance. We visited her the Saturday after she left and she was in good spirits. She loved the nursing staff. They were good christian nurses and doctors and every day of the week she had specialists come in and work her legs and arms to get them moving again. God is good!

In typical Monday fashion (because Mondays suck!) my dad received a call to come immediately. Her breathing was very labored, she was in pain and they explained to him that she wouldn't make it through the night. My family rushed to be by her side and I was in bed vomiting every five minutes and had a temperature of 102. Of all the days to be sick!!! I popped excedrin and tylenol like they were candy and rushed to be there too. By the time I got there mom was up, talking, smiling, eating and drinking water. I'm not sure if it was the fact that her family came to be by her side, or the fact that all of her children and their spouses and children had gathered in one room, regardless she was her usual self. God is good!

At this point, and after this long journey, and other medical issues that I'm not even about to delve into, the doctors, after a lot of discussions with my dad and mom herself, found it best for mom to come home and be issued a hospice nurse. At this point we knew the time we had with her was bittersweet. After we all left the hospital and arrived home, a hospital bed had arrived for mom, to be put in her home. We all helped to situate and clean and get everything right, just for her, and the following day my mom arrived by ambulance, with her sister, my aunt, riding shotgun with her. My mom was the happiest I had seen her in a long time. After months (May - the end of August) of being gone from home and bouncing from medical facility to medical facility, she was home. God is good!

For 12 days we all gathered to be with mom. She got to watch her favorite shows. She got to eat her favorite meals. She got to be with all of her children, grandchildren, and of course, my dad. Friends visited, brothers and sisters visited. It was great. Hospice had given her the right medications to keep her pain under control and medications to get her breathing balanced so she could have quality time with us. After 10 days of memories being made and old memories being discussed, lots of "I love yous" and foot massages. Afters lots of episodes of Blue Bloods (her favorite show) and manicures (she wanted her nails painted). After lots of laughs and tears, my sweet mom quietly slipped into a comatose state, and after two days of sleeping peacefully, she passed away, holding my dads hand. God is good!

God is good because he gave us something that not everyone gets, time. Every single day, several times throughout the day, loved ones are taken from us without hesitation, without notice, and very sudden. As sad and heartbreaking as it is, and will be for a long time, my family and I were so blessed to have great time with mom, in her home, surrounded by family and friends. We had moments to say our goodbyes. We received kisses from her. Hand holding, hair rubs, and other things that are special from a mom to her children. God is good!

My mom is the most special lady I have ever known. Burying her was the hardest thing I have ever been through in my entire life and I pray to the good Lord above that it's the most difficult thing He will ever allow me to face. As painful as everything is though, I have so much peace knowing that my mom is in a far better place that any of us could ever imagine. Before she passed, she knew her time was short, but not once did she fear life beyond this world. My mom had more faith than anyone I have ever known. She has read through the Bible on seven different occasions and has books upon books of study notes that she took from each scripture. She knew she was going home to be with our Lord and Savior. She knew she was going home to be with her parents. She had no doubts and that gave her, and us, so much peace. I want peace like that for myself and all of my family when our time is near. I don't ever want us to worry about where we're going after our souls leave this world. I want the same peace that my mom had. Who wouldn't?

I don't know how to live this life without my mom. She's my mom! The strange thing though, is life goes on. Cadence still has school. Tarl still has work. I still need to clean and grocery shop. All of our family that was in town during this journey has gone home and all the distractions that kept my mind off of everything are now gone. It leaves me a lot of alone time to sit and ponder on it. Some moments I think of a certain memory that has me giggling and in other moments I break down in tears. Some moments I fall to the floor with heaping sobs and other moments I'm angry. It's a whirlwind of emotions, some good, some bad, but at the end of the day time will heal wounds. There will always be an emptiness there, this I know, but with time the pain will be a little less intense. At the end of the day, and always, God is good!

Life Lately

I can't believe that my last blog post was over a month ago! I think that is the longest stretch I have ever been without blogging, and not to hurt anyones feelings, but, I haven't missed it. We've had so much fun around these parts. Family from Boston, as well as Florida, came to visit. We threw my mom a surprise birthday party and also had a birthday party for my dad. We went on a cruise and started learning French. Cadence attended a cheer camp. We've had multiple library trips and countless days spent with my sister and her children. It's been busy, but boy has it been fun! Everyone tried to tell me that I was going to miss working, and although I realize I'm only going on month two, that's yet to happen. I have thoroughly enjoyed being a SAHM. Cadence and I have gotten to spend so much quality time together and to me, that is priceless!

Our cruise was a lot of fun. We left out of Port Canaveral and six of us went. My sister, my brother, myself and our significant others. Our first port of call was Nassau where we spent the entire day at the Atlantis waterpark, and the second port of call was Royal Caribbean's private island, Cococay, where we paddle boarded and did a lot of relaxing and drinking out of pineapples and coconuts!

Drinks are more fun served out of pineapples!

Love this man of mine!

Love these two! #boathairdontcare

My mom was in the hospital for so long that she lost all of her muscle function, so she had to go to a rehabilitation facility to gain all of her strength back. She is still in there and probably won't be released until the fall, so continued prayers are very much appreciated. With all of that being said, we wanted to surprise her on her birthday and surprise is what we did! I managed to get her brother, my uncle, who lives in Boston to come down along with his wife, my Aunt Jan. Her sister, my aunt Nancy also travelled up from Florida, along with her son, my cousin and his girlfriend. 

My mom was surprised but once she saw Uncle Eddie, Aunt Jan and Aunt Nancy the tears were flowing and there wasn't a dry eye in the house! Thankfully, the rehabilitation facility she is in were great about us throwing a little party for her. This made it so much easier on her too! We spent a wonderful five days with all of them in town and we're missing them so much already, thankfully, we received an invitation to visit Massachusetts and visit with Uncle Eddie and Aunt Jan, so talks of a New England vacation are in the works!

Aunt Jan also speaks fluent French, so Cadence and I got tons of lessons while she was in town. In five short days she had Cadence and myself speaking the numbers one through ten, as well as short phrases here and there. Cadence and I have continued to learn more words and it's been a lot of fun.

Aunt Jan and I

My cousin Brian and his girlfriend Bonnie, along with my crazy crew on the 4th of July

Uncle Eddie and Cadence - these two were peas in a pod!

golf cart ride selfie

Happy Birthday America!

My dads chicken cake I made

Moms mason jar cake! I love baking and decorating.

Moms had such a rough time but she has persevered SO very much and we are all so proud of her. Dad hasn't skipped a beat and has visited with her every single day without fail. This picture explains their love. Dad was so happy to see mom so happy on her birthday.

Family was in town during July 4th and my brother-in-law knew just the right guy who happened to own a barge opposite side of river street, so not only did we get gorgeous Savannah skyline views, we got to watch the 4th of July fireworks with just our crew, on a huge barge, up close and personal with gorgeous Riverstreet/Savannah views all the while still hearing the bands across the way.

Aunt Jan and I have kept in touch a lot since they left to go back home. She teaches Cadence and I small french things via email and like me, Aunt Jan loves to travel and discuss different places, so we have a lot of places to talk about and traveling there when we speak. 

We can't wait to visit them in New England and road trip a little along the way!

I hope each of you have had a great summer thus far. It's hard to believe that summer break is almost over and fall will be fast approaching! xo

Guest Bedroom Reveal | Lowcountry Inspired Bedroom

Remember when I told you how I wanted to completely change our guest bedroom from the storage room that it once was? Y'all, when I say storage room, I don't say that to mean that it was an organized storage space, because it was the farthest thing from that. We basically were lazy and tossed items all about the floor of the room, so seeing it now from where it was just makes my heart flutter with joy! I'm so glad it's done and it turned out just how I wanted it to.

Here are some before pictures. It didn't dawn on me until we were halfway through taking out the clutter and gutting the room to take pictures, but trust me when I tell you it looked worse than this.

Needless to say it wasn't my cup of tea. Beige walls (one side sheet-rocked due to a hole that used to be there), and lots and lots of crap!

Tarl did so great on the headboard. He built exactly what I had envisioned and drew out for him. I wanted it to have a "shiplap" look, slightly distressed, and I wanted to make sure that all of the character from the wood shown through the paint. That's exactly what it turned out to be. In fact, he couldn't have picked better wood to build this headboard, because underneath, instead of having brown tones, it had aqua tones, which was perfect for this lowcountry inspired room.

The bedroom suit, along with the chevron decorative pillows came from Walmart. The decorative pillows were actually in the lawn and garden section for an outdoor patio set, but as soon as I saw them I knew that's exactly what I wanted as far as pattern and color goes. It gives it the pop of color it needs to break up the gray and white.

I tried to do a close up so you could see the blue/green color coming through. 

This is the headboard he built before I painted it. My guy did one hell of a job!

I found two dark brown side tables at a garage sale (thanks to my mother-in-law!). After three coats of white chalk paint, voila!

The blue vase along with the dried marsh grass I found at Ross. The picture frame was a wedding gift from several years ago and believe it or not, Tarl took this picture while he was out kayaking one day. 

The blue lantern I purchased from Lowe's last year. The candle and seahorse I purchased from Ross and my mother-in-law gave me the conch shell.

I love the distressed paint job on this seahorse candle holder!

 The captains wheel clock I purchased from Walmart.


My favorite spot in this room is what I like to call the reading nook. When it's sunny outside there is so much natural light that comes through the window, even with the blinds, that it's the perfect, coziest little spot to sit and read (of course, they have been Elin Hilderbrand novels).

The crab pillow (and my most favorite pillow in our entire house!) along with the plush blanket was purchased from Target. The curtains and the curtain rod were purchased from Walmart. The chair we got from Target last year at a steal of a price!

I knew I wanted a decorative wall with lots of colors, pictures, sayings and I wanted all the sizes and colors to be different so they would stand out more. I purchased all of the frames from the Dollar Tree and found all of the prints online except for the two pictures, which we took, and the scripture, which I just did on a simple paint document and printed on regular typing paper.

 Mightier than the waves of the sea is His love for you.

Psalm 93:4

All in all I think it turned out great and we did this entire room on a very tight budget and still had money to spare after it was done. I couldn't be more proud of the work that we put into this. Tarl building the headboard, all the painting I did on the headboard and side tables, and painting the walls was a family effort, even Cadence helped with that :)