Quick single strap purse tutorial

I wanted a little single strap purse to take on my vacation. I wanted it light enough to just carry a couple diapers wipes and my wallet. I also wanted it small enough that I could just shove it in my Vera Bradley duffle bag for the flight. 

  I looked at a couple of stores and didn't find anything so I decided to make one myself.  

There wasn't any patterns on pinetrest so I made my own. 

The dimensions is 15 1/2" wide 10" tall (not including the strap) and 4" deep. I also used bias tape to finish the edges. 

I also added a pocket in the lining to hold chapsticks and other little things 

Start by sewing the corners first and then I ironed down the seams.  Don't forget to sew in the pocket before sewing the purse together. 

Next put the two pieces together and see together. 

 Next press all of the seams on the lining and shell of the purse. 

Next I sewed the bias tape to put it all together. I've never worked with bias tape before but once I got the hang of it it makes it easier to finish off the edges. 

I think it turned out great! 

United Angels Walk

Earlier this summer we attended the United Angels Foundations Walk with Angels.  My main reasoning in going was for Stella to see Rachel from Signing Time.  She has grown up loving the books and DVDs from Baby Signing Time, Signing Time and the new Rachel and the Tree Schoolers preschool program.  It has helped her emensley with her speech and how to put words into sentences.  She also is learning to spell with ASL. Anyways, we are huge Signing Time fans so that's one of the main reasons we went. 

The United Angels Foundation is here to support all special needs kids.  It was an amazing get together and was so kid friendly we all had a blast.  There was bounce houses, snow cones, lunch, face paint, balloon animals, princesses and super heros, a awesome show put on by Rachel. It was so much fun and we will be making this an annual event! 

We got to meet Rachel.  She is so nice and such an amazing woman!

This is Rachel, Jefferson and his buddy Crew.  Crew had heart surgery a couple months before Jefferson did and is also extra lucky with an extra chromosome too!

Stella didn't know what to think, she was a little scared that she was standing in person and not in her TV. 

Finally realizing she's a real person that's holding her! :)

We were the only ones in line so she said come here I have someone I want you to meet.  So we walked over and met the stars of Signing Time, her daughters, Leah and Lucy.  Leah was just a kid when they filmed signing time, now she is all grown up. They were so nice and I was so star struck meeting them! 

Of course we had to sit with Princess Anna and Queen Elsa. 

Go Team Jefferson!

Jeffersons extra special friends Liam and Crew. 

Can't wait till next year!

IHH walk/5k

We joined a foundation when I was 22 weeks pregnant with Jefferson.  We had found out that he had a heart defect and was referred to the support group called Intermountain Healing Hearts. 

1:100 kids are born with a Congenital Heart Defect.  Jefferson is that 1. 

 They came and visited with us after his surgery and the Facebook group has been so much help and has given me much comfort over the past year.  We went to the 5k/walk this year down in West Jordan.  

On our drive down we saw this beautiful double rainbow. 

This was Andrews 2nd 5k he's ever done and he placed 38th out of 120 runners.  

I had to take a picture of the heart shaped sweat mark Andrew had. <3

They had a program after the run where they released butterflies for those sweet kids that lost their lives due to a CHD.  It was so beautiful and I was sobbing watching these beautiful creatures wake up and take flight. 

Stella got to hold one of the butterflies

It was so awesome to be able to support this foundation that has helped me through so much this year.  

Family Photos summer 2014

Thank you to my sister Brooke for her amazing talents to capture my beautiful little family!

Talk about melt your heart to a million pieces!! 

How am I suppose to choose one for my wall?! Man I love my family!!

Day 2 Post OHS

I got a call at 6:30am from our nurse saying that Jefferson woke up on his own and they quickly took the breathing tube out before he got too worked up.  They let him sleep all night and kept the breathing tube in because of his obstructive sleep apnea.  They thought that being on all the meds he wouldn't be able to breath very well on his own.  So we waited till the morning.  But he actually woke up on his own, so we quickly got dressed so we could go see him.
He looked good.  He was still loopy and dopped up on all kinds of pain meds, but he looked so much better with out that breathing tube in.  By then he was not on the sedation medicine and they took him off the blood pressure meds too because he was regulating it himself very well.  But the oxycodone still made him very loopy and lathargic.  So when you looked at him he just had a blank stair.  I wanted so despirately to see that sweet smile again.  After such a traumatic day yesterday, I just wanted to see his smile and to hold him and tell him everything would be ok.

And Wait...

Well,
I am sorry I did not update as the days went by.  But if you can imagine, life was pretty crazy the past week or so.
Going back 5 days to the day of the surgery, we had a pager, and waiting for phone calls while the Drs were literally having my sons heart in their hands.  They called several times:
- When they got all the IV's in
- When they made the first incision
- Got him connected to the bypass machine
- When the repair was complete
- When the surgery was finished

Dr Eckhauser told us not to expect him till about 2:30-3pm, so when we got the call at 12:45pm that the surgery was complete and they were taking him to the CICU (Cardiac ICU) we were shocked.  The surgery was much faster than anticipated, that had to be good right?

About 1:30pm Dr Eckhauser came out and told us how the surgery went.  He said the surgery went great.  He used a tightly woven plastic and gortex patch to close up the big hole in the bottom of the heart.  Then he stitched up the hole in the top part of the heart, and while in there he said he found a 2nd hole in the upper chamber and closed that too.  He also put a stitch in his PDA valve that was still open.  Then he found the center of his heart and made a septum by basically sewing his heart in half.. I guess, I am no surgeon or cardiologist, but thats how I understand what he told us.  But he said everything went great.

Next we were taken back to see our sweet son.  I was shaking.  I knew he was going to be hooked to a whole bunch of wires and tubes, but I wasn't prepared to see my son that way.

He had a tube down his throat and he was on all kinds of IV's and medicine to keep him sedated and calm.  I had to stay outside the room and peek around the curtain.  I was terrified.  I broke down, how can you handle seeing your baby like this?  He was still coming off all of the anestithia and it was a terrifying sight.  He was still asleep but all of his muscles were firing and he was shaking his arms and legs and jolting his body around.  It was the scariest thing I have every seen.  That made it so hard to actually go into the room and see him.  That was probably the hardest part about the entire day.  Handing him off I knew he was in good hands and was going to be fixed so he could breathe better.  Here seeing his body with a rise and fall of the chest, but otherwise lifeless jolting and thrashing and he had no control over it.  But I think it hurt me more than it hurt him.
Thank goodness for Andrew, he was my rock.  He was there by his side for the first couple of days.  I couldn't stomach it.  I tried holding him after they took his vent tube out and he was choking on the mucus that was stuck in his throat and I was freaking out and I saw his eyes get big and he started to freak out too.  It was better for the both of us if I didn't hold him till he wasn't so fragile.  I do not do well with needles or pain, so to see my baby like this just about killed me.  I wasn't able to nurse him for about 3 days till they took his chest tube out.  I tried and he was so uncomfortable and was thrashing and wiggling because he was in pain. So I decided to let him heal and I would just become better friends with a pump.  yay..

I am so glad that the surgery went well and that he is breathing!  Now to make sure he comes off the anesthesia and pray he didn't have a stroke while sedated.

Where is a Xanax when you need one?

The dreaded day is here.  I have been worrying about this day for almost a year now and I am just ready to be past it.  Can it be summer already so we can be all healed and just play?

  We have to get past this little hurdle first, the hurdle of open heart surgery.  I write this as I sit waiting for a play by play from the nurses and Drs that literally have my sons heart in their hands.  We are 3 hours into the surgery and my stomach is still in knots.  I feel like a 20lb weight is anchored to my chest and it is making it hard to breathe let alone try to be calm.  

   It has been a long day, and it is not even close to being half over.  The day began at 3 am when I needed to feed Jefferson so he was not so dehydrated for the surgery, so they could get his IV in.  I got his belly full and he decided it was time to wake up, and I couldn't go back to sleep I was already a nervous wreck.  So I did some laundry, let the dog out, finished packing, then decided to get ready for the day.  Jefferson finally decided to go back to sleep as we drove to the hospital.  We had to be there by 6am and surgery was scheduled to start at 7:30.  Everything went great, meeting with all of the Drs and nurses.  We have Dr Hannon for the anesthesiologist and Dr Eckhauser for our surgeon,  I was a big mess when they came to talk to us so it is all a big blur.  They told us everything that was going to happen and then all of the risks.  I'm just glad Drew was there to actually listen to them.  I was shaking like a leaf and crying when Dr Hannon started talking about the anesthesia that goes into his neck. That is how my great aunt died, from a bubble in the line causing a stroke and she was pretty much brain dead while they did the surgery.  That scares the crap out of me. 

   We were all done talking and then it was time to walk down the dreaded hall and give my baby off to Dr Hannon.  Man was that is probably one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my entire life.  Although, the next kid that walked down the dreaded hall way was screaming for his mommy the whole way, I think that would have been much harder if Jefferson was calling for me.  Jefferson was being his normal happy/whine I'm hungry cry so it made it a little bit easier.  He doesn't cry very often so it breaks my heart into a million pieces when he does cry.

   We got to the end of the hall and I kissed my sweet boy all over and handed him off to the anestethiologist.  It was extremely hard! Now we just had to wait for the first phone call.  

  The surgical waiting room is a joke! I was a mess emotionally and they expected me to sit in a room crowded with people talking and laughing. Yah right!  The lady at the desk was nice enough to let us sit down at the end if the hall away from the chaos.  I had total anxiety being in that room full of people.  Thank goodness the office ladies were super nice! Now we wait..