With the holidays fast approaching I'm sure you're all busy thinking of ways to make your home warm and cozy. Well, we're here to help by partnering with CSN Stores. This online collection of over 200 stores offers tons of great products! Need to spruce up the living room? Check out their selection of contemporary coffee tables. Need some help in the baking department? See what their kitchen selection has to offer.
I know you're probably wondering why I'm so passionate about the variety of items CSN Stores has to offer...well, they have teamed up with us to raffle a $50 gift certificate to one lucky winner and all of the proceeds will go to Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy! Here's how this works...just go to Paypal and send a dollar for each raffle ticket you would like to bapritchett[at]gmail.com (you can send more than one dollar at a time, but each dollar will result in one entry). We will run the raffle until 5 p.m. EST on Wednesday, November 17. From there, I will log each entry into a drawing and the winner will receive the $50 gift certificate to CSN Stores!
Enter as often as you like by sending your donations via paypal to bapritchett[at]gmail.com. When choosing how to send the funds, check personal and then gift to make sure Paypal fees aren't deducted!
Don't forget, all funds go to FSMA, which is a great organization that helps families dealing with Spinal Muscular Atrophy!
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
A Little Update
Things have been pretty busy for us lately, which means I haven't been able to update in quite a while! Thanks to Jess for posting her song below to help keep things updated around here!
I've made a decision...for the last year and a half, this blog has been primarily about grief but, I feel like it needs to take a new direction. I feel like I need to start working more on SMA awareness and support. I just think that changing things up would be the best way to honor the girls.
But, before I get to all of that, I wanted to give an update on what Jake and I have been doing. In August, my wonderful sister nominated me for mother of the Year through the Indiana March of Dimes. I was one of 10 finalists and Jake, me, my family and friends attended a fancy pants dinner where we got to learn all about the 10 finalists and their amazing stories. There were so many inspiring women there and it was very nice to be able to connect with such strong people!
Also in August, Jake and I celebrated the girls' second birthdays by volunteering at Riley Hospital for Children. This hospital is amazing and the experience we had there when the girls were patients was very positive (despite the negative reason for being there). On their birthday, jake and I stayed very busy making puppy pillows that the patients get to take home with them. It is a great comfort measure and we both left feeling so good about hopefully impacting the children in a positive way.
In September, my dad lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. He was such a fighter and an inspiration. It was sad, but interesting, to see him go through his fight...it made me really reflect on the differences in dying and death between him and the girls. While it was heartbreaking to see him go, I am forever thankful for all that he taught me, even in those final days.
And now we're on to November. Things are starting to settle down for us and we're really hoping for an uneventful winter. I know the holidays will be difficult because the girls aren't with us, but we've really learned how to hold onto each other for strength and take each new feeling of sadness and deal with it in a constructive way. Thanks so much for sticking with us and reading along with us as we continue on this journey! We are forever indebted to our family, friends and you for all of the love and support we have received.
I've made a decision...for the last year and a half, this blog has been primarily about grief but, I feel like it needs to take a new direction. I feel like I need to start working more on SMA awareness and support. I just think that changing things up would be the best way to honor the girls.
But, before I get to all of that, I wanted to give an update on what Jake and I have been doing. In August, my wonderful sister nominated me for mother of the Year through the Indiana March of Dimes. I was one of 10 finalists and Jake, me, my family and friends attended a fancy pants dinner where we got to learn all about the 10 finalists and their amazing stories. There were so many inspiring women there and it was very nice to be able to connect with such strong people!
Also in August, Jake and I celebrated the girls' second birthdays by volunteering at Riley Hospital for Children. This hospital is amazing and the experience we had there when the girls were patients was very positive (despite the negative reason for being there). On their birthday, jake and I stayed very busy making puppy pillows that the patients get to take home with them. It is a great comfort measure and we both left feeling so good about hopefully impacting the children in a positive way.
In September, my dad lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. He was such a fighter and an inspiration. It was sad, but interesting, to see him go through his fight...it made me really reflect on the differences in dying and death between him and the girls. While it was heartbreaking to see him go, I am forever thankful for all that he taught me, even in those final days.
And now we're on to November. Things are starting to settle down for us and we're really hoping for an uneventful winter. I know the holidays will be difficult because the girls aren't with us, but we've really learned how to hold onto each other for strength and take each new feeling of sadness and deal with it in a constructive way. Thanks so much for sticking with us and reading along with us as we continue on this journey! We are forever indebted to our family, friends and you for all of the love and support we have received.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Worst Blogger Ever
I haven't written in a very long time. I am ashamed.
But today has been different somehow. Today, missing the girls hit me like a ton of bricks. It is hard to describe, but all of a sudden, I just felt so lost. I felt so broken. Usually I can pinpoint what sets me off and brings these feelings to me, but today I don't know what has done it. The constant ache that sits in the back of my heart for them somehow jumped to the front and shoved every other thought and feeling out of me. It is consuming me and I just don't know where to go with it.
It's strange; I have gone through over a year of therapy trying to relearn how to live my life and yet these moments still stop me in my tracks. And while it hurts so so bad, there is almost a comfort inside of me too. I'm comforted to know that I'm not forgetting them and that I still miss them and I still hurt for them. But most of all, I still love them.
But today has been different somehow. Today, missing the girls hit me like a ton of bricks. It is hard to describe, but all of a sudden, I just felt so lost. I felt so broken. Usually I can pinpoint what sets me off and brings these feelings to me, but today I don't know what has done it. The constant ache that sits in the back of my heart for them somehow jumped to the front and shoved every other thought and feeling out of me. It is consuming me and I just don't know where to go with it.
It's strange; I have gone through over a year of therapy trying to relearn how to live my life and yet these moments still stop me in my tracks. And while it hurts so so bad, there is almost a comfort inside of me too. I'm comforted to know that I'm not forgetting them and that I still miss them and I still hurt for them. But most of all, I still love them.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Words
Jake's grandpa died almost two weeks ago. Richard was a good man. A very good man. He was the quintessential Hoosier. Born and raised on the farm, high school basketball star, married the homecoming queen, and lived a quiet, peaceful, giving life. He was everything the obituary said, and more, but for some reason, those black letters on the paper hurt me again. He was preceded in death by his great-granddaughters, Sydney and Carynne.
The service at his funeral was given by the same man that did the girls' funeral. As he gave his closing remarks, he said he could just see Richard now, sitting somewhere rocking two sweet baby girls. It was so very nice of him to remember our girls during his remarks. His simple words meant a lot to me, and for that I am thankful
Sunday, May 9, 2010
SMA 5K in Cincinnati
This is a bit late, but I still wanted to share that Team Sweet Girlies was very well represented at the FSMA 5K in Cincinnati last Saturday! We raised $525.00 for Families of SMA and had 28 walkers for Sydney & Carynne. The rain didn't dampen our spirits and even though we had to walk inside the Cintas Center, we still had a blast! Our team even started an impromptu dance party that provided tons of entertainment ;) I've got a few pictures from the day, including lots of goofy dancing, but I'll save everybody the red faces and just post a quick group shot. This doesn't include everybody that walked, but all of the Moms of Multiples and their double strollers were wandering around at this point.
Back Row: Jenny, Sonya, Sean, Greg, Jake & Brian. Front Row: Jess, Nate, Amy & Karen.
Friday, April 23, 2010
5 years later
I was at Target last night picking up a card to give to Jake for our anniversary and nothing seemed appropriate. I could have gone funny and picked the one that talked about him remote-hogging and me cover-stealing; I could have gone serious with the 'yin to my yang' mushiness; I could have picked a million different words to tell him on this day, but none of them fit. So I went simple and picked one with two octopi holding hands with the inside saying I still love to hold his hand. He thought it was cute, but it did make us wonder if there will ever be a card that fits us.
Where is the card that says 'Thanks for dragging me out of bed when all I wanted to do for the last year was disappear into the mattress'? Or the card that says 'I can't believe I just yelled at you about butter, but please know I'm not mad at you and I'm not mad at the butter, I just don't know how to express myself'? Maybe a card that says 'I am in a mental fog, but you make a great fog horn'?
The truth is there isn't a card for us and I hope there is never a market for cards for people like us. Five years ago when we said our vows, I think we were both hoping to be just another ordinary couple that got to exchange ordinary cards on ordinary anniversaries; we never thought we'd be here. Some days we still feel numb about where we are in our lives. We still struggle with how we got here and how we'll make it to tomorrow. I guess the best I can tell him is that I don't know how we'll make it, but I still love holding hands with him and I know that makes the journey a lot easier!
Where is the card that says 'Thanks for dragging me out of bed when all I wanted to do for the last year was disappear into the mattress'? Or the card that says 'I can't believe I just yelled at you about butter, but please know I'm not mad at you and I'm not mad at the butter, I just don't know how to express myself'? Maybe a card that says 'I am in a mental fog, but you make a great fog horn'?
The truth is there isn't a card for us and I hope there is never a market for cards for people like us. Five years ago when we said our vows, I think we were both hoping to be just another ordinary couple that got to exchange ordinary cards on ordinary anniversaries; we never thought we'd be here. Some days we still feel numb about where we are in our lives. We still struggle with how we got here and how we'll make it to tomorrow. I guess the best I can tell him is that I don't know how we'll make it, but I still love holding hands with him and I know that makes the journey a lot easier!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Exploitation
On this blog I generally try to stay fairly opinion-neutral, but I'm just going to say what I'm feeling tonight.
Kate Gosselin makes me feel dirty. I feel like she exploits her kids and that makes me feel dirty. It makes me wonder if others think that by writing this blog I am exploiting my children; I am exposing their lives to a world they didn't ask to be exposed to. I know I shouldn't worry about what people think, but I do...I'm human.
I saw her on the Today Show this morning reading an excerpt from her book. She was reading a letter to one of her children and I immediately thought of the letters I have written here, to my girls. I guess the difference is that I can't talk to my girls and I can't tell them how much I love them and miss them in person, so I have to get it out somewhere. She is so lucky to be able to tuck her kids in at night and remind them that she loves them. I don't know if she is embracing those moments in real life, but I really hope so. I hope all the moms and dads in this world are lucky enough to soak in those moments.
A few months ago, I had thought about turning my blog posts into a book. Not for fame or fortune, but to help others that have been on the devastating end of an SMA diagnosis; for others that have dealt with paralyzing grief; for me and my own peace of mind. I'm beginning to rethink that idea of a book. I just don't know if I could handle the guilt of possibly exploiting my sweet girlies.
For now I'll just keep talking to them in my own ways...when I make a wish on an eyelash or when I stop by their trees or when I write them a little note here. I'm not doing it to exploit them, I'm doing it because I don't know how live my life without talking to them and reminding them that I love them.
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