Saying Goodbye

Moving on from this blog has been on my mind for almost 2 years now. At last I'm finally ready to move on and shut this blog down. This will be the 3rd blog I've shut down in the past few months and honestly it feels good to get it all out of the way. My time will now be divided between 3 websites that I enjoy and my part time photography business - which I'm really loving and hoping will turn into full time within a year or so.

After May 1st this blog will no longer be available. ContestforMoms.com will still be here and from time to time I'll post some personal stuff on the Family Buzz blog of CFM. Some of the archive posts may be added to the Family buzz blog... but that's a work in progress and I'm not real sure how that will go when switching from blogger to wordpress.

You can stay connected with me on Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter. In fact Twitter has become my favorite place to share who I really am. Essentially, it's my mini blog. ;)

Goodbye. Thanks for all the comments, encouragement, and community!

Sunshine + Smiles

Sunshine + Camera = lots 'o smiles. Wish the warm would have lasted a bit longer.

This Feels Like A Yearly Family Letter

I manage to make my way back to this blog every few weeks. I always say I want to get back to being consistent and writing a post every few days if only for the sake of documenting our lives. I want to share our story and express myself. We all deserve to be heard no matter how boring we think we are. I guess my once-a-month post is consistency in it's own way.

At the same time I don't want to over share. I struggle with privacy issues. Am I sharing too much or not enough wherein I don't even seem real? And then my head starts to hurt and this is the part where I usually just delete the blog post and close down my browser or post something superficial like this but today I'm going to continue on...

So..my life.. yes I guess that's where I should begin. The snow and no water is as good as start as any I suppose. We've had snow on the ground every day since the beginning of December so we are all ready for Spring and ready to get out of the house. We've experienced more water outages than anyone ever should this Winter and I'm hoping it's all over with. On the up side, I've managed to perfect the pots & pans bath technique. I also experienced getting water from an old well so I'm pretty much prepared for anything 2012ish.

On a more serious note, most of you know our 5 yr old son has EE and has thus far not had to have a feeding tube like many kids with his condition. He's had some bad weeks of constant vomiting. For about 10 days he ate nothing but rice, cereal, baby food, and gatorade. During his last appt. with his Pediatric GI, he had basically stopped growing and gaining weight. I pretty much already knew that because he's been wearing the same clothes for a while now. After a long arduous process we are finally getting into the CCED clinic in Cincinnati. They specialize in this disorder and can hopefully help him. With this comes the possibility of a feeding tube but hopefully he will come out with better results. In March we have to go to Cincinnati (5 hours away) and stay there for 5 days of testing. I'm both hopeful and stressed out at the same time.

Now on to birthdays...Did I mention I feel like I'm writing one of those yearly family letters? Anyway, our oldest will be 9 in 2 days. Wow. In 4 short years I'm going to have a teenager. You do not know how much that scares me. We had his birthday party last weekend in the midst of a water outage. He chose a camo/war theme and we asked everyone to wear something with camouflage. How appropriate. He had an awesome birthday party! Here's the cake:

A couple of days ago I ordered some backgrounds (because I'm crazy and want to start a photography biz) and I needed to do a few test photos so I thought we should just go ahead and do some 9 year portraits. I love how this one turned out of us together. Yes, I'm aware that he is almost as big as me thus the blog name, Petite Mommy ;)

I know this post seems like it will never end which reminds why I never write these types of posts - they take way too long to write and I never have the time... what with homeschooling, my day job, and being a Mom. Not to mention the other 1,000 roles I play.

On EE: A Post For Oprah!

I've wrote before about my son's Eosinophilic Disorder. Specific posts are Living With Eosinophilic Esophagitis and severe food allergies , Eosinophilic Esophagitis and Foods To Eat, and The Ice Cream Truck Crisis.

I don't talk about my son's illness every day. I try not to sound ungrateful and wallow in self-pity when others have it so much worse than us. But as our son's health has declined recently even with treatment, I've found myself more vocal and advocating more. I want everyone to hear his story. His story as well as other EOS kids stories deserve to be heard.

Take one minute and imagine your life without food or even limited foods? Can you?

Our son can't go out to eat. He doesn't get to enjoy the ice cream truck, Halloween candy, or birthday parties like other children do. When most kids are asking, "What's for dinner?" our son is asking, "Will I puke it?" He was diagnosed with an Eosinophilic disorder at the age of 2 and now at the age of 5 1/2 he's not growing well. He's lower than the 5 percentile on height and weight. He looks more like a 3 year old than someone going on 6. Despite the puking and pain, he's an energetic, clever, and artistic little boy. There's just something special about EOS kids...

Recently Greyson's doctor discussed the possibility of a feeding tube. We are now at a place that I never thought we would be. With that, My fear has been turned into action. We can no longer stay silent about this illness. We need a cure for our children.

Today a facebook group of EOS parents are sending Oprah ( and other shows) over 100 emails to raise awareness for this heartbreaking illness. While I'm not an avid Oprah watcher, I'm taking part by writing this blog post in hopes that someone will recognize just how devastating this illness is on our children and the whole family. I hope you will join me by sharing this on your facebook page, tweeting about it, writing Oprah, or even writing a blog post of your own. If you have any questions I'm always available via email, facebook, or Twitter.

For more information on Eosinophilic Disorders you can check out APFED, CURED, and CCED.

How can Oprah resist this beautiful face?