Stephanie is a wife, mommy and grandma. She also works full time out of the home and runs her home based It Works Global business. Over the past 5 years, along with her husband, she has been a Cub Scout Leader, home school's her son, and granddaughter. This is a very active family. Enjoy some of the stories from My crazy life!
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
The RIGHT thing to do
Here's where I'm torn. I KNOW my step-daughter is not likely to change. She's made that very clear to us long ago. We WANT to take care of our grandchildren. They deserve better than their mother is ever going to give them. They deserve someone who wants to take care of them, and sacrifices for them, and lets them know that they are loved and worth loving and providing for. By providing for our grandchildren, we are enabling my step-daughter to continue to be a poor excuse for a parent. We are allowing, encouraging her even to be lazy and expect hand out's from everyone, while she collects welfare. Don't get me wrong, welfare is a great program for someone who NEEDS it, not for the lazy. But that isn't what this post is about. This post is about me not knowing rather I should help provide necessities for our grandchildren, or not.
What would you do?
Sunday, December 28, 2014
Trials
This post actually started 5 years ago when my granddaughter was born. My step-daughter didn't want a baby, but got pregnant and searched for someone within the family who wanted to adopt her baby. Then she would know that the baby was well taken care of and still able to see this child grow up. During her pregnancy, the baby's father left her and it was that moment that my step-daughter decided she wanted to "try & see if I can do it."
Right after our granddaughter was born in 2009, my step-daughter told us that she was a miracle and she didn't know why she ever wanted to give her up for adoption. That was a happy moment. My step-daughter lived with her mother and step-father during this time. We talked to her on the phone often, and we were only allowed to see the baby if we drove the 45 minutes to where they lived, and she always needed something for the baby. Clothes, diapers, etc. and of course we wanted our granddaughter to be taken care of, so we would buy things that she needed and take them to her. Amazingly enough, if we didn't have any money to buy diapers or clothes, my step-daughter would have an excuse as to why we couldn't come visit our granddaughter. Then something happened between my step-daughter and her mother, and she and our granddaughter came to live with us. This happened just before our granddaughter's first birthday, which was in March. In July 2010, my step-daughter and granddaughter moved out of our house and back in with her mother. My step daughter wouldn't speak to us on the phone, and we were not allowed to see our step-daughter until just before Christmas. In October 2010, we were at Bass Pro shop doing our Cub Scout duties selling popcorn, and ran into my husband's ex-wife, her husband number 4, and they had our granddaughter with them. She didn't know who we were. We held her for a minute and kissed her, my husband asked his ex-wife why their daughter was depriving us from seeing our granddaughter and she told him she wasn't getting into it, and that he would have to take it up with their daughter. Just after Thanksgiving 2010, my step-daughter called my husband and invited us to come visit our granddaughter. She was using us for what she could get for Christmas. My step-daughter and granddaughter came and spent the night with us Christmas eve, and had Christmas with us that year. Then we were back on the visits only when we would make the 45 minute drive, and bring diapers or other things she needed for our granddaughter. It was obvious to us that we were being used. My step-daughter doesn't like to work, so she uses people for whatever support she can get from them, be it monetary, gifts, housing, or anything else.
In March 2011, husband number 5 died, and my husband's ex-wife decided she didn't want her daughter living with her anymore, so she came back to live with us on April 1, 2011. Right away it was apparent to us that my step-daughter did not take care of our granddaughter. If anyone else was in the house to care for her, that's who cared for her. If anyone left the house, our granddaughter would go with them, and my step-daughter would stay home. She only worked part time, 2 overnight shifts a week at a hotel in a neighboring town. She would sleep all day, while my husband took care of our granddaughter, and she would stay up all night talking to people on video chat on her computer. Never would she get up during the day and get her daughter anything to eat, or drink, or change a diaper, or give her a bath. I began documenting the neglect on May 1, 2011, and I still continue to document today. They lived with us 9 months that time, and I think that was the most stressful 9 months of my entire life. My step-daughter and I fought constantly. I tried showing her how to care for her daughter, only to be ignored. I tried teaching her things, only to be ignored. I asked nicely, and was ignored. I asked not so nicely and was still ignored. She didn't clean up after herself, or her daughter. She continued to sleep all day while others cared for her daughter and stay up all night. There was trash all over our living room, where she slept on the hide-a-bed. It was a mess.
In December 2011, she got mad at us and moved back in with her mother the beginning of January 2012. When she finally moved out, we were cleaning her room and found wet diapers stuffed in the couch cushions, food wrappers stuffed in the couch cushions and under the couch, food in the couch cushions and under the couch. The trash can my husband gave her a few months before was overflowing with food wrappers, and there was a pile of dirty dishes sitting on a shelf. During the cleaning process, we also noticed that there were roaches in her room. It took us 2 weeks to completely eradicate the infestation.
After my step-daughter moved out of our house we were not allowed to see our granddaughter until one time in August, just before she moved to Iowa to be engaged to a registered sex offender who was freshly out of prison for his offense. She lived with the sex offender's family for a year, while he continued to be in and out of prison for parole violations. In 19 months, we saw our granddaughter one time, for one hour. We were not allowed to speak to her on the phone, we didn't know where she had moved to. My step-daughter would call us a total of 3 times during that time frame, and her phone number would be disconnected and changed within 24 hours of hanging up with us. She shaved our granddaughters head into a "buzz" cut, and dyed her cornsilk blonde hair a dark auburn.
During this time, we began legal proceedings, along with our granddaughter's father to try and bring her back to our state, and get her away from the sex offender her mother was engaged to. It took 19 months for that to happen. At the end of August 2013, a judge awarded us emergency temporary custody of our granddaughter, and appointed a guardian ad litem to begin an investigation on the well being of our granddaughter. When my step-daughter moved back from Iowa the following week, we were there with police to take our granddaughter away from her neglectful mother.
Two weeks later, the GAL came to our house and met us and our granddaughter. She visited with her for nearly one hour, then talked with us for another hour about our allegations against my step-daughter, and pretty much wanted to know anything we knew. We spilled the beans about everything, including pictures and documentation, receipts from all of the clothes that we had to buy our granddaughter because her mother refused to, pictures of the neglect. The snotty noses that went un-wiped, the severe eczema that was not treated, her skin and hair after not having a bath for 9 days straight during a time I was trying to FORCE my step-daughter to be a mother, among other things. There were the text and facebook messages between my husband and his daughter, where he asked her weekly if we could have a visit with our granddaughter, and she was telling us "no, you will never see her again." My step-daughter uses her daughter to manipulate men, to manipulate family members, friends, who ever she can to get whatever she can from them.
Do you know anyone like that? What do you do about it?
Saturday, December 27, 2014
One Year Seizure Free
I remember the first time we noticed something was wrong. It was the beginning of September 2013, Michael was at a cub scout meeting. During the opening flag ceremony, he was standing at attention and fell. Like a tree, hit his head on a table on the way down. Our cub master who happens to be a paramedic instructed me to take him to the ER to be checked out. They didn't find anything wrong with him, and referred us to his pediatrician. We went to the pediatrician the following day and he thought maybe Michael was growing too fast and he needed more sodium since he was active in sports.
A few days later, Michael was in the shower and we heard him fall down. Jeff ran into the bathroom to find Michael lying on the floor of the bathtub, disoriented. He told Jeff he "passed out" again. We gave him the shower chair to sit on while he finished his shower and Jeff stayed with him. A few hours later, as he was sitting at the computer doing his school work I noticed a blank stare on Michael's face. I tried talking to him, and there was no response. His eyes were open...lights were on, but nobody was home. I called my mom who suggested I take him back to the ER. They checked him over again and once again couldn't find any reason for these "episodes" (not yet diagnosed as seizures, although we suspected that's what was going on). We saw his pediatrician again, who wanted him to be seen by a pediatric cardiologist and neurologist. Because of a snag with his insurance neither of those specialists would see him. Michael continued having multiple seizures a day, accompanied by headaches until the end of October. That's when I got a call at work from my husband telling me that Michael had multiple seizures that morning and was having chest pains. I left work right away and we took him to the ER once again. We sat in the waiting room for 4 hours, where Michael would have another 3 seizures during that time. When he was finally taken in a room to be seen, we got a doctor who wanted to admit him and get this figured out, insurance issues be damned.
So that's what happened. October 30, 2013...the day before Halloween, Michael was admitted into the hospital. He would have blood work, a heart monitor, EEG, Echo, MRI, all which came back PERFECTLY NORMAL!! And he was seen by a pediatric neurologist, who diagnosed him with epilepsy after hearing what we had to say about his symptoms and behaviors. Michael was started on medication and released to go home Halloween night.
By the next day, Michael's new medicine had his head all messed up. He hadn't had anymore seizures, but he was having such bad anxiety, he couldn't even function enough to do his chores, or school work. Since it was the weekend, we had to wait until Monday to call the neurologist's office back. Turns out they didn't taper up the dose like they were supposed to after the loading dose. So we were told to half what he was taking for a couple of days and then we would taper it back up. The following day, not only did he still have the bad anxiety and not able to function, he began having seizures again!! The entire month of November was full of medicine changes, tapering up on a new medicine, and tapering down off of the first one. Lots of seizures and anxiety, and no sleep. Jeff and I were sleeping in shifts so Michael would have eyes on him at all times. The last seizure Michael had was the day after Thanksgiving, and he was off the medicine that wasn't working. Until Christmas day when he forgot to take his morning dose and had a seizure that night. It's been a long year, but now we're doing pretty good.
Here's to being seizure free for an entire year!!
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Thankfulness
I've seen a "thankfulness challenge" spreading through social media lately and while I'm glad to see friends and family finding reasons to be thankful, I don't need to be "challenged" to find reasons to be thankful. I look purposefully for reasons to be thankful on a daily basis.
Here are a few reasons why I'm thankful today...
1) I helped friends and family in need today. Three to be exact.
2) I made a healthy dinner for my family. Homemade fajitas with homemade tortillas. I'm thankful for the food and the knowledge to create meals for my family.
3) I am thankful for the air conditioning in my car, it was around 90° here today.
I am thankful for far too many reasons to mention in one blog post.
What are you Thankful for today?
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Today is the Day
When he was first diagnosed with epilepsy October 31, 2013, he was told by his neurologist that he cannot do ANYTHING until he had been seizure free for six months. Then we were given a 2 page list of activities that are "not allowed" including bathing, swimming, camping, hiking, sports, bike riding, climbing.
He was told the only thing he was allowed to do during that 6 months is school work (but no P.E.) and learn piano. He wasn't to participate in physical activities at all. This greatly upset him, and us. We're talking about an 11 (now 12) year old boy who is highly active. He goes camping with boy scouts, he climbs trees, rides his bike, swims, plays soccer. We kept him as calm as possible until January when he got the invitation to play soccer. We discussed it with the nurse at his neurology office and although the Doctor said not to allow physical activity, the nurse said that as long as he is taking his medicine faithfully and remains seizure free, he can do some things (like play soccer) under supervision. We signed him up for soccer, we allowed him to go to the local indoor pool, as long as he stayed with his dad and myself. We allowed him to go camping, his scout master, and patrol leader are both paramedic's. He was in good hands. He's been allowed to ride his bike while taking the trash out or checking the mail.
Finally, he hasn't had a seizure in 6 months. We're having a party for him on Saturday. We've invited everyone who has prayed for him, done anything for him, supported us during this journey. We're having a barbecue, and cupcakes. The first major accomplishment for someone with epilepsy deserves a party.
Do you know someone with epilepsy? What kind of things do you do to support them?
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Reading Rescue 1-2-3
My son is 12, going into 6th grade. My 5 year old granddaughter lives with us and she's going to be in Kindergarten this year. In the Reading Rescue 1-2-3 book, I've learned that Level 1 readers need to learn the alphabet and sounds. Sounds perfect for teaching a kindergartener to me! My niece is 8, going into 3rd grade, and needs a lot of help with reading and spelling before school starts again. She goes to public school, so I need to work my magic before school starts in August.
Stay tuned for updates on how the kids are doing using this program throughout the summer. Have you ever been so excited to find a book? Leave me a comment talking about your great find!
Monday, May 26, 2014
20 Years
Monday, April 7, 2014
Hair Obsessed
As an It Works Global distributor, I'm always eager to try out our products. After all, how can I tell people about it if I don't know about it? So imagine how excited I was when Hair Skin and Nails was introduced to our line! I finally got around to ordering a bottle, and I have been taking it since Thursday. I haven't noticed new length in my hair in the first few days like some of my teammates did, but what I did notice is that my hair didn't fall out by the handful in the shower this morning. I'm talking about HUGE wads of hair that I stick to the shower wall until I get out so it doesn't clog the drain. Today, I might have lost 5 whole strands. It's amazing. So, I'm convinced that HSN is making my hair healthier, and will work on the length as I continue to take it. Are you obsessed with your hair? Leave me a comment telling about your hair routine.
Sunday, April 6, 2014
He's Home!
He's a good boy, and I want him to learn all he can about how to survive, cook, and live in the outdoors. I believe that someday it may come to that. He learns a lot at these camp outs. More than just how to pitch a tent. When the boy scouts go camping, the boys have to get together and plan a menu, and one boy is assigned to do the shopping and purchase the food. They are responsible for their own cooking, clean up, building a fire and watching it.
Glad to have my little man back in the house! Do your kids go on outings without you?

