IAM and baby Willie month!

As most of you know, it's Ichthyosis Awareness Month- IAM. I planned on guest blogging on a few blogs, making a few YouTube videos and I even have a speech booked for May 16th! Then reality hit me... In the lower back...about a minute long. Contractions! I'm not sure why I even thought all that was possible this month seeing as how I KNEW William Drake is coming this month but I wasn't being realistic I reckon. I started having contractions yesterday (April 29th) and let me tell ya, they ain't playing around! I'm assuming that they're Braxton Hicks contractions right now but regardless, Willie only has less than 3 weeks before he's gonna be evicted out of my tummy! Mommy's ready for some Willie-lovin'!

Friday (April 26th) I made my 2nd ER trip. First was because I lost my mucus plug and I was a nervous wreck. This time was because I was leaking fluids.. I called my doctor, talked to a nurse and since my OB/GYN is 2hrs away she told me to go to the nearest ER/labor & delivery. I arrived to the ER and they put the monitors on my belly to hear lil'mans heartbeat (he HATES the straps being on my belly!). They saw that the fluid wasn't my water breaking/amniotic fluid but they done an ultrasound to make sure. Guess what? WILL IS UPSIDE DOWN! No more breach babyboy for us! No more c-section! He was also 6lbs 9oz- hims a big boy! :) I'll be 37 weeks May 3rd and I go to the doctor Monday, we're gonna see if I'm dilated.

I'm sure I wont be able to do all the things I had planned on doing for IAM due to being SO busy- getting the finishing touches on Willies room done, washing all his clothes, bottles, etc. I packed our hospital bags last week, he'll be here soon! Prayers would be wonderful! :)

Also- Curt, my mom & I were on the local news Thursday night for IAM and you can see the interview here

Never replace living with writing.

"Never replace living with writing."

I love to write, I love to blog, I love to make videos. I believe to be interesting in any of those things, you must live life. Writing is my hobby but God, my husband, family and puppies are my life! I've been living life. 

As I've previously stated during a past post; I was interviewed by a local news station a few weeks ago because it's IAM next month and we thought it'd be great to raise awareness locally! My story is airing Thursday April 29th, 2013 and I must say, I'm excited! Promos started airing Friday and I've gotten WAY more people then I ever expected Tweeting/Facebooking me telling me they've seen the commercial. One girl saw it at a casino in TN! 

It's absolutely insane flicking through the channels and seeing  yourself, mom and husband on TV! hahaha. I'm tempted to keep changing channels everytime because I keep critiquing myself. It's just on one channel but it seems like this weekend I've passed by that channel a trillion times!

Awful picture and HUGE but the overall promo is pretty great!

I'll upload the actual copy of the promo and story soon after it airs.

Be careful who you write for.

I have no problem sharing my story... I actually enjoy educating other people on my skin disorder which is the main reason I blog, YouTube, etc. I even guest write for other blogs when I have the time and most of the time with no hesitation. I'm not looking for money or to become "famous" off my disorder, I'm simply wanting to spread knowledge.

Last night I received an email :

Something just didn't seem right to me, I had an odd feeling about this "Doctor". I read the email then quickly fell asleep, I woke up to see he had posted on my LifeAsMedotcom facebook page. I clicked the link to this assumed well-educated mans website... Boy, was I in for a shock! There was sentences that anyone could tell wasn't correctly put together and words misspelled. I'm no English teacher & some errors may come up in my blog- however, I never claimed to be a doctor! 

On top of the poor writing, his words alone were offensive and pretty ignorant. 

(A sreenshot of part of his website)

If this man is truly a doctor, it saddens me to think he's even in business. I'm sure there are tons of people like this out there but this is the first person like this whose came to me. Thankfully I done research before "writing for his blog".

Dancing in the rain

Proverbs 17:22

"A cheerful heart is good medicine but a crushed spirit dries up the bones"

I've been told many times that my mom and I have an odd sense of humor to say the least. We tend to make jokes at the worst of times and most of the time they come across as insensitive... The way I look at it; man up buttercup! If you wear your heart on your sleeve constantly, you're never going to be happy!

We've had to overcome SO much in my 20 years of living.. If we cried everytime something hard to deal with came up in life I'd stay in an overwhelming state of depression! So instead of crying, feeling sorry for myself & letting life take control of me- I take control of my life!

Who said being a red gal couldn't be fun? Sure, my situation isn't ideal but lifes not perfect for anyone. I make H.I jokes pretty often; "gotta be tough to be a red girl!", "omg ____, you're driving me CRAZY! You're gonna make me pull my hair out...or off! (I wear a wig)", "No I wasn't sunburned, I'm just a REALLY big Razorback fan! (Our SEC team, I do love my hogs!)", or when someone says "AH! What happened to your skin?" I'll sometimes say "What do you mean?!".. haha!

We had an ultrasound done a few weeks ago and Willie showed us his long fingers.. I immediately said "Aww momma! He's got my fingers!" being sarcastic since I only have 4 fingers that extend out even more than a tiny bit. My momma came back with "Yeah! The good ones!!" (lmao still cracks me up!) . The ultrasound tech and the student both laughed. Sure, it was probably because they were shocked and nervous but hey, I'll take it!

When I was little & went somewhere in public with my mom, she always told me to "get a hand" meaning hold her hand so I wouldn't wander off or anything & well this is the convo my mom and I had the other day. 

(her blue, me red) She made the 3 finger joke before she got my text LOL)

It's not that we're mean or even insensitive- it's that we're asses. But we like to call it "witty"! People are constantly dumbfounded by the things we say but thats why WE say them & not other people. We get it honest, I come from a long line of bullshitters! I'll be dang proud to pass it on to my son.

William Curtis Drake will learn that you've got to pick your battles in life. Not everything has to be a big deal or a heart wrenching obstacle. Sometimes it helps to laugh about it and go on! God didn't give you whatever kind of obstacles you were dealt in life so you could ball up and feel sorry for yourself. He knew you were brave and strong enough to turn it into a positive thing. Prove him right! Use everything to your advantage.

ER, 8 months and Puppies.

Last Thursday I woke up about 8am, went to the bathroom and noticed quite a bit of bloody discharge. I called my mom, Curt and my grandma and we all headed up to the hospital to see what was going on. Panicked because I assumed I was going into labor or would be soon, especially since I was having contractions. I knew nothing was wrong with lil'man since he was moving like crazy (he always is!)...

We arrived at the ER and they checked the regular things- blood pressure, babys heartbeat, etc. All was perfect! I wasn't dilated at all, it turns out it was just my cervix thinning out and I lost my mucus plug.
Wikipedia definition ; A cervical mucus plug (operculum) is a plug that fills and seals the cervical canal during pregnancy. It is formed by a small amount of cervical mucus.^[1]
The mucus plug acts as a protective barrier by deterring the passage of bacteria into the uterus,^[2] and contains a variety of antimicrobial agents, including immunoglobulins, and similarantimicrobial peptides to those found in nasal mucus.

The doctors were amazed at how hard his little tail was kicking! He HATED the heart monitor belts! He done everything he could to kick 'em off, he hates ANYTHING laying on him... My arm, my phone, his daddys hands (unless they're rubbing him!). He's rotten! :) 


I had a scheduled appointment for the very next day and we had an ultrasound! Music to my ears! My sweet babyboy is 5lbs 3oz. I was 32 weeks on 3/29 and he measured between 35 and 36 weeks! My due date was moved up once again to May 1st. He's "textbook prefect". But he's breech and the doctor doesn't wanna turn him and said he only has about 6 weeks at most so he highly doubts he'll turn on his own. 

We're going back to plan A; C-Section. Oddly enough, I'm more nervous now that we're back to plan A. I wasn't nervous at all when we first decided we were going with the C-section idea but now that I've had other choices & we're back to this one, I'm pretty nervous... Not for him but for me. Will it hurt, how long will it take to recover, etc.. But I have faith everything will be fine. 

It's finally spring time and no one would know it here! It's literally 65 for a day or two then the high is 48 for the next four days, whaatt? Needless to say my sinuses are completely messed up! But on the day it got up to 65, we took complete advantage of it and went outside and had a little daddy, mommy, puppy playtime! 

Podcast, Vlog, Blog.

How much is too much?

As I've said millions of times, I love talking. Whether I talk through videos, writing or anything else- I just enjoy talking. I have so much to teach people about H.I and I love to think I'm a positive impact on atleast a few peoples life, plus I love making people happy. Since I'm expecting a little angel any day now, I'm trying to prepare a way to keep things updated easy and fast but still get my words out there in the world.

I've been looking at different ways other than blogging. Blogging is wonderful and I'm definitely going to keep  it up but I was also looking at how others make a difference via social networking. Podcast?  I'm not sure exactly how to go about making a podcast or getting it noticed but I enjoy listening to other podcasts. Vlog? Video blog. I have a YouTube channel that I've put on the back burner lately but I enjoy making videos as well.

I'm just not sure which to pursue because lets face it, I'm not super woman. Being a mommy, wife and successful blogger/podcaster/YouTube is nearly impossible! I have to pick 1 or 2 ways of networking or I'll go insane! Advice would be wonderful!

High road, low road?

"While its important to educate people, it's also not unreasonable to want a break from it all." Carly said it best in her Losing some but winning heaps more post.. Words can't explain how true this is!

 You can't educate someone who obviously doesn't want to be educated, nor is it awful to just get fed up with stupidity sometimes and respond rudely back to the person. For the most part I try my best to be understanding and civil to ignorant people but I've definitely been known to lose my cool, flip 'em the bird (or half a bird seeing as how my fingers doesn't fully extend due to my skin not stretching!) or just get plain ol' bitchy to them.

Asking is fine, I expect people to ask. I expect people to look. However, looking and gawking are totally different. Staring stupidly even after I have said "Hey" to you is completely rude. Hitting your buddy to get his attention to look at the red girl is completely rude. If you're going to be a jerk, so am I. It may not be the high road, it might not be mature but that's me.

Since I live in such a small town, everyone basically knows me or atleast knows of me. Going to a new town is an adventure though! For the most part there are much more nice people that I meet than the rude ones... The rude ones usually are narrowed down to teenagers with their friends or arrogant guys. Very seldom do I run into a completely rude, obnoxious, middle aged person with no respect. Thank goodness!