Some thoughts from Beth Moore...

Prescription for Anxiety:

Philippians 4:6-7

"Do not be calm about anything, but in everything, by dwelling on it constantly and feeling picked on by God, with thoughts like 'and this is the thanks I get' present your aggravations to everyone you know but Him. And the acid in your stomach, which transcends all milk products, will cause you an ulcer, and the doctor bills will cause you a heart attack and you will lose your mind." Beth Moore

Prescription for peace:

"Do not worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."

Living With Seizures conference

We just got home from a 4 hour drive to our conference that the Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota put on. It was very informative and while I can't say I really learned anything new necessarily it was still great to go and meet other families affected by epilepsy.

First we sat down before the morning session and the couple sitting at our table asked who was affected by epilepsy in our family. We told them our son and talked for a bit and then I asked them the same question and it was the woman who was affected. She talked about losing her driver's license because of having seizures while driving and not being able to work. She started crying and I knew it was going to be an emotional day.

The first session talked about all of the different medications and they rated them according to how they affect learning, green light, yellow light, red light. Of course Topamax is a red light drug meaning it affects cognition, speech, processing speed, etc... This is exactly why we're getting him off this drug!

The second session talked about success in school and then there was question an answer with a panel of both doctors and people whose children had epilepsy.

During lunch the speakers were a couple whose daughter died a year ago in August very unexpectedly from Epilepsy. There story was very inspiring but hard not being able to imagine how they must still be feeling.

The afternoon sessions talked some more about school and preparing your child for the future. I talked to one mom who asked if we'd tried the Ketogenic diet, one mom who talked about behavior issues, and a woman from the MN Dep't of Education about laws regarding special ed. We received a ton of handouts, videos, etc...

All in all it was a really good day and nice to meet other people who have children affected by epilepsy or who are affected themselves. At the same time it was hard to hear about so many children experiencing side effects to medication and having no other option but to be on medication. You always outweigh the benefit vs. the risk and for some children those side effects are better than multiple, daily seizures.

I'm very interested in the future of medication options and other treatment for Epilepsy. We know the likelyhood of Emeric outgrowing his seizures is very slim so the key would be minimizing medications and then minimizing the side effects of those medications.

I think I've said before but once you've failed 2-3 seizure drugs your chances of ever having full seizure control are less than 5%! Those are obviously not great odds and Emeric too has failed 3 so while it's hard to remain optimistic I can at least hope for minimal side effects with the meds he does need to be on.

I have a ton of links to find different information on Epilepsy and I'd encourage you to take a look if you haven't because while you may not be affected directly or indirectly by someone with Epilepsy it helps us all to learn because as we learned today... Knowledge is Power! :)

T minus 6 hours...

Jake and I and his parents are leaving at 3:30am to head to Minneapolis for an all day "Living With Seizures" conference sponsored by the Mayo clinic. Should be informative if I can stay awake for it!

Our basement: from start to *almost* finish

For some reason I can't find any pictures of the basement before the walls were up but these are close to the beginning.

Notice that you can see the seam in the carpet towards the right where the wall angles? That's because the carpet is a different shade! It shouldn't be like that and the guy that laid it said it the company should replace it but because it wasn't a small company but rather a large one where we purchased it it's unlikely they will replace it. They will do SOMETHING though, I can guarantee you! :)

It isn't totally finished. We still need doors, trim, and some other odds and ends but it's coming along!! When the bathroom and kitchen are finished I'll post pictures of them too! :)

The story of the frazzled housewife

Once upon a time in a land far, far away lived a very frazzled housewife.

Oh how she longed to say...

To sit in silence eating

And drinking

But instead she was

the question is

Instead her day was filled with

and
and

So she began contemplating

how to teach her kids that

and realizing that

means that saying

will likely not be a reality for at least another 9 hours because for right now

The End.

I *heart* this boy

Book Giveaway winner!

I'm confident that my next giveaway will draw in more than 5 people! LOL

Oh well, that just makes the odds that much better for those that did enter! :)

Random Number Generator picked number.... 2! Number 2 was Erin! Congrats Erin!

I decided to just give away all 3 books so Erin can pick first and then the next two winners will get the two left.

And so the next two winners are...

#4 Heather

#5 Chare

So if you won, will you please send me an email? Thanks!!