Thank you!

I will keep saying thank you to many people for many things for as long as I live. But today a special thank you to my cousin who helped me come up with this idea....

An Internal Cochlear Implant Brooch / Pin...ta da.
It's a little bit funky and different, educational too! (just study the picture!)

And most importantly it will bring us closer to the ACTUAL cochlear implant.
So pick up yours today. Click on the picture to take you to the store. My personal favorite is wearing it on your hat!

Take a look =)
And the actual implant from {http://www.bcm.edu/cms_web/407//Implanted-device.gif}


More to come!

Fundraising

I recently chatted with a friend who said if I needed a sounding board for other fundraising ideas to give him a call. I fully intend to take him up on that offer...however....I have no ideas to bring to the table.

I realize that I have met many people who are fundraisers without knowing they HAVE that experience!

So I am asking for your help. If you have any ideas for fundraising please give me a call, send me an email. I love discussing ideas and I love a good challenge =).

I have searched and searched but can not find any specific fundraising sources for a cochlear implant that Chris can apply for. While I think it's great that he is a father of 3, husband, and a 31 year old, it's not a target area for fundraising.

With that being said we are at peace with patiently waiting and saving. The Etsy store has allowed us to meet people who are going through similar circumstances and offer us words of support.

Good things come from waiting also and great appreciation of what you are waiting for is one of those things. We are also greatly appreciative of everyone who has supported us in prayer, words, and financially.

More to come!
Thanks for listening!
Kim

Crochet Princess Crown

I have a hard time sticking to traditional colors. And I didn't have enough yellow when I decided to make this crown. And there was a certain person jumping up and down on my shoulder "Oh mommy make that, make that, please, please" when I was looking for pictures.

I first found an all around traditional beanie pattern and looked at lots of pics before deciding what kind of "crown" I was going to build on it.

Yes I realize I need to eventually make SOMETHING for a boy.....but I have two very vocal girls who keep giving me all their color choices. D. will just have to jump right in. But for now he is content when mommy or daddy just smile and talk. (and he has a face I can't refuse =)





Click on the pics to take you to the etsy store =)
Which picture do you think should be the etsy store pic?
More to come!
Kim

If your child looks like this......

Looking at my lovely little princess reminded me that kids can not pick out clothes for themselves (daddy it seems would love some help too). However this combination is all my fault....So if you look one day and your child looks like this.....you might want to try this idea. (at least while they are little and don't mind you picking clothes for them).
Take some perfectly coordinated outfits like these above. Thanks to some family that found them at a consignment shop. (be sure to check yours out. These were part of a deal where you could fill as much as you could fit in a bag for 25 dollars.....now if only the grocery store would let me do that =) Anyways I'm rambling......
Just place outfit together on hanger like so and they are looking great every day!!! (only took me 5 years and 3 kids to figure this one out!!!)

On to Thanksgiving which was great! Very relaxing, great cooking. We tried to get the family pic to look something like this.....


And got some of these....hahahahahaha





You say but what was wrong with the last pic? Look at the pouter in the corner.....

And you all know Chris has been working on the lights for MONTHS. Well our house is fine but the subdivision entry way was a little bit vandalized on Thanksgiving night. Come. On.


So our Thanksgiving was awesome! Hope yours was too. Time to go cook dinner before people become grouchy =)
More to follow!
Kim

I love Mustard

The color not the condiment...unless we're having steak (weird, yes).
My FAVORITE color of fall is mustard yellow.
So I could not resist when I found this yarn, enjoy =)
Find the scarf here on Etsy.





Also the Christmas lights are almost done! One day he wants to set them all to music..... The girls wanted to help daddy and yes those are fluffy princess dresses under their coats =) And last but not least our cute little guy.



More to come!

Cochlear Surgery

Here is a few video's from You Tube.

WARNING:
This video is of an actual surgery so if you don't like the sight of blood or tissue don't watch. This is actually the same cochlear that will be given to Chris.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMe3yr2ZnUI

This is a video we showed to B and M. B especially has lots of questions about daddy's ears.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6xpjY1X_SY

Thanks to all of your generous support we have the funds needed for the surgeon. We can't be more excited that this can happen a lot sooner than we anticipated. Words can't say thank you enough!!
I called the surgery coordinator to notify the hospital and make sure our insurance information is up to date. Hopefully not much has changed in hospital pricing. This will be an outpatient procedure. It has been a year since he saw the surgeon for consultation so he will have to see him again.
He will also have to get an MRI done. This will be his first and only MRI as after the procedure he will have a magnet under his skin.

More to follow!

Kim

Night Time

The only time they slow down =)
Time to get to work crocheting....
Did I mention Chris is starting on the Christmas lights? See I needed to find a hobby of staying awake while he is climbing all over the roof.

Motivation

Little known fact....
I only completed one (yes 1) crochet project (a small pillow..tiny tiny like 2 x 2 inches) when I first learned at eight years old.

If I began anything else I ended up unhappy with it and ripped it out, balled up the yarn, and started over with something else, ripped it out......

So you could say I just needed the right motivation to complete something. =)

Here is M. modeling the new purple/gray scarf. She's just so darn cute to me I can't stand it. And it seems she LOVES to let mommy take pictures of her.

You can find this scarf by clicking here to go to the Etsy store.

This scarf took me about 4 days. Stripes are ohhhh so fun but they leave a lot to fix. Also B, her friend and myself had to take time out to do some bike riding.Before a great scarf comes the work in progress....

Video Save (D laughing)

Nothing more magical than baby laughter...they should find a way to bottle this stuff up! Fortunately our house did not turn sideways, camera phones can be challenging to operate...seriously....stop laughing =)

D does love his daddy. Lights up when he is around.




A scarf in the development stages. I'm fascinated with fall today and especially the colors! Nice chilly air absolutely PERFECT for a nice scarf. As much as I enjoy making them to sell for Chris, I make them for me too. I apparently need an arsenal of scarves to survive the winter. (That is a completely true fact).

Chris has gone above and beyond by looking at each of my scarves and giving his opinion. He also did not complain about the trail of yarn around the living room.

Informing the Family and Friends

Hello everyone enjoy this bit of news.....
Almost a year ago Chris said he wanted a cochlear. It's possible at the time he was just trying to say sorry for our fight. I didn't take him seriously. Then a few months later he told me again he wanted a cochlear and I replied that's great do you really want that? He said yes but again I let more time pass.

Almost a year passed and he was still saying he wanted a cochlear so we went for testing and confirmed he was an excellent candidate for surgery. Then we got a quote on how much surgery would cost. Not impossible but it would require more patience and saving on our part. (It's around 3500 to 4000 out of pocket). I checked out scholarship opportunities but nothing really exists for a 30ish father of three. So I decided Chris wasn't getting any younger and neither were our kids. If he wanted to hear then I wanted him to hear all the great, weird, funny bits that come out of our kids mouths (the screaming parts too).

So here is my attempt at fund raising. It will be a long journey. If you are not familiar with a cochlear basically they enable hearing for the deaf by inserting a long skinny tube into the snail like part of your ear called the "cochlear." It changes sound into electronic stimuli for your auditory nerve to transmit to your brain. It is an outpatient procedure.

We will raise the amount little by little. I have started a blog so you can sign up to follow and see our progress. and an etsy store where all the saving happens!

blog: http://dirtcomesclean.blogspot.com/

store: www.dirtcomesclean.etsy.com

Please visit both and share this journey with us. Say prayers!!! Leave comments, suggestions, words of support. Our journey will not end with surgery as this will be a whole new experience for Chris. The cochlear device we are looking at is the cochlear 5 (which comes with a remote I might add...evil grin...just kidding....but Chris wants to hide it from me anyways).

More to come!
Kim =)

Video Save

It will take some time to get a cochlear. In the mean time I think I should save some video for Chris to watch after he gets the cochlear. So I archived some D sounds while he is still little.

Please ignore the annoying woman (yes that would be me) obviously trying to get the little man to say something. =)

Special Delivery

Designing packaging for my scarves has been exceptionally fun! As fun as making the scarves. I am using recycled materials. Can you guess what this blue one is made out of?

I have just started selling them so we have a longgggg way to go to raise our portion of the surgery. All in all we can expect to pay around 3500.00 to 4000. That includes paying for the surgeon and the hospital portion. It will be an outpatient procedure but must be performed in the hospital. Not to worry I'm all for that!!

I mailed out 3 scarves today. In total we have sold 5 (thank you very much). Our journey continues with each crochet stitch.
For those of you who can't read my chicken scratch (grin). Here is what the note says:

This is just a simple scarf
But it has so much work to do.
Keeping your neck warm
And making you look great too!

Yours was just a simple purchase
But your gift has so much to do
It will give the gift of hearing to a man,
a father, a husband too!

Thank you for your purchases and I hope you enjoy these scarves for many years to come.




Please leave comments on what colors you would like to see or what kind of scarves (long,skinny, short, chunky) below, at www.dirtcomesclean.etsy.com,
or email me at dirt_comes_clean@yahoo.com

As always thank you from Kim =)