So Much Going On!

I'm so excited that the price changer on CafePress is fixed! I'm on a roll with new designs and hopefully I can manage a bunch more before the holiday rush!

This next design, I think I'm gonna buy for my daughter Hailey in the form of a Toddler Tee. It reads My Mommy Says I'm Messy. I Say I'm Artistic! It comes in five different colors - pink, blue, green, purple and orange. I can of course add more if you'd like it in a different color. It's super cute and features a messy splat in the background.





I have seen this joke time and time again and just had to have a shirt for it. I wanted it to encompass all military because I believe all military is equally important (and should be equally loved and supported). The shirt reads I Love Messing With Government Property. Proud Military Supporter. It features text in both light green and light grey. It makes a great shirt for anyone in your family, no matter what military branch you support!






With my husband going through the Medical Board process, I will soon no longer be an Army wife. It's bittersweet really. But, once an Army wife - ALWAYS an Army wife, as they say. So, I made this shirt! I'll probably make different versions of it later, but for now this design feature bright pink (almost neon) text with the Army star symbol in the corner. It's both vibrant and fresh! Check out the Retired Army Wife shirt and gifts!

Labels: advertising, army, cafe press, cafepress, clothes, family, funny, gifts, kids, military, parenting, shopping, stores

Joe's Ankle Surgery

I know I've been really behind on the blogs. I actually blogged about this on MySpace, but just haven't made my way here. Bad Kimi..Bad! Things have just been so hectic and now I'm taking care of two babies instead of one (Hailey and now Joe!). So here is the long and skinny on how Joe's ankle surgery went:

We left here a little late - figures. We got to the sixth floor of the hospital and they immediately stuck me in a waiting room with no toys, a hard tile floor, a TV with no channels (only a VCR and like 5 movies) and there was one other person there already waiting. Great..looked fun *sarcasm*.

They get Joe's paperwork all ready to go and they come and get me and we go to get him all dressed up. OMG He was SO cute in his little outfit.. I wish I'd taken a picture! A doctor came and wrote on his left ankle, making sure it was marked that that was the ankle for surgery (although I had already used a permanent marker on Joe's right ankle and wrote "OTHER ANKLE" on it. haha

We wait there for a little while and they stick me in the waiting room again - so fast that I had NO clue what was going on and wasn't even given the chance to say goodbye to Joe at all - which is absolute BULLSHIT. Anything could have gone wrong and they should have given us time together as a family. I swear.. I'm like the only damn person with common sense and a heart around here!

Joe left... and I didn't see him again nor hear if he was okay for another SIX HOURS. What was supposed to be a "three hour surgery" turned out to be much, much longer. Apparently, Joe had a lot of trouble during the surgery because his oxygen levels kept dropping really low and he would almost completely forget to breathe (well no shit.. he has SLEEP APNEA and I have known that for a while although he's never been officially diagnosed). But now.. a doctor has even told him "You have sleep apnea. You have got to get that sleep study done so we can get you sleeping properly again... no wonder you are always so damn tired." So anyways....

Around noon, a guy in uniform came into the waiting room and told me "Your husband is out of operation, and is being taken into recovery. That phone over there will ring and when it's for you, they will let you know where to go to be with him." First off.. that was the most poorly worded after surgery update I've ever heard. Okay.. so I've actually never heard one before, but still. No word on is he were awake, alive or anything... and telling me I could go "be with him" made me think my husband was dead and I was going to go claim the damn body. I was freaked out enough.. I didn't need that crap!

The phone must have rang 100 times.. the waiting room had filled up and people were in and out all day. The phone was never for me. At 2pm, another guy in uniform game in to talk to me... and even took me out of the waiting room to the reception desk because he couldn't figure out why I hadn't been taken to my husband (me either..). But the receptionist got REALLY huffy with me and told I needed to "be patient and go sit in the waiting room" and I was like "Whoah bitch..I didn't come out here on my damn own...he's the one who brought me out here!" I went BACK into the damned waiting room.

By this time, I'm in a panic. I'm thinking he's dead and they are rounding up a team to talk to me, getting me a therapist set up and all sorts of stuff and figuring out how they are going to tell a woman who has been sitting in a waiting room for eight hours with her daughter, that her husband died during an ankle surgery.

Thirty minutes pass, and a little old woman comes in and tells me to come with her and by this time, I'm so irritated I could hurt someone. But she opened the door... and there was Joe - groggy, but awake. So then I was really irked... THRILLED to see him, but irked. Why in the world was I bounced every which way if he was going to be wheeled past the waiting room!?

So they wheel him down the hall to Recovery Phase 2, where he's allowed to try to use the bathroom and to get dressed. This part made me realize that I want to be married to Joe when we're 100 years old. Helping him pull up his underwear and pants, put on his sock and shoe for him was pretty much the funniest thing to happen to me all day and it was certainly the first time I really laughed in several days. I get him all dressed and went down to get his prescriptions.

Now this is the weird part. The Army LOVES giving out Motrin. It's like the favorite drug. So of course, they gave us a friggin ton of it - probably more than he'll ever need. They also gave him MORE percocet (he's been taking that for WEEKS already for the pain lol) and then stool softeners since supposedly, percocet can make you constipated (um...he's been taking it for several weeks and trust me.. this hasn't happened! lmao).

Anyways.. I get back to him and for the first time...... EVER in our marriage, the Army wanted MY signature. I had to sign away because he could be deemed to incoherent to do it. So shocking. I swear.. if I needed my uterus removed, I would need Joe's signature. TriCare and the Army are so weird.

So I get him all ready to go, and need to go get the car. Great....this is the part I knew would suck. But I actually surprised myself. I got Hailey in her car seat and folded the stroller back up - stuck it in the back of the car. I got in and adjusted all of Joe's nonsense and turned the car on. Then I sat there for a second so I could remember how to drive (dear lord.. it's been at LEAST six months since I've driven lol). A slight push of the gas and I remembered how to drive and managed to get up to the front so Joe could get into the car.

Apparently, he doesn't like me driving. He was all concerned about how well I could see. I'll admit, I cannot see as sharply as possible right now, but I can totally see well enough to drive. Actually, it was a lot better than I was expecting. Road signs with small wording on them is my problem...but I didn't need those anyways!

I swung by Checkers and got us some lunch...it's what he wanted. Got us home, grabbed Hailey and took her inside to her bedroom so she would be safe and then ran outside for Joe. I helped him down the stairs outside and got him into his bed set up in the living room, then finished unloading the car. We had some lunch (actually, by this time it was like 5pm and was really more like dinner.. but neither of us really had eaten all day). I put Hailey down to sleep. She's STILL sleeping right now.

She was an absolute ANGEL. I swear, I couldn't possibly have been blessed with a better child. We were in that waiting room from 6am until 2pm - EIGHT HOURS. She cried ONCE. She was really, really tired and I didn't blame her. She had been up since 4:30am! She had about a 30 minute nap in her stroller. I laid it back and gave her a warm bottle and she passed out for a little while. She really needed it. Otherwise, we watched some of the movies in the waiting room and she WAVED at people all day. Well, her "wave" is more of a Hitler wave where she just holds her hand out at people. lol But still.. she gets the idea of what it's for.

Anyways... Joe and I took a nap - together for a while, and then I went upstairs to be closer to Hailey in case she woke up. Joe got up a little while later and was up and about - although he has a soft cast and is pretty pissed about it because it's so much easier to bump his foot and get hurt.

They gave him THIRTY days leave. I think that's bullshit. I thought the 6 weeks we were originally told wasn't enough... thirty days is insane. He thinks it's because they ended up not having to drill into him. I don't really care. He is going to have to learn how to walk again no matter what. But he's up and getting about on his crutches.

Labels: ankle, ankle surgery, army, blogging, crabby, dads, fathers, iraq, Joe, Kimi, military

The Most Important Blog I've Ever Written

So Joe and I hadn't really discussed his surgery much up until tonight. The word "surgery" scares the shit out of me, but deep down I figured it was no big deal. I mean.. it's just an ankle, right? Basically, all I knew is that they were going in his ankle, shortening some ligaments and some other medical stuff that I don't understand. But apparently, it's much bigger than that.. and that's the reason I'm still up at it's 3am.

Joe informed me tonight that they are putting him under. That terrifies me. I was under the impression that he'd get a local anesthetic.. maybe some laughing gas or something. I had no idea they would completely knock him out and put him under, or that he would have his leg open for three hours.

And then it occurred to me that today may have been my last full day with my husband. Sometimes, people don't wake up from that shit. I don't know how common it is or isn't.. and frankly, I don't care. A .01% chance is high enough for me and really threw a lot into perspective. For the past three nights, I've been yelling at Joe to stop snoring.. when I may never hear that snoring again. And maybe we should have spent today doing something special. We didn't.. and I can never get today back. That made me realize that I should treat every day as if it's special.. because it may be the last one we ever get.

So then Joe starts talking about how he doesn't have a living will - which made it all the more real to me that this is really going to happen and it's serious enough that he really should have a living will written out and that something could very well go very wrong. He wouldn't have even made mention of needing one if he didn't think it might be necessary.

And then I thought of Hailey, and watching her play with her daddy and how much I love watching them play and hearing her squeals of laughter.. and how Monday night may be my last chance to ever hear that again. And she loves her daddy SO much and I know he loves her - even if he sometimes has a hard time showing it.

I feel like I have a knife in my heart and someone is just twisting, stabbing and wrenching it repeatedly. I feel sick.. and dinner is in the toilet. I don't know what to think or do. I've never experienced this sort of thing before and will have no time to cope or prepare before Tuesday. I mean, I wish I'd known all of this sooner, although I doubt that would have done any good. How does one prepare for this sort of thing!?

I have no idea how I'm going to make it through Tuesday. I keep playing scenarios through my head and just bawling my eyes out. My mind is racing. I just don't know how I'm supposed to get through a day in a hospital with a near 10 month old and knowing that they are going to put my husband into a sleep he may never wake up from. I'd apologize for being dramatic.. but this is serious shit.

Great.. and now he's mad at me for being upset. Of course I'm upset! Why wouldn't I be upset!? I've never been SO worried about anything in my entire life. I'm afraid of having to wake up without him. I'm afraid of being 22 years old and having to bury my 26 year old husband. OF COURSE I'M FUCKING UPSET!!! Why in the world would I not be? He told me "don't worry about me". Uhh, too late!

And Hailey is having a bad night I guess. She's up for the fourth time. This isn't like her at all. She's so crabby tonight. I let her dance in her bed a while when she got upset. She wore herself out and went back to sleep. But now she's up again and crying. *sigh* I'm sure it could be worse... but I wish she hadn't picked tonight and I wish Joe had told me all of this shit sooner - although I don't know what difference it would have made.

Usually my blogs make me feel better. Not tonight. I'm gonna try to go sleep, although I doubt that's gonna happen. :(

Labels: ankle, ankle surgery, army, dads, family, fathers, Hailey, Joe, kids, Kimi, life, marriage, military, parenting, surgery

Prepping for Surgery

I haven't blogged in a few days. My mind seems to be swimming lately and my ADHD is driving me insane. I try so hard to control it, but I'm having a horrible time concentrating on anything. Stress plays a major factor... and with my husband's ankle surgery coming up, I have plenty of that!

I don't even know what time the surgery is for. That's the Army for ya...give you a place and date, but no time! We won't know until tomorrow - which means getting a babysitter is completely out of the question. I have no idea how well Hailey will handle the hospital. I just don't feel right dropping Joe off and telling him to call me when they are ready to send him home. :( But at the same time, I can't spend the whole day at the hospital with her. That's not going to go well at all and will just make the whole situation more stressful.

I think Joe will come home Thursday at the latest. I'm not 100% sure. I just know that he's supposed to stay at least overnight. I'm gonna miss him SO much. Geez.. we've only really been apart for a couple of weeks total - and that was when we first started dating.

We have a lot to do, but Joe is pretty into sleeping and lounging around. I can understand that.. because he must be nervous. Hell..I'm nervous and I'm not getting my ankle cut into. I wanna get downstairs more living friendly. Joe will be sleeping on the pull out bed/couch for a while and I have no idea how in the world we're getting him upstairs to shower. He'll need to shower at least once a dang week or I may need to evict his stinky self. lol

I'll be doing a lot of driving and bill paying myself. Scary. I never pay our bills. Joe always does it. But there is no way he can go out and do those things in a cast. I'm not even sure how long he'll have the cast...but he'll have leave from work for six weeks so he can heal and learn how to walk again.

I was hoping we could borrow some money from someone and simply pay all of the bills way ahead of time so it would be covered, but I guess that isn't going to happen. At least most of them can be paid online.. which helps a bit.

Anyways.. please keep our family in your thoughts on Tuesday. This is the first of what will probably be many surgeries for my husband!

Labels: ankle, ankle surgery, army, blogging, dads, family, fathers, life, military, money

Crutches

My husband was given his crutches today for his surgery next Tuesday. Now, I've never had surgery before (except the eye surgery when I was 2 weeks old) and I've never broken anything before.. but it seemed sort of odd that they give him his crutches a week in advance. I don't know what he's supposed to do with them until then. I assumed they would give them to him in the hospital to go home with.

So I guess now, we have to get a almost 10 month old, my broken husband AND his crutches to the hospital and back. Bleh. I don't think this is going to be a pleasant experience.. although I guess that's why it's surgery and not vacation.

It'll be nice to have him home, but it also made me realize how much more I will have to take on around here since he'll be unable to walk. I don't mind really, it's just that in addition to normal house stuff, I will have to drive him to the doctor and whatnot for a while. He won't really be able to get on the floor to play with the baby or anything. :(

Yeah.. I'm pretty sure that this is going to suck.

Labels: ankle, ankle surgery, army, dads, life, military, surgery

Removed The CBox

I removed the CBox. The drama is absolutely ridiculous and far from warranted. I don't even know the woman who was posting the derogatory comments. I had never been to her store prior to her little messages. I'm not sure what she thinks I did to her, nor do I really care since I obviously don't know her or have anything to do with her.

If someone has an issue with my store, my email is up for grabs. Go for it. You can spam my email box all day if you'd like. I'd much rather a person do that than go to the length of even trying to IMPERSONATE me in my own store and make snotty comments using the name "Kimi" to try to make me look bad.

Grow up.. seriously. I am 22 years old and far, far from the high school setting. I'm a wife and mother...not some 15 year old girl who stole your boyfriend. I run a business - one that I take seriously and to heart. I'm in no way looking to compete with anyone. I stick to my store, I do my own thing and I make good sales.

There are only TWO military shirts I have ever sold from my store. One of them is seen in the gallery, the other is a shirt no one else in the marketplace has. I know this for a fact. And if anyone has it now, it's because they copied me. Do I care? Not really. I hope they sell just as many of them as I do. My store is far more than military, yet it's the military niche stores that have such an issue with me. Maybe if y'all spent less time digging through each other's stores to see who has what and what might be a knock off of your own stuff, you'd have more time to devote to making new stuff and you might sell more.

I've learned that having a CafePress store doesn't mean competing with other shops. It doesn't mean that at all. It's about marketing and getting your name and brand out there. That's the key to this sort of business. So spend more time worrying about yourselves and less time worrying about what I'm doing today. And stop coming to my store every hour...I have 3 different traffic meters and I see you digging around constantly. Get over yourself.

Labels: adult, army, blogging, cafe press, cafepress, funny, Kimi, military, shirts, shopping, stores

Deployment Inspired Maternity Clothes!

This design has been by far, my most popular sell (which is rather ironic, since we are not necessarily a Military niche store). I sell this item at least once a week, if not more often. And even if it weren't my most popular, I'm pretty sure it would be my favorite anyways! I'm sure you all will enjoy them as well! Buy them for yourself, a friend or a family member!

Since that design has been so popular, I decided it was time to branch out and include Korea, Rest & Relaxation as well as general Deployment. As usual, you can get these designs on many different shirt styles...these are just for show! Each comes in three colors - pink, blue and green. You can buy it to match your child's gender or just your preference. Click on the pictures below to be taken to a page to choose a color, then view all of the shirts featuring this design!

Labels: army, cafe press, clothes, deployment, iraq, korea, matenity, military, rest and relaxation, shirts, shopping, women

Freedom's Price

So it's officially September 11th where I live. I have to admit, I feel a bit compelled to say something in respect for those fallen and those left behind. Today marks one of the most tragic days in American history and it seems only right to continue to acknowledge it. A lot of people think we should stop talking about it. A lot of people believe that we're just giving the terrorists what they want, by giving this subject attention. Well, I'm not one of those people.

My heart and thoughts go out today to the families of the lost. I will never, ever pretend as if I know what you are feeling or what you have gone through. My husband is in the military, and events such as these make me so happy that his time will be up soon and he will be getting out. I worry about him every day.

My husband joined the military prior to September 11th - something that not many soldiers can say these days. A lot of people joined immediately after in pure outrage. While I respect those men and women, I have to say that I respect men and women like my husband, who wanted to defend our freedom at ALL times - not just during a national emergency.

My husband was apart of 1st Cav back then. His unit received deployment orders in March 2003 to reposition forces as required to support the President Bush's global war against terrorism...but those orders were quickly canceled at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. July 23, 2003 the 1st Cavalry Division was identified as a unit that would deploy in 2004 as part of the Operation Iraqi Freedom 2 rotation. That's right.. my husband was apart of the second round of soldiers to deploy to Iraq.

My husband served a 14 month tour in OIF. He was sent home with a permanent injury and continues to suffer nerve damage in his right leg. He was immediately sent from Iraq to a military hospital in Atlanta, GA for treatment. Since being released, he was sent back to Fort Hood, and later to Fort Gordon - where he has been ever since.

Freedom isn't free...and my family continues to pay the price. My husband will never get his strength back. He will go through life in pain and misery until the day he dies. I know that sounds exaggerated, but it's true. My husband's time served in OIF was the starting cause of all of the problems he's facing now - and that includes his upcoming surgery to try to fix one of his ankles. He'll also need several surgeries on his back, more surgeries on his leg, his hands, his shoulder and his other ankle. He spends most days in excruciating pain - something we hope to fix by getting these surgeries. He has hurt himself on more than one occasion, lifting our 9 month old daughter. If that alone isn't payment enough to this country..then I don't know what is.

There is a saying that goes "If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you are reading it in English, thank a Soldier." Well I say, if you are sitting down at your desk, sipping your mocha latte whatevers or eating your bagels...thank a Soldier. You are doing something that many of them would give anything in the world to be doing right now. But instead, they are in other countries - away from their family, friends and loved ones. They defend your right to sit at home. They defend your right to free speech. They defend your right to LIVE. A lot of them won't come back...they will die for a cause that they may want no part of. But they do it, for YOU and for our COUNTRY.

So, if you think we shouldn't talk about it.. and you think it's all behind us.. and you think it's done and over with - you're wrong. There are so many families affected by the tragedy and many families continue to suffer injuries and mourn the loss of their families. Keep those people in your thoughts, hearts and prayers today, remembering that they paid the ultimate price for you.

Labels: 9-11, army, freedom, life, military, September 11 2001, world trade center

Surgery Date Set

My husband just received a phone call, letting him know of the date for his ankle surgery. It's on September 25th. Wow..I really didn't think it would happen that soon. I've hard had time to mentally prepare for this, and I'm sure my husband is in worse shape.

I don't know why in the world I'm so scared about him getting this surgery. I don't think they are going to put him under or anything like that (but who knows.. I'm no doctor lol). But just the word surgery, scares the heck out of me.

He'll get between 21 and 36 days of compensation leave from work after the surgery. It'll be very nice to have him home, but I'm sure his Commander is going to be none too thrilled. I don't think anyone is real happy with him right now. My husband is classified as overweight - which the Army HATES. And to top that off, he's not allowed to do PT anymore - which pisses them off even more. Now, he'll be off work for quite a while so he can heal and learn to use his foot again. Just wait until he takes a week off for Christmas........oh boy, heads are gonna spin! lol But compensation leave doesn't count against his normal leave.. so oh well.

So, one surgery down and who knows how many to go. Before being medically discharged, they have to "fix" everything they broke (well, sorta.. since he will never be back to 100% and certain things will always be weak).

I hope it goes well and I really hope it takes the pain away for him.

Labels: ankle, army, surgery