I am posting this Care Bear, better known as Good Luck Bear, because tomorrow I am going in to do my tilt table test. A tilt table test is where they hook me up to a heart monitor and I.V. while on a table that I'm strapped into. Then they tilt me to a 70 degree angle for anywhere from 30-45 minutes or longer and see what my body does and how I react. All this time they are hoping that I faint so that they can get the results they need to find out what is causing me to faint so much.

I don't like hospitals to begin with, so you can only imagine how I am feeling about going tomorrow to get this test done. But I am hoping to come out of this with a better understanding as to what I can do to prevent myself from fainting.

Wish me luck, because as told by my cardiologist. The worst case scenario if they get the results they want and it's really bad, they will have to put a pace maker in me. I am to young for all this to be going on. I mean seriously I'm not even 30 yet and I am falling apart.

Happy Valensary to me and Vaughn tomorrow

Okay so it's a made up word. But it works for people that are having their anniversary on the same day as Valentine's day. One year ago tomorrow Vaughn and I tied the knot at the downtown court house with the best witnesses ever(our boys).

So to all that are like myself and Vaughn and are celebrating an anniversary tomorrow as well I say to you

HAPPY VALENSARY!

Maybe it's time...

My 1 year anniversary is on the 14th. i have been with Vaughn for a little over 9 years. things are still rocky in areas. I don't know what to do anymore. Maybe it's time to get some counseling.

NO WAY

Okay so I haven't posted in a while partly because I have been busy trying to figure out what's going on with my hear. The doctor's still don't really know what's going on. but have some other tests they want to do.

Tired of being a Ginnie pig. But now to top it all off I have developed a lovely little cold bug inside me. DANG IT! i can't afford to be sick right now. I literally was out of work for 10 days and just came back on Monday.

SUCK IT UP ALECIA! YOU CAN DO THIS!

Waiting for the results

Okay so in the past week and some change I have fainted 3 times. Last Monday the 11th was the first time, Saturday i went in for chest pain which I found out that the E.M.T.'s just diagnosed as a Panic Attack and said" It's not a big deal, she's just freaking out about something." Then Tuesday this week I passed out again.

When the doctor finally realized that this is the third time in 8 days he admitted me and the next morning( today) i did a stress test, an echo, basically an ultrasound of the heart, and an EEG to test the brain waves.

I failed the stress test which is what the cardiologist wanted to see. She was saying that she thinks what is causing this is when my heart rate and blood pressure go up my air valves are not opening up enough o let the blood and air flow threw and my brain doesn't get enough oxygen causing me to faint.

Making a long story short I came home today because I did not feel like sleeping at the E.R. another night while waiting for the results of all my tests to come back. So with any luck at all tomorrow I will have the results and FINALLY get some answers other than " I don't know what's going on with you."

Lord please help the doctors find results so that I can gt on with my life and get this fixed if it needs to be. Amen

What is going on?

Two days ago I was getting ready to go to work when all the sudden I start feeling really dizzy I think nothing of it, since I've had a headache for 9 days straight, and continue getting ready for work. As I make my way to the kitchen I start getting even more dizzy. But before I can sit down I apparently collapse. The last thing I remember was going to get a drink of water and that was around 10:20am or so. Apparently I called Vaughn and told him at about 11:00am that I had fallen again and he needs to come get me. He rushes home only to find me trying to get up and looking dazed and confused. He helps me to the couch and gets my slippers

" Time to go to the E.R." he says

Not really knowing what's going on he helps me to the car and were off. Thinking it would be faster and not take all day he takes me to the Urgent care on Silverbell. However once I'm in and the doctor finds out that I fainted she immediately calls for an ambulance to take me to Northwest.

To make a long story short, after several blood tests, a UA, and a Cat scan of the brain. They do not know what caused me yet again to black out. I say again because this is now the 2nd time in less than a year that this has happened.

Needless to say I called work to let them know what was going on and they were not to thrilled about it. Sorry I think I would rather stay home and make sure that if I do fall someone will be there to catch me, as opposed to no one. I have a feeling that work is going to ask me to leave since my health has been an issue lately causing a lot of missed days from work. With any luck at all I will get this all straightened out at my doctors visit today and find out if I am able to go back to work any time soon.

A light at the end of the tunnel

Last year brought some hard times for my husband and I. In March we signed adoption papers for our two beautiful children to not live with us and for us to loose all legal rights of being their parents. That was the hardest thing we have EVER had to do. But we knew that we were doing a selfless thing , and that our children would be in a much better place.

In April we were told by our case manager that we would continue to have visits with our kids for another 6 months. much to our surprise on the next visit we were told that we only had one visit left and then everything would be done, and it would be up to the new parents as to when we get to see our kids.

More hard times and things happened through out the year, like not being able to see our youngest on his 4th birthday.

But then our world turned around when we met with some Elders and started talking to them about the LDS church and what it really meant to be a Mormon.

I am happy to say that on May 16th, and May 30th. Me and my husband were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints.

Since then our life has changed for the better, we have had many blessings and made friends with such wonderful people.

I hope that this year brings many more blessings, and friends. And I hope that we will be bale to help those that are in need, like the many that have helped us.

What a gift

Lately I have been having really bad pains in my stomach. At first I thought It was just something I ate. But after a week of my stomach still hurting in the same spot and not being able to handle it. I had Vaughn take me to the urgent Care on Cortaro and Silverbell. to get it checked out. They did blood work and some other tests, to see if maybe I had a U.T.I. but all the tests came back normal. They explained to me that because it's a abdominal problem they are going to have to refer me to the E.R.

Long story short I went to N.W. Medical Center.They did some more tests gave me some Milk of Magnesia and some Morphine, and made me wait for an hour or so. When the doctor came back he told me all the blood work was fine and had me point to where the pain was. Then he so kindly started pushing in that area( I guess to see how funny I look when I'm in pain. he diagnosed me with an ulcer and gave me some Ranitidine and Viciden for the pain.

Wow do I know how to give myself a Christmas present or what? Maybe next year I can outdo myself, stay tuned to find out.

Pictures of Cody's Baptism

Me and my little man


Vaughn, Grammy, Cody, Alecia


Posing for a milk add



Vaughn and Cody

Had the time of my life and cried like a little baby. but I'm glad we were able to witness this. More pictures on my facebook account

Cody's baptism

I will never forget Saturday December 19th for as long as I live. Our oldest son Cody was baptized and Vaughn, Grammy, and I got to go. It was amazing to witness my little boy turning into a fine young man. His baptism was in Sahuarita were he and his brother now live with their new Mom and Dad. We were just very blessed to be a part of Cody's special day, and Cody was more than pleased to see us there. So was our little man Zachary.

Have tons of pictures to go threw and figure out which are the best to post in my next blog, but for now I am tired and need to go to bed. I will post more later with pictures of the baptism.

Here's your sign

Okay I know that I am a big girl, and that I could stand to loose a good 30-40 ounds or more.

But when I have 2 people in less than a week and a half come up to me and ask me What I'm having and when I am due. I know there's a really bad problem. Especially considering we have two girls at work that are both 5 months along with somewhat big belly's.

So I have made a promise to myself that I am going to start eating better and tryibng hard to lay off the sweets.

Wish me luck!

Proud of myself

Today is my oldest son Cody's birthday. And although it is tough to not see him on his birthday I have to say that I did pretty well today. I only cried 3 times through out my whole shift at work. Which is truly amazing.

Cody,

I really hope you are having a great day and got lots of presents. We'll see you on Saturday when you get baptized.

Love,
Mom

And the Moral of the story is...

Okay so the last couple days I have not been sleeping very well. So needless to say when I go to work I am tired and cranky. Well last night I finally got tired of being up until 3 am for the 4th day in a row, so around 2am, I took a sleeping pill that my doctor prescribed to me a while back to help me sleep .

BIG MISTAKE! By the time the pill finally kicked in I was out like a light. I ended up sleeping from around 2:30am until almost 3pm. Not good considering I was supposed to be at work at 9:30am.

I called my manager and she explained to me that this is the kind of thing that could get me fired from other jobs, but not from this one since this is a training facility to help me do better in other jobs. I explained to her that I'm very aware of that and thanked her for not terminating me.

The moral of the story this time: Never again am I taking something to help me sleep. Next time I will just have to suck it up

Seriously??

So I'm at work and it's already 7pm. the time we close. A lady walks in to the store and I tell her ma'am I'm sorry but were closed. She says she only wants to get one thing and it will be really quick. Again I tell her sorry but we are closed and need to get everyone out of the store now so that we can clean up and go home on time.

To this she replies: " It's because I'm Jewish, that's why you won't let me get the item."

I reply " It has NOTHING to do with your religion, it's just time for us to close."

Seriously? How the heck am I supposed to know that she is Jewish? And even if I did it has nothing to do with what religion she is. Some people really don't make any sense to me.

Bishop's Shopping Night

Yesterday was the start of our two say event at work. It's called Bishop Shopping Nights. What it is, is a night especially designed for those LDS or non families that have talked to a bishop and gotten an order to go Christmas shopping.

The nice part about it is these families don't pay a dime for the things that they are getting.

Anyway, as I was saying this all started last night @ 6:30 and kept going non-stop until 9:30. I don't know how many people were there but we had a line for 3 hours so that gives you an idea.

I felt like the jolly fat man himself as I helped these people with their orders, well okay maybe not Santa but at least an elf.It was a truly amazing sight to see all these people be able to put gifts under the tree this year even though they are not able to afford them. It made me stop and think how truly blessed I am to be a part of this, and how much my life has changed because I am a part of the church.

I am not going to fib, I will be one of the families that gets to go shopping like this for our children and for my husband and I for clothes.But I am waiting until Friday to do this so that our customers are able to get what they need first. Never fear we will still be able to get some really good stuff.

I just want to take a minute and thank God for all the many blessings he has given me and my family this year. I love you Heavenly Father and words will never express how much this means to us.

Proud Mommy

Okay so he's not a baby anymore, but he will always be my baby.

I'm talking about my oldest son Cody who will be turning 8 on the 15th and getting baptized on Saturday the 19th. I am so excited to be a part of this, as well as my husband and my mother-in-law. We have been waiting for this day for 3 years now, and I can't believe it's almost here.

Part of me wants to shout for joy, because I know my son is growing up and this is a big step in his life. But another part of me wants to cry because my son is growing up. I feel like one of those mask with the Smile Now, Cry Later theme like this




More will be posted with pictures. Keep a look out for it

Stop Raining on my Parade

I am so tired of people coming in to work just to criticize our religion.
Today for example I was waiting on this guy and he asked me

" Do you have any discounts today."

I reply: " No sir we don't give out discounts, because we feel are prices are already reasonable"

To this the man replies " Oh you only give discounts to the Mormon's huh?"

I simply said "The only people that gets discounts are the one's that work here, and yes a lot of us are Mormon."
To tick me off even more he says" Oh that's right you have to have multiple wife's in order to be Mormon and get a discount."

I simply had, had enough by this time so I said to him
" Sir I really don't appreciate the way you're acting. and if you knew about Mormon's you would know that we don't believe in more than one mate."

GRR. To this I say:
Stop raining on my parade. Just because you can't understand our beliefs or are to lazy to look it up doesn't give you the right to bash on us. I am Mormon and proud to be one. My life has been so much happier since I became Mormon. And to all you non-believers out there that think we believe in crazy things and our a cult. I got a great book for you to read that helps explain it all. You'll never guess what it's called:



Stop being ignorant about our religion, pick the book up and read it. Maybe then you will will realize that this is how you look when you put us down:


You may think you are putting me down when you insult me, our any of my brother's are sisters. but in all honesty the only person you are insulting is God himself for being so cruel to his children. Believe me when your time comes you're going to wish you were nicer.

It's ok to say Merry Christmas to me

I am shocked to hear little kids asking their parents if it's okay to say Merry Christmas, or should they say Happy Holidays.

Friday I was helping a mother and daughter with their purchases after I was done with the order. I simply said

"Thanks and have a nice day, and Merry Christmas" Like I always do. To this I hear the little girl say:

" Merry Christ" and then she stopped looked at her mom and asked
" Is it okay to say that?"

The mom responded with : " I don't know, some people don't apporve of that just say Happy Holidays."

Are you kidding me? I am outraged at what this world has come to. I used to love Christmas time when I was little and NEVER remember having to trip over myself on what to say to someone. It was always Merry Christmas.

I want all those of you out there that read this and feel the same way to please post back with :

And the Award goes to...

Today was a good day at work. Every month we have a devotional where we sing a song, have a prayer,give out awards to the hard workers, and celebrate birthdays with cake at the end.

Today I was shocked when I was given the award of



I was given this award because my manager says I always look for things to do and don't stand around at work. With this award I received a card and a bag of Hershey's Mint truffle Kisses.

Dear Santa

Dear Santa,

It's been a long time since I have written you a letter, and I'm sorry. As your song says you see me when I'm sleeping and know when I'm awake.You know if I've been bad or good. So this year I hope you and I can agree that my name should be on the Good girl list.

If that's the case then I would like to ask you for a Wii game console and the Super Mario Brothers game as well. I hear this Wii thing is the newest rage. It's like the Super Nintendo of my time only newer and cooler. Even though I am asking you for this. My biggest wish this year is that you take care of all those families that are struggling to make ends meet this year. Many of those will be blessed soon when they come to Bishop night at my work. But for those that can't or don't know about this. Please Santa help them find the joy in Christmas as well.

With love,
Alecia