Beautiful Catholic Stationery, Holy Water bottles and More....

Yesterday, we went to Belmont Abbey for the Bishop's teen Lenten retreat.  We were able to go into the bookstore and purchase a few things.  I bought Joseph's Confirmation gifts and I also bought the cutest Catholic Stationery and a tiny, purse size bottle to hold Holy Water!   The stationery had a website , check them out! www.catholicstationery.com Very pretty items on their site.  We've had a long week and the other day, I received a surprise gift from a friend in Israel.  A beautiful scarf.  I really needed it after finding out that Joseph also has high blood pressure issues and will need a sleep study.  Hopefully, the sleep study will be normal.  We still have to keep track of Sean's blood pressure and now we add Joseph.  I was shocked when we got a reading of 140/77 for him.  He's been staying in the 130s with a few dips into the high 120s.  Apparently, this is all part of Mitochondrial Disease.

To illustrate how OCD I am, I will share this with you.  I went out and purchased a new blood pressure monitor --even after talking to the Target pharmacist that said we already owned a very good and reliable brand.  I also have a manual BP cuff and stethoscope.  This new monitor gets the same readings as the old ones and my manual BP readings. *sighs*  This hasn't changed since they were young and failure to thrive. I would count and recount the calories, count the number of items they ate, then add up the calories... 2400, 2700, 3000 and shake my head thinking, "They can't not gain weight with that number of calories," then I would recount them again and again.....  It wold have been easier to fix if it was only a mathematical error on my part.  Same goes for the blood pressure monitor, it would be a lot easier to fix his blood pressure if it were only the monitor that was not working.

Cute Holy Water bottle from Belmont Abbey

Scarf my friend sent from Israel

V Card Tutorial Video

V cards are EASY and fun to make. I hope you enjoy making your own V cards after watching my video tutorial that I made for a website not too long ago. I can share it here with my blog readers because I retain rights to all of my videos and creations (lucky for you, huh!?) Enjoy and happy card making!

V Card from Pattie Curran on Vimeo.

Blood Drive Update and Mito Walk

The Blood drive collected 44 pints of blood! Absolutely amazing. The Red Cross told us that 30 pints would be considered a good drive. 

Our family is also participating in the Energy for Life Walk to benefit United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation on October 15, 2011.  We've named our team Currans for a Cure.  I started a Facebook Page, for those of you on FB who would like to follow our progress.  I contacted the UMDF and was told we could register our team in the next few weeks.  I am really excited!

I am hoping to host a "Stamp out Mito" event soon.....  I am going to see if I can host it here at the house AND allow people to order items on-line to benefit UMDF.

We've spent a lot of time at the hospital with friends this last week.  One of our Mito friends from TN (met them in Cincy) had her daughter transported here to Brenner when her daughter's gut shut down.  She is now TPN dependent.  A few days ago, our local Mito friend's daughter landed in the hospital.  So, we've been visiting and helping out.  Mito isn't fun. 

Our lives continue on as usual-- pain, sleep issues, fatigue.... but we are thankful for each day and try to enjoy life in spite of the constant reminders that SDS and Mito are part of our lives.

Luminary and Matching Card Tutorial Video

Luminary and Matching Card from Pattie Curran on Vimeo.

Another free sneak peek at the videos I make for a wesbite (I own the rights, so I can share!)