Hillbilly Tooth

So my nightmare has come true. I broke a tooth!! A molar! I have nightmares of losing or breaking teeth all the time and now its a reality. Am I just vain or is this a realistic cause for serious anxiety and stress? I think so! So I had a root canal on my first lower right molar a while back... well actually December of 09, and well..... I totally spaced to have a crown put on it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. What a loser you say? Yup, thats me. Too much has been going on in my life for the last year and half that its no wonder that I have just purged that from my mind! Any how, a while back, my temporary filling came out and then just this week, my filling came loose, I called my dentist and got an appointment for today, well that same night, I went running and the darn filling came out!! I almost choked on that nasty thing! So there became my broken tooth story. Now I get to worry about a big ole hole in my mouth for my wedding pictures! I am devastated!! I will look like a bride from my Big Fat Redneck Wedding episode. Ugh!! I will be in the market for a temporary fix to my dilema. I might see if I can find a toy tooth from a kids game or something. There are no lengths as to what I will do! I am taking suggestions at this point. I was informed that it may take about 3 months for a bridge and even longer for an implant!! What the heck! Help a girl out someone! My wedding is in 79 days, I dont have time for this. My extraction will be on Tuesday the 5th, so my anxiety has already started to mount. Hopefully it goes smoothly and I dont puke on my dentist!

Wayward Birds

As me and the family pulled in to our driveway this past Friday evening after dinner at the parentals house, we were greeted by two lost pink flamingos.


Although noone is talking, I'm sure I know who placed these two horribly gaudy pink nightmares in my yard. So, ding ding, games on!!

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Jo's New Wheels

Can I possibly be this old already? My first born just got her first car! What?!!! It just seems like yesterday that she was running around saying "narbles" because she couldnt say marbles right and now here she is with her first car. Where did the time go? How did she grow up on me? Enter sad face here.
Nathan went to Socorro on Tuesday and picked up her pimp mobile. Its a 2002 Mitsubishi Mirage that needs some work but she is super excited and thankful. She is already wanting to deck it out with headlight eyelashes and Hello Kitty junk all throughout! It will be a pink nightmare by the time she is done with it. Nathan will be doing the majority of the work on it to getting it ready for her. He is waiting on some parts and once they come in, he will throw on his grease monkey garb and get down to business. He is so handy and a true man! Me and the girls are blessed to have him in our life. Thank you babes, for all you have done for us and how you so effortlessly take care of everything! We appreciate you more than you will ever know!

Chicago Update

Our Chicago trip went well and it's good news from Dr. Pachman. She is very pleased with the improvement she saw today. She has informed us to start tapering the Prednisone by 1 mg. every 4 weeks. She is hoping that in doing this that it will help lower Allorahs glucose and triglycerides. This has to be done slowly as to not begin a "flare". So we are keeping our fingers crossed. She is however increasing her Methotrexate injection from 0.6 to 0.7 to cover any calcinosis forming at the incision site of her surgery from Friday, also due to the little piglet gaining some weight from this past September. Her strength and range of motion has improved as well and she is so pleased. She did stress the need to continue with a strict diet of low fat, low carbs, no sugar. It's so hard to find stuff for her to eat and enjoy. You can only have so much chicken breast, fish, pork and veggies. So we have had to become creative. She had her usual amount of labs drawn today and will have more answers in about a week and we have to be back for a follow-up on August 22nd. We are praying for the decreasing of all her meds and for a total remission.


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Location:S Mayfield Ave,Chicago,United States

Sitting Alone

Sitting alone,
Mind racing,
Thoughts a blur,
Seeing the despair,
Watching the questions,
Hearing the fear...

A look around, need only be brief...

The waiting room in any hospital is filled with all these deep emotions, yet a waiting room in a children's hospital seems to magnify them
all around by an exponential value not yet describable.   The parents, friends, loved ones and relatives wait feverishly for any word providing an indication of how things are going.  If only all could share in the strength and hope written on one of these kids faces and seated deep in their hearts, our days would be much simpler and full of appreciation!  Please keep Lola and our family in your thoughts and prayers.

This was written by my amazing fiancee. His ability to convey his feelings and emotions into words truly amazes me.

Chicago Surgery

Allorah had her excisinal biopsy of the calcinosis on her left hip early this morning here in Chicago at Children's Memorial Hospital. She is now resting comfortably here at the hotel. The surgery went well and Dr. Vicari did an amazing job. She was in and out in 45 minutes. The research assistant from Dr. Pachmans center came by and picked up the calcinosis so they can run an anyalysis on it. The calcinosis itself was about 3x7 mm and located on the lower left portion of her hip. It is now gone and the healing has begun. I can't believe how brave she is, it truly amazes me and makes me so proud to call her my daughter.

We will be in Chicago until Monday night. She has an appointment with Dr. Pachman on Monday morning and we may have to see the endocrinologist here as well. We will play it by ear and see how she feels and may get some sightseeing in as well. She is very sore at the incision site but her spirits are good. Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes. We truly appreciate it.


Here she is enjoying her ritual dinner at Toro Sushi. Thank you Mitch, the owner and sushi chef extraordinare, for the amazing dinner you provided to my family and for all the extra "goodies" you made for us.

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Sale or Rent?

So this is a bittersweet time for me as I get my house ready to move. I'm confused as to whether I should sell or rent it out. The market isn't so great here and I could probably break even but not sure what I should do. So many what if's circling my brain. I painted baseboards this weekend and a new ceiling fan will be going up this week in the front room. Its a super cute house but I'm worried it will stay on the market forever. Any ideas?


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Relaxation, What Is That?

No one can seem to explain to me what relaxation is. These days its 200 MPH with no end in sight. I cant seem to not ever have anything to do. Its crazy how fast the year has gone and its now almost half over! Today I glanced at my wedding countdown app on my iPhone and gasped when I saw that we are 99 days away!

Holy schnikes, where did the time go? I will be Mrs. Nathan Barton in 99 days! Oh my goodness, I am so excited! My girls dresses have been bought and they look so amazing in them. Jordyn loves hers and she tried it on and I couldnt believe she is only almost 17 years old! Yikes, I'm in big trouble! And Allorah, well, she is no longer my baby girl, she looks so grown up. Now if I can just convince her that converse sneakers are not my choice of shoe, then we will be fine! :) I just wish that Diesel Bentley could make the nuptials. I just want to see him in a tuxedo! He would be our ring bearer but with our luck, he would eat a fairly large amount of jewelry and we would have to be scouring his turds! So, maybe leaving him at home is a more suitable option! We have decided that we are writing our own vows and we are actually already almost done with that. Can you believe how we are just so organized and on top of things? I know I cant! Here is our wedding website if you wanna take a sneak peek on what we are planning: http://www.mywedding.com/shannonandnathan/
Its cheesy and corny but so are we.

Home Sweet Home

We made it home safe and sound and we are beat! My poor Nathan did the entire drive since we all suffer from road trip narcolepsy. :) At least I can say I have the worlds most handsome chauffeur!

We are home for 12 days then we take off to Chicago on the 16th for Allorahs surgery to remove calcinosis on her right hip. Then after that maybe she can finally enjoy her summer. Thank you mom and dad for traveling with us and being there for us during this trip. The kids had a great time minus all the hospital business but it was a nice time with you. Thank you to all our family and friends for all the prayers. Love you all!


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Fun Day

This was what we needed after a long week of hospital mode. The kids had a blast and so did my parents. Six Flags was so much fun and I couldn't think of a more fun way to end the long week!

Lola is Out!

So we got discharged yesterday evening and Lola is doing well. She had an EKG, DEXA bone density scan, and more fasting labs and then Dr. Garg and Dr. Amady went over her lab and scan results with us. Her MrI's confirm fat loss throughout her entire body and confirms the lipodystrophy diagnosis. He will be working in conjunction with her endocrinologist Dr. Kauffman in Albuquerque to lower her sugars and triglycerides. He feels that because of all her steroids and many meds that she is on right now that she isn't ready for the Leptin treatment now. Which is a good thing. He will also be wanting to have Dr. Pachman lower her Prednisone as low as possible which will help with the insulin resistant diabetes. She does have a fatty liver which is why it's enlarged and her triglycerides are high. We will have to come back to see him next year unless she gets more out of control. He wants to keep in contact with us via email which is nice and comforting. Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes. She is a brave one, my Lola.

Wednesday Update

All is well in Dallas. Allorah is doing good and is an ideal patient. She had her insulin tolerance test this morning and tolerated the insulin well with no complications. She also had more fasting labs taken this morning and another IV placed. This afternoon she had a specialized liver MRI to check how much damage is in there and then an MRI of her entire body to see fat loss. The whole session took almost 2 hours! So now we wait for results and tomorrow we have a consult with the docs to go over her MRI films and labs and then a DEXA bone density scan. We will be checking out on Friday and heading to Six Flags on Saturday. That's what the girls are looking forward too.