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I haven't really updated in quite a bit of time so I figured no better time than now. It's 5am, everyone is asleep. I can enjoy a nice hot tea in quiet before the rush of the day. We have quite the busy day today!!

I'm a pretty open book. I don't mind sharing because frankly, I don't care who reads it. I figure if someone who is going through what I am at the same time, struggling through something similar, reads this and I help them be a little more open or share a bit more then why not?  The point of blogging is to get information to others. Whether it be a healthy recipe, a new tool to use in their everyday life or perhaps just a struggle that my family has conquered. I also find it very cathartic. It's a great outlet for me to get things out of my head and off my chest that I have been thinking about. I often go to bed with recipes in my head that I can blog about or information that I think my thousands of readers would love to learn, example the tips on paleo living! If there is ever anything you want to learn, you want more information, you want me to try and create your favorite guilty pleasure into a healthy recipe just ask! either comment or email here [email protected] and I will do whatever I can to help you out! Anyway, I digress! 

We as a family have made some pretty big changes in the last year and a half.  We moved across the country. We absolutely ADORE living in Texas!! It has been by far our most favorite place to live ever!! In fact so much, I want to retire here! We are looking at ranches to buy. My husband wants to get a couple of horses. We do not want a farm because frankly we are NOT farm people! But we would love to be able to set up a nice ranch, have a great garden, some fruit trees and few horses. We love Texas. I can't say it enough. Retirement is only a few years away, so we have sometime to plan thankfully but it's getting close! It's exciting! My husband has put in his time and it's time for him to be able to enjoy civilian life now.

We were in such a different place just 6 months ago. Our little girl wasn't doing very well. She had a lot of set backs in her disease but thankfully being here in Texas with the state of the art rehabilitation facilities available to us, she really has progressed! Just 6 months ago, her Doctors put her at barely a 12 month old's physical level. Now intellectually, she is extremely bright and beyond her age but her physical body just fails her. However with such aggressive, intensive rehabilitation, enough that would make a grown man cry, she has made 24 months of progress in just 6 months!! I will have to post a video of her soon at therapy, she rocks my socks of daily. She truly is my hero and the love of my life. SOOOO with her amazing progress comes big things!! She gets to cut back on some of her therapy and instead of twice a day, 5 days a week she gets to go to two days a week and have in home therapy the other days!! We have set up a therapy area for her complete with bosu balls and balancing gadgets (beyondplay.com is an amazing website for therapeutic needs for kids), we even have a free standing Ballet Barre for her to practice her balance and work on upper body strength. She is an amazing child. SOO with that...... SHE GETS TO GO TO PRESCHOOL NOW!!! She is finally at a physical level that she can go to school. At first we thought next year she would be able to start Pre-K and go to the Special needs School. They have Mainstream education classes but for physically impaired children where they offer physical therapy, OT, ST and FT there for her too at the same time. However, she really has come a long way that we don't even need to ever look at that option. She just gets to go to school with her peers and move on from there. She will forever have to be in therapy. It's a battle she will endure for the rest of her life but with time and age we will be able to slowly progress to just doing everything at home and only seek facility help when she has an injury. It's just mind blowing that 6 months ago, she was using a wheelchair and leg braces and couldn't walk up one step on her own and today she is standing on a bosu ball doing squats while holding an 8 pound medicine ball. She blows my mind at how strong her will is! 

So that brings us to our busy day! She gets to go to her 6 month dentist cleaning woot, oddly she loves the dentist haha! Then She gets to go MEET HER NEW TEACHER!!!!! and see her classroom! We have to pick up her class supply list and can I say, my husband and I are pretty excited to have to go buy school supplies lol!! We are so proud of her! She is so excited to go to school! She's going to a private Christian school which is important to my husband and I. They have great values and a group called Mission kids, one night per week they get together and learn about doing things for others and just being compassionate and mission minded children. Which is a great value to have. She has been through a lot and a lot of people have been there for her whether it be doctors, therapists, our friends, the fisher house when she was in the hospital last year for a small stroke, so many of our military friends were a great emotional support to us and We want her to learn how it's important to help others and give back selflessly.

AND THIS MAMA gets some time to herself!! Ahh to go to the gym and run without worrying about a childcare time limit!! Get my hair done, do some work at home without stopping to have a tea party (which I love) so now when she is home from school, all of my time is just us! No running errands, no cleaning house just me and her because I can do all of that when she's at school! I'm sad though because I am so going to miss our morning snuggle time at least I have the weekends! It's been just me and her for almost 4 years. The two of us everyday, all day together since my husband works such long hours we really just get him for dinner time and weekends. She's my best bud!

Well that is enough of an update today! I'm off to go run to some of my local associates homes to get some training done for them before our crazy day

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This little lady right here is my entire heart and soul wrapped up in her little 39 pound body! She is truly the most amazing thing to ever happen to me. The two of us have been through hell and back together.

For a short brief back story. Fally was born with a rare genetic disorder called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. Without going into too much detail, it's a connective tissue disorder affecting the collagen production in her body which deeply affects her joints and blood vessels. (for more info feel free to check out her awareness page www.facebook.com/FootstepsforFally ).  It's been a long long road fighting to find someone, anyone who could treat her. We have traveled all across the country only to end up leaving Upstate NY and moving to southern Texas to a place where she is getting the most AMAZING therapy services a person could possibly get!  We had a set back in her progress the day after thanksgiving last year (2012) when we were out for the lighting of the Christmas lights on the Riverwalk in San Antonio when she suffered a minor stroke at the very tender age of barely 3 years old. However, she fought back and has kicked ass along the way. I digress because that's not what I'm writing about today. She is severely motor skill delayed due to her disease. In fact we were told when she was an infant that she would never walk, never run, never jump, never dance and just never really do most things that the average healthy child/person would be able to do.  She had been dealt a life of leg braces (AFOs) and wheelchairs. We had to carry her everywhere even at 3 years old because walking was hard, after a few too many steps she was exhausted and in pain. It was just so hard to watch her struggle.

My anxiety from all of this comes because 6 months ago she had another standard physical therapy evaluation where they measure and score her motor skills (we will go through this same process again for occupational therapy, speech and feeding therapy). 6 months ago my little girl was in a wheelchair, leg braces barely moving much other than toddling around the house or wherever we were for a few steps. She was scored by the medical community at the age of 3 and a half years old as having the gross motor skills (walking jumping etc) of 14 month old baby. The taller she got, the heavier she got, the harder for her it was to get around and the more pain it caused her joints. Her development pediatrician and genetics physician as well as her regular pediatrician didn't seem too optimistic that she would really ever progress very well as most children with EDS tend to digress as their joints deteriorate or have chronic pain. Well her new Physicial therapist (fally's 3rd) saw something in fally that made her think, no this isn't it for her. She is one determined and motivated little child. She has so much more in her. So we set a long hard schedule of therapy every single day, some days twice a day plus working with her at home. It was a lot of tantrums, a lot of tears, a lot of days where fally just wanted to go to sleep she was so tired.  An adult would buckle under her work out schedule. The goal was to build muscle! yeah you heard that right BUILD MUSCLE in a 3 year old child who has hypotonia (severe low muscle tone very loose and floppy). Well tomorrow is the end of 6 months. Tomorrow is Fally's re-evaluation and scoring to see where she is today. I'm so anxious to see where they put her on the age charts for motor skills. She still is behind other 4 year olds. Very behind in fact. However, fally is no longer in a wheelchair, she has graduated from leg braces to SMOs (just ankle brace which she will always need) and........................... that little girl that all of those doctors told us would never dance..... takes a dance class both tap and ballet every Tuesday!! In fact she had a dance recital on fathers day weekend. Yes she was much more behind than the other girls, she couldn't do most of the leg work but she went through the motions, gave it her all and was so very proud of herself. That is all I could ask for. So here I sit, anxious to see how far my little warrior has come in the last 6 months.

Just a small intro about me and what makes me tick, without sounding too much like an autobiography or singles ad.  I am a 36 year old mama, Military wife, Nurse turned stay at home mom to an amazingly brilliant special needs child and small business owner. 

I am a dork as in Total GEEK like no other, I love 80s movies and rocking out in the car with my 3 year old singing and dancing like maniacs in the car. I get a dork hard on for all things medicine and science. I have been called Britannica by many people due to my photographic memory and insane mind full of useless trivia on just about anything!

I LOVE to run thought I am currently a fat ass and the thought of running to the bathroom makes me sweat! I am on a mission to get fit and fabulous for not just me but my daughter. I love to be silly and goof off with my husband and daughter, hang out at home and just do nothing. We are pretty big home bodies since the Hubs deploys a lot, we like to savior our limited time together. 

With that being said, I am a lover of all things CARB and CHEESE!!! Sadly, both are my nemesis as I am a diabetic and carbs are my kryptonite. I am overweight, Normally I am fit but just a bit fluffy after pregnancy however I sort of let myself go this last year and a half. I am trying to climb my way back to being healthy and fit.  Our 3 year old little girl Fally has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (I will write more about that another time). With her rare genetic disease comes a lot of therapy, 5 days a week in fact and some days twice. This has been our routine for almost 2 years now. I've become comfortable in being lazy and living just for her. I've found comfort in yummy snackage while sitting at night trying to enjoy my few short minutes of peace alone as I've never been without her because she just needs her mama!

We are a military family and yes we move often. My husband deploys often enough to have been on 5 year long tours to the Middle East. Life is chaotic to say the least but if it means our princess is getting stronger, I wouldn't change our craziness for the world.

I started my own home business as a distributor for Saba/ACE a little over a year ago in search of a tool to help with my terrible carb cravings and low and behold I LOVED IT! Lost an amazing amount of weight with it and I started selling it. I have zero plans on ever leaving this amazing company, it's truly changed my life. HOWEVER, I stopped taking ACE last November when Fally had a Stroke and due to stress and fear of something happening to her, I ATE MY FAT ASS BACK to heffalump size. I AM guilty of being a stress eater! I just can't help it. I'm working on ways to combat that problem but for now, I am starting back on ACE on Monday July 15th. So do please follow my journey and if I crash, kick me in the ass. I NEED to get healthy and back in shape. The older Fally gets, the harder it is to carry her everywhere. She is a hair under 40 pounds and lugging her around HURTS! Especially when I'm carrying my own extra baggage. Now getting back to ACE! LOVE my company, I've been quite successful thus far so much that we are going to our company's annual conference in Oklahoma City tomorrow and I have been asked to speak about my success, what the company has done for me and my family and what drives me to keep on building such an incredible business! It is such an honor for me to be asked when I have only been with the company for a year! My goal is by our next OKC event in July 2014, IM A SEXY BITCH RAWR!!!!!!!!!!

Anyhow, I ramble, I am an open book feel free to ask me anything. You will see a lot of variety here from bullshit babble to healthy posts, updates about my daughter, Inspirational updates from my customers and fellow associates! Thank you so much for taking a moment to get to know me.

~~MANDY