How long must this go on!

Night Terrors Symptoms: Sudden awakening from sleep, persistent fear or terror that occurs at night, screaming, sweating, confusion, rapid heart rate, inability to explain what happened, usually no recall of "bad dreams" or nightmares, may have a vague sense of frightening images. Many people see spiders, snakes, animals or people in the room, are unable to fully awake, difficult to comfort, with no memory of the event on awakening the next day.

Why am I blogging about this? Because Jackson has been dealing with night terrors ever since I can remember. It use to happen quite frequently. It is so scary to see your child go through this. During the first few times and so unfamiliar as to what was happening, I thought this had to be something demonic. It is terrifying. His eyes would be wide open. He would be looking at me as if I was some kind of monster, his teeth would be chattering and you could feel his heart beating so fast. He would kick and flail his arms, and you couldn't talk to him or wake him out of it. We learned through lots of reading that you are to hold him close until it passes. It always ends with a yawn and then he is out with out any memories of what had occurred. It would usually last about 10 to 15 minutes. As a parent you feel helpless, wanting to make it better but not knowing how. Feeling him struggling to break free from you tight grasp, terror stricken as if something horrific was standing right in front of him.

As years pass, he gets bigger and while it seems these night terrors aren't as frequent as they use to be it gets harder to hold him still and the night terrors get more vivid so it seems. What we have learned that helps is to have him pray while he is going through this. I have him repeat after me a prayer to God to keep him safe and after that prayer it seems to go away. I think more importantly it helps him to focus on something, distracting his mind. But to get him to the point of being able to calm down enough to listen and pray isn't easy. I keep hoping that he will grow out of this. He is eleven years old and still has them every so often. Last night being the last time. What is going to happen when he is a 16? Is he still going to sleep walk to our room, kicking a flailing his arms? It will take two of us to hold him down.

Anyway, here is some information on this. I am writing about this because it is Genetic. A few of the Bartletts had this issue when they were younger and it has passed on to Jackson and who knows what other of the fourteen grand kids have this issue.

Here are some of the things that we have to do or have done in the past to keep him safe and snap him out of it.
1. Because sleep walking is involved, make sure that there is no obstacles in their way, and that any doors leading outside are locked and blocked to prevent them from walking outside.

2. Make sure that your kids are getting enough sleep. We have discovered that these night terrors can be triggered from lack of sleep. Not always is that the case, but in most instances it is.

3. Do not try and wake them while going through this, it will cause them to be even more disoriented and can frighten them even more. Instead hold them tight. For us, we try and calmly talk to him and get him to repeat a prayer with us and that always snaps him out of it.


Fast Facts about Night Terrors
Run in families.
Are not dangerous.*
Can last 10-20 minutes.
Occur in stage 4 of the sleep cycle.
Can happen at any age 1 hour - 100 years old.

http://pediatrics.about.com/cs/sleep/a/night_terrors.htm

*What you do during night terrors can be dangerous i.e. walking into objects or using kitchen appliances

Just blogging to blog

It feels like forever since I blogged last so I thought I would update what has been going on with us. Well, Brian has been working very hard at claims. He started on the 15th, working seven days a week, twelve to thirteen hour days. He is at the Farmers Insurance building in Olathe, not doing field work, but in the office again which is nice cause we still get to see him, even though it 's when he is mentally drained and sleepy. We will take what we can get. They have more claims this time around then his last stint in the office which tells us he could be in there for a very long time.

The shop and studio business is steadily increasing. Our sales tripled last week from the week before which was enough to get excited about. I think the article in the paper helped out a ton. At the beginning of November we are going to close our boutique for a couple of days, covering our windows with a big sign out front stating that we are getting ready for Christmas. At that time we are going to go Christmas crazy in our store. It will be fun and gives our customers something to look forward to. I am already shopping for that big day.. It's so much FUN!!!

Oh yeah.. I have a big secret and am goin to hold on to it just a little bit longer. I'll, of course, let you all in on it when I am ready.

Yea! We got noticed!!

http://www.tonganoxiemirror.com/news/2008/sep/17/tutu_cowgirl_captured_image_move_new_digs/

Cynthia and I were both considering putting an add in our paper when they came to interview us. I am so excited about this because many still aren't aware of us. Everyday we usually have one or two more customers come in that just found out about us and had no clue we had a shop just down the street for seven months.

There are a few empty buildings in town and it would be fantastic to bring in more businesses putting life into our downtown. Tonight Cynthia and I will be at a meeting to discuss just that along with how to draw in a bigger customer base not just for us but for all the downtown businesses.

TUTU Cowgirl Website

www.tutucowgirl.com

Cynthia has built her own site for our store. Check it out to see some of what we carry.

Oh Happy Day is here! :(

A happy day for us perhaps, but not for those preparing for Hurricane Ike in TX. Brian just got called back in to Claims last night and will start on MONDAY! What does that mean for us? MONEY, of course. It is a sick twisted wish for all those independent insurance claims adjusters all over the United States. I hate to admit it but we have been looking forward to that big one to hit Houston and Galveston area for awhile and so here we go.

Its funny because both times he has been called into claims, the first being when Katrina and Rita hit, couldn't of come at a more perfect time. The first time I had just quit daycare, losing a couple thousand a month, not knowing how I was gonna pay my bills and then bam, this opportunity comes up. Well here we are again two years later. I just quit daycare again, relying on photography and the store income only, barely making ends meet because of never knowing when to expect money to come in next and what happens? Brian gets called in again. So yes happy day.

Friends and Family keep Brian in your thoughts however. Here is the scary thing. We never know how long he is going to be in there. While the money is great at the time, you can go months if not years before being called in next. Obviously, it has been two years since his last claims work. So today Brian is going into Scansource, where he previously works, to let them know his situation and that he won't be returning on Monday. This job has provided us stability and insurance for the last two years. He is hoping that he can provide them with as much information to where they will understand his decision and possible allow him back in the office after his claims stint. Sounds like a long shot, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

To all those Texans, I am not without sympathy completely, even though it appears my celebrations are all for selfish intent. I pray for no injuries or death, just lots and lots of damage.. sorry.

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice is gonna be my next book. Here I am a couple weeks later and just now starting on my second book. So much for my plan of reading a book a week. To my defense I have been kicking butt every night getting my shop ready along with being a mom and working. So I think I have a relatively good excuse.

Here is my dilemma. My last book, The Other Boleyn Girl, was Wonderful!! FANTASTIC book and then I watched the movie and hated it! Actually that is harsh. It frustrated me how different, how fast it moved, and how much they left out. So I am sitting here with both the movie and the book and wondering if I would enjoy the movie more watching it before I read the book, if I did that would I not enjoy the book because it will give away the ending in the movie? I DUNNO! What to do, What to do? Oh such tough decisions.

Getting there

After

Before After

BeforeWell tomorrow we are opening our store at the new location. Are we completely ready? NO. My studio is almost done, but not quite. We need to fill the store with Fall decor which I didn't get a chance to do, but for the most part everything is in its place and ready for sale. Our grand opening will be this Saturday and hopefully we will have it looking fall ready by then. I haven't taken any after pictures yet of the studio, but here is the store part. This has been a lot of work, but our location is FANTASTIC! No big trees covering our signs and continual traffic in front of our building where the streets use to be pretty bare at our old place. More pictures coming soon!