I don’t play the lottery very often. I have seen the odds and it barely seems worth it. 1/30,000 isn’t something that could happen to me, so I always brushed-off those odds. When you are told your baby has a rare chromosome abnormality, and that the odds are about 1/million, you learn to never assume those odds can’t happen to you. Receiving a rare diagnosis Nine months after my baby was born we were told she has Uniparental Disomy. This is, in a nutshell, when a person inherits 2 chromosomes from one parent, and none from the other. Rather than one of each. The clinical results can differ greatly depending on the chromosome affected. We had received prenatal genetic testing when I was pregnant and were told that it looked good, we moved forward thinking that the odds of our baby having down syndrome (which was the only genetic disorder…

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Every year around Mother’s Day, a huge fuss is made for Moms. You know, make sure Mom has time to put her feet up, send her flowers, go out to eat so she doesn’t have to cook, give Mom some time to herself, and so on and so on. Don’t get me wrong, as a Mom myself I definitely agree that Moms are deserving of all of these things and more! I’ve just found that not nearly as much of a fuss is made for Dad’s on Father’s Day, and I think there should be!

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Growing up, I always looked different than everyone else. I was the only redheaded, pale-skinned, freckled-faced kid in my class in elementary school. In high school, I think there were maybe 3 redheads in my graduating class. While I don’t remember ever wanting to dye my hair or change anything about my appearance, I do remember wishing that I could blend in a little bit more.

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The summer before my twins started Junior Kindergarten, we decided to send them to a couple of week-long day camps to introduce them to the “full day” experience. Leading up to it, I hadn’t really thought about food and as the day approached, I realized that for the first time I needed to plan and pack enough food for a morning snack, lunch and an afternoon snack. It felt daunting, but I learned a lot over the season. So whether you’re packing lunches for the first time, or have been packing them for a while and are in a total rut for ideas, check out my tips below for camp lunch packing success!