Health

At Home Teeth Whitening: Does it Work?

Five years ago this March, I had life-altering double jaw surgery. I was never confident in my smile since said smile was crooked. The jaw surgery boosted my confidence which escalated the number of times that I smile in a day. Five years later and I cannot quit smiling. There is one slight problem. I do enjoy my daily coffee in the mornings and a cup of hot tea in the afternoons, and this enjoyment stains my teeth. Let’s just say that it did not take much time for me to realize that whitening strips do not keep the stains away.

Last month, I partnered with Smile Brilliant to keep my teeth shining! The reason I accepted this partnership is that their teeth whitening kit involves custom trays that match your teeth exactly.

In the initial kit, you are sent molding clay to make your impressions. Do not let this overwhelm you. An instruction guide is included to help you with each step. Once you make your impressions, you will mail them back to Smile Brilliant. In just a few days,Â you will receive happy mail that includes your custom molds.

Let the whitening process begin. Please remember that it takes time for the stains to be removed. I’m happy to share my results after using the whitening gel for seven days!

I’m continuing the whitening process, and my husband made the comment the other night that he couldn’t believe how white my teeth are now. He said you may want to stop because you are making my teeth look bad. You can really tell the difference in my color in our New Year’s Eve picture! I think it is time that we get Hubby his own custom whitening trays.

Can you see that beautiful white smile? I truly believe the custom molds help ensure that you are whitening all teeth and not just sections of teeth.

GIVEAWAY:

Would you like to WIN yourÂ very own whitening kit (value $149)? Please fill out this form for your chance to win. If you would like to go ahead and get yourÂ own whitening kit, please use my coupon code to save 15% (onemomsworld15).

Disclosure: This is a partnership with Smile Brilliant. All thoughts and opinions are of my own. I’m in love with myÂ smile!

Professional Teeth Whitening

Where did Jen Go? {Hug your family tight}

20818878_10155508567899336_3974252394756908016_o Friends – I’m going to be blunt. The last month has been hard. I’m so sorry to not update here on the blog.

October 7 started out as a typical day. I went to work even though it was a Saturday to help with a homecoming event. After the event was done, I proceeded to drive home and gather our belongings needed for L to enjoy our homecoming football game on campus. My husband mentioned he was feeling nauseous, but we thought it might be from something he ate the previous night. After discussions, we decided to head on to the game. We spoke with family and friends at the stadium, enjoyed the game, and L wanted a fresh baked sweet potato from the campus dining hall. We thought this would be a good idea since there was so much traffic from people leaving the game. L tried to make a case to get our food to go, but hubby squashed that idea, and we all sat around a table together sharing great laughs. Then, our world turned upside down. My husband stood up to put L’s formula backpack on his back, and he looked at me and said, “JEN.” He went down in the chair. I ran around the table to catch him, and he fell back unconsciousÂ in my arms. My husband laid in my arms lifeless. My first reaction was to scream for someone to call 911. A student behind me called 911, and then an ROTC Cadet grabbed my husband from me. I’m not sure what all he did, but finally exclaimed what felt forever, “he has a pulse.” PRAISE GOD! The paramedics arrived on campus fast since they were at the football stadium and wheeled my husband out on the stretcher. All of this was going on, and L was crying so hard thinking she was losing her Daddy and Madi started feeling lightheaded from trying to hold it together for everyone, she had to sit down. Another student kept encouraging the girls that Daddy was going to be okay!

I went to get in our car and get to the hospital as fast as I could. We arrived, and the original thinking was my husband had a heart attack since his cardiac enzyme troponin was elevated. His EKG showed his left-side of his heart enlarged. He was hospitalized for three days. The next day we went to a more prominent city for more answers. We are still in a holding pattern and run daily EKGs on my husband. Next Friday, he goes in for a procedure in hopes to find the underlying cause. The heart team will get together to see what can be done. This has been such a scary time in our lives. His cardiologist in the bigger city thinks my husband went into cardiac shock and there is something electrical going on with his heart. His mom and dad both died from massive heart attacks and stroke. Heart disease runs in his family.

God put us in that dining hall for a reason. Hubby made the decision for us to eat in the dining hall for a reason. I shiver to think if we were at home and not close to the quick action medical care. God is so good!

Please keep him and our family in your prayers. It’s so scary because I am trying to watch his every move. We just got back from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for L late Sunday evening and have renewed hope for our girl. More will be written soon.

Hug your family tighter. Do not go a day without telling them you love them. We are so grateful God allowed Scott to come back to us and now we must get him proper treatment to prevent this from ever happening again.

Easy Dairy Free and Gluten Free Strawberry Cobbler

The morning started by my oldest daughter M, asking me what I was going to do with all the frozen strawberries in the freezer. She is our family organizer and the strawberries were cramping her style while she was organizing the fridge and freezer compartments. I decided to go to google and search for an easyÂ cobbler recipe. I found this recipe on The Spruce website. The reason this recipe caught my eye is that it used all real ingredients and I would be able to substitute my dairy free products for all the milk products. As many knows, I was diagnosed with a dairy allergy last year along with previously being diagnosed with a gluten intolerance. Doesn’t this picture display deliciousness?

Strawberry Cobbler

You are going to love how this recipe is so easy!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of strawberries

For the Cobbler Batter:
1 cup organic cane sugar
1 cup gluten-freeÂ coconut flour
1 3/4 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
6 tablespoons melted earth balance dairy free butter
2 tablespoons coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

For the Topping:
1 tablespoon organic cane sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon for topping

Directions:

gluten and dairy free strawberry cobbler

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray an 11×14 glass pyrex dish with olive oil or your spray of choice. Pour the strawberries into the baking dish.
In a mixing bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt until thoroughly combined.
Add remaining ingredients, egg, melted earth balance butter (keep 2 tablespoons to pour over batter), coconut milk and vanilla. Beat until well blended. I used a fork to blend.
Evenly spread the batter mixture over the strawberries.
Pour the remaining melted butter over the batter and top with sugar and cinnamon.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. The batter will be golden brown.
Enjoy!

Gluten and Dairy Free Strawberry Cobbler

Congress: Please Read – My Daughter has a Rare Disease

L - Mountains

Do you see the beautiful girl in this picture? This girl is my daughter and my hero. She has been living with a rare disease and went undiagnosed for many years. Finally, she was properly diagnosed with Eosinophilic Esophagitis in early 2016. Food is her enemy and she has to survive by drinking a prescription formula, Neocate Splash. This formula keeps her alive and yet insurance companies are choosing to not cover this medical care necessity. She announced to me last week that she was afraid to die if insurance decided not to cover her formula. My husband and I will do everything in our power and might to ensure L has her formula. There are many families all across the United States facing this same struggle with trying to advocate for insurance to cover prescribed formula. Please have a heart and do what is best for all these families. Speak up and vote to pass bill H.R.2587 – Medical Nutrition Equity Act of 2017.

Why do we need this passed? To provide for the coverage of medically necessary food and vitamins for digestive and inherited metabolic disorders under Federal health programs and private health insurance, and for other purposes.

This needs to be a law in every state so insurance companies can quit denying our children the medical treatment they need to SURVIVE!

Friends, we are asking you to please contact your Representatives in your state and encourage their co-sponsorship of this important legislation, too! To find out who represents you, visit https://www.house.gov/representatives/find/.

Together we can make a difference and advocate for this bill to be passed!

Never a Dull Moment….

Life is busy right now. Being a full-time employee outside of the home, a full-time college student, and of course being a wife to my handsome husband and a mother to my two awesome daughters, it can make for a busy schedule. Throw in multiple doctor appointments for my daughter L’s health journey of eosinophilic esophagitis, and nowÂ more doctor appointments for M’s journey to correct her flat feet. Since both girls are going through different medical journey’s, I thought I would give updates to see if we can help other families.

A little back story on M. When she was three years old, I took her to the doctor to have her feet checked because she walked with her feet going inwards. The doctor assured me that her feet would correct themselves over the years to not stress about how she is walking at three years old. Parents, trust your instincts.

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This was the wrong advice and now fast forward 10 years, we are dealing with a foot grown wrong.

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The last 18 months, we have been seeing local orthopedics and finally decided to transfer care to a children’s hospital. This was a good decision. When we arrived with M’s soft orthotics, the pediatric orthopedic asked why she was wearing them? In his words, those will never work for M’s foot. He decided to put M in a cast for 4 weeks and is having custom braces made for when she has the cast removed.

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Her foot now also has a cyst on top of the big toe bone.

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We are hoping the cast will help take the inflammation away and the cyst will go away. If the cast and braces do not do what they need to do, M will face surgery in the future.

As a family, we are being very optimistic that the cast and braces will work. Time will tell. Stay tuned and we will keep you posted!

Health

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