KAMPSS

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Who is KAMPSS

A small back story to get to know me. My stories will be messy and honestly probably hard to follow. But that is exactly how our life is everyday. I try to make the most of it everyday.

Hi, my name is Kelly. I am from Denver, Colorado. I am a mom to 4 little ones, married, with a dog and 2 cats. I met my husband when we lived in Kansas.

One of our daughters is my stepdaughter who is with us part time. I will have tons of stories about being a step mom and the history of where we are today with sharing parenting with her mom

Our youngest 3 are a wild handful. We had 3 littles 2 years old and younger. The youngest 2 are twins. I have learned so many tips and tricks for being a parent of multiples over the years. And I’m sure there will be so many more to come.

Our doggy has seizures so I have our fair share of stories trying to keep those at a minimum

My health, where to even begin with that topic. That one seems to never end. There is never a rest day. I have hypermobility elhers danlos syndrome. I had surgery on my back to replace my lower disc in my spine with an artificial disc.

I am a stay at home mom. I have a few side hustles that I have tried over the years to keep myself busy while raising the kids.

Featured

Welcome

My life is messy.

Sometimes it feels like life never stops throwing things at us. I often question if it’s something I can continue to handle. This is a place where I’m going to share my story with you. In hopes you can find a connection and know your not alone in your journey either.

Life is messy and that’s okay. There won’t be any particular order to these events as I share them. But know they are all stories I am healing from everday.

Sciatic Hip Brace

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You can find this brace here

Finding Relief and Freedom with the Sparthos Hip Brace

Living with hip and pelvic injuries can be excruciatingly painful, limiting our ability to perform even simple daily tasks. Conditions such as sciatica nerve pain, groin injuries, hamstring strains, and hip bilateral tears can significantly impact our quality of life. Luckily, there is a solution that provides effective pain relief and promotes healing while allowing for a full range of motion. The Sparthos Hip Brace is a revolutionary product designed to stabilize the hip, groin, and thigh areas, while protecting them from misalignment and further injuries. In this post, we will explore the benefits of using the Sparthos Hip Brace and how it can help you get through your day without pain and discomfort.

Comprehensive Pain Relief: Dealing with injuries around the pelvis can be debilitating, causing constant discomfort and hindering mobility. The Sparthos Hip Brace provides much-needed pain relief by isolating and stabilizing the damaged area. By supporting the lower back and pelvis, this brace helps alleviate pain associated with groin, hamstring, and hip injuries, allowing your body to heal.
Unrestricted Range of Motion: One common concern with wearing braces is the fear of limited movement. However, the Sparthos Hip Brace is ergonomically designed to provide optimal support while allowing for a full range of motion. Whether you are walking, bending, or stretching, this brace won’t restrict your movements, enabling you to perform daily activities and even engage in sports comfortably.
Secure and Snug Fit: The Sparthos Hip Compression Wrap comes equipped with a robust 4-strap attachment system, ensuring a snug fit around your hip, groin, and thighs. This feature eliminates the chances of slipping or bunching, providing consistent support throughout the day. With its secure fit, the brace remains in place, delivering targeted compression and stability to the injured area.
Accelerated Healing and Improved Circulation: One of the key elements of recovering from hip injuries is promoting proper blood circulation to facilitate healing. The Sparthos Hip Brace contributes to this process by warming the muscles and joints, enhancing blood flow in the affected area. Improved circulation helps reduce inflammation and aids in the repair of damaged tissues, expediting the healing process.
Restful Sleep and Nighttime Support: Finding comfort and relief during sleep can be particularly challenging when dealing with hip injuries. However, the Sparthos Hip Brace ensures that your injury is fully supported, isolated, and stabilized even while you sleep. By providing warmth and support to the area, it improves blood flow and promotes rapid healing, allowing you to wake up feeling more refreshed and less in pain.

Hip injuries and conditions like sciatica nerve pain, groin injuries, and hamstring strains can be debilitating, robbing us of the joy of an active life. However, with the Sparthos Hip Brace, you can experience effective pain relief and support throughout the day. This brace’s ergonomic design enables a full range of motion while stabilizing and protecting the damaged area. Whether you’re at home or engaging in physical activities, the Sparthos Hip Brace allows you to regain control of your life and enjoy a pain-free day. Invest in your well-being and give yourself the gift of freedom from hip and pelvic discomfort with the Sparthos Hip Brace.

You can find this brace here

Jaden Thermal Printer

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High-speed & High-definition Printing: The Perfect Solution for Efficient Labeling in ANY Business.

In today’s fast-paced business environment, efficiency and accuracy are paramount when it comes to labeling and shipping products. One of the most reliable tools for accomplishing this task is a thermal label printer. With its high-speed and high-definition printing capabilities, this device revolutionizes the way labels are produced, making it an indispensable asset for businesses of all sizes.

Printing 72 labels of 4×6 size per minute, the thermal label printer sets the bar high for productivity. It ensures that you can quickly generate a large volume of labels without compromising on quality or speed. This impressive printing speed translates to a significant reduction in processing time, allowing businesses to streamline their operations and focus on other critical tasks.

One of the standout features of the thermal label printer is its support for up to 6 inches per second (IPS) high-speed printing. This capability enables rapid label production, making it an ideal choice for high-volume labeling needs. Whether you are running an e-commerce store, a warehouse, or a shipping center, the printer’s fast printing speed ensures that you can meet tight deadlines and satisfy customer demands efficiently.

Moreover, the thermal label printer boasts high-resolution prints of up to 203 dots per inch (dpi). This level of detail ensures that every label you print is crisp, clear, and legible. The sharpness and precision of the prints contribute to a professional and polished look for your packages, reinforcing your brand image and leaving a positive impression on your customers.

The printer employs Advanced Thermal Direct technology, a game-changer in the printing industry. This innovative technology allows for printing without the need for toner or ink. Instead, it uses specially designed thermal paper that reacts to heat, producing high-quality prints. This eliminates the hassle and cost associated with traditional printing methods and ensures a smooth and efficient labeling process.

Furthermore, the thermal label printer offers Bluetooth compatibility, allowing seamless connectivity with a wide range of devices and platforms. Whether you are using USPS, UPS, eBay, Esty, Shopify, Amazon, PayPal, Poshmark, Square, Bigcommerce, Mercari, Wix, or other platforms, you can easily integrate the printer into your existing workflow. This versatility makes it an excellent choice for businesses that operate across multiple platforms and channels.

The printer supports label sizes ranging from 1.57″ to 4.1″, accommodating various label formats, including circle stickers. This flexibility ensures that you can use the printer for a wide range of labeling needs, from shipping labels to product tags and barcodes. With its ability to handle different label sizes, you can rely on this printer to meet all your labeling requirements, regardless of the application.

In conclusion, a thermal label printer is an invaluable tool for businesses seeking to streamline their labeling and shipping processes. With its high-speed and high-definition printing capabilities, it delivers outstanding performance and efficiency. The printer’s ability to produce 72 labels of 4×6 size per minute, support up to 6IPS high-speed printing, and offer high-resolution prints up to 203 dpi sets it apart from the competition. Additionally, its compatibility with a wide range of platforms and support for various label sizes make it a versatile choice for businesses of all types. Invest in a thermal label printer today, and experience the power of efficient and professional labeling.

You can find this printer here

Cervical Neck Pillow

You can find the pillow that saved my neck here

This pillow saved my life from constant neck pain. I have been using this pillow every night for 2 months and it eliminated my neck pain after the first night of use. Due to my chronic pain from having Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, hypermobility type, I was suffering from waking up with stiffness in my neck and misaligned vertebrae. I have tried more pillows than I can count trying to find something that would keep me cool, and help me get a more consistent nights rest while eliminating any pain that I was prone to waking up with.

What is a Cervical Neck Pillow?

A cervical, or contour neck pillow is a specially designed pillow that provides support for the neck and head, helping to reduce pain and promote proper spine alignment.
Cervical pillows can be used by anyone who suffers from back or neck pain. They’re especially useful for those who sleep on their sides, as they provide extra support in this position.

Memory Foam

Memory foam pillows provide superior comfort and support, helping to reduce neck and shoulder pain. This one specifically is designed with an adjustable height. It comes with a removable insert that can be easily removed.

Cooling Bamboo Cover

The cooling bamboo cover helps to regulate temperature, making the pillow more comfortable for sleepers to get a full night of rest. In addition to being hypoallergenic and anti-microbial, bamboo is also naturally moisture-wicking and breathable material, which helps you stay cool during summer nights or warm winter days.

Ergonomic Neck Contour

The ergonomic neck contour helps to support the neck and provide the right amount of cushioning and support. It helps to reduce pain and promote proper spine alignment, which can improve your quality of sleep.

Ideal for Every Type of Sleeper

Contour neck pillows are ideal for every type of sleeper, including side, back and stomach sleepers. They can be used to help you achieve a more comfortable position during the night so that you wake up feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the day ahead.

Reduces Pain

Cervical neck pillows are designed to provide support for the head, neck and shoulders. They can be used in a variety of ways to help relieve pain associated with sleeping on your side or back.
Finding the right cervical pillow was important for me. I needed help to reduce neck and shoulder pain by providing the right amount of cushioning and support.

Promotes Proper Spine Alignment

Cervical neck pillows help to promote proper spine alignment, helping to reduce pain and improve overall comfort.

Care and Maintenance

This pillow is easy to care for and maintain. With the machine-washable cover, it makes it easy to keep the pillow clean and hygienic.

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You can find the pillow that saved my neck here

Childish Parenting

Sometimes I truly can’t wrap my head around the bio mom’s actions. It has been over 8 years of this and she still shocks me.

So we have been “civil” for over a year now.

This week, she decided to spend over an hour researching, as my step daughter put it, how to block me from everything on Facebook. The fact that my step daughter knew this and watched her is not okay.

I am truly speechless because bio mom could have been spending that time with her own daughter. As she always says one on one time with the bio parent is important. But only what she determines as important.

Which she actually had the nerve to tell my husband that he needs to spend more of that with his daughter. She said this during exchange. After bio mom noticed myself and step daughters half sisters went with to pick up for our weekend. So she was basically saying we are in the wrong for wanting to see her and go out of our way to go on a 2 hour drive to pick her up for our weekend then drive the 2 hours back home.

When we only get 1 weekend a month because bio mom won’t allow anymore time for visitation. Her sisters miss her. I miss her. We aren’t exactly allowed to facetime between visits either. So how is this one on one time supposed to happen? Well let me tell you it’s just bio mom’s way for controlling us. She tries to do what ever she can to push herself into our household.

Now I’ve gone off topic a bit. During this car ride back home for our weekend my stepdaughter told me about the Facebook thing bio mom did. See the thing is I actually have a close relationship with her. She tells me stuff. And I will add on her own, because I developed a close relationship with her from the beginning. Bio mom will do anything she can to ruin this relationship.

So when I went to look at Facebook because me and bio mom are friends on there, I couldn’t see anything. I’ve always known she post things but makes some private so I can’t see those posts. Which is actually against our parenting plan because she says I do that. When in return we all know it’s her. Anyways Facebook is the only way for me to see pictures of my stepdaughter when she’s not with us. Bio mom doesn’t inform us of any activity or anything she’s involved in. Also she has always been an over sharer on Facebook.

But when I looked we are still friends. But she went through and hid all of her friends list. Except for my mother in law and my husband’s aunt. Okay so that’s weird. Then she went through and hid everything except for her profile pictures for the last 2 years. Do you know how much time and energy that had to have taken. Why didn’t she just delete me as a friend. She deleted my husband as a friend.

A long time ago I blocked her on all social media because of the harassment and negative posting bio mom would do about myself and my husband. We weren’t friends on there but we had mutual friends that would inform me of these posts she would make. Once again, breaking the parenting plan. To her the plan sets rules for myself and my husband ONLY, she doesn’t have to follow them. Bio mom would also look through my Pinterest saved pins. She would screen shot images/quotes I had saved and then repost them as her own on Facebook/Instagram. This person LIVES on Facebook. She posts multiple times a day. So I know for a fact that she isn’t suddenly stopping or getting of Facebook. This has been intentional.

I will never understand this person. I do know she has a motive behind everything she does. And because of this I will never trust her.

So the day that she did this blocking was the same day that I didn’t order anything of my stepdaughters art work that they were selling for school. This is a whole story on its own.

My stepdaughter had a school project assigned the first week of school. Now I cant remember the exact assignment. But she came to use for our weekend and said she had to think of ideas for it. So I helped her, I told her to make some kind of drawing that includes both sides of her family. With our state and her as the main parts. use the shapes of the states, include something she likes from each place. Something that represents her having a home in both states. She was so excited for this. Then the next time we had her for our weekend I asked about it. She said she forgot what I had said and that she just wrote out all of our names on the page instead, nothing fancy.

Fast forward to the ordering time. bio mom texted me Sunday night with a screenshot of the order form and the drawing. We had 2 days to decide if we were ordering. But she said she was going to do the paperwork that night for it. So very little time to decide. That we had to give her the money for what we wanted to order. (This has never been a good situation in the past, giving bio mom funds/reimbursement directly. We always pay directly to the company). I then asked a few questions. Like, is it only this drawing or is it like her last school where you can order her art work from the whole year. That my grandma used to order from the old school. Bio mom told me its just this one piece. okay, so its not really a drawing but I wanted to be some what supportive still since this is the first time we have been informed of anything school related in years. So Monday morning I told bio mom that I had sent the texts to my mom that had the list to order. I also asked if there was anything that my step daughter wanted to order, was there anything that she really wanted. Bio mom said she would ask after school and let me know. This didn’t happen. Tuesday she replied and said no that she just wanted to us to have the chance to order. So I lost track of time Tuesday because I’m home with my kids all day, working, and other obligations. Wednesday morning I realize oh the order was due and she is at school now. Well I remembered the order form had a section talking about the parent portal. So I was like okay cool ill just order online. So I went to do it and its not a parent order portal. It just talks about this being a fundraiser and that’s all.

So I text my stepdaughter, knowing she is in school but I wanted to do it right away. I told her that I messed up and that I thought I could order online and I couldn’t. I then told her that if she could bring me her best/favorite art piece she has ever done and I would order something from my design product company I use for my business.

She then texts me 2 different times Wednesday night after school, about 2 hours apart. the first time she was okay with what I had said. The second time was a way different story. They texting didn’t even sound like a 10 year old, I knew it was her mom. but this time she was mad and upset that I didn’t order and that was her best drawing.

First, I know my step daughter, she loves to draw. So this piece that just has words on it is not her best work. But I know why this was suddenly the best she has ever done and why bio mom finally sent us something from her school work. I will remind you, we have never seen any of her school work, thing gets shared with us. This drawing had everyone’s names drawn out, and nothing fancy. It listed everyone at bio moms house and everyone at ours. Now I’m glad that our side actually got acknowledged but i don’t want a magnet or mug or a pillow with their names on it. And this whole situation is a great example as to why. If we were all friends and acted like a larger family it would be different. But its not. So after bio mom texted me back about how disappointed she was (from my stepdaughters ipad) she went and did all this Facebook stuff. Then Friday when we got my stepdaughter for out weekend is when she openly told us about all this. And that the bio mom was the one who texted me not her. So maybe I self sabotaged the order but at the same time if you look at the texts she played a larger part in it too. Bio mom had the order form for longer then she gave us time to order.

We don’t even get a chance to order school pictures each year. So I know there was a bigger plan for bio mom to tell us about this one. Also she told me, not my husband, not the father who bio mom is supposed to coparent with. She did this as an aggressive attack towards me, so I can look like the bad person. But I keep the evidence, and I read my step daughter the conversation so she could see the truth. I guess bio mom had tried to tell her I was being way to difficult so she just ordered me a magnet without even communicating with me. Without reaching out asking if we decided on what to order.

She was the one who made this into a huge drama situation involving a child. But like always I am made to be the bad person and I will continue to fight and prove otherwise.

The “civil” life was fun while it lasted. But with a narcissist there is nothing civil nor fun that happens with coparenting.

Back Surgery

I have learned a lot about my health in the last 8 months. Some days I’m happy to have answers, but I also will admit it’s disappointing what that means for my future.

No I don’t have the big “C”, but I do have family and friends that have been through that. And that’s a fear that lives in the back of my head with every constant reminder that I will never be healthy for the rest of my life.

So what surgery did I have 8 months ago?

I had my L5S1, lower lumbar spinal disc replaced. A year ago, almost to the day, I was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease. This was all before turning 28. At this point my twins were only 9 months old (7 months adjusted) and I was told I would need to have major back surgery.

After my appointment, I went home and did all the research I could do to find out what this was and why its happening to me. I had been in severe back pain for months but I was glad to have some answers.

The best way to describe degenerative disc disease is: its a naturally occurring thing that the body does as it ages. The cushioning in your spine begins to wear away. My dr that day told me I had the back of a 70 year old. And I’m a new mom to 3 very young little ones.

My x-rays showed that my spine was grinding bone on bone. That the disc had worn away so much and was pinching nerves every time I moved. This made it very challenging to take care of my kids and household duties. I couldn’t lift my babies up off the floor, or sit with them during tummy time. I wasn’t sleeping because the pain was so bad. I had to make a decision to have surgery and have a 6 to 8 week recovery time with no lifting or wait until the kids were older. But with pain injections to help stop the pain. I decided it would be better to miss out on the baby/toddler stage then to wait. If I waited then there was the chance they would remember me always hurting and not being a “MOM”.

While I was waiting for insurance to go through all of the approvals needed to schedule surgery I looked into why this was happening to me. Why I was needing surgery so young.

I dont honestly remember now how I found this new disease but once I came across it all the boxes began to be checked and EVERYTHING was making sense to me. EVERYTHING from my life was clicking.

I have Elhers Danlos Syndrome type 3, hypermobility.

I’ll go more into eds in another post, but I wanted to mention it because it explains why recovery has be so hard from my disc replacement surgery.

Surgery day, I have always had a hard time with IV placement, this was no different. I know which side, right vs left, which spot, arm vs hand, depending on what is being done where is should be placed. The nurse placed it where I thought would be a good spot. It went after 2 tries but it hurt. I didnt know if this was because of being nervous for major back surgery or if placent was bad. After I got into the operating room, half asleep from the medication, a different nurse noticed the line was placed bad. I am so glad that they saw it, they were able to fix the issue.

Post op, this was supposed to be a 1 night stay at the surgery center. But I wasn’t recovering as fast as they wanted. I hate that everything has guidelines for the normal cases. I told my surgeon the day before at my preop appointment that I have problems woth recovering and it take me longer then normal people. I tend to black out and I just can’t be pushed as hard/as fast. Unfortunately this wasn’t shared with the postop team.

When the recovery nurses stated the recovery process to get home the next morning I kept blacking out. I know its important to get up and move after surgery, or even when your sick. It helps speed up recovery but as some one with POTS moving quickly is not good.

POTS is Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. This is a condition that causes your heart to beat faster than normal when you transition from sitting or lying down to standing up. It’s a type of orthostatic intolerance. And the symptoms worsen when dealing with illnesses. So after being on anesthesia my blood pressure was not under control. And any movements made it worse.

Once it became time for me to go home the nurses concern for my black outs and not meeting the walking requirements for discharge mean that I would have to be moved to the hospital for an impatient stay.

I don’t remember a lot from that morning. A ptsd trauma pattern I think, I have blacked it out of my memory. I didn’t want to be transferred. I wanted to go home and just cry because once again in my life it felt like no one believed me. No one had knowledge of what was wrong with my body. I hadn’t been diagnosed with pots or eds yet at this point. I had only started researching why my body fails me all the time.

“Real MOM”

I’ve been a “real” mom for 4 years now. My daughter just had a birthday a few weeks ago.

My family lives in the world of bio, step, half, and real. I don’t agree with this but it’s something that was set in place a long time ago by my husband’s ex. Because of the rules she put in place years ago I will refer to her as bio mom, especially when referring to the early years.

I never wanted to be called mom by my step daughter to replace her “real” mom. I wanted to be an additional mother figure to her. A safe place, a friend, a source of trust and security.

Even after marrying my husband there was still a struggle with even getting the step title added to my name. I will forever be known by my first name. Which is fine, except my stepdaughter can’t even give me a nickname of her choice. She tried this years ago and bio mom made a huge deal about her giving me a nickname. Bio mom wants as much distance as possible between us. She doesn’t want my stepdaughter to have any relationship with me. The baby sitters at bio mom’s house used to have more connections then I was allowed. My stepdaughter couldn’t even say my name or mention my side of the family while with her mom.

It took a long time for me and my husband to realize bio mom can’t have that much control over us.

My biggest fear was that once I became a mom my own children wouldn’t call me mom and only call me by my first name because of this extreme tension that was caused over my name. I never once tried to replace her real mom. All I ever wanted was for my stepdaughter to trust me and someone she could always go to, as she got older.

The thing I always found funny, that her step dad was allowed all kinds of nicknames. She would even call him dad sometimes. In bio moms house he is referred to as dad, even though he isn’t bio dad, my husband is. This “name” did help her half brothers call him the correct name of dad. The half brothers have also always been referred to as brothers, full blown brothers to her, not half. Which I’m all for. My stepdaughter should feel her family is a larger whole. But as I became a real mom of my own biological kids there was words being used at that house that her sisters aren’t really her siblings. They aren’t really her sisters, because bio mom wasn’t their mom, I am. It took a lot of discussion on my part with my stepdaughter to explain how the brothers were the same as her sisters at our house. That the brothers and sisters each share 1 of her biological parents and 1 step parent. It has nothing to do with the just the mom.

When my husband and I started dating every excuse bio mom ever gave for her seniority over my husband was that she’s the mom. Kids need their mom. Blah blah blah mom is the only import thing in a kids life.

The ex always would say to us that once I became a real mom and had my own kids I would understand. Understand why she says and does the things she does. How special that mother daughter relationship is.

Every time she would say these things to me it would remind me that I would never treat my children the ways she does. I would never push my feelings onto my kids. Never make them feel they have to have the same feelings as I do towards people. I would always tell them they are allowed to feel they way they do. That my children are important. Just because I don’t like something, doesn’t mean they can’t like it. All bio mom has ever done was try to push her feelings onto her own daughter. Tried to turn her against us because she can’t self reflect enough to know she should put her kids first. Make them feel loved and safe. And that the more loving people in a child’s life the better. The more people to support a child is a great thing.

Because of this thing called self reflection, my kids don’t know I don’t like bio mom, that I don’t trust her. They are allowed to like her and know she’s my stepdaughter mom. And even though I don’t like it, she is family.

Having a title is more important to bio mom then actions that actually show love. A parent isn’t defined by a title of mother or father, last names, or by blood. It’s defined by the commitment and love. You earn that title by showing up, comforting them, and always supporting them.

Separation or divorce doesn’t have to divide a family and have a negative impact on a child’s life. It only turns negative if you, the parent allows it to be that way.