Happy Wednesday!

Just be you. I love quotes and I love this. “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

 -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happy Wednesday!

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{ f r e e }

 

Hello, hello everyone! How's it going, how have ya been?! Where have we been? What have we been up to?! LOTS! We are in an exciting time of change and transition and because of that took some time away on here, but we miss you guys a lot so yesterday I decided to break the silence a few days early :)

One of the things that's happened in the time we've been gone from the facebook world, was something that happened on March 1st. March 1st marked three years that I have been living with this illness and it was truly a turning point. A day I've been dreading off and on for weeks was not a day of grieving, but one of celebration.

It came at the end of a string of events and a difficult time spiritually and emotionally that resulted in me literally waking up Friday March 1st, feeling entirely different. For the first time in a long, long time, since that day and still today, I feel free. Free in ways I cannot explain. In ways I have never felt before.

Not free from the physical realities in which this illness still affects my body, but free in every other sense of the word. I am slowly wrapping my mind around how to put into words what the last few weeks has been like, but that day now stands out to me as a day when I was able to do what I have been fighting to do and something that doing Mazvita's Angels has tremendously helped me to do, just live and enjoy my life.

I want to thank you. For your thoughts, for your prayers, for your support, for your purchases that are making and have made an incredible difference. Because of those things and the God who has never left my side, today I am grateful.

For I have been set free.

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today

Today I am grateful for many things. And the gift of a brand new day, Happy Wednesday, y'all!

from "lookin' up"

Happy Tuesday!

Ain't that the truth?! This is a quote we absolutely love and one I haven't been able to stop thinking about the last couple of days. Such a beautiful reminder. Got a late start to my Tuesday, but hope you've had a wonderful Tuesday everyone!

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color combos we love

Check out our board "color combos we love" on Pinterest for more great color and combo love!

Game Day!

Whether you're here in Tiger Country, here at the University of Missouri, home of Mazvita's Angels, or elsewhere, there's no better way to show off your team spirit than with a flower from us that's fun, festive, a cute! Check out these great ways to rock your team or Mizzou pride, on game day or ANY day!

 on a sweater or a shirt

 

 in your hair

 on a headband

hair

 hair and shirt

 headband

 shirt

 

hair 

 on a scarf, belt, or sweater

Or on a sweet baby's headband!! Make a Mazvita's Angels Day!

Fundraising update!

 

Just left the bank to make a deposit in the Mazvita's Angels account and just off the phone with my husband, time for some numbers!

We have had a total of $751 in sales and donations for 2013 so far.

This is from farmers markets, personal sales from my house or craft night, sales from one of the girls making and selling flowers to friends and family over Christmas break, and two financial donations.

This total excludes etsy (online credit card sales) because $751 was the amount of cash and checks that I just put in the Mazvita's Angels account at the bank.

Currently, the Mazvita's Angels account has $924 in it.

We didn't get a chance to take all the money to the bank where we have a Mazvita's Angels account, but were planning on using it to pay for Monday's dental appointment. So afterward, since we paid with our own money, we were going to have Mazvita's Angels write us a check to reimburse it.

Monday's total bill for the root canal and crown was $2,870. The total insurance benefit (total amount that insurance paid on it) was $1,410. The total patient responsibility was $1,460.

They then gave us a 5% discount since we were paying with cash or a check. So the total we paid on Monday was $1,387.

So technically, since we would have used all the money currently in the Mazvita's Angels account, Mazvita's Angels would have funded $924 of the $1387 due, which would have been approximately 66% of 2/3 of the total bill. I knew Mazvita's Angels help fund a lot of it, so I was close in my guestimation!

But, since we are just 25% of the way through all of the dental work needed in an extensive treatment plan laid out in August 2011 when we first began the fundraising, we still have quite ways to go!

The total amount of dental work I need done was a total of $10,000 as of August 2011. Three root canals, and an additional 13 other teeth that needed operated on.

Well, as I mentioned on Monday, that was the first time I've gone in for a root canal where they didn't find something new or something else wrong. Three root canals has turned into five.

Most recently, this last fall, we learned I needed an ADDITIONAL root canal and crown totaling about $2,500, bumping up the total amount we had to raise to $12,500 and that was the procedure I had done on Monday.

The estimated patient responsibility was about $1500, and so our mini-goal we've been working on is to raise at least $1,000 for that.

Well, we got pretty darn close and we've used some of the portions from sales on supplies, farmers market or craft show event fees.

So, that brings us up to where we are now:

Our next step with the dental work are two crowns I need for two different teeth. Like with the root canal, we are on a time-limit with this because we don't want these issues with these teeth that can be fixed with crowns NOW, to turn into two more ROOT CANALS later down the road because the problem got worse.

We do things based on priority, so after the two crowns, the next step are two fillings.

The cost for the two crowns is going to be $3,462, so that is our next fundraising mini-goal!

The two fillings will be a total of $628.

Back to our new mini-fundraising goal, we have decided instead of having Mazvita's Angels pay us back for the $924 it would have been able to fund for the $1387 we paid out of pocket at the dentist on Monday, we are just going to keep that money in the Angels account for our next mini-goal.

SO, we have $924 currently in the bank, plus $400 left in insurance benefits, and another $400 in our account at Cherry Hill Dental, which brings us to a total of about $1700 we currently have towards our next fundraising goal, so we are about halfway there, WOOOHOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you so so much, everyone!!! I am filled with hope and we are getting there, step by step, none of this would be possible without you, thank you so much for your purchases, financial donations, and support of Mazvita's Angels!!!!

Lots of love,

Mazvita and Ben Lewton and all of our Angels!

- Photos by Casey Batezel