Friday, October 30, 2015

Meet and Greet with Amanda Ripsam from Mommies Quiet Place

Amanda Ripsam who writes at

I met Amanda on through a mutual friend Tina McCarty Dalasinski. When Gather 
changed for the worse most of the writers went their own ways but kept tabs on each other and 
continued in their friendship on other Social media sites. Over the years during and since Gather we 
have been there for each other through ups and downs supporting each other along the way.
Some of my online friendships are the best I have had since my best friend died in 2008.
My internet family is very much apart of my life. So let's get onto learning more about
Amanda Ripsam and Mommies Quiet Place.

Tell me about yourself? 

My name is Amanda. I am a lifestyle health blogger. I was born and raised in Toronto Ontario Canada and I live in Otsego Michigan. I am married to a computer nerdy techy husband who likes to help others with their computer troubles and he is a area sales rep for hp and a parent mentor and vp on the board for a non profit called parent to parent that helps family’s of children with special needs. I am a stay at home mom we have four kids in total. We have our daughter Bella who has a rare genetic disorder and I blog about our journey with her mostly to help me keep track of all we do. I also am a step mom My step kids are girl 18, Boy 16 and boy 21. is where I blog about life it’s my quiet place on the internet that has grown into a advocacy and self help lifestyle health blog 

What brought you to blogging?

I blog about my hard story of abuse I endured as a child and I share life's up and downs as I recovered and found happiness out of hopelessness. I also share about living life as an adult who has a a rare genetic disorder called 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. My daughter also has 22q11.2 deletion syndrome Two years ago I was dealing with testing regarding a stomach pain I have been having that would send me to the ER and one point it flared up so bad my husband rushed me to the er and I had test and xrays done. I had started a journey to a healthier me. I had a lot of test and doctors discovered I had gastroparesis which is a slow empty basically my digestion track has shut down and it goes slow. Food will sit in my stomach for days sometimes before it fully digest. while enduring the process I was struggling to get out of bed I managed to care for Bella but my energy was spent and I ended up with way to much time needing to be bed rested for a year almost. I slowly started blogging to cope with the process to take my mind off things and that's how mommiesquietplace started. I also blog about our rare genetic disorder and I enjoy doing product reviews I know the two are so opposite but I do only family friendly product reviews and it has been a fun journey.  

Tell me more about your disorder. 

As mentioned above the stomach issues just dealing and healing with healthy soups and smoothies and mushy food my diet and lifestyle had to change. I am not sure if it is part of the disorder but it's just something that I have to manage because 22q11.2 deletion syndrome is a rare genetic disorder there isn't a cure so all I can do is treat the symptoms. The symptoms very from one person to the next. No two people with it are effected the same way. They have similar issues to look out for such as hypocalciuma like Bella and I have a history of but it has been stable for years. It's a low calcium level and it drops so low we can have seizures turn blue or tremmers. That's the common symptom usually in infants and younger children under the age of 5. Then there are heart issues to look out for we lucked out and our hearts are perfectly healthy. I have the first stages of ceteracts so eye issues are common as well. Then there are ear infections that occur often. As you can imagine there are multiple health issues that come along with the disorder and I can count on both my hands and feet how many specialist Bella sees. When she was younger we had a lot of doctors appointments to keep up with now she's older we still have doctors visits but they are farther apart. For example when Bella was born we had to do calcium draws daily, then weekly then monthly, now it's yearly. It's about the same thing with all of the other specialist and doctors we visit.

What gets you through the day? 

what get's me through the day with it all is coffee and my husband's support we make a great team.

What are you struggling through right now? 

I struggle with being homesick around the holidays since I was born in Toronto Ontario Canada.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

In 5 years I would hope I would start working by then Bella will be 13 years old. I probably will still be living in our two bedroom apartment but my hope is I will have it decorated and a lot more functional by then. I still have boxes to unpack after being here for 3 years. I would hope to start public speaking and have a book published that's my goals for now.  

What are your strengths? 

I am determined, resourceful and compassionate

Who is your favorite author?

I really enjoy Jodi Picoult

What is your favorite snack food? 

Tim hortons tim bits and poutine you gotta try it. It's a Canadian thing.

What is your favorite Holiday and Why?  

One part of living in the Usa is my family love's having two thanksgivings. Canadian Thanksgiving and American Thanksgiving two holidays that my family loves and always expects me to cook the turkey. A close second is Christmas.

You can check out my answers to the Questions Amanda Ripsam asked me on Meet and Greet with Pamela Marks.
Tell me a little about yourself and your blog?

What was your inspiration when you started blogging?

What’s hiding in your purse? 

Who is your favorite author ?  

What your favorite top 5 songs on your playlist

How long have you been blogging ? 

How did you develop your following on social media ?

What is your favorite thing to do with your family ? 

If you can have one wish what would it be ? 

I noticed you do a lot of product reviews how did you start that process? 

Check out Amanda Ripsam from Mommies Quiet Place on:

No comments:

Post a Comment