Update

Michael is home from the ER with a compressed L5 disc and no head injury. He also has degenerative arthritis in his hip from an injury that happened a couple of years ago moving a wood stove. I think he finally realizes he is not a kid anymore and needs to be more careful!

And it just keeps getting better!

Hubby is now at the ER…

After working on his truck all day to find he couldn’t fix the problem, he had it towed to the mechanic. Can’t wait to find out how much that is going to cost. So we are down to one car for who knows how long. FUN. Then he had to work on the pond because the small pump that keeps the fish alive quit and with the frigid cold temps we’ve been having the fish would not survive. Then on to the generator hook up since a Nor’easter was on the way and if he had to leave us with no car I at least wanted to know we’d have power and heat! Oh and throw in turning our kitchen into a pen for the dog, including carpeting it and building a fenced in area for her for the next 3 months!

So you’d think that was enough work for one day right? Nope, he decides to go next door to help one of the neighbor’s kids with the snowmobile he bought to get it running in light of the earlier mentioned snowstorm. Well once they got it running he decides to take it for a quick ride to make sure it sounds good and what does he do, he hits a fire pit that is covered in snow! Off the snowmobile he goes, hits a rock with his head and he thinks something is broken in his leg/hip area. He can’t walk. He doesn’t want to scare the teenager he is helping so he hobbles home with a huge lump on his head, messed up vision and major pain in his leg and tells me he needs to go to the ER. I tell  him let me call a neighbor because I can’t leave the dog. He and all his stubbornness says nope, he’s just going to shower, take some Advil and go to bed.

Well needless to say that didn’t go well. I slept on the kitchen floor with the dog and heard him get up a few times during the night. He finally came down at 5 and said he was going to the hospital. Now that the snow has started and he can’t even get a pair of pants on.

So to all of you that commented yesterday, thank you for your good thoughts and if you could keep them coming, I think I’ll really need them as you may be getting an update from Jake saying the men in the white coats came and took me away if something else happens!

When it Rains

They say when it rains it pours or that good or bad things come in threes and I have to say right now I believe both. This is going to be a post full of bad news so if you are full of Christmas spirit and happiness you may not want to read much further so it doesn’t bring you down…

It all started about two weeks ago when Michael came home and said that things were not going well at work and he didn’t know how much longer he was going to have a job. He’s been with this company for 18 years. He has been pretty devastated to say the least and very grouchy because although his boss said he can’t run the company without him and he would be the very last to go he is very worried about his coworkers who are also his friends. This is not a good time to be unemployed no matter what field but especially in the construction world. We make the decision to start saving as much as we can, not exchange Xmas gifts with each other and do whatever we can to take precautions for going back to one salary.

Fast forward to this week when we take Sadie our puppy to the vet, and then decide we need a second opinion from a specialist and on Wednesday find out that she needs knee surgery right away not on one knee but both knees. They schedule the surgery on the left knee for the NEXT day. It’s $3500 for one knee. The next one has to be done as soon as the first one heels in about 6 weeks. And during the heeling she has to be confined to a crate, wear one of those God awful collars, and take all kinds of medications. She has to stay overnight in the hospital and boy Thursday night in our house is awful without her and I couldn’t wait to pick her up on Friday.

And then we get to Friday, I get out of work and rush home to meet Michael so we can go get Sadie. The day just seemed to drag by! I get a call when I am about 20 minutes from home from Michael saying that his truck just quit and he is waiting for AAA to come give him a tow. He has no idea what is wrong with the truck and it’s about 20 degrees outside and he’s freezing. 3 Hours later he is still not home. We finally get Sadie home at 7:30 last night! Still have no clue what is wrong with the truck or how much it will cost to fix it.

Sadie is resting right because she just had a Codeine. She’s not happy that she is confined to her crate but she has to have very limited movement for the next 6 weeks. Her whole back leg is shaved up to her back  but the incision is only about 4-5 inches so it’s not too big. She has wagged her tail a few times which is a good sign but you can tell she is in pain because she whimpers once in a while. She hates the collar and when we have to put it on her she gets so sad it makes me want to cry. I hate to think we have to do this all again to the other leg. Poor thing, she doesn’t deserve this at all.

Oh and if you are still with me, this is all caused by a Luxating Patella. It’s also known as Trick Knee. Mostly common in small dogs but also starting to get more common in larger dogs such as Golden’s. And it’s Genetic. We have contacted the breeder because from the research we have done he should stop breeding the parents immediately but he wants more proof from us. There were 11 puppies in Sadie’s litter and we have no idea if any other pups have shown any issues but I hope not.

So if you made it through all that you really are a true friend and I thank you and ask for one more thing, a few good thoughts for Sadie’s fast recovery!

Thanks for reading!

I am Still Here!`

Wow! It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged! But since I’ve got like 2 readers I’m sure no one has really noticed anyway. Between work, school, homework, the holiday’s and I’m embarrassed to admit a Facebook game called Farmville I’ve had no time. But since we got our first snowfall last night I figured I actually had an excuse to blog so here I am with photos!

As it was just starting to stick last night

And what I woke up to this morning when the phone rang for Michael to go out to plow:

And since I’m here I’ll post our Christmas tree photos. We actually got our first fake tree this year. It was kind of sad not to go out and cut our tree down for the first time in 27 years but Michael really didn’t like worrying about the hardwood and I hated cleaning up all the pine needles every day because of how dry our house is! It doesn’t look to bad considering!

And one with the lights off:

So now I need to get back to studying for my final. It’s Tuesday night and I could use all the good thoughts you care to send please as I hate tests! Thanks and have a wonderful week!

Whirlwind Update

Phew it’s been a busy few weeks! We had one kiddo turn 11 on a Monday

Then on Wednesday the 2nd kiddo turned 14! Where has the time gone?

Then Friday I got a call from the School Nurse saying kiddo #2 had a 102 temp 20 minutes before school got out and he could not ride the bus that we had to come pick him up. Well I work 50 minutes away from school with NO traffic and hubby was about an hour away so we asked if she planned on staying there until we got there, guess what her answer was? You guessed right. Luckily we had a neighbor home who was willing to go get him. I rushed home and took him right to the immediate care to get him tested for the flu since she said a lot of the 5th grade as well as a bunch of teachers were out with it.   We were at the doctor’s within about an hour and 40 minutes. Poor kid was miserable and just wanted to be home in bed, but they took his temp it was 99.8! The doc said with no meds there is no way it could have gone down that much. I’m thinking the nurse needs a new thermometer. He was sick and did run a temp of around 100-101 all weekend but was better by Monday. He did miss Trick-or-Treat though so was very unhappy about that.

Jake on the other hand did not miss it. I thought he was too old to go out but since all his friends were going who was I to argue. He dressed up as an old lady. We had fun shopping at the Goodwill store for his clothes! He was pretty funny!

Our pumpkins never got carved since Josh wasn’t up to it and Jake didn’t care so they sat like that on the porch instead. Kind of a bummer but I didn’t miss the mess at all!

I passed my mid-term thankfully. I didn’t get the A I wanted but no one in the class got an A so I guess I’ll be happy with the B. At least I know what to expect on the Final. Now I have to work on my project. Maybe I can get an A on that! This teacher is tough!\

Oh and I just have to show you how big my puppy is! She’s not a puppy anymore, she’s 10 months and looks like a full grown dog. She is the sweetest thing too! I couldn’t ask for a better dog!

And speaking of that, I promised her a walk so I’m outta here! Have a great day!

I WON SOMETHING!

I just started reading Stephanie Howell’s blog because of post my friend Kendra had on her blog and quickly added her to my google reader. I enjoy reading her stories and love her pages! Imagine my surprise when I entered a contest she had recently and won this:

Not only did I get the awesome bracelet made by Stacey Curry of Star Hitched Wagon I got a signed copy of the June 2009 issue of Bead Trends magazine that it’s published in which I thought was so fun! This bracelet is even prettier in person and I highly recommend you checking out both links I’ve shared today! Thank you again Stephanie and Stacey!

Happy Halloween!

I have been wanting to make a banner for awhile now and since I got the opportunity to work with Basic Grey’s new Eerie collection for a product review over at ScrapFriends I decided that is exactly what I would do. I had fun making it and think I just may make one for Christmas too!

 

Now I’ve got to go iron my clothes for the week, fold some laundry and see about dinner. It’s going to be a busy week for me with my boys turning 11 and 14, a mid-term and Halloween! Have a good one!

Columbus Day Weekend

We went up to Maine to visit my Sister-in-Law for the holiday weekend and had a great time. It’s been awhile since I’ve been up there and it was nice to spend some time with her. Julie and I met in High School 27 years ago and believe it or not she is the one to blame for introducing me to my husband all those years ago and I’m still friends with her! Anyway,  I taught her how to make some jewelry and did some scrapping, took some photos, cooked and best of all relaxed. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the weekend…

Josh collecting eggs:

Julie making her first necklace:

My newphew Cole

Sadie and her new BFF Daisy playing Tug-o-war

Josh near the brook

Julie’s front yard

 

The Mill

Jake being ‘Bad’

 

It really is pretty up there! And it although it was cold it was a very nice peaceful weekend!

Cards for Soldiers 2010 Schedule

I sorted 725 cards to send out to the soldiers this week! It’s been another great year for sending cards. Only one more shipment this year and then its on to the 2010 mailings! This will be our 4th year!

I’ve posted the 2010 Mailing schedule on the Card for Soldiers blog. I hope some of my scrapping friends who make cards will have some time in the new year to send some cards!

Thanks to everyone who has helped out with our project we are hoping for another successful year.

Apple Picking

We went on our annual apple/pumpkin/corn maze trip on Sunday and it was an experience to say the least! The corn maze was a bust! After almost 2 hours we had to give up and take an emergency exit out because it was getting late and I needed to get dinner started because it was a school night. To say the least the boys were not pleased with me because I was a quitter! LOL! Well I also got stung by a yellow jacket earlier at the apple orchard and my finger was swollen up like a balloon and hurt like a son of a bee so I was done to say the least. Plus it was hot! I had no idea it would turn out that warm and I had my fur lined crocs on! LOL! It was fun and then some but enough was enough! Anyway, here are some photos from the fun…

 

OK we are off to Maine for the long weekend! Have a great weekend!

Scary Stuff

So Jake spent the night at a friends house Friday night and they went to his sister’s soccer game here in town. The field is set back behind some houses and there are woods and a stream around it. Jake and his friend decided to kill some time walking around the woods near the stream and come upon this:

Jake thinks' it’s a toy so goes to pick it up and realizes it’s a bit too heavy to be a toy so puts it right back where he finds it! They head back out to his friends mom, who immediately takes them to the police station to make a report. It turns out its a loaded handgun! Seriously, in my little tiny hick town! What scares me the most is that this could have turned out so differently. I’m very proud of my son and thankful that nothing bad happened with such a dangerous weapon so close at hand to a place where many children are every weekend.  I have to say that I am still sick to my stomach thinking about how things could have been!

This Makes Me Smile

I couldn’t even move like this in my 20’s and this lady is 62!!!

 

We are off to Gaucho’s with some friends for dinner tonight and then I plan on a rainy day full of sorting cards for soldiers so have a fabulous rest of the weekend!

My New Curtain

Chris reminded me that I hadn’t posted a photo of my new curtain in the scraproom! I can’t believe I forgot since it’s the cutest addition to my newly renovated room! Chris made this out of the fabric I covered the chairs in. She is so talented! Oh how I wish I could sew on something other than paper! Look how cute…

Thank you Chris!!!

Tim Holtz!

I had the pleasure of taking my second class with Tim yesterday at my LSS and of course it was as awesome as I knew it would be. This one was called Idea-ology Intrigue and we made 5 pieces of jewelry.

I think this little bird house pin is my favorite and this photo of it does it much more justice (it’s is from the slide in class):

And of course I had to get a photo of Tim and Mario but Tim wouldn’t let me unless I was in it too so here were are:

This is a close up of the charm necklace which was so fun to make:

All the projects were awesome and I learned a lot. I am loving all the idea-ology line of Tim’s and can’t wait to play with all the stuff I bought!

Cards for Soldiers

As you know some of us girls over at 123-Scrap.com started a "Cards For Soldiers" Project several years ago. We were even written about in Creating Keepsakes Magazine. Well the Chaplain and our good friend Carol's husband that went over to Iraq and gave Chris the idea to start this program has come and gone on 2 tours over there and is home safe for good and since I started working on an Air Force Base about the same time he was coming home I started making some contacts for new places to send some cards.

It took awhile to get things ironed out but now I've got two different places to send cards to and now I need lots of cards again and quick! So if you like to make cards head on over to the Cards for Soldiers Blog and check out the specs and the schedule in the right hand column! Oh and if you have any good sources that are willing to donate A2 envelopes I need those too! I am buying them myself as well as paying for the postage to mail these cards and envelopes so it gets pricey!

Thank you for your support!

More Catch Up Posting

So from one exciting thing to the next! Over Labor Day weekend we went to visit our good friends and old neighbors Kathy and Steve in Florida. They have a house on a Lake in Central Florida. I wasn’t too keen on the whole Lake thing knowing alligators live in fresh water but everyone had a blast. It was wonderful to see them and spend time with them as we miss them and haven’t seen them in about 2 years now. I can’t share photos because Michael decided he wanted to spend some more time down there fishing and kept the camera with him but I’ll share them soon! We stayed at the lake house from Friday until Sunday and then drove back to the coast to spend a couple of nights at the beach. Steve got us a gorgeous suite on Delray Beach with an Ocean view. It was beautiful! I can’t wait to get the sunrise photos off the camera! The boys and I flew home yesterday. Our plane got in around 3:30, we came home, unpacked, I did some laundry, got caught up on my emails and then drove down to UMass Lowell where I started back to school! Yep you heard me right, I am working on a degree in Information Technology! I have no idea if what the heck I’m thinking but I do know computers are always going to be around so I may as well know them inside and out! The first class went well, hopefully the rest will too!

It was back to work today but hey, it’s a short week! Have a good one!

Long Time No Blog!

Sorry it’s been awhile! After finishing up my scrap room makeover, I had plans to have my friends over for a scrap night and at the last minute we got invited to a Red Sox game so thankfully my good friends understood and off to the Sox game we went! It was fantastic. We had seats under the awning so while it rained a steady rain all night and there was even a rain delay I was dry and toasty the whole game. Here are a few shots from the game which we won!

YOUK!!!

My favorite catcher!

A Happy Beckett

This was something to see that you don’t see on TV!

 

Lynne, Johnnie and Michael

And JV again

 

I did not think this guy was going to get up. It was scary!

We would have had a great photo of Big Papi sliding into third but it came out blurry. Oh well they can’t all be perfect right?

And then during the rain delay it was tied 5-5 in the bottom of the 8th with tail end of a hurricane coming in and it was late so we decided to leave, while we were sitting in traffic, they restarted the game and the Sox won! I will never leave a game early again! LOL! It was still a blast.  Thanks John and Lynne (and Lynne’s boss for the tickets!)

Yearbook Yourself

Here I am in 1984 from http://www.yearbookyourself.com/

Nice hair eh? It’s actually pretty accurate minus the bow! LOL!

My New Scrap Room

I’m a bit later than I said I’d be but here are the photos of my newly renovated room

I got the desk at Pottery Barn Teen, the chairs were from an old dining room set and I picked out some Michael Miller fabric and then choose four of the colors from the fabric to repaint the chairs. My sweet hubby painted them for me and then recovered the seats.

The chandelier also came from Pottery Barn Teen

The word art is from http://www.onceuponadesign.net/ and I got the idea from Jodene, it is not a great photo but it says do something creative everyday. I found the big scissors on Ebay and the word scrap has been on my wall forever I just added more ribbons to match the new colors.

The shelf is from Ikea and the baskets and boxes are also from Pottery Barn Teen

 

I absolutely LOVE it and plan on spending tons of time down here.

Oh and my good friend Chris is making me a curtain out of the same fabric that is on the chairs so I’ll be sure to take another photo when that is here too!

A Wonderful Thing to Wake Up To

I actually slept late yesterday (7am) and it felt great and then when I went to let Sadie out this is what I saw:

I love rainbows, they always make me smile and to see this one was just the right thing to get off to a great day.

Michael and I went to Ikea to get a second Expedit, a black one for the den so I have somewhere to display my albums instead of in the basement in my scraproom where no one ever looks at them. We are going set it up and move all the albums off my new desk today so stay tuned for scraproom photos!!!

I’m excited to break in my room on Friday when Debbie, Deb and Dawn come over to scrap. It’s been too long since I’ve seen them and I can’t wait to scrapbook.

After IKEA we went out to lunch and then did some shopping at the mall. It was a fabulous afternoon and then when we got home we went over to our neighbors for a swim and bbq. More fun! I love weekends like this!

OK well that’s about it for me for now. I’ll be back later or tomorrow more!

Have a fabulous day!

My First Photo Shoot

Well since I didn’t get paid for it and it technically wasn’t my first since I’ve done the ‘christmas card photo shoot’ about 13 times now maybe I should say my first magazine shoot. Cause that’s really what it was! A good friend of DH’s 1965 Buick Riveria is going to be in a Buick magazine and he asked me to shoot the photos to send to the magazine! I won’t share the ones that actually made it to print but here are a few from the 150 I took:

And since they were official photos I figured it was time to make myself a watermark. I’m still playing but what do you think?

OK, I have to get off here and get ready to go to the neurologist to get some migraine help. Hope you all have a fabulous day!

Happy Birthday Kristi!

It' s a wonderful and beautiful lady's birthday tomorrow. Kristi and I met thorough the Junkitz site when we both used to stalk the DT's blogs. Well she was actually friends with Kendra IRL so I was the only stalker but that's another story. I had the pleasure of meeting Kristi IRL last October during our girls weekend in Kansas City which I have blogged about in previous posts. I even got to room with her and she is so much fun.
So Happy Birthday Kristi, may you have many many more and a fabulous day today! I am a slacker so I didn't make a fun little album or post unflattering photos like Sue did!

New Wheels!

I got me some new wheels today! We decided that it was a good time to trade in the H3 since the mileage wasn’t too high and it was still in great condition. Plus I was worried they won’t be making these anymore after 2009 so I just had to convince Michael. Well when we got a letter in the mail saying they were desperate for 2006 H3 trades and were willing to give me 120% of Market Value plus 0% financing we headed right down to the Hummer Dealership to make a deal. And a deal we got! My payment will not increase and now I’m driving around in this:

 

Oh and I scrapped a bit this morning as well:

It was a fabulous weekend! Hope you all had one just as great!