bring it on...

From our family to yours; wishing you a happy and healthy new year.

Thank you for stopping by, all of the nice comments, emails, advice, inspiration and understanding. We are hoping for a great new year.

We have a lot of change that could come next year. My MRI showed that I have another bulging disc in my fusion, but the fusion is not broken. The disc is just bulged again, although I have no idea why you can herniate a disc in the place that you have a fusion. So more meds for me, woohoo :( I do get to have epidural injections in mid-January, and beyond that, I am not sure if I am prepared to do anything else.

Paul has been desperately searching for good, stable jobs locally. The economy just stinks here. All of the viable offers have been out of state or out of country. He tried commuting to Chicago and that just did not work, he got extremely depressed being away from us. So, where-ever or whatever the decision is, Caden and I will follow, after the end of the school year. Paul was contacted by a company in the UK, and they will be meeting with him this next week. This would be a huge opportunity for his career. It would also be "fun" to travel and learn different cultures. At least it is an English speaking country. There have been other offers to places way way away. It is the thoughts of what are we going to do about Caden's schooling, my medical problems and what would we do with the house that swim through my head at night. We will just jump over that hurdle when and if it comes.

Paul and I had a lovely night last night. My cousin Sarah saved our day and was able to watch Caden. Paul was able to recover from his stomach virus just in time, also.

thanks for stopping by....take care and have a wonderful and safe New Year's eve/day!

time to organize..

{via illustrator Sara Finelli, she is a great artist!}
cannot wait to take down the tree and clean out the house! Today Caden and I organized all of his toys. Yes, ALL of them. A new rule has been made, no more toys unless we donate some. We did a little donating before Christmas, but not as much as I wanted to. Santa was very generous this year.

Paul surprised us with a Disney Cruise. This was a huge surprise, we were not exchanging gifts for us, things are a little tight in this economy. Paul had purchased this in August, so he has been sitting on the secret for quite a while. We are so excited as we have not had a real vacation since our honeymoon. We all are going in mid-May. We will be on the boat for Caden's birthday, so Caden thinks this is his party! He keeps repeating "I cannot wait till my birthday!" We will
probably have a small party for his birthday after we get back.

Tonight, my cousin Sarah is coming here to watch Caden so Paul and I can redeem our free stay at the Amway Grand and have some together (alone) time. That is, if Paul can get better soon. He suddenly came down this morning with a bad stomach sickness. As of a couple of minutes ago he says he feels better ,but he has not budged himself off from the bed. If we go, we will be back by noon and probably put Christmas away. I love Christmas, but it is nice to be back to a more uncluttered living space.

While shopping the other day, we ran into Petco. I found the most loving, adorable Siamese mix. She wasn't shy at all, not skiddish and just wanted to be pet. We are so tempted to get her. We almost left the store with her, but we decided we better give it some good thought. I think our other cat, Zoe, wouldn't mind, we rescued her from a household full of cats. Zoe is a great cat, but she is sorta stuck up, she doesn't sit on our laps or anything like that. She just likes to be pet on her own time and she will disappear for hours, she could really care less about us it seems. So that is why I would like to get another cat, a cuddly one, and a companion for Zoe when we are gone. We will see what happens.....





for more of Sara Fanelli's artwork please visit here.


ps...Aunt Cheryl, can you please email me your address, we have some pictures and a card for you, but were unable to locate your new address. thanks :)

Merry Christmas

wishing everyone a very merry Christmas from our family to yours...

I just wanted to thank each and every one of you for stopping by, all of the nice comments, all of the wonderful e-mail and especially this little community that the "blogworld" provides!

news..

...All presents have been sent and all but one card is on its way! We do not have one address of a relative, so a little research has to be done :) woo hoo

It was too soon to have a spinal injection so I was sent home with yet more pain meds and an order for a MRI. I get to go have the MRI on Sunday at 915 and another appointment with the back doctor on the 28th. I think I can get an injection on that day. Maybe the MRI will give us some more answers. I haven't had one since the fusion. After the MRI it is church and a family Christmas get-together. I am in the midst of baking my apple cake and mac and cheese. Luckily those dishes get better sitting over night.


Paul and I are not exchanging gifts, we decided to spend our gift on a baby sitter. We have a gift certificate for a nice hotel in Grand Rapids {Amway Grand} so we will be going to spend a night away, together. And Caden gets to have fun with a sitter. Luckily he loves his sitters. He doesn't get to see them very much, so I think it is still special to him.


Flickr was acting silly, so no pics :(...

thanks for stopping by!

holiday hurry

{picture of the grand haven pier taken by my mom's friend the other day...}

We have been very busy running around trying to gather gifts for the upcoming holidays. We have one family Christmas celebration this Sunday, a small group celebration Tuesday, Caden's school Christmas party Wednesday, Caden's school caroling on Thursday and after that things will settle down...I have lots and lots of baking and cooking to do...For our celebration on Sunday I am preparing mac and cheese with Grandma Realini's recipe and an apple cake. Tuesday's event is "Christmas morning" theme, so I am bringing banana bread or muffins, and I need to make tons of Christmas sugar cookies for the kids to decorate at Caden's school party. Fun.

My back has been in a huge flare again, so I was lucky to be able to move up my injection to tomorrow.(hopefully-I have an appointment, but it may be too soon to have more injections) We will see what the specialist says. When I called to reschedule I found out that my doctor is no longer going to work on the lakeshore so I will be seeing yet another doctor for my next appointments in the new year. It is always a bit of a set back explaining the years of surgeries and etc to another doctor, but it also means that I will get another opinion and maybe more possibilities of relief. There isn't much you can do to fix a failed fusion though.

Caden has had a lot of troubles with his ears. He had an ear infection last month that went away with anti-biotics, but his ear still had a lot of fluid in it. He hasn't stopped complaining about his ears, so we have kept a close eye on them. They seem like they are getting worse, so we are going to the doctor today to have them checked again....Hopefully we will find a solution, poor little guy...

Well I am off to count the food at the food pantry and then to pick up Caden from school to go to the doctor..

talk to you all soon!
happy holidays to you!

we *heart* snow

{for now, anyways}

"snowflakes on my tongue, yum"


the art of making a snow angel, he may have started upside down, but he got the hang of it.


pure bliss

Welcome::

Welcome:: to my newest collection:Letterpress. Letterpress of all kind, but especially wooded letterpress. I also have several birds,shells, bicycles, etc that I use to stamp my ceramic pieces.


Introducing:: the final version of the owl ornament. I used a celadon glaze. I think that I will be making more of these, but maybe pure white with a staining of underglaze that would allow the texture to "pop" even more. But first I am making tags to lable the glazes I have. I think it is so lovely to see all of the color choices at hand, almost a piece of art in itself.


Goodbye:: to the turkey and...


Hello:: Christmas {isn't he getting so big?}