I'm alive

I'm alive and here and in a much better place mentally. All the stuff surrounding the healthcare bill was not healthy for me and I needed to not be on the computer. Seriously.

I am, a very opinionated pre-existing condition because of all my medical stuff, right in the middle of the debate and I am not able to emotionally remove myself from it. I take it personally because, well, it IS personal to me. It is my very life and well being and I, as well as 32 million other Americans, needed this bill to pass. I'm not going to say much else about that here because this blog is my happy place and all that crap rhetoric is like quicksand for my mental state. If you want to read my thoughts on that - check out my other blog. I'm going to unload a bunch over there later this week regarding health care. But not here. This blog is for my kids, my craft stuff and my attempts at cheaply decorating our money pit continually renovated home. In other words, only things that lift my spirit and make me smile are allowed.

So on that note - I'm back and I'll be uploading some pics later of some projects I've been working on. AND I've made progress with the dining room issue. More to come on that too.

Today it is supposed to be 74 degrees. The sun is out and, for a change, the wind is not gusting up to 50 miles per hour. I'm going to be outside with the kids today. :) That is a great thing. Springtime - it's very nice to have you back - I've missed you.

It only took a snowstorm

to kill the pollen and give a day without terrible allergies. Although I am loving the fact that my nose isn't running and I'm not sneezing - I am missing the pretty weather. It's gray and cold and has been snowing on and off since 8 o'clock this morning. And today is the first day of Spring - how'd you like that? Ah well, it is supposed to be 70 again on Monday so I can suffer through these couple of days to get there.

*Warning* This post is all.over.the.place. Ok - proceed at your own risk. You've been formally warned.

We went camping at Beaver's Bend and had a good time. The kids really enjoyed it and Mark and I did too - for different reasons. He got to go fish every day,several times a day.

And when he went he almost always took the boys.

Because he took the boys, I got to hang out at the cabin with Piper. A good part of that time she was napping so I got some ME alone time - just to hang out, smell the pine trees, watch the birds, enjoy nature and read. It was really nice.










I've been doing quite a bit of re-doing and crafting and whatnot. I've tackled so many little projects I"m not sure what to talk about first. I'll probably put them in seperate posts just to organize them a bit better. So I'll just talk about the re-vamping of the house. I am on a white kick. I am loving white right now - everything about it - it's so clean and inviting, and to me, calming. I've been adding white into our living room over the past couple of weeks and I'm liking how it's coming. I covered some red pillows in khaki slip covers and covered a pillow in drop cloth. Then I hung some thrift store frames I spray painted white on the wall and added a little vingette of items that came from Goodwill. Have I mentioned I heart spray paint? Well, I do. I lurve it. It is my BFF. I've got a large mirror I found at a junk store for $5 down in the basement taped off and drying right now from a coat of rubbed oil bronze spray paint I put on it earlier. That is going above our sofa. When I get it all done I'll do a "reveal" post. ;)

I also spray painted some heavy, wood candle sticks white. This is the "before" shot.

"After" I like how the paint didn't cover them completely. I really like the bit of brown showing through in some places.

While I was at it I took the cover to our fireplace out and gave it a good coat of white spraypaint too. Our fireplace does not have a flue. I know - odd right? Well, it doesn't - so we have this HUGE board that has been made to fit the exact opening to the hearth and it stays in place to keep the cold air out. Anyway, I have been thinking I want to paint that fireplace for about 6 months now. The issue is that our living room faces East and South and because of lots of trees in our front yard, the room is very dark. The dark red fireplace combined with all the dark woodwork makes our living room feel like a cave. I was thinking that if I painted the fireplace it would give the living room a POP of color  rather than feel like it is a sucking, black hole of death   because that DARK fireplace is just sucking all the light out of the room. SO I painted the wood cover to the fireplace. I like it. It has already lightened that area up and given the little bit of light we have in there a place to bounce off. Reveal shot on this area to come as well. It's better but not done yet. I'm thinking of doing a lime-wash paint treatment on the brick of the fireplace - anyone ever heard of that?

Still trying to figure out a good color for the dining room. Now I'm even leaning toward doing something in a cream or creamy-green shade. The husband has talked me out of painting the trim in the dining room because it would just be too.much.work. So I have to work with what I've got....which is stained red-oak trim - it is almost a Cinnamon color stain. Very hard to get a good lot of colors to work against. Greens do look good, as do yellows - I have enough yellow in my house though. Possibly a green...maybe a green-gray or a creamy-green - something chameleon-like that will change as the light in the room changes. I'm also thinking of cream slipcovers for the dining room chairs. Am I insane wanting a variation of white when I have small children? Probably. But thats what I'm feeling right now.

Ok, so off to fold some laundry and check on the pulled pork I have in the crockpot. It smells wonderful and my tummy is growling. Happy first day of Spring everyone! 

Ok - so upcoming posts will be on chalkboards. I am a madwoman right now for chalkboard paint. I've got some serious projects in the works on that. If the weather really does turn nice next week maybe I'll be able to finish them!

Camping trip

I'm going to be gone for a few days. We are taking the kids on a camping trip to Beaver's Bend.
We are staying in a cabin on the river (not tent camping - I'm not insane). The river empties into this HUGE lake and it should be a lot of fun. There are tons of nature trails and lots of river fishing for trout. There is also a terrific museum at the entrance to the park that the kiddos will love.

The last time we were there Max was in my belly. I was right at 13 wks along and right at the end of all the morning sickness stuff. This time I'll have my whole family there. I am happy. Also - it is gorgeous and right now the Dogwoods should be just starting to bloom. I can't wait.


However, the baby is still sick and can't breathe and we had a terrible night last night. Now, on less than 2 hours sleep, I only have to do 3 loads of laundry, do the grocery shopping for the trip (we simply MUST have the stuff to make s'mores with and hot dogs to roast on sticks - cause that is how I roll when we camp) and I have to get us all packed. Oh and did I mention the 12 yr old is home sick today too??? Ugh. I am tired but really happy.

But, these are the days - the good days overall - so we are going to push ahead and have a good time no matter what!

See ya'll when we get back next week.

I am Grateful

I *am* grateful. Every.Single.Day. that I wake up and breathe I am thankful for it. You should be too. I'll tell you why. Be thankful you can see and be thankful you can smile. It is all too easy to get caught up in the every day BS around us and forget what actually matters.

I usually talk about this stuff over here at my other blog but today, I just felt like part of what I had to say was about my kids and it needed to be said on this blog - my mommy/kid blog.

Last week I had to go and see my Neuro Surgeon and have my MRI. I have 3 Meningiomas. They found them while doing an MRI for the Bell's palsy I got right after my little girl was born. The Bell's robbed me of my smile and the Meningiomas robbed me of my peace of mind. Now, that being said, Meningiomas are benign brain tumors. Yes - it is WONDERFUL that they are benign. However, benign is really a misnomer because it just means that they are not actively attacking the brain. They are still in there and they can still grow. You can see pictures of them over here.  If they grow large enough they can begin to cause me all sorts of problems and then would need to come out. Also, they are too far apart to get at once - so I would need 2 separate brain surgeries.

So last week I had to go have another MRI done to see what was happening inside my brain. Turns out the tumors do not show any "significant growth" since my last MRI back in October. That is great news and I credit this for making it possible. However, the third tumor may or may not be a Meningioma. It is located on my right optic nerve sheath. It may be a Glioma. Pretty much anything with -oma attached to the end of it sucks ass. If it is a Meningioma it will either continue to grow very slowly and eventually rob me of my sight in the right eye OR it could just stop growing altogether leaving my vision as it is right now - compromised but there.

Gliomas are a bit different. They almost always occur in children. When they occur in adults they are usually very aggressive. The doctors don't know exactly which I have yet - they have to continue to do MRI's and watch and see what it does. They can't biopsy it because of where it is located which is what also makes it inoperable. Or rather if they did operate on it - I would be blind in my right eye immediately because they would have to remove my optic nerve. I just found out there that IF it is a Glioma -  I wouldn't just loose my vision in that eye, which I thought was the worst that could happen, I would most likely loose my eye.

Now, some people would say that should have always been obvious to me - why didn't I see (haha) that earlier. I'll tell you because I didn't. I just did NOT realize that was an option. To me going blind in that eye was bad enough - it never occurred to me that it could get worse.

In high school, during our senior year I was voted prettiest eyes. I love my eyes. I love that they are green with yellow and gray flecks in them. I love the shape of them - almond. I don't want to loose my eye. I don't want a glass eye. I want my eyes. Both of them.

And then the other night a friend of mine posted a link on Facebook to this site. But let me warn you - don't go there unless you have a good deal of Kleenex and nowhere you need to be soon. Their little girl is dying of cancer right in front of them. I can not imagine what that child must physically be enduring or what those parents are emotionally enduring on a day to day basis. It is, to me, in a word - unfathomable.

I read a couple of pages and got up and went into my room. Those pages were all I could take at that moment. I have only truly knelt to pray a couple of times in my life. The other night I hit my knees next to our bed and prayed and wept. I cried for that little girl, I cried for her family, and I cried for her parents. I prayed for all of them.

And then I thanked God that those things were not happening to us. I thanked God that if we had to have the Bad Things, they were happening to me and not my children.


It has always been a bit odd to me that I have 3 tumors and I have 3 children. Coincidence? I don't know. Maybe I have one for each child - payment made in advance for them. I would gladly have it be that way. If this must happen then yes, it should be me. Yes, the tumors suck. And yes, they are a lot to go through. But, I got to have 37 years of good vision. With 2 eyes. I got to see my children. And they are healthy and happy and growing. And that makes me, even with everything going on, blessed beyond measure and very, very grateful.

Feed Good Fridays

I'm going to designate Friday as the day I'm going to post about things that make me happy. Hopefully the list will be a fairly long one - but if not always, then that is OK too.


Lots of Mommy Braggin Going On

Max is potty training. Yes, indeedy, he is. AND whatsmore he is having SUCCESS at it. He filled in all the squares on Thursday on his success chart and started on Friday - yesterday. He got his SuperWhy potty prize. Today he has filled in all the squares for today and has earned his next potty prize - an Art Easel. He is going into the bathroom on his own when the timer goes off, getting undressed, and using the potty and then coming to get me to show me. I'm so proud of him.

Max also slept in his bed ALL NIGHT last night; no trips to mom and dads bed. When he got up this morning, at 7am, he came in and got in bed with me and said 2 things. The first was, "Mama - I slept in my bed all night!!!" I said, "I KNOW! I'm so PROUD of you!" And the next thing he said was, "MAMA I DIDN'T PEE IN MY DIAPER!" I said, "I KNOW! OMGOSH! You are SO AWESOME! OK, let's go potty!!!" And we did. And he didn't put up a fight. And it was most awesome.

Pip is sitting up all the time now. She doesn't topple much unless she is trying to reach something or her brother knocks her over.

She isn't crawling yet but she is on the verge. LOTS of up on the knees rocking and sometimes, accidentally, inching forward. So anytime really.

Also she does this tongue thing which is just hysterical to me. When she is concentrating or working hard at something she sticks her tongue STRAIGHT out. Remember how Michael Jordan would have his tongue sticking out when he'd make a slam dunk? Yep - just like that.


Alec is awesome. He is having attitude at times but really not so very much. For a 12 year old in the midst of puberty he is not much trouble.

He is a VERY good person and a wonderful, loving soul. He always has been. I don't have words for how much I love that young man. And he *is* a young man now. He is damn near as tall as me. His feet are a size larger than mine now (and I'm a women's 7 1/2) and his voice cracks pretty often these days.

I swear to God just the other day he was 3.
Just the other day...

All stuff about Me

I had Acupuncture a couple of days ago, I talk about that over here, and since then I have felt great.


The sounds of Loreena McKennitt waft through my home again. I have missed her sorely. I also have some Nag Champa burning. I have a white candle lit. The sun is shining. I am beginning to feel like mySelf again. That in itself is a Wonderful Thing.

Here's where I go all Crafty on you

I have managed to do a few crafty things this past week. Here are some pictures - they are not big deals but it gives me a creative outlet and makes me happy.

First I made some Jute twine balls *snicker* (I know, mentally I'm 12) Anywho - I got the idea from Kendall at Finesse your Nest and these are how mine turned out.

They are just Styrofoam balls wrapped in Jute Twine and hot glue. Really easy to do (took me like 10 minutes total) and cheap (!) and, I think, very cute.

I also wrapped a cool shaped, empty, clean olive oil bottle with Jute twine and filled up some old bottles (that were in our basement when we moved in and I wouldn't part with them) with wine bottle corks. I keep all the corks from the wine we drink, and have for 6 years now, and I put them in these old bottles. I like how it turned out.

The Jute twine balls *snicker* turned out so cute that I decided to attempt some others. I made wrapped one tennis ball in Raffia.

And another tennis ball wrapped in plain white rope.

I didn't have enough rope but I wrapped it until I ran out. I will finish this when I get some more because I LOVE how it turned out. I am digging the texture of it.

So that's it for today. My first Feel Good Friday. What kinds of things do you guys Feel Good about today????

mommy blog

Here I am and THIS is my "mommy blog" posting!

This space is for me to rant and brag and wax all poetic about the 3 most important people in my life: Alec, Max, and Piper.

They are the LOVES of my life and every day I am grateful I get to be their mommy. Some days I'm only grateful after they have gone to sleep (moms out there you know what I mean) but I am grateful all the same.

Still working on the look of this space and I'm going to get my uber-talented friend Leigh to work her blog magic in here too.

If I can get my head off the floor today (woke up with a nasty cold) I'll try and get some pictures posted of the 3 short people (well, 2 short people - Alec looks me dead in the eyes now) and some pics of the playroom that I talked about over here.

Thanks for checking us out and I look forward to letting you guys into my crazy Mom world!