It's been Months

I realize that I have not posted anything since February of this year. After my father's birthday on february 18, my world has just been in a spiral. Dad went into the hospital for 11 days. For a while it wasn't looking too good. He was septic and in ICU for a few days. The worst part of it, was that he had 2 separate infections in his body, and he has had a mitral valve replacement in the past. He finally went into rehab, came out in May, back in the hospital for 2 days. He almost tore the place apart. His discharge from the rehab happened when I was in Washington,DC and his readmission was when l I was in Oregon/Washington. After all that, things were going fairly smoothly for me. Work was slow, so that was tough, but otherwise things were okay. During all of this, we finally finished the kitchen. Pictures to follow in another note.

Fast forward to last Tuesday. I get a call at 6:30 AM. It's my dad telling me that my mom fell and broke her hip. One of the neighbors walking their dog found her. so, off to the hospital I went in the Ambulance with my father and husband in the car. Of course she was admitted, and there I am with Dad. I had to bring him home for his pills and breakfast. He was very upset, and shaken. Started calling or texting the family so that they would k ow. Cancelled mom's Mah Jong game and by then her entire club knew what was happening. Surgery was on Wednesday. Boy, was she out of it for 3 days. My sister, Jennifer, came down on Thursday afternoon to help out. Dad has had an aide since coming out of the hospital,but she was useless. I contacted the agency to see about full time help. We are starting on Monday morning with someone new. I am so glad that Jennifer will be there to help get things straight from the beginning. Yesterday, Saturday afternoon, she was transferred to the rehab hospital. We ended up having 8 people in the room visiting! All family! We then all went out to dinner. Got home around 10:30, and crashed until around 8 this morning.

I promise to keep up with the blog from this point on. I will also fill you in on other things that have happened since February. I have done some scrap booking and will post some of my layouts here. I don't want to burden you all with much more this time around.

Thanks for "listening" to me ramble.

Catching up on the past few weeks

So much has happened these past few weeks. I wasn't feeling well so I went to my My friendly doctor. After having a blood test for Celiac Sprue coming back positive, he had me do a look see into my stomach and take biopsies. I am now on a Gluten Free diet. Just Google it and you can find out how I must eat now. We are still going out for every meal as our kitchen still is not finished. Our sink finally came in today, so I guess we will be marching on with the project. I am hoping that the counter tops and sink will be in byu the end of the week so that I can start to cook. Eating out can be a little daunting trying to avoid gluten. It seems to be in many foods without you even knowing about it.

I have decided to wait to upload pictures until the kitchen is finished. i promis not to wait until the floors are done, just the cabinets, countertop and wall tile. You are just going to have to wait a little longer for the reveal.

I must add, that I have seen two very moving movies in the past two weeks. The first one was Defiance and the second was A Boy In the Striped Pajamas. If you haven't seen them yet, I highly recommend them. It really gives you some insight to WWII in Germany.

Wednesday I will reveal my newest layout for ScrapDango's Queen contest.We are having such a good time looking at everyone's creations. If you have time, go and take a look. Of course, you need to join first.

Until then, take care everyone.

I've been tagged

I have been tagged by my friend Ginni. I now must go into my pics and pic the 6th folder and the 6th picture in that folder and post it here. I then need to find 6 friends to do the same. Let me give it a go.
This is a picture of a scrapping friend, Doreen, who use to work at my local scrapbook store. She was just goofing around with my camera taking pictures of everyone, including herself! Now to pick 6 others to tag

http://www.randomponderingincanada.blogspot.com/ Colleen
http://jackiepstuff.blogspot.com/ Jackie
http://heyitsmyscrappyplace.blogspot.com/ Sue
http://mypictures2pages.blogspot.com/ Lisa
http://scrapperqueen.blogspot.com/ Lucy
http://www.hlough.blogspot.com/ Heather

Some Cards that I made.

Here are two cards that I made today in a class at Everything scrapbook and Stamps in Lake Worth, FL. It is a great store with wonderful classes.

Progress

The kitchen is comming along. The cabinets are half way in and up. We have made a few more changes (again). We now have to cut away the wall in back of the fridge so it doesn't stick out so much. We are also having the cabinet man make a very narrow (6 inches) deep cabinet to go on the side of the pantry so that you don't see just a blank wall. we also did n't move the air conditioner vent out far enough, so that has to be redone, and then the painters will be back to fix the ceiling again, and paint the walls. I still haven't taken any recent pictures, but I will tomorrow after the cabinets are finished or almost done.

I had a little bit of disturbing news today from one of my doctors. I took a blood test last week, and it came back positive for Celiac disease. Now that doesn't mean that I definitely have it, but most likely do. I have to go in for an upper endoscopy next Wednesday, so wish me luck. I will do anything for this stomach pain to go away. I live on Previcid and Pepcid complete. It is becoming old. Tomorrow Ed is going to have cataract surgery. When it rains it pours in my house. It seems to always be something else.

Crowned Contest

I follow a forum, ScrapDango, that is having a month long contest. Every week someone will be sashed for their creations. At the end of the month, one participant will be crowned. We have challenges every week. This week it is Miss congeniality and using BLING in your layouts. Now I love stickles, so I am hoping to do a lost of bling on my layouts. I will post what I do here, so watch out for creativity to happen right before your eyes.

Come back and visit soon, or you will be very far behind the happenings.

Continuing Saga

The drywall has been repaired and the popcorn ceiling is down. tomorrow they paint the ceiling. the cabinets are being delivered on Friday as well as the new appliances. except for the floor, we should be down in about 1 1/2 weeks with the kitchen. It can't come soon enough. I am getting sick of eating out. I can barely finish a meal as the food is just making me sick!

Here is a layout that I did of my hubby, ed and me from 6 years ago in St. Augustine. If you have never been there, try and make a trip. It really is a beautiful little city, with lots to see.

DEMO DAY!

They started the demolition today. There is nothing left in the kitchen. As promised, here are a few pictures. This is a shot of the kitchen before we started anything. there Then there are some of the kitchen as it stands now, empty

He AGREED!

I got a call from Ed while he was coming home from Trap Shooting. HE decided that we wshould go ahead and do the whole downstairs with the wood floor! YEAH!!!! It is going to look georgeous! I can't wati until I see the finished product.

It's Started

Well, the electricial came today and started to reroute all of our electric outlets that we will need and the new light switches. There are holes on every wall. He also moved both a/c vents out so that they would not be in the way of the doors. I think that I have almost convinced my hubby to put the new wood floor throughout the entire downstairs. YEAH!!! Everyone has told him that it would look nicer and be cheaper in the long run. I know that it will be a lot more money, but if we every decide to finish up with wood, we probably would not be able to find the same thing again. That's why we are going with wood in the first place, we could not find another box and 1/2 more of our tile that we put down about 6 years ago. I will try and post some pictures in a day or two.

Well, we are going to start the demolition on Monday! This weekend I need to pack up the entire kitchen. What a job that will be especially since I am not feeling well. I have another cold, the second one in a month! Will post pictures as things progress.

This week has been a very exciting week for me. I was chosen Layout of the week (LOTW), on my favorite site, Scrapdango! here is the layout that I did of my Mother and niece.

We are going ahead with our Kitchen remodel. We have all ready bought our appliances and are waiting for the sink and faucet to arrive before we start demolition! Here es the artist rendition of what the kitchen will look like. It is a little light, but I hope that you can see it well enough. Tonight the contractors will be here to show us the final prices and new wood flooring to choose from. We were going to keep our existing tile, but we needed 2 more boxes. The manufacturer stopped making that design and there is no more to be had. Oh, well. I love wood floors and I guess that this is the way to get them.

Empty Nest

Well, the nest is empty again. The last of the baby birds just flew out on USAir. It sure is quiet. You can hear every click of the keyboard. I will post some pics tomorrow with the boys comparing their new toys.

This morning everyone went out to the Original House of Pancakes. That was a challenge for me. I finally came up with scrambled eggs with saluted veggies and salsa on top. I did cheat and have buckwheat pancakes. I am now getting hungry and it is after 4 PM. So, I will just have something sensible for dinner. Tonight we are going out since I have cooked for a couple of days in a row and forgot to take something out for dinner for tonight.

I did stop on the way home from the airport at the LSS in Lake Worth and picked up a stamp that I had ordered. While I was there, I signed up for another class using paste and stencils. This is an exciting class. I will post the cards when they are finished.

NEW YEAR 2009

On Scrapdango, we were challenged to think of a word to try and live by for the year It took ma a couple of days, but I finally thought of one. HEALTHIER.

I am not saying that I am dieting, but trying to eat healthier and live a better life style. so far, I have not had any junk food or snacks between my meals. I walked one mile today. I am just going to take one day at a time. the other challenge is to do a layout of the word we choose. This might be a little trickier. I am still pondering that one.

On another note, my youngest son, Scott is in for a few days to visit. It is always good to see him. He is always trying to encourage me to walk and loose weight. I am hoping that this is the year that I turn things around. Tomorrow my middle son and future daughter-in-law comes back home. Instead of going out for breakfast, I just might make something here. If anyone out there has any good, nutritious breakfast maeals for me, please feel free to e mail them to. I guess I will hit the internet and weight watchers cookbooks.