Good Things – best of 2014

What a year!  I wish I had more projects to show you but alas the year just didn’t end on a great note for our family.  While we anticipated our move to Alberta and back to family, our plans changed a bit in September and the year definitely ended a lot different than we ever thought it would.

But here are some photos of the projects I did manage to get done

in the first few months of 2014.

Note: click on the hi-lited word that links you to the original post.

 

 

My dad’s antlers.  I have boxes in the basement that I’m anxious to finish. 

I just LOVE the way these turned out!

 

 

These CLAY BOWLS  are so pretty and so useful. 

So much fun to create using beautiful doilies.

 

 

 

What can I say about my current computer table in my office. 

It’s gorgeous and look at the sheen! 

 

 

These pictures just don’t capture the beauty of this door because of poor lighting in our bedroom.  This door is solid and just too heavy to carry it about the house looking for the best light.

 

 

I loved these matching end tables and hated to part with them. 

I think Graphite is my favourite paint color.

 

 

Just a fun little project.  This mirror has so much detail in the frame! 

So pretty!

 

 

I need to work on this concept a bit more but I love the way this

picture turned out of my Mom & Dad! 

 

 

Oh, the classic Rocking Chair.  What can I say . . . read the blog link.

 

 

Another project I loved doing!  My first attempt at enhancing the real wood on this square table and adding paint to add some character. 

Again, I used my favorite color.

So, as 2015 begins, the projects are lining up and I’m excited to get them ALL done and work them into some corner in our newly purchased home!

That’s unless I sell them, and then I’ll be sad,

but I'll be purchasing more treasures for sure!!

 

Journaling

entry NO. 1

I’m hearing whining . . . Meeka is up and needs to go outside.  I finally fell asleep and now I’m so groggy as I head to the kitchen to let puppy out.

I crawl back to bed wondering how Greg’s night was.  I think I should get up with a strong cup of coffee and begin my journal.  I begin to plan out the ‘table of contents’ in my brain.  How do you begin when it’s been so long and I have so much to put to paper.  I turn my phone on.  Oh a message from Greg  (J )

6: 31 am - “good morning, not sure if you’re awake yet . . . ’ “

7:10 am - I’m responding and wonder why aren’t you responding to MY response?”

Panic is on the edge of my brain.  I’m trying to begin to journal at 7 this morning after I got a text from Greg.  He hasn’t responded to my response yet so I continue to write (type) out my thoughts trying to be calm.  I’ve learnt that anything can be an alarm and anything can be a ‘nothing’ moment.  So I wait . . . and here I begin . . .

For approximately $1.95 plus tax I purchased a small book in a store in the hospital to begin noting the days that were spent in the Health Science Center hospital in Winnipeg.

To this day I haven’t opened the little book.  I don’t want to re-read all the information in there, all the emotions, all the ‘stuff’ that Greg had to go thru in the month of October.  Not yet.

7:50 a.m. - Finally a response back, “I went back to sleep”.

I continue now to write as my panic button is on hold for now.  I even called the nurses’ station. Could be they moved him to another room, could be he’s scheduled for more tests due to bad test results, so many reasons flood my mind.  I don’t have any calmness left in my system when I’m not in Greg’s room to actually see what’s happening.

So many memories of days past.  Now they come tumbling forward as I collect them here.  The lady who left her false teeth in a Kleenex box and now they’re gone, the drywaller who can’t breath, the farting (giggle), the call for nurses’ aids to help in room 9 (you know what that means), a ‘mercy bed’ and family in tears, the lady in the next curtained room and the noise never erased from your mind as she falls out of bed, the calls in the night “nurse nurse! ”, the codes over the intercom as nurses run, the blank eyes of other families gathering in the ICU lounge, and more personal yet is the crowded salmon-colored ward in A4-448, the tubes, the injections, the blood transfusions, the monitored breathing, the blankets piled high to keep him warm, the coughing, the physio guys who helped calm the coughing, the x-rays, the doctor jibberish (I’m right here-tell me!), and finally the calmness that came when moved from the ‘salmon-colored’ ward to ‘high observation’, the nurses’ smiles, the caring touch, the extra minute spent with us explaining, the laughs, the walks for coffee, more physio, talk of discharge, the chair they gave me to sleep on, the talks with the nurses (they really ARE the backbone of how your stay will be in the hospital).  I’ll probably talk more about these events and memories as I journal back.  But for now, I have to end this time and get ready to see Greg.  It’s Sunday and we’re finally in Alberta.  HOME! 

Is this what we had envisioned?  Silly, of course not, but it is the now and we shall be strong, stronger.  I’m looking to the future and hoping for all the good things in life.  Love, Health and Happiness. 

Journaling September

Sadness

 

Sometimes people find these beautiful fall leaves

that are perfect and the color is gorgeous. 

 

I have a few large piles of leaves that have blown together

and they lay on the deck or in the corners. 

I walk thru them everyday and here them crackle. 

 

But this leaf in particular caught my eye. 

 

It's not bright orange, or red or even a beautiful brown.

 

It's blah, but I find it simply beautiful.

 

SEPTEMBER went by in a blur. 

I had a birthday, yea.

We celebrated our 35th Anniversary, YEA!

 

But in the midst of all this, my husband fell ill to Pneumonia.

Ya, you're thinking . . . alot of people have had it.

 

But this was different.  Four weeks ago, it began with a cough. 

Thinking it was getting better, he left on a business trip to the States and Mexico.

 

When he got home a week later, a Friday night, he looked like a 90 yr. old man.

I said, "this is not right" and went to the hospital walk-in clinic the next day.

We were told he was dehydrated and should also take Aleve for the muscle pain. 

No blood work done.

 

Tuesday was still not looking any better so the doctor saw us and said, "you have a lung infection".  Ok, anti-viral drugs, x-rays, etc, etc.  Everything to make it better.

NOT.

 

X-ray results came back, we were called in again, it's Pneumonia. 

More drugs, another x-ray.

Still no blood work.

 

Results back again, we were called in again,

this time she says, "you're too sick to have Pneumonia".

WHAT!

 

Another x-ray and CT scan ordered and we were told,

"if you don't feel any better tomorrow, admit yourself".

Ok, that's exactly what we did on Friday, October 3rd. 

Blood work, FINALLY! 

White cell count way too high. Hello.

 

Hubby was admitted right away.  It's going to be a long journey till he is strong again and feeling 100%.  I'm writing this after returning from the hospital today. I feel so sad for him.  I can't make him comfortable, I can't take away the pain, I try to be silent and ask very little questions of him.  But I love him and that's all there needs to be.  So I sit quiet and I'm there when he needs me.  I'm so thankful for the excellent care he's been given,

the nurses are wonderful.

 

This was not how we planned the end of September to go and especially how we planned to get this move back to Alberta done.

Everything is on hold and our movers have been pushed back 1 week.  I'm hoping for an honest conversation with the doctor tomorrow as we proceed with life this week.

 

I'm discouraged and wonder why things happen the way they do sometimes.

I'm holding out for things to miraculously work out and they usually do but still, I can't help but wonder why it all had to happen when we were so excited to return home to family.

 

This too shall pass and soon we will look back at the seasons in our lives. 

 

Till OCTOBER and hopefully a new brighter journal entry.