I'm Still Alive

I can't believe it has been a month since I last blogged.  Time has slipped through my fingers.  Thank you to those of you who have reached out via text, email and facebook to check on me.  Who have randomly sent me messages encouraging me, telling me you don't know how I manage to keep up with so many things in my life, asking me how I keep up with so many things (gosh, how I wish I felt I were keeping up!) and to just do the best I can do.  You don't know how much I appreciate you.  And others, I see faithfully hitting my blog to see if anything new posted that might not have shown up in your blogroll.  You all really are just the best!

We'll play a quick catch up.  The last week in March, I got a little over 31+ hours of sleep in one week.  It was miserable between nightly storms with Little Horse's panting and late work nights.  I got sick and spent six days with a 102+ fever.  That carried into our spring break, which meant I did not participate in the Taekwondo camp with my family and spent over half sleeping in our cabin.  Up until that weekend, I had refused to go to a doctor because I knew I would just be told to keep doing what I was doing....alternating advil/tylenol, sucking down fluids and getting lots of rest.  But I broke down on Monday morning because Tuesday we would be starting our roadtrip to Florida and I didn't want to be sick through our entire vacation.

The doctor in North Georgia told me I had the flu and she thought I was on the tail end of it.  If we hadn't been leaving for Florida the next day, she would have told me to suck it up and come back in 2-3 days if not better.  So she prescribed my antibiotics and steroids, which kicked my fever two days later and had me feeling back to 100% on day six when we drove home.  I lost eight pounds in the process.  Two weeks later, those pounds have not come back.

We visited a rather cold Jacksonville Beach and had the pleasure of meeting up with one of my friends from work who is just THE best.

And a crowded Disney World (note-to-self -Thanksgiving is SUCH a better time to go to Disney if we go again) where I was thankful I had long lines to rest in, which gave me breaks from walking from one ride to the next.  I loved that throughout the parades, Chloe would shriek "She KNOWS me, Momma!  Snow White KNOWS me!"  I heard that for every Disney princess we saw.  And then, "And there's the Princess and the Frog and that Princess does not know me.  But she will."  She was so matter of fact about this and would not back down when her brother insisted that the princesses did not know Chloe.

Our last day was spent at Clearwater Beach.  The kids had a blast and I had so much fun just sprawling on my beach towel photographing them playing in the waves.  Another note-to-self - if changing clothes and applying sunblock in a restaurant bathroom before hitting the beach, do NOT miss the backs of the knees with the sunblock.  At the end of the day, we drove into Tampa and met my good friend Chel.  I have known her for almost 20 years and she was my maid of honor at our wedding ten years ago.  We rarely talk on the phone and are bad at keeping up through email.  But no time has passed and we can pick up right where we left off and catch up quickly when in person.  I wish she lived closer.

We drove home on a Saturday and spent most of Sunday doing laundry, straightening the house, driving to the trainer's/kennel to pick up Little Horse.  I was so thankful my Dad had called during our vacation to offer to drive up and cook us dinner Sunday night.

The next day, I took Little Horse to the vet's to start his heartworm treatment.  He came home two days later with steroids and valium to get him through storms, along with strict orders for no exercise jumping and four weeks of crate rest.  Then he can start round two of the heartworm treatment and another four weeks of rest.  Yegads and leetle fishes.  Twenty-one more days of rest until round two starts.

This past weekend, I took the kids out for a mini-photoshoot.  I was a bit crabby because they took FOR-EVER to get several things done I had asked, so we were off to a late start.  During the middle of the photoshoot, Little Horse chewed through his leash and took off running for close to a half mile at top speed.  And I lost my cool, yelling at the kids asking why I don't have problems with other kids listening to me when being photographed.  Really not one of my finer moments.  I was thankful when Monday arrived this week.  I had planned on re-washing my fabric and ironing to prep for cutting before piecing and then quilting.....because this boy thinks it is the best nap spot in the house.

I have these beads clean right now, although I still need to photograph each set individually to go into my Etsy shop.  I have another 50+ beads hovering over my kitchen sink waiting to be cleaned.  It has been over a month since I torched and am pretty sure my torch is giving me the stink eye every day.  My goal is to have the beads ready for a Saturday shop update (as in April 23rd, the day before Easter).  But I'm not making any promises and will firm up a date/time as I get closer to having all the beads cleaned/photographed.  The eggs need to be etched.  And the buttons on the bottom mandrel are already off to a new home where some of you may see them grow up on another blog.

I promise to not let another month go by.