BEFORE & AFTER

When I bought my house the family room had these awful colors painted. The previous owner must have liked gold because she painted the wall in a two-tone gold and then painted the baseboards and moldings in a flake gold color.

I knew it was going to be a nightmare to paint the baseboards, but if I only knew just how bad I probably wouldn't have repainted. The baseboards took one coat of liquid sandpaper and three coats of paint. The walls took two coats, although I may have to put a third coat on the gold wall. Here are the before and after pictures, I think the room looks tons better and once I pick out some wall hanging I think it will look wonderful.

BEFORE





AFTER

OOPS IT'S WINTER

I looked at the calendar, and then looked again to make sure it was right.

October 12th, and we got dumped on with 11 inches (so far) of white stuff.

Snow in October is common in Utah, but usually it is just a skiff of snow, or and inch or two that melts really fast. But THIS is ridiculous!

The snow plows aren't out because, well, they haven't hired people yet to drive them, after all the calendar says October 12th.



Emmi calls this her "flower snow-girl" She is a combination of the two seasons we are in. Fall and winter. Up until last night we still had tons of flowers blooming.



The pictures above were taken this morning when we had maybe 5 inches.
Happy Fall-Winter

HAPPY FALL

It has been a little while since I have updated the blog. September just went past too fast. October is now here and Fall has arrived. School is going well for Emmi. Midterms came home and she is getting A's in all her subjects except for one subject.

Next week I'm taking off on a min vacation. I need a break from work, church, etc. The stress has really gotten to me and it is time to unwind. I plan on painting the family room and getting rid of the depressing dark gold color. I'll post pictures if I remember to. Then next weekend Emmi and I are going out of town for a few days. I'm excited for the break.

Last night we pulled up our garden and picked all of the tomatoes. They are now stacked in the window and hopefully will finish turning red. My mom is a great tomato stacker and somehow manages to stach them 12 high. Me, on the other hand, manged to line them all up and then when I started on row two the first row started falling off. LOL! It must be a art. Someday I'll have to have her show me how to stack tomatoes.

Emmi came home yesterday with her new school pictures. They are posted below. Good thing they took them early in the year, because in the past two weeks she has lost two more teeth. She now has the "pumpkin smile" again.

RESULTS

Okay, so I had my MRI on Tuesday and that afternoon they called with the results.
Everything is normal, no new growth of the tumor.
I'm so happy I could dance.
Thanks everyone for your support.
Yipppeeee

4 Years

Today is an anniversary of sorts for me. Four years ago today was my surgery to remove a Nerve Sheath Schwannoma Tumor from my spinal cord.

Part of me feels like the last four years have been the longest in my life, and part of me feels like it has gone by pretty fast. The first year and a half was the hardest, and even though I still have really really bad days, it is so much better than it was in the beginning. The best part is that I'm here, I can walk and I can live a mostly normal life.

The pain is still there. The nerve pain in my left leg is irritating, the numbness is annoying but it is the muscle pain in my back that has the capacity to bring me to my knees. But most days I can deal with the pain with little problems and I'm grateful for that.

With Emmi being older now and able to help out so much more than she could at age 4 it certainly helps. She can help with chores around the house so that I don't overdue it. (even though I still sometimes do)

I haven't had my MRI for the year, so I can't post that there is no regrowth, because I don't know that yet. I need to call and schedule the appointment, but part of me is always frightened to find out. It is that part of me that is afraid that Dr. Bryson Smith wasn't able to get it all, or that I have another one growing somewhere else. That is my worst fear.

I'm sure everything is just fine... it has been for several years. I just have unnecessary fears.

I'll let you all know what the results are in a month or so when I know.

But until then... Happy Anniversary to ME!

MY FIRST RAG QUILT

So what did I do with my yesterday, when Emmi was at day camp. Well, I could have gone to see a movie that was NOT made by Disney, or taken myself out to eat at a nice restaurant. But I didn't. Instead I spent 5 hours making my first rag quilt.

On Thursday a lady in the neighborhood demonstrated how to make these at a church thing. I took the instructions, mulled them over in my mind and came up with this:

The top picture is the back. Normally it is only one color, but I really wanted to have a design on it too. The front has squares of ladybugs, purple pokadots and pink checkers. It turned out much better than I thought it would and took WAAAAY longer than I wanted it too, but it is so very cute. Emmi has pretty much decided it is hers. I THINK NOT!