Ooops, forgot one!

I forgot this one! Isn't this the funniest thing. Things have sure changed since her Momma was a baby. We were told to put them down on their tummy. Now they sleep on their back with this funny looking contraption!

Scrappy projects,finally!

I think this is one of my favorite pages! I really like browns & pinks! I'm not sure what I was thinking when I did all that sewing! It was one of those late nights, lol!

This is one of my favorite pictures! I wasn't real sure I would like this page because I just kept adding stuff to it! I was afraid I was entering the land of sticker sneeze! I really do like it, though! I added little glass eyes to the fish & also used those as holders for the little scrubbies. I used Stickles to give everything a bit of wet look.

Isn't just the sweetest picture? She loved to hold onto her Daddy's hands anytime she was stuck in her carseat.

Insomnia

Oh'how I HATE insomnia!

Here I am up again :(. This is the 3rd night in a row. I take all my sleeping meds & try to sleep, but I just can't. My mind will not stop whirling. So many things to think about, lately.
I think part of it is that things are getting easier around here. I've finally got some medical answers & I'm finding relief, finally. When I really stopped & thought about it, this has been bothering me since fall of 2007. I just had not connected the dots until I got the test results. Switching to all cotton has done wonders for me. All but 3 of the lesions are nearly healed! I just can't tell you how good that feels. They were so very painful.
Russ is going back to work, tomorrow very part time. I'm sure that will boost his spirits. He is so not a man to sit around, so this has been so hard on him. He also starts rehab, tomorrow. I bet he will be sore tomorrow night!
Ashley & McKayla went home, today. With my Sciatica problems almost gone & hubby getting better, she was able to go home. You know how wonderful it is to have family visiting & how wonderful it is when they go home? Yep, that's where we were all at. We sure will miss them, though & wish so bad they were nearer to us, so that we could see them more often & all go home to our own homes at night.

So, with all this getting better stuff, I guess I'm a little scared. I'm afraid to let this weight off my shoulders. I keep thinking "what's next". The past 1 1/2 years have been so hard for us. One blow after another. I think this is a huge part of my insomnia. I've got some serious praying & soul searching to do. I know that through these past 2 months God has shown us He is there & that He will meet all our needs. Trusting is hard for me, I want to do things all on my own. Why do I keep doing this to myself. I know that saying so well, "Let go, Let God". How many times have I said that to other people & believed it? So many times, so why is it so hard for me to do?

Another beautiful day

It was another awesome day. It was 81 degrees, yesterday! So, we decided to take a walk over to the park. This was McKayla's first trip to the park. I don't think it will be long before she is toddling all over the park!

Getting a park in our tiny village was one of Russ's project while he was president of the board. He thought that the kids in town really needed a place to play & to just hang out. All of our kids were to old for playing at the park, when this project was done. Now, with McKayla, he was happy to see her playing there & looks forward to many years of her enjoying the park.

Chick Days

I know this picture looks like her Momma had shoved that poor duck in her mouth. Nope, McKayla tried to give the duck a kiss just as Daddy was snapping the picture. Luckily, I pulled her away before she gave the ducky a kiss!

Yesterday was a beautiful day! It was 71 sunny degrees out. We were all feeling good, even Russ. It's Chick Days at our local Farm & Home. For many years I took our kids to see the baby chicks & ducks, so I couldn't miss the opportunity to take McKayla.

At first she wasn't a bit sure what to think, but she warmed up pretty quickly. She did not like petting them.

Here's a few pictures from our little trip to town.

Cleaning closets & drawers :(

So most of you know I've been having some skin problems. I've been tested for Lupus & Pemphigus, both of which came back negative. While I'm so very thankful for that, I'm sure it's going to take me a long time to figure out how to deal with what did come back.
It turns out that I have quite a few skin allergies. I'm still learning what I need to stay clear of because it is a lot of stuff!
My Dr. did tell me to try & have only 100% cotton clothing, towels, bedding & anything else that I will be coming in contact with. This has been a real challenge for me. Today Ashley & I cleaned out my closets & drawers. I had to get rid of over half of my clothes. You know what the strange thing was, most of the clothes I got rid of did not surprise me. They are a lot of items I've worn once or twice but was just never comfortable in them & itching a lot, especially since the skin lesions have started. I thought that was interesting. I had to replace my sheets to 100% cotton. I still have not found socks, but did find a site that I could order a few other clothing items for that will be 100% cotton with Latex free thread. I was thankful for that.
Another thing I have to cut out of my life is fragrance. Oh' my is this a hard one. Fragrance is in everything! I finally found a shampoo & conditioner at Sally that were fragrance free. I'm hoping my Mom can find a few other options at the beauty supply stores she goes to. After much searching the only body soap I could find was Dove. I found Cetaphil to wash my face with. I did finally find expensive make-up that would work, but haven't purchased it, yet. I'm doing without for now. I have not been able to find chap-stick, curl booster or hairspray. I did find some dish soap & laundry soap. I even found some cleaning supplies.
On to the next allergy, that would be all the rubber mixes. This one was hard one. You would be surprised what that includes. The biggest thing for me though is rubber stamping. I took that one hard. But, if you could be conscious of rubber for just one day I think you would be surprised what it's on. So far today my surprise were my travel mug has rubber on the handle, my umbrella has rubber on the handle. The shoes I walk the dogs in when it's wet outside are rubber. In fact, the soles on a lot of shoes are rubber! Steering wheels & mattresses have rubber. Most of my pens, especially drug rep pens have rubber on them. One of them didn't & that one says Viagra on it. I don't want to stick that in my purse!!! I guess I'll have to actually purchase a pen. This also includes many of the elastics, purses & hoses. I'm not sure what I'm suppose to about my Cpap machine. I haven't tried to figure it out, yet. I'm also not sure what happens if I would have to have oxygen.
If I thought all of those were bad this one is really killing me, I'm allergic to Formaldehyde. That is in so much stuff, including paper!!!!! EEEKS! I purchased some white cotton gloves for scrapbook, because if the rubber didn't do it that paper would. It's also in many of our clothes except 100% organic cotton. There's more, but I honestly have not got it all in my head, yet.
There is another one paraqphenylenediamine which is found in textile dyes, cosmetics, photocopying & printing inks
Last but not least I am allergic to caine, anything ending with Caine. I'm not sure how that works if I have to get stitches, but I don't want to find out! I also have to watch sunscreens to make sure they are PABA free. I'm really fair skinned, so that isn't a good thing for me.
Basically I think I need a bubble! I know I need to win a million dollars to free myself of all these products. I guess I could just build a plastic house!
Pity party for one is now over!
Saturday I'm packing my scrapbook stuff & my white cotton gloves & going to crop!!!

If you made it this far, thanks for reading my vent. I'm a little overwhelmed tonight. I've stayed up late & trying to figure out what I use that I need to get rid of.

McKayla

Here's a fun picture of McKayla. She has learned how to drink with a straw. She now refuses to drink out of a regular sippy cup! I'm so glad they make no spill sippy cups with straws!

I took this with my cell phone, so it's not the greatest quality picture. You would know she would learn something new on the day I left the house without my camera.

Success!

Russ had surgery today! His surgeon said it was a success & he should have a full recovery within a few months!

McKaylaABC

View Project at Shutterfly

Surgery date, maybe?

In today's mail hubby received 3 appointment cards from his surgeon's office. One was for a pre-op pe & the other two were for surgery f/up appts. Talk about confusing, since we still haven't heard anything from his work work comp caseworker.
Hubby called his surgeon's office & was told they have him scheduled for surgery on Feb. 10th. They couldn't tell him who scheduled the surgery.
He then got a hold of the work comp nurse who knows nothing about this. She said she is still waiitng on the paperwork from their surgeon.
We have no idea what is going on!

Finally!

I've been trying for days to get into my blog & update. I've deleted cookies & Internet files. I've done scans on my system. Nothing was working, today it works. Who knows what I was doing wrong.
So, update on hubby. He did not have surgery on the 20th, as scheduled. His work comp caseworker canceled it. He wanted him to have a 2nd opinion with an IME physician. Last Friday we had to go to St. Louis for an appointment with the Dr of their choice. That surgeon agreed with hubby's surgeon, so it looks like he will have surgery. We are still waiting on his work comp nurse to get her stuff together. She told hubby to call & schedule it, but his surgeon's office will not schedule until they hear from the work comp company. I can't say I blame them, especially after they canceled the last surgery late on the Friday afternoon before his schedule morning surgery on Tuesday!!! Working in a Dr's office for a few years, I was very embarrassed that they did that & felt very bad about it. I am not sure when we will know anything. The wc nurse told us it would be at least Thursday before she would have a chance to even look at the Dr's report.

On to the fun stuff. I've been scrapping like crazy! I escape to my scrap room just about every evening & make a page or two. McKayla has 3 books full of pages & quite a few pages without a book, yet. I have been using all those "can't use because they are my favorite & must be collected" supplies. Wow, is it fun!
Over the weekend, I cleaned my scraproom for top to bottom & re-arranged it. I had gotten very sloppy about keeping supplies sorted into the correct drawers, just tossing them in any old drawer. I usually remember what I've got, but finding it was another story, but not any more. I also took the time to group my cardstock by colors, another thing I had gotten lazy with. It's so much nicer.
I hope to get some of these pages scanned & post soon.

Surgery

I thought I would update. We found out, yesterday, that hubby will be having back surgery on January 20th.
I don't know much more then that. We didn't get out of the surgeon's office until 5:30 p.m., so his nurse that does the surgery scheduling was gone. We were told she would be contacting us with more information as soon as she got the surgery authorized.

Hubby is in the hospital

He fell on the ice last Friday morning. We had to call an ambulance to come & get him. He is not able to walk or even roll over.
He was transferred to a larger hospital about 60 miles from our home. We are waiting on MRI results right now. So far, we know that he has narrowing of the spine & arthritis of the spine.
Hopefull we will know more, soon.
Please keep him in your prayers.
Thanks

A few more pages!

Isn't she just the cutest little cat?!?!

These pictures were taken at Alley Spring this past October. It's a beautiful place that I'm sure will become a favorite place for her.

I made this page using the last page kit I had from the BG class I took at CK Convention. I wasn't thrilled with this page, but I didn't want to waste it, so here it is. I'm hoping someday I will find some embellishments that will liven it up a bit. Who knows, if I keep scrapping like this, maybe I will dig something out of my stash that will work, lol!

I even scrapbooked today!!!!

This is my favorite page of the day. Once again, a leftover layout from a Basic Grey class at CK. I added a few things & changed a few things around. The picture is of dh's Grandpa, Grandma, Mom & Aunt. I haven't added any of that because I need to ask his Grandma what year this was taken.

I got these stickers with McKayla's Farm Rocking chair in mind. She really does not like that chair, so this is the best picture I got.

This page kit was from a Basic Grey class I took at CK convention a few years ago. I finally added pictures to it. I just chose a variety of picturs of McKayla. She is between 4 & 6 months in all of these pictures.

I have been scrapbooking!

I finally got some pages done!

I couldn't get my scanner to scan properly, so I had to take pictures. Some are not the greatest.


This one is from a paper kit I picked up at CK last year. I think I got this idea out of Quick Pages. I just love these pictures of McKayla.









So, I can't get this thing to let me type by each picture. I'm so savy with computers, NOT!

Baby Mine page is made with a set of Cosmo Cricket stickers.



The rest of the pages were all Quick Quotes. I took a couple of classes at CK a few years ago. I have no idea why I've been hanging onto them for so long? I decided it was time to use them. The first page is of my Grandma Daniel. I'm sure she made this dress & it would have been a big thing for her, I'm sure. Her family was not wealthy, so having a new dress would have surely been a treat. I wish I would have asked her about these pictures, but unfortunately I never saw them until after she had passed.
The next two page are pictures taken a few hours after McKayla was born.
The next two are some silly pictures I had taken of Nathan quite a few years ago on a trip to Nauvoo. They seemed to go with the quotes that were with this page kit.
The last two pages are pictures of my Grandma & Grandpa Owens. Once again, I do not know much about this pictures. I know two of them were taken in their home library. I also know the dogs name was Vivian & Grandma loved that dog. Both of those have been journaled on other pages, so I left these as is without the journaling.

Thanks for looking. I'm not sure what I did wrong in this post. I know it's hard to read & follow, but I just can't get the pictures where I want them.

MIA

I have been feeling pretty sick the past couple of weeks, so I haven't been around much to post. I haven't been doing any scrapping at all & the baby is not here, so no new pictures to post.
She will be here next week, so hopefully I'll start feeling better so I can enjoy her.
I hope to start scrapping again, soon.

Shopping with the Rowdies!!!

WhooHooo, we went shopping, today! We didn't find much at all, but we had a great time as usual! We went up to a scrapbook crop & shop in Mt. Sterling. Not much shopping going on, but there sure were a lot of croppers having a great time! We stopped at Dot & came home with a bunch of groceries, lol! We have to find something to buy!

So, since I didn't get any scrapping done today, I thought I would share some of my favorite pictures of McKayla.

In this pictures McKayla had decided she was going to feed herself. She didn't do a half bad job, but did need a bath, lol.

Stop growing up so fast baby girl!

These pictures crack me up! I had just changed McKayla into this little outfit for the first time. She was playing & suddenly noticed she had something on her feet! She sat there giggling & squealing at her feet. Too funny, I can't wait to scrapbook these pictures!

I took this picture while we were eating out at Colton's. How am I ever going to be able to turn down those eyes? They make my heart melt!

This is bright eyes first thing in the morning! She wakes up like this nearly every morning.

She sure knows how to start the day off right!

One more for tonight

I love this one!

Time to share a few short videos from our trip

Here's one of Ashley & McKayla right after we got to Eminence.