Just when you think it's over.....

Philippians 4:7New King James Version (NKJV)

7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

We had a great Christmas, John and I quietly celebrated our 25th anniversary and we rang in 2015 in traditional fashion with a Twilight Zone marathon. Everyone was doing well and I was feeling great all things considered. My hair even stopped falling out from the combination of Vancomycin and Invanz that I had just finished taking by IV for six weeks.  On January 2nd, my best friend and I hit some thrift stores in Plant City, FL. I found an antique Tom and Jerry set for 3.00 at the first shop (I've wanted one for a long time) and we headed downtown to walk around some antique stores.

We were having a great time when I was hit with a sudden feeling that reminded me of getting the flu.   By the time we made it home, I crawled into bed and didn't get up much for a few days. Even though I had had a flu vaccination, it was apparently not the best match this year and my immune system was taxed.  My fever continued, I had body aches and a headache but nothing else. The next week we had our first cold snap of the season and my back was really achy. I emailed my surgeon's wonderful assistant to ask her if there was something that I should do or take seeing as this was my first experience with cold weather since my lumbar fusion surgery.  She emailed me back in about two minutes with the question "Have you been running any fever lately?"  Oh my goodness. I hadn't thought for one minute that there could be a connection with my previous spinal infection.

In the next few days I saw my surgeon (who later said that my eyes were sunken in and I looked so horrible that I scared him), my infectious disease doctors, had an X-ray, many blood tests and an MRI.   I was home alone when I got a phone call from one of my doctors letting me know that I had a large abscess in my spine and would be admitted that night for a procedure in the morning.  Not going to lie, I lost it. I sobbed and didn't stop. My poor son was the first one home and just held me while I cried. How could this be happening again? I called John who was on his way back from Gainesville because it was treatment day for our daughter.  Family came over, friends came over to hug me and pray with me, I took a really long hot shower and was tucked in at the hospital by my midnight deadline.  I wasn't happy about this but had just started experiencing the familiar infection related back pain so I was ready for whatever happened next.

My surgeon explained that I didn't have a simple round abscess in my back, it was pocketed (like a cluster of grapes).  They were going to try a procedure to drain it without surgery but weren't optimistic because of the nature of the infection.  If they couldn't drain it sufficiently, I would be having surgery again.  So they used a CT scan to decide where to place a catheter, numbed my back and drained out 90 ccs of gunk. I was awake for it all and saw everything. The procedure was quite effective, they started me on the same antibiotics again and my labs and vitals immediately started improving.  They left me with a drain which I would have for another two weeks. On my first night, my drain stopped working entirely for several hours.  I was so discouraged. God and I had a very long talk and I let Him have this situation. All of it. He gave me this incredible peace and I truly felt His presence. 

Things continued to improve. I survived the weirdest roommate situation ever which left me and the environmental services department of the hospital with serious issues. She liked perfume, was happy to "have the privacy to rub her naked body with oil", and cleaned the entire room by herself before she would lay down in bed.  On the second day, the perfumy smell was so overpowering that I ended up camped out at the end of the hallway waiting for a transfer to another room. I spent a couple more nights in unscented bliss and headed home with a shiny new PICC line and three more months of IV antibiotics ahead of me.  I had dodged the surgery bullet and was really optimistic that things were going to start getting normal again.

With the exception of the twice daily IVs, not being able to shower, and my hair falling out, things have been great. I have more good days than bad and I'm adjusting to my physical limitations. At this point I only have a couple more weeks of treatment left so my PICC line will be gone and life will get a whole lot simpler.....for a while.  Unfortunately, the hardware from my fusion was encased in my most recent infection.  Apparently once it's there, I will be carrying around nasty bacteria until my hardware is gone. That means that I will need to stay on antibiotics forever or until I have surgery again to remove that hardware.

That means surgery is coming again. Probably in May, probably followed by months on a wound-vac and who knows what else. The good news is that I'm at peace with whatever we need to do to put this baby to bed. I'm really okay with it.In the meantime, once my PICC is out and I'm allowed a little more physical activity, I'm going to have fun. I want to go dancing and to the beach and ride my bike and take a shower. Lots of showers. I'm taking a road trip with my girls and going out with John on his boat. It's funny, but I feel the need to squeeze as much as I can into the month or so that I will have before surgery, so that's what I'm going to do. 

When your spine turns on you...

Well, this has been a fun six months. Maybe not much fun, but I've learned a lot about myself and the people that I love most. The first week in September was pretty great. We spent a lovely afternoon and evening at the Magic Kingdom, I went to a fabulous estate sale and we were all doing well.  Then my spine decided that I had abused it for too long and it was done with me.

I was ironing lovely vintage handkerchiefs from the estate sale and my left leg decided to stop working. So much excruciating pain that I couldn't bear any weight on it. Long story short, over the next few weeks we found out that I had a slipped vertebrae (spondylolisthesis) and three bad disks. One that even decided to blow itself out and into my nerve canal.  I was using crutches, then an electric scooter to get from room to room in our house. I've been under the care of an amazing chiropractor for 10 years so he was my first choice in treatment. No relief there so then I tried physical therapy and finally a steroid injection.  Nothing helped and I had lost most of my mobility. The pain was about as bad as I can recall ever having.  It became very clear that surgery was my only option.

On Halloween, bright and early in the morning, I had surgery to scrape out the worst disk, fuse my spine with bone grafts and a metal cage, and try to align it a little better where my vertebrae had slipped, causing it to be unstable.  I was very much prayed up, had great confidence in my surgeon, had my foxy post fusion brace and was ready to go.  Everything went amazingly well. I woke up in less pain than I started with. My nerve pain was GONE. The recovery was easier than I had expected. Really, less painful too. I spent five days in the hospital and went home.  I was great but almost immediately my incision started draining. First a little, then a lot. I started running a fever and my incision started hurting and my back felt puffy. Ten days after my first surgery, I was having emergency surgery to remove infected tissue from my back.

The good thing about my second surgery is that I was already pretty mobile. I could get out of bed by myself (still using a walker a bit), I could stand up easier and had adjusted to some of the limitations after fusion surgery. The not so great thing was that I would now be dealing with a PICC line for IV antibiotics at home for six weeks. They identified five different strains of bacteria that were living in my back, and they were all quite nasty. I also ended up with another draining seroma which required a wound vac and eventually daily trips for hyperbaric therapy.

By Christmas Eve I was done with all of my treatment. I got to take a glorious shower, boxed up all my old medical supplies and slammed that chapter of my life shut. I was still wearing the brace, still had many limitations but I was done with that part of my recovery and so thankful.

During that time I learned so many lessons. First, how fragile life can be and how we can't take anyone for granted.  One Monday morning my visiting nurse was late. He was never late. I texted him a few times then left a voice mail.  A few minutes later another nurse called for our gate code. I thought maybe my regular nurse was held up chasing one of his cows down (that happened before) and so they sent someone else. That wasn't the case. My young, healthy, kind and caring nurse passed away. He was a husband, father and man of faith. We grew up in the same area of town and we attended the same church at different times. He loved his family and was so proud of them. It just happened so fast, and he was in heaven.

I also learned what it is like to be totally helpless.  Laying in bed trying to hold it so that I didn't have to wake up my husband again to take me to the bathroom, not being able to even roll over or take care of my own basic needs. That broke my heart for people that live that way without any hope of regaining mobility. During this time I saw my husband live out the "in sickness" part of our wedding vows. There was no limit to what he would do for me. He didn't lose patience once. He built me a platform to make it easier to get into bed, another to help me get into the car, completely managed my treatment and did everything he could to make my life better.  I was not in this alone. Our children, parents, family and friends were so there for me. God has blessed me beyond anything that I could have asked for.

Apparently, my back has been a torn up mess for quite a while and this could have happened a long time ago. It could have happened when we had little babies, when we lived two thousand miles away from family, when John was in the USMC and deployed but it didn't. While there is never really a great time to go through a medical crisis, this was the best of times for it to happen for me. Our kids are adults, we live in our hometown surrounded by our family and John works from home. God blessed me with a great time to go through this. That might sound odd but it's the truth.

This wasn't the end of the saga of my torn up spine. It's pretty much the half way point.

Homemade Deodorant SUCCESS!!!!!

Okay, so everyone has seen all the posts on Facebook about how dangerous most commercially made antiperspirant/deodorants can be. I've always just assumed the risk because I don't want to be all sweaty and stinky. After my sister and sister-in-law had great success with making their own, I decided to give it a whirl. It was the simplest thing to make and everything I needed was already in my kitchen.

Here is the recipe that I used:

1/3 c. Cornstarch

1/3 c. Coconut Oil (I like Tropical Traditions)

1/4 c. Baking Soda

a few drops of essential oil, I used tea tree and grapefruit

I measured everything into a glass bowl and used my pastry cutter to mix it all together. Then I scraped it into a little glass jar to keep in the bathroom.

There is a shadow in the photo above, but I wanted to show the consistency with the spoon. It is staying pretty thick even though our air conditioner is set to 80 degrees and coconut oil is usually liquid at that temperature.  My oldest daughter is using it too (and loves it) so I split it with her.

So here's the nitty gritty stuff that no one tells you.  I spread it on with my fingers, not enough that it is visible but enough to cover. Don't rub it in too hard because the baking soda can irritate. Don't apply right after shaving for the same reason, wait a few hours.  I have literally rubbed my finger in my underarm to see if I could smell anything on them at all and NOTHING. I also ran tons of errands and went to both Costco and Sam's between 12 and 2 and thought for sure that I would have visible sweat spots and nothing there either. I line dry all of our laundry and am outside for a decent chunk of time, still nothing. I am completely impressed. Completely. Make it, try it. Let me know what you think.

When your baby turns 18...

    It's probably not the easiest thing to be the youngest child and the only boy.  I absolutely cherish the first glimpses of the man he is becoming but he will always be my baby. As our children became older, we only had big parties when they hit certain milestones like turning 13. Baby boy was turning 18 so it was time for something special to celebrate.   I'm not sure where the idea came from, but it seemed that no one could give him a better send off than his old friends Buzz and Woody. He was going to be gone to his Youth in Government State Assembly the three days before the party so I decided to keep the theme a secret and let him be surprised when he came home the night before the party.

   Maybe it's because he is the baby, but I saved a lot more of his childhood toys than I did his sisters'.  Lucky for me, I saved every Toy Story toy that the boy ever had.  This made it very easy to start planning decorations.  I used them in several areas.

Buzz Lightyears were perfect to hang up high from fishing line

Some of his favorites greeted friends in the entryway along with a page from his scrapbook we took at Disney with his Toy Story friends.

    Then I started thinking about the Little Green Men. We had to incorporate them.  So I cut white card stock into strips and hot glued the little soldiers onto the strips. Then I could use the strips  anywhere I chose.   For some reason, I couldn't find any on parachutes, and we HAD to have some hanging on parachutes.  White Dollar Tree plastic tablecloths cut into circles with the little soldiers tied to them with dental floss is what I decided to use.  They ended up being my favorite decorations of the night.

If you look closely you can find them in all sorts of places.

   We had to have party favors and I found these amazing Toy Story Pez Dispensers and ordered two boxes.  Then I decorated another area with more old toys and red bandanas for them to wait to be handed out.  By the way red bandanas are SO handy to have. I've used them for Independence Day and assorted other occasions in decorating.

FYI, the Pez Dispensers had random quantities of characters but I'm happy to report that everyone that wanted a Jessie got one.

    Because I couldn't leave well enough alone, we HAD to have a photo booth.  This was so much fun to put together. I used Dollar Tree plastic tablecloths again. The background was pale blue and I taped it with clouds cut from paper to make it look like Andy's room.  Then I used darker blue tablecloths to make the curtains.

There were Woody and Jessie hats, a Buzz Lightyear mask and assorted props for my son and his friends to use.

The Boy and Buddy the Boxer had their photos taken with the Etch A Sketch frame that I made from red poster board, foam board and a little gold paint.

At the end of the night, I'm pretty sure that I had the most fun of all. It was so much fun getting ready for this party. I've loved every minute of being this boy's mom. He is loves his family, is a hard worker, has an incredible sense of humor and the kindest heart. Believe it or not, throwing this party helped me start letting go of the little boy so that I could appreciate the grown man.  It was the first of the "lasts" that were soon to come with it also being his senior year of high school.  Later that night, when only a few of his friends were left, they decided to make a video. This was the "thing" when he turned 18 and it seemed the perfect way to end the evening.  The one in the Batman underpants belongs to me and I couldn't be prouder.

Ancestry.com DNA House Party Fun!

 

   Today we had an extra special House Party at our house. If you've never heard of House Party, you should definitely check them out. I've had the opportunity to host several over the years and have really enjoyed sharing products that I love. Today was no exception.  I had the amazing opportunity to participate in Ancestry.com DNA's testing service. Their technology is a great tool to enhance your family history project or connect with other relatives.  I received a testing kit in the mail and had my results within about six weeks.


     For me there were no surprises in my ethnicity. My results came back that I was 99% European, 82% of that being Europe East.  My mother's family is Polish, my paternal grandmother is Czech/Austrian so that was pretty much what I expected.  The most interesting and rewarding part of my results was a special match to a distant cousin that shares a relative on my dad's biological father's side of the family.  It's complicated, but that side doesn't really acknowledge him so that was especially rewarding. I have been a member of Ancestry.com for several years and would recommend that you take the time to make your own family tree, do some research and enjoy the incredible Ancestry DNA testing experience for yourself. Here are my ethnicity results:

   My party pack contained really nice party supplies to use during the House Party, as well as some nice little goodies for my guests. I was also emailed a coupon to forward to my guests so that they can have their own Ancestry.com DNA experience.

I broke out some old family photos to add to the decorations.

We had an assortment of foods from my family's heritage.

Just for fun I translated the word "Coffee" into other languages.

A couple of times we gathered around the computer so that I could walk my guests through the Ancestry.com website as well as review my Ancestry DNA results. 

Our guests were able to use the map and flags to show where their families came from.

I even found chocolate bars made in Poland for the goodie bags we gave to our guests.

    One extra special thing about this House Party is that my sister-in-law Lindsay was also chosen to be a host. We contacted House Party and got their permission to host our parties together. Her Ancestry.com DNA results weren't what she expected so it was awesome to have her take on the experience as well. I know that several of our guests are excited about sending off for their own tests soon. It will be so exciting to watch our friends go through the same awesome experience.

Homer Laughlin is my home boy....

If you have ever had dinner at my house, you've probably noticed that everyone almost always eats on a different colored plate. You might not have given those dishes a second thought, but they make me so very happy.  There is something special about Fiesta made by Homer Laughlin China for many, many years.  Right here in the USA.  Newell, WV to be exact. I love that they are made in the same styles as the 1930's, I love that American hands are hard at work making them, I love that they have never chipped and that they don't have to all be the same. My Fiesta is close to my heart and it makes me happy.

The first time that I ever laid eyes on Fiesta was in a Betty Crocker catalog. When I was a young wife I saved the tiny little white rectangles on Betty Crocker products to turn in for credit towards products that they sold. You still had to pay for the products, but it was at a very good price.  So I started ordering a few pieces here and there, including my lovely Plum colored "Betty Bowl". We definitely didn't have enough pieces to use every day but I was hooked. Then there was a scare regarding dishes made in China containing lead.  I purchased a test kit and to my horror, the test turned red and I had been feeding my family on dishes containing lead. Yikes.  My first thought was of Fiesta and how those lovely dishes would also be safer for my family.

Over the years I've become more of a collector than I thought I would. I had the opportunity to purchase a nice selection of factory seconds, so I did. After our years of military moving, my husband bought us our first dining room set with a china hutch. Guess what it is filled with?  I've purchased many items at thrift stores, made a visit to the Son's of Anarchy House (that's a story for another day) to buy some from a Craigslist ad, and shopped around for really good deals. I really prefer the pieces that have been made after 1986, (when Fiesta reintroduced their new lead free dishes after taking a long break) but there is something wonderful about stumbling upon something in "radioactive red" that was used for decades and still in fantastic condition. 

Here's a peek at some of my favorite Fiesta pieces:

Hanging above the china hutch is a painting by my late grandfather. When my grandma passed away last year, this was brought to me. Not only did the color of the walls match the painting exactly, but the colors of my Fiesta set the colors in the painting on fire. He would LOVE how good it looks here.

These are vintage salad plates made in the 50's and before. Missing is the "radioactive red". My husband needed a trip to the emergency room (I'm not kidding) after trying to save it from falling. Gotta love a man that will dive for vintage Fiesta.

Memorial Day through Independence Day I feel pretty patriotic. Here is my thrift store carafe and some other pieces sitting right next to my front door. I love the way the colors look mixed together. 

Fun and Games on a Sunday night

This Sunday night we managed to all sit at the kitchen table and enjoy a meal together.  We had grilled chicken, corn and cast iron roasted asparagus.  After we were finished eating, we broke out one of our old kitchen table games before everyone went their separate ways. When the kids were younger, that is something we'd do at least once a week after dinner. It was after one of those family dinners that ended with a few minutes of a game that I started this blog. That's where the title came from.

We played "Battle of the Sexes" . There is a full sized board game, but we have several card versions of board games that we keep on the table, and this is one of them.  It's played boys against the girls, and there are different cards with questions for either sex.  Tonight we learned that our son was able to identify Vera Wang and Donna Karan as popular designers and that the boys not being able to remember Harper Lee's last name was almost enough to reduce our oldest daughter to tears.  The point should also be made that the girls in this family know way too much about football to be stumped by any of those questions and that this mom knows the difference between a birdie and bogey. We only played for 15 minutes or so but it was fun reconnecting.  

This little metal basket sits on our kitchen table. We keep our salt and pepper (cayenne too), cloth napkins and games in it. We have a couple little boxes of conversation starters too just in case we want to be serious (which honestly doesn't happen too often). By keeping the games on the table, it's been easy for one of us to grab one and start a game.  I hope one day my kids play games at the kitchen table too. Here's a photo, torn boxes miss-matched napkins and all.

After dinner, I loaded the dishwasher (by the way, does anyone know how to keep a dog from trying to "help" with the pre washing?) and everyone scattered.  As a mom of three adult children I can't help but be thankful that our kids still like our silly little family traditions. I hope that one day they keep games on their kitchen table too.