some snazziness goin' on...

So, my time lately has been taken up with all the TONS of projects we have going on around the house. We've been working on several painting projects since last fall. We got the kitchen done just barely in time to host Thanksgiving & kinda stopped there.

We were just too pooped to attempt anything else for awhile. We'd done the living room already, which wasn't too bad a job (I'll try to get some pix up here... they're mostly on facebook, so I can't just toss the code on here to show you how awesome things turned out. ;) The kitchen was next & it was crazy... we used three colors: a rich chocolately brown, an deep slightly burnt red & a color called, very appropriately, Coffee With Creme. Our kitchen is weird b/c the center wall leads through an open doorway into the family room & there's no place to break the color from one room to the next on that wall. Our bedroom door frame extends just a smidge into the family room, so you just cannot break from one color to another... so that wall must be the same all the way through.

When we first built the house & realized this, we "solved" that problem by painting both rooms the same color, but that was NOT my idea of a fix. ;) So then we realized if we could come up with a neutral color for that center wall, we could do different colors on the remaining three walls in each room.

This time around, in the kitchen we added chair rail, in the Antique White color of all our trim with the brown on the bottom & the red on top, then on the center wall, it's brown on bottom & cream on top. It looks awesome & we just love it.

Anyhows, we stopped the cream color at the edge of our that pesky door frame & it's been that way almost a whole year now.

After the kitchen, we did paint Corey's room, put in new carpet (cheap remnant, which works for us). It's a beautiful mossy green color. The guy mixing our living room paint screwed up & ended up w/that awesome color, so we bought it too at a discount. Woo! Then, just before I had my accident, I'd started painting Casey's room a beautiful sort-of robin's egg blue color. Thank God for my father-in-law & Aunt Faye, who helped finish painting! We got some more remnant for in there. & in the past couple weeks, I've been working on painting some furniture to go in there.

We had some nice wood bedroom furniture that had been the boys' & was painted a denim blue color. I don't have any before shots, which stinks b/c I'd have loved to have been able to paint the Antique White I used & then sanded the edges. We weren't able to do that though b/c at one point, we gave Corey the desk from the set to use when he got married & they'd painted it a tan color. *sigh*

No worries, though, b/c I came up with another solution....
[I'm too lazy to resize my pix today, deal with it! ;)]


We've been trying to make the room not too girly & not overly boyish b/c our hope is to someday have a child who needs a safe place to live come & stay with us. We don't know which God might send, but it's so hard to keep such a room very "gender neutral" when there's SO much pretty flowery stuff that goes with the blue & my mother tends to pick up any feminine decor she finds at a steal w/that color in it. LOL!
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Anyhow, here's what I did to the furniture:


This is a shot of the Antique White and my idea for modding a brush to create the effect I was going for... This is a 3" crummy old brush. Really too course for much of anything I wanted to do, so I cut "Vs" out in it, leaving varying sized gaps.


A shot of the before-technique along with the brown paint I used (left over from the kitchen)


I'm testing how the cuts will spread once I apply pressure on the wood. I ended up making the cuts a bit deeper by increasing the angle.
Keep in mind, I was working outta my own head here.. had never tried this before, had no real clue what exactly I wanted it to look like, just a vague idea....


This is how my brush turned out in the end.


This is sort-of a dry brushing technique I learned when my mom had a ceramics shop eons ago. So you'll need something to rub almost all of the paint off your brush. I used an old box. Old newspaper or junk mail works great too, doesn't have to be cardboard.


What I did is just gently pull the brush across the surface. I wasn't really going for a wood grain look, but it was similar to that, though nowhere near "right" enough to be considered actual wood grain finish. Although my hubby felt duty-bound to tell me that I should not have let my "grain" cross each other. LOL!


When I realized it was going to look like a sorry attempt at wood grain, I swiped around on it at varying angles to take away all those assumptions! Also, along all the corners/edges and raised areas on the drawers, I laid the brush flat, so the tip of the bristles didn't even touch and brushed sideways so the sides of the bristles were all that rubbed against the sharp edge. I love how that looked and how easy it was to do!!


Have I mentioned how thankful I am to have an awesome shop to do stuff like this in?!! Woo!

Since I don't have the room all fixed up, I'm not posting any whole-room shots right now, but here's a peek at what the furniture looks like in the room...








Those last few pix are not the best, I know, but at least the one of the desk shows fairly well how nicely the whole effect blends into the room. We also changed the hardware from the 18th Century style stuff it had. I love the effect it had on the furniture! Oh... and I DID find one shot of that denim blue color we'd painted the stuff when the boys were little:
Cool, eh?

Please let me know what you think of this and share your furniture painting projects, too!

2012: Summer of The Yucky Foot - Part 2

For Part 1, go here.

So, Tommy almost made me pass out, driving like a maniac to the hospital. On the way there, I decided I needed to get the prayer warriors started, so I called the first name in my phone from our Grace Emmaus Community, which happened to be a fella from Pineville, which is 45 miles away & takes almost an hour to drive to. Seriously? I told him I'd almost cut my foot off, which he apparently heard as "I just cut my foot off." but he started the prayer chain off. *phew!*

Once we made it to the ER, Tommy loaded me into a wheelchair & left the truck running with the passenger door standing open, parked right in front of the ER door. He proceeded to make sure they KNEW I was there and I was BUH-LEED-ING!!

When I said my foot had been run over by a riding mower, they all started moving at a much faster clip! I was taken back, past triage & straight into a room. They pulled the towels off my foot & all grimaced. Yeah, it's gross, people!! A LAWN MOWER RAN OVER IT!!

Corey & Mel got there soon after they'd put me in the ER room. People were coming in & out, looking & grimacing. Sheesh. They asked how long was I unconscious. I wasn't. They were shocked. And so far, no crying either. Yes, I AM amazed at myself!! LOL!

It was about 4 hours before they got all the preliminary stuff done that hospitals always take so long to do and finally sent a guy in to clean the cut up so it could be thoroughly examined. The x-ray was good, no broken bones, it was fairly clean & was all okay that Corey had used bottled water to irrigate it & wash out the grass. Once they finally got it cleaned, they could see bone. Nothing shattered or anything, but my heel bone was exposed.

*shudder*

Yes, by this time they had given me a shot of Morphine & put in an IV, thank God!

They put me in a room & let me know the surgeon would be in to look at it first thing. They kept saying it would need a tissue graft. Tommy had asked almost first thing if they needed the part that was cut off, but they said no. Since there were essentially no nerves or muscle there, it wouldn't be beneficial to try sewing it back on.

Next day we saw the surgeon, an orthopedic doc, who said he needed to do a surgery to clear away the too-damaged tissue. I don't remember anything about that, but it hurt like the dickens once I came to. Urgh!

The doc said he thought it would only need a skin graft in about 6 weeks and that I probably wouldn't be able to walk for around 6 months. Egads!! They wanted to keep me for a few days to make sure no infection would set up, and so there I stayed.

I had tons of sweet visitors. It was a very humbling experience seeing people actually show up to let me know they were praying for me. God's SO good!

That night was horrible, though. My blood pressure started dropping and so that was the end of the Morphine. They tried Vicodin next, but the blood pressure was just too low, even for that, so I spent that night in agony. Horrendous pain with NOTHING to ease it.

Did I mention it was horrible?

By the early morning, they tried the Vicodin again & my pressure seemed to level out. I was on a constant saline drip to hydrate me, but apparently it didn't work to stabilize my bp til that next day. Thank God, though, and I was eventually able to use the Morphine again.

And again I say, THANK GOD!!!

The third day, they brought in this funky walker for me to try. It was bright fushia with zebra stripes, y'all. I was not allowed to even touch my toes (of the injured foot) to the floor and lemme tell ya, using one of those blasted things is harder than it looks!!

They made me take a very short walk in the hall & I was soon worn out!! Having to lift my entire weight w/just my wrists was awful! I don't have the strongest wrists already! They were keeping a wet-to-dry pack on my heel all this time, changing it daily. Each time they took the gauze off, it would pull bits of tissue off and make it bleed. Doc said that's what they needed it to do, to stay open & fresh so that the tissue would start regenerating.

It sounded crazy to us. We really didn't dream that the concave wound would build back up much. I imagined a deep sunken scraggly area on my foot for the rest of my life.

Boy, was I (mostly) wrong....

Stay tuned. Part 3 is coming!

fishy...

Okay, so this post is not one I was expecting to write. It's not something I was pondering til it hit me in the face. It will be a rambling, thinking-it-over, pondering post. So don't say I didn't warn you. *heh*

We were recently asked to become "leaders" of the community group (small group, similar to a Sunday school class) at the church we've been at for about a year now. The reason is because the guy who had been leading it simply didn't show up when groups resumed after summer break. Two other couples and us showed up for the first, along with another TWO couples who joined us to discuss the questions that are provided. No definite "leader" was necessary, it was a great group-participant discussion.

The next week, a different new couple showed up and we had another great group discussion. Another lady & I questioned each other as to what was up with this couple not showing. No emails, no contact with the guy who oversees all the groups & keeps a list of them. Nothing.

So, I decided we needed to get to the bottom of it, mostly notably because the second night, there was a different group listed as meeting in the room we've used for the past year. I emailed the care pastor, who forwarded it to the fella who "manages" groups. I told them we were having some great meetings, but were concerned since everyone except us thought that we no longer have a group. I told him we had taken care of the no-leader problem by instituting a last-one-in-leads policy. (which we sort-of had, albeit jokingly) And that this had resulted in a race between two of our men while the third was in the facilities. (lol!) All of it was in good humor and such, I just let them know we wanted to continue having our group & asked what we should do.

The reply I got from Group Manager Man was Congratulations! We, my husband and I, were now listed as the group's leaders. WHAT!?!?! I was surprised & my husband was terrified! I insisted that our group was full of great communicators & basically everyone participates in discussion, so we didn't need to necessarily have a leader. But he insisted that the group must have someone "on record" as leaders, more for contact than anything else. And so, that's how it happened.

The first night after this happened, we had yet another new couple and that was all. Thankfully, we'd spoken to the other two core couples & knew why they weren't there. Otherwise, we'd both have been terribly upset that none of them came!! We had a really wonderful time & my husband handled the whole thing well & started to feel better about the situation.

Thank God.

Then... I just by chance found out that there had been an email sent around by the man who had been the group leader. We had not got a copy of it, however. A friend forwarded it to me, and I have to say I was pretty taken aback by it.

It said he had thought & prayed long & hard about it, and decided to not lead a group this year. This is almost a month since groups had started back up. We all know that another guy, who had been in the group last year with his wife, had been trying to contact this former leader, so I assume that's why this email was sent all of a sudden. He'd sent it to the whole list of people who'd participated in group last year... except us.

There was no mention of the group still being active or anything. He encouraged people to find other groups to attend, if they hadn't already.

Hmm... so now it gets awkward. Why, if he was so torn up about stepping down as leader did he wait til now to send such an email, at least to part of the group?? I know this is because the one man had just started trying to reach him with the news.

Also, why did another couple who were in the group last year tell someone that this former leader had told them group wouldn't start til after Labor Day??

What on earth is going on??

I honestly don't know, but it makes me feel weary. This man is a rather well-off individual whose family owns a large business. Is it all just about politics?? I know that there was a fire at one of their homes earlier (yep, I said "one of"), so I know that what he said about having a rough time of it lately is true... but why wait? Why tell part of the people that group would start later than the designated time? Why not say that the group is still active? I don't mean that he should have said we are the new "leaders", but why not at least say that the "old group" is still running? Still meeting in the same place, at the same time?


Why???? That seems to be the million-dollar question. I just pray that I can not dwell on this or concoct scenarios about what is going on, about who said what to whom & when... I want to focus on Jesus since He, after all, is the reason there's any group at all.

Lord, please help me focus on You!!!

2012: Summer of The Yucky Foot

So... I've been pretty lax with the blog stuff, eh? Okay, okay... I've just flat ignored the thing. Sor-ree! I don't have the aptitude I used to for keeping up with a blog. I don't have the brain cells to create a cohesive post on a regular basis, so...*sigh*

But I am hoping to get started back with it now. At least that's what I want at this point in time. ;)

Alright, so there's been a lot going on in my life for the past few months. On June 14, I decided I was sick of looking at our neglected lawn. It was neglected because my poor hubby works too much & he can mow the entire lawn while I can only do the less-angular parts with our John Deere 316 hydrostatic tranny riding mower. He has rebuilt the thing almost entirely & it keeps our almost-2-acres looking spiffy...when we use it, that is! ;) So, I wanted to help my over-worked husband, okay?

I made one pass around my "usual" area of yard, then headed back out near the garden area and behind our shop. There's a very steep hill right behind the shop that I normally leave for Tommy. I can't even watch him mow it, it's that scary. It doesn't LOOK all that intimidating...until you're up there looking down. I've tried going up it before but the mower tipped backward, so I knew better than to do that. *ha*

I went along the top edge of the highest part that borders the property next to ours, a cemetery, okay? It's a cemetery. Yeah, yeah, yeah... at least the neighbors don't bother us! LOL! At the corner, I decided, "Hmm, I think I can go down this.." and off I went. And off the mower took. I decided to try the brakes, something I basically never use...and they really didn't work. I tried slamming the tranny into reverse to slow it down. Not the best idea I ever had...it slid a bit sideways...and started to tip a little.

I decided I did NOT want that mower on top of me & started weighing the idea of bailing. I thought for sure I could jump far enough & roll fast enough to clear the deck, but...*sigh* Alas. I didn't make it.

As soon as I was upright, sitting on my butt in the field watching the mower go around the corner of the shop (still don't know exactly how it did that) I knew the deck had gone over my foot.

I glanced down, saw the blood & panic started in. I saw my tennis shoe laying about 10 yards away from me, up the hill. I didn't look very close at my injured left foot, because I did't want to really know how bad it was til back up was there. I knew I needed to staunch the bleeding if I could, so I bent both knees up, the right leg on the ground, & sat my left heel down on the side of my right shoe/foot.

Then I called my hubby at work. I tried to stay calm, all the while during the ringing repeating, "God, please help me. Please be with me." Doing my best to sound chillaxed, I told hubby I'd fallen off the mower. "Are you cut?" Yes, I told him. "Are you bleeding?" Yep, I said. Then all I heard was "Hey, I gotta go." as he tore outta the office & headed home.

Okaaay, so then I went back to praying & realized I really didn't wanna be by myself, so I called down to my kids' house & asked my daughter-in-law if either of my sons were home from work yet. She said Corey, her husband, was. Apparently, I said, "Okay, tell him I fell off the lawn mower." and hung up.

Hmph. ;) Soon, I saw him coming up through the back yard, heard the mower shut off & then yell at DIL to grab some towels from inside the house.

Love her heart, she came running around the corner of the shop w/about six big bath towels, all white (LOL.. that's mostly what I have, it just struck me at the time how white they were!) She told me later she didn't know how bad it was, so she got plenty of towels!

Corey had some bottled water, which he splashed on my foot so he could look at it. About that time, Tommy showed up and my dad also pulled up in his ATV. Tommy ran back to get our truck & pull it to where I was. Dad, in a panic, proceeded to try to lift me himself with me asking him what in the world he was doing... but he & Tommy got me in the truck & he sped off toward the hospital.

*phew!* Just retelling this has worn me out, but I want to detail it here, so I'm gonna take a break.

Stay tuned for the rest of the Yucky Foot saga!! lOL!

For Part 2, go here.

i really suck at this...

...blogging stuff. And mind you, now, I used to just LOVE it & kept a very active blog for several years! I seriously believe that the diabetes has played havoc with my brain function.

And speaking of that minimal amount of activity in my life, I started seeing a new doctor back in February. He's actually a chiropractor in Somerset who treats the body as a whole and not just a bunch of unconnected parts that each need their own specialist & have nothing to do with each other.

The results? Well, I've found out that I'm gluten sensitive. That my adrenal glands are shot (& this is about 3 years after there was a hint of this found out in the hospital) I've been put on an extremely strict diet which whittled my allowable foods down to basically water & air.

Heh... well, I can have a LITTLE more than that, but not much. Sheesh! He has me off sugar (duh!) but TOTALLY.. even if I bolus for it, it's still a no-no! Not only that, but no artificial sweeteners!! Talk about hitting where it hurts! And of course, no gluten, which means no bread, no pasta, no crackers!!! And not just that, but he doesn't want me to eat many commercial gluten-free foods either! No caffeine, which really sucked since I'd gone to black coffee to stay away from my beloved vanilla creamer. Very low fat, which also eliminates peanut butter, which I was using to deal w/the no-gluten deal at first... GAH!! I haven't had anything but water to drink since the first of March!! AAAHHH!!!

It was really REALLY tough at first, and still is at times, but now it's not as bad. I've lost quite a bit. Not sure how much exactly since they haven't weighed me again yet. But my pants are lots looser and I'm ready to graduate to a smaller size belt. I've also gone down a size in shirts.

Besides the dietary changes, I have to try & allow my adrenal glands to rebuild themselves, which usually happens in the early a.m. which is when my level is almost rock-bottom, but should be highest of the day! THAT means sleeping in!! YAY!! I'm not sure how I'll handle that when I'm working an Emmaus Walk, but I'll worry about that later.

I'm just glad to see some results. I can't wait til I actually feel better. It hasn't happened yet, but with the severity of adrenal fatigue I have, it can take anywhere from six months to two years to rebuild the glands back to the proper state. *sigh* I hope it doesn't take THAT long, though!!!

Hope to write more again soon.

Blessings & Happy Resurrection Day!

thankful...

Y'know, my family in general is pretty dysfunctional. Of course, most of us feel that way, I realize.

My family's dysfunction is mainly just bickering. And not always "actual" disagreement or backbiting. It's kinda the way we communicate. My husband was so put off by this the first few times he encountered it, and then it took a long time before he ever gave voice to it. It just really bothered him to hear my parents pick at each other the way they do. Even though they've never really 'fought' the way you think of most couples fighting.

So today's Thanksgiving. How many, MANY things we have to be thankful for! In spite of the health issues my sister and I both have, and Mom's more recent dwindling health, we are all pretty healthy. For having had seizures since she was three, my sister does very well. For having had diabetes for going on 40 years now, I am in quite good health when compared to a lot of other people in the same situation. My mother's dwindling health is most likely from her pushing herself so hard for so many years and the fact that she's getting older now.

My eldest, Corey, and his wife, married going on four years now, are doing so well. They love each other more than ever, if that's even possible. *smile* Our youngest, Casey, had a serious accident on our four-wheeler about 2 weeks ago and now, unbelievably, is almost healed! He could have been hurt SO much worse than he was or killed given that the vehicle rolled over on his face and head. But God's been with him and with us every. step. of the. way.

SO much to be thankful for.

And today, it seemed that even though during the time I was at Mom and Dad's this morning, making the dumplings, and they were at each other same as always... by dinner time, there was a different attitude between them and there was none of the usual bickering.

God's good, people. God is so extremely good.

Hope you've all had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well.

God bless you!
G~

God is bigger than bad news...

Found out today that Melissa's grandmother, Karen's cancer is back. She is in the Cancer Center at UK tonight. I haven't heard yet what options she might have as for treatment, but they know the cancer is aggressive.

Please keep Karen in your prayers. Remember her doctors, her husband Bill, her children and all of us who try to minister to them and help them through whatever lies ahead. I know God is bigger than this, He's the Creator of all life and therefore can heal all sickness. If He grants healing to Karen, praise His name! If He sees fit to give Karen the ultimate healing and take her home to glory where there is no more sickness or pain of any kind then praise His name. I pray that her family will lean on Him for all they need and will give Him the glory for all.

Blessings,
G~