Reunion Fun

Another great George family reunion has come and gone. 

This year's Halloween party was full of racing mummies and Frankenstein Crackers

Despite the fact that the turkey hat was purchased as a gag gift, I think it might have been the favorite Halloween Bingo prize!

We spent a day four wheeling on some beautiful Heber trails. 

A movie night complete with a car for each kid filled one evening.  (Doug wired them to light up because he's pretty much the coolest uncle ever!)

And the ladies spent a successful afternoon planning out a family photo.  I'd say we did a pretty good job considering the photos were taken with a tripod and remote control!     

We even caught one of the whole family in our natural habitat :)  

It's That Time Again

It's November again!  I'm designing some pretty awesome Christmas cards and need your address (if it has changed since last Christmas)

Thanks!!!!

Fall Harvest

Our freezer is full of fresh pumpkin puree (I'm pretty sure a from scratch pumpkin pie will be a must this Thanksgiving) and lots and lots of fresh marinara sauce, the cats are super snugly (it's just because the house got colder, but I like to pretend it's because they just really, really love me), Kneaders is selling their Pumpkin Steamer again, and the trees in our yard have turned yellow and red.  

I'm pretty sure we've hit Fall perfection.

We went up and gathered our last harvest from the Farm and our backyard garden.  It was kind of bittersweet.  Bitter because we really love to garden.  Sweet because.. well... I think one of the main reasons we really like to garden is because we can really only do it a few months a year...  By the end of the summer the idea of weekly fertilizing and weeding gets kind of old.  

But the last harvest was fun! Doug really rocked at tomato growing this year and just on that last harvest we filled an entire Costco bag full of tomatoes.  I wish I'd taken a picture- it was sweet.  Doug got to pick his pie pumpkins for eating, and I got to pick the decorative gourds and mini pumpkins I'd been growing all year to decorate the house this fall. (Can you tell who's the engineer and who's the designer?!)   

I am once again bracing myself for dark nights and driving in the snow... but for the next few weeks I plan on fully enjoying every Fall.  ...And probably a few more Pumpkin Steamers, because man, those are good. :)

Autumn Adventures

Well, I have to admit, we did benefit from the government shut down.  Since there was no one working to collect fees on the Alpine Loop, you could enjoy the area for free.  And, more importantly for us, (I'm really just fine paying the $3 or whatever it normally costs) because it was free everyone was talking about it. So we actually remembered to drive the loop at the peak of the Fall!  WOOHOO!!! I have this on my to do list every single year, but we never remember at the right time.  And it's so worth it.  I mean look at this! What could be better?  It was so fun to take the camera out and try out some beautiful landscapes.  

Summer

Flowers from our garden :)

I'm in love with Summer.  Our house is constantly filled with fresh air from the open windows (I know it's not 'in vogue' to have a swamp cooler instead of AC, but I seriously love it), I don't have to drive in snow, and we get to grow our garden.  It's pretty much perfect.

This summer has been so full, but not with much to blog about.  My pattern business, Sweetbriar Sisters, has taken off- which has been so exciting. But I am keeping my word and only blogging about it on my craft blog.   My health has been pretty bad (you know you're really sick when you wear a 1' hole through your sheets from being in bed so much... and then you buy another set only to do it again... I seriously need to find an industrial strength sheet company...) but seriously, what's new about that?  So no blogging there.  That pretty much leaves gardening.  We do actually have some pretty exciting news about our garden.

It didn't completely suck this year.

Our raised beds in the back yard

I know, I know.  Pretty exciting.  You've got to understand, Doug and I love to garden.  But despite our enthusiasm, our garden plants usually stay about the exact size as when we bought them.  Or die.  In the Spring, people look at my cart full of pumpkin plants at the store and say, 'Wow- you much have a huge yard to grow that many!'  And then I laugh.  Because, let's be honest, 3 of those pumpkin plants are gonna die, and the last one won't grow bigger than 1 foot long.

But this year was different!  This is Doug's 2nd year growing a plot in the community garden out by his office and we've learned a ton from the farmers there.  We learned about soil and fertilizers and ground covers and so much more.  And with all that knowledge, 2013's pumpkin plant got all the way to 3 feet long! :)   (for those of you unfamiliar with pumpkin plants, it should get to like 20'.  But we'll take what we can get!)

Cut Flower Garden!!! (check out that 3 foot pumpkin plant on the bottom!)

Ok, so we stink at growing pumpkins.  And corn.  And peppers.... But our tomato plants did alright.  And I continued with my cut flower garden, which wasn't too bad (nothing like stopping by a friend's house with a bouquet of flowers from your garden!).  And for some strange reason, even though we don't get much out of it, we still just really love gardening.  Maybe by the time we're retired I'll actually be able to grow a full sized pumpkin. :)

Tomatoes from our garden!

Pasta sauce made from the tomatoes from our garden!  It's pretty much Heaven on a plate

Stacey Reunion 2013

I can't believe it's been almost a month since we went out to Ohio!  We had such a fun trip (and a very busy small business to come home to, which is why I'm just getting to this now) and got to see all of my family but one brother.  Good times!

Have you ever seen a happier Grandpa?

Fairy Gardens!  These were so fun- everyone made one and we'd find 'thank you' gifts from the fairies for making them such nice homes :)

Doug and my dad (and probably a few other brothers- I couldn't keep track) installed a new zip line in the front yard, complete with a full safety harness so the little kids could ride, too.

Jello Competition!  Doug and I organized this one, and it was awesome!  

Figures

Do you ever feel like you accidentally asked the universe to make something bad happen?

I'd just gotten off the phone with my dad, who'd been going through the stressful process of buying a car. It was the first time I'd seen the process of buying-a-car-on-a-deadline-because-mine-just-died-and-I-need-to-go-to-work-tomorrow from an adult perspective.  Suddenly our current "Replacement of Our '92 Subaru Plan" seemed like it might need a little tweaking.

So that night I talked to Doug.  I'd always thought that we'd just run that car to the ground and then replace it. But after talking to my dad I was thinking we'd probably save as much money and a LOT of stress if we started looking for a good deal now so we'd have plenty of time to find something at a great price.

We had the money saved up, and it seemed responsible and definitely less stressful.  So we decided that's what we'd do.  And we'd start looking right when Doug got home from his business trip.

So Doug left for his trip.  And about 20 minutes after he left I got a call from him stranded on the side of I-15.  Because the car died.

Figures.

So Doug found a last minute ride to the airport (from someone willing to pick him up on the side of the road) and I organized the towing of a car, the location of which I was only vaguely aware of because Doug had been in a hurry to catch a plane when he called me.  And the process of buying-a-car-on-a-deadline-because-ours-just-died began.  :)

A month or so later,  we have our new car and the stress is over.  But seriously, I never want to have to make that big of a purchase on a deadline again!  Sometimes the realities of being an adult are just no fun at all.

Kitchen!

Remember how we started our kitchen redo... like 7 months ago?  (wow- when I actually count out that time it seems even more crazy!)  Well, we finished- finally! So here are the pictures I promised to so many of you so long ago.  Life got a little crazy in the middle there :)  

We've had quite an eventful few months.  My little online pattern business has gone to print and my pattern line can now be found in stores!  It's been SO exciting, but has also required a LOT of hours in printing, folding and stuffing patterns.  Often only to be followed by unstuffing, reprinting and restuffing the same patterns because we'd made some little mistake. (I'm so excited to get better at that part so it doesn't suck every minute of our time away from us!)  But in just the past month I feel like we've made huge strides to get into the modern sewing/quilting world and it has been a lot of fun!  Now we just need to mold it all into our Chronic Fatigue business model so I don't kill myself off...  All in good time, right?!

All in all, it looks like it's going to be a pretty exciting Summer.  I think Summer definitely becoming my favorite time of year!

The monogrammed pot holders might be my favorite part

New floor!

railing no longer has a mustard yellow oak finish!  Woohoo!

CFS Awareness Day

Remember last year when I was too sick to do anything for CFS Awareness day?  Well, I learned from my mistake.  Over the past year I've been writing awareness posts when I felt well enough and scheduling them to be posted throughout this week.  The first one popped up today and I can't believe it's already coming up to May 12 again!

So this year I'd like to officially invite you to take part in CFS Awareness month with me!  Head over to my Sweetbriar Sisters blog. (I put them over there so they can be shared without inviting the world to read our personal blog) You'll find new posts all week long full of custom made CFS awareness images that are just begging to be 'Pinned' and 'Liked' and 'Shared' :).

Thanks so much for all your support.  I really can't believe how lucky I am to have so many friends and family who have supported me through this crazy time in my life!  You guys are the best.

Hooray!!!

I did it!  I'm officially finished with the hardest semester ever!  AND I don't even think I failed either of my classes.  (though I'm also sure they will be the lowest grades I've ever gotten in an art related course...by a lot....)  I have never been this sick in my entire life, and it never let up the whole semester.

To think I used to think school was hard back when I was healthy!  Ha!

Just had to share my exciting news- we'll be celebrating tonight!  And by celebrating I mean going to bed at 7:30.  (for real, Doug just called and asked what I wanted to do and that's what we planned.)

I swear I'm a 29 year old stuck in a 79 year old body... :)

Doug's New Hobby

Trivia Question:  What's wrong with this picture?

There has been a lot going on around our house the past few weeks.  But first things first.  There is something seriously wrong with our laundry room- can you figure out what it is?

The laundry room has always been a bit of a mystery to us.  We live in 1,000 square feet, so it seems strange to have 100 of them devoted only to doing laundry.  Why couldn't they just give us a laundry closet and add the rest of the space to actual living area?!  

Well, after almost 5 years of living in our home, we've finally put this weird bit of space to work.  Since it's an unfinished room filled with 2 water heaters, 2 furnaces (oh the joys of owning a duplex) and a washer/dryer, there was really no hope in ever making it cute.  So we stuck with pure function.  I have to admit, it makes life a lot easier to have a spot that's just supposed to be ugly.  :)

A stacked washer/dryer gave space for Doug to create himself a little office down there.  First came a desk for his computer.  Then a POTS friendly exercise bike so I could start doing my physical therapy from home.  Then we filled the shelves with all our office supplies (a growing collection, with Doug doing Clearcore book keeping and Sweetbriar Sisters order fulfillment down there- all after his full time job of course).  

Then it started getting fun.

Doug has this new found talent.   Building computers into strange, but useful, places. So with all this useful stuff in one room, his brain started churning.  One day I went down there and he'd roped an old laptop onto the bike.  Strange, but ok.  I did like getting stuff done while I did my workout, so no complaining here.  (staying current on emails feels like such a time killer every day!) But it was an old laptop, and not nearly as fast as, say, a faster computer could be.  So as time went on, parts were reorganized and eventually the old laptop was replaced by our entire desktop.  I like to tease Doug about how much he dreams about new computers- it seems he's never quite satisfied.  

So what's the problem now?  Well, there's no monitor hanging from the ceiling yet!  I mean, the bike's got to have two monitors (who can get anything done on just one?!)  and the ceiling is really our only access point.  So, in all seriousness, our next plan for the laundry room is to hang one of our computer monitors from the ceiling right above the bike.  

And to be honest, I'm really excited.

5 Book: Break a World Record

 Have you heard of the 5 Book?  I happened to run across it while I was lying around waiting for my POTS flair to pass.  (I had a lot of internet searching time!)  It asks the question, "Where Will You Be Five Years From Today?" and is filled with inspiration and ideas on how to make the next 5 years your best five years.  The idea seemed great, AND the book was pretty.  I mean, how can I resist something that's pretty?!  So I ordered it.

Since then I have been having a lot of fun setting goals.  The book suggests a lot of ideas; planning out dreams, visiting the home of your ancestors, trying new things etc.  I'm working on a couple of them, but am proud to say I officially finished one!

One suggestion is to attend a world class event, like the Olympics or to run with the bulls or something like that.  I'm pretty close to house bound these days so traveling to a large, crowded event wasn't an option.  However, I found something close to home that worked!  A girl at my school went a little crazy on her senior project and decided to officially break a world record!  She made the world's longest tie dyed piece of fabric (she's an art major which should pretty much explain the craziness of that statement). On the day she had the Guinness Book of World Record reps come to measure, she needed about 1,000 volunteers to help stretch the fabric for measuring.  (it was really long and really heavy!) Normally there's no way I'd use up so much energy on something like that, but it happened to fall on the day when I had my holter monitor. Remember that day? The Jessica-trying-to-over-do-it day?  It was perfect!

It was a lot of fun to get caught up in the excitement.  The official Guinness Book of World Records guys were there, along with news crews and pro photographers.  It really was exciting!  I can't wait for the Guinness World Record site to be updated so I can look at it and say- I was there!!!

I Feel Like a Robot

I was so excited this morning when I listened to this!  I have seriously prayed for these answers in this talk for 7 years. (see? tender mercies everywhere!)  Finally an explanation of how to balance faith in God and acceptance in His plan.  

On a slightly related note, I'm on a holter monitor today.  I feel like I am turning Borg. (have I ever mentioned that Star Trek is the best insomnia medicine?  Well, Star Trek and sleeping pills- neither works well alone.  I've watched the first 10 minutes of almost every episode.)    It's a silly idea, really.  I go in, tell the cardiologist that about once a year I have these crazy episodes and that I just had one a few weeks ago.  So what does he do?  Hook me up to a machine just in case it happens in the next 24 hours.... Apparently cardiologists don't have to take a lot math classes.

So I've spent the whole day trying to pass out so we could get it on record.  Fun fun!  Hopefully someone in my neighborhood is having a bad day and looks out her window.  At least someone would get a good laugh out of this!

Goodbye and Good Riddance!

I am so excited for February to be over!  We're already counting down the days until 2014 over here. 

February was hard.  My lovely kidney stone infection experience triggered a POTS flair at the beginning of the month. (my heart always has a hard time keeping up with me, but when I have a big flair my resting heart rate goes to about 165 and even with that my blood pressure is so low I can't stand up without blacking out...so I have to spend the entire flaring time horizontal. This time it lasted almost 3 days. )  In the 7 years I've been sick I've only had 2 other flairs that have been close to this bad; and they only lasted a matter of hours rather than days.  Both times the stress from the flair left my body at an extremely lower energy level that took about 8 months and hundreds of hours of disciplined physical therapy to get over.  And even then I just get back to my normal sick level.  

So basically, I know what I'll be doing for the rest of 2013.  

It's just annoying. Sometimes I feel like I'm playing a game against the universe, all the time knowing that the universe will get the trump card every time.  Plus this time it happened a week after the 'you can drop your classes and get a refund' date at school.  So I'm double annoyed.  

So that's our life right now. I've been scraping by trying to accomplish something at school... or at least get to class.  We bought a freezer and filled it with easy meals.  There were still Christmas decorations out until yesterday when Doug took an afternoon off to clean the house. 

But now February is over and checking off a big chunk of time makes me feel positive   Every time I get really sick, there are always great tender mercies.  This time between my infection and my flair we had a couple of normal days when we were able to get all dressed up and celebrate my birthday. (my favorite outing every year!)  Another night when I was especially sick we cooked up our Destination Dinner and had a fun Korean evening without having to leave our CFS friendly home.  Someone in our neighborhood has been secretly shoveling our driveway all winter long.  About a week ago I saw that they made a movie out of a talk I love so much I practically have it memorized.  (the movie is at the top of this post, the text can be found here-Mountains to Climb by Henry B Eyring) 

I feel like I am constantly amazed at what the human body is capable of.  This month I am so grateful that it is complex enough to be completely frustrated and extremely satisfied all at the same time.  What would we do without a bit of joy during our sorrows!?

This Week Was Great Because It Didn't Suck

It's funny how the human brain works.  I am often surprised at how many of my opinions are based completely on comparison.

Eating, for example.  I'm typically not super grateful for the fact that I get hungry before meals.  In fact, it's usually pretty annoying.  But the day after I get over the stomach flu?!  Man, that hunger is the best feeling in the world!  I feel like I'd never appreciate it if it weren't for those nasty days I'd spent nursing my stomach.

It makes me wonder if maybe the horrible days come so we can love the ordinary ones.

The day after we got home from Washington I was suddenly so much pain we rushed to the ER.  I'm talking curl-up-in-a-ball-vomit-from-pain-honestly-wish-I'd-just-die-already-so-it-would-stop kind of hurting.  And if you think they fixed me up right then and there, you're wrong.  Because it lasted almost 2 entire weeks. I used to hear about stuff like this happening and in the back of my mind I figured there had to be something that made it bearable   That the human body would adapt or something so that the person could deal with the pain.  Nope.  It was just horrible.  Every single second of those two weeks was completely horrible.

After lots of Doc appointments, thousands of dollars worth of tests (hooray for good medical insurance!) and even a surgery appointment (that we luckily got to cancel) it ended up being cured by a couple good rounds of antibiotics.

And now all I can think is,  I LOVE ANTIBIOTICS!!!! In fact, I've spent the last few days loving everything about my life.  I can do the dishes?!  GREAT!!  Homework?  Fantastic! Remember that chronic illness I have that keeps me in bed 70% of the day?  NO PROBLEM!  

The fact is, life is pretty incredible simply because it's not horrible!

I guess, in the end, I'm kind of glad for those two weeks.  They helped me remember that Ordinary Life is a pretty good place to be.

Christmas

Well, it's official.  I've finally had a Christmas Morning around kids!  (took me long enough!)  Doug and I were able to go up to my sister's house in Washington for Christmas and it was so fun!  We played tourist and found a park the best view of Seattle, right next to what was seriously the best ice cream shop I've ever been to (Molly Moon's).  We got to get all excited with the kiddos waiting for Christmas morning and even got a white Christmas in a state where we were promised nothing but gray skies and rain.  It was perfect.  I'm afraid next year's Christmas will have a lot to live up to!