Goodbye, 2008!

Goodbye, 2008! We are saying hello to the new, fresh 2009. I don't know about you, but 2008 was a bit rocky in places for us. At some points, I felt like the rug had been ripped from under my feet. Some aspects were nice. Our boys are now young men. They have both moved out (kinda nice, actually). It hasn't been difficult since they still live so close. It would have ripped my heart out if they were far away and I didn't get to see them! I am hoping that the new, 2009 has wonderful things in store for all of us.

Merry Christmas, dear ones!

I would like to wish each and every one of you a wonderful Christmas. Enjoy your families and be thoughtful of why we celebrate.

One thing after another

I am ready for things to settle down. We had our oldest son in the hospital for 4 days with appendicitis. I was already behind, but now I'm REALLY behind. I just do what I can, then go to bed. Friday, we are traveling to a very sad funeral. My across-the-street neighbors lost their teenage daughter in a tragic car accident. Three of her other children were critically injured as well. I am so incredibly sad for them. Please keep them in your prayers.

I'm happy now

Not that I wasn't really happy before, but I feel more settled now that our tree is up. It's a full day affair. Our tree is 9 feet tall and 6 feet wide at the base. I am fortunate to have help from my husband. He is quite patient. He strings all the lights and fluffs most of the branches. I have tried and tried but cannot get a good picture of the whole tree do to the lighting.

I have no idea how many ornaments are on it, but to make the huge variety of ornaments work, I create vignettes throughout the tree. Here is my happy elves. They love hanging out on the branch and catching all the sights.









My Dad carved this elf-like Santa. He perches in a branch above the elves.







I love this sweet bear that I picked up at a rummage sale. Still can't figure out why anyone would want to get rid of her!







A couple of years ago, I purchased some small gourds and decided that they needed to be a family of snowmen so I painted them up
I even have an aquarium set up in the tree. These are some tropical fish that my Dad carved for me several years ago. Reminds me snorkeling in Hawaii. At least here I don't have to worry about the moray eels. They scare me!

Emergency Surgery

On Wednesday, we took our oldest son to the Emergency Room. He had been throwing up and now had a horrible pain on his side. At least he finally had the classic symptoms of appendicitis. The poor guy had been getting horribly sick every couple of months for the last year. Of course, his doctor had no idea why (we are switching doctors for more reasons that just this one).

Unfortunately for our wallet, the ER we took him to did not have a surgical unit so they had to transport him by ambulance to another hospital. Fortunately for us, it was a wonderful hospital. He received excellent care there. We were a little taken aback, however, when they told us that his surgeon was Dr. Dye. We didn't know at the time how it was spelled. We just knew how it sounded. He proved to be excellent.

Stephen is quite sore, but feeling much better. His surgery was done laproscopically which will leave him with hardly any scarring and he will never have appenicitis ever again.

Stephen was in the hospital from Wednesday to Saturday. I came home exhausted. In fact, I was so pooped that I didn't get all my groceries put away last night which included the big old chicken that I was planning to turn into chicken and dumplin's tonight. Guess I will be heading back to the store . . .


(I failed to mention that Stephen is my 23 year old son who is in the middle of finals! Aaargh!)