Monday, December 29, 2008


Baby Bunny... aka Sally

Here she is... (Mom). I just love her. I enjoyed making her so much. Everytime I look at her I just smile. Her legs are made from an old pair of Abby's jeans, her face and arms from an old skirt (she has a cute little pocket on the back of her head for treasures), and the body and ears are from one of Abby's pillow shams. She is the first thing I have made (sewn) since I made Abby's curtains a couple years ago! It was so much fun to be back at the machine. I think I will make something else soon!

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Christmas dress from Grammy!
Timeless.




Earrings from Santa! Timely.




Making Christmas breakfast. Precious.






Bravely waiting...


and the first look. Priceless.

She didn't even flinch!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008


Random Christmas Eve Thoughts...

Our wonderful day started off with my precious husband NOT getting a call at 4 a.m. to come to work today! They already dropped Christmas Day and now he's been home all day today as a bonus!(Thank you Santa)
We shared an annual Christmas Eve breakfast with fellow neighbors at the new local I-Hop. Each year, a large group from the neighborhood meets to have breakfast together. This year it meant more to me than any other.
Next, I was off to conquer Kroger and buy the essentials for our Christmas breakfast and dinner. (I forgot all about the ingredients for zucchini soup for tonight's little feast!) I made two observations while wandering the very crowded store, people were either in a wonderful and cheerful mood... or they were NOT. It was funny. No in-between people... just happy and NOT.
As I stood in front of the case of turkeys, it hit me, this monster was never going to thaw by tomorrow. What now? One of my friends' mothers walked by and she told me I could take it out of the wrapper, put it naked in the sink all day while changing the water and trying to pull the sack of innards out... No thank you! Being borderline vegetarian as it is... I could not stomach that! I glanced over at the ducks and winced... I considered game hens and thought not, I looked at the huge slab of ham and thought not again. So there I stood... having an animal moment in the middle of the meat department at Kroger. Tofu for Christmas dinner? Nah.... I walked in circles a few times, seriously laboring over what to do... then huffed a sigh of defeat and tried to find the smallest ham possible. I apologized to it. Found the one that was naturally fed, no msg's and minimally processed and literally tossed it in the bottom of the cart. This meat thing is getting on my nerves... can't I just eat it without thought like millions of other people in the world!? That answer is "No".
So I found a line that was actually short and went to pay for my food items and Jolly St. No Personality got in line behind me. I had three transactions to do. One for a woman in my bible study I was buying some items for (out of my business money), one for a family our small group is buying stuff for (out of that money), and myself. He was very annoyed with my little divider doo hickies. I explained to the clerk what I was doing and I thought his eyes were going to roll out of his head. Then I asked the clerk for a gift certificate I needed to buy... more eyeball aerobics from Jolly St. No Personality and THEN... the register would not scan the gift certificate! It was great. I thought he was going silently combust! So I glanced back at him and said, "I'm sorry", and do you know what he did!? He just looked at me... like I was a lump of annoyance... and so I smiled and said, "Actually, no, no I am not... I am not sorry." His face broke and I think he may have had a tiny moment of introspective thought about his behavior. I thanked the clerk by name and the bagger, took my items, and walked out with a smile. Hopefully Jolly St. No Personality will be visited by three ghosts tonight and wake tomorrow with a better outlook!
So we are home now, making more candy, listening to Christmas music, and getting ready to drop by some one's house to deliver Christmas cheer and meet friends at the Christmas Eve service. I LOVE to sing Christmas Carols with hundreds of people who also love the Lord... it is very moving and I know it makes Him smile!
When we return home, after stopping to get soup makings, Abby will open her gifts. I made her the cutest baby bunny yesterday! I am thrilled with it. It is my favorite thing I have ever made. I am so excited about her opening it... I hope she loves it too!
After a few gifts, we'll snuggle in for the viewing of "Polar Express", cocoa, and yummy goodies! Tomorrow morning, Santa will have stopped by, filled stockings and HOPEFULLY will have brought Abby the present she has asked him for... earrings! We'll see..... Happy Christmas Eve Dear Friends... Love to you all.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008


Christmas Week Has Begun!

My first Christmas gift came last night when I received a phone call from my Houston store letting me know the BOX ARRIVED! Abby and I were on a sushi date and I almost squealed out loud! But we did a table version of the happy dance instead!!! (many thanks to those of you who prayed for my box to arrive!)

So Christmas week has officially begun and my brain is officially Georgia Jewels unloaded! Abby and I started our Christmas week celebration by making our first two batches of hard Christmas candy. We made cinnamon and peppermint and it is oh so yummy and pretty! I had originally planned to put it into jars I and my friends have been saving BUT, a batch makes less than I had thought and I'd need about 20 batches to fill my jars! So Abby and I went out and bought little bags and some Christmas stickers and we'll move onto plan B for packaging.

Christmas week actually began last week for us. Amidst all the craziness of bead counting (oh... headache trying to break through just thinking of it) we stole away to Callaway Gardens for their "Fantasy in Lights" Christmas celebration. We kept it as a surprise for Abby... we love to surprise her. She was thrilled and we were rewarded with "that" precious, gleeful, simply and innocently genuine smile of happiness that fills us from head to toe with parental satisfaction!


We entered a HUGE bubble tent that was FULL of various themed Christmas trees, Christmas crafts, Christmas booths, and Christmas treats. Abby burst with joy when the Gingerbread man walked around the corner. She looked over for permission and then ran to him and embraced him with a big, lllllloooooooonnnnnnnngggggggggg hug! "You can let go now Abby". When I got the picture home and downloaded it, you can see the woman's face as plain as day in one of the eyes! I am not sure how Abby is going to feel about that as I am 99% certain she has no idea there is a person inside the gingerbread man!


There were Georgia Bulldog trees, lake trees, beach trees, sock monkey trees, dog trees, cat trees, fancy trees, simple trees... and a VERY interesting and strikingly beautiful black tree! It was really stunning. It was black and decorated with silver and glass ornaments. I couldn't stop starring at it... maybe next year!


I am not sure who invented the idea of "face painting" for children but they are simply genius. It was the best $2 we have spent in a long time. The most precious "Southern Lady" painted Abby's face with an adorable reindeer and then gave her a red glitter nose, all the while telling her in her drippy sweet voice how precious and beautiful she was... if she only knew how true that really is. It was sweet and Abby was thrilled to squeals with her new look!


After some dinner and purchasing some sugar and cinnamon coated almonds, we braved the line to ride the trolley on the one hour ride through the woods full of gleaming lights. The weather was perfect. The lights were beautiful and we had a blast singing carols with our fellow trolley riders. I can't even do justice to how beautiful the lights are there. Callaway really does a great job and it will become one of our new Christmas traditions!

It's amazing what simple lights can do to your spirits this time of year. I am amazed to see adults so touched by them each year. To me, they reflect the simple beauty of light, light that brings hope into a dark and hurting world, and a joy produced by embracing the simple things that truly are so big... like family time together.
I hope you are all off to a wondrous and joyful Christmas week! We send much love to you all.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Need to vent or will implode.

I am so angry I have a headache. I am so angry I have the amazing urge inside to scream until my throbbing head explodes. And there is nothing I can do, but feel this way until the horrible mood passes.

I sold my business today. It drove away in the back of a vehicle and I remain with check in hand. I was thinking I was going to feel happiness, relief, and freedom. Then the phone rang five minutes after everything left. It was one of my best selling stores in Houston, Texas. A package I mailed with a large order in it has still not arrived. The package was NEEDED by December 16. It was for three customers, two of whom were having big Christmas parties and were giving my necklaces as party gifts. I mailed the package PRIORITY mail on Dec. 8th. As of today, December 20th, it is still not there.

Obviously the store owner is far less than happy. Her three customers are irate. The USPS is CLUELESS and SLACK and I am an idiot for using them in the first place and not tracking the package and left with a raging headache, stomach ache and useless anger and frustration.

So now I have to order the supplies I need Monday so that HOPEFULLY second day air will get them here Wed. and then drive to Gainesville where my cousin is staying for the holidays and redo this order and lose all that money. Lovely. Grand. Great.

Very sour... maybe another bubble bath in the depths of a volcano would make me feel better.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Goodbye. Hello.

We went to a funeral today. It was the fifth funeral for us this year. A dear precious man in our church family had a massive heart attack last Friday and went to dance and sing with the Lord this Tuesday.

The service was held in our church building and I was so struck by the memory of just speaking with him there two Sundays ago. Now, he was there, lying in the front.

As I looked around, I was touched by the beauty of something you don't see all the time. Men were hugging men all around me. They were emotional. They were vulnerable. They were real. And I was moved by the beauty of their courage to be so brave and so real. Ansley would have been proud.

Our prayers are with his precious family. Our smiles are with Ansley, knowing he is singing and dancing before the Lord.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Ode to Bubble Bath.

OK. So I have passed the point of "fried" and am now at "frazzled". My body is screaming out in pain as I have been hunched over in the floor counting "stuff" for days now. So tonight, I "let" my serving husband make dinner and clean up dinner. After dinner I retreated to the place any over exhausted and frazzled to the deepest depths mother goes... the bubble bath.

As I tried to enter my sanctuary, Abby tried to join. Guilt came and quickly left as I gave a firm "no", closed the bedroom door and locked it. After filling my tub with the hottest water my faucet would deliver, my tranquil moment began. Muscles started to loosen, skin started to open, and mind started to drift.

Abby: Knock, knock, knock. Bang, bang, bang. Kick. (on the locked door) Mommy, let me in!
Mommy: No, Abigail. I will not let you in.
Abby: Mommy, Dusty and I are so sad you are in your room.
Mommy: You are?
Abby: Yes, we are so sad, we need to come in. KICK.
Mommy: little giggle. I am sorry honey. You and Dusty are going to have to deal with it.
Abby: Mommy, Daddy is so lonely downstairs. You need to come downstairs!
Mommy: giggle, giggle, giggle. Abigail, I will be down later.
Abby: What are you laughing at Mommy!? Kick. Kick.
Mommy: Abigail, stop it! Do not kick the door!
Daddy: (muffled from downstairs) Abigail, stop it.
Abby: thump, thump, thump... retreats downstairs.

Ahhhhh... silence again. I sank deeper into the HOT water, my nose resting slightly above the still water, and tried to flatten myself into the bottom of the tub. Ode to my bubble bath. It was a sweet retreat... for a moment.
Good days and bad days.

Yesterday was a bad day. Bad day for me. Don had been gone on a trip and I was fried. I am trying to inventory my business to pass it along this Friday. That means I am counting beads, and spacers and earring wires, and charms and pendants, measuring silver chain and leather and silver wire, counting supplies like tools and display pieces and boxes... fried... did I mention fried?

So in addition to this, which I am blessed is short lived, I am schooling Abby and growing more stressed with Abby's seizure increase as each day goes by... watching her eyes slip further away into deep dreariness and watching her lose words in her head and act out in negative behaviors in loud protest to drugs exhausts my soul with frustration and sadness. I battle with the balance. It is my greatest battle. Being sleep deprived into the core of my being is yet another great battle that makes my cheerie and patient disposition slip further away into a place that is deep and hard to reach.

So yesterday I lost my patience and raised my voice and was really ready to slip away for a weeks rest. Then Don came home last night and I rertreated to Abby's unused room to sleep. I actually did sleep and was surprised when I awoke the first time to morning light. Today is a better day. Even though Abby had a seizure this morning, school went well, her lunch is being eatten and her nap about to begin. I will retreat to the studio to count some more and then we will be delighted with our afternoon fire and family time, making dinner together and then lying down again.

It is a better day. And I am thankful for that.

Monday, December 15, 2008


Tis the Season

A few months ago, we decided to do Christmas different this year. We decided to go against the commercialism that is driven down our throats and taught to us at early ages. It's been coming for a while, but this year, in our attempt to simplify and declutter, it seemed the perfect time for a change. We are going very light on the gifts. We informed our family we would not be exchanging gifts with everyone this year. We decided to exchange a few amongst ourselves.


To keep our minds centered and focused on the true meaning of Christmas Day, we are going to open our little gifts on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day will be a day to reflect on Christ's love for us, the true gift of Christmas, and to be together and deliver homemade candy treats to our neighbors and friends.

I am very excited about our "new" Christmas. It already feels good... in many ways. Americans (just Americans) spend 450 billion EACH year on Christmas. Can you even really wrap your brain around that amount of money? hmmmmmmmmm.....

Sunday, December 14, 2008


Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Isaiah 58:8~
This is the scripture I am claiming this week. By the end of seven days, I will own it, know it, and find peace in it. There are so many wonderful words of encouragement and promise in the book of Isaiah.
I want to start by thanking you all again for your precious friendship, for your emails, phone messages and your love. What treasures you all are to me and my family. It just makes me smile.
Our appointment with Abby's neurologist went as well as could be expected last week. We were all able to discuss things together and that was helpful. But there are no answers... only suggestions to keeping increasing medications. There is a new drug coming out next year that we "may" try. But when 10 others haven't worked, it's not likely that a new one will either.
So we are considering another option. We are going to talk with another doctor in the same practice about the vegal nerve stimulator. It's a device that is implanted into the chest and has a "wire" that runs up the vegal nerve in her neck and stimulates the brain with periodic impulses. It is my HOPE/DESIRE/DREAM that this constant stimulation through out the night as she is in a deep sleep will keep her from having that stinkin seizure as she comes out of sleep. So we are going to discuss this option with the doctor there who does the procedure and see what his thoughts are on the subject.
In the meantime, we struggle to find the balance of researching/fighting/ focusing on Abby's illness with the need to be somewhat "normal" with our lives. So there are appointments to be made, ones to be kept, and ones to be found BUT I am going to get my nails done today. Seems like such a petty little indulgence. But we are going to a little party this afternoon/evening and I want red nails! Ha... just saying it/thinking it out loud seems so petty and delicious at the same time! So after Abby finishes her date with the Grinch, we are off to buy the "Christmas Story" for this evening's entertainment and to get my/our nails painted red!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008



Happy 9th Anniversary Baby...

How exciting to be so close to ten! I am forever thankful for God's hand upon our marriage. Our love has been stretched and strengthened... it has been bruised and has bloomed... it has groaned and grown. I am continually amazed with what we can endure, together. I am continually amazed at how rich and multi-faceted our love and marriage continues to become.

You are kind, loving, thoughtful, forgiving, adventurous, strong, sexy and good. I love the way you love our family. I love the way you love our time together. And I love the way you reach out and touch me for no reason. I love how you smile at me in the mornings and greet me with a big long hug (and coffee!). I love the way you plan special things for me, for us. I love the way you text me love notes!!!!!!!

Thank you for loving me. Thank you for fighting for me. Thank you for being patient with me. Thank you for forgiving me. Thank you for seeking to "know" me and my heart. Thank you for holding me through some very hard times. Thank you for creating some very wonderful times.
I love you... I love you crazy.

Monday, December 08, 2008


Thank you all for your prayers, emails, and phone calls. Just knowing your are before the Lord in Abby's behalf is so encouraging and helpful for us during this time.

She is holding at a seizure every three nights. Her last one was Sunday morning at 5:30 a.m. We have an appointment with her neurologist on Thursday. In the mean time, I've joined two yahoo groups for mitochondrial disease and have found some helpful ideas there as well as encouragement and understanding. It helps to be in the presence of others who suffer such emotional and physical roller coasters with their children's health.
Our prayers are specific this week... if you don't mind. We are praying, first, for God's guidance. As we pray, there are so many different issues we are praying about. Treatment of mitochondrial disease is not a science... it's very much a trial and error game. We are also praying for opened eyes and guidance for her doctor.
We are praying for guidance in what to do with her medications, what specialists to seek, what supplements to increase, and what lifestyle changes to make. We are also looking/researching for anything new... information, options, drugs, supplements... that may be helpful for her.
We also pray for guidance in our conversation with her doctor. As I said, it's not a science yet. So we all kinda bounce questions and ideas off each other and I pray God guides us in HIS direction and that we are in agreement.
We also ask for prayers of strength, me especially. When you have prayed the same prayer over and over, in every possible way you can find... had elders at two churches lay hands on her and pray scripture from the word, fast and have friends who GRACIOUSLY offer to fast (Thank you dear one... you know who you are and you warm my heart), it can be very mentally, spiritually, and physically exhausting. I KNOW God doesn't always answer our prayers in the way we FEEL He ought to. I KNOW HIS plan for Abby is perfect and that HIS ways are not our ways. I KNOW HUNDREDS of people have been on their knees before Him on her account and their own faith has been strengthened by seeing God's hand upon her... I KNOW all these things... KNOW them in my inner most being... BUT... I am the mother He chose for her and I love her with every ounce of my very being and I want her healthy... happy... and thriving in His glory and presence. The battle of KNOWING and WANTING is oh so ferocious and exhausting.
So I praise Him in this storm and I hold to the truths of His word, His faithfulness and His Oh so sweet and binding sovereignty. And I pray for a good week.