Spiritual Sundays and Reality......

This is the first time I am participating in Spiritual Sundays

I would like to thank the hostess's of this wonderful blog event, Charlotte and Ginger.

A while back, I mentioned that I wanted to keep my blog "real".

So here is a bit of my current Reality........

Many of you know I have had my share of health problems in the past.... 3 surgeries in 3 years. The first one was to have my Gall Bladder removed after several visits to the ER, the second one was to laser a tumor out of my right ureter,avoiding the removal of my right kidney and the 3rd was to repair 4 abdominal hernias.

If you notice on my sidebar, there are logos for the national sites on Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis. Please click on these to take a peek at the web sites if you are experiencing any S&S that you think might be related to these diseases.

The reason why they are there is because I was tentatively diagnosed with Lupus in the beginning of this year.

It is no surprise since my sister has Discoid Lupus.

My maternal grandmother had severe Rheumatoid Arthrits and was in a wheelchair for 11 years before she passed away at the age of 62 years old from Renal Failure. My sister and I, both being nurses, feel that she most likely had Lupus but 52 years ago, Lupus was not even a recognized disease.

I recently found this picture of my grandparent's and I guess I was shocked to see her in this wheelchair with her hands and feet crippled so. I was 2 years old when she died in 1960, I have no recollection of her.

It has been expected for the past 10 years and I have been checked regularly for Lupus.

A positive ANA titer ( blood work) has pretty much confirmed it.

As for now, my S&S are the joint involvement from R.A. , fatigue ( which really hit me over the winter) and now in the summer, sun sensitivity. I have no major organ involvement as of now.

You can see the swelling that I experience at times in my feet and ankles.
Sorry it is not a pretty sight.


Unfortunately, the arthritis is spreading to different joints and I am developing the nodules on my fingers. I pray I will not lose the use of my hands.
I recently had an xray of a swollen right knee and it reveals more arthritis.


I do have scoliosis, curvature of the spine, and now have arthritis down my entire spinal column.
Because of all of this, I know my days here at my beloved home are limited due to the amount of steps involved. It takes 13 steps to get up to my front porch. I did not think of that when I was a mere 20 years old and bought this house.


I have been told that I will never reach 62 y/o working in my current job and will be out on disability before then. I am a Rehab nurse and I am constantly lifting patients. It has taken a toll on me over the past 29 years that I have worked in this department.

I was recently in the ER and needed to have a CT of the Abdomen. All turned out well with my ER visit but the CT scan confirmed something I had suspected for a few months.
I have another ventral hernia on the repair line of the previous ones.

When I had the first surgery done, my surgeon had told me that if I popped another hernia and he had to go back in and remove the mesh system he had put in, repair the hernia and insert another mesh system, I would be done working as he would not allow to lift more than 20-25 pounds.

I lift people for a living........

I am sure you now realize what this may mean for me.

I have an appt. with my surgeon on August 18th to see what he thinks and how long I can put off a repair.

When all of my medical problems started 8 years ago, I decided that I would place everything in God's hands and what will be, will be.


This may mean that I will not be able to return to work and need to seek disability after having the surgery.

The Health System that I work for did not recognize the first hernia surgery as Workman's Comp and they will not recognize any future surgery as Workman's Comp either. I do have Short and Long Term Disability Insurance.

What is meant to happen, will happen.

I will need to take care of some things first if this is the end case scenario.

I am the major bread winner and I carry excellent Health Care Insurance.

But once again, I am placing everything in God's hands........

So you see, a big Change may be coming..........

Thanks for stopping by today and everyday that you take the time to visit me!!

Hugs,
Debbie

A Bit of This and That.....

Last week I showed you 2 busts that I bought at a flea market.

Well, here is where they found a home in my Dining Room......


I like the white against the pink walls......



This is one of the lamp shades that I make to use on candle lights....

I love to use cameos, ribbon roses, lace and beads......


Here is another one in my Den....


Now on to some great buys while out shopping....

This is from the Christmas Tree Shop. It is from their Christmas in July line which is nautical in theme.
I took some of the shells off already and may take the rest off. I love the color of this bottle brush tree as I am planning to use color along with pink and other pastels in my Guest Room this Christmas season.
I think I will paint the picket fence pink.....


For more Christmas Treasures that I found recently, Please click HERE to visit my Christmas Blog...

At A.C. Moore's, I bought these for $1.00 each!!
There are 2 pot holders in each set.
Perfect for my red Kitchen.......


Also at A. C. Moore's were these rolls of lace for $1.00 each!


And tags and little bird's nests on Clearance....


Now on to some Flea Market finds....

I bought about 12 of these ....

Will be giving them a coat of pink and some gold and some ivory paint and dabble them up for my Holiday Craft Fairs that I will be participating in....

A darling little tea pot.....


And you all know that I can not resist a Tree......

I will do something a bit fancier with the base......

And love these Burgundy Chair Seat Covers. There are 4 of them....


And I just love this one......

I do need to clean it but I wanted to get this post done....

Isn't this the cutest thing????


I am going to find a place to display this little baby in my Craft/ Sewing Room. I have seen so many creative spaces after visiting Where Bloggers Create and have seen so many vintage sewing machines nicely displayed in so many Studios and Craft Rooms........

We donate to Habitat for Humanity and they sent me this cute little Bear named Sawyer!!


As for a garden update....
Things were really beginning to dry out with the 90+ degree weather we had been having. Then on Monday the heavens opened up and we had 2-3 inches of rain in one day. Other parts of my area had 6 inches and flooding problems!!

I showed you several critters in my garden...

first a chipmunk,

then a ground hog in my next door neighbor's yard

and now this is the latest addition to my garden critters.....



I know garter snakes are good and eat spiders and insects and mice BUT I am no lover of snakes!!!!

When my parent's built the house that I lived in from 4 years old on til when I married, it was a new development which had been an orchard. We had black snakes and also copper heads which are poisonous...... I don't like snakes!!!!



This weekend is our Church Festival. I hope to take some pics to show as we are going on Friday. I am working the rest of the weekend at the hospital but Joe is helping out working the Big 6 Wheel.

We also do a Theme Basket Raffle where we have about 40 different Theme Baskets made up and donated by parishioners.
Here is a pic that I took showcasing what I put in my Tea Time basket that I made up....

I forgot to take a pic of the basket all done up. I hopefully will remember on Friday evening.....

I now want to draw your attention to something that I think all women should be concerned about...
Brenda over at Cozy Little House did a very powerful post during the week entitled "A Tribute to Maria". It is about physical and emotional spousal abuse and Maria's last words.

This post triggered for me very upsetting memories.....

My sister's best friend was Maryann. Maryann lived directly in back of my sister. My Sister, Barbara , was God Mother to one of Maryann's daughters and Maryann was God Mother to my niece Lynn. My Hubby Joe is Lynn's God Father.

24 years ago this month, Maryann was stabbed to death with a butcher knife in her kitchen while getting ready to go to work , by her husband, while their 2 young daughters slept upstairs. He then left the house and drove to the State police barracks and turned himself in stating that he had just murdered his wife. When the State police arrived, the girls were still sleeping and they were kept upstairs so until the crime scene could be secured before they could be taken out of the house and into the arm's of their maternal grandmother who lived next door. Those girls hung out the windows of their bedrooms screaming and crying that their mother was murdered by their father to family and neighbors below.

Yes, my sister was interviewed by the Police and yes, she told them that he was insanely jealous and was very controlling but unfortunately, it was too late. He later went to prison and died in prison. Every dog has his day......

There was a nurse that worked at the hospital where I work that was shot to death by her boyfriend in the driveway of his parent's house as she picked up their daughter after a visitation. She died in front of her 2 year old daughter.

One of my good friends that I worked with was married to a lunatic. She left him twice and eventually divorced him. We actually had escape routes planned at work because we feared that he would come into the hospital at night when we were working and blow us all away , looking for her.

So maybe you are not a victim but maybe you know someone. If you do , please try to help them before it is too late and they suffer the same fate as Maria. and many , many others.
To read a Tribute to Maria, please click HERE

I am linking up to these great parties:

Home Sweet home

Show and Tell Friday

Thrifty Things Friday

Pink Saturday

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

Rednesday

Vintage Thingie Thursday

Please stop by and visit these wonderful hostess's and some of their party participants!!

Thanks so much for stopping by to visit today!!

Hugs,
Debbie

Projects, Plants , a Giveaway Win and New Treasures!!

If you are looking for my Where Bloggers Create post, please click HERE

I want to thank everyone who visited my Blog celebrating the Where Bloggers Create Party last weekend. I am still making my way through the 300+ participants of this great event.
For the complete list of everyone participating , please click HERE

I have heard of some problems trying to leave comments. Please email me if you cannot leave a comment.

I also want to thank Sandy Foster for featuring my header pic in her Vintage Summer video. Please visit her at My Shabby Streamside Studio

You may recall that I showed you a sewing chest in my Craft/Sewing Room.
I realized how awful it looked after looking at the pictures and thought why I didn't do something with it before this time?????

Well, I decided to Dabble.......

You may remember that this is how it looked before......

Pretty ugly, huh???

Well, I painted it white and added some of trim.....

Then decoupaged some sheet music onto it........

Added some ribbon roses......


And some pictures cut out from a calendar......



Cut out roses from a wall paper border and decoupaged them on......



Added a few venice lace appliques.......




I did this to the top and all 4 sides..........

I don't think it looks so ugly anymore..........


What do you think?????

Then I was so excited to learn that I won Lynn's latest Giveaway over at Teacup Stitches!!!!

I couldn't wait for the package to arrive.....

I did have to remind myself to be sure I took pictures......

When I opened the package, I was so delighted to find a pretty tea cup card and a tag.....

I was brimming with anticipation and could not wait to open the carefully packed treasure!!


O MY!! My heart went pitter patter!!!


Isn't this sweet bottle so very pretty!!


Lynn,

Thanks so very much!! What an honor it was to win one of your fabulous Giveaway's!!

What a wonderful treasure I now have!! I can't thank you enough!!!

Now out to the garden...

Well, actually this is not my garden as you can tell by the height of the grass or maybe I should say weeds....
My next door neighbor on one side does not really take care of her yard. Hence the reason why we put up white privacy lattice, attaching it to the already existing chain link fence!!

I was watering my flowers and glanced over the fence and this little critter caught my eye!!

A Ground Hog and he ain't Punxsutawney Phil!!

I am glad that I do have the lattice attached to my fence as he can not come into my yard for a visit and feast on my flowers!!!!
There he is heading back out under the chain link fence......


And making his way out to the other side.....

See what I mean about not taking care of their yard......

Now back in my yard, my petunias have gone crazy!! I am watering the pots though about twice a day with this heat.


The purple ones are wave petunias......


It has been in the 90's for the past few days. I know it is hotter in other areas of the country but 90's is pretty high for us here in northeastern Pa.!!

Joe is not appreciating this heat wave, delivering mail! He does has some very kind people on his route that are always leaving him nice cold bottles of water!!!

So if you think about it, please put a bottle of cold water in your mail box for your mail man during this heat wave!! I know he will really appreciate it!!


And will you look at how much my impatiens grew in this little pot in the chair.........

I think they have turned into a shrub!!!


Now onto another finished project.....

Those darn spindles in the Kitchen!!

I finally painted them and the shelf white. I had to take down curtains in both the Dining Room and the Kitchen as this is one of my Fake windows.


After 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of gloss white, finally I am done painting in the Kitchen!! Yippee!!


Now on to some treasures.....

I found this cute little ceramic bird house in T.J. Max......

You can see it was marked down to $4.00......

From $9.99......


I hung it outside on one of my Shepard's hooks.....


Then I stopped in at Volunteer's of America Thrift Store and I found this sweetie......
She was $3.00!! Love her pretty pink dress!!


She had no shoes though but that is okay since she matches this other doll that I have in my Craft Room!!

And I found these beauties at a church Flea Market.....



They are vintage Lefton.....


And a Tracy Porter candle stick.....


And these darling fairies.....

I thought that their little faces were different but now I am not that sure.......

They are now sitting in my Powder Room......



And isn't this an interesting creamer and sugar bowl.....





They do have "Made in Japan" stamped on the bottom .....


I thought they would fit in nicely with my Luster ware collection.....


And I bought this tea cup and saucer to add to my collection at the Thrift Store for $1.31 for both.

I know, odd pricing, huh??

I love the luster ware sheen that it has to it.....

There are no markings on either......



Can you see the irridescent quality to it??????



And I love the way the cup is made......

Well, I guess that is about all that is new here.

I hope everyone is surviving this heat. I am NOT a summer person so it might as well be the dead of winter because i am only coming out of the air conditioning to quickly water the plants and flowers.

I am really looking forward to Fall which is my favorite season of the year..... next to Christmas of Course!!

If you can't comment ( don't know what is wrong with blogger) please email me and I will add your comment!!!! You know I so love to hear from you!!

I am linking up to these great parties:

Home Sweet Home Friday

Show and Tell Friday

Fertilizer Friday

Thrifty Things Friday

Pink Saturday

Seasonal Sunday

Metamorphosis Monday

Amaze Me Monday

Masterpiece Monday

Tea Cup Tuesday

Tea Time Tuesday

Tea Pots and Tea Things Tuesday

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

Outdoor Wednesday

WOW Us Wednesday

Cottage Flora Thursday

Vintage Thingie Thursday

Please stop by and visit these wonderful hostess's who put together these great parties for us to join up to!! And all the others that play along!!

Thanks so much for visiting me today and everyday that you take the time to do so!!

Hugs,
Debbie