This Rollercoaster Ride Won’t End!

Hello my friends!!!  Yes, I am still alive but that’s not saying much about my mental state.  I want to get off the rollercoaster!

My intentions were good when I said that I would begin posting more regularly after the first of the year but it didn’t work out that way, obviously.  I thought, once I got my Christmas crisis over with, things would all settle down.  Wrong.

About mid-January, the landlord informed us that he wanted to move one of his field hands into the house to oversee his AG Chemical business operations (a job he had originally told Mark that he would like him to do once they were sure it was going to be profitable).  So, he gave us until the first of March to move out!

In the middle of winter, in Indiana, he wants us to find a new place to live and move our 5+ years worth of accumulated stuff.  I spent the last weeks of January and the first of Feb. looking for somewhere suitable, that we could afford, that Sara didn’t object to, that was closer to where Mark worked, etc.

Early Feb. I was successful with that part of this process.  I located a 3 bedroom house with living room, family room and unfinished basement.  That worked out perfectly for what I was wanting, a room specifically set up for my “studio”.  It is 20 miles closer to where Mark works, which cuts his commute from 35 minutes to about 10.  But then came the packing up and moving it process.  Every day for about  9 days straight I would pack my 4 totes and handful of boxes, take them to the new house, empty them out on the floor of whatever room they went to and go back home to pack them up again.  Yes, I was having a problem getting boxes!!  Everywhere I went I got the same response, “We recycle our boxes, sorry.”  Who knew it would be so hard?  I did finally get a couple dozen or so from the local small town grocery store and also from Hobby Lobby.  In the end, we had to buy them from the U-Haul place.

As the end of February got closer, I would try to make at least two trips each day doing this.  We had to also deal with the weather.  One weekend it was below zero windchill that stopped all progress, then we had ice another.  To say that we were a little upset about the timing is an understatement.

We have been moving everything over the last two weekends.  I have a house full of boxes to unpack with a sore back and knees to.

Along with all of this, we had a hundred other things to deal with.  Dad went into the hospital in Florida with chest pains but it’s okay.  His memory is still really bad though from the last time he was in the nursing home up here.  Mark’s uncle died and his dad is having a hard time with it.  Shawna’s friend committed suicide.  Sara’s half-sister suffered the loss of her cousin to an accidental overdose.  There is more but I just can’t remember everything right now, it’s all been so overwhelming

I miss you all and decided to take a break and fill you in.  You are never too far from my mind.  One advantage to this move, I will now be getting U-verse service for my internet and should not have any more problems getting on here to post my thoughts!!!  

Love, hugs and blessings to all,

Terri

 

P.S.  Len, I haven’t forgotten you either!!  I will get back to work on that little project when I get settled into my house.  xxxxx

 

First One for 2013

Hi to all my friends!!  My first post for 2013.  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year holiday.  You know how mine was going but this year is already getting better, thank the dear Lord!!

My check finally arrived on the 4th and I was able to actually get the gas company to fill our tank that same day.  The first thing Mark said was “Crank up that heat!!”  We are now warm and cozy.

Dad came home from the hospital last Friday and is doing better mentally since he got home.  He always seems to get so disoriented when he’s not there.  They don’t know for sure when they will be able to leave for Florida but are hoping for sometime next week.

Penny is doing better.  She has been released to drive now and that helps just knowing that she can go somewhere if she needs/wants to without having to have someone else take her.  She feels less like a burden.

I got a special treat last week too.  I was checking our stats on the shop and there was a message showing.  When I opened it, I was delighted to find an invitation.  It was from Main Street Artisans.  They asked if we would be interested in joining their group of artisans and displaying some of our “art” in their online store.  I asked them to e-mail me the particulars and said I was honored that they would like to include us.

When I received the info, I was thrilled to find out that it is actually a local shop and they have invited us to put stuff in that shop as well.  We can either rent a booth or do it on consignment.  Isn’t that cool?!!

I had been working on some new clay techniques anyway and thought I would share a few things with you today along with the update.

First up are some jewelry sets that I created using canes I bought from a lady on Etsy.  I even made rings to match with these sets.

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And now, these are from canes that I made.  The first two sets are pins with matching earrings.

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I hope you enjoyed the display as much as I did creating them.

Thank you for your prayers and support over the last few months, they helped tremendously!!!  Looks like this year has gotten of to a much better start and I am encouraged that it will continue on that path! 

Love and hugs to you all, God bless,

Terri

I Had No Choice But To Do It Now

Hi everybody!  I had no choice but to do another post today and ask for even more prayer.  Mom just called and they are admitting dad to the hospital with pneumonia.  She said his left lung is full of fluid.  He has been sick with the flu since after Christmas and debating whether to go to the ER for the last couple of days but they’ve been so many this year that she was afraid Medicare would stop paying for it.  It appears that they waited too long.  Please pray for him!  I guess it’s good that he’s here and not in Florida.  They were delayed in leaving because of the snow, thank God!!

My ordeal started at the beginning of December.  I told Sara that this would be a great lesson for her about counting your chickens before they hatched.  She didn’t know what that meant, lol, so I had to explain it to her but I’m sure you all will get it right away.

Mark definitely hasn’t been happy with me at all over this whole catastrophe!

It all started in September.  I got a letter from my pension fund that my old company was offering me a buyout option.  Since I would only be collecting $60 a month from it, and we needed the money now, I decided to take them up on it.  We had to have all the paperwork filled out and turned in by the first of November.  My benefit to be paid out at the first of December.

With me starting up the store and all, I used some of Mark’s harvest overtime money to purchase supplies and stock my store.  I figured that he wouldn’t be done with harvest until some time in November anyway and I’d replace that money when I got my payout.  The way the weather was doing, I wasn’t too worried about filling our LP tank until around the first part of December either, we had over 20% still left in it to begin with.

I was getting quite a nice sum.  Planned on paying off a lot of bills, fixing my car that’s been broken down since before Thanksgiving, and so on.

Well, the first rolls around and no money.  I called and asked what was going on.  I was told that there were so many people who decided to take the buyout that they were overwhelmed and the checks were delayed for a week or so.  Then a week turned into two.  The weather got cold and we started using up the gas faster.  I had to turn the heat down to 64 to slow the progress.  It’s cold in here and we have to walk around with layered clothing.  Right now I’m sitting here with thick socks on, sweat pants, a tee-shirt and a chenille sweater.  I have a lap blanket too.

When the money still had not arrived by the middle of December, I called them again and was told that they had to set up two runs for the payments and mine was in the second one.  Now I would not be getting my check deposit until Christmas Eve.  I thought I was having a nervous breakdown.  Mark was furious with me!!  I told him that I knew it was my fault and all I could do was say that I was sorry.  I was bawling for days.  He said that it better be here by then or s— was going to hit the fan.

I went on site to check on it the 21st and it showed that the electronic transfer was processed for deposit on the 24th.  I thanked God that Christmas would not be totally ruined and Mark could go ahead and use his paycheck to get presents for his family gathering on Christmas Eve.

Not so fast, and this is where the suicidal thoughts came in.  That morning I went to check my bank account and no money!!!!  I got on the phone to the bank first, just making sure that they were not holding it for 24 hours like they do a check you hand deposit.  They said no.

I call the pension people, now a total wreck, and found out that they sent it to the wrong bank transit number!!  A week or two prior, one of their ladies and I had caught that error and fixed it.  We even laughed about how upset I would have been if we hadn’t.  And they still sent it to the wrong number!!!!!!!!!

I think Mark and Sara were doing a watch on me all day.  I was in no shape to go to his parent’s house so they went by themselves but came home a couple of times to check on me and see if I was up to coming over, supposedly.

I was told that I now had to wait until the money bounced back to them before they could get it issued in a physical check and mail it to me.  That is, of course, as long as that number didn’t actually go to a real bank.  If it did, then I would have to go to that bank and negotiate the return of my funds!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome to my world!  I still have not received my money yet, though it is supposedly on the way.  We have less than 10% gas left.  All the people that I made payment arrangements with to pay-off on the 1st are still waiting for their money.  A couple even threatened to sue. 

IT HAS BEEN A HELL OF MY OWN CREATION!  Who would ever have thought this would happen?  We are talking about TRW (my employer) and Fidelity (pension holder)!  They are not some mom and pop operation and have no excuse, in my book, for how this all turned out.  They not only ruined Christmas for my little family, who have received nothing as of this date, but now my New Year’s Eve plans with my grandchildren as well!

Now we are faced with dad in the hospital too.  I fear that he is not going to make it through this winter.  So, again, I must enlist my prayer warriors in cyberspace to do their thing!!

Thank you all for listening to me whine, for commenting, for praying and just for being my friends!!!!!!!!!!

When I say that I couldn’t have done it without you, I truly mean it!!!

God bless, Terri

A Place To Hide

Image source: dark.pozadia.org

I have not been on here for a few days because I couldn’t talk about what’s been going on in my world yet.  This poem will worry some of you, dear friends, but please don’t let it.  This is a statement of mindset and NOT of intent.  I would ask you to say a few prayers for me, however, for my life to bounce back from my latest crisis quickly.  I promise to tell you more very soon, I just can’t get into it quite yet.

With that said, I hope you all had a better holiday than I did and I want to wish you all a safe and very, very Happy New Year!!!

With my love and God’s blessings,

Terri

Update; What I’ve Been Up To

First of all, I want to wish you all a very blessed and Merry Christmas!!  I pray that you all have a safe and happy holiday.

Second, I wanted to let you know that dad is doing much better.  He and mom are planning on going to Florida after our Christmas party this weekend and Penny is home from the Nursing Home, doing much better also.  Thank you all for the prayers sent their way.  They appreciated it immensely.

Third, I have my store up and running.  I’ve made 3 sales now and have been working on getting it stocked up with goodies.  I’ve been trying my hand at making my own polymer clay canes.  I think they are turning out pretty good for a beginner.  I’ve had two of them “favorited” already, so I guess they aren’t too bad. 

Here’s some new pic’s for you:

Hope you enjoyed these!

God bless,
Merry Christmas
and Happy New Year!!

Love and hugs,

Terri

And The Hits Just Keep Coming!

Well, the title says it all!  First off, let me just say again that I appreciate all of the wonderful comments that you have left me since the last time that I posted.  Your kind words, thoughts, prayers and encouragement mean the world to me and I wouldn’t know what to do without them!!!

On Thanksgiving day, right as we were getting ready to leave to go to mom and dad’s to meet Shawna and the kids so that we could follow them and my parents to my sister’s house, the phone rang.  It was my mom calling to tell me that they had just gotten home from the emergency room.

Dad had gone out to get the newspaper out of the driveway and fell.  He broke his other collarbone this time (and his ribs, we think, even though they said the x-ray didn’t show that they were).  He is in a lot of pain.  Mom said she almost called 911 last night because he was practically screaming from the pain.  They went to his doctor’s office and saw the nurse practitioner and she gave him stronger pain meds and dressed his arm that he had skinned up so bad that it peeled his skin all the way off and now they are afraid it may get infected.

Then I get a crying phone call this afternoon from Penny, I asked what was wrong and she says, “I’m in the hospital”.

Come to find out, Sat or Sun, can’t remember which one she said, she was leaving her son’s house and tripped on the sidewalk outside.  She did what we are always afraid dad’s gonna do, she broke her hip!  Through to sobs and gulping for air, she said that it hurt so bad that she didn’t know what to do but cry.  They took her catheter out today and they’re making her get up and walk to the bathroom!!!!  I know they want to keep that hip from freezing up on her but come on!  She said she cries all of the way there and back ’cause it is excruciating.

God bless them both!!  I feel so bad about it and am helpless to do anything for them.

I’ve had almost 70 visitors to the store but haven’t sold anything yet.    It’s discouraging but I’m being as patient as I can be.  I know that I’m not overpricing things.  Compared to what others are charging on their stuff, I’m way under-priced but I want to start getting customers before profits.  I’m just looking at the positive side of it, at least people are looking at what I have on there!

I am working on some more stuff and I have sent for some books, supplies/tools and DVD tutorials about working with clay to that I can start making my own kaleidoscope canes and such.  I really like working with this type of medium and it’s good for my hands.  I get up all stiff and sore but after I’ve worked with the clay for a while, they loosen up and feel better.  Good therapy I guess. 

I will leave you today with a few quotes to bless and encourage you.

I miss you all very much!

Love, mega hugs and abundant blessings,

Terri

 

Bible Quote for today
“Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.”
Deuteronomy 4:2
Love Quotes
“Love takes up where knowledge leaves off.”
Thomas Aquinas
Inspirational Quote of the day
“My motto is: Contented with little, yet wishing for more.” Charles Lamb

Mission Accomplished!

First I want to thank you dear friends who commented on my last post and gave me such loving encouragement!!!!  God bless you all.

We had our Grand Opening of the shop today.  I changed the name, again.  I think it’s pretty cool, I called it Stallery, which stands for Sara and Terri Gallery.  So here is the link:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/Stallery

I am exhausted at the moment but I wanted to come on here real quick to share the good news with my friends.  If I don’t have the chance to do so at more length, I wish you all a safe and blessed Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love and hugs,

Terri

The Good, Bad and Not Too Ugly

Hello my dear friends.   There’s good news, not so good news and hopeful news.  So let us get the bad stuff out of the way first.  I went to see Penny last night.  Morale was low but I brought a couple of smiles to her face while I was there, even Sara got one or two herself.

My poor friend is right back where she was when she came home from the hospital after the sepsis; wound vacuum, on oxygen and dealing with physical therapy.  The new kicker is, after the plastic surgery to repair that calf muscle that they had to cut into last time, there is a huge knot there and she says it hurts like a boil.  I try my best to keep reminding her that it could be worse and she could have lost that foot/leg last year when it was such a close call.  She said that she tries to keep it all in perspective but still gets down about starting over when she was so close to completely healed.   I took her a jigsaw puzzle to work on, she gets so bored with not being able to drive.

Dad is doing much, much better!  He has no sling and is driving without any problems.  It seems that his mental awareness is back to normal, as much as can be expected for his age.  So that is great news.

I have almost got the Etsy shop ready to open.  My goal was for last Sunday, but digital imaging problems occurred and I missed that deadline.  Now I just want to be open before Thanksgiving.  I think maybe this Sunday.  Here are a few more things I have been working on in the between time;

I changed the name of our shop WhatsUpDesigns to BlessedMSGallery, I may change it again before I open.  Every thing that I think of comes up already  used.  What do you think of the new name?

That’s it for now, I have to go take some more pictures, but I’ll leave you with this:

 

Love, hugs and blessings to you all!!!

 

Victory Sometimes is Short Lived

As you will see from my two latest poems, our victory celebration of dad coming home from the nursing home did not last as long as I would have liked for it to.  But, I’ll still take it!!!!

We are thrilled to have him back, in more ways than just his physical presence!  Thank you all for your prayers.  Dad is as much back to his old self as possible at the age of 83, lol.  Good to have him home!

My Penny is back in the hospital.  I’ll go into that more later, I’m still a little too upset right now to expound on it more than that.

My eldest, Shawna, is having her struggles too.  She is working harder than she ever has in her life to make a living for her and the kids.  I think she is tired and that’s a big part of the depression that is mounting on her right now.

Please say a prayer for them both.  I always know that I can count on my cyber-friends to help me lift others up when needed and it means so very much to me.

I have been working tirelessly on my catalog for the holidays and will have a shop open on Etsy, planning on tomorrow or Sunday for the “Grand Opening”, called What’s Up Designs.  I will post the link as soon as it’s up and running.

Love, hugs and blessings to you all,

Terri

The Latest and Greatest

Hi everybody!!  

Let me start with dad.  He is getting better, more alert and mobile.  The compressed vertebra near his tailbone is killing him but that’s better than having a broken back, which is what they first thought.

Thank you everyone who has sent their love, thoughts and prayers!!!!!!!!!!!  They have helped tremendously.

I have been working my tail off on getting together a little e-catalog of my items for sale that I can send off to people upon request. 

It’s been an experience trying to learn how to use this camera, get the pictures downloaded, fine tuned and view able.  

Once I get that done, I will have to work up a price sheet to attach to it all.  But, in the meantime, I thought I would share some of it with you all.

Here’s what I’ve been up to:

Puzzle Wall Hangings (I haven’t worked out how I’m gonna frame them or what I’ll use but have a few cool ideas):

Here are some of the clay items (better pictures this time, I hope):

Have I overloaded you yet?

Here are some of the regular things I’ve done too:

That should give you a good idea of what will be included in “catalog”, lol.   

I’ve been very hard at work.  It’s extremely time-consuming and I apologize for ignoring my friends during this time but, with Christmas fast approaching, I have to get this done.  Honestly, I should have been working on it for the last 6 months since it takes me longer than normal people to accomplish some of this stuff due to the MS interference with cognitive and motor skills

Anybody who would like to receive an e-catalog to look at, just let me know where to e-mail it to and I will be happy to provide you one.  I will try my best to keep up with your comments and delete the address from showing to the public.

My greatest love and hugs to you all!!

God bless, Terri