We have put up some arches, a couple of trellises, planted 6 climbing rose, 8 rose bushes, 3 sweet pea vines, 4 mexican heather; A shade garden: 4 helleborus, 1 goats beard, 1 blue mouse ears hosta, blushing bride tradescantia; A potted herb garden: basil, parsley, oregano, chives, rosemary, garlic chives, jalapeno peppers, and one lonely geranium that my mil was killing. We still have some more plants that I ordered that haven’t come in yet: 7 more roses and a hummingbird and butterfly garden.

I have pictures of some of our gardening, but I can’t figure out how to hook the picture card reader thingie up to upload the pics, so I’ll get Rob to help and will post some pics very soon!

I do have a pic of a very very VERY rare tree and a bush that you probably won’t find in just any garden, it probably only grows in Heathertopia…

Its a Crabtree~

The rare Crabbush~

 These are rare scavenger plants that need extra special care. They don’t have thorns, but they can pinch!!

On December 27th 2009 Rob’s dad lost his battle with lung cancer. This left Rob, me, and Jessica in charge of taking care of Rob’s mom.

Jessica has been having some issues with her liver disease. Her antibiotic that she has been on since she was 8 months old has stopped working, so her doctors took her off of it…there isn’t anything else she can be put on to replace it, so she has a greater risk of the bacterial infection cholangitis, which damages the liver even faster and can lead to death. She periodically starts to have symptoms of cholangitis, so we put her on a week or two of a strong antibiotic right away to try to keep the bacteria under control. At some point this isn’t going to work anymore either, which will lead to her being listed for a new liver.

During 2010 I started getting pretty sick. I’ve had more food allergies pop up; I’m down to having only around 10 foods that are safe for me to eat(a few fruits, a few veggies, and a few grains). I also started having a lot of trouble with being weak and in constant pain. I ended up seeing 3 different doctors, being tested for MS, Rheumatoid arthritis, Parathyroid cancer, and a few other things…everything kept coming up negative except my parathyroid levels were extremely high. At the begining of this year(2011) I was referred to the same childrens specialty hospital that we take Jessica to. I’ve seen two specialists there so far and they are trying to figure out whats wrong with me. So far they have determined that my intestines are most likely extremely damaged and scarred, possibly from having Celiacs Disease for many years and not knowing it. My intestines aren’t able to absorb nutrients from foods any more, so my body is consuming its muscle and calcium from my bones to keep my organs and the rest of me working, which has left me in constant pain, extremely weak, and having brittle bones. The doctors don’t think I will really get any better at this point, their plan is to try to keep me from worsening, so my body doesn’t start to shut down and so I don’t end up dependent on a wheelchair to get around. I’m at the point now, where I need help getting up and down our one step that leads into our livingroom…by the end of the day, if I’ve done a lot of things around the house that I’m capable of, I need help just getting up off of the sofa. Things have been quite difficult to deal with. I’m not the type that likes or is use to needing others’ help.

I’ve started to have more health issues recently…I had to have 4 biopsies on my thyroid, which thankfully came back negative for cancer, but I’ll have to have more biopsies done periodically on the thyroid because of numerous lumps growing on it. I’m going to need to start seeing a Gastroenterologist at the children’s hospital soon also…my doctor wants me to have some biopsies done on my stomach and intestines.

There is a lot of other things going on too, but the above are the main things. We, as a family, are learning and adjusting to living with the above issues…the things we have been going through aren’t things that eventually go away, they are things that are changing our family, the way it functions, and our relationship. Its been difficult, but things are hopefully starting to turn around a bit; we are starting to come to terms with things and are trying/learning to deal with everything together. So many things have changed/are changing, I can’t seem to explain it right besides just saying that things have been really hard and it doesn’t seem to really be getting any easier.

Well, anyway, I’m glad to have gotten this post out of the way. I’ve not been wanting to blog for so long, because of all the not so great stuff going on. I’m the type that holds most of the bad stuff in until I myself can come to terms with it in my own head. I’m just starting to except that I can’t and probably will never be able to do the things I used to do or want to do physically anymore. I’m trying to move on, trying to realize what I can still accomplish and not dwell on the things that I can’t do. I’m also trying to get better about accepting help from Rob and Jessica, even though some days I get in a mood and yell at Rob, telling him that I don’t want help or need help, he still helps anyway…LOL!

Thanks for reading and hopefully understanding<3