....goodbye 2011....

2011 began with an ending....
Saying goodbye after 5 years of marriage we started our separate journeys....

this is how my journey continued in 2011....

Completing my first half marathon aside my best friend Heather...

My first European trip...
England with my brother and niece...


Paris and Italy on my own...


Coming home to my "new" old kitchen ~ remodeled as a huge gift and surprise to me by my best friends! I am still in shock that they would have done this for me, it is such an amazing gift!



The notorious slicing of the tendons in my hand, surgery, physical therapy etc....

Cecret Lake hikes with my family and friends....


2 years without her...and still missing her so very much...

Turning 37...



Learning to cook~ and conquering some of the fears that go along with that~



Spending more time with my beautiful sister and her amazing family!


The list goes on and on....
It has been a challenging, difficult, interesting, adventurous, emotional, and wonderful year all wrapped into one...
~Goodbye 2011~
Welcome 2012, my word for the New Year is...
~ Hope ~
Happy New Year!

Show Shoeing on Christmas Eve...

I went snowshoeing on Christmas Eve morning and it was absolutely beautiful up in the mountains~ Here are a few photos...





Forgive the cell phone photos~ but it was all I had :)

Merry Christmas....

...the real gifts in life...

Though we have all decided not to exchange gifts this year ~ I want to let my family and friends know that the best gift I could ask for is simply having them in my life! I wish I could properly express the love and gratitude I have in my heart for each and every one of you!
Thank you for your love, support and the extra strength you have given me ~
I know I could not have survived a single day over the past few years with out each of you standing by my side.
From the bottom of my heart....
Thank you!

Hand update again....

So it has been nearly 4 months since the "Incident" with my kitchen knife and surgery a few days later. I severed 2 tendons in my left middle finger~ Yup...THAT finger! :)
The Dr only repaired one tendon...
25 sessions of physical therapy...3 more Dr appointments... and roughly $3000 out of pocket...
I am still without much movement in my finger. The tendon does not pull right and there is a big bulge in the middle of my hand ~ The options now are to go in and do another surgery to remove scar tissue and hope for slightly more movement or to continue on the with way it is and get use to my hand the way it is.
It has been a very difficult decision honestly. I think at this point I don't think I can put myself through another surgery with an outcome that may or may not be better. I am not emotionally, financially, physically or mentally ready to do it again. I have decided to pass on another surgery at this point and see how things continue to go with my "new" hand!
Here are a few photos of my MRI~ You can see scar tissue at the base of my middle finger ~ The tendon disappears under the muck. I am not sure what you can see in the middle of my hand that is preventing so much but it is there, trust me! :)
Anyone out there have any experience with tendon repair?
And yes...without the help of my other fingers pulling the middle one down~ I do have a permanent bird! You gotta laugh at some of it because there is not much else to do! :)




Remember to listen to people in your life when they tell you to be careful cutting things... I had no idea I could ever do this much damage with one small poke of a knife.

Europe posts await....

I have been home for 6 months~ and I have only gotten through posting about half of my trip~ I will work on travel photos and update the blog soon with more from Paris and all of Italy!
Thanks for waiting!

Under a blanket with a book...

The perfect place to spend time on a cold winter night....
Have you read this series?? I am on the third book ~ I started them about 2 1/2 weeks ago. They are so great!!
(I need to tune up my book review skills.)
But I am so glad I finally listened to everyone and started them!

Grief Group ladies...

A few years ago we all entered a room with fear and heartache.
We came together there and shared loss, love, tears and laughter, stories of our amazing loved ones that we had recently lost.
We became friends ~
Over the past 2 years we have met every other month or so for dinner.
Today I came across the obituary of one of the amazing women I met in my grief group~ My heart is broken for her family.
She was such an important part in my healing after the death of my mother.
Here is a cell phone photo of the rest of us from the last time we met, Angi did not make it that time and it was the first time we had finally taken a photo together. I am sad we did not get a picture of all of us.

My heart goes out to Angi and her family. She was not even
50 years old.
Thank you Angi for being there to share the stories of your beautiful daughter. I find comfort in knowing that you are with her again.

HeART Exchange~

A few weeks ago I was part of a HeART exchange~
You get the info of another person and make art and swap~
I was paired up with Paula ~
After we emailed a few times she decided to make some cards for me since I love cards and I framed some of my Hawaii photos for her since Hawaii is one of the things she loves and a place that she really wants to go.
Here are a few photos of our Art Swap projects for each other!

My first pumpkin pies!

The night before Thanksgiving a few of my friends and I got together, two of them made Christmas decorations and two of us made pies!
Jason shared his great grandmothers recipe with me~
They turned out so great!!! It was a lot easier than I thought but they do take a while to cook ~
Here are some photos from the night ~







photos taken by various Iphones :)

Its time!

It is time to listen to this 24-7 for 3 more weeks.

And time to bring this guy out to Enjoy for the holiday season!

I hope you are having a wonderful December so far!

Gratitude...

I did not do a very good job at blogging much last month~ I wanted to start this month off by attempting to express my overwhelming gratitude to my amazing family and wonderful friends.
The past few years have been the hardest in my life to say the least, especially the loss of my beautiful mom.
Without the constant love and support from my family and friends I never would have made it through a day....
I wish that I could properly express my gratitude to each person in my life but I am not sure I would be successful at putting into words the amount of love I feel in my heart for each of them.
I am truly the luckiest person in the world!
Thank you!!

I also want to Thank each of you who take the time to look at my blog~
Thank you for your kindness and wonderful supportive comments over the past few years~ It means more to me than I can express!