This happens to be a piece I made a few years ago, but I love the saying....and it seems to be fitting for today. It encourages me to have HOPE.


There's another old saying...one that often keeps me quiet..."If you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."....and yeah....I know everybody has been around those negative thinkers who seem to  NEVER have anything good to say. So that also makes me think before I speak: the last thing I want is for someone to think that of me when the truth is I am very optomistic and generally happy and hopefull. BUT, facts are facts...and the truth is that I haven't updated on here or done much artwork lately because I have been dealing with so much. Sometimes I feel quite overwhelmed by it all! No....not to the point of having a pity party or throwing a fit, LOL...just to where I am ready to crash and maybe sleep a good 12 hours!! A vacation would be nice too!!! LOL

If you have followed this blog you know my kids (well, ahem...young ladies...not really kiddos as in little ones, but hey, I'm a momma so they are my kids) have had some health issues that we have been dealing with. Well...we are still up to our ears with medical issues...and with both of them now at the same time. 

Jessica WAS doing great....back to work and doing wonderful...then wham....a relapse. Sudden, without warning, she is now just like before, in terrible pain and almost crippled....only now she has no health insurance. SO we will now have to fight for disability and God knows we don't want to go after anyone in court, but SOMEBODY needs to take responsibilty for this and she is the one who is completey innocent. For those unaware, she was given the antibiotic Levaquin two years ago and after only two pills it damaged every joint in her body as well as doing nerve damage. A true nightmare....don't take this drug (or any of its class) ANYONE if you can help it. Ask your doctor for an alternative...there are safer ones out there. I only wish we'd been warned...she was perfectly healthy before. Now we only hope this will someday end....but right now, as this is her third episode, she is quite depressed and angry. The first time she was down about 6 months, the second time was 3-4 months...so I can only hope this is of a shorter duration. If it follows like before, she will have to go on an almost liquid diet since it hurts too badly to chew, she will have to use the cane and wheelchair when she feels well enough to be out of bed at all, and she will have to take lots of pain meds to get through each day. No fun for an active, fun-loving 21 year old who never sits still, loves to be out and about, working at the animal hospital, and surrounded by people and friends. 

 Amber , my youngest daughter, has never recovered from her summer illness. She has not been able to bounce back, she is terribly thin, losing weight, and every lymph node in her body is swollen (now for the past 7 months). She sleeps atleast 12 hours a day and is still very tired. Yesterday morning we went in to the doctors for abdominal pain  and he sent us to the ER....(ten hours later) back home after finding she has a cyst on her ovary. Not a fluid filled one, but a solid mass that will have to be removed. Still no answers as to what is causing her poor health, but we are scheduled to go to the surgeon tomorrow to see about a lymph node biopsy. I just want them to get to the bottom of this so she can get over it. Whatever "it" is.

Gosh...I just want both of my kids to be healthy. It's so hard to see them struggling and not able to get answers from the doctors. I want it to be simple: Here's the problem, this is the cure. Do steps A, B, and C and you can move on with all your dreams and plans for your life. Like I said before...I am hopefull and optomistic and pray every day for health and healing. We eat well, live well...do all that is in our power to BE healthy...the rest is out of our hands. My job is to take care of both my daughters and keep their spirits up...keep them focussed on getting well and staying healthy. I can't show a moment of fear or frustration, atleast not around them. For my daughters, I have to be strong and stay strong.

Thank you to those who send encouragement and positive thoughts and prayers. Know that they mean the world to me and my family.