New Year

A new year is about to start.

I can't remember the last New Years party I went to. Actually I've probably only been to half a dozen actual New Year's 

My night will be quiet and consist of lots of food, movies, and spending time with whatever friends and family is around, as it usually does. Tonight it will be just me and my parents. We'll see if we even make it to midnight.

12 Days of Christmas Swap...

This year I participated in 

12 Days of Christmas Swap!

I was so excited to do this! I also had a ton of fun doing it. I bought 12 little presents for Becca over at 

She in turn bought me some GREAT Presents.

I had so much fun unwrapping them every day!

Opening the box! I was so excited to see so many gifts!

Look how pretty all of them are!

DAY 01

CHristmas with the Chipmunks 

DAY 02

A beautiful snowflake ornament... with Lils.

DAY 03

A new book to read

DAY 04

manicure stuff!

DAY 05 

A purse Hanger! SOOO wanted one of these for a while!

DAY 06 

awesome nail "stickers"... can't wait to try these out!

DAY 07

a pretty necklace

DAY 08

Lovely vanilla flavored soap rose petals

DAY 09

YUMMY Cherry bites! LOVE THEM!

DAY 10

AWESOME new nails!

DAY 11

Another new book! I love to read!

DAY 12

new nail polish. Can't wait to try it out...

I had a lot of fun doing this swap, and I can't wait to do another one! I hope Becca enjoyed my presents to her as much as I enjoyed mine!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

MERRY

CHRISTMAS!

I was very blessed this year with lots of different things. It showed me how much my Mother really does listen to what I say.

Misc. stuff...

A lot has happened in the last week or so since I've last updated. I know I need to make more updates than I do, but it has been a busy time.

The Chaotic Goddess Swap's 12 Days of Christmas has started! I've had great fun unwrapping a present every day.

 

I'm going to have to try this again!

I got some good business going thru AzSG's. Our Facebook page is doing great, and I'm really happy about what I'm doing right now.

ME - taken 12/08/12 by Dennis Wheeler

The picture above is a new one that was taken at Erin's wedding. Dennis (her new brother in law, and my brother's brother in law) had all his stuff set up on the stage and was doing portrait's. So, I had one done. I even took off the oxygen so I got a good picture. I'm really happy about how this turned out. It's been a while since I've had one of these done.

I've also been busy with my Christmas projects. I'm on the last one. SOOOOO excited about it. I've also purchased all gifts for my Mom's stocking. She always is so great at doing stockings for my Dad and I every year. Even for us kids when we were younger, and she never got one herself. So, a few years ago I started getting stocking stuffers for her. I'm really happy about the stuff I got this year. I really thought about what I was getting, and started further in advance instead of my usual day before Christmas. I'm sure she will love it all!

A Day of Silence

Erin & Waylon

Yesterday my little cousin got married.

Photo by Kelly Lynn Photography

CONGRATULATIONS 
ERIN & WAYLON!

5 AWESOME things that happened this fall...

I'm taking a page from My So-Called Chaos' book and going to tell you the 5 awesome things that happened this fall.

1> I got a logo made for AzSG. I'm still so excited about this. It's all my own and nobody has one like it!

2> I participated in my first two crafter's boutiques. I was able to show off all the stuff I've made, and make some new friends and get a little help on the money front with LOTS of people purchasing different items. It was nerve wracking, tiring, and oh so fun!

3> Kennadee turned 1. I get to see video of this adorable little niece of mine every day. I'm so lucky to have a sister who takes so many pictures and video's of her baby, that I'm able to watch her grow up from 700 miles away. 

4> My Buddy turned 12. I can't believe that my nephew is 12. He is such a little man now, not the little boy that I remember years ago that would say "shoo fly don't bother me!" whenever there was a fly bothering him. 

5> AzSG's Facebook page reached 300 likes! I never thought this would happen. I've had so much support from family, and friends, and strangers. I appreciate every single one of you!

confession time...

I've got a confession!

I've got a small addiction...

to REDVINES!

I love them. I can't get enough of them right now. They are all I eat right now. 

At my last Dr's appointment with Dr. Hottie he said that I had lost some more weight. He was happy about it. Mom almost told him that she's not surprised that I had lost weight cause all I eat is redvines and cucumbers... She's right, that's all I eat.

Obsession...

So if you noticed the other day with the picture of the girls, that I have a little bit of a nail polish obsession...

Well it just got worse today. I went to ULTA to take a look at the James Bond Skyfall OPI colors.

silly me I ended up getting some, and others.

With the purchase of 3 OPI colors you got a OPI base coat, or top coat free. So... I got 2 of the Skyfall Colors - Moonraker and Casion Royale. I got one from the Hong Kong collection - Suzi Says Feng Shui. and then I got one from the Muppets Collection - Fresh Frog of Bel Air. 

When I got those I chose a base coat, thinking that I had 2 bottles of the top coat at home already. Once I got home I noticed that I had 2 base coats and only 1 top coat. So... I should have gotten a top coat.

The other 5 I got were ULTA polishes. They were part of their $5 for $5. The regular price on them are $6.00 each. SOOOO... I got 4 of those for free basically, at least that's how I justify buying 9 bottles of nail polish. I got a new blue sparkly that is different from the blue sparkly OPI that I have. A bright red, a nude, a dark red, and a pink tinted nude. I don't usually go for reds, or nudes. But you always have to have them in stock when you have to do something simple to your nails.

It was great! sooo excited for the new colors to try out! Shouldn't have spent that much, but I have a little in savings that covered it. And how often do I actually spend money on myself that isn't something I need. Not very often. So yes. I'm excited for my new colors!!!

A day with the girls...

I have three nieces. There is Sis who is 10, Kins who is 08 and little Lizzy is just over a year old. The older 2 live here in AZ, while the youngest live with her parents in Northern, Utah.

Sis and Kins are on fall break right now. Which is WONDERFUL, because they get to come spend the day with us, and spend the night.

They got here before I woke up (if it's before 10.00 am it doesn't exist). They hung out with Gramee and ate breakfast and did all the Gramee stuff. After I got up we did the nail thing!

We got to play with my all of my colors. It was awesome! Kinsey painted each finger a different color and sis painted them one color, and then took the polish off, and painted them a lighter color. I don't think she actually ever finished.

After coloring our nails all pretty we watched Brave, then Harriet the Spy (had to introduce them to one of my favorite books as a kid), and then Spy Kids 2. In all of this we had lunch of pancakes, dinner of chili mac, copious amounts of Red Vines and Jolly Ranchers, along with Sierra Mist. 

It was a great day with the girls. Can't wait to do it all over again tomorrow.

My Puppies...

Some little things about my girls

My puppies like to play with bigger puppies. Well, Violet likes to play with her cousin Chloe. Lils on the other hand try's to ignore her as much as possible. She's really the only one Violet will play with. She's basically afraid of every other dog.

Lils likes to sleep on my pillows  when I'm not in bed yet. I put her to bed, sometimes a hour or so before I actually go, and always find her resting on top of my pile of pillows.

Violet likes to eat my feet. It's not a mean thing I guess. It's one of the ways she likes to get you to play with her. I guess when Erin left us she had to move onto someone else to bite. So she chose me. It's funny sometimes.

They like to sleep together. Or I should say, Violet likes to sleep with her sister. Preferably on top of her, but Lils won't go for that.

They like watching out the back door for stuff. Right now it is pigeons getting water from the waterfall.  They hate those birds!

Violet think's she's a princess, and won't lay on the floor unless there is a pillow there. Even on the couch she prefers to lay on one of the pillows.

Lils make a GREAT pillow. And a nice little heater. She's the best nap partner ever!

They both hate baths. Lil's will just sit and stare at you and then ignore you for a while afterwards. Violet is afraid of water. She has been as long as we have had her. 

Violet always wants to play when dad lays down and wants to take his weekend nap. ALWAYS! She brings him a kong and sits there and whines. It's quite annoying, and I have to figure out ways for her to leave him alone.

So, there you go. Those are my babies. Totally crazy... but they are mine. And I love them very much.

12 Days of Christmas

Remember how yesterday I was saying that I wanted to be a part of this Christmas swap.
Well guess what?

 

I GOT IN!

I'm so excited. This is going to be so much fun. 

I love giving gifts!

I can't wait to start shopping and start making.

...

So, I want to be a part of a swap. But I don't think I'll be able to be part of this first one.

You have to have an active blog, and I soooo have not been active. So guess what. I'm becoming active again. I am making it a goal to post at least once a week, if not more.

BUT if you have an active blog, or non active blog, and you want to check out a great blog, go see my friend Miss Angie at-

 

Love to all,

Sarah =0)

Long time...

It has been a long time since I've blogged.

A lot has happened.

Utah has come and gone. I went to the appointment at UofU in August, and found out that my insurance does not cover that hospital for lung transplants. It is covered for other transplants, just not lungs right now.

so we're trying for St. Joes here in Phoenix.

Birthdays have come and gone.

Ian turned 12

Kennadee turned 1

I'm doing okay. The colder weather isn't so fun, and i'm very thankful to be in Arizona, but at times my body still aches cause it's 60 outside... (I know, I know... there are lots of you out there that live in way below that. I don't know how you can handle that.)

Trying to get more stuff done with AzSG's... Went to 2 different craft fairs. Made some money, wish I had made more. But started some advertising on another blog, and will start writing on this one, and the AzSG's blog more.

Hope all is well!

Utah Bound?

This was a "maybe one day" thing. This was a "far in the future" thing.  This was a "not going to happen to me cause it won't ever get that bad" thing. This was something that was never going to happen to me. I have a saying that I go by "Live, Laugh, Love, No Regrets". So I can't have any regrets about this. I don't have any regrets on the way i've lived my life so far. But, there will always be the "What If" game... and I am so not going there. My life is what it is, and this is just a new level of the game.

Okay, so I'm going to have to start back at the beginning...

I don't know if I mentioned this or not, but back in October of last year my pulmonologist (Dr. Ronn) was worried about my heart and the chance of Pulmonary Hypertension. He sent me to a PH expert in the Valley, Dr. Jeremy Feldman.

I had an appointment with him the next week. He looked at my tests, and set me up with a right heart catheter to check out the hypertension issue (which turned out to be borderline and something we will just have to watch), and he mentioned the words LUNG TRANSPLANT. Scared me half to death, still scares me. None of my other doctors have ever talked about this, and those words just meant that I am worse off than I ever thought I was.

He explained it to me this way. I'm not really bad off right now, but I'm bad enough to be put on a transplant list, and hopefully I'll get one before I get really bad. But if I ever do make it to that place where I'm really sick, then it is better to be on the list now than to wait the time it would take to get on the transplant list when I'm in serious need of one.

So, this is not an emergency situation. I'm still doing good. I'm not perfect, and my lungs are getting worse, but I'm still able to function and do things on my own. My diffusion rate is falling fast (lost a whole point in a six month time period), but my lung capacity is still above 70%. That's better off than a lot of people I know.

After a lot of discussion and many appointments with my doctors I've been in contact with the University of Utah Medical Center's Lung Transplant team. Now I know you're asking yourselves, "Why UofU". Well my insurance won't cover the transplant at the hospital here in Phoenix. So the next best places would be either Los Angelas or Salt Lake City. Since i've got family in Utah, I chose there.

I'm waiting on some information and then we are going to set up the first of many appointments in Salt Lake. After the first appointment they will decide then if they think I would do well with a transplant. Then I take a week and do lots of preliminary tests. After I take the tests an I have nothing else wrong with me (like cancer) then all my information will be presented to the Transplant Board. If they say yes, that I'm a good candidate, then they will put me on the transplant list.

Once I get on the transplant list I'll have to be within an hour of the hospital. That means I'll be moving back to Utah until after I get the transplant. I am so NOT looking forward to spending ANY part of the Winter in Utah, and it could take a while before I actually get a transplant, but it is something that I will have to do.

Thank you to everyone for your support. Let's all pray that I get on the transplant list. This is something that I really need to happen if I want to live a long life.

Sarah =0)

Happy Birthday!

Today is Sister Suzy's 10th birthday. I can't believe that our little thing is growing up so fast. Seems just like yesterday she was this tiny baby hanging upside down.

The Pool

How beautiful is that! Our pool is almost complete! SOOOO exciting.

We spent all afternoon and then all night Friday filling the pool with 11,000 gallons of water. I took pictures of the progression. Every hour on the hour. It was a really fun / boring / exciting / boring experience. It's a good thing we never have to do this again.

Hours 0 - 3

It started filling at 14.35 (2.35 pm)

Hours 4 - 7

Hours 8 - 11

The fill line... and then the fullness of it. Dad wanted to add a bit more water.