Tough Road Ahead...

Sorry I've been out of the loop. I wish I could say it was good news, but it's not. My middle son was just diagnosed with chronic lyme disease. We don't know how long he's had it, but symptoms started getting really bad last summer and got progressively worse. We were clueless. He was bitten by ticks several times over the course of his life (we live in a tick-prone area and we do a lot of hiking). He never developed the telltale signs like a rash, so ...
Anyway, he has to be on a long course of different antibiotics, which will probably make him sicker. There are so many different symptoms that it's tough to know what you are dealing with. We only saw 3 or 4 doctors before we actually visited a lyme-literate doctor. (Some people actually go to 10 to 30 doctors before they are diagnosed.) Very scary disease so please keep him in your prayers.

I've attached a link to a video so you can find out more about this silent epidemic -- warning it's over an hour long and it's a little scary.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/268761

Quack!

We have a sweet pair of pets that we acquired when I returned home from skiing. You see, my middle son decided he wanted two ducks and bought them. Without asking. We weren't quite sure we were keeping them, but we all fell in love with them. So...here they are (I call them Quack and Jack):

They quack me up..hee! hee!

Scenes from the Barn Sale

Went to the Barn Sale today with a friend. Loved everything (as usual). Didn't buy anything, but dreamed a lot about buying things. Here are some of my favs...

Did go to a consignment sale for clothing and bought a huge bagful of clothes, which means I will have to get rid of some things. My new motto: "if things come in, things go out." For $27. 65 I got: a mid-length spring raincoat from the Gap; a fun, hand-painted pair of sandals; leather clogs (hardly worn); two adorable tee shirts; a jacket and a very sweet Sweet Pea shirt. So, I averaged about $3 per item..pretty good deal, don't you agree? I love bargains!!!
By the way, what ever happened to 40 bags in 40 days, you may ask? I ended up with 26 bags for donation, consignment or trash (not too shabby and I beat last year's record). Some day I will make it to 40 bags...

Mountain Air

 Miss me? Well, I've been away again. We drove up to Massachusetts to watch my son play lacrosse and then headed up to Maine to ski at Sugarloaf over Easter. We attended a beautiful summit/slope side service on Easter morning, watching the sunrise above the mountains and then skiing the first tracks on the pristine snow. Then we did a bit of hiking in Massachusetts on the way home. A wonderful family time and great exercise, too.

Should be posting a little more frequently now that my travels are over. Hard to be back.

What I've Been Up to...

 I just returned from a 7-day vacation in Colorado -- hiking, skiing, shopping and visiting with my good friend and ex-college roommate. We had a blast. Sharing some of the beauty... morning hike:

 Prairie dogs!!! They were everywhere...

 Summit of Mt. Sanitas...a big climb we did on the second day.

Finally, skiing at Vail, Beaver Creek and Arapahoe Basin (My fav):

Like my Vanna White pose? They were trying to eliminate the chance of avalanche while we were skiing so we heard a lot of snow cannons and rumbling going on...they shoot the missiles into the area where a cornice of snow is forming; this causes an avalanche and they shut down the road while it is cleared by a snowplow. Very wild.

Ahhh, Spring and a Fresh Look

 I recently had 50 people for dinner and I cooked! Pulled chicken and homemade wedding soup. I made everything ahead of time and froze it, so it wasn't that hard. What was hard was cleaning and sprucing up everything. My house is a lot lighter and brighter now...nothing like company to get you moving! We repainted the basement and it looks so clean...wish I could show it to you, but the pictures turned out terrible because there's no natural light (except two itty, bitty windows). Here's my family room instead:

As far as 40 bags in 40 days goes...I have successfully filled 20 bags of clothes (4 bags) , household goods and magazines (10 bags/boxes), toys (2 bags) and trash/recycling (4 bags) and I really seem to be in a bind to find more things to purge! I guess that's good because I must have done a great job last year! I did manage to get rid of an old toy box and a chandelier that should surely count for two bags, right? My bags went to charity, friends, relatives and the trash. I won't be blogging for a bit. Heading out west to ski with my ex-college roommate (my Christmas present from my hubby and kids)!

Powder Room Reveal: Don Your Sunglasses

So, this room is bright. I'm getting used to it and stenciling has toned it down somewhat. I used a maple leaf stencil that a friend of mine designed about 17 years ago. The old stencil was in bad shape so I traced it onto a new stencil film. Since I dislike math, I just eyeballed the placement. It worked out well.
I love this stencil.
I also added dots to make it a little fun. Anyway, I told you my maple leafs make me happy, so here they are in all their glory against a bright lime background...whoa!

 Took these with my cellphone and the lighting isn't perfect, but you get the picture (no pun intended).

I spray painted the bottom part of a birdcage to hold magazines.

 I'm still working on accessories such as my wastebasket. Why are they so darn expensive? Seriously, you throw trash in them. I just spray painted this one and paint lime dots on it in the meantime.

A friend told me to purchase some daylight lightbulbs and she was right, they do make it look better...especially at night. I might just get used to this lime.