Happy Halloween!

Wishing all of you out there a safe, happy Halloween! Beware the ghosts and goblins :)

Featured etsyBlogger: Jen of Baby Friendly Beads & Mama's Magic Studio

Every month, etsyBloggers features one of their members. The featured member for the month of October is Jen of Baby Friendly Beads and Mama's Magic Studio.

At Baby Friendly Beads, Jen features beautiful, functioning breastfeeding necklaces and bracelets. Here are some of the items that you can find in her shop:

At Mama's Magic Studio, Jen features fun, whimsical jewelry including "fraternal" earring sets. As Jen puts it, they're not identical, but they are definitely a pair! Here are some of the fun items you can find there:



For more information on Jen and her creations, please visit her blog at http://mamasmagic.blogspot.com/

Hectic Times...

So, the last few weeks have had me reeling... Everything was going pretty well for us until October 9th. It started like a normal day. I headed off to work in the morning and received a call mid-morning that our family dog, Mosey, was in a bad way. We had known this was coming, and my family was prepared to let her go. I headed to my mom's house at around 11:00 to gather with my parents and siblings. Mosey passed away just after my dad arrived. She was such a great dog and had been with my family for fourteen years. I returned to work, saddened and depressed. My mom called me at around 3:00 to tell me that my aunt had given her a puppy. She was so worried that we would think she was some kind of terrible person for accepting a new puppy on the very day that we had lost Mosey. I told her she was crazy and that I would stop by after work to meet the new addition.

I spoke with my husband, who was finishing up his work day. It was about 3:45 and we agreed that I would visit my mom, pick up dinner on the way home, and wake him up when I arrived. I got off work at 4:00 and headed to Mom's house. I literally walked in the door, saw the new pup sleeping with my dad and heard my cell phone ring. The worst moment in my life to date came next.

My husband's boss was on the other end of the line, telling me that my husband, Tim, was trying to get in touch with me, that he sounded bad. Utterly confused, I asked if he was joking. He informed me that he was not, and that Tim was waiting for me at the old Drive-In on Hwy 212. Then he told me that it sounded like Tim had a stroke.

I can't even tell you how I made it to the Drive-In, or what happened shortly thereafter. I can tell you that I rushed Tim to the emergency room. After a horrible night, they diagnosed him with a stroke the next day. He went through a few days of tests at the local hospital before they released him to my care on Sunday afternoon. We followed up with a neurologist at the University of Chicago last week, who sent him for additional tests yesterday afternoon. We'll get those results when we return to Chicago next week.

I am extremely happy to report that Tim has made huge progress in his recovery. Initially, his motor skills, speech, right side, and vision were affected. As of today, he still suffers from terrible headaches and has some blurriness in one of his eyes, but he has otherwise made a full recovery. We feel extremely blessed and have found new appreciation for each other and the life that we are lucky enough to share.

Of course, things have been nuts lately. I've had a hard time coping, but I'm doing better. I'm trying to focus on the positive things: his recovery, our time together, the new-found appreciation we have. It's not easy, and I still have moments where I want to regress to a crying, screaming, angry person - questioning the why's and angry that our lives have been turned upside down again at a point where we were finally finding financialy security and stability. It'll take some time to get used to the way things are right now, but we're tough. We're Humans, after all...