What's been going on?

Well, I haven't posted in what feels like forever. My hubby is healing. For that, I am grateful, even though it feels like a very slow process. I do know that the wound vac that is inside his incision cuts down on the healing time by 1/3 the time. For that, I am extremely grateful. As it is, we're spitting at each other like a couple of cats tied in a sack and I've come down sick.

The majority of this year has been rough. It pretty much started in the spring when I was called for jury duty on a capital murder case. I made it through the jury selection and on to the jury. It was a long process, that I really wanted no part of. The trial was heart wrenching. I was never so glad for anything to be over in my life. It changed me in ways I can't describe.

Then my hubby went into the hospital in late summer. A very dear friend died a couple of months later. My dear cat friend died. My hubby went back into the hospital with something that could have killed him and he's still recovering from. His short term disability is slow to start, so our finances are fouled up at a time of year when we want to spend extra and we can actually spend very little. In addition to us, people we love, have had hard times too. That's difficult because there's really nothing we can do to help them. It's just been rough all the way around. We know these hard times come and go. We know we'll get through this. That memories of Marianne and Barney will ease the pain of their passing. We know that money isn't everything and that we've made it through bad finances in the past. We will this time too. When you get right down to it, we know that we have everything we truly need. For surviving it all in the past and knowing we will again, I am very grateful.

That being said, I am looking forward to 2009! I'm looking forward to seeing my grandchildren again. I'm looking forward to being well and getting myself in order, my house in order and getting to sew again! I want to make some artistic quilts and I want to make some old looking quilts. I want to hand quilt like I used to. I want to continue to explore the quilting I had started to explore that was inspired by Jude.

For now, I want to rest. The cold or bug or whatever it is, is getting to me again. I also want to look at a favorite picture of my granddaughter CV (she was 18 months old at the time) when she first met her new born sister CL. Her mother had been telling her for months that she was going to have a baby. CV was very excited. The problem was that none of us thought of the confusion -- that her mother also called all of CV's stuffed animals CV's babies. From the look she was giving her sister, she was definitely expecting something stuffed that would not take any of her mom's time away from her! She was one unhappy child when she first looked at that baby who was her sister! It didn't take them long to become closer than I could have ever imagined! Of course, CL was none too pleased when she met her brother a little over a year later either.