Not out of the woods yet...

Well... we just found out yesterday that Patt's sore leg is the result of an extensive and life threatening blood-clot. We had to take her from her doctor's appointment right over to the emergency room so that they could evaulate her. Normally they give blood thinners for that, but becasue of her brain condition they didn't want to to that... so they opted to perform a surgery to place a filter in the vein to prevent it from migrating up and into her lungs... although they found that it had already begun doing exactly that and that part of it was already there. It must have just happened because she didn't have any pain in her chest until after we got to the emergency room! Because of the extensiveness they finally decided to go ahead with both the thinners and the surgery. I'm sittiing at home right now waiting to hear back... they performed the surgery earlier and I have no clue how it went. They said it would only take a half an hour, but you know how that goes...

Healing prayers and energy is requested...

A New Year...

Well, my husband Chas and myself have been caring for his ailing mother. I quit my job of 9 years back in April so that someone could stay home with her, as she could only afford to pay someone for a short time before having to sell everything she's ever owned just for the privilage of having someone she doesn't know care for her basic needs. As time has gone on, we have realized that she's probably not going to get any better... her 6 brain surgeries that she endured last year have left her confused and physically incapable. We have also realized that it really takes two people to care for her... one to do the work, and one 'just in case'. Walking is major trouble for her and she has fallen before... One person assisting her can pretty much only slow the fall... once she's on the ground it takes two people to get her back up. One day I had to call Chas to come home early so that he could help me lift her. It's a 45 minute drive, so I just had to sit with her and make her comfortable until he arrived. It's not something that any of us wish to go through again.

In other news, Chas' work has been really bad for him. He works for a large health food store chain, and as the economy has been getting worse, so have the treatment of the employees. I suppose that's par for the course, but we really expected more out of them with all of their talk about caring for their employees. Chas has had to take time off of work in order to deal with his mom's afairs... between the surgeries, the follow-up visits, the moving details, the banking, etc... and his work is not too pleased. But what can we do about it?

Chas and I have decided that it is perhaps time to live one of our dreams. We have always wanted to start our own business, selling our art. So, towards that end, he is taking a leave of absence from his work in a little over a week, and we are going to start the process of setting-up a home business. It's scary, but oh so time. I am hoping that between his art and my own, that we can make enough to pay the bills. I'm just begining to see *some* activity in my online store, and so I am encouraged that after awhile it may catch on. Chas does sculptures in various themes, and has been experimenting with making molds so that he can produce product on a larger scale. We have had some success selling his work on eBay before.

The name that we have chosen is "Carnivalia" to reflect the celebratory theme that runs through a lot of our shared work. I just purchased the domain name and am looking forward to having another web-project to keep me busy. ;)

UPDATE: Check out his website at Carnivalia.com.

I'm very excited that we are taking this next step. Hopfully it will prove a healthy thing for us.

So... please keep us in your prayers and thoughts. We could use some encouraging energy right about now as we jump into the Void...

Look out below!