Good & Bad News :-/

You think having my surgery delayed for another week would be a relief! But, not really. :( Chris & I have been down this road before and know there are just little things to get organized before: a little "feed the freezer" meals, Chris has to schedule time off, and for myself I have to get my mind & spirit ready. Nothing can totally quiet the butterflies, coming to peace with it is important...

So frustrated. :(

Greetings from the Nearly Finished Mad House!

*This pose took zero prompting on my part. Seriously! This is why I don't let him use my chair often. ;)

Wow has it been a crazy tornado of life since we last visited! Let's see... 

First off, Happy 4th Birthday to my youngest niece Erin! When asked how she's like to celebrate she said "get shoes at the store, have a rainbow cake, and go to Cracker Barrell". Sounds awesome to me! Who doesn't need Yankee Candles, stick candy, and sock monkeys!

Erin & Jenna! Lucky ducks went to an awesome amusement park this weekend!

The Spencer children have opted out of their families farming traditions in leu of dinosaur wrangling. ;)

1.) I finally had my nerve ablation procedure one week ago. I'm doing so much better post-op THIS time. But, that's not to say things still aren't rough! Pretty much my inner thigh and hip gripped with shooting nerve pains, like hot needles and stabbing knives. 

But! I know this is just temporary. :) I need to be off my leg more, but with the remodel it's so hard not to try to put your daily routine back in place and contain my excitement & impatients to get things done N-O-W!!! :)

*The house is nearly finished, but instead of posting hundreds of photos I'm going to make a full video tour of the house when it's 100% done! Until then, enjoy the teasers. ;)

2.) I covered the painting progress in my last post, but here are some additional photos! I'm deeply pleased by the outcome!

Kitchen Color- New Bamboo. That yellow thing is the kitchen mat laid upside down for some reason. :-/ ....

Great Room Color- Scandia (think "French Blue". You'll see better soon!). Sets of my mother-in-law's beautiful watercolor still life perfectly. Deann you're so talented! It's such a blessing to be able to hand your work in our home. :)

Baths- Blissful Blue. This photo is pretty washed out. Think pale blue periwinkle. And again a beautiful watercolor by Deann. :)

Hallway color- Sea Salt. Again, true color never comes out in photos! This is a subtle grey with a touch of very pale blue.

3.)Contractors totally demo'd our bath and it sat there for over two weeks. No toilet, no sink, no flooring!

[INSERT PHOTO OF NOTHING HERE!]

4.)Finally the flooring arrives and goes down beautifully! Love it! 

Bamboo! :D

Pile o' flooring. Tigger refuses to give up carpet. ;) 

Hunter inspecting the installation :)

5.) Newly installed toilet is leaking and it took three different attempts to fix it.So they finished our gorgeous bathroom!

Small sneak peek!

6.) They demo'd the entire hall bath down to the studs!!  Then they could remove our old "egg seat" tub and get all the new plumbing and electrical systems hooked up. Also installing a wonderful tub/shower wall surround.

7.) As of right now, the tub is fully functional and fabulously relaxing! The workers need to sand the walls, re-texture the ceiling, lay the flooring, and install the toilet and the sink.

Well, that WAS a bathroom...

Die tub DIE!!!

Swanky ;p. That large opening is actually pretty sweet. It's a side access panel- that allows easy access to critical components without having to remove the tub! And oh is it gloriously relaxing! And I've always been a shower girl! 

8.) During the period of time between the carpet being removed & the new flooring going down, we had just the concrete subfloor under our paws -err-feet. The pets HATED it! 

Hunter is on the right and Tigger is in the far left on the up turned table. Both avoiding the slab... ;)

PS: The den -the green color- will be painted to match as time, energy, and interest comes around. :)

The pet bed has been relocated to under the front window aka "bird tv". They all LOVE IT! It says a lot that all three pets are willing to share it! Don't get me wrong, they'd rather have it all to themselves, but they're not willing to move and the other pet isn't willing to wait for a vacancy. Lol. :)

We celebrated the floor installation by tossing out all cat toys the workers found under and behind furniture & appliances. :) They had a blast!

9.) "New" kitchen table! :) My parents (Hi Mom!! :D) are in the same home repair/remodel boat as us. So, they generously gave us their farmhouse style table + four chairs. It fits the atmosphere of the room so well!!

I'm still not sure if we should put a rug under it... Pros- easy on the floor, generally quiet pretty. Cons- Spillage & staining! Harder to vacuume under the table vs a hardwood swiffer mop. Ehh.

10.a) Area Rugs! We now face the dilemna of now having a large expanse of gorgeous hard flooring. We needed a few rugs to help soften the echos, be cozy under foot in casual areas, and break up the space visually. We picked up a large area rug and one runner- at Wal-Mart no less! Aren't the cute?

Love :)

10.b) Bath Mats! :D

We also picked up two unique bath mats- bamboo! I'd LOVE super fluffy fuzzy bath mats, but... Well, so does Hunter. :-/ For some crazy reason he LOVES to go potty on any style or type of bath mat!! Yuck! 

So, these sweet bamboo bath mats from Target are a godsend! They are comfortable under foot, work just like fluffy mats, no floor yellowing rubber backing, and dry even faster without holding moisture against the flooring. :)

11.) I can't remember, but did I show off our new lamp set? After a certain husband -who will remain nameless ;) *cough *chris *cough*- broke a lamp, we took the chance to pick up a lamp set. It's a Better Home & Garden's set -again from Wal-Mart actually!- with one 3 way bulb floor lamp, two side tables, and an accent lamp. :)

 All this while trying to keep the pets happy and not becoming a runaway after a worker left the door ajar, trying to take it easy on my back, try not to be deafened by screeching saws and pounding hammers, and just the self-consciousness that comes with have people in your home.

Fun huh? Well, in the immortal words of Dory the fish, "Just keep swimmin' , just keep swim in'!" So! Chris & I better go paint the last thing- the hall bath! The shrine to the whirlpool tub! :) And THAT will be the very last project the two of are responsible for in this project! Yay! *Muppet noodley arms!* Hopefully my next post will be the big reveal! Adios! 

And now for your daily dose of cat cute:

I <3 Pokey & Tardar Sauce "Grumpy Cat". Did you know she has a brother? Did you even know Tardar was a girl? Or named Tardar? She was named by her owner's little girl who misspelled tartar sauce. :) Tehe. Cuties. :)

Back Procedure Update!

So, here's the deal: Nothing. Nada. I am FURIOUS!! Making a long story short, the pain clinic had booked me in for the wrong procedure!!! The nurse who wrote out the order incorrectly- I assume she failed to consult my file. I stormed out of the office with no help for my pain!!

What's the big deal? My procedure is very specialized, requires more O.R. time, and with special equipment. All that means they can only schedule a handful of weeks and patients book months in advance.

They also dropped another bomb. Insurance and the doctors require six months between procedures! I was one month short! But, it is rescheduled for Sept. 17th. I'm sure this is all in God's timing -even if I was fit to be tied!!- I know there was a good reason for me NOT to be operated on that day. 

But, please allow me a short complaining moment! Per instructions, I hadn't had anything but less than half a banana to eat and under 8 oz of water to drink. I had to wake up at 7am, which is very early for me. 

Don't judge, you're just jealous. ;) Console yourself with the fact that waking early gives me what accounts to non-pregnancy morning sickness. :( 

Also, I had to miss my evenings dose of medication for my shoulder tendinitis to boot! I was one cranky patient even BEFORE our hour wait to be seen! 

My wonderful husband Chris came to my defense to sort out this bramble of mistakes and red tape. I knew it was best for me to cool off and sit in our van. All I would have been able to do is yell and berate people who had no fault in this mistake. And I doubt pissing off nurses whose main job is to jab me with needles is smart! 

Chris was able to both get thing accomplished in a firm method, while being tactful. He spoke to the powers that be and got my Sept. 17th procedure date. I love you my Love. xoxo. My hero. :) 

Well, that's it. :( I'm just making it day by day until Sept. 17th. But, Chris & I can make it. We can do anything if we work together! :)

RFA- Magic Bullet!

Hey Readers! I'm not trying to rehash the past a lot in this blog because the majority of y'all I hope are friends or readers of my old blog. In a short recap, in 2009 I had a spinal fusion which sadly left me in significant pain.

But! Early this year, I had a back procedure that essentially CURED my pain! That was a possibility I had given up on. The projected lifespan of the procedure is 3-6 months, even up to 12-18 months. Happily the procedure lasted about 10 months in my case! :) 

The procedure is called a "radiofrequency ablasion" and mine is performed in my lower left back nerve bundle. If you are into medical stuff, google the name. There are interesting youtube videos - some with real people and some just animations.

Essentially, using special x-ray technology, my doctor guides three probes into my back. (Earlier, a simple injection was used to target the exact nerve bundle). Then he uses the radiofrequency to form a temporary scar over the nerves. The scarring is temporary, but nerves heal very slowly.

While I'll admit this procedure's healing process is pretty intense- in fact I'm pretty much out of the game for a week to about ten days. Nerves don't like to be messed with and the probes make me pretty sore. But, those 10 days are TOTALLY worth MONTHS of very little pain! 

While no one looks forward to pain, I can't wait to get my RFA over & done with this Friday and jump back (no pun intended) into my life! I love my life too much to sit on the sidelines! :) 

Left to Right -Clockwise: Me at Gulf Shores Plantation 2011, Our Wedding April 2007, Cub Scout Award Ceremony 2012, Chris make a snow "gun"! Jan. 2010.