I'm ALIVE and thriving

I just recently discovered that this blog still existed and Elise and I found out we could still log in and post and everything. A couple of nights ago I spent an entire evening just going back through the posts on here and remembering all the wonderful things we had done and written about.  It kinda of surprised me to read some of the things I had written,  I mean they were actually enjoyable to read (as in I would've enjoyed reading them even if they weren't my own memories) and they didn't have TOO many grammatical errors :)  It just caused this very strong urge to write again.  I forgot how much I enjoyed it and how therapeutic it was.  It was also wonderful to read back through and have the memories come back.  It made me wish I had continued to write somewhere, just so that I could remember everything.  I still don't think that I would've wanted to write in such a public place,  I don't think I could have talked about what we are going through without sounding very bitter.  It has been a rather rough 6 years.  After Curtiss's accident our lives changed forever and at the time we didn't even know it.  We have been through so much emotional and physical stress that I didn't want to remember.... 

We have had multiple legal battles with insurance companies and found out just how slow and incompetent our government is.  Curtiss's accident was just 6 months after we had moved to Ohio (in 2010) and we didn't have closure with all those things until the spring of 2015.  They were grueling years,  constantly fighting or waiting for something,  trying this, that or the other thing. The whole time watching Curtiss hurt more and more.  Nothing helping, every test or procedure just taking more and more out of him. Like I said I don't think I could've written well during that time, at least not what I would want any one to read. But now I think we are on the other side of that, let me give you a brief over view of what has transpired in the last 6 years.  The last time I posted we were living in Ohio, (we had gone out there for a job for Curtiss) We had a small baby, Jimmy and we were settling into our lives there.  About 6 months after moving to the state, Curtiss was rear ended in his work truck, he walked away from the accident and was diagnosed in the ER with a cervical strain and a sprained knee.  After the accident his pain just kept getting worse and worse in his knee.  The doctors couldn't find anything wrong with his knee after 5 months of tests and wondering we finally got a diagnoses.  He had Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD), it is a nervous system problem basically the nerves in his knee send pain signals to the brain, which then rushes blood to the area to try and heal it which aggravates the nerves so they send more pain signals, so the brain sends more blood....  and on and on the cycle goes.  It is a rare disease, doctors don't understand why it happens (it usually occurs after some kind of trauma to the body, it can be brought on by a heart attack or a gun shot or in Curtiss's case a car accident). There is no cure and different people respond differently to treatments, all you can do it try different things and hope they help. 

Now back to my over view of our lives the last several years.  my in-laws moved out to Oh to help us and we ended up living with them. We have moved several times, always trying to make life easier and better quality for all of us but especially Curtiss who is now in a powered wheel chair and we needed a house that would work for that.  Our most recent move happened just a few months ago and we are now back in New York State.  We moved back to be closer to family,  we all came to the conclusion that we were very much alone in OH and if anything happened to any member of our family the rest of us would be in very deep water indeed.  So we are now living back in western NY where my husband and in-laws are from.  My father in law and I work full time,  my mother in law takes care of Curtiss and home schools Jimmy (which I am VERY thankful for, one of the hardest things for me to face was not being able to do things like that and thinking that we would have to send him somewhere was not something that I relished).  Jimmy is now 6 1/2 years old and MUCH bigger than the last time I posted a picture of him :) I am working at a local retirement community as a cook and enjoying it.  

That gives you at least a brief overview of our lives past and present.  I don't know if anyone will even read this, it's been so long since anything happened here.  I have felt for so long that I was barely keeping my head above water, it was all I could think of doing to just work, take care of Jimmy and Curtiss, do the laundry and try and get at least a simple meal on the table.  But I am coming to see that not only am I surviving, I am thriving.  I have a strong desire to live again not just try and make it through today without thinking about how I would make it through tomorrow.  

So all I can say now is,

Hello world I'm back :)

A Happy Birthday

 Yes, it's hard to believe but as of Saturday Jimmy is 1 year old! We celebrated over the course of the whole weekend since Saturday was moving day for my in-laws (they are now residents of Ohio! WOO! HOO!:) and Curtiss and I were struggling with a cold that I brought home from some where last week.

Anyway I thought you all might enjoy some pictures....

 Here he is in his BIRTHDAY BOY shirt, with his favorite crackers.

 and here he is with a very fascinating piece of tissue paper.

Ripping paper turned out to be GREAT fun :)

He likes it. honest!

Throwing clothes out of what they were in..... something Mama never lets him do at home.

Cheering for cake and ice cream, bet you'd never guess they were a big hit :)

My serious little man. I love him so much and am so thankful for him!

Yep, he's all boy...

...bouncing balls are a BIG hit :) ;) :)

Us

 Well, and here I am again having had way too much time go by without posting anything. No, I have not been abducted by aliens nor have I fallen into a black hole, I have just been busy living life and never really remembering that I have a blog :) Other than the fact that Jimmy gets bigger every day (he's going on 11 months now) nothing too much has changed around here. Curtiss is still struggling with knee pain that we have yet to have a diagnoses for, and we now get to have the wonderful experience of finding out just how slow our government can be as all his treatments have to be approved through our local workers comp office before we and the Dr's can take the next step. But things are S-L-O-W-L-Y....... happening (we think :)

As you can see in the picture Jimmy is now pulling himself up and standing on his own. He did that before he started crawling and his absolute favorite thing to do is to be Mama's fitness trainer, he most faithfully makes sure that I make multiple trips back and forth across our living room by holding onto my hands and doing them along with me. He really is the most thoughtful boy :)

I just had to post this picture his face is just comical. He was telling me the most interesting story. His newest noises are rather yodeler like and he practices most faithfully to perfect it. 

And now for our family photo.  Jimmy was trying very hard not to cry during that part of the photo shoot...

He kind of succeeded. The Price Is Right show playing opposite us did a wonderful job of getting him to look at the camera though :) Well, that is at least a quick update just to let you know that we are still alive and well and enjoying our lives together :)

News and Movies

Yes, I know it has been a long time since I last blogged and I know you have all missed my little boy, after all who wouldn't??? :) A lot has happened since I was last writing to you, a couple days after my last post my husband was in an accident. A lady ran into the back end of his truck while he was out working and ever since then he has been having problems with his knee. He has been off work for the last month and a half (which other than the fact that it is because he is in pain and we don't know exactly why it isn't healing I don't mind in the least:) and will be off for at least another two to four weeks if not longer. We have had a very nice Christmas and were able to go to NY and spend some time with both of our families and Jimmy was finally able to meet all of his aunts, uncles and cousins and I was able to meet the new members of the family that were born since I was last there as well.

And of course Jimmy has been growing and changing the whole time too :) He started sitting up with assistance while we were in NY and when we got home he didn't think he should ever have to lay down to play with toys ever again

Last week we had my Mom,  younger sister and two of my brothers visit us for a couple of days and Aunt Elise got to introduce Jimmy to his first pickle which after puckering up after his first bite he decided that he really liked it.... ALLOT. And would get quite frantic if it was out of his mouth for any length of time :)

And here are a couple of videos I too the other night.

This first one is of his newest accomplishments...

CLAPPING!!!

which he does quite frequently :)

And this last one was taken right after the first when I was feeding his small pieces of animal crackers and for some reason I said the word "Oops" and he thought it was absolutely hysterical.

Well, I think that is at least a rough summary of what our lives have been like recently. I hope you all enjoy the movies :)