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 :)

Meeting Family :)

 On Saturday my sister Bethany and her family were able to stop by on their way home from vacation. I haven't seen them since April and neither of us had seen the others' baby. It was so much fun to be able to swap babies :)

 Here we are with the others' little treasure :)

Jimmy and Emma together, now we just need to get Seth (my brother's new baby) in with them and it will be complete.

I think that this ones looks like they are sharing secrets, Emma looks kinda traumatized by it too :)

And here is one that I just had to throw in 'cause I think he is just SOOO cute ;-)

And I finally caught him laughing on tape!!!  I never know when he is going to find something humorous and so haven't been able to catch him on tape yet but today he just thought that the strap on his changing pad was hilarious and he laughed long enough that I was able to get the camera and still catch him giggling :)

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving Curtiss and I had our plans changed a bit. We had thought that Curtiss's family would come and stay and celebrate with us here in Ohio but the Lord had other plans. Last Monday evening Curtiss's grandma (who had been struggling with Alzheimers for years) passed away to be with her Lord and Savior.  So we ended heading to New York for this last weekend. It was a very bitter/sweet time, it was great to be able to see people again and to know that Grandma Bohall was no longer suffering but everyone will still miss and her greatly.

It was a lot of fun to see Nate and Jimmy together again.  Jimmy was old enough to actually notice Nate and Nate kept us all on our toes to make sure that his loving care for Jimmy didn't end up detrimental to one or both of them :)  I thought you all might enjoy some pictures of our time there.

The above picture isn't the one that I originally wanted but blogger kept messing up on the one that I did but this one was still cute and shows the two boys together.  Jimmy looks kinda shell shocked and that is most likely because we had about three cameras going at the same time and we felt rather like celebrities with all the flashes going off.  Usually when Jimmy was that close to Nate he was trying to touch his face and hair and Nate spent the time trying to dodge Jimmy's little fingers :)

Here is Grandma and Grandpa with their two grandsons.

  While we were there we celebrated Christmas since Curtiss and I are planning on going to my parents house at Christmas time and it wouldn't work to fit in both families in one trip.

Jimmy LOVED wrapping paper (whenever mama wasn't fast enough and he got some) it was almost as good as pizza crust or cookie crumbs :)

 Nate was a lot of fun to watch, he is old enough now that he really likes presents and simple things like M&M's really make his day :)

Jimmy did extremely well in the truck both on the way there and back, especially considering the fact that he usually is screaming after a couple of hours shopping and driving around town. I always thought it was the carseat  that he didn't like but maybe he suffers from the same thing most men do and he just doesn't like shopping???

6 Months

 Yes, that is right as of tomorrow my little boy will be 6 months old.  I really can't believe that he is already half a year old but at the same time I wonder what I did before I had him :)

He has changed SOOO much and gotten so big, he is starting to move into 12 month size clothing and to move out of 6 month size.

This picture was taken just a few days ago with my cell phone and I think he looks REALLY good in orange, it makes his eyes pop :)

Our happy family, we love our boy!!! :)

Teeth, Apples and Glasses

     Hey everybody! Yes, I know I have sorely neglected this poor blog but it just seems that I haven't had time to blog and I think that I am a horrible first time mother since I don't take pictures of my son nearly as much as I know other first time moms do. So I haven't had very many pictures of a certain cute little boy to share with you.

As you can see in the picture below Jimmy is teething and his first tooth finally came in far enough that you can see it in a picture.  I think that he is the easiest teether ever (so far anyway:) since one day I noticed he had a large bump on his gums and the next day I could feel the tip of the tooth. No crying, fussing, runny nose or fever. I am very much hoping that all his teething is this easy!!!

Sorry about the slight blur of the picture... it is quite difficult these days to have anything within reach of certain little hands... and the camera had to be close to see the tooth :)


Jimmy is also very much enjoying his discovery of FOOD. He loves to eat and if I have anything that is going into my mouth he wants it too... BADLY :)

The other day Curtiss and I were eating supper and had some apple slices that I had cut up and Jimmy greatly enjoyed sucking on a piece, he was rather frantic if it slipped out of his hands :)

He has really gotten into playing with his toys now too. And for not getting around much on his own he sure can spread the toys around the room. He usually will have a radius of toys surrounding himself. 
The not getting around part is changing rapidly too, yesterday he rolled onto his stomach for the first time by himself.

And now for this picture.... Yes, I now have glasses.... just got back from picking them up in fact.... Lets just say that it is going to take some getting used too. I mostly need them for driving especially at night but anything distance related I can for sure see better now. :)

My Man

 Since Curtiss and I are within a couple of days of our two year anniversary I just have to brag on my husband a little bit :)  The last two years really have been the best of my life even though we have gone through some pretty significant changes together and it just keeps getting better. In many (good) ways it seems like we have been together much, much longer than two years.

Now some of you might be wondering what a picture of a burnt roast has to do with the anything I have said thus far. Well, that is what our dinner looked like this last Sunday.  I had gotten it all ready Saturday night and started it right before going to bed, we woke up to the wonderful smell of roasted meat and I thought "Oh, that smells good!" and then I got up and got the baby out of his crib and went downstairs and by the time I got to the bottom of the stairs I knew something wasn't right. It didn't smell quite as good as it had upstairs.  I thought I had added enough water but this is what I found when I looked in the crock pot...

Beautiful isn't it??? At first I thought it was completely charred but upon closer inspection the meat itself wasn't burnt (just my poor crock pot, which by the way came completely clean after soaking for 24 hours, HOORAY for soap and water) it was just completely dried out and in my opinion a little like jerky.  Now for the bragging part.  Curtiss liked it, to quote "If I had my way I would fix it like this every time."  I had some very mixed emotions eating that meal, how am I suppose to feel bad about serving such a thing when I know he is telling the truth about liking it? but at the same time how am I suppose to be proud of such a dried, shriveled up hunk of meat???

And this is what I found on my doorstep when the Fedex lady rang my door bell this afternoon. 

Beautiful aren't they? 

 I could keep going but I think that for now I will quit bragging because as the song in Calamity Jane goes...

Well, now, if you've got a cutie who's a real sweet patootie
better keep it under your hat
Just remember curiousity in fables of old
Killed the curious cat

Supposin' you love a laddie who's a sweet sugar daddy
Better take in the welcoming mat
Remember there's a dozen dolls for every Dan
You're not the only sweet pea in the can

So, if you wanna know the way to keep your man
Keep it under your hat
Keep it under your hat!

:)

My Little (Big) Boy

 I always figured I would end up being the shortest person in my family, it doesn't take much to pass the 5' 21/2" (yes, half and even quarter inches count when you are my height) that I am. But I didn't think that I would have a son who is almost half my height by the time he is four months old, I do believe he is in danger of being taller than me by the time he is five (OK, maybe a slight exaggeration:) but he is tall....

For reference sake here he is in his car seat the day that we brought him back from the hospital, cute and little huh??? Well, he has now grown too long for that seat.

Here he is in his new seat. We got one that is convertible, as in it can face both the rear and the front and it has lots of room for him to grow.

And here is a picture that is here just because I think he is adorable and have to share :)

My view on ladders and life...

                   My life of late has been busy,

                                                    but busy in a weird way...

A good three quarters of my summer has been spent away from home.

Between Summit, vacationing, spending time with family.

I really don't know what the weather was like in New York this summer.

Now Ohio and Tennessee on the other hand...

I could tell you exactly what the weather was like there.

On this first day of Autumn, I look back over my summer, and think...

It has been a good but challenging summer.

It has been full of new adventures, new faces, new experiences,

now some of these experiences I never want to experience again.

But I know that every experience,

and every thing that I have experienced this summer is all part of a bigger plan...

Even when I can't see what that plan will be.

This has been my view of late.

The caption of the photo above is very true. In many different aspects of my life, it is very true...

My view literally has I have been on a ladder a lot more then I normally am, as I have been helping rip old siding off our old/new house and put on new vinyl. It has also been the view of my spiritual walk. I am sure this needs an explanation.

'You feel like your walk with God is like being on a ladder???'

Well, no, not exactly, but there are some similarities.

First of all, you must make sure that you ladder is on level sturdy ground. You must be set upon "the Rock of Ages." And as soon as you are sure that your ladder is on firm level ground, you start your ascent, just starting the climb up a ladder can give you a thrill, you get that, "this could be an adventure" rush to the head, and your heart starts racing just slightly. A whole new exciting world with just one step off the ground.

As you climb you discover new things about yourself,

such as your fears, where you are afraid you will fail or fall.

It can be a truly terrifying spot... especially when the breeze blows and the ladder quakes just slightly. That is when all your fears are revealed in their full light. And it can cause you to freeze in your ascent to the top. Now it is when you are frozen to one spot that the most work can be done on the house that your ladder is leaning against. I mean you can't work when all that you are doing is climbing. It is at these frozen areas in your walk where you can get out the hammer and the crowbar and you can start accomplishing the work that you were on the ladder to do in the first place. I feel as if I am in one of these frozen areas on my way up the ladder. In fact I feel like God has allowed my ladder to be shaken. Which having your ladder shaken by someone can be the most terrifying thing one can ever experience, it sure will make you sure footed though. ;) It is a time that you truly get to know yourself. And hopefully a time when you can work on areas of your life that need attention. A time to get out the old crowbar and hammer and start prying away the old beat up layers of house, to reveal the original work of the carpenter. For it is only when the old battered pieces of protective layers are gone that the house is ready for the new protective layer of vinyl to be put on. What a mess it would be if we tried to just ignore the old aluminum and just started putting on the new siding... what a mess. It is a long and sometimes painful process. But oh, so worth it. Because someday the ascent will start again, move one hand, one foot, the other hand, the other foot, until finally you can go up one more rung on your ladder, and so starts the adventure once more. One rung or...

one day at a time.

Just take it one day at a time.

Our house before

And so ends my ladder object lesson to myself. It sometimes is just therapeutic to write stuff out, so if you read through it and were like, 'she can live on her ladder if she likes, but I don't really think life is like a ladder, she is a little whacked.' That's okay, this is the kind of post that comes out of me when the hour is getting later and later, and I am listening to Emile Pandolfi Radio on Pandora (piano ballads) Listening to piano music tends to make me a little reflective. ;) And sometimes strangely... emotional. But that is besides the point. Back to our house transformation, and enough about how piano music affects me.

During

Our house literally looks like it had a face lift.

I think it actually looks more sure of itself and cheerful with its new 'garments' on.

And I don't have a better after picture yet. So this will have to do.

Our house just needs a porch swing for the front porch to be perfect... Time to get into that wood shop that I have been talking to much about and start working towards making a swing.

Just hanging out on the ridge.

What better place to hang out after ripping stuff off the sides of the house then the roof? Josh didn't help but he ended up being in the picture 'cause he brought his Pepsi out onto the roof and that happened to be when Mom came out to snap some pictures. He at least gave me a sip of his Pepsi. ;)

Four Months

That's right, my baby is four months old today. I really can't believe that that much time has passed since he was born but at the same time it's hard to imagine life without him. What did I do all day long anyway? :)

He now...
weighs 13lbs 2 1/2 oz
is 25 1/2" long
and is wearing 6~9 month clothing

Yeah, that is a bathrobe he is wearing, I got that as a shower gift and I
just had to get a picture of him wearing it (before he out grows it)
so that is what we used today after his bath :)

He has been getting better and better using his hands, he doesn't have to concentrate so hard to grab something anymore. Mommy is proud and scared because her days of eating while holding him in peace are quickly coming to an end :)

Me and my boy
(he isn't so good at looking at the camera yet:)

Hello

Well, I guess it has been a while since I have posted anything. I thought I should at least come on here and say Hi to everyone.
Elise and I had a great time while she was here visiting, so much fun in fact that we never even took the time to take a picture of the two of us (awful I know) I guess she will just have to come back again sometime so that we can get at least one :)
Jimmy has been doing very well, he has been growing and changing so fast. He is now wearing 6-9 month clothing (No, he is not older than you thought he was he is just extremely long, he will be four months old on this coming Tuesday :) He is getting quite good with his hands and is starting to really like and notice toys. I was planning on posting a few pictures here but blogger isn't working very well and keeps giving me an error report so I guess you will all have to wait for another day ;)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

We would like to take this opportunity to wish our not-so-little-any-more brother a VERY Happy 15'th Birthday!

And since he is going to read this blog (because he loves us so much he wouldn't miss a post:)
we would just like to say that we love you and hope that this next year will be a wonderful one and that you spend lots of it with your big sister in Ohio.
(Oh, and Isaiah we hope you liked your present;)

Oh be careful little hands....

It has been one of the best experiences of my life to watch my son grow and learn and when he suddenly discovers something that he hasn't ever noticed before it just sends a thrill all through me.

Yesterday was one of those days....

...He discovered his hands!!!

As you can see they are completely absorbing, he will just sit and stare at them watching them move and intertwine :)
It just really makes you appreciate the small things in life, the things that most of us don't even notice like the use of our hands and how they work. Our God is truly an awesome God!

And this video is just one I got of Jimmy having a conversation with his Aunt Elise :)

Well, since I am at Joanna's house we figured that we couldn't go through the whole visit without blogging at least once and since this little boy consumes so much of our time, and is so stinkin' cute he happens to be in all of the pictures that I have taken :) So here are a few of my favorites taken so far.

Joanna found him surrounded by all of his bears during one of his naps... he had rearranged them so that they were grouped around him.

His changing table/buffet is one of his favorite places to hang out and stare at the pictures that Joanna and I hung up above it.... he also likes to stare and talk to you in the mirror.



Now because this boy takes after his father who should be on the geek squad I had the hardest time getting a picture of him smiling... Every single time I got my camera out he would just stare at it completely absorbed as if he wanted to figure out what it was and how it worked. So after vowing that I would have a picture of him smiling before I left I waited for the right moment... and it finally came while he was sitting on his Momma's lap. The next goal will be getting him while he is laughing, which he did for the first time while I was here, and has done a couple of times since.



Now this a "just-because-I-love-his-blue-eyes" picture... At times his eyes almost look like they have a purplish hue... Joanna and I try to avoid saying that they are pretty... but the color sure is pretty. ;)