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Friday, December 18, 2009

what week/Glad it's over

I tell you.. It has been a week from hell. My poor honey has that fluid back behind his eyes again.. you know the macula edema. Well, granted it's leaking.. He has scheduled for the laser surgery AGAIN come Jan 7 and another the 14th. Well to top it off Mike lost a very close friend and what is still considered a family member. Debbie, is Faith's sister, so it was his sister in law. When Faith and Mike divorced, her whole side of the family kept him as family anyway. (awesome family mind you, they are even great to me) After she past on Sunday at one o'clock. That night while laying in bed his left eye just started draining a reddish fluid and he got up and ran to bathroom.. The sack errupted and was draining out of his eye. The stress just was too much and escaped the only way it could, I guess. Anyway, so Monday morning I called Surgeon and got an appt for him that afternoon. Dr checked it out and said no damage done, it will be a little while but it will finish draining and you will see better again. Mind you he only seen a big yellow glaze as it was... Poor bugga..
Then come Last night (weds) we went to Debbie's wake and then after the funeral we went to the Half Moon restraunt where Debbie's husband Don works at and had a gathering in her honor. Well, just as we were taking off our coats, my phone chimed saying I had a voice mail message. It actually never rang. But anyway, I normally would of ignored it but had the impression, better check. So i called it to find out that my Aunt Carol left me a message to call back as soon as I could... So I went outside and rang her. Only to find out that My Aunt Marie had a heart attack and was in Newport ICU and in a drug induced coma to help heal her from her surgery that she almost didn't get b/c she had a major infection spreading through her body. Through testing they found she had a mass in her lower bowel. So they had to operate before that killed her. They gave her a 50/50 chance on it.
She came through the surgery with a colostomy bag and until the surgery starts to repair itself and they are sure she can physically handle any type of pain, they will leave her in the coma. If all goes well and she wakes up, they are hopeing eventually to have her sent up to Miriam Hospital in Providence and then from there to rehab.
So now, I'm like, Ok Lord.. It's Christmas, how much more bad news can we handle? A friend of mine that I grew up with in Newport reminded me that Father doesn't give us any more then what we can physically handle. SO Please Lord, I'm at my limit. I've had all I could possibly deal with. I am driving Mike to work nightly and picking him up and getting approx five to six hours of sleep each day. I'm trying to maintain stability on a man that has been stressing over this loss as well as his health. Trying to maintain feeding this house on very little until the 23rd of the month when more money comes in for food. We are down to bare bones, But we are surviving. Going to take some money out of xmas shopping and get a few staples until then. I'm dealing with cranky babies that don't know what's wrong with them, which makes their mommy very cranky.. So LORD like I asked, Am I done yet????
All I can say is, Thank you Lord that my Fibro hasn't had a flair up and I'm down and out. But chances are when things start to settle and I can go back and concentrate on myself, I'm sure it won't pass me by...
Ok enough venting.. LOL usually I don't do that on here. But I needed the vent.. Thanks so much for having the patience to let me and read through to the end.. I love my friends and family and I am so very thankful for them for loving me..
If I don't get back here before Christmas May you all have a wonderful Christmas!!! Hope Santa is good to you all.... HUGS

Friday, December 11, 2009

my Xmas deco in the kitchen...





Thursday, December 10, 2009

as Christmas slowly arrives

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone and we are almost in the middle of December, getting prepared for Christmas. Amazing! This year has really gone by very quickly. I guess when you spend your life half in the bed and the other half doing everything you possibly can before you get knocked on your butt with the fibro. I guess it would go by very quickly. We have had a decent year. Mike and I have gone to different places this year and enjoyed the time we have had visiting with friends and family. Hopefully this upcoming year we are able to be able to do it again.
I just got decorations up last night. Didn't do a whole lot this year but it looks pretty good. We haven't put the tree up as of yet, though. We are going to see if we can find one that isn't so much. We like having a real one over a fake one any day. But have to see, what the prices are. We don't want a huge one, but don't want a tiny one either. I will take pics of what is done and show ya how I did.
I still need to post pics of Thanksgiving.. LoL it was a good day over at Michelle's. Jw came and spent the four days with us. Which made that very nice also.
We are going to be doing volunteer work next weekend at the Harley shop. It's customer appreciation days. So we volunteered to help out where needed. It gave us each a 30% discount on any merchandise for those days. That will help, ALOT! Mike wants a new Zipped sweat shirt.. His that he wears for work is all tattered. He's been wearing it for two years now and with carrying wood and such, it can wear clothes out..
Well, that's about it for now. I will do my best to try and keep up with this as much as I can.. Hugs and loves to all who read this.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

cleaning


I'm still not very good at this. But getting there. Been busy the last couple of days cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. Yesterday was the BIG clean in the master bedroom for us. Mike did his side the day before, which puts me on alert to get mine done. So of course then, right after supper I picked up all off the floor, organized all I could and vaccuumed. Then I finished all the wash and my blanket. With having dogs you have to wash blankets a bit more often then I really would want to.
Today I finished supper and with the help of Kyla we swept the floors and then after Mike left for work I bleached and washed them. I did it on my hands and knees to make sure they were good and clean this time. Nothing like washing the floors and go to walk on them with white sox right after and have the bottoms turn black anyway. So I tried it the hard way. By the time I was done, my arms and back were sore and my hands were shaking. But it is all done. Thank goodness.
Tomorrow Mike and I go and pick up Jw for Thanksgiving break. Can't wait, we'll be together for four days. I'm excited. As much as a child can drive a parent right up the walls. You do miss them so when they are not around.
We are going to Michelle's house for Thanksgiving dinner. WE both got a turkey basket from church, which was a huge help. B/c we are struggling financially this year. But we chose to combine our baskets and the gift cards for the turkeys and get one big turkey instead of two small ones. Dougie is going to get a ham so we have a little of both. He cooks them so AWESOME in the crock pots, I can't wait. It's going to be a really good day..
Well, Melissa announced to us last night, that come Jan. 1st she is moving out. She is going to move into Michelle's house for less money. So now we get to re-tighten our belts yet one more time and struggle through till we get taxes done and see where we end up from here. We are really concerned b/c we are not sure what we are doing in the near future. Mike wants to enroll in a school, possibly motorcylcle mechanic or diesal or even marine. BUT he is at a loss at to exactly where right now. So in the mean time, we really don't want to move another time before he determines where exactly he is going get excepted. So we may just stay here and struggle it out until he figures it out. Will have to see.
That's about all new right now. Will catch up more after Thanksgiving..

Monday, November 9, 2009

most updated pics of the family


This is Melessa from this past summmer. She looks so good.


Mike with the dogs. He was teasing me, b/c he knows I hate different things on the table. he was putting Haylee on the table. Everyone was laughing at me.. I wanted to kill him..


This is last Sunday Nov. 1st. We were just leaving church.


This is the most updated pic of the kids. Emma Michelle's daughter, Xavier, Valerie's grandson, Kaylee is in the chair and Kyla on far right. They have gotten so big...



This pic was taken end of summer of JW. He was on the phone with one of his "girlfriends" man they start younger every generation.



This is Mike and I just this past Sept. We were in NJ. We went down to meet a couple friends from Facebook. One flew in from Australia to come see NY and meet us. The other from NJ. He hooked us up with the great extended stay hotel. Great people they are..

Well, I hope now that I've gotten back to this blog thing, I can continue to keep up with it. Sorry I've been so neglectful of it. Facebook is so addicting that I've neglected everything else on here. Hope all is well and we can stay connected again.. HUGS

Sunday, June 21, 2009

our weekend











We had a great Weekend. Friday night we took off to Ct and decided to go and visit an old friend. We popped into Lynn Gabbert Labrie's for a surprise visit. We were the one's surprised b/c the only person that was home was Justine and her son Ethen. She invited us in to wait and graciously cooked us an awesome chirouco and pepper dinner. Around ten thirty at night Lynn, Walt and DJ came in. They had taken off to Foxboro Mass, to pick up a tent for their family camp out to Palmyra, NY. If you are Mormon, you know what's in Palmyra around this time each year. My mind is so blank and I can't think.. Maybe b/c it's one thirty in the morning and I'm starting to get tired. Sorry... Anyway, we visited with Lynn till around 11 and let them go to bed.
We headed back toward Groton to get a hotel for the night. Our whole reason for heading there. To escape for the night and be alone. We hadn't had an alone time by ourselves in two years. We were heading for the Econo Lodge in Groton. But they only had a room for smoking for $89.He said he would drop it to $79. I was like ummm, no is there another Econo Lodge around here. There was one in Mystic. So I had the clerk call Mystic, to see if there were an empty "NON" smoking room. Not only was there one, but he said he would give us a deal of their price ten percent off. Which brought it down to $76. So we won out an both parts. So we took off for Mystic. The cool part was it was right across the road from the entrance to Mystic Aquarium. Mike said if we had brought kyla, we could have brought her there. But as I reminded him, This was our weekend, not anyone else's. I'm not usually selfish. But We deserved it!
Mike was getting hungry again, so we went on an adventure in finding a place that was open to eat at. After riding around another forty mins. We determined that the only place was McD's. I got some chicken nuggets and a McFlurry.. And Mike got two Big Macs. Big mistake. he has been sick from it, ever since. Poor guy...
He spent the entire night off and on in the bathroom. He probably only had gotten like two to three hours sleep the entire night. So needless to say, we slept right through our free Continental breakfast. (that was 7-10) we didn't get up until ten fifteen. Check out was at eleven. We flew into the shower and flew around the room getting ourselves ready to get out on time. We made it with five mins. to spare. Depressing though, as you see from the picture of that tub, it was HUGE... I wanted to badly to crawl in that tub and soak and soak and soak. But being that we checked in so late and then searched everywhere for food and then by the time we got back, I just stripped and jumped into bed and past out. And then waking so late, no way, could I. Oh well, I dreamed of it. lol (why I say huge, is b/c we have what we call a half tub. It has the same width but only half the legnth. It was built for a midget I swear it was)
The other pictures we what we did all day Saturday. We decided to make it a Harley shop adventure day. We started in Groton at Mike's Famous Harley dealer. Which of course I never got a picture of it. So now we need to go back.. lol We did get Tshirts for our collection. Mike got the blue one with the Submarine on the back and I got the orange tank..
Then we headed for Columbia TSI Harley. And we had missed it. It had closed at three. We missed it by 30 mins. I wonder if we didn't stop for Dairy Queen, if we would of made it.. Besides the idea we kept missing how to get to it. So we called TSI in Ellington and learned that it closed at five. So we had just enough time to make a forty min. trip up. We got the directions and stop halfway for gas. And made it in just enough time for twenty mins of shopping. We grabbed Tshirts from there. The red tye dye T is mine. Mike got the cream colored one. It has a cool 1903 bike on it with a side car. Really cool.
The pic of the stone picture of the Harley is the Ellington TSI. That's the sign that doesn't have the town on it. Where the Columbia one did. Go figure, same owner.
Anway, after then, we took the long way home and traveled all the back roads we could toward Exeter, RI. We decided to end our great time together at our favorite restraunt, Middle of NoWhere. Which did end our fantastic time. Afterward, we came home crawled in bed and relaxed until we both fell asleep.
Needless to say, Mike still has the upsetness in his belly. I had to go to CVS and buy him more Immodium AD. I was so sore and my back was killing me, that we decided to just stay in the bed and sleep our morning away. So we didn't make it to church. Oh well. It was worth it.
But to top of a great day, Melissa got up this morning and made her dad and Bruce pancakes, for Dad's day. And she was awesome enough to make some for everyone. She even saved a few for me, when I finally crawled out of bed at one PM. LOL. and then at two thirty Jw called Mike and wished him a Happy Father's day. How sweet and no one told him to. he was riding his bike alone. How cool!
So our great weekend finally had to come to an end. And now, Monday must come and Mike must go back to work again. My poor baby. I just hope his belly is better.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Mike's updates

Well, let's see, it's been a bit since last I wrote again. There really hasn't been alot going on. Considering when you don't have money and you can't afford to even put gas in your gas tank, you tend to just stick around the house and do nothing so you can afford to pay your current house bills. Good enough...
Took Mike to eye dr yesterday. He had his first series of eye surgery on his Left eye. The 29th he goes in for the Right eye. He has diabetic neuropothy in both eyes and Blood vessel leakage. We found out yesterday that the laser surgery will be done in a series of surgeries, increasing in streghth each time. That's one mile stone.
Today I took him to the physician to get a reading result of his blood work. He has a definant high glucose levels (we knew that) and his hemoglobins are very elevated. (Same) Dr. increased his meds by MG's as well as two to three times a day. He has to go back in two weeks and get another blood test and then if the glucose levels are not down far enough for Dr's liking then he will have to put him on insulin at dinner time.
Hopefully all this will work out and things will start to work itself out...
Jw came this past weekend. We moved his room from upstairs to downstairs and are thinning out his things.With Mike and I getting ready to go through things and getting rid of useless and non used stuff, for the move to Fla. I had to start with his since he doesn't live here full time. All he needs is a few items of clothes and what he actually uses when he is here. Besides this child has more crap then anyone I know. He is like his grandmother and save EVERYTHING... I thought I was bad.. They have me beat!!!!!
Next is getting in the basement and going through my non-used things and donate them to someone who will use them.. I'm done.. Hopefully by the end of our lease in Nov. we will be ready to head on down..If we can get Mike into better health and regulate his sugars and diet, it will be great and one step toward there.....

Thursday, June 4, 2009

her personal blog addy




Sorry forgot to give you her personal blog page...
sjbowlby.blogspot.com
By the way.. That great looking guy standing on the other side of the pole from Shaleen is my brother Mike Bowlby.. he is the spitting image of my dad.. Goes to show what my dad looked like in his younger days. Funny too b/c Mike's son Alex is a spit out of him... See all us Bowlby's are great looking... And he has good taste in ladies too. If your reading this.. love you guys... HUGS

My sister in laws blog




you have got to check out my sister in laws blog.. She has this great buisness called Adhering words.. I have the link posted up the top right side of my page.. Have you ever checked it out. She does awesome give aways each month.. Go check it out and let me know what you think. Better yet, let her know what you think...
Here's a pic of some of her work..

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Lunch with Charlie dad




I was initially suppose to take Charlie's wife out for her birthday,yesterday, Tuesday 26th,B/c Charlie was at his rondevoux in New Hampshire. Needless to say b/c of the weather and thunder storms, he chose to come home early and surprise his wife and take us both out. Seeing as my birthday was the 21st. So Kelly chose to go to Chili's for our meal. As you can see, I had a rack of ribs for my meal. I also had the fully stuffed mashed potatos and broccoli. I didn't get pics at the resteraunt, so I had to look for some online. That is all I could get. But you have the idea.. And Man, It was FANTASTIC! I ate the entire rack of ribs by myself. Charlie got the same exact thing and he could only eat half the rack. So, i brought it home for Mike to eat at work.. he even enjoyed them!
But now I'm caught up on everything that happened good in the last few days, I guess I will go back to my laundry and get it done. So it can be done before five AM.. LOL nothing like starting my housework at ten o'clock at night.. The life of a third shift wife... LOL I have taken my husbands shift and I don't even work.. Go figure...

Memorial day catch up











I am so far behind in my blog. I've been getting online later and later each night and getting caught up in all my other things that I get way too tired to come back and catch up in here. So I figured, I'm better off to come here first and then go to my other places.
Memorial day was a gorgeous day. We went to Mike's cousin's, Jane and Mike's. Most of the family was there. (Bates side, that's Mike's dad) It had a whole lot of food and activities for the kids and adults to play.. They had badmitten, soccor, horse shoes, volleyball, a swing for the little ones, etc. It was great! I never really heard from Jw until it was time to eat. He had one plate of food and back to the net to play more badmitten. He loved it! He even came back later and ate like three slices of pizza, while hanging at the net..
Mike and I hung out and chatted with Aunt Carol, Uncle Ralph, Aunt Pat, Uncle Howie and their son and family. Later on Debbie showed up with her family and we chatted with them too. Mike and Jane floated around talking to everyone, cleaning and setting up food and Mike did all the grill cooking. (as usual) You hardly ever see him really sit and enjoy the day on his butt. And when he is sitting, Jane will find something else for him to do. LOL She is funny!
We learned of a new pregnancy that day too. Mike's Cousin Stacy is approx. just over two months pregnant. There is also one that is due the first week of June.. She is the one in the blue tank as you can tell. lol Stacy is the girl in the brown outfit. You have a profile shot of her belly. At two months, she shows very well. Imagine that!!!!
Anyway, over all it was a great day. Just not long enough. We had to leave around six thirty to drive Jw back to his father's house. It's a school night you know. Wow its tough sometimes to bring him home. Others it's like UGH!!! you can't wait.. This weekend had been a toss up. He is growing up so much, and he starting to act like all the other teenagers out there. He is very mouthy and fresh. you just want to jack him right up! I'm sure I'm not the only mom that feels like that... But over all it was a great weekend...

Friday, May 22, 2009

Happy Birthday Mike and Christina




Well, Mike and I had our joint birthdays again. His was the 18th and Mine was today the 21st. The cool decorated cake with Emma holding it was her favorite Uncle Michael and the blue and white one was for Mike and I from Melissa, Bruce, and the girls.. They both tasted very good... But shhh don't tell anyone, Emma's tasted much better. LOL
This weekend Mike and I will go out and celebrate our days together, like we do each year. I'm getting him some things for fishing and he is getting me a leather jacket. I'll take pics when we get them. Mine is mail order.
Other then that, there really hasn't been alot going on. Last weekend, Mike took Jw fishing for the day and going to five different spots, they didn't even get a small nibble. So, Mike said he will take him to Beach Pond this weekend and see if he can do better. It will be nice to be able to spend a weekend with my son celebrating something. Not only is it our birthdays, but it is also, Memorial day weekend and we are going to a family cook out. That will be nice. It's at Mike's cousin Jane's. And as you see from previous posts, we have such a great time there.. Can't wait!
So happy day to all. I had one.. LOL Mike woke me with "birthday spankings" LOL all b/c our good friend Kim asked if Mike got bday spankings for his.. LOL
Other then that, I cooked a shit dinner and the dishes are still in the sink. B/c I refuse to wash dishes on my bday.. Don't you agree????
I got alot of great birthday wishes from friends and church friends online. It was great.. My family that wished me happiness was Andrea and Rick, Jeanine, Kerri (Mike's cousin), Valerie (Mike's sister) Amazingly enough, My father didn't remember.. Go figure.. He is a man and he forgets things like that.. My step daughter says later on, Oh yeh, your cards are still upstairs.. Know what, it's the next day and the cards are STILL upstairs.. lol They have more to do and remember then "mom's" birthday.. Mike got breakfast in bed.. Mom gets a "oh yeh your cards are upstairs and you and dad share that cake." LOL I paid for that cake..(for Mike)
I told Mike tonight, through text, pretty good, at least he loves me... I got more response from him today then anyone. I had to get up and cook dinner(so I made sure I made a shit meal lol why not) and I refused to wash the dishes, so they sat there) and I get from Mel's boyfriend, it's your bday today.. Oh I didn't know. your so close to Mike's.. UMMM yeh, we spoke of it all the time.. And Mel said nothing...
I see it's ok to be appreciated when she needs things and a babysitter.. But other then that, I am just Dad's wife... Oh well, at least I know my true family and friends that love me... Thanks guys.. I really appreciated it...
LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!

Monday, May 11, 2009

Life has been quite eventful, since the weekend. Mike spoiled me the entire weekend. I didn't have to cook for two days, nor do any dishes. It was "fantabulous"! Saturday night he took me to my favorite resteraunt, The Middle of Nowhere. This place is in Exeter right on Rt 3. Its my most favorite place to eat. It's such a great rated place that a couple of guys from one of the motorcycle papers wrote a big write up on how he came from New Hampshire to just check it out b/c he heard so much about it. Yes, alot of bikers, hunters, work men and family all go there for a great meal. They are open twenty four hours and are phenominal... Then, Sunday morning he woke me and took me to a local restraunt called Town Chef. This is a family favorite. Mike's parent's were faithful in going there every sunday morning for breakfast. Mike and his brother would go faithfully with them, occassionally you might have gotten Michelle to come with Emma. But it was rare. Then Sunday night he took me to a Chinese buffet for supper. This place (sorry don't remember the name) is in West Greenwich and has alot of seafood as well as oriental food. My favorite is the salmon, bbq spare ribs,roasted duck and asperagus.Then, for dessert I always get the banana pudding with nilla wafers and whip cream. with a scoop of icecream.. so yummy!!!! We took walks together around different places and took drives to favorite spots. It was fantastic!
Jw didn't come for the weekend. It's tradition that he and his step-mom, Whitney and the family go to the carnival. So I don't rain on his parade. I talk to him on the phone and find out how much fun they have. See We were raised in our life that there is no such thing as step and half's. So Jw has two moms and two dads. How special is that? And it makes it great that way, for now he also has a fabulous brother, Josh, who is in the military (air force) and a sister, Ari, who is his age. They are like regular siblings on a daily basis and then when it comes to trouble, they both stick up for the other. Can't go wrong with that.
Anyway, I hope everyone had a great Mother's day, like mine. HUGS and LOVE ME

Tuesday, May 5, 2009


I didn't include the picture of JW. He came for the weekend. It was cool to be able to have him for the weekend. We went shopping for his new sneakers for his birthday. My baby is now a teenager, imagine that... As well as picking out Emma's present for her party... We had a great weekend. It just never lasts long enough.















The babies got groomed. Aren't they so cute! Haylee is a lover of attention. She sat there all patient and just ate it all up! Angel on the other hand is a bit more of a nervous Nelly and not as "in love" with the idea.. But she tolerates it...
These are the most recent of the girls.. The one with me on the stairs was at Emma's birthday party. The other two were shortly there after.. So cute!
While Emma's party was whinding the guys were outside fishing. The guy with the huge fish (estimated 20lbs) is my brother in law Dougie.
Afterward, Kaylee and I decided to go hang out on the swing, while Melissa fed her her dinner.. Yummy!
Lastly, that is a picture of the large mouth bass that Mike caught Saturday morning after he got out of work.. He was so proud of this catch, he had to take the picture of it.
I really haven't done alot for the past two days. I did go grocery shopping yesterday early evening and pay the phone bill. But that was all my body tolerated. I thought on the ride home, that someone took a hot iron poker and shoved it up my spine. That firey pain put me in bed for the evening and the whole entire day today. With the rain, it only made it feel worse. Ever since I've been off the Vemma and not on pain meds. I've been suffering with the moisture and rainy weather. Life is really sucky when it's raining.. And to think, most of the whole week is going to rain. Man am I in Trouble!!!! so not fair...