Snow and ice have been making life fun here....If it wasn't for internet shopping with free shipping, I would be way behind in getting ready for Christmas! The ducks have been out all day playing in the snow. The black one is having a bad feather day now from constantly picking the snow out of its feathers.

I went to the Festival of Nativities today with my friends. It is amazing! Every year it gets better. I posted a slide show of some of my favorites. They have different choirs, bands, handbell groups and other groups perform in the chapel. They also have two rooms set up for kids. One has crafts to make and stories. The other has a stable and nativity scenery and clothes for the kids to dress up in to do a live nativity. The main cultural hall is filled with all kinds of nativities that you could imagine and another room is set up like a log cabin with children's and country craft-type nativities.

The Apple Butter Gang

So, after canning and canning and canning more apples, we finally got things wrapped up this weekend. I had three friends from work come over with crock pots and we made more apple butter and got it canned. It was fun having friends over, something I haven't done for longer than I can remember. I finally feel well enough to clean house and not be in too much pain to enjoy company. We started things Friday night and then finished Saturday morning and had breakfast together.

Here's the latest picture of Freyja. She slept most of the time that I was visiting. She is doing really well and is almost 2 weeks old now.

I also have been canning a lot lately. This week it was apple chutney. Next is more applesauce and apple butter. I don't know why I got so many apples! I still have a lot of apples to go....

Here it is, the middle of November and I still have flowers blooming! It was nice that this rose named Evelyn was still blooming on Mom's birthday. It is one of my favorite roses, not just because of the name, but it smells good and has a very long blooming season from late spring to late fall.

The Secret of My Success/How Kathy Got Her Groove Back.....
Those of you who are close to me already know most of my story, but I am so excited that I want to share what's going on with everyone.
How my story began:
Lots and lots of pain, followed by more pain and suffering with no end in sight. I have an autoimmune disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis, a rare disease similar to rheumatoid arthritis that causes extreme pain, inflammation, joint/spine damage and can fuse your joints together when it has done enough damage. Basically, my body sees my joints and connective tissues as the enemy and attacks. There were many days when I couldn't walk, migraines that lasted 5-7 days, muscle spasms so hard that it would pull my ribs out of place. It took over 10 years to find out what was wrong with me and then the real fun began. I have been on almost every drug the medical doctors have to treat this with. Some of the drugs have ruined my stomach and caused problems with my liver and kidneys. Some have side effects listed like "may cause lymphoma and fatal lung infections". Great....I think I'll sign up for that one! I have tried a lot of alternatives like natural medicine and herbs without much help. I was at the point that my rheumatologist told me I was on the last medical option out there and he was considering sending me to the pain management clinic to at least control the pain levels. I was no longer able to sit for more than an hour, wear most normal shoes, go hiking, exercise, sleep more than two hours without pain. I started to distance myself from my friends and was giving up on life as a normal person. My husband and I started to think about when I should go on disability. It was at this point that I met someone who had Fibromyalgia (another autoimmune disease) so bad that she couldn't work and was in constant pain who found a way to get well. Since this wasn't some infomercial on TV and I knew this person, I decided to try what she was doing. The first day I started taking the vitamins and supplements, I noticed a big difference. Over the next few weeks, things dramatically improved for me. Now I have no pain or inflammation, I bike to work now (3.5 miles each way with some hills), I have lost over 20 pounds, I actually sleep all night and I feel HAPPY. We went on some road trips and it didn't cause me pain for once. I feel better than I have felt for the last 20 years. I thought a long time about posting my story with so much personal information, but if it helps even one person who needs help it is worth it to me.

I hope everyone had a happy Halloween! This is Brian's pumpkin he carved for work - it looks great. October has been a busy month for us. Now that I'm feeling better, there are so many things going on. We went to Hood River and picked apples (still making apple butter, apple chutney, etc.), we had a baby shower for Tammy (first girl grandbaby, will be born Nov 3rd), I've been biking to work, gardening, taking jewelry classes, etc. My friend from work and I went on an underground tour of the shanghai tunnels in Portland, too. Last night I got to take Damien, our grandson, out trick or treating. He was so cute! We only went to the end of the block and back, but it was fun. Everyone at work dressed up and it was so hard to focus on work yesterday. When you have a doctor dressed up as a chili pepper or Elvis, it's hard to take it seriously.

Death of the Naughty Squirrel

So, this morning I woke to a loud explosion at 6:30 AM. It sounded like a car got blown up or something and the power for the whole neighborhood went out. I went outside to see whose house or car was blown up and everyone in the neighborhood was on their front porch looking around to see what happened. I couldn't find anything and there is only so far I will wander outside in my fuzzy pink bathrobe, so I called the power company to let them know power was out. Of course I put ALL of my scrubs for work in the washer last night knowing I could dry them before work because, hey, Wednesday is my day to sleep later. When the power guys came out, the fuses in the box in front of our house were blown out because the tranformer by our trees exploded. A squirrel got in the transformer somehow this morning. The little squirrel was dying amongst the lavendar and his friend was sitting in the hazelnut tree chattering very sadly. Luckily the power was back on in time for me to dry clothes to go to work!

The ducks are finally starting to earn their keep. They started laying eggs yesterday! Cheri and Brian are afraid of trying the eggs, but I hear they taste just like chicken :-)

Happy 1st Birthday, Damien!
July 24th was Damien's first birthday. Andrea came over on Sunday and we had a great time. We all went to church together and had cake and ice cream at my house. When Damien was eating cake, he just kept say, "Mmm". I think he might like cake!

Look what Brian brought home! Brian has a friend at work who has acres of raspberries and lets people come pick them for free :-) Brian made two pies with them. They're still way too hot to cut yet, but I'm sure they'll be good!

Happy 4th of July!
Cheri and Brian set out on the 4th to barter with the fireworks stands. They managed to get quite a few good fireworks and mortars for not too much money. We also had a fire going outside and did S'mores on the patio. Then Brian took off with his burn cream to Josh's house. Josh burned himself with fireworks (big surprise!). Cheri and I hung out with the neighbors for a while since they bought about $650 worth of fireworks. The show in our neighborhood was amazing!

Poor, sad Cheri! She just got her wisdom teeth out today. It took Valium to get her in the chair, nitrous and Diazipam to keep her in the chair. It still didn't stop the crying when the needle came out! But hey, she made it and will spend the weekend healing.

After reaching the end of the modern medicine road and still being in a lot of pain, tons of side effects, new muscle spasms and nerve pain, I decided to try natural medicine. My neighbor told me about this herbal specialist in Portland that helped a friend of hers who had severe liver problems and was given only two months to live. She is doing fine now. The guy is a little bit "far out there", but I have an open mind and am willing to try whatever to get well. It has been one week without any pills and I am doing pretty well, not perfect, but a lot better. I am taking 8 different herbal remedies and bee pollen as well as not consuming any red meat, milk, cheese, peanuts or soy. My stomach feels great, I have more energy, I seem to be losing weight, no headaches and the pain levels have gone down. I hope this continues....I will let you know.

Where can I turn for peas, where is my solace.....
It is nice to finally by enjoying vegetables from my own garden! The lettuce is amazing right now, too, but today is the start of a heatwave and I had to harvest all of it in the last few days. The tomatoes are starting to get blossoms, so maybe it won't be long until they have fruit. This has been the easiest vegetable garden I ever had with the best results. I will definitely be doing this again!

What creates more fun and family unity than a game of Scrabble, right? Not when you have two highly competitive sore losers. Cheri came down for the weekend last week when she couldn't take the lack of sunshine in Tacoma anymore. Cheri used a questionable word and ended up winning. Brian refused to accept her win, saying without the word in question she would have less points and he would have won. So, when I was taking pictures of them at the end of the game, Brian stole the scoresheet from Cheri before I could take a picture of her with it and then he ate it with a big smile on his face.

The weather has been really hot, going from 60 to 100 degrees in a few days. The ducks really like the pool. They also love scraps of spinach from the garden. I just put it in the pool and they go crazy eating it up. It's like duck soup. :-)

Brian's Mullet
Brian needed a haircut, so he decided to have fun with a mullet for one day before having the rest cut off. It's a little scary how well he pulled it off. The white wifebeater tank top adds to the effect.

Brian's Hand
Brian has the proud title of being the first injury at work since the remodel of the country club's kitchen. The people who installed the new metal counters left the edges really sharp. He has six stitches and, as an added bonus, they stuck him with a tetanus shot at the hospital. They didn't tell him until after the shot how sore his arm would be for a few days. By the way, if you haven't seen Brian lately, he is really proud of his Elvis sideburns.

The sun finally came out today! I had fun in the garden and so did the ducks. Rick gave me a book on Square Foot Gardening and I am trying it out this year. The peas, spinach and lettuce are all starting to grow and I don't have any weeds yet! I am excited about how it's going so far.

Here's a nice picture of Cheri and Ryan in Spokane when we went to visit Rick on Thanksgiving weekend. Rick and Holly look so cute, too.

This is the lovely April weather today! I hope all the plants survive since last weekend the weather was unseasonably warm, about 85 degrees and all the warm weather plants started coming up.

I haven't posted anything in so long......sorry! These are the newest additions to our family. This picture was taken in March, so the ducks are a lot bigger now. When the weather is nice, they play in the back yard. While we are building them a house, they are staying in a cheap tent in the back yard. The yellow ones are Indian Runners and are turning brown. The black ones are Cayugas and are good slug eaters.