...and a Happy New Year

Humm, seems I only have time to write in this blog on Holidays. Today is Christmas Eve Day and I have hauled my kids to work for a few hours. They didn't want to come and now that we are here, they don't want to leave so I find myself with a little bit of time.

So here are a few things to report:

• Workshops and classes are up for browsing at Bead&ButtonShow.com . Remember this is a very popular show and the classes fill up fast. Click here to see my classes :)
• This past month we have launched a bunch of classes at Beaducation.com. Our new Director of Education, Kate Richbourg has been working overtime getting these classes shot and up for viewing. We are SO lucky to have her!

More and more I meet folks who celebrate different types of thing this time of year....so to all of you, no matter what you celebrate, I wish you a wonderful and cozy end to 2008 and a bright and shiny entrance into 2009.

Thankfulness

Today is the day to give thanks, and dive head first into a food comma (in that order). I am thankful that it is 9:37 and I just woke up! I am thankful that my husband slept on the couch because he was snoring. I am thankful that when he left to go sleep on the couch, he carried Izzy to my bed to sleep with me, because he knows I love that (it was Izzy's turn, Lucy will come next time). I am thankful that my kids are old enough to get up early and make themselves something to eat and go watch TV for a bit while mommy and daddy sleep. I am thankful that I am OK with the fact that my kids are watching TV while I sleep. Now that I am up and eating breakfast, I am thankful for cornflakes.....I really love cornflakes.

As the day goes on, I will check in on my website and make sure everything is running smoothly. I am especially thankful that my business is doing so well in such a time of financial unrest.

Further on in the day we will go eat at my moms house and my thankfulness will turn to the really really really important things in life. I am thankful that I will be surrounded by all my siblings and their families. I am thankful that my step father will be feeling well enough to be sitting at the dinner table with us.

This morning, Izzy woke up and went to get her journal because she remembered it was Thanksgiving and she wanted to write down 10 things she was thankful for. All 10, actually it came out to 12, involved family, friends, playing the piano, and learning. As I listened to her with tears in my eyes, I felt an overwhelming sense of thanks.

Latest and hopefully last health report....

Sorry I have been neglecting this blog. I have so much going on, but I will save most of that for future blogs :)

So here is the latest on my health. I finally, literally in the past few days, feel normal. Since my first surgery on August 7th I have been up and down and mostly down. I am not whining, just trying to make it clear how PSYCHED I am to feel normal again. Ya know, when you feel weird and jittery and anxious and panicky and spinny and nauseous and generally yucky for 3 months, you start to feel like this is your new normal. But as of this week, I truly feel better. I even went to a party and danced! I thought I would be in the corner popping my Ativan but I was up and celebrating my friend Dave's 40th birthday watching my husband rock out with his band. It felt SOOOOOO good!

I started feeling better the day after my 3rd Acupuncture appointment last week. I really feel that acupuncture works but I just don't like it. I wish I liked it, but I just don't.....I don't think I will be going back. Too bad too because I am all into holistic medicine and again, I feel like it is helping me (my Acupuncturist is a true healer!) but it just creeps me out. The occasional painful needle just ruins the whole thing for me and I am not afraid of a little pain (2 births with no drugs for goodness sakes). Oh well, maybe it is tied into my anxiety and I will try it again when I feel more at ease.

From my last doctors appointment, all my blood levels are up and good but my Parathyroids are still "asleep". I won't bore you with the details of what Parathyroids are....in short, they control your Calcium absorption and mine ain't working (hence the really scary trip to the ER with dangerously low Calcium). There is some question as to whether I still have Parathyroids??? They are tiny and can sometime accidentally come out during a Thyroidectomy. So, I continue to take 2.5 calcium horse pills 3 times a day with 2 vitamin D's twice a day. Here is the deal though.....life is good, I will gladly take a parcel of pills for the rest of my life. I had Cancer and now it is almost gone and if one of the side effects of that is poppin pills everyday, I am a-ok with that!!!!!!!!

Oooops, I just realized that no where in this blog have I mentioned that I had/have Cancer. Well that is why my good for nothin' Thyroid had to be removed (twice...one side each surgery). I had a 3 centimeter nodule on my Thyroid and 95% of the time they are nothin' but lucky me, I fell into the 5%. I haven't really written about that in this blog because I tend to not get too personal here but what the heck, now that I feel better I feel like spilling my guts :) I really don't like to mention that this Thyroid issue was/is Cancer because, of all the Cancers this is the one of the few that is completely curable. With surgery and one treatment with a radioactive iodine pill (which I will do next month) most folks are cured....when I say most, I mean like really most, like 99%. Personally, I think they should rename it. I mean if it is curable, can we call it something other than Cancer? That word is so scary and it freaks people out....with good reason.

So there ya go....I am feeling well, I hope you are too!!!! :)

New lowercase font....drum roll please

Over at the shoppe at beaducation.com, we received the samples of the new lowercase letter stamps for making stamped jewelry and let me say, WOW WOW WOW. The whole office was jumping with excitement (nothing excites us more than new cool tools). They only sent me samples of a few letters but the quality and precision is amazing. The sets are in production and I have begged and pleaded to get them before mid November so you can all have time to make your holiday line of jewelry with them, or to put the sets on your wish list :)

We still don't have the final price but IT WILL BE LESS THAN $200...woohoo!

So I am finally willing to show you the font.....here it is. PLEASE post a comment to let me know what you think!
This font was hand drawn by me (Lisa, head mama here at Beaducation.com). I learned a lot about how to create a font. We named this font Kismet, because it was so meant to be.....it is so "me".

Each letter was very thought out and edited over and over again. Some letters had a lot more loopiness to them but it got to be a bit much so we turned it down a bit. I am very happy with and hope you are too!

Second surgery DONE....feelin' better!

Well, I am back from my SECOND surgery. I had that one 2 weeks ago and am just now landing back on my feet and really getting back to work. Now my Thyroid has been totally removed and I am on Thyroid hormone replacement pills. I am still getting used to this new thing in my body....I'm a little light headed but that could also be from the surgery.....blah. I'll tell ya what though, I am GLAD to be out of bed!!!

We are launching a bunch of new classes over at beaducation.com. It is worth a peek if ya haven't checked us out lately :)

LNK

Crunch!

We came home from a friends house last night at 11:00PM to a Fire truck and a bunch of firemen in our front yard. After my heart skipped 3 dozen beats, we found out that a big huge branch from the tree across the street, had fallen. It was huge, and smashed my neighbors car (that used to be an Expedition). If we were not out at our friends house for dinner, my car would also have been scrunched as the branch hit my parking spot and landed just shy of our front lawn (10 feet from our house)....phew!


Let it be a reminder to us all that Mother Nature has her own timing but we should all try to keep up with her by trimming our trees and getting them inspected. I will be calling the city this week to take a look at a big ol' Magnolia tree hanging over my kids room that is looking like i'ts dying.

Whew, what a summer

Wow, this summer has zoomed by. My husband took 2 months off (at my insistence) so he got to be the stay at home dad (I refer to him as my wife....he is a way better wife than me!) and I have been working overtime here at beaducation to pay the bills. And I have been able to pay the bills which feels damn good....woohoo for women owned businesses.

I had to take 2 weeks off last month because I had surgery (don't worry I am fine). Thank goodness my husband was off work to be my nurse as well! So if I have been slow at getting back to emails, I apologize! I am trying to play mad catch up....only to get behind again, because I need a second surgery on Sept 4th. Blah! Oh well, I will survive!

I hope you all had a wonderful summer, and I hope your kids are back in school (if ya got 'em). Mine go back next week!

:)
Lisa