A Day In My Life......

As many of you know I was diagnosed with Sarcoidosis in 2009. Sarcoidosis. I hate that word. As a nurse it was always so foreign to me. Only briefly mentioned in my VERY thorough nursing class. I had patients with it over the years but we weren't directly caring for that disease. These patients were forever showing up late for their appointments with the surgeon and stating "My Sarc - yes, a 4 letter word that I sorta pegged them with as being crazy and too lazy to say the whole word - My Sarc was acting up". Acting up? How does Sarc act?? Um hummm, whatever!

Or we also had the drug seekers - ends up being me stereotyping those patients - "I know you gave me Lortab #20 two weeks ago for uncomplicated laproscopic cholecystectomy (gall bladder), Dr Mac, but my Sarc was acting up so bad and I had to take them all up sooner. Now my incision hurts and I need more."

Get a life!!!

Then my years as an ER Nurse...oh my...how many times did I hear "My Sarc is acting up."

~

2001

I started experiencing flu like symptons, joint pain, occasional fatigue - which went along with those flu like symptoms, some days worse than others. Some flare-ups worse than others in days of suffering - ranging from 3-4 hours to 4-5 days. Yep, I had the flu more than ANY of you guys!!!!

I blamed it on anything, worked too hard around our house - in the garden way too long - too many 12 hour + shifts in ICU - then I decided that it was all in my head. In 2004 the pain became so severe that my Dr said OK lets check some things out......lab after lab after lab = I DON'T have a clue why you are so inflamed, (sed rate thru the roof, joints hot to the touch) must be rheumatoid arthritis.

Off to a wonderful Rheumatologist who did every test known to man and finally decided that I had one of the "over 100 different types of RA that are Rheumatoid Factor Negative" 

OK Then! A diagnosis. I could treat my pain with Aleve and a hot tub and carry on.....until the "flu" would hit me out of no where...BAM...get me a bed, I'm going to die.....feverish, but hey NO fever....well I am always sub-low.....of course I am running a fever, where else would these chills come from. 

~

Then that immune system of mine - drive by my house or the building I worked in with a virus of any type and by crackies you can bet I had it, soon, and 10 times worse than you had it! LOL

I gave up my great 3-12 hour weekend night shifts in ER because I blamed everything on night shift.

Then this eruption of a small area in my scalp started. Inflamed. itchy area that would dry up but never go away and only flare up again for 8 months. Was at my family Dr for my 3rd virus in 4 months and showed it to her. She made a horrible face and said that must be checked. A dermatology appointment in 2 weeks? OH NO I AM DYING!!!! Those are 6-8 months down the road!

She treated me for a couple weeks with topical steroids and it was no better so she wanted to do a punch biopsy. She led me to totally believe it was psoriasis. The next week my RN daughter was in from Ga and went with me to get my results and we were going on that day for a day of play.

The Dr said "You have Sarcoidosis!" 

I was totally in a daze. Shocked out of my socks!

I asked well does that have anything to do with all my joint pain I have had for 8 years? I don't know, probably, here's a few print offs on Sarc.

~

We leave the office, get in hallway and I look at Robin and said "I only thought Sarc affected your lungs and black women?" She said "That's all I know about it, too."

Two fairly good nurses were clueless about it.

They started running tests and found out my lungs were full of little nodules but my breathing was still barely compromised. Short of breath on exertion but I had labeled that as FAS - yes that's what I heard a lot of patients being diagnosed with over the years "Fat A** Syndrome!! Of course that's why I was short of breath all the time! LOL

Fast forward 5 years and I have remained EXACTLY the same as I was when diagnosed! Praise God!

The lesion in my scalp is still there just exactly as it was, only it has ate a hole in my scalp thru the cartilage/meat/muscle and into the bone of my head, .......I will explain this further down below.....my breathing is exactly as it was, joint pain maybe a tiny bit better. Flu like symptoms very very very often now!

~

HOWEVER, around January 2014, maybe a little before, I started to experience incredible fatigue and new onset of muscle pain that was so severe that I could hardly tolerate it. I worked 3 - 8 hours shifts a week as a home health/ private duty nurse that was very laid back and yet it took everything out of me. This too shall pass, I kept telling myself.

Had a couple Drs visits and nothing really pinpointed that could be the culprit. 

I have spent the entire year +, at least 13 months, with this fatigue and muscle pain that can't be explained. 

I am a very busy person and fight thru the pain and fatigue most days but I've been miserable. I whine until I can't stand to hear it any more, myself. I am so sure that my family is totally sick of it, too.

Nothing helps, only briefly, I mean as in 12 hour Aleve may give me 1-2 hours of pain free relief but still no energy. Let it be known I have never been prescribed anything for pain, OTC so far in this journey. So what the heck is wrong with me?

No it's not Cancer (not that i know of) and for that I am grateful and yet I am so ashamed of the whining. I have a daughter who fought a long hard battle with breast cancer and never muttered a complaint. She is fine right now!!! PRAISE GOD, AGAIN!!! 

I have had two friends that just passed away from cancer and they were so gracious and never complained. Why do I complain so much? 

I guess I am just a big baby!

Actually, I whine, not really complain....I know, same difference...sorry!

I whine because this illness is a nuisance. A thorn in my side.

A disease that Dr's know little about.....bingo.... could that be why us nurses knew so little about it???? I think so!

A disease that doesn't ordinarily end your life, not that I want that to happen, but maybe why so few Dr's actually know a lot about it. Don't get me wrong I have the BEST family Dr there has ever been!! She admits that she doesn't know a lot about "Sarc" (I have just now started abbreviating it myself) and she has left it up to me to find a specialist at any of the local universities ie. UVA or Duke. Well I tried that a couple years ago and all the Dr's listed as sarc Drs had either retired, left the area, went into research, or really don't "MESS" with sarc! Yes, office personnel said that exact word to me. (She didn't want to hear about my "Sarc acting up, either!)  I gave up because at the time I was floating right along with no changes. 

Yes, I had a chest Xray last fall and it is exactly the same as it was in 2009!!! Whoop whoop!!!!

PRAISE THE LORD!!!!

~

So why do I feel so bad every day of my life?

I often get online and research Sarcoidosis and there really isnt a lot about the disease on there. Lot's of forums and frankly after reading a few of their stories I decide that I am tough as nails and am fighting my way thru this crazy disease on my own. If I continue to work hard, in my 4-5-6-7 jobs that I think I need, because I WANT, and continue all my fairly strenuous hobbies that I am obviously doing the right thing and keeping myself from breaking down and having to go on steroids or chemo drugs and I don't want to do that due to all the complications associated with those drugs. 

I was placed on Planquinel in 2009, still on same dosage, which is max dosage. Is it what has kept me the same as far as my lungs and skin lesions? I dunno! My Dr doesn't know? Has it been my activity level? I dunno. I would say it has definitely helped. I am not a lazy person and it has ripped my spirit this past year feeling so fatigued and sore from head to toe. Down right pisses me off!! I do not do well with my wings clipped!! Here I go again, whine, whine, whine.

I really believe the whining comes from the unknown....what is wrong with me???

~

So last night after dinner where Danny and I discussed my situation, yet again. (I know he gets tired of me discussing how I had a spurt of energy and painted a room, planted the entire garden, scrubbed the vinyl siding with a toothbrush after doing the entire months laundry and baked three cakes one day....then the next day....I sat on couch all day and couldn't move until 5 pm and then I have written 2 chapters in my book and scrubbed two bathrooms and made a gourmet dinner in two hours flat!)

I got online and stumbled upon the greatest article ever about Sarcoidosis. 

They wrote this article about me.

Symptoms of Sarcoidosis 

WOW! That was an eye opener!

I didn't cry this much when I was first diagnosed and my family Dr and I got into a very heated emotional discussion over the phone and she basically told me she didn't give a rats rear what I had been diagnosed with that she knew nothing about sarcoidosis and would not be treating me.....and then she asked "Geeshhh, are your crying? Are you kidding me? What is there to be crying about? What a baby!"

True story!!

Needless to say I have a new Dr!!

There I was with a new freaking diagnosis and my lungs full of sarc nodules and only a dermatology NP to treat me.....so float your own boat Becky!

I get online and most the literature was what is sarc, how it affects you....it won't kill you....(should say it will only make you wish you were dead, but it didn't) .....then some of those "crazy people" who don't have a very high pain tolerance on the forums. Ha thay don't have the same sarc as i do!

Until January 2014 I have dealt.....I still deal....My head has a hole in it that is very well hid by my hair that I am fortunate to still have, do not want Methotrexate mainly because of my hair falling out in that area and you guys seeing what I am talking about. Won't be pretty!

The mornings where I wake up and wonder the first thing 'how am I going to feel today?"

I have thought that there must be something else wrong with me besides sarc. Surely it didn't treat you like that, I mean in my 13 years with it (well 12 years before the harsh symptoms appeared)

it was mostly tolerable.

Then there it was in BLACK and WHITE!

Becky has THIS!!!

Pay attention to the part about the muscle pain and fatigue and the skin lesions eating thru to the bone.

This is what the rest of your life will look like, you are not crazy!

Oh well maybe I am crazy...a crazy S-A-R-C patient!

~

Why did I feel the need to share this?

You guys know I am an open book.

I needed this blog post for my reference as a timeline marker and I want to explain why I whine about being tired, sore, etc etc yet tell about the things I do on a continuous basis...ie. painting, gardening, all my jobs and hobbies....yet complain about my woes.....it's not me it's my disease!!

Apparently I am just playing out the characters in the classic textbook Pulmonary Sarcoidosis 101!

Now I know what is probably going on....yes, that does make it more tolerable, I think??

Now you know, too!

Time to go on that hunt for a SARC Dr. Please let me know who you go to. I know there are a few of you sarc patients out there! A few on my Facebook friends list. 

Prayers are as always very welcomed!!

God Bless you all and thank you for taking up your precious time to read this!!

Becky

Today is the first day of the rest of my life.....(a challenge)

    Here I am after all these months of no blogging realizing how much I have missed it. I have a void in my life and need some structure and this blog is discipline for me. So many things have been going on in my life that were certainly blog worthy but I still didn't take the time to slow down and post about them. I will regret that one day....I use this blog as my memory bank to look back and remember what year it was that there was a manhunt in our neighborhood, the season I made the best pickles or a special sewing project. My computer brain is failing me but my virtual "computer" brain is always here floating around somewhere in cyber land.

   I will start out today with an explanation of why today and then try to catch up with a regular routine of blog posts.......

WHY TODAY:

It's Monday.....need I say more?
Actually I am in a rut with no motivation....well maybe a lot of motivation but no real gumption or energy??? Not sure what my hold back is....INSPIRATION! That's what I have been missing. I know I have the www.'s and Pinterest and all sorts of inspiration out there but if I try to use those my ADD kicks in and I sit down to look up a new quilt pattern and before you know it I am baking a new cake or learning how to clean the grill the non toxic way!

Today is Monday and it's a fresh start to my week and to my new life of living a cleaner life......and in cleaner, I mean:

A cleaner more organized house.
A closer walk with God and all things HOLY!
A cleaner diet and lifestyle.
A cleaner schedule......in EVERYTHING, work, hobbies, etc etc etc.....streamlined if I may.
A cleaner life in general.

(and not necessarily in any particular order were they listed)

It all goes hand in hand....a closer/cleaner life in any of these aspects will compliment each category tremendously. I think about how cluttered my mind and body and house and schedule and life are and wonder how I have time for God. If it wasn't for all HE has done for me and my family and a very persistent preacher who holds me accountable.......well I might not even make it to church regularly!!

So I have some great big goals that will obviously have to be broken down in little bitty goals.....like maybe on a daily basis ;-) I know me! I also have this STUPID Sarcoidosis and it wreaks havoc on my body when ever it wants to....(Maybe my cleaner lifestyle will help those bouts become more and more infrequent?) So be prepared for a lot of posts for my journaling of this new life one little piece at a time as I march thru it all one little piece at a time. Who knows maybe some of you will want to join along and share tips and ideas??? That would be great if not just remember me in your prayers as I start out on living the rest of my life.......

Now as I get started on this beautiful sunny morning I will start by becoming a "list maker"!
Once my list is made I will start on my journey but I will leave you with this......

2 Timothy 1:7

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

.......to be continued

  

My kinda day....

It's my day off today, only because my Dr is out of town, and then again on Friday I will be off too! I have nothing else to do but sit and take in all the sights around this farm that I miss all those other work days.

Such as this really nice breathe of Spring that my Amaryllis has given me.
It's snowing outside, of course, and this is such a welcome sight inside!
Makes me feel all tropical!!
teehee



I get to sit and watch all my HUNDREDS of birds at my feeders.

I get to watch them drink warm water from their new heated dish.

This is a heated dog waterer but I thought it would be perfect for the birds too.

I think I will need to get out there and place a big rock in the middle of it incase one was to fall in maybe they could scurry to the top of the rock to escape.

Click to enlarge these pictures and you will see only a fraction of the birds that are out there at any given time. Funny how they know when I have the camera on them and they fly.

I have so many American Goldfinches that I fear for my life when I walk outside!

I have a friend who is pertrified of birds and she says "They will peck your eyes out!"

With this many out there I am thinking of her often!

I guess I had better be careful what I ask into my yard!

I finished all the laundry and did a lot of cleaning last night so I could have this "ME" day today!

Pretty smart huh?

This morning while doing my birdwatching with a nice hot cup of Hazelnut coffee in my hand...

I spotted this little girls mate!

The picture above, albeit a horrible picture, is of my female Red Bellied Woodpecker that came here last week.

Then this morning I spotted her mate. A beautiful male!

He likes Danny's newest platform feeder too!

I watched him for a long time with my binoculars so I do know that he is a he!

I am researching a new zoom lens for my camera so I can get some good close-ups of my birds.

I have only had this camera for one year, don't you think it's time I learned how to use it?

I have a book coming today....Nikon D3000 for Dummies.....and yes I am a dummy so I hope it will help me out!

See this is my kinda day!

Birdwatching in my PJ's,

Nice cups of coffee in my clean house,

Learning how to use my camera

and

anything else that I want to do!!!

It's all about me today!

I think I might make a cake today!

Blessings,

Becky

I am having a "GIVEAWAY" ..............This week in history.........pay really close attention........

My little Snuggle Bug (LOLOLOL) and I will be married 34 years on Saturday.

9/25/1976

(look at his long skinny fingers!)

This was my Grandpa and Grandma Wray...(I don't remember them {I hope this was long before my time} but that must be where my gardening, flower loving genes came from! At least I didn't get their nose!)

I wonder how long they were married?

I wonder if my marriage will last that long?

Maybe if I can stay out of the fabric stores and stay out of "time out" it will last a long time!!!

I threw this one in for fun!

Grandma Goldie, Mama, Me and Robin. Not sure what was up with Robin's shoes, I do not remember them!! UGLY!!

Look at my really long and skinny fingers!

This is the cute little fellow that I married!

Always an animal lover!




Now look again at those long skinny fingers and those long but very skinny legs!!
How about those T-straps???
Love me some T-straps to this day!!
I would wear them every day if they made my legs look like that again!
~

I always get emotional during the week before my wedding anniversary.
Way back in 1976, on the week before my wedding day, I would walk from my house to Danny's every morning to help him and his family make molasses. Of course I just walked out there to be with him and to eat his Mother's GREAT country cooking!!!
The weather was beautiful that week, there was a nice chill in the air and it was really misty each morning. As I walked through the hayfield to his house, I was thinking that
"I Was The Happiest Girl in The Whole USA!!!"


As I have been traveling to work this week, I have noticed that the early mornings have been sorta misty just as they were 34 years ago. Almost brings tears to my eyes when that happy feeling comes back to me. I just knew way back that it would be the most awesome thing in the world to be "Mrs. Danny Moran!!!!!!!!!!!

It is pretty awesome.....most of the time!!!!!
Of course I was only 14 at the time, what did I know??


Now.........
like I said.....PAY ATTENTION......
I have never done a give away on here and it is LONG over due.
I am so sorry for being such a slacker in that department too.
I hope that somehow I could make it up to you though.
In honor of my anniversary....(well can you think of a better reason??) I will host a giveaway!!


I have never been a fan of those giveaways that give you all those rules about if you do this and do that then you will be entered....yada yada yada........HOWEVER.....I have something in the works and I regret that I have no choice but to ask you to do a little legwork here.
I can't tell you as of yet what that is all about but ALL you have to do to win is become a follower and leave me a comment telling me how much you would like to be entered in this drawing!
See Easy Peasy, right???
A drawing for what, you are asking??
You will be entered in the drawing for a table runner just like the one above!
(only it will be completely finished, lol)
A Moda French General ~ Lumiere de Noel Table Runner hand made and quilted by me.


RULES:
1. The deadline for entries will be October 23rd, which just happens to be my prince Charming's Birthday!
2. Become a follower of my blog. If you are not a follower you can not be entered into the drawing.
3. Leave me a comment on this post. Anonymous comments are not allowed. If you can read this blog you can get you a Goggle Account set up painlessly and securely that will allow you to follow me and leave comments with out having a blog yourself.
4. You will only be entered once for the drawing even though you are a follower and leave a comment too. Once per person but you have to do both.

GOOD LUCK!!!

I have worked my butt off!!

Literally!! I have been dusting off my nursing scrubs preparing for the new job! Yay! hahaha
I was starting to get really uncomfortable in my scrub pants when I quit work 17 months ago, they were just about to burst at the seams! I was really dreading the fact that I would HAVE to buy all new ones this time. Of course I could make them myself but that is time consuming and costly too. You can really get the cutesy factor by making them yourself and I do make the tops myself and get the best compliments off of them too!! I did buy some Michael Miller fabric at the fabric store last week to make a top.....and beads to make some jewelry to match!!

So I sucked it up and went to my closet yesterday and got the tops only out and tried them on and to my amazement I had almost grown out of two of them! Now how did I do that? I mean sitting at home doing nothing but getting fatter and fatter??? That's what my mom told my cousin that I was doing! Urgh!! The rest of the lot fit just fine so they will be washed and fluffed today!

This morning I went back to the closet and reluctantly drug all those pants out and started with the ones that I knew were fairly roomy first. They were fairly roomy still!! Alright!! Then I went on down the stack....yes we nurses usually have a slew of scrubs, mine mostly from not wanting to do laundry in the middle of a 5-6 12 hr day stretch.....I went all the way to the bottom of the stack and they all fit great!! I have toned up my bottom half!! I will say that I have pumped up my top half with muscle and let's just keep it at that!!! hahaha!!!

That really made my day too! It even helped me mentally to try these scrubs on and remember that I have one of the very few public jobs that you can actually work in your PJ's!! They are very comfortable...when they fit properly that is!!! I also need to have somewhere to go to wear my extensive Dansko collection ;-)

I am quilting off and on on my Newspaper quilt that I started to quilt in 1/2010!! That's what the label that Robin made for me says anyway!! I can only do so much at a time because it's a fairly large quilt and it wears me out lugging it around and around on the machine. I plan to go upstairs and cut out several scrub tops from fabrics that I already have, purchased for that purpose, and try to slap them together assembly line style so at least I will have something new to wear on my first day of work!!!!!

Now you have got to go over to Robin's blog and read her post about what her husband got her into last night!! I laughed til I almost cried at the thoughts of this pregnant daughter of mine in this situation while her husband was about 8 hours away!! Of courseIwould kill him when he gets home if he was mine!! Go on over there for a funny funny story! Enjoy!

Half Time......

So girls.......I start my nursing job on Sept 13th in the surgeons office. That's a Monday and it is the day for system orientation. I can't tell you how many times I have had to sit thru this one. I have worked with the Carilion system in many different positions over the years and went to nursing school with them. Each time you transfer to another position (even within the same unit) or go to school you have to sit thru this ordeal! At least it is only one day now instead of 3-5 days like it used to be. Don't tell anyone but after I had sat in this "show" for about 5 times, I fell asleep during the fire safety video and had my head in my hand and my elbow on the arm chair and almost fell in the floor!!! When I woke up I looked around and everyone was asleep!!





Other than that Monday and a staggered crazy schedule for computer classes for the new electronic medical records they are using now, I will be only working mostly Tues, Wed, and Thurs!! Only 3 days a week....that leaves me 4 days a week, right? So I am trying to convince myself that I am going to be just fine working only part time. I am not having a lot of luck convincing myself of that tho. This morning it hit me that I will be only working "half time", actually less than half time when you consider that I will have 4 out of 7 days off to do the things that I love to do. I will have those other 3 days to make the money to support those other habits that I have on those 4 day breaks...sewing, quilting, sewing machine collector, farm girl, water lover, gardener, goat milker, cheese maker...etc etc etc etc........ Plus the time to work in my hair studio! Never know how that will pan out cause I am out in the boonies ya know!





Then if it happens that I have to work 4 days one week (the schedule is made out 30 days in advance) I am going to convince myself that those hours will be "bonus money" that will be used for special things!! I will make myself happy with this decision one way or the other!!! I am sure that I will be just fine once I actually get in the door and reality slaps me in the face. It is usually so busy with any nursing job that I have ever had that you can only daydream so much throughout the day about what you would rather be doing!





So I am going to think positive about this and go forth!! OK? OK!


Now in the next a little less than two weeks (but who's counting?), time that I have left, I am going to make some changes around here. I know you have heard it all before but like I told my sil..."don't believe everything you read on here!" She asked me one day if I had finished a quilt that I started many months before!! hahahahaha Like I said don't believe it all!!! LOL!! This time I am going to get some "so called organization going" like in my sewing room. I am full of ideas about how to get things organized in there so I can have a couple projects going at a time and be able to finish them in increments at different stages and different stations for each step in the process. You know my ADD and also I will "NEED" for sanity's sake to have something to be able to work on when I get home in evenings or on those days off. I will explain all that later and maybe with pictures!!





I am also on a quest to fall in love with my Baby Lock Quilter's Choice machine again. Remember I looked at the Elna Quilter's Queen at the fabric store last week. I DID NOT SEW ON IT, I AM NOT THAT STUPID!! I did however drool all over it......sorry ladies but I have it marked with my spit now so I guess I will have no choice but to buy it!! However, I am trying once again to convince myself that it is the "same" machine as what I already have and does the "same" things that my baby does! The Queen was just so shiny and new and had a different "powerhouse" look to her. I am going to give it my best shot with my baby today and hopefully get a lot of time in on her in the next 2 weeks to fall in love with her all over again. If I don't flip again, I will go back to the store and take the queen for a test drive and think about purchasing her in the next few months, or maybe I'll find a real nice used queen on ebay! This is the same machine that she has at Pleasant Home!





Better go I have some furniture to move!!

Day one.....

Guess who is up, dressed and out the door with a large cup of coffee in his hand on his way to the hardware store to buy a 4X4 post for my shop sign? Yep, you guessed it! He took off like a streak to get there before they sold out of them. He will be back home and have those post hole diggers humming and a hole dug in no time flat.......he has waited a long time for me to decide where exactly I wanted that sign to be hung!! LOL

Guess who is coming home and as soon as he gets that post planted is getting to work on the trim work of the shop? He has procrastinated long enough on that project but he loved the pictures of my muse shown in my last post! He is just excited thinking about the idea that I told him that "I" would paint the building white when he was finished with the stripping and trim! He knows that I am afraid of heights and way too clumsy to use a ladder.....however do you remember the ladder in the back of the gator that I was on to paint windows?? We won't remind him of that one. I rephrased my suggestion of me painting to read something like this....."I will paint the porch and railing and the parts that I can reach and you can just pick up the pieces on the rest of it!!" We will see who climbs that ladder!!

I purchased some white mums for the garden beds yesterday.

I picked up some osnaburg fabric to cover a piece of foam for the porch swing cushion that I have had for about a year now.....who's the procrastinator?

I have some white linen fabric with "new curtains for the shop door" written all over it!

My wheels in my mind are turning ninety miles a minute right now!

Now if I can just get my legs and arms turning that fast, this project will be finished in no time!

I practiced a speech all day yesterday that I would use to turn down that nursing position, if I got the call with an offer, but what do you know, they didn't call me! I was told that they were going to try and wrap it up and let me know something yesterday but I didn't get the call. Oh well! I am glad that God didn't have that in his plan for me anyway! Thank You Lord! Right here on Sunny Morning Farm is where I am supposed to be!

Right there in my tiny "Showalter Place" hair studio making the valley folks beautiful one head at a time!!!

Gotta go, I've got a job to do!!!

Have a great weekend my friends!

Comparing notes.......

In my quest to find the right answer for that burning question...

"What do I really want to do when I grow up?"

I have been doing some super serious soul searching.

I have weighed out the pros and cons, the upside and the downside

of 'public employment' vs. 'be my own boss'.

Guess which side is probably going to win?

Right!

I have always been an entrepreneur at heart.

Never very good at it but always loved it.

Not the bookkeeping part but I have managed a few businesses over the years and the IRS hasn't found me yet ;-)

so I think I can do that part too!

This photo above is my muse.

My inspiration.

Although I think this is my dream that I have been dreaming for several years now and I just found the end of that dream a few weeks ago in the form of a blog.

Imagine that?

I knew all this blogging would pay off one day, didn't you?

This 'to die for studio' is My Shabby Streamside Studio.

Click on her name to go off to wonderland in the Catskills Mountains!

Click here to see her before pictures of her studio, before all the chippy white paint

and fru fru!!

Now here is Becky's hillside studio....teh hee

This building as you probably remember from last spring has been turned into a hairstyling salon and it is in my yard.

It is still not completely finished on the outside....well that is an understatement....it's NOT at all finished on the outside, but I have been doing business, albeit part time inside for almost 1 1/2 years. I just never could decide if this is truly what I wanted to do when I grew up or not.

I have NOT put up a sign.

I have not advertised.

I don't even tell anyone for an unsettled fear that they might actually want my services and I didn't know for sure if this was really the avenue that I wanted to trod.

So in my full week of soul searching, and I can do some serious soul searching in front of the sewing machine and ironing board, I have finally come up with an answer to that question above.

Yes I "do" want to be a hairstylist when I grow up!!

Of course I knew that 30 years ago, even before I went to cosmetology school, before I purchased my first salon with a friend, before I branched out on my own, before I moved my business to my home so I could work while going to nursing school...........wait a minute, back up here......oh yeah it's that ADD, good thing I did go to nursing school so I could diagnose myself for free!!

Here is the side view and it pretty much looks the same as it did back in 2008 when this picture was taken, other than the side of the building is now covered with weeds. LOL!

Well no, that is no laughing matter because I am the one who will have to clean up that garden!!

I am hoping that my dear husband will finish the trim on the outside and put the rock around the foundation for me though. I do know how to use a Skil-saw, a chop-saw and a drill if I need to. He just doesn't usually like for me to get started on something like that cause he will just have to come along and finish it!!

The building was intended to have the strips over the cracks just like my muse above. The intentions were always for it to be white too.

I CAN paint ya know?

Do you think she saw my plans?

This building has been built since 2003!!!

I needed to get a feel for this small space and so far it has worked out pretty well with my clients. Seating space for friends/family members is null and void, but we make do.

I will carry out my plans for a waiting area in the next door hot tub room.

Maybe a fridge with cold drinks and juice, snacks, magazines, hairstyle books etc etc for my guests.

I have done a lot of research online about tiny houses and businesses......seems it all part of the "green movement"! hahaha

I also have a lot of ideas that are in the works for the courtyard garden in front.

The red building and the hay shed will be torn down soon to make way for the new matchy matchy barn too. I will add some porch rail flower boxes and maybe some handmade gingerbread for the trim! Made by him of course, he can make anything. Maybe some homemade gingerbread for my clients too! Made by me!

With a little tweaking it will be exactly what I need.





Now I have to make my sign....again.... and get it hung this time around before I change my mind.....again!!!

I have to do some advertising, however Danny is my best word of mouth advertising that I have.
Not because he stays so clean cut....far from it, he has to beg for a haircut for weeks it seems, but he tells all his friends and coworkers. I have been cutting his bosses hair for well over a year now and they were talking yesterday about my decision to go back into the nursing field or not. He told Danny that it didn't matter if I went back or not that I was still going to cut his hair because I was the best!!! hahaha I have him snowed!
Another coworker overheard this conversation and inquired about my services, got right on the phone and called his family......immediately I had 3 new hair clients!!

The new salon name is

Showalter Place
Hair Studio
318 Showalter Road NW
Willis, Va 24380


Sooooooo.........
now if I get that call today about that job that I interviewed for on Monday.......hmmmmmm???
What to do? What to do?

My look alike

Happy Birthday Grandma Goldie! I sure miss you! Today would be 96 years.

Do you think we look alike? My mom and dad always said that I looked like her and acted just like her too, even when I was a small child. I didn't think so then but I sure think I look like her now. I knew that I always acted just like her and that was a compliment!! I spoke my mind just like her and I pouted just like her. She wrote the book on the art of pouting to get her way, I might add!! Me too, I learned that little trick early in life. My dad would always tell me to pick my lip up before I stepped on it and I would get sooooo mad at him!! Then I got married and I could always pout and get my way with Danny and then somewhere along the line "He" grew out of that!! He wised up to my shananigans I guess! What went wrong Grandma Goldie??? Send me some help!! Please!!!!

Homemade Country Butter

We used to call homemade butter "Country" Butter when I was a child.

We (my family) were wanderers and moved back and forth many times from the country in Va to the cities in Florida, Vero Beach, Kississimme and Orlando. Of course they weren't as big a cities as they are now but it wasn't much country butter being made there at that time either.

Who would have ever thought that my parents would settle back down in their hometown of Callaway Va????

When we lived in Fla we would visit Callaway and my dad had to stock up on country butter, buttermilk and eggs from a neighbor lady, Nannie. He just loved her butter because she would let her cream get sour before she made butter and it had that strong "country" butter taste. I did not like that taste and found that I really liked margarine!! Didn't know for years that you could actually buy sweet cream butter in the grocery store, I thought all butter was sour!! I still loved to go to her house to buy the butter anyway. It was usually the highlight of my trips back to Va. She had the shiniest wood floors in her house that I had ever seen!! If I was really lucky I would be able to catch her milking her cow. OMG!!! That was always a dream of mine, to have my own milk cow and milk her myself!! Then I visited a huge dairy farm in Fla on a school field trip and they milked about 200 cows. OMG!! That kicked my dreams up a few levels. I talked to the milker after he was finished milking and I told him I was going to own a dairy farm one day when I grew up!!!!!!!!

Well I never owned my own dairy farm til this one. Not 200 cows to milk twice a day but a few little ole goats will suffice!!

I spent years of my adult life. however, milking cows, or testing milk and working the fields on some big cow dairies. I sorta got my fill of the dairy farm bug.

I am very content right here on my 2 1/2 acres with my 9 little goats!!!

When my family purchased land and built a home right beside of Danny's family dairy farm.......(that's when the trouble really began, I couldn't keep my hands off him ;-))).............

my dad would go out and buy butter from Danny's mother, Carrie. Sometimes when I was a good girl and they would let me hook up my pony to the iron wheeled wagon and go out the dirt road to get eggs and butter, that usually ended up taking me the entire day too!!!!!!!!

(After Carrie passed away Danny's father Raymond carried on the tradition and made butter for many more years before selling all his cows. They both sold butter and eggs all over the place. Folks would drive for miles and miles to buy from them cause they knew how good their butter was!)

Now let me tell you she made "Country" butter that even this whimpy little ole gal could eat!!!

Took me years to find out why hers was so much better than our neighbors (Nannie) up the road. I mean Carrie's bull would sometimes jump the fence and breed Nannie's cow for her or vice versa!! I can't remember the whole story there. Anyway I knew that the cows were raised on almost the same grass as their fields were side by side, so what gives with sour verses sweet country butter???

Ah ha!! I finally understood it. Carrie's butter was made with sweet cream and it was sooooooo good! I thought it was just that she was such a good cook and could even make an eggplant taste good!! So I knew that I could make sweet country butter just like Carrie's with my goats milk cream and I did just that yesterday!! The only difference is that mine is snow white and hers was sunflower yellow!!! It has almost the same taste and just a little softer texture. The goats butter has a lower melting temperature than cows milk butter does.

I can say that we were very happy with a generous pat of this stuff slathered on a hot homemade cat head biscuit last evening!!

I think Carrie, Raymond, Nannie and my dad would all be proud to taste my butter!

Not to brag or anything like that, I am just saying!!!

(Yes I married that neighbor boy that I couldn't keep my hands off of.

I thought I was going to get to own my big dairy farm one day if I married him!! Hahaha)

It's a Martha kinda day!

I found out this afternoon that Martha Stewart is on Hallmark channel almost all day now!

Why didn't someone tell me??

These are the old shows when I was just so in love with her!!!

I was able to catch a couple hours this afternoon, only after I had done a ton of work around the house...OK? I am not a couch potato!

I learned a lot today about seedlings. I thought I knew more than I did about seedlings but for some reason I am being tested this year!

My peppers and tomatoes are doing wonderfully so far but the onions, leeks and lavender are struggling along trying to die a long slow death.

I love daffodils but this is a double dose of daffodils!!

(their reflection)

My poor husband is stranded in the big rig in WV today with his truck shut down by the DOT for a mistake on his permit to haul a big piece of equipment from Ohio.

While he is eating well on the company (haha he has free rein to eat anything he wants tonight and he called me a little bit ago and said he was eating his leftover pinto beans and cornbread that he took with him. Said it was better than anything he could get in a restaurant .....he sure loves me) and sleeping in a cushy motel room I am all by myself.

I walked the treadmill today......woowoowooooooooooo!!!!

The last time I did that little number for 3 days straight, I couldn't walk for 3 weeks with back pain. This time I will start slowly and build up gradually, and get in the hottub afterwards. It is amazing how much the hottub really can soothe your overworked muscles and keep you from getting sore. I hope to be able to get my calisthenics started again soon too......gradual Becky!!
I have fed and put all the animals to bed, I am getting ready to hit the hottub and then I hope to squeeze a new haircut in before American Idol comes on and then I will lay back on the sofa and crochet. No I did not crochet hardly at all while I was under the weather, took too much energy!

OK my gardening friends......is this Cresse salad?

Watercress? We used to call it creesie salad!

I have been wanting some and I knew this was out there where it always comes up around my flowering quince. Danny says this is creesie but "It's the bitter creesie"!!

Can you tell? Do I have to just taste it?

Anybody?




Please let me know what you think. I have 10 bunches that should make a pretty good salad and I am feeling the need for something fresh!!!
It's springtime ya know!!!!!


FYI~ I will watch Martha tomorrow on the TV in my sewing room while working on something fruitful like a king size quilt!!

I just had to show you these......

This is my favorite picture of me! Was I not a beautiful baby? Yes I have to toot my own horn! I was beautiful! Look at those eyelashes and those huge green eyes. The dimples have left my face and went everywhere else now. Those perfectly shaped brows are no more. The curls....what I had curls? One would never know it! The yellow smocked dress was made by my Grandmother Goldie (she was my favorite person in the world) I had Robin's picture taken in the same dress at 1 year old and she had Morgan's taken in it too when she was 1 year old. I have to gather those up and let you see them too. But I want to just warn you that I was a much prettier baby than they were......wink wink wink!!!!! That's OK they are a lot more beautiful young ladies than I am!! (That's my brother with me, David. He was a dapper little devil too!)

Now onto these hotties!! LOL!!
I recreated this picture of Danny and I in 2005 (good thing I dated it, I have already forgot) in charcoal from a little 3X5 sketch that was done in a token booth at Chuckie Cheese. The kinda booth that as adults you have to squeeze into in order to get all your parts in the picture! We look scared don't we? We were afraid we were not going have ears when the picture was finished!! When it was finished I couldn't believe how it turned out, it was by far our best picture together so I had to recreate it. At first I was going to do it in oils but I wasn't sure if I could pull that one off. Charcoal ended up being very easy. I was so pumped when I finished that I wanted to do everything in charcoal.

My children are scared of this picture because they say that the eyes follow them around the room. I just tell them that their parents always have and always will be watching them!!!!!

The truth is ..... I am self taught and have no idea how to fix the eyes ;-) That's OK I'll just stick to my story.....

See I definately don't look as good as I did as a baby! What do you think?

My well deserved makeover!

Bad day. Not just a bad hair day but a bad bad day all around. This was back in June at our pond while fishing. I must not have been catching any fish, ya think??? I have no idea why I grow my hair out only to cut it back off but I do it anyway. I had no style. What happened to me? I used to be the girl who wouldn't even think of going to the trash dumpster or the grocery store without my hair and makeup just right. Off to work well Katie bar the door. I went all out and then I think I realized that no one else cared what I looked like. By the time I quit work in May I had got myself in this little rut of not caring. A few hundred gallons of paint from painting on 2 houses a garage and tons of furniture, a few hundred gallons of gas burned out in a lawn mower, one full growing season in my garden and the many woes of farmgirl life.........and just look at me. Well you can't see me cause I didn't post any thing past June ;-)
So being the hairdresser that I am, I have plenty of hairstyle magazines. I picked out this cute little carefree do and sprang it on my husband last night and LO AND BEHOLD HE LOVED IT!!!!! What??? He hates short hair!! I guess he hated having me look so frumpy when he came home from work too!!! Each day I am in my paint covered comfy wear around the house clothes that I have become so fond of. No makeup. No jewelry. Barely a shampoo hit my hair for months now. I wish I could meet him at the door each afternoon with my "housedress" and apron on, hair and makeup done up just right, a pair of sexy high heels and a delicious dinner on the table. Hey, I bet he would like that too!!! Of course he can't complain about the meals that he gets.................actually he does complain about them too.......it seems it's my fault that his pants are getting tighter.......must be my fault cause I know for sure it is "My Fault" that mine are getting tighter too!!!!!!

Waaaalllllaaaaaaa!!!! Becky in a new sassy do, makeup and her clothes with not nary a paint splotch on them!!!!!!! Are those earrings too????

DH was happy too.

Becky went out this morning to run errands...actually took all day......but she stayed in her "Good Clothes" all day until he could see her. Becky missed her comfy paint clothes or PJ's too.


ps. I didn't want the Kate plus 8 look of an assymetrical haircut so I tweaked it up a little. Leslie came right thru the door this morning, looked at me and called me Kate G. :0(

Fundraising Fashion Show

This evening I was invited to participate in a fundraiser for the Community Action Emergency Fund for our county. It was held at the home of Jeannie O'Neill. She has a gorgous home and gardens on Main Street.
This little building (the back of the building shown) used to be her fathers vet office. A few years back my daughters and I rented this from Jeannie and had our ladies consignment store in there. It has now been renovated (wish I had pics) into the cutest ever B&B type nightly rental. While we were getting ready for the fashion show a gentleman from England came up requesting a room. He got a great room for the night and was invited next door to the show and 2 doors down to Jeannie's husbands birthday party after the show!!! What a deal he came across!!

Her back yard.

Her boutique Jeannie O'Neill Originals. She is a fabulous artist and clothing designer. Robin and I used to do some sewing for her. Her items are being modeled tonight.

One of the models, Cindy. My job was to dress the models in Jeannie O'Neill Originals. These are her handbags too. There were four other stores from our town that also had their clothing shown.

Side of her home. It's huge.

Front room of her boutique.

Some of her art and jewelry on display.

More art. Love the "nothing to wear" sign.

I can't believe I am telling this on myself, but this is "MY BUTT" .......really it is.......when we rented from Jeannie she came into my store and asked me to come outside and model for her. I did as I was told....bent over and she took a picture of my butt!!!! The rest is history! You have to know Jeannie and I don't think it would make any of you mad. I always thought this was my best side ;-)

Some of the models gathered for pictures. Notice Jeannie's art hanging on the side of her house.

This is an old friend and previous co-worker of mine Lori. A fellow hairdresser and her boyfriend Michael. They were both models tonight for another store. I was so happy to see them here.

Here's the crew. All my models and Jeannie second from left.

There were door prizes and a silent auction with a lot of great items for auction. If The Fairy's Rest was ready for guests I would have given a weekend to the highest bidder!! Maybe next year.

This is Jeannie's sister Temple. She modeled vintage dance wear and was caught dancing later in the evening. The band was great too. I think everyone really had a good time. Jeannie is quite the hostess.

She also offered me a job before the night was over!!!