I have too!

Hi! I'm here, just not as often as I used to be. Don't you love Mamagoose's playroom?

Thanks for thinking of me...it's been crazy/busy around here lately, but if we can get through the next few months, I'm hoping things will get a little less hectic. My husband is doing well in physical rehab (when I just say rehab people seem to think he's in drug rehab LOL) but he's still not home yet.

We're hoping he'll be home in a few months, if not sooner. He's got some form of neuropathy (the neurologist can't quite figure out what type) but says he's sure that it will get better...it's just going to take some time. At least everything seems to be repairing itself, just very slowly.

In the meantime, in order to make a little extra money, I'm going back to school! It's online this quarter, but will be in class starting spring quarter. I'm going to community college to study landscape design. How cool is that? :)

I'll still be helping my husband with his business, but eventually I hope to open my own business in landscape and gardening, focusing on natural plants and low maintenance...but still pretty gardens. The whole tree/rock/gravel path concept seems to be popular here, but I know I'm not the only one that want to see more color and flowers!

Anyway, that's what's going on lately. Oh, and I may not be able to remodel the farmhouse...at least not for us to live in. All this (my husband is in a wheelchair for now) has me SERIOUSLY reconsidering steps. I think building a home that's all one story might be better and easier for everyone, as we get older. It might be fun to fix up the farmhouse as a guest house/project for the nieces/nephew if they want to live there, eventually. I'm starting to think about solar panels and green construction...and better views. Maybe build my house in the kitchen garden and move the garden to another area. This would be a pretty view! {{!gwi}}From Lavender's Garden

LL, that would be a beautiful place for a new house. Sure is good to see you back, hope you will check in often. Best wishes and prayers for you and your DH.

Yes best wishes to you both. Please keep in touch. We missed you & your wonderful ideas..

Good to hear you are doing so well and your dh is improving. When you have time, would you shoot me an email about the classes? I'd like to know how you found them. I wouldn't want to do landscaping, at least I don't think, but I would like to go back to work doing something, if I just had a marketable skill.

LL...I really have missed you and glad you checked in. I personally think it is a much wiser idea to make your house handicapped accessible...no matter the age, we never know when we will need that. Prayers to both of you...Sending hugs!

Yes, thanks for the update. Glad your DH is improving.

Lavender Lass ~ I'm sorry to learn of your husband's illness. May his health improve very soon ~ having your positive disposition around I'm sure is a blessing to him!!

"I hope to open my own business in landscape and gardening, focusing on natural plants and low maintenance...but still pretty gardens."

This sounds like such a great fit for you!! I wish you lived closer to me (western NC) as I suspect it would be great fun to work with you in creating the landscaping and gardens for my family's new home! Best of luck to you in this new endeavor :)!

Hi Lavender Lass! It is good to hear that your DH is still improving. Never quit trying, and if the insurance company or the docs give up on you, ignore them and keep doing your exercises. That is what I learned in 8 years of seeing people in nursing homes. Nursing homes are now considered rehabilitation centers for those who cannot do the 3 hours of work each day that are required to be admitted to inpatient rehab. Some give great rehab, but at other facilities, it is a joke. Feel free to send a private message if you need to vent or need any ideas. Having DH away from home can be a blessing if he is in the right facility, and a horror if he is is the wrong facility. Best wishes to you, your DH and to the rest of your family.

Just stopping by for an update...

Nancy- So true! We're kind of falling in between, but finally started the out patient therapy at a better facility. Unfortunately, it's $95 a trip (out of pocket/not covered by insurance) every time he takes the handicap accessible transport van.

Well, my husband finally got Medicaid today! That should help with the medical bills not covered by our insurance and the van. He's getting stronger, but wants to come home yesterday! I know that means he's feeling better, but it's probably still another few months before he's home.

School is going really well and I got A's and B's in all my classes. I'm signed up for next quarter, which starts April 1. Honestly, our income has taken a huge hit, but I refuse to worry about that and just keep taking it one day at a time. School loans have helped and if he gets disability that will really help! We still have our home based business, which will be getting a little rehab of its own, when my husband gets home. Hopefully, we can build that back up in about six months and be back on our feet, again. No pun intended :)

I'm still planning our home remodel, but it's going to be put on hold for a bit. More time to plan! Seriously, I'm so glad we didn't start anything...all I would have needed is a partially torn apart house, on top of everything else.

So...bottom line, things are going well, my husband is doing great with his therapy and I hope to have life a bit more back to normal, by the early fall. In the meantime, I'm going to play in my garden and have fun at school. The weather is going to be too nice this weekend (in the 50s) to do anything indoors...so I'll be pulling weeds and planning my new garden bed!

Sending best wishes to your husband and you Lavender. Hopefully your sweetheart will be home in time to see the first buds of your plantings...and the butterflies that come with them.

Good to hear from you. Thanks for the update. Have fun working outside and getting some sun - I'm still waiting for above freezing temps.

lavender, it's good to hear that you and your hubby are doing well, and that you can still enjoy your home and yard. Congrats on the good grades!

LL...you are always such a breath of fresh air and such a wonderful, positive attitude with so much on your plate right now. Thanks for taking the time to post such a wonderful reply to my house post on another site.. My house is handicapped accessible, and of you do build and want to use any or all parts of it, you are welcome to do so...that would get more use out of Summerfield's plan....with a few modifications...and if you want the final draft, just email me your address and I will send you a copy.

If you were closer, you sure could help me with my landscaping 'cause I need to keep it as maintenance free as possible...old joints and back doesn't like me bending them anymore.

May God wrap His loving arms around you and your DH....we never know when our lives might get turned upside down, do we?....but we are survivors!...right?

Hey Lav! Hugs from me, too!

( I haven't forgotten the chickens, fyi ;>)

I don't know how I missed LL's last update. Didn't think this board moved that fast! lol

I'm so glad your husband is doing better. That trip charge is outrageous. I'm glad you got him on Medicare. How much longer will you be in school? It sounds like you really like it even with all the stress in your life. You go girl!

It is now 11 years since I awoke in my own altered state. Life and time go ever onward.

We adapt, we accommodate, we adjust. We live, we learn. We overcome.
Two thoughts, of the many I have regarding you and your husband.....

Based on my experience.....
Courage isn't about being willing to get back up. It's about being willing to get back up knowing you're about to fall down again.

And, like I sign all my mail.....
If you can't stand the waves
quit your @#$% whining
and learn to surf

You have a wonderful attitude and outlook. Surfer girl......

So good to hear from you, LL. I am glad that Mr. Lass is still working hard and is not giving up. And you are working hard on school, too! The Medicaid will help. Just be careful and don't let anything like a tax refund goof it all up for you! Gotta keep below those maximums. Spend it on clothes that velcro or food or something quickly if you get a refund. I am doing my friend's taxes and she is getting money back due to a property tax refund for low-income renters. I have to pay her rent early and ask her landlord to cash it early to make sure her bank balance does not go over the maximum amount and get her Medicaid cancelled. Sheesh! They make everything so hard to do! Poor girl is only getting $800 or so, and it is going to have to repair her bike and buy a futon mattress and be her heating $ for next winter. But if the bank account goes over $1225, she looses Medicaid. She could never handle all of this alone.

I am sending your hubby thoughts of healing and perseverance, and to you I send limitless patience that you will need so that you do not bite through a tongue or cheek before all of this is over! Study up, iLL! May your garden be an oasis of calm and refreshment to you this year.