reesedaily.com

Protected: Advice.. please.

admin — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 05:11:36 +0000

Protected: Over the edge…

admin — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:13:33 +0000

A small update

admin — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 02:54:00 +0000

My aunt is making some progress. She’s still not fully recovered, and at this point she’s been told she should look into finally filing for disability (she has had major back trouble for years prior to her recent illness). That’s a big blow for her. She honestly enjoys her work as ER Director. I’m sure it’s hard to accept, especially since she’s already lost so much of her independence, but we all (with the exception of a couple of people) think this could be the best thing for her. I do and I don’t, and I say I don’t simply because I know she doesn’t enjoy not being able to do much – being holed up all day.

I’m still playing catch up on my work. I’ve made a huge dent, thankfully.

There’s been a lot of progress on the renovation of my new house. I can’t remember if I ever gave any details about the house. It’s a brick house with 4 bedrooms (one will be the office, one master, one guest room and a bedroom for my nephews when they visit) and 2 baths. It has a separate dining room off of the small kitchen (and when I say small, I mean itsy bitsy). It also has a beautiful living room with a wood burning fire place. With the exception of the kitchen, bathrooms and east side hallway, the floors are the original hardwood. They recently put down laminate wood floors in the kitchen and down the east side hallway. I would love to eventually do this through the entire house, with the exception of the bathrooms which I’d love to re-tile.

The only room that is currently lacking is the pink bathroom, which I’ve now dubbed the pepto powder room. I really love the character of older homes, and things like the older style tiles but the pink is nauseating. So many different shades on the wall and the floor. Without gutting the entire thing, I have no ideas to tone that room down. Aside from using a white shower curtain. Any suggestions? You can see it if you scroll down through the photos below – you can’t miss it! They’re still working on it, and since the photo was taken they’ve put in a new toilet. There is still painting to do (I asked for them to paint the walls above the tile white). The only thing I can think of is checking to see if I can paint over the tile.

They’re also working on the exterior this week. They’ve power washed it, put up the new shutters and primed the front door. All that’s left is to put new screens on the windows, touch up the trim work, finish painting the front door and touch up the iron rail around the front porch. I’m going to do my own landscaping. I already have some ideas and Tam’s nephew Nathan is going to help – suppose to help I should say.

I’m planning on painting the kitchen some shade of blue or green, or blue-green/teal/aqua. The office will be teal, and the master bedroom will be a light blue since it will be all shabby-chicish. These changes will be made before I move in so I’ll share updated photos when I have them.

So, here are a few photos I took about a week ago. Excuse any and all messes you’ll see in some of the photos. I took this while they were still doing a lot of the renovations. Also want to say that I love the chandelier my mom bought for me!

The pepto makes me sad.

PS.. I’m not checking for typos. Too tired and still have work to do tonight. Sorry!

Protected: …

admin — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:46:14 +0000

Feeling overwhelmed

admin — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 20:58:32 +0000

My aunt had a relapse. Nearly two weeks ago I was phoned by my youngest sister, who sounded like she’d been crying. It must have been around 11:30pm. I knew something had to be going on for her to phone so late. She said they rushed my aunt back to the ER after an apparent seizure which caused a major change in her mental status. I won’t go into details about what happened because it’s a personal, private matter but I will say that we are now all on alert and having to visually check in on my aunt throughout the day. She spent time in the Neuro ICU at ST Joe’s in Savannah. They have now diagnosed her with a Partial Complex Seizure Disorder. Her seizures are not at all like the convulsing ones. Her seizures, so we’re told, do not last long but the state she’s in after (where many would be groggy or sleepy after having a convulsing type seizure) lasts several hours. We could see she was having multiple seizures while we were in her room in the ICU visiting with her.. she was hooked up to an EEG. Anyway. They have increased her medication by 250mgs to see how she does. The medication is causing some jitters for her and I notice that she fidgets/moves a lot more than previously. This, unfortunately, will be something she will deal with for the rest of her life. With any luck though, they’ll be able to get it under control – hopefully.

I feel like I’ve been run ragged. Dramatic I know, but with all of the back and forth checking up on my aunt, helping the family and driving hours at the time.. I am so exhausted. I’m trying desperately to finish up design work and while my request form is still up, I’m not going to take on any new work for about a week so that I can make a big dent in current projects.

I’m also doing this while dealing with my dad, who is going to be having knee replacement surgery soon… AND moving into a new place. Thankfully the new place won’t be ready for a couple of weeks, so that gives me time, hopefully, to do everything I need to do before taking THAT on.

I know I’ve been bad with this updating thing and catching up, I hope you understand why..

Be back shortly..

admin — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 07:15:28 +0000

I will be back to blogging shortly.

Life just got a bit crazy for a couple of weeks. My aunt was rushed to the ER recently, then to ST Joseph’s in Savannah. Long story made short; they thought she had a stroke but after many tests (blood work, CT, MRI, EEG & lumbar puncture) they determined she was suffering from viral encephalitis. It made it’s way to her brain and caused stroke-like symptoms. She lost 3 days of memory that she will likely never regain. She can’t remember how to do certain things.. like driving. She’s been home and on antibiotics but our family is keeping a very close eye on her. One of the things that happened during this time (we’re not sure if that’s what caused the illness or if it’s a symptom at this point) was that she had a seizure. We spent several days in Savannah with her.

I’ve been trying to play catchup, and while I’m definitely making dents, I’d rather be drilling gigantic holes.

I’ve still got quite a bit to catch up on. But I’m hoping to have everything tackled and under control by mid-week. That includes fixing the big “boo boo” I made on the blog of one of my wonderful clients. ..sigh. So wish I was familiar with Network Solutions Wordpress hosting. I made a small mistake (or so I thought) of adding in a piece of code I shouldn’t have (and still not sure why I did that exactly). That mistake resulted in a syntax error, but it’s preventing us from accessing Wordpress so I can’t log in to correct it, and without FTP access (or any access to those files otherwise), I’m afraid the only thing to do is reinstall Wordpress entirely. I made the backups, now I’m just waiting for the go-ahead. I wish you knew how horrible I feel about this.. and embarrassed too. :/

The winner is…

admin — Fri, 21 May 2010 16:01:57 +0000

The winner of the Bella Bee Designs apron is…

One comment, that wasn’t an entry, wasn’t counted. The 5th entry was Pamela. Congratulations! I will be in touch with you shortly for your shipping information.

Thank you to those of you that entered.

Beach bums

admin — Thu, 20 May 2010 23:20:01 +0000

Life.. on a whim?

My youngest sister phoned me yesterday morning and informed me that she needed a favor. I thought it would have something to do with feeding the cats or dog, since they were on vacation on Tybee Island. Nope. She needed extra money. This resulted in me having to drive almost two hours to deliver it to her.

The day just flew right on by. I had to rush over and let the dog out to “potty” and then had to make sure the dog and cats all had food. Checked the house for “accidents” and found one, from the dog, and cleaned it up. Made sure the doors were locked and off I was.. almost. I then had to get gas, since I was nearly on empty. After getting gas I had to make my way to the bank for the money.

I decided after all of the hard work I should stay. I was already tired by this time and didn’t want to drive another 2 hours. Anyway. They were on the beach, so I stayed down at the beach with them for a bit. They wanted some pictures of the boys playing in the ocean, so I took a few.

And a lonely seagull, before they ran up behind it and made it fly off.

I enjoyed what little time I spent with them on their vacation, but I’m glad to be home. It was so rushed, and so last minute.. but worth it.

Now I’m trying to get caught up on some work and emails.

By the way, don’t forget today is the last day to enter for a chance to win a gorgeous apron by Bella Bee Designs.

OK, I think I need to bathe in some aloe. Shame on me for not putting on sunscreen (something I always do since I’m so fair skinned). Oops.

Win an Apron by BellaBeeDesigns

admin — Fri, 14 May 2010 03:02:23 +0000

It’s time for a contest.

Enter for your chance to win a gorgeous apron (Blueberry Jam Chef Apron) by BellaBeeDesigns (a new found love on Etsy).

Photos by BellaBeeDesigns

Like the other aprons in her shop, I fell in love with the choice of fabrics by Amy Butler that are used for the Blueberry Jam Chef Apron up for grabs. What can I say… her aprons are so fun, and quite honestly, fabulous! You won’t be able to help looking stylish in it.

About the apron (per item description):

This apron is 100% cotton, pre-washed and completely machine washable and dryable.

Measurements:
Length: 29″ from top of bib to bottom of skirt
Width: 27″ at widest part, 11″ at narrowest part
Ties at waist are each about 30″ long

To enter you may either blog about this entry, or tweet it (or both for an extra entry).

1) One entry for blogging about this contest and leaving a comment with link to your blog post.
2) One entry for tweeting this and leaving a comment with a link to your tweet.

*** Please note: If you are going to do both, be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry. This will hopefully eliminate any confusion when a winner is selected.

You have until midnight EST on May 20th to enter. A winner will be selected at random using random.org. The winner will be announced on Friday, May 21st!

This contest is open to anyone, anywhere.

** I realize there is a chance that some people wishing to enter will not have a blog or twitter account. If that is the case for you, simply leave a comment on this entry.

I should also note that I will be out of town between late Friday and Sunday. I will have limited access to the internet, so if your comment is held for moderation, please know that I will approve it as soon as I have a chance to view it.

Have fun and good luck to all of you that enter!

Protected: The “S” word – Stressed

admin — Thu, 06 May 2010 03:19:08 +0000