Happy New Year!!

Wayne and I would like to wish you the very best in the year 2008.

I started physical therapy last week after about 6-7 months of a break from it. I think it's supposed to help but I have been much much worse since starting it. My whole feet have been burning and my right leg is almost constantly numb and it's swollen up past my knee. I am really afraid she's made things worse. I will be calling my doctor today and trying to get him to call me back and see what he thinks I should do.

I am working on the album for my Aunt & Uncle's deceased daughter. I needed more paper for it so went into the scrapbook store last night to get some paper. I got there and started feeling really light-headed and was sweating profusely...not like I usually do but like turning up the volume onthe sweating. It was 4:30 and I was afraid they closed at 5:00 so I asked the owner how late they were open and thankfully it was till 6:00. I told her I wasn't feeling well and I'm sure she could tell so she brought me some cold water and a cold cloth. That helped me so much..it took a few minutes to get feeling like I could get some more shopping done! I found some great paper and was on my way to WalMart. I had to get a few groceries and it was dark when I got out of the store. I walked out to where I thought the car was parked but couldn't find it...I was really stressing and decided to press the open door on the remote door opener. Come to find out I was standing right next to the car. I called Wayne in tears because I hadn't noticed the car and he said to remember that I wasn't feeling well...he said there's nothing wrong with your mind.

I woke up to the worst foot pain this morning at 2:30. I always feel panicy when the pain gets this bad. I think part of it is not knowing what is going on with my feet and legs. I'm so afraid of losing the use of them. I just hope that if I keep walking in the pool that it will strengthen them.

Wayne took Beca and I to the pool on Saturday and I noticed quite a bit of the fence was knocked down. I told him I thought some kids were probably messing around and took it out and Wayne said it looked more like an accident. Well, funny thing is when I was in the scrapbook store the employee started talking to me when I was sitting and resting. She said the owner had totaled her van the night before (I think?) and took out part of the fence by Swan Lake. Wayne was right! It was an accident. I was sure glad she wasn't hurt. I guess she managed to hit every side of her van...kind of like a pinball machine bouncing around.

Happy New Year to you and the best of the new year!!!

I changed the song this evening to this song by Celine Dion. It is kind of sad but expresses so well the feeling a parent has when their child moves out and leaves home. I think that was the saddest time of my life...when our children moved out for college, marriage, etc. I won't leave this song on long but thought it was beautifully expressed in this song.

I started physical therapy again Monday. My doctor thought I should because of he recent bouts with cellulitus I had. It had been a long time (about 6 mos) since I had therapy so she had do to another evaluation. I have to lay on my back on a hard table for that and it really hurts my low back. I wanted to be a good sport about it and not complain but when I got home my back was just screaming in pain. I ended up having to take extra pain medication. I just hope that this helps with the feet and legs.

There was a student in the office learning physical therapy and I am somewhat of an oddity so she asked a lot of questions. I kind of knew it all but I will try to explain it here. Before I got the morphine pump I was in so much pain for so long and I didn't move around much...it was just too painful. It caused the fluid in my legs to start pooling in my ankles. I went to my family doctor many times with the swollen foot..especially worse on the right side. He finally sent me to a foot doctor who said it was plantar faciitis and treated me with shoe orthotics. That seemed to help a little bit for some reason. But the swelling came back again and then I started having burning in my feet...especially my toes. Well, with the burning pain my doctor thought I probably had pheriferal neuropathy. Not sure the spelling is right but it's close. It was 2 Christmas's ago I started on medicine for that and I remember that because the first 2 weeks I was extremly sleepy. I slept almost the whole time at my parents house. I went to Mayo Clinic last winter and they finally diagnosed it as lymphedema. We were so lucky to have someone trained in wrapping legs right here in Plymouth...Rosie!! (forgot to mention that in the last year before the diagnosis I had several bouts of cellulitis in my right leg) The therapist taught Wayne in several sessions to wrap my legs and he's been doing it ever since....2 sometimes 3 times a day.

What I had forgotten or maybe didn't want to remember is how dangerous the cellulitus is. If the infection gets out of control it can be life threatening. Now I know even more how important it is to exercise in the pool to keep that fluid moving and to keep them wrapped.

Tyler came over here this afternoon and we found a new game. We have been playing a series of games on the computer called Granny in Paradise/Super Granny. We found Super Granny 4 today and it's brand new. The fun thing about it is that we can play it together and work together in winning the game. We both laughed so hard and I think it did both of us a lot of good to laugh. When we got to his house today he was crying so hard because his bionicle that we got him for Christmas that he worked so hard t0 build had broken and he didn't know how o fix it. So, me with my added pain and Tyler with his frustrations both needed a good laugh. I know I sure felt better after we played that game.

Wayne and I want to wish you all a wonderful Christmas Day today. We pray that you will feel the joy of the season as you celebrate with friends and family!

We got some really bad news yesterday about a family member. Our brother-in-law has cancer in his lymph nodes and a mass in his stomach. He has been having stomach problems and this is the reason why. Please remember him in your prayers as he starts chemotherapy and radiation. His name is Ken and his wife (Wayne's sister) is Vickie. Our hearts are heavy today as we have this news in our minds even as we enjoy our grandkids and their excitement of the day.

Merry Christmas!!

Lightfoot Christmas 2007

This is the smile Jacob give for every picture taken. It was so comical. I had to try to get him when he wasn't aware of the camera. His Mom, our daughter Kristi, remembered that when she was about his age (actually I think she was 5, not 3) that her smile was like this but maybe a little worse..her mouth was wide open. I was trying to get a picture for Christmas cards so I made her go into the bathroom and practice smiling in front of the mirror for a while. I apologizd to her and she said I didn't have to apologize because she remembers that it worked for her!

Isabella Amira on Sunday, December 16th ...what a little cutie!!

Kristi and Jacob heading to church on a very snowy morning. I think the pine tree across the street is so pretty with all the snow on it. It looks like a winter wonderland!

Left to right is Jacob, Kael and Rhebeca. They look cold but they had a good time sledding. Remember the story about getting the hand, scarf and gloves from The Gap and how bad my back was hurting? Well, if you'll look at Kael in the middle..he is wearing the set out in the cold and snowy weather. I'm so glad I made it there to get the set for him. He loved it!

One of the scrapbook sites that I visit asked people who blog to answer this question......You can go back to your childhood for one day. What day and age will you choose?

After a lot of thought I would go back to my early teens when I was showing horses. That was a really fun time for me. I remember going to church and changing my clothes ont he way home so we chould head off to the horse show. This was also a time when my friends and I would ride our horses to each others houses and have fun with them. We would try circus acts or just tie up the horses and talk to each other.

Right now I suffer with chronic pain so this was a time when pain wasn't a part of my life. I hadn't had any surgery yet and so it was a very innocent time of my life without the experience of anything "bad" that comes with living life:)

This is my consolation picture. We had scheduled this group plus Isabella to have their picture taken at Olan Mills on Friday evening. When we got there they told us it would be at least 1/2 hour wait. Children this age do not wait well...so we cancelled the picture. I really felt bad because Jacob isn't here that much and I want a picture of all our grandchildren. So, I took this one on Sunday but couldn't get Isabella in the picture because she was sleeping. Left to right is Kaleb, 2, (Alan & Eutemia's), Rhebeca,9, (Alan & Eutemia's), Kael,4, (Alan & Eutemia's), Tyler ,7,(Steve & Katie's), Jacob,3, (Kristi & Eric's), and Caden,3,(Steve & Katie's).

This is Isabella (8 months) and Alan, her Daddy
Kristi had hoped it would snow while she and Jacob were here and she got her wish plus a little more. Kristi took the kids sledding and carried Kaleb the whole time. I think Jacob is having a good time.

I haven't been online for a while because our daughter and our grandson stayed here for a few days. I loved having them and our grandson...Jacob... really made up with both of us. They left this morning and I feel so sad to see them go. I cried when then left and still could cry but am trying to keep myself busy and keep it off my mind.

I put myself out so much that by last night I couldn't go another inch. I felt badly that I didn't make it to my inlaws Christmas party. I tried real hard to push myself but I couldn't do it. I had a fever and my back and feet were in terrible shape so I stayed home and slept. I am still exhausted this moring but hopefully by the time Tyler comes here this afternoon I will have recouped a little bit!!

Okay...I've been tagged twice now and I guess I better get on the ball and respond to it. When a person is tagged they have to list 7 things about themselves and then tag 7 people. I have been tagged by:
Tricia at http://triciastreasures.blogspot.com/
Willa at http://www.scrapbook.com/myplace/index.php?mod=blogs&u=126195

7 things about me:

1. I love Starbucks. My newest favorite drink there is the Chai tea latte with low fat milk. It is fairly lowfat and tastes delicious:)

2. I have always loved horses. When I was a little girl I would go to sleep at night dreaming of owning a horse until one day my Grandpa bought me one. I don't own one now because of health but loved owning them in the past.

3. My favorite TV show is American Idol. I am so excited that another season is starting in Janurary!

4. I am left handed and do everything with my left hand except bowling.

5. I used to love to read until this illness hit me...now I'm thinking about getting some books on tape...does the library carry them? They're expensive.

6. I have always loved sweets but it's even worse ...like them even more...since I haven't felt well.

7. I love the water...lakes/ponds, the ocean. I think it is so soothing to be by the water.

I don't know 7 people to tag so I'm probably wimping out but anyone I go to and try to tag has been tagged all ready and it's like...how many times does a person want to be tagged? So, it ws fun to be tagged and I enoyed reading my friends list of 7 things about them that I didn't all ready know!

Latest layout done for the design team. I just love this picture of Kristi (our daughter) and Eric's little guy, Jacob. In fact, Jacob is flying in an airplane as I type this to come and visit and I'm really excited to see him and his Mom. Isn't this look one of just pure joy of living?

Tomorrow (Friday) we have an appointment at Olan Mills to have all 7 of our grandkids picture taken. That ought to be quite a hoot. Can't wait to see what they're able to come up with.

I haven't had a very good day today. I don't know if I'm extremely tired or what. One thing is I have a toothache on the area where the dentist was going to work on 2 weeks ago. I am so glad the tooth started hurting today because the dentist isn't in the office on Friday's. He won't be in till Monday morning and if the tooth gets any worse I will have to use the pain medicine he gave me. He wanted to give me vicodin but I told them that I take vicodin every day and it won't cut it for a toothache. I told them I would probably need percoset and that's what he did!! It's good to have it just in case that toothache gets to screaming:). My appointment to have this tooth worked on is the middle of January and that seems like a long ways off when a tooth is screaming in pain.

I always buy the "girls" (Kristi, Katie and Eutemia) something from
Bath & Body Works. I told Katie that I would like her help this year. It's nice to have someone of
that age group to help pick out what they would like. So, she picked me up this afternoon and she took me to the store. Caden came along and I took my walker that has a seat on it. He loved the walker and I pushed him on the little seat on the walker unless I needed to sit down. He was pretty slow in giving it back to me but eventually he would get off and let me sit for a little bit. It was a lifesaver today and I need to take it with me more often.

This is the layout I finished Sunday for one of my projects for the Design Team. I had to use the brown paper in some way. I couldn't stand to use all brown so added some of the orange paper with it. This is a picture of Beca being a "bride" when they lived in Greenwood. She was about 4 years old.

The weekend has turned into quite the interesting days. I'll try to shorten they acocunt as much as possible.



One Friday Wayne said he'd take the day off work and take me to the hospital to see my Dad. Katie called and said she was working and needed us to take care of Tyler. I thought that would be fine and he'd like seeing his Great Grandpa Dick. We picked him up at school at 12:2o because they had a half day. Tyler was a little disappointed that we were heading to South Bend right away but seemed to accept it okay. As we got closer to the hospital he got a little angry acting. We had played a game of travel battleship and my pegs spilled all over his lap and that was very upsetting to him. The rest of the trip he seemed to be angry with me for some reason. When we got to the hospital he refused to go inside. I still didn't realize what was going on with him. Wayne dropped me off at the front door so I could get a wheel chair for him to push me upstairs. It took the longest time and they hadn't come in. Wayne finally called me and said Tyler was refusing to go into the hospital. A long time later I see Wayne carrying a crying Tyler into the hospital. I realized at the moment that he was scared to come in. I forget sometimes that he's only 7 years old and doesn't have the life experiences to make him mature. He's so smart that it seems he at my level at times. We started up to the room and he was still crying. We told him he didn't have to go into the room and that seemed to be a little better for him. I went in to see my Dad and Wayne and Tyler went to the lounge where they found my Mom. I told my Dad about Tyler and he said not to stay...to leave since he was scared...he understood. Even on all the pain medicine he understood Tyler's feelings which I was thankful for. I went to the waiting room and let Wayne see my Dad and then we took off.



Wayne had to fix a crane while we were out. Tyler wasn't too thrilled until he found out they had video games. Wayne gave him huge handfuls of quarters to play the games As soon as we left the hospital he was fine and seemed so happy. It was pure fear that made him act the way he did. I've never seen anything as cute as him playing those games. He kept talking to himself .....even when he was playing the games. I was happy too because I had taken some scrapbook magazine to look through.



After that I had to stop by University Park Mall. I had called the Gap and they had a hat, scarf and mittens for Kael that I wanted so I needed to I pick those up. There's no quick way to get to the Gap so I had to walk quite a ways. I made it to the Gap okay although I was sweating like mad and my hair was even getting wet. It was after I left the Gap that my back pain began and I didn't know how I was going to get out of the mall. I remembered all those times I had spent hours there walking the whole length of the place. I wouldn't be doing that again. Back to today...(actually Friday). I had to stop and rest 2-3 times to make it out to the car. I even felt like I was going to pass out. By that time the sweat was dripping off me onto my blouse, hair and the floor. It is so embarassing. I finally got the strength to make it to the car. Wayne couldn't believe how awful I looked. I was upset physically and emotionally upset that I couldn't do a simple task like that.



Saturday morning I woke up with horrific muscle spasms. I have noticed that they come after I have had a big day the day before. I took a muscle relaxer right away but it took just over an hour for it to help. You can't believe how slow that hour goes when you're in so much pain. I did nothing the rest of the day. My aunt has given me magnets to sleep to prevent the spasms but I haven't found a way to keep them on. I need to get an elastic band with pockets in it. I will try to find one online today.

The rest of Saturday was spent doing very sendentary projects. I worked on a layout due this week for the design team. It is the one at the top of this post.



I woke up with muscle spasms again Sunday morning. I had taken a muscle relaxer when i went to bed Saturday night so thank goodness the spasms weren't as severe and didn't last as long as Saturday morning.



I can't believe it but Sunday was our 35th wedding anniversary. We were both teenagers when we got married so I'm sure many people didn't think we would make it. They didn't know how much we loved each other:) I am unable to travel so a trip for our anniversary is out of the question. I had wanted to go to Red Lobster for lunch and then to a movie but after the day I had on Saturday I didn't feel like going. Wayne is so understanding of my abilities and disabilities and was fine staying home with me. We went to WalMart together and just enjoyed each others company. We got a carry-out from Christo's for our anniversary dinner and after being out so long my back was hurting so I sat in my most comfortable chair which is the computer chair. We ate in different rooms so I could get my back under control. We both understand that this is the way it is. Would I like to change it? Sure I would but I know I can't right now. Even though I'm crying as I type this I am usually very accepting of my situation. Things could be worse and I'm so happy for the abilities that I do have!

Tuesday I went in for a pump refill. I hadn't felt well ever since I stopped the anti-biotic and when they took my vitals before the pump refill I had a fever. It wasn't high but was lowgrade at 99.7 ....so I called my family doctor today and asked if he would call in another round of the anit-biotics. He said he wanted to see me. He examined my legs (where the cellulitis is) real well and said my legs are still hot to the touch meaning the cellulitis is still there. He wrote me a script for another round of anti-biotics. I could tell he really felt bad for me..and it's so nice to have a doctor who really cares. I don't know if it's because we were neighbors when I felt well and now he sees the change in my abilitites, etc...or maybe he might just like me as a person:)

Right before I went to my doctor appointment I went to pick Tyler up from school. I get there early so I can be in the front of the line. Well, I kept falling asleep...now I know it's probably from the infection in my body but I just couldn't stay awake. I called and told Wayne and he called Katie who came right over and picked us both up. I have always said I won't drive with any of the grandkids in the car if I don't feel sharp enough to drive. I won't risk their lives. Tyler was so excited to see me and then when he saw his Mom in the car he couldn't figure out what was going on. We drove over to Starbucks and then she took me home for the hour before my doctor appt.

After the appointment I told Katie that I thought I could drive home. I got out of the car which was parked at the school and it was a sheet of ice. My first foot out of the car went sliding and I ended up flat on my face and halfway under Katie's car. It really shook me up for a while and I know it did her too. She came running out of the car to see if she could help me up.

Today (Thursday) is my Dad's surgery. He has kidney cancer and he will have one of his kidney's removed today. I felt so sorry for him yesterday because he couldn't have anything to eat all day Wednesday and then to top it off he had to drink that horrid stuff to make you go to the bathroom and have an enema too. What a horrible day it must have been for him and to have the antcipation of the surgery on top of it. I called him Wednesday night to let him know that I would be praying for him. He changed the subject and told me that the slippers I got him on Tuesday night fit him perfect. I was so glad I could do anything to make things a little more pleasant for him. He is determined he will be hom on Saturday even though the doctor said he'd be in for 5 days. He loves his home and is comfortable there ...I hope that if he still feels that way after the surgery that the doctor will listen to him.

I joined a new group at http://www.scrapbook.com I am setting up a page there and will put a link to it when I'm done with the page. There are just hundreds of scrapbookers on that site that you can talk to or make friends with that have the same passion for scrapbooking. I've enjoyed looking around the site. I think I could spend days there looking around.

Below is Isabella's Christmas present this year. It is from Gymboree...one of my favorite kids stores. This outfit isn't a bit practical but I thought it was SO cute and I emailed it to her mother before I bought it and got her approval and she loved it too. At 8 months old I figure Bella won't need much in the line of toys this year because she won't know any difference. There is a long sleeved shirt underneath the sweater that has the word ballerina on it. The tights have ink lacing that look like they were the ballerina tights laced up. How cute! (in my opinion)

This is my lastest layout. It's been rather "messy" getting my layouts done the last couple of weeks because I'm rearranging my scrapbook room. I am purging everything I haven't been using and I think it will be easier to find things if I have less. I love this picture because when I first printed it I thought there was something wrong with it because of the big black speck on the bottom. Then I saw all 3 boys looking at the black speck and realized it was a bug and saw that Beca had no interest in the bug at all but all 3 boys sure did!

We have had a peaceful weekend. It's nice to have been married so many years that we now enjoy being quiet and doing nothing. It might be our age or maybe my illness that makes me a little less active. I really think it's the illness because before that I was active every minute of my day and fell into bed exhausted at night.

Friday afternoon Wayne and I both felt like we were getting the flu. I had a fever and chills and was nauseated and Wayne was achy all over and had diahrrea but we were supposed to watch Tyler for the night. I thought maybe he could stay with my parents and be all right but he called me around 5:30 and wondered when he could come over. I told him to give us an hour and we'd sleep and hopefully be feeling better. Well, I thought he had hung up the phone but he thought I had hung up on him. I would never do that no matter how sick I was. My MOm called about 40 minutes later and said he hadn't stopped crying so I told her I was on my way to get him. He gave me the biggest hug when I got there and I appologized to him and he seemed just fine then...he jumped in my car and we were off. I still felt sick when we got home and told him he could play games on the computer and there is a bed in that room and I would lay down and rest. He was fine with that. The amazing thing is that when I woke up I felt fine and felt much better the rest of the evening. He and the 7 webkins slept with Wayne and about crowded him out of the bed:)

w