Miracles!

Please forgive  our unscheduled, unannounced blog sabbatical!  We've had a lot going on.  Some newsworthy, some not so much.  But we haven't had enough spare time to write or put up photos until now. 

So, not necessarily in chronological order, but here none the less, are the happenings of late.

This is our friend (and Paul's "bro") Mark with two of his beautiful daughters last July on his birthday.  Emily, the youngest of the of girls, is on left and Taylor is on the right.  Emily is a senior in high school and making great strides down culinary pathways.  Taylor, on the right, is the oldest of the sisters, and is a multi-talented young woman herself.  Emily had an unfortunate accident this week.  An automobile accident of epic proportion, to be precise.  She even got to ride in a helicopter to the hospital!  Now, Emily is healing and taking it easy.  She has a fractured pelvis, but the integrity of the hip joint is still intact.  She has a few fractured ribs and a bruised lung.  She has a jaw fracture which has put the whole culinary thing on hold for a little bit.  Two short days ago Emily was a "life flight" passenger, and from what I hear today she was sitting in a chair having a smoothie!  Oh youth adored!  She will require a surgical procedure on Wednesday of next week to repair her mandible, and she will be on crutches for a little while so her pelvis can heal, but her recovery should be complete and she is alive.  And let me just say right here, LIFE IS GOOD!  Now, if you didn't believe in miracles before you read this - believe in them now!!  As I understand it, Emily's car was hit broad side on the driver's side by a pick up truck pulling a cattle trailer with a bull on board.  I don't know any of the details about who did what, but that is a lot of weight to run into a little Colt (I think) automobile at over 45 mph! I hope my account is at least semi accurate.  Ms. Emily has an angel on her shoulder.  Thankfully!  Please send some good thoughts her way as she heals and faces the surgery ahead.  And please keep Mark & Janine and the family in your thoughts and prayers as they help Emily heal and they too recover from their own shock and surprise and concern and all things that come along with this kind of thing. 

This young man is another miracle! Christian, our EIGHT year old grandson!

You gotta love stories with happy endings!

We are going to the ECMO reunion this weekend down in Atlanta.  I cannot wait to give all those doctors and nurses a big fat thank you!  It will be so wonderful to see all the children who have benefited from the ECMO department.  I bet it'll be amazing!  I will, of course, keep you posted!

(for those of you who don't know what ECMO is: it's the lung bypass machinery and procedure they use to keep someone alive who is having lung issues.  I don't remember what the acronym stands for and I'm quite sure I couldn't spell it even if I did know!)

Paul and I made a bunch of these little bird key chains as a thank you token from Christian, ECMO patient number 801, to the doctors and nurses on his team.  It always tickles me to see Paul's big hands molding and sculpting things as intricate and tiny and these birds.  And then wrapping the teeny tiny wire around itself.  He's amazing.

Speaking of the amazing Paul, here is his very first ever "thrown" bowl.  It is impeccably thrown, even, and all that. I am so jealous!  Oh well, someone had to do it! And by the way, the bowl is actually yellow, not pink. But my oh my, how many new things I can come up with now that I'm photography educated (HAHA).

Today I heard from Pennisu in Orlando.  She sounds GREAT and it was so good to hear from her.  I also had a shout out from Katie the wine rep on Facebook, which was a lovely surprise.  And I got an email from Ruthie updating us on her fun antics!  I LOVE hearing from people!  Thanks, ladies!  You've made my week!

I went on a field trip with my beginning digital photography class.  We've been trying to go on some more "shoots", but the weather has been uncooperative.  That is a sign of the season to come, I suppose.  I will just try to enjoy what I can.  I've learned gobs ... that's the best part!  Well, that and meeting my instructor, Todd Bush.  check out his amazing work here.  He's a wonderful photographer, and many other things (i.e, Tai Chi Master, Yoga instructor, and fellow hiker).  It's amazing where you run into folks, eh?

Sweet Paul is doing well.  He works at the golf course maintaining the greens from 6 AM til 3ish PM.  But they are winding down for the season ... and with the rain, he gets to come home and rest sometimes! Delightful.  Sunday was his first day off in ages.  He stayed dressed just like this the whole day!  So cute.  He's still bartending weekend nights and some brunches.  It's a busy schedule sometimes, but he's loving it.  Now soccer has begun so Tuesday and Thursday evenings he is refereeing little folks.  Well, young folks, under 10 and under 12.  He's loving it yet again.  Such a good sport I'd say.  He's a tad sad as his VESPA has a flat tire.  But we will remedy that in Atlanta this weekend, so he'll smile a little again then, I'm sure.

Shannon and I have a show coming up the weekend of October 7 & 8.  The Unicoi Apple Festival in Erwin, TN.  I feel like the mad hatter.  This piece is far from finished, but I wanted to share the vintage look and the "offset" format.  I'll post the finished piece too, of course! But it certainly feels good to be working and creating and having fun!  Hope all of you are having some sort of fun!

That's about all I have to add to our little adventure right now!
Happy Trails!
Paul and Cheri