Happy New Year to Us All!

We certainly hope you are all ready for this new year!  I seem to have sincere trepidation for this one.  With all the craziness in the universe last year, looking forward knowing it will amplify makes me a bit anxious.  So, I've determined I must remain BUSY, faithful and focused.  

Paul and I have many goals and plans and ideas, as always.  But I want to review last year on this post and save goals for the next one.

We brought in 2011 with a little visitor. 

January went on with itself and all was well.   Paul and I began taking pottery class with our great friend Patti Connor Greene and LOVED every minute of it!  We made some very sweet new friends and have learned our way around the Senior Center Now!  :-)

 

Ms. Patti teaches her passion!

Our classes ended in October, but we hope to be able to get back into the self study program this month.  We miss it, and practice makes perfect!

February taught us about believing in Miracles ... as did March and April.  It was a terrifying lesson at first, but as the lesson moved forward, it became something to shout from the mountain tops.  But I just want to tell you in all honesty, this rocked our world and changed our souls.  For. Real.

Christian went from this scene in February ...

to this at Easter (hiking and climbing the hills w/ Paul Paul).  A regular little boy doing regular little boy things.  Still a huge thing to wrap my head around.  And the only way to really KNOW is to BELIEVE in the miracle.  A precious, beautiful, one-of-a-kind miracle.

We learned a lot about believing, saying grace, and living with a blessing we can always touch.  NO way to express how that molded our year ... just no way. 

Unfortunately, my sweet boss and friend, Hugh lost his battle with leukemia in March.  I miss him GREATLY.  He still is an example to me in being kind to EVERYONE.  He was an incredible ambassador and a one-of-a-kind man. 

 Hugh Fields and his beautiful daughter, Sarah Whitfield.

My very sweet and precious friend Teresa also lost her precious husband, Britt this same month.  It was a very sad and unsettled time.  I do not like to see my friends with broken hearts.  Healing has begun, but oh, so slowly.

Rest Peacefully, sweet friends.

Paul got a new job in March (another HUGE blessing) at Linville Resorts on the golf course maintenance crew ...

And Nina came up in March to run a 10K with her dad!  They had a wonderful time and Nina won!  LOVE IT!! Girl Power, Go Nina!

Jenn, Victor and Christian came up for Easter and it was our first time visiting with them here in ages.

Red head Girls' night on the veranda began around May ... so lovely to have a bunch of wonderful women sitting outside enjoying food, wine, and each other's company.  Can't wait for that to begin again!  Paul began working on the catering crew at the Lodge, so he was now working 2 jobs.

June was the beginning of a string of Art Shows for Clayzaics.  The first one at Roan Mountain got rained out in a BIG way.  But it was fun while it lasted!

 

I began taking a photography course at a local community college and fell in love with all photography has to offer!  Going back to school was certainly interesting! Old brain kicked in and made me proud!

Nina came up for her 25th birthday in July.  Here she is with her dad.  Two peas in a pod, I tell ya!  July was filled with making new art for me ... lots of art shows to prepare for!!

August brought more birthdays (Mark, for one) and another art show at Mt. Mitchell.  It was a great show and we had a wonderful time!

Christian also had a birthday in August - his 8th.  How many times do you think we said our thank yous for having him here?  (No one can't count that high)

I also was in the right place at the right time and scored a MacBook!!!  Oh.my.gosh.  Best thing EVER!

September brought another birthday, Janine's!  I know a ton of other things happened in September but this was my particular favorite thing!  I was also preparing for yet another art show, so our time was very occupied with Paul working at the Club, two different jobs now ... and me getting ready for shows, going to school, and hanging at the antique shop.  We had a lovely time and somehow the trauma of the first quarter of the year began melting just a little bit.  We took a trip to Atlanta to celebrate all the little lives that had been saved by the ECMO process at the Children's Hospital.  And for the first time in ages, I had both of my children in the same place at the same time.  THAT is a very unusual thing considering their busy, crazy lives.  We got to visit my sweet friend Teresa and she was kind enough to host our visit.  It began the busiest part of our year!

Women are such wonderful people.  This is kind of the core group of veranda women, with Ms. Edie missing, unfortunately.  Anyway, the summer was filled with lovely girls' night memories.  And when there is a birthday, it's just an enhanced reason to be celebrating life!

October brought yet another art show (last and BEST of the season) and more birthdays (Paul's).  Paul began working in the Christmas tree field and things began gearing up for another season of the year.  I began spending more time at the Rusted Periwinkle and we got super busy somehow?  AND I was able to get a DSLR camera so I could continue with my photography education! Oh Yeah!

My Nikon D5100.  In love.

Paul's English Pasties for his birthday dinner!  He LOVES these things with curry sauce on them.

Unicoi Arts Festival .... MUCH fun!  I'm tickled when I look at this photo to see how many of my pieces have sold.  Makes me feel like I have accomplished at least a little something!

Teresa visited us and we took a glorious hike up on Roan Mountain!  It was the first opportunity for me to use my new camera.  Wonderful day, 100%.

And Paul is the proud owner of a 1967 Vespa (Allstate) at long last.  He is one happy, smitten camper with this baby, whose name is Sofia.

November brought more "tractoring", a two part Thanksgiving, more fun and healing; and a preparation for Christmas.

And December brought us beautiful weather (thank you, Mother Nature) and Paul's working the "cut and choose" lots at Christa's and Sam's ... my preparing for Christmas and getting things just right for Christian's visit.

I have given the highlights as I see them here.  For details, please review the earlier posts on this blog and on the artsymatilda blog.  Our lives are full, blessed and precious to us.  We hope that yours are for you and yours, as well.

And we wish you all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Happy Trails to you all.

Paul and Cheri

Coming soon ...

I have just received a bit of a finger wagging review from Paul because this blog has been neglected.  Hmmm ...

I have been posting a blog post everyday through the month of November over here.  You are invited and certainly welcome to catch up with us there.  It is my art blog, but it has personal snippets and information for you.  And Paul has been posting on his scooter blog right here.  He's a wonderfully entertaining writer.  Please visit his site!

I have two more days of "30 blogs in 30 days" at artsymatilda.com.  I'll be back after I finish over there (and maybe take a small break)!

We have to decorate, as we are expecting family for Christmas.  And we have to make presents, wrap them, and etc., etc., etc.  It's exciting, exhilarating and exhausting!  Be back soon!

*** Oh, and it's snowing! ***

Happy Trails to all!

Paul and Cheri

Then and Now

Our Christian and his Paul Paul.  They don't always see eye-to-eye, but they are ALWAYS up for a good time together.  The first photo was 2007 I do believe.  The second photo was taken last weekend.  Those of you who know the story know the second picture is a miracle.  We went to Atlanta last weekend to see all the little miracles who have recovered as Christian has.  It was magical.  IT was an amazing opportunity.  IT was wonderful to say thank you to Dr. Fortenberry.  IT was great to see all the children with the ECMO name tags on.  All the little miracle bubbles.  Wow!

What are you doing, Paul Paul?

Dr. Fortenberry, Chief of ECMO since 1992.  A blessing for us.

Just visiting with others.

Priceless, precious & proud of it!

The Hall Family

Christian and his angel visitor while he was still sleeping.  This gal, Gwen, was also an ECMO patient when she was 11.  She is now 14 and a lovely young lady.  She wants to be in the industry as an ECMO technician when she gets through with school.  Her dad became a minister as a result of the miracle he witnessed during Gwen's illness and recovery.  There are some very wonderful stories to hear at these reunions.  I had the chills more than once.

Christian and Paul Paul had the same tattoo, but Paul Paul's was green.

The garden was decorated so colorfully --- kind of an Asian theme with Asian lanterns and such .. but these were the colors, bright and fun!  The day was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!  Meant to be.

A whole flock of docs and nurses who took care of Christian.  These folks are the technicians who monitor all that scary equipment.  They are very talented and serious about what they do.  They are blessings to us all.  We said thank you a lot.

A boy headbutting his granddaddy in the tummy ... you know.

Christian --- healed and pretty much a normal 8 year old boy. 

We are grateful.  

This post will likely be in 3 parts.  This is part one.  Part two will be the rehab reunion; yet another fun and amazing celebration.   I just feel like I need to say there is no way to express how very emotional all this has been.  And now we are basically able to mark the end of the whole experience.  And the relief is amazing.  But going back to the hospital was very real.  Jennifer and I went up to the PICU unit to deliver the thank you birds.  It was heart stopping and tear producing to enter that zone again.  And I just wanted to go hug every single person sitting in the waiting room with the pain and angst on their faces.  I wanted them all to be in our shoes, celebrating the miracles.  And I hope we see them all there next year! 

And that's it for installment one!

Incidentally, we have had Paul's 50th birthday, a few unbelievably ridiculous hurdles to clear (stories later) and I'm in the middle of preparing for next weekend's art show.  So please forgive our gaps in posting.  I promise we will be appearing more often sooner than you can stand it.

Happy Trails to you all!

Paul and Cheri

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