I have not posted for such a very long time, but Im still here..but very sick..Im struggling to stay alive..I have cysts on my kidneys, every lymph in my body is swollen, I have tumors on my adrenal glands, and most likely a tumor on my pit gland, as my ctscan shows an enlarged pit gland, I have been almost 3 years, struggling to get diagnosied and treated for cushing syndrome..you can learn more about cushing syndrome here. if not for this wonderful group and a women who cared enough about others and women that support each other, I most likely would have died by now. Rural Canada, it is very hard to get diagnosied and treated for anything rare and even harder if it effects your brain..you get labeled and you cannot get past being labeled for serious much needed investigations to take place..most people die and end up being a statistic...thank you for any of you..that pray for me..and I hope one day to share some nice freebies again...thank you for prayers..please start a prayer chain for me..God has been holding my hand through this..I know..he do answer the prayers of many..

The days ahead! Update

Its been a long year since I developed this pain in my side..since the 14th of October to be exact...
I have had at least 6 trips via ambulance, to the emergency department, over 9 appointments with my doctor, and nine more with my nurse practitioner...spent since then on the antibiotic cipro..which up until January..would take the pain away and control it..with it two days of coming off it..poof the pain was back.. since January..it no longer controls the pain, but takes the evening fever away..but I still suffer from the evening chills..I do have my mothers electric blanket, which cuddles me at night in more ways then one..
Finally August the 27th, I had a urgent ct scan done..which..revealed swollen lymph nodes in the right groin..that compared to the scan I had done in January..had grown some..it also revealed another ademona..over on my right adrenal gland which had not grown compared to Januarys scan..both of these things were not on the results of Januarys scan, the lymph nodes or..the right ademona....so cant help but wonder what happened there..and why..
all I do know..is that a dog ..would not be left to suffer as much pain as I have suffered this past year..as human beings we would have more compassion...then to allow someone to suffer..like that..
Which seriously makes me wonder..about what I will say is my doctor..to be polite..
Rural Canadian medicine is a challenge if you are poor..travelling to another hospital is very expensive..and without a referal..you are just not going to get a second unbiased opinion of any kind..our barb wired frence is our poverty...in pain an suffering..you cannot leave..
Now..with this second ctscan..its urgent..I have biopsies done..and will be sent away from my family..my friends and support circle..and left alone in a world I do not know to face one of the scariest health concerns, on my own..do I have cancer..or is this some weird infection..
I do miss sharing better things..scrapping..and lots in life..and hope and pray..for a good outcome..in the days ahead..
How I have lasted so long..one look at the smile of my beloved son...is all any mom needs to face another day of pain..if it were not for him and my loving husband..who is a saint..I would have given up long ago..
Thank you for visiting me..and for those that send prayers..thank you too...
I am sure..God has purpose in all he does..God Bless...Joanne

I have not disappeared of the face of the earth.

Click picture to see full size!

I have not disappeared of the face of this earth, but I will tell you that I came very close once again. June the 8th, 2009 I found myself back in icu, after having spent since October 2008 waking up looking like the first photo in this picture composition.

Passing five kidney stones, in severe pain without medicine to reduce it...and 4 months of hell, finally a ct scan was ordered, the ct scan revealed, a golf ball sized septated cyst, on my right kidney, and a ademona on my left adrenal gland which further tested positive for cushings syndrome on May the 24th, 2009.

My bodies organs are all in failure, while I await to be tranferred out of here for medical care.

I honestly believe that the reason I am still alive is because of my faith in God.

Christmas Eve, around five oclock, I looked at my two boys and told them I am sorry, momma is not going to be able to give you christmas again this year and crawled in my bed, in my bed, I cried in pain and prayed to God, please take my life right here right now..or help my doctors find out what is wrong with me. My prayers were answered January the 7th, 2009.

But by the grace of God go I.

I have been undiagnoised with this dreadful illness..for 33 years, and worst is...there was testing done in my mid 20s when I was without my periods for 4 years and lost the hair on my head, that indicated back then I had this disease and should be checked further for it..but it was filed away and never done.

If I ever needed friendship in my life and understanding, It is now.

This is twice I have been on deaths door since my son was born.

I so look forward to having my life back

if you would like to learn more about this aweful disease feel free to check out the place I have found that offers so much valuable information and support.

http://www.cushings-help.com/intro.htm

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

CU Christmas Wire Sample

Download Here

Wishing you Holiday Greetings

May you have a lovely holiday with lots of peace and joy.

Visit here for another neat freebie a ornament frame kit.

Art Trails

Some Scrap Soup for The Holiday Season

Thank you to scrapbrat for the lovely award of this blog has heart, you can visit her blog here. Thank you.

I humbly accept this award, from her, I am supposed to pass this award along, I cannot choose any one person to pass this on to, there are to many people in my world that are so deserving of it who do not openly express themselves as I can. In my heart, I felt the best person I could pass this award unto is someone who is no longer with us, but who had such a great influence on my heart when I first discovered him. The first book I read by him was Living, Loving and Learning.

A particular story comes to mind, from that book, a little johnny story.

Little Johnny, was in art class one day, and the teacher was showing the students how to draw a tree. She drew on the black board a trunk and colored it brown and a cloud like top which she colored green. She looked to the students and said now boys and girls, draw a tree. The children took out the crayons and got busy drawing there trees, while the teacher went up and down the isles viewing there progress, stopping and helping where she could, until she got to little Johnny, little Johnny was busy, with colors of purple, red, yellow, green swirling them over his paper. She looked and said to him, that's not a tree I asked you to draw a tree. To Johnny that was a tree with all the beautiful colors he had seen in trees in one beautiful place, on his paper, what that teacher forgot was..to tell her students to draw my tree!

Being yourself is a very difficult thing in a world that teaches us and expects us to do and be like the majority. So I would like to pass this award along to Leo Buscaglia, who is no longer with us in this world, whose lectures, books, videos are still here for us to be inspired from and to share.

My heart part of me is because of part of him, when I was looking, for things in life I was not even sure of what it was..in reading his books, listening to his lectures, that who I am now became to be, In a world where many question if speaking from our hearts is professional, I have only to think..if it was not why would the people who share from their hearts (such as the chicken soup books) make so much money doing so ..if somewhere underneath we were not all longing to hear..the realities of living, loving and learning and know that we are a doing okay.

I wish you all peace, joy, happiness, love..enough food to not be hungry, warmth from the cold and food for the soul. I will be back again with Christmas Goodies, I have been pretty sick since the 3rd of October and awaiting a cat scan to confirm what is going wrong, which may be kidney stones. The medical care system is slow..and I am still waiting and that is on a urgent consult, but I am hanging in there..even though there are days..when I feel like biting a towel, the greatest gift a person can have is there health..without it..you are almost powerless to change anything in your life and I am grateful I still have health of mind, for those not so fortunate in life to have health of mind and body..they depend on you, your heart, your kindness to ensure that those that will abuse the weak , and feeble to defend them and ensure they are cared for with dignity, I hope each of you finds someone special to care for in your life's this Christmas..
and all year long, it is only through our hands and hearts will we change this world and make it a better place for our children.

Please enjoy the video!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6741106990650052510
You can open up another page and continue browsing and making your rounds as you listen to it. My wish is that it will be ScrapSoup for your heart....love, Joanne

Idas lovely gingerbread

There is a lovely christmas freebie on my friend Idas blog, so cute and perfect for christmas, thank you Ida for sharing it with us all.

Check it out on her blog here.

Leave her some love if you download please.

It is her first freebie.

http://justmeida.blogspot.com/

I think they are so adorable.

Just some more pictures

We had such fun making his cake together. He picked out all his own colors and did all the work to create a beautiful birthday cake.

This is our little girl, she is going on 6 years old, she is the small one of the pets and is always with me by my computer. She is so gentle and kind.

This is our big boy, has he ever grown, and is such a loving animal...he thinks he is a poodle..smiles..!

Something Special

This little sweetie is the puppy of our older husky Meikan, who sired the pups, playful as my son has named him arrived for Sammy's Birthday and has been growing like a weed right before our very eyes, My son is so in love with is new friend, he faithful trains him everyday for an hour....and playful can now sit, give both paws separately and sometimes will lay down. Sammy is very protective over him. We have had more then a few smiles..listening to Sammy being mom and dad to his new baby, hearing our parenting skills coming out in the talks he has with his pet.

This good natured little pup..is very much like his father and has a lovely disposition.

Father and son..play well together..and Sammy loves them equally with all his heart.

It was his birthday, November the 11th, and we spent the day making his birthday cake together, playing games, and having fun.

My boy is 13 now, a teenager, where do time fly..he is growing up before my eyes, taller then me now..and a real little gentlemen, he is doing well learning things and being home schooled has brought the joy back into his eyes and everyday you can see his confidence blossoming.

I will never regret the decision to home school him. I was worried at first, that I might not be able to get my little boy back to the same little boy I put in school, but I can honestly say now..that that fear is gone and that he is back and that I did pull him out of that place whereby he was so very misunderstood, just in the nic of time.

When I first took Sammy out of school, he was severely withdrawn, retreated to his room and had nothing to do with anyone, the shine was gone out of his eyes, and had absolutely no confidence in himself..he spent countless hours in his room not participating in the world around him..now it is the total opposite..its been so long since he spent time in his room, I am wondering if he needs one..smiles..he just loves being in the center hub of things around the house, he now greets people and welcomes them in..shows off his accomplishments and offers his opinions on things...He is just blossoming more and more everyday..right before my very eyes..

It was easy to focus only on him and not all the wrongs of what happened to him..and the seeing the reward for those choices of keeping focused on him..has been so rewarding.

He loves science, anything about animals, and how things work, he love to cook, and like every child..don't like the cleaning part..smiles..but he is even so much more cooperative about helping out then he was..he does what you ask now..with the usual mutterings of a normal teenager..

He was very proud of his birthday cake again this year..

when I get a chance I will post some pictures on his blog..

which I have lots of updating to do as well..

thank you for visiting, I hope to get caught up on a few more post today.

huggies, Joanne

Fall Splendor Blog Party

Fall Splendor Blog Party

Its Fall, the perfect season of the year, with all its beautiful colors.

It's time to have a blog party, which was lovely arranged by Kristine.

Here is my contribution a lovely cd calendar which can be made and put on ribbons to hang or

put month by month on a plate stand..

Enjoy and Happy Scrapping!

Special Thank you go to a lot of talented commercial use designers in the making of this gift to share.

This is just a small collective sampling of a few of the wonderful commerical use designers out there in the digi scrapbooking community..of which there are so many it was impossible to showcase them all..

Special Thanks to Kristine for starting this wonderful idea and taking the extra time involved to cooridinate putting it all togethor..the gentle reminders..the smiles..and her own digital contributions..special thanks to all who have come togethor to contribute and make this special event..happen..

Download Here

If you were one of the first 6 to download..download the fixed file here..!

Fixed Jan. File

A Special Thank You To:

Christy Haig-DigiScrapWarehouse.com-(cd-template modified-Oct)

Gypsy Chick (Jodie Patterson)-ScrapArtist.com - http://thegypsychick.blogspot.com/ - http://www.gypsychick.net/

JulieO-stoneaccentsstudio.com(Lovely Dried Roses-May

Nicole Viars-digiscrapwarehouse.com(stacked Papers-Feb Dotted overlay used on my cardboard torn star)

Kimberly Wresh-Mrs. Wresh Designs-scrapbook-elements.com-thedigichick.com-mrswresh.blogspot.com(frame-Aug)

Misty Cato-(Plastic Style-April Elements)sweetshoppe designs

Atomic Cupcake-http://www.atomiccupcake.com/-(Gems used for Brads-Dec-March-May-June-Sept)

Cyndi Wetmiller-Wetfish Designs-Divine Digital-www.wetfishscraps.blogspot.com-(FishHooks-June and Feb Button June)

Nicole Perry-Digiscrapwarehouse.com-(Tree-June)

Kim Broedelet-Kimb's designs-http://digital-scrapbooking.org-(Paper Tears-Aug)

bsilvia-graphicsillustrations.com (Brushes-April)

Cindy Doerksen-Digiscrapwarehouse.com-(Bow-May)

ShariaBraxton-www.elementalscraps.com-(Doodles-July)

Michelle Boroni-http://studiostyledesigns.com (Sept Frame-modified-Sept)

Sweet Angel Scraps-http://sweetangelscraps.blogspot.com/-(Ribbon on Frame Sept)

Dani Alencar-www.daniarteira.blogspot.com-(Frame-Aug)

Amanda Rockwell-www.scrapartist.com-(overlays)

~ Tania Ramalho Designs ~ Digital Design-Commerical Use Calendar pngs.
http://colorindo-a-vida.blogspot.com/

ScrapGirls-Melissa Renfro-Dynamic Brushes(stitching)Edge It Action

CREATIVE VICTORIAN DESIGNS-http://scrap-n-tag.com-http://creativevictorian.com/boutique/Metal Wire Style-Jan

Everything Else From Art Trails-www.dustybear.com

I have done my best to make sure I have properly read all tou..and properly credited all individuals..if I have made an error it would be an honest mistake and not intentional...many of the designers listed do not require credit..but I have tried to credit them all as a show case of some of the many talented designers out there..!

If there is something I need to fix please email me!

All For the Love of Sam...As God made Him..in his image too!

Please be kind and promote an inclusive community for physically and mentally challenged individuals to participate in the world too!

Happy Scrappin...

For more of this terrific kit please visit

Blog Party Central

Sweet Orange Blitz Freebie Cd Album

Sweet Orange Blitz Cd Album (10 Pgs)

Sweet Orange Blitz Freebie Album (10pages)

For Dial up users.

Download in two parts on 4-Shared

Here

and

Here

Download Full Album on Rapidshare

Here.

I have to say a special thank you to Maria..from digifree who motivated me to blog today..smiles..

She never forgets to list me and help you find me..she holds no favorites..

thank you to each of you, who take the time to list me..and to each of you who visit, leave a little love or take away a little keepsake..to make happy memories with..

consider Paying it forward, do something kind for someone.

huggies, Joanne

Sweet Orange Blitz Journaling Tabs and New Bracket Shape

Download Bracket Shape

4 Shared Here

Rapidshare Here

Download Journaling Tabs

4 Shared Here

Rapidshare Here

Sorry for my absence in blogging..real life...things needed my attention..

this is almost the last part of Sweet Orange Blitz...

I have a bonus pkg..and cd album..that I will be uploading this week..

Thank you to Elizabeth who left the idea for a tree in my suggestion box..and that will be included in the bonus pkg...

We are finally getting some summer weather ..with that comes the heat..today it is over 40 cls and wow..what a lot of heat that is..thank goodness for fans..and air conditioner..

Thank you for visiting..Thank you for comments..and for listing my blog..

Happy Canada Day

May Peace, Happiness and Kindness find there way around the world and may we all come togethor as a united world! Promote Kindness, lets all dance togethor..for a brighter tomorrow for our children!