Wow...it's been soooooooooooo long!

January, 2010...last time I had time to post something here. My life went completely coocoo...(or is it kookoo?)
Since last October Chris and I have been through some very difficult times. He was in and out of hospital so many times...3 infections, pneumonia, 3 surgeries...not mentioning the horrible hospital he had to go to for the first 2 surgeries.
Humber Regional Hospital at Finch...if you fear for your life...stay away from that place. Not only it's filthy but the staff is absolutely rude and incompetent. The room...OMG..was like a horror movie scenario, better...Stephen King couldn't have created such a horror story and so freaking scary nurse characters. Unfortunately it wasn't a movie and we did not make any money out of it. Wish!

I'll post some pictures of all our hospital moments...hope you don't get upset with me...they are somewhat disturbing..specially because we believe in going to a hospital to get healthier, but this one...oh, no...quite contrary. The things I saw there were unbelievable. I saw people in the hallways begging to be fed (no, they were not on prescribed "no feeding diet", they forgot to feed this very old man. He was crying for food!!!
The family lounge is used to put patients on stretchers. There were broken stretchers, equipments, chairs in he small hallway right in front of the fire exit doors. But the worst of all..very rude nurses...really rude and lazy and not mentioning almost giving Chris the wrong medication, not once, because they can't understand the doctors handwriting. One of them let Chris spent hours on his bed covered in puss. There was a leak  in his bag and she didn't want to change it..so she told him to way for the next round nurse to do that, can you believe it? You have no idea of the smell...that was so inhuman...she' should have been fired, but in that hospital this is normal.
Cleaning is something that they really don't know what it is...my husband had to go to the hellhole for an emergency surgery, because of a massive infection 4 days after we went home. So, getting there, by ambulance, still we had to way for hours to go into the ER (they knew - Surgeon included - that Chris was going back in critical conditions. After waiting for almost 2 hours, because they said they were getting the room prepared for him...we went upstairs...40 minutes waiting again!!! Even the EMS boys (very cute, by the way) were amazed by that horrible place!!!
Here are the pictures of the "prepared" room to have a patient with a massive infection:
Sorry for the really bad pictures.

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What you see here is not rust...it's faeces...and not Chris'!!!!!


Alright, we called the nurse, the cleaning lady, the nurse supervisor, the floor supervisor, the maintenance supervisor and, of course, nothing happened. So I decided to clean myself, not only the Chris' room and bathroom but the patient's family small kitchen. And that's what I found when I first went there:

This is the food cart!!!! This one was never...ever cleaned!!!!

Of course I HAD to clean those too...I wasn't raised in a pig farm and because I was spending the whole day there I was going to use it. And I cleaned them all...microwave, the sinks, the counter, the food cart...and I left a note for the family members, asking them to keep that place clean because...for God's sake..it's a hospital and you have your beloved ones there, right? Here's the note:

And because of this note I was threatened to be banned from the hospital. They even called the Security, believe it or not! But if you think that all this filth was made by visitors you are  a 100% wrong...I only saw the hospital staff using it!!!! 

Now, after almost 10 months, my husband is back in shape...and becoming each and every day more handsome and most important of all...healthy.

Those days of worries, not knowing if he was going to make it after infection after infection, rude people, spending 12 hours in a very uncomfortable chair, praying , crying, feeling lonely, scared...those days are gone forever!

I have to thank a lot of people...my friends who were with me, helping in so many different ways, giving me rides back and forth, giving me strength to keep on having hope, leaving me sweet messages, bringing flowers. My friends and family...I owe you so much, without you all I couldn't have done it for so long!!!! 

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!

Tom, you were with us in our worst moments, at our side, being my strong arm...and I know God will always remember that...oh yes..He will!!!! WE love you, my cousin-brother!

Life is going back to normal...well, almost...we have the in-laws here, but this is for another post!!!!!!

This one is more like a way for me to get rid of he sad feelings, to put them all behind us and go back to being happy with this amazing man!!!!

About papers and dreams

Some time ago I bought some very cute brazilian scrapbooking papers from a well know SB group in Brazil, Scrapdiary.

I'll post here the pictures. They came in sets of 6 papers..double sided. I just couldn't resist and I really did bother the company owner till she agreed to sell me only the papers. They come in kits but they are not interesting for me, many of the things she uses we buy here, so...But it was a battle of titans..she's a tought negotiator, no discounts, nothing! But I didn't mind paying the price plus shipping (and that was exensive...the box was soooooooooo heavy!)...they are absolutely cute!

This is The Farm.

I was raised spending my vacations at the farm...cows, chickens, drinking milk practically from the cow...still warm (I won't tell anybody about the sugar, cinnamon and rum we used to add to it!!) I can almost smell the fresh air or feel the breeze coming from the woods or hear the birds singing on my window very early in the morning. I miss that!

I was kinda tired of the same patterns I kept seeing everywhere...nothing really new, And I wasn't very motivated really to go out and buy papers or start working on new pages. But when I saw those ones and the layouts my friends created with them...OMG...I just could not buy them!!!

The Fashion kit...of course I'm going to take pictures of the skirts I made at my sewing classes!!!

Right after I got them, Chris went to the hospital for a gastric bypass surgery and had so many complications after it that the papers were forgotten in a box. I spent more than 2 months taking care of my amazing husband, going to the hospital everyday..no way I would come back home and do anything else but take a shower and go straight to bed (after doing the laundry, cleaning the house, feeding the cats, cleaning their litter boxes, paying the bills and so on).

Now the papers are finally out of the box. They look at me and I look back at them...who’s going to win this game?
Of course they won...I don’t have the will power to beat anything that’s craft related, none at all! I love buying my papers, embellishments, fabric, buttons, patterns…a little bit of this, a little bit of that and the stash is growing…and growing.

Dick and Jane. Vintage desing...lots of colours. I can't wait to start working with them, but first I have to convince Chris to buy me a Radio Flyer...believe it or not it's my childhood dream! hehehehe

But I’m happy now just by looking at my papers, thinking of the pages I’m going to create with them...very special pages because most of them I bought thinking of the kids we are adopting this year.
The process is on again, the P.R.I.D.E training will start in February. They are ministry run sessions that help prepares the couples for the adoption and help them deal with issues that may come in the future. In the meantime we’ll have the Home Study going on too. So many things to do, so many little details to look after just so our kids will live in a safe environment. We’ll have a lot of work, a lot of decluttering, organizing, fixing...wow...I’m already tired…hehehehe...and I haven’t even started!

This is the Picnic Kit...I can already see the pictures I'm going to take on our day trips..specially in Glen Williams or Kettleby...we would love to move there someday. Who knows?

Oh, no no no...I’m not complaining at all!!! Chris and I so much want to start our family. We talk a lot about it, about what it means to us to have kids. What for???? Why bother starting now that you are not young anymore? So what?!?!?!?!?!? We think that it’s not worth working so much, learning a lot, living and trying new things every day, going thru so many different moments and then…puff…just die and have nobody to carry on our memories, our thoughts, our history, our names.
Not that we are that naïve, thinking that kids will really carry on our thoughts and all the things we will teach them. They will have their own lives, their own experiences and they will learn from them all, but the memories of our moments together as a family will go on after we are not here anymore and that’s what we look for, having them telling their own kids how funny Dad was…how silly Mom was, how she used to burn the rice…how Tico and Teco running around the house, chasing each other…or how mom and dad used to sit together every night, holding hands while watching So You Think You Can Dance. Aren’t those good reasons to start a family? I think so too!

Love Me Do...yeah yeah yeah...With those I'll celebrate my love for my husband. This incredible man that loves me so much, that spoils me, that makes me laugh every day, that cares for me, teaches me, makes me feel safe. He's the one who brought me back to life when there wasn't life at all.

Back to the papers and quoting an ad I saw a couple of years ago in a Scrapbooking magazine “My hands are jealous of what my mind can create” or something like that (you know, Fla-la-la…Fla-la-land…heheheh). Alright, I admit, I am not that creative, but I think that everything you make out of love, unconditional love is beautiful, so who cares if I’m creative or not..I’m gonna be a MOM!!!!!