Too much socialising!

Love is.....
Piglet : how do you spell love?
Pooh: You don't spell it,  you feel it
Winnie the Pooh

Clinic
Saw the specialist Dr yesterday at Colin's 1 month check up.  We were worried because the liver blood test is rising again.  Oh dear.  Dr says he is not worried at the moment.  The Chronic Graft versus Host may burn itself out in 3 or 6 or 9 months.  Hopefully.  Keep going with the Prednisone and Cyclosporine unfortunately.  The good thing is Colin is well and functioning nearly normally.  He has gone back to afternoon sleeps to try and rest his liver more.
Just so enjoying our time together.

Wedding  Plans
Have ramped up and I am wedding planner. Getting a bit hectic while I am sewing curtains between household chores. Spring clean is on hold.  Meetings with photographer,  videographer,  venue,  florist etc is keeping us busy.  Not happy with people interfering when it is not their wedding.

Dancing
We are back at lessons which are great but like doing bikram dance lessons.  It is like a sauna in the hall.  All the Saturday night dancing and suppers and lunches have to be curtailed. Just too much for Colin and me and making us tired.  We have started the year with 2 friends who have the big  C diagnosis.  Not great news and hoping for good health and healing for them both. 

1 Year on today

 Photos from Cameron's Graduation in July 2015

Love is... The glue in the marriage

19 January
Last year was when dear Colin  was admitted to hospital with the diagnosis shock of Leukemia.
Haven't we come a long long long way since then???? .  I  lost a year,. Changed priorities,  gained friends and a whole lot of new skills to manage this illness.
He is not out of the woods yet but hovering on the out skirts of the forest.  Blood tests keep tooing and froing.
As Sandra  D says "we won't entertain those thoughts.  It is going to be a good year"
And so far it has been.  A little too good that I  have worn Colin out with all our partying.  Just making up for lost time.
He said he needs an afternoon nap to catch up.  Too much partying!
I think I need one too.  The humidity is wiping me out.

I  am still working like a Trojan on house,  garden,  Colin and the wedding. 
When I think back on the year it doesn't seem real.  I  can't believe still that I  have emerged to start another year.  I have put the horrible parts into the recesses of my mind and am working on positive thinking.  My wonderful friends have kept me going and kepp supporting us.
Love to all you guys.

New Year New Beginnings

Love is..... Just the two of us.... Still together 24/7

January
I  can't believe we have been doing this for nearly 1 year now.  How far have we come?
A galaxy distance it seems.  I  hope we can hold this flight path and not turn back.
The new year has lit a spark of spring cleaning or should I say summer cleaning.  Not much of a summer weather wise for those not in Auckland. 
I am on a mission to tidy up the big cupboards and rooms we have and get rid of junk.  Compress and Deconstructing really.  Colin and I  have bought shelves and umpteen wheelie boxes for better storage.  This time I am labeling them.  With all the paper and recycling rubbish I managed to sneak around at night and top up 4 neighbors recycle bins as well! Soooo good to chuck out and will be a trip to the hospice shop soon.  Old suitcases are great for storing tidily.
Have managed 2 pantries and 4 cupboards.  Some are big enough to fit 10 suitcases by the way. Now I  can walk in. 

Colin has never tidied.  His way of doing it is to spend 1/2 hour throwing out in a huff.  When I ask where to find it he says " i don't know,  you told me to throw it out!"  sound familiar?
Now he is helping in a small way.  Lastnight I gave him a job to put the new hose reel together from its box.  I  can tell by the replies I am getting that it is not going well.  Last comment was " cheap junk!!"  I sent him to bed.
Tomorrow is another wonderful day that we have together. 

Our big happy Dance group

Photos courtesy of George

Wishing for a Happy 2016

Merry Christmas & a Better New Year

Love is...enjoying The family together at Christmas

Christmas Day
A lovely day, as it was Bonnie's turn to host Christmas.  Must say it was nice to have a break from hosting this year with all the goings on with my family. Great news as Colin has had a good report from the consultant who is pleased with progress even though it is slow. Slight decrease in prednisone helps. 3 days of parties and I am looking forward to a break. Too much eating, cooking,  shopping and desserts and late nights.  House is in disarray so next few days will be working to get us back on track.  Nick turned 30 on Dec 27th and we even went for a swim and the warm weather was welcome.

2015
This year hopefully won't be repeated and it is still hanging in there with it's persistence to be a pain in the  b...  With my dental bill the week before Christmas of $440 and climbing, our dishwasher flooding on Christmas day costing $270 and also Nicks dishwasher costing us $150,  I  am praying we get through to 2016 without any more surprises. Still we saved on Colin's haircuts as he only needed 2 this year! Though we can't recommend the reason why.

Colin twisted his ankle last week and we can't do our walking and the consultant said he wasn't to hurt himself dancing at New Year either. Boxing day sale parking was handy as I produced the disabled card as he was on a walking stick.  All better now so no more cheeky parking.
We have had serious illness,  loss of a job and business, a bone marrow transplant,  retirement and pension collection,  a graduation and new job,  an engagement,  4 family members with health issues and plenty of drama in  between.  2016 can be as boring as it likes.  We have a wedding to sort out in February.

Happy New year to all our friends and family.
We are off to party tonight.  Yayyyy

Big thanks and LOVE to all our friends and family who have supported us this year. 

Couldn't have done it without all of you, no matter how small or big your help was.
LOVE LOUISE AND COLIN

Rain, shine or wind bring on summer

Love is.... Enjoying it from great friends

Weather
What the...  Is happening with the weather.  Can it make up it's mind?  I  am trying to grow food! For goodness sake.
Know why they call this the silly season.  So many things happening  but get real people.  Stop blowing hot and cold like the weather.
Get on with living life.  We are. 

Yum char lunch with good friends  today was  a nice break from working really hard for the last 2 weeks.  Hoping that  Colin gets good results for Xmas otherwise it will be more procedures.
Donor cells think his liver is a foreign body and fighting it.  Who will win the fight?  Was just supposed to take over the bone marrow but shows it is working none the less. 

Feeling a bit wiped out but just need to rest up. 

 Besties Glenda and Susie brought lunch to share. 

Smooth sailing would have been good.

Love is.... Helping each other through the tough times

What are we doing.???
I may look like I am under control but sometimes I am not!
Been dodging bullets

A week in the life of:
Weeded,  sprayed, and laid pebbles at son 2 place-  WHY CAN'T THEY TIDY UP
Trimmed trees,  bagged leaf litter and fixed door and fence   at son 1 place   - OUR WORK IS NEVER DONE
Cooked heaps and heaps till late at night - EATING 6 TIMES A DAY FOR COLIN NOT ME
Gardening x3+++   - WELL THE STRAWBERRIES ARE WORTH IT
2nd to last yoga class    - NEARLY TO END OF YEAR
Christmas shopping  -  LUCKY I PANIC BOUGHT THROUGH THE YEAR
Colin organised alarm install at sons house  - ANOTHER JOB OFF THE LONG LIST
Baked Chiffon cake for clinic day -  IT IS ALWAYS APPRECIATED
Daily 3 km walk - FITNESS AND FRESH AIR

Really in the scheme of things nothing is more important than getting Colin healthy.
Everthing else pales in significance.

CLINIC
Well unfortunately Colins liver is not behaving, so not much they can do at present.  I don't want any more curve balls.  Just stop throwing balls at us all together please.  Just PRAY that there will be an improvement please.  AND SOON.
I did that in shouty letters so it might work. OK?
A friend said how do we do this?
I said It is hard but we have to be positive as there is no other choice.
Be positive.
Plan to go to bed earlier as the acupuncturist said, organs recuperate between 11pm to 2am. Sleeping in if going to bed late will not make up lost time. Something to do with body rhythms.  Cut down on our jobs too.  So no more late night calls.

Anne and Colin walking Louie and Franklin

On a wet and dreary day.  Still managing 3km

Sculpture trail

Squealing frogs, sparrow kill and birthday party

Love is..... A gift that is freely passed around

Lucy the cat was chowing down on a mouse.  A squealing mouse so we thought.  The EKK EKK noise was horrid. Turned out to be a big green frog that she was fascinated with.  Cameron rescued it but not the little sparrow that she decided tasted better.  The squealing frog was freaky.

When i think the week is good to catch up on chores,  it turns out to be no progress.  This week has been property management week.  Weeding,  spraying and chopping plants at two rentals and maintenance at my garden plot.  Was a relief to get it up to date.  Pleased to see i am seeing the fruits of my labour.  It is the first year that the plants are flourishing.  Not sure what I have done.  Maybe the lime,  or the vege mix and worm food added to the soil.  Strawberries are picked daily along with sugar snaps,  coriander, chives,  thyme and rosemary,  broccoli shoots,  spinach,  lettuce and loquats.  My peaches are developing but lots fell off.  So amazing to have a productive garden.  Have made planters for a son so he can pick lettuce and chives from it.

Ah yes Colin.  So pleased that today his liver function test is slowly dropping again.  Still miles higher than normal but a good sign.  He is still on Prednisone but he is due at clinic next week.  The months are flying by.  What happened to 2015??
Xmas is nearly here and I have managed to procure presents already.  Relief.

Where did the years go??
Nick turns 30 this year and had a early birthday with his friends here.  Lots of work cleaning up but we'll worth it a they all enjoyed it.  Nicks idea of Korean tacos is a hit.  To my surprise.

What grass?