Positively Bubbling Over

This is going to be a long full post!

But I have good news to share; first, Mike has not come out of remission, his blood count is still good. For a normal person oxygenated red blood cell counts are usually above 15.0, Aplastic Anemia sufferers can be brought up to this through the use of anabolic steroids. Although this is good, steroids are steroids and the damage they can do to your liver, immunity, and cardiovascular system can be terrible. This was our 2nd fear, that the medication keeping Mike alive and functioning was also starting to destroy him. While this fear has been relieved it is still something that will need to be dealt with in the future, hopefully by then, they will have found a better, more gentle way for keeping Aplastic Anemia patients at a healthy level.

I can't stop hugging him, I am so darn grateful. This emotion will soon be gone after dealing with him being unemployed, home, hogging the t.v. for hours on end. lol. He is immersing his sorrows for being wrongfully fired in wii ping pong.

The other good news is;Holy Mother of All Things Near Impossible! I actually made it to the cover of Belle Armoire! This is such an awesome honor! While I can't afford a subscription, I have been able to go to bookstores on occasion and flip through their past editions. This is a very inspiring magazine for mixed media jewelers and the encouragement I have received from them has been touching. Please pick up a copy the next time you are in a book store and if anyone would like help in submitting their own jewelry, please contact me, I would love to help.

I hope to continue submitting articles on the current jewelry obsessions that take over my little studio. Thank you to all of you who took the time to vote on my previous post, I am so grateful for your support.

And now introducing the newest members of our family...... Powder and Donut!

Our little allergy boy who LOVES animals did a little research and found that most dander allergy suffers do not react to guinea pigs. So he seriously approached us with the sound logic that he could enjoy the responsibilities of learning to care for a pet by owning guinea pigs without having break outs. So we started to visit pet stores that sold them and had Rex hold them and found he was right, he had no reactions at all!

We priced all the items it would take to purchase the guinea pigs and their various equipment then planned to set aside approx. $100. Rex had saved about $44 from collecting change and allowance. In the mean time, Rex took over the trash, dishes and folding/putting away his own laundry to show us he was responsible enough to take care of the pets. He also did a ton of reading from both books and online to learn as much as he could about caring for guinea pigs. We wanted this so bad for our son, it was excruciating to have to wait until we could afford this new expense. His grandmas offered help, but we were still worried that we would get these little fellas (we found out it was better to have 2 to keep each other company) and not be able to keep up with the money necessary to maintain them properly.

Mike went on craigs list and found an incredible deal; with the father - Donut, 11 mo. the brown, white and black piggie, and son - Powder, 3mo. the black with powdered white nose, their whole pen, igloo, tube, chew log, toys and even a bag of food for $40! It was like one of those Christmas miracles. We went and met the guinies, Rex approved, they moved in and have quite happily adjusted to life with us.

I enjoy them quite a bit myself, snuggling them against my chest and listening to them chatter away, cutting fresh fruit and veggies for the kids and the guinies, helping Rex dry them after their baths. Mike has been peed on, which is hysterically funny to our kids.

Rex is keeping his end of the bargin, feeding and watering them daily, cleaning their pen, giving them baths, brushing their hair, spreading hay, teaching his younger sister how to hold them. Even setting up excersize runs outside when it isn't too cold. He loves them so much. I often go into his room and find one of them on the desk, contentedly being petted while Rex does his work.
He is getting ambitous. Trying to get his poppy to build him hutches so he can get a female and breed them. He wants 4 hutches, one for the males, one for the females and one for the babies. The fourth he has stated will be "The Love Room". We will make a special "Do Not Disturb" sign and hang it in front of the hutch. I just died when he told me this. I suggested we play Barry White for these special meetings. Hahahahahaha!