I'm BacK!!!!

Can it be two months since I had the time to sit down for a few minutes and collect my thoughts? Whew!!! When you are right in the thick of it, you just keep on going, no matter how tired you are or how bad you hurt. Then when it is over, you can not imagine that you survived the whole thing!
My month from hell started with the last weekend that I worked at the Bloomin' Inn. It was stressful and sad and happy and a whole big ball of mixed emotions. Moving the store came the very next day. May I take this time to thank God for my daughter and a bunch of die hard, best friends who met at the Inn in minus 35 degree weather to pack up my store. I know it was exactly minus 35 degrees, because Caren took a picture of the thermometer in her SUV just to prove it to me!! The plan was to pack the store and leave it overnight sitting in boxes, the boys were going to go the next day with a host of fifth wheels and stock trailers and bring it all home for me. The plan changed in the morning, when Megan got a bee in her bonnet and started sending things home. Before I knew what was happening, my previously clean and organized workshop was piled to the roof with boxes, paper racks, computers, display units, cases of paper - nine years of accumulated junk!!!! I mean...good scrapbooking supplies! My plan to unpack the store over a period of about a month, in a very orderly fashion, went right out the window. Again, thank God for Megan!!! What a trouper.
Before we really had time to deal with the mess and disorganization, it was time for Mike's surgery. I kept him working right up until midnight the night before surgery. I figured he needed to have something to keep his mind off of the upcoming amputation. So we worked and worked and worked. Somehow we managed to clear a spot, about the size of a couch, in the workshop. That gave me hope for the future. I needed to get this all under control before shipping started again after the holidays and I had no idea how long Mike was going to be out of commission.
The surgery was awful, the hospital was noisy and crowded and so as soon as they would release Mike, we left the hospital to heal at home. Things didn't exactly go as planned. With only two days post surgery, Mike was still on a heck of a lot of pain killers when we came home. He did pretty good for the first couple of days and then all hell broke loose. I should have just called the ambulance and had him returned to sender, but he was adamant that he did not want to be in the hospital for Christmas, so I listened to him instead of my head. Had I known that he would not remember four whole days in a row I would have called , so we cancelled our traditional Christmas Eve seafood feast, but the turkey was already thawed and so some of us ate turkey dinner on Christmas day and then everyone went home. Mike does not remember anything about this time. He was right out of it!!! Around New Year's he started to come around and I expected him to live. Honestly, he scared the crap out of me - he had lost over 25 pounds and was gaunt and haggard looking - even more than usual after an amputation.
Then the company arrived - Mike's niece and husband and their family, my brother in law and sisiter in law and their son and his girlfriend. They came to HELP!!!! What an amazing gift to receive, although I don't think that Mathew and his girlfriend knew that they were going to be put to work, they were a real blessing!!!!!!! We turned that workshop on its ear - paper racks got dusted, paper got put out, cardboard boxes got broken down, stock got put out. What a lot of crap got thrown away!!!! We worked night and day until everything was in its rightful place. After New Years, everyone had to go home, but all was right in my world. I never could have done it with out Mike's family and my Mom and Dad. We were ready for shipping, even made it on time, but not without a lot of hard work.
This week, I really feel like I have won the battle. My house is in order, the workshop is clean, the kits are just waiting for instruction sheets, Mike has gained back a few pounds. All is well in my world - and I'm back!!!!!!!!