This post is for Sue Allison and Megan Shetterly….  It is nice to know that people are checking our blog for updates and missing our news.    We got in the house and real life took over..

Important update…  There is officially no snow on the ground in Northern Idaho!!  Really!!!  I have to get my butt in gear here and get updating or there will be snow on the ground once again…

I am sitting here in my yard on my swing soaking up the sun and getting as much Vitamin D as possible before I head back in for a long days work…

It has been a very productive, crazy, busy and wild 2011 – Where in the world did 2011 go??

We are alive…& Extremely busy which is a good thing – it keeps us out of trouble for the most part, but certainly has hindered my efforts to keep our blog going strong.  So my goal is to take an hour each day to enjoy my peaceful swing in our yard sucking up as much Vitamin D as possible before heading back in for my work day…  Beggars can’t be choosers – I am in the wilderness with high speed internet so I can’t complain that our steel on the outside of the building blocks my signal so I am unable to work outside & have internet access.

As for being well… that has been another story recently…  We visited the ER on 7.16.11 with Austin – he and I were riding our mountain bikes on some 4 wheeler trails about a mile from the house – he didn’t make it up the last water bar and when he went down he caught himself with his left hand breaking his wrist.  He was sporting a Forest Green cast for the summer, but the good news is – he is HEALED!!!  Cast came off on the 30th of August.

On the 28th of August we spent the day in the ER with Glen.  We were at church when his chest started to get tight and he started to get the sweats.  He stepped out of church for a bit and returned feeling a bit better and then started to cough a bit.  The cough continued and I could hear that he was getting wheezy so I gave him a Benadryl and checked to see if he wanted to head out.  He stuck out the church service, but right at the end he headed outside once again in a coughing jag and couldn’t catch his breath.  He as having a really hard time getting a deep breath.  A friend at church is a Doctor and suggested using an Albuterol inhaler and he had a puff of a Primatene Mist and a 2nd Benadryl and didn’t get much relief.  So we headed to the ER – they did blood work and his white blood count was fine, his intake of oxygen was 100% even though he was having a hard time breathing, they did an EKG which was normal and they did a chest x-ray which did show shadowing, but because they didn’t have anything to compare it to they weren’t sure if it was scar tissue from my man’s previous battles with the bulls or if it was something of concern.  So they diagnosed him with the onset of pneumonia.   Prescribing an anti-inflammatory and an strong antibiotic.   For a week he really didn’t get much relief, but being the ox and true man’s man that he is – pushed on and worked all week roofing while getting dizzy.    Friday the 2nd of Sept we headed to the clinic at the hospital because things were not changing – she did more blood work and  prescribed another antibiotic and prednisone and told us if there was no improvement in his breathing by Sunday to head to the ER.  So September 4th we headed to the ER two hours away to the big city of Spokane Washington.  They were very thorough in Spokane and did blood work once again, a chest x-ray, an ekg and a cat scan.  They were concerned with a blood clot in his lungs so all tests were run and everything came back good.  He was diagnosed with Pleurisy and we were sent home and instructed to see a Pulmonologist.  So today we are still not 100% sure why Glen’s chest is tight and why his deep breaths are such a struggle for him.  It has been nerving to say the least and scary how it just suddenly came on.   It is a woman’s nature to worry and men are head strong and fine no matter how bad they feel..  Of course when you are attracted to that extreme manly man – this is one of the characteristics that you need to learn to work with.   So we will keep you all posted how things progress…  We have had an outbreak of whooping cough and pneumonia out here and there are a lot of germs floating around for such a small town area…

My business has been CRAZY this year – YEAH!!!  Still under the gun with 5 new sites gearing to go live and a lot of work on our own personal sites, of course like the cleaning lady who can’t get enough time to clean her own house – our websites are the last to get attention, BUT….  We have a lot of new things up and coming….  Glen has started another entity to Rocking GT Designs – Rocking GT Construction and is subcontracting for our friend from church.

We also just built his new Smithy…  His blacksmith shop was erected on September 3rd.  We still need some finishing touches such as a door, but he has been out there working on the anvil, hammering away with the design of several new products and getting many items made for local display as well as building our inventory for the Holidays that are quickly coming our way.  In addition to the traditional style furniture, decorative metal art and horseshoe art we have added a “girly” line of traditional items of soap and candles with pottery, baskets, jewelry, kitchen utensils and wood bowls all handmade from natures best coming soon and Austin is jumping in and will be making handmade leather pouches.   We also have two other websites – pet projects of mine that are starting to become a reality – www.PositivelyEncouraging.com and www.SpectrumKidsInTheOutdoors.com .  It is really exciting to see our doors opening and it is so amazing to see Glen working on the forge again doing something he has such a passion for and such an amazing gift to transform a plain piece of metal into a beautiful piece of art.  We are also making some big plans and praying hard for Rocking GT Outfitters for next year, God willing!

This Winter (or should I say at this point last Winter) was the most amazing Winter I have ever had and I believe that the consensus was the same for us all…  It is white snow (not dirty because of too many people and too much traffic 🙂 )  White beautiful snow – untouched – amazing….  We put a lot of hours on the snowshoes this winter just exploring the area…  There is so much to see and do back here – we will never tire or get bored back here… 🙂

So this is my 1st post – back in the saddle again here and I will continue to follow up with what we have been doing back here all year…  Have a most wonderful day and be sure to check back – I will post again in a bit with some of February and March’s pictures and our adventures….  God Bless!