CRPS

Hi everyone. This is Mellissa's husband Bare. She hasn't been feeling well lately. We have officially moved to FL. And, Mellissa got her ketamine treatment dates - they are the last two weeks in January. For ten days (Mon-Friday for two weeks) she will have a slow IV drip for six hours. This drip will hopefully help with the pain. Ketamine is not a cure but it is an ongoing treatment.

I started a fundraiser to help with some of the costs that come with ketamine. It is not covered by insurance and is costly.

Please keep us in your prayers. We believe in the power of prayer and it is even better than money.

muscle atrophy

discoloration

discoloration

However, if you would like to donate, here is the link. Please don't feel pressured into doing so though. There are a lot of wonderful causes out there.

Thank you, Bare

Weeks in Review - 9/15/15

We have just one month left of living on Anna Maria Island, FL. We knew that our six months living on the most wonderful island in the US (in our opinion) was going to fly and it has!

Yesterday & today have been good days. Some days are horrible (I'm looking at you Thursday), others aren't as bad. When my pills wear off, it isn't good still. It can literally change hour to hour too.

Tropical storm Erika mostly broke up before it hit us here in Anna Maria Island. We did have some great rain storms though. I love the drama of Gulf storms.

"Our" garden (i.e. our rental garden) is due for a good clean up. My hubby started this past week. I will miss these moss covered stepping stones.

FL has lizards everywhere. They spook easily and run away quickly so I don't have a problem with them. Plus, they are kind of cool.

Has everyone else tried cotton candy grapes? Yum! They are a bit pricey here ($3.99 a pound) but they are totally worth it.

My favorite activity is to sit at the beach and read. Thankfully we have a library just down the road about a mile. I loved that a previous reader fixed the grammar throughout my last book.

When I get to the library, I just kind of wander and pull books off the shelf. I'll read almost anything that doesn't look scary. This was one of those books. I was reading it and it turns out the book setting was Anna Maria Island! They reference so many of my favorite AMI places including...Publix! That is our grocery store. We shop there weekly and it was fun to see in a book.

And speaking of plopping down on the beach...I have gone through several beach chairs this summer. I cannot lower myself slowly into the chair due to my legs. So I wind up plopping hard and ripping the fabric. My wonderful hubby fixed this by using a piece of wood instead of the usual fabric. It has held up for over a month now. Nice!

It is still in the upper 80's here (today it did hit 90!) but we can tell the water is turning colder.

After the storms, we had a lot of seaweed on the shore. This day the Gulf looked more like a lake.

Waves! I don't mind even though it keeps me out of the water. I can still soak my legs and read, read, read.

This was today (Tuesday) and the water went back to being clear.

Shells! The tide was out this morning and you could see all the shells.

Now...some real news! 

Our home in PA

We accepted an offer on our home back in PA. The buyers had the inspection last week and it seems good. The next step is to have their bank appraise it.

And... We also put a deposit on a small villa/home here in FL. We may have a place to live when our rental is finished. So that is great news.

How great are these post cards?

It is about 9 miles from the beach in a gated community. We are calling it small but it is around 1300 sq ft. with basically no garage or basement. We are going to have to get creative with storage. Our villa is across from the community pool which is heated year round. I don't have a photo of the villa just yet (well, I do, but the outside shot is blurry).

This isn't a "done deal" since we know from experience that our buyers can back out last minute. But we are trusting God.

With that said, we have been selling off some of our yard sale finds. We didn't know what furniture we needed when we started collecting stuff and so we collected a lot. Ha.

Now that we know we will be in a villa, our space is a bit more limited. We are pairing down once again.

Kitchen cabinets, purchased for $250, sold for $500!

I hope everyone has a great day. 

Beach Photos

I've had a few rough days. I'll hopefully blog more soon but here are some beach photos taken over the last two weeks.

Week in Photos & Words - 8/22/15

You know the feeling you get when your foot falls asleep and then wakes up? It is like pins and needles. It isn't super painful but it is quite annoying. Nerve pain feels a lot like that some times. It is distracting and kind of consumes your thoughts.

About a week ago we visited a wonderful doctor/specialist in Clearwater. The ride was about an hour and a half each way. Vibrations normally kill me. We had prayed beforehand and guess what...not as bad! I timed my medication perfectly and it was amazing. Some days the medicine doesn't kick in as quickly or doesn't last as long.

We went over this cool bridge. I took way too many photos because I was not in major pain.

See? I love living by the water.

My sister sent me this adorable little aqua mason jar. It is only about 3" tall. Adorable!!! Plus I got a bunch more of her hand made cards. We have been sending each other stuff on flash drives. Anyone else do this? Our internet here is S-L-O-W when it comes to uploading & downloading so this works best.

Bob! This Blue Heron comes every day. He is my little buddy and truly amuses me.

I saw a boat on the canal behind our home and grabbed my phone for a camera. Bob must have been close by and saw me. He came running in to see what was going on.

Our beach photos over the last two weeks...

Everyone was looking at a manatee which everyone then scared away. If people would just keep still, it wouldn't swim further out. Silly people. Look how clear the water was this day! This was the only time this week I went into the water. It was gorgeous.

Someone in the neighborhood was having a home delivered. They parked it along side the road before they made the big turn. The beach is literally right on the other side of that. The hubby & I joked that they were building our house. Right there. (Could you imagine the flood insurance alone? Yikes!)

I always take a photo of the Gulf but this is the view looking the other way.

It is turtle season and Anna Maria Island takes that very seriously. There are turtle counts in every weekly paper. Because the baby turtles could hatch at any minute, the sand needs to be smooth and flat. They take down sand castles, smooth umbrella holes, etc. It is funny to see a John Deere tractor on the beach but it is amazing to walk on freshly combed sand.

My hubby. I adore this guy so much. He can stand the "waves" (ocean lovers would laugh at our tiny waves).

This post took me a few days to write and in the meanwhile...I got my bridesmaids dress! I had actually ordered a completely different dress on ebay. But that seller's cat knocked coffee into the dress and she refunded me. I was pretty bummed since that meant more time online. But then I found this dress. It is the Jenny Yoo Annabelle dress and I love this silly thing.

My hubby has been booking a lot of retirement communities lately. The other day he came home and said he was asked to play at an Oktoberfest. He asked me if I could get him something to wear for Oktoberfest. Haha. I got a little giddy. I love costumes and dressing up for different events. I haven't been able to do that in awhile but it is all still there in my head.

 He really had no idea of what he was asking. Maybe suspenders he thought? But, I'm going for one of these amazing t-shirts. Look how FUN these are? There may also be a hat involved.