it's been a long haul...............

i can't believe it's been 7 months since i last posted. and blogger has completely changed!!!  argh!!!!  sigh.  heavy sigh.  do you know how many blog posts ive written in my head since then...too many to count.  i write in my head constantly- and when i'm alone i write out loud(i.e. talking to myself)  my dog thinks i'm nuts!  besides stephen west hasn't blogged since april 25th.  so, i'll try not to feel too bad about it!

my hubby asked me once if the reason i hadn't posted in so long was because of all my time spent on facebook.  i thought about it for a second-as yes, i am on facebook a lot.  but that's not the real and whole reason.  i realized it was.....depression.  there i said it. i don't like blogging about depressing downer stuff-who wants to read my  whiny-ass complaints -or about me on my pity pot-how pathetic.  but then i realized-the title of my blog is "the woolydaisy-a window into my world"   my world.....my world isn't always as rosy, peachy keen and awesome as i portray it be. i only write about the cool and fabulous stuff. but  my life is just like everyone elses-up and down, good and bad-a constant ebb and flow.  yet 2012 seemed particularly hard on me.  i struggled and still am struggling with many things. 

between a minor bike wreck and bad physical therapy i managed to rupture and tear a disc in my lower back(L5-S-1 vertebrae)  the pain was unbelievable....  i was unable to do anything-sitting and driving were the worst!  i'm a very physical person-and being forced into a  seditary life was just too much- everything hurt-i couldn't bike, hike,spin wool or sit to knit, load the dish washer-let alone go to the bathroom without crying. ( i know i know tmi)  but when you start fearing the need to go to the bathroom-you know your life is sucking.....big time.  simple things you take for granted-poof!   the doctor wanted me to do the steroid injections into my disc-that just didn't sit right with me.  -i decided to take the slow less invasive route-i got off the pain killers except ibuprophen, boosted many natural supplements and took it as easy as possible.   what a long haul it's been...if you've never been in chronic pain before you don't realize how depressing it is.  your life is taken away from you.  i'm still on my daily doses of ibuprophen but i'm feeling better and stronger and see light at the end of the tunnel.  i can take walks now- flat ones.  driving no longer makes me cry.  no movie theatres for me  but i can do more and more each day.  and look forward to the day i can ride my bike again.  you see- i was getting really strong and in great shape-best ive been in years.  i felt great.  i was planning on training.....training hard to race the downieville classic in my 50th year.  i turn 50 soon....very soon.  there will be no such race for me.  i've come to terms with it, but i'm still disappointed.  i set a goal.  and it crumbled.  i realize now my back will never be able to handle the "trail of tears" -i know that sounds negative-just being realistic. the beginning of the race starts with 8 miles up the mountain-known as the "trail of tears."  taint gonna happen.   2013 is going to be spent rebuilding my body, getting healthy and getting my mojo back!  onward and upward!

a quik update for the latter half of 2012:

our youngest, liam graduated 8th grade-which brought my 14 years of homeschooling career to an end. very very emotional for me.  he is now attending an early college high school in town.  it's is on the community college campus and he earns college credit while also attending high school classes- for free!  it's a fabulous school and program.   best of all he really likes it.  i was so worried about the adjustment-  i mean homeschooled your whole life-then put into 5 days a week public school- i've been going thru a mini version of the empty nest.  

liam has grown and still enjoys his mountain bike racing.  he is now on a high school mountain bike team they have been training and the racing starts in february.  this past summer he did some major races-  i am so proud to say he placed 2nd in his division at the downieville classic-a big accomplishment!!!

beginning of race in sierra city

happy racer!

i won't go into too much detail about his racing as he has his own blog now.  check it out if you are interested
sierra singletracks.  it's a great blog!!!!

we got a new car this summer-her name is ruby-aint she sweet?-we traded her for a our old funky vw bug.

racking my brain here....what else???  we had another fabulous and wonderful annual fiber trash girls retreat in forest city again!  besides tons of fiber fun we enjoyed many goodies:

you can't beat bacon beer and corn whiskey!

big plans to do a whole fiber trash girl retreat post-someday-yeah right~~

i put some fibery stuff in the county fair.

wow!  it's been a long time since i've posted- now my brain hurts.  i can't think anymore-that's it in a nutshell.  i'm tired.  wrapped up the year the best i could . i have tons of fibery project i should be working on!  so-have a great new year!!!!  may the new year be filled with much fibery goodness!!!!