Goodbye 2016, Hello 2017

Hi everyone,

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year  

I have updated my blog a bit with new background and tried to tidy it up a bit.  Seems a good time for a change 

2016 was def a roller coaster of good and bad.  This post will be a long one so grab your beverage of choice and get comfy 





We ended 2015 with Sassy being very sick, loosing weight, having diarrhea.  2016 was so rough for our little girl.  She had a couple of lumps which took a long time to heal after removal, kept on having diarrhea.  Took Sassy  to the veterinary university in Oslo to help with her problems.  Several thousand Norwegian krones later and we were none the wiser.  Other than being told that I knew more about nutrition for dogs than they did.  She just kept on getting worse.  We tested her for all kinds of different things.

She was put on cortisone pills since she scratched so much that she was getting sores.  Didn't take long for her to stop chewing and scratching to her deciding that stealing socks and shoes was a better idea lol    We still don't trust her alone in the whole house when we are gone lol.

By the end of July around Sassy's 4th birthday we thought we might have to put her to sleep    Her quality of life wasn't good anymore.  She was so thin, lost a lot of muscle in her back end, and didn't want to be around other dogs or people.  As a last ditch effort with ok from her vet I changed the dosage of her cortisone tablets.  She hadn't been on raw since Feb when her body seemed to reject it.  I decided to cut out grains, rice, bread, etc.  Using my crockpot I cook up chicken, pork, beef, greenbeans.  She also gets homemade canned pumpkin, coconut oil, omega 3 and powdered eggshells.  We saw a big difference in Aug   She stopped having diarrhea and started to gain weight.  She went from a scrawny 16 kg  / 35 lbs to 21.5 kg / 47 lbs.  She def needed that weight back on.

What a difference a few short months make. I'm soo relieved we still have our little girl who is doing sooo well now!  Sassy does need a bath but that will have to wait until Jostein can help me.

We did 2 projects for the house in 2016.  1 was the driveway.  It was covered in red gravel the size of stones in fish tanks.  I swear we had it everywhere!  With help from Jostein's family and the rest by a contractor firm we hired.  We got a beautiful new driveway!

Sooo pleased with how the driveway turned out!  We also paved the floor in the garage closest to the road.  Makes it so much easier to use for storage lol.  I'll write another post with more pics from that project soon.

The other project was our fire wood storage.

It was open and exposed to the snow in the winter.  We had hung a tarp of it, but not a good solution.  1 had flown away and we never found it again.  The other one kept trying to fly way.

Again with help from Jostein's family we ended up with this beauty:

It works like a charm. With the 4 doors we are able to open the one we need and keeps the snow off the wood.  I will also make another post on this project.

We did invest in an above ground pool with pump and water heater   Since we had a nice summer it was lovely having it.  We will put down a concrete slab this year to make sure it is leveled.

Jostein and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary.  Life is pretty good and can't complain 

We don't have many pics so this will have to do 

2016 was not the best year for my health  During the summer I worked too much.  My office on the 3rd floor meant I was up and down the stairs all day long.  Working 10-12 hr days did not help.  I started getting pains around my left knee which is not the usual arthritis pain.  When I took my summer vacation in Aug (when the driveway was being done), I hoped that not using stairs and relaxing more the pain would go away.

Unfortunately that was not the case.  I was diagnosed with Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome.

In short all the muscles in my left leg down to just below my knee were inflamed.  I was told it could take up to 1 yr to completely heal up from it.  But with rest and gentle exercises I should be good as new soon.

But when have things gone according to plan?  Not only I have this diagnosis but I also have arthritis in both knees, and my right hip.  And a herniated disk in my lower back.  Not to mention I have quite a bit of weight which really needs to come off.  Since I was limping it aggravated all my other health problems.  Started out with walking with a cane and upgraded (downgraded?) to crutches.

Yes we have our own crutches and selection of different canes.

In Sept I was working 50% but my health was getting worse so my doctor put me on 100% sick leave from Oct and so far going out January.  To say I'm not happy about this is an understatement.  The inflammation on my left leg is getting better but my back and hips are so bad that I'm walking with a shuffle and can't always put on my socks and shoes.  It seems all the muscles in that area has gotten inflamed.  I have been going to a chiropractor almost weekly and it has helped.  I also am participating in warm water therapy being sponsored by the Norwegian Rheumatism foundation.  I get to exercise in warm water twice a week with a lot of lovely people who are a whole lot older than me and def in better shape (yes I'm totally jealous they are in better shape than me lol).  I'm starting at the physiotherapist on Friday.  I'm hoping a combination of all this and walking more, since that is supposed to help will help me heal up faster.  Sassy enjoys the extra walking since she is feeling better.  She needs to build up her muscles in her back end.

Pokemon Go anyone?  I started in Sept lol

So 2016 def kicked our butts, but we are optimistic that 2017 will be great.

So here are my wishes for 2017:

 I'm working on my health.  Including starting up a meal plan again to help me stay on track.  Getting all this extra weight off will def help my joints.  I refuse to call it a diet, but a life style change instead.  I want to get back to work.  Not used to being home like this since I started working when I was 14.

I have done some projects which I will post about soon.  And have a lot of ideas of more to do.

 Blog on a regular basis!

 Will read a lot of books.  157 last year 

 Find fun designs for my nails.  I did get some new colors and products for my nails for Christmas so looking forward to trying them out 

 I want to actually teach Sassy some tricks. I think we both will have fun with it.

 My hubby and I have our own company selling basketball equipment and I've been working on our website.  There is still quite a lot of merchandise which needs to go in there but I'm def happy with how it is shaping up.  JS Sport

 And of course there are always fun projects to do in and around the house.

Thank you for those who managed to stay until the end. I felt I needed to get all this out so that I could start fresh for 2017.