Starfire

Hi there, I'm using my mom's sign on to let her friends thru her various communities know that she passed away suddenly Sunday night. It was completely unexpected and we are trying to let the people that she enjoyed talking with so much know why she won't be posting anymore. I know that she loved to spend time with this group and that she found a lot of advise and support from it, both for mini's and for general life stuff. Please remember her in your thoughts and prayers. Thanks.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for strength and courage during this difficult time.

Hi Kathie, No, We live in a house built against a hill and the entry and garage is on the basement level. Our main living area is on the "second" level. Life would be a lot easier if he could but even then he would tempted to work out in his shop and I would be terrified for him with all his "Man"tools beckoning to him before he is ready. He is so stubborn and can become focused on a project to the detriment of everything else. Janet, I do not know about this. It would seem to be a smart thing but any thing to do with possible problems out side of the facilities does not seem to be of interest to the medical or rehab folks. While in the hospital the staff was attentive and on top of his care, once his release date to the rehab facility a couple of days later was determined they seem to disappear. The same with the rehab ward place. Rehab therapists are wonderful but the ward people are more concerned with paperwork or conversations with one another and do not pay much attention to patients. It can take up to an hour to respond to a patient's call. I realize there is a lot to handle on a ward but to ignore a call that long is criminal. And this is considered the best in the area! Thanks, I will cope, just needed to express my worries elsewhere so family won't panic. (After all I am woman, here me roar! LOL) I will have to lay down the law to DH and and make sure he gets them. The main thing that worries me is that I will have to leave him alone in the house for short periods of time to run occasional errands. He will be OK on our main floor as he can get from bedroom to chair to bathroom OK but he must not attempt the stairs without me or DD there. We have subscribed to a medic alert call center and he will have to carry this with him at all times just in case. He is getting better with time but he tends to over estimate his progress and ability.

It looks like DH will be coming home next Wed after spending two weeks in a local rehab facility with additional therapy to follow. He now has eight screws (we finally got to see the latest x-rays) in his spine and must wear a huge turtle shell brace with no bending or twisting for the next couple of months. He is getting around with the help of a walker and progress seems good. He is very tired all the time and says he needs a good nights sleep. (He's tired, humph!!! So am I!!!!!) (Now, forgive me while I vent please.) While I will be very glad to finally have him home, I dread the next few weeks with having to deal with him while he is essentially still so dependent on assistance though the intense period will only last another month or so. It looks like the follow on therapy means having to get him up and down a major stair case here at homeeach time we have to get there and that is a major worry. I have been running back and forth daily to the rehab place and while I am grateful we got in the door as it is suppose to be the best in the area I am continuously tried with all the tooing and froing. Sigh! No real time for miniing as I only have short periods unoccupied with chores or running.

Have pretty much finished painting the set of stairs. Three coats of paint and plenty of sanding. Some minor touch up to do then will put on a sealer top coat.

Lori is a member of another group I belong to. I really hope to visit the museum one of these days .Her museum has been voted best in of the road at http://www.bestoftheroad.com/place.do?poiId=141150

I have ordered from Greenleaf and Hobby Builders Supply as well as Dejoux's (Montclair). I have ordered through ebay and Amazon as well with good luck. Early on I ordered The Tudor Coaching House from Maple Street in the UK and have ordered other things from them as well. Would not order a dollhouse again only because the shipping was high (But I really wanted it!) but their other stuff was certainly more affordable. Love Dollhouse Emporium and now they have a US site, All sites have provided good service and I would not hesitate to order again.

Miniing has been spasematic over the past few weeks so have only been working on things/steps that would not be hurt if they had to wait in mid action. Gave the stairs the second paint and am waiting for it to dry. The replacement spindles arrived so I can complete that repair. DH had given me the latest Proxxon Pen Sander as a mini birthday gift but had forgotten to include the transformer and I ordered it late last week. Hope it gets here soon since it looks like the sander will be a great help with sanding the wood on the curved stairs. I ordered some very ancient looking wood stems/trunks that hopefully will be the base of the terrace tree in Elrond's Library. I had tried several different methods to construct one and was not satisfied with any of them. I also took advantage of a Micromark sale and ordered the MicroLux Mini Miter / Cut-Off Saw on sale. Sigh, I must be having sympathy pains for DH's back surgery since for the past week I have been having back spasms and pain. Lots of pain pills and heat pads.

I have worked in half scale and find that I like it about the same as in 1:12 or 1:48. I find it is the project that draws me not the scale itself. If an original from scratch 1:24 would be determined by the size of the build itself. I have one project (Elrond's Library/Chamber) that iwould be nearly 8 feet in 1:12 but because of detail would be impractical in 1:48. The limit is my skill at that size! So 1:24 it is.

I have the magazine and it was probably my response that you are referring to in the earlier response. I will be glad to do a scan and send it but I will need your address, Beverly

With DH now in rehab center nearer home not spending so much time to-ing and fro-ing I have sort of caught up on house work and assured clinging dogs that we all still alive. I am looking at finishing up the flight of stairs I started last week. I have been sanding in periodic bursts and am nearly ready for the second coat of white paint on it's body. Am waiting for some replacement spindles to replace a couple of broken ones. I have so many UFPs I really do not know what ones I can work on in short spates but I am looking!!!!!!!!

I have been spending my time going back and forth to the hospital. DH moved out of ICU on Saturday and and onto the regular ward. The compression was much worse then the Doctors were expecting and they had a lot more complicated situation to deal with. He is doing really well and after two or three really down days his spirit is really up and he is working hard on his rehab. He moves to a rehab hospital closer to home tomorrow. We will see how he does there. He was expecting to come home after surgery and was not too happy at first to go to rehab. It took a few days to get him to recognize he was not as far along in recovery as he expected to be and there was no way I was going to be able to be his only care giver..

Ditto, I have also shopped there. Great folks aNd a great shop

What a wonderful surprise. All that worry for nothing!!!!!!!

I apologies for interjecting this in this particular thread but it just sort of happened. Wish they would Holly. Thanks again for everyone's good wishes. Talked briefly with him this morning and he is feeling much better. He had seen the Dr and apparently once they got in there it was a lot worse compression then they thought. They did some fusion and general clean out and he will be in the ICU longer then we thought. Still don't know what we will do after that. Whether he will go to a rehab unit or we will get home help care. There is no way I can do any real lifting or the other assisted moving he will need for the next few weeks I am not sure how he will deal with going to a rehab unit because he remembers what his dad went into at the end and he hates anything that smacks of a "nursing" home. I know I dread it as well but the rehab stuff may encourage him and there hopefully will be people who know what they are doing and he will make good steady progress. the hospital and nurses have been just wonderful. .His brace could be the top half of an armor and DD2 suggested I do a decoration on it. Hmmm Maybe a replicate of an Elven Armor breast plate? Naw, he isn't skinny enough, maybe the dwarf version from the Hobbit would be more appropriate!!!! I did work on sanding the first coat of paint on the stairs so I got a miniscule amount of miniing in!