Guess what! I'm still alive!

I just realized that I haven't been back her in a long, long time.  And I haven't updated my journal in over a year!  Here's a summary of my life during that time. 

I got really sick.  Crohn's Disease was kicking my ass. Big time.  My life all but came to a stand-still. I stopped beading and teaching classes, I stopped running, and I slept with a heating pad on my belly practically every night for MONTHS.  I tried going gluten free. I got worse.  I tried going lactose-free.  I got worse. At the point, I was struggling to eat pretty much anything.  So I went to my GI, who switched my meds. We waited for that to help, but it didn't.  So we tried something else, which also didn't work. And we tried one other thing, which didn't work either.  So after a colonoscopy and another chat with my GI, I'm now on 6mp and Humira. They're risky drugs, but so far, they've worked amazingly!  I am in complete remission!  

Guess what happens after you go months upon months of not wanting to eat food because it causing you pain, then suddenly realizing that you can eat anything you want without suffering? You eat whatever you want. And you gain weight. Because food is AWESOME.  So I'm running again, and starting at the beginning of 2015, I will be carefully monitoring my food intake.  I have to break my sugar addiction, and I have to lose this weight and get sexy again!

Want to know why I really have to work on getting sexy again?  Because I just got my 5th tattoo today!  It's a gorgeous, amazing, big monarch butterfly on my left shoulder blade, which looks awesome with my red roses!
Remember my roses?   The new tattoo fits with them perfectly.  Except that I think I'm going to have my roses redone since they've faded so much and I would like them improved a little. 

 Let's see... I went to Philly with my mom in the spring and got to watch Phantom of the Opera, which was awesome and soooo beautiful!  My mom and I went to DC last month, which was super duper fun. I will be teaching a beading class in February for the first time in over a year, and I'm super excited to teach again!  Oh!  I got a sewing machine over the summer and have been learning how to sew and do hand embroidery.  I'm LOVING it.  And I started volunteering at a hospice office early summer.  I spend a lot of my days there making things for patients and their families, so it's a lot of fun and I feel like I'm helping to make their lives just a little brighter. 

I have a nanny blog now!  I post a lot of craft ideas, plus talk about kid-related topics and recommend books and stuff.  If you're a nanny or a parent, you might be interested!  It's www.thecuriousnanny.wordpress.com 

 I will have to post lots of things soon!  Photography from my trips, beading, and sewing stuff too!  

How's life been for you guys?  Is anyone actually going to read this or am I now forgotten?