& excuse the absence.

holy cow. it has been a long couple of weeks. i took a leave of absence to work on the web design of this blog that got totally interrupted by my need to go to the hospital for two more surgeries on my spine due to an infection. there were severe complications after the first surgery that resulted in me spending the last 10 days in the hospital. i got home yesterday and have to have a PICC line deep in my arm for the next six weeks in order to receive my antibiotics.. needless to say i won't be doing too much blogging... i need a lot of rest in order to heal my wound so pictures of me laying on the couch won't be too entertaining.
one good thing that came out of last week was a change in my outlook. i am so thankful for my family. they drove 5 hours a day to visit me in the NJ hospital and their love & support got me through the worst week i've ever experienced.  pete (who slept in a chair by my side for a week) and i have been talking about what is the most important to us and being around the people we love falls right into that number one slot. we have spent almost three years in NJ not being close to either of our families due to my husband's job. i am so proud of what he does for me & for our country, but he will be leaving the coast guard in the spring and in the meantime we have decided to move back to CT. and we couldn't be more excited.