Famous Last Words

In my last post I mention Youngest not being well and that it looked like she was on the road to recovery. An hour after that post, I was on my way to the emergency room with her. I thought she had appendicitis. 8 hours later it turned out that she had a kidney stone that had became stuck. This is waaay not good! She only has one kidney and I kinda freaked (quietly so's not to freak her out). Long story short, it was removed yesterday and she is on the mend.
Oldest came as soon as she was called and spent the first night in the hospital as I was asleep on my feet. I was with her last night and tonight she kicked me out as soon as the nurses set her up with the DVD player.
If she continues to drink her IV will be removed and she might be home sometime tomorrow. I know she's feeling much better as she's was starting to giggle this afternoon. I had to leave for a couple of hours and her nurse was going to wash her hair for me. They had an experience! The 'showerhead' fell off the hose and water went everywhere! Not a way I would recommend to clean the walls or floor but Youngest has clean hair.
I'm home for the night with cell phone on in case she needs to call. Love Muffin and Little Man are here for the rest of the week, we have lights, heat and presents for under the tree and life is good.
Merry Christmas to all.
PS - my sister had gastric bypass surgery yesterday and is doing well. She should be on her way home tomorrow as well.

I Win! (I think)

I've been adding my stash (S.A.B.L.E. x2) into Ravelry. Ho Boy! I've only gotten a few boxes from the storage room (ala back half of the garage) and well .... you decide.

http://www.ravelry.com/people/thefibergoddess/stash

See the first tab? See that number? How did I let it get so out of control??? Mind you I haven't even started with the hand spun or the realllly good stuff that WILL NOT be put out there.
I was on a roll with this until Friday afternoon when the snow started which has not stopped! Husband has cleared a path twice to the door in between fixing my car.
Oh yeah, yesterday after clearing it off and shoveling the snow from around it, I tried to start it. Well, it was the original battery to the car which is 12 years old and it was 12 degrees out so I guess it was time for it to die. I now have a brand new battery and can go get my Honey Dew Chocolate Raspberry coffee today. Only I'll have to clear my car AGAIN.
And Wanda has been visiting. Thursday night she ran to the back door to worship at the feet of Husband. And has pretty much been miserably when he hasn't been around. See!

But she has been outside a few times. Right now the snow in the backyard is deeper then her so I've kept her to the shoveled walkway.


And she is definitely a hot house flower.



And snore! I'm not sure who is louder - her or Husband! At the moment, she's on the couch with Youngest who kept Husband and myself up all night holding her head and cleaning up messes. Not sure what the problem was/is but it seems to have run it course.
I'm off to try and get another storage box to add to my Stash or got get coffee or maybe just snuggle under the covers and finish a project or 2.

PS - did I mention we're in for another storm on Tuesday?

Curses

Ok, so it's not officially winter. But it sure is looking like it. I took the dogs out at 6 am and the walkway's were wet. Hard pellets hit my face and I was instantly pissed. The grass is almost covered and I'm sure the back deck is slick as a hockey rink. I've got to find my boots, then clean the dust off of them before I can hit the S.A.B.L.E. for a new project.
Youngest is being a PIA cause she wants to go Shopping and neither me or Husband wants to move out the door. I'm out of coffee and waiting for a phone call before I go out at which time I will stop and get a can.
All I want to do is bundle up with a hot cup a', yarn and a good movie and not have to do anything.
But we need food and clean clothes so I'm hoping to get a couple of hours today of knitting in.
Well, at least the white stuff waited until December to start. I just hope this is not a preview of the rest of winter.

This and That

Wow, it's been awhile since my last entry. No cookie for me. Been working and knitting - alot! Lately I've been on Ravelry (thefibergoddess) getting my projects, stash and needles input. Since the beginning of November I've gotten a few things done and today I added pictures! Now if I could just figure out the 'instant messaging' part, I be cooking with gas. We went to the in-law's as usual for Thanksgiving and had The Boss with us. She went home with Oldest yesterday and I do miss her already. With her help I was able to clean a lot of clutter out of the kitchen. She and I came up with a plan! I'm going to get her a couple of weekends a month and we'll work together on a project around the house to whip it into shape. For what ever reason, Husband and Youngest can't/won't help out and I can't keep up with them. The Boss really likes to be busy which makes her the perfect helper for me. I can stay in one spot and hand her stuff with orders as to what to do with it and she does it.
Once Husband gets home, I'm going to be boiling the turkey for soup. I need to warm up the kitchen, which will warm up the rest of the house. I ran out to the S.A.B.L.E. and it's COLD out side! So it looks like soup and home-made bread for supper tonight.
As much as Husband claims to be a cat person, he seems to get along pretty well with all the dogs I've brought home to visit. Check these out -

Well, he's pulling into the drive with my coffee so I'm off to make soup and bread. Stay warm and I'll try to be a better blogger.

House Guests

I've have a few house guest overnight. Their quite, mostly respectful and a whole lotta fun! They've visited before, sometimes overnight and sometimes just for the day.
This time they arrived just before dinner and they'll be going home just before bedtime.
Meet Little Man and the Love Muffin.



Little Man will run and get his squeaky toy's for me to play with him. But he's so small I have to be careful with him here at the house. He can make it up the stairs but not down. I've got a baby gate across the stairs and he doesn't even bother looking at it.


Love Muffin is just that! She loves to be petted and will sit on you. If you don't pay attention to her, she'll give you a tap on the back of your leg. What she really likes it to have her belly rubbed.

Pretty soon, I'll be seeing them on a much more regular basis. I took a job with their owner and I'll be starting in a couple of weeks.

Now, I just gotta make it through the next 2 weeks at my regular job before I can play!

Meet and Greet

Since I've got the new swanky computer and have uploaded a whole camera full of pic's, I thought I would show you a few.

This is the Oldest when she was about 4 months old.

This is the oldest 2 years ago. She is doing the Cotton Eye Joe, wearing her father's hat, in a strapless dress. What you can't see is the WHOLE skirt of the dress wrapped around her arm. I was impressed!

This is me with my girl's. Oldest is about 8 and Younger is 3. See, even back then I still had the braid.


This is Younger last year when she turned 23!


This is Brother on his wedding day almost 20 years ago with Husband.


This is Husband at the restaurant we took Oldest to for her birthday. He forgot his glasses and borrowed mine.


This is The Boss at 2. She was telling someone that she WAS opening her present and their's was next.


This is her at her mother's birthday dinner. Any questions?!


This is The Gift. She was 5 hours old in this picture


This is The Gift at my birthday dinner. Yes, she is mostly that happy.


And just so you know where I get my knitting from


This is my Mom's big sister.

Cha! Cha! CHANGES!!

I went from this

to this yesterday.

A brand new, nobody else has used it but me, computer! I think I'm in love .....

Of course this is the result today -

Reinstalling software can be a pain, but since I organized where I kept them, I was able to get most of what I needed to reinstall done. Including the software and cable to upload ALL the pictures from the digital camera. Hence, these pictures!
There are still a couple of things on the old computer that have not been transfered over, but I can live without them for the moment.
Does anyone have a disk for Outlook 2003? I have a registration number but no disk (the last place that did the install stuff on the old computer did not give me a copy of anything!)

And Junior WON!!!! Youngest is a very happy girl.

Oldest is almost to Disney World and from the phone call that Husband got, The Gift is not happy. Sounds like she did not get the travel gene. I can't wait to hear what The Boss has to say about all this.

Oh and check this out



I made this over here - http://www.mylivesignature.com/

I think I'm becoming a bit of a computer geek LOL

Mother's Day

How was yours?? Mine, not so fun. I did get the see all my girls. Husband did not play golf. I did have a good meal. But.....

About an hour before we were to leave to meet Oldest at the restaurant where we had reservations, Husband's back went out. BAD! So Oldest came down with The Boss and The Gift. But at least I didn't have to cook and even though I had to bring food to Husband I had a good day.

I got to listen to a new audio book and play on the computer most of the day. I got to play with The Gift and see her laugh at my silly antics. The Boss showed off her new Game Boy and borrowed a game from Youngest to play. And she helped with the food.

And I talked with both Mom and Mother-In-Law, a sister and my brother.

I have decided that I'm going to try to do a daily update and post it weekly. I'm hoping that might jump start me in getting this blog going on a regular basis. And maybe I'll learn how to post pictures and such as well.

So the wrap up – Ok Mother's Day (as far as the day itself went) but good times with family.

HEROES

Today as I have listening to the radio 'they' keep remarking about the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King. One show in particular made me want to write this. The show is 'Rabbi Shmuly' which I get on my satellite radio. Today his subject was Heroes. He made alot of good points about how this country worships the sports figure because of what they do when they perform in the sport or the Hollywood 'celebrity' because that's who the press focuses on which is probably the reason why our youngsters are so screwed up!
That got me thinking who my heroes are.

Well my heroes are my mom and daughters.

My parents divorced when I was less than 6 years old. She raised 4 daughters (my sisters are all younger than me) while working 2 jobs, one of them was third shift at Pratt & Whitney, paid off all the bills my father left AND still found a way to travel with us.
She bought a hard top camper and would load it & us into the car and take off on weekends. Picture a women with 4 girls pulling into a campground, getting the camper placed correctly and directing all those young kids. Now, picture doing this in the mid 60's! When she bought the camper, she didn't even know how to back it up! She asked AFTER she bought it and was TOLD how to.
We lived with my grandparents. The driveway had a steep entrance and was not that big. The trick was to pull the camper close to one side and angle the car the other way. Then we kids could unhook it, get the wheel on it and push it out of the way. She got so that she could do this maneuver in one shot even in the dark. Oh, and the car was a 3 speed on the floor stick with power steering and brakes. We had a few adventures with this car that I'll save for another blog.

Our first trip out with it, Mom met our first stepfather. He had rejected a campsite because he couldn't get his camper between 2 trees. He was recovering from back surgery and couldn't turn around to look over his shoulder. He even went so far as to tell the campground people that it was impossible to get a camper on that site. Along came my Mom and she looked at it and just pulled through the trees to get the camper set in the right spot!

When he died, Mom was now left with 5 girls, all teenagers and his mom to take care of. Money was always tight but we never went hungry, we had the basics for clothes and lots of love. She taught me the value of working for what you want and how to keep going when life throws you a curve ball or down on the ground.

After he died, she took a course on car maintenance so she wouldn't have to spend money on oil changes and tune ups. She took up square dance for exercise and sewed her dresses, which in my opinion, were much better than anything that could be gotten in a store. She did all the finish work on the new living room, which included taping and sanding the drywall, installing the carpet and installing the woodwork.

She always been there, leading by example. At no time in my life, no matter how bad my sisters and I acted or however we screwed up, did she not let us know how much she loved us.

My oldest is so much like me and yet so different. She repeated alot of my mistakes but she learned the lessons so much quicker than me. She is a phenomenal mother. I am constantly amazed at her ability to juggle 2 kids, work and school. Many's been the time that I wished I could win the lottery just so I could help her finish school faster, see her in a reliable car and a home of her own. I know someday she will achieve all of this on her own simply because she will find a way to do it.

My youngest has a genetic defect but she is one clever person. Her speech is very difficult to understand, yet she will find a way to make you understand her. She is passionate about country music, NASCAR and her favorite driver, 'Junior', the Pats and Red Sox, her nieces and other family members. She is always willing to try something once and will work hard at being able to do alot of things that we 'normal' people take for granted. I remember that it took 2 years for her to be able to use a pair of scissors. But she kept at it until she could cut along the lines. Oh, and she's left handed to boot!
So, if I'm ever asked who my heroes are these are the people that top my list. I admire alot of people. People like Abigail Adams, Rosa Parks, alot of NASCAR drivers, certain sports figures. But, my heroes will always be close to me.

BBC AMERICA TV CHANNEL

I have been cleaning my house but stop to rest alot. And I completely stop at 3 pm. Why, you ask? Because from 3 to 5 I am hooked on 'How clean is your house' and 'You are what you eat'. Now, don't get me wrong. My house is no where near as bad the homes they clean up. But alot of what they (Kim Woodburn and Aggie MacKenzie) make sense to me. I just didn't realize how bad dust can be for those that have allergies to it. Like me and Husband and Youngest.
I like that they use 'green' cleaning. I've picked up a lot of tips and tricks from this show. And I've come to the decision that I'm going that route as much as possible. Now I hate shopping at Wal-Mart but the other day I spent close to $100 bucks at the local one to get the supplies I needed to get me going on this. I needed spray bottles and diapers and a few other things. Most everything else I already had here, such as white vinager, baking soda and borax. I've even bookmarked a couple of 'green cleaning' sites to help make the transition easier.
I've been cleaning up a storm this week to the point that I even took the oven door off my stove to facilitate getting my upper body inside to clean it! I've already noticed a big difference in how I feel. Normally this time of year, my outdoor allergies start acting up and I quickly start down the migraine, sinus infection road. So far, so good!
I've even started to develop a cleaning plan and have written it down. There are things that have to be done every day and then weekly and monthly stuff. I figure that with returning to work soon, with a plan I can keep up. And Youngest is becoming quite the helper. So it looks like Husband is outnumbered. He really hasn't taken to this so far. But Youngest is a better nagger than me!

And as for eating, we are very bland here at Casa Fibergoddess. I realized that most of our meals are brown and yellowish. No red, greens or any other colors. As I said in my previous post, I AM GOING TO TAKE CARE OF ME. Towards that, I have been eating well. I estimate that I've lost 10 pounds over the last few months and am determined to gain it back. The internet is a wonderful thing! But, I've discovered that I have to increase my caloric intake to over 2000 a day to safely gain 1 to 2 pounds a mouth. Yikes! So, it will be oatmeal AND toast with peanut butter for breakfast, 2 snacks before lunch, something besides ham and cheese on white bread for lunch, 2 more snacks before supper, lots of carbs and protein for supper and a bedtime snack. Now before you wig out, I'm not going the junk food route.
There is a 'gourmet' farm stand just down the street from work. They carry a lot of organic and healthy stuff. So, it will be nuts and dried fruit and fresh veggies for snacks. Whole wheat pasta and quality made box mixes. Not a lot of added salt and sugar, etc. I figure that Husband and Youngest (who has, on her own, lost over 10 pounds this year!!!) will also benefit from this diet.

I'm hoping that I can get my work schedule going in a direction that won't stress me out too much so I can function when I get home. Having a regular eating schedule is not possible but my plan is to put healthy snacks in a fanny pack and wear it. That way, before I get too hungry I can eat and that's the key for me. I can't wait until I'm hungry because then I don't want to eat.

DOG WITH A BRAIN

My middle sister just called me and I have to tell you what she related to me.
Back in December, she and family stopped by and I took her to my S.A.B.L.E. to shop for some yarn. She and College Grad daughter crochet and I try my best to supply them with new yarn when they visit. Seeing a how Sister was to be on the road for the next few days, she shopped well.
This is what she told me today. She has 2 dogs, one who just realized it has a brain after having it's head coiffed. Her house is a split level and she was upstairs when the newly brained dog came through the door .... with yarn!
She had the yarn and WIP in a bag next to her chair in the living room and apparently he checked it out. And got caught up in it. A cat couldn't have done a better job! She reported that not only was it wrapped around most of the furniture on the first floor, he even managed to wrap the other dog with yarn.
I am happy to report that dog and yarn made a speedy recovery!

The Long Road Back

On Veteran's Day I awoke to find that I had vertigo. Vertigo is not just swinging or spinning. Vertigo is full on gyro spinning! I talking about forward, around and sideways, all at the same time. For someone who hates rollercoaster's and get motion sick watching boats on TV this is NOT a 'good thing'. Since then I have been pretty much confined to home.
The first few weeks at home were basically spent on the couch, leaning to one side and carefully editing what I watched on TV. The ER doc gave me a prescription for a motion sickness pill. That worked OK for a few days. I'd take it and pass out for a few hours. When I was awake and wanting to get to another room, I'd have to hold onto something and make sure that my head was down and move at a less than a snail pace. But it started to make me feel even sicker the more I took it. So my regular doctor gave me a prescription for a motion sickness patch. These are worn behind your ear for up to 3 days at a time.
Turns out I developed Benign Positional Vertigo. I had blood tests, an MRI and multiple visits with several doctors. The ENT was the one that got me on the road to recovery. Unfortunatly, I did see him until the beginning of this month.
He looked at my ears, gave me a hearing test (to rule out several other nasty things that are chronic conditions) and referred me for physical therapy. Who knew that there was PT for gyro spinning! Well, I've had good days and bad days. The PT started to work almost the first day. Problem was that by this time I still needed the motion sickness patch to function. Turns out you can get 'addicted' to these.
How do I know? About 2 weeks ago, the patch I put on started to itch about 8 hours after I applied it. 3 days later when I removed it, it looked like I had be burned with a cigarette. Fool that I am, I decided to try a half patch instead. Same result, so I stopped using it. Turns out that I developed an allergy to the adhesive.
I wasn't sure what was worse, the vertigo or the intense nausea that I developed. So, back to the doctor's I go. I was laying on the exam table, curled in a ball when he walked in. Another prescription and I was on my way home.
Here it is, 4 days later, and I'm feeling so much better. I'm still not 100%. I'm almost walking full speed, I can eat, knit, do some housework and I'm sleeping much better. I can't read full speed yet and I still can't spin. I still haven't driven my car at night and quick side to side movements bring back the spinning. That is subsiding quicker but I can't go back to work until I have that under control. It's one thing to drive my car with only me in it and another to drive a company vehicle.
Today is my birthday and it's been one of the best I've had in a long time. We stayed home and the Oldest came with The Boss and The Gift. Husband got Boston Market chicken with alot of fixin's and we played with The Gift. She's very mobile and such a hoot!
The cards were great, the house was cleaned (including being vacuumed, which has not been done since I've been sick. Don't ask!), the food wonderful and the presents perfect!
Oh The presents! Flowers, 1 bag of Lindt Dark Chocolate truffles, 2 Lindt 70% Dark Chocolate bars (turns out The Boss loves this almost as much as I do!) and 2 large boxes of Junior Mints.
Oldest, The Boss and I sang along with some of my favorite country songs. I learned that Oldest, after many years of running screaming from the house whenever I played anything remotely country, now knows most of my favorite songs.
The Boss and I sang and danced to one of her favorite's – 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia' by CDB! Gotta love that. And having received his newest one for Christmas, I was surprise to find out that Oldest knows all the words to 'Drinking My Baby Goodbye'! Turns out that the SO deemed that his song about her when they had broken up. And The Gift seemed to like it when I scooped her up to slow dance around the living room to my newest favorite song from Big & Rich.
So for now I'm OK with my progress. I need at least one more PT session under my belt and I'm hoping to be back to work before the Daytona 500 in February.
Oh and the house? Don't ask. I was making progress until last week. I'm hoping to get most of my spring cleaning done before I head back to work. I won't bore you with how much paper and junk I've thrown out so far or the state of most of the surfaces especially in the kitchen. Suffice to say, that Husband has not missed anything, Youngest is very happy with the shape of her room and I can walk around without tripping or sticking to stuff!
Having to stop cold turkey all activity has given me time to think and reflect. I've decided to change a few things in my life. I'm going to treat myself better. Maybe try yoga and see a nutritionist to pump up my immune system. I will not take on other's stress or try to do it all myself. I'm going to stop when I get tired and rest. I'm going to do something for my mind, body and spirit everyday and if it means that Husband and Youngest have to do for themselves so be it.
In other words, I'm going to be very selfish about what I do from now on.