Baby Steps

Our new nephew was born quite healthy, if a tad disgruntled at being evicted from his warm apartment, on Monday afternoon. For anonymity purposes, I'm calling him "Mr. J" in the blog. Yes, that's a comic book reference. His parents would be proud. ;-) Speaking of his parents, they are quite besotted with their bundle and the three of them are a gorgeous family.

I'd been working on some things for wee Mr. J, but only a few were done in time for his early arrival. A set of three little washcloths. I found the pattern on Ravelry.com. I'll note that I skipped the edge stitching.

Still need to play catch up with his crocheted booties. I did have several pair of fleece booties for him though. They've been hanging out in the gift stash for ages.

After I drove home on Wednesday, I had a paint night event to attend. I'd signed up weeks ago when we thought FH would be out of town on business. Lucky break he wasn't or else I'd have needed a friend to look after the cats and bunny whilst I was gone. Instead of the adorable cartoonish kitten in the original sample, I decided to go for a more realistic cat. Of course it's Artan. I picked this event because the original kitten was black. Not bad for someone who's only ever sketched cats before.

Thursday it was back to the grind of laundry and housework. Currently the workroom/studio has spilled out into the house even more, so working on it counts as housework. I rediscovered a box full of tiny magazines that were cut from an issue of some miniature magazine back in the late 1990's. They were cut and folded, but somehow never got any further than that. During a break to rest my increasingly irritable knee, I glued them closed and tossed them into the 'Books and Magazines" container.

My new desk for the studio has yet to be delivered. FH and his boss were going to haul it over on Monday, but the boss had a family issue come up. Hopefully we can claim it soon... it's a cast off from FH's work and perfect for what I need. 

On Friday I finished the quilting on one of the chevron quilts, but I neglected to get a picture. I post about it and progress on the other chevron quilt next week.

See you all then!

Tiny Baubles

Some of the gifts I made this year for family were earrings. Namely both of my moms and Auntie Rose. 

Artan may have kept me from putting my most delicate treasures on the tree this year, but he didn't do anything to these.

These were such fun.  I think I may play with these beads again when I have some time.  Maybe make some for next year's Guild auction.

Warm and Friendly Rivalries

One of my nephews is a die-hard Chicago Bears fan.  FH and I are Green Bay Packer fans.  But since we love him, we don't hold it against him.  Besides the Bears are a really good team... and they aren't the Vikings. ;-)

Anyways, himself outgrew his old twin bed.  Funny how teenagers do that.  So Aunt Kat came to the rescue with a ton of polar fleece.  I had a little help from the usual suspect.

To give you an idea of how big this blanket is, check out the back.  (That's my dining room table with one leaf in it.)

I whipped up some big pillows for flopping on too.

 Complete with zippers so my sister can wash them. 

I did make a third pillow but forgot to get a picture of it by itself.

Unfortunately you can't see the ear to ear grin on his face.  But believe me, it was there.

The rectangles are fat quarter-sized (18"x22") and sewn together wrong sides facing with a one inch seam.  Then I fringed the seams.  Three of the edges are fringed as well.  I made one end smooth so he wouldn't have fringe tickling his nose at night.  There are several seams down the full length of the blanket to keep it from trying to turn inside out in the wash.  I disguised them along the fringed areas.

The third pillow is behind him.  It's a football pattern print.  I found it as a remnant when I went to get more orange fleece for the back.  I also bought him a Chicago Bears Santa hat just because.

Ta da!

Happy Birthday!

Today is my dad's 91st birthday!  The best gift of all is he's doing really well with learning to walk again.  In a few months the doctor says he'll be able to walk with just a cane again.  :-)

Since I'm actually typing this ahead of time, you'll have to settle for a picture of last year's cake.

Yes.  It was as good as it looks.  That is real fruit.  The full size sheet cake was comprised of two flavors: strawberry mousseline and black forrest cherry. 

When It Rains

So a few people already know I'm back in St. Louis taking care of my dad because my mother had to have emergency surgery today.  I hadn't even been home for a week yet when I got the call to turn around and come back.  I do not know when I will see my projects, critters, or husband again.  I do know that I'm getting fed up with being the one that has to drop everything in my life and drive 200+ miles to take care of things when there are five of my siblings living in this metro area.  They offer to help, trust me on this.  But they are usually brushed off.

Currently both Pollux and Artan are sick with gut flora imbalances, caused by stress, and FH is having to medicate them twice a day.  I can't bring them with me as the stress of travel would be worse than the stress of me not being there.  Not to mention that wheelchairs and walkers don't mix well with kitties.

At this moment I do not know when my mother will be released from the hospital.  I only know that it's impossible to sleep here knowing that I have to be able to hear my dad call for any kind of help (like late-night trips to the bathroom) or even a drink of water, as he's not allowed to move from a sitting position to his feet unassisted yet.

Oh and he's home instead of being in a rehab facility after a snafu at the rehab place.  We were all less than impressed and it was decided to just bring him home.  Mom was doing a fantastic job with him here up until she got sick over the weekend.  I had come back down shortly after his return home to help move furniture around to accommodate the wheelchair, so things were a lot easier for both of them.

And the kicker of this is I'm sick.  We don't know with what.  I'm actually supposed to be seeing a specialist but it's kinda hard to do when I keep getting called down here.  It's really hard to tell your parents "no" though.  Sadly I think I'm getting to the point where I will need to just so I can take care of myself.

Sorry for the rant.  I needed to vent.  Miss you all lots.  I hope to be back soon.

Update

Sorry it's been a while but things are rather less than sane right now.  During the last week of June the rehab place sent my dad back to the ER for blood loss.  Many tests were run, many more were vetoed as being too risky for his health.  In the end no real conclusions were made.

FH and I were planning on heading down to St. Louis for 4th of July/helping my parents/taking Tempie to the vet.  However those plans were thwarted big time.  Fifteen minutes after we left home on Saturday morning (two separate cars, animals all with me in the car with working AC) the car I was driving blew a tire.  [I should also note the car with no working AC belongs to my parents.  They loaned it to us until Dad's able to drive again, since we only have one car and this frees me up to come down and help.]  FH had to double back in the car w/o AC, offload the luggage and pets, and take the pets home.  Happily it didn't take long and he was back with me waiting on the tow truck... which never showed up. 

Instead a very nice state trooper came by and made sure the highway traffic moved over so we could get the spare on without worrying about being hit.  In fact he helped out with a better lug wrench than the one we have in the car!  I did have to call and cancel Tempie's vet appointment though.

So we limped the car to two different tire places before we found one that stocked the tires we needed.  However we didn't get our car back until Sunday and by then we were too tired to drive all the way to St. Louis just for FH to turn around and head home after one night.

The problem was I still had to take the car with no working AC back to my parents so the AC could be repaired.  This meant taking Tempie along was going to become very risky.  I called the vet and explained the whole mess.  He agreed she should just stay at home with FH.  He also said we could stop the bicilian injections, which is one less medication to worry about for FH.

So I'm here and they are all at home.  Tempie is doing great!  She's eating somewhat normally again.  And she's being more active than we've ever seen before.  Apparently she has more energy to find new places to hang out ike on top of the ottoman footstool.  She had to go "ATB" (all-terrain bunny) to get up there.  In fact that's where she was hanging out Saturday when we got home from dropping of our car.

Tile is also no longer a deterrent.  We've had to block off the area to the cat litter boxes because Tempie will happily wander off to them and dig out half of the litter onto the floor!  FH told me that he caught her exploring the bottom two steps on the staircase!   We're going to have to do something about that new interest. 

Oh and for the folks thinking healing thoughts for my dad, thank you and they are working!  He's actually home-home from the hospital.  The rehab place filled his spot after they sent him back to the hospital and my mom decided she was unimpressed with them anyway.  After a physical therapy evaluation it was decided he could go home!

Of course this means getting furniture rearranged to accommodate a wheelchair and whatnot, but that's why I'm here right now.  Speaking of, I'm really glad the vet decided Tempie should stay home.  When I got off the highway about a mile or so from my parents' house the car started overheating badly.  It was really sudden and I was able to make it the rest of the way here.  Turns out the water pump decided to die.  So it's being fixed along with the AC.  Tempie was almost stranded with me on the side of the road, in the dark, late at night (midnight), and with no one able to come and get us!  So happy she's safe at home with her daddy and the cats.

I'm worn out after a day of furniture shuffling.  But it was worth it to have my dad able to sleep in his own bed for the first time since his fall.  I'm going to get some sleep and hopefully be able to go home soon.  Thank you again to everyone who is sending us good thoughts right now.

Still Distracted

Castor here.  Dad got a sad phone call last night.  His uncle was in a fatal motorcycle accident.  This means Mom and Dad are going to be gone all day Sunday for the funeral.  Mom hopes to get some of her toys played with tomorrow but she isn't sure.  She's out right now finding clothes to wear.  I promise she'll be back soon.

Christmas Day 2010

Here's the second post for today. 

FH and I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast for two yesterday morning.

We opened our stockings through breakfast and then moved onto the boxes under the tree.

Castor was worn out after all the excitement.  Pollux was just waiting to see what would happen next.

 

Then we packed up some yummy things and put jeans on over our pajamas and made the drive over to the apartment to spend the rest of the day with our friend and her previously naughty children.  Pajamas were the dress of the day/evening over there, hence our choice of wardrobe.

Dinner consisted of turkey, mashed potatoes, homemade gravy, broccoli casserole, cranberry-apple stuffing, humus and flat bread, and a fresh vegetable tray.  Here's the lovely bird coming out of the oven.

For Christmas FH and I got Little D a beginner's leather tool set so he can 1)have his own tools and 2) can work on leather at home instead of always at our house, giving him more freedom to practice.  Hummingbird was given lots of findings, beads, and tools that fit her hands so she can make jewelry at home with her mom.  Their mother was given a night out at her favorite restaurant.

For dessert we dug into a red velvet cake and watched the kids play with their treasures.  It was a fantastic day.

Lull

Life has been doing its level best to get in my way lately.

I've been sick for the better part of a month now with no real idea of what it wrong. Blood tests have been attempted, but really all that happened was I became a pin cushion. I'll get whatever results from whatever tests they were able to get blood for sometime soon.

There are more color problems on the Flowerpot Kitty. There wasn't enough black floss to finish the back-stitching and the DMC black is has a duller sheen. So I'm pondering what to do about that.

Castor had a seizure in the wee hours of the morning. His thrashing woke FH and I up around 4:40am. He'd been having little seizures for a while, but they were only little tics. This was a full blown, spittle covered, thrashing seizure. It took him a little while to come back to himself when it was over and then his back legs didn't want to work correctly. The vet took blood today and we'll know more tomorrow morning.

One of our young nephews (aged 12) had his appendix burst three weeks ago... the problem wasn't caught for two days due to flu being present in the house to confuse the symptoms. He survived that, survived the abscess that followed, and battled his way through the surgery when they finally took the pieces of ruined organ out. Now however he's spiked a dangerously high fever and is red over most of his body...and has been that way since Friday. His parents are going to switch hospitals tomorrow if no progress is made in diagnosis/treatment.

FH got the desktop PC fixed with the help of his friends over the weekend, so I've been getting all of my pictures in one place again and organizing them. Next comes backing things up. At least I can do that while resting.

I'll hopefully have something interesting to look at soon. Right now I"m just concentrating on being able to attend a wedding this weekend.

Give and Take

FH gave me whatever viral nastiness he came down with last week. I am typing with tired hands and bleary eyes right now. He has run off to play in the woods with a compound bow and arrows tipped with broadhead points. Hopefully he gets something; the freezer is getting bare.

The washing machine drama is not yet over. It was supposed to come with the new dryer on Thursday. Somehow the washer ended up being marked for dock pick up at a store two and a half hours from our house whilst the dryer showed up on time. They tried bringing us the washer today but the wrong one was on the truck. I'm about ready to start spitting nails, but I fear the loss of iron would make me feel even worse.

Five days ago my nephew and his wife welcomed their third child into this world. Baby Beau joins big sister, Sadie, and big brother, Levi. For those of you wondering about generational mathematics, this particular nephew and niece-in-law are the same age as me. That's what happens when you have brothers and sisters old enough to be your parents.

I finished the layette. It still needs to be washed and blocked but here are pictures of the jacket:I made the 6 month size, so it will not fit our friend's daughter until Easter. But I think it will look great over an Easter dress. :-)

Jumping back to the family news, I decided it would be fun to make matching sweaters for Sadie, Levi, and Beau. I found a pattern for a vest with a hood in one of my crochet books. Each one will be a different color and size, but otherwise they will match. I thought them posing together in their sweaters would be a fun picture opportunity for their parents.

I've started on Levi's already. I'm actually further along than these pictures suggest. The back is finished and I've almost gotten one of the front pieces finished. I really just don't feel like playing with the camera right now.Here's a closer look at the texture.I'm using a DK yarn by Sirdar for all three of them. Levi's is called "blue twist."

I know I still need to get the promised pictures of my treasure from Jodi up here. Maybe if I can find some energy I can fight my way through the jumble of furniture (everything is still out of place from the attempts at large appliance delivery) to where I stashed her away from the cats. I think I will go ponder the situation and see what happens.

Update

The official word is Dad let himself get dehydrated. He has now been told but someone in a white coat, with clipboard, that 28 ounces of water a day is not enough. [Note that my mother has been saying that for quite some time. She just "isn't a doctor." My father can be a elitist prig from time to time.]

They are keeping him for another night to pump him up with IV fluids. He's flirting with the nurses and whatnot, so he should be alright.

We did manage to find all of my siblings yesterday, finally. It's like herding cats to reach them all.

Thank you to everyone who sent kind thoughts and prayers our way. I appreciate it more than you know.

The regularly scheduled minis, sewing, and musings will return sometime tomorrow.

News

My dad's in the hospital. Lots of test being run. Will know more eventually. Going to be waiting near the phone for a while. Will catch up on comments soon.

In Memoriam

On this day sixty-seven years ago my grandmother lost a son, my father lost a brother, the Marines lost a good man.

PFC Everett Ray ***** Jr. died serving his country without ever knowing we were at war. He only knew when he was supposed to drive the admiral's wife to her Bridge game the next week and when the last letter home was sent. Did he have a sweetheart that the family never got to meet? What were his dreams and goals?

Please remember him and the hundreds of other men who lost their lives at Pearl Harbor, HI on December 7, 1941.

Angry

I love my sister, despite how gods-awful stubborn she is when it comes to seeing a doctor once in a while. Instead of going in when she didn't feel well last Tuesday and going home with a handful of pills she's lying in a hospital bed getting IV antibiotics, has a distended kidney, a fever of 101 degrees F, a racing heart rate (140 over somethin'), and might die.

If she lives I'm gonna kick her ass.