Come down with a case of "TOO STUPID TO LIVE"

Have had a really bad week for doing incredibly stupid things.  Things that even I realize are incredibly stupid without the help of family or friends pointing it out to me. ( I am surrounded by family and friends who love to help me in this regard.  Totally surrounded.  One just does not know how many helpful family and friends one has until one does something incredibly stupid).

Went to a specialist this week - positive I knew where his office was located.  Of course I was entirely wrong.  I couldn't pronounce the specialists name.  I couldn't spell it either.  I didn't bring his card, as I knew the time and place right?!  Found out pretty fast that if you can't pronounce it or spell it 411 can't help you.  I did manage to phone my own voice manager and listen to the message reminder the office made for me the previous day, got the number, got the address and to my credit I  w a s in the right city.

On the way out I went to Michaels to get a dear dear lady a gift certificate retirement gift from several people in the office from where I retired from but seem to work at a lot anyway.  We had collected enough for $175.  Got the card picked out, and realized that I couldn't find the envelop of money.  Struggled with the subconcious "where the heck did I put that? Did it drop on the ground or something?" voice all the time I was paying with my credit card and on the drive home.

On same trip to Michaels I bought yarn to make an "arm knitted" cowl for Aynsley.  As well, I bought meat and fruit and vegetables in bulk from COSTCO.  When I got home, I had some things to prepare for the Library board meeting the next night.  But...to relax a little I started the cowl only to realize that I can't put it down until it is finished!  How to you 'set aside' knitting that is being done on your arms??? Had to knit until the wee small hours (near 9:30 PM) and then start dividing up meat and veg and fruit and putting away!  Not into my little bed until almost 11:30 AND I HAD TO WORK THE NEXT DAY!!  God I am old....

At the Library board meeting the next night, it occurs to me that I never did get around  to preparing stuff.  I ask the board to move adoption of a blank budget, but the board is full of fidgety types when it comes to money and actually wanted details like real numbers in A L L  the blank lines.  Tabled of course.  "Tabled" means prolong the agony for another month.

The next day is the DAY AFTER THE MEETING and the first DAY THAT I DON'T HAVE TO WORK AT THE OFFICE FROM WHICH I RETIRED BUT SEEM TO WORK AT A LOT ANYWAY.  Phew.  What a relief.  I do an extra thorough job of housecleaning (i.e. the dishes and make the bed) and then treat myself to 9 episodes of Coronation Street. 

Friday night is the supper out retirement party.  So of course I spend the day making a card.  Well, not just a card, a card A N D a gift card holder.  Once the gift card holder is done, I try the gift card and it is just  SMIDGE too small to hold the card.  So I walk from my kitchen to the craft room to enlarge it a smidge and when I try the card to see if it fits now - I can't find it.  Must have left it in the kitchen.  While I am down at this end of my house I will gather up a load of laundry and then look for the card in the kitchen.  I guess I see a bright light, as when it is time for me to leave I realize that I haven't found the gift card.  I look.  I search. I panic. I hunt. Murray helps me look.  We look together.  We look separately.  We DO NOT FIND the card. I go to the grocery store and buy "Master Card" gift cards.  I do, however, find the envelop of money as it is in the way in my purse when I am looking for my credit card to buy the gift cards.  Someday, I will include "clean out purse" on my To Do list.

Anyway, I now breath a sigh of relief because last week is behind me and next week will be better.  And next year will be wonderful when I come across the Michaels gift card for $175!!

\bye

I have been busy

Recipe:

•  neon green cardstock, 
• Just buzzin by stamp set (wooden set from Stampin Up) 
• Designer Series Paper from Stampin up, 
• Happy Bee Day font "Bizzy"
• Got the "steps" design from a Youtube video.
• Used Stampin up pens and aquapainter to color hive, used pens on the little bees which are incredibly cute. Stickles on the wings.
• LOVE IT!!

 Recipe

• Chocolate Chip cardstock for card base
• Next layer:Off yellow - kind of a pale jaundicy type of yellow - then I ran the chocolate chip ink pad over the yellow lightly - which I then stamped paws all over in early expresso ink.  Ran it through the big shot using the honeycomb embossing folder.
• Doggie - used clear stamp set from Michaels on whisper white, punched around square, sponged with crumb cake.  Painted with stampin up pens and aquapainter pen.  Same for hydrant. Fussy cut hydrant.
• embossed black paw print using versamark and black powder, used my 13/8" punch to cut around it.  Created a slightly bigger circle using Cricut - matted paw print on Crumb Cake.  Adhered with sticky spots.
• Having a Birthday? on computer on crumb cake cardstock.  Sponged with early expresso.
  
  Inside that same jaundicy yellow, sponged with crumb cake, after printing sentiment from computer, stamped a brown paw print.

REALLY LOVE IT!!!!

•  Used the tools background stamp set, adhered to blue card stock.
• Chocolate chip ink on ivory cardstock for background
• Stamped again in red, and cut out wrench and level - colored/shaded with rust colored pen
• Used dimensionals to stick tools on small square of dsp. 
• the ticket punch and ticket stamp are from stampin up
• brown rafia string attached

aah - its okay.

 Recipe on Splitcoaststampers. Stamp set is "Under the Sea" by stampin up.

ITS PRETTY NICE.

 Made this one at Dianne's card Party.  Shauna was rep with the idea

 Followed directions on Gina Ks website. 

Got this from you tube, using aisan expressions stamp set.

Gina K design - used her stamp set.

 Another Gina K and my sweet little elephants stamps

 Used Dianne's Two by Two stamp.  Very cute!!


Just in case I give them all away!

At long last

I was on my kub kadet for the first time in 2013 last night.  You may recall that my kub kadet is my ride-on lawn mower, and that very few things give me as much peace as mowing my lawn.

Well, it was too early to mow any grass, but after Murray 'thatched' the lawn, there was a lot of dead grass and leaves and junk to mow up and bag.  It was a dirty job - dried grass clippings, leaves and detritus billowing up into my face and hair and onto my clothes and down the back of my neck and then there was the dust which affected all other areas of my being.  And then there was Murray asking me trick questions like "if the wind is blowing in this direction which way should you turn to avoid all the dust".   As soon as the word "direction" or "left" or "right" enter the conversation I panic, and I flash my deer in the headlights look.  And he would turn in frustration, wildly gesture with his artificial arms and say a few choice words to himself which were likely not that complimentary to me.

Anyway, I mowed away happy as a clam.  I was happy when the bagging tube kept coming apart and dust flew unhindered into the air and fell like snow banks onto my head.  I was happy when the bagging tube plugged up and I had to stop and empty it manually while the dust swelled around me.  I was really happy when the bags were filled and needed to be emptied because Murray was doing that part for me.

Alas, nothing lasts forever, and it was soon back into the house and laundry and dishes and all those general miserable jobs.  But, I have the hope that the grass will grow and that soon I will be mowing for real.

There is nothing more therapeutic than a ride-on lawn mower.

Well, maybe a roto-tiller but that is a story for another day.

/bye

Can you call (sniffle choke snort) Mom?

Murray and I have discovered a new low in pathetic-ness.  We both have a gastroenteritis that is particularly vile and disgusting.  Thank goodness we have two bathrooms - otherwise things would really be messy!  Have you seen the commercial where the grown man is sick in bed calling to his harried wife "Pam, Pam can you call Mom?"  That is us.  Of course my husband is more pathetic than I - but really not much more.  I have, of course, self-diagnosed on the internet and we are suffering from the Norovirus - or the Black Plague - either way we don't really care.

I blame myself, really, as I was just about over the cold and cough that has been lingering in my chest for the last month.  It was bound to happen - right.

Possibly it is a reaction to the fact that we cannot go on a winter holiday this year, because I was so ill in the summer.  No more discussion of staying here all winter, as I will be driven to tears.  Trust us to get Montezumas revenge at home!  Not a bit like takin' a trip and never leavin' the farm either! (Please don't email me if you are too young to know what I am talking about - I just don't have the strength for that).

We are beginning to run out of supplies here too.  Mr Really Really Sick (unlike me who is just, you know, sick) wanted an orange, or an apple, or grapes or a banana.  I suggested I could peel him a carrot, and he passed on that indicating that he is "not a Cochrane" (slight slam at "healthy Holly" - who is not sick btw - hmmmn?  Any connection I wonder?)  Same for the frozen peas. How pathetic.

One of the first comments anyone who has had the pleasure of hearing all this in person makes is "and you had the flu shot too" .  Pul - lease people.  This is gastro, not respiratory, which is the one your are immunizing against with the flu shot.  (See paragraph two above) - Yeah well, I still swear by the flu shot and get one every year. 


Anyway, my sister in law emailed a really nice New Years card to everyone. It was a very nice photo filled gallery that summarized their year. So, not to be outdone, and yet put my own personal spin on it, I thought I would write this really nice blog post - and wish everyone a Happy 2013. 

May your year be measured in something else besides kleenex and toilet tissue use.

/bye

Home At Last

Well my health finally got to the point the I was admitted to the cardiac ward of the Regina General Hospital last Thursday, September 13.  Finally, all the tests were being done.  Finally, things were happening that made me feel better.  But, the news was not great.

Whatever has attacked me this summer has seriously damaged my heart.  It is enlarged, and just not pumping like it should.  There is a function used to measure the hearts efficiency, called the ejection function or ef.  A normal persons ef should be 50 - 70 %.  Mine is at 19%.   I have a leaky valve.  My left ventricle is not pumping well and is out of sync.  

The better news is, is that there is a lot of medical intervention which can improve all of these things.  I am on a long list of drugs to make the heart pump stronger, to reduce the fluid retention, to slow the rate so that it doesn't work as hard.  At some point I think I will have to have a defibrillator put in - which is much the same procedure as a pacemaker - but they are going to monitor me on the drug therapy first to see if there is improvement.

The good news is my arteries and veins are free of any blockage.  Yay, something good.

As for my lungs it looks like they are clearing now that the fluid has been removed from around my heart.  I will have to follow up with the respiratory surgeon but he thinks they will likely clear on there own.  However, my pulmonary function is at half of what it should be so there are issues there too.

In any event I am just tickled to be home and looking forward to getting on with things.  Adjustments have to be made, but that will be possible.  I have a wonderfully supportive family backing me up, as well as terrific friends, and believe me when you get news like this, these are the people you need to have around you.  

Thanks to everybody who visited, sent cards, texted (even if that is not a real word!) phoned and just generally were there for me.  But especially to my daughter who is already too busy with her life and had to put many of those things on hold because I was not well.  Bless you all.

/bye

Lace Shawl

I am on the last few rows of the latest venture into knitting lace.  I am almost afraid to finish it,  because then it will have to be blocked and I really don't have much experience doing that. 

Yesterday I cleaned out my deep freeze.  Yes, I am that troubled about the blocking thing that I procrastinated by cleaning my deep freeze.  Oh man, I am in big trouble.

Whats next?  Sorting out the office, actually filing all that sh*t that Murray and the taxman think should be kept?  Cleaning out closets? Tidying up the basement? It will have to be something awful, because its been my experience that if I procrastinate doing something fun, others disapprove.  I hate others.

Still it feels good to have the deep freeze cleaned out and organized.  I have been lifting the lid and looking around inside just because I can.  I could buy a frozen pizza and I wouldn't have to eat it within 5 hours of bringing it home as there is a place where it can be kept until I actually want to eat pizza.  I can respond with smug assurance should anyone ask me how many roasting chickens are in my deep freeze.  If asked, I could declare in a clear voice that I do not have any T-bone steaks in the bottom of the deep freeze.  Nor freezer jam from 2004.  Of course, no one will ask until my freezer is a mess again when my responses will be vague and quiet and non committal.

/bye

More of the same

I have continued to enjoy "poor" health for the rest of the summer.  Early in August I managed to get hospitalized because the doc wasn't impressed with my follow up x-ray.  They have, after extensive testing, discovered that they do not have a clue what is wrong with me.  

The most recent "specialist" did go so far as to name it.  It is an "ideopathic lung inflamation".  Roughly translated that means "we do not have a clue what is wrong with you".  Health care is much like roulette, I have found, only the wheel turns grindingly slow.  One can only hope that at some point your name will come up and all the tests/procedures they want you to have will be assigned to you.  Until then, I sit here doing nothing to become better - just sitting and waiting for the phone to ring like a high school graduate hoping for an escort.  But, I am not bitter.

I have been thinking a lot about my future.  I dread the day that the remote becomes a complete mystery to me.  It is kind of one now, but I just avoid the buttons that I don't recognize - like aux, and cbl, and amp.  As long as I can remember TV and SAT and PVR I will be ok, but the day will come when they are as outdated as VCR and then I am pretty sure I will be relying on younger generations to turn on my television.  I can remember my mother yelling at Murray and I to "just put it on a channel that gets Another World and leave it A-LONE!"   That will be me.  My children have so much to look forward to.

The garden is dying a natural death - and I am happy with it for the most part.  I had wonderful corn again, the tomatoes are fantastic so far, nothing to complain about with the cucumbers, the potatoes are kind of sparse but ok, carrots look good.  Soon it will be time to pick it all off and then Murray can have at it with the big roto-tiller and those weeds will be plowed under once more.  Next year, things will be different.  I am going to be weed free!

/bye