The last couple of weeks

It's been a long two weeks.  It is totally amazing to me how someone who was in decent shape (myself) goes through something like I did with my heart...a years plus worth of medical treatment and sitting out on life...how quickly that affects how much, or the lack there of that one remainss in shape after recovery.

I get up ... I go to work ... I come home and put my PJ's on ... take a rest .... cook dinner ... get the kids to bed and go to bed myself.  I'm still falling behind on life.  There are a ton of projects to complete....

I did manage to get Jamie's quilt top finished and Zachary's started before I went back to work...but I haven't touched them since :(   I came home from work one day this past week and helped Gary go through some of the junk in the basement....more of a reorganization than decluttering though :(

Today I hope to get the kids rooms somewhat back to normal...hopefully Gary will be able to work on the floor.  His insurance got messed up thanks to an over zealous insurance person who did not listen to what he was told....however, it appears all is well now, but he had to wait several days for his scripts to be processed because his previous insurance had been cancelled by said insurance person :(  That's days without meds which will make the next few days less than comfortable....but hopefully the living room can get done this weekend.  The clutter has become overwhelming...

I did get one of the sewing machine desks up into Anna's room...then did a little research...seems my budding little seamstress will be inheriting a good solid old machine...a Singer 201 from the late 1950's.  She is a beauty, but I will have to find her some polish to bring back her original luster.  "Mom's Metal Polish" will take care of the stainless metal areas....the throat plate...the wheel...however, she will have to wait to have her beauty treatment until later this spring.  The rest of the house is going to undergo major declutter .... sewing room is getting major reorganization ... the office is getting major reorganization ...

Life is getting major reorganization.....

Finally Something Sewn

I finally finished up the quilt top that I cut to piece nearly 20 years ago...yeah...that has to be a running record for a UFO...lol...so while I was not able to do anything else...I pieced...

Several months back with DH let me get my Singer 221, I pieced much of it...I had two rows left...had the blocks pieced for one row, just not put in a row...but did not have the patchwork blocks put together for the last row...neither was I sure that I still had all the pieces....thankfully..I found them all and put the blocks together last night and put the borders on today...it's a good thing I can sew semi-reclined with that little machine...it's such a nice and even stitch...and strong too...

This is for Jamie....it didn't start out that way but when I pulled it out last summer, I decided it was for him.  DH likes it and doesn't want me to send it to him...lol...



Now mind you this is only the front that is pieced in this picture...the back is the blue that is laying on top of it...which I had to piece...I was upcycling some stuff I was given...and it was just a few inches shy...

Frustrations

Well...so I still can't do much...and I am in a semi reclined position most of the time still.  I managed yesterday to finally get hold of the Fridgidaire repair person.  All new appliances and all four of them have "issues"...so I called Fridgidaire and we are getting new gallon jug shelfs for the door....new rubber feet for the cast iron grids on the stove....the repairman will fix whatever issue is going on with the vent on the dishwasher and install a new upper rack that already has rusty sprockets...and fix whatever caused there to be a haze inside the microwave door...

My other "fight" yesterday was with a computer company who shall remain nameless...unlike Fridgidaire who is doing everything to keep us happy...this comany...until threatened with legal action...was steadfastly refusing to replace a battery on a "refurbished" computer that they had sent us to replace a lemon.  Now...we have had this replacement less than a year and in that time it has already required a hard drive replacement and a CD/DVD drive replacement...we then developed issuese with the power on the computer because it kept telling us to hook it up to a 65 W power supply cord...well...it was...and it was the one sent with the computer...thus it is our firm belief that the battery that the computer now tells us needs replacing was damaged by the faulty power supply....either that or the battery was just bad from the get go...  What got me is that we had to buy a new warranty for this 'refurbished" computer....but they date the computer for battery replacement back to the date which we purchased the one they had to replace....definitely not ethical business practice and in my opinion borders on illegal...but not to worry...apparently I was "squeaky" enough and when I had to call back today to correct phone number information which I have corrected twice in the last year alone...the agent suddenly decided he could replace the battery at no charge to us....guess they got wise...because I wasn't going to back down....

However, we still probably won't buy anymore of this particular brand...though we had become very loyal to them for over the last 10 years...and that's pretty much all we own right now.  Although....with the recent issues with what we have now, when we saw another branded laptop on sale...we bought it for Ian's graduation present this June. 

Other than that, I have done very little at all.  We went out Tuesday for a couple of hours and I was wiped.  Came home and woke up the next day feeling pretty good, but by midday I was done in....Then last night I started having pain in my chest...yeah...time to call the dr...so since it's closing time for them...I will have to call them tomorrow...I was trying to figure out if it was a pulled muscle or if it is really a pain inside my chest....Unfortunately, I'm leaning toward the latter right now....so we will see what the dr has to say...

Until then.....time to chase DH to the grocery store to pick up the rest of dinner...lol...

Going stark raving mad

Post surgery is no fun...I am bored out of my mind...I can't sit up for long at all...long enough to eat a meal...I can't sit to sew...I can't sit to cut things out...I can't stand too long either...I get dizzy...but I can't continue to just lie in bed either...I'm going to go kukoo...

So....I have been playing on the computer because I can do that lying down...I have found more free sewing patterns than anyone has a legal right too...and have been making lots of plans on things to complete...The true test will be how much I manage to get done this year...lol...

Daughter Vicki and her hubby Ryan came over yesterday....she showed us her ideas for their nursery...so now the fun is on to find things that will work with her idea of "not totally speaking baby"... but still let out my creative side...lol...I love the colors she chose...absolutely LOVE 'em ...

Daughter Chrissy and her friend Chris are coming for dinner tonight.... Hope they don't mind my PJ's...I still can't wear real people clothes...

I also managed to get some pictures uploaded to Photobucket of the kitchen and how it's coming along...
So...without further ado...here's the kitchen from the dining room view (pardon the paint tape..the trim wasn't dry yet)...


And the kitchen window from the living room angle...we used "countertop" for the window sill and it turned out AMAZING and will never rot out on me...the island on the center bottom also has the Silestone, but it's moveable...so when we want it wide open we roll it around the corner


The dining room as seen from the kitchen...the hutch is not staying...we gave our old table to Vicki and Ryan and we need to sell the hutch so we can put in the built in's we want...that closet on the right side is really coming in handy


And the floor...our dear Zach accomplished his educational Xmas puzzle much quicker than we expected...guess the floor made it easy...lol


And last but not least...the day after our White Christmas...it was still snowing when I took these the day before my surgery...notice how grey the sky was...took some awesome shots on the way to the hospital too...including one of a car that almost drove into a building that the landscaped bushes saved

Santa Pic 2010

I figure it is about time to post this....we went to the Mall with Jamie on one of our "visit"


Poor Santa's Lap....all of us but Randy ended up in the picture and that's ONLY because he is in Louisianna with the Air Force right now and didn't make it home for the holidays

2010 in Review

The kitchen is done...well...for the most part anyway...I still have to make the curtains and there is one piece of trim we are waitinig on coming in for the door frame.  They don't look like they belong in our house though....lol.  One of these days I will get pics up here. 

Randy is off with the Air Force and I guess par for the course we have been left with his childhood piled in his room here at home.  Though of late it appears he is detaching more and more from his "roots" so to speak.  His things are part of the "new year" clean up that is happening with the rest of the house since the kitchen is shiney and new...the rest of the house MUST catch up...  Randy appears to be doing well and enjoying what he is doing...he says he is making friends and finding places to hang out.  I will continue to pray he keeps his nose clean and eventually finds a nice "someone" to settle down with...but not too soon...one grandbaby next year is enough ;) 

Kyle finished out his 3rd semester at UNCW with a bang as usual....Dean's List again.  He is that one kid that I don't think I will ever really have to worry about...  His dad gave him a truck over break...used and rebuilt, but it's already got some issues :( so hopefully we will be able to figure them out before he goes back to school next month...we suspect that his alternator is going and there is also an issue with the emergency break.  Gary took him out driving the other night in the ice...for practice.  Blind spots will not be his friend :(  but over all he did very well....

Ian is heading into his last semester in High School.  He has yet to find another job...he doesn't really look though and anything we happen to suggest he ignores.  Plans are still for the military of some sort...but he only wants to go long enough to get the $$ for his college education...while I understand this...I think the military is a good place for him as well...at least for a while.  He and Randy are quite a lot alike...they want the world handed to them...oh the eye opening experiences that are going to be in his path.

Jamie is now at Fact and has settled in well.  We are looking to get him into school in the new year and hoping that the staff and treatment team will be able to help with the issues he experiences in this larger setting.

Anna and Zach are doing well in 2nd grade and making steady progress.  We had several months of adjustment with them being in separate classes...and more from Anna than Zach which surprised the heck out of us.

Vicki and Ryan are making us grandparents and daily you can see the joy and excitement in Gary's face!  It's a neat process to watch.  Chrissy seems to have found a someone special and we will continue to pray that all works out for the best for them.  He seems like a very nice guy and we'd like to see more of them in the new year.

Gary's surgery's are not yet planned but both the shoulder and foot will happen in the new year.  I had my heart procedure done on the 27th and so far so good...time will tell...I have had a few blips, but nothing compared to previously...

Just a long overdue general update

Well, Anna rebounded quite nicely from her reaction to the last antibiotic.  We have also been strep free for several weeks so that has been a blessing.  Zachary caught a little cold which seems to be trying to develop into a sinus infection.  He spiked a fever on Turkey day :(  Poor thing, but he is running around like usual and not acting overly sick so we are treating with Mucinex at the moment hoping to break it up before it really sticks good.

The kitchen renovation is coming along nicely.  Some things happen alot easier than others, but it is all coming around.  This weekend the flooring is going in.  I hope that we can also get Anna's room back in order by tomorrow.  They need to be in their own rooms again :)  The countertop should be here before Christmas and we did find out that it's going to be over $500 less than we had paid for it originally, so that will make for an easier time at Christmas this year.  I really have to get busy though...I have ALOT of stuff to make between now and the second week of December....maybe next week....LOL.

Jamie is still Jamie.  We are looking into get him back into school.  He has adjusted nicely to the group home and Day Treatment Program so we need to add something else.  The twins are experiencing what appears to be a great deal of anxiety surrounding the visits with Jamie.  We were greatly saddened at the last visit when Jamie was presented with the task of saying something positive about everyone.  He managed to do so about pretty much everyone, including Gary, except for Zachary.  For Zachary he kept repeating what he thought he needed to change in Zachary to make him better...despite the therapists interjection.  He just couldn't simply say something positive.  He also started to go after Zachary a bit when Zach started to point and walk towards some figures in Jamie's room at the group home.  Part of us is glad that Jamie did this as these things need to be worked on.  Jamie and Zachary's relationship has been stressed for a good long while.  We are not sure why, but Jamie seems to target Zachary.  Jamie is now without a roommate at the group home, so we are in hopes that there is a new placement very soon.  In all likelyhood, Jamie will end up in a room all his own because it is very likely that by the time he is ready to come home Ian will be off in the Air Force or some other branch of the military.  Kyle is off in school and Randy is working on getting settled into a new duty station with the Air Force following Basic Training and Special Forces Training.  We are excited and proud of them all.

I see the new cardiologist on Wednesday...finally... and we will plan procedures and surgeries from there.  Gary has to have shoulder repair before they can do the work on his foot.

We also had some exciting news shared with us last month.  We will be adding a new little one within our extended family late spring 2011...and we pray for an easy and healthy time for the next several months.  Geesh...Grandparents....with 7 year old twins...YIKES!  It will be fun!!