Waiting no more.

I've determined that life is not going to stop throwing me curveballs, so I have to stop waiting for the calm. I have to take each day as it comes and make the most of it. Otterwise, I'll be stuck watching the world pass me by.

Last summer my hubby was diagnosed with high blood pressure due to liver disease brought on by chronic hepatitis C. The found a spot on his liver that was determined to be nothing, it resolved itself, as sometimes happens. Well after all of the stress of that, he was in a lot of pain in his back, we still don't know what caused it, but we saw an anesthesiologist and got some of the nerve endings in his spine burned, then one day he woke up and all the pain was gone...except in his feet and knees. Well while he was in the hospital last June I was paying really close attention to his blood work results, I noticed that his A1C was pretty high compared to the normal range. I asked the docs about it, but they didn't seem too concerned about it, so I let it go, figured it was because of the surgery he'd had and all the other stuff that was going on. Well before his last procedure that he needed to fast for, we went and did his blood work before checking in. I figured that would give the doc the best info possible. When those results came in, his blood sugar, which should have been on the low side due to the fasting, was really high. This time I didn't just let it go. I made him ask the liver doc about it, his response was, well that's pretty high. THAT'S IT?! So I made an appointment for hubby to go to his regular doc ASAP. Regular doc said he's diabetic, but it can most likely be controlled with diet and drugs, not insulin. No panic, just cut down on the sugar, cut it out if possible, watch what you eat and cut portion size down. OK no problem, we can do that. She also said that the foot pain was probably due to the diabetes being uncontrolled for too long, yay (sarcasm), at least there are new drugs out there that can help with the neuropathy.

While all this was going on, I developed a cough in about the middle of November, usually, if I get a bit congested, if I can keep it out of my lungs, I'll get over it in about a week. Well, I was unable to keep it out of my lungs and it lingered into a 3 week ordeal. I was not a happy camper and I really needed to get it taken care of because I couldn't sleep, couldn't breathe and was out of refills for my asthma inhaler, which was the only thing keeping me from dying, I swear. So I went to the doc, she ordered x-rays of my chest, put me on steroids, (thank God), and gave me some really good antibiotics. My x-rays came back showing some junk (unknown opacities) in my left lung and now I needed a CT. Oy, it wasn't getting any easier. So I had the CT done, easy, quick, in and out, done! So now I had to wait for those results to come in. Thankfully, it didn't take long, however, now they found that the junk in my lungs was probably damage from the bronchitis I had and would resolve itself in the end, however, they found I had a small hiatal hernia and some nodes on my thyroid. NOW, I needed an ultrasound of my thyroid, no big deal, I thought, my mom had thyroid issues when I was a kid, so I figured it's a family thing. The results of the ultrasound came in and being that I didn't understand the terminology being used in the report, I went online and looked them up. What I found scared me, the largest node is 2.5 cm (about an inch). And the description is most often linked to malignant cancer. I don't get to see the endocrinologist until the end of March, sooooooo now I wait and imagine the worst. I'm not really imagining the worst though, which is weird because I am not good at NOT feeding into the doom and gloom, but I don't think it's a big deal right now.

I just turned 50 and realized that I've already gotten more years than my mom did. She died when she was just 47. I had previously thought that I wouldn't make it past 45 so this is all gravy for me anyway. So I go day by day, enjoy the company that I keep, hubby and my daughter and her boyfriend. The work family that I have and work on my crafts.

I basically took a hiatus from cross stitching because I really couldn't see the holes to stitch and I picked up crochet again. Well, I just recently got new glassed and I can see to cross stitch again, so I picked up some WIP's and seem to have found a balance between the two. I did a little work on my Breast Cancer Mandala, it's probably the closest to being completed of all my previous years WIP's.

Here's the last pic of the where I was before my dad passed and the pic I took tonight.

I have really missed being able to work on my cross stitch and I am so happy that I seem to have found a balance so that neither the cross stitch or the crochet is being neglected.

I know this post has been a little long winded, but it's been a while again. I hope to not take so long between posts again. I'm really working on not procrastinating so much.

Thanks for being here! Have a wonderful day/afternoon/evening.

Crazy week past

Seems as if I almost spoke too soon. Just as I was intending to post more often because things seem to be settling down in my life, BOOM!, here comes the monkey wrench. My hubby had a procedure scheduled for last Monday, and we were all ready for a routine 3ish hours at the hospital like the last time. Yeah.....No. Didn't happen. The pre-procedure interview with hubby made the docs suspicious of what was going on. Turns out he had some bleeding in his esophagus that they were really concerned about. He ended up spending Monday night in the ICU and the next 3 days in a regular room. We have a few months of tests and doctors appointments to look forward (?) to.

I recently lost a cousin (more like a brother to me than a cousin) to the same type of issue that my hubby has. And just over a year ago I my dad passed away after a short but severe battle with cancer. I was lucky enough to spend a long weekend with my dad just 3 weeks before he died. I also got to see a small part of my large extended family at the same time.

 Me and my Daddy

The family reunion President's Day 2013

I just hope and pray that my hubby will be around for a long time even though we have some major changes in our lives going forward. Maybe I'll even lose some weight while we make those changes. I am doing my best to keep positive and only focus on what's in front of me right now and not worry too much about what "may" be coming down the road, since we don't know for sure what is going on yet.

I'm still working on my crochet, it keeps me from thinking too much, counting stitches helps a ton. Thanks for stopping by, soon I should have some more pics to share of some more of my projects.

I'm back, maybe.

I've been away for far too long. But now I have discovered a need to reconnect. I have been obsessed with crocheting recently, ok for the last year or so. I'll try to catch up on what has been going on since I last posted. It's been an interesting almost 2 years. In the nice time (don't believe in the "mean" time), I'll post a picture or two of my recent projects.

  An infinity scarf that my daughter confiscated.

A giraffe that I made for my youngest grandson Kai.

Where have I been?

Hello Friends!

I feel like I have been away for so long, I have been working so much overtime and enjoying my house being virtually empty of people that I haven't been doing much stitching or anything else, for that matter. I have been watching a bunch of movies for some reason.

I did finish the baby announcement for my friend at work, now all she has to do is have the baby and I can complete it with the name, birth date and frame it. We're all so excited at work, can't wait for our baby to be born. Yes we've all decided that she's ours.

 I can't wait to give it to her. I just hope she likes it.

I have been working off and on on the Train of Dreams SAL, I have decided that since I have completed the birth announcement for now, I'm going to get back to my Random Number generator and get my challenge pieces back in the mix. I have added the ToD to the list and another birth announcement since I just found out that my daughters best friend is pregnant too. I have a lot more time to do hers, so I should be able to get it done in time as well.

This is what I'm going to do for my daughters bestie. I bought this in the late 90's and have had it stashed ever since, I pulled it out of storage and the fabric is stained and the little bit of stitching I had started is dirty too so I'm just going to start all over. The floss in the kit has an odd musty smell so I have to convert the Bucilla floss colors over to DMC, no problem there.

 Now then, here's the TofD progress, just to keep you up to date with where I am on it.

 I've done a little more since that last pic, but not enough to warrant a new photo yet. I am really enjoying working on this, but I think I need a little break. Confetti is giving me headaches right now.

So I'll get back on soon and update with whatever the number generator comes up with. So sorry it has been a couple of weeks between posts, but I think things are slowing down a bit and the newness of having an empty "nest" is wearing off. See you soon and have a wonderful week! For those of us in the States, Have a safe 4th of July and if you are lucky enough to have fireworks, please televise them for us here in AZ, all of ours have been cancelled I believe.

Not such a great week, but progress.

This week has been hectic and frustrating and a couple of other things and I'm glad it's over. My daughter turned 25 on Tuesday. I really was looking forward to taking her our to dinner at her favorite restaurant and had it all planned out, but wouldn't you know it, the money I had set aside for dinner got taken out to pay the car insurance! I mean, what? I need insurance on my car? Oy! The timing just couldn't have been worse. So I couldn't take her out for dinner on her birthday, but I will take her out next week, this time to her other favorite restaurant since her boyfriend did take her to the favorite. I did get to make her requested birthday "cake", however, and it was DEEEEEElicious!

Make a wish!

Yes, it was a chocolate pudding pie! And she blew the candles out so hard, she knocked them over. When my son asked if she made a wish she said, "I don't need to make a wish, I already have everything that I want." What an awesome kid! So happy to have her in my life.

The rest of the week just seemed to get away from me. I did get some progress on my birth announcement, but didn't finish it, like I'd planned. But here's the progress on that one.

This is so darn cute, I really want to finish it up quickly so that when my friend has her baby I can give it to her mom (who also works at my office) as soon as I get the name and date on it and get it framed, probably the following Monday, whenever that may be.

I worked on the SAL all week, off and on as my mood allowed. I spent most of the week battling a case of the blahs. Depression hadn't set in until last night. So here's the progress I made over the past basically 2 weeks.

I saw in the enlarged photo that I missed a leg on one stitch that I'll have to go back and fix, because even if you can't see it, I know it's there and it will drive me crazy knowing that I didn't take care of it.

Can you see it?

I finally got a version of Adobe Reader that will allow me to highlight my progress on the chart. This was very frustrating for me since I love the paper print out and all, I just can't see it very well. Now that I have the updated version that will allow me to highlight it, I can zoom in and highlight and see it without straining my eyes. YAY!!!!

I found out some really disturbing news about one of my cousins this week and I'd really appreciate any prayers and good thoughts for his health and welfare. He and his brothers have been more like brothers to me than my own brothers at times. I'm pretty heartbroken for him right now.

I'm hoping this week will see me cheering up a little bit more and I'll get more done on the birth announcement and then maybe I can get back to my crazy 15 rotation and get some of them worked on too. Wish me luck?

Have a wonderful week!