Monday Update

What a week it's been. I got a call from Surgeon and they moved my surgery to Friday. They had an emergency surgery come up. Fred decided to go ahead with taking Thursday off work so we could get some other things taken care of. We went to pick up mom's ashes...

She has line of sight of the TV which was her favorite thing in the world well other than the ocean. A family friend got me a stuffed Snoopy which she also loved so it is sitting right beside her. I also got a new comfy chair to sit in...

So much more comfortable than the wooden rocker we had in the spot. Which fit perfect in between our two beds to replace a much more uncomfortable chair that we had there. This chair is perfect for long stitching hours ladies. Love it!! Also perfect for my surgery recover as well. 

I was worried about the early morning surgery. They called the day before and we needed to arrive at 12:30pm. Perfect. So we slept in and took our time. I went in for surgery about 4pm. I was waking up about 6pm. The doctor told Fred that when they cut the muscle in my chest the Xyphoid popped even more out so it was definitely ready to come out. Hope this photo doesn't bother anyone I find it fascinating...

The top square is the incision and then they also put in a pain pump. The two tubes you see. It seeps numbing medicine directly into the muscle area slowly. Purpose is to have people on less opioids. I still have one for pain management. But this helped a lot I'm sure. I had a little purse that held the ball of medicine...

The thing was annoying. I was so worried about pulling the tube out. But it probably helped me stay still. Last night I noticed a wet spot on my shirt and after we got to looking the medicine was leaking around the bandage. After a quick call the surgery team said I had probably healed and the medicine wasn't going into my skin any more. Luckily we could remove the tubes by ourselves. Quick YouTube look and I seen several videos of how to remove it. So Fred was able to painlessly remove it. Ahhh I was free of the tubes. Today I notice no real pain difference. I guess a little more tightness but very manageable. Follow up appointment Nov 23rd which is great since Fred has the day off that day. 

No pushing or pulling for 6 weeks. Light duty. No lifting. All those make sense type of things. So I'm taking a break and poor me I will have more stitching time haha. Fred and Jeremiah are doing fantastic taking care of me. I'm a lucky girl. Spike is so sweet too. He can sure tell something is wrong...

He loves to sit beside me and hold my hand. So adorable. He is being very gentle. He nudges my shirt and wants to smell my stomach and then lays his head down and pouts. It's just precious. So I will be okay. Just need time to heal.

Life has been working out. Jeremiah and me were talking this morning about how things are just falling into place. We are doing well. Of course we miss my mother dearly but I swear this was all meant to be. We are moving on. We are okay. Yes I still feel up with tears. She was my life for 43 years. But now I have a new purpose myself.

I finished up the Embroidery challenge. I fulfilled the requirements. Here is where the Ice Monster ended...

Then I started working on the last Year of Celebrations piece again. Here is where I am right now...

So we've been busy. But happy. Loving life. I'm going to go get my stuff done that I want to do and STITCH. Love yourself. Smile. See ya next Monday.

Monday Update

Hey Readers. I've been working on the Embroidery.com half hour a day challenge. Today is the last day and boy I'm ready to work on something else haha. Anything else. Here is my Ice Monster now though...

Love how cool he is turning out. 

Well we are okay. Sometimes the emotional wave is crazy. I keep wondering if it was all a dream. Then I see signs and remember it wasn't. The sadness, happiness, guilt, loneliness, relief, etc etc that hits is so confusing. But I've talked to a bunch of people and it's all normal I guess. I've read some little books the hospital gave me. Again it says my range of emotions is normal. So that helps a lot. We talk to her. We have made a spot so when we pick up her ashes she can watch TV because that was her favorite thing in the world. 

Halloween was fun. We had a party here Saturday night. We were supposed to have our family band but everyone within 50 miles got sick at the same time. I know Jeremiah and I had our yearly sinus infection. Fred took 2 sudafed and was fine. Thursday is the surgery to remove that stubborn broken Xiphoid. I admit I am nervous about the pain but ready to get it taken care of and MOVE on. 

Have a great week. Love yourself. Love each other. Smile!

Hard Update

Some of my readers follow me on Facebook and know what I'm about to post about. Last few weeks were a year long that's for sure.

We went up to Fort Wayne for a doctor appointment on the 12th. It was an appointment for a cardio-thoracic surgeon to see if he would remove my broken xiphoid. He asked some questions and then told us when he does bypass on people some people have xiphoid's that just look like they will cause problems and he removes it to be safe. I said Great so will you remove mine. He said definitely. So what a relief! Surgery is scheduled for November 3rd. We ran by the house since we were in town. We had a fantastic visit with mom. She was so excited about my surgery and that it will finally be over. This time of year she panics about Christmas and what to get for us. I had some ideas and she was so excited about them. She was really coming to terms with we needed separation for a little bit. She understood we wanted to live at our cabin and then purchase a house. After a few years if her health declined we would move her in. She was at peace. 

Thursday morning at 6am I get a phone call. My mom was at the ER and they think she had a major heart attack. She talked to me on the phone. She told me stay here with my dog. He needed me. I listened. 6pm that night the doctor called. She had taken a turn for the worst. I needed to get there now. So we hurried up. They took her to emergency cath lab instead of waiting for the next day. 

We got there and waited. The doctor came out. Grabbed a chair and sat down with us. Not a good sign right? Right. She needed a triple bypass. They couldn't do it. Her heart was too badly damaged. She was on a heart balloon pump to keep her heart pumping. Also a list of other things started coming. Kidney failure. They had to put her on vent because of lung failure. They needed to do dialysis but again... She was too ill for it. I stayed the night Thursday right by her side. Friday more answers that were scary. Nothing they can do. Let's give her a few days to see if she can regain strength but they would shake their head. She was stable condition all weekend. Just Waiting. Monday morning the cardiologist team said there was no hope. She would have died Thursday if it wasn't for the machines. They would send in a palliative care team to ask some questions. Then the nurse said they were busy and they wouldn't get there till Tuesday. I said Wait we are leaving her till tomorrow for no reason? So the nurse said well she could ask me the same questions. They are just hard questions to hear. Did I know my mom's wishes? Yes. She wouldn't want to be kept alive by machines if there was no hope. Everyone there knew it too. 2 of mom's life time friends. So they started the process on unhooking her. It was a horrible process but I know it was what she wanted. That evening at 8:45 she went to be with her mom and dad.

My heart is broken in so many ways and yet at peace. Her health was really deteriorating so much lately. She knew she couldn't travel any more. She knew she was tired. She was in so much pain. So now she can rest and be pain free. I want to call her so bad. That part is the hardest. Jeremiah is having a hard time as well. They were inseparable most of his life. Waves of emotion. The viewing was Thursday the Funeral was Friday. It was beautiful. So much celebration. So many stories. She is being cremated and we will take some of her ashes to Hatteras lighthouse. Her favorite place in the world. We will be okay because our support system is just amazing. So much love. Plus a dear angel looking over us. Life is changing but I know we will be okay.

We have settled into our cabin permanently until we can afford a house. The housing market is insane. So we will get a better vehicle and save up money. We needed one thing to live here that we didn't have...

A mailbox. Now it's installed and we wait patiently or not so much for it to be setup and ready. Need to go do some paperwork tomorrow. A cousin came by last night and left something for us. How fun!!! The pride I have to be back in my home town zip code. Home at last. We love this community. 

I have been stitching when I could....

Finished the Witch Face...

 

Started the next one (2 left!) Ice Monster...

So much white on white. Look close. 

Wow....What an update. So hard to write. Love yourself. Love each other. Smile. Enjoy life. Do it while you can.

Another Monday Update

Hellllllo Readers. Still here. Still happy and loving life. Still stitching. Least a half hour a day. I've been working on the Witch Face from Halloween Minis. Here it was on the last update (the 3rd)...

Here she is yesterday on the 9th...

Loving working on this one. 

The weather has been nice so I've been a little busy but still getting at least 30 minutes. I really need to stick with that. It's doable. No matter what just 30 minutes at least. Of course winter is ahead and normally I get A LOT more time during winter. I do need to pick up more of my Stash so I have more options. Then find a place to store it haha. 

I really hope everyone is doing good. We had a fantastic weekend. Jeremiah went Friday night with my Dad and Step Mom. They kept him overnight and headed to their favorite casino Saturday morning. Jeremiah won a little electric pizza cooker. Have to add that to our fun options for cooking. Then he sat down at a new machine with cows getting abducted by spaceships. I guess he hit the button 3 times and then hit free bonus spins. He kept getting new spins and winning. Dad said the machine was making noise and everyone was looking Jeremiah was all smiles of course. He ended up winning $400!!! How cool. I told him he can go any time haha. Dad didn't do well. Bev did fantastic. She said Jeremiah is her good luck charm. She went twice without him and lost both times. So that's too funny. Then we went to Jeremiah's favorite band in the evening. We had a blast. It was a wonderful weekend indeed. 

Okay I need to get my blog reading done so I can go stitch. Have a wonderful week. Love yourself. Smile.

Monday Update

Hi Readers. Still here. Still stitching. Last week I started the October Year of Celebrations piece. My last one!!! I was able to get progress 4 days...

Then Saturday was October 1st. I joined in the WitchyStitchy2022 challenge again. Just half hour a day. So I pulled back out the Halloween Minis...

I really thought I had worked on them last year for the challenge and evidently I didn't join in last year. So I'm really glad I jumped back in it this time. I am working on the Witch face. Here it was when I pulled it out...

Evidently I started it October 2020 and just never blogged about it. I am back and better than ever though now...New Me Girls! Anyway. I have 2 days so far already have a lot of new progress...

Love how you can see her eyes popping now. I will keep at it. Least a half hour a day. Yesterday I got 3 days worth of time haha so that helped a lot.

We had a busy weekend. The weather was low 70's so we did a lot of things we wanted to do before the colder weekends move in. We cleaned out our travel trailer we have parked beside our cabin. It makes great storage but was all thrown in there so we needed to empty and restructure. Then Fred made me a shelf to hold all our cooking items...

It was all piled to the doors so now we actually have space! Then he built a shelf for under our table inside. The extra drinks were in boxes and our towels were in a laundry basket and it was just taking up a stupid amount of space. So all organized now...

Perfect. We also got a lot of stuff around the campground done so that was great. Perfect Perfect. We keep talking about how great we are doing. It's so wonderful so be so happy.

Love yourself. Smile. Stitch!

Oh.....I'll leave you with cute Spike pics....

Monday Update

Hey to all my readers. Hope everyone is doing well. I've still been stitching. Every day I put stitches into my Halloween Minis. Still working on the Mummy...

Just love those eyes. This one was chopped up on different pages which was annoying but I just did it in sections. As you can see I have one section left now. It's the bigger one though.

Yesterday I also worked on Embers. Do you remember this beauty?

#WitchyStitchy2020Trick2 Stitch with either black, orange or purple. 

 

I'm using 550 for this beauty so this worked perfect for that. Here it was before...

I added 1 hour and 6 minutes...

There are some other fun Tricks coming up. I need to get them done this week. We are home this week and then Fred has Halloween week off. So back to the cabin we go. Can't wait! Maybe I'll be back before we leave for another update. 

 

Have a great week! Love yourself. Love each other. Smile. Hopefully we all get lots of stitching time.

I'm here!

 I'm alive! Guess what I've been stitching. I've also been happy. So now that you know that let's see more details haha.

Poor June Fairy is stuck here...

I was working on backstitching her. This was as of October 1st though. Then it was time to start my half hour a day for the #witchystitchy2020 challenge. Plus we packed to go to our cabin. So the fairy stayed home and settled in for a nap. I worked on Halloween Minis from Artecy. Remember these fun charts?

I'm doing them individually on 14ct white Aida. I have a few finished. The Vampire, Pumpkin, and the Skeleton. I was working on the Green Monster face under the Skeleton.

Here is where I was when I started...

Last time I worked on him was Sept 2019. I was able to finish him up on the 11th...

Then Fred picked out the Mummy next. So I got to working on him. Here I am after 4 days of working on him now...

We had our week vacation too at our happy place. It was wonderful. We got a ton done to help out with the property. Then I got a head cold. Poor Jeremiah got it after me and now Fred. I'm almost better. Almost. It didn't ruin our time though. Nothing can ruin our happy place. Now we have two weeks until another week long vacation Halloween week. We can't wait. Just hope we all feel better. 

I've been walking walking walking too. I've lost 13.6 pounds now!!! 3 inches gone around my waist!!! I feel better. I feel amazing. Well I am tired and my feet hurt to be honest haha. I'm damn proud of myself. I joke about quitting because my feet but I keep walking. My feet will get over it. I did get new shoes. But I hate wearing them in the house. 

I'm way behind on blog reading I think. Maybe I'll have time tonight. I might skip a few...sorry. Stitching is calling my name. Even though it's white on white haha. I know he will be cute when finished. 

Have a great weekend....week...rest of the month. Love yourself. Love each other. Get those X's in.

Monday Update

Howdy to all my fantastic readers. I'm behind on reading your blogs. I hope to catch up soon. Thanks for stopping by again. I have 3 more days added to the June Fairy...

5 hours and 39 minutes added so better than the week before. We had a beautiful weather weekend at the campground. It was nice and cool. No AC needed. About time!! We even turned out heat on in the cabin. We worked on a new section of cement...

I didn't get an after photo but the outside section are done now. Dad says that's easier to do so they don't have to wade in the wet cement. We will add the middle section this coming weekend. He will work on the walls during this week. He is adding the red metal to this section as well. It will be a storage area when finished up. We got our Halloween decorations all put up in our cabin Sunday. I will get photos when we go back down. I also was able to get more rows down on the Bear Latch hook and no matter how many times I told myself don't forget the photo guess what I did anyway haha. 

I'm participating in a 200 miles challenge. We can run, walk, bike or however just log those miles. I have logged 24 miles of walking since the start which was Sept 15th. The deadline is December 15th but you can finish it any time really. I will earn a cute medal when I complete it. I'm also in love with these challenge groups and games I have found online. It's so many motivation. Only problem is sitting on my butt and cross stitching doesn't help toward the goal.

I did sign up for something else stitching related though...

Just click on the image to go to the website and sign up. The goal is to stitch 30 minutes every day in October. She added some other fun things this time. I hope I can keep up. It will be great motivation to work at least 30 minutes right? I'm going to work on the Halloween Faces for the challenge. Hope to see some others join in. 

Have a great week! Love yourself. Smile. Hope we can all squeeze in some stitching time.

Witchy Stitchy Finish

Remember I joined in this fun challenge. For 13 days I was to stitch for an hour a day. The requirement was to post a before and after photo to the Facebook group. It started October 19th and the last day was October 31st.

I'm very happy to report I successfully completed the challenge. Plus I stuck with it and Halloween night I had a finish.

For this challenge I decided on a new start...

It's a Halloween Biscornu from Lakeside Needlecraft. It's also a freebie found here if you are interested. I had to do something different than the black thread on white. I wanted it to scream Halloween and be bright. So I pulled out some purple fabric I had and got to throwing DMC on it. I showed my hubby and he liked the combo I picked but I really must say it turned out better than I thought it was going to even. It was really fun to watch it grow.

So that was an hour a day for 13 days. I worked on it then Halloween day to try to finish it up. After 5 hours and 54 minutes more I was able to call it not only a finish but a finished finish...

I really LOVE how it turned out.