Sunday, April 11, 2010

I know! It's been a while!

And I blame it on my friend, DeDe...she skipped off to Honduras and I haven't had my Kicker-in-the-seat-of-the-pants....to get me going and remind me to keep up with my goals for this year...but honestly it has been a really busy 3 weeks....

Easter has come and gone and it was fabulous!!  We had Chris with us for the week and everyone enjoyed having him...I think Rebekah most of all...someone to play with.  She loves her big brother! We colored eggs, and hunted them after church...Rebekah wanted to hunt them every day for the next week!  Hated to throw out those eggs...but it was necessary after a while.
Everyone got into the fun!
We had wonderful weather for the time Chris was with us.  The only drawback of the entire weeks was that we had just learned on Thursday that Jim would need a hip replacement this coming Monday.  This meant visits to doctors, hospital, pain clinic, and another doctors office, and the college to pick up Jim's books for the summer classes...it happened so quickly that I was driving Chris home before we knew it and Rebekah was very upset because I would not stop the car and turn around and get her brother!  She was really miffed for the rest of the evening!

So as I mentioned, Jim is going back into the hospital...and he vowed he wouldn't go back...but if he doesn't have this hip replacement...he won't be walking.  He's in an incredible amount of pain.  It only took 2 weeks from the PCP appointment and xrays to looking at having his hip replaced tomorrow!  We know that God is in control of all of this, but it is hard to accept having to return to the hospital again...in the same year...willingly...

On the knitting front...I was challenged this year to make socks from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways book.  And to use one of the Master patterns...so I am chose the sideways Master Pattern and I knitted my swatch!  Just to be a good girl and do all the steps!  I can't believe I knitted a swatch for socks!  I am using some great yarn...Lorna's Laces, Shepherd sock, Black Purl...Its' really turning out lovely so far.  I took some time last night when everyone else in the house was asleep...and measured my foot and instep and found my gauge and my rows per inch number and plugged all those numbers into Cat's formula for perfectly fitting socks...I'm sort of excited and really curious as to how these are going to turn out....I want to do the Jeweled steps or whatever the name is...I can figure out how to add those six little pattern stitches to my socks...since I'm using the Master Numbers and not the written pattern...my foot takes more than 62 stitches for socks!!  So this is progress on one of my goals. 

I also finished a couple more books...The Time Traveler's Wife by Audry Niffenegger, Stardust by Neil Gaimon, and I'm half finished with Undead and Unemployed by MaryJanice Davidson.  Something tells me that I will be getting plenty of sock knitting and book listening done in the next 4 days...and no housework...but since we will be living at the hospital with Jim...who needs to clean house!  I can't believe that I am going to have to mow the lawn sometime this week!!  YUCK.

Oh...I should also explain that I have been battling illness myself for 4 weeks.  I had bronchitis, asthma, reactive airway disorder...all in all a cough from the very pits of Hades itself.  I went to see the doctor and got antibiotics...nothing worked...so I went back a week later hacking even worse and wheezing badly enough that I needed a breathing treatment in the office...never done that before...and ended up on steroids...40mg a day for 6 days then 20 mg for 5 days...If you have ever had steroids...you know that they give you a taper and you have all this energy for 6 days...and that you stay awake solving World peace with your mind running in 30 directions...Imagine taking twice the dose every day for 6 days...you get jittery, and anxious, and nauseated...you have energy but just don't want to do anything!!  Or can't do anything because you can't focus on a single task...you flit from one thought to another....not the best thing to go through while needing to coordinate and prepare for your husband's surgery...And I will be finished with my course of steroids today...the day before Jim's surgery...so I will have the steroid crash when I need strength and energy...Ah well just my luck it seems!  So if this blog post seems to ramble, to flit, to be completely incoherant...just remember that I am under the influence of some pretty powerful drugs.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!