Feels Good to be Able to Report Good News!

Hello Everyone!

I have so much news and the majority of it good. It feels so good to be able to report good news after being under what appeared like a black cloud of bad news for so very long.

Jack had had to go to a nursing home when he was released from the hospital in mid-January because he was being given an IV antibiotic to kill the staff infection he had in his incision. He was there for exactly two months. He went to the nursing home January 11 and came home March 11. What he had to do to be able to come home before the construction on the house was complete to make it 'disabled friendly' was climb stairs with his one leg. Jack did that a full week before he came home in the therapy department. Then it was the red tape of doctors, insurance etcetra.

During the last three to four weeks at the nursing home, the doctor had put him on something called a 'wound vac', which on one hand was aggravating because he had a vacuum like machine attached to his stump, but on the other was good because it made the rather large tunnel in the wound get smaller. When Jack came home the wound vac was still attached, however, because the tunnel had narrowed so much, he was quickly removed from it. Originally the tunnel was about 7 or 8 cm and the wound on top that the tunnel came off of was about the size of a quarter. Now, the tunnel is gone completely and the wound on top is about as big around as a #2 pencil led. No drainage in the wound at all any more, which until a couple of weeks ago, there was drainage every day.

Jack and I went to the surgeon's office yesterday. While we were there, the prosthetic company came and gave Jack a smaller stump shrinker. He is so excited, as am I. Jack was officially cut lose from the surgeon and was told that he could be fit with his prosthetic leg in two weeks. He is so anxious to get about and do things. He has basically had to spend 98% of his time in bed since November 2008. He hasd gained a good amount of weight and he wants to start going to the YMCA with me and start exercising and maybe get some of the weight off. He is so proud of me for my weight loss, he wants to see what he can do to lose some of his weight.

The construction on the house started the week after Jack came home. First thing done was the tearing down of the back porch, which we consider a kitchen extension since that is where we had our refrigerator, standing freezer, cabinet that held dry goods, and our plastics cupboard.
That happened on a Friday. The Monday of the next week they poured the concrete for the footing of the foundation of the new room. After the cemente had cured, they put the brick to form the foundation. After that cured, they came and put in the walls and floor, then the outside door, window and the door to the basement. The electrician came this week and put in the plugs and wiring for ceiling fixture. The doorway that goes from the kitchen to the dining room was widened this week as well. The roof on the back half of the house is complete. They still need to put the inside of the walls on the new room, put a new roof on the front of the house, widen the doors that go from the kitchen to our room and our room to the bathroom. The also have to still put in the concrete driveway and then the ramp. They will also be painting the room.

The other thing that has needed to be done around here for the longest time is new ceiling fans in both bedrooms and the dining room. All three ceiling fans had died. Last summer was miserable around here because we had only one working ceiling fan and it was in the living room. Jack and I were finally able to purchase new ceiling fans. We hired an electrician to install them last week. It seems odd, in a good way, to have a decent amount of light in my dining room! I am so use to it being dark in that room!

On the stitching front, here is my finish I finished just a day or two after Jack returned home. It is 'Footprints in the Sand'. I am having to show it to you in two pictures because it is so long. I did this on 32 count evenweave. I must say that I have never worked 32 count before and I am not sure I ever will again. It was very frustrating! I know alot of it was words, and maybe that is why I was frustrated, but still... I have no problem with 28 count but 32 count is so much smaller!

The material and light effects color that I ordered from 1-2-3 Stitch arrived last week so I can start the Precious Moments picture for my niece's baby, but I want to finish the bookmark form Wes first.

I am working on a bookmark for my daughter's boyfriend, Wes. He has enlisted in the military and reports to Army Boot Camp in mid-June. He graduates from high school in May. Jack and I are very proud of him. He treats Sarah like she is the most important person in the world. They met last summer when Sarah started volunteering at the stables at the edge of town. They started dating just a couple weeks before school started. It is hard for me to believe we are in the fourth quarter of school. Even with everything this house has been through, the past few months seemed to have flown by.

Wes just arrived here, Sarah got home from softball practice about 20 minutes ago. Wes is now massaging Sarah's feet. She plays on the high school junior varsity team. She plays right field most of the time on this team, but she is the back up catcher. Sarah is also signed up to play summer softball. She has played since she was nine years old. She is considered the best catcher in the league. I haven't heard from Sarah's summer coach yet.

Sarah's shoes for Wes's prom arrived in the mail today. She is very jazzed. She loves the look of them. I would never wear something like them, first of all, they have a picture of a skull on them. Secondly, they are very spiked heels. The dress is probably ready. I took Sarah over to Deena's. She can alter clothing. Deena took my clothes in when I had lost so much weight. She also altered my husband's suit as well as my step-son's suit for my son's wedding.

Rachel is at softball practice right now. She also plays summer softball. She started playing 5 years ago. I heard from her coach a couple of weeks ago and this is her second week of practice.

As far as my running for Alderman in Ward 4 (seat on the City Counsel) I lost. When I originally put my hat in the ring, no one else had. The second person who ran was the husband of someone who was Alderman a few years ago. A good number of people voted for him because they liked his wife. Well known name...he is the person who won. There ended up being a third person on the ballot; a guy who changed his mind about running after he filed, but never took his name off of the ballot. He got 61 votes. I lost by 70.

Our van was hit-and-run at the grocery store a week or so ago. The damage wasn't horrible. Enough that the front passenger door 'popped' when you opened it, but it would open. Sarah and I discovered it when I picked her up from school. I filed a claim with the insurance company and Jack and I took the car to the repair shop Monday. We picked it up Wednesday. They not only fixed the damage from the hit and run, but we had the shop put a new mirror on the left side (that mirror was not wanting to stay in position), fixed the latch on a window which didn't want to work, and figured out and fixed why my brake lights had an attitude, sometimes working, sometimes not. Between the deductable and what we added on, we only had to pay a little over $311. I don't think that is too bad!

Well, I need to be signing off. I promise, I won't wait forever to update again. Take care and happy stitching.

What A Crazy Month!

Hello, Everyone!

I do apologize for being so scarce on the computer in the last month. Things have been on the crazy side. Besides the normal craziness of the holidays, I mean. Honestly, Christmas itself wasn't that bad, craziness wise. We got each of the girls one gift from us, each at about the same price. Sarah got a Visa Debit Card, and Rachel got an MP3 player. I made 25 pounds of fudge and gave probably 23 pounds of it away. Jack did cook a big Christmas dinner because we were thinking that our son from Chicago would be here, but as it turned out he and his friends were unable to make it. That was a real bummer.

I made out like a bandit on Christmas! I got some cross stitch material, a new purse, earrings, two complete outfits, a scarf, glove and hat set, a robe, and sweat top and bottoms, a wallet, and a bracelet. :) I think there is something else that I am forgetting at the moment, but that is what I get for taking so long to post about Christmas! :(

The girls got their semester report cards a couple days after returning from Christmas break. Sarah got 2 A's, 3 B's and 1 C. Rachel got 5 A's and 1 C. Neither report card is anything to be angry at. They both did very well. We are proud of both of them.

Stitching wise, I did completely finish 'The Lord's Prayer' the day after Christmas. A friend from church took a picture of it for me. Yeah! I then started a bib for my Great-Niece that was born December 5. I was having trouble finishing it because I am out of 301, rust, the color to do the backstitching of the nipples of the bottles, but fortunately my best friend in town had some, so I was able to finish it completely a couple nights ago. I will get it in the mail to my niece in the next day or two.

A few days ago I started 'Footprints'. The pattern says to do it on 32 count material. I had some that I was RAKed awhile back, so I decided to try it. Thanks to Deborah from ILCS, I have the proper size needle, and gold to boot! I like how it is looking so far. I am having trouble with threading those needles though. Is there a trick to them? I can do it, but it takes quite a bit of time, most of the time.

Here are a couple pictures of 'Footprints'. The reason I have been able to get so much stitching done is that Jack had ended up in the hospital again January 3. The incision of his stump became infected and thus he needed intravenous antibiotics. His regular doctor in Champaign was not getting the infection cleared up. It took another doctor jumping in and doing something before he started improving. That something seems so simple when you think about it. He saw a puss pocket and popped the pocket and drained the area. You would think that his normal doctor would of thought to do something so simple. I moved him to a local nursing home to finish out his intravenous antibiotics and taking care of the bandaging of his wound. Not to mention the 70 mile round trip with these gas prices as well as getting him some therapy to maybe go up/down the stairs via crutches. The antibiotics finished yesterday, but now we have the therapy to get him strong enough to get up/down our stairs with crutches.

I did the baby bib while Jack was in the hospital and started 'Footprints' since I moved him to the nursing home. The first picture was taken on Jan 13, the second picture was progress since then, taken today. I feel good about my progress, I guess. Since I moved him to the nursing home I have felt comfortable enough that I could do other things besides sit and stitch. The girls and house need attention.

Poor Sarah has been suffering with a migraine headache off/on since Friday. I took her to the doctor today. I am home with her today. I have caught up on my chores around the house a couple of days ago, including laundry. Last night for dinner I made meatloaf, homemade mashed potatoes, and sweetcorn. It felt good to cook for the girls. They appreciated it too. They both said a big, "Thank you". I have been so torn inside by Jack being in the hospital out of town. How does a person take care of everyone at once when they are in different places? Now that Jack is in town, I feel better, much better. There is a big difference between 6 miles round trip and 70 miles, for sure!!!

Take care until next time, everyone!

Another Friend's Give Away

First off, I wanted to let everyone know that there is a contest going on. Mel from Calgary, Canada is giving away two different projects. One is Christmas related, the other Halloween. If you want to enter the contest for one or both projects, go to: http://epicstitchin g.blogspot. com

I need to scan a picture [This is where I wish I had a camera that I could take a picture of the whole thing for you!] of "The Lord's Prayer" and show you, but I am nearing done with the stitching of page 4. Then I'll have the backstitching of the hand on page 3 and 4 and the backstitching of the lower corner of page 4. I do so hope I can finish this soon! I have so many projects I want to start and finish in my brain. The baby announcement and the bib for my grand niece (born December 5), the elephant project for my Uncle, the cat project for my bathroom, are just a few that pop to the top of my brain that I want to do.

Jack hasn't got his stitches out yet, and is on round 3 of antibiotics for his amputation. We are hoping that at his next appointment, he will have the stitches removed. The stump is shrinking, but for some reason there are a couple of spots on the stump that do not want to stop seeping. It makes it very frustrating.

I ended up having a seizure December 3, as we were getting ready to leave Jack's appointment with the prosthetic company. The good thing about that is that Jack was forced to drive from that company to the hospital because the ambulance took me to the hospital. He then drove us home from the hospital. Jack had not thought he could drive without the prosthetic leg. This proved him wrong. So he has been doing a great deal of the driving again. Other than taking Sarah to school in the morning. That is just fine with me, because he is better at winter driving, having the experience of driving in the winter weather everywhere, since he was a semi driver for 25+ years before becoming disabled several years ago.

Sarah now has her permit to drive. She is suppose to have 30 hours behind the wheel by a certain date. Not sure what that date is. A certain number of those hours are to be night time, day time, bad weather, etc. Thus far I have allowed her to drive home from school twice and we have gone to the store twice. I want her dad to be the teacher when there is snow or ice on the road, so now she will have to wait a bit. It snowed last night. Probably 3 or 4 inches.

Rachel has a bad cough and is running a slight fever, but insisted on going to school today. It is the last day before Christmas break and she has to turn in three extra credit sheets in math. Today is the end of the second quarter too. She is hoping these extra credit sheets bring up her grade. She really struggles in math, and when her dad was in the hospital earlier in this quarter, she really fell behind.

I will be buying the ingredients to make my fudge later today. I plan on making 5 rounds; chocolate, butterscotch, peanut butter, rocky road, and lemon. This will be my Christmas present to several different people in town.

Happy Holidays to everyone.

What a Ride!!

The past six weeks or so have been beyond crazy! Sorry I have not kept you informed, but I think you'll understand once I fill you in. In late October I was trying to take care of my DH's diabetic ulcer on the bottom of his left foot, as I had been for the previous two years. But instead of showing signs of improvement or even staying the same from one week to the next, the wound became dramatically worse. I took him to the emergency room the Wednesday before Halloween, after we awoke that morning to his foot being bright red and the redness spread up the foot through the day. We were told in the emergency room that he would need to be hospitalized for this (no kidding, Sherlock!). The local hospital did keep him overnight, starting him on antibiotics. The hospital wanted him to see the doctor that had been treating the diabetic ulcer the past two years, but that doctor was affiliated with a different hospital, quite honestly one that Jack and I trust more but isn't local, unfortunately. Anyway, the local hospital released Jack with instructions for him to go see the wound care doctor. We did that. The wound care doctor gave Jack orders to go to the hospital affiliated with him before the afternoon was over. He wanted Jack admitted. After Jack had been there a couple of days, the decision was made that he needed to have an amputation. At first the doctor was discussing just amputating a couple of Jack's toes, or from just above his toes. Jack basically said, "if I am going to be amputated, I want it to be high enough that we don't have to do this again, I want it from about 5" below my knee". The doctor's discussed this and they did agree. Jack had weak veins in his lower leg and so it was best to get as high as they could to try and get away from the bad area of his foot and get to an area that could heal properly. Jack was so sick of being sick and tired, literally unable to do much of anything outside of bed.

The amputation ended up being November 3. The surgery lasted about 1 hour 45 minutes. He was taken back to his room a couple hours later. He never had any complications. He was sent to rehabilitation about a week later and released from the hospital all together on November 17th. He is recovering nicely.

I am so frustrated with my city counsel right now I could chew up nails and spit out thumb tacks, as Jack says!! Anyway, the day before Jack was released from the hospital, my older daughter's boyfriend's dad built Jack a ramp. That was such a relief to me, as I had been looking around about getting a ramp built and was hitting brick wall after brick wall. I was very grateful to Wes' dad. In yesterday's mail I received a letter that had been keyed the day before Thanksgiving, giving me until Monday, November 29 to comply, stating that the ramp that was built on our property was a building violation and we had until November 29 to remove it or be fined a huge amount of money. We contacted Wes' dad and he came and disassembled the ramp this morning. We also contacted our Alderman. She came over taking a copy of the letter. She will see what she can do. I told her that this particular issue is one of the reasons I was wanting to be an Alderman so badly myself. To get issues like this one to go away. Sharon completely agrees with me. She cannot see the reasoning behind this, especially since there is no ordinance listed that we violated other than 'other'. What kind of law is 'other'? Sharon and I would both serve as Alderman for Ward 4 if I am elected. There are 2 Alderman per Ward. Sharon is not up for re-election. The spot I am running for is being vacated by my neighbor three doors down.

I can say that my stitching has not suffered because of this though. I did finish out the towel for my parents during the first week or so that Jack was in the hospital. My parents loved the towel. Dad even said it was too pretty to use, that it deserved framing. I have also worked quite a bit on 'The Lord's Prayer'. As I key this blog, I have completed page 3, almost. I have some backstitching left on the hand of that page, but other than that, am done with page 3. I started stitching on page 4 while with Jack at the hospital. I am almost done with the regular stitching part of the hand. I then only have the lower right corner to stitch and the backstitching left on the hand of page 3 and all the backstitching of page 4. Part of me is wishing I was further on this, the other part of me says I have done well with the progress of this project. I did not do the backstitching of the hand of page 3 when really reached it because that was the day of Jack's surgery. I didn't feel like I'd be able to properly concentrate to backstitch, so I went on to page 4's x-ing. Considering I started this in early August, and the stitch count of this project is 140W x 206H, I guess I am not doing too bad.

I guess, for the most part, I have updated you on the goings on here. The girls are fine. Our Thanksgiving was great. Having Jack home from the hospital made it even more wonderful! I am still job hunting, but the Lord is watching out for us. Take care until next time.

A Friends's Give Away

Wanted to let everyone know that my stitching friend, Alyssa, is having a give away. If you wanted to be put in the drawing, her sight for the give away is: http://mystitchingcorner01.blogspot.com/2010/10/another-finish-and-giveaway.html?

As far as my stitching, I have done some on the kitchen towel for my Mom. I am just a few stitches from complete on the left side of the towel, minus the back stitching of course. Next time I post, I will post a progress picture.

Rachel's cheer leading competition was Sunday. Her team got fourth place. I didn't think that was too bad, considering this is the first year there has been a Danville Chargers organization. She was happy with it as well. The team did get a trophy to be displayed at the Headquarters.

Sarah and Wes went to Wes' Homecoming dance Saturday night. Wes took Sarah to Montana Mike's and then they went out to the stables to show the woman they work for what they looked like. After leaving there, they went to the dance. Sarah ended up locking the car keys in the car, but the person who owned the car had a spare set, so she came and opened the car. Problem solved. Wes had Sarah home at a decent hour...about 10:30. I think his parents have a curfew for him of 11:00, and as I think I've said before, he lives a good thirty minutes away.

As far as my job looking, the grocery store manager had not had a chance to talk with the woman he wanted to about me yet when I went there on Friday. He told me to come back in the middle of this week. I think that I will swing by tomorrow. I am also talking with a manager at a loan company about a position there.

I worked out at the YMCA this morning. I did my 2.46 miles on the eliptical, then I decided to try some of the other machines they have there. I did 15-20 reps on the machines that is suppose to help you strengthen and tone your upper arms and then the machines that are to do the same to your thighs. The majority of my weight that still needs to be lost is in my thigh area. My upper arms still have some fat too, but both my thighs and my upper arms have saggy skin from the weight loss. I hope to be able to get rid of that skin. I cannot help but wonder, if I got rid of my loose skin, what would I weight? I don't know if there is really any way of knowing.

I want to start stitching now and have chores around the house to do as well, so I need to be going. Happy Stitching, everyone!

A Stitching Update

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to do a quick update, I promised you I would.

I did scan a picture that shows page 3 of 'The Lord's Prayer'. I have not stitched on it since scanning this a few days ago. I had told you I'd try and show you page 3. You cannot see the entire project in this scan, but You can see my progress I was able to do. Most of the progress was done when I was in Tennessee with my friend. As you can see, I have to stitch the lower left corner completely and then do the backstitching. Then it will be done and I can move to page 4!



I also wanted to show you the towel that I mentioned for my parents as a Thanksgiving gift. I did decide to put aside 'The Lord's Prayer' and stitch this. I do not usually give Thanksgiving gifts, but I just felt I really needed to do this for them this year. I may also add a potholder with the same pattern. It is taking a bit longer than I thought. I have stitched on this around 10 hours. There are 22 color in this pattern, so a great deal of stopping and starting to change colors. I picked up the last color at my LNS today. I think it is turning out nice. The wreath is in the center of the stitching area and the strands go to the end of the sides left to right.



The third thing I wanted to show you was the elephant that I have decided to do for my Uncle Curt, in memory of Aunt Jane. Uncle Curt said she loved elephants. I thought it would be a good tribute to her to give this to my Uncle. We talked about me turning it into a pillow for him. A friend gave me the pattern. I put it on PCStitch and took all the redish background out and put more of a green under the elephant's feet. I cannot get the picture from PCStitch to come up here, so you will have to imagine it, if you can. With just the elephant and ground cover, the picture is about a 5 x 7.



Unrelated to stitching, I do have some good news. I talked with one of the places I turned in an application awhile back yesterday and the manager asked me if I was still looking for a job. I told him yes. He told me they were looking for someone in a certain position but he needed to talk with another employee before it was confirmed. He told me to come to the store Friday morning (tomorrow) and we would talk. To me that sounds like he wants to hire me. Please pray that this happens.

I walked 2.46 miles in 35 minutes on the eliptical at the YMCA today. That is a bit slower than I did a couple of weeks ago, but not by much. My fastest at that time was 2.52 miles in 35 minutes. I still think I did well. I haven't gone to the YMCA as much as I want to, but if I have my way, the amount of time I go will increase. I need to start swimming there again too. I haven't swam in awhile but the last time I swam I did 27 laps (3/4 of a mile) in 2 hours. I know that is slow. I am a slow swimmer because of my right side being paralyzed. My right arm does not fully do the movement necessary, nor does my leg kick very well, but I can swim! The lifeguard is impressed with the way I swim.

Rachel's cheer leading squad is going to competition very soon. She is very nervous. The football team starts their playoffs this weekend.

Sarah turned in a paper today on Tattoos for her Anatomy class today. Actually, she turned the paper part in yesterday and the poster board part today. They were actually due at the same time, but she diden't allow herself enough time this weekend to do it, so she may get 10% off the poster board part.

We heard from John and his family a few days ago. They are fine and chose to move to Modesto, CA. We hope they will be alright there. My DIL's Aunt lives there, so I'm sure she will keep an eye on them.

Jack's foot ulcer appears to be smaller than it was last week, which is a good thing.

Happy Stitching everyone, until next time!

So Many Things Happening!

Hello All!

I have been hoping to post the latest picture that was taken of 'The Lord's Prayer' with this blog, but the gal that took the picture for me hasn't had a chance to e-mail it to me yet, I will write another blog and post it then. This picture of 'The Lord's prayer' was taken when I was in Tennessee with my friend as moral support. I finished page 2 on September 23. I then started on page 3. I was able to do a great deal of stitching during the time we were in Tennessee and almost finished the x's of hand and the words to the line that went through the hand. Since coming home from Tennessee, I have finished the x's of the hand and the words that are on page three as well. I am now stitching the lower left corner. Then I will do the backstitching and be done with it, moving on to page 4, the final page! I want to show you the progress so badly!

Besides stitching, I have been looking into becoming an Alderman for the City of Danville. I need a minimum of 25 signatures and a maximum of 50 to be on the ballot. The signatures are to be turned in November 15. The election is April 5. I have have 30 signatures so far. Jack designed the signs that we will ask my supporters to put in their yards. I will order them in a month or so. I also have my 10 principle of good government on a flyer that I am passing out. So far I am being received very well. I am a bit nervous because the other person who picked up a petition has a very well known name in town. The person who is currently the Alderman is stepping down due tto health issues.

My step-son and Jack ended up having a major blow up in mid-September. The tension had been building for awhile and that day the volcano erupted, so to speak. John packed up his belongings and moved his family back to California. This time he moved to Modesto though, so at least he is no where near the person causing his family problems there. We didn't hear from them at all until last week. We were glad to hear that they are fine.

I picked up all the clothes that I gave the woman to alter for me since my weight loss has begun. It is amazing the amount of clothes I have now! I sent my Mom the picture of me in the blue top that I recently put on my blog, taken just a few weeks ago, and now she wants all kinds of pictures of me. She cannot believe what I look like now.

I am looking for a job too and think that I have a good shot at one that isn't that far from my home. I sure am keeping my fingers crossed anyway!

Sarah and her boyfriend, Wes, go to Wes' Homecoming Dance in a couple of weeks. Sarah is excited. Wes is a Senior this year. Jack and I are very proud of him. He signed the papers last week to join the Army after he graduates from high school. I believe he told me his report date is mid-June 2011.

Rachel's cheer leading squad has competition coming up. She is nervous.

Both girls will get their report cards in a couple of weeks as well. I think both are doing well in school, I guess the report cards will tell for sure!

Well I better go for now. Happy stitching, everyone!