Ooops

I just dropped $$$$ for one of these. :) Actually mine will be slightly used, and was less than the asking price. Fortunately it's my play $$.

Super Fun!

Robert and I spent the weekend together! Yes the kids were around, but everything we did was for us. This weekend is the annual Oregon Brewer's Festival. We attend it every year. I have been looking forward to this weekend for the last month because I knew I would be able to spend time with Robert.

We started Friday morning with picking two flats of blueberries. We ate at least half of one flat and froze the other flat and a half. Then we came home and got ready to go to the festival where we met up with Triners, a knitter visiting from California. We had a great time sitting with her, drinking beer, eating pretzels, blueberries and knitting on our socks. I think we left around 4:30 or so as it was getting rowdy and crowded. (Robert had also been on Thursday, but I had other stuff happening)

We went back on Saturday by noon so we got in about 4 or 5 more beers before it got too crowded for us. Just so you know, we tried samples, not full glasses. I think the sample is a couple of ounces.

Robert made pretzels when we got home. They were really good fresh, not so much today.

Today we hit the farmer's market to see what they had. We bought fresh basil, green onions, one zucchini and one yellow crookneck. The basil is for pizza tomorrow night, with fresh mozzarella and tomatoes. YUM! We also did some other shopping like Costco and the regular grocery store. It's been really nice to just hang out with him this weekend.

When we got home Robert made burgers for our late lunch, and I put basil, tomatoes and feta cheese on mine. Oh it was good. Then he made cinnamon rolls, carmel popcorn and I think he's thinking about something chocolatey like fudge or brownies. I love it when he gets in this cooking/baking mood! That's probably where I have gained all the excess this year.

Yesterday while we were downtown Portland, we hiked from the lightrail to PPAC. A couple of months ago we happened to see that "The Phantom of the Opera" was coming to town. This is Kim's absolute favorite musical. She doesn't know it's coming to town. She is going to be so excited. We aren't going to tell her until a few days before. Our tickets are for the first week of September, and they looked like really good seats too!!! I am excited because I know she's going to be excited!! Ok, I was able to tell a secret without bursting!

We saw some monkey mayhem while we were downtown. It's in the window's of a store called Mario's I think. There were sock monkeys everywhere. Climbing ladders, on stilts. They were having a great time!!









Kim update: The endoscopy biopsy results showed nothing! A good thing, but at the same time, now what! The doctor put her on Nexium and it is about the same as the other drugs she has been on so far. We will try it for a few months and hopefully over time she starts feeling better. He also prescribed an anti nausea drug, but it's not really an anti nausea. It's more for moving things through the digestive tract. She doesn't need that, so we went to the pharmacist and asked their opinion. They gave us an OTC that should work much better. She hasn't had to use it yet, the nausea has been 4 or under.

My Kimma

came through the endoscopy quite well today!! They gave her Versaid, a great amnesia drug, as well as something else for the pain she would experience. It took her a while to come out of the fog and sleep, but once she was out, she's been going strong ever since. She has a bit of a sore throat, but other than that, she's ok. The pictures show some inflammation in her esophagus, and a little bit of inflammation in her small intestine, but we won't have results from biopsy back until late this week or early next week. It can't come soon enough. I told Robert though, that if either of the kids have to have major surgery later on in life, they are going to have to sedate me. I don't handle the waiting room stuff to well anymore.

Second Jellyfish Video

First Jellyfish Video

Home, Sweet Home

ETA: I am putting some short videos up on Flickr too, but I'm not sure where they will land yet. They are jellyfish from the aquarium!

We got home Friday evening. I slept for the next 10 hours! It was a fun, educational and hot trip. We took tons of pictures from the train windows. I haven't sorted through them too much, or labeled, but if you go to my Flickr page, on the right side the top three sets are from this trip. We learned that getting a sleeper room is much more comfortable than coach. :)

Kim goes in for an endoscopy tomorrow morning. We are to get there at 10:30 and they start the procedure at noon. It's supposed to be quick. I hope she handles the medication well.

Our attendant on the train. She was a real gem!

Out to Lunch........

Kim and I are getting ready for our trip south. We are both really excited to be riding the train. I am seriously giddy inside!! We'll be back next Friday late. I might be able to blog, but it will be pictureless unless I can find Wifi access somewhere close by. Hmm, I know where the closest Peet's is to mom and dad's, then I could get a much needed cup of coffee too. :)

Have a fun and safe weekend.

Drifting Along

In knitting news I have finished some things finally!

I finished some dishcloths for a BBQ swap I am involved in. I realized as I was making them, that I could make some for me, so that will be on the agenda soon.


I finished a pair of lace fingerless gloves for my bff Julie, who I hope to see next week while in California. These are the same gloves I made for a Spring Fingerless Mitt Swap. This is Socks that Rock in Lightweight, colorway is Moody Blues. And I still have half a skein left.


And I finished my Mr Greenjeans. I am hesitant to like it yet. I am going to put in two more button holes at least. Has anyone done that after the knitting is complete? Kind of like steeking a buttonhole? I think it can be done, just carefully.



In Kim news, the GI doctor switched her medications again, back to a stronger acid reducer. It still makes her nauseas, but it's within her limit. If she's not feeling better in two weeks, right about the time we come back from California, then we will proceed with an endoscopy to see if he can see anything. She doesn't want to do it, but I think it's inevitable unless she starts feeling much better in the next week and a half!

Speaking of California, I can't wait, except I know I am going to be exhausted from the get-go! We take the train down on July 5, get there in the mid morning on the 6th, come back on the 10th, getting home in the late afternoon of the 11th. On the way down we are in coach seating, so not much rest for us. On the way back, we decided to do a roomette, which does give us space to stretch out and sleep, if we can. Kim and I both think it will be fun. We will be down there to see mom and dad, and to celebrate dad's 71st birthday. I just realized that I don't have a gift for him, so am trying to figure out what to get him or make him! Any ideas are greatly appreciated!

Good News

I wanted to post some pictures from last weekend but didn't have a chance to. I am on Kim's computer, so can't get to my pictures. :( However, we have some good news. First, my tooth hasn't been bothering me since it was threatened with a root canal. Second, we had some other issues come up with Kim earlier this week. The Prilosec made her sicker, so we headed back to the doctor, who was concerned Kim had lost 5 lbs in two weeks. She has her on Pepcid AC, which seems to be doing the trick of keeping the nausea down to about 2-4 after she's eaten. I called several other GI places and they couldn't/wouldn't see her, so our doc stepped in and got her other appt stepped up to next week!! YEAH!!

Well, we are at Black Sheep and super busy but having a good time. I am exhausted, so is Kim, but she seems to be feeling so much better. I am so glad.

No Name

Wow, it's been 2 weeks since I blogged last time! I'll blame being busy, but it's not that easy. It's more of taking care of my family and myself. I've been to the dentist and may actually end up having a root canal some time in the next month. I don't have any free time to do it though until after July 11. We'll see what happens. Hopefully I can keep the pain under control until then. The other family crisis that we have been dealing with is Kim and her tummy. She has been having nausea upon eating any meal since before Spring Break. When we finally got to see the doctor, they took blood and suggested a wheat free diet. It took a couple of days to get to this diet, and Kim slowly started feeling better. 4 days later she was feeling really good and tried some baked beans that we knew to be wheat/gluten free. It make her feel so sick within minutes. Maybe the acidy tomatoes in it? Except that she can eat my spaghetti sauce with no problem at all. I let the doctor know that the regular wheat free diet was doing well, but the baked beans did her in. So we have an appointment to see a GI doctor, but it isn't until mid August unless there is a cancellation that we can get into. Very frustrating to say the least! The celiac sprue test that they did, came back negative. However, in the reading I have done, the final test for that is a biopsy. Kim is supposed to go back to a regular diet, but she doesn't want to. She's been feeling so much better that she doesn't want to change back. I don't blame her at all. I'm kind of tired of seeing her eat just rice, veggies and fruit. She doesn't like to eat meat too much and won't eat any dairy either because she thought she was lactose intolerant, but she won't even try some little things now like yogurt or cheese.

Here's some bread we made today. It is mostly rice flour and potato starch. It is pretty good.



I have been knitting, at least on Mr. Greenjeans. Almost done. The buttonband and re-doing the sleeve cuffs a littl bit.

Tomorrow Kim and I are going to sit at Streets of Tanabourne for a couple of hours with a group of other knitters for World Wide Knit in Public Day. Another woman and I and Kim were interviewed the other day for a local little paper. It will be fun to see what the reporter came up with. She's a knitter and will be there tomorrow as well. I found it online, it's just a little bit and there aren't any pictures, but I'll see it tomorrow in person and I'm pretty sure there will be some pictures. :)

HaHaHa

I saw this on another blog and had to take the quiz.

you are lavender #E6E6FA

Your dominant hue is blue, making you a good friend who people love and trust. You're good in social situations and want to fit in. Just be careful not to compromise who you are to make them happy. Your saturation level is very low - you have better things to do than jump headfirst into every little project. You make sure your actions are going to really accomplish something before you start because you hate wasting energy making everyone else think you're working. Your outlook on life is bright. You see good things in situations where others may not be able to, and it frustrates you to see them get down on everything.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

Meme Time

Thanks guys/gals for all the comments on my steeked bag! :)

ETA: We forgot one of the questions. #6, should be about previous jobs. I actually went back through about 8 tags and found it!

I was tagged by Linda for this meme.

The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago? Preparing myself physically and mentally for a life-changing heart surgery. So far in my 29 years of life, it was the hardest thing I had done. (29 at that time). I am celebrating this year! 10 years of much better health!

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order)? Stop at Office Depot to have some books spiral bound, take Kim to her voice lesson, stop at the library, hair appointments for both of us, call the local parks and rec to register for a class.

3. Snacks I enjoy. Dove dark chocolates, salsa fresca rice chips from Costco, cheese, green olives, almonds and cranberries.

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire. Pay off the mortgage, move my parents up here into a nice home or retirement center, make sure both kids had money for college, donate to several organizations.

5. Places I have lived. All over Central and Northern California; Phoenix, Arizona; Eagle Bend, Minnesota; Quesnel, BC Canada; Roseburg, Corvallis and Beaverton, Oregon.

6. Jobs I have had: telemarketer, clown for a donut shop to draw in business, furniture mill assembler, paper grader for a high school teacher, babysitter, housecleaner,(all of these previous ones were during highschool) home health care for elderly, medical assistant for an OB/GYN, and for an urgent care, oh and for a cardiologist, office assistant for a daycare, yarn bundler and all around help for a local yarn company.

7. Peeps I want to know more about: I don't remember who has been tagged and who hasn't, so if you would like to do this meme, take it away. Let me know if you do one on your blog!

I cut my knitting...........

And it didn't hurt! This was so cool. This panel was knit in the round, sewn up the sides and cut just inside two of the seams. The handle is linen stitch and sewn all the way around to create the sides and the bottom as well as the handle. On the handle, I ripped it out and made it longer, then did a 3 needle bind off in the middle. Way cool!

Catastrophic Events

So many tragedies have happened over the last few weeks. The cyclone in Myanmar, the earthquake in China (I just watched video of them pulling live children from the rubble of that huge school), tornadoes in the USA, forest fires in the USA, and a highly active volcano in Chile.

This morning on NPR, I heard interviews with two organizations that are on the ground in Myanmar and have been there since before the cyclone, so they are entrenched and can help aid these people easier than the US or other foreign countries. One is Save the Children, the other is Doctor's without Borders. The biggest concern now for Myanmar is the secondary catastrophe's, the disease from lack of water and sanitary conditions. If there is anyway that you can give a little to these organizations or any others that you are aware of that are helping in any of these situations, please do so. Every little bit helps.

If you go to either of the websites above, they are both helping in China as well.

Happy Mother's Day

I have been up to no good around here. :)

Robert is feeling much, much better. I am so glad. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers!

Kim and I went on the Tigard Knitting Guild Shop Hop last Saturday. That was pretty overwhelming, but lots of fun. 3 out of 6 stores that we went to we had never been to before. At least one of those we will return to. There was another one that I have been to, but Kim hadn't. It is spacious and has a really nice selection of yarn, compared to a few years ago when I had last visited it.

I've been knitting on a test knit for Tina, and can't show any of that right now, but it took up a lot of my time last week and the week before. It is super pretty. I will be able to show it in a few weeks!

This weekend I took more classes! Fiona Ellis was in town for the weekend. I took an all day design class from her yesterday and a slip-stitch class this afternoon. It was a lot of fun!! I didn't stay all day yesterday as I got a migraine around 2. I had Robert come get me, so I rested the afternoon away.

Yesterday in the design class, she had us choose pictures that spoke to us. The one I chose was a couple of gingham plates with fresh fruit on them. The gingham was blue and white, and pink and white. I wanted to combine the three in my design. It didn't come out the way I wanted it to, but I did like it anyways.


Then I swapped out the blue for purple and later green for the white.


Here's the back stranded section. We thought that looked really cool and wondered what it would do on the front to break up the pattern.


Not bad.


Today we did a slip stitch sampler. This was a lot of fun!!



Last Friday, a week ago, I started this. It will eventually be a little bag. I'm not sure how it's going to go, but in class we are going to learn how to steek it!! It is out of mercerized cotton. I chose the colors before I new what the sample looked like. Next Saturday I will go back to class and we will sew it and cut it in class.


I think I am now finally ready to conquer my Kauni sweater.

I hope.......

I can catch up on some sleep this week. Robert has been getting up at least 3 times in the night, until last night. Just once and it was at 6 am. Woohoo!! It's only 5:45 pm and I'm ready for a nap. I have taken little cat naps almost every day this week. It isn't helping.

I work tomorrow and take him to an appointment on Tuesday. We hope the x-ray shows no little stones or fragments!!

I took a class on Friday night and one this morning from Annie Modesitt. Both were awesome! I learned the correct way to do combination knitting. I had been twisting my stitches and if I were to call it some type of knitting, it would be Eastern crossed, at least from the hand out she gave us. I learned how to cable with out a cable needle. I like her method so much better than the way I had tried it before. Today was all about color. We did some two color, three color, then four color knitting. It was so cool!! I am really excited about this one as I have another color class on Thursday. It's actually a one on one with the instructor because I signed up for the class before realizing I would miss the first one. It is steeking a fair isle bag. I can't wait! I feel this is a way to broaden my mind, without getting stuck in a rut of doing the same type of knitting over and over again. Robert and I have actually talked about that. You know the studies they've done on how knitting is good for your brain? Well, our theory is that if you just do the same projects/techniques over and over again, it does no good for your brain, but if you are learning new techniques or ideas, then it uses more areas of your brain. So, it's better for you. Anyways, the combination knitting actually tightens up my stitches just a tad bit, it looks better!






This afternoon, Kim and I and two friends went to see The Ghosts of Treasure Island: A Pirate Rock Musical. We thought it was awesome!! Some of the words were hard to understand in the songs, but it was a great musical. I've already seen that there is a pirate festival in Portland in September. I think that would be fun to go to as well.

My most recent project is for ISE6. My pal likes bright pinks and purples, so I thought this might work. I am almost half way with it. It is an easy pattern, just two rows. I've modified it a little bit because I don't like how garter stitch looks. I like stockinette much better, which is funny, because I've never liked to purl.

Exhaustion hits

I haven't fully recovered from sock camp yet. I worked Stephanie's signing last night, but didn't stay to the bitter end. This morning we arrived at the hospital at 9:30, waited through all of the questions, pre-op stuff for 2 1/4 hours, then I waited in the surgery waiting area for at least 1 1/2 hours (supposed to be a 45 minute procedure) until the doctor came out to tell me how it went. Well the stone hadn't budged since last week, so they new where to go. They got the blasting machine hooked to him and the stone was totally obscured, so they had to thread a wire using fluoroscopy to get to the correct spot on the screen. Then they blasted the maximum number of times they could. Apparently they can do hundreds of thousands of these blasts on a patient during this one procedure. Robert came through the recovery and anesthesia well, and will go back next week for a post-op check up. The first wait was more of a killer than I expected. The second wait to go back and see him wasn't quite as bad, though my stomach was still in knots until I got back there and saw him totally awake and not groggy at all. One of the last nurses who cared for Robert is a friend of mine from church too. That made me feel really good about the care he was getting.

Cute knitting pictures of sock monkeys from camp can be found here. :)

200

That's what post I am on now.


So, the doctor's office called just a bit ago. Robert will be having the lithotripsy done on Wednesday morning. He has to be there at 9:30 am, the procedure isn't until 11:30 am, then he probably will be there until around 4 pm. They keep him afterwards so he can come out of the anesthesia and likely be able to keep some food down? That's how they did it when I had a tubal 10 years ago. So, a good portion of the day spent at the hospital. It's a good thing I knit!

One of the things that happened at camp on Friday, was snow! On Orcas Island. They seem to be in a rain shadow and rarely get snow, at least that's the story I heard this week. Well, I have pictures to prove there was snow!





Sunday, driving up the hill to get out of the resort and to the ferry! There were a couple of slick spots.

Home Again!

I am so exhausted!! I can hardly move. I don't remember what time Robert got up this morning, I know I woke up briefly, then the next time I woke up it was 11:15!! What a wasted morning and day so far. I've caught up on a few blogs, read some ravelry stuff and just sat around mostly.

Robert's appointment last Monday didn't turn up anything positive. The stone is in the exact same place! It hasn't moved one bit!! It is tender, but not overly painful that he needs to take something for it. They are going to blast it with the lithotripy device. However, the person doing the scheduling didn't even start until Wednesday to call the insurance, then they were out of the office Thursday through this next Tuesday!! So, because it is a day surgery, we have no idea when it will happen. He drove out to Scappoose last night to pick me up and was very sore when we got back home. I think it was the pressure of going over the mountain twice, or sitting for so long in the van for the drive.

Tomorrow I am home all day, Tuesday I work all day and do the book signing for Stephanie! Wednesday it is back to the normal schedule I think for pottery, then Thursday, voice for Kim. Friday night I am taking a class from Annie Modesitt, same on Sunday morning. So, there really is no rest for the weary. And possibly Robert's procedure in there somewhere.

Hmm, do I have any pictures of sock camp? Our Inexplicable Knitting Behavior on the ferry coming home yesterday. At least half the campers came out on that ferry. Out of 90 campers/staff!


Deb and a whole crew of baby Sock Monkeys that were made this last week. I was too busy, so mine is only half done. :) She is the designer of the pattern which should be available in a few weeks.



Charity Knitting Blankets with Stephanie and Cat, Holly and Celia (left upper corner to right).


I don't think I took as many pictures this time, so this will probably be it. I might put a video or two on youtube if I get it figured out. There's one that I just can't get off of my camera. I think it's too big. :(

No News

Is good news? Robert has been about the same. Some pain, but manageable with Aleve or nothing at all. It looks like we are in for a long haul on this one. Kim's foot seems to feel better for a day or so, then gets worse again. Today was a good day for both of them. I am still headed to sock camp and will try not to worry too much about them. They know what to do if there is an emergency. Next to no knitting has been done this week. :( Will see you next week.