Long Days of Summer

It's been awhile since my last post, obviously.  I haven't been functioning very well, with a poor, unhappy mood, feeling very stressed and having unusual bouts of tears.  My dear husband, once I admitted my difficulties--aside from my obvious lack of motivation to do anything, see anyone, or go anywhere--rallied the troops.  Dear daughter Elaine and husband Chris came over for dinner with the grandsons.  Always a mood booster to spend time with sweet Cove and Hunter.  There were a bunch of new things to play with, as my parents had been sorting through things and passed on a lot of toys. We also played a game of Trouble and of course there is always a piano solo. 

Dear daughter Erica invited me for a walk during the week. I met her at the office where she works, and we walked down to the pier. 

I spied a flowering vine in a palm tree on the way--must have come from a seed a bird left. It was a very windy day but sunny and not cold.  We walked to the end of the long pier. 

Very cool cloud formation--someone charmingly described it as looking like Anacapa Island was blowing bubbles towards the city.  The wind blew us back to the beach and we turned onto the promenade for more Vitamin Sea. 

There were a few surfers but more wind-sailers.  It was late in the day so hardly anyone was on the sand.  We turned back at the palm trees and took a  windblown selfie before finally leaving the beach. 

We had a quick dinner at a favorite fish taco place and then said our goodbyes, feeling very good.  I drove home by the foothills, and stopped to catch the sunset--always my favorite time of day. 

It was only a couple of days after solstice so the moon was still pretty full.  Loved the sketchy clouds above the Eucalyptus trees. 

Lovely colors and island view as dusk began.  I had the road practically to myself as I headed home.  As I passed by an orchard, a coyote came out of a ditch and crossed the road into the foothills.  I have driven this road literally thousands of times and that was a first!   

Tomorrow we will get to spend time with son Nick and his family--we will be helping to watch grandson Dane at his other grandparents' place while Nick and Ashley move house. Looking forward to seeing him walk--he has taken after his Auntie Erica and cousin Cove by walking early, just barely 10 months old. 

Although I have not done any sewing since my last post, I am still putting stitches in the Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers cross-stitch.

I like portable projects so I can stitch upstairs or down!  There has been more added since this pic was taken.  This time last year, I had just purchased the threads at my local fabric shop. 

Last year, because of the lockdown, other than a couple of days vacation when we went to Del Mar, I lost numerous hours at the close of the year, and have not taken any vacation this year as yet.  I just put in for the Sewtopia retreat trip with my sister coming up in early October, and also added a day to the upcoming long Independence Day weekend.  My plan is to use every vacation hour this year---I earned them and deserve the time off.  It definitely boosted my mood to see the approval of my requests!  

Blog business: Feedburner is being eliminated in a few days and therefore the ability to have signups on my site for email delivery.  I only follow a few blogs that way myself, choosing mostly to follow through Bloglovin'.  So far I have not decided whether to sign up with FollowIt, though I have received communication from that service and looked into it--it is not a new service and has a track record. I'd better decide in the next day or two...

December Downers and Uppers

First the Downers!

Not too long after I posted on 12/7, my  Monday went to pieces.  The intermittent internet problems we had been having grew steadily worse, wifi dropped out every few seconds so nothing I typed would get saved.  I could not work doing telemedicine and had to call the cable company for troubleshooting.  Turns out our  combo router/modem was far outdated and failing, needing to be exchanged at their store.  

Then the power went out entirely for about an hour, a shutdown by the electric company due to high winds and fire danger.  I had to drive clear across town in the raging wind with palm fronds dropping on the freeway.  I made my exchange of equipment and got back on the freeway--but then my heart sank when I saw and smelled smoke as I neared home.  I learned by smartphone that it was 10 miles away in the next town.  

The wind caused a finch to be blown into our garage when I opened the door.  I had to leave it open to see if the bird would fly out--which it didn't for many hours.

Upon unpackaging the new modem and router, I followed instructions to plug everything in and called to activate it--but only got a recording saying it could not be activated due to outages in our area, so I had to take my laptop and actually go into the office to be able to work, for the first time since the pandemic shutdown in March!

The fire 10 miles away was caused by a falling tree branch hitting an electrical wire but did not spread too far, as firefighters were quickly after it. However, they closed the freeway a mile from our house and traffic heading east was backed up for quite a ways both on the freeway and surface streets.  Luckily my drive home was the opposite direction.  With an additional call to the cable company, and my husband's assistance, we were finally back in business.

And now the Uppers!

Oh,  the finch finally did leave the garage :)

This grandson came for a visit!  Papa got first dibs so I took photos. 

Dane was very interested in Papa's quilt on the sofa.  He was studying the patterns and checking my seam matching.  Mama Ashley monitored him well.  He's getting close to 4 months and is about to get a new cousin on the maternal side.   

Our other grandsons we visited at their house.  I had bought an advent calendar with chocolates and finally brought it to them.

Hunter (4) liked the tiny chocolates. 

He made the chocolates look bigger by using both hands to get them to his mouth.

Brother Cove (6) opened the door with the tiniest piece.  We enjoyed a lot of backyard time after they opened all the past days.  It was lovely to visit with our trio of brown-eyed grandsons.  

We made plans with to have a socially distant Christmas Eve BBQ in the backyard of their house this year--a definite upper!  I put out fewer Christmas decorations this year but changed up the ones in my sewing room--our former family room that has the fireplace. 

The wooden decor was a Secret Santa gift I received last year.  You can tell it's the sewing room by the ruler sticking up there, lol.

In the living room, Mini approves of Indoor Nature, and has been spending time lying on the quilted tree skirt.   She was there for hours one morning :)  

A little sparkle and plaid on the sideboard.  It has been very dry and windy so the only snow is the decorative type here in SoCal. 

Looking forward to the Covid vaccinations in the next few months and hopefully turning this shutdown in to a reopening in Spring.  What a year it has been!

Christmas 2018

We had a lovely holiday with family, celebrating Christmas Eve with our kids and grandkids with delicious homemade soups and french bread, followed by an apple dump cake made by youngest daughter Erica.

The presents were piled high around the tree, long after I took this photo!  Sadly I didn't get the new tree skirt finished; I still like the red one though.  Grandsons Cove (4) and Hunter  (2)were the stars of the show, as usual. 

Nick's girlfriend Ashley was Hunter's pal all night long.  He's showing a gift from Mimi and Papa. We are going to miss his adorable lisp when he gets older; right now he calls her "Ashwee", and Erica's boyfriend Ryan is "Wyan", so cute.

Cove was still for only long enough for one photo.  He was very excited about the Ukelele that Mimi and Papa got him as well.

This appears to be the only pics I got of my menfolk!  Cove's a blur as usual.

A pre-approved portrait of Elaine and Erica, with son-in-law Chris barely visible behind.

I made a Snap Bag for Ashley, and added a strap for the first time on the dozens of these I've made in the past.  I also made Erica a stocking but don't have a finished shot.  We ate Christmas dinner at my parents, it was cold and windy outside so the 30 of us crammed into the living room. We had just finished dinner when there was a power outage that lasted a good 40 minutes.  My brother Kevin brought in a ton of flashlights (he's a Scoutmaster--he's prepared, lol) and the girls washed all the dishes with cold water.  

My Christmas vacation was extended by a case of the shingles, ugh.  Our son-in-law said I was singing "Shingle Bells", haha.  While I don't have a severe case, it is very uncomfortable around my waist  area where the blisters are, and the burning nerve pain is constant.  We've seen many worse cases of shingles in the office but I plan to get my shingles shot as soon as I can, probably in 3-6 months.

I did get some after-Christmas sewing time in.  Some fellow guild members are making quilts for the families of the Borderline mass shooting, an unimaginable loss of 12 people in early November 2018, most of whom were in their late teens/20s, plus one Sheriff who responded to the shooting.  I chose green from the rainbow choices and have been sewing HSTs for the pattern we are calling Rise Up.

I need 180 of these for the comfort quilt size we are making.  I hope to finish up all the HSTs by Friday and lay them out.  Kelly of Superbuzzy quilt shop did die-cutting for me for the fabrics I chose in her store.  That speeds things up very well.  We don't know when the quilts will be distributed but are hoping to get them done very soon. 

The last of the year's sewing will involve some pajama pants I also intended to give the boys but just didn't get to before the big day.  They will get done this weekend.  

Happy New Year to one and all!  I am pondering what 2019 will bring in the sewing room, and on my sister's longarm :)  There are many tops that deserve a finish, and many projects still under construction.  The squirrels need tamping down so these older projects can become real quilts.

What a Week I'm Having!

UPDATE: 

So, instead of the ultrasound tests, I did what I should have done in the first place:  I went to the ER yesterday morning.  My next door neighbor, an ER nurse, was my triage nurse.  It was wonderful to see a friendly face.  They were having a very busy day at the ER and it took another hour and a half before I got in an exam room, but I expected that. After waiting a while, the doc came to see me; he nixed the ultrasound and ordered a CT scan.  He also disagreed with the Urgent Care doc starting me on antibiotics immediately, saying they complicate the picture.  I had an IV inserted and waited another hour and a half to get the CT, then another 45 minutes after the CT for my diagnosis. Turns out I have an ovarian cyst.  However, the doc also said the antibiotics could have been masking an appendicitis and if I got worse I should come back, so it wasn't 100% that it was the ovarian cyst.  I was given a script for pain meds and released to home with instructions to follow up with OB/GYN for the cyst.  Yay, no appendectomy for me.  So I celebrated at home by having some real food--get this--a small portion of white rice with chicken broth and a few crackers. Woot!  I think the upper stomach discomfort is like bruising on my stomach from being distended and rubbing against my ribs.  Also, I think the antibiotics were bothering my stomach a lot.  Now that those have been discontinued, I can take some ibuprofen for the discomfort and gradually work my way up to a regular diet.  I have a follow up appointment with an OB, and hopefully the cyst I have is one that will go away on its own.  I had polycystic ovaries and pelvic pain when I was 21, which resolved with no treatment. Fingers crossed!  Feeling better today though still a bit weak and woozy if I move around too much.  Tomorrow I'm going back to work, but will drive myself in case I can't last a full day.

FYI NOTE TO SHERRILL:  It seems every time I reply to your comments gets bounced back to me--I even tried leaving a comment on your blog directly and that got bounced back too.  Just wanted to let you know I wasn't bypassing your lovely comments!

____________***__________________***__________________***_______________***______

What a week I'm having!--one of my favorite lines from the movie "Splash", uttered by Eugene Levy's character.

I started out last Monday working a partial day so I could drive back to town and have a regular mammogram.  Cross that off the list (it was normal).  Then Tuesday I worked a regular day.  In the afternoon my throat started to get sore and swollen, and when I woke up on Wednesday I was not surprised that it was more sore and accompanied by a pounding headache.  I called in sick.  After some hot tea and Advil it wasn't so bad, so I puttered around finishing up the Christmas decorating in between rests on the couch.

Thursday I woke up early with my throat not feeling any better, but as I walked downstairs to call my manager, I noticed but I had a new problem:  a very distended tummy and pain in my right lower abdomen.  Thinking this might be turning into a stomach flu, I went back to bed.  However, six hours later, the pain was still there, I had fever and chills, and decided I'd better see my family doctor.  He was not in, naturally, so I ended up at Urgent Care.  The doc was very nice and she did some palpation tests that didn't entirely rule out appendicitis, but said it might be diverticulitis except my pain was on the opposite side of normal.  Great!  I was advised a liquid diet/bland foods and placed on precautionary antibiotics.  The doc ordered ultrasounds of my pelvis and abdomen.  However, by late Thursday afternoon I couldn't get scheduled in anywhere until Monday, despite calling three different facilities. 

So this was my view most of the day on Friday:

At least I got to use my new quilt first! 

Saturday I felt a bit better and by the afternoon was able to be upright for longer, even getting some sewing done.  Moving around and bending forward made the pain worse, but I could stand and iron for short periods.

 A whole pile of flying geese for my grandson's quilt.

 Love the fishes.  

And the raccoons. All the geese that had been cut got sewn.   My grandson is due in 10 weeks, my daughter texted me yesterday, so I gotta get moving.  

However, today I felt awful and had a new pain, high in my stomach under my ribs.  A full day on the couch and only managed to take my pills and eat one Popsicle.  I haven't had very much food since Thursday and am beginning to get a bit unsteady on my feet.  I had hopes that after tomorrow's tests I could go to work but I don't think that's going to be possible.  My DH waits on me hand and foot but hates it that he cannot help me feel better.

Of course all of this is happening during a holiday season in which I have only managed to get the house decorated and buy a few gifts.  No cards have been sent and certainly no holiday baking has been done.  I hope this all goes away soon so I can enjoy the rest of the holidays and even eat some Christmas dinner.  Wish me luck!