Raindrops Keep Falling.......

On other peoples heads.  These poor people who are having to deal with the storms and rain, I feel so bad for them. We are under tornado watch today as that same system that just wreaked havoc in the midwest and Alabama is coming through. We have lucked out in each of the ones that have come through this spring. I just can't imagine what people are going through.

The devastation is unbelievable. I have been through hurricanes but never through a tornado. My heart goes out to those who have lost loved ones and their houses and worldly possessions. That goes for those in the flood areas. I've seen stories of people who have had to start over so many times because of flood. I can't comprehend it all. To have to pick up the pieces and carry on would be mighty hard. But many have had to do it, they have no choice.

These pics were taken a couple of weeks ago when we had that hail storm come through. I named each of these pics - World In A Rain Drop, Rain Drop Horizon, Rain Drop Forest, Rain Drop Wonder. If you click on the pics and look at the rain drop you can see an upside down world inside of it. The tree I took these from is now fully leaved. No more bare branches.

I also took pics of one of my Christmas Cactus in bloom in April. It does it every year and it befuddles me. The whole plant doesn't bloom, just a few branches of it does. I find that very odd. And also odd is my Poinsettia that is blooming. What's up with that? I've had this plant for two or three years. I can't remember. But it's been in the pot since it was given to me. You're supposed to be able to plant them in the ground on the northeast side of the house but I opted to keep it in the pot. I might repot it  before bringing it in for the winter again. I think it will probably need it.

I am furiously working on the granny ripple baby blanky for Anistyn Brae. That will be the babie's name. Isn't that pretty? It's different anyways. She is due to arrive sometime around the 4th of July but the baby shower is May 7th. So I don't have much time to finish it for the shower. I'm only going to do 1 of each skein and I think that will be big enough for a baby blanky for her. I wasn't too thrilled with the color combo I picked in the beginning but I think it's grown on me. I kind of like it now.

It's made out of Caron Simply Soft and Caron Simply Soft Heather. The colors are Off White, Victorian Rose, Deep Plum Heather and Truffle Heather.  I hope Terrayne (Anistyn's mom) likes it. I'm also making a doily for Terrayne for the shower. Mom's very rarely get things at baby showers and I think that bites. So Terrayne will have a present too. :o) I'll take a pic when it's done so you can see.

Well I best get back to it. I hope your day is filled with smiles and love.
TTFN
Kat
xoxoxo

What's On My Hooks

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great Easter. I did. I went to a friend's son's house and had dinner with her family, as I do every year. This year I made a homemade carrot cake. Have you ever made one? This recipe that I found on allrecipes.com called for 3 cups of shredded carrots. How hard is that....right?? Do you know how long it takes to shred 3 cups of carrots, or how many carrots that is?  Well...I can tell you this. NEVER again. It took me almost an hour and a half and 17 carrots. And some of my fingers and knuckles got shredded in the process. No extra meat in the recipe, I promise, but holy cow...my hands are beat up from that. And talk about rich. I left the cake there for everyone to take some home. I did not need to bring any of this back home with me. lol. It was good, but right now I don't need the temptation of sweet stuff like that to pack on any more pounds. :o)

So anyways.....I thought I would finally share some of what is on my hooks at the present.

I've used this pattern many times, although I have altered some of the stitches to suit myself. The current application above is done out of my Ocean #3 thread (which is actually two #10 threads together) and using a B or #2 hook. I think I will be making quite a few of these for Christmas presents. With the #2 hook they are turning out big enough for coasters. I have already started another one at home with #10 purple and #10 cream intertwined together. I love this pattern.

This is the baby dress I was telling you about. I'm really pleased with how it's turning out. The back where the buttons go is different than the pattern, but other than that it's straight according to pattern. I've picked out some pretty white buttons in the shape of hearts. I think I may border the neck and armholes with the shocking pink so that the hat and booties will match.

When my sister came to stay with me when I had my gall bladder out she brought me a 'project'. As if I don't have enough of my own right? :o) Well she was a little dismayed when her slipper didn't turn out to look like the one in the picture in the book. She got this 'kit' from Annie's Attic. It was the book, the yarn and I think the hook. She wanted to make these slippers for her granddaughter, my great niece, to wear at the dorm in college. I decided I would do the other slipper and see if mine turned out like hers, although hers is not done. She was concerned because the front of it didn't look anything like the one in the pic. So I am not that far with mine yet, just at the first round up from the sole. This is the first pattern I have worked with two yarns together. I've worked patterns with two #10 threads, but not yarn.

And finally......this is my miserable attempt at starting a doily of my own. I call this my 'purple mess'. :o) I will be frogging this.
May your day be everything you hope it to be.
TTFN
Kat
xoxox

Life Happens

Hi! Happy Friday!

I have been slammed here at work since I returned from 2 weeks off. That's the first time I have taken two weeks off. Normally it's a week at a time. Even though I had someone fill in for me I had things to take care of that weren't while I was gone. It's been pretty rough but now I am finally caught up. Thankfully.

I am still healing. The doc said it would be another month before I was totally healed inside. So that means I can't ride my bike for another month. With gas prices the way they are I want to start riding my bike. I get 40 mpg with the bike, anywhere from 26 -30 with the car and 11 mpg with my truck. Guess what sits? My poor truck. I go out about once a month to start it up or drive it to the store to keep the batteries charged. My bike is on a battery tender that keeps the battery charged up.

On the crochet front I have several wips that I am working on. Well a couple have fallen to the wayside but I'll pick them back up soon. I'm not done with the Jill bag, or the baby granny ripple blanky. Jen's tablecloth has taken a back seat. :o(  I started on a dress for the baby I've been making things for. I surprised myself. I didn't think I could do the yoke. Or I guess I should say that yokes always intimidated me. I've got the yoke done and am a third of the way through the skirt. My daughter has made me feel bad because she wants me to donate some hats to the hospitals for preemies. I started one last night with #10 thread, as I found a pattern using the thread. I got one done and am not happy with it. It's course......not soft. I won't be doing any more in thread. I will probably frog that one or give it my grand daughter Bella for one of her babies. So I am on a mission with making preemie hats.

Other than that not much is happening here in Mr. Lick Lick land. :o) I thought I was going to have trouble with Leo when I went back to work. But I actually think he was ready for me to go back to work. lol. I think I disrupted his 'daily routine' while I was home. And now he's back to normal.

I wish I had a doggy door in the doors so he could keep the squirrels away. They have destroyed my plants on the front porch. Some are totally gone!!! I am so mad. I have an astillbe that they keep eating when it gets about two inches in height. Forget my hosta....each time a shoot comes up it's gone and now I think they've destroyed the whole plant, it's not even attempting to come back up. My jade plants are gone. One of my aloe plants that a friend of mine got me a few years ago is gone. They haven't touched my christmas cactus or my spider plant. I had gotten a couple of japanese cherry sprigs from a tree close to work and root toned them. They are totally gone. I'm amazed because this is the first year in 11 living there that this is happening. Is it Ninja squirrels trying to take over??? Do they think that just because we both live in the woods that they can take whatever they want??? No dang respect I tell ya. I don't know what to do.

It's hot here already but I'm not complaining. I'll take hot any day over cold. The mosquitoes are bad already and we haven't even had much rain here. We are supposed to get some today....we'll see.

Well........I'm going to get back to work here now. I wanted to let you know I'm still here....it's just that life is happening.  I hope your weekend is full of love and life.
TTFN
Kat
xoxox
PS/ This is my Christmas card from 2008 when Pee was still with us. I love this pic.

Good Morning!

Goodness....I feel like I've been gone forever! I've missed you all and have a lot of blogs to catch up on.

I have had a rough couple of weeks. I'll try to be as brief as possible trying not to forget things, but I'm sure I will.

I went to the outpatient surgery center a week ago this last Tuesday to have my gall bladder out. I had gone the Friday before for my pre-screening for surgery. The lady in there told me I would be there overnight, contrary to what my doctor told me. So I rolled with the flow, that was the only way to go.   My sister and I get there at 5:30am Tuesday as I am the first in line that day. They are getting me ready and my doctor comes in and says that I will be going home later that day. Hmmmmm......odd I thought, but I didn't say anything because there are bunches of people in my room getting me ready. I'm thinking that the lady in pre-screening didn't know what she was talking about. Cool.

They connected my IV and snuck the sleepy fluid in it. No one advised me of being put out, it just happened. The next thing I remember vaguely is in recovery asking twice was I dreaming, and the the nurse telling me no, I was not dreaming.  And then next thing I know is I am coming out of it in my room and the doctor is telling me that there is the option of chemo and radiation, but he would be happy to be wrong....and that I would need to stay overnight because of the extensive incision he hadn't anticipated on making.

I'm like......WHAT???  I am still not with it, I'm so drugged up. In my mind I'm wondering what is going on, why did he say that.  And then with that thought I start thinking in my mind that if he's cut into me that if I do have cancer that it's going to spread quick and that chemo and radiation are probably not much of an option and I'm a goner.  So I start making mental notes on what I need to do, what I want to do before my 'check out' time. 

My sister didn't hang around long after I got back to my room because of Leo being home by himself and we had had a bad storm just after getting to the hospital, plus traffic is horrible between the hospital and home, 40 miles away (she's from out of state). Before she left she said to me that we were going to do what we needed to do to see this through and I held up my hand and told her I wasn't going to talk about it right now. She kissed me on the cheek and left.

One of my Bomber Girl sisters came and sat in my room with me until after work when 3 of my other BG sisters came to see me. They were made aware by T what was going on with me. We didn't talk about it but I had said to T earlier in the day right after my sister left that I had cancer and probably would not make it much longer and that I loved her for coming to be with me.

Anyways....I was drugged pretty heavily all day and kept going in and out. When I was of some kind of 'awake mind' I started making these lists in my head. I'm trying to keep a positive attitude because there's no other option at this point.

My room was horrible. I had no clock so no concept of time. The tv cable went out around 11pm that night. The night nurse was coming in every three hours sticking 2 percocets into me, while the day nurse only gave me one when I'd call for it.  I think she thought she was doing me a favor because I couldn't sleep but I think it did me more harm than good to tell you the truth.

When morning came my doctor came in fairly early. He told me at that time that my gall bladder was the size of his fist (they're supposed to be small), it was hard as a rock, partially wrapped around my intestine, and my liver didn't look right so he took part of my liver and sent it all off for testing for cancer. He also told me that he would call me as soon as he found out the results so that we could proceed right away if it was cancerous.  What can I say at this point?  I was still not coherent enough after a long night of nothing but percocets to ask questions. All I wanted was to go home.

After the shift change, the nurse wanted to get me up so I could eat before going home. The food in the hallway smelled good. But the second I got up I was nauseous. They had to give me phenergan, which is pain reliever with anti-nausea stuff in it. It kicks your butt. By time it started working my food was brought in and it was cold.....scrambled eggs, a biscuit and coffee.  It was horrible.  I only took a couple very small bites of the egg and biscuit. Then I finally was able to get up and walk down the hall so I could come home.

After getting changed and getting all my stuff together, with the help of my sister, we got in her car to come home. There is more to the story but it's mostly things with my sister. I love her, I'm glad she came to be here with me to help me....but I think she hit every bump in the road on the way home, or at least it seemed like it.  She didn't bring my glasses so I could see and all the drugs in me made me see double.

I was sick for two days after coming home, couldn't hold down food. Have you ever vomited after surgery with a good size incision underneath your boobs, or in my case melons???? It was horrible.  I couldn't go #2 (I know...more info than you want right?). I determined that those percocets were the culprits.  So the last one I took was 1pm Thursday. Even though I was in pain I finally could hold food and the next morning early I was finally able to go to the bathroom. I also had a fever. I called the number on the instruction paper they gave me to come home with. No one ever called me back. Thankfully the fever finally broke.

Poor Leo.....I think he thought I left him like his daddy did. He got up on my bar, via the back of the recliner and knocked one of my plants in the sink the day of my surgery. When I came home he acted funny for the first day and then wouldn't leave my side after that.

My sister went home Friday morning thankfully. Like I said, I love her and am so thankful she came but I was miserable and just wanted to be by myself with my little boy who curled up next to me where ever I was.

I got the call Thursday afternoon from my doctor........BENIGN!!!!  I couldn't thank him enough to let me know as soon as he found out. I had called his office that morning to make sure they had my cell number because I had turned off my home phone to try to save some money. His office person told me that I would probably not hear from him until Monday because he was in surgery both that day and Friday. I'm glad she was wrong too.

I have dodged two C bullets so far this year. I can do without any more medical drama. 

I am off work until Monday getting better each day. Yesterday was the first day that I felt human again.  I see my doctor this coming Tuesday and have a list of questions for him.

Today the sun is shining here and it's still springtime. If it was storming I would still be happy because I have another chance at some more life. Much love to you all and see you soon!
TTFN
Kat
xoxooxoxooxoxoxoxo

PS/I have not done a whole lot of crochet because I was not interested in it much because I've been so miserable, but I did start a bag for one of my BG sisters that has done a lot for me while I've been down. I can't wait til it's done but it's been slow going.

The 'Jill Bag'....compliments of the pattern 'Flower Tote Bag' in my new Crochet! mag that just came, is in process. I couldn't put it together as I went, like in the pattern. I tried and didn't like the way it looked. Why can't I do that????? So I am making each square and will put together when done. I am also thinking about putting a lining in it but we'll see when it's put together.

I also added a 'T' that I crocheted to a bag that I did previously that T was eyeing. Remember the one with the little pink and blue heart buttons on it? That will be my gift to her for staying with me in the hospital.  :o)