Tomorrow... NOT the day I had planned!

Well, no 7 am surgery... so what WILL I do tomorrow? Who knows.  In a way I'm glad to have a reprieve. Although this morning when I woke up with my hip screaming I thought otherwise for awhile.

Finally got some inspiration this morning on the latest doily project, "A Different Rose," which I am designing as a crochet along for my online crochet group. Now to get it written up and posted on the group.

Made my favorite dinner today, baked mushroom steak, mashed potatoes, and green beans. Also baked a chocolate cake with chocolate chips and made homemade frosting for it, I kind of invented it as I went and I think I'll call it truffle frosting. I usually do cream cheese and butter frosting. This time I wanted chocolate but not cocoa. So I dug out a big Ghiradelli baking bar I had on hand. Melted it with butter and a little whipped cream (turns out, that's how you make truffles!). Then mixed that into the butter/cream cheese. Turned out beautiful and pretty tasty too. One to write down for sure.

I only have one gripe about today:  The freakin' PGA should be BANNED from television!! OK, maybe just from MY television. Twelve HOURS of it today. Thought I would lose my freakin' mind.  I cooked, I did dishes, laundry, anything just to stay out of earsight of it!

So here I am, 11 pm, have just completed almost an hour of "real" TV whilst enjoying a piece of my cake and some animal crackers. Have I mentioned that diet I'm getting back busy with this week, LOL??

Happiest thing of all today is that my eyesight in my left eye appears to have returned to normal. Whew.

Since I've done most of the work for tomorrow ahead of schedule, maybe I can actually do something fun. We'll see.

Stinky Day

Well, it's stinky for two reasons. No, three.   One, my surgery for Monday, my long awaited left hip replacement, got cancelled yet again due to issues with my blood disorder.  Next try is mid-September. So another month of... status quo.  Stinky reason 2 is that I managed to cut my lower leg on a stupid rosebush this afternoon. (It's in this little garden by my front steps - I just HAD to walk in there and pull a weed!)

That would not be a big deal, except I have a situation where owies on my legs take about 4 months on average to heal up (that's what years of Prednisone will do for ya).  They tend to get infected during that time, more complications, blah blah.  Total pain in the rear.  Oh - and being on blood thinners tends to lend a lot of drama to getting cut in the garden too.

Stinky reason 3 is that while leaving a restaurant last night, I suddenly had a big white splotch appear in my  left (good) eye. I tried to blink it off to no avail. Today, it's still there. Reason for terror is that I am already half blind in my right eye from a stroke two years ago, and the idea of losing yet more sight ... just not acceptable.  So I'll see the eye doc Monday and find out what's up. I don't think it was another stroke. It's different.

On a far more positive note, my friend Laurie brought her girls Chelsea and Lacey over for a visit today. Chelsea's been at her dad's in Kansas City for the summer, so it was very nice to see her. Laurie brought me over a beautiful swimsuit for me to try. I'm new to water therapy, loving it, and of course you have to look GOOD so you feel good about yourself... having lost a lot of weight the last couple of years, I'm too small for most of my swimsuits. I tried one on the other day that was laughable.

My son John brought his new hot rod Chevy truck home today, bought and paid for. I am sooo very proud of him.

Koby had a good day, too. Ate all his breakfast and dinner. I'm thinking this new food might be a winner, we'll see.  We are playing a new game to deal with his blindness, I call it "Find Mommy." I sneak across the room from him and say "Koby, find mommy!"  He can actually do it! Yes, it takes a while but I make a huge deal of praising him for his success. Hey, I figure anything that makes him happy and wag that tail is a very good thing.  And it helps him learn to navigate in the house.

Enough with the computer already. Been working on website for a couple of hours now.  Time for sleep!

Way Too Early Friday Morning

Almost time to go to bed - I'm up late because I napped earlier.My son John made his chicken taco "bake" and it was great. He is really sweet, he cooks sometimes on my IV days and comes up with some pretty wonderful things!

Still no news about surgery Monday. Waiting on a call from a doc tomorrow, will either get the nod or not. If yes, I have lots of appointments and stuff to do tomorrow.  If no... nothing. I don't really care one way r the other, at least right now. I'm sure I will later, but it's been a "good hip week" meaning it's not the killer, OMG I'm gonna die pain like it gets sometimes. I can deal with this awhile if I have to.  On the bright side, I can continue with my somewhat manic reorganiation phase I've been in for a couple of weeks. I can enjoy this gorgeous late summer weather we're having. I can... get more stuff done. That would be a good thing.  Websites to write, people to see, things to do.

I did spend a lot of time sitting out on the patio today, but didn't touch (or water!) a plant.  And right now hurray, it's thunderstorming! Now that makes me happy.  I adore thunderstorms, always have.  I have several windchimes around and I enjoy hearing them.

Well, absolutely nothing exciting to write about.  It was an okay day.  I finished working on Koby's (my diabetic schnauzer) website and got it up.  (Check it out)

I'm discovering one of the most fun things about having a blog is an excuse to look through 

my photos and see what I'd like to share! This is a storm photo I took last summer in Omaha, NE. 

Well, off to dreamland for now.  Hoping for a cool, rainy day tomorrow that makes me feel like cleaning house! It needs it...

––She

Thursday - The Suspense Builds!

Arrrgggghhh!! The internist is arguing with the specialist and between the two of them, I may not get cleared in time for Monday's surgery.  I may have to reschedule this puppy again.   C'mon guys, I just need a new hip... really! 

My granddog, Winnie, takes a turn at the scales with Heidi

Koby was a little sleepy this morning, seems fine now tho. He ate a good breakfast for me.  Yesterday I was sure that his tummy felt a little heavier - maybe he IS gaining weight back! Heidi may come over while I have IvIG today and I may get her to weigh all the kids again.  That was hysterical the last time - every dog lined up when she brought the scales into the living room and wanted to be weighed!! It looked like a little doggie Weight Watchers meeting, I swear!


It is another gorgeous day out, if I so much as step out there I'll want to stay out all day! No time for that, I'm afraid.  I have been doing some "easy gardening," things like snapping off sedum stems and starting new plants by sticking them here and there in the flowerbeds.  Last night I gave the honeysuckle a much needed haircut and discovered there is NOT a clematis under there anymore. Darn!  I would love to ask my neighbors for cuttings of their clematis vines, they have some amazingly beautiful ones.   Yah - I'll put that right on the to-do list! 


Have an amazing day!

It's Monday!

Wow, one week till surgery and counting.  Surely nothing will show up to stop it! At least I hope not. Spent the morning running errands with Carianne. PIcked up some new dog food at Petco to try out. We are almost out of our allotment of Blue Buffalo free dog food for the year.  Sure could use a dog food sponsor... hint, hint!


Been working on the computer cleaning up some filing work on pictures. Oh, fun. Actually it is - I can see the progress of my new "Window Garden" in the photos.  It started as blank dirt in late June, and is now a nearly completed roughly 20' X 12 ' beautiful all perennial garden! Have moved some of my garden art to it, one piece at a time. PIcked up a nice chair at Home Depot for it the other day, nice having a place to sit down and enjoy it. 


Speaking of the garden, I'm off to fill in a few gaps now. OUT the door... whoosh!!!!!

OK... It's a Mulligan!

(As my husband would say in golf terms for a "do-over!"  I started this once before; apparently the plants were not in correct alignment and I just got lost wandering behind the little critters in southeast Missouri for four years (just kidding!!) But seriously, health issues and a lot of stuff managed to keep me pretty much limited to taking care of the furkids and the family. We were there for four years; I loved it and hated it all the same time.  Those stories can be read elsewhere... suffice it to say, let's jump to NOW.


At midnight, it will be seven days until my hip replacement surgery on the LEFT hip.  I just had the right one done in March with faboo results.  Sadly, the left one got sick of being the strong one during that rehab and decided to... quit. It was originally scheduled for about a month ago but had to be delayed for medical reasons. 


So I'm getting all my little ducks lined up in a row here so that when I get home (and am bored to death) I can jump on here, blog away, and bore YOU to death (ha ha). Seriously the seven miniature schnauzers always insure plenty is going on at all times.  


Back to what I first mentioned about the old blog -- I am not deleting the ancient posts until I have opportunity to archive them, so that's why they are still here.  


Another thing I want to mention is that I am trying to combine a lot of things together. For instance, my newly redone (and under construction always) website, sheilasparkles.com, takes the place of my crochet site, my miniature schnauzer rescue site, and other personal sites. That is IT.  You can just go there and jump to different sections depending on your interest now.  


Same thing with this blog. I'm not even going to try to carry blogs for three separate subjects. That means this is the same blog that covers my crochet and schnauzers, and keeps my family and friends up to date. So things will overlap.  We'll see how it goes.  


Take care, hope you had a great weekend, and hope to see you soon! Please sign my guestbook, feel free to do the RSS thing, go visit the website, whatever... you are welcome!


Hugs, -Sheila

Wednesday... Getting Nervous Now!!

I will be so glad when the upcoming surgery Monday is in my rearview mirror! I had this identical surgery in March on my other hip so I know exactly what to expect!! That's a good thing, and a bad thing.  I'm frantically trying to get everything I want done that I know I will be unable to do for a good while. The dogs all have to have a shiny new haircut (I do their hair). Koby needs to go to the doctor for his blood sugar test.  I got all my stock-up online shopping done yesterday (which is silly because I COULD do that even immobilized, LOL!!)

Yesterday I planted a few more plants in the infamous "Window Garden," the garden I started from scratch back the end of June. I stepped back and looked at it when I was finished, and said "I'm happy now." SO I will have that to enjoy out my window when I cannot go outside the first couple of weeks or so.  You do go stir crazy very quickly, so I wanted some "eye candy" to look at.  These pics were taken last night.

My daughter is borrowing my car this week because hers was in a wreck last Friday. I thought it would be a big source of conflict, since she has to pick up my son from work; BUT it is turning out to be an opportunity for everybody to work together and talk a lot more. I told my husband last night, "I should lend her the car more often!"

Today looks to be my favorite sort of day, overcast and low 80's. I am going to have to fight the temptation to go out and play in my gardens because I have inside work to do, darn it.  I also need to put together my friend's birthday package and get it MAILED. I am such a procrastinator about these things.