by

Week Fifteen – Calm and Still Here

Well, after all of last week’s good news I was really hoping that I would not get hit by a truck or struck by lightening this week to even things out.  We did have a strong storm blow through but, thankfully, no real damage to speak of.  This week has been calm and quiet.  Spring has sprung and everything is growing and blooming.  I am waiting for the release of the pattern for round 4 of Sock Madness and there was some concern on the group about releasing the pattern and competing over the Easter holidays.  So, the moderators are releasing an optional round pattern that does not count for the competition.  After Easter they will release the pattern for round 4 and things will heat up again.

In the meantime, while waiting, I have started on my baby sock adventure.  This is the first trial sock:

I wanted to get a feel for how many cast on stitches it would take and what size the finished sock would be.  This pattern is Garter Stripes Baby Socks and is very simple to do.  The only thing I would change in the pattern is the heel, which was somewhat of a pain, and the toe, which I changed already.  I think the pattern is really cute.  After doing this one I have a much better idea of the specs and will probably be making up some of my own designs for Baby Fillmer in the future.

Quote of the week: Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.  Benjamin Franklin ~ Poor Richard

by

Week Fourteen – It’s All Good

Ever have one of those days when everything went right and it made you a little afraid to step out in the street for fear of being hit by a truck?  Well, the last half of week 14 of 2011 was like that for us.  Let’s see if I can break it down.

We received the liver biopsy pathology results from the doctor on Tuesday, April 5th.  There is no cancer.  From here on out I will have to have periodic MRIs to monitor the disease, but that is the best news we could have hoped for.

Next, we finally received the paperwork on our sponsored child in Uganda.  Her name is Joanita and she is 8 years old.  We are so happy to finally know that she is the one we are helping to clothe and educate.  Now we are able to begin corresponding with her and we are hoping that Scott will be able to meet her in October when he goes to Buloba.  The organization we are working with for this sponsorship is African Renewal Ministries (ARM).  If you are so inclined, have a look at what you can do with $35 per month.

Also in the mail on the same day was my diploma from Liberty University.  It was a long two+ year endeavor, but I am glad I did it.  I now have a Master of Arts in Religion (MAR) to add to my list of completed objectives.

On Thursday, Sock Madness Round 3 began with the release of the pattern at 7 pm.  So the rest of my week was spent furiously knitting whenever I was sitting still. I stayed up until 1 AM last night to finish the pair.  My hands are killing me and, so, I will be laying off the knitting at least for a couple of days.

Finally, while knitting on the socks and talking on iChat with my son and his family, my son let it slip that he will be coming to visit us in June.  We were expecting to visit with our daughter-in-law and grandson on that trip, as our son was not planning on coming.  Their family is going to Disney and he was trying to avoid that adventure.  We are thrilled to pieces that he will now be joining them.

So, there you have it.  An overall GREAT week.

Quote of the Week: “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” Dr Seuss

by

Week Thirteen – Hurry Up and Wait

This week was one filled with knitting and a much anticipated doctor’s visit. Since I finished my socks for Round 2 of Sock Madness, I have been waiting for the teams to fill up so we can get the next pattern for Round 3.

20110403-010100.jpg

In the meantime, I finished the sock tiger for the baby and started back to work on my Louhi jacket. I am almost finished with the second sleeve and it will be a complete coat one day. I figure that if I work on it between other projects, it will finish itself eventually.

20110403-010258.jpg

The doctor’s visit happened on April Fool’s Day. We got up at 3:30 am to drive to Birmingham for a 7:00 am appointment at UAB for a liver biopsy. The first thing they do when you are going to have a procedure like this is blood work to check platelet count, etc. Mine was low. This is normal for me. However, they would not do the procedure until it was raised. So, I got to sit in a hospital bed and receive 2 bags of platelets and at 2:30 pm they finally did the biopsy. It was bizarre and not something I would recommend for fun. I had to be awake for the procedure. They gave me sedation and a local (lidocaine) anesthetic then they went to work. While they were using an ultrasound device to locate the lesion, they would tell me to breathe and hold my breath. Then 3 or more times, they went in with a very long needle and took samples of my liver tissue where the lesions were. The doctor had a very hard time getting to the spot she needed to access and ended up going through my two lower ribs to access the spot.

After the procedure, the doctors wanted me to stay for observation for 5 more hours. They were watching for signs of internal bleeding. There was none and Scott and I managed to escape the grasp of the hospital staff about an hour earlier than specified by the doctors. Thank goodness for awesome, intelligent hospital staff that can think outside the box. We made it home by about 10:00 pm and Ebby, Scott, and I collapsed into bed.

I am still recovering from the lack of sleep. As a general rule, I am not the most friendly person when I am sleep deprived. Anyway, now we wait. The results should be back next week. However, this place does not work all that fast, so there is no telling when we will hear something.

Quote of the week: The budget should be balanced, the treasury refilled, public debt reduced, the arrogance of officialdom tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt. ~Cicero (106-43 BC)

by

Week Twelve – The Madness Continues

Last week I mentioned the Sock Madness 5 knitting competition that I qualified for.  I neglected to show the completed socks from round one.  In week ten I showed the progress of these socks.  The pattern is Supporter’s Socks and the pattern is very simple, but the result is very nice.  

We received the pattern for round 2 of Sock Madness on Tuesday afternoon (22nd) and I finished 15th out of 45 in my team.  A pair of socks knitted in 5 days, not bad.  Only 37 move on to round 3 and I made it that far.  Yay!  The sock pattern for round 2 is called Nornir and below are mine, complete with my new clear clogs to show them off!  Whoo Hoo!  The pattern has a boat load of slipped stitches and I doubt I will ever make them again, but the final result was nice, albeit a little snug.  The clogs came from Knitter’s Dream.

Now I am back to waiting for the pattern for round 3…only 25 will move on through that round.  Wish me luck!

by

Week Eleven – The Madness of March // Flat Stanley’s Visit

This week was filled with learning all the new ways to use the iPad 2, renewing my use of some older networking tools, cooking pastries and candy, showing Flat Stanley around town, and getting psyched up about the start of the actual Sock Madness 5 competition.

The iPad 2 is SO much more useful to me than the generation one was. With the camera feature, I am able to journal everyday about anything and everything, then include photos with my entries in the journal. The video feature is amazing, and the ability to use Facetime is super fantastic. I can pretty much do anything computer related on this device I can think of, except text messaging and phone calling, which are actually cellular activities anyway.   If I could do those two things on my iPad 2, I would totally ditch my phone!

This week was slow at work (everyone is on Spring Break), so I was able to attempt the Facebook thing again. It is a little more understandable, but still confusing. I think the problem I have is that I am not “friends” with a lot of the people on there. I have no desire to connect with blasts from the past, or keep up with people who cross my path from time to time. Getting past the “friend” label and what it means to me compared to what it means on Facebook is probably my biggest hangup about using it. But, in an effort to keep up with my son and his family, I am giving it a go.

Our grandson. William, sent his friend Flat Stanley to us for an adventure. Scott and I took him into town for the tour of the Auburn sites and then he took a ride on the John Deere back at the farm.

The kitchen adventure began this week with the creation of St. Patrick’s Day candies for the people Scott works with at the church. I used some new candy molds I bought recently with green, yellow, and chocolate melting wafers for the candy. This is the easiest candy to make, takes the least amount of time, and produces an impressive result because of the candy molds. The tall ones in the box have pretzels as their “lollipop” sticks and the round ones are chocolate covered mint flavored Oreos.

The cooking continued with the frying of rosettes, something that I have always wanted to do, but just never made time for. I grew up eating these light, airy pastries and have had a rosette iron in the drawer for years. I just never made them before.

The third “candy” item I made this week was chocolate caramels. These are so delicious, but I think I could have let them boil a tiny bit longer, as they are softer than I would have liked. Oh well, this is why I am making these things in the first place, practice.

Finally, March Madness started this week and it has been fantastic! So many close games and with the job I now have I am able to watch all the games! Not only can I watch them from my television, but I can also catch every game on my iPad 2.  Yes, I am a geek.   Friday I went with Scott to Best Buy and while we were walking around the store, I fired up my MiFi and the iPad 2, and watched the live feed of the game on NCAA.com.  Oh yes, I did!   It was really funny.

Back at home, while waiting for Sock Madness 5 to start, I started on a surprise gift for the new baby.

The official name of the team that I was placed on for Sock Madness is “Sock Madness and the Sock of Secrets.” It is a take on Harry Potter, of course, and I like it so much better than the other three team names. Now, the ultimate madness is that I am just waiting (and constantly checking my email) for the round 2 pattern to be released! AAAAHHHH….

by

Week Ten – The Unexpected

This week was filled with events that were quite unexpected, here at home and around the world. An earthquake of magnitude 8.9 struck Japan on Friday followed by a Tsunami of unimaginable proportions. The devastation is just horrible. Our hearts go out to those who experienced this tragedy which was quite unexpected. Donate

Closer to home and on a much brighter note, Scott and I both sold our iPads (generation one) on Thursday and then we stood (well, that is me sitting) in line for two hours with a friend on Friday to become two of the first wave of iPad 2 owners in Auburn. It was certainly nothing I had planned on doing and not something I would make a habit of, but it was fun, nonetheless, making new friends in line and chatting with others we already knew.

The only Best Buy in town was shipped 15 units and Scott and I were #4 and #5 in line. How do I like the new one? LOVE IT! It is faster and the transfer of my apps and all my “data” was practically seamless. Awesome job Apple! The only thing I would like to have now is a cover that I like. The new magnetic flap things from Apple just didn’t do it for me and so I went with the complete leather cover from Griffin. I like it well enough, but I think I am going to try my hand at making my own by taking a pattern off of this one. Stay tuned for the progress on that project.

Here is the awesome knit row counter I use on my iPad (and my new iPad).  The counter keeps track of rows, repeats, overall count, etc. and even has alert sounds for key points in the count. It keeps track of multiple projects and has an awesome, great big, green click button. Cool huh?

Speaking of projects, I am so psyched about finishing my Sock Madness, Round One Socks!!


Total number of hours spent knitting this pair will be 27. I can’t believe that I can knit a whole pair of socks in that amount of time. I guess it helps if you take your knitting with you, like I did, to Best Buy. :-)

The last unexpected thing that hit us this week was that the liver specialist in Birmingham wants to do a biopsy on the one spot that they can’t seem to give me an all clear on.  The MRI results finally came back and they could not give me an all clear on that one spot.  So, I go for a needle biopsy in the next couple of weeks and then we should know for sure.  If it is cancer, the doctor said we talk about transplant sooner than later.  If it is not, liver transplant is still on the horizon, but hopefully the very far distant one.  Either way, transplant seems like the “cure” for it all.  So, I am not really sure what difference it makes when…

Quote of the week: “Did you see the size of that document? It’s like the Declaration of Independence, who’s gonna read that?” Jerry Seinfeld (Season 3, Episode 11)

by

Week Nine – Hello Sock Madness // Goodbye Hair

This week was packed.  We went to Birmingham on Wednesday so I could have a MRI.  Never had one before, quite an experience.  I can’t imagine being claustrophobic and having to endure one of those.  Good thing I don’t scare easily.  Official results are not in yet, but doc said it looks cancer free.

Round one of Sock Madness V (2011) began March 4th this year.  I am amazed that I am going to be able to finish a complete pair of socks in under a week.  Here is my progress thus far.

We have two weeks to finish the pair.  Those who finish the pair in time will be put into one of four teams, who will then compete in brackets making additional pairs from patterns we have not even seen yet.  The patterns are all different techniques and the time to make the pairs gets shorter.  There is no way I will win this competition, but it is fun to try.  The consolation is that I end up with several new pairs of socks!  Yay!

On the tatting front, I finished this lovely piece just minutes before the Sock Madness pattern was released. Whew.

Just like the motif from last week, I love the design, but do not like the colors.  The pattern is “Small Cross” from Tatting with Visual Patterns (Mary Konior) and the thread is Lizbeth (size 20, color 147).  On the spool, this thread is deceiving.  This one looked red and black on the spool, but tatted up red and burgandy.  I think ordering directly from Handy Hands is a good way to go, since I can see the tatted example of the thread colors on their website.  This spool I bought at Hobby Lobby.  I am going to make this one again in black, perhaps with silver around the outside edge.

Finally, there is the subject of my hair.  I was unaware of how sensitive your hair is to changes, like illness and surgery.  My hair has been falling out in handfuls for a month or two now and it was getting so thin and stringy that I had to take action.  Here is the result.

Some people have told me that I am so “brave” to have my long hair just cut completely off.  But I really see it as doing what I have to do.  It is either going to fall out or be cut off and since I would like to think that I am still in some control, it had to be cut.

Those are the highlights of my week.  What was yours like?

Quote of the week: “I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.” J.R.R. Tolkien

by

Week Eight – Angels in the Snow and Auburn Basketball

This week I present to you my rendition of Angels in the Snow, a tatting pattern by Miranda Rensberger, aka Tatting Fool.

This pattern is very easy to follow and I completed it in under a week.  The thread is Lizbeth, but I don’t know the colourway.  The thread was sent to me in the mail as a sample spool from Barbara at Handy Hands Tatting.  I like the thread a lot, but am not too keen on this colourway.

This week we also attended our last Auburn basketball game of the season.  In many respects, I am glad that this season is in the books.  The team was less than stellar this year and even though I have come to expect that, albeit almost enjoy it for the lower turnout it produces, it would have been nice to see them win a few more games.  One of the highlights of the season was Scott finally winning the Chik-fil-a chicken strips giveaway.  He tried every game to text for the win and finally did it.  However, the thing I will probably remember the most about the games is the faithful devotion of Goggle Guy.

Yes, we dubbed him Goggle Guy early in the season and he made it to all the games, save one or two.  Always front and center with his goggles on and his awesome pompom ready for action, he was a sight to look forward to.  If you know him or see him next year, tell him there are folks in the scholarship section that look forward to seeing him support the team.  I’m no expert, but I truly believe if Auburn Basketball had more student fans like Goggle Guy they would probably be contenders for the SEC title.  The lack of student fervor for basketball at Auburn is pathetic.  The new arena deserves better.

Quote for the week:

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you fail to focus on your goals. (Anonymous)

by

Week Seven – A Tender Touch From The Past

It has been said of Scott’s great great aunt Dotie that “she would tat around anything that sat still long enough.”  This week we were blessed to be given a box of her tatting that had been saved by Scott’s great aunt Lynn who passed away last year.  In the box were yards and yards of edging that she had tatted, as well as, about 25 motifs.  I came home with the motifs and will be using them on the Christmas tree this year.  They are all in need of a good washing and stiffening, but they are all so intricate and beautiful even as they are.  She was very good at it, indeed!

This week I also managed to get the Corset cross stitch framed.  I bought a black frame and spray painted it silver along with another frame holding another cross stitch from the past that was gold.  Now both pieces match and I think they look awesome!

While I am still waiting for Sock Madness 2011 to begin, I started my next tatted motif, twice.  Yes, attaching to the wrong picot seems to be a problem of mine…  It should be completed next week, so photos will have to wait until then.

In other news…my diagnosis is finally in and we have found out that it is not cirrhosis after all.  Apparently, I have a 1/1,000,000 rare disease of the liver called Caroli disease.  To most doctors, other than liver specialists, it looks like cirrhosis.  This explains why the doctors were so perplexed at first and kept asking me if I was a heavy drinker or drug user.  My family keeps reminding me that this means that I am one in a million.  Hahaha…  So, now that we have a diagnosis and a prescription regimen, we will just monitor things from here on out.  If things go downhill in the future the “cure” is a liver transplant.  I don’t know what the future holds, but I have a feeling that a transplant is a long way off.

See ya next week!

by

Week Six – My Valentine

Why do companies today still portray women as airheads in their commercials?  I am so happy for this “holiday” to be over and done with because I am so tired of being told that, as a woman, all I need to feel special is a stuffed teddy bear with my name on it, a set of PINK pajamas, a heart shaped box of chocolates (that, if eaten, will result in only being able to fit into said pajamas), and perhaps a heart shaped piece of jewelry for under $100 (less than one trip to the grocery store).  Ugh!

My valentine created a one of a kind gift for me this year, as he does every year.  This year he blogged about the origins of the “holiday” and drew me a really nifty “card” on his iPad.  All of which you can see here.  He is the only person I could ever think to call my valentine.  He loves me in spite of me and that is really something that no one else has ever managed to do.  I love ya, Sparky!

This week’s creative venture included crafting some hand made chocolates for some of my friends.

I made these by using several different candy molds.  Painting the insides with various types of chocolates and then filling them with caramel, coconut, cashews, or raspberry jelly.  Then covering the backs of the pieces with chocolate again.  Once hardened, I popped them out of the molds and let my valentine taste test each one.  One of the things about not tasting your own cooking is that you don’t always know what goes with what.  The last batch I made was white chocolate roses filled with a coconut mixture.  I forgot that coconut goes better with dark or milk chocolate.  Oh well.  It is still chocolate and he said it would pass.  :-)

Until next week…D (who is very much looking forward to St. Patrick’s and April Fool’s Days!)