The Crud and Other Stuff

Oh Geez.  Corey brought it in the house.  You know, that BUG.  The one that sneaks down your throat and makes your throat feel like it's been slit with a razor.  Then it moves on up to your sinuses and makes your head and face feel like it's stuffed with cotton.  I won't even mention what it does to your LUNGS!

Thank you Corey.  Luckily your Papa put some kind of shield around him...or maybe that's garlic around his neck!!

So before I got this visitor, I sandwiched Laurie's quilt.  I made a stencil of a cupcake.  I'm going to try to stitch a cupcake on each block.  We'll see how that goes. I didn't feel like taking a pic of the backing I stitched.  It is blocks the same size as the top.  I used a few of the leftovers from the top and cut more from the pink cupcake material.  I also have that material in brown so I cut blocks from it as well.  I'm not sure when I will commence the quilting, but probably while I am recuperating from surgery.

This week I have several appointments.  I haven't mentioned that I will have surgery on the "Giant" toe on my right foot.  That's what they call your big toe when they order xrays.

Basically I am having a lot of pain in the joint of my big toe.  If you have seen a bunion, what I have looks like a bunion growing on TOP of that joint AND between the 1st and 2nd joint.  There are also two little bones on the bottom of that joint that have arthritis and are causing pain and my toe to grow to the right.  It is a hereditary thing and usually only effects one foot. The pain causes me to walk on the side of my foot which is causing even more pain in my ankle and knee.  So next Tuesday I am having surgery to remove the growth on the bones and to make the joint immobile which will keep the toe from growing totally to the right.  My sister has this condition.  I'll tell you it's painful and darned right painful to look at too. After surgery I will have to keep my foot elevated higher than my heart for two weeks to control swelling that could break open stitches.  Then I will be on crutches for another 4 weeks.

Thankful:
Today I am thankful that I have insurance and am able to have this surgery.  My SIL who has cancer was told my her insurance company that they will NOT cover the medication that her doctor has prescribed to keep her cancer in check.

Stuff

There is a fad going on right now that you may have heard of.  Mannequining.   Here is a pic of our joke about it in our house.  My dogs love to do the Mannequin! They do this daily, same pose, most often this spot.  Anyway, I can't post without a picture so I chose my mutts.

We like to support the Habitat for Humanity Restore and often discover some really cool things there.  If not cool we get really good deals.  Like the leather garden gloves I found for only $4 a pair.  During a recent trip I found a floor embroidery frame for less than $20 which was a pretty good deal.  It's a place to shop and to donate home items as well.

I'm pretty sure that I will be doing hand quilting in the future.  Since I received a rather nice cash gift at Christmas, off I went to Joann's with a 60% off coupon in hand to buy a PVC floor quilting frame. After the coupon was applied the price was only $44.  I'm pretty sure I would have paid more than that to make it myself.

It's been a difficult year for me.  Losing my father-in-law has been hard on both Terry and I.  We received more sad news from my sister-in-law.  She went through cancer treatment during last fall only to have it return in full force as soon as the chemo left her system.  Stage IV.  We are having a hard time grasping the fact that there is no cure.

My vocabulary and spelling is pretty good.  I take pride in it really.  My daughter and then my grandsons used to ask me why I "know so much" and spell so well.  I always tell them that I have always loved to read and when I saw a word that I didn't know the meaning of I always looked it up in the dictionary.  I am happy to say that my grandsons also love to read.  However, they don't really read books, but find many useful and interesting things to read on the internet.  The other day when I was looking up a word on an on-line site, I was offered the opportunity to have a word and definition sent to my e-mail each day so I signed right up for it.  The site also offers word games.  Here's a link if you'd like to check it out.  Dictionary

Have you tried the new Oreo Thins?  Even if you don't like Oreo cookies, you may want to give them a try.  They are the BEST NEW THING!!

If you are looking for an interesting read, you may want to check out these two links.

A Good Read

Another Good Read

Thankful:  Good reads.  A good book.  An interesting article.  The newspaper.  Today I am thankful that I can read well.

Do you hand quilt and if so do you have any tips for me?

Tenacious

Tenacious.  I LOVE that word.  In some regards it describes me well, but in others not so much.

This picture was our diversion of the afternoon yesterday.  The temp was below freezing.  Something moving outside in front of the patio door caught Terry's eye.  Low and behold it was a spider moving up and down a web with the wind blowing about 15 MPH.  The questions abound.  What kind of spider was it? mid sized with red on it (not a black widow).  How low can the temperature go before spider's freeze in Northern Indiana?  THIS spider eventually disappeared into the eves above the door.  This is info I found on Google about outdoor spiders...and yes..there are indoor spiders and outdoor spiders.

"Spiders are cold-blooded and not attracted to warmth.  They don't shiver or get uncomfortable when it's cold, they just become less active and eventually, dormant.  Most temperate zone spiders have enough "antifreeze" in their bodies that they won't freeze at any temperature down to -5 degrees C.:  some can get colder.  The few typical outdoor spiders that do end up indoors, die or at least don't reproduce."

Thankful:
The watching and research was a welcome diversion from the Gunsmoke episode that Terry was watching for about the millionth time.  So you would think that I am thankful for the diversion, which I am.  But I am more thankful for the tenacity in my personality to be interested in watching a spider, wondering, and wanting to find out the answers to questions that arose from the watching.  Tenacity.

How about you?  Have you recently found something that interested you so much that you wanted to find out more about it?