My New Venture

Almost done

I'm almost done the second PL blanket. I think I want to add some "silky taggies" sewn through a fairly large hole in each end of the triple-crochet rows. I haven't figured out the whole logistics of it yet but I'm getting there.

I've already bought the yarn for PL Project 3.

TallBoy asked when his was going to be done. I told him at 8' long and 5' wide, I'm overwhelmed whenever I pick his up and that he needs to cut me some slack 'cause it's going to take a while.

First Lesson

I took my first official sewing lesson last night. The two other women who were supposed to take the class with me weren't able to make it so I had lesson one by myself.

We went over everything about the machine and the items in the tool kit such as the seam ripper, fabric pencil, and seam gauge. Then I did some lines on paper sans thread. Straight lines, boxes, slow curves, sharper curves and some circles. Keeping my machine going evenly will come in time but I did great on the lines, if I do say so myself.

Because the other women were out last night, they're going to do a make-up class next Monday and I'll take the week off then we'll get back together for week two the following Monday. In the mean time, I have some more lines to pierce here at home.

I'm on the road to quilting!

In pondering the blog

I've been thinking a lot lately about what to do about my little spec on the internet. Originally I wanted this to be a place where I could really write. I think I've managed two really good pieces since the inception.

Many of the cohorts in the sidebar have things to post about: really great photography, really new babies, meeting celebrities, religious or political views (or both), etc. Me, I've got nothing. My life, in a nutshell, is wonderfully boring. I spend time with TallBoy and Bam-Bam, keeping the house clean and keeping the bills paid. That's about it.

Over the holidays, something really remarkable happened that has been hard to explain or define. We tend to live paycheck to paycheck without a heck of a lot of leeway. But, somehow, the more we did for other people (either by charity or within our own little group of needs), the more there was for us to do for us. With each donation or decision to help someone else, the amount in the account allowed for more special gifts between us.

In the month or so since, I've really been trying to redirect my energies, thoughts, efforts and time toward doing for others and waiting to see what happens. I do a little here and we have the money to replace our dying stove. I do a little there and we're able to buy some extras for the new muzzleloader I bought TallBoy for Christmas.

I've also been trying to teach myself to crochet (with the goal to eventually add knitting) and sew (with the goal to eventually add quilting) in the last few months. I did finish a lapghan for my sister, Songbird, as a Christmas gift which I was really proud of. And so, when an internet buddy of mine posted a link to this charity recently, I decided I was going to use my "training" for the new arts as a way to give back to others that are in such need.

I've also decided that I'm going to use my blog as a way to showcase my projects and donations.

You may still occasionally find me talking about other incidentals but I'm going to try to have my focus be the works I complete. This may call for a formatting overhaul but we'll see what happens.

Thanks for your continued visits and ticks on the sitemeter.

Add Another Hero To The List

Three years ago, I was working as a medical assistant at the pain clinic here in town, writing out prescriptions, running the x-ray machine, taking vitals, etc. I had just finished earning my MA certificate having aced Anatomy and Physiology I and II. I knew just enough, you know, to hold the job and use the every day experiences to grow and learn further.

I was sitting in the triage office downloading voicemail after garbled voicemail of patients in more pain than they could mentally handle, others that needed prescription refills and still others that needed appointments that had been inadvertently dumped into the wrong mailbox. It was almost the end of the day and as I logged and recorded what was left in the mailbox in the waning minutes, the receptionist poked her head around the corner of the doorway and told me that Tall Boy was on the phone for me.

I took the call and could tell immediately that he was somewhat frantic. He told me that he was on his way to work but that he had just been at his parents and had spent most of his time there convincing his mom to go to the emergency room. He was sure, he said, that she either had or was having a stroke. He then asked if I could go to the hospital after I left work to check on her.

There was no waiting until the end of my shift after a phone call like that so I went and told my boss I was leaving. When I got in my car I called my mom and asked her to pick up Bam-Bam, then a recent two-year-old, then called his babysitter and told her mom would be by. I rushed to the hospital and found MIL (mother-in-law for those not familiar with message board speak) sitting up perky as can be on the guerney in the room adjacent to the radiology room. FIL was with her and so was Tall Boy's sister and brother-in-law.

I got the low down as to what was going on, what they thought had happened and was the plan going forward was, at least at the moment. Apparently four days prior, her left hand had started going numb. Gradually over the following days the numbness had crept up her arm then into her left foot to the point of interfering with her walking around the grocery store that day. It had also started to affect her face but she hadn't noticed.

As Tall Boy's siblings all came and left and FIL also decided to go home and get some sleep, I told her I would stick around until they came to take her up to her room. Once they'd all finally left, I asked her why it took her 4 days and all this damage for her to speak up that something was wrong and she said it was because when she does have an illness, FIL "always has what you have but worse and I didn't want to have to listen to him". Yeah, that's a glimpse into their relationship right there.

At any rate, I casually went over to the side of her bed, leaned in close and said "Mom, from now on if you have trouble taking a shit, someone better know about it." She promised me she would make sure.

In the days following, we learned that MIL had a Transient Ischemic Attack, also known in the medical world as a TIA. TIA's are similar to strokes because the symptoms are so similar. In a stroke, a blood vessel bursts which makes flow impossible to the affected areas beyond the break. In a TIA, there is a clot that has made it's way to the brain that blocks, at least temporarily, the area beyond where it is lodged thus damaging the brain that is deprived of the blood flow.

It is important to note here that had MIL spoken up when the symptoms started, she would have almost certainly 100% recovered from any damage to the affected areas of her brain.

Because she didn't, she still struggles with her function in her hand and walks with a slight limp. She spent 6 weeks in an in-patient rehab and at least another year in out-patient therapy.

But none of that is why she's ranking as a Hero today.

She's a hero because prior to her stroke, my mother-in-law would drink no less than a 12-pack of beer every night and more on the weekends. She was hammered every minute she wasn't at work. She was the typical alcoholic, repeating stories, eyes half shut, slurring and being belligerent. She wasn't much fun to be around and I struggled often with the idea of having she and FIL babysit for us, even when they were the only option.

Since the day after she checked into the hospital (I say the day after because I'm certain she was hammered at admission), she has not touched another drop of alcohol and I am so incredibly proud of her.

I am here to say now that I really love my mother-in-law. I love the strength and determination she's shown not only in her recovery from her episode but also in her sobriety. I enjoy talking with her and having conversations with her because I only have to tell her something once, and she me, and we are able to joke and laugh with each other often. I love that I can trust having Bam-Bam in her care. I love that instead of drinking the night away, she's voraciously reading book after book. We're now able to share books between each other and buying gifts for birthdays, Christmas and Mother's Day can be something meaningful because we know she'll enjoy it.

I love that she's never felt sorry for herself or asked us to pity her, even in the beginning when she could hardly do anything for herself. I love that in the beginning she wasn't ashamed to ask for help and that now she's determined to do things on her own. I love that whenever I need her, I can count on her. And, even though we struggled when Bam-Bam was a baby to see eye-to-eye, I love knowing that now that she's sober, she can see that I'm a really good mom. And I love that she's got my back with him too.

Bravo to you, mom, for the last three years and for many more sober ones to come.

Pick Your Poison

Recently I received an e-mail, forwarded from person to person on to me, reminding me to go to the Breast Cancer Awareness site daily and click on their link to help them fund mammograms.

Off and on over the years I've done the daily clicking, reminded that some day I may very well be one of those touched directly by breast cancer. I went, I clicked, I felt better about myself and moved on.

This morning, in my insomnia induced state, I slowed down my clicking and decided to surf through their store. Whoa!

All these years I mistakenly assumed that the only thing I could get through the store was pink ribbon stuff. Now, as groovy as the pink ribbon stuff is (my mom bought us all pink ribbon bracelets when my aunt and cousin were all dealing with breast cancer scares), let me tell you, it is FAR FROM the only groovy things in their store.

The store is a venerable menagerie of gifts and items for literally anyone for any occasion. Items imported from countries all around the world using fair trade, items for the dog lover, cat lover, mom lover, dad lover....seriously, I hadn't quite dealt with my insomnia but I was really grooving on the store! If it weren't the Thursday before Tall Boy gets paid, I'd be buying me some stuff.

But wait, there's more! Why "Pick Your Poison" for the entry title? BECAUSE, not only is the store part of the Breast Cancer Awareness site, but if breast cancer isn't your cause of the heart, the store is also part of the Hunger Site, the Child Health Site, the Literacy Site, the Rainforest Site AND the Animal Rescue Site. And the stores are all linked along the top of the page so that if you'd rather your percentage of profits go toward feeding a child, feeding a dog, or feeding a brain, "YOU CAN DO IT".

OMG, seriously, from now on, I think these sites are the only on-line gift shopping I'm ever going to use, ever again. And, I can connect to all of them at the same time and donate to SIX really amazing causes at any given time.

How cool is that? C'mon now. You know it's cool. Link 'em up!

Oh, and lest I forget to remind, each of those causes have a "click daily to help" link that would appreciate your attention first thing each morning.

Don't forget!

That cough I mentioned in my last post

Yeah it turns out that it's pneumonia. It continued to drive me crazy, particularly at bed time, so I called and made an apppointment to get it checked this morning.

"You have left lower lobe pneumonia with inspiratory and expiratory wheezes and rhonchi coupled with left lower lobe rales." - Physician's Assistant, Assistant Hero.

He came into the exam room and started asking me about my cough. When it started [I think my allergies triggered it a couple of weeks ago but it just won't go away], did I have a fever [no, feel fine otherwise], did you know you have a fever [what? 100.1 in my ear? I feel fine, really, except for this cough], was I sleeping ok [once I stop coughing enough I can sleep fine], do I often get THIS sick without knowing it at all [yeah, I guess, sometimes, maybe], etc etc etc.

So he sent me off with a Z-pack and some prednisone because inhalers make me hurl and hurling with a cough is NEVER a good combination.

Maybe that fever is why I nearly overheaded three days last week and two days so far this week in Tae Kwon Do? Hmmm...

Now I'm just waiting for the z-pack to kick in and hoping that going up to camp doesn't make it worse or return. Mold. It's sucky.

Man, where has the time gone?

I haven't been around since the end of March. The. End. Of. March. That's a long time for someone that, at one point, was updating at least daily.

There are all kinds of things developing here in Hero's land. Things that will be unveiled soon, I hope. But, just to recap:

++I've been building my business and it will hopefully be taking off really soon. It's about to take off, really, can you feel it? I can feel it and it feels so awesome.

++I've been traveling again, as I seem to do in April [I know the referring post was written in February but the trip was in April]. I spent several days in the middle of April in St. Louis, MO with 18,000 other beautiful people being inspired.

**NOTE: If you ever have the chance to hear Eric Weihenmayer, GO! RUN! Pay whatever the charge is and listen to him speak. He's a life-changer he is.**

++Bam-Bam turned 5 this week. FIVE! O.M.G. Where has his life gone? In no time he'll be heading off to kindergarten then college and I'll be old and have to stop coloring my gray hair and BE old...ugh. I'm not ready. I'm young! I feel young! Ok, I'm not young really, I'm 36 but I don't ACT young, does that count?

++We're getting ready to open camp again and that's exciting. I hope that the cough I've developed, I think from allergies, settles down before we head up there because the annual "opening-camp-mold" is going to knock me on my butt if my lungs haven't cleared.

++Bam-Bam is also going to do soccer through the summer on Monday nights. I only agreed because it's only on Monday's for an hour. I have proclaimed before here in Hero's land that I don't do sports activities because, well, I like living on my own schedule. But, since he's starting kindergarten here in town in September, I thought it would be good for him to get to know some of the townies his age so the first day isn't so intimidating. And, I was guilted into it by the mom of the only other kid in town that attends preschool with him. I'm a loser, I know.

++Bam is also still in Tae Kwon Do and in March I joined too. I'm about to test for yellow belt (if I can learn and recite the definition of chon ji by next weekend). Bam-Bam is a high white belt and will be testing for yellow in September. Exciting!

++Tall Boy has reshaved his head in preparation for summer. This year it seems to be coupled with a goatee as well. I'm not sure I'm a fan and I've told him as much but like me and my hairstyles, I have no vote on what he does with his facial hair. It's fair, I guess.



I think that's all for now kids. Thanks for coming back. I'm gonna do my best to keep updating.

See?

This is what I mean.