Thursday, March 14, 2024

Raindrops are fallin’ on my head….

Hello  and happy Friday. I'm writing this at 11:00 Thursday night thinking you probably won't see it until Friday! As always, we've had a very hectic week with Mom and all things related to her care. The assisted living is now trying two new medications to hopefully help her anxiety, and based on the past two days, they do seem to be helping. Praise the Lord! It has been SO stressful and anxiety ridden for all of us, especially Dennis. Maybe we should all be taking those drugs too! :-)

We had rain all night and most of the day today. It just stopped an hour or so ago. There are no complaints here about the rain. We haven't had much snow this year and the farmers really need the moisture for the fields. Until today, (Thursday) we've had unseasonably warm temps all week, but today was only in the 50's. We're hoping for a warm-up again for next week because Piper is on spring break and we want to take her to the zoo.

I had a sort of fun morning. I got a new phone and iPad! They even transferred everything for me from phone to phone. The iPad will be delivered in two days and I can take the old one in and they'll do the same thing. The Verizon store is only two blocks from us, so it's not much of a problem to take it in. The phone is only $5.00/month on our bill for three years, ($180 total), and the iPad is free! Apparently we haven't been using any of our benefits from our loyalty program. We've been with Verizon for 23 years! Not a bad price for brand new devices! Especially a free iPad. :-) I'm really excited because my iPad hasn't held a charge in a couple of years. I have to keep it plugged in all of the time.

The wheelchair blanket is finished, but not washed and blocked yet. I just used scraps from my stash and I'm really happy with it. The tan and burgandy match the varigated yarn perfectly. That's always nice when it happens so nicely.

I started a sweater for our Baby "J" in London yesterday. Small sweaters go so much faster than bigger sweaters. I remember when cardigans for Piper went this fast. Now she's in a womans small size and they take much longer! This will be just a simple plain cardi for Baby "J" to play in at the park. Can you believe she'll be two in a couple of weeks?

I'm also copying my friend Cindy at the "Delighted Hands" blog and making some new dishcloths using the moss stitch in crochet. It goes really fast. This is about 20 minutes of crochet. I could use a few new dishcloths and they make nice gifts, so I always like to have some on hand. That "blob" under the yarn is Zoey taking a nap on my lap this afternoon while it was raining.

I thought I would share the table by our entry way. I have our little "Welcome" bunnies on here along with some birds to welcome spring. I crocheted the filet crochet table runner years and years ago.

Mandy sent me this photo of Piper reading in bed the other night. She reads every night before going to sleep and of course her shadow, Lizzie is right there with her. You can see two of the blankets I've crocheted for her folded up at the foot of her bed. The pink and white one covers her full size bed.  The teal one is her watching TV blanket and pretty big too, but not as big as the pink one. How I love this girl. She's going to middle school next year! Can you believe it? I can't.

I have a couple of new readers that I want to welcome. 

Janice visited the blog and she lives right here in Omaha too! She told me about a place where I can possibly donate my baby blankets to called Bethlehem House, and it's also right here in Omaha. Thank you Janice. I haven't had a chance to call this week with everything happening with Mom, but I will definitely contact them.

Mary is from Oklahoma and is also involved in BSF like I am. I think I told you all before that women all over the world are studying the same thing every week. Here I am in Nebraska and Mary is in Oklahoma and we're reading the same scriptures every week. Very unifying and a great experience.

Welcome to you both! I hope you come back and visit again. :-) I love making new friends.

I hope you are all doing well. I'll be back as soon as I can. Life is a bit wonky right now, but hopefully getting better. Love to you all.

Blessings and love,
Betsy

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Finally better

Hello and happy Thursday to you all. I'm happy to say that the plague seems to be letting up around here. My cough is much, much better. Still there, but not bad. Dennis is better too, but coughing more than I am. Mom still sounds rough, but I made her and Dennis go to the doctor yesterday because I was worried about pneumonia for her. She doesn't have that, thankfully, but does have both ears infected and a sinus infection. She's now on an antibiotic and cough medicine. The doctor did say that we most likely had influenza B as it's everywhere right now. I truly appreciate the sweet thoughts and prayers that you all said for us. 

I finished Miss Piper's sweater and we had a photo shoot for you. Isn't she the cutest? She went to visit Grammy on Saturday and wore the sweater. It fits Grammy too and now she wants one! She already has 26 cardigans! I counted them when we moved her. That's how tiny my mother-in-law is! Piper likes the pockets and I made the sleeves a little longer that the pattern called for so hopefully it will fit for awhile!

I also made a blanket over the past week.  It's about 42 x 42 inches. I just used scraps of acrylic worsted weight from my stash and a size I crochet hook.  Its just a simple shell pattern with a chain foundation row between each color. The border is single crochet in all of the colors with a cream row between each color. It will be donated somewhere soon. I have quite a few baby blankets in my finished project totes. The hospital doesn't really need them, so I may check out a Mom/Baby center around here. 

This is another stash buster using some partial skeins I have. It will be a wheelchair blanket for the place Mom lives. Their memory care can use them, so I offered to make some. I just started with three, four round granny squares. I sewed them together and then just started doing the granny stitch round and round.  Starting with the three granny's makes them rectangular and they should end up the perfect size. I'm using a J hook for this one. Zoey is sleeping under the pink rainbow baby blanket on my lap. Yes, she has her own baby blankets. :-)

Dennis hauled this shelf down to the garage on Monday and painted it for me. He primed it Monday and painted it Tuesday. It made it's appearance back in the living room Wednesday. It used to be a black shelf that we got from Target years ago. In all of our moves it has gotten pretty scuffed up. I think it had originally been painted with just one coat of spray paint! 

He used the same paint as our baseboards and I think it looks great. Sunday night I had just mentioned to him that I was thinking about painting it and he was hauling it out early Monday morning! I have to be so careful what I ask for. He never lets "grass grow under his feet" and spoils me terribly. I had been looking on facebook marketplace for a white console but hadn't found anything in my price range that I liked and this was the perfect solution. It's like having a brand new piece of furniture. Those are Zoey's toy baskets on both sides of the shelf and our grandbabies on top. I adore those four kids.

Zoey spent a few hours playing with Lizzie on Saturday. They love each other so much. They sure sleep well after playing for a few hours. Neither of them move all night long. :-) I cut Lizzie's nails while we were there. Zoey had her manicure the day before and she was very concerned as to what I was doing to her sister. They both lay there quietly in my arms while I cut their nails and then dremel them, but they look at me with their eyes like I'm cutting their feet off. They're happy for treats when they are all done. Spoiled girls.

Yesterday I went to the crochet group at our old apartment where we crochet plastic mats for the homeless. I haven't been there for a couple of weeks since we've been sick. It was good to see all of the ladies. They are so sweet. One of them is 102 years old and is there every week, cutting plastic bags into strips for us to crochet. She doesn't crochet, but there is plenty for everyone to do. Cut the strips, tie them together and roll them into "plarn" balls to be crocheted into mats. All of them are well into their senior years and I enjoy their company immensely.

I was also able to go to my ladies Bible study group this morning for the first time since our trip. Mom had a doctor appointment the first week we were home and then we've been sick. It was so good to be back with the ladies. We're going through the book of John with BSF and other ladies all over the world. I've really enjoyed the study and have learned a lot.

Mom has an MRI and a cardiologist appointment on Friday, so that will be a busy day. I did make reservations for four nights of camping on the Oregon Coast in July. Fingers crossed that we'll actually be able to go. We're planning to spend a couple of weeks in Spokane just before going to the coast. We'll be staying in our friends driveway again. Lori called yesterday and told us their "resort" is open. Pool, laundry facilities and no leash rules because of they have a fenced yard. :-) Last year we stayed in their guest suite when we were there since Dennis had broken his hand. Oh, he went to the surgeon last Tuesday and was released to do whatever he wants now. Who would have thought a broken thumb would require two surgeries and nine months to heal? We're so glad that now he can start using it and build up strength in that hand/arm again.

I hope you're all having a great week. We've had beautiful weather for March so far. It's been so warm, in the 50's and 60's and only 20's at night. Such an usually warm winter so far. I don't want to jinx it though. I'll be back soon and I think I've finally caught up on all of your blog posts. See you again soon!

Blessings and love,
Betsy

Thursday, February 29, 2024

Still coughing

Sorry I haven't been around. This cold I have? I haven't been tested for influenza but I'm pretty sure that's what we've had, (have).  I did do two separate covid tests, days apart and both were negative but didn't even think to get an influenza test. But it definitely isn't a regular cold. We're both still coughing but are getting better very, very slowly. Mom has it too. I'm afraid I gave it too her when we were moving her and I thought it was just a sinus thing. She does seem a bit better too. I'm exhausted all of the time. So much for getting a flu shot and RSV vaccine. 

The night before we both got sick, we went to Florentino's. It's a dinner our church youth group does every year just before Valentine's Day. It's been going on for almost 40 years. In fact, we were part of the group that started it, long before we moved to Spokane.  It's the big fund raiser for the youth every year to help pay for camp, rally's, etc. for kids that can't afford it. Dennis said that Olive Garden could take lessons in efficiency from these kids. They have it down to an art. They cook ALL of the food from scratch. They always have the Friday before the dinner off of school and spend the day at the Union Gospel Mission, using their commercial kitchen. They make meatballs and grill all of the chicken there. They even bake the bread! The kids do it all, with supervision of course. 

They decorate the church basement with fairy lights, candles and flowers.

Every year there is a fountain with goldfish. Oh, the stories I could tell about the goldfish!

Isn't it pretty? The kids work really hard on this dinner and decor. We're proud of them all as it's not a big group. Only around 13-15 kids.

My selection was chicken fettucine. I had plenty to take home for a second meal the next day.

Dennis got the spaghetti with huge meatballs. The sauce was made from scratch too. That's not regular sliced cheese. They buy huge blocks of cheese and hand slice it and the meatballs are buried under the sauce.

Here's our group. My sister Melanie is at the end of the table, her granddaughter Anna, her SIL Tim and daughter Chaela, Mandy is facing away talking to her best cousin Chaela. Dennis and our friends Donna, and you can't see her husband Ted. We've known them since before we were married. Donna and I sang in the choir together for years before we moved to Spokane. They are in their late 80's and don't drive much at night anymore so we gave them a ride. Oh, we had so much fun! You can tell we were in the first dinner seating and one of the first groups there.

Then, the next morning I was sick with whatever this is and Dennis succumbed about 3 days later. As I said, we thought it was just sinus or a cold, but it's definitely not. Much, much more severe and long lasting. I'm so glad we were able to go to the dinner though. It was so much fun. They had three seatings, 5:00, 6:00 and 7:00 and served hundreds. Since our church is fairly small, only about 100 people, you know that word of mouth has spread throughout the area. The kids are very attentive waitstaff and it's donation only for payment. 

I did finish Piper's third sweater several days ago. In the picture, I haven't washed or blocked it yet. I think she will like it. It's a combination of the Pure Comfort and Portage sweaters.  I used Big Twist yarn in Dk Coral and it took a little over 4 skeins. It's the womens small size. She loves the pockets. Yes, my baby girl is growing up and out of little girl sizes! She'll be in middle school next year. I can't believe it.

I have started a new blanket using five different colors and cream for the linking color. It will be for charity, either a toddler blanket or wheelchair blanket, I haven't decided. It's a pattern of crochet shells. I'm sorry that I forgot to take a photo. 

Mom is adjusting somewhat to her new surroundings. She changes moment to moment. One minute it's the best place she's been, the next she's sure she's at the hospital waiting for us to pick her up. Yesterday she told us that she's managing a bistro, (the diining room), and she has all of these great young people working for her. An hour before that she had called and told us that she was waiting for us to pick her up to go to lunch. That they told her she can't eat there anymore. It's a hospital and the doctor never shows up and we just left her for her appointment alone. None of it makes sense, but it does to her at the moment. We just go along with whatever she says and try to make her feeel better. She hangs up on us, tells us we don't understand. It's hard. Especially when we were so sick we couldn't go see her. She didn't understand why we weren't there every day.

I know that many of you have went through this with parents and know exactly how hard it is. We just do the best we can. She remembers nothing of the apartment we moved her out of two weeks ago. Only this place and they are amazing people there. We couldn't have chosen a better place for her to live. So far they have been the epitome of patience with her and happy and cheerful. They all seem to love her.

Beginning today, I'm going to try to get back to all of your blogs. I'm SO, SO sorry that I haven't been here. I have read them all, just no energy to comment on them at all. I've missed you all very much.

We broke records for high heat on Monday. It was over 80F, which apparently it's never reached 80 in February in Omaha! Then the very next night, Tuesday it snowed, with a "feels like" temperature of -9F!  Crazy! No wonder we're all sick. Today is supposed to be near 60 again. I thought this meme was very appropriate for the past week here in Nebraska.

Take care my friends. Stay well!

Blessings and love,
Betsy