She's here!

Our beautiful, healthy girl!  8 pounds 15 ounces 20 inches born at 11:20 a.m. on September 29, 2011.

I'll post pictures as soon as I'm able to wrestle my camera away from her daddy.



We are pretty busy giving thanks to GOD.  I'm taking big brother and sister to meet her later this afternoon.  That should be a fun party!

grinnin' granny

I'm leaving early tomorrow morning to go see these little loves:



one year old Sadie,
 practicing to be a flower girl in Uncle Daniel and soon to be Aunt Laura's wedding  

three year old Josh wearing his AWANA Cubbie vest

You should hear him say his verse!

 

Grandbaby #3 is scheduled to be born on Thursday morning.  I'll keep you posted!

grandma's got a brand new bag

• We extended our busy week of appointments last week.  While I was off getting my mammogram (kudos to this place, I was in and out in 9 minutes!), Mom and Dad were taking their very sick puppy - the lovely KimmeeSue to the vet.  Diagnosis: pancreatitis.  Dad has to make rice and chicken for KS every day while she recovers.  No commercial dog food.
• While I was out and about, Pat spotted an oil leak on our garage floor.  He made an appointment for our car at the local fix-it place.  We took it in on Friday morning and by 5 p.m. on Friday, it was still not fixed (pinion seal).  We spent the weekend without a car.  We only have one.
• This is not as bad as it sounds.  I was able to work ahead on my Bible study homework (I don't want to take the bulky notebook on my trip) and get the garage cleaned and piece three Christmas stockings - in addition to the usual.
• With no car, we 'went' to church online and listened to the sermon at Jon and Kristi's church.  I also listened to Erwin Lutzer's sermon about the prodigal son.  Both sermons were very, very good.
• The diet continues to go well.  I feel fine and am not hungry.  I've probably lost about 5 pounds, though I haven't stepped on a scale yet.
• Remember me mentioning that Wasa crispbread would taste really good with cream cheese?  They have recipes on their website and yes, some of them do suggest using cream cheese.  But one recipe recommended using mustard on the crispbread, so I tried that.  Crispbread, mustard, romaine lettuce, topped with pickle relish and cucumber slices.  It was pretty good!  That is now my standard lunch fare.
• I also made some soup with chicken boullion, onion, potatoes, green beans and corn.  I was out of celery, but that would have made a nice addition.  Oh, and I threw in a handful of barley.  Tasty and filling soup.
• I think I will try this recipe. sounds hearty and flavorful (of course, I will leave out the cheese).  Arrgh!  I read the recipe yesterday and now cannot find it on Tonia's blog.  But it was simple enough to remember: 2 cans black beans, 2 cans corn, 1 big bottle of salsa.  Combine and heat.  Topped with shredded cheese (or in my case....not).
• We are getting a new roof.  On our three and a half year old house.  We had damage during the hail storm back in April or May and it needs replacing.  The new shingles are sitting on our driveway and the roofers are scheduled to arrive today or tomorrow.  I hope they can pound in rhythm with my piano students.  Should be a noisy few days here.
• Oh, that bag in the photo on top?  I finished that up the other day.  One of my dear sweet commenters mentioned that she had a 'bag malfunction'.  She thought she might mend it with duct tape until she could bring it down for me to mend on the sewing machine.  Well, lest she be spotted on campus with a less than professorial looking tote, I thought I would sew up something a little classier (yet fun).  It will be popped in the mail as soon as we get our car back.
• When the boys were little they would count down by how many 'sleeps' were left until a big event.  For me, two more sleeps until I go see our grands - three more sleeps until I meet our new granddaughter!

the new diet

How does one eliminate fat from one's diet?

One eats oatmeal and blueberries for breakfast.  No milk, no added sweetener.

One goes to the grocery store and loads up on fruits and veggies.

Here is a sample lunch plate.  Cucumber and carrot medallions (doesn't that sound fancier?  medallions instead of slices?) and yummy black grapes.  Seriously delicious.  By the way, this is a dessert size plate and I couldn't even eat half of what is on it.

Supper?  Colorful pepper slices, delicious Brussel sprouts (That thunk just heard?  That was my brother passing out in shock that someone he is related to thinks Brussel sprouts are tasty.  That boy could sit at the dinner table for hours after facing down one dreaded Brussel sprout.  ~smile~) and a half a baked potato too heavily seasoned with Mrs. Dash's seasoning.  Won't make that mistake again.  I couldn't eat all of this either.

So far, I don't feel too deprived.  I made a brief foray into the health food store yesterday and picked up some Wasa crispbread (which really would taste like something if I could slather it with cream cheese) and an over-priced package of Fig Newmans.  The Fig Newmans are really good.  Not chocolate, but still good.

Three days into the diet, I've not cheated nor been tempted to cheat.  Still motivated.  In five days I'll be with Jon and Kristi and the kids and in six, LORD willing, I'll be holding that new little granddaughter!

the week in review

Aren't they adorable?

We found some pictures of Mom when she was a little girl.  It is uncanny how much Emilee resembles her grandma at that age.  Beautiful blue eyes and blonde wavy hair.  And full of personality as you can see from this picture:

On to the week in review:

September 14: Visit Dad's opthamologist to see if Dad needs a shot to slow the progression of macular degeneration.  This is a good check-up; no shot (in the eye-yikes!) necessary.  We go every 4-6 weeks.

September 15: Dad sees his endocrinologist.  His numbers are all good.  While he is there, I run up the road and have some routine annual lab work done.  When I return, the nurse teaches me how to administer a shot to Dad when he is hypoglycemic (and unconscious).

September 16: Pat visits podiatrist.  I accompany him, pick up some piano books for my students, we have a wonderful meal out at Cheddars.  So much food that I took home enough for us to eat on Saturday.

September 18:  Sunday around 5 p.m I feel vaguely uncomfortable.  The pain in my abdomen increases and the pressure makes it hard to concentrate or get comfortable.  Took a few baby aspirin in case it was a heart attack.  Drank some ginger tea in case it is indigestion.  Nothing helped and sleep did not come that night.

September 19:  I'm still somewhat uncomfortable and exhausted.  The phone rings at 9 a.m.  The nurse practitioner has my lab results.  "Your liver panels are very high.  One is bad, the other not quite so bad.  I've scheduled a liver ultrasound for you this afternoon at 3:15." 

 "What could be the problem?"  I ask.

"Anything from gallstones to liver cancer." she replies.

 "Oh." I say.

We trek up to the big city (45 minutes one way for all of the above appointments).  The ultra sound reveals a gall bladder full of stones.  When I ask the nurse practitioner if I can delay surgery until after I return from the birth of our third grandchild, she says that I'd better take my medical records with me, because I'm going to need them.  We alert Jon and Kristi that I might not be able to come up (waaaahhhhh!).

September 20: Met with the surgeon.  What a great guy!  Seems to be a Christian.  Said that going to be with the kids and grands was very important.  As long as  I DON'T EAT ANY FAT until my surgery I should be fine.  I'm so excited I can fly up to see the kids and grands, not so excited about my new diet.  No birthday cake for this girl this year.  But, I am extremely motivated to follow my new diet.  Surgery will be sometime after Oct. 10.  I'm very thankful for God's protection and care.

September 21: Pat has an appointment today.  He's been having ear pain for quite a while now.

September 22: I have a routine (I HOPE!) mammogram.

No doctor appointments on September 23 as far as I know.

So.  That's my week.  Looking back at this schedule I now realize why I failed to accomplish much.  We spent a lot of time in the car or in the doctor's office this past week.

How was your week?

Emilee in stitches

Take one very cute six year old niece. 

Add one piece of white scrap fabric with a simple butterfly outline sketched out in disappearing ink.

Lay out pastel embroidery floss and let cute six year old niece pick out any colors she wants.

Teach her the running stitch and 'let 'er go'.

The result?  Free entertainment for at least an hour and a skill for a lifetime.

Emilee wants to finish stitching this and make it into a pillow or a blanket the next time she comes down.

I see a lot of sewing in our future.

She's such a stitch.

Our hairipist

We were blessed to have my brother and niece and nephew here for a few hours on Saturday. 

The agenda? 

Ethan needed a haircut. 

See?

The before:

The shampooing of his shagginess

Ahhhh, that feels good:

pre-scissors

Harriet is not only our 'hairipist', she is also quite a 'cut-up' (hahahha).

post-scissors

Judy  (below) is one of the gals who gets her hair 'done' at the same time Mom does.  She has become a good friend, one time even taking Mom from the hair dresser's to Walmart when they learned that Dad had passed out there. (He was revived by paramedics - I met them there and brought both Mom and Dad home after the danger had passed).

Mom and Judy

We sure do appreciate these sweet ladies and love having friends and family come visit.  When are you coming?

Cheap Thrills

Last spring Pat and I were taking a walk around the block.  Our neighbors were out, so being the neighborly sort, we stopped to chat with them.  Turns out they were moving some landscaping rocks and maybe Pat could help?  Pat did and if I recall correctly, paid for it with a sore back.  It was a really big rock.

The neighbors were making a few changes in the yard and home and I noticed that they were removing a glass top table and chairs from the enclosed porch.

'If you ever decide to sell that table and chairs, let me know - that is just exactly what I was looking for for our back porch."  says I.

We didn't hear anything more about it, until several weeks later when we returned from a trip up north.  The table and chairs were piled up against the back door of our back porch.

I called the neighbor and asked how much we owed them and he said.....NOTHING!  This beautiful, perfect table set was free to us!  Hooray!   We take care of their dogs when they are out of town and pick up their mail and do other neighborly things like move huge rocks - so this was their gift of thanks.

Needless to say we were/are thrilled.

Not only is this just what we were looking for, it turns out that having a glass top table can be quite handy.  I was working on my dresser scarf turned lap quilt project and thought, 'if only I had a light box, I could trace the vines and leaves from the dresser scarf embroidery on the center of the scarf and quilt that pattern'.

Light boxes are not cheap and generally if I want to trace something I will tape it to a window.

However this scarf quilt is rather heavy for taping to windows.

However, if I laid it on my 'new' glass top table and put a lamp underneath, I can see just fine to trace the pattern I want.  (I stacked the lamp on books to bring the light up close to the table.)

Here is the pattern I wanted to trace:

Here is the pattern traced and all ready to quilt:



Patrick decided to take an (unauthorized) picture of me, quilting.  Clearly I should have been combing my hair instead.

Enough with the pictures~

I'm excited about this project.  Thrifted unfinished dresser scarf completed with floss I had on hand, trimmed with patchwork squares from my limited stash.  I had enough backing fabric on hand and I got the batting for 40% off.   This little project is only costing a few bucks!

My goal is to have this done before I head north to meet my new granddaughter.  Twenty more days!

3 weeks from Thursday

I fly up to Iowa to wrap a brand new little girl into this pink fluffy chenille/flannel blanky.

Scrumptiousness!!


The fabric is whole cloth I bought from Hobby Lobby, so while I did not piece it myself, I did tie it and make the pink and white polka dotted binding myself (instructions for making your own binding found in Amy Karol's Bend the Rules Sewing).


Here is a tutorial for how to make your own bias tape, but I like Amy's way better.

I popped the blanket in the mail today, before the Post Office goes bankrupt and the nation's postal system collapses. :)

In other news (not as exciting as baby news, but happy news none the less): after a bone-dry August, we have been getting rain for two days straight. Over 6 inches so far and very welcome!

The Shadow of a Mighty Rock within a weary land...

In anticipation of the arrival of my brother's family this afternoon, I scurried to the store before church (I usually avoid shopping on Sundays, but didn't plan very well this week - my bad).

The car radio was playing what will probably be a week-long memorial to September 11th. The stories are heart wrenching.

In addition to this of course, there are reports of floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, economic disaster.

Gloom, despair and agony.

Stations with 'all news, all the time' have become stations with 'all BAD news all the time'.

Personally, I try to keep up-beat and positive, but there are days when sadness overwhelms and tears are close at hand. Most of the sadness is due to the plight of others, as my little problems pale in comparison to others.

But when grief becomes a constant companion, the only remedy I recommend is a hearty concoction of time in the Word, in prayer and a dash of Christian music.

As I was test tasting the new (it is a keeper) recipe for baked beans and taking the blonde brownies out of the oven, this hymn came on the radio (not a news station):

Beneath the cross of Jesus, I fain would take my stand.

The shadow of a Mighty Rock, within a weary land,

A home within the wilderness, a rest along the way;

From the burning of the noon-tide heat and the burden of the day.

Just what I need - some time in the shadow of a Mighty Rock within this weary land.