Saying Goodbye

My father passed away on November 16, 2010 and my mother on May 6, 2015.  Although funeral services were held in Michigan where they lived at the time, they were both cremated and we wanted to mix their ashes and spread them on their property here in California.  My brother declined to participate, but my three sisters and I all drove to their property near Redding this week to make this happen.

We each had a chance to spread their ashes in various locations on their property.

And finally, a picture of my family, at least those who were able to be there.  David's dad visited for the day and willingly took pictures with multiple cameras, phones, etc.

We then spent a couple of hours clearing out the house and eventually ended up at Bonnie and Dave's since they live in the area for a smoked chicken dinner.  We had wanted to do a barbeque turkey, because that's what my parents always did when we got together, but we didn't have enough time to procure and thaw a turkey.

Being there brought back a lot of memories, more of objects than events for me, but I'm glad I was able to be there and participate.

WIWO - 7/27/2015

I didn't do a lot of stitching this week, but I did work on projects this week.  The first is a square for Q4OC and the second is a set of pirate puppets that I plan to send to WOCS.

Can you guess what it is?  There's not a lot done, because the frogs did a lot of visiting on this one.

This is the first of the pirate finger puppets.  There's also a parrot, a boy pirate and a girl pirate.

FYI: The first picture will be a horse and that's part of it's mane.

Acting Like a Cow

July 14, 2014 was "Cow Appreciation Day" at Chick-fil-A and you got a free meal if you dressed like a cow or a free entree if you wore a cow hat.

Janice, Devin and Kyleigh decided to participate.  Janice and Devin wore the hats and got a free entree, but Kyleigh also wore spots so she got the free meal.

I joined my first SAL

It's called the Christmas Ornie SAL 2015 and each month has a different theme and was started by Kaye at Kitten Stitching.

Stitching starts in August and continues through the end of the year.  I'm looking forward to getting a few more ornaments stitched this year. The link to the group is in my sidebar.

The themes are:
August:          Mr. and/or Mrs. Santa
September:   Christmas Tree / Presents
October:        Angels / Nativity
November:    Snowflakes / Snowman/Wintry scene
December:     Free Choice

Happy Dance - Last Merry Kitten Ornament

Original Start Date: Unknown 

Current Start Date: 7/16/2015

Finished: 7/20/2015

Dimensions Kit: Merry Kitten Ornaments

It's stitched on 14-count white plastic canvas with the floss included in the kit.  There were six kittens in this kit and here are the rest of them:

 

 

WIWO - 7/20/2015

I'm continuing to work on the Merry Kittens ornaments and have started the last one. 

I'm really enjoying these and can't imagine why it's taken so long to start stitching them again.

Update on David
David continues to improve and we've gotten into a routine with the antibiotic infusions.  He still spends a lot of time resting with his leg up, but we saw our regular doctor this morning and he seemed quite pleased with the progress.  And of course since his leg looked like it was sunburned, it's also acting like it was sunburned and is peeling like crazy.

Happy Dance - Merry Kitten #5

Original Start Date: Unknown 

Current Start Date: 7/12/2015

Finished: 7/16/2015

Dimensions Kit: Merry Kitten Ornaments

The kit is dated 1997 and I think I probably started it sometime around then.  There are six kittens included in this kit and I'd finished four of them (and started this one) before setting it aside.  

It's stitched on 14-count white plastic canvas with the floss included in the kit.

Update on David

We went to the Infectious Disease doctor yesterday and today I picked up another week's worth of intravenous antibiotics.  The infection is almost gone, but they want to be sure.

He goes back to work tomorrow for the first time since he entered the hospital though. 

WIWO - 7/13/2015

After I finished the pine cone ornament yesterday, I didn't feel like kitting anything up and didn't want to mount a WIP on my Q-snaps either, so I went to my small size UFO drawer and pulled out a couple of possibilities.  (That's small in the size of the project.)

I ended up with this one.  I didn't take a picture before I started it, but I'd already finished his tail, one foot and part of his stomach below the bow including the back stitching.

I know he doesn't look like much now, but below is a picture of what he'll look like when finished.

There are six kittens in this kit and I've already stitched four of them.  I don't know when I last worked on them, but it's probably been 15-20 years now.  I also don't know why I stopped working on them, because no frogging was needed, it's a fairly easy stitch and the kittens are so cute.

Happy Dance - Pine Cone and Bathing Suit Contest

Started: 7/1/2015

Finished: 7/12/2015

Mill Hill 2015 Winter Holiday Collection Kit

This is stitched as called for with the materials in the kit.  The only change I made was to use two strands of floss for the cross stitching instead of three as called for.

I haven't cut it out yet, because I need to find some red felt to back it with first.  It will be made into an ornament and hopefully hang on my Christmas tree this year.

Tonight was the Miss USA pageant and Janice works with Miss California so she watched it with Kyleigh and Devin.  At one point during the bathing suit portion, Kyleigh disappeared into her room and came back out in her bathing suit and high heels.  She then proceeded to mimic the contestants on stage.

She then went back into her room and put on her Elsa Halloween costume to wait for the evening dress portion.

He's Home

David came home tonight about 8:00 p.m. with a picc line and a box full of syringes with saline solution and or antibiotics.  We will have to administer these three times a day (10:00 a.m., 2:00 pm. and 6:00 a.m.) for probably two weeks.

The first thing he did once we got home was take a shower.  He's also looking forward to drinking coffee again.

Happy Dance - DW Dishcloth #2

DW Darrell Waltrip Dishcloth

Started: 6/23/2015

Finished: 7/8/2015

I used Lily Sugar and Cream cotton yarn in Red, White and Blue and #6 needles.  This was knitted using the DW  Darrell Waltrip Dishcloth pattern on Ravelry.

A setback

About 7:30 last night, David's leg started to swell and cause him pain.  It also turned a very angry red.  The nurses helped him to elevate it which helped until he needed to put weight on it.

This morning he called me about 8:30 a.m. and said they were moving to another room, this time in a ward with slightly less monitoring.  The doctor came and said he needed to change the antibiotic again and also had them do an ultrasound to make sure there was no clotting.  He also had a Infectious Disease doctor come and take a look to determine which antibiotics should be used.

They discontinued both of the antibiotics he was on and started him on a new one.  He was told to keep his leg elevated and that he wouldn't be able to go home until Thursday at the earliest, probably with a picc line.

The only good thing about all this is that he doesn't work again until Friday, July 17th so he has time to recover.

WIWO - 7/6/2015

I took a one day break from the Anniversary Angel and started a little Mill Hill ornament that accompanied the additional beads I needed to finish the Winged Monarch.

This is from the 2015 Winter Holiday Collection from Mill Hill and I fell in love with it immediately.  Unfortunately, everything except for the long line of brown x's (except the ribbon) needs to be frogged since I used the wrong color of floss.  As you can see, it looks lighter than the section below.

Update on David
The doctor wants to keep him an extra day so he'll go home tomorrow.  He actually has two infections: one in his urinary tract and one caused by the scrape on the back of his leg.  They've changed one of the antibiotics to one that will treat the urinary tract infection specifically and told him to spend some time walking around the ward.  I'm really looking forward to having him home again.

Happy Dance - Blue Butterfly

Started: 6/12/2015

Finished: 7/5/2015

Cross Stitch Card Shop #100

Stitched on 14-count white Aida with the called for DMC floss except that the bow was supposed to be stitched in two colors of red, but I didn't realize it until I was half done with the wings.  

This was charted for a Mother's Day card and included the words "Happy Mother's Day" which I left off for obvious reasons, since this is a square for Kyleigh's quilt.

Update on David

David is feeling better today and is almost back to his normal self except for the infection and will possibly come home tomorrow.  He is missing his coffee and sodium since he's on a no caffeine and low sodium diet.

The 4th of July

Lots of fireworks today.  Although we live in Anaheim where fireworks are prohibited, Garden Grove, which is one street over, does permit and sells fireworks.  So there were a lot of fireworks going off on the streets surrounding our house.

I saw our neighbor out this morning and asked him to keep an eye on our house since I wouldn't be home until late (the fireworks are still going off now) and went to the hospital.

David is feeling/doing a little better and was moved from the DOU to a room in the medical/surgical unit. 

I spent the day with him and Janice and Devin brought a late lunch and then went to one of the many fireworks venues in the area.

A rough day

We were supposed to go see Inside Out with Kyleigh, Janice and Devin this morning.  Instead we spent the day at the doctors and in the emergency room.  David was pretty much out of it most of the day.

David had a major fever last night and couldn't get warm.  He was also kind of woozy and asked me to make him a doctor's appointment.  I did and we got to the doctor's at 9:40.  As we waited for the elevator, the fire department paramedics commandeered it to take a stretcher upstairs.  We saw the doctor and went down to the lab for blood and urine tests and a chest x-ray. 

When we got back to the doctor's office about 12:30, she told us that David was septic and needed to go the ER.  I thought I would just drive him to the hospital, but she decided to send him in an ambulance--the same crew that had been there earlier and they recognized us also.

At the ER they discovered he was very dehydrated, his blood pressure was low and his lower left leg was red and swollen.  They took more blood and gave him intervaneous fluids and antibiotics.  At about 8:30 they moved him to the DOU which is one step down from the ICU and planned to keep him for a couple of days.

Happy Dance - Anniversary Angel

Started: 6/25/2015

Finished:  7/2/2015

http://passioncreative.over-blog.com/archive/2011-12/

Stitched on white 14-count Aida with DMC Variations #4215

This was a SAL for Quilts for Older Children and Adults 10th Anniversary and will eventually be going to Love Quilts Brazil once all the squares have been submitted.