Fun and the 24 hour flu bug

So I thought it best not to have a picture today seeing as how I have been "driving the porcelain bus" the day before yesterday and Miranda was doing yesterday. So far no one else has caught this especially fun bug.

So Mike dragged my tree upstairs and I put it up yesterday I still haven't strung the beads.
I no sooner went upstairs than I hear crash bang crash! I come down to find the kitten under the tree surrounded by what wad left of 3 red glass balls.
GRRRRR! she would whack them off the tree and then pounce on them and knock them into the base of the tree or the wall until they broke. Rotten cat!

Mike swears he will help me put up lights tomorrow. We will see I am sceptical. It takes longer than this for congress to pass any bills ;O)

bill day BLECH!

Today is my least favorite day of the month! Paying bills day. I hate it!!!!

So please excuse my foul mood.

I have about half my inside decorations up WOO HOO! It may take an act of congress or me paying someone else to get my outside up. Maybe if I keep posting here about it that will shame him into doing it, ya think? Nah.

I get to go back to the Dr to see my heart on the 10th. I think I will have to hit a few quilt stores and Mrs Backers bakery while I am down there. I am never going to lose any weight I have no self control. SIGH!

Okay enough stalling back to the dang bills.

Its the Monday Malaise

So I am being a slug today. I have done some Christmas shopping on line, and a load of dishes and even got myself and Wade dressed. That's about it. I found some good stuff for the boys but a 12 year old girl is a HUGE pain to shop for. I know she wants some "toys" but she is to old for most of them and she has a lot of the electronic stuff mp3 player and the like. I am NOT buying her a cell phone and she doesn't do the girly girl stuff SO I am banging my head on the wall trying to figure out what to do for her.

Anyway I never did get my other tree up yesterday and I still have boxes of stuff to put up. Guess I better get my fanny in gear Monday or not.

The tired after the holiday

Well tomarrow is Monday and everyone goes back to school and work, This will be the first time I am alone with Wade since my surgery so that is going to contribute to my tired.
I think I will be fine but I am already tired from all the fun and festivites of Thanksgiving.

Oh yes it was a tradidtional Thanksgiving for us the turkey on the bbq the flame went out for a while and the one in the oven didn't want to cook so we didn't eat until amost 7:30.
We did luck out no fires or major damage to my sisters house but Mike did mess up the carpet with the gravy.

The red shoes now have a good home and are being used. :O(

I didn't manage to get Mike to hang the lights but I did get one of the trees put up. So it almost looks like Christmas around here. Maybe I con get the other tree up tonight but I don't know. We will see if I can beat Mike into it.

Turkey Day

Isn't this a nice scene! Its what they(I am not sure who they are) would have you believe Thanksgiving is supposed to be. Not at our house man, We have the annual Thanksgiving disaster.

That's our tradition.

One year my mom set the oven on fire with a dishtowel and turkey drippings, another year my dad flooded the basement when he put the peelings from 20 pounds of potatoes down the garbage disposal at once, I have even help move the tradition along by knocking over a candle onto the table cloth one year and starting a fire. We have had the oven turned off half way through the turkey cooking, we have had burnt pies, we have had half the family have intestinal flu.

I am pretty sure this is why mu Uncle and his family have Thanksgiving at there own house and don't come and do the family thing with us. :o)

So as you sit down to your peaceful, lovely, Norman Rockwell meal tomorrow think of me we will probably be putting out a fire or trying to get my moms dog to stay outside so she isn't on the table.

Remember how blessed we all are to live in this free country and remember to include our troops in your giving thanks this year especially the ones that are far from home and missing out on this family day.

the saga of the red shoes and the broken toe

I love these shoes! Alas I can't wear my loverly(sexy) red shoes :o( See last year when I broke my toe and they fixed it they shortened the tendon in my big toe and it will NOT allow me to wear these hot shoes for more than about 5 minutes without much pain.

So here's the deal if you want these shoes I will send them to you they are a size 8 1/2 they fit more like an 8 they have been worn for maybe 30 minutes max, they have about a 4 inch heel and a peep toe.

I am so sad :O( let me know.

Welcome Trixi

This is Trixi she got her name because I was reading the "Dresden Files" books by Jim Butcher and in one of his books he has a character who is called "Trixi Vixen" (she is a porn star) but I just loved the name Trixi so she got it!

She loves to sleep in between Mike and I at night, she purrs all the time and loves to curl up in my lap. I think for the first time we have a relatively normal cat. She has the softest fur and just loves to be loved on she even lets Wade pet her and if I was a cat I wouldn't let the 3 year old any where near me.

The other cats have mostly accpted her and Ginger and Trixi act like they are older sister and little sister its very cute!

Tired and feeling run down.

No picture today, I just feel run down I did way to much yesterday. I went to the grocery store even using the cart ( Man I hate that I feel like a 90 year old woman driving that thing around)
I should respect my own limits but I have always been to stubborn for my own good and when I get tired instead of stopping an going to lay down I keep pushing.
Today I am paying for it, I am wiped out big time.

This morning a dear friend of mine lost her beloved father in law. Moments like this make me so very grateful for my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and for the saving ordinances we have that ensure our families are forever.

I know the this time will be hard for her and her family but I know that the love of our Saviour and the knowledge that they will be reunited one day will help and be a comfort to her and her family.

I want her to know of my love for her and her family and that they continue to be in my prayers. May the Lord bless and keep you and provide you with the comfort you need at this time.

To Halo or not to Halo that is the question

So this is the "other person" my husband is seeing almost every night.

First let me start by saying I am totally against ANY first person shooter games, Its not just a Halo thing.

My husband loves this game, he gets online and kills other people with his friends from work. He works hard and he deserves his free time. He doesn't go hunting, he doesn't go to bars, he isn't a member of a bowling league, he doesn't go hang out with his buddy's and play poker so I really don't want to begrudge him the couple of things he likes to do.
I just miss him at night, when the kids go to bed he is off to play and I usually end up watching the news alone upstairs cause I just can't stand blowing people up. ( gosh you would think I was some sort of bleeding heart liberal or something)

So the question of the day is this I would like to spend time with him do I just give in and learn to play Halo so I can spend time with him? If I do can I ask him to quilt or scrapbook with me a couple times a week to make it fair? Do I leave him alone maybe he wants that time to play with "the boys" and doesn't need his clingy wife bugging him?

Maybe he will just read this and it will all get worked out ;O)!

Busy hands = Carin's not going crazy

I have been wanting to "do stuff" I hate having someone else help me keep my house clean and all that sorta stuff. (control issues I know) So I have been working on my "Grandmother's Flower Garden" quilt, for anyone not familiar with this quilt it is made entirely from 3 inch hexagons had pieced together to this flower shape. It was really big in the 30's and 40's

My Grandma gave me a whole box of material from the 30's and 40's so I have been using these fabrics to make my quilt more authentic. I have built up loverly calluses on my finger tips from hand piecing, and have gained new respect for the quilters of the past.

This block has some really cute red hexagons in the center with pussy willows with little cat faces. Gotta love the sense of whimsy in the 40's.

So this has kept me busy while I can't do anything that might put a strain on my heart. I have about 8 more flowers to do to have enough for a queen size quilt, I will need to make some half flowers and then I need to surround all of the flowers with green then use white hexagons to attach it all together. I guess I have enough to do to keep me busy for a while.

The saga of Carin and her lopsided heart

This is the "normal" location for a PFO defect.

If you look at this picture you can see the thick part of the top of the heart next to the atrium, that would be where my defect was. The Dr Calls me his "weird patient"

So lets start when I go to go into surgery and they give me "some thing to make me relax" I didn't relax as a matter of fact I was asking them questions about my heart on the screen. Every few minutes they would come over and say something to the effect of "oh I see your still with us" and shove more drugs in my IV. I never did fall asleep I didn't feel anything but I watched the whole procedure.

So they send me back to recovery I am thinking I get to go home after I stay still for 2 hours to make sure I am not going to reopen the hole in my groin, I wait and wait finally I flag down someone and the Dr pops in to say you will be spending the night cause I want to make sure the device doesn't interfere with the valve in your aorta. So I sent my Grandma and my husband home and I sit down in recovery for another couple hours waiting for them to "find a clean room"

I have now had a turkey sandwich since midnight the day before and its 8:30 pm (Oh I threw up most of the turkey sandwich anyway cause of the stupid morphine they gave me to fall asleep that didn't work) The nurse brings me a tray from 2 hours before that is baked cod (oh my holy grossness) I was like I can't eat that. She is all I am sure when they get you to a room the can find you a sandwich. I was all okay.

They finally find me a room and I ask about said sandwich the nurse and CNA look at each other like sandwich we don't have no stinking sandwich. They found me some toast and little packages of peanut butter and jam. (Big dinner)

It took them until almost 11 to get my regular drugs from the pharmacy so I could go to sleep, then they came in every hour to check my vitals and tell me they changed nurses and crap. No sleep for Carin.

The Dr was in at like 7:30 said that as soon as I had another echogram I could go so I hurry and call Mike cause he has a freakin hour (or more stupid morning rush hour) by the time he got there they were ready to kick me out so he didn't even park they just wheeled me out and I was off.

I haven't had a headache for the first time in about a year, WOO HOO! My chest hurts like some one kicked me in it every time I do much so I have to take it slow. SIGH!

So that's my tale sad but true

I'm alive

Just a quick note to let you know I survived the surgery and I am resting at home. I will share the whole gory story later.

Austin's Saturday morning stress release

WARNING MUCH RAMBLING TODAY!!!!

So Austin has signed up for our local high schools little league wrestling group. He is practicing every Tuesday and Thursday and meets every (yes every Saturday).

He is totally loving it, I get all freaked when he does it. I have a really hard time watching him I am afraid he is going to get hurt.

He is good he had never wrestled before and got a second place medal at his first meet. I am glad he has found something he likes and is good, he liked soccer okay but his asthma made it really hard for him to play.

I think I need to get him some ear things so he doesn't get all weird mooshed ears.

I am so thrilled to spend my next couple of months worth of Saturdays in gyms at every high school around watching my son roll on the ground trying to take some other little boys head off. ;O)

Fall Leaves are so loverly!

I love the colors of fall! Now that Halloween is over it feels more like Fall. I love to get a cup of hot apple cider and curl up in front of the fireplace with a great book.

I am having a hard time getting it through to the kids its fall, Austin wanted to wear shorts to school today! I can see that I would get a call from CPS "Hello, are you aware the high for the day is going to be 54? Your child is in shorts and a T-shirt. We need to come visit and have a chat." Sigh I am glad I was able to talk him into long pants and a reasonable shirt.

Miranda has changed her hair for the season as well, for Halloween we put a loverly burgundy color on it.

Wade loved Halloween and has been feasting on chocolate all day!

This morning I was taking down Halloween decorations to putting up thanksgiving stuff and Wade locked me out, I was in my PJ's I hadn't brushed my hair and it was maybe 32 degrees. he did finally let me back in but it took about 10 minutes to explain what he needed to do to unlock the door, he locked the door just fine but unlocking now thats a whole different story.