Want to come over for a Block Party

Marty at http://aseemlylife.com/ is having a block party. She has one just started and has extra quilters so is going to do a second block party. She still needs to fill some spots, anyone up for it? Come to the Block Party with us? If you're interested check out Marty's blog and comment that you're interested.

Lots of knitting has been taking place on my Rebecca cardigan, but it seems like a black hole of knitting for some strange reason. Maybe because I was sat there with a book in front of me every time I sat down to knit. Finished the 2nd book in the Hunger Games series and then devoured The Lost Symbol. Loved it, although I think the end was rather self indulgent on Dan Brown's part. He got a little carried away. Almost done listening to the Time Travelers Wife. I only listen when I'm on longer road trips, so it's taking a while.

Have been doing a little sewing, but am geared up to get hustling on a pile of projects that I've been prepping.

Last night I was watching my oldest son playing football against a team that their smallest player was as big as our biggest. I'm pretty sure that they've been giving the kids on that team the cow hormone, (can never remember the name B-something). They were huge and mean, and quite frankly played dirty. I've never watched a game this year with the 8th graders that had that many fouls. I'll be honest, I was expecting someone to get hurt and thought it would be bad. I actually thought it was likely to be Hubbub as he was up against the biggest guy on their team and had been doing a fairly good job, but this punk kept taking some late hits (and getting fouled for it, but that doesn't stop it from causing an injury). Luckily, he survived the game. I wandered off the field because the mama bear in me wanted to kick their coach's butt for such poor sportsmanship when one of the players came running over and told me that Dec (my 2nd son who was practicing on another field) was badly hurt.

It's amazing how fast you can run in heeled boots across a football field when the mood strikes. Dec was laid flat out with some EMS' checking out his foot. Apparently he'd heard a pop and he'd try to continue to playing. The second time it popped, he went down hard and couldn't get up. They had me take him right to the ER where it was checked out, xrayed, you know the usual good stuff. He luckily didn't break it, but had apparently bruised the tendon and had a bad sprain. They splinted it up, drugged him up and came home.

Now, I admit, I was almost excited when I awoke this morning that I would have to cancel all appointments and stay home and take care of Declan. Okay, I'll be honest, I was planning on having an excuse to stay home and sew and knit all day. Didn't work out. Around 9:30 he had his medicine as it was starting to hurt. By 10:30am, very uncharacteristically for Declan he was crying out which eventually turned to screaming and begging for the pain to stop. It completely freaked me out and Steve when he heard him. Seriously, this is not Dec's style. He was white knuckled for a few hours. The Ortho Surgeon decided he wanted to see him that afternoon as the pain wasn't letting up. They finally determined that he may have shifted his growth plate and because of all the swelling and trauma to that foot his leg was spasming and the splint was restricting him for moving his foot to ease the cramp, which ended up being a 3 hour charlie horse. Anyone who has had these remember how miserable they are. They took the splint off and gave him a boot and he's doing much better. Of course, that's after he stopped reacting to the Codeine they gave him.

So, an entire day has passed and I managed to knit 4 rows and only glance at the sewing machine. I have big hopes for tomorrow. He's supposed to be home still, but I'm trying not to jinx myself by dreaming of all that I'll get to do. Fingers crossed.

Just in case I actually get to play a little tomorrow, this is a list of some of what I'd like to work on:

1. Finish left front of Rebecca cardi and make progress on right side.
2. Sew apron for Madz
3. Sew some holiday place mats
4. Find next book to read and read a good chunk of it.
5. Bake something yummy - will need to be Gluten Free to make Dec's smile return
6. Bake something in the Crock Pot for dinner so I can play more
7. Make list of ufo's to finish by year end
8. Take pics for blog
9. Card for mum and dad's birthdays
10. Post on blog

I actually think it's a fairly manageable list if only I could get some free time. But then there is that matter of my four year old best friend who wanders around my house wanting me to play with him and the puppy who whines for me to play with him. Hmmmmmm, maybe I should revise my expectations....

So, what's on your list??

I found my new Twilight

Okay, maybe it's not Twilight, but I've found a new series of books that I can't put down. It's another Teen Fiction series (like Twilight) and I started reading it yesterday while I was at the hospital waiting for them to take me in for surgery and I've had a hard time putting it down since. Don't you just love a good book that sucks you in right away. So, what is it about Teen Fiction? I loved The Book Thief and then the Twiling Series. What's next Judy Blume for the second time around... I don't think so!

Everything went well with the surgery, but will have to wait a little bit for the lab results. They gave me the drug that Michael Jackson had, Propofol as the surgery was so short. I wasn't worried at all, until they said just before they took me back "You may find yourself feeling some of the surgery or being aware of what's going on.. it will probably make you move and then we'll know to give you more of the drug." Not exactly the most encouraging words to give a patient before surgery. Don't you think???

I promise I have knitting to post later this week. This puppy thing is kicking my butt. I get to take him to the vets tomorrow for the first time. To be honest, I'm nervous. Not sure if I mentioned that I'm actually afraid of dogs and am nervous of the other dogs at the vets. Pathetic, I know!

Clarification

Okay, I've heard that I was a little too vague on the last post, so here are some details.

The dog is a Male Cockapoo that turned 10 weeks on Sunday. We picked him up on Saturday. We got him from a breeder because we needed to be sure of the parentage as our reason for getting that type of dog is we have three people with dog allergies in this house. We never thought we'd be able to get a dog because of them and we are thrilled to have him. Unfortunately, Madison has been having some problems this weekend that we are still trying to determine if they are dog allergy related or something else. She was having problems with her asthma due to season allergies earlier in the week. We're all worried that if it's dog allergies then we will have to return the wee one, but we all understand and agree that as cute as he is, it's not worth risking Madison's ability to breathe. Seeing as the Cute Guy and Caleb are doing fine with the dog and they normally have pretty bad dog allergies, the doctor is not suspecting that to be her problem. The pollen count has been in red alert in our area this past weekend and that may be the problem. Say a prayer, cross your fingers, meditate postive energy our way or whatever you may do, as we love this little pup already and would hate for Madison to feel bad about our having to return the dog.

We do not have a name decided on yet. I'm not sure if that's partly our way to not get too attached to the puppy in case we have to return him, but that hasn't seemed to stop us from repeatedly telling him how much we love him and snuggling him lots too. The majority of the kids like Humvee for a name (predictable, aren't we?!) but I love the name Winston (the british part is coming out - and yes, I know he's not a british bulldog). Other names that have been thrown around are ORVie (after Off-Road Vehicle - again predictable), Churchill, Sir Licksalot and calling him Slick for short, snooker and many Austin Powers and Harry Potter characters names. I had wanted a brown cockapoo but those were all gone, and then i was going to call it Cadbury, no questions asked. oh well! Any ideas?

As for the surgery, it's just a minor surgery to remove some growths, biopsy them and do a couple of other things. The idea is that I will be home the same day. Unfortunately I have low blood pressure (about dead type low blood pressure - the kind the nurse double and triple checks when they take it) and I don't seem to wake up from anesthesia and react a little bad to the drugs, so have normally ended up staying in the hospital longer after surgery. This time the surgery is very short and I think it shouldn't be a problem. Only thing really working against me is that it's late in the day 4:30pm so that gives me less time to get feeling better before they decide to keep me in. For the record, I am not worried about this surgery or it's outcome at all. I have a good feeling about this one.

Can you see the resemblance of the puppy and my hair do when I was a teenager? (Could be worse, I could have the mall bangs my friend has in the photo)

One more reason to "Just Keep Knitting"

Wow! That was one very busy summer, but full of fun. I will post about the knitting that was accomplished, but maybe later this week. Have been very busy with kids returning to school this week and getting a new puppy that Madison may or may not be having allergic reactions to. The next couple of days look equally busy with staining the deck tomorrow and surgery on Tuesday.

In the meantime, found this interesting article that gives us yet another reason (like we needed one) to keep knitting:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7896441.stm