~The Healing has Begun~

The surgery is a week behind me today - THANK GOD! All went well from what I'm told and after a very long morning of waiting last week the surgery was finally performed at 2:15 ~ I was scheduled for 12:45, but the operating room was tied up - UGH! 14 hours without anything to drink was brutal and caused the vein in my hand to collapse when the IV was inserted, but they put it in the bend in my arm. This didn't cause a problem until later that night - every time I dozed off and moved my arm an alarm would sound - good lord - it was incredibly loud! I came home Thursday and have been doing very well - so I'm told. I stopped the percoset's when I came home (I am NOT a pretty picture on drugs) and have been taking the prescription strength Ibuprofen. It takes the edge off which is good enough for me. One of my biggest fears was that something would happen to my Mom while I was incapacitated and the phone call came yesterday morning as I was leaving with dh to have my staples removed. Mom fell and was being taken by ambulance to the hospital. She fractured her wrist, and is very bruised, but considering the fact that she is in the end stages of her disease, the wrist was a blessing. I shudder to think of what would be if it had been her hip or her ribs! My heart breaks now because I am of no use to her or my Dad at the moment, but she is at home again and the Visiting Nurses will take good care of her under my Dad's watchful eye. I have started knitting the French Market Bag from Knitty. I had some Reynolds 100% wool in the stash and figured it would be a good mindless knitting project - easy to pick up and put down. I do have a few questions regarding the felting process. I now have a front loader washing machine have any of you felted using one of these machines? any advise? tips? warnings? What do you do to protect the machine? do you put the item to be felted in a pillowcase? Any input would be very much appreciated. And since I have no pictures of said knitting to show at the moment, I'll share some pictures of some of the gorgeous flowers I received while in the hospital. Positive thoughts are welcome for Mom and my upcoming Nuclear Thyroid Scan and possible biopsies. Hopefully, this scan will put an end to the health issues here in my Tightly Wound World!

~Time sure does Fly~

I can't believe it has been so long since I last posted! We have had a whirlwind of activity here in the Tightly Wound world I live in! I apologize to those of you with dial-up - this is a picture heavy post..... My 2nd child and oldest daughter graduated from High School....I don't have the words to express how VERY MUCH she will be missed when she leaves for college in the fall. She is truly the life of this house and a beautiful human being - I am so proud of the woman she has become! The graduation started outside, but as you can see from the sky, the weather didn't cooperate and we moved into the sweltering hot gym! The Varsity Softball Team became the Southern Worcester County League East Champions for the first time since 1986 and made it to the Final District game and ended their season with a record of 21 and 3! This was senior day at the field the pictures left to right are my two girls the freshman and senior, the senior, the senior and her coach and the poster made for Lyss. There were posters for every senior and balloons and quite a bit of festivities! In keeping with Murphy's Law - the final district game was scheduled on the same day as Lyss' graduation party - so I moved it up a day, contacted all that were invited and rearranged all the plans.... The morning of the district game came and it was POURING - at 10:30 we got the call that the game was postponed until the next day - which, of course, was the day I had postponed her party too!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ugh! The party was a wonderful success even though the honoree was gone for 5 hours! Lots of food, friends, family a bonfire to sit around and a lot of laughs (and tears on my part). Senior Prom! She had a great time! My youngest daughter's Junior Honor Society Induction and her first Semi-Formal Dance (dates for Prom and Semi are left out for their privacy) My school year is just about wrapped up and I have been trying to get things in order here before I go in for my surgery on Tuesday. Needless to say, when I get overwhelmed with things to do I tend to do something totally unnecessary and time consumming such as clean out two floor to ceiling bookcases (which needed to be cleaned out, but not right away)! I have been wanting to get all of my craft books into the living room nearer to where I sit - so.... the day after Lyss and I went to the Library booksale and came home with two enormous bags of books, I tore apart the bookcases. I was up until 1 in the morning, but I did manage to get most of my craft books moved..... After my surgery, I will finish cleaning out the rest and possibly put the ones I don't use and probably never will up for sale here - keep an eye out! I have made a few purchases recently also - I ordered these absolutely wonderful stitch markers from Entrelac - (thanks for pointing me in their direction Kristie!). I can't say enough about the quality of the stitch markers or the service - it is just fantastic! I also ordered the pattern for this bag from Kaleidoscope Yarns... I've seen them knit up on various blogs and they are gorgeous! I have been trying to plan knitting projects that don't require a lot of thinking for after my surgery and to carry along to softball tournaments with me, and this fit right i! On the health front, I'm going in on Tuesday and after I have had time to heal, I will be going back in for a Nuclear Scan and biopsy of my Thyroid - which evidently has decided to grow way out of proportion and has cysts and solid "nodules" that need to be checked out. So along with my anemia, TMJ and other maladies that I won't mention, I seem to be falling apart! My various doctors tell me that most of it is stress related and that I shouldn't internalize so much, but since I didn't realize that I internalized, it is a wee bit difficult to fix. On a happier note.... I LOST 15 POUNDS!!!!!!!!!!! wooooo hoooooooo :) Mom is doing so much worse and has little time left with us here on this earth - I find myself torn between praying for her to be released from her pain and wishing to keep her with us longer. The kids have been so incredibly wonderful, Matt goes over every day on his lunch hour and Lyss goes to stay with her when my Dad has to leave the house, which has been a blessing for all of us. Well, I'm off to balance the checkbook, pay bills, finish up some laundry, clean the house, watch some softball and cook dinner for dh for Father's Day! Enjoy your Sunday!