A Two-Fer

 February 1, 2022

Cervical spine MRI ✔️ PCP called the next day with results: negative for herniation, impingement, stenosis, etc. I still had not heard anything for the EMG/NCS. I was also certain this was muscle/ligament/tendon related, so I began searching for a hand & wrist specialist. Having found one in town, I made an appointment – March 2, 2022. I also sent an email to my PCP to see if there was anything else we could do to move toward diagnosis & treatment. (Side note: I hate CRPS. The fact that we had to consider this was a possible spread pissed me off!). This entire process was emotionally & mentally taxing. I hadn’t suffered a trauma. We (Brittani, Shawn and I) spent several nights trying to figure out what could possibly have happened. The only thing that came to mind was that I had woken in the middle of the night with my wrist bent funny & hurting-I must have slept on it wrong. But to have damaged something??? Hmmm. Nevertheless, my PCP ended up scheduling a wrist MRI for late February.

February 24, 2022

Wrist MRI done. As I laid (lay?) there during the MRI, my mind went to: “If this is a CRPS spread, we are going to have to change a few things” “How am I going to watch Elara safely going forward?” “I’ll bet nothing shows up” “This is stupid” “Now I’m just going to have another bill to pay for nothing” “Oh yay, more random pain that won’t get treated” “What the hell did I do to my wrist?” “What if I need surgery?” And, as always, I counted the songs to figure out how much time was left. 

My PCP called the next day with results: Scaphoid fracture. What??? There’s a fracture??? They referred me to the hand & wrist specialist I already had an appointment with in a few days (yay me!). A fracture. I have been dealing with fracture pain for 6 weeks. God I love the “opioid crisis” in this country 🤦🏼‍♀️

Let’s turn the page here…

The First One

 January 18, 2022

With the pain & swelling worsening a bit and Brittani off work, I decided I needed to see my primary care provider (PCP). The way my doc does it, he has scheduled appointments and they also run walk-in hours. Since I had called the day before, I knew walk-in was the way to go. The NP did an exam and ordered X-Rays. She told me to use the brace and gave me samples of an anti-inflammatory cream. So I went next door for the X-Ray, went home and called it a day.

                                        

The following day, they called with the results: negative for fracture or anything significant. YAY!!! No fracture! But I actually didn’t think it was-I didn’t fall or almost fall & slam into the wall or drop anything or any traumatic event. So what was next? The nurse asked when my last cervical spine MRI and EMG/NCS(nerve testing) was. I had a cervical MRI in TN after a car accident several years ago & had never had an EMG/NCS on my upper extremities. I sent those reports to my PCP and he ordered a cervical spine MRI as well as an upper extremity EMG/NCS. The MRI was easy & scheduled in the following two weeks; the EMG/NCS was a bit more difficult as there were only 2 places in town that did them, and I had a bad experience with one of those places. I waited a couple days and called the place for the EMG/NCS. Let’s just say I now had bad experiences at both places 😠

Let’s turn the page here…

So it begins (continues?)

 January 14, 2022 (at least that’s the first day I have photo evidence)

I woke up with my left hand & wrist swollen and painful. I could move all my fingers and my thumb. A few positions caused the pain to increase but not by much. I checked my capillary refill because of the swelling. Cap refill <3 sec. After finishing my quick little assessment, I took my morning medication and headed to the bathroom, did my business, washed my hands-which, quite frankly, caused a lot more pain than I thought it should. I then let the dogs out & went outside with them.

I had Elara that day so I started looking through my drawers and the hall cabinet for a wrist brace. I KNEW I had one somewhere! Sure enough, way at the bottom, I found not only 1 but 2! One was just a neoprene sleeve, the other was an adjustable neoprene with a metal stay. I tried the one that was just neoprene but it was a bit tight and didn’t give enough support, so I settled on the one with the metal stay. Elara had woken up and wondered what the heck Gramma was doing and wanted her own wrist brace. So…we ended up twinning 

Why did I happen to have a left wrist brace lying around? When I was 18 I had gotten a puppy. He was an all black Labrador & Doberman mix (Lab-A-Dobe) that we named Stroh’s (yes, after the beer). When I was walking him, he ran around my feet and tripped me. I scraped up my palm but thought nothing of it until I had to go to the bathroom and couldn’t zip up my pants. A quick trip to the ambulatory center (that’s what we called “walk-in clinics” back in the day) and an X-Ray later, I had fractured my scaphoid bone. Truth be told, I could never remember which bone I broke, I just remembered it was the bone in your “snuff box”, so I googled it again. I don’t even remember how long I was in a cast. That was a crazy time-my childhood home had all but burned to the ground and my parents were staying in an apartment just down the street from me. My dad was actually the one who took me to the ambulatory center. Anyway, every once in a while when the weather was weird, my wrist would ache a bit, so I would throw a brace on.

As the day went on, the swelling increased. Thinking the brace was too tight, I would take the brace off. My wrist would start hurting more, or Elara needed to be picked up, so I put the brace back on. Then my hand would swell, so I took the brace off…That was the jest of the day-on, off, on, off. You get the idea. Since my wrist would ache for a bit on occasion, I decided to take a wait & watch approach, plus since I don’t drive anymore I needed to make sure someone could take me. Over the next couple days, I noticed the swelling wasn’t really going down (sometimes it was worse) and I had occasional numbness & tingling.

Let’s turn the page here…

Ch-ch-ch-Changes

 Allow me to get caught up.

After completing some mild/moderate renovations on my house, my youngest son & his girlfriend moved in. Then my youngest daughter & her husband moved in. My daughter was about 7-8 months pregnant at the time. There were a few bumps and my son & his girlfriend moved out. My daughter had her baby-my first granddaughter! I started going to a pain management clinic and my health began to decline rapidly. I believe most of that decline was due to some of the procedures I had. I became unable to continue working in any capacity.

I went to visit my oldest son, DIL & grandsons in Texas a couple times. I decided my leg LOVES Texas! The decision to move to Texas was made. We started looking into land & manufactured homes. My son in law was in a car accident that altered our timeline quite a bit. Then, my oldest son got orders for Greece and after some discussion, we decided to rent his house so we could acclimate there & he would have familiar faces taking care of his house.

The quest to transfer my medical care was a bit daunting. I thought I had found a wonderful Primary Care Provider (PCP). She was friendly, appeared to be attentive and the location was easy to access. Things did not go as a anticipated. Many diagnoses were incorrectly coded, scheduling was a nightmare and it was very clear by the incorrect diagnoses, she did not in fact listen. 

I did end up finding a very amazing PCP! While not an M.D. or D.O., he has his doctorate in nursing. As a nurse myself, I know the levels to which nurses assess and plan care. Knowing he has the HIGHEST nursing education one can get gives my great confidence in his skills & knowledge base. He DOES listen. He forms a plan of care with ME & MY GOALS in mind! 

I was then hooked up with most of the specialists I needed. Most went well. Some did not. Texas is a vast state with a LOT of nothing between cities & towns. The city we live in is considered a big city by population. But just to give you an idea of the rural feel: the entire county’s population is only 30,000 higher than the city. Specialists are not easy to come by. The next big city is 2.5 hours away, in Dallas, so you kind of work with what you have-until you can’t.

While we continue to unpack & discover more about or new city, random health issues pop up here & there. Oh, and there was “The Great Texas Freeze”. 

“The Freeze” happened in February 2021. Temperatures dropped to record levels & our power grids went down. (Wikipedia has more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Texas_power_crisis) We ended up having to stay at a hotel as the temperature in the house dropped to around 40°. After 2.5 days, the power was restored & we returned home. Only to find there was a water line that had ruptured. We shut the house water off & were able to find the leak. Luckily it was the line to the refrigerator so we could shut that off, no harm no foul. Until 10 days later when the kitchen ceiling collapsed from the water build up! We rigged a temporary solution until contractors were able to permanently repair everything. 

The big new health issue that came up actually started the end of September 2020 but I didn’t know it. Well, I knew it was something, just not what. (I had a “spot” open up and start bleeding on my right breast) I saw a dermatologist outside our city who determined it was “a skin tag” (basically nothing) but I had a feeling he was wrong. (He was also kind of a jerk but that’s a whole different tale) After being pretty much blown off about it, I decided to ignore it. Found my amazing PCP & decided to take another look. Found a dermatologist in town and made an appointment. Doc prescribed a cream and we made a follow up appointment for a few weeks later. The cream didn’t help, so he took a biopsy (not fun). The biopsy came back as actinic keratosis.

Actinic keratosis is skin damage from sun &/or tanning bed exposure. Since it was on my breast, it most likely was from the year I spent going to a tanning salon. Actinic keratosis (AK) is a form of pre-cancer. While it only turns into cancer about 10% of the time, almost all squamous cell cancers start as AK. So we removed it. It took quite a while for it to heal & I now have a lovely scar.             

                 (PSA:ALWAYS USE SUNSCREEN)

I think that brings us to the next big new health issue, which is where this new journey begins.

Let’s turn the page here

Power With Purpose

 

There have been a few changes. (I mean, it HAS been 4 years!)

Let’s start with the BIG things. 

          I sold my house!

          I moved to Texas!

          My daughter got married & had a daughter!

          

Throughout all those amazing changes, I’ve been challenged health-wise. Moving forward, I have decided to change the course of this blog. My other blog, I Walk (which can be found here: http://iwalkon.blogspot.com/?m=1 ) will also see some new posts relating to the previous topic, CRPS and will mirror this blog. Most of both blogs have been written via memory. With this “re-start”, it will be more live-action (I.e. written closer to the actual day/date things happen)…as soon as I get things caught up that is.

I thought about changing the title – something more…motivational…inspiring…”catchy”…I got stuck & figured I would just leave things as they are. Especially since there are so many other things going on. With that in mind – If YOU can come up with a different name, let’s talk about it! 

For now, that’s the update. Another post bringing things current will follow.

Let’s turn the page here…

Powder Room
1/4 Bath
Toilet & Sink
Potty Palace

Whatever you call it, mine was a mess. 

Dark. Gross pedestal sink. Even grosser toilet. The little powder room, only bathroom on the 1st floor was dank, dismal, dark green - ewww.

See what I mean?

I wanted something similar to the linens I used in my powder room in TN. But I wasn't sure which direction I wanted to go - BLUE or TEAL or something with my new fascination with GREY. I decided to forego the 'paint test' and just match up to my new towel set:

Granted, not a huge fan of the flowery, but I really like the colors.  So I ended up with Shale Grey:

I'm also not a fan of pedestal sinks. Where are you supposed to put things??? The Big Orange had a great price on a cabinet sink so I couldn't pass it up. There was also a light cover issue. The existing ones were gross.  I don't have a photo of the original light covers. I do have one of my new covers but...they're light covers and not very exciting.


On the other hand...Here's the DONE!

Freezer Meals

          Some time ago I started pinning freezer meals. My daughter who lives out of state was going to pre-make/freeze them and send them to me so she would be able to help me in my current physical place. We never could figure out how to ship them though.

           So when my youngest decided she was moving back to TN, we thought all my pins might come in handy.

           I perused through all the pinned meals and came up with ones I would actually eat and came up with these:

Five Cheese Veggie Lasagna (Stouffer's copy)         Broccoli Cheddar Chicken Pasta    
Pot Roast                                                                    Cheesy Garlic Chicken  
Hearty Beef Stew                                                       Garlic Ranch Chicken  
Chili                                                                            Parmesan Chicken  
Pulled Pork                                                                 Loaded Potato Soup
Steak Fajitas                                                               Cauliflower Tots (Side dish)
Twice Baked Potatoes                                                Potato Skins


I waited for a good meat sale as that tends to be the most expensive ingredient. I also picked up a large box of gallon and quart size freezer bags, as well as some multi-use aluminum foil pans.

The night before we were set to cook, I went through all the recipes to determine what needed to be done to what vegetable/meat. In the morning, we put all the ingredients for each recipe into a foil pan & labeled it with the meal name.
                                          

Since my physical ability is limited, my mom came to help my daughter with the prep/cooking. I labeled all the bags. On each bag I wrote:
                                            The Date
                                            The Meal Name
                                             Cooking Instructions

Some of the meals are specifically crock pot meals that serve 4. For those meals, I chose to pre-cook and split them into single (approximately) serve sizes.

All in all, it was about 5 hours of prep/cooking/packaging, excluding the crock pot meal cooking times (we are actually going to finish those up over the next couple days).

All the recipes and a shopping list can be downloaded here:
http://paigeengle.blogspot.com/p/freezer-meal-recipes.html

ENJOY!!!

The 1st room painted

I left things hanging here for a while. Most of the ‘hang’ comes under the scope of my medical issues (I have a different blog covering that – which you can find on the right).

Now, where were we??? Color. Right.

I’m going to go through all the color selections room by room throughout the blog. Mostly because we (okay, my kids) are a) still working on getting things done; 2) trying to get photos with the same angles; and iv) I am making multiple changes in several rooms.

                                                                         The Kitchen

The kitchen is one of the most important rooms in any/every house. Everyone has their own preferred set-up (the triangle thing) and most used appliances. For me, organizing the pantry was a big thing. (http://paigeengle.blogspot.com/2015/01/itsy-bitsy-teeny-tiny-pantry-now-dont.html)

The God-awful color was the first thing I wanted to address, but getting the pantry done was a logistical priority. I knew I wanted something teal-ish but I wasn’t sure exactly. My kitchen at my house in TN was immersed in tans, burnt orange and chocolate. I had purchased an awesome but totally not micro-safe (I didn’t discover that until later) dinnerware set to go with the colors I chose for the décor. I decided I needed to flip that for this adventure. So I set out looking at dinnerware. I came up with this:
                                                   

I love the light pattern that allows both color and neutral (white, black, gray, tan) options. I was already thinking I wanted some gray hue in the family room and halls and my cabinets were white with black countertops, so I focused on color. I mean, who doesn’t like color in the kitchen???

With some color hue in my mind, I set out to the big box store to decide on something more specific. I came home with paint chips and held them up as has been done throughout the history of paint chips. (Of course, I learned my lesson on choosing a color this way, which is covered in another post.) So after a few sample jars and splashing painting a bit on different areas, I landed on Behr Gulf Winds. 

                                                 I think they go together rather nicely, don’t you?

It’s one thing to match up, look nice next to a plate, but what happens on the walls? Let’s see how my color choices turned out:

Here’s the BEFORE

A bit of a different angle, the AFTER               

I think it turned out pretty good!!! We did run into some issues with the ceiling. If you HAVE to hire professionals but are on a limited budget, have the pro’s do the ceilings. It will save a LOT of arguments frustration that way!

Side By Side: (same pics, sorry...my mobility limits my photgraphy)

 

Still need to finish it, but that's coming!!!

What colors YOUR world?

What colors YOUR world?

I have to admit, I fell in love with the new paint color on my old house. I bought that house in 2007 when it was brand spanking new. And ALL khaki. Mind you, khaki is a nice neutral color, I just happen to not like it EVERYWHERE. So the girls and I bought paint. LOTS of paint. And we painted. The kitchen. It wasn't for several more years that we painted again. The dining room. Then, a few years later, after my oldest went away to college and my youngest moved into the 'big' bedroom, I painted a bedroom. A year later, I was preparing my house to put on the market. So everything got painted. All one color. Sherwin Williams Perfect Greige. Awesome color!

That started what I was looking for in my new house. Except, a little different. I like color. I LOVE color. I needed more than one color. There is a little limit to what/how many colors you can paint your house. There is a bit more leeway now then when I was growing up but still, there's a limit. For example, you really shouldn't do something like this:

Bedroom,aka Brittani's room (BEFORE repainting)

Seriously, THAT was on the walls AND ceiling in one of the bedrooms of my new house. My favorite color happens to be purple. I almost had to change my mind after seeing this. Since this is the second largest bedroom (with a walk-in closet) and since Alex is living with his dad and Brittani is a girl, this is Brittani's room. Even if the design was what she had in mind, Brittani is not a purple fan. Her pallet was easy: Grey, Red, Black. The design was determined (hint: it wasn't sponge paint) and they painted. It looks amazing! (pics to follow).

As my daughter did her thing in her room, I poured over paint colors online, collected paint chips, purchased many paint samples (please, do not skip this step...more on paint products coming up). After this drawn out search, I knew one thing: I love purple. 

Okay, I knew two THREE things: I had to have a warm, coordinated color scheme that flowed from room to room and I wanted gray grey light black in there somewhere. In addition, I love purple. 

I did discover some difficulty keeping track of which paint goes in which room. Of course I wrote which room it was going in on the back of each paint chip, but that didn't help much when I had to keep flipping the cards over (simplicity rules). 

I tried putting all my paint chips as my house is laid out but I couldn't keep track very well with everything written on the back and how was I going to do the upstairs? 

1st floor layout

 I ended up getting a piece of cardboard and laying the paint chips out kinda in room order. I covered the entire front with packing tape to keep them in place, then wrote which room on each chip. I ended up with this:

All of the paint is Behr Ultra or Premium Plus, in either an eggshell or satin finish (unless noted). Some of the color names are either difficult to read or covered up, so I'll list them in the order they appear on the cardboard:

Left Side

(top to bottom)

Porpoise

Gulf Winds

Gentle Rain

Weathered Sandstone

Only Natural

Toasted Wheat

Shale Gray

Crepe

Right Side

(top to bottom)

Ancient Stone

Country Club

Silvery Moonlight (Glidden)

Stone Fence

Gray Timber Wolf

French Lilac

*Custom Color based off Old Amethyst

                          Lilac Mauve & an older (unopened) Valspar paint I had left over from TN (bottom 2 colors)                                                                        

The one color that misfired on the walls was the Ancient Stone. On the chip, it was perfect for the hallways. On the walls, it was an odd purple. While I believe we have established I love purple, I did not love purple for my hallway. I was going for an awesome grey gray light black (one of these days I'll figure out how exactly GREY is spelled). Back to the local Big Orange...I ended up with Winds Breath, which turned out perfect. I also ended up using Pewter Mug in the Master bedroom instead of the Gray Timberwolf. Since I never replaced those on the cardboard, here they are:

 

Winds Breath

Pewter Mug

Overall, I think they all turned out quite nicely. I can't wait to show you the finished Before & After's!!!

*** EDIT: A few things I learned with the whole house painting project -
                                 
                                    1) NEVER pay someone to do something you think you can do yourself. I paid for painting services and regret it in every room of my house.
                                    2) If you do pay someone - watch everything they do
                                    3) Don't be afraid to experiment or change your mind
                                 

The Right Write

Is there a wrong write? A left write? Should you write? Will you be left?

The whole situation of suddenly finding myself without future purpose has these questions being tossed about in my mind. There's a whole lot of life that has been lived in my life. A whole lot of love. A whole lot of tears. Many have suggested I write my story. A story. Anyone's story. Everyone's story.

A gaze further at that thought and I'm wondering...should I? What would I say? Would anyone buy it? I mean, would they buy it...as in, believe it?

If you were to pick up a book, what would you be looking to read? Romance? Suspense? Mystery? Sci-Fi? Self help? Famous memoir? The story of someone else's life that you don't know?

That's what I thought...I need a life...

Nevertheless, I decided to write. It starts here: I Walk

Itsy Bitsy Teeny Tiny Pantry

Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE my new house but it has its "needs".  The main thing beyond the usual and customary is the pantry. The pantry is TINY and I mean tiny. Well tiny with huge shelves.  You know, the metal kind that stuff doesn't ever sit right on and big enough that you can't see what's in the back. 

BEFORE

The worst part is - not everything fit, so I was using valuable cabinet space for food storage. Not. Good.  On to the solution!

                     
                     Materials Needed:

• ShelfTrack Brackets - Double or Single track per preference (I used single for this project) $15/track
• Brackets - Double or Single per track requirements & as many as needed for number of shelves & desired depth (I wanted versatility, so I purchased enough for 12 shelves with a 10 inch depth) $2.50/bracket
• Shelves (I purchased 10 inch deep shelves long enough to cut to size) $10/shelf - because I cut them, end result was $2.50 per shelf)
• Spice rack $20

Materials

We started with removing the existing shelving and hardware. Patched the holes and painted the interior.

Then we installed the tracks.  Important note: Be sure to get heavy duty anchors, the shelves will be holding a LOT of weight.  We went with 70# anchors on the top, 50# anchors in the middle and 30# anchors at the bottom. Here's what it looked like at that point:

We then cut the shelves to size. The back width of my pantry is only about 30 inches, so I purchased 72 inch length shelves to get more for my money. As I mentioned, I was going for versatility, so once we had the right length (covering the back wall width), we cut all but 2 shelves in half.

Once all the shelves were cut and placed side by side, it looked like this:

                  

 

NOW I had something to work with!! Notice the slices down the center of the shelves. That was so I could end up with THIS:

  

AFTER - AMAZING!!!

Authors Note: "We" in every project refers mostly to Ivan, who has been my steady assistant through these projects. My design, his work. And NO project would be complete without the awesomeness that is Brittani, to whom ALL organization of the finished project credit goes to. Thank you both so much!

Now, let's take care of that disgusting wall color shall we???

The Laundry Center

Laundry. Ugh. Kind of everyone's thought, right? In reality though, laundry equals job security. Just a thought.

New house, new things, right? Indeed! Since we all can't walk around in dirty clothes all the time, the laundry room was one of my first projects. (Okay, I changed the locks and painted the front door first, but the laundry room was next).

First on the list was a new washer & dryer. I went with the Whirlpool Duet set from Lowes since I had a 10% off coupon in my moving packet from USPS.

I'm short, but still had to bend/squat quite a bit with my old front-load set (which was on a standard pedestal), so after much looking (well notsomuch) I decided I wanted this (which I found on Pinterest)

The Inspiration:

http://ashleemarie.com/new-laundry-room-and-shelf/

I drew out a plan and headed to the tore for materials. We ended up with:

                   A few 2x4's (we got long ones and had the store cut some of them to the sizes we needed)
                   A sturdy plywood board
                   A box of wood screws (long enough to get through the plywood/2x4's)

We needed some of the 2x4's for legs and some for the plywood base. We started off with aligning the legs under the base and screwed the base 2x4's into the wall studs. We slid the legs under and attached them to the base.

 

  

Before adding the plywood to the top, we put another 2x4 through the center for stability

Attaching the plywood to the 2x4's was the easy part. 

 

We hoisted the washer & dryer onto the plywood and VOILA...

 

 Since the dryer vent in the house is on the left (and front loaders need to be positioned with the dryer on the right), I needed to figure out how to get the dryer vent hose from the dryer to the vent.When we were building the pedestal, we made a cut-out in the plywood to feed the vent hose from the dryer to the outside vent going under the pedestal itself.

It is the PERFECT height and I can get those old-fashioned laundry baskets (you know the smaller grungy cheap ones you can get at the dollar store) in the cubbies underneath and my detergents/fabric softeners/garbage can in between. I'm in love with my laundry room!

(Much thanks to Ivan for his building and lifting assistance)

New House - New Stuff

Perhaps due to my knee/leg injury, I decided I needed to move. Perhaps it was my parents getting older. Or maybe it was my youngest son (who had recently moved to TN with me) and his desire to return 'home' to IL. Whatever it was, I cashed in my chips and called it a day.

Moving back to IL has had it's bumps. It's cold. Very cold. There's snow that actually needs to be removed. In TN, it would snow...and it was beautiful! It was also gone by mid-afternoon, so I did not have a need for a shovel or salt or a snow blower. But this is IL. When it snows - it snows!  A trip to the store for a shovel or 2, a snow blower, salt, a receptacle to house the salt, ice scrapers for the vehicles, snow boots, hats, gloves, scarves, thick coats...Pretty sure the cashier must have thought we moved from Hawaii.

More importantly, I BOUGHT A HOUSE! My first house on my own!! A foreclosure with a bit of make-up needed. The first of which was a good cleaning, followed closely by ripping out the carpeting. Since those are tiny things compared to what's ahead, I'm just going to bypass those and start with the good stuff. 

My first thought looking at the exterior of the home was HATING the ugly, faded reddish color of the front door and shutters:

I started with the front door because I could accomplish that myself.  I chose this gorgeous blue:
 

The shutters were a whole other story. How in the hell could I get those the same amazing color as my new front door??? I first looked into replacing them. FAR too much $$$. Prime & paint it is! I enlisted the assistance of my youngest daughter's boyfriend (who is rapidly becoming a member of the family). Here's the transition:

Before

The prime & paint begins

Still priming & painting...

The finished gorgeous!!
(Next up in the spring-cleaning the siding...)

So begins the next blogging adventure...I believe this falls under "Start Anew" (see previous blog)

Begin Again or Start Anew

Whatever you want to call it, here I am!

Quick catch up:

•  I still haven't finished "The Chair"
• I fractured my kneecap Sept. 2013
• Treatment for said fracture caused muscle weakness & nerve damage to my lower leg
• Said muscle weakness caused a meniscus tear
• Surgery for meniscus tear April 2014
• Taken off employee roster (due to extended medical leave) May 2014
• NEW PLAN
• Bought a house in northern IL (it's a bit of a fixer-mostly decorative)
• JUST went "under contract" for house in TN
• Taking my LAST nursing course before the assessment period begins
• Helping my oldest daughter plan her wedding
• EXPECTING GRANDBABY #2 in March 2015 :)
• OMG...Garth is back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Speaking of Garth...Adam's stone is finished. I hate that it is what it is and where it is but IT'S PERFECT! (Thank you http://www.westmemorials.com)
  
   
  

  
• My youngest daughter's boyfriend and I built a pedestal for my new laundry center (watch for tutorial post on that project coming soon!)

I think that's it. I may or may not be starting a new blog on a few things medical...

Chippy Dippy Bars

One of my family favorites. My mom made them all the time when I was growing up. She still makes them when we come to town or brings them when she comes to visit. Mom's 'homesick go-to'. Alex made them for a school project once. Hilarious!

Anyway...here's the recipie:

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted
• 1 (14-ounce) can Sweetened Condensed Milk (NOT evaporated milk)
• 1 cup (6 ounces) butterscotch-flavored chips
• 1 cup (6 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 1/3 cups flaked coconut (this is optional for me, although certain people I have made these for insist on them)

DIRECTIONS

• 1
  Preheat oven to 350° (325° for glass baking pan). In small bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs and butter; mix well. Press crumb mixture firmly on bottom of 13x9-inch baking pan.
• 2
  Pour sweet condensed milk evenly over crumb mixture. Layer evenly with remaining ingredients.
• 3
  Bake 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool. Chill if desired. Cut into bars or diamonds. Store leftovers covered at room temperature.

FAIL

Yup. That about sums today up. Is it too late to add yesterday to that as well?

The chair. Fail, again. I was thisclose to having it done. I decided to sew my favorite tapestry print to a rich plum for the cushion. (The tapestry is the same fabric in the photo, just a different cut) The sizes didn't quite match up right, but I thought "I can make it work." As I laid the fabric over the batting, I knelt on the seat. SNAP! The MDF broke loose from the bottom! Awww...snap!

Not feeling immediate failure, I quickly warmed up the puter and googled to find an answer. Nothing. Nothing matches the style of chair. Nothing matches the 'center hole' that has caused me such trauma. Since the original seat was batting over webbing, I headed to Joann's. Nothing like someone at a craft store telling you to HIRE SOMEONE! Argh! I bought the webbing anyway.

Arriving home, I started on the webbing. Quite ticked now since my day was mostly gone and all I had done was work on The Stupid Chair. (I have re-named it to a more formal-and accurate-name) The webbing was a bit of a joke in itself. Too wide, I folded one part over. Now there's a lumpy spot. I'll probably just pad it a bit more (or less) in that spot.

The day was now gone. Fail.

Today started great! I awoke before anyone else and started getting to my laundry as well as re-organizing my bathroom. *I may have neglected to mention, I quit my job Friday. I am returning to my old job...on night shift. And in the transition, I am picking up a few extra shifts before I officially start.* Then. It happened. Like it does every 6-9 weeks. My sink was clogged. So under the sink I go. I remove the piviot rod. Crap! Now I can't get the stopper out! I slide it back in only enough to remove the stopper. Flashlight? Check. Straightened hanger? Check. No hair! ARGH! Back under the sink. I loosed the P-trap and remove it. Oh...there it is! Well not all of it. I had to remove the main drain pipe. Another clump. Dang...Imma need some Rogain!! All cleared, I reassemble the P-trap and drain pipes...well, after several attempts. 

Happy with my 'job well done', I start cleaning the counter. A good 15 minutes later, my daughter says "You know that's leaking, right?". What?!? No! I did not know that! Back under the sink. I disassemble and re-assemble the pipes again. Ta-Da! Onward. Only this time I tested it first. DANGIT! STILL LEAKING! I promptly initiated 'pissed woman tantrum', throwing everything I had pulled out from under the sink and organized on the floor back under the sink. Screaming the whole time, of course. I decided it was important to take it out on my daughter (who was the one who pointed out the leak, after all). My son came in to her defense. Nevermind. I'm done.

Thirty minutes and 3,000 tears later, my daughter and I forged on in my bathroom. We completely re-organized the cabinet under that sink, my three 'main' drawers and the counter top. Now supply shopping was in order.

Off to the store on Super Bowl Sunday. Yippee! Almost no one on the roads. Nearly empty stores. Shopping went quicker than average but still slower than I would have liked. It was 7:00 pm before we got home. 

I still have 16 pants to iron and 14 shirts. A shower. Drying my hair. Cleaning off my bed. Organizing my scrap stuff. And I'm spent. Fail.

The Chair

I have been struggling with this stupid chair for over a year and a half. I've had it since mid 2005. I bought it on eBay with a vanity when I was 'pre-decorating' my new room. Unfortunately, I don't have a pic of the original. But it was in need of re-upholstering from the start. Then...my daughter sat on it and the webbing disintegrated. She's not a super big girl, the webbing was just that old!                 
                                  
I started with figuring out how to re-do the webbing. Yeah. Not my strong suit. But I forged ahead. I cut my fabric. Padded the hole (now with make-shift webbing). Attached the fabric. It wasn't big enough to cover all the previous 'brad holes'. So I got some ribbon to match my fabric. Duh. ROUND HOLE. I was not going to miter the darn ribbon!  

This was my SECOND result...notice the 'brad holes'???
Now, how to cover those...

I headed to JoAnn's to select something else. The associate was not very helpful, pretty much telling me I needed to totally re-do the whole chair! Not. So I bought more fabric for a do-over.

I took the webbing off and re-examined my options. After finding a round piece of wood at Goodwill, I thought: "I'll just nail that onto the underside and pad it!". The piece wouldn't fit. I tried sanding it down. Fail. I ended up buying a piece of MDF and using my sawsall. Well...my son actually used it :)   I secured it to the underside of the hole. 

Now I was back to the edging of the fabric. Ugh. Back to JoAnn's. More fabric. Back to the drawing board.

Today's project: FINISHING THE CHAIR! (wish me luck)

The "RE"

I LOVE working the weekend! It means I have the next three days off. Which then, of course, means I have a busy three days ahead of me. At least in theory.

Alas, this begins a 'new me'. See, I *used to* spend my 'first day off' lounging...catching up much needed rest for this weary old body. Most of the time it was initiated by my knee. The weather. A VERY long weekend at work. A great episode of SVU. The clock.

I have a great list of things to be accomplished that I absolutely MUST get to. No more distractions (organizing my thoughts by way of this blog doesn't count as a distraction, does it???)

1. Organize the store room
2. Organize the bonus room
3. Organize items to get rid of (sell/donate)
4. Re-organize (again) my closet (add to #3)
5. Re-hang the dining room curtains
6. Install peep hole
7. Re-organize the 'Harry Potter' closet
8. Re-organize kitchen cabinets/drawers
9. Re-organize pantry
10. Re-organize the laundry room (perhaps a total re-do)
11. Paint the family room/closet/stairs/hall/little bath
12. Re-organize my room/bathroom/closet
13. Paint my room/bathroom/closet
14. Re-organize garage
15. Re-do landscape
16. Organize photos
17. Begin scrapbooks
18. Study

Wow. I am seeing a lot of "RE-organizing" on that list! How did we get there? How do we not go there again? That is why I am blogging this. I can't believe I am the only one in 'that place'. So I shall begin.

I am starting with socks. I hate socks. I mostly stopped wearing them because of the whole sorty-matchy thing. I guess I am just obsessive with it. I match the amount of wear. My feet are sensitive. I don't like 'feels' on my feet.

Now...do I post 'before & after' photos? Hmmmm.....