It is after midnight on Friday, the 18th. I can't seem to get to sleep. Bill is in Maryland, being with Bryce while his mother is at the hospital with her husband.  SIL has been transferred to Johns Hopkins. His vital signs are all good. His blood oxygen level is very low. He is still very weak and lethargic.A CT showed a lot of congestion in the lungs and his oncology team wanted him where they are. He was transferred this evening. He sees the oncologist first thing in the morning and a bronchial specialist after that. Hopefully, they will find the cure for what is going on in his lungs. The scare about the mortality rate for people in his particular drug trial hangs over us all. Sorry to be so down, but it is where I am these days.

January

My last post was at the end of November.

Life has been a little hectic since then. My son-in-law is in the hospital for the second time since then. At Christmas, he was admitted because he had pneumonia and the doctors were afraid that his chemo-treated body wasn't responding properly. Well, he managed to get back from that, but hasn't made it back to work yet. Over the week-end, he was readmitted with a temperature of 103, and a blood pressure of 80/50. Three pints of blood later, his blood pressure is back up enough to make the doctors happy, his temperature is responding to the antibiotics - slowly, but responding. The bad part is that he appears to have given up...he is asking his wife to start making funeral plans. We are all hoping that as the fever recedes and the blood pressure returns to normal he will regain his zest for life. I think that and his desire to see their son graduate from high school are what has kept him going these 32 months since his diagnosis. Their son is, so far at least, handling his father's illness well.

They have many friends who jump right in to help out with taking care of the son ... getting him to and from practice, making sure he has a good dinner if our daughter has to work ... We think of them as part of God's blessing on the family.

If you have an inclination to do so, please send prayers, good thoughts, good vibes ... whatever you can. I personally feel that prayer helps.

I didn't post on Tuesday because I had my stitch group here and by the time everyone had gone home, I was tired. I made soup and salad along with a gingerbread cake with limoncello hard sauce. I managed to injure a toe ... swollen, purple, and hard to get shoes on ... the day before Thanksgiving. It is still a bit swollen, and shoes aren't a big treat. So, as you can imagine, I was awfully glad to take my shoes off that night.

Thanksgiving was a special treat this year. As usual, my sister-in-law hosted. But, the difference this year was that both my son and my daughter (along with their families) managed to make it this year. Jon and his family usually head to Ocracoke for the week, returning home after Thanksgiving. This year, Barbara had to be at work on Friday evening, so they stopped in on the way home. It was a nice treat.

Speaking of my son's family, the afghan for Meri is complete. Finally. Here are the final letters, and a view of the end of the project.
 I think that xylophone is the greatest! Very, very colorful.
I finished just in time to get it packed and shipped.

It is the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. We have a lot to be thankful for this year. Our son-in-law continues his fight against cancer. He is currently between treatments due to a lung infection. Our son and his wife presented us with a new grandchild in June [our fifth]. Our children and their children are well and healthy.
We are also in pretty good shape. My carpal problems have gone away [knock on wood] and my arthritis is taking a break. Bill's back continues to be a minor annoyance ... it is minor because he is learning to NOT do things that set it off and to wear his support belt.

The afghan for Meri is almost done. Just a few more squares remain ... well, and putting her name on it somewhere.

S is for Shamrock. T is for Turtle. U is for Umbrella - I changed the colors on the umbrella ... it called for red, orange, purple. i didn't like the orange in the middle, so I made it light blue. V is for Violin.

W, X, Y and Z remain.

The stitch group is taking today off so everyone can prepare for Thanksgiving Dinner. I don't have to cook the turkey this year. My sister-in-law and her boyfriend are taking care of that. I am to bring a salad and an appetizer. There are lots and lots of allergies in the family, so the salad is tricky. I think I will bring a broccoli salad ... no nuts, no fruits ... just broccoli, onion, celery, sunflower seed kernels and a dressing. I'm thinking about a shrimp mousse for the appetizer. A little work for a lot of goodness.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

The stitch group was back in a 'normal' mode today. No party! It sure felt different. Our hostess tried to make up for it, though. She had a jello salad; two different kinds of scones with strawberry jelly to go with them; two kinds of cheese and assorted crackers; and two different kinds of nuts [one seasoned with herbs and the other with garlic and both from Estonia. And that was before dessert ... she had a fabulous pound cake with raspberry ice cream to top it, three or four kinds of candy including a very dark chocolate from Estonia  I am still full. Poor Bill, he may have to have pbj for dinner.

Kaethe brought the last of my ornaments today. As always, they are beautifully done. The little girl with the baton is for Becca, in honor of all her first place finishes at the Nationals. (I had originally stitched it in a very pale but very pink ... her mom saw it and suggested any color but that pink would be better because Becca currently 'hates' that shade. Oh, well, it was smallish. It is now a deep raspberry.) The Karate Kid is for Xander. He earned his Blue Belt this fall.

Thanksgiving is looming. The kids from Long Island are traveling down to Ocracoke by way of Centreville. A bit of a detour, but we will take care of their dogs while they are gone. They have to come back early this year because Barb has to be home to work Friday night. So they will spend Thanksgiving day traveling back here. If they make it early enough in the day, they will head on over to my sister-in-law's for dinner. She is the hostess this year. She has given out assignments. None of this pot luck business. She knows what she wants each of us to bring... I was assigned an appetizer and a salad. For some reason she thinks I make good salads. They tend to be a challenge because of all of the food allergies in the family ... fresh fruits, most nuts, mushrooms, some vinegars ... does make a selection hard, but I think I will go with a broccoli salad with sunflower seeds for the salad, and probably a brie with almonds and cherries that is not heated, but served chilly - not terrifically cold but colder than room temperature.

Yesterday was Election Day. I am sorry to say that my party of choice lost big time, except for one saving grace. We did manage to re-elect our congressman, Frank Wolf.

Yesterday was also my stitch group's party for an 80th Birthday. A few of us couldn't make it, but we had a very nice turnout. That meant that we had more food than was needed, as usual. We all bring a dish for the potluck and most of us bring a larger dish than necessary - no I am not complaining, just commenting. I brought an Waldorf Salad that used almonds instead of the usual walnut because one of our members can't eat walnuts. As usual, it was all delicious.

I continue to plod through the afghan. The end is in sight.

A cute little necklace

An adorable octopus

Petunia Pig

Quilt .... guess they couldn'r draw a quail

The rabbit required a color decision. It is only one space from the pink pig and the chart asked me to stitch a pink rabbit. Not only was it too close to the pink pig, but, even more importantly, I don't do bright pink rabbits. So, I had to change the bunny's color. I started with white ... couldn't see it against the afghan color. Then I was going to make it black - like the rabbit I had as a kid - way way way too dark. I ended up with the brown and now I don't know why I thought I had to mess around with the white and the black at all.

Our son and his family will be coming down near Thanksgiving. They are supposed to celebrate Thanksgiving with his wife's family on Ocracoke Island. But, she works at Kohl's and Kohl's has a policy that all employees will work the day after Thanksgiving. So they will show up here late Friday night before Thanksgiving, spend the night and Saturday. Then they head for Ocracoke where they will have an early Thanksgiving and be back here to pick up their dogs before heading home on Thanksgiving day. A lot of driving for them, but they enjoy the time at Ocracoke, so it is worth it.

Sandy Passed Us By ... Thanks Sandy

Well, it is Tuesday morning, about 10 am. Sandy apparently has come and gone. We never lost power. Not even a flicker. But, we had a lot of rain ... too much for our leaky basement. Bill has had to vacuum up the water several times. The waterproofers don't get here until tomorrow. <sigh>

I was supposed to host my stitch group today. I cancelled because the weather gurus were predicting hurricane force winds and extremely heavy rains for today. Right now ... no rain, no wind. Go figure.

I had planned a spinach salad with curried pecans, pears, red onions and a cider vinaigrette dressing. We will have some tonight, along with the pumpkin soup I had planned. I didn't make the dessert, though. When our son and his family come by around Thanksgiving, I will do the Butterscotch Tiramisu Cheesecake.

I got three of the six ornaments back from the finisher. I think she did a good job ... The one with the baseball mitt is for my grandson Bryce .. she put an ultrasuede back on it that looks like a baseball glove leather. The Girl Scout ornament for Eme has a white back and the little mitten for Meri has a blue ultrasuede that picks up the blue in the cuff.

I was planning to work on some additional ornaments while not stitching on the afghan, but something got in the way. Instead, I started my three part mystery by Brenda Gervais. I have a little of the border done and most of the alphabet. I'd post a picture, but I can't seem to get enough light on it today, and when I use a flash, the light bounces in a very peculiar manner. Maybe when the cloud cover moves on I can try again.

If it is rainy and windy in your direction, take care.