Day 749

Being that the rheumatologist's office is a lot closer to our place in Boise than our place in Marsing I'm hanging out in Boise for a couple days. Just in case. According to the nurse I could have a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction up to 48 hours after the infusion. Better safe than sorry!

It did give me a chance to get late afternoon pictures of the thunderstorm rolling through.

That's black sky behind the tree, not blue sky.

Day 748

I never blog at the exact moment something is happening but today is different.

First of all, I thought I'd be able to talk about my first training session - as an editor - on my uphill climb to being a narrator for the books for the blind. But the gal training me had to cancel so here I am writing about the next scheduled appointment of the day.

I sit in this room.

I sit here in this row of chairs.

Hooked up to this machine. Feet up, blanket covering me, blood pressure cuff on one arm, IV in the other.

Other than the nurse sitting at her computer and the folks, mostly staff members, walking by the room and glancing at with me with a look of pity and forced smiles on their faces, I'm alone. Yet it's not quiet. The noise of the machine pumping the multiple vials of medicine that was injected in the IV compete with the conversations of doctors and nurses and patients in the hallway.

I crossed one of those last lines I drew in the sand. I'm running out of options. I've crossed the steroid line, the chemotherapy line, the pre-filled syringe line, the measuring the medicine and then injecting myself line, the anti-malaria drug line.

Today I crossed the infusion line. I sit here with thousands of dollars entering my veins in the hope of gaining some relief in the rheumatoid arthritis battle. It's a battle I've been losing. But maybe, just maybe...

Day 747

It seemed exciting, it seemed a fun way to keep myself busy. Patterns, patterns, patterns. Except when I hit that imaginary wall today, that one caused by the chemotherapy drugs, it didn't seem so fun and exciting. Seemed like nothing but work. Time to refocus my mind, to concentrate on trying to find some energy. And time to organize patterns.

It will get better! (If I tell myself that enough it eventually will.) Just not today.

Day 746

I started out buying some cheap patterns to get an idea of styles. It's now turned into a little obsession.

Okay, big obsession.

Day 745

My question was going to be moth or butterfly?

I think the more fitting question should be are my blinds dusty or dust-free?

Day 744

My daughter gets on me a lot about her car. She has my old car but it seems every time I see it I keep referring to it as my car. So it was no surprise when I dropped her off that she made a remark about her car. I thought it was her attempt to remind of whose name is on the title.

Nope. It was an attempt to show me that someone else was trying to possess her car.

Day 743

Me + estate sale leftovers from a lady who sewed = the floor of my bedroom in Boise.

 

What was I thinking?

Day 742

I could have kicked myself this morning for not taking a picture. There I was, driving down a busy Boise street on my way to a meeting and came to a dead stop for a couple crossing the road.

A couple of ducks, that it. A male and female, crossing five lanes of traffic at 8:30 in the morning. I should have grabbed my camera then. But the conscientious driver in me decided against it.

No worries, though. As soon as I got back to our house in Boise, guess who was walking down the middle of the street?

Day 741

This afternoon was too important not to get it right. This afternoon, next week, and the week after that and the week after that and the one after that and the one after that. Just too important. I want it too bad. That recording booth is calling my name and I'm going to have to work darn hard to get there.

When I was in elementary school I used to get to help at the school next door. This was when students with special needs were placed in a separate school. Me, the good ole' smart girl, the one who finished my work early - with few mistakes - and always needed more got to go next door to the school and work with deaf students and blind students. I learned sign language; I learned braille.

It was that experience that made me want to teach the deaf when I grew up.

I headed to college, took my undergraduate classes, took sign language classes, all the time knowing I would be a teacher of the deaf. I took a job teaching second grade, knowing someday I would be teaching the deaf. After several years I moved onto teaching fourth grade, knowing someday I would be teaching the deaf. I moved to a position outside the classroom, thinking someday I might teach the deaf.

And now here I am, forty years later since that first thought of what I wanted to be when I grew up and twenty years since I started teaching. I've just recently come to the realization that I won't be teaching the deaf.

But I found a way to bring things full circle and make sure I don't give up on my dream completely.

The Idaho Commission for the Libraries was looking for volunteers for their talking book program. This is a program where written materials are recorded and then distributed to the blind, kind of like a book on tape program.

So today I had my first interview. Being I'm totally inexperienced in a recording booth I'm going to be working my way up the ranks. I will start by editing the recorded materials for a few weeks (or months). Then I get to move up and work with the narrator, editing their spoken word as they go. And then, and only then - and after a voice "audition" - will I be in that booth. Alone in front of the microphone.

Narrating books for the blind.

It might not be teaching the deaf, but I can sure live with it. As close to a dream come true as I will probably ever get. Makes me want to work even harder to get to that booth!

Today's unrelated pic is another quilt top I'm working on for charity. (Obviously for a girl.)

Day 740

Gigante. Spanish for gigantic. Synonyms include giant, huge, enormous, colossal, gargantuan, titanic.

Or we could use my synonyms. Holy moley. Geez whiz. Oh my gosh.

Or as hubby discovered tonight, fork-bender.

The Gigante Burrito on Alejandra's menu. Just compare the size of that burrito to the regular-sized fork in the background. Such a big burrito stuffed full of ground beef, lettuce, tomatoes, beans and rice that the fork bent when hubby was tackling it.

Our second menu item was a freebie from the lunch menu, a cheese enchilada. How do you get a freebie from the lunch menu? It just so happens that Alejandra's has punch cards. Eat nine meals and you get a free item off the lunch menu. Yeah, we never have to pay for lunch menu items.

Day 739

Making a bit more progress on a charity quilt.

Day 738

Wanted: Cat who thinks she deserves to breathe the fresh air on the first day I opened a window.

CAUGHT!

Day 737

I feel a bit guilty that we haven't even started thinking about the garden. Haven't thought about pruning, haven't thought about planting. Haven't thought about the grass or the patio. Haven't even thought about starting to get things out of the shed.

It's a good thing, though. Otherwise the windstorm we had might have carried something high up into one of our trees. Kind of like the big blue tarp way up in the neighbor's tree.

Day 736

I'm typically a keep-it-neat person at work. My desk is organized, my files are color coded. But when I have a gazillion projects going on all at once, my desk reflects that.

Make that a gazillion plus one.

Day 735

I don't know why all the criss-crossing branches in our backyard tree struck my fancy today, but they did.

Day 734

Just when I thought all burritos looked alike and tasted alike, Alejandra's proved me wrong.

Their veggie burrito

Their beef fajita burrito

The combination of the two were as close to burrito heaven as I'll ever get.

Day 733

Why, oh, why do I shop on ebay? Because I can get great kids fabrics for a very cheap price. Just look at the batch that came in the mail today. Cost me less than a dollar a yard. Can't beat that!

Day 732 - Hello Year Three

Today begins Year Three.

Last year when I started Year Two of the blog I had this grand plan that I'd be riding my exercise bike miles every day. Enough miles to add up to a "trip" across the country. Somehow that fizzled out without me even realizing it (or doing much about it).

So here I am beginning another year. No grand plans this years, just some things I know will happen, some things I suspect will happen, some I hope will happen and some I fear will happen.

This year I know I will:

• continue to make more quilts for charity, turtle pillows for charity, and stockings for soldiers.
• begin infusions treatments for rheumatoid arthritis. (Finally approved by insurance, my first one is coming up is March 19.)
• publish at least two more books.

I suspect:

• my daughter will be getting engaged.
• I will move from a part-time worker to a full-time worker.

I hope:

• hubby and I can do some traveling.
• I can get some of this extra weight off.
• I'm able to get my It's Sew Idaho business off the ground - and that it becomes successful.

I fear:

• I am in for a year of additional health problems. I don't know what they are, but I'm starting the year not feeling too good about things. Could be me, could be hubby. Crossing my fingers for everyone to be healthy.

I started on my "I know I will" list today. Have a bit more of a charity quilt together.

Happy beginning of Year Three to us all!

Day 731

I am bummed about what I just realized.

Today is the end of year two of this blog. If you remember, the plan was just to go for 365 days (which turned into 366 because of leap year). Which then turned into year two.

But the bummer part is that after two years - two years of sewing and baking and crafting and going back to work. Of tutorials and coupon shopping and roses and snow. Of a cruise to Alaska and buying a new house in Boise. Of multiple injections and prescription medications and doctors appointments for me. Of hubby losing his mom, of hubby having kidney failure. Of me publishing my first book and our daughter going back to college. And if that wasn't enough - and I wasn't overweight enough - of gaining even more weight with the last several months of steroids.

With all those highs and lows, I feel back to where I started. The doggone rheumatoid arthritis is getting the best of me. Add in flu and sinus infection and bronchitis and a third set of antibiotics that hasn't made me feel much better.

Thank goodness I've documented my life over these last two years because if I hadn't, I could swear I've done nothing and seen nothing. I know my life is better today than two years ago, but right now it sure doesn't feel like it.

Sleep is my number one priority right now. I can't keep my eyes open but for a couple hours or so. I've got to get over this bug so I can get moving on these pieces of quilts tops that need to be put together for charity.

Day 730

Still a sicko here. I was hoping tonight's picture was going to be from the ice hockey game hubby and I were going to. But I had to cancel my attendance, and thankfully daughter's boyfriend is able to go and is taking my spot.

So how do you find something exciting when you feel like a blob of icky-ness? It's hard. My life is being lived in short chunks of time right now. Nap. Get up for a couple of hours. Nap again. Up again. All day long.

So today's picture winds up being of something I see a lot. The curtains I made the other day for the new bedroom in Boise. (I still haven't figured out the whole picture upload so the picture was taken with the iPad, but then I had to take a picture of that picture with my phone!)

Day 729

Who gets to see birds on a power pole everyday?

Me.

Who gets to see sights like this everyday?

Me.

Who doesn't appreciate the beautiful sights around them enough?

Me.

Day 728

Another what does one do day?

What does one do when they stay home from work, not feeling well, and when they go to pick hubby up from school he wants to know what is for dinner?

Stop at Alejandra's on the way home for the Idaho Burrito (on the right) and the spicy Adobada Burrito (on the left). Not that I was all that hungry, but the Adobada burrito got my nose a-runnin'.

Now it's time to kick up the feet and keep watching Emergency! As we've been watching an episode or two (or three) every night for weeks now, we're finally down to the last eight episodes. (I'll be thinking of you, Lisa, as I watch tonight!)

Day 727

What is it that one does after they've had a couple of long days at work and are on their third antibiotic that seems to have side effects that are just as bad as the condition it is trying to treat?

You barely drag yourself to Alejandra's. The next item on the menu was Carnitas Burrito (shredded pork burrito).

We also opted for tonight's special, the chicken fajitas, which were super tasty.

Then you come home, immediately change into your flannel pajamas, sit in your recliner, and watch Emergency episodes on Netflix. Remember that TV show from the 70s featuring John Gage and Roy DeSoto, the paramedics at Station 51? Yeah, I'm obsessed.

Day 726

Step onto your front porch and look to the southeast. See a spectacularly colorful sunrise chock full of yellows, oranges, pinks, and blues.

Drive west on your way to work. See the morning sun casting a bright yellow glow onto the grasses and power poles.

Day 725

I have to figure out a better system of taking pictures in Boise. Yesterday's picture of the clothesline was taken in the usual way - with my digital camera - but I didn't have a cable with me to upload the pictures to the computer. Instead I used my phone to take a picture of the picture screen, then used that photo.

Now we're back in Marsing and I have my pictures uploaded from the camera. Good for me, probably not so good for hubby. When I came back inside from taking pictures yesterday I was quite pleased with the interesting photos I took. But when I told hubby what they were - ice on the headlight and ice on the front bushes, snow on the grass and the clothesline - he gave me the impression that they were quite boring.

I think not. I still think they are interesting.

The clothesline - this time not the phone's picture of the picture:

Snow on the grass:

Ice that had formed on the car's headlight:

Ice on the front shrub:

Inside the car, looking up at the sunroof.

Yep, interesting is the word.

Day 724

When I first saw pictures of this new place in Boise on the realtor website, I knew it would be ours for one big reason.

The clothesline.

If you've been a reader, you know how important a clothesline is to me. And the great thing about this  house is that it has a permanent clothesline, one just like my great grandmother used to have.

But they'll be no hanging up clothes anytime soon as you can see by the line this morning.

Day 723

Still feeling not so well here but we're heading to Boise for the night anyway. Gotta hang up my new miniature wall quilt in my new bedroom!

Day 722

From  the blog seven months ago, July 21:
We heard the word diurese quite a bit today. As far as I can tell that's the medical term for getting rid of excess fluid by going to the bathroom. As in, they are forcing him to diurese. His IV has been cut off, he's on a cardiac/low sodium diet, his Sprite supply has been reduced, and they are adding and even again doubling some medications all in the hopes the fluid will be purged from his system. 

But at this point, the kidneys still have not kicked in. He isn't eating much, he's sleeping most of the time, and he's too weak to get out of bed on his own. They've given up on even helping him to the bathroom. Thankfully he's not in pain, but he certainly isn't well.

With so many unknowns, it's nice I have some knowns right now - my flowers. Coneflowers. I couldn't decide on which picture I liked best so you get them both.

My, how times have changed. Hubby had an appointment with the kidney specialist today. Things are moving right along - in the right direction - and it looks like next week might be his last week of steroids. Finally. What a long haul this has been! 

What hasn't changed since July is my indecision about pictures. Do I go with the one of the Owyhees I took when I picked him up from school? Or do I go with the second one of Bogus Basin, the one I took when we left the kidney specialist's office today? We'll go with both.

Day 721

My daughter has been pushing me to start selling things I make on Etsy. I haven't been too sure of it but I have come up with a name and logo, just in case.

What do you think, number one or number two?

Day 720

Another day of not much to see but the inside of my eyelids.

Did have to get myself upright and dressed to go pick up hubby from school. From the school parking lot I snapped a picture of storm clouds off the Owyhee Mountains. It was either that picture or a picture of my pile(s) of Kleenex at home. Think I made the right choice.

Day 719

Still being sick I'm not doing much but sleeping these days. I did manage to dig out some little blocks I had tucked away. I was hoping I could get a table runner out of them but it looks like a miniature wall quilt might be a better choice.

Day 718

And tonight's feature is a Marsing sunset.

Day 717

I'm happy to say the sunsets out the window of our new house in Boise are just as pretty as sunsets out the window of our house in Marsing. This is Boise.

Day 716

I learned a few months back that I could put my teeny tiny fabric scraps to use. A quilt shop in Boise collects pet beds for the shelter. Two pieces of square fabric, filled with extra batting and strips and squares and all those little triangle and clipped off pieces of fabric that are just too small to do anything with. I've made several of them so far.

But now I've made a bigger pet bed, one stuffed with fiberfill instead, a bed in a specific color at the request of the owner.

The owner? Our daughter. The animal? Her new cat.

Petri, a girl cat. One of the Valentine's presents from daughter's boyfriend. 

Their task - baby kitty proof their apartment. My task - make a baby kitty bed.

Day 715

Hope everyone is having a good Valentine's Day. Kinda of a bummer here being sick - the best we can do is a frozen pizza.

There was a little highlight in my day. Fish and duck related fabric I won the other day on ebay arrived. It'll be a good fit for quilts for those little boys who live in Alaska with dads stationed far away from home.

Day 714

Yesterday was double excitement day. Thanks to the doctor, today became double trouble day.

Sinus infection. Bronchitis. Two different antibiotics and an inhaler. Lots of fluids and rest. Thanks, doc (I say in a sarcastic voice).

Thank you morning sunrise (I say in a non-sarcastic voice).