Introducing Daisy Mae!

We did it! We brought Daisy home last Thursday. Since she was still snotty and sneezy, we set her up in the isolation room with a vaporizer and a space heater for extra warmth. She also had all the ammenities...water, food, litter box, toys, and warm bedding. She settled in very nicely and ate within the first 30 mins of bringing her home. We also immediately started her on our wellness plan. We feed grain-free canned food and mix in some plain canned pumpkin (to keep things moving), 1/4 t of Missing Link veterinary formula (vitamin supplement), an antihistamine (when needed), L-Lysine (this helps stop the replication of the herpes virus and supports a better immune system), and some evening primrose oil drops (helps with nasal inflammation caused by allergies). She ate her first wet food serving like a champ! We feed wet food twice a day, morning and evening. We supplement with dry food (also grain free), but the bulk of their calories come from the wet food.

On Sunday, we began introducing Hannah and Tumbles to Daisy. We put Daisy in the huge dog crate we have and let the kitties come in and roam. That way, Daisy stays safe, yet the others can see her, smell her and wander around in "her" room. Tumbles did slo-mo kitty through the whole room and Hannah hissed and told her off! LOL We did this a few times a day on Sunday. On Monday, we closed off part of the house and let her roam outside of the room. On Tuesday, we did the same thing. Yesterday, after we came back from the vet with Daisy, we just let her roam the house. They all did great! We did put her in "her" room overnight last night and let her out first thing this morning. Today, she's found a few new sleeping spots and everything's gone well. A few hisses, which is to be expected, but we're making progress.

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Picked Up an Old Friend This Week

Way back in July of last year, I started this piece when I took Mark to the ER for the second time and knew he would be staying for longer than an overnight stay. However, after I got as far along as in the pic above, I realized I was one thread off and it was driving me crazy. So much so, that I was making many mistakes. I put it down, then decided I'd start all over again and frog everything that I'd stitched. I plucked out all of the blue and the red, decided I was tired of that and started stitching again, this time on the correct thread. I'd done a bit of the blue when I last stitched on it. Knowing I was going to be doing a lot of sitting in the waiting room at the hospital on Monday while Mark had his procedure, I took it along to work on. This is how far I got with it.

The white still needs to be taken out, but I'll do that when I get to it!

This past Monday, Mark had a defibrillator implanted in his chest due to congestive heart failure, a weak heart, and tachycardia (fast heart rate). He did great during the procedure and I brought him home on Tuesday. He has some limitations, but currently he's vacuuming the house. The defibrillator doesn't really help his heart work any better or more efficiently. It really helps if his heart rate gets up over a certain number of beats per second. It will send an electrical shock to his heart to try to get it back into a normal rhythm. If that doesn't work, then it will shock him (like you see with an external defibrillator on TV). Also, if he were to go into cardiac arrest, it would shock his heart back to life. If you'd like to read more, you can get some really good information from the Heart Rhythm Society.

In other news, we are picking up our new kitty tonight!! She's still sick and will have to be isolated from our other cats, but she'll be fine. I've already scheduled a vet visit for her next Wednesday for a wellness exam as well as a follow up on her upper respiratory infection. I can't wait to bring her home and get her on the road to good health!

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A Little Bit of Progress Made

I've been stitching on my Quaker Friendship Sampler during my lunchtime for the past couple of weeks. While I don't get a lot of time to stitch during lunch, maybe 15-20 mins, I enjoy it. It helps me de-stress from all the hectic activity at work. I also get to see a bit of progress. Even stitching for 15 mins a day brings me one stitch closer to a finish. I also worked on this last Saturday evening.

Sorry for the crummy picture, but my picture editing software wouldn't let me crop it. Also, my scanner isn't big enough to scan the whole thing in one scan, so I had to "stitch" it together.

For those of you who may be interested in this chart and my conversions (thanks to Jan at Tree of Life Samplings and Belfonte Notes). I am stitching this on 32 count Mockingbird linen which is a nice deep brown color, from R&R Reproductions. The design can be stitched in one color, or it has a suggested color palette. I am using Crescent Colours cottons. Here are my conversions:

DMC ----> Crescent Colours
840 Wild Oats (I started off with Country Lane but it was too dark for my fabric.)
931 Blue Beadboard
729 Tufted Yellow
223 Secondhand Rose
3041 Fleur de Lilac
3363 Dandelion Stem
3799 Rod & Reel

In other news, the husband's heart continues to do weird things. We thought he was doing okay, but his heart rate skyrockets to unsafe levels when he does anything strenuous or tries to work out. Husband already wears a device that tells him his heart rate, so when it gets too high, he stops what he's doing, but because of the high heart rate, he could suffer sudden cardiac arrest and possibly die. We went to see a second cardiologist this past Thursday. This guy specializes in electrophysiology (the electrical function of the heart) and arrhythmias (irregular heart beats). Looking over Husband's files and talking with the husband, this doctor also confirmed that Husband needs an implanted defibrillator. In addition to acting as a defibrillator, the device also acts as a pacemaker and will send electric impulses to the heart if it starts beating too quickly. Tomorrow afternoon, I will take Husband to the hospital for the procedure to implant the defibrillator in his chest. He will need to stay overnight for monitoring and then I'll pick him up on Tuesday. Hopefully, this device will enable him to feel better and return to a more productive life.

The other bit of excitement in our home is that Husband finally agreed to adding another kitty to our family! I've only been pestering him for a year!! After looking for several weeks on Petfinder, I found a cute little tortie girl (finally!) a couple of weeks ago. I emailed back and forth with her foster mom for several days and then we went to meet her this past Monday. She was a TOTAL love bug!! I held her up to my chest and she put her paws up on my shoulder, gave me tons of headbutts and chin rubs, and purred and purred and purred. While we talked, if she heard a strange noise outside of the room, she would run and jump up on the bench next to me to "hide". Her foster mom was very impressed that the kitty took to us so quickly. Coming soon to our home is this little cutie!!



Unfortunately, we haven't been able to bring her home because she's got a little upper respiratory infection. :{ When we saw her on Monday, she was sneezing and had a bit of congestion, but her foster mom has been taking great care of her. She's on antibiotics and will go back to the vet on Tuesday for a re-evaluation as she's still a bit congested. We've told the foster mom that we're willing to bring her home if she's still congested but not sneezing. Due to Hannah's herpes, we have to be careful with any sickness, but as long as this little girl isn't contagious, we should be okay. We've been through so many upper respiratory infections with Hannah that this should be nothing major. Her name is tentatively "Daisy", but that's subject to change.

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Dusting Off the Ol' Blog

I have spent the past couple of months trying to catch my breath from all the "stuff" that has happened in my life the past year. Sometimes life can just be so overwhelming! Since the end of November, 2010, the following things have happened in my life:

*My truck was stolen from my driveway.
*My grandmother passed away.
*We had to put my beloved kitty to sleep due to chronic renal failure.
*My husband was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and had triple bypass surgery. A follow-up to the cardiologist had a not so good prognosis, so we are dealing with that as well.
*The Christmas shopping season at work has come and gone and I survived

The last thing has consumed my life since April. On a good note, the husband has completed his cardiac rehab sessions (36 of those puppies, 3 times a week for 12 weeks) with perfect attendance. He now goes to the same place for 'workout sessions' as many times a month as he wants. It's much less expensive than a gym or health club, too!

During this time, I really had no desire to stitch. I'm working on getting back in the stitching groove, though. I've decided to work on my Quaker Friendship Sampler.


I realized as I was putting this piece in the q-snaps that including the current medallion I'm working on, I only have 7 medallions left until it's completed!! I can do it! I can do it!! I definitely want to finish this piece, this year.


The kitties enjoying the sun on New Year's Day! What a wonderful way to welcome in the new year!

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The Problem With Butterfly Friendly Plants

You might end up with these feasting on your plants:





Apparently, some little Gulf Fritillary butterfly found favor with my passiflora foetida (passionflower) and laid her egss on it! The plant is now covered with larvae in various stages, so maybe I'll get some butterflies out of it!

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The Flowers are Blooming, The Birds are Singing, and Rain!

Aren't the sunflowers and crows pretty?? I pulled out Sunflower Garden Sampler to work on while sitting in the waiting room during hubby's cardiac rehab sessions. I'm guaranteed at least three hours of stitching time a week while waiting. This is my first larger PS design, and I'm loving it! Not sure why it's taken me so long to get back to it.

I have also been working on getting caught up on my iStitch Mystery SAL piece. This is parts 1-4 and it's a very relaxing, peaceful stitch. I started part 5 while sitting at the imagining place this afternoon. Had to go do my part to support breast cancer awareness. ;) I got a lovely parting gift, too! LOL

We were fortunate to see some rain Saturday night into Sunday morning. It started raining early Saturday evening and continued all night long until about 11AM on Sunday. It was heavenly!! We received about 5" of rain total. There are some places to our west, where the wildfires have been prevalent, that got even more rain than we did. We'll take all we can get! My plants certainly appreciated all the rain we got.

As I mentioned previously, my hubby has started cardiac rehab. He goes 3 times a week for 12 weeks. Each session lasts about an hour and he is connected to a heart monitor. He does various cardiac exercises. Since he's connected to the monitor, if his heart rate gets too high or they notice something on the EKG, he is slowed down or stopped. One day last week, he had some kind of extra wave on his EKG while walking on the treadmill, but not on any other of the machines. They showed him the irregularity and mentioned it could be from pain. They've been watching it ever since, but he's not had any more. On Day 3 of rehab, they increased the intensity of his workout. I think that's a pretty good sign. Saturday, his cardiac rehab consisted of mowing the yard. The nurses fussed at him about that today! LOL I know he's feeling better, especially since we figured out what medication was causing the horrible rash. The doctor has taken him off that and put him on a different med. So far, so good!!

Until next time, happy stitching!!

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My House is Built!

I've not picked up my needle once in the past week, but this is an update on my progress on "Blessed are the Merciful" by Little House Needleworks. Working full-time, coming home to take care of all the household chores and the husband, and making sure the kitties are fed has left me exhausted and worn out. All I want to do is sleep! I'm sure part of it is also hormonal.

The husband is recovering nicely. He's been released from the surgeon with permission to resume driving in 4 more weeks and his cardiologist has signed him up for cardiac rehab with instructions to come back in 3 months. We go to his initial visit at cardiac rehab this coming week. All they will do this week is paperwork, insurance stuff, a stress test, tour of the facility, and set up appointments. The only real pain Hubs is still experiencing is pain in his left pectoral muscle. If he takes pain meds, he breaks out in a very itchy rash so the strongest thing he can take for pain is Tylenol. Living with a grumpy man who doesn't feel well is not my cup of tea, but I know that this will soon pass and he'll be back to his normal self. At least I hope so! We went to Sam's today and he did very well. He walked about half of the store and only had to sit down once we got to the check out, so I think he's doing pretty good.

Friday evening shortly after I got home from work, it started to rain!! It was such a nice, gentle rain with no hail or high winds. We haven't had any measurable rain in my part of Texas since late June/early July. Half the state is on fire and all of the state is in a severe drought. We are under water usage restrictions and can only water twice a week. The rain was a very welcome visitor on Friday night!

Even with the rain restrictions, my plants are continuing to do well. The two volunteer watermelon plants that sprang up have overtaken the garden plot. I have several baby melons. Looking forward to harvesting before the first freeze.

The pink hurricane lilies showed up right around Labor Day. I love these things! I haven't seen the red ones yet, though. I hope I haven't lost them due to the heat and dry weather. :(

Pretty Miss Hannah enjoying the morning sun in our spare bedroom. I love this sweet little girly cat!

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