Injections!

Happy Tuesday morning everyone! I just got home from getting eight injections in my back. I was told the pain relief can last, (choose one), not at all, 7 to 10 days or up to three months.  They have no way of knowing. All I know is that those eight injections in the muscle really, really hurt! I really don’t want to go through this very often. I was told they can do the shots every 3 to 4 weeks. Oh boy!

I’m going to try once again to add a photo and we’ll see if it works today. If no photo shows up you’ll know it did not work. Connie, The blog “Far side of fifty,” over on my side bar, said that the problem came from a change google made about a week ago.  Since this is a paid for app that I use, I emailed the administrator but have gotten no answer. So here goes, I will try another photo and see if they fixed it yet.

One of the blankets I made last week for the Babies of Homelessness charity in Seattle.

But, even if this didn’t work I’m not going to lose hope. Because you know what my wonderful husband did? He asked me if I would please stay home yesterday because he had an important package that would be arriving from UPS.  When the package arrived it had my name on it! I called him at work and he said he didn’t know what it could be so to go ahead and open it. He had bought me a MacBook Air for my birthday which is February 1!!!! We rarely buy each other birthday presents. We’ve been married so long, birthdays, etc. are not big deals anymore. In fact, his birthday was January 9 and I didn’t get him anything. Boy, do I feel bad now!

Now, I know some of you use MacBooks to blog with, especially my dear friend Teresa Kasner. So I know I’ll be able to ask people to help me when I have problems. And the problems have already begun. Apple makes an appointment with you online to have a technician help you set up your computer. The technician called me at 1:45 yesterday afternoon and we hung up just before 5:00. I had six different technicians as they kept escalating the calls because of issues with the computer. Would you believe there is a software glitch in my new computer? We couldn’t get past the first set up screen. Dennis had to send it back this morning.  They were all very nice though, and a nice lady even offered to send me a hard case for the computer for free because of the inconvenience. 

You know, I didn’t even know I was getting the computer and today I’m frustrated because I had to send it back. Isn’t that hilarious!?  I’m so spoiled.

We are expecting 3 to 5 inches of snow beginning this afternoon. Do you all remember how worried I was about driving to the doctor this morning, up the hill in the snow? The time for the storm to begin kept getting pushed back further and further. I am so thankful that it’s not starting until later in the day.

OK, I’m going to push the button on this post and see if the one photo that I posted actually worked. If so I’ll do another one soon showing the pictures from last week. I hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday. 

“ Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the Heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”  James 1:17

*** edit it to add, it worked! Hallelujah!!!***

Many blessings, Betsy

Foggy Thursday.

I have been trying to publish this blog post since early yesterday morning. I had several photos to share with you as you’ll be able to tell by reading, but blogger will no longer let me publish photos. When I followed the link it provided, it says  blogger no longer supports picasa as of January 12. I have no idea how to not use picasa because I didn’t know I was using picasa! I simply go to my photo gallery, choose a photo, and it publishes it. Once again, blogger has stumped me. If anybody has any idea what I can do would you please help!?  I spent hours upon hours yesterday trying to fix this problem and I couldn’t figure it out. After reading the post you will see how frustrating it is and how I feel without photos there’s no point in me even blogging anymore. So much of my blog is showing you the projects that I’m working on.

Now, onto yesterday’s post. :-)

It’s another rainy, soggy day here in Spokane but I’ll take it! It’s not that white stuff, so I’m not complaining. It’s nice and cozy inside the house and I believe I will stay here all day. It was below freezing this morning and the rain was actually ice on the roadways. Dennis said it was a pretty slippery commute, but he made it to work safely.

Of course snow is predicted next Tuesday morning for the first time in several weeks. That is the morning I have to drive up to the top of the hill to get the injection in my back. Of course. I would appreciate prayers that morning for any of you that think about it. Since I quit working I’ve become a huge wimp when it comes to driving in the snow and ice, and I prefer to just stay home when I can.

I have a few projects to show you this morning. The first one is the corner to corner crochet blanket that I showed you last Friday. I finished it a couple of days ago.  It hasn’t been washed and black yet so it’s a little crooked, but that will all even out afterward.

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This will be donated to either the Crisis Nursery or Babies of Homelessness in Seattle, as willl the next one that I started last night.

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It’s just a simple ripple.  I’m still trying to use up some of my scraps.  I think they are multiplying in the basket at night like manna in the desert, after I go to bed. I seriously think I have just as much as I did when I started the first blanket! I haven’t crocheted a ripple in a long time and I’m enjoying this. It’s about 36 inches wide and I’m just using the colors randomly as I reach into the basket.  I forgot how quickly the double crochet ripples work up.  This is about three hours of crocheting yesterday evening while I waited for Dennis to get home from a meeting.

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I haven’t worked on this since Sunday afternoon because the lighting has been so bad and these old eyes need good lighting to do Crosstitch anymore. I forgot how much of a difference the outline detail makes. That is another angel on the left and there will be another one on the right. Look at the difference in the detailing from the one on the left with no outlining and the one on the right. I really am enjoying this again.

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A closer look at the completed angel. Sorry about all of the wrinkles, that’s what happens when you have the project in a hoop.

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The table under the TV is back to normal after the Christmas decorations went away. I have Kyleigh and Caleb‘s face’s covered because they prefer for them not to be online. But there is Miss Piper and Kale and Hayden. Also our sweet Chloe front and center. We received the beautiful sign from Neal and Jenny as part of our Christmas gift from them and I like to leave some snowman out throughout the winter. Dennis bought me the one on the left for two dollars at an after Christmas sale. He is about 9 inches tall and I think he is very handsome.  I know that you’re supposed to try to cover up that cord from the television, but honestly, it really doesn’t bother us that much. A fancy decorator, I am not.

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The kitchen island has a welcome sign from the dollar store, along with some of my crocheted snowflakes. Sorry about the angle and the crookedness of this picture, but I was trying to get a picture without too much of a glare. I’m not sure I succeeded. Ha!

I still have the same pair of socks in my carry-along bag that I’ve been working on for about two months now. I need to get cracking on them, but I’m really enjoying these crochet blankets! I’m also putting a square on my nine patch block every few days. How are things with you? I know some parts of the country are getting slammed with snow this weekend. I hope you are all safe and warm. 

“For every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the Heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”  James 1:17

Many blessings, Betsy

Foggy Friday

When I woke up this morning I couldn’t even see across the street. But that’s better than the freezing rain we had all day Tuesday. I didn’t leave the house at all that day. It’s a little better now. I can make out the windows of the house directly across from us! It’s been a quiet week. I’ve just been doing physical therapy and pretty much hibernating at home. I love to be home this time of year.  Definitely a homebody and I always have been. Just ask my sister. Melanie? I know you’re reading this. Even as a little girl I preferred staying home over going anywhere. So it is a little strange that I love to travel so much. Given the choice of shopping, taking a walk or going out to dinner, I will always choose to stay home. But if it means getting on a plane and going to London or Japan or to the Oregon coast I’m all in! Sounds crazy doesn’t it?

I just can’t get my heart into the Mystical Lanterns blanket. After talking to Dennis about it, I think I agree with him that it’s just too busy with all of the colors. He said he thinks it would be prettier with a cream color yarn and another color, like sage green. I tend to agree with him, so I’ve stopped working on that blanket and I started this one to use my scraps.

It’s just a crochet corner to corner blanket and I’m enjoying it. Very mindless crochet for me. But even that hasn’t been able to keep my interest going because I started this two days ago.

My love of cross-stitch has not diminished, I just have to use fabric with bigger squares to the inch! These old eyes don’t like those tiny squares anymore. I ordered a booklet from Amazon that has 50 Christmas designs. I had intended to use it to make some Christmas ornaments for gifts next year and get an early start on them, but when I saw the angels in the book I decided to make something for myself first. This is the center angel and I’m planning to make two on either side of her. Then maybe I will make this into a pillow. That will make it easier to store and I won’t have to find a place to hang it on the wall.  She’s not quite finished, but I have sure enjoyed working on it over the last couple of days.

This is the brochure with just some of the designs. Aren’t they the cutest?

I did start another nine patch square.  It’s easy to pick up and put down.

I received this beautiful handmade card from a dear blog friend name Shaz who lives in Australia. You can find her over on my side bar as “Calligraphy Cards-Shaz in Oz.”  She makes the most beautiful cards for all occasions. Paper crafts are not a talent that I have and I’m always a bit amazed when I see the beautiful things that she creates.  She embosses, (did I even spell that correctly?), these beautiful stars onto the card stock and makes the little sheep and colors the cut outs and makes those perforations on the borders. I have no idea how any of it’s done, but I am very happy to have received this beautiful card.  Thank you Shaz!

These are all of the beautiful Christmas cards Dennis and I received this year. I love to leave them hanging up until the end of January every year where I can look at them and enjoy them. Then I take them down and put them in a pile and every day when I do my devotion, I choose the top card in the pile and I pray for that person and their family. Then it goes under the bottom of the pile and I rotate through them throughout the year. I love doing this because then I get a chance to look at the beautiful cards several times throughout the year, and also a chance to remember each of these dear people in prayer.  So if you have sent me a card, know that I will be thinking of you and praying for you and they won’t be thrown away until a new batch comes in next year. And even then, some of the more beautiful ones get kept and put in a scrapbook or framed.

Do any of you display cards that you receive?  Dennis turned 63 on Wednesday and we like to put the cards on the table out to enjoy for a week or two after our birthdays, anniversary, etc.  That lime green one is from Miss Piper and is extra special.  It even says “Papa” on it and that’s what she calls him.

Well this is a much longer post than I intended to write so I’m going to stop there. I have some laundry to fold and some other things to get finished this afternoon. I hope you’re all having a wonderful Friday and have some fun things planned for the weekend. 

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” 1 John 5:14

Many blessings, Betsy