David's Birthday Present...in progress

I'm making my brother a Dr. Who scarf for his birthday in Sep.  Here's my progress so far.

Halloween Nails

OK try to imagine this as I describe it because the girls in the house were cracking up when all this was going on.

Sara and I decided that she was going to paint our fingernails for Halloween so a few days ago we bought some nail polish while we were at Walmart. Early this morning around midnight, Sara came into my room to do my nails.  So we're sitting there talking about what designs she could do while she's removing the old nail polish, and we decide that we need more colors...in particular, we wanted black.  My hubby overhears this and says, "I'll go to Walmart and get your nail polish."

Off he goes at midnight in a t-shirt and his pajama pants with a list of 5 different colors to get.

Well women should know better than to send an analytical man to buy nail polish!

He calls on the phone...

Him:  "What shade of blue?"

Us:  "Something dark like a midnight blue."

Him:  "I don't see anything called midnight blue...here go this this website and look at their colors and tell me which ones you want."

Us:  "We trust you, just get a dark blue."

Him:  "Can't you look at the website?"

Us (after looking at the website):  "They don't show all the colors so just get a dark blue."

Him:  "Well I can't find any black or green."

Us:  "There was a display right there in the main aisle the other day with all kinds of crazy colors.  Did you look there?"

Him:  "Where?"

Us:  "Right there in the main aisle by the nail polish."

Him (after finally finding the display):  "Still don't see green or black."

Us:  "OK go to the Halloween aisles right across from the cash registers...there was some there."

Him:  "That area is blocked off because they're polishing the floor.  Wait, I'll just go down the aisle, get up out of this electric cart, and stick my head aroud the end of the aisle to get to it."

Us:  "OK honey you do that."

Him:  "Well there's, orange, blue, purple, neon green but not dark green, and hot pink."

Us:  "We don't want the pink."

Him:  "I still don't have black."

Us:  "Go back to the nail polish aisle, I know there was black there."

Him (after going back):  "I see something called After Hours, but I can't tell is it's really black or not...it might be dark purple."

Us:  "Find a woman and ask her."

Him (after finding a woman):  "Does this look like black to you?"

Her:  "No that has a hint of purple.  Do you want solid black?  Here this is black."

Him:  "OK I got it, I'm coming home now."

Us:  "OK honey don't forget the nail polish remover."

Sara and I were laughing hysterically through this whole conversation and Tara was in the other room saying that everyone was going to think Eric was a drag queen because only a drag queen would go out in their pajamas at midnight to Walmart to buy nail polish!  Best laugh I've had in a good long time!  So here are my Halloween nails?

Finished Bathroom Repairs

Well the bathroom is finally done. We have to wait 24 hours for it to dry so Tiffane will give it try tonight.

These first pictures are of the new vinyl flooring that was put in by a local handyman on Wednesday.

These are of the tub area as it was being done

Finished!

Now we still have to finish the hole in the living room wall and the flooring in the hall, guest bedroom, and living room.  Those have to wait until we can save the money to buy the flooring as everything we got from the insurance went to pay for the bathroom repairs.

General Update

I haven’t weighed myself if a few weeks...got pretty disgusted that things weren’t working.  We have a major plumbing problem which cost us $400 to fix the pipes in the guest bathroom and will cost an additional $1,000 for our home insurance deductible for them to cover fixing the damage caused by the leaking pipes (i.e., the hole we now have in the living room wall, tiles in the bathroom, and laminate flooring in the hall, guest room, and living room. Thankfully, I think we're going to be able to cover it financially, but it will wipe out our savings account.  So Nutrisystem is going by the way side come the end of the month when our current food supply runs out and that also means I can totally forget my 30th class reunion I was hoping to go to this summer.




Hole in living room wall.




Leaky pipes and valve.



Hard to tell, but water damage to laminate flooring because water was coming up from between cement slab and flooring.



Bathroom tiles coming up because water was coming up from between cement slab and flooring.



New piping and valve.



New faucet and knobs.

Weight Loss Update - Week 2

Well week 2 and I gained .4 lbs...not much I know, but still bugs me. Eric did better this week by losing 2.1 lbs.

Weight Loss Update

One week on Nutrisystem...I lost 4.6 lbs!!

Day 1

Well today is day 1 of my Nutrisystem journey.  I found a digital scale that I can hook to the pool lift outside and my starting weight is 230.4.  I had guessed 230 so I was mighty darn close!  I really think the hardest part for me will be drinking enough.  As a disabled person who worked full-time through most of my adult life, I learned early on to limit my fluid intake to avoid using the restroom.  Now that I'm retired and at home most of the time, that isn't such a big deal, but old habits die hard!

20th Anniversary

I'm not sure this picture really does it justice,
but this tree made of poinsettias was just beautiful!

Yesterday was our 20th anniversary.  I surprised Eric with an annual pass combo to Busch Gardens and Sea World.  We went yesterday, and I have to say that it was the most enjoyable day I've ever had at a theme park that I can remember.  I can't ride the rides (except for the train), but the weather was beautiful (high 70s), there were very few people on a Tuesday in the winter months, and Apollo enjoyed the day out and the attention when I allowed people to pet him.

Unfortunately, Eric determined, after two roller coaster rides, that his heart could not take the adrenaline rush any more.  He had asked his heart doctor if it was OK for him to ride the roller coasters several months ago because I insisted he check first since his heart attack several years ago.  I am very happy that he decided on his own that it was too much for him.  I was very proud of him knowing how very much he loves his roller coasters.  Regarless, we both had a great time watching the coasters and looking at all the beautiful Christmas decorations, and he said he would still be happy to go and see shows, the animals, and just have days out of the house so I don't think the money was wasted on the annual passes.

For Momma

Over the years, my momma has made me several lovely quilts.  When I started learning to loom knit about a year ago, I wanted to make something special for her in return.  Well in May I started a shawl pattern that she liked.  I admit it was a big undertaking and I took several months off during the summer, but I finally finished it and gave it to her today.  I know that if I look closely, I will find mistakes, but overall I am really proud of how beautiful it turned out.  You can't really tel, but the crosses are done in small clear glass beads.

Finally!!!

I am so happy!!  I have someone else in the house now who loves Christmas decorations!  See what a wonderful job she is doing!

Better Posture and Less Pain!

OK so I'm not the fastest person in the world to ever post on my blog, but I find this interesting to see so thought I'd share.  Back in April, I got a new wheelchair through Medicare and my insurance.  It is purple, my favorite color, but you can't really see that in the pictures below.

Sitting in my wheelchair has become increasingly difficult over the years as the curvature in my spine gets worse, and it caused a great deal of pain in my left hip and leg as that is where most of my weight was distributed.  I have always thought there had to be something better.  I went to the local guy here in Ocala that does these sort of things and we decided on a new chair and seating options to try and help my posture. Well it did help some, but not enough to relieve the pain.  Then I remembered reading in a book once about a quad that wore a corset to help her so I did some research on corsets and decided to give it a try.  What an amazing difference it has made!  I sit so much better and rarely have the pain in my hip and leg any more.

Next thing I'm working on is trying out an attachment to the wheelchair that will give me some movement back in my arms.  Going to the OT for that on Tuesday so I'll have to let you know how it goes.

More Knitting Projects

Well here are some more pictures of knitting projects I've made recently.  Momma and Sarah were kind enough to be a model for a few of them.

This first one I made up totally on my own without a pattern and figure it would make a nice bag to take to a farmer's market as it will stretch well.

This second one I also made up. I did a stitch combo that I think I created as I don't remember seeing it in any other pattern. I could be wrong though.  The close-up picture shows the way the stitches look on the back and on the front.

I belong to a Yahoo group that picks a pattern and then does it together. This is one we are doing now for a can koozie, but I altered it slightly to work with Sarah's water bottle. Of course, once Sarah took it home, I had to make one for Michelle too, but I forgot to take a picture of the one without a strap that I did for Michelle.

Here are two more water bottle koozies that I did for Sarah and Michelle with straps.

Sarah is always fussing at me because I never make anything for myself so I made a koozie for the cup I use for my drinks.

Finally, I've done a ruffled scarf which Sarah modeled while taking her own picture in the mirror.

Nook Bag

Sarah (my personal assistant) likes to listen to audio books on her Nook while she's working so I made this Nook bag for her.

More Knitting

Here are two more pictures of my projects. I belong to a Yahoo group for Loom Knitters and Mr. Wobbles the penguin was a recent class/loom-a-long that we did.

Knitting Loom Projects

Here are pictures of projects I have done on my knitting looms since Christmas.

This was done for a friend in OH who went to Ohio State and wanted a scarf with their colors.

The was done with the varigated black/grey/white yarn from the OH project.

This was also done with leftover yarn from the OH project.

This was done for a friend here in FL that went to the University of FL.

This was actually supposed to be twice as big, but the panels got so heavy I decided to make it smaller.  Mom put the five panels of this together for me and crocheted on the border.

Cheryl bought this yarn and sent it to me to make her a scarf.

Cheryl sent me so much yarn that I actually made her two scarves.  She said she was going to give one away as a present.

Pillow made from a pattern in a loom knitting book.  Mom put the two sides of this together for me and crocheted on the border.

These are a pair of footies/slippers I made from a purple yarn that I bought after making Cheryl's scarves because it was just so soft like the yarn she sent me.  I'm also working on another project with this yarn, but it isn't done yet.