Crazy, Crazy!

The saying, "People plan, God laughs" really held true for me this week.  First I agreed to have coffee with my new friend Sherry and a young lady we both know on Monday afternoon.  The young lady grew up with my son and it was great to see her again.  We were having a grand time when Sherry got up to go to the ladies' room.  A little background-the coffee shop tore up their floors and are in the process of varnishing and buffing the concrete that was underneath.  They never thought, however, that it would leave a 3/4" difference between the shop floor and the hallway floor, and the restrooms were down the hallway.  Sherry tripped over the ledge into the hallway onto the slate floor, shattering her kneecap.  Thankfully, the urgent care was right next door so I brought my car as close as I could, loaded her up and drove around to let her off at the entrance to urgent care.  I stayed with her until her husband showed up.  She had surgery the next day to have the very messed up kneecap reassembled.  Poor girl, but she's doing alright, I talked to her Friday and she is even cooking for herself.  I hope to go to her place for coffee and a visit tomorrow unless God has other plans!

Early Tuesday morning, like 3:00, I was woken up suddenly with chest pains.  I rode it out as long as I could and Stan took me to the same urgent care at 8:00.  As we walked in I turned to him and said, "Watch me be pushed to the front of the line."  "No way," he said, "There are others waiting."  I walked up to the desk and said, "I'm having chest pains."  The rest was a blur of wheelchairs, gurneys, EKGs, and nervous nurses who were trying to put in an IV.  The ambulance showed up in seconds, literally.  It's a small town and the EMTs are housed in the fire hall, about 5 blocks from urgent care.

So off I go, a little embarrassed, in the ambulance to the hospital which is 10 miles away.  The EMT told me I probably wasn't having a heart attack-we chatted the whole way in and my pain was mostly gone at that point.  I had a strong feeling it was an esophageal spasm brought on by my lovely acid reflux.  At the hospital they joked I got the VIP room-the trauma room reserved for heart attacks and auto accident victims.

Long story short, I was run through the testing-more (many more) EKGs, CT scans, blood tests, you name it.  At the end of the long day-5:00-it was decided I didn't have a heart attack and they could release me but the ER doctor, a woman, requested that I go to the cardiologist on Friday to have a stress echo test.  She said women present with different heart attack symptoms so she wanted to be super sure.  I had to see my own doctor on Friday, too.  I spent those days doctoring my reflux, which improved every day.  Now, for years, like over 30, I have had heart flutters.  I have had all kinds of tests, but have never been able to capture it on an EKG.  Friday morning I woke up in A fib and stayed that way.  When I walked into the cardio lab, I told them it was their lucky day!  We got a beautiful take and ultrasound of my heart flutters.  Turns out my heart is strong and there is no coronary artery disease (yay!) BUT I have A fib, caused by a leaky valve.  Had it all my life!  Crazy!

Anyway, all we have to do, since the leak is miniscule, is up my beta blockers and take a baby aspirin.  Oh yeah, and run their treadmill again every year.  Stan does his in January, my treadmill will be in July-we are heart patients together!  I feel lots better, and today the esophagus is almost completely better-took a long, long time.  I am have a little trouble adjusting to the beta blocker, been sleeping a lot, but I'll get there and if this one doesn't work there are others. 

Riding in an ambulance was never on my bucket list, but I guess I can scratch it off!

Have been knitting-I started this blanket the other day.  Had to do a little tweaking and ripping to get the hang of the pattern, but I think I've got the hang of it.

You pick up the new color stitches as you go, then you don't have to sew any blocks together, just hide the threads.  It's supposed to be a pattern for leftover sock yarn, I found the pattern on Ravelry, but I decided to use up some worsted.  I think it will work.  It's small right now while it's hot and by the time it grows the weather will be cooler.

Booties!

I love to knit, and I do big projects, but once in a while I like instant gratification.  So I dug through my stash, including all the bits of Mom's yarn that I had put away after she died.  I found a pattern I had used before that goes quickly and went to town.

Fun and portable.  Now the only project I have going is a shawl I started in Mazatlan.  I suppose I should finish that, but I like to have a small project going that I can stick in my purse, like socks.  Better go start digging!  (I bought some more storage for my yarn, and when I started sorting-well let's just say I'd better not buy any for a while!)

More From Mother Nature

I pulled up Facebook tonight and everyone I know had pictures of tonight's sunset.  I think it's the prettiest I've ever seen:

What a show!

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Now the Pink Ones

The pink flowering crabapple tree is doing very nicely.

I've been taking snapshots since this tree was tiny and had its first bloom.

Next: the lilacs!

The yard is filled with fragrance!

Hoping to do some sewing tomorrow.  I haven't been down to the sewing room for a long time.  Stan is going to be gone for the next few days so maybe I can squeeze in some sewing time.  Gracie is waiting for me to make Rosetta, her Build-a-Bear, some clothes.  She needs a nightgown and a cowgirl costume.

The dogs will probably want to sleep with me, at least Merlin.  Chloe doesn't sleep peacefully-she keeps jumping off and then can't get back up-very annoying.  Merlin crawls into a padded box in the closet and doesn't move all night.  Stan is going to Reno for the national bowling tournament.  It's mostly a guy-type trip. I could have gone but the casinos fill the rooms with so much fragrance I am miserable.  Besides, then I'd have to find a sitter for the dogs.  I'll just stay here and enjoy my empty house!

It Was a Nice Mother's Day

A very nice day.  Went to church, stopped at my favorite coffee shop, then headed home to change and gather up stuff for dinner.  Off to Steve's house for a backyard beer can chicken barbecue.  We sat in the shade on the deck visiting and watching the kids play.  A very mellow day, I felt spoiled and appreciated.  I took my camera but I never took it out of my purse.

Stan did give me some very pretty roses on Saturday.

They're opening nicely. 

Jim and Millie gave me these lilies.  Just have to figure out where to plant them.  I have a ton of lilies in the backyard, so maybe I should find a home for them in the front.

The flowering trees are a little early this year.  Our jelly crabapple tree is going nuts!  We're going to have to share the apples this year!

Looks like snow!

Sweaters and Sweet Hot Jelly

Finished a couple of sweaters.  Well, to be correct the one sweater was finished about a year ago, but the instructions called for ties at the neck instead of buttons and buttonholes and I didn't like the idea so it sat in my "finished box" until I figured out what to do.

First the baby sweater-it turned out just great!  I do need to give the hem a little more attention, it's still rolling.

The buttons are older than the yarn.  I got them at K Mart probably in the 70s, before bar codes.  They cost 42 cents according to the pink K Mart price tag.  Oops, really telling my age!

This sweater is about a 3-4 years size.  I started it when I had my knee surgery and worked on it in fits and starts. 

What I finally did was crochet little chain button loops.  I think the owls add a really cute touch, don't you?

 And the jelly-Stan and I became hooked on a pepper jelly that Costco sold.  We ran out last week and when I went to find more I was informed that they no longer carried it.  Horrors!  So we did what any enterprising do-it-yourselfer would, we made our own.  Well, Stan did, I left the house until the pepper fumes dissipated.  Not allergic to peppers but the airborne fumes can choke up my asthma.

And here you have it-isn't it pretty?  And the beauty part is we can control the ingredients, down to using the bag of discounted "slightly old" bell peppers from the store.  And the hot peppers are from our garden.

The best way to serve it.  Put a smear of cream cheese on a cracker and top with a small spoonful of the jelly.  Or a large spoonful if you like.  I ate 8 of these before the jelly was cold!

We just love to do things for ourselves, the crackers are even homemade safe-for-me!