Happy Birthday Laura

Happy birthday to my younger sister Laura who turned 50 today. Hope she had a great day and enjoys many more birthdays.

Marching on into March

March 1, the first day people consider as spring! And it's a beautiful day... sunny crisp and blue skies here in SW Ohio. According to legend, when March comes in like a lamb, it goes out like a lion. The Farmer's Almanac calls for Unsettled conditions on the 20th - 23rd and rain, snow and squalls at the end of the month. We'll see how it goes, but the Almanac is usually accurate.

Steve had surgery on his collar bone (clavical) and got the staph infection sucked out. Now he's on IV antibiotics for 6 weeks. It should be fine, but I had a moment this morning when I was feeling really defeatest. I was crying and knew I had a paper due today that I didn't get done. My prof was great about it and gave me an extension. I need to have the paper done by Friday, but I feel so much better, even though a first draft of a bigger paper is due on Thursday. I can do this! I know I can.

In projects completed, I got Sally the Eco Fairy completed. She looked great heading off to MA. I also completed a great WTS - the fairy rose sock, complete with teeny tiny fairy hiding among the leaves. It turned out better than I hoped. Now to get the mystery shawl completed for the Golden Splendor. I need to contact Tony and be sure he wants Bistro 2 Go to cater the event. I didn't get to the meeting, because I had a 4H meeting. Cannot believe it's starting already. I am so excited.

The surgery nightmare continues

We went to the hospital last week to have surgery. About 10 minutes before Steve was scheduled to go in for surgery, they notice his white cell count is elevated and his clavicle is tender. He's been telling the doctors about this for three weeks and this is the first time they looked at it as a different problem, not part of the disk problem.

Needless to say, surgery was postponed until we could find out what this is. He had a nuclear bone scan and a CT scan that was inconclusive. In other words, they don't want to say what it MIGHT be for fear of being sued.

Tuesday we went in for a biopsy. We were supposed to go back for results today, but apparently they are not done with the tests yet. I thought it was pushing the envelope when the hospital said 72 hours and the doctor wanted us in there in 48. It's hard to tell how long it will be before we have the results.

In other news, knitting is still progressing fine, with lots of stuff needing to be completed. I have got to get things done this weekend to move on. I need to read for class. This injury cost me two class days and I feel so out of the loop in class. We have moved on to the Taming of the Shrew. Hopefully I can catch up in the next two weeks. That's what I am giving myself - two weeks to catch up.

In wrestling news, well, it wasn't as good as we hoped. Baylor finished 3rd. He was seeded 2nd. Hopefully this weekend will prove to be a bit better, but if he ends up 3rd, he moves on. That would still be good. Tomorrow night, we are at Sidney Lehman for the sectionals.

Knitting and surgery

Steve herniated two discs in his neck. He messed around and tried to heal them without surgery. Now he has to have surgery. I'm sure right now he was wishing we lived in a Star Trek world where they don't have to actually cut you to heal you. He can barely move. His shoulders and neck are in constant, throbbing pain.

Yesterday we drove to Cincinnati to the Christ Hospital. It was difficult to get down there, since we hit rush hour traffic just as we got to Cincy. Got to the hospital for pre-op testing - blood work, EKG, etc. The doctor didn't like the EKG, so she scheduled a chemical stress test for later in the afternoon.

Went to his doctor's office at the Spinal Institute of Cincinnati. Talked over everything having to do with the surgery. His doctor seems really nice and straight forward.

Next stop, the Brace Place for a neck brace. Of course, they moved so we had to find them. Peek a boo! Where are you?

Back to the hospital for the stress test. They wanted Steve to lay down, but he can't since it hurts to bad. Got that worked out. The nurses and technicians were wonderful. Seth manned the ultrasound machine - he's from Ghanna. Ashley and Laura all worked hard to make this as easy as possible. Really, everyone I met at the hospital was wonderfully helpful - from the nurse who walked us to the registration desk, to the people who I asked questions of. They were great helping us through this part of the surgery. Will let you know how it all goes after the weekend.

Wrestling update

The team wrestled at Washington CH this past weekend. They kicked some serious butt! Baylor went 4 - 1 with all 4 wins being pins. He pinned the kid from CH and was so excited he ran around the mat and into Cameron's arms. I love it when they are excited! It was great. Tomorrow night, they will be wrestling against KR and Urbana. The weekend was made better for Baylor since his beloved Packers won the Superbowl!

Knitting update

Still working on the mystery shawl, the calahdras socks and they winter forest mittens. Added the Sally, the Eco Fairy in the mix, just for fun. She's so cute.

Kyle Maynard and Marie de France

Well, this week has been interesting. We've had wrestling meets, wrestling superstars, knitting, papers and reading, lots of really cool reading.

Last Saturday was the Wapak tournament. We usually do pretty good at this tournament, but this year, not so much. Our team only had 2 or 3 practices in the two weeks prior to the tournament and just seemed flat. Everyone who placed, was a place or two behind their seed, so it wasn't good. Baylor placed 5th, but he wasn't real happy. Overall the team placed 7th.

There was, however, knitting and reading at the tournament. I knitted my KnitPicks mittens - the February ones - without thought of gauge. I mean, they tell us to use size 1, it should work, right? WRONG! The gauge (after working 2 inches of ribbing and 2 inches of colorwork) is WRONG!!! Major wrong. Like the gauge is 30 stitches to 4 inches and I have 40. I went up a needle size and am STILL not getting gauge. But I am swatching! The swatch is looking good and I hope that once I take it off and block it a bit, it will be OK. I mean, it's about 34 stitches to the inch, so we'll see.

The socks-of-obscure-reference (or the Caladras socks as their official name is) from the Lord of the Rings Sock Club is still being knitted. Obviously, I have no clue how big my foot is, so I started over with the smaller patter. I am almost to the heal (again). Hopefully will have one of them done soon.

And the reading and papers part? Well, we are reading the Lais of Marie de France. Beautiful poetry about knights and ladies and courtly love. I read them at the wrestling meet and wrote my paper on Lanval. The semester is starting out pretty good.

Which brings me back to wrestling. Kyle Maynard was at NE this past Monday. The wrestling team LOVED it. They had some really good conversation with him and Baylor said it was a great time. Kyle is an amazing young man born without arms and legs, yet he has spent his life involved in sports: wrestling, football and now MMA. His life motto is 'No Excuses'.

It's always good when teens find someone who truly inspires them to be better than they are. The team was still riding that high last night when they went to Shawnee and beat both Greenon (66 - 9) and Shawnee (54 - 27). Baylor won both his matches. It was great.

So this weekend we have Ben Logan. Tonight is Knit Night and you know what that means! Chick time!

New Year Resolutions

I love to blog, I will admit that, but I am a terrible blogger. It sits out in Cyberspace and I forget about it, like anything that isn't right in your face all the time. I like writing, I just seem to forget with all the other writing I do.

So on to resolutions. I am going to try to post on my blog at least once a week. I have stuff in my life, stuff that's not all that important in the big scheme of things, but it's important to me and that's what a blog is all about.

Another resolution - I need a bracelet, a bracelet with beads. Not a Pandora bracelet, necessarily, but something a little more personal. What's the bracelet for? Well, there are a lot of people I know that need a little extra boost, someone thinking about them, someone who needs a little extra prayer. This way, I can remember who needs what and go through them.

One more - limit my knitting swaps. I think last year that's all I did. They are tons of fun, but it's marathon knitting. I want to do more KAL's so I have Christmas presents completed. I have one done (YEAH!) and have to create a mate for it. I haven't started anything new, although I am itching to. I bought the Knit Picks Winter Woodlands mitten set and it sits in the box, waiting patiently for me to work on it. I couldn't resist these gorgeous mittens.

So on to 2011, may it be better for everyone!

Pre - Fair update

Well, the Clark County Fair has come and gone. It was an exciting time. We had a ball. Here are the highlights:

Our 4H club tie dyed tshirts to have screen printed with our logo. It was fun, but it took us 4 weeks to get it done. The colors were amazing and all the kids had a good time. If we do it again, we will definitely do it differently, with more organization and more people at once.

I took some photos of Ruby for Baylor's 4H project. He didn't show her because she kept acting up, but he did everything else to complete the project. Of course, Tan Man wanted in on the action. I never met a calf that enjoyed having his photo taken as much as that one.

Tomorrow I will post more about the set up and the fair in general.