My Little Piece of The Net

Goals for the 26th year

Quit Smoking.
Write to Someone I Admire (Can be anyone from friend to celebrity).
Send 27 Post Cards (I miss connecting with people outside of the internet).
~~Leave the State for vacation.~~
Pay off my credit cards.
Give handmade gifts for special occasions. (Due to my schedule, I will give as many as I can)
Publish writing.
Sky dive or bungee jump.
Start a work out routine.
Debate with someone and try to see their side.
Walk for a cause.
Take a dance class.
Read a book a month (at least).
Give a gift to a stranger.
Hang out with my brother more often.
Seek Grammar/Writing Education Opportunities.
Volunteer my time outside of school.
Stop to reflect on the good things. (May decide to blog it, may decide to write it down in a journal).
Maintain a sick time balance at work.
Save up for a cushion/emergency fund.
Slumber Party/Diva Evening. (I miss sleep-overs!)
Learn to walk in heels!
Bring lunch to work (at least 3x a week).
Take a financial workshop.
Learn to cook/cook more often.
Go Camping!
Stop spending all my money on coffee!

A Real and Complete Post

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Hello everyone! I have finally returned to the blogging world! -=wave=- I apologize for the absence but it's been getting a little crazy around here again. I'll start with the life update and make my way down to knitting.

In case you haven't been checking my personal blog (link on bottom right side) here is the information on my dad.

I am not sure where I left off last. So I am going to go over everything. My dad has really bad knees/legs due to a serious car accident. Basically when he was young he was passenger in a vehicle that had a 18-wheeler roll on top of it. The front tires were sitting on my father's knees, his neck was crushed. He had a ton of surgeries to repair the damage to his neck/spinal column and they wired his legs/knees with metal rods and plastic. I'm telling you this so you understand the damage he sustained that led to these problems he recently had. So over the last couple of years his legs have been giving him quite a bit of trouble. He would start to feel pain as he walked or feel winded and tired after a while. So at the end of March he went to his doctor to check the circulation in his legs. His right leg was 95% blocked off of blood flow. His other leg has minor blockage but nothing compared to the right leg. They also discovered that one of the valves to his heart is seriously blocked but the blood rerouted itself so that is no longer a concern.

Long story short... (To Late Eh?) he had a surgery to open up the stint in his leg. He was fine, went home a couple days later. Lisa (step-mom) noticed he wasn't healing correctly, that something was wrong. He was having serious difficulty walking and was in a tremendous amount of pain. She checked the pulse in his foot and couldn't find one. Back to the hospital. Turns out the stint failed... another surgery takes place to rework the stint. It takes and doesn't collapse. Now due to seriously seriously poor nursing the entry becomes infected and the graft is at risk. If the graft is infected the infection will travel up the blood stream and would cause the artery to burst and he would die. There was a lot of argument regarding whether or not we would go through another surgery. In the end, he decided to do it. I left the day after the last surgery. I didn't want to but I am officially out of sick time at work due to this.

Since then he was released to go home where he has done fine for the most part. He forgot to take his medication (life events got in the way of him going to the pharmacy) and the infection came back in full force. However, since then I have heard very little except that they both now have new Harleys to cruise around on. -=giggle=- Sooo I am guessing he's doing much better.

As far as my life goes. April was chaotic, emotional and absolutely crazy for me. I think the worry over my dad, life's general concerns and personal issues really got to be. May was better if not busy. We gave notice that we were no longer interested in living in our current apartment and we quickly found another one that is beautiful and much bigger! That's right, we're moving!!! So I am sorry to report that I may not be posting regularly until we've got everything situated at the new place. That's the general summary of everything dears, if you want to read more it's all posted at the personal blog.

Onto the knitting pictures!!

Dream Swatch - Nervous Knitting Project #1- It's funny I used to be terrified to try this project. It looked to complicated. When dad got sick, I dove right into it and figured it out. -=giggle=-

Leg Warmers-Nervous Plane Knitting- A gift knit for a friend of mine. I just have to weave in the ends and I am all done with them.

Oversized Shrug- This project is on hold until such a time that I can get my rump to the yarn store to pick up more yarn for it.

The Baby Blanket of Doom!!! -=giggle=- Eventually I need to get around to seaming this up and sending it out.

Misti Alpaca Scarf - Another project that is going to have to wait until I can get to the store and buy yarn. It's a gift knit.

I also have the front panel of the record bag completed. I need to pick up more black yarn to finish the back section. That is pretty much all that I have on the needles right now. I am going to frog the Blossom Baby Wrap and re-work it in a different color. I also want to make sure the stitches are tighter. I also have the Green Tree still on the needles and I am seriously debating on frogging the damn thing. I haven't touched it since I had to rip it back and it's just sitting there in a box.

On the note of yarn, I will not be buying anymore unless it's for a project. I have so much yarn that it's ridiculous and it's just sitting there. As it is I am taking 2 full shopping bags of yarn (mostly bargain yarn) to the Goodwill.

Oh! One more thing, does anyone have any recommendations on sewing machines? I want to take up sewing.

Labels: Dad, Knitting, Sewing, Update

posted by Valerie @ 12:24 AM

6 Comments:

At June 7, 2008 at 2:01 AM, Hattie said…

I have a Singer sewing machine. It was a display so I got it cheaper, but it's this one:
http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog.jsp?CATID=cat3199&PRODID=prd38174

I love it, when I get to use it!
At June 7, 2008 at 2:56 AM, textilejunkie said…

Geeze that's a lot of stuff going on - but man did you bust out the knits! Great to hear your dad is finally doing better and best of luck with the move.

As far as sewing machines right now I have an old kenmore and a brother - but I dream of a new Janome some day in the future :)
At June 7, 2008 at 8:18 AM, Sheila said…

Glad your dad is doing better and Congrats! to your new apartment. You have been knitting up a storm...lol. Great knits.

As for a sewing machine, I started out with a basic Kenmore from Sears for $100 - It worked well for years and when I started sewing garments, I moved on to a sewing machine with more bells and whistles. My suggestion is start with a basic sewing machine. If you were to start with one with too many features, you may become overwhelmed. Let me know what you decide to do.
At June 7, 2008 at 2:58 PM, marycatharine said…

That is a-lot-o-knitting! I'm glad to hear things are (hopefully) better with your dad.

I know you're busy with your move but I'm tagging you if you have a chance to play. Meme questions are up on my blog.
At June 8, 2008 at 2:17 AM, Sheila said…

Thanks for the lovely compliment. As for sewing DVDs I recommend Palmer/Pletsch DvDs. They're very useful especially with all my blundering while sewing...lol.
At June 10, 2008 at 7:14 AM, Pheelya said…

Sorry to hear abou your Dad and I certainly pray that everything continues to work out for him!

Can't help you any on the sewing front :)