Texas Lady

Okay, I can check off the time-sensitive sewing projects from my To Do list.  Half was completed and I was unable to do the other project at all because it wouldn’t fit in the hoop to embroider.  I’ll have to come up with a Plan B or just forget it completely (haven’t decided yet).  R was gone all day due to a death in the family so it was quiet here with the dogs.  Finished the laundry, did some sewing and cleaning the sewing room.  Got on the laptop for a bit, worked on some designs and stitched a test, then watched a bunch of TV that R doesn’t care for (home improvement, dancing, Ab/Fab, etc.) until he got home.  Quiet day and I got done what I needed to, not necessarily what could have been done but it was enough to satisfy me.

I’m half way through the pack of steroids and the pain is a little better.  I still have to be careful with it though.  Next week I will have to decide which pain specialist I’m going to but I’m not going to worry about it this week.  I’ll let it cogitate a little longer in my mind.  I’ll have to get some blood drawn next week, too, since I dragged my feet on it this week.  It’ll get done.  No problem.

One design I didn’t get to use today

I woke up at 4 AM…and couldn’t go back to sleep.  Since my alarm was set for 8 I got up and actually felt decent for a change (considering I didn’t go to bed until 1:30 AM that was a miracle).  But after going to the drugstore to pick up prescriptions and then to Texas City for a dental appointment then to my mom’s house to drop off dog food, I found that someone had pulled the rug out from under me.  Now I’m back in my nightgown and going to go take a nap very soon.

My dental appointment was to get fitted for a sleep apnea mouthpiece so they had to take impressions…no problem, been there before since I’ve had braces and wear retainers at night anyway.  However, the girl put the top tray in my mouth (ewww factor coming!) and immediately the excess pink goo went to the back of my throat.  Momentarily I couldn’t breathe and then it gagged me and my coffee and the goo ended up all over me and my clothes.  So when I got home the clothes had to come off anyway and I just went straight to nightgown-mode.  Being retired is cool sometimes!  Who am I kidding?  Being retired is cool all the time!!!!!!!!!!

Doctor’s appointment was yesterday.  Got steroids for my back, info on treatment (got to find a new pain management doctor to do injections), flu shot, and pain pills for when it’s really bad.  She was in a good mood and I actually enjoyed the visit.  Laughing with your physician is a good thing; it makes the rest bearable.  Still have to have some fasting blood work done but won’t be free for that until Friday.  Have nothing planned for next week (yet) but will have to go get premeds for Mimi’s dental and whatever else comes up.  Tomorrow my housekeeper comes and I’m still trying to get in the sewing room.  I have some time-sensitive projects I’ve got to get done or not do at all.  I fully intended to start them when I got home today but that was before I got no sleep, so I guess it’ll be tomorrow now.

I think my brain is just about shut down now.  Off to my nappy-poo!

I’m feeling a little less “end of the world” now.  I have a doctor’s appointment and will probably have to go in for more injections in my back in order to get rid of the pain again.  The injections did wonders last fall but my pain management doctor is no longer in his practice so I’ll have to find out how to proceed.  I never got out of my nightgown yesterday, not that I sat on my butt either…I did 5 loads of laundry, a bit of housecleaning and changed out the fish tank water.  In between I sat with my foot on the ottoman and played on my phone.  Not as productive as I’d like to be but the pain was not as bad either until I got on the computer late last night because sitting in certain chairs seems to aggravate the muscle spasms.  When I go to the nail or hair salon and sit in “normal” chairs it seems to be the worst.  My office chair is the same except that it will recline and swivel when necessary, but if I sit in it too long I have to put ice packs on my spine.  Needless to say, I try to not sit anywhere for long periods anymore.

My back was doing fairly well and the muscle spasms were gone until I sat on the hard tile floor helping R put together the new crate for Daisy.  Evidently sitting on a hard surface for long periods is a no-no for sciatica; I’ve added that to my mental file.  I think I have to get it stopped again and then take better care of it…Earth to Cheri!!!!!  Are you listening?

I called this morning and set up a dental for Mimi then Bandit will be next on the list.  Neither of them have ever had dental cleanings.  We’ve had Bandit since he was 4 months old so I’m sure he’s never had one but we’ve only had Mimi 4 of her 11 years so her previous owner may have had her in at some point.  They’re beginning to look dingy so it’s time to get them thoroughly checked and cleaned in case problems lurk.  It’s hard for the vet to check her mouth since Mimi is the biter and is usually put in a muzzle when she goes in for care.  This way, she’ll be sedated and the vet can get a good look at her choppers and oral health.

I’m waiting on the yard people to do the grass so I can get out of the house for a bit (I may not wait much longer).  They usually come on Friday but the yard was a swamp due to recent torrential rains.  Now the grass has grown so high that when Zoe goes to potty it looks like she’s venturing into a jungle.  I told R she needed a machete to go pee.  It’s admirable that she still goes out in it when she can’t see much in front of her (love that babydoll!).  The whole pack will be happy when they can run in their grass again.

R took the three big dogs out to the boat storage twice this weekend.  They love to go with Daddy and explore while he works on the boat.  Inside the fenced storage yard is the only place that Bandit can just run and run to his heart’s content.  He runs until he’s exhausted then when home drinks lots of water and falls asleep, completely worn out.  He doesn’t do that when we go to the dog park (why we don’t go anymore).  At the dog park he is very reserved and nervous around the other dogs, but I guess he’s afraid they will attack him just like Maximus did so he’s afraid to get too close to them.  Poor baby!  He’s such a good boy, too!

Not feeling my best right now.  I’m still having issues with the muscle spasms in my left calf caused from my back but beginning to feel like I’m beating my head into the wall.  Nothing is helping it, really.  Chiropractic helps temporarily but after an hour the pain is back.  I’ve already spent a small fortune paying for visits and have nothing to show for it.  Massage helps it but is also a temporary fix.  This week I’ve started wearing my back brace again.  Wore it two days in a row then decided not to today…and have paid for it royally!  My leg is giving me fits!!!!!  I think I’m going back to square one and calling my PCP for an appointment to start over.  It has been 18 months since I hurt my back and I can’t see living my life in pain and limitations if there’s a chance someone or something can fix it.

Went to the pulmonologist this week for results from my sleep study and, of course, I have apnea (original diagnosis was 2008) and they recommend a CPAP.  I had a CPAP that didn’t help and there was no improvement in the quality of my sleep; I told the doctor that so we’re going to try a mouthpiece instead.  Hope it helps; I’m so tired of being tired!  I wake up exhausted and spend the entire day trying to keep moving.  I don’t know if it’s exhaustion or depression that’s got its hold on me right now but I’m ready for it to stop.

Other than that I’m managing just fine.  It has been rainy the past couple of days but our plants need it so I can’t complain.  Everything is green and colorful.  The house is cleaner than it has been for a while.  I’ve been trying to do everything I can without the housekeeper.  Not that there’s a problem but just to see if I could do it without help.  I can’t mop or sweep (doctor’s orders because of my back) but I vacuum so R can mop for me.  However, our housekeeper is coming next week to take it over again.  I’ll be glad to have her back.  I thought perhaps she’d gotten too busy for us but found out we’d just fallen off her calendar and never got put back on.  We’re firmly family again now.

This week I did the nails appointment and hair appointment thing but have yet to sew anything.  However, I did buy myself a couple more Craftsy classes on machine embroidery so I can get started with the projects I’ve been planning.  Wish me luck!

This is probably what my heart looks like inside

Where does the time go anymore?  It seems like August was just beginning and here is September right in my face.  Time flies when you’re having fun, huh?  August was a good month for us.  We got a lot accomplished around the house, had a financial upturn, the dogs are happy, we’re all healthy and my To Do list is almost empty.  What’s not to love?

Dusty came through his dental cleaning like a champ (spoiled but fine after a little pouting and being babied for 24 hours).  The pack is reaching a happy medium now and coast through the day.  R took the 3 big ones for a walk tonight and they are peacefully asleep in their crates at this point.  It’s funny how sometimes we communicate non-verbally with the dogs.  With just a look we know what they want or what they’re asking for.  Fancy tells me when it’s time to eat just like Jolie used to.  Bandit tells me when he is missing something (tonight he was looking for a tennis ball and couldn’t find any—I opened a new pack and made him a happy man).  The four small Chis have taken to playing together…for the first time ever.  It’s so good to see them happy and relaxed.  It’s also good to be relaxed with them and enjoying the happiness as a family.

I haven’t gotten the sewing bug yet because I’ve been so distracted by the freedom I suddenly found in my life.  Smaller pack, less stress, more money to do some redecorating around the house, etc.  It’s opened up some new vistas for me that I hadn’t explored for some time.  I’ve bought some embroidery designs I so want to do but I’m like a pinball machine right now bouncing off new ideas and activities and have yet to settle down.  I don’t know how long it will take to be able to concentrate again.  Maybe it’s the time of year because Mom and I discussed this very thing yesterday and she feels the same way.  Sometimes it just seems like there’s too many other things that need to be tidied up.  I must be in Tidy Mode then; whatever you want to call it, I’m enjoying the experience.

How lazy you ask?  Well, R is sound asleep and I’m reloading a laptop with Windows 7 that will just not run Windows 10 properly.  Yes, I have laundry to do.  Yes, I’m still in my nightgown and it’s 11:30.  I just don’t seem to care.  R has a bug of some kind.  Tummy troubles yesterday and upper respiratory for days that has only gotten worse with each passing day.  I’m kind of glad he went back to bed because he’s a sick puppy who won’t usually give up until he’s about to die.  Today is that day evidently.

Yesterday we took a trip to Texas City to my mom’s, ate some barbeque, bought groceries, went to PetSmart, Lowes and then to Staples.  Then we came home and dismantled the filter in the fish tank and replaced the necessary parts.  Every time we have a power failure it seems to mess up the motor in the filter; don’t know how many times that’s happened so far.  And it’s cheaper to buy an entire filter than to replace the internals of the motor.  Ridiculous!  But it’s done now.  Went ahead and downsized the air pump that runs the decorations in the tank, too.   The other one had just too much output for our needs and we didn’t want to burn it up—we may need it someday.

Tomorrow our Dusty goes in for his dental cleaning; that will be the last one for 2015.  All the dog vetting will be complete again…until January when it all starts over.  LOL  But we know they’re healthy and that’s all that matters, isn’t it?  I’m expecting to have a quiet week this week and hope I’m not disappointed.  I’m still trying to get my equilibrium post-Daisy.  I’ve had my ups and downs; hopefully now will just go into “normal” mode.

I’m really aggravated with my best laptop.  I had it custom-built when I retired and it has all the bells and whistles including maxed out memory, 19″ screen, plenty of HDD and 3D graphics I can watch with the included 3D glasses.  (Really cool to play with but impractical in real time)  It’s fast, beautiful and will do anything you ask of it…except sleep or restart after sleep in Windows 10.  I have put Windows 10 on it twice and had to reload Windows 7 Ultimate twice because none of the fixes work.  I’m so aggravated by this!  I have Windows 10 running on a little “throwaway” laptop I bought from eBay to play with and it all works beautifully.  I can’t make it fail!  They’re both HP laptops and both about the same age but I think my “good” laptop’s video card is screwing up the equation.  That’s what the troubleshooting points to and I hate it!  It may be time to start saving money for a new laptop.  R’s is about ready to be replaced and he always takes my good (best in the house) laptops when I buy a newer one.  There’s nothing wrong with my big laptop; it’s just not going to do what I want it to anymore.  <sigh>  (And at that instant I got an email from HP advertising new laptops!  LOL  No, no, no, HP.  Not yet…)

Zoe, the sleeping bareback rider

It was a different kind of week last week.  After being super-charged the week and weekend before, I ran out of gas last week.  By the end of the week I just felt exhausted and wrung out.  Very manic-depressive month.  This past weekend we didn’t get much of anything done and slept like crap most nights (probably the reason nothing got done).  I had my sleep study done a week ago and haven’t been the same since; I feel like I’m still trying to catch up on my rest.

Today was actually a little better, I think.  I moved stuff around in the garage so we can get the freezer door open again, bought groceries and moved everything out of the little freezer into the big one like it’s supposed to be.  Then I did multiple loads of laundry (bed linens, clothing, rugs, etc.).  Tomorrow I’ll try to get the dog crates all washed up for another week, too.  And maybe I’ll get back in the sewing room again.  I upgraded the little laptop to Windows 10 and set up all my sewing program stuff so I can use it for my designs again.  I have some baby gifts I want to sew up and bought some new designs that I just had to have but have no idea what I’m going to stitch them on yet.

I’m in the process of doing (having done actually) a reboot on the flower beds.  Talked with our yard folks today and they’re coming back Thursday to remove the old yucky mulch, weed, trim and install new mulch in the beds.  Since it’s been raining for a week they didn’t cut grass until today.  I’m loving how everything is green and blooming again.  Sweet!!!!!!!  It’s like having Spring back instead of the dregs of Summer.  It’s back to being hot as hell but at least it’s green and nice to look at for a time.

Our pack is getting sweeter every day.  Most of them play together now even though some of them have never played before.  And Zoe continues to amaze us with her social and physical development.  We always expected her to be the “special” dog with her little skinny crooked and shaky legs and eyes that never matched and her fears of most things…like walking from the couch to the closest dog crate by herself.  Just motivating through the house was her biggest trial.  And now (since Daisy and Diego both got adopted and Jolie passed away) Zoe is acting like a normal almost three year old puppy dog.  She’s learned to bark and stand up for herself and her pack.  It’s been kind of cute watching her blossom into an adult Chihuahua.  Pretty cool itty bitty, sweet dudette!

Dusty has come back to me to be loved on and played with; and I love that little dude so much;  he owns a big chunk of my heart and mind…and he knows it too.  LOL  We’re back to being the family we started out to be before we got so involved in “rescue”.  We’re back to the pack we want to watch grow and prosper and live out their lives in the happiest, and healthiest manner possible.  This is it, where we will stay for some time now and just let things work out as they need to with our pack.

And it was a busy one…again.  R is painting the outside of the house and is working his butt off in the Texas heat, but I must admit I really like it.  We have to leave the color the same because that is what’s approved by the HOA but since I’m the one who picked the same beige color when I had the house built I still think it’s a fine color 23 years later.  This is the second time it’s been painted since the original contractors painted it but I don’t remember it looking this nice last time.

I have been doing my spring cleaning…just a bit later than Spring.  I have cleaned and reorganized most of the closets and part of the garage, moved furniture and reorganized my sewing room, the linen closet/medicine cabinet, reorganized the file cabinet and caught up with all the sewing projects I had stacked up waiting for me.  I started some stuff for a baby shower today but need more fabric before I can finish.  My local store is not open on Sunday so it had to wait.  I also washed linens for us and the pack, vacuumed, etc., so we’re ready to meet the week head-on.  Yesterday I bought another embroidery software module and some new designs and reorganized that and the filing system I’m using for it on my laptop.

Tomorrow Fancy goes in for her dental cleaning so I’ll be up earlier than usual but the day should be pretty much a non-event since we’ve done this all before.  She’s had her pre-op blood work done and approved already.  I have some appointments off and on this week but nothing critical or lasting.  Hoping I can get some sewing done in between errands and events.  I’m really feeling so much more relaxed as time goes on.  My stress level is coming down nicely and my health is improving.  It’s about time to get back on my healthy diet and attack that side of my health.

After

Before

Dog Design

Done with this damned heavy canvas!  I don’t know how many needles I broke or how many cuss words I spoke, but it and the clothes pin bag are done and neither cost me anything since they were made out of scrap fabric I’d bought when I first started sewing purses 4 years ago.  You’d think I’d run out of fabric sometimes but I don’t.  Happy sew-ists just keep on buying and never use it all.  I cleaned some out and gave it to my mom because I knew I’d never make anything from it because I don’t care to sew clothing and that’s what I’d bought the fabric for.  I gave her several bags full that she had a good time playing with so we both profited from it (me in the buying and fondling of fabric, she in the sewing).

Mom is the only one in the family that likes to sew besides me.  At least we have something in common even in our senior years.  She was the one who taught me to sew when I was in grammar school.  At that point everyone in the family sewed; my aunt was a locally famous seamstress who made a lot of elaborate costumes for Mardi Gras in Galveston and for dance recitals (we all did ballet, too…that didn’t take for me because I was too shy but I loved, and still love, to dance).  My grandmother’s attic was a treasure trove of fairy-like costumes she’d let us try on and play dress-up with.  Grandma gave me my first sewing machine and she taught me to crochet because my cousins bought me some yarn for a xmas gift.  She was the one who did hand embroidery, too.  I guess this is where I get my interest in creating with thread because I grew up with so many dreamy things around me.  My aunt and grandmother are gone but Mom still likes to tinker with sewing things.  And she loves to see what I am doing with it.  She bought me some labels to put in the things I sew that say: “An original by Cheri Lindsey”.  I have yet to use one of the 20 she had made for me, but I will soon (I hope).

I am loving my new-found freedom since Daisy got adopted.  I go and come when I please now and can clean or sew or do nothing, as I please.  My housekeeper came today and made everything shine while I sewed and worked with embroidery software on the computer.  You’d think I was retired or something.  Loving my life right now.

Clothes Pin Bag

I finished the clothes pin bag and today made another hanging bag for the dog harnesses and ThunderShirts.  When the fray block dries I’ll get some pictures, but the garage wall by my clothes dryer will never be the same!  I cleaned the part of the garage where the washer and dryer sit since I sometimes fold clean clothing on top of them as they come out of the machine.  I don’t like to put clean clothes in a dirty place.  Ugh!  So I try to keep it clean there (floor and all–what if I drop something?).  When the AC peeps were going into the attic to work they’d tracked a bunch of crap in and out of the house, a lot of it through the garage.  So now it has been vacuumed and swept and all the superfluous crap removed.  That included removing all the garbage that was hanging on any available hook on the wall where I hang things that actually need to be hung up.  So I’m in the process of making a system of hangers for necessary things.  This may be the last bag I need to sew; I’ll keep you posted.  I now have a couple of baby dresses to monogram and then can get back to my purses.  The graph paper I bought to make the clothes pin bag pattern worked famously so it’ll be great to make the purse patterns, too.  It was fun drawing on graph paper; I hadn’t messed with any in years.