13 Comments
/ By Jo
/ February 3, 2023 January 30, 2023
On Friday night two weeks ago, after I got home from the doctor’s visit I sat down to write a blog post. I was just finishing up when Karl arrived. He asked what I was doing tonight.
Well, I explained to him that I had just been to the chiropractor. I’ve actually been there three times in the last week. I screwed my back up and we just can quite get it to stay in place. It feels better when I leave…but sore and by the next day or so, the pain has returned to my hip/back. It’s been 10 days of trouble so far.
I’ve done all I can to baby it. I moved the furniture around in the living room giving me more support when I sit and stitch at night. I’ve not done anything that I felt was stressful. The chiropractor ended up asking me if I was doing unusual bending and twisting.
I said yes. Little Lefty, my rescue dog is still at my house. The fence of the indoor pen he is in has a little lip on it. Lefty is so small that I often just bend over the whole fence without opening the door and scoop him up to take him outside. She’s a fast little bugger so I am always bending and twisting when I pick him up.
I was given strict orders. No bending and twisting at all…even be careful with the dishwasher. I was told if I could limit any bending at all for a couple of weeks, that would be best for my back/hip.
I jokingly explained this all to Karl and told him I guess I can’t use the dishwasher so I better go out to eat. It’s what the chiropractor ordered. HA!!
Here we are out to eat!!
After some debate, we decided to try the new restaurant in our area called Sips and Savors. It is in our neighboring town St. Lucas. My daughter Kalissa and her husband Craig have been there a couple of times and enjoyed it.
The building it is located in is the old White House Restaurant. It was long known as a place to go for a nicer, not bar food, meal in the area.  The couple that owned it retired the someone else came in and tried to make a go of it and failed.
Now it has new owners. I know half of the owners and know that if anyone can make a go of it, she can. We wanted to go out and support them and check out the food. We thought being I got okay news from the doctor, it was okay to go out and celebrate…and I had to protect myself from bending over at the dishwasher. HA!
We ordered drinks and waited to be seated. Before long we were seated and looking at our menus. While sitting there, Karl saw someone who had a familiar face but he couldn’t place her…it was one of those I think I’m supposed to know you moments.
He thought nothing of it and we ordered and once our food came, started eating. I pulled this photo from … …
42 Comments
/ By Jo
/ February 2, 2023 January 28, 2023
Last Saturday I was on deck to take care of Kelli’s kiddos. She worked Friday night overnight and needed help with the kids on Saturday so I could sleep. I typically help her out once a week. Kayla was scheduled to come with Jasper and Spencer too…and I was supposed to have Kalissa’s boys for part of the day.
Earlier in the week I had told them all I wouldn’t be around until 8:30 am as I had plans to go to a bid vintage clean-out sale in the morning before they all arrived.
The Friday the weather report came in. They had put us into a winter weather advisory saying we were to get 3-7″ of snow. Well we all can drive in the snow being we are from Iowa, but we avoid it when possible. I went to bed Friday night knowing I probably wasn’t going to the clean-out sale. Kalissa’s kids weren’t coming and Kelli and the kids were coming anyway as they didn’t have anywhere for the kids to go.
Kelli and the kids wouldn’t be here until 8:30 or 9 am so I decided I would sleep in. I ended up waking at about 7 am and couldn’t get back to sleep. BLAH. So I got up, looked out the window and there was no snow. WOW! If I went immediately I could make it to the sale and be back before Kelli got to my house. I scrambled and was out the door in 10 minutes. As I was getting ready to back out of the garage my phone dinged. It was Kelli and they weren’t coming. Ok…that’s awesome. I’d miss seeing everyone but I could really use a snow day!! I was getting a snow day!! All of my plans were canceled and I had the day to myself. YAHOO!!
I ended up at the clean-out sale and got some goodies…
I collect Little Golden Books. I actually have a pretty big collection but, I didn’t have these…
I was SUPER excited about the one below. That one is one that my niece Jody and I loved and played with all of the time.
It’s funny. I don’t remember the story but I totally remember the cover.
I bought this little bowl of trims. It was $2.50 for everything you see including the metal bowl they are in. So cute.
I love how the lace is wrapped around an old fashion clothes pin.
I might use a bit of the lace when I finish some of the cross-stitch pillows I make. We’ll see.
I also picked up this runner. See the big medallions? I’ve been wanting to stitch the piece you see below to the left but haven’t stitched it yet as I’m looking for a crochet piece to attach at the bottom as the designer did. I would rather do mine antique-y like the one with the initials BA so I’d have to likely coffee/tea dye it. We’ll see. It’s a little bigger than I thought so I’ll consult with my daughter Kayla and see what she thinks.
I picked these up for my brother Jim. He is a baseball nut.
I bought this big box of safety pins for $4.50. I will pass the pins to the gals that put together the pins for Lutheran World Relief baby kits. Each kit requires to safety pins..or maybe 4. I don’t remember. Either way they will be appreciated by them. I’m saving the box and will put it in my sewing room as decor. I think I can make the cut in the box less noticeable.
I’m a sucker for wooden spools. I don’t why. So they came home with me too.
I bought the time cut and the heart jewelry box. The cup will either stay here or I might attach a cross stitch to it or in it. We’ll see. For now, it’s just hanging out here.
I bought this frame for $1. Again, I was thinking of using if for a cross-stitch finish.
I bought this old jewelry box…again possibly put a cross stitch finish in the center on the top. I was a little more expensive than I typically pay but with the right piece, it would be perfect. By the way, the key works!! The other box, I couldn’t pass it up either.
I bought a stack of linens for a friend of mine. Aren’t the ones of top so pretty?
I bought two quilt tops that will be for an auction in the future.
I bought these bundles of linens. I could see that they were very stained. I was mostly interested in the trim. The bundles were only $2 each.
I ended up opening the packages and felt so sad. Someone put a lot of work into these to dress them up…and what became of them, rags. Originally I was going to just cut the trims off and toss the rest but now I have it in my head I should try to save them. Does anyone have any good suggestions of something I could soak them in to get out the stains? I would totally use them if I could get the stains out.
As I was leaving the sale, it had started to snow. PERFECT TIMING.
I got home and got everything into the house. As I was putting things away I kept taking a look at my bird feeders. It was a busy day at the feeders. Just then a cardinal landed and was eating. I never get cardinals. I went to grab my camera and there in his place was a blue jay. I never get blue jays. I got my camera ready and he flew away too.
Then a female cardinal came by…I decided to go out and some peanuts to the tray feeder. I came back into the house, looked outside and the male cardinal came back again. This time I got a picture of him.
I really enjoy the birds that come by…I’m so glad I got bird feeders. I’ve only had them for about 9 months and don’t regret it a drop.
After the stuff from the sale was put away, I thought I would take advantage and go sew after all, it’s a snow day for me..but, my voice of reason jumped in. I knew I would hate myself later if I didn’t write at least one blog post before I went to sew. This is the blog post I wrote…and now it’s finished and I am going to go enjoy my snow day. Even better news, I made a pot of homemade chicken noodle soup last night anticipating I’d have company today…so now I don’t even need to stop to cook myself meals. So now my snow day has turned into a sewing day!! YAHOO!!
9 Comments
/ By Jo
/ January 24, 2023 January 24, 2023
Before I get to today’s post I want to remind any auction winners that it’s time to fill out the form if you haven’t yet. You can find the form HERE.
On Sunday I invited my siblings and spouses to my house. You might remember that I discovered the app called Filmbox that took old negatives and turned them into pictures. Well, I had the family negatives and thought it was my place to share them with the rest of the siblings being that now there was a way to do that.
What better way to do that than to have a family get-together?
I didn’t know how many others wanted to put the app on their phone so I figured I would be the one to take most of the photos of the negatives so which left me unable to jump up and keep up with the food and being I was the hostess, I would need to figure out what to make for food that could “manage itself”.
Now to today’s post. January 24th, 2019 was a tough one for me. I look at that day as the beginning of the end. Today marks the four-year anniversary.
For you long-time blog readers you already know the story of how I finally talked my husband, Kramer, a long-time smoker, into asking his doctor to have a CT Scan done.
The previous six months or so I had noticed my strong energetic 57-year-old husband slowly slept more and tired more easily. It was nothing terrible. It was nothing someone else might not even notice. It was something I tried to pass off as him getting older. Me, I always had it in the back of my mind that smoking was going to get him so had been vigilant about watching for signs. I couldn’t help but wonder if this was one of the signs so I pushed him to get a CT scan.
After a month or so of nagging, I finally got him to ask for a CT scan when he was going to the doctor for something else.
He went in, had the scan, and then went back to work. I was going about my day and the computer dinged that I had an email. I went and looked. It was his test results. Not thinking anything I looked. There was the test result of his CT scan. I clicked. It said he had cancer. It told all about the location of the mass. It told where it was located. It told how big it was. What it didn’t tell me was how my life was going to change.
The cancer wasn’t little…it was invasive. It was bad. I knew it. The report said it.
As a wife, what do you do with that information? I had childcare kids at my house. Do I call him? Do I call our adult kids? Do I call my childcare parents? WHAT DO I DO???
