Grandma and her boys

Friday 22 July 2011

Another update ...unbelievable

Today I had time to update a few items on the computer ... doing really well and thought time for a coffee...ugh !! wrong move.

Now I am always very diligent about not having drinks close to the computer .. so I was on the breakfast bar with laptop, coffee was on the shelf leading to the sink area ... CAT was eating in kitchen decided he had to be ontop of computer and the rest is history so they say ... so your imagination is most likely doing the right thing... the cup went flying as CAT ( god bless him) jumped up on to the sink and over the shelf bringing cup and contents down on to computer, me and the carpet.... Upshot of this whole story is now my laptop is DEAD... insurance claim is in so am using the old desk computer which has not been used or updated for at least 2 yrs. They have to send the dead one away to prove it is dead and why ....... and then decide about the replacement value. Talk about frustration !!!!!
 This one is so ........ so .........so........ so.......... slow.....................................
I have also had to shampoo half of the dining room carpet.


Thursday 21 July 2011

A bit of an update.....



The shoulder and arm are "getting there" not nearly as much pain now, have cut down the pills and only seeing the physio every other day now.
I can hold the "mouse" so am managing to to read the blogs and catch up with everyone's "Doings" so I am trying a post, as there is so much to catch up with.
Thank you all for your lovely comments and sympathy they were all much appreciated.
I have also managed a fair bit of stitching ... promise to do some photographs when I remember where I put the camera.

Have a Quilting class on this coming Saturday... a small wall hanging  "Agapanthus" all machine work ... not done any real quilting for ages so easing back in gently.



Just like many other Grandparents I have had the 2  Rotorua Grandsons during the day for 3 days this week ... yes! it is the school holidays  and both parents working.....we have had a great time swimming, sewing and generally being spoilt .. I am sure they have been on the PlayStation and computer far to much ... more than is  good for them and eaten far to many nice things, but hey!! that's what this grand parenting is all about I believe.


"Grand Kids ......If I knew they were so much fun I would have had them first"




This coming week I have the 2 from Hamilton for 3 days, but they will stay with me night and day so it will be a bit different, days will be longer from "eyelids up to eyelids down"  ... But I have all sorts of stuff planned


Just keeping fingers crossed for the weather to be nice ... when I say nice I mean "Not Raining" we have had the worse 2/3 weeks on record of rain ... I have not put a foot on the lawns as they are 3 inches under water .... there has been no clean up in garden at all, so hopefully the boys may be able to help me this coming week if the sun shines for us..


Last Sunday my car was so dirty that I finally succumbed to a car wash at the local garage, there does not seem to have been a dry spell long enough for me to wash it in or a day when my shoulder would have allowed me to do it .... I chose the top priced car wash , a pressie to myself and   Wow Wee !! it looked great all polished and waxed, no water marks on the paintwork or windows so was worth every dollar ... I may be treat myself again in a couple of months.

Okay have over done the holding of the mouse, ache coming back in the arm so will sign off.


Sunday 17 July 2011

I can not believe ... what I have done


Grandma to the rescue was last week ... this week it has been my turn ... although Grandma is managing her own problem or should I say still is !!

Ben with his broken foot stayed with me and on the final day he was here I lifted him into the car and PING goes a muscle in my back / shoulder and by Monday I am in acute pain, after blood tests ( previous Breast Cancer so they always check when I have anything wrong) X-rays and copious amounts of pulling about by Dr's and nurses and physios they have decided I have a trapped nerve in my shoulder area  ... I can honestly say this is  the first time ever that pain has reduced me to tears more than once in the week. ... so I am absent from blogging because I can not use my right hand with the mouse ( ouch !!) and using the internal mouse takes hours to write just a few words.

So I will be only reading every one's blogs for a bit longer.
Having Physio each day  and doing the exercises as ordered to do ....so hopefully the release of the nerve  will happen soon ... as my pain tolerance is getting low ... and am popping pills like they are going out of fashion.

Friday 8 July 2011

Trying something new

At Kathryn's house the other day she had cooked a whole chicken in her slow cooker ... and it was so tender and Delicious ... I vowed to cook one the same way.
Low and behold  the supermarket had a special on Country style chickens today, this one was extra special as it was yesterdays and they had reduced it another 25% ...always an eye for a bargain me ... snapped it up and here it is in the slow cooker with in the hour of purchase.  A chicken this large will most likely see me through the weekend and some.

It came in a "cook in bag"   now I was not sure you could use this in a slow cooker so "Googled it " some said  Yes, some said NO,  the bag manufacturers said  NO only use a slow cooker liner... I didn't know there was such a thing just goes to show you learn something new every day.

Christmas Trees


In a previous post I mentioned the Christmas trees I was assembling, so far I have done  13  of them .. makes a nice forest and so colourful.
All ready for the sales table at the Christmas Embroidery exhibition in November.

Grandma to the rescue




Ben ( almost 8yrs ) jumped down of the stage at after school care on Monday night (like he has everyday practically for the last 2 years) and then complained his foot hurt but not to much and  could walk okay.
Next morning his foot was swollen and sore, so Dad took a couple of hours off work and took him for an x-ray.
Kathryn  on the other hand called in the cavalry (aka Grandma)
They diagnosed a sprain and sent him home telling them  to keep him off his foot for the rest of the week. So Grandma drove to Hamilton and  did a snatch and grab and took him home to Rotorua to spend a few day with her.
While everyone else went to school and work as normal.

Don't you just love Grandma's?

Unfortunately we wish it was all just that simple.
Turns out after the Radiologist re read and  reviewed his x-ray later in the day ...they called at 5pm to say he needed to be seen again due to actually having a broken foot.
Slight problem here, he was now over 1hr drive away.
Thus a quick call to Grandma .....

So I took him to local clinic here in Rotorua and they called Hamilton clinic who advised of the diagnosis.
Now we have a back slab, non weight bearing with crutches for 7 days, then a visit to fracture clinic and 4 weeks in a cast.

So here at Grandma's with DVD's and videos, reading and homework books, games and cards ...  we are learning to gamble on the games with glass beads and having late nights ... not sure if this is what Grandma is suppose to be teaching him .... but Ben  along with Grandma is enjoying it.
So we are having a great time doing on the most part nothing in particular,

 Grandma has done no sewing or been to any of her normal activities this week. Even the computer has been forgotten.
"Good news"  they say he can go back to school on Monday

Sunday 3 July 2011

Busy stitching

 

Busy busy week or two.....
Last weekend I attended a class to make a Kina.... ..I can just hear all the sighs and blank looks " what the heck is a Kina ?"
KINA, a common sea urchin or sea egg considered a delicacy by Maori,

Here is picture of New Zealand Kina or Sea Urchin, as you see when alive it is covered in spikes but when dead it leaves a beautiful shell, here are a few shells.




NZ Kina Shells all sorts of sizes and colours.







 


A lovely member of our Guild Eileen made a Kina quite a few years ago ... photo here


Mine is still in the construction stage .....

So just watch this space  !!


At Christmas we have our  Christmas Embroidery Exhibition, a lot of work goes on all year to make items for the sales table ... this last couple of weeks I have been helping to construct
these Christmas trees ....










Yesterday we had a Regional Day for the Embroidery Guilds of Waikato and Bay of Plenty, lucky for us it was held in Rotorua so we did not have to travel to it.

One of the main attractions of the day was Ribbon Rose Embroidery shop who came with may be half his shop from Ellersley ( near Auckland) ... this was a great treat for the folks in this area as we do not have a shop now that stocks threads especially silk and speciality threads, everything has to be ordered by phone or Internet.... so to have all these threads here,  to be able to touch and feel them was a present in it's self. So 100 embroiderers had a great day of buying up big time, including me...... but I was very restraint and only bought what I needed...




Last week I received my Santa Sack plus 2 gifts from Cheryl my swap partner ... the gifts are wrapped and I must not open them until Christmas morning ..... each month I will receive 2 more gifts which I have to add to the sack ...  I think I can manage to not touch, not even squeeze or shake them ... well not to much anyhow ... I am getting excited already and its 176 days to go to Christmas.



So now you have caught up with what has been going on here ... although I have only told you the interesting bits ... on top of this I have been to  Arthritis swimming exercise classes twice a week, swimming at the hot mineral pools at least every other day,  a couple of committee meetings, looked after the grandsons, managed to fit in a bit of laundry and housework, sewing group and embroidery guild  ... in between times have managed to get my hair cut, collect new glasses and a bit of shopping to hold body and soul together.  I also managed to remember to feed the cat, who is not talking to much to me as he feels neglected ... I don't blame him either.

Oh! being retired is such a busy life ......the old saying that you wonder how you ever had time to go to work before ......is so so true.
AND
"I love every minute of it"