Well because summer has just been so normal, we had to throw something into it to make it more exciting. I guess since we had no plans to go away...
A week ago Saturday I had horrible pain mid morning all from my chest into my back, and down into my abdomen. I thought at first it was really bad gas at first, but it didn't go away. For the next few days I had these attacks again, sometimes lasting a long time, and then I realized it might be my gall bladder. I remembered my Mom saying that anything with fat in it would set her off before she had hers out.
I made an appt to see the doctor on Saturday morning. On Wednesday night/early Thursday morning I had a really bad attack lasting about 2.5 hours. I was waiting until the family was up so Bill could bring me to the hospital. Well I decided to shower 1st, and it totally went away while I was showering. So I went to work. Then I got sick. Then I came home again.
Knowing it was likely my gall bladder I Googled it for some tips on how to manage it for a bit. So Friday I was fine. Saturday morning I went to my weigh in (down 25 lbs!!) and then to the doctor. He confirmed that yes it is likely my gall bladder and sent me for some blood work an an ultrasound.
I have managed to avoid any attacks again as of today, although I can certainly feel it. It sort of fells like someone is constantly punching me in the back.
Small amounts of fat can set it off so I am eating almost an entirely fat free diet. Yesterday I had some 2% milk in my tea and even that caused some pain. I can eat boneless skinless chicken breasts, fat free plain yoghurt, and fish for protein. I was already eating oatmeal and salads for lunch, so no big change in my diet there. Night time is the hardest. No alcohol (hard on the liver), no coffee (boo hoo!).
Today I got a call from the doctor that my liver levels are high, so the ultrasound has been bumped up to this Thursday morning. We might have surgery soon after that - we'll see. Unless I have an attack before that, in which case I'll be there even sooner!
Kind of crazy, but if we get this done with the laparoscopic surgery I should be good to go within a week or two again.
And that's it from our corner of the world!
Monday, July 25, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
Happy House Anniversary!
It's been one year since we moved into this house! Crazy! One year! On many levels it is hard to believe it has been that long, and on several other levels it feels like it has been a lot longer. We're just so happy here.
When we bought this place one of the things we liked was that it was a bit older and we would not have to worry about being a little hard on it- denting walls or other such things. We put in a 3rd bathroom, revamped my sewing room (moved a door, put up a wall, took down part of another), put down new floors in Bill's room, my room and as gift from my brother, through the whole entry hall. Bill finally got around to painting the downstairs bathroom on Friday (yeah, it took us a year).
We love, love, love the back yard. The kids do too. They are out there every day the weather allows them. The previous owners left a sandbox and a play house, and we have two climbers, and a water table. So there is lots to do out there. Duncan loves to play baseball out there, and anything else that involves running and hiding and lots of giggling. Our garden is doing okay... Mom came and took a look yesterday and gave me some advice on it, so I'll need to get some of that taken care of.
What would I change? Well our deck still needs a revamping. The plywood underneath is a bit soft, and in my happy little world I would like to make it a bit bigger, which we might do at some point. The kitchen needs the most help. We've been trying to score some cabinets off of Craigslist, but every time we find what we're looking for (just a bank of cabinets up and down, about 3-4 doors long) in our price range (free - $200) they are snatched up so quick we can't get our hands on them. Eventually I see renovating the whole thing, opening up the wall and making it a great room. But by my guess that would cost upwards of $20,000, so we'll be waiting on that one a while.
But we love it here. We feel blessed to have this home, and have no plans any time soon to look anywhere else. Happy Anniversary House!!
When we bought this place one of the things we liked was that it was a bit older and we would not have to worry about being a little hard on it- denting walls or other such things. We put in a 3rd bathroom, revamped my sewing room (moved a door, put up a wall, took down part of another), put down new floors in Bill's room, my room and as gift from my brother, through the whole entry hall. Bill finally got around to painting the downstairs bathroom on Friday (yeah, it took us a year).
We love, love, love the back yard. The kids do too. They are out there every day the weather allows them. The previous owners left a sandbox and a play house, and we have two climbers, and a water table. So there is lots to do out there. Duncan loves to play baseball out there, and anything else that involves running and hiding and lots of giggling. Our garden is doing okay... Mom came and took a look yesterday and gave me some advice on it, so I'll need to get some of that taken care of.
What would I change? Well our deck still needs a revamping. The plywood underneath is a bit soft, and in my happy little world I would like to make it a bit bigger, which we might do at some point. The kitchen needs the most help. We've been trying to score some cabinets off of Craigslist, but every time we find what we're looking for (just a bank of cabinets up and down, about 3-4 doors long) in our price range (free - $200) they are snatched up so quick we can't get our hands on them. Eventually I see renovating the whole thing, opening up the wall and making it a great room. But by my guess that would cost upwards of $20,000, so we'll be waiting on that one a while.
But we love it here. We feel blessed to have this home, and have no plans any time soon to look anywhere else. Happy Anniversary House!!
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Quilt Shop Hop Weekend
My goodness, has it honestly been almost a month? Oh well - hello!
This past Thursday and Friday the little escape I've been waiting for finally happened with Theresa and Ronnie. It was time for the yearly Washington Quilt Shop Hop and I haven't been in 3 years due to life happening (you know having babies, moving houses, etc...) I was determined to go this year whether I was on my own or now. I'm glad I was not on my own though!
We all took Thursday and Friday off work and headed off on Thursday morning. I had some fun making the girls some quilted tote bags for the shop hop, something my friend Lisa did for me a few years back. I did a bit of advance planning and progammed in all the shops to my GPS before we headed out.
No problems at the border, and down through Lynden first, then down to Bellingham. We stopped in Anacores for 2 shops and some lunch. Anacortes ended up being dangerous because I spent a good bit of money in one of those shops.
We had 11 shops to get to altogether and were done by 4:30 - pretty good for a days ride, and it was not rushed at all.
The thing I need to mention is that with typical Carole timing, I was sick. I thought I had just caught my Mom's cold at first but I now think it was strep b/c my throat hurt so bad and I hurt everywhere and me neck hurt... so I was pretty pathetic at the end there. Advil was my friend!
We had a reservation at Tulalip resort. I love it there! Oh I can't wait to go back and I hope one time I can go spend 2 nights. 1st order of business was heading down to the pool. I soaked in the hot tub for about half an hour and that helped a lot with the aches. We went up, got cleaned up and then headed out for dinner. We opted for the buffet, and although none of us ate our fille as one might at a buffet we all agreed that with dinner, pop, dessert etc... the price was not bad and the food was good. I just wasn't hungry! Probably a good thing.
We decided to go up to the room before coming back down, and had some drinks. I was actually not feeling too bad by then so we did some gambling - I spent $40 and won $76+ so I was happy. We did a bit of dancing which was also a hoot.
Next morning after breakfast and check out we went to the Premium Outlet Mall. Oh heaven! We could have spent a lot more time (and money!) there! I think if we ever decide to do this again we'll go to the mall the 1st day and quilt shops the next.
Crossing the border was the best ever - drove right up. No problems getting across. We were home just after 5.
It was great spending some time with the girls and getting away. Although I look forward to that little get away with Bill in the future. We've been there together before and really enjoy the hotel.
Actually, 2 weeks ago we spent the night in Vancouver to go see Wicked. I made the huge mistake of booking through Hotwire. We got a room at a 4 star hotel and it was the biggest let down ever. More like a Hotel 6 than a 4 star hotel. I complained to both the hotel and Hotwire that I paid for a 4 star hotel room and got more like a 2 and hotwire said well they use us to fill rooms, and the hotel said well the next time you book with us.... Um, we're not booking with you again. Duh. I know other people have had good success with hotwire, but we will never do that again. I'm not mentioning the hotel name b/c I have a feeling hotwire would get at me about that. But it won't stop me from thumbing my nose at them and the massive waste of money it ended up being.
Wicked was fun, although not what we expected. We enjoyed the Lion King more. Although Defying Gravity was an amazing song.
This past Thursday and Friday the little escape I've been waiting for finally happened with Theresa and Ronnie. It was time for the yearly Washington Quilt Shop Hop and I haven't been in 3 years due to life happening (you know having babies, moving houses, etc...) I was determined to go this year whether I was on my own or now. I'm glad I was not on my own though!
We all took Thursday and Friday off work and headed off on Thursday morning. I had some fun making the girls some quilted tote bags for the shop hop, something my friend Lisa did for me a few years back. I did a bit of advance planning and progammed in all the shops to my GPS before we headed out.
No problems at the border, and down through Lynden first, then down to Bellingham. We stopped in Anacores for 2 shops and some lunch. Anacortes ended up being dangerous because I spent a good bit of money in one of those shops.
We had 11 shops to get to altogether and were done by 4:30 - pretty good for a days ride, and it was not rushed at all.
The thing I need to mention is that with typical Carole timing, I was sick. I thought I had just caught my Mom's cold at first but I now think it was strep b/c my throat hurt so bad and I hurt everywhere and me neck hurt... so I was pretty pathetic at the end there. Advil was my friend!
We had a reservation at Tulalip resort. I love it there! Oh I can't wait to go back and I hope one time I can go spend 2 nights. 1st order of business was heading down to the pool. I soaked in the hot tub for about half an hour and that helped a lot with the aches. We went up, got cleaned up and then headed out for dinner. We opted for the buffet, and although none of us ate our fille as one might at a buffet we all agreed that with dinner, pop, dessert etc... the price was not bad and the food was good. I just wasn't hungry! Probably a good thing.
We decided to go up to the room before coming back down, and had some drinks. I was actually not feeling too bad by then so we did some gambling - I spent $40 and won $76+ so I was happy. We did a bit of dancing which was also a hoot.
Next morning after breakfast and check out we went to the Premium Outlet Mall. Oh heaven! We could have spent a lot more time (and money!) there! I think if we ever decide to do this again we'll go to the mall the 1st day and quilt shops the next.
Crossing the border was the best ever - drove right up. No problems getting across. We were home just after 5.
It was great spending some time with the girls and getting away. Although I look forward to that little get away with Bill in the future. We've been there together before and really enjoy the hotel.
Actually, 2 weeks ago we spent the night in Vancouver to go see Wicked. I made the huge mistake of booking through Hotwire. We got a room at a 4 star hotel and it was the biggest let down ever. More like a Hotel 6 than a 4 star hotel. I complained to both the hotel and Hotwire that I paid for a 4 star hotel room and got more like a 2 and hotwire said well they use us to fill rooms, and the hotel said well the next time you book with us.... Um, we're not booking with you again. Duh. I know other people have had good success with hotwire, but we will never do that again. I'm not mentioning the hotel name b/c I have a feeling hotwire would get at me about that. But it won't stop me from thumbing my nose at them and the massive waste of money it ended up being.
Wicked was fun, although not what we expected. We enjoyed the Lion King more. Although Defying Gravity was an amazing song.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Blogging? What's that?
Wow, work and real life gets in the way of writing blog posts. What's funny is that I write them in my head all the time, but I don't get the chance to put them down so I can share them with you.
So, how are you doing today? Thanks for coming by. It is another cold, early March day... oh...wait... it's almost the end of May. Easy to get confused. It is only 11C out! (about 52F for my American friends). They showed the other day on the news the hottest May temp was back in 2005 and it was like 27 degrees. I totally remember that really hot May! I remember us melting away in our town house, and it was that day that we decided to go and buy our 1st big screen tv from Costco. It is still used in the rec room. Funny how we remember these things.
We did get our vegetable garden planted this week though, so that's awesome. We're keeping it simple to begin and we'll see how it goes. At least with all the rain I don't need to remember to water the plants. *grin*
Weight loss - down 20.8!! I'm thrilled with my progress. Slow but steady.
I just spent the last 3 weeks working in our downtown office. It was really good to see many old friends there and it was funny b/c it felt like I had never left, but oh boy did the commute kill me! I have become quite used to my cushy 10-15 minute commute now, getting up at 6, not leaving until well after 7, home before 5. Working downtown I was up at 5, gone by 6, traveling basically 3 hours a day... I was exhausted. I don't know how I did that for 12 years. Mind you, the train is nice - my daily sudoku, reading books, checking email and such on my iphone. But I couldn't go back to it! They were happy to have me though, and it certainly won't hurt me for having been willing to do so. And hey, the company paid for transportation.
I should probably update on the kids and all (they are good), but I'll save that for another time. See you soon! (or not).
So, how are you doing today? Thanks for coming by. It is another cold, early March day... oh...wait... it's almost the end of May. Easy to get confused. It is only 11C out! (about 52F for my American friends). They showed the other day on the news the hottest May temp was back in 2005 and it was like 27 degrees. I totally remember that really hot May! I remember us melting away in our town house, and it was that day that we decided to go and buy our 1st big screen tv from Costco. It is still used in the rec room. Funny how we remember these things.
We did get our vegetable garden planted this week though, so that's awesome. We're keeping it simple to begin and we'll see how it goes. At least with all the rain I don't need to remember to water the plants. *grin*
Weight loss - down 20.8!! I'm thrilled with my progress. Slow but steady.
I just spent the last 3 weeks working in our downtown office. It was really good to see many old friends there and it was funny b/c it felt like I had never left, but oh boy did the commute kill me! I have become quite used to my cushy 10-15 minute commute now, getting up at 6, not leaving until well after 7, home before 5. Working downtown I was up at 5, gone by 6, traveling basically 3 hours a day... I was exhausted. I don't know how I did that for 12 years. Mind you, the train is nice - my daily sudoku, reading books, checking email and such on my iphone. But I couldn't go back to it! They were happy to have me though, and it certainly won't hurt me for having been willing to do so. And hey, the company paid for transportation.
I should probably update on the kids and all (they are good), but I'll save that for another time. See you soon! (or not).
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Quilters Blog Festival
I am writing this post to participate in Amy's Creative Side's Bloggers Quilt Festival.
I have not had a lot of time to be doing quilting lately. I think a full time job and two small children get in the way of that some times, but I am still sticking with my quilting, and have recently completed several baby quilts.
But I wanted to share this quilt. This is, by far, not the best quilt I have ever made. It is one of the 1st ones I ever made out of the Washington Quilt Shop Hop 2004 blocks. That was the shop hop that made me want to learn how to quilt, when I innocently tagged along with my friend Lisa to check out a few quilt shops. Little did I know.
I ended up making this quilt for my Oma, which she loved. She had me hang it on the wall of her kitchen/dining room, right where everyone could see it. And for a woman as crafty as she was, that meant a lot to me.
What I like about this quilt is that it taught me a lot of different techniques that I had to learn to finish the blocks. So is it perfect? Nope. Are the colours perfect? Nope! But it was one of my biggest labours of love, and inspired me to keep learning more and more.
Thanks to Amy for organizing this. There is a lot of beautiful stuff out there! I'll share some pictures of my more recent quilts soon.
I have not had a lot of time to be doing quilting lately. I think a full time job and two small children get in the way of that some times, but I am still sticking with my quilting, and have recently completed several baby quilts.
But I wanted to share this quilt. This is, by far, not the best quilt I have ever made. It is one of the 1st ones I ever made out of the Washington Quilt Shop Hop 2004 blocks. That was the shop hop that made me want to learn how to quilt, when I innocently tagged along with my friend Lisa to check out a few quilt shops. Little did I know.
I ended up making this quilt for my Oma, which she loved. She had me hang it on the wall of her kitchen/dining room, right where everyone could see it. And for a woman as crafty as she was, that meant a lot to me.
What I like about this quilt is that it taught me a lot of different techniques that I had to learn to finish the blocks. So is it perfect? Nope. Are the colours perfect? Nope! But it was one of my biggest labours of love, and inspired me to keep learning more and more.
Thanks to Amy for organizing this. There is a lot of beautiful stuff out there! I'll share some pictures of my more recent quilts soon.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Datebook: May 1, 2011
Good morning! It is a gorgeous day today!! I look forward to getting outside with the kids. I think maybe we'll go up to Alouette Lake this afternoon. Duncan has been asking to go to "the mountains when the weather gets better" for a while now.
Today is: beautiful and sunny. May 1 and spring has finally arrived!
I am reading:
I am reading Sherrilyn Kenyon's "The Dream Hunter" in paperback, and Kate Morton's "The Forgotten Garden" on ebook through Stanza on my iPhone. I am really enjoying that one and my Mom says her friend may have lent it to her, so I might borrow it to read the hard copy. The iPhone is not an ideal format for reading books. Nice to have on hand though.
Weight loss:
I am doing pretty good!! -18 lbs as of yesterday morning!! I am averaging about 1.5 lbs a week right now and am happy with that pace.
Exercise:
I have taken to walking every day at lunch. It is 2.5 km around the block I go, and aside from the one road which is all construction and has no sidewalk, the rest of the walk is dead quiet and very peaceful. I love it! As some people may have seen on my facebook, I met a personal fitness challenge on Friday. I said about 3 months ago I was going to walk home from work over the bridge. They laughed at me! They weren't being mean, but they just thought it was a ridiculous plan. Well on Friday I did it! It took me 15 min longer than planned, but probably b/c I stopped to take pictures on the bridge. I am really thrilled having done it. I need new runners though.
In the kitchen:
Beef stir fry
shake and bake chicken and either french fries or rice and veggies
left over chicken soup casserole
BBQ beef and rice
Kraft dinner Italiano - a favourite of ours. We make it with veggie ground round and it's not that horrible for us!
This week:
Bill starts swimming lessons again tonight. We received a call this week saying that Duncan got in on the waiting list for lessons to start next Saturday. We're very happy about this b/c he loves swimming! So he starts again. Monday is the Federal Election, so we'll drag the kids along to that. We think it's good for them to see the process. Friday I have a flex day. I might send the kids to daycare anyhow just so I can get some stuff done. Otherwise, normal week.
Around the house:
We're hoping we can get someone to take the kids on Saturday morning so we can borrow my parent's carpet cleaner and do our living room carpets. They are in bad shape! Bill plans on digging up around the side of the house to put gravel down to keep little creepy crawlies getting in. We're rather paranoid of ants since that incident a few years ago in the old place. The kids and I have the garden dug up. I am going to go lime it this afternoon (better done with little people not around), we'll fertlize next week and then get ready for planting! Looking forward to that.
Okay, Cordie wants "up!" so I should go get her.
Today is: beautiful and sunny. May 1 and spring has finally arrived!
I am reading:
I am reading Sherrilyn Kenyon's "The Dream Hunter" in paperback, and Kate Morton's "The Forgotten Garden" on ebook through Stanza on my iPhone. I am really enjoying that one and my Mom says her friend may have lent it to her, so I might borrow it to read the hard copy. The iPhone is not an ideal format for reading books. Nice to have on hand though.
Weight loss:
I am doing pretty good!! -18 lbs as of yesterday morning!! I am averaging about 1.5 lbs a week right now and am happy with that pace.
Exercise:
I have taken to walking every day at lunch. It is 2.5 km around the block I go, and aside from the one road which is all construction and has no sidewalk, the rest of the walk is dead quiet and very peaceful. I love it! As some people may have seen on my facebook, I met a personal fitness challenge on Friday. I said about 3 months ago I was going to walk home from work over the bridge. They laughed at me! They weren't being mean, but they just thought it was a ridiculous plan. Well on Friday I did it! It took me 15 min longer than planned, but probably b/c I stopped to take pictures on the bridge. I am really thrilled having done it. I need new runners though.
In the kitchen:
Beef stir fry
shake and bake chicken and either french fries or rice and veggies
left over chicken soup casserole
BBQ beef and rice
Kraft dinner Italiano - a favourite of ours. We make it with veggie ground round and it's not that horrible for us!
This week:
Bill starts swimming lessons again tonight. We received a call this week saying that Duncan got in on the waiting list for lessons to start next Saturday. We're very happy about this b/c he loves swimming! So he starts again. Monday is the Federal Election, so we'll drag the kids along to that. We think it's good for them to see the process. Friday I have a flex day. I might send the kids to daycare anyhow just so I can get some stuff done. Otherwise, normal week.
Around the house:
We're hoping we can get someone to take the kids on Saturday morning so we can borrow my parent's carpet cleaner and do our living room carpets. They are in bad shape! Bill plans on digging up around the side of the house to put gravel down to keep little creepy crawlies getting in. We're rather paranoid of ants since that incident a few years ago in the old place. The kids and I have the garden dug up. I am going to go lime it this afternoon (better done with little people not around), we'll fertlize next week and then get ready for planting! Looking forward to that.
Okay, Cordie wants "up!" so I should go get her.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
The Tuesday that feels like a Wednesday
Yay for short weeks! I'm so glad Friday is a day off. Although I get flex days, official long weekends always just feel better. Most people also get Easter Monday - like my husband - however my company does not. But I do have it as a flex day, so I also have a 4 day weekend. Yay!
Due to the availability of family, we're actually having our family dinner on Friday. A little unconventional, but thast's okay. Sounds like it will be quite the crowd.
We're all doing well here. Just happily trucking along. Weight loss is going well for Bill and I, despite various colds and sinus infections etc... Bill is down 20+ lbs, and I am down 14.6 as of last Saturday. Yay! We're happy with the pace - although faster would be nice, but you know we didn't put it all on in 13 weeks either.
I told Bill the other day he should start a book review blog b/c it seems there are so many out there, he likes to read and he likes to write. He said sure, but now I need to do the foot work to figure out how to get started. I have an idea for the blog already. So let's hope we can get that going.
The kids are fantastic. Duncan only has a few months left of preschool and in the beginning of June we have orientation for Kindergarten. Kindergarten! Already!
Let's see... we're going to Day Out With Thomas again in June, Bill and I are going to see Wicked a few days after that. I'm really looking forward to that. The Wiggles are coming to town in August, and we're definetly planning on going to that show again. Always fun.
Work is... mmmm frustrating. I was going to vent on my blog tonight, but it is probably better not to. I'm not an emotional person, but I was in tears today. Not a good thing. It just gets frustrating. I know it is in my better interest to not vent, but it gets hard not to you, you know? Anyhow, Bill heard all about it on the way home, and now my Mom will be calling or emailing and asking what happened :) I'll tell you when your busy social life settled down okay, Mom?
And that's it! Cordie want's UP UP UP so I should probably do that. Hope you're all well!!
Due to the availability of family, we're actually having our family dinner on Friday. A little unconventional, but thast's okay. Sounds like it will be quite the crowd.
We're all doing well here. Just happily trucking along. Weight loss is going well for Bill and I, despite various colds and sinus infections etc... Bill is down 20+ lbs, and I am down 14.6 as of last Saturday. Yay! We're happy with the pace - although faster would be nice, but you know we didn't put it all on in 13 weeks either.
I told Bill the other day he should start a book review blog b/c it seems there are so many out there, he likes to read and he likes to write. He said sure, but now I need to do the foot work to figure out how to get started. I have an idea for the blog already. So let's hope we can get that going.
The kids are fantastic. Duncan only has a few months left of preschool and in the beginning of June we have orientation for Kindergarten. Kindergarten! Already!
Let's see... we're going to Day Out With Thomas again in June, Bill and I are going to see Wicked a few days after that. I'm really looking forward to that. The Wiggles are coming to town in August, and we're definetly planning on going to that show again. Always fun.
Work is... mmmm frustrating. I was going to vent on my blog tonight, but it is probably better not to. I'm not an emotional person, but I was in tears today. Not a good thing. It just gets frustrating. I know it is in my better interest to not vent, but it gets hard not to you, you know? Anyhow, Bill heard all about it on the way home, and now my Mom will be calling or emailing and asking what happened :) I'll tell you when your busy social life settled down okay, Mom?
And that's it! Cordie want's UP UP UP so I should probably do that. Hope you're all well!!
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