Exciting Times

The end of May is rapidly approaching.  I need to have done more than I have, but it is what it is.

Tomorrow morning, my daughter is leaving from her home in Texas along with my grand-babies (ages 2 and 6) traveling alone to come for a visit and to attend Nick's high school graduation on June 1st.  It will be great to see them, but I'm very concerned about her traveling alone with the youngsters.  Her original plan was to drive straight through...a 16-hour drive under 'normal' conditions...I can't imagine attempting that with kids.  It's tough enough with my 14-hour straight through to Oregon from here, by myself.  

I was able to convince her of the folly in that plan, and they will be spending the first night in Flagstaff, and should get here later in the evening on Wednesday.  This all could be delayed a day, but as of last night, she still plans to leave in the morning.  This will be the first time I've met my grand-daughter (the 2-yr old), so it is especially exciting.  Our house hasn't had little ones in it since Nick was little.  Speaking of Nick, he's encountering his final week of high school.  Have I mentioned that, while he's academically doing well, school is just something required from life.  He's not enthused about anything related to school or his classmates for the most part.  He's had NO interest in doing any of the senior activities - no prom, no senior special events.  He had NO interest in picking out senior pix, or a class ring, or his announcements.  In fact, we just ordered said pix last week after I hounded him to pick a pose.  The photos were taken last July and we had online proofs in August! and announcements have sat on the dining room table for weeks.  I hope he doesn't regret his lack of interest one day, but this seems to be who he is.  School is nothing special to him.  He plans to take a year off before heading to the local 2-year college.  I've opposed that plan, and have lost the fight.  

It's a Costco shopping day; it's getting late and I still need to shower. 

Oh, before I go, if you're wondering why my daughter is traveling alone with the kids, her husband has too many work commitments right now to join her, though there is a slim chance he may be able to fly in and then drive home with them.

Wednesday Wanderings

Hah! No, I'm not really wandering anywhere outside of my own house, at least not yet.

Having spent several weeks in the wet land up north back in April, I haven't been looking forward to going back up as much as I normally would.  It's more the aspect of the drive, and the time away from home, than being around family up there.  I'd love to be around them more.  

There are a lot of timing issues that came up that needed to be worked around.  Some of the items that came up, yes, I could pass off and let Marty handle, but I've already missed a lot of those things in the past couple years.  They have to do with Nick's school year and now Senior pictures, and picking up his registration packet and getting registered for this year.  This is the last time I'll be helping much with any part of his high school education - throughout the year that is - and I'm tired of missing it.  

In light of that, my trip north will be for only two weeks, which also means once again, I'll miss seeing some of the folks up there that I haven't seen much of during the last couple years events.  Back in April, I decided not to go to quilt camp this year; maybe I'll resume next year, or maybe I'll go up and be part of the one they have in spring, though it's shorter than the one that takes place during the same time as the Sisters Quilt Show.  

Nick will travel north with me this time - the first time since summer of 2013.  He hasn't found a summer job and doesn't appear to be giving that a 100% effort.  He can help me drive, which already is making me feel better about that long drive.  This may be his last opportunity for a very long time to see his relatives he used to see every summer.

We're planning to leave around 7/21 and be back home about 8/5.  He starts school on 8/11, which is even earlier than last year.  It seems the summers get shorter and shorter for the kids - perhaps not a bad thing given local child labor laws/regulations and the difficulty even at 17 of finding a summer job.  

In other in-home wanderings, it's the endless household chores (I'm still a slacker).  The last couple days have required dealing with ants.  Nick cleaned out and rearranged his bedroom, leaving me to figure out what to do with all the stuff he no longer wants and which is still right in the areas of the house where he left them.  I'm more "emotionally" attached to his stuff than he is (good for him/bad for me).  I've still been working on genealogy, but for two or three days have been side-tracked with sorting through pictures attempting to cull out what I don't want - I've saved them ALL including duplicates over the decades, from a lot of singles activities at church, vacations and other outings.  I'd like to pass some of them on to some of the folks in the photos, but I've no idea where they live any more having lost touch over the years.  Many aren't on social media.  

That's the news from here.  Not much exciting, but that's my normal....and it's ok :)

Prayer Please

The first thing, and it's no biggy, but I cut my right hand ring finger last night and nicked the pinky...Cutco serrated knife in freshly drawn dishwater.  I'd placed several knives in with only about 2" of water, grabbed a pizza pan and sponge thinking I'd get it out of the other side of the sink, all the while in my brain saying "remember the knives" and promptly ran that sponge along the submerged edge of the pan right against that blade, yowie!  It bled quite a bit.  DH arrived just as I was grabbing paper towels to put pressure on it.  Dinner was cooking.  Wasn't sure if I should head to urgent care or not and was willing to 'wait and see'.   About that time....

...Nick comes into the kitchen saying he was having trouble breathing and was feeling odd in his chest.  The boy just turned 17 a few weeks ago, so that concerned me, but I wasn't sure what to make of it.  His only allergy is peanuts but he hadn't been in contact with them but I had taken a small container that had peanut butter and cleaned it out putting the peanut butter in a zippered bag in the trash.  He's not been sensitive to the allergen except when consumed or extended time in a restaurant that served peanuts in the shell and the shells were scattered on the floor, and then he was only bothered minimally, so there was no known cause for him to be having trouble breathing.  As a toddler, he had some wheezing issues after being sick and we utilized a nebulizer, but he hasn't been sick and we haven't used it for him in years and years, but have for myself.   

We deliberated as to whether to take him to urgent care, but he was hungry so wanted to eat first.  So we did.  We then hemmed and hawed for awhile longer and finally decided to better be safe than sorry, and went...for both of our issues.   Mine, the ultimate outcome was "superglue" instead of stitches, along with a tetanus shot.  I feared the latter more.  The 'nurse' was excellent, I didn't even feel the jab let alone the input of the fluid!  But Nick's outcome is a little more worrisome.

They performed an EKG, which came back with abnormal readings.  Also, for one his age and slenderness, his BP was a little elevated.  The recommendation was to have him see a pediatric cardiologist this week, so we were actually able to get an appointment this afternoon but have to drive a ways away to their alternate offices, otherwise couldn't get in until next Monday.  While we were at urgent care and out of the house, he was saying he was feeling better and almost 'normal'.  But after being home a short time, he was having trouble breathing again with the same sensation in his chest.  The U.C. doctor didn't perform any pulmonary type tests other than listening through a stethoscope, so I don't know if that could be a problem as well. 

I know housekeeping here isn't the greatest, and his room is pretty dusty. I changed his sheets before he went to bed as well and gave him a clean blanket.  I have done anything in his room in ages, since at his age, he should be responsible to change his sheets on occasion.  I'm thinking maybe that hasn't happened in months! :/   I also let him have a breathing treatment since I had Albuterol here from my last need and it's within date and he's "adult" dosage and has used it before.  He said he felt better after, but this morning said he only slept about four hours and wasn't feeling much better overall, very tired.  He went ahead to school, but will be home in about 45 minutes for the rest of the day and to go to the doctor appt.

Please pray for doctors' wisdom, and most importantly that there is nothing serious with his heart.  I hear stories of young ones with unknown defects who lose their lives suddenly, and it scares me.  He's commented too that he's felt fluttering in his chest (like PVCs), and to have the U.C. doctor say abnormal reading which could  indicate wall thickening, I'm actually terrified.  My young man hasn't had the best diet, doesn't care much for greens and veggies though will eat some and loves all the bad things: pizza, burgers, cheese, cream soups, used to love corn dogs, cocoa milk for breakfast, and Mountain Dew. Yeah, I know, I'm the mom and I do the shopping - guilty with no good excuse, these are all the foods DH & I like too!  We told him last night his diet will likely be changing if there is a real heart-related issue.  Wouldn't hurt any of us, though I've not been one to be on the "cholesterol" and "saturated fats" band-wagon; I'm more in the inflammation camp, but then haven't steered clear of a lot of processed foods in recent years either.  He also doesn't get much exercise being a computer nerd-type and no PE class this year, and no interest in extra-curricular sports.  Life may necessitate some changes in the household and none of us are going to be too happy about that :( but my son's health is more important than anything.

Sleep Deprived?

Well, I don't know if I'm sleep deprived or just getting old and forgetful, or that I've just been trying to work on too many projects all at the same time. 

For the last couple days I've been putting away fabric that I'd pulled out for a project I'm going to start at quilt camp, having cut out all that I needed.  I have another project I was thinking of taking too and had cut it out awhile back, but then when I looked at it the other day I started thinking I needed to still cut the background fabric, and in the bin found only a small string of that background fabric, so I went on the hunt for it.  Mind you, all my fabric was all put away at this point and re-organize nice, neat, & tidy, but I couldn't find that 2 yard piece of black fabric anywhere. And I had only a vague recollection of at least thinking I used in something, but in what? I checked all my UFO kits - nothing! I even checked in the laundry room!  I finally gave up and decided I'd choose something else from my stash for the background and pulled out a 3 yard piece of a Debbie Mumm/South Seas Imports butternut (?) crackled print, not what I wanted but interesting still for this scrappy project.

I then looked in my bin of previously cut & kitted pieces for this project and realized, doh!, I had already cut all of the 2" squares I needed and had set them together with each set but they were on the bottoms of each set and I didn't see them (these are bow ties).  Yikes! And that's where the 2 yard piece of black went!

In the meantime however, I had already cut off 1 yard from the Mumm fabric, starched it and cut it into 2" wide strips and had cut a couple of those strips into 2" squares before having looked in the bin.  So, what does one do at that point?  One stops cutting, and takes those squares and aligns those strips and rolls it all up jelly roll fashion to await a future project requiring 2" squares or strips.

And you tie it off with a thin strip of the same fabric along with a postable note so that you don't forget what it was all about.  And since it's been starched (the cut parts) I'll put it in a zippered bag, because I know starch draws bugs, and I know this house with it's old carpet, has bugs, but then I wonder, why bother, we starch clothes and I don't seal the quilts-in-progress in bags and have never seen bugs in my fabric or the quilt boxes.  I'm a proponent of using things like moth balls and Cedar Magic, and have lined the floor of my stash closet with cedar closet strips, yep, used it as flooring figuring by keeping it raw my shoes would scuff it enough to keep from having to occasionally rough it up with sand paper :)  

That's today's quilting adventure. In other news:

Nick wanted to take golf camp again this year, we missed last year, so he gets to go for three days because we were late getting around to registering him, and because 5 days is just way too expensive.  I hope he makes it.  After day one, and with temps today in the mid-90s and going even hotter over the next couple days, he came home with very painful wrists, so I have him soaking his wrists in Epsom salts, and will have him resume taking his Voltaren.  I hope he grows out of this wrist pain, but frankly, I think it's from too much computer gaming time.  Piano doesn't bother him much.  As skinny as he is, he's not been an athletically active child and doesn't do any ongoing physical labor and what's an only child to do, so I imagine that all plays part in his wrist problems.  The doctor has considered he may need cortisone injections, ugh.  I think he'd like to do golf more frequently, but it's very expensive, as is really any activity he might be interested in.  I think he'd be really good with swimming, but again, expensive because we have no pool of our own. 

I suppose I have a better appreciation for my parents having always said 'no' to our activity requests when I was a child seeing that there were five of us and far less money than Marty & I even have available...we were flat out dirt poor to the point of receiving government cheese for a time.  But living on the ranch (care-takers), we did have pasture for horses and that provided an activity for us, along with the hard work that was needed on the ranch feeding cattle, tending garden, fencing, working in the fields to get money for school clothes.  The 50s and 60s were a different time.

Countdown!

It's count down time for Nick!  Tomorrow morning, Marty will take him to the airport where he will meet up with 36 of his classmates and another 27 parents/teachers - I'm glad there's a large adult contingency going!  From the airport to his destination, a non-stop flight is a very long way away.  They're going to Washington D.C.  This is part of their year-end 8th grade activities.  He's very unemotional about the whole thing.  Of course, he's never been a big talker so I wouldn't know if he's excited at all or not.  He is like his dad! and in my book...well, that's frustrating.  I've been fussing and feathering (like most moms) for quite awhile to make sure he has everything he needs to take along according to the supplied list.  After we got home from church this morning, I got out the suitcase, the list and took them to his room and was ready to get him packing...him? meh, not so much!  His comment?  "I'll pack tonight."  :S  OK, then. Well, at least I have all his laundry done, and gathered up his necessaries.  And I guess he'll pack tonight.  Good grief, what's the hurry Mom, right?

As this count down ticks off the minutes, I get more and more anxious, and pray more and more.  My BABY has never been gone from me this long - SIX DAYS!! - nor so far, by surface from our town to D.C. one route is 2667.97 miles ...two thousand six hundred miles... he may as well be going to the moon.  How can he go so far away from his Mama?  I woke up this morning with my stomach in knots.  He's going to be gone without Mom and Dad.  For 6 days.  Far away. 

I've discovered as I get older that I get these little fearful anxiety-producing moments, this is one of them.  I envision all manner of horrible things that could happen and I won't be there to protect him, as if I could at this stage of the game.  But he's my BABY, and I'm his MAMA, and that's how MAMA's feel, isn't it?

Even so, I will trust in the Lord, and not be afraid. I will continue to pray that way until, and after, he returns.

One Proud Mama and Papa

It's as if time knows no bounds as to flying away from me.  As I've said probably every month, May (or whichever month it's been) has passed way too quickly.  Perhaps it seems even more so to many of you too, especially if you've been amongst those of us who have celebrated graduations and other school year-end activities.

Nick graduated 8th grade last night.  He's been an excellent student since his pre-school days.  And while he did not make valedictorian or salutatorian, he did receive a President's Education Award certificate for Outstanding Academic Excellence.  He also, for the first time though very close every year, made the Principal's List honor roll with a sustained g.p.a. of 3.85 - 4.0 during the first 3 quarters of the year.  Additionally, he received a Presidential Physical Fitness Award for which one of the qualifiers was to be able to run a mile in 6 minutes 27 seconds.  He did it in 6 minutes and 23 seconds and his comment was "it was painful".  

Nick 5/30/2013

Nick,  8th grade graduate

I wasn't able to get any good still shots of him in the auditorium receiving his awards or diploma, and managed also to not get a single shot of him in his gown nor of him with me and/or Marty.  I did get a couple shots of him outside under our tree dressed in slacks, shirt & tie.  Marty has some shots on his camera, but it could be decades before they get shared with me.

The week leading up to this graduation was hectic, mentally when not physically, as I had come down with a virus on Friday, then on Monday, Nick came down with it and over the next three days for him, he carried a fever peaking at 102.5 late Tuesday afternoon.  School policy is no attendance until fever has been under 100 for 24 hours, so having already missed his two finals on Tuesday, he would also miss his final on Wednesday, and we were sweating bullets (amongst our prayers) as to whether he'd be well enough to make his last final on Thursday and the graduation ceremony that night.  As it was, he had to miss his 'mandatory' rehearsal on Wednesday (I went and observed so that he'd know what he needed to do) though he really, really wanted to be there.  

Along with all that, I was constantly in touch with his teachers trying to determine when he could best take his finals as there were only two allotted times on Thursday for that purpose and he had three to make up.  The teachers were very gracious with their being available at other times.  I thought it would be too much for Nick to do all in the same day, but he was determined, so we got them all scheduled for Thursday, along with his regularly scheduled piano lesson and the ceremony itself that night.  Whew, it was one long, busy, tiring day - three trips to the school for me, and it's 11 miles one way to get there.  I'm still tired, LOL, but Nick really hung in there and got done what needed to be done and feels he did ok on all 4 finals.  And now we can both rest.

Tomorrow, we will have a celebratory dinner at Olive Garden after we go to see the new Star Trek movie.

Near-Teenager...Now Teenager

It's official, Nick is now 13, a teenager. Marty took Nick and three of his best buddies to one of those places where they can race each other around a track. Not inexpensive for two sets of 14 laps each, but a kid only becomes a teenager once in his life, and we've not done anything but our traditional birthday dinner at the honoree's restaurant of choice in the last two or three years, so it was ok. They had a great time, but Marty didn't take a camera, so there are no photos. Nick wanted cake donuts with frosting and sprinkles in lieu of a cake, so I ordered them from the local bakery and placed them on the cake plate with 13 candles. They look pretty nice on the plate and Nick was pleased.