Vaccine and a road trip

 March 3rd we got our second vaccine shot. So thankful we got it. Mel didn't have any side effects but I did. I had chills, body aches, fever and I was tired. It lasted just over 24 hours.

This past Wednesday my friend called me at 9pm. She told me we are going on a road trip. Brubakers sewing is having a sale! It is a Mennonite store west of us that has quilting fabric and they sell Bernina machines and longarm machines.  They carry many of the name brand fabrics that quilt shops carry for half the price. It was a beautiful sunny day and off we went. Lots of laughs. We always enjoy going there and talking with the people. I found fabric for a low tone quilt I want to make. It was a delightful day. We made plans for another quilt shop road trip. A new shop that has opened just east of us. Carol and I are good at getting in fabric trouble.Unfortunately, Linda could not join us. She recently changed jobs and could not take a day off. 

We have been having wonderful weather for March. Many days in the 60's with lots of sunshine. Then a day with a dusting of snow only to be gone by noon. I am so looking forward to warmer weather. I downsized my flower gardens last fall. I still have to work to do on them and I do look forward to get them finished.

Three years ago my friends, Sarah and Dorothy and I decided to make the Farmers Wife quilt. We divided the blocks into groups of 3. We each made 3 of each of our blocks in our section. We each worked on and off on those blocks. Some did the templates some did the paper piecing of them. This past January I said it's time we finish them. We each had about 6 more to do. The fist part of March we got together and did the exchange. Now it is time for us to each put our quilt together. Of course, Sarah had hers put together in a few days. I haven;t started putting mine together yet. I have projects to finish.

Enjoy spring, which is my favorite season. 

Hugs and happy stitching.

Sadness and that darn controlling Covid!

 So much to post about I don't know where to start.

December was a sad month. We lost a dear friend. She had lung and brain cancer. She smoked back in her teens . Two years ago she woke up confused. Her husband thought she was having stroke. At the hospital it was discovered she had cancer. They did brain surgery and she recovered well from that. Her lung cancer was stage 4. She went through treatments. They were wintering in Gulf Shores when this happened. They stayed there to continue her care. They sold their summer home here in Wisconsin and bought a condo down there. She was the most wonderful friend. I miss her.

Christmas was different. The kids picked their gifts and left our gifts. We each had our own Christmas. I missed everyone being here but it was for all of own health. I really miss the hugs. In spite of being alone we did have a nice Christmas. I do have to admit that I did not miss making a big meal for everyone. 

January brought sadness. My cousins granddaughter (7 yrs old) was having dental work done. (pulling a few teeth) Once they had her sedated she coded! She was taken to the nearest hospital and then air lifted to the children's hospital in Milwaukee. She was  on life support and was having brain seizures through out the following 2 days. A few days later they were told she was brain dead and it was time to let her go. I just can not imagine how difficult that was and still is and will continue to be. Rest in peace Jocelyn!

Mel had his cancer check up. His PSA numbers are in the negative which is awesome! He will continue to have 3 more hormone injections. He is doing good. He has trouble walking any distance and does fall. So far no serious injuries,but, it still is worrisome and scary when it happens. His anxiety and depression is under control. We haven't had days that we are not getting sleep  because of an anxiety attack for almost a year. 

It's been a year since this covid-19 started. Staying home has become the norm. I mainly only go out for groceries and to pick up prescriptions.  I'm not at the quilt shop since this started.  A few galls still work with Kari. I go in to pick up the Block of the Month pattern each month. Then we do a zoom to get updates and discuss the pattern. I do miss seeing everyone. A group of us have been also been working on the Farmers Wife quilt. We are in the home stretch of completing the blocks. We started this about 2 years ago and then took a break and now we are finishing the blocks. Next week we will do our block exchange and then put our quilts together. Finally!

We are missing our southern winters. Our friends bought a home in Lake Havasu City that also has a guest house. We have been invited to spend the winter in their guest house. It is a 2 bedroom home with a full kitchen, 2 baths, laundry room and a private patio! Sadly we won;t be going. Not with covid still raging. It would mean stilling in hotels until we got there and we won;t do that. We have also been invited to Florida to spend time with friends there. Again, covid!

Today is it -20 and we have wind chills of -38to -40! Good day to stay home. We had a scare this week with our son John. He was tested for covid and thankfully it came back negative. I made chicken soup and cookies and did a porch delivery to their home. Once he got his results I told him, jokingly, to bring back the soup! LOL! We got our first covid shot this week and we are set for the second one. No reaction this time.

Take care, Stay warm. 

Hugs and stitches!

It's a crazy world

 Well, the election is over and time to move on.  This pandemic has everyone going crazy. We have those that believe it is a real pandemic and those that don't. Our numbers in Wisconsin keep going up. I heard the other day the our area, Wausau/Weston, is rated at number 8 in the country for a HOT SPOT. Since last February the only place I have gone is for groceries and to pick up Mel's prescriptions. I have met up with friends in a park and had lunch. Sitting 6 feet apart. The weather has changed and doing that is no longer an option. Although, one friend said we could pick up our lunches and met in parking lot, eat in our cars with the window down and visit. LOL!

Our Thanksgiving will be a quiet one. I will make a turkey breast and a small ham along with all the fixins for just Mel and I. Our son, John is making the family stuffing and will Drop some off Wednesday night for me to make here. I will make dinner rolls and pies and give them some of those in return. 

I keep busy doing things around the house that need to be done and of course my quilting. I worked on a quilt called Cathedral Stars. What a fun quilt.

I have also been been doing quilting on my Bernina. What an awesome machine. I love the stitch regulator. Working with that and doing ruler work is a real pleasure.

Hours have been reduced at the shop and back to doing curbside pickup. If someone really needs to come in for picking out fabrics they make an appointment. It is sad that this has to be done but we all need to be careful. Kari got the virus in spite of being ever so careful. Thankfully she had a mild case. Another quilt friend lost her mother to Covid-19. She also caught it from her mother. She didn't need to go the hospital but said it was horrible. She had never been so sick.

Happy Thanksgiving! Stay home, stay well. Next year we can celebrate with all our family and friends.

Hugs and keep on stitchin!

Catching up

 Mel has finished his radiation treatments for his prostrate cancer. When you think about going to the Cancer Center everyday for 8 weeks, it seems daunting. The time went amazingly fast. I would drop him off at the door and park. I took a book along and would read while watching for him to come out. Treatments took about 15 minutes and he would be out in 25-30 minutes. While reading I would watch for him but sometimes I would get so involved in my book I would miss him coming out. Since he can't walk a far distance we came up with a plan on the second day. He would take my extra key flop and click my door locks when he was on his way out. By the time he got to the door I was usually there waiting for him. On Tuesdays after his treatment he would see the cancer DR.. Tuesdays would be about an hour appointment. They would go over his vitals and ask him about any side effects. The main side effect is diarrhea. After 3 weeks he had that. Medication took care of that right away. Thankfully. Once he was finished with the treatments we waited 3 weeks to see the urologist and have a PSA test done. His PSA is now minus 0.1!!! He also got his second of 3 hormone injections. The hormone injections shrink the tumor. The side effect of those are hot flashes. I just smile at him when he states, "it sure is hot in here!". As women we know, you never get a hot flash when you are cold. He always says he is cold in and wants one then. He has been having some back pain and we asked if this is side effect. They haven't heard of that happening. Due to that his walking is a little more unstable. He also has balance issues which he has had for awhile now. He has fallen but thankfully he hasn't had a serious injury. He will see the cancer DR in January and have another PSA at that time. So far we are going in the right direction.

Here in Wisconsin our Covid-19 numbers are rising by leaps and bounds. Just this past week our county has risen by over 600 new cases!! We have over 1200 active cases. We mainly stay home. I go out for groceries and that's all. I am not working at the quilt shop during this. I miss the people I work with and the customers. We have decided with the way the numbers are going up here we will probably not be able to have family gatherings for Thanksgiving nor Christmas. Sad but being safe.

My back and leg problems have gotten worse and I have made changes. I tried to weed my flowerbeds but I just can't do it anymore. I weeded for about an hour and I could barely walk for a couple days I hurt so badly. I made the decision to downsize my flowerbeds. My biggest one by the second garage is done. I contacted people and they came and dug up the plants they wanted. My friend, Angel, who is an angel, came and moved the remaining plants to where I wanted them. She put down the weed stop fabric and planted the hostas and sedums along the side of the garage. It looks great. The holes from plants being dug up were filled and new black dirt was put down for the grass seed. In the spring the flowerbed that is along the back fence will be done. I am so thankful for Angel's help. My newsest problem is my guy that cleans up the leaves in the fall and spring has quit doing that. I have called numerous places and gotten estimates over 400.00!!!! He never charges me over 200.00! I am not sure what I am going to do. We have a new neighbor behinds us and he is also looking. His girlfriend has a Mennonite place do hers and he is going to get information. He also needs his done. Hopefully it works out for both of us.

Yesterday we awoke to snow! It wasn't much. Just enough to track an animal. It was melted by 10:30. I am not looking forward to snow and the cold at all. We both miss our trips to AZ for the winter.

I have been quilting and working on many new projects. Two years ago I won a set of Westlee quilting rulers. I played around with them. Then, I found a shop that was giving instructions on them. I started going and then Covid-19 hit. I was able to purchase the training instruction manual and proceed. The manual was quite expensive but well worth it. When I got my Bernina B570 it also came with Bernina stitch regulator. I love that for the free motion quilting. I bought the ruler foot for the machine also. It works fabulous with Westllee rulers. 

Enjoy your day. We have sunshine today and I am loving it.

Hugs

 

Wisconsin "Stay at Home"

We are entering month 2 of the "Stay at Home" in Wisconsin. We can still go out for essentials, go for walks and drives. The hardest part is not being with family. We can see them...from a distance. As we deliver items to each other, we stay a safe distance apart. I have taken masks I made to the kids and we do exchange things we cook or bake.
We did go out for a drive. We call it a "Field Trip". Through the country roads to pick up quilt items that we arranged a head of time. Then we drove more country roads into a town. Drove about the town. Stopped for some carry out food and headed back home down more country roads. It was a beautiful sunny day. It was good to get Mel out of the house. He doesn't leave the house much at all. Since his few mini strokes he has balance and walking problems. Walking any distance is difficult for him. He prefers to just stay home.
Mel's hormone injection has taken affect and he has HOT flashes. It is rather funny watching him experience these. We laugh together as he asks how I got though those. He is feeling fine but anxious about the radiation treatments. We will get through this together.
Stay well and healthy!

Cancer Center

Mel has his appointment had the Cancer Center. Dr Platta is his doctor. I couldn't go in with him but I waited in the car and they called me and I was able to hear what was going on and ask questions. It was a long appointment...2 hours!  Dr Vivano had told us most of the treatment plan. Dr Platta was very informative. Treatment will start 6 weeks after the hormone injection. He will go back the end of May. At that appointment he they will map out his prostrate, give him tattoos to mark the radiation sites and make a mold of his body. The body mold will make sure he is placed in the same position for the treatment. He will have 40 treatments. Treatments are Monday through Friday for 8 weeks. No weekends or holidays. They will take about 20 minutes each time. On Tuesdays he will have a treatment and also see the DR and have lab work done. The Dr is available anytime he needs to discuss and problems he is having. Few do have side effects. Most common is diarrhea after about 2-3 weeks but it does subside in about a week. Burning and difficulty urinating but they have drugs to help with that. He will need to take calcium and vitamin D3. We can set it up to go in each day at own schedule. Going in each day is the part he is having a hard time with. I'm sure once we get our schedule going he will adapt.

Hormone injection and The Gleason Scale

We saw the urologist and Mel got his hormone shot. The shot decreases his testosterone. The side effects are hot flashes. So far he has not had any. We discussed the upcoming appointment with the cancer center. I asked about this type of cancer and if it was graded in Stages. It is not. It goes on the Gleason scale. The Gleason scale goes from 1-10. Mel is at 8.

We will see Dr Platta at the cancer center this week. We are to expect radiation treatments to begin. He will go everyday M-F for 7-8 weeks.

With this virus going on it is scary thinking about going to a medical facility. I have been making masks like crazy. Sent masks to CA, MN, and MS. I have masks for the family and have friends calling asking for them. I have made over 300 masks so far.

Today is Easter and we wish everyone a very Happy Blessed Easter.