My Ella fix

Yesterday Bill and I drove to MA to visit with Ella and her parents.   Her dad (and my son) Greg offered to keep her home from daycare for the day.  We arrived around noon and were able to spend the afternoon “babysitting” while Greg got some work done from home.

We fed her lunch and found they she loves vegetables.  They buy frozen veggies then heat some up in the microwave.  She enjoys feeding them to herself as finger foods.

feeding myself veggies

We read some new books that were delivered by Amazon.  We took movies of her new crawling skills as well as sitting from crawling.  We played with toys, fed her a bottle (which she absolutely inhaled) changed a really disgusting diaper (don’t miss that at all, they had given her asparagus the evening before…P  U!) and put her down for a nap.

Vanessa arrived home from work about 4 while Ella was napping and the three of us were chillin downstairs.  Bill and Greg were reading and I was kind of napping.  After Ella woke up, G & V went for a driveby to look at a potential house to purchase.

Greg prepared a new fish and mushroom entre for dinner which was very good and was served with quinoa, a grain cultivated in Chili and Peru.

We left about 7 while V was nursing Ella to put her to bed.  We had both driven down and left my car on Rt 1 so that Bill didn’t have to drive back from ME for work today.  I headed home from there and he drove back to the firehouse.

I’m still dealing with conjunctivitis, 2 weeks now.  Went back to the Dr. on Wednesday and got another prescription for eyedrops.  She advised me not to wear makeup (ARGH!) for 5 days and buy everything new.  Great…it is going to be hard to keep my “no discretionary spending” pledge for the month.   I have to admit, I can’t go out and about without makeup; however, I’m home today and tom and I will be makeup free.

2 1/2" black and white strips

I finished cutting the black and white fabrics into 2 1/2″ strips for the improv border that I’m going to make for Ella’s FM quilt.  My plan is to get started on that today, right after I pack up my good china to move to Bill’s shed.  Then I can get rid of the piece-of-junk hutch that sits on the wall opposite the dining room table and that will open up the room and make it look more spacious…appealing to potential buyers.  *finger crossed* I hope.

Happy Spring everyone; thanks for stopping by…

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A fun play, a down day and flowers

As I mentioned in the previous post, Bill surprised me with tickets to see Dirty Dancing at the Boston Opera House; this was my Valentine’s Day gift.  We had tickets for the 2:00 PM show.  It was a good weather day, temps near 40* so walking from the parking garage to the theatre, a couple of blocks away, was not brutal as it can be this time of year.  Our seats were in the upper section of seats, right smack in the middle of the stage.  The play was awesome!  I have seen the  movie dozens of times and the play followed the story line very closely, using much of the same, beloved dialogue.  For example…”I carried a watermelon” and “no one puts Baby in a corner”.   Sadly it ended after nearly three hours.  Very well worth the money; I admit, I have no idea what the tickets cost.

From there we went to dinner at Polcari’s.  This is a great restaurant located on Route 1 out of Boston south toward Route 95 to Maine.  Dinner was excellent, as usual.  We each had a chicken meal and brought half of them home.

Not only did I get to see a great play and have a great dinner,  the flower fairy brought roses for me.

I didn’t really feel good all day but was able to hang in there till we got home.  I quickly slipped into my jammies and sat on the couch with the cat catching up on my email and blog reading.  Then promptly to bed at 10.

Yesterday I was totally wasted!  I had no energy and spent a lot of the day lying on the couch and coughing.  Bill was content to read the Sunday paper and watch a little TV.  Later in the afternoon we moved into the glass room and sat in the sun before he headed outside to fix a piece of the siding on the house and move some stuff  into the shed.  The glass room was quite warm and comfortable and the sun always feels good.  We reheated the leftovers from dinner at Polcari’s and I packed up my things and headed home as Bill was driving to Cambridge for work today.  Except for being sick it was a great Valentine’s Day weekend.

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I hab a code, yuck!

I hate being sick.  Thankfully, I’m a very healthy person normally.  I would make a really bad chronically ill one.  I have been fighting this darn cold for a couple of weeks and thought I had it beat.  We went to visit Ella last weekend and she was a little under the weather…gunky eyes and a runny nose.  Guess I stopped taking the echinacea and extra vitamin C too soon.  Anyway, at least Bill and I are both infected at the same time.  I’m just glad that I have four days off to get better.

We are going into Boston this afternoon to see the play Dirty Dancing. Then we will stop somewhere for dinner on the way home.  Since we are both really stuffed up we probably don’t have to spend much money on food since we can’t taste much.

Yesterday I spent most of the day working on replacing the fridge in the condo in FL.  The renters didn’t have a working freezer.  Just my luck;  if it’s not one thing,  it’s another.  I was able to work with a wonderful guy named Tom at Lowes in Port Charlotte who found me a reasonably priced one that could be delivered today.  What a lifesaver.  It’s really difficult to deal with property located somewhere else, even though I have a wonderful management agency.   Then I met with the real estate people here and lowered the price on my condo, down $10,000 from October and will probably have to go lower.  Why do I do everything at the wrong time?  Buy high, sell low…that’s my motto.  Nothing like trying to sell property in the worst economy in 40 or 50 years.  That is why I’m destined to never have any money.  I can’t retire in October if I don’t get this place sold.  It was a very stressful day yesterday and depressing, too.  The box of nonpareils in the freezer did not make it through the day unopened.  *sigh*

The joke at work is…at least you have your health.  So no matter what the bad news is, that’s our reply.  It makes us smile and for the most part it’s true.  Now to get rid of this cold.

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The good, the bad and the really ugly

Okay, I’ll start with the good.  Ella, my 8 month old granddaughter will be fine.

The bad news…one of the daycare workers fell while holding Ella and Ella’s femur was broken (that’s the big bone in the thigh).

Now, the ugly…the woman that was holding her never reported it or told anyone that it had happened.  Greg and Vanessa knew that Ella was out of sorts but thought it was gas or reflux or she was cutting teeth or maybe another ear infection.  After two days (TWO DAYS!) they were able to narrow the problem down to the fact that she would not put any weight on her leg.  Since she isn’t walking and has just started to figure out crawling, there was no obvious indication of the problem.

They called the doctor, took her to the ER and after she was x-rayed they were advised about the diagnosis.  Of course, they were appalled and had No Idea how it had happened.  As you can imagine, the injury required that Protective Services be called.  Ella was transferred to Boston Children’s Hospital by ambulance where the three of them sat in the ER from 10:00 AM until after 8:30 PM before she was admitted and they were moved to a room.

During that time, Ella had 22 additional x-rays, including a cat scan, to determine whether or not there were any other injuries.  Thankfully, everything was negative.  They were not informed regarding what was happening and thought after Ella’s leg was splinted they would take her home.  After many hours they were advised that Ella was not allowed to leave the hospital and they were certainly not leaving without her.  They were not allowed to be alone with Ella and were questioned, interviewed, interrogated and literally put through hell for the next 48 hours.

They returned home on Monday when they finally had an opportunity to talk with the daycare personnel.  Originally, the woman responsible for the injury didn’t recall anything but after “she thought about it” she “remembered” falling.

The issue is not whether she fell.  We all understand that no matter how hard you try, accidents will and do happen.  The issue is that this woman did not report the incident or tell anyone, either at the daycare or Ella’s parents!  Ella suffered needlessly for two days and Greg and his wife suffered emotional trauma for two days because they had no idea how the injury occurred.  They were treated as possibly abusive parents and placed into a system that will, most likely, have their names on file forever, because one individual was neglectful in carrying out her responsibilities.

Luckily, Ella will heal completely and be fine and won’t remember any of the incident.  She will only know about it from stories that she will hear as she grows older.  However, her mom and dad will remember it forever.

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A week of ups and downs

This was a beautiful weather week.  Temps were in the mid 60’s and Bill and I were able to ride our bikes and sit in the sun.  It always feels soooo good.  On Sunday we rode 14 miles from Bill’s house to the Dunkin Donuts in No. Berwick.  We checked out a craft shop but didn’t find anything we really needed to take home with us.  From there we rode back on Rt. 4 to Bill’s house.  It was a spectacular day and we felt blessed to be outside in October feeling the warmth of the sun.  Not only that, we are blessed to be healthy enough to exercise on a semi-regular basis (as time allows).  We spent another day with Bill picking up leaves with the tractor and I cleaned up the gardens.

On the down side, my best friend, Su has spent the week in the hospital after surgery.  She is doing well but isn’t expected to return home for another couple of days.  She has suffered serious illness for the past several years and this is another bump in the road.  I am considerably blessed with good health, even though I’m approaching 60 (yikes) which is the opposite of Su.  I am always supportive and attempt to help her fend off the overwhelming depression that accompanies another health problem.  I am also blessed to have Su as my best friend.  She is such a wonderful person and I consider her my soulmate.  It is difficult to understand why she is faced with illness over and over again.  I pray that this time the final news is positive and she can look forward to some good years ahead.

On the quilting front, not much time to sew; however, I have been doing some background stitching on the butterfly picture.  I am using a technique from Diane Guadynski which she has termed Diane-shiko.  It isn’t difficult but time consuming.  After 5-6 hours I have completed maybe 1/4 of the background.  ti doesn’t really matter, this wallhanging was for Greg and Vanessa last Christmas.  As they say…better late than never.

I also did a some border quilting on the red oriental flower wallhanging.  I stitched a flower in variegated black and white thread.  I still can’t get the hang of doing it without a pattern so I have traced the flower on tracing paper and use that to follow.  The down side is taking all of the paper off when I’m done.

Two other good things happened this week, I listed my condo for sale and Bill and I finished my sewing room at his house.  We painted the ceiling and I chose a very light blue for the walls.  Bill pulled up the carpet and put down a laminate wood floor.  It looks so nice, clean and bright.  I still need to decide on curtains and blinds but I bought a new 6′ sewing table and it is set up in front of the window.  We moved a small bookshelf from my house.  It is holding fabric right now but will eventually hold children’s books and toys for the grandkids.

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Sunny skies, exercise and labor update

It was warm enough to sit in the sun for an hour today and get sunburned (oops).

Bill and I have joined the new Planet Fitness gym in town. It opened on Tuesday; it’s bright, clean and a pleasant place to be…good energy. I went both Tues. and Wed. mornings after work for a 30 minute walk on the treadmill. There is an audio port which allows the user to listen to one of five television programs or music. I went again with Bill in the afternoon plus did some tricep exercises. My arms have started to look “old” only because I have been lazy about exercising. Other than the yoga and spinning occasionally, I haven’t been doing any work at the gym and it’s definitely showing. We went first thing this morning once we were both out of bed. We did the treadmill and some leg exercises. It was nearly 11:00 by the time we had breakfast.

Once that was cleaned up, we sat outside for awhile. There was a little breeze and we were warmer once we moved to the small area near the tub. Even though we sat out for an hour, I had a jacket on for a short time. I only had about 30 minutes of direct sun but it was enough to give me a sunburn. I am usually very diligent about putting on sunscreen but I didn’t have any with me today. It is kind of nice to have a little color.

Vanessa remains hospitalized but she has been doing very well since Saturday. I talked with Greg this afternoon and she will probably be released tomorrow or Saturday. She is worried about the baby shower on the 27th but her Dr. said there were no guarantees and suggested that they postpone it for a couple of weeks.

Bill has a diagnosis of “frozen shoulder” from the orthopedic surgeon. That’s better than the torn rotator cuff that he was worried about. He will undergo 6 weeks of PT and see if there is any improvement. If not there are a couple of other options, short of surgery. He will be out of work for three weeks.

I haven’t had any opportunity to quilt in the last several days. However, I was able to get the label stitched onto Wendy’s baby quilt on Tuesday evening. She stopped by and picked it up. She seems very pleased and promised to take a couple of photos.

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