I always say how fast the days and months are flying by, but let me tell you it seems as though July lasted an entire year.
First of all the heat was crazy hot, the humidity felt like you were walking through water, my hubby and I had to do another overnight to Nashville at Vanderbilt hospital, I had blood work and a doctor appointment, also a trip for me to the dermatologist to have some places taken off of my face that were pre skin cancer, another vet appointment for Bunnie and then Izzy going missing for three days, and the worst is that hubby has been sick for two weeks. It started out as a sinus infection and seems to have gotten worse. He is on immunosuppressants, because of the kidney transplant, and everything hits his system harder and takes twice as long for him to recover. And work, July was the busiest month of the year for us. With all of that, you would think the month would have absolutely flown by, but it didn’t. I guess with my husband being sick and not himself it has been a long month. Hopefully he will soon be on the mend.
Now, with all of that said, I have to put a spin on this long month. I have also loved this month. I loved Celebrating America on the Fourth of July, the long sunny days, the beautiful blooming flowers, the lightning bugs or fireflies you might call them, the beautiful sunrises and sunsets, time spent with family and friends that I haven’t seen in a long time, Fresh fruits and vegetables at the farm market, green luscious fields, reading, knitting and enjoying some time at home with my husband and the fur babies, air conditioning.
Hello friends how is your week going? I apologize but this post was for last week . I meant to post it last week and didn’t get around to it.
We made a quick overnight trip back to Nashville last week. My husband had to have a follow up on the procedure he had a couple of weeks ago, the kidney biopsy. If you missed that post and want to read about it you can read it here We left out on Wednesday and returned Thursday evening. I was coming off of a six day work week which included the Fourth Of July holiday, so it was a bit tiring. Fortunately I had a long weekend off to catch up. As I said this check up was just a follow up to make sure the biopsy site was still looking good.
For my long weekend off I would like to say I had a lot of down time and read and knitted but that was not the case. A lot had to be done around the house. After the kidney biopsy hubby had to take it easy and could not lift over ten pounds for two weeks. Because the kidney is located in his abdomen, and had just gotten a couple of good pokes, he couldn’t bend or twist a lot either. Fortunately after our visit on Thursday he can return to normal activities.
On Sunday I decided to hang some mini blinds I had bought for my bedroom. I figured I could knock that little project out in about 30 minutes. Wrong. I was not paying attention when I bought the blinds and the box read “cordless” Now, I haven’t bought mini blinds in a long time. And to be honest I went a little cheap with these because I was in a hurry to get them up. I just like having my blinds pulled at night. I guess cordless is the latest and greatest of the mini blinds. They are not a favorite of mine. I know how to measure the blinds and put the little insert boxes on each side at the top. But these were totally different. When I asked my husband to borrow his drill he decided he had better get involved. He said he would help me and we would get them put up twice as fast. Not.
The blinds
We started by putting the new hardware onto the window frames. These were totally different from the other blinds I had hung previously. We actually did this, putting the three brackets up, three times before we got it right. We argued, we were hot, we were sweaty and I think the word divorce may have been tossed out. And if you have ever done a small project with your husband you know what I mean. This 30 minute project had already taken over 2 hours. I was feeling very much like Homer Simpson. I call times like this “The Homer Simpson Chronicles.” You can read my post about me often feeling like Homer here. Homer is a goofy cartoon character who makes tons of mistakes and can’t get anything right. I was Homer that day.
We finally got all of the brackets put in correctly. When I went to hang the blinds I noticed the right side of the blinds was hanging at an odd angle. The string was broken. Yes, the little string in between the blinds. I’m pretty sure it was my fault. I think I did this when I was getting them out of the box. So I did the only thing I could do, I ripped those blinds down and pulverized them. And that is all I am going to say about those blinds. But I will say I bought another pair and it was very easy hanging them because the brackets were already in place.
I love the way the blinds look behind my lace curtains.
Lots of work and living have been going on. Since we now have a large inside (mostly) dog and still the five kitties life is very busy. We call our home the Zoo Crew. It seems like something always needs to be cleaned up after, fed, watered or walked. My work has still been very busy with barely a break to breathe. I feel like my house and yard have been neglected but with the heat and humidity, being outside has been almost unbearable.
I made bread again this week and grilled some of it. I put the apple butter from the farm market on it. It was so good.
It was so yummy I couldn’t wait to take a quick bite
These beautiful sunflowers are on the road leading to the Farm Market.
I leave you with a picture of our newest family member, Bunnie. She is a ball of energy and demands pets and kisses hourly.
I think I have mentioned before, when you work in tourism the summer months, especially July and August, are crazy busy. I know my days are about to be very busy. Coming home late and barely getting to bed before I have to get up and do it all again, is going to be the norm for a couple of weeks. Ahhh retirement is starting to look so delicious.
My husband and I spent a few days last week at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville. Vanderbilt is where we had the kidney transplant. I say we because it is my kidney that he now has. If you are new to this blog and would like to read that story you can read it here and here.
The kidney transplant took place fourteen years ago. We have been trucking along just fine with great creatinine levels for hubs. We make a trip to Nashville three times a year for his checkup. The last year or so the creatinine levels have started to creep up. The creatinine level is what determines how well waste is being filtered out of your body. Finally in May after several blood tests the doctor ordered a kidney biopsy. If the kidney was in rejection we needed to know.
We checked in on Wednesday morning last week. The biopsy was to take place at 10:30 that morning and we would spend the night and be back home by Thursday afternoon. It didn’t quite work out that way. The biopsy did take place at 10:30 that Wednesday morning and hubby had to stay in bed for eight hours so that the possibility of bleeding was reduced. We were supposed to get the biopsy results by Thursday morning. The lab was running behind and we didn’t get the results until late Thursday evening. The kidney is not rejecting. The age of the kidney and the hit it has taken from anti rejection meds has made the kidney show some usual wear and tear, figuratively speaking . So it is not uncommon for those levels to rise. There may be some adjustments to his meds but nothing serious at this time.
Whew!!! We were so relieved!!! We had been holding our breath for a day and a half, heck who am I kidding? It was more like weeks, waiting to hear the results. This was the best possible news we could have gotten.
Because we got discharged from the hospital so late we decided it was not a good idea to try to make the almost four hour drive home. We were both exhausted. I had gotten little sleep in the pull out chair-bed in the hospital room the night before, and I would have to do all the driving. Mark wasn’t allowed to drive for a few days. He still can’t lift over ten pounds, sorry Gus, and he is very limited to daily activities for two weeks. We spent the night at the nearby hotel where we always stay when we have appointments. We treated ourselves to room service and got a great night’s sleep.
We got home on Friday afternoon I started laundry and did some work around the house. All of the babies were so glad to see us. They were so needy for a few days, especially Gus. We had to leave Bunnie outside while we were gone. I hated that, but she has shelter and my nephew came over every day to check on her and make sure she had plenty of water and food. He always checks on the kitties for us while we are away. He is a gem. I don’t know what we would do without him.
I went to work on Saturday to take care of a report that was due. I did a grocery pick up after work. I also returned to the Farm Market and bought okra and squash and a lot of other goodies. I was off on Sunday and I caught up on laundry and baked sourdough bread for the week. We had a feast for dinner from the vegetables I had gotten on Saturday.
The sourdough bread was yummy. I’m starting to get the hang of folding and stretching the dough.If you know you know.
I got quite a bit of this shawl finished while we were in Nashville. I try to do a few rows every day so I was able to do quite a lot while we had some down time.
The view from our hospital room.
And the view at sunset
It was back to work for me yesterday. A lot of long days ahead. You know, when you or a loved one has a health issue it very much rules your life. No matter how much you try not to worry or give it all over to God, it’s still there to some degree. I told my husband that we would get through this and continue to forge ahead. That is really all you can do. And no matter how many hours I have to work this week it is better than being in a hospital waiting for test results.
Last week was a quiet yet busy week for me. I was off work all week. We decided not to go on a trip and just hang out at the house. I loved every minute of it. I think it was a great preview for retirement.
We are so enjoying our new girl, Bunnie, if you missed my post about our newest family member you can check it out here. The kitties are adjusting. So far Gus has been the least friendly and he has been so territorial. We are trying to introduce Bunnie to them slowly. it is taking some time.
I finally finished the afghan I was working on for my niece. I couldn’t show it before I finished because it was a surprise for her for her Birthday which was last week.
Not the best picture but you can get an idea of what it looks like. She loved it.
My hubby and I decided to take a little road trip last Thursday. We went into the mountains to look at a local waterfall, Bald River Falls. The road leading to the falls has been closed for over a year so that a viewing bridge could be built. The road opened back up last month and the new bridge was opened. We went to check it out. It was just beautiful. Because of all the rain we have had, the waterfall was flowing fast and hard.
We decided to get a Frappuccino to start the trip into the mountains. It wasdelicious.
We stopped and had lunch in Tellico Plains at Ironworks Grill, and then stopped at the local Mennonite Market.
Beautiful vegetables. We will go back on Saturday and stock up for the week.
This was our haul from the Market. Mark wanted some local honey. I love the oatmeal raisin cookies.
I had to take my sister in law and her daughter and granddaughter to the airport on Friday and then we helped another niece move into a new apartment on Saturday. So a busy and fun filled week. It’s back to work for me today and the usual summer crowds.
I leave you with a picture of Bunnie enjoying a walk with us and a picture of Gus who has claimed Bunnie’s new bed.
Sweet Bunnie
This is the bed I bought for Bunnie but both Gus and Kitty Kitty have claimed it.
Southern Patches 