Merry Christmas

May your new year be bright.

Your're Gonna Want To

Mike and I both knew that this day would come.
The Doctors warned us.

"When You start feeling better, you are going to want to do more! Don't Do It!"
Mike has been struggling with this.

Our old snowblower wouldn't start for him, and that was BS (before surgery). It was old. We bought it used for $100. I told him don't worry about it I can shovel. I enjoy doing it. We both do. The last couple years we didn't get enough snow that I couldn't handle the shoveling.

So this year it decides to SNOW.
I am not complaining - I still love snow... I still love to shovel snow - just not this much.

Mike clearly can't do anything, so his idea of helping me this year is to go out and buy a new snowblower.
I am loving this thing. I am zipping up and down this driveway. It has a electric start and it's self propelled. All I have to do is stir the thing. Oh, and make sure I direct the snow with the wind. A few faces full of snow I learned that one.
Yeah, neighbors, That's me your hearing. Singing Christmas carols blowing snow.
🎵Snow.. Snow.. Snow.. Snow.. 🎵

Me and my new toy

COME ON SNOW!!!!! I AM READY FOR YOU.

I Can Do That!

When I was a little girl my Mom or older sister would take us to LeeWards Craft store, To me that place was magic. Sharen and I would wander around the store pretty sure than we could make everything there. We wanted to do it all.

If we were really lucky Mom would buy us a project. Oh, how we loved our projects. Christmas was my favorite time of year to go and ornaments was my favorite thing to do. We made them out of beads, sequins, lace and wooden ones you hand painted. I am still lucky enough to have some we made.
We didn't have Pinterest everything back then was in our imagination.

After all these years...
We still wander through Hobby Lobby or Joannes checking out stuff, only difference now is, we know that we can duplicate most everything there for cheaper.
When I saw a small Christmas tree made out of yarn I had to show Sharen. She really has enough yarn to cover a 6 foot tree, but these small ones were really cute.

She purchased 3 cones and we were off on a project.
Funny how the yarn tree turned into something else. After digging out her scrap box (everyone who sews has a scrap box) she found rope and fringed trim. She didn't have enough white beads to cover the tall tree, but I had some gold ones. I rotated the gold with the white and boom tall cone covered.

Sharen working on her cone

 It was so much fun working on a project together - throwing ideas back and forth and laughing at each other.

trees are done

She needs to add some quilt batting for some snow and dress them up a little bit more, but she has a pretty good looking start to her center piece for her dining table.

All at a cost for 3 cones at 50% off.

Call 9*1*1

I have been talking about getting our air ducks clean for some time now. We have lived here 12 plus years and have not have them cleaned. With Mike stuck at home for awhile I thought it was time.

I called Sears and they came out the next day.
Everything was going smooth until our CO detector went off. I noticed that their truck was parked right up next to our garage. It is a short 15 ft. to the basement stairs. They closed the garage door. I opened all the windows and turned on the ceiling fans.
They left (which pissed me off. Don't they care about the CO) and Mike and I decided to take a ride and let the house clear out.

When we came back the CO detector was still beeping.
"I'm calling the Fire Department"
Mike wasn't too keen on the idea, thinking the neighbors would assume it was for him. Too bad - I really don't care what they think and I am getting scared that the Sears techs. messed with the furnace and something was seriously wrong..

I called 9*1*1 and the Elgin Fire Department came out. We are in the South Elgin Fire protection district, but they were all busy.

2 guys went around the house and tested every room. Lt. Smith headed down stairs to the basement. The reading down there was 80. They hauled huge fans in - opened all the basement windows (which I think is the first time they have been open) and turned off the furnace.
The upstairs reading dropped immediately. The nice  boys assured me that I did everything right. I had fresh batteries in the detector and it wasn't expired. Ok I didn't know those things expire.
They got everything back to normal and recommended that we have the furnace looked at before turning it back on,  just in case.

Now mind you Mike is home from the hospital for just 3 days at the time and we have no heat and no CO detector.
Sharen shows up with a new digital read out detector for us. I think she caught the panic in my voice when we talked. I called a friend, who's son plays football, basketball and baseball with our grandson in Genoa, and fixes furnaces for a living. Vince showed up in a couple hours and looked over the furnace.
After giving me a huge hug, assuring me that he won't leave until he is certain it isn't the furnace, He checked out everything and furnace was OK.

Must have been the exhaust from the truck and the vacuum in the Sears truck.
Now I'm pissed. After filling out the customer service survey online - I called Sears.
The manager called me right back. Said all the right things, except we will not charge you for the visit.

The guys did a good job on the air duct cleaning I actually think it sounds better.
But damn, it still bothers me that such a stupid mistake was made that could of been deadly.

Grateful He's OK!

I am grateful for the men and women who decide medicine as a profession. You have to give your love one up to them and know that they are going to fix it.
I never felt helpless. They all reassured me that they had this and were there to help him. I knew I couldn't do anything about it, so I put my trust in their hands. God Bless them ALL.
From the doctor who gets excited to work on a healthy heart. He actually was looking forward to operating on Mike, cause his heart was a "good one".
To the surgeons assistant - Who had all the answers for whichever Dr. from the practice looked in on Mike. Rhonda ruled...
To the male nurse who packed him in ice when his fever spiked and gave me a blanket cause he turned down the temp. in his room. He spent 38 minutes ( I had to focus on something besides the beeping of the heart monitor, so yes I counted the minutes) untangling Mike's IV and heart wires so it was easier for Mike to get a walk in.
The 2 best nurses, both named Heather. They smiled and answered every stupid question I had. They made him comfortable. Again, I wanted to be the one that could help him, but I knew they were better at it than I could ever be. I didn't mind leaving him to clear my head knowing that Heather was his nurse for the day or night.
To the Physical Therapists that let Mike walk as fast and as much as he could. I warned her not to challenge him. He surprised them both.
To the nurse assistants. Taking vitals and fetching water and ice chips with a smile.

I am grateful to all the support I got from our family and friends.
Sharen was my rock. She sat with me during his surgery. She made me laugh. She held me when I cried. She brought me homemade pumpkin bread for breakfast.

Again with the twin thing. I wore blue because it's Mike's favorite color. She wore blue cause she felt like it.

The nurses teased  me because I had both mine and Mike's phones beeping. "He must have a lot of people who care about him." Then it dawned on me Yes! Yes he does. I didn't mind responding after that.

They send you home with a heart shaped pillow for coughing and sneezing. This is the only thing that he will be hugging anytime soon which is too bad because Mike is a great hugger.
I had the kids and grand kids sign his pillow so he still can hug them.

His heart pillow
 

I am grateful to Linda for making a couple meals for us.

I am so grateful to have him home. He has been home for 9 days now. He is behaving and getting stronger. His weight is way down, but his spirits are good. He's not too happy with all the meds he has to take or that he has to sleep on his back. (the recliner is his new best buddy), but he know that these are all small prices to pay for a healthy future.

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