I've Been Tagged X2

Okay, okay. I have been tagged twice so I guess I better respond! Here goes the one for Megan: Ato Z
A: Attached or Single: Happily attached for 31 years!!
B: Best Friend: Reed
C: Cake or Pie: Oh, that is a toss up. Cake if it is chocolate and pie if it is chocolate chip!
D: Day of Week. All depends on the week, but mostly Saturday
E: Essential item: Make up. Gotta have it!
F: Favorite color: Pink, blue and lavender
G: Greatest Accomplishment: Being a mom - and all that that entails!
H: Hometown: Corvallis
I: Indulgences: Chocolate peanut butter ice cream. Shopping for me!
J: January or July: It's a toss up because I love snow, but probably July, I love the beach.
K: Kids: 4 of my own, plus a foster daughter
L: Life is incomplete without: what else - my family
M: Marriage date: March 19th ( yes Reed, not the 22nd or 25th)
N: Number of siblings: 5 all sisters
O: Oranges or Apples: definitely apples
P: Phobias: My head under the water
Q: Quotes: There are so many: "That is a movie too much" (for A Bridge to Far), Are you taking me out? (usually directed to my husband at various times throughout the month!), and "That is so gross" (again usually directed towards my husband!)
R: Reason to smile: Reed, grandkids, sunshine, I can lift my leg!
S: Season: Christmas and summer
T: Tag five friends: Do I have five friends? Jayme (Ha, see if you do it), Jodie, Jessica, Katie, and Ollie (no recipes!)
U: Unknown fact about me: I am really very shy! I have a healthy fear of the water
V: Very Favorite Store: Which ever one has the clothes I like!
W: Worst Habit: Ummm, I don't know!
X: Xray or Ultra sound: Probably ultra sound, but it's a toss up
Y: Your favorite food: Ice cream, specifically Tillamook chocolate peanut butter
Z: Zodiac: Capricorn

There you have it, more than you ever wanted to know about me.

The New Metal Me!!

I know that it has been a while since I have posted. I have had my surgery and am now recovering. It is a slow process, but I am coming along nicely. A HUGE thank you to my family for being such a big help and keeping me going.

I had surgery on the 14th of April to replace my right knee. It is now a titanium knee with a special plastic insert instead of cartlidge. The surgery lasted about 2 hours and I was not put completely under. I was heavily sedated and given the amnesia drug so I don't remember much of anything. I was awake into the operating room and awake when I left. That way they were able to administer pain medication that kept me going until I was awake enough to swallow new pain medication. I have a about 6 inch incision on my knee and then a drain tube was on the side of my knee. An interesting thing they did was to take the blood that was draining from my knee and filter it and infuse it back to me. That meant I was getting my own blood and did not need a transfusion. Very interesting. After 24 hours that was removed. I don't have stitches or staples. I was glued back together. This will hopefully minimize the scar. By Tuesday they had me standing up and was able to use the bathroom on my own.
By Wednesday afternoon the Dr. told me I could go home if I wanted, but I didn't feel ready. So we stayed until Thursday morning. Since the nurses weren't ready to release me Wednesday afternoon, I am glad I stayed. It would have been late by the time they got everything ready for me and Thursday was exhausting enough. I have graduated from using a walker, to crutches to a cane. I walk around the house pretty much by myself. I am VERY slow.
I have twice weekly visits to the physical therapist. I will be in therapy until July, but as much as it hurts, I know it helps. I have had weekly visits to the family doctor to have my blood levels checked. I am on coumadin for about 1 month. My levels are currently doing really good, so I get to stretch that appointment out to 2 weeks. I got to go to Costco the other day with Reed and Jessica. I rode around on one of those carts, but I was so exhausted by the time that I got home that I immediately went to sleep!!
I worked really hard for 2 weeks just the raise my leg off the bed. Now they make me do leg raises everyday. I also was able to accomplish getting me leg to do a full revolution on the stationary bike. All this was accomplished with great pain. But as Jessica says to me (all the time)"no pain, no gain"!! I have threatened to get a little doll and make it a voodoo doll of Jess and start sticking it with pins. But since she has command of my legs, I don't think I would get far. But actually Jess has been wonderful. She takes care of the meals, the cleaning, the washing as well as supervising my exercises. She is quite accomplished at this after taking care of her grandfather 2 different times for knee replacement surgeries over the last 6 months. Her pay off finally came as she recieved her acceptance to grad school at PSU. We are so excited for her!!
I will try to get some pictures up later, but for now, this gives you an update on me!

Lovin' It

Here are the latest pictures. We have mostly moved in. I am still getting used to using a kitchen again. I find that I keep thinking that I need to conserve my dishes and use paper plates, cups and plastic silverware. I keep thinking of things to eat that are made in a crock pot or microwave, so I am slow to really USE the kitchen. Besides, last week I worked at the High School scheduling 260 parents for parent/teacher conferences. That might not seem like much, but when you think about each student having up to 7 different classes, that is quite a feat. But between sessions of conference, I have cleaned and tried to organize and get things put away. I absolutely love it so far. I love the openess that carries into the living room. I love the blending and coordinating of colors. I am just excited to be done.

I wish I could say the same for the upcoming surgery. I find that I am waking in the middle of the night. I don't know if it is pain or anxiety, but I am awake for a couple of hours. It is getting old. I also ran out of some medication that I have been on for years to help with PMS. Now granted I don't suffer from periods anymore, but I still have ovaries, so I still have problems. Well, insurance wouldn't refill my meds without me seeing the regular Dr. So after 2 weeks of no mood helpers, I find that I am an absolute bawl baby. I have cried over everything and anything. Thank goodness I have just started taking them again, but it may take a while to get back on track. It doesn't help that Jessica keeps laughing at me!!

Next week is Dr. appointments every day, plus they finish the remodel (hopefully) and we have the walk through. Just in time for surgery. Fun, fun, fun!!!D

Lessons to Learn

This whole remodel business has been a learning experience for me. One of the main things I learned is that things will go wrong. I realized that up front and we had our share of problems. Next, I learned that just when you think it will turn out okay, something else will come up. Nothing is perfect. Then I learned a huge lesson for me. Even though you know there are problems, stay away and let them solve them. I learned that I don't need to stress the things that are going on. They have to be fixed, let them do their job and don't worry about the fact that it went wrong. Just get it fixed. I think this applies to life as well. I need to quit worrying about what goes wrong and just move forward and get it fixed! Last was an interesting one for me. I guess that I am a pleaser. Or I don't want to rock the boat. Whatever! When I didn't like what they had done with the plugs above the cabinets (they showed)I was willing to live with it. I would try to decorate around it. Finally, Reed pointed out to me that we were paying good money for this and they should do it the way I wanted. I do not need to make do, just because I don't want to be a pain or because I don't want to get people mad at me. Hence, the kitchen is NOT done yet. We still are missing 2 cabinet doors, and a shelf. All the plugs are being moved. Those that are at the counter top level were too low. The backsplash hit all the covers, so they have to be moved. The ones above the cabinets have to be lowered, so they are not visible. Consequently, there are holes in my walls. All this need to be patched and repaired and painted. The hard part is that all the cabinets are in! At least I don't have to do it. It is their error, so they have to fix it.
I LOVE my counter tops! I find that I am always rubbing my hands across them. I love the color and an so excited to have it all done.
This weekend we were able to begin moving in. The refridgerator is in along with the stove and dishwasher. The stove and dishwasher are not completely in, but we are able to use them. We are celebrating with brownies tonight!!! I do have to clear everything off the counters tonight and cover them with paper again. Oh the joy of having workers in your home all the time!
Here are a couple of pictures to get you excited!

Remodel Madness

Sometimes I love how people can just type the way they talk. I am thinking that maybe this is a blond thing. Take Jackie, for instance, part of what is fun about her blogs is that she rambles on paper ( albeit electronic paper)just like she talks. It is random and goes 20 different places at once. It makes me laugh, because she talks JUST like that. Ollie is another one. Tracy is also quite good at it, and then it dawned on me. They are all blond. Do you think that is it? Laugh girls, I am old and senile and allowed to be this way!!

Well we got hit with MAJOR remodel madness over the last couple of weeks. First it was the floor. My lovely tile, that we put in about 5 or 6 years ago is just what I love. The plan was to cut out as little as possible and just replace what was needed. NOT! Tile doesn't stay in fashion that long. First problem was too much tile ended up being destroyed (Okay, they warned us about that one). Problem 2: after finishing our great paint job, they called to say they could not find any matching tile. I had just finished painting colors that expressly matched my tile. Worse news! Our tile happened to be "Italian" tile. Don't get too excited, it was the rage a few years ago until we americans got caught up in tile making, now we make "American" tile. Low and behold, we have different measuring systems (ie, metric versus inches). So while American tile is constructed on 12 or 13 inch tiles, Italian or European tile is done differently. Hence mine is about 12 1/2 inch squares. No matchy!. We were depressed and had actually resigned ourselves to having to rip out the entire floor and start all over again costing us thousands of dollars. But Reed would not be daunted. He went to work on the internet and entered the series name and color of our tile. He found some, but before you get real excited, it was from a catalog and web site that had not been updated since 2001. But we were blessed and they had only one color from the series still at their warehouse and low and behold, it was our color. The floor was saved!

Major problem #2: The appliances arrived and they started to unpack them. The refrigerator was not like I remembered it. Realize that it was months ago that I picked all this stuff out. Then it hit me. There was no water and ice accessable from the door. This may sound trivial, but you must realize that I am going through 3 bags of ice per week during the remodel. Besides, I am old and I want what I want! Okay, so maybe it wasn't MAJOR, but still.

Biggest Major #3: The cabinets are starting to be installed when we notice that there is a BIG space between cabinets and island. Too Big! Somebody measured wrong and the electrical cords and lights in the ceiling are 2 FEET to far into the dining room. That means that the table and bar stools would back into each other, not good. Add on top of this that I have already finished painting and they hinged one of the cabinet doors on the wrong side after I had expressly said which side I wanted it on.

So today they tore up the floor again. Thank goodness they have not done the tile yet. They moved electrical wires in the floor for the island. The ceiling is still to be conquered. The only good news is that I have been told, that I don't have to fix the painting errors and that all costs will be covered by the construction company - not me!!
Here are some updated pictures!

Wordless? Wednesday

Here are a few pictures of painting. I am off to a substitute job, so these will have to suffice!

Funny Friday

I know it is Saturday, but the thought was there!

Any way, I thought I would share some funny stories with the remodel. They are just quick little stories that will create cute pictures in your mind.

It is interesting at times when you go to your bathroom to use it for what it was intended to be used for (you know, going to the bathroom)! You have second thoughts when you find a pile of clean dishes on the floor by the toilet. Hmmmmm.

Then there are the times that you find unusual things in your bathroom. Poor Lily, who is only 4 years old, was sent to the bathroom by her mom who assured her she could go by herself. Can you imagine what must have gone through her mind when she finds a big butcher knife on the little stool by the bathtub? "But Mom the bathroom is scary!!"

My favorite is when you are sitting on the stool or edge of the bathtub doing the dishes when the dog comes in and promptly jumps into the bathtub. He is usually a little dirty and tries to drink the dish water. You have to quickly finish and then wash the dog and clean the tub. Oh life is fun!!!!