Happy Thanksgiving

I've been so out of it lately. I slept 18 hours last night. I guess I needed it.

Thank you all so much for your notes and emails and kind words. Next week I've got a couple of doctor visits, and then hopefully I'll be right as rain.

Wishing everyone a wonderful day with family and friends.

Last Three Days

The last three days have been spent in the hospital. Friday I was at work but was miserable - in pain and my face was real swollen. Saturday morning I called Jane and asked her to take me to the ER. We got there about noon. They immediately gave me pain meds and antibiotics, and then admitted me.

Clear liquid diets - what can I say about those? The last meal of solid food I had was Tuesday at noon, and I ate very little of that. From then until Sat. night about 8:00 when they brought me a hamburger, all I had was broth and Jell-O. Now I know I can live 'off the fat of the land' for a long time, but I was just plain hungry. I hope that liquid diet was good for at least a five pound loss!

The bone infection under that crowned and root-canaled tooth spread very fast. The right side of my face was swollen, my neck looked huge, and two large egg-sized knots traveled down the front of my neck to my chest. That was real scary.

The hospital was wonderful, starting with the ER nurse who was a quilter. The general physician, internist and ENT specialist all visited. I was on standby to be taken to surgery, but thankfully responded well to the mega doses of antibiotics.

I got home at around 8:00 tonight. And VERY glad to be home!

I have a lot of catching up to do on your blogs, and a lot of catching up to do on some sewing for a friend, but it'll all get done this week. Over the long weekend I should get the sewing finished up and off to be quilted.

I was truly scared. It hasn't often happened to me, but this was just one of those times.

Dentists

I hate them. I woke up with a huge problem yesterday, got in to my dentist, and he promptly referred me to an endodontist (sp?) today. I cried in the chair it hurt so badly. I haven't done that since I was about six. And I look like I have the mumps.

I was going to go on another fabric diet. That won't be hard. I spent $91 yesterday and $1255 today FOR DENTAL WORK. And we're not done.

I'll blog about retreat in a couple of days. I just want to go to bed now.

Gratitudes:

~ Antibiotics
~ Chicken noodle soup
~ Yogart
~ Daisy -- well, not tonight. She's really munching down on her hard food in there. I'm jealous!!

Want a Dog?

This is the last time I hear my dog making a strange growling, playful sound and don't go to investigate.

A spool of Aurifil thread ..... $9.50.

The toys I buy for her to tear up, she lays there and licks them. Of course, those only cost $1.99.

If I hurry, I can get the following in the weekend paper: "Free to a good home. One slightly used doxie. Comes with poop bags and gently licked toys. "

Home from Retreat!

Jane and I had a good flight up and got to the hotel right on schedule. Set up our sewing space, and then waited for friends to drift in. The first night is always fun. No one sews - well, I don't. LOL.

On Friday there was a workshop about applique prepping, and then it's a free day to sew or shop. Guess which one we chose? We went to Quilter's Inn, Main Street Quilt Shop, In Between Stitches and ThimbleCreek. I bought some patterns and some Kansas Star books. I'll dig those out and post a picture tomorrow. In Between Stitches is my favorite shop up there. We went back for a bit on Saturday just in case we had left something behind on the first trip! I was really good this year. Then we all went over to Mimi's for dinner, and then sewed late into the night.

On Saturday there was a machine applique class, and more sewing. Saturday night is the official dinner. Lots of goodies at our place at the table. And our annual pincushions. Mar makes these and they are wonderful. We had show and tell on Saturday as well as our official group picture. Holly puts all of these in a great frame for us. She's such a sweetie!

On Sunday we left the hotel at noon with our favorite taxi driver, and there was no problem getting my shoulder through security this year. As we were getting our purses off the screening belt, everyone started yelling "5-0-5! 5-0-5!" All of the security workers surrounded our screening area. Keep in mind our horrible trip home and the security problem that kept us grounded for five hours last year. Jane muttered, "What now?!!" Everyone had to stand perfectly still, couldn't touch our purses or anything. It was a little scary. I wasn't about to move a muscle. Then an announcement came on thanking us for our participation in their security drill. Whew!

Jane and I were giggling later and wondered what would happen if we started yelling "5-0-5" and fell down spread eagle on the floor. ROFLOL. Okay, maybe that's not really funny, but we thought it was at the time! LOL. Sheesh, you can't take us anywhere.

My favorite thing from retreat? Mar brought me a Condo Cow!!! Yep, a real, honest-to-goodness Condo Cow!! Eat your heart out, Kim!

More details tomorrow night. I'm bushed. Does this mean I'm getting too old to have fun any more? Hmmmm...... I'll tell you what. My bed sure did feel awfully good last night. I don't think I moved all night.

Gratitudes:

~ Friends
~ Tears
~ Laughter

One More Day!

I'm so tired and so stressed right now. It's almost no fun getting away for a couple of days in view of what all has to be done at the office before I leave. However, I AM getting on that plane Thursday morning!

Off to Alex's retreat! I just need to put clothes in the suitcase tonight, and I'm ready! Daisy's friend came over last night to get the key to the house. I need to pull her kennel into the breakfast room and she's all set. She's going to freak when I move it. Such a creature of habit. I hope she behaves for Candice while I'm gone.

Make a list for a quick stop at the market tonight. Dog food, conditioner .... well, I guess that's my list. LOL. Want to bet I come home with more than that?

I hope everyone out in Blogland has a wonderful week and weekend. I'll see you Sunday night.

Well, this was hard!

I was trying to figure out a retreat project. Jane and I are flying up for Alex's retreat on Thursday morning. Nothing like waiting until the last minute!

The official retreat project this year is from her new neutrals book. I've got a couple of neutral quilts, so I thought I'd work on something different - although I wanted it to be something "Alex."

Jane gave me this pattern and a whole bag full of greens and black/whites for Christmas a couple of years ago. She started hers. I hadn't. Until today.

Three attempts to make these stupid pine trees. I cut templates per the pattern instructions, and let me just say that I didn't do very well on those at all. So I made up a paper pieced pattern, and my backgrounds came out on a diagonal. Didn't like that either. I was whining to Jane on the phone about it, and she suggested the tried and trusty Tri-Rec rulers. The size is slightly off from the pattern, but I can adjust the piano key borders to fit. Yep, this will work. So I'm going to spend the rest of the afternoon getting a bunch of these cut out. And finish watching LSU get clobbered by Alabama. (sigh) Maybe they'll do better in the second half. I know, hope springs eternal! Geaux Tigers - please!

Edit: Whew! I'm getting way too old to watch LSU games! I wasn't breathing at the end of that game!!!!!!!

This week was busy because the CEO will be gone hopefully for the next two weeks. He's going up next week to watch Magic train for the National Championship, which is the following week. I said that "hopefully" he'll be away that second week. There is an elimination each day. Magic is high point dog in the country, so he has all the potential to go the whole week. If on Thurs. 11/15 he is called back to Friday's trial, I will probably leave and drive up there. I don't know when I'll find out, or if I'll leave Thurs. night or very early Friday morning. It's a six hour drive, and I'd want to see him run on Friday. So that week is kind of up in the air.

But first things first -- RETREAT!! I'm so excited! I haven't had a vacation day since January, and it was only one day to attend the Road to CA quilt show. So these two days are very welcomed!! And I can't wait to see all of my buddies. We've been together for a lot of years at this retreat. Fun, fun, fun! Let's just hope that the flight up and home are smoother than last year's.

Gratitudes:

~ An absolutely gorgeous day today!

~ Spending another portion of today petting the Market presents from Jane!

~ A nice conversation with a good friend last night!

~ Lazy Daisy.