Frozen Toes and Feet

Yesterday I broke down and started knitting socks.  My feet were cold so, I knew it was that time of the year again.  As to the shawl, do not even ask me what went wrong, just know it went badly wrong.  No idea when it happened but, I am not happy with it.  Grrr!  So, I threw it across the room.  All that work and it has severe issues. 
  I had to go get blood drawn two weeks ago for my 6 month labs.  Well, the tech they had do the job, hit a nerve and I fainted.  I have never fainted in my life.  This was a first for me.  I am generally pretty sturdy.  Not that day.  I told her that I wasn't feeling good and would she please get me some cold water.  I was dizzy and nauseous and sweating like crazy.  She gave me half a cup of water and I closed my eyes for a bit, that is all that I remember.  I came to with my doctor squeezing my neck and calling my name.  I couldn't see a thing.  It took me several tries to get my vision back, it wasn't pretty and at that point, I was in a severe cold sweat.  My doctor managed to get me to my feet and walked me to a room to lie down.  They called Gary to come and get me.  I lay in the room and what was supposed to take 5 minutes took 2 hours.  It was completely awful and to make matters worse, she tried three different spots and could not get a drop of blood.  The first thing I told her...you have to use a butterfly because my vein is shallow, she told me it would take too long.  She tried the left side, and wiggled the big ass needle in my vein, it hurt badly, then when she couldn't get blood out of that vein, she went to the right arm and did the same damn thing.  That vein refused to give blood so, she tried the top of my left hand and wiggled a butterfly in the vein on that hand.  It was completely awful.  Then I told her I wasn't feeling well and the fainting happened. 
  So, I get home with Gary and I get a prescription for anti-nausea meds filled.  My left arm is killing me.  I was hoping and praying it wasn't nerve damage.  I don't need that or want that. 
  I get back to my doctor and he prescribes some antibiotics because he thinks I managed to get an infection in the arm.  So, I am on 10 days of antibiotics.  He wanted to do a doppler on the arm to see how the blood flow was...that started a whole new problem.  I was supposed to go on a Friday but, I cancelled since I was out with my sister.  Then I had the hospital move it to Monday.  Well, they called me to let me know on Sunday how much my portion I would have to pay for the test...are you ready for what they told me? 
  My portion of the test would be $674!  Excuse me?  I said that is just stupid and I am not paying that for a damn test, cancel it.  We can do a payment plan is what I was told next.  No, I refuse to drop that kind of cash on something that wasn't even my damn fault.  If the doctor wants it done, then the lab needs to cough up some cash because it wasn't even my fault that this chick decided to torture me.  It was her damn fault. 
  So, I am not doing the test and the arm is doing so much better.  No pain in it right now.  It was so sore that I couldn't even knit.  It was awful!  I knit every single day.  I couldn't even hold a knitting needle.  That wasn't pretty. 
  I had to switch to crochet.  I crochet right handed, not left.  I am left hand dominant and that sucked.  I don't want to feel that again.  No thank you. 
  Last week, while I was getting my script of antibiotics, his nurse drew blood while I was laying down.  So, I am going tomorrow to see where my numbers are and if my A1C has returned to normal.  I hope so.  I want to be normal again.  I hope my cholesterol is normal as well.  I am still taking my lemon based fish oil.  Those suckers are expensive but, so worth it.  I do not belch nasty fish, I belch lemon.  My sister takes the same ones.  My goal is to become pill free.  Yeah, I can dream. 
  Since the weather has turned cold, it is candle making time over here.  I was looking for my wicks for my jars.  Can't find the damn things so, I had to order in more wicks.  It never fails.  I looked and UPS says they are supposed to be delivered today.  I have pint jars waiting for me for those candles. 
  I have plans to make candles as soon as possible.  I did a batch of watermelon tea lights.  They turned out really well and they smell like a Jolly Rancher.  Yummy!  I did a test burn of them yesterday and it lasted for a long time. 
  I bought a pink sweater and it came in...I tried it on in front of Gary and he tells me it looks nice.  He needs to learn some more adjectives other than nice.  It has a seriously low neckline.  I didn't realize that it was so low cut.  He tells me that I can't wear it to the grocery store.  What?  Apparently, it will attract the wrong sort of attention.  Okay honey...calm down.  It is pretty though.  I am still debating what to pair it with.  I could wear my long black skirt with it or I could wear some nice pants with it.  I have to dig through my closet to see what I have.  I am down one clothing size and my goal is to be able to fit into my Rocky Mountain Jeans.  Yep, I have several pairs.  I want to be able to wear them again.  I love the red ones, they are just so pretty.  I also have a smoking hot black fringe shirt that looks great with them.  I still have my ropers so, I am ready to go when I get down to that size. 
  We aren't staying home for trick or treaters tomorrow, we are headed to my sister's house for that fun.  I am going in a medieval maiden costume while Gary will be a Centurion.  I have a wig, he has a Thor wig and I so want him to wear it.  You know the sexy guy with the incredibly gorgeous chest?  I keep telling my sister she needs to watch that movie....she will enjoy it.  She won't listen to me.  Her loss. 
  On November 7th, I am going to a ladies night down at the Langham Creek Hardware store with my best friend, Michelle.  It should be fun.  I have been sent invitations every year but, never had time to go, I am making time this year to go.  I asked her if she wanted to head out with me and she agreed.  This will be the first time in a long time that we have been out on the town together without a man in tow.  Usually she has her boyfriend and I have Gary.  I think the last time we were out was before I was married.  So, this is going to be fun with just us two. 
  I am so hungry right now and I am waiting for Gary to get off of a call so, we can go get something to eat.  Hungry!  I need to test blood sugar to see where I am at. 
 

Chores

This morning, I was up early, I was hungry and knew that sleep wasn't in the cards so, I went downstairs, took my blood sugar, and made myself breakfast.  I then decided to go ahead and get my laundry for the day started.  I am finished with laundry already, pretty good since it is only 10:17 am.  I emptyed a can of cola into the wash since it is supposed to get grease stains out of clothes and if you have a hubby like me who manages to get grease stains like crazy, then this is worth trying out.  I guess when it comes out of the dryer we will see how well this worked. 

I even managed to make a necklace this morning with a cross that I have had for a while.  I have two more to make necklaces with...one is green and the other is white.  I guess after I dig through my bead boxes, I will figure out something striking.  I have enough beads to do this. 

I am still working on the shawl.  I am ready for it to be off of the needles.  Yep, bored with it.  I still love the yarn.  It is so pretty.  Pictures will follow when I block it.  I have half of the last chart to do. 

Yesterday I worked on it some but, not much.  I was being lazy.  Gary made us chili last night and I made the cornbread.  It was good.  Even the dogs had chili and cornbread.  They enjoyed it as much as we did. 

Tomorrow I am headed to the fabric store to buy curtain material for my back door.  It is time for that spot to get a set of curtains.  I noticed the decorator fabric is 50% off.  Hey, the best time to take care of it. 

This morning Gary managed to get two baby bull frogs out of the pool.  He relocated them to the creek.  I have no idea why the things think the my pool is their home pond.  Nope, not staying or welcome in my pool.  I have no idea how they can stand the chlorine in that pool.  I even shocked that pool last night since it poured here yesterday.  Yay! 

I am so ready for Halloween over here.  We went and bought our pumpkin on Saturday.  I bought two of the things.  One for carving and the other for planting.  I have the big one...the carving one and then the small one is for the planting...I saw this idea on FB and knew I had to try it out.  Take a small pumpkin, cut the top off, add potting soil, stick it in the sun and water.  If nothing else, I will have a pumpkin patch in the backyard next year.  If I can grow my own, hey, even better.  :) 

My garden is fallow right now.  I am letting it rest before planting it in late winter.  I have plans to put in more radish, kale, spinach and broccoli.  We enjoyed the broccolini this past Spring, it was so tasty and amazing.  I have to find my lettuce seeds because I will be planting those as well.  I love fresh lettuce out of my garden, it is sweeter than the store bought stuff. 

Wednesday is labs for me.  I get to find out how well I am doing and if my A1C is back to normal.  I hope so.  I am trying to be good and do what I am supposed to do for my diabetes.  I am so ready to be normal.  I know I will never go back to my old ways, it isn't worth it.  I will stay on my current diet.  Since that tendency to go back to diabetes will be with me, I have to be good and stay on my diet.  I don't want to go back to sugar, it is hell to get off of it.  No way.  I can't put myself through the shaking and hunger ever again. 

On Friday, I ran into a man at the grocery store who was having issues with his new lifestyle change, he was just diagnosed as a Type 2 diabetic and was trying to decide which ice cream to buy.  Yes, there is ice cream for those of us who are sugar challenged.  I love the Blue Bell No Sugar Added, the Dutch Chocolate is the best freaking stuff under the sun.  He was eyeing the sugar stuff which they have many yummy varieties, I know, I used to love eating them.  He asked me when I had looked at all of the other sugar free ones, I picked up the Dutch Chocolate and he wanted to know if it tasted good.  I said yes, it was my fave.  He told me he had to get off of sugar and he was dying for it.  I told him that it took me two weeks and it was pure hell.  He was starving because his doctor told him what he could and couldn't eat.  I said go see a dietitian, it will help out so much and get on a low carb diet if he could, it helps out so much when you can eat low carb, I have lost 30 pounds so far.  I need to get down more but, I have plateaued right now and I have plans to get my body back into weight loss mode.  I started this morning with my 2 week detox.  I had my hot lemon water to help me out.  I had that instead of coffee this morning.  It really perked me up and I was ready to clean my home.  I know, it sounds truly awful but, it helps me feel good.  It also helps out that the meyer lemon tree is ripening early.  I had a fresh lemon plucked from the tree.  :)  I need to go pick some more today for my water for the rest of the week. 

I didn't think I would like kale before I had it but, I am now a fan.  I love the stuff.  I made a lovely chicken soup with it in it earlier in the year and oh, it is amazing stuff.  I might have to make that same soup again soon.  I will have to hit the grocery store to pick up some mushrooms.  I didn't buy any this time around.  I will put it on my list for Friday. 

Worn Down to a Frazzle

It is killer ragweed season here and every one that I know and others I don't have some sort of allergies and the sore throat from hell from this stuff.  I had to go to the doctor last week and get a cortisone shot in the ass for this crap and do you know, it didn't help.  Nope, not at all.  Poor Gary is sick with it now. 

Today was girl's day out and Melinda and I headed out to run her errands.  We came back early and I came home.  I decided to do some much needed dusting with my vacuum cleaner.  I had no idea my blinds were covered in so much dust, well...that was taken care of and the ceiling fan in the family room was covered, too.  I took care of that as well.  I need to clean out kitchen cabinets tomorrow and put all of the items I haven't used in the last 10 years into boxes, garage sale time. 

I was asked to knit for charity again this year.  I said it would take me some time to get some mitts ready for the charity.  I have no energy to knit other people stuff.  I know it sounds really awful but, it is the truth.  I have one pair of mitts complete and I am working on a second set for the charity.  When I get 4 pairs finished, I will send them off to the charity.  I am not doing any more after that.  I don't know if it is the diabetes making me really tired and worn down or the crap allergy.  Either way, I don't feel like knitting all that much. 

As for my shawl, it is slowly getting worked on.  I am on the 2nd chart and have been there for some time.  I will post pictures when I have a chance to take some.  It is pretty yarn, I really do love working with it.  It has stellina in it and I love the bits of sparkle here and there. 

The oven had to be cleaned today.  It had issues that involved butter and burnt xylitol.  Don't ask.  It was one of the worst smells ever.  So, I had to break down and put it on clean.  It took it a couple of hours to clean and then I went to check it and it smells so much better.  No more stink. 

I didn't make it to the family reunion this year, I was sick.  I stayed home and slept on the couch.  Gary said I was a grunch on Saturday morning.  I was sleeping on the couch and had been there since 4 am...I couldn't sleep in our bed so, I went downstairs and got comfy on my spot on the couch and fell back asleep.  I was woken up by him at whatever time he made it downstairs and I read him the riot act about turning on the tv when I was trying to sleep.  I am such a pleasant individual when someone wakes me up in the morning and I have been known to throw right hooks in my sleep.  Not a good idea trying to wake me up.  I slept until 10 am and then decided to get up and take my blood sugar and grab a shower before we headed out for lunch.  Chinese food and soup helped out so much. 

I am trying to organize my beads into color coded containers.  I never knew I had so many of the things.  I need more containers.  Maybe I should have done this project about a year or so ago.  I did make a pretty necklace yesterday, it is really cool because it has some glow in the dark beads on it.  So cool.  I would try to upload pictures onto this post but, my damn computer isn't cooperating with me right now.  So, that will have to wait when I can figure out what is going on with this damn thing. 

I can't wait to get rid of this sore throat and all of the misery associated with this crap.  I am praying for a nice rain storm that will wash down all of the allergens.  I know everyone else who has it is thinking the same thing. 

We are back up to temps in the 90F and higher range.  It is freaking fall and we need some cool temps.  That would be so nice. 

I have my next shawl pattern picked out and I just need to decide if I should paint the yarn or dye it.  It is a complicated question.  I will have to think on it for a while.  I might just dig in my yarn stash and see what I have in the yardage that I will need.  I have loads of yarn to choose from.  I also have a gorgeous skein sitting on my desk.  There is another one sitting on my kitchen table that has been begging me to use it.  I have to decide which one will get used.  Who knows, I might try several projects and then both will be used.  I want to challenge myself to start emptying containers of yarn.  I don't want to order any more.  My goal is to see if I can use up a container of yarn a month.  Gary says no, he doesn't think I can do it.  I think I would love to see how far I can get with this challenge. 

Who knows, I might issue a challenge to other knitters who have a huge stash to see what we can do to use all of our yarns up.  It might be interesting to see what we can come up with and if you are feeling particularly generous, maybe donate some of our projects to charity. 

Oh, for those of you who do not know this...my great nephew has Down Syndrome and I was asked to mention something about it on my blog.  It is Down Syndrome awareness month.  If you are on facebook, go check out the Down Syndrome Foundation of South Texas page  and read what they have to say.  You might learn something new about it.  My great nephew has the most beautiful smile and it lights up a room.