D-Day Approaching!

All kinds of things have been going on around here as I'm trying to tie up some loose ends, so-to-speak, and be all ready to leave Thursday afternoon to go to McGee Hospital in Pittsburgh where I will be having surgery -hysterectomy and hopefully, some hernia repair -on Friday.

Wednesday and Thursday are both gonna be some pretty hectic days for me -for my daughter, Mandy too, as she is my chauffeur down to Pittsburgh. She called today and made reservations for us for Thursday night at a motel near the hospital. That way, I can do the "lovely" (NOT) prep required for any and all abdominal surgeries. Anyone who has ever had surgery of that type will know exactly what kind of prep I am talking about and would also probably understand why I don't want to do that prep here at home and then, take off for a 3 hour drive to Pittsburgh while all that junk you have to drink would be roiling around in my gut! Much rather be in the motel and do that but really, I would MUCH RATHER that the insurance company would be willing to authorize I be admitted the day prior to the surgery to do the prep there because, to be very honest, the thought of doing this prep with a colostomy scares the living daylights out of me!

Oh well. Guess I'll just be playing it all by ear Thursday night as I endure this cleansing process, won't I?

So, where to start to tell you what all has been going on here of late.

This week our church has Vacation Bible School and Kurt and Maya are both attending this program. It's been a fun time for them and an opportunity to be around about 24-26 other children from nursery school age up to about 6th grade and they have both been loving the whole deal. Tuesday, at VBS, Mandy and I both worked in the kitchen, helping get the lunch served that our Women's group planned and is providing every day of Bible School to the kids, teacher, aides as well of course, for the kitchen helpers too. On both days so far, both Maya and Kurt ate the items given to them -no arguments whatsoever from either child! Now that is always a very pleasant surprise to see those two hooligans do that!

A little aside here too is this episode tonight between Kurtis and me. I was sitting at the computer messing with something -uploading pictures to Facebook or chatting with someone -whatever -and he came running up to me saying "Pastor Carrie crying." Ah, really Kurtis. And why would that be happening? I tried to question him but he just took off and then, about 5-10 minutes later he returned to me and told me then, "Pastor Carrie crying -just pretend." Okay, buddy -guess that explains it all, doesn't it?

Last week, I received an item I had ordered (along with several other things too) from Herrschners -an apron to be embroidered and the pattern design is called "Array of Roses." I had wanted to do this apron as a shower gift for my neighbor and good friend's daughter who got married last month but because I was pretty slammed at the time working on a table runner and table topper like the "Rooster" set I had embroidered back in April, I didn't think I had enough time to order this item and get it done in time for the wedding. Then, after the wedding the kit was no longer on sale so I put that out of my thought process for awhile but two weeks ago, the company offered the kit on sale again and this time I jumped on that deal and bought the kit.

Surprisingly, it only took me roughly 5 hours to do the embroidery work on the apron and I was really pleased with the way it looked when it was completed too. So much so that today, I had Miss Maya pose for me wearing the apron and I'm gonna post here the picture of the group that I liked the best of Maya modeling this apron.

I just loved the way she has her hand to her face and tilted her head just so when I snapped this picture. Isn't that just too cute though or am I just a typical doting Grandma?

I'm working on a Christmas tabletopper at the moment and should be able to get it completed perhaps tonight before I go to bed or if not that soon, then tomorrow evening at the latest. It's a really pretty item -with a wreath in each corner and a smaller design of evergreen branches and red holly berries along each side of the cloth and the entire cloth features a large band of red crochet around the piece. Just a really pretty Christmassy item to add to my completed projects and probably will go into the group I am going to be listing on my Etsy account -once I finally get that set up ya know. I have roughly about 8-10 items in my stash pile to be embroidered that are all Christmas themed things that I want to get completed and offer on my Etsy account then too.

Tomorrow evening though, I will have to pack my bag to take to the hospital and I am going to have to decide what craft things to pack to take along in hopes that once I am awake and alert enough, I can then work on some of these things while I am recuperating from the surgery. Don't want to lose any valuable time by just sleeping my days away while I am hospitalized ya know!

Between the craft things and this week, the Vacation Bible school too, I am falling way behind on my blog reading and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get my reader cleared out of all this reading there before I leave Thursday afternoon. Sure do wish I had a laptop that I could take with me and plug in at the hospital and that way, I could keep a bit au currant then with the blogs I follow along with posting (perhaps) and still have time to work on the craft stuff too. That's not really near as ambitious an idea as it sounds though -except that I don't have a laptop so it won't work out that way for me, I guess. Maybe the nurses there will cheat and let me log in on a computer belonging to the hospital and play with checking my Facebook as well as my Reader, huh? Yeah, sure! That is really the dreamer in me talking trash isn't it?

So, with all I have lined up over the next two days to do before I leave and then, my stay in the hospital, it might be August 8th before I get back home and around to checking my reader and getting things caught up again. But at least, it does give me something to look forward to doing as I continue then to heal after I get back home, doesn't it?

Anyone who wants to know how things are going -if I have you as a friend on Facebook, you can log into my page and from there, click on my daughter's facebook (Amanda Wagner) and I'm sure she'll post updates there on how things are going for me in this big pain in the butt type adventure I'm embarking on the end of this week!

I'm gonna miss not being able to read all the great posts my blogger buddies put up here all the time!

Just hope all this stuff comes out okay and I'm back home, where I belong sometime the end of next week, I think.

Till then... Adios, my amigos!