Aud Tales

Some days around here are really good and some days are complete bummers.

Mother (Aud) is trying desperately to get off of oxygen. She will go about 3 days only using it at night and then she will have a day that she is almost completely out of it as far as knowing what is going on.  We were at the doctor's last week and her pulsox is up to 94 which is great for her.

So, it was decided she could go to concentrated oxygen, commonly called "air on demand".  An appointment was made with the oxygen providers to see if she was "eligible" to do this.  Not sure what constitutes eligibility. Another bunch of paperwork for sure.

Here she is discussing how to use this device, and working with the method you use to get oxygen.

There are lots of choices to be made and we were there for 2 hours.  She still has to use the main oxygen
machine at night because it pumps oxygen continuously.

The machine used to fill these small bottles sits on top of the big machine.  I posted a picture of this setup when we first got it; it hasn't changed at all, sorry to say.

We get it all home, I try to fill up the little guys and finally call the company because I can't get them filled.  A very nice man comes to the house, and of course, the damn bottle was not closed and that is why it wouldn't fill.  Never dawned on me to check that.  I felt like an idiot.  Plus, the machine was making lots of racket and I was going crazy.

I ended up moving the oxygen setup to the spare bedroom we created when I repurposed some rooms during the remodel . Of course the room still isn't straight, but at least the oxygen is in a place where I can close the door and I don't hear it all the time.

Mother still has trouble trying to figure out which button to press to turn off the big machine, and half the time, if I don't check on her, she doesn't turn it on or off at the right time.  I remember when my husband got to the point where it was hard for him to breathe, and he was doing silly things like mother is now.  It is really worrying and you have to be vigilant all the time.

That is why some days are good and some are bad. I was so hoping she would be getting better and really wouldn't need the oxygen except at night.  I guess that is not going to happen, at least as soon as we were both hoping. And her legs are bothering her bunches, and she fell again and is very sore all over.

Took her to the doctor to be sure there wasn't a blood clot in her leg from her fall.  She has an enormous bruise now.  He said just to put wet heat on it a couple of times a day, and bathing in our "spa tub" would help.  Of course she hasn't done any of that yet.

Helped me carry in some groceries last night and promptll had a nose bleed about an hour later.  Not sure how I am going to handle getting groceries into the house.  I am having so much trouble with my left arm...I think my rotator whatever it is called is really screwed up for some reason and I have difficulty carrying anything that weighs anything also.

Hmm, think I will scream a couple of times, and  go get some of Cornwell's books from the library and continue my education of the 7th century England.

September Flora

The yard has looked pretty good the past week since we have finally had something besides high 90s temperature wise.

Some of the azaleas have started their autumn blooming.  

Aud felt good enough to wash off the back porch.  I won't ever do that and she keeps hinting and finally
 does it herself.  :) 

Here is the view that I see when I am at my sewing machine.  So very peaceful and I just love it.  I have wanted to use this area to sew in ever since we moved into this house 9 years ago.

Design Wall Monday

It is finished !!!  Too big for the design wall, so I am using bed to show it finished.  Not going to put any borders on it, it will be too big for the bed, lol.  Think I will bind it with strips of all the blues used in the quilt.  As for the backing, I am thinking pieced...not sure if I will use only the beiges in the quilt or if i will use all the colors.  Probably only beiges.  I guess it will depend on what I decide to do when I cut the strips.

I am really excited to get this quilt done!  And it even looks better than I thought it would, which is a pleasant surprise, lol.

Thanks to Judy for providing encouragement to at least do some quilting every week!

Hope everyone is off to a great start this week.

Design Wall Monday

Updated photos of Road to Oklahoma
quilt.

Thank you Judy, for providing a place to for this every week.

One of these days I will be through with this quilt I hope. My piecing sure isn't looking real good these days.


Finally broke down and bought a new iron.  My expensive Rowenta bit the dust, (those irons are not worth the money), so I found a good old Black and Decker on Amazon, and it is great.  Not super heavy, but enough so, and automatic settings for steaming, and I am very happy with it. 

Spent the weekend watching football games with Aud and reading.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is the first book of  trilogy by Stieg Larsson.  I read it several months ago and finally got around to reading the other two.

The Girl Who Played with Fire was read Saturday evening until 6 am on Sunday.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest was read Sunday evening until 4 am on Monday.

I really enjoyed these.  I know everyone else has probably read them, but I can't read like most people, when I start a book I want to finish it. So, that is done.

I have downloaded a book called The Last Kingdom by Bernard Caldwell from Amazon for my Ipad.   It is the first book of the Saxon Chronicles Series. I guess I will tackle it soon. 

I love historical novels, especially those dealing with King Arthur.  He was real, right? lol

There is a story there, but not now.  This is already too long. 

Hope everyone's week is going well. I am going to watch Dancing with the Stars, :)

Second Tuesday

I finally got to go to quilting group I belong to called Second Tuesday.  A small group of quilters that belong to the Central Oklahoma Quilter's Guild and meet once a month.  There are some fine quilters in this group.  These are some of the quilts and projects that were shown the past two months. 

It's Monday Again!

Well, as I write this Monday is almost over, but I have to show my Design Wall, such as it is.  I didn't get a lot done, but this will have to do for now.  I have two more rows finished, but the are not sewn together yet, and then I have two more rows of blocks to sew together plus the bottom row to finish out the stars.  Thank you JudyL for always encouraging us to at least quilt a little bit every week.

We did have a busy weekend, full of football games,  and I tried to get a little quilting done.  Mostly it was football games though.  OU won, OSU won, YEA!!!!   and then we watched Sam Bradford almost win for the St. Louis Rams on Sunday.

 For those of you who don't follow football, this means nothing, but I love to watch Mr Sam throw that football.  He has a great arm and since he played for OU (he also won the Heisman Trophy last year)  I have to watch him.  And the Rams also picked up another good player named Mark Clayton who played for OU several years ago, don't remember which NFL team he was playing for before now.  

And see this?  Guess who got to wash sheets for Aud on Sunday?  Me!   lol....evidently I became a little older this week so therefore I have a new responsibility, :)  Didn't I do a good job?  Just need to fold them, but I haven't graduated to that yet, thank goodness!

I forgot to take pictures, but I also made up a batch of "chili" and we had homemade chili with hotdogs. They were so good.  Every once in a while we get hungry for hotdogs and now that we have chili frozen     maybe we will have those more often and maybe some frito chili pie, yum!!!   I used two pounds of chopped sirloin and that will last us a good while.  I quit using "chili meat" because it has too much gristle in it anymore.  Haven't found any good in OKC, but probably I am not shopping at the best place for that.

One of my grandsons loves frito pie.  He used to stay with me some when he was younger.  His mother worked late and I would pick him up from daycare and bring him home and she would pick him up after she got off work.  He always wanted frito pie, but not with canned chili.  It had to be "homemade", lol.
I don't get to see him too often anymore, he lives in Dallas now.  But everytime I make chili I think of him.

I hope this is a great week for all of us!

Aud Tales

Thursday afternoon.  I have been to exercise class.  I go to Pacer's and I take classes that are designed for senior citizens. They are called Silver Sneakers and are comprised of people younger and older than I and are always full of wonderful ladies and a few gentlemen.  Here are some pictures to show you some of the class area.

I hurried home from my class, after first stopping to get us a Starbucks, so I could take Aud to get some pants hemmed up before our hair appointments.  They have needed to be hemmed up for a few months, but for some reason or another we never get there.  Every time I plan to take her, something happens.

This time we got as far as getting the pants in the car, getting the oxygen in the car, getting her Starbucks coffee transferred from the  store container to her acrylic Starbucks container, and getting her in the car.  Then she tells me, I shouldn't have these taken up today, I am bloated and they won't fit.  We can all relate to that, right?

So, we have 30 mintues to kill before our hair appointment.  Here we both sit, drinking our Starbucks, and she is looking at mail and I am writing this.

Supposedly we are going to Dillard's after hair appointments.  I will close this for now, but more later on the rest of this day.

Thursday continued.....as usual change happens, lol

We get our hair done.  Mine has new purple in it.  I look old and wrinkled in this picture, and tired to boot, but today it was the best I could do.  I cannot quite comprehend how I got so old, lol.

This is Aud waiting for me to get through at Hair Salon. She looks younger than I do, she takes very good care of herself, lol.

This is Shelva, the sassy youngster that keeps us in hair cuts and purple and pink.  Would you believe she has an 18 year old son?

Ooops, change of plan....

Aud decides we need to go to the shoe store.  Notice there is no oxygen attached.  It has been several weeks since she has been able to go without oxygen for very long, and we are both loving the freedom.  She is in need of shoes that fit her better than what she has been wearing, and by better I mean not quite as high or wobbly,  and they cannot be "old" looking, lol.  So, we call and get an appointment and off we go.

How about these for houseshoes.  I forgot to take a picture of the others she bought, but she wore one pair out, and looked pretty snazzy.  It took her a few minutes to realize these were really one pair.  At first she thought they were two, and thought the one on the left fit better, lol.  That was pretty funny.

We love to go to this store.  It is called Foot Solutions and we have been going there since they opened and they always treat us very well.  A couple of years ago I locked my keys in the car and the owner was gracious enough to take me home, about 5 miles away, to get my other set, lol.

Aud has a very skinny foot and it is hard to find shoes that fit.  When her ankles started swelling so much she had to quit wearing Ferragamos, which just about broke her heart.  (I don't think that is spelled right)  So we come here about once a year or so to buy shoes. I bought some houseshoes and some clogs that are made in Germany out of boiled wool.  I just love them, and wear them in the winter with socks when I am bumming around.  No pictures of these either.

Now that we have shoes, we skip Dillards for the moment because we are hungry.  Abuelo's is one of the few restaurants left that we will still eat in, so that is were we go.  Must keep our hands busy so we are playing slingo on our Iphone while we wait for our food, lol.  It was wonderful  We get enchiladas with no sauce and onions on top, and this is the only place we have found in OKC that serves chile con queso like we are used to.  Very good meal, and a very pleasant one.

So Dillard's will be put off for another day.  Aud is getting a little short of breath and I think she needs to get home.  It has been a long day.  I have a portable tank of oxygen in the car but she says she will be ok until we get home.

We watched New Orleans beat Minnesota and now Ms Aud is off to bed and I am heading that way shortly.  It has been a very pleasant day and Aud is not fretting over her shingles or any other thing and is beating that deveil all over the place in Slingo.

Hope eveyone had a pleasant day also, and that tomorrow will be good for all of us!

It's Everywhere!

 When we remodeled I decided at that time to repurpose some rooms.  Think I might have mentioned that, come to think of it.

As a result my quilting stuff seems to be everywhere.  When I started hauling it out of the closet it was in, it just seemed to grow, lol.  I have shown a pic of my main sewing area off of the kitchen, but thought someone might get a smile from knowing they aren't the only ones with a "fabric stash", lol.  And every time I look  at this wall of boxes, I say to myself, "what was I thinking!"

Each one of these containers contains a "quilt", except for the big tubs, and they are full of batiks and Kaffe Fassett fabrics.  I don't think I will need any new fabric for a while, but it sure is hard to resist it.  The book shelves contain some of my quilting books and some stuff I haven't decided where to put yet, lol.  Recipes and recipe books are part of the stuff on the bottom shelves,  but that's another story.

A friend of mine helped me organize my quilting books and magazines a couple of months ago. These have made the final cut and are in "order".   There are 3 piles of quilting magazines in the garage I need to go through, and, I hate to say it, there are 3 piles of newer quilting books and magazines in my bedroom that need to be sorted out, lol.  I guess they will slowly make their way to the garage or the bookshelves.  Do you see a pattern here?  First the living room or my bedroom, then shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, lol.

 These are the closets in the above room.  A lot of kits, Thimbleberries, Kansas Troubles, Fossil Ferns, and some "stash", and lots of backings live there, plus other "have to haves" for quilting.

These are pictures of another closet that contains "projects" and some wonderful fabrics that I just can't part with.  I also have wips hanging on hangers on the door.  You can see some of them.

Knowing I needed something to spruce up my sewing area off the kitchen, a very dear friend of mine gave me this for my birthday.

                         

It makes me smile.

I don't think you can read the verse but maybe if you turn it sideways.  I can't seem to get this imported with it turned.  At this point I guess I am doing good to get it in period, lol.

Looking at these pictures make me tired.  :)

Aud Tales

I think I will just title these little bits and pieces Aud Tales, because that is exactly what they are...things that happened, mostly every day, of life with my wonderful mother.  If you are reading this blog, you may find them boring, but I need to journal them for myself, if for no other reason.

"I need some eye drops.....

I got you some eye drops a week ago when you said you needed them.

No you did not, I never saw any.

Yes I did. From Walgreeen's when I got your prescriptions last week. They were in the sack with the candy I got you.  Remember, you wanted Baush and Lomb(sp) and I called you from there to tell you they didn't have any of that brand and you said just get some? ...so I got Walgreen's brand....

Well, I know you didn't, I don't have any.

Mother, I did get you some eyedrops, I have no idea where you put them, but I did.  I will get you some more today......."

I got her some eyedrops today while at the health food store getting her glucosamine and psyllium husks.
When I got home with them, I made sure she saw them, opened the box, squeezed the bottle to be sure she could since she can't squeeze things easily, and life was good. Oh, I also picked up two more prescriptions that she forgot to order yesterday when I had picked up four for her.  Walgreen's knows me by sight.

Later on, while watching TV, Ms Aud informs me she owes me an apology.  She found the eyedrops I bought her a week ago.  They were on the table by her chair, but in the middle of some other things, and she did not see them.  Her excuse was the cleaning lady always takes everything off of this table, dusts each item and puts it back, and the bottle had ended up in the middle of everything and she couldn't see it.  Sounds like a great excuse to me, lol.

"Is tomorrow trash day?   No, today is only Wednesday."

This and That

Living with anyone is an adventure.  Living with your mother should count as 2 adventures at the
same time I have decided. You live with them when you don't have any sense and then you live with them when you do have sense and they still don't think you have any sense, and you know THEY don't have any sense, they did at one time, but surely it is your time to have some, right?  Well, not in this house, lol.

Sheets, waiting for Aud to wash them.

Sometimes I think she waits until I decide to wash and then she has to wash.  This morning when I finally got up, which wasn't early because I am really having a difficult time with arthritis the last several days, I put a load of clothes in to wash.  Then I put on a pot of steel cut oatmeal to cook and read the paper while I waited for it to cook.  When Aud came to eat, she had these sheets with her.

....oh, you are washing....yes....why didn't you let me wash these yesterday.....well, you were busy...I asked you if you needed anything washed, and you said no...well I didn't want to bother you...oh, give me a break, Aud, how would that bother me?  Ahhh, I remember now, you don't like the way I wash your sheets, do you?   (very coy grin and small laugh) No, I don't.  Fine, wash your own sheets.
And so it goes.

I did try to get some sewing done.  I am determined to get this Road to OK, aka Road to Texas I have been told, finished.  I have others I need to be working on.  This is all I accomplished in about 4 hours. Sure doesn't seem like much.  Of course since I am sewing on a different machine than I was 4 years ago, the seams aren't the same, and I am having to resew some areas in order to keep the silly thing half way even as far as seams meeting. I can sure tell I don't sew as straight as I used to. So I have 6 rows sewn together, just 4 more to go, and the bottom half row to make the stars even out, and then I can put them all together. Isn't there something out there about "steady wins the race"? :)

I cooked tonight and made something called BLT pasta.  It is absolutely delicious!

 I made it with pancetta, grape tomatoes, leeks and spinach.
I served it with fetticini, but the recipe calls for bucatini.  See the homemade bread crumbs behind it?  That is part of the recipe.

I found this recipe in Cuisine at Home, Issue 63.  It is a part of Volume 11, as is this wonderful cake called Autumn Spice Cake in Issue 65.  If you like to cook, this whole volume has scrumptious recipes in it.

Looks like we are going to get some of the rain from Hermine tomorrow, so I went to Walgreens to pick up Aud's prescriptions and some tylenol for me (having to supplement the mobic), and some Cherry Garcia.  They actually had 3 cartons! wow!  Would sure like to know who is buying all of it.  It is getting harder to find.

I have gotten hooked on America's Got Talent because of the youngster that sings so well.  Of course, I don't remember her hame.   So, here I sit, doing nothing.  Think I will work on my embroidery.

Out Out Damn Spot

aka HP printers!  aka the final piece of the computer triumvirate I have come to absolutely detest.

This HP is about 6 years old I think, and has always printed very well and photos have always come out great but it is a PITA to install, at least for me. I have had some problems with my wireless modem and every time I have had to buy a new modem or change anything, I have lost the "wireless connection" to my HP printer.  Well, since we have this oxygen machine in the house and it is called a "disturber", I had to buy another modem about 3 weeks ago.  For some reason the plain jane ATT wireless modem does not have enough "Finleys" to keep "disturbers" at bay.  Don't ask me for explanations of these technical terms, call a tech, lol.

So, of course, I lost the print connection.  It was so easy to get it installed when I first got my Mac, but this time I could not get the connection to jell.  I put off printing anything until I thought I was ready to attempt the installation.  Well, that was today.

I had been doing some research this past week on the best printer to use with the Mac and had come to the conclusion that Epson seemed the most compatible, and I promised myself I would get one if I did not have any luck installing the HP when I got around to the attempt.

For any of you who have suffered the frustrations of dealing with HP's "tech service" or trying to download their updated drivers without screaming, or have dealt with any of their manuals, you will be nodding your head when I say "I have had it with HP!!"

And that is what I said after three hours.  Soooo, I got in my car, went to Staples and bought myself a new Epson.  Did not get one with a fax as I have no telephone number to attach it to, so it was cheap.
And it isn't heavy.  AND, I got it installed!

Since the older I get the more computer illiterate I become, it took me a couple of times reading the instructions to finally stumble through the right combination of numbers etc to get it done, but it is done!!

The print quality is probably not as good as the HP but since I print mostly recipes and quilt instructions, it is fine.  Have not tried it on photos yes, but for now I am a happy camper!

Design Wall Monday

I hope everyone is having a non-labor Labor Day.  Not I, said the Little Red Hen.  Today was the scheduled day for a lady that does cleaning for us and so she came.  I got her to help me move some furniture around which means I may get my bedroom together sooner than later as a result.  I have too much "C@#$" and I keep shuffling it from one room to another in case I can find a permanent place for it, lol.  I move furniture out to the garage (I have room now since we only have one car) and if it lives out there for a couple of months then I send it to Habitat for Humanity or Vietnam Vets.

But I digress as usual.  The object of this post was to show my design wall per JudyL's Monday feature. 
I actually have less on wall than last week, but I finally have finished all of the blocks and have it coded so I can sew the rows together.  Didn't get a lot done this past week and it looks like it is going to be that way this week, but I can only hope.  My arthritis is also giving me fits in my hands.  Not good for quilting!

I am finally beginning to be excited about this quilt.  I haven't quite figured out the borders on it yet. Still mulling that over.  And I am going to piece the back...I have so much patriotic fabric I need to use some of it up.

"The Tub"

Part of our remodeling was done to make the bathrooms more user friendly for our tired old bones. We put in a new shower for Aud with grab bars, fixtures that allow her to keep the water the same all of the time and can be held, and "towers" on the walls to put soap etc in.  You only have to step up about 2 inches to get into it  and that also helps.  Didn't really take any finished pictures of it, but this will give you an idea of what it looks like,

It is very well done and I don't worry about her falling.  There are 3 grab bars in there.

And then,  we added "The Tub".  Aud had fallen 3 times in a week, and the last time she had fallen it was a very bad fall and she was black and blue.  For about 4 weeks I was afraid she was not going to recuperate from it, so we decided to put in a walk-in tub with pulsating jets that massage and are just wonderful for people with arthritis etc.  It is like having your own private water therapy.  Just what the doctor ordered. 

 

After about 20 minutes in this you feel like a limp dishrag you are so relaxed.  Both of us are really enjoying the benefits.  

Football Season Again!

It's Pepto Bismal time again in Sooner land, lol. I love to watch the Sooners play football, but they sure do give me a lot of anxiety!

Aud likes OSU football more than she does the Sooners, probably because my oldest daughter and her husband are graduates of same. And I am always reminded by my oldest daughter that we don't have anyone in the family with OU ties, so why do I always root for the Sooners over OSU, and why do I watch their games. Because they are exciting? lol.

This may be about to change. Her oldest son is now a Junior at OU, so I may have a real good reason to root for OU in a couple of years.

All of this to say.......

Can you believe this?  lol   Two little old ladies with two televisions on watching two different games, and one of them was a pay per view!  I think we have finally become real Okies!

Oh, and the ice cream is Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia!  The very best!  I buy it 8 cartons at a time when I can find that many, most of the time I can only find 4.  It is our comfort food I guess.