Discovering Bliss...

Daughter Lizzie is enrolled in a summer class at the community college in preparation for starting high school this fall, and so instead of driving back home across town while waiting for class to end, John and I decided to keep cool at Barnes and Noble. I found him a comfy chair and told him to rest while I browsed. As per usual, I have such good intentions of not buying anything, until I saw this....It is a delightful book. I have, so far, only read a few pages that caught my immediate attention, but it is full of helpful blogging tips, and packed with dozens of pages of popular and beautiful blogs and articles about their authors. I am so excited to have this book! I noticed a couple of my favorites are in here, and I can hardly wait to get acquainted with the others. I did notice that most of the blogs highlighted have beautiful and unique banner pictures. Where in the world did they get these? I am so dissatisfied with my title banner...I am longing for something unique and creative like these in the book.

I also spent about an hour in the biography section, biographies are my favorite books to read, and wrote down the title and author of every single book I thought looked interesting. I wrote 23 titles on my list before deciding that was probably enough for now. I was able to find 22 of them at our library website, so it looks like my reading list for the next year is full!!

We had record heat this week, hottest it has ever been in Lacey...103^. I hope it will never do that again, we are just not prepared for extreme heat. Today is currently 77^, a very comfortable temperature. I like it!

Quick update on John: He is improving slowly but steadily. Every day I have little bit more of my husband back, but he still has a ways to go. We discovered today his ability to write has been affected, he could hardly sign his name at the doctor's office. He is still sleeping a lot, and getting anxious to go back to work.

So, enough for now. I have lots to get done around here, but feel like taking a nap! LOL!

Prayers are needed and appreciated!

Last Saturday morning the alarm went off, and I nudged my hubby, John, so that he would turn it off. No response. Nudged him again. Next thing I know he is on the floor! I leaned over his side of the bed and nudged him again...he wouldn't wake up! Then I am on the floor shaking him, yelling "wake up John". No response. I ran upstairs for DD Amy "I can't wake up your dad" She runs down, no luck. She calls 9-1-1. The medics, bless their ever living souls, could not rouse him either, even with stimulants, etc. His vitals are all normal. We check all the pills in the house, to make them happy, I knew it wasn't pills, and nothing is missing. As he is loaded into the ambulance, he opens his eyes and looks at me, but he is really "not there".

Emergency rooms at 4:30 in the morning are amazingly quiet. They immediately do a CT scan of his head, a chest x-ray, and enough blood work to boggle the mind. Absolutely nothing shows up. They decide they need to keep him for 24 hours and send us up to the neurology floor, where the hospital neurologist gives him a complete exam. Nothing. Except for sleepiness, confusion, memory loss, and some inability to finish his thoughts. So he says, maybe a seizure, maybe not. Maybe his heart, lets monitor his heart over night. So they send us up to the cardiac floor, where he is hooked up to the monitor. By late afternoon, he perks up a bit, and stays awake for all the visitors he gets. I settle him down for the night by 9:30 and head home for some sleep myself.

The next morning, Sunday, when I come in, he is eating a good breakfast. His memory is better but not good. His heart monitoring shows nothing. Neurologist comes back and says go home. We'll do an EEG later in the week. (apparently eeg techs don't work weekends or mondays).
Go home, go back to work, resume life.

Right.

Trouble is, nobody at the hospital could tell (or would even listen) that this WASN'T my husband I was taking home.

He slept most of the day Sunday. The memory problems become even more glaring when we realize he can't remember our names. He doesn't know what he does for a living (carpenter). He cannot remember things we told him and other oddities. Like leaving his full cup of coffee on the counter in the kitchen, and when daughter takes it to him, he thinks the coffee isn't made yet.

I called our primary care doctor early Monday, begging for an appointment. He knows John well, and can tell what he should be like. We were able to get in mid-afternoon.

Within about 3 minutes of conversation, our doctor says, I think he had a mid-brain stroke, so tiny that it didn't affect his motor skills and didn't show up on the normal CT scan. Thank you Lord for this doctor!!

So we have another CT scan this morning. I am fairly certain they will find what they are looking for.

The incredibly good news is that doctor believes John will be just fine, and with baby aspirin every day probably will never have another one.

The uncertain news is that no one can predict how long it will take for him to recover.

For me, the scariest part is how to pay the mortgage, since John normally brings home most of our income.

Please, please keep us in your prayers. This hard time may be a LONG hard time.

It's that time again!

This week is my blogaversary, 4 years ago this week I began this blog. So in honor of this event, I post my annual daisy pictures!


In this last picture, I was trying to capture the bee sitting on the daisy, it ended up leaving before I could snap the shutter, but what a great shot of the bee flying away! I have circled him so you can see him easier.


I spent some time this week reading back through 4 years of blog posts, and am amazed at how much has happened that I had forgotten. This is such a great medium to document life as it happens for memories as well as sharing with family and friends!

Have a great week everyone!

Announcing Two New Designs!

Last Friday we sent two new designs for Lacey Thread Designs to the printers...it is always so exciting for us when we get a new design completely finished and sent off. Memories of My Heart and A Legacy of Love will be available next week!



Memories of My Heart

A Legacy of Love

"Grandchildren are the dots that connect
the lines from generation to generation" ~ Lois Wyse

A fun Saturday drive!

This weekend John and I drove up to my parent's cabin near Deming, close to the Canadian Border. We took the time Friday evening to do something I have been wanting to do for a LONGGGG time! Visit a Sonic Drive In! There is a new Sonic in Puyallup, about 45 minutes from our house, so we decided to stop. My goodness, the place was packed, and there were about 20 cars waiting for a parking slot. We decided to do the drive thru, as we didn't want to wait that long, but it still took 20 minutes to get our chance at the window. Yummy food! Now I really am looking forward to getting one here in Olympia/Lacey!


Saturday we slept in until nearly 11, then decided it was just too nice of a day to spend it just sitting around, so we hopped back in the car and headed up Highway 20, the North Cascades Highway, which follows along the Skagit River. We went as far as Lake Diablo before turning around and heading home, but my goodness it was gorgeous! We stopped in Newhalem and walked the gardens behind the hydroelectric plant, and found a visitor center inside the plant that we did not know was there...it was interesting to see the big machinery.

A Special Day!

30 years ago today I pledged my love and life to you.
I'm glad I did!

I love you! Happy Anniversary!

Connie and John
Married July 7, 1979

My New Studio...on wheels!

Last summer we got a little 1965 Shasta Compact trailer with the intention of refinishing the inside for my "getaway" room and to take for weekend camping trips. It has been a slow process, but this weekend we were able to get it to the point to where I can use it for my getaway room. We still need to finish the cupboards and trim, but that can come later. Here are some pictures of my wonderful new space, far away from the noise and busyness inside the house! I am so excited to finally be able to use it!

Hope Everyone had a Happy Fourth!

Our family tradition for some time now has been to spend the day of the Fourth at my brother's house on Lake St. Clair. Every year we pull out the barbeque and have a great potluck dinner of hamburgers and picnic food. Then we light the fire and wait till the fireworks begin...it is always such fun, and we try and invite the kid's inlaws and family friends. Here is a taste of our day....





The evening was capped off by all the neighbors around the lake sending up a great fireworks show. Here is a little sample of what we enjoyed!