Baby Shawl, B & Busted Pipeline

Today in cleaning out a closet in the girls' room, we found a baby shawl/blanket that I knitted for Desiree while I was on bedrest for 3 months before she was born. The last and only time I had knit anything before that, was a purse my grandmother tried to have me make when I was 10, in seed stitch, and I HATED IT.

But 3 months bedrest is BORING, so dh took me out in a wheelchair to the local craft store, where I bought 2 or 3 sets of needles, some yarn, and a "Learn to Knit" pamphlet. Nobody told me lace was supposed to be hard. So for practice, I knitted a pair of slippers for dh & then cast fearlessly on and produced this blanket.

Twenty-four years later, it has a couple picks in it but still looks pretty good!

We finally got the girls' room that had the mold in it, fixed. I have some accent painting to do & a curtain to make, but Veronica is moved into the room & Betsy is slowly assimilating herself into that room too, as goes the plan. Well in *this* pic anyway, she looks quite content...

And one more, she wanted me to take her pic the other night during an late-night computer & putting B to sleep session!

Ok so for the past week or so, our driveway has been wet. That's no surprise if it's raining, but it hasn't been. Ground next to the driveway has been very wet & soggy. Today Richie called the Utility board to report it. Suddenly about 6:30 tonight he says, "What's that noise?" and heads out the front door.

Seems they found a 4", freekin-old galvanized water main had a hole in it. Instead of replacing it with pipe, they ended up putting a rubber boot & clamps around it. After making an incredible mess of our driveway.

Sad Day, guest post from my Daughter

Yesterday morning Mom went to the Dr for an ultrasound because she'd been having some light spotting the day before. They did an ultrasound and found no heartbeat in the baby. Mom was 9.5 weeks pregnant, and had had an ultrasound at 7.5 weeks (the baby had a very strong heartbeat then). On the ultrasound yesterday the baby measured only 8.5 weeks.

Mom's Drs office prescribed her the medicine to induce labor, which it did, last evening. When everything passed instead of there being one bean of a baby, there were two--one measuring out a couple weeks smaller than the one we knew about. Sad, sad.

The medicine also induced a hemorrhage-like bleed. She called her Drs office again and they called in a prescription for more, it was supposed to stop the bleeding. An hour later she was still hemorrhaging and her Drs office said to go to a specific ER because they were on call there, and that they would call and say she was on her way.

Mom & Dad went to the ER, I took Jeremiah to my MIL's to watch and went and met them (in case Mom needed blood, we are the same type) and 5.5 hours later when I left (3am) she was still just laying in a triage bed. They had not even admitted her yet. They HAD done a pelvic exam and had just when I left finished doing the ultrasound. They wouldn't give her a blood coagulant (sp?) until after the ultrasound.

By the time I'd left they'd only given her one bag of saline/iv fluids and an hour after I left her blood pressure dropped to about 60/40 and she passed out. That's when they gave her 4 more bags of IV fluids and the blood coagulant 4AM and moved her to a room about 6:30am. Mom called me at 10:30 and said the bleeding had almost stopped and they were discharging her.

She's on her way home now to try to sleep a little. I'm going to take the kids out there this afternoon, try to keep her kids quiet and help make dinner.

The younger kids, Veronica (11), Josiah (almost 9) and Betsy (2.5) don't know she was pregnant so they're probably upset and confused about Mommy being in the hospital. My brother Artemas called us at 3am because he couldn't sleep cause he was worried.

Thank you for all the prayers; continued prayers are appreciated. And pray Mom lays around for a couple days--she has trouble doing that but she could use it!

Baby Behind the Lens

My 2yo baby Beverly (whom we affectionately call "Betsy") (seen here upside down) LOVES to take pictures. She fancies herself some kind of photographer, though most of the time she has one of her little bitty fingers in front of the camera lens.

Sometimes, though, she manages to get her grip correct, and takes pictures, which I call "B's Eye View" pics.


Tonight I am going to share some of her latest.

Today we were carding some fiber batts for Diantha's Fluff4ewe shop at Etsy. When we were done, I saw B up in a chair with the camera and wondered what she was doing. She said, "Carder!," and by golly she was right.

She took an interesting picture of her own delightful face. Pretty eyes, Betsy!

My DD#1's husband's friend Mark has a birthday tomorrow (Happy Birthday, Mark! [waving]), and we are all supposed to converge on DD#1's house for some more new-home-improvement and chili lunch. Mark is supposed to be there.

I didn't know what to get Mark, but I do know he has been known to enjoy a nice, refreshing beverage. So I got the idea today to make him a felted beverage cozy out of the sleeve of a recycled sweater. I needed a bottle for trimming the cozy to make sure it would fit.

One doesn't need to look long for a model bottle, even along the side of the road if necessary. So I am not completely sure whose bottle this was, but it wasn't MINE. Really.

A quick wash and it makes a perfect form for drying a hand dyed cozy. Some dye, drying time, and a few buttons later, and we have a man-cozy suitable for the most discriminating guy. (I took this one. Sorry B, no credit here!)


Last thing B did before playing in the toilet just before going to bed tonight, was to take a pic of Mom crouching down to help someone get her finger (once again) off the lens.


Good night, B!


And sweet dreams of taking wonderful pictures!

So Here I Am Again

Alright, today I got nothin' done. My baby Betsy has ONE more lower canine to cut. I don't know if it was that or what, but starting midnight last night she has had intermittent fever. I put her down to sleep 5 times in 3 hours and finally gave up and let her sleep with us.

Today she has been clingy and a mess. My 16yos watched her a while so I could get out to the PO and take my walk. Oh I did finish a baby bootee for Micah while I walked. And, Walmart had all the clearance clothes half off the lowest price so everybody in the family got something new, and the most expensive piece was $5.

Only thing I really got done today was plan my next yarn series, which I was going to start this evening but no go. And, I used my drop spindle to spin up 19 yards of really ugly yarn in Christmas red and green, which I hope to ply with some other fun stuff and turn into something not quite so hideous. It is hanging in my shower, dripping, right now.

I got to put in a LOT Of computer time, since B wants to nurse when she is puny and if I have to sit down for that I might as well geek out too.

Not that late, but I am tired. Gonna sit on the bed, nurse her to sleep, knit a little, and read to Richie. Good night, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are.