Our weekend went from Great to Awful

We were on our way home from our daughter's baby shower last Saturday. We were all tired, because it's about an 11 hour trip all total, but it had been a good day. We stopped to eat at Cracker Barrel, yummy & just as we were getting back in the truck, dh got a call. You know how you just know the call wasn't a good one? It took him a few minutes to finally let me know what had happened.
I won't get into details here on my blog, because that's just not right, but his sister was in critical condition, in Iowa about 7 hours from our home. Her daughter lives about an hour from us, on the way & was leaving the next morning at 5:30 to drive up by herself. We decided we should also go, so that our niece would have someone with her during the drive & when she got there. We just didn't know what kind of shape her Mom would be in, when she got there. So, we left our house at 4:30 the next morning & started the trip.
Thankfully, the trip was a good one, without any problems, unless you count our nieces dead battery, at the start of the trip.
We got up there to find sil in the CCU on a vent. Sitting in a critical care unit with a family member on a vent, is sure nothing like they show on tv or in a movie. It's really hard, you just want them to wake up so bad, but there is nothing you can do. She was responding to pain, when they would inject Heparin(sp?) in her belly, she always flinched. Sometimes, if we would take hold of her hand, she would squeeze & at times when we talked to her, her eyebrows would raise, or she would scrunch up her forehead. These were all good signs, we just had to wait. We were told it might be up to 80 hours before she woke up. Over the next couple of days she slowly started showing more signs of waking up. She would open her eyes, slightly & started moving her legs. She would move her hands some, too.
Finally, yesterday morning her nurse told us it was time for her to be taken off the vent. She had to get off of it very soon. He injected some medicine into her, that he said would stop the effects of the drugs & make her start waking up, faster. She just wasn't doing it on her own. That had a pretty good effect on her & when the respiratory therapist would ask her to breath deep, she would. So, they finally got that tube out & she was breathing on her own.
About an hour after that another one of dh's sisters and another niece came, so we could leave. We are finally home & exhausted. The past few days have been very ruff, sitting in a hospital makes you so tired, but this was just so mentally exhausting.
Sil has a long road of recovery ahead for her. I'm sure she would appreciate any prayers sent her way, if not, her family would.
I failed to mention, that on Sunday morning, our niece that we had went up with, had another family emergency. Her grandfather had passed away that morning & then she found out one of her children was sick with strep or the flu, she wasn't sure which. So, she had to head home. Iowa was getting some pretty nasty snow later that day, so she needed to get home before the snow hit. Which was why dh & I decided to stay.
I've never been through anything like this, before. I've never been with a family member or anyone for that matter, that was on a vent. It's awful, they don't just move there eyebrows a little bit & suddenly become wide awake.

Shower PIctures

Ashley's baby shower

We got to drive down to Southern Missouri this past Saturday for our daughter's baby shower. It was so great to be able to see her one more time before the baby arrives. It's getting so close, now!!!! We are all getting so excited!!!

Before we left, we stopped by Alley Spring. I wanted to see it in the winter. I knew it would be overflowing with water by now. The last time we were there was this past fall. They had not had very much rain last season, so the water level was really low. On Saturday it was pretty high, but the spring was not the pretty blue. It ws still beautiful, with all the ice & snow, it was breathtaking. I had to take a video, it's not great quality, but what I really wanted to capture was the sound at the springs. I could listen to this sound all day, every day!

I'll post pictures of the baby shower soon. I'm making a slide show,.

Comfortable Ethel?

I was washing up the sheets in the guest bedroom today. When I came back from the laundry room, this is how I found Ethel! She actually stayed that way long enough for me to get the camera! I rarely get a picture of this cat. She always takes off as soon as I get the camera out.

ATC Fabric Swap

I joined in on a fabric ATC swap & this is what I finally came up with. I sure hope it's okay. I've only done one other ATC swap & haven't received it back, yet.

I used a flower printed fabric that reminded me of this time period, so I pulled out my wagon stamp. I stamped it on a piece of fabric & then water-colored it in. I sewed the fabric onto my cardstock! I can't believe I did that & didn't mess it up to bad. I used antique buttons for all of them. They all have a slightly different button.

So, what do you think? Tell me the truth, is this okay?

I have my own room!

I finally have a place to call my own & I can close the door on it!

Both of our daughters have now moved out. Our oldest is married & soon to have a baby. Our middle daughter has decided she wants to be on her own, so she's gotten an apartment. She's always been Little Miss Independent. Sometimes it's so hard realizing how fast the time has gone & these two have grown up, but I'm really glad they are living their lives.

So, that left a bedroom with no one claiming it! Okay, so yes oldest son tried to claim it, but no way! You should see his room. That kid has every inch of wall covered with some sort of poster. Then one day, we found out that he had screwed his old skateboards into the walls! He thought he was going to claim this room. Boy, there is no way that child is getting his hands on more walls in my house. I have no idea what we will do with those walls in that room. It' s like a bad episode of Hilde on Trading Spaces!

So, the room is going to double as my scrap space & a guest room. We have to have a place for our new granddaughter to sleep(yea, her parents can come with her too). I can't show you pictures of the rest of the room, for now. The beds have plastic totes sitting on them full of stuff. The girls need to come claim or put into the basement for storage.

So, here's pictures of my space!

My desk was a challenge to get in here. It was to wide to fit around the corner from the living room into the bedroom. Hubby tried every way he could think of to get it in here. I was reminded more then once that he was once a top driver for Allied Moving Company, oh'yes he knows how to move furniture. So, I mostly sat on the floor, in the kitchen, because the hall to the living room & our room was totally blocked with that thing. I tried to keep my mouth shut! That man must really have wanted me out of the living room. He started moving my desk in there around 7 p.m., last night. Finally, after taking it apart & putting it back together, the desk was ready at 11:30 p.m.! Wow!

Next was my cabinet. I was so afraid that old thing would not fit through, but it did! It's not a lovely cabinet, but it sure is excellent storage for all my stuff! I picked it up at an auction. I'm pretty sure it was from a local dress shop & used to hold ladies hosiery. I remember it being in the Dainty Dress shop, when I was a kid. Someday I'll figure out how to redo the top of it. I'd like to alter the drawers somehow to make them prettier, but you know I really like being able to see in them.

The third picture is a close-up of my version of a clip it up type storage. It was really cheap & used a space I wasn't using. I didn't have room for anything else that needed a flat surface to sit on. The tension rod was 99 cents & the shower curtain hooks were 98 cents a package. The only problem is that it can't hold a lot of weight or I'd have 3x as much stuff hanging from it.

Today, hubby is running a cable in here for my tv, whoohoo! He is also getting my Grandma's stereo out of storage. I have wanted that out for so long, but no real place to put it! I have a lot of her old 8-tracks, yippee! It's confession time, I've loved country since before country was cool to love! I have so many memories of sitting at Grandma's with a book in my hand & a country 8-track playing. To tell the truth, it's been so long that I can't even remember who all we listened to, so I'm so excited to get those out of storage! I just hope the 8-track with "trailers for sale or rent, rooms to let for 50 cents" somehow made it into my possession!

ETA: Oh'my goodness, it's funny the things you don't notice when you are taking pictures! But, when you see them all huge on the monitor they scream at you.

First thing I noticed is my ratty chair! Wow, I had no clue it would show up s.

o clearly! I need a new one, I really do, but I refuse to buy one until this dog decides to quit eating things! Yes, she ate part of the seat. They say labs are puppies for 2 years, they are right!(whoever "they" are!)

Next thing I noticed was how well the lovely pink walls show up! That was C's doing! She decided to paint the walls for her 4-H project. I'm so allergic to paint & most of you reading this blog probably know my recent er....should I say problems with paint! The walls are going to stay this lovely sponged pink for a very long time! I have dreams of hubby sending me on a scrapping cruise & I come home to a freshly painted home. That's my dream, a girl can dream, right?

The next thing is my floor! I haven't shined the wood floors, yet. That's yet another smell that bothers me. I'm planning on cleaning the floors right before I leave for the evening.

The next thing is how well my unorganized drawers show up. The thing is, I can find anything in those drawers in about a minute, so yea it looks pretty bad, but it really is organized ;)

Now for the last thing, if you are a charming person reading this thread, you might notice I accidentally left something out & it is in these pictures. So, if you are a charming person that doesn't know what our current "thong" looks like, you must close this blog, now! You must not examine these pictures trying to see my "thong". LOL, it's so funny, because I'm pretty sure you will not spot it, but I'm having visions of Leah magnifying the pictures trying so hard to find the "thong". So, to all the Charmers out there, that are in on this "thong" challenge" you can laugh because you see it, don't you! HeeHee!!!!

The eagles are here!

Wow, are they ever amazing! There was no way to count them, but I'd say there were at least 100 of them. Everywhere you looked, the trees were full of them.

We left right after church to go & see the eagles. We stopped at home & got Mia, so she could go on a Sunday afternoon drive with us. We got a new truck this week. Mia was in doggy heaven! She now has a back window that rolls down. We always make sure we drive out on some of the gravel roads, so we can go slow & she can hang her head out the window.

It was fun to watch the eagles land on the ice. They would swoop in for their landing & then slide to a stop. We watched them for at least 30 minutes. It was freezing out, so we finally decided to move on, but wow was it amazing.

Just Another Day of the Flu

I'm still sick, will this ever go away?

I'm going to try to post this picture I just took from my front door.

The family is all at a Super Bowl party. WhoooHooo, finally I'm alone & most importantly have control of the remote! No way I'm watching that game! I'm watching HGTV, yea the world's longest yardsale, fun stuff!

All of a sudden I hear a really strange noise & up pops Mia's head. She's looking at me & I'm looking at her, neither of were quite sure what was going on. Finally, I got up & looked outside to find out it's hailing like crazy! By the time I grabbed my camera it had almost stopped.

Not much else going on around our house, today. Mia & I are comfy on the couch for the rest of the evening. Scrapbooking is on QVC starting this evening & through tomorrow, so this is where I will be.

Flu

Ughh, I have the flu! My poor Mom has it, too. So far, the rest of our family is safe from it. I hope they stay that way! I've tried to talk the hubby into getting Tamiflu & taking it as a precaution, but he won't do it. He's never had the real flu. I bet if he gets it, he'll wish he would have spent the $80 on the Tamiflu. Oh'well, there is no way to convince him until he's had this stuff.

I guess that is all for today. I hope to be back at it soon. I have a list of cards I want to make & send to people. I hope they will all understand why they are getting cards a week later then they should have.