News

First, thanks to those who donated for my Fibromyalgia walk, I am pleased to announce that I exceeded my goal thanks to the help of Denise Layman talking about it on her blog and offering a raffle prize 🙂  Pictures will be forthcoming once I steal them from t’s Flickr.  

My dad’s health is getting weirder.  They couldn’t find the mass/alleged tumor on the CAT scans so now he’s scheduled for a thorough colonoscopy on the 29th.  Maybe the mass went away?  It’s a medical mystery at this point.  But until we know what it is, the Army is keeping him down in Florida, so it looks like I will be headed to Tampa after all.  Don’t know for how long.

My health — which I try to avoid talking about too much for fear of turning people off — is getting worse in a number of ways and my mom and t think that since I’ve already cleared my schedule for four months it might be worthwhile me staying in the US for some private treatment that I can’t get here on the NHS and so that we can do family weight loss efforts together since it’s getting to be life threatening for my dad and so I’d still be there to support/harass him (if they let him come home or I go to him).  I’ve only managed to lose 8 pounds in the 10 weeks since I was diagnosed with Diabetes so I need to step it up more too as there’s still 40 more to go to be officially in the healthy range.

So it’s still unknown just how long I will spend in the US, what part of the US I will be in when (NC or Florida) and whether I will be over there for my treatments or my dad’s or both.

Thus I may be fairly quiet here until I get to mom’s house on the 25th.  I have swaps to make stuff for, packages to get out and the gargantuan task of trying to pack for 2-4 months in one suitcase and one carryon.

Getting Ready!

My walk is tomorrow!  Please consider donating!  I lied about wearing my sequinny All-Stars, it’s a bit too hot and t managed to fix my broken Z-Coils (sandals with springs in the heel, much easier on the back) so that’s the plan.

I’ve started making thank-you cards.  Not quite satisfied with the design yet but I’m still working on it.

I’m also starting to make my packing list for my trip.  I’m trying to be minimal about what craft supplies I take — tools only — but when dealing with things like hand carders and jewelry pliers it’s starting to stack up :/  I need to be less than one suitcase on the way over and will bring three home but one of those will be mostly magazines and the two small quilts we plan to make, plus I’m stocking up on pillows as I can’t get the ones I like over here.  I vacuum seal them but it’s still a lot of bulk.

Homestead Wool and Gift Farm got another batch of new fibers today so I finally placed an order. Several pounds of fiber, about half raw and the other half roving.  That should keep me for most of the summer for spinning and felting, I don’t know when I will find time to dye, quilt and embroider! My beading stuff is mostly going over to do the annual repairs on mom’s substantial collection, including re-knotting all of the pearls this year.  

But I’m worried that we may spend a few weeks in Florida in the hospital if my dad doesn’t get better.  He has a mass that is squashing his intestines that they don’t know what it is yet. I think it’s a hematoma like Helen has, but there’s a chance it may be cancerous 🙁  Anyway I may also be stranded in NC when I first arrive as Mom may be down in Florida with Daddy. (Remember he’s only in Florida because of the Army, he’s due to retire any day now but they are keeping him down in Florida until this health crisis is over which may be many more months. So Mom goes to visit as much as she can.)  So I need a lot to keep me busy as my looms may not be in by then!

I also have a ton of beading work to do for her before I go. I don’t want to take beads over if I can help it, so all of the stuff I have bought to make things for her needs to get done next week, ideally.

Plus I have two swaps to do (already started on both but need to finish) and two care packages to send out (Project Superstar and Purlpower).

So I am a very busy bunny the next few weeks!  But unfortunately my body has other ideas and is making me rest a lot so I’m just going to have to prioritize.  But just right now I have cards to make and emails that need writing, so I’d better be off!

I’ll leave you with a picture of some of the fiber I have ordered, a beautiful white baby alpaca…I bought a pound but there is still more for others!

Photo Courtesy Homestead Wool and Gift Farm