Kelly's sick (super long post)

I'm always needing to work on updating the blog with our family goings-on.

It's past time that I need to create another blog book with our current family history.

This post is long, but I don't want to forget any details.

Kelly's been home from college for a month now, for the summer.

She's home to make money so that when she does her practicum, she won't need to worry about having a job that she won't have time or energy for.

Washington state has a minimum wage that is at least $4 more per hour.

About a week in to being here, she started feeling achy, but thought it was from kayaking one day with Andy.  She took ibuprofen for the aches for a couple days, finally realizing that muscle aches should have only lasted a day or two.

One night, she had sharp, terrible pain in a specific area of her belly.

Earlier that day, she had gone to a local clinic to see if she had strep or mono (webMD).

They took blood and check her urine, but didn't have the right number to contact her with results.

I've seen enough to know that specific pain warrants a doctor or ER visit. 

So, when Kelly had the pain, I took her in since we hadn't heard back from the clinic.

She had been nauseous and not able to keep food down for that week, and so after an examination, the doctor had her get a bolus of fluids and prescribed zofran for nausea.

Her blood work at the ER showed that yes, she had mono. 

So, she was told to not work or work light duty for at least 6 weeks.

The next morning, she came in our room, complaining of really itchy hands. 
She went to wash her hands before putting anti-itch cream on them.

Kelly's hands started burning, swelling, and hiving.

We looked and didn't find Benadryl, so we headed straight to the store for some.

Before getting in the parking lot though, her throat felt like it was swelling.

So, we went to the closest clinic since it was closer than the ER.

They gave her a shot and prescribed more medicine.

She was miserable for another day.

The next day, she saw her doctor as a follow up to the ER visit.

That night, she felt like her throat was getting swollen and tight, so we went back to the ER.

They looked at her throat, said it wasn't bad enough to do anything about, and they can't do anything to help her while suffering from mono.

Mono is a virus, and you just have to wait out the painful symptoms.

Everyone is affected differently with it.

Since then, we've been back to the doctor's office twice, finally heard back from the original clinic with a letter saying the first mono test was positive, been told to stay home and wait it out, and finally went back to the ER early this morning again for ear pain (9 on a scale of 10 for pain).

Her tonsils are now touching the uvula, she is not able to eat or drink half the time, and she has a hard time swallowing.

Yesterday, she was going downhill and I knew we'd likely be needing to go in to the ER by evening.

I went on FaceBook, asked friends to pray for her, then got busy cleaning and making a fast, easy dinner.

As soon as I started cleaning, our missionaries were walking by and were thirsty.

We got them some water and chatted for a few minutes.  I told them how sick Kelly had been, then I went to go check on her.

She was worse and couldn't even swallow sips of water.

I got her a wet washcloth to hold against her lips, to hopefully get some hydration that way.

I asked Kelly if she wanted a Priesthood blessing from the missionaries and she did.

They were more than happy to pronounce a blessing of healing and comfort on her head.

Then, she went back to bed.

I checked on Kelly a little later, and she was sitting up, taking sips of water, and TALKING at half normal volume.

Before, she couldn't speak and was signing, texting, or writing to let me know what she needed.

For an hour and a half, Kelly felt decent enough to drink fluids and eat foods, even lasagna!

She ate and drank as much as she could handle, knowing it might only be a temporary reprieve.

So, because of Priesthood power, prayers of friends, family, and strangers, and modern medicine, my Kelly had the best hour of the week!

Andy's been working a lot of hours, so Maggie's been my main helper.

She plays with Anthony, keeping him busy and mostly out of trouble.

Because of YouTube, Anthony likes to put all his Hot Wheels in the little pool.

I made him take them out and put them in a container to bring in, but he wanted them to dry in the grass...

We love our Wenatchee Wild hockey team, and Anthony was given this shirt.

He was ecstatic!

Our Wenatchee Wild were so very close to winning the RBC Cup in Canada.

They played better than all other teams in the playoffs, but in the round before the final, they lost.

A few days before, they had beat that same team by 7-1!

Anyways, we went to a celebration rally, to welcome the Wild back home.

Anthony wanted a picture with Arch Ecker, the voice of the Wild...I don't know that he'd ever met him before.  But, I think he was in a few advertising videos at games, and Anthony doesn't miss a detail.

Just a peaceful look to the patio from the nook window.

Maggie tending to her pallet herb garden, Anthony hanging out with the girls, and Kelly resting for a few.

One of our favorite meals!

My picture of it isn't that pretty, but it's delicious with mashed potatoes!

Hands 2 Help Quilts

One of my favorite quilting bloggers coordinates a quilting charity challenge each year.

Hands 2 Help is successful in spreading love and cheer to those who may need it most.

This year, I was excited because I found some nicely made quilt tops at a thrift store.  

They were clean and ready to be finished into quilts.

I emailed Sarah to make sure that wouldn't be cheating, by not making the top myself.

She assured me that finishing and donating the quilt is still well within the project guidelines.

I still need to learn how to do free motion quilting with my sewing machine (swirls or other designs), so I just stitched in the ditch with some straight lines.  

The binding on the darker one turned out great, but the binding stitching on the lighter quilt was all over the place!  Grrr.

I would have tried to re-do it, but my mantra is "Finished is better than perfect!"

Anthony came with me to donate the two quilts to Wellness Place in Wenatchee.  

From the Wellness Place website, www.wellnessplacewenatchee.org --

Wellness Place provides gas cards, wigs, nutritional supplements, pharmaceutical assists, childcare expenses, quilts, hats, scarves, informational pamphlets/books, lodging, support groups, and can help serve as a “clearinghouse” of information for those with a cancer diagnosis or chronic illness.

It was fitting that Anthony came along with me to donate the quilts, as he is a SURVIVOR!!!!

(sorry for the poor color quality.  my still-temporary phone is not good quality)

The quilts were done in nice cottons and batiks.  I really like the lighter one.

Humboldt Strong

We are a hockey-LOVING family.

So, when the Humboldt junior hockey team, Broncos, had a tragic, fatal bus accident a month ago, we were devastated for the families and communities affected in Canada.

I follow a lot of quilters on Instagram, and several are from different areas in Canada.

There were posts about a collection of quilts made with a certain pattern, in the Broncos colors--green, yellow, black, white.

The pattern provided didn't click with me, so I came up with the same pattern Maggie and I used back in November, I think, when there was a church shooting in Texas.  

These hearts are classic, and I love how the colors I wouldn't normally put together, go together so well on it!

Pattern is from Cluck Cluck Sew, HERE.  

Quilt top and back were machine-pieced by me, and quilted by Sindy Vieting.

I love how cheery and hopefully comforting this turned out!

Now, I just need to figure out if there's a less expensive way to get it to an affected family without needing to pay $50 for shipping.  It'll all work out, right?  :)

My Biggest Baby

Daniel was the perfect first baby.

He came a month early, but was just big enough and full-term enough to not need any interventions.

I'm so glad we got to celebrate Daniel's birth today!

One of Daniel's favorite colors is carnation pink, and we happened to have some pink streamers.  White too.

I asked Daniel what he wanted for dinner and he told me "that one mexican pizza we had from someone that one time."

Hahahaha!

A wonderful friend brought dinner to us years ago, just because.

It was this great pizza, an incredible brownie pan, and yummy Spanish rice.

We loved it so much, we asked Pilar for the recipe.

We only make it once or twice a year, but the kids love it when it's made.

Playing on the patio before everyone got there.

I took a picture of Lilly's Danny for Anthony's communication device.

He pronounced Danny like Annie, so we need to work on that.

Andy made Daniel's cake, and both he and Maggie decorated it.

Maggie used Fruit Loops to make an earth for Earth Day, which is today, which is Daniel's birthday.

Victory!

There was a LOT of smoke.

Hard to see, but this is Daniel on the big tree trunk.

Putting the new Tetris puzzle together.

I guess it was easier than I thought.

Anthony was burying his Hot Wheels in the planter, then driving them out.

I texted this to his teacher and she said they had planted seeds in planters on Friday.

He was having so much fun.

The completed Tetris puzzle.

Izzy, our faithful, ornery cat.

She is old, unhealthy now, and VERY thin.  The local vet wouldn't prescribe more medication for her hyperthyroidism without another expensive blood test first.

But, Izzy fought the medicine the first couple months she had it anyway.  :(

So, tomorrow will be a sad day.

Lilly came over to take a selfie with Daniel and Anthony had to climb into the middle of it.

Earth Day Quilting

So, I finished the pink one today and realized that I should post these two quilts today, since it's Earth Day.

Both of these quilts were made from scrap half square triangles from these quilts here.

The scraps were all wonky sizes and not uniform.

For the past several months, whenever I'd be waiting for Anthony at therapy or while we were at other appointments, I traced a template on the scraps, and trimmed them.

I had no idea what I'd use them for, and hoped I'd find a good pattern to use.

Anthony's water therapist is having a girl next month, and I thought of those scraps since I trimmed so many while at the pool. (btw, the pink is a bright raspberry color.  My phone is not so great)

I searched online and found this pattern here.

The gray quilt is for a friend's son, who is a couple months old.  He's darling, and will hopefully love to cuddle up with the quilt as he grows.  :)

I had plenty of coordinating fabric to do the back of each with just one piece, but I thought it was more fun to patch together some flannel.