I really, really, REALLY hate the program that I use to write my Marcia’s Makings site. I don’t mind using it for this site (because it is, after all, a blog software) but it just doesn’t work for my business site. I can’t figure out how to get it set up the way that I want it set up and, of course, I can’t do any shopping cart stuff on it.

Yes, I know I’m married to a geek but he’s really busy making furniture for his office. So, I have to muddle through with half of a web site. ARGH!!!

It wouldn’t be so bad except that I’m going to a craft/yard sale next week and I’m going to have hand-outs there and it would be nice if the people so the site as it should be rather than as it is currently.

UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

. . . I’m back to it today: Job Hunting started last night and will continue afoot, obviously.  The local market is tough because I don’t know how to negotiate within the FARs and DFARs of the government.  Then there’s the issue of people converting positions that they say are local to telecommute– having years of experience in negotiation and telecommuting doesn’t always play out the right way in the world of employment.

Thanks to Marissa Mayer, I’m having to convince people that my work ethic is equal to that of their parents because of years of dedication and knowing what and how to telecommute.  It doesn’t matter where you work (office or home), if you haven’t got a good work ethic, you don’t have a good work ethic– fortunately, I have a stellar work ethic but I have to convince people of that still.

The news out of California is great!  In case I haven’t mentioned it, Hollywood is not accurate when it comes to coma patients’ reintroduction into the conscious world.  My sister, Sue, and other coma patients, wake up confused and requiring a lot of therapies (physical, occupational, and speech) to relearn some things that their bodies forgot while they were in the coma.

Sue is doing great however and things are coming along.  We had set up a call for 5pm PDT but she called me at 4:45– I’d like to think early because she was as eager to talk with me as I was to talk with her!  It was soooo great to hear her voice!  She sounded tired but that makes sense after the kind of week she’s had– transitioning from hospital to rehab center and then tons of PT, OT and ST!  It was just so great to talk with her!  I missed her so much!!

Starting on Friday, I’ve been involved with my quilt guild’s (Southern Comforters) quilt show.  On Friday night, I helped check-in the registered quilts so that they were all organized and accounted for to be put into the show.  When that was finished, I helped pin on the description cards and then, I was just tired so I went home, unfortunately, before everything was set up.

Saturday morning, we took Lexi for her annual physical (which she passed with flying colors!) and then I showered and went back to the quilt show.  We didn’t have enough volunteers sign up to cover all of the stations so I said I’d go and they could put me where I was needed.  I had a lot of fun and was home by 4:30– again, tired but happy cuz it was a LOT of fun!

Sunday, after grocery shopping with Brian, I went back to the show and again, filled in where I was needed and eventually, served where I had signed up to work.  Again, lots of fun and lots of chattering and laughing along the way.  Brian came to the show and I introduced him to several of the women– of course, I missed a few but that was bound to happen.

I didn’t win any ribbons but I sure had a good time and again, got to know people more.  Its hard to know people in a 90 minute meeting twice a month so I’m glad I had the opportunity to do the volunteer work and chatter with people a bit.

Brian and I played a new to us board game that he had seen on TableTop: Small World.  Punching out the bits and learning a game is not fun but it will be more fun as we expand our knowledge and parlay our strategies to “win”.

TableTop also has shown the games “Ticket to Ride” and “Settlers of Caton” on the web show and I have played both of those games with my sister, Karen, and her husband.  I’d like to get those next because Brian would like both of those games, too.

Now to get serious about my day.

Part of the reason for that is because there is nothing new to report on my job search.  I have phone interviews that go well and then I never hear from the employer again.  <Sigh>  That’s okay, I’ve got patience.

Another part of the reason is that I want to report that my sister is completely back to normal and everything is OK but I can’t– it would be a lie.  She is out of the coma but after being in a coma for so long, she has many residual problems.  I didn’t know that was going to be the case since I’ve never been around anyone who had been in a coma before and, frankly, television/movies lie– Hollywood is like that.

I pray for her without ceasing, it seems.  I’ve never known what that phrase means before now but I do and it means a lot more to me now than it ever did before.  I want to go to California to help with her care but I can’t while I’m on unemployment because I have to be “available for work” and I wouldn’t be available if I were there and helping with her care.  It may not be appropriate because she’s “only” my sister anyway– her children and husband should be the first line of defense in care.  They are– don’t get me wrong– her husband hasn’t missed a day since she’s been in the hospital.  He spends hours and hours talking with her, reading the Bible, holding her hand, praying, talking and laughing some more.  Her daughter is there right now, too.  Natali has taken time based on the FMLA but I don’t know how long she’ll be able to stay. Maybe in a few months, I could go out to help, if it is still needed– we’ll have to see how it all goes as far as her therapies and care are concerned.

I’ve been quilting like a crazy person!  Yesterday I worked on a quilt that involves two different designs on the same quilt.  There will be some other things added to this quilt but it is going to be gorgeous when it is finished!

I took that off early yesterday evening and put on one of the three quilts with ORANGE as a base color on the quilt machine.  I, for some unknown reason, LOVE the color orange this year– I don’t know that I have before but it is fabulous and I’m really loving it right now.  I’ve got three quilts (one is the Gerber daisy quilt I made on my retreat) to quilt and all of them will be different.

Its shaping up to be an interesting week– can’t wait for it to start!!

My sister Sue is following her husband around the room with her eyes– she is aware of where he is– and while that doesn’t sound like a big deal, considering she’s been unconscious in a coma for the past week, I/we think it is MARVELOUS!!  God is good!!

She has really come back quickly, I think.  Then again, this is my first experience with a coma so I could be wrong.  I’m just glad she’s this far and hopefully, going to speak in the next day or two.  When she does, she will be considered fully out of the coma which is, of course, EXCELLENT news!!

My sister is faring better somewhat. They’ve started to withdraw the medications that are keeping her “under” in the coma but she hasn’t, as of this writing, awakened yet. That is not unusual, we’re told.

They’re now concerned with her blood sugar level as that tends to foster more of the infection which will start us down this path all over again.

Keep praying cuz she’s not completely out of the woods yet– she is better so that is an answer to prayer!

I am the youngest of five children who were orphaned more than 25 years ago.  My dad died in 1983 and my mom died in 1986 and since then, we’ve been on our own.  Perhaps too much so.

Karen, the oldest, lives not far from where we were raised; Rich lives a lot farther away from where we were raised but he’s still in Michigan.  Then things get weird . . . Sue and her husband moved to Brazil (Manaus first, then Sao Paulo, then Bauru) more than 35 years ago, my sister Nancy moved to Maine roughly the same time.  Me?  I moved all over the place: Dallas, Cincinnati, back to Michigan for a couple of years and then, to California and finally, we’ve (Brian and I) settled into Maryland, probably for the long haul.

No, we’ve not been good about keeping it together as a family.  A few years ago, that started to change and we’ve been better about it, particularly since Sue and her husband retired from mission work.  We’ve been trying to get together at least ONCE A YEAR for the last three or four years– that’s all, just ONE time a year that we could share the same space for a few days and talk and reminisce and laugh and do things TOGETHER.

Over the years, we’ve aged, of course, but overall, with one exception, we’ve been average in our health considering what we younger ones have put our bodies through (Nancy and I both smoked cigarettes for a number of years).  The exception is Sue. In 2004, her spleen was nicked in a surgery that didn’t involve it (I believe that was what happened either that or it exploded for no apparent reason).  Because she was in Brazil and they were not as up-to-date on medicine as they should have been (that’s one of the problems with third world countries), it went undiagnosed for several days and she nearly died on us a couple of times on her way to Sao Paulo.  She was being transferred because the hospital in Bauru couldn’t treat her.

When she got to Sao Paulo, she was given the proper care which brought her on the road to recovery albeit, without her spleen. The spleen is one of those organs, like your tonsils and appendix, that essentially does nothing but, without it, you can get all kinds of nasty things to go wrong with you.

This past weekend, Sue spent some time at a hospital (which we all know is a petri dish for diseases and infections) visiting with her latest granddaughter.  On Sunday, Sue started vomiting and (as her daughter put it) “other problems, if you know what I mean” and was rushed to the hospital.  She was dehydrated and the doctors were stumped as to the cause or treatment of her problems.  The message that we received Sunday night was that they didn’t know that she would make it through the night.

I AM NOT READY TO LOSE ONE OF MY SIBLINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  When I heard the message, I wailed and nearly collapsed– poor Lexi didn’t know what was going on.  I sat and called Karen, who had left the message, and wept with her on the phone.

I realize that there are families that are emotionally and geographically closer than our family is– almost any family I know is better at their relationships than we are– but I can’t lose my sisters or brother yet– I’m just not ready to deal with that!  We are all too young, right?

Actually, we’re not young anymore.  My sister, Karen, is older than either of my parents was when they died; Rich and Sue are both the ages of my parents when they died.  Nancy and I are not there yet but we are pushing the age envelope.

Yesterday, I prayed and read my Bible and prayed some more and got hold of my prayer warrior friends on email and on Facebook and asked them to pray, too.  I even asked Brian, my atheist husband to pray.

It seems to be working.  Sue is an induced coma and has stabilized; they are going to leave her in a coma for her body to more ably fight the infection.

Please pray with me today that she can continue to fight the infection, be healed of it and recover.  We have our annual get together planned for August, in Saugatuck, Michigan, and I NEED her to be there!!!!!