Ooh, not until NEXT weekend, eh?  Man, I so need it now– talk about needing a little Christmas!!

. . . The quarterly cortizone shot that I got in early October wore off early in the week of the 5th.  Since then, I’ve been dealing with the dull ache that’s left over after my Mobic takes effect.  Of course, that doesn’t cover the muscle pain that’s being created by favoring my left knee and hip and the physical therapy exercises.  Joyful, eh?

After hip PT on Monday night, I shipped out the box going to my step-daughter (usually referred to as “daughter” because it is just shorter and she’s so sweet!).  She got it on Wednesday and opened it– on the floor.  Aiden got to his birthday present before she could stop him so he tried on his hat and scarf.  The hat is too small but I think I have enough yarn to make another one once Kortney gets me his head measurement.  He also likes his stocking and I’ll get a picture of it up here as soon as I can figure out how to download pictures from my camera again.

Because of the new keyboard that Brian installed over the weekend, things have had to get moved around on USB ports and my camera is hooked up to a temporary USB and fighting the download.  Needless to say, for someone who wants to take pictures of merchandise for selling on a website, that’s not a good thing.  I’ll have Tech Support check it out over the weekend and tell me what’s happening or not.

Other than that, the greeting cards are out, the gifts are done (except one that Kortney doesn’t know about yet!), and we’re declining all invitations for Christmas.  Sorry but I don’t want to catch anything (and you know I would!) before my surgery!

Several (4 is “several”, right?) people I know have had a knee replacement surgery.  All together, 5 knees have been replaced and, for NONE of the surgeries, has any of them done any pre-op physical therapy.  Interesting.

The hospital that I’ll be in has a “Joint Care Program” that focuses on knee, hip, ankle and other joint replacement surgeries and, in doing so, provides the patient with a spiral bound “Patient Guide” for preparation up to and including surgery.  This book contains pre- and post-op guidelines and recommendations, not the least of which is physical therapy.  I’ve been doing it for two weeks now and will continue to do it up until my surgery day.  Then, of course, the physical therapy will start in the hospital.

After discharge, instead of having home physical therapy, I’ll have therapy at a regular physical therapy office– going outpatient.  The hospital wants no one “sitting around” waiting on a therapist to come to them.  My days are to be spent doing therapeutic exercise while I wait on the appointment every-other-day.  What fun!

Getting back to the pre-op physical therapy though . . . mine now also includes physical therapy concentrating on my left hip as that is my weak hip.  I’ll be getting a replacement there eventually but, in the meantime, I have some exercises that I can do to strengthen the muscles around it.  That way, hopefully, it won’t give out on me while I’m recuperating with my knee.

All of this is progressing interestingly.  Hmm, interesting.

I’d rather sew than write!  Yes, indeedy, there it is– out the open for everyone to see! I’ve spent all free time sewing these past few days.

Returning to work was fun– really slow (highly unusual for this time of year– let’s hope it holds through December!)– but whatever time I have outside of that, I’m sewing!  Monday night I worked on the quilt and had a problem so I stopped– better to stop than try to figure out how to throw the whole quilt out of a basement window that’s smaller than the quilt!

Last night, I started making a stocking for my grandson– little bugger is so cute!  He’s just starting to walk and boy, he’s putting it together fast!  Giving his mom a run for her money, for sure!

Anyway, I sewed the strips of fabric to the batting and then went in search of something to use for the collar.  I think I found something but we’ll have to see if it will let me embroider it.  If not, I’ll find something else– believe me, I have a lot of STUFF to go through before I can say that I give up.  I’ll put a picture up when I finish it.

After I do finish the stocking, I’m going to switch to quilting a different quilt– this one needs to be mailed so I want it to go out soon.  The quilt-through-the-window quilt is for a neighbor’s son so it is local and can (and probably will) take me until Christmas to finish!

I’ve been on a vacation of sorts for the last week.  I’ve spent 97% of my days sewing and/or unsewing or quilting and/or unquilting stuff.  Tons-o-fun, let me tell you.  I’ve got sore neck muscles like I’ve never had sore neck muscles before BUT, I am almost finished with the hired-for-quilt.  It only needs to be done by Christmas so I’m doing well, I think.

Then I’ve got a Christmas quilt to quilt and then the sunflower quilt for Brian and me and then . . . yes, I know, it goes on and on and on!

But I am a happy person, even if I am exceedingly busy all the time.

On Saturday, I spent about 8 hours in the basement with various projects from cleaning up my space (sometimes I get too lost in the mess to find what I’m working on!!) to ironing about 15 yards of fabric.  I spent about an hour of that time sewing on the borders of the quilt I’m making for a client.  Then, I spent the rest of the day putting the backing for the quilt together and loading that on The Rack of my Fusion, Angel.  Then, I needed to load the top that I’d finished in the morning but first I had to iron it all on before it could be loaded on The Rack.

Eventually I loaded the quilt and was able to start running it out while I did the ironing.  Since I had pre-washed the fabrics for my next three projects, I needed to get the fabrics ironed in order to be able to use them.  I was sooooo tired and sore from standing most of the day that when the client came to give me a deposit for the quilt, I was almost too tired to go up the stairs!

I made it, of course, but begged Brian to do the cooking for dinner so that I wouldn’t have to do anymore standing.  He did, because he’s wonderful, and then I caught up watching the shows that I had on DVR.

Today (Sunday) was spent complaining about the sore muscles and tiredness accompanying the “hangover” from the 8-hour-standing day yesterday.

Someday my knees will be better, right?

Now I can see you!! Brian was fixing things on my sites last week and, I realized over the weekend, suddenly I lost my “Login” so I couldn’t post anymore.

Obviously, that’s fixed now– thanks, sweetie!!