This year's Easter card.
Designed & made by ME!
(I love the way this one turned out so much so that I had to share it with everyone.)
Why I've Been So Quiet
Easter ended up being the first holiday of this year that I actually felt like having fun and celebrating. Many of you know, but for those of you that don't, my Grandmother passed away on February 23, 2013. She was 96 years old. It was a very long, stressful situation.
On January 4th I received a call from a friend of my Grandmother's asking if I could go check on her because she hadn't answered her phone or returned any phone calls since the morning of the previous day. My Grandmother lived alone. I am about 10 minutes away and I have a key to her house. This was 7:45pm. Them temperature outside was already in the 40s. The night before the temps had dropped below freezing. I got to her house a little after 8pm. Unfortunately my Grandmother was a very stubborn woman. She had a security button, similar to life alert, that she refused to wear. I found her lying on her back out in the garage. Her walker was on top of her and had gouged her shine. Her right arm had been bleeding for some time as the rug she was laying on was soaked with blood. She was also very incoherent. I called 911 and help arrived within 5 minutes. They rushed her to the hospital. After hours of dealing with the PITA of a hospital she loved to go to they determined that she was hypothermic (her body temp was 83 degrees), severely dehydrated (it took them hours to get an IV into her) & extremely confused. After lots of tests and many hours they found that she did not have a heart attack or a stroke. Surprisingly, she had no broken bones and no head trama from her fall. She did have a UTI but they determined it was caused from the dehydration. She was admitted to the hosptial around 1am the following morning, a Friday.
My Mom and I spent all of Friday morning contacting every relative we could think of. We did not think my Grandmother was going to survive. While making phone calls we pieced together a grim scenario that led us to find out that she had fallen around 4pm Wednesday afternoon until I found her late Thursday night. She was hallucinating really bad, seeing her husband who has been dead since 1986, talking to her children as if they were kids and they weren't even in the room. It was horrific. By Sunday Medicare cut her off and would no longer pay for her bed. She was no longer hypothermic or dehydrated. She could not eat because the dehydration had injured her throat and she choking on everything she tried to swallow, even water. My Mom and I rushed to find a skilled care facility to help her recover. By Sunday evening she was admitted to a home that would help rehabilatate her. The very next day, Monday, my Grandmother's mental status came back to normal. It turns out that the UTI antibiotic was causing the hallucinations. She had no memory of the fall and no clue as to why she was even in her garage to begin with.
Things were on the up and up. Their speech therapist was working with Grandmother's swallowing. They had her in OT and PT every single day to get her walking again. She needed help getting out of bed, using the bathroom, bathing, eating, you name it. Half way into February she started asking when they were going to let her go home. Well, that was the hard part. How do you tell an independent 96 year old woman that she can never go home again because she can not afford 24 hour live in care? We broke it down into dollars and laid it out for her to see. We didn't tell her she would never go home, we just told her that until she was capable of taking care of herself she would have to live in a care facility. That's when the shit hit the fan. Within days she stopped eating. All of a sudden she began to complain that the food was terrible. She began complaining of pains and what not during all of her therapy appointments to the point that they stopped the OT and PT all together.
On Thursday, February 21st my Mom called me and asked me to go to the facility to see what was going on. (My Mom lives over 1 hour away.) They had called her and said that Grandmother had taken a turn for the worse and asked if we wanted to have her transported back to the hospital or put her on comfort care. Nothing can describe what I saw when I got there. The staff honestly did not think she would make it through the night and it was around 11am. I had visited her 2 days prior and she was fine all things considered. Family again surrounded her around the clock. Saturday, February 23 at 5:20pm my Grandmother took her final breath. She was surrounded by her daughter, her youngest son, 3 grandchildren and 2 of their spouses, and 2 great-granchildren. She definitely was not alone.
It's not the greatest picture but it is the most recent one, only a couple of years old, we could find.
Connor's Easter Fun
Connor always spends Easter weekend with my folks. This year, along with his Easter basket, my Mom bought him a 21 book set that he has been wanting. Instead of just wrapping it up and handing it to him she sent him on a hunt. She put clues into some of his Easter eggs and he had to find each clue before he got to his present. He had a blast and here are the clues.
Stitching
I have been working on my Lizzie Kate Monthly Stamps Banner.
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Monthly Stamps Banner
by Lizzie Kate
Progress as of 2/21/2013
I've been asked how I hold my banner while I am stitching it since it is so long. I can't describe it better than a picture and with it my latest update on my WIP.
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Monthly Stamps Banner
by Lizzie Kate
Progress as of 4/2/2013
I finally picked up Dressmaker's Daughter and spent 3 days stitching on it. The key is to not stitch the solid lavendar for too long or you zone out...lol!
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Dressmaker's Daughter
by Mirabilia
Progress as of 3/27/2013
(Seven total days of stitching.)
Last but not least, I have just kitted up a new piece today. I always stitch and present for Connor's teacher for an end-of-year present and thank you. I picked Lizzie Kate's "Teaching is a Work of Heart." I didn't like the colors it called for & I didn't have half of them so I did a floss toss on the fabric I found in my stash that I wanted to use. I have no clue as to how I am going to finish it once the stitching is done.
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26ct natural linen,
WDW (Marigold, Saffron & Whitewash), Crescent Colours (Cool Azul & Ribbon Red) & GAST (Hyacinth, Punchberry & Shutter Green)
All Moved In
We are finally all settled in. The only thing left to be done is the backyard but that will take some time. I will hopefully be able to get some decent pictures of the rooms this month. It seems that everytime I clean the house and pull the camera out it is overcast, raining or just to dark outside for good shots.
Next time...Connor's First Bowling Tournament, Someone Turns 9! and more stitching updates.
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