Getting by...

I can't tell you how difficult it is to type up a blog post with one hand...
That's one of the reasons I haven't been posting as frequently as I'd like to be. It's frustrating.
This whole shoulder thing is just dragging on and on. The surgery went fine, aside from the fact that we discovered I have a MAJOR sensitivity to anesthesia. I came to after surgery gasping for air and yanking my air tube out, then proceeded to vomit violently for the next three hours straight - which I can tell you is no fun after just having had a pin put in your shoulder. Todd told me that in between vomiting and passing out I'd plead with the nurse to help me, but they had literally exhausted all their options they had to stop it. It was so bad they tried to admit me into the hospital. I was stubborn though, and insisted on going home.
I don't really remember the next couple of days due to the heavy dose of pain pills they had me on...which caused a reaction 4 days after the surgery and I had to be brought back to ER because I was so violently ill I thought I was dying. I've never been so sick and in so much pain in my entire life.
Oh, and evidently being shot up with morphine causes me to start making really weird phone calls from the ER...cause that happened.
Surgery was 18 days ago on May 10th, and I personally felt that I was bouncing back quickly. Still can't sleep on my left side at all, lift anything over a pound with my left arm, stretch... but the incisions healed great, and the pain was getting better each day. Then this last weekend we did a lot of stuff around our house and I went a little too hard. Suddenly the tip of the collar bone is sticking up really far again. It actually looks and feels to me as if the shoulder has dropped. There's no more pain than there was before but you can definitely see that damn collar bone popping up. At any rate, Todd has made me promise to wear my sling constantly and do nothing but rest for the next couple of days. Which I'm game to do. I am really, really nervous about having this gigantic bone sticking up forever. It is really noticeable in my opinion.

Sooooooo I'm couch bound and Netflixing... and have time to type one handed basically...

Here are a few shots from our our Memorial Day weekend. I was so busy I didn't take many. We worked on our yard and planted our little gardens. We're late planting, but our last frost was just a week or two ago. Carrots, broccoli, tomatoes of several varieties, peppers, herbs, yams, peas, green beans, and okra all went in the ground.
I'll be stoked if I can keep anything alive though. Last year we had an influx of Japanese Beetles and they cleaned out almost our entire little garden.

We also drove down to a creek and got some rocks for our fire ring, which we then threw together. It's a work in progress but so much better than the hole that was dug in the ground. Keeps the dogs from dicking around in it too. Spent time at some farmers markets (obligatory fresh egg pic...I can't wait to have chickens). And I found an adorable chair art with little air plants that I must now try my hand at. Yesterday was a bbq and waaaaaaaaaay to much food. And today, the couch.

I've got to figure this out. It's adorable!!!

That short-story-long and disjointed post was about as good as it's gonna get today, folks.
Time for me to find something else to watch on Netflix. Any suggestions?

Oh, hai!!!!  I'm kinda sorta bored.

Photo Challenge Day 19 - Shadow or Silhouette

Me and my Daddy-Long-Legs up at the cemetery again.
Is it weird that we spend so much time there?
It's just too damn pretty.

Photo Challenge Day 18 - Something that made me smile...

I don't think this one even needs an explanation.

♥

Photo Challenge Day 17 - Creature Comforts

I'm lazy, and I absolutely love my Keurig. It's getting old, but it still works fabulously!

We run only distilled water through ours and it's been 5 years and we haven't had to descale it once!
I don't usually buy the pods anymore, unless Mister Man has a hankering for a particular kind of coffee.
They start to really add up cost wise.
We use the little reusable basket and fill it with whatever loose leaf tea or ground coffee suits us. When we initially bought the basket it was about $20 at Walmart. But it's been a couple of years and I think you can get them for about $8 now.
Mister Man makes fun of me because I really like Lipton tea. Not just that, but I prefer the Lipton finely ground tea in teabags as opposed to the loose leaf tea in the box. I think it's stronger. So I still buy the tea bags, and just rip the top of each one and dump it in the little Keurig basket. I find it convenient and less expensive!
He thinks I'm a total nerd though :)

Photo Challenge Day 16 - Faceless

I have no idea what's gotten into this little guy lately, but he has been all over us.
Mister man especially.
I always get a kick out of that, Mister Man with Mister kitty.
Doesn't get much cuter that.

Photo Challenge Day 15 - A Pair

These are a pair of the two most lovable, huggable, adorable dip shits ever.
However, it breaks my heart that it's only 'a pair' now.
There should be three...
I miss her.

Photo Challenge Day 14 - What I'm Reading

Remember how I was envisioning dog sweaters?
Yeah well Patterns for Pooches is going to take care of that urge! Most likely by proving to me that it's too difficult to do...
And I picked up a new library book by R.L. Stein, called 'Red Rain'.
Remember R.L. Stein? He wrote all the Goosebumps books. This is a new adult fiction novel of his that I'm eager to try out.
I'll let you know how they are :)

Photo Challenge Day 13 - Kitchen

I made these curtains sometime in the beginning of last year...I think.
They make up my favorite part of my kitchen, the kitchen window. What can I say? We live in a crappy rental and I don't like very much about our kitchen.
But the window, with it's pretty green view, isn't too shabby.

Photo Challenge Day 12 - Mother Nature

Sniff.

My leetle robins have left the nest.

Sniff.

I'm not sure they made it though...haven't seen any since.
Hoping the cats didn't get them. :/

Photo Challenge Day 11 - Someone I Love

See this guy? He's my little brother.

I love him. He knows this.

He loves me. I know this.

I think that pretty much covers everything....

Yep. It does. ♥

btw - he came to take care of me this weekend. what a flippin' awesome guy!!!

Photo Challenge Day 10 - Something I Created

This is the little guy that started it all. 

Walking through Joann's Fabrics one day in February of 2010 I came across a magazine called 'Stuffed'. It was filled with nothing but fiber artists and their creations (such as Katie from Skunkboy Creations - one of my top 10 favorite fiber artists and biggest inspiration for my blog). I fell in love. Decided right then and there that I wanted to make stuffed animals and fiber arts if nothing else then at least for a hobby. I came up with this guy from a picture I saw somewhere online - he seemed fairly easy and straightforward to do. I worked from a two dimensional picture and think I did pretty darn good for having never sewn anything in my entire life before this guy.

The blog came about at the same time as the doll. It was initially intended to chronicle my adventures in sewing and crafting, but has since evolved into...something else. Probably will never stop evolving. But despite the constant change, this little guy will sit above my crafting area as a reminder of where I was when it all did begin. ♥

Photo Challenge Day 9 - Broken

This is me. I'm broken right now.

This was the initial x-ray taken in the ER on the morning of Sunday April 28th. The orthopedist was going to be able to treat it conventionally with just rest and a sling. The tendons would have eventually pulled my shoulder back up. I would have always had a slight bump though, where the collar bone is sticking up.
I was okay with that.

Then last Monday I ended up having to lift Crystal up some stairs to get into our house and hurt myself even worse. I could tell it was bad. Had an appointment this morning with the ortho again and evidently I've completely severed the tendons. The new x-ray (which I desperately wish I had access to) looks even worse, as does the shoulder itself. The collar bone is sticking up approximately another 1/2 inch. It feels pretty miserable, and like the bone is going to pop out of the skin. I've been really fortunate to have had nothing worse than a broken big toe and I can't believe the amount of pain I am in. The drugs are helping a bit, but are also causing some extreme nausea.

The result is that I am going into surgery at 9:30am tomorrow morning. Talk about having something sprung on you...whew. I guess it's good that I don't have too much time to worry about it. I'll hit the sack here in the next hour, get up and shower about 2 hours prior, then go on in. Not too much stress out time involved.

But of course you know I'm still packing as much stress in the time frame allotted...I wouldn't be me if I didn't.

The doctor/surgeon, who was rather awesome, said they'll be stretching the torn tendon back over the collar bone and suturing them into place. That will pull the collar bone down, but the tendons won't be strong enough to hold it in place so in addition to the sutures I'll be getting a titanium pin in my collar bone/shoulder.

Go Robo-Me!

That is the only possible way to get this giant knob, which my husband estimates to be sticking up "Oh! At least 3/4!!", to go away. I'll be trading the knob for a scar, but I'd much, much rather have the scar.

Anyhoo my friends, I figured this was a rather fitting submission for today :)

Wish me luck and I'll talk at ya'll tomorrow ;)