Hello

Not much to report, still I wanted to check in.

65MD and I took a quick trip to a cabin in the woods over the weekend.  It was good to get away before the semester kicks in to high gear for him.  We didn't do much at all.  I can't hike.  We took books and our DVD player so we could watch movies.

He did the heavy lifting even with food prep and clean up.  So, for about 48 hours, I sat.  LOL!  I got up to walk to the table, or to go outside and sit some more!  It seemed to just be the ticket for my hips.  I was almost pain free.  I'll enjoy that while I can!

My goal is to finish the comforter this week and start if not finish the pillow sham tops.  That is probably all I will do on the bedroom decor until we actually get in the bedroom.  

See?  I said I didn't have much to say.

Wii Stuff & Pillow Shams

First the Wii - I've been doing the Wii consistently 6 days per week for a full month.  It has been a while, since I've been able to do any type of workout for that long.  I'm celebrating that for sure.  I have improved as well.  However, the best word to use to describe my abilities is inconsistent.  Some days, and with some sports, I do quite well.  Other days, not so much.  I believe I am getting more applause and "Nice job!" comments than "Boos" and mean looks from my Mii.  

I do a body test every day using Wii Fit.  Once that I complete a Wii Fit age is assigned.  I don't make a habit of remembering it.  It is a number more useless than the number on the scale.  Still it is fun to see if I am younger or older than my actual age.

Once I do that, I do the fitness test on Wii Sports.  It also assigns an age at the end.  I think it is funny if those two ages are far apart.  Both have more to do with my skill in the randomly chosen activities than my actual health.  Except for today.

Today, both ages were the same!  I am 29.  I am remembering that.  I'm sure that today's ages were accurate on both tests, especially since I just celebrated another actual birthday on Tuesday.

Now the Pillow Shams - 65MD and I have decided on which pillow sham option we like best.  It will be something like this, only with wider crimson stripes.

This will be the hardest one to do of all the various iterations.  It will be the most obvious if the stripes aren't straight and don't match from one sham to the next.  Still, it is the most pleasing and I have plenty of time to work on it and still win the race with 65MD!

Pillow Shams

I got the pillow shams back from the woman that monogrammed them for me.  I love the font of the "C" she chose.  The color matches perfectly and they didn't shrink as she said they did.  Unfortunately, we had a miscommunication regarding the placement of the "C."  She centered it nicely on the top half of the sham.  She couldn't quite comprehend that what she had was only front and kept wanting to sew it up for me.

So, I have some options now as to how to proceed.  First is use them as is:

Or I could cut the bottom half of the hounds tooth off and center the "C" in another fabric.  Like the lining:

Or the bed skirt:

Or both:

I like the options that include the crimson.  I'm leaning a little towards the last option since in brings in all of the fabrics included in the ensemble.

I think she did me a favor.  Being an accountant, I am not a very creative thinker.  Seeing the shams and the comforter all matching in the first photo, isn't quite as appealing as any of the others.  I plan to use some of the leftover fabric of all three types to make throw pillows to put on the bed also.  So, no matter which option I choose, all three patterns will be drawn together with the smaller pillows.

Feel free to express an opinion in the comments.  I don't promise to go with the majority opinion, but I certainly appreciate input!

On Athleticism

I have none.  Never have.  Still, inspired by so many of my blog friends and my experience in Philadelphia recently, I knew I had to do something.  The driveway walks weren't happening.  Some days, the pain in my hips was so excruciating that I was embarrassed to walk in the driveway because I needed my cane.

I finally decided that I was going to move somehow or another for 45 minutes a day, 6 days per week, even if it meant sitting at my desk and flailing my arms around!  Not kidding.  I have some hand weights and tension bands.  I brought those in to my office and would do a few reps while checking email or waiting for a document to print, or doing one of so many things that require waiting for two or three minutes here and there during the day.

That was working out quite well and then I remembered that I have a Wii!  So, I ventured on to it a few weeks ago.  To say I was bad would be an understatement.  My innate lack of coordination coupled with a near inability somedays to move my hip, left me sorely lacking in ability.  I didn't know that the Wii would actually "Boo" someone.  Not only did I get booed, but sometimes my Mii would turn around and give me dirty looks.

I persevered through the taunts of the inanimate object and did not let it get my self esteem down.  I knew I would get better in time.  I have.  I'm still not in the league of normal people, but I'm better for me and that is all that matters.

Yesterday, during batting practice, I began indulging in a fantasy about getting to my goal weight and getting a complete make over.  I would get my nieces to take charge of my new look.  As I was enjoying that idea I suddenly noticed that I'd hit 12 balls in a row!  It was a new record for me.  Of course, when I came back to reality, I missed the next pitch.

Then this morning, I was playing tennis.  I was returning balls and tried the disassociation thing again.  I began to think of which stores I would go to with my nieces and the next thing I knew, I'd returned 20 serves!

Now, I'm beginning to wonder if I actually do have some coordination.  Perhaps,  I'm just trying to hard and thinking too much.  I'm already thinking of tomorrow's daydream, new makeup?  high heels again? how I'll suddenly be able to afford all of the new stuff?  The possibilities are endless! 

The Week that Was

Oh my!  I did not intend to disappear like that.  I hope no one was too worried about me.  LOL!!

My sister came to town with her three children on Friday of last week.  The plan was to stay through Wednesday.  One purpose of the trip was to start cleaning out my mother's house.  We started.  It will be a long process.  I'm glad we have until early next year.  We planned a day to work in September and will hopefully put in a good day at least once a month between now and the move date.  If we are able to do so, we should be in fine shape by then.

So, why did I not blog at all last week?  My sister stayed until Saturday - the day before yesterday.  Her youngest son got sick and spent about 36 hours in the hospital.  That's why.  The sweet fellow is almost 7.  He is immobile so when he gets a cough it is serious business, He can't cough up the gunk (not the actual medical term) like we can.

He has a suction machine that my sister uses to help keep his passageways clear but it isn't as powerful as the one at the hospital.  His oxygen levels had dropped, so he needed to be on oxygen and be monitored until his stats came back up to normal.

He is much better and they were able to travel home without issue.  My other sister drove them so that my sister could keep a close eye on her son.

While they were here, and especially while my nephew was in the hospital.  I kept busy with my other nephews and nieces.  It was the first time the baby niece had met her out of town cousins.  She decided that my 17 year old nephew is the coolest thing going.  The only time she didn't want to be held by him was when she was watching him play baseball on the Wii.  I wish I had a video of her squealing with delight watching him bat.

Of course, I got my fair share of time holding her and her 2 1/2 year old sister.   By the end of the week, I was in quite a state with hip pain.  Yesterday, I spent as much time as possible resting.  

My house is in shambles.  It is going to have to stay that way a bit longer because I can't, really I can not do much about it.  It is OK.  65MD picks up after himself pretty well and has kept the dishwasher filled, run or emptied as needed.

Classes start for him next week, so he's gearing up with faculty meetings this week.  Sadly, the summer is drawing to a close.  It always makes me a little sad.  I love summer.

No progress has been made on the bedroom floor at all.  I got a picture of the pillow sham.  It shrunk a good bit. I wonder if she washed it first.  It was not nearly that small when I sent it.  I used my current shams as a pattern and cut at least 1/2 inch bigger.

I haven't seen it it person yet, so it may not be as small as I think.  If it is, I'll put some trim around the edge that matches the bed skirt or bring the lining around to the front.  So far, I'm still winning in the bedroom update race!

Finally, in the midst of the chaos that was last week, the scales broke.  I've weighed on the Wii, but I don't feel like it is quite as accurate as the bathroom scales since I have to decide how much my clothes weigh each day.  I've been trying to wear the same thing for my weigh in & work out to cut down on that.  

65MD took the scales apart to see if it was something obvious that he could fix. He couldn't.  I was glad really.  I never would have trusted the scales any more, I don't think.  I'll get a new set soon.

I hope to keep in better touch this week.  Time will tell.

Inquiring Minds

I am sure that most of my readers are quite concerned about the bedroom floor.  I haven't mentioned it in quite some time.  There is a very good reason why I have not mentioned the floor.  There is nothing to say!  It seems that the only real stretch of time we (read 65MD) have to work on it is Saturdays.  They have all been taken up by one thing or another as I alluded to in the last post.  

We did dry fit one row:

I helped by telling him which way to turn the tile.

In the meantime the comforter is almost done:

And I even got matching sheets:

Cool story, someone at my sister's church was selling them as a fund raiser and she thought that I might want new sheets so she got sample swatches for me.  They match perfectly!

I've sent the shams off to be monogrammed. A family friend is doing them.  She called yesterday with some questions.  It made me quite nervous.  It was as if we'd never spoken about what I wanted.  All I want it our last initial in crimson on the shams.  I even included a swatch of the lining and a few samples of fonts I liked.  She still asked what letter I wanted and what color. Then somehow she got the idea she was supposed to sew them up.

I was so nervous about it that I dreamed last night about it.  I dreamed she had turned one into a sleeve with a pink letter on it.  The other was just what I wanted except she had put scroll work underneath it.  In my dream, she was so proud of going the extra mile for me that I couldn't tell her I didn't like them.  I took them anyway and tried to figure out how to use them.  I hope that is one dream that does not come true!

Anyway, some of my readers may remember I considered making this a little competition between 65MD and the floor vs me and the comforter.  I think I'm going to win.  Next task, the bed skirt.