Socks, Sickness, Faith and Food

My winter worsted weight Noro socks are done!!! Yeah! What fun they were to make. And the photos don't do them justice. I am in love with Noro. I think I'm going to have to add to my queue the peacock feathers shawl the Yarn Harlot is currently making and do it with Noro. The colorways are glorious! It will be my first foray into reading a chart as opposed to a pattern. In any case, I'm going to put in on the end of my list and hopefully start it in January 2009. The goal this year was to knit fearlessly and I have so far! I've attempted things I wasn't sure I could do and discovered that I am indeed more than capable. Now I still have to finish the hubby sweater by Christmas in time to gift it to my wonderful hubby. Socks for 2 SILs and a neice are planned and I may have received my first commission to make someone a felted purse! Whew! Today, however, I am going to celebrate completion of my Noro socks and relax by getting a few more inches done on the hubby sweater (and blog, of course).

My FIL has taken ill, quite seriously. He's been in the hospital a week now and the doctors have just discovered the problem. Brief history before I elaborate, he's diabetic, has neropothy to his knees, is on dialysis, uses a wheelchair and is seriously obese. So, last weekend he was at Kidney Camp with my MIL and got violently ill. They took him back to the nursing home where he continued to get worse. He was admitted to the hospital that night (Sunday) with an extremely high fever, vomiting, delirium and excrutiating pain in his neck, head and shoulders. They tentatively thought he had viral menangitis but none of the tests could confirm. His condition got worse rather than better and he's been violent, ripping out his tubes, etc. Last night was the worst. We finally got a diagnosis yesterday. He has an infected disk in his upper spine and bone spurs. The whole area is inflamed and none of the pain killers are touching the pain. He was so bad last night, security had to stay in his room to prevent him from ripping out his tubes and throwing himself out the window. You think I'm kidding??? Apparently he alternated from wanted to kill himself to crying out in fear that he would actually die and how he didn't want to die. The pain was so intense he couldn't control himself. Hubby went in this morning to spend the day with his mum and watch over my FIL. We haven't been all week due to the lack of infection information we received. We didn't want to risk picking anything up and passing it on the the wild man. Now that we know he's not contagious or anything, hubby felt it was safe to visit. Hubby has been beside himself with worry. Of all the times my FIL has been hospitalized, this by far, is the worst.

Further family news, my youngest SIL reinjured her knee. She had just had surgery at the end of August to repair her miniscus on either side of her right knee. She had also torn her ACL (same injury as our beloved Tom Brady of the NE Patriots). However, they left the ACL alone as it was not a complete tear. Anyway, she was going down stairs to do her laundry early yesterday morning when her knee gave out and she fell on her butt. She said she thought her leg had been torn off at the knee the pain was so abrupt and intense. In any case, we took our neice for the afternoon so our BIL could take her to the clinic for assessment. She's heavily medicated and icing her knee and will have to go for an MRI early this week to see if she retore the repaired miniscus. Phew...I have one accident prone family.

At the end of yesterday it was discovered that our neice had come down with strep throat and my little wild man had sucked off the end of her sippy cup before I could stop him. GREAT, absolutely great news. So now I have to wait and see if he gets a sore throat with swollen glands and little white spots. Wonderful...

On an up note, I attended the first MOPs meeting of the year on Friday morning. I saw a lot of old faces and met some new ones! Surprisingly everyone was happy to see me! I say that because it did not seem like we had warmed up to each other much last year. Don't get me wrong, a lot of that is my fault since I am naturally reserved and from another's standpoint I can seem rather snobbish...at least this is what I've been told! I can't help it! I've had so many friendships end badly that I am very cautious about opening myself up. In any case, I did meet another kindred spirit (I hope) and I do pray I don't put her off by being too cautious. Although, I have to say, sometimes caution is a wise thing. The wild man took a little getting used to the idea that he was in a room with a bunch of other kids but after a while he just dove right in.

I'm also going to get back into learning more about the Bible. I have a hard time with the issue of faith as a result of many things, particularly the deaths of my mother from cancer and my son from a birth defect. It's hard to have faith in today's world - it's so full of science and logic. I tend to be a very logic minded person so I have the added burden of releasing my doubts. So, I'm joining a Bible study called, Starting Point. It is affiliated with MOPs and the church that hosts MOPs. We'll see how it goes. I would love to find the freedom and release that true belief gives. I need to find some peace in my life.

Apple season is upon us! Yippee!!! I love apple season...pies, breads, crisps, jams, jellys and just off the tree. As it gets underway more I will be sharing my creations with you! Speaking of creations, I've been baking more lately. I can't believe how much I've missed it. I'm going to do some homemade bread this week and more choc chip cookies, cornbread, apple bread and whatever else I can think of! Tomorrow I'm going to do a hamburger stew just because I'm in the mood for one.

My wild man is doing really good. Yesterday was rough on him but he soldiered through it and was happy to be able to play with his cousin all afternoon. She's a handful but she ended up being really good and a big help to us. She's such a smart little girl and very artistic too! She gave me 3 beautiful pictures to take home with us. For a 5 yr old she is quite good! Wild man is stirring from his nap. I'm glad I kept him home today. He's kind of cranky and fussy. It sucks I can't bring him outside but it's rainy and yucky out and not fun at all. Though I should just send him out there anyway to run off some energy...I can always stick him in the tub when he comes in!

Reminder: I can't forget to email my BFF...she's been so busy lately that time is flying by and we haven't been able to get together and chat. She's so important to me and I need to keep up my end of the friendship!!! If you're reading this, know that I'm thinking of you, as always!

Ciao, stay safe and happy knitting!