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Socks for me (Pair #31)

**Regia Stretch Color 117 with Regia black for heel and toe contrast**

These socks just called out for contrast so I did the heels and toes in black.  I LOVE how they turned out.  I made them to wear for “Christmas Eve” at my parents’ house, which is actually being held tonight, on New Year’s Eve, since Mom was in the hospital on Christmas Eve (in total, she was in the hospital December 23, 24 and 25).  So, I hurried and finished them to wear them for “Christmas Eve”, washed them and blocked them last night so they would be ready for the party tonight.

Update on Mark

Mark is doing well after his surgery.  He is walking very slowly.  He is supposed to walk no more than two blocks per day.  If he were to walk our block, since we live in the country, he would be walking 4.5 miles per block, so nine miles per day, just for reference.  He is also not to lift anything over 5-8 lbs., which is making him crazy because he wants to be useful and he feels helpless.  That’s frustrating but I tell him there’s a reward in the end (good health!).  He gets his stitches out on January 9 and that will provide some relief as the stitches are pulling and creating more discomfort in his back (back incision is stitched and is five inches long).  His front incision is glued and healing beautifully (seven inches long).

Our weather has been beautiful (relatively speaking, for winter – it’s been in the thirties to fifties) so we’ve been able to walk outside.  Today it is snow again and heavy wind and will be in the twenties or lower for at least the next week, so he’ll be walking in the house again for now.

Merry Christmas!

Who better to wish you Merry Christmas than our sweet little girls, Carrie and Chloe.  We wish you all as much love and joy in 2009 as these two share with each other and with us every day.

So from all of us (Mark, Teri, Carrie and Chloe)………..to all of you (our wonderful kids – all four of you – our family and friends who have e-mailed, called and shared your concern, good wishes and friendship through Mark’s hospitalization and recuperation, and throughout the year)………..from all of us to all of you…………….

Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for 2009!!

P.S.  I had to add the bonus picture of our little Buddha Belly Chloe in the picture below – it’s from last year but it’s priceless.

Get Well Soon Socks (Pairs #29-30)

These socks were made mostly while Mark was in surgery, during his stay in the hospital and in the days up until today when I finished them.  One pair is for Mark and the other pair is for me.  Mark is doing well – he has pain only when he moves (same old same old but it is getting better).  He was tempted today to have me take him for a ride but the weather outside is frightful and the fire is so delightful (oops – we don’t have a fireplace) – but we will wait for the weather to break a little, which is supposed to happen on Christmas Day.

Here are the ingredients:

**Mark’s socks – Regia Crazy Color 112
Teri’s socks – Four Seasons Hot Socks Spirit Sockenwolle 610**

Christmas Socks 2008 (Pairs #24-28)

Hmmmmmmmmm – wonder what could be in those little boxes?  I guess the title of the post gives it away.  I made the little mittens gracing each box using the same wool as the socks – so now each recipient will have matching socks and mittens (yes, I know that’s corny since they can’t actually wear the mittens – so sorry).  When I went to get the camera to take a picture, Carrie decided to try to steal the mittens off of the boxes, and somehow this beautiful picture was the first picture I took – I think it’s a keeper with her looking so innocent – so I took no more (although I was tempted because one of the boxes on the top level is crooked but who can resist a beautiful Carrie pic).

These are socks I worked on all year – between other projects – for Christmas gifts for my family.  I took the picture outside in the snow – today it is 4 degrees with a wind chill of -27.  Thankfully, I didn’t have to stray far – I just stepped out the door and took them on the back deck.

In the order they appear, here’s who they’re for and what they’re made with:

**Mark – Regia Strato Color 5748
Keith – Regia Crazy Color 114
Justin – Regia Strato Color 5747
Corey – Regia Schatten Color 5163
Danielle – Regia Jacquard Color 5243**

Do you sense a pattern with the socks I make?  I love Regia!!  Not all socks I make are Regia, but a majority are.

Ice Storm 2008 (December 19-22)

This link http://tinyurl.com/98a8uv will take you to the pictures from the ice storm we had while Mark was in the hospital.  The pictures have captions and I think an ice storm is pretty much self-explanatory.  The wind chill at one point was -39.  Today’s temperature is -4 with a wind chill of -12.

The first day of the storm we lost power.  Mark was still in the hospital but his hospital did not lose power – it is a little over an hour away from home.  The power went out at about 3:00 a.m. and I didn’t wake up until 4:00 a.m. so it was already starting to get cold in the house.  It was 62 degrees in the house so I lit a bunch of our bigger candles and votives.  I also took four dinner plates, covered them with foil and filled them each with tea lights.  It took me fifteen minutes to light them all but I remember when the kids were little and they were snowed in with my parents, my parents had lit candles to keep a little heat in the house and it really does help.  It was 62 in the house when I lit the candles and it was still 62 in the house when the power was restored several hours later.

Mark’s back surgery – update

December 21, 2008

Mark came home from the hospital yesterday at 4:00 p.m.  This picture is him still in the hospital, obviously because I don’t have IV’s and oxygen hooked up to him here at home.

It was shocking that they sent him home already as the doctor had previously said he would go home on the 22nd and now he was coming home on the 20th.  He didn’t think he was ready – he had only walked part of his hallway one time on the 19th.  He was nauseous and in incredible pain.  He had cried when they moved him from the bed to the chair the first time on the 19th.  The nurses told him he could stay all day yesterday – just because he was released didn’t mean he had to leave right that minute.  They also said if he wasn’t up to it, he could stay another day or more.  We decided that there was nothing they could do for him that I couldn’t do for him.  We did stay the day so he could get in another session of physical therapy (this time he walked the whole block of his unit).  He felt much better after that walk.  They also had to give him two more IV bags of antibiotics.  He slept most of the day – that’s really all he’s done for the whole four days so far is sleep.

Last night he slept on the sofa and I slept there with him.  He had his pain meds every four hours and Keith called at 1:00 a.m. – his phone accidentally called us – so we stayed up from 1:00-3:00 watching tv and he had about 1/4 cup of homemade soup that Dad had made.  Thanks Dad – it was his first real food in four days because he naturally has no appetite.

Today he will get a shower and I have to get to change his dressings (arghhhhh – weak stomach).  I’ve already seen the incision on his back – that one doesn’t hurt him.  The one on the front is where his pain is terrible – I can’t wait until the shower is over and he gets to settle back down.  He doesn’t have any pain when he’s not moving.  He took a little walk this morning already – around the house as we’re still in the midst of a lovely winter storm – and he said it felt good to walk.

Check back for more updates and for some of the most beautiful pictures of an ice storm I’ve ever seen – if there is such a thing as a beautiful ice storm.  It is beautiful when you’re safe in your home and you know all of your family and friends are safe.

Happy 25th Anniversary!!!

June 25 was our 25th wedding anniversary. I’m late in publishing this post because I just never got around to scanning this picture to insert but here it is – finally.

You could say it was our silver (25 years) AND our golden (25 on the 25th) anniversary. It kind of got lost in everything because we were so busy planning and preparing for Mom and Dad’s 50TH ANNIVERSARY!!! This is my favorite picture from our wedding. Anybody who knows us knows that we don’t like those posed, portrait studio photos – we like real-life pictures – those are the ones that depict things the way they really are. That’s probably why I love this one. Everybody thought it looked like Mark was ready to do harm to me with the knife.

I love you Mark Alan – you are my forever.

Love, Teresa Marie

Fingerless gloves revisited

Fingerless gloves – can’t get enough of them.  I wanted a pair for myself so I could keep my hands warm and still knit while we’re in the vehicle going wherever.  I showed Danielle and she wanted a pair.  Mom said “nah” but then she saw them coming to life and she said yes, she’d love a pair.  Dad said yes right away.  He said he used to have a pair of leather ones he really liked (shhhhhhhhhh – I may buy him a pair of leather ones too if these don’t wear well for him – he works outside a lot).  Mark wanted a pair also – to wear under his gloves to keep his wrists warms.  I made the wrist ribbing four inches for everybody – everybody wanted their wrists warm.

Here’s the list of who gets what, starting at the top:

• Pair #1 – Regia Canyon Colors 2804 and black Regia – these are mine – they match a pair of socks I previously made for myself
• Pair #2 – black Regia – these are for Mark
• Pair #3 – Regia Stretch Color #82 – these are for Danielle
• Pair #4 – black Regia – these are for Dad
• Pair #5 – black Regia and Regia Marokko 5492 – these are for Mom and match a pair of socks I previously made for her

As for the pattern, I tried several patterns and adapted to what we all wanted (longer ribbing, more stockinette between the wrist and the start of the thumb gusset, etc.).  These were all made with scrap yarn so it was a good use of scraps, except for Danielle’s – she picked what she wanted from my stash.

Mark’s back surgery and road to recovery

December 18, 2008

9:37 a.m. – Here’s a little background……..Mark had two bad discs in his back.  The plan was for a surgeon to open him up, move things (like his intestines, ureter, etc.) out of the way, and for the orthopedic surgeon to then go in and fix Mark’s discs – to put artificial spacers in.  They would then close him up and roll him over and open his back up to fix what was wrong in the back – removing part of a damaged disc (I’m sure there’s a better explanation but that’s as medical as I get – medicine is not my forte).

The surgeon, Dr. Thomas, came out first and told us that his part of the surgery was complete and that it went perfect, that Mark is in great health and everything went textbook, exactly as it should have.  He said that they had closed the incision and they were now going to roll him over and go in through his back.  Dr. Thomas was the “move things out of the way” surgeon and Dr. DeLeeuw was our orthopedic surgeon. Dr. DeLeeuw then did his thing on Mark’s back and when he came out to see us, he used the same word – it went “perfect”.  I’m not and have never been keen on the word “perfect” but it sure sounded good today, especially hearing both surgeons use that word.

You can’t ask for anything more than that.  I’m still sitting in the waiting room with Keith and Mom.  Mark is still in recovery and I should get to see him in about 1/2 hour or so.  I had some weak moments just because yesterday Mark admitted that he was afraid.  I didn’t cry – I held it together with Keith’s help.  Mark said he didn’t sleep two nights before surgery because he was worrying.  He was afraid they were going to take parts out of him to get them out of the way.  Before surgery he was re-assured by one of the nurses that is not what they would be doing – they would just move things aside and clamp him open – nothing would be removed.  He then felt better going into surgery (I think).

Surgery was supposed to take 2 1/2-3 hours and it actually took three hours.  Yep – more perfection – right on target.  Now we are hopeful that all goes well in recovery and during the rest of his days in the hospital.  Dr. DeLeeuw said he would go home Monday but we’re hoping he progresses well and comes home earlier than that.  We’ll see and we don’t want to rush his recovery.  I’ll update this post when I can.  Thanks to our friends and family for your thoughts and well-wishes.  We are richly blessed and we know it.

7:24 p.m. – Keith and I came home and Keith is now on his way back to West Lafayette.  I made Keith some oatmeal cookies and we had leftovers for dinner.  Mark is sleeping mostly – we came home so he could rest and so Keith could get back home to West Lafayette.  It was a brutal surgery and Mark said it feels like he has been kicked in the stomach.  The pain in his front incision area is very bad – his back incision is not bad pain-wise.  He’s on a morphine pain pump but he’s trying not to use it much.  That’s Mark – he doesn’t like meds – go Mark!  St. Joseph Hospital in South Bend is wonderful – from the lady who checked us in to all of the nurses, aides and doctors.  I don’t remember the anesthesiologist’s name, but she was wonderful also.  Our check-in nurse was Thom – awesome.  The surgery nurse was Rick – he briefed us before surgery and called periodically during surgery – from the operating room – to give us updates.  The recovery nurse was a sweetheart but I didn’t notice her name.  I’m just trying to document things so Mark can look back when this is all over as he probably won’t remember much.

9:15 p.m. – I called Mark.  He sat up in a chair but has bad nausea.  They gave him a shot for the nausea and he’s back in bed.  He’s still not eating but that’s o.k.  He was trying to down a cracker when I called him.  He said he told the nurse that I had a hysterectomy and he feels so sorry for me because of the pain he’s now in.  She told him that his pain is equal to a hysterectomy and that we are both troupers (my hysterectomy was in 1992 so I’m pretty much o.k. now though – LOL).  I think his pain is probably worse than mine was because he is cut front and back.  She also told him that tomorrow will be a much better day.  They are taking great care of him.