It gets better

Yesterday, Jessie had a follow up with the orthopaedic surgeon who set her arm. After several x-rays, he wants to do surgery again tomorrow (Wednesday) to try and get it to line up a little better. I'm not really sure I would call it surgery, other than they do knock her out so she doesn't feel it when he rotates her hand. And I did get out of him that if he doesn't feel it is lined up as close to perfect as he can get it, they will go in there and put a plate over it. I'm not going back next week for him to want to do this again.

Anyhow, Jessie asks him - "so can I play soccer tonight at practice?" He tells her "I would prefer it if you would wait until the end of next week to start back up with soccer practice - give the bones a chance to start to heal." Her response - "but if you're going to re-set it on Wednesday, it shouldn't matter if I knock it out of alignment by hitting it, right?" ?!?!?!?!?!?!

So tomorrow, I will take her out of school, we will go to Akron Children's, they will reset her arm and hopefully that will be it. I asked why the bone drifted out of alignment - was it something she did? He told me it would have been better if she had broken both bones in her arm - but since she only broke the 1, they have to be careful of how they set it or they will stress the bone that is not broken. He said it was absolutely nothing she has done (but then, he didn't see the kids' wagon ride now, did he?) and that even if she had fallen on it after it being casted (which she has done tripping over the recliner - of all things) it wouldn't hurt the bones and their placement.

And what did Jessie do when we got home? Climbed up the stack of round bales in the barn to play with her kitten......

Why Jessie gets Broken Bones

The weekend was fun. And we are seeing now how Jessie is capable of breaking so many bones (doesn't look too bad here, but keep reading):


We were working on my new pond, and while we were hauling rocks, the kids were playing.



I did get some sewing done - in between soccer games and picnics:

All table runners - but they are table runners that I have had the fabric for for years (one dates back to 1996) so I'm happy to have them 1 step closer to being done!

We went to a picnic Saturday night - one of the firefighter's Todd is a volunteer with is moving to Witchita, Kansas - so a goodbye party was in order (and of course, the only picture that sort of came out was the kids in the hot tub:

And then we had a 4-H picnic last night. For our club, at least, 4-H is done until next March.

And here is a short video of the kids' ride in the wagon:

Whoo hooo! I FINALLY got a video to upload (I've only tried about a zillion times). And now we realize why she gets the broken bones she does.....

Kris

Daily life

This is Todd working with Tyler's calf, "Mittens." I personally think she should have been named "psycho" but you can't tell a 5 year old that the calf that he picked out for his is a little crazy. All 3 of the new calves got baths last weekend. We like for all of our cows to be as tame as we can get them - it makes working with them a LOT easier if they aren't too crazy. And actually, Mittens is doing much better since we've been working with them every other day or so.

We've been a little blah lately - sort of stuck in a rut. Between homework, soccer, chores, housecleaning and work - there isn't a whole lot of time for fun. Hopefully that will change this weekend. Then again, Todd's ready to cut our 3rd and final cutting of hay, so if he does that tonight as planned, the weekend could be pretty full. I'm not 100% sure why we are cutting it - we have about 90 round bales in the barn, and about 400 square bales. We are down to 4 cows, the bull and 7 calves. So we won't need more than 1/2 the hay we have, but I'm thinking he's hoping he can sell some next spring - it's been so long since we've been able to sell any hay, and usually we are the ones buying it come April.

Jessie's getting along very, very well with her arm. She wants to play soccer in the worst way on Saturday, but we compromised. She can go to both practices next week and see how it goes. If she is ok - she can play from there on out. I'd rather have her decide at practice that it's not going to work, than in the middle of a game. She's riding her bike, jumping on the trampoline, running around like a mad girl.

Tomorrow I'm going out to our corn patch and cutting down some corn stalks to decorate outside with. Then we'll hunt up some pumpkins and decorate.

Gotta love fall.

Kris

PS - the coat DID NOT fit my niece - so it's off to the drawing board for me....

Not what I intended....

...but I like it.

I chickened out on making a coat similar to this one. Funny, how I can read and comprehend the most complex quilt block pattern, but any sort of clothing and my mind freezes. Total. loss. of. comprehension. And forget about altering a pattern - it won't happen in my sewing room right now.

I had the pattern for this coat (which should be big enough to fit my tiny niece), so away I went:

Thanks to the generous fabric donation from Kristie (thanks so much for the quilt pattern and fabric!!) and some bright pink fleece from my stash, Avery will have a reversible coat to wear this fall, and hopefully next spring as well.

I still have to finish the edges, but I'm thinking binding it like I would a quilt (maybe green and white checked ginham - any suggestions???). Not sure how I'm going to do the closures on it. But I'll have to wait to finish it until she tries it on tomorrow night when I see her. If it's too big - I can cut it down, too small....well......

1 birthday present down (sort of), 2 more to go for the month of October! and 1 to make for November....

Stay tuned....

Kris

Aprons & Fish

School went good for Jessie - she made it through the whole day with not a whole lot of swelling in her arm and hand. But she was fine with laying around most the evening with ice on her arm to help the swelling go down.

We played in the pond somewhat last night - all my plants and fish are moved over. Tonight and tomorrow night we hope to put the rocks around it. Then it's dig the bog filter, plant it and DONE. Just in time for winter. Originally, I was going to have 2 ponds, but after thinking on it, we decided to get rid of the little pond that we had originally built, and use the materials from that to finish the bigger, new pond we dug a while back.

And once again, my fish had babies, and we had 11 babies this fall at some point (or at least, 11 that we caught). So we are now up to 25 fish, but I am giving some of the babies and the white ones from last year to a friend.

I love this cherry print fabric so much - another apron was in order. Although I did make this one a little too small - but it still works:

And I worked on a fall coat for my niece for her birthday after the kids were in bed (at 8:15 - they were tired) - hopefully tonight it will be done and I can post a picture of it. While it won't be as cute as this one, it should work the way I want it to.

Kris

Decorating the Chicken Coop

When the Hurricane Ike winds came to visit us, it knocked the star off my chicken coop:(

When we went to the hatchery today to buy chicken feed and another waterer, they had some cute signs there that Tyler talked me into. I told him he had to help hang them (I did the high one, he did the low one):

And now our chicken coop is looking pretty fancy:

And clean inside thanks to Tyler's and my efforts over the weekend:

Then Tyler wanted to catch a chicken:

And I was informed that they aren't "chickies" or even "chicks" anymore - they are "CHICKENS!" Guess he told me, eh?

Kris

We are good

We are home, we are good. I think she is feeling lots better being at home - although she was bugging me all weekend to get up and play a lot.

The doctors at Akron Children's were fantastic. The ER staff - not so much. We ended up having to go there as a precaution - they did a CT scan at our local hospital and thought they saw something - could have been a broken blood vessel in her head, could have been nothing. So at 9:00 her and I headed off by ambulance to Akron and Todd and Tyler headed home. Of course, we get to Akron and the ER is a zoo. They had no clue and even with the CT scan and x-rays - still did not believe she had a broken arm (in fact, they told me at 11 we could go home, I call Todd - we can go home, come get us - at 11:15 it's oh sorry, you have to stay for the night - we did find what could be a broken blood vessel behind her eye. So back outside to call Todd - you can turn around and go home.) They got us up to the floor at 3:00 in the morning, and one there the nurses and staff were fantastic. Another CT scan Friday morning revealed nothing - no broken blood vessell, no broken cheekbone, nothing. So it was basically knock her out to set her arm, she ate, she drank, and we waited to be released.

We did get home Friday night about 8:00 - long day, longer evening, but she is so happy to be home. And she is so mobile. No pain in her arm, she's ready to run around like an 8 year old. I actually caught her skipping down the gravel driveway yesterday and trying to catch frogs out of the pond!

So she's off at school today - we'll see how it goes. Even if she makes it for 1/2 a day, I'll be happy.

And what was I doing before all this happened? I made this (zippered cosmetic/storage pouch):

And this (checkbook cover):

Both of them from the tutorials at Crazy Mom Quilts. Aren't they cute? I also worked on my bloggy birthday gifts - they would've gone out this weekend but....obviously that didn't happen:)

So the weekend was spent with cleaning house, cleaning up outside, drying chilli peppers, drying garlic (don't dry either of these in the house - it will reek for days on end!), making pepper sauce and Tyler's soccer game (which he scored 6 goals at - we won, 9 to 2).

And our chickens are huge. Tyler and I cleaned out the chicken coop yesterday morning - these guys (and girls) have grown an amazing amount - and they look like chickens now. Of course, every blade of grass that was in the chicken run is gone - so Tyler's been raking up grass clippings and giving them little treats. They also love tomatos and peaches. The first batch is now 16 weeks old - so I'm hoping here in a few more weeks we start getting some eggs.

See ya,

Kris

Jessie and the Broken Bones

Although it's her right arm this time. At least it's not her writing hand (lefty).

The kids crashed the 4 wheeler thursday night. After talking to Tyler last night, and talking to Jessie, we are fairly certain of what happened, but I was around the corner waiting on them to return and didn't see it.

I'll write more later, but after 28 hours in ER's and hospitals (we went first to Wooster Community, and then to Akron Children's since she had a broken blood vessel behind her eye) and surgery on her arm (the surgery part was simply to knock her out to reset the bone -it was the closed reduction procedure) we are home. And she is oh so happy to be home.

So now we are off to Tyler's soccer game and then home to back on the couch for a couple days for her. The doctors said after a week of rest, she can resume gym and soccer - so we shall see. She's already 100% more mobile after this broken arm than the broken leg. And she's planning on going to school on Monday.

Kris

Combine Derby

We went to the Ashland County fair last night for the combine derby - what a HOOT!

First they had a garden tractor derby - there is no way I would do this - you are too exposed! There was a husband and wife team in there - they had to stop the derby at one point and tell them both that he needed to run into her (when there were 3 drivers left - the husband, the wife, and 1 other one). As Todd said I wouldn't be running into her either - she'll make his life a living &%)#% at home.

Then the combines. They actually had 12 combines out there, and did heats of 4 combines each. The kids all had a blast cheering on their favorites.

Sorry for the dark photos - it was about 10:00 taking the pictures of the combines, and I just figured out last night that my camera has a night setting for pictures. Plus we were about 300 yards away up in the grandstand.

Late night, but oh so much fun. I could drive a combine or a car - but definitely NOT a garden tractor.

And thanks for all the great suggestions everyone! Tyler's preschool teacher was sitting right next to us last night, and she was saying how she loved to receive homemade gifts for christmas last year, especially food ones. So for her and her hubby, I'm thinking a pizza basket is in order (pizza crust mix, tomato sauce, spices, pepperoni and a red and white checked apron).

Free time

I finally got some uninterrupted sewing time (well, except for being interrupted by kids, which is no interruption at all) in between drying herbs and saucing tomatoes last night. And actually, it's not Tyler who interrupts me - he is the greatest child - he will play by himself for hours on end ....I won't hear a peep out of him.


So I made this quilt block:





Yes, I freehanded and winged it - some of the seams don't line up, but I want to use black felt for the roofs, the door and a cross on the steeple.


And I made this apron for a christmas gift - it's reversible (don't know for who yet but....):





I have an idea for a lap quilt, done out of civil war reproduction fabrics, including the church block above. We'll see if this works, or if I will get mad and give up on it.


I'm horrible about sewing without patterns - if the pattern is in a color choice I don't particularly like, it turns me off the pattern. Likewise, I hate trying to pull fabrics together for a quilt (which is why I buy a lot of collections, like the 30's repros, the firetruck fat quarter kit or fat quarter packs)....guess maybe I don't have enough imagination?



It's cooler here - not making it out of the high 60's. We have power, and have the entire time except for about 4 hours on Sunday. But so many of our neighbors and family members do not - in fact we got a call from a friend at 5:30 yesterday morning wanting to know if he could use our generator (after getting the call from my BIL on hooking up his generator at 10:30 Monday night!)



Now I'm thinking of Christmas presents and what I can make for everyone this year. We don't have thousands (or even hundreds) of extra $$ laying around, and I hate to waste what we do have on the items that while nice, won't last as long, and I certainly don't want to buy for the sake of buying. So I'm thinking and making lists, for teachers, babysitters, nieces and nephews, and friends' kids and Jessie and Tyler - what in the heck can I make these people that will be appreciated and enjoyed?


Any suggestions?

Kris

On Drying

I thought I'd take a walk when I got home - to make sure there is nothing pressing in the garden. With the fair last week, I let everything slide. BIG mistake (both taking a walk and letting everything slide:))!

So now I'm saucing up 1 last bushel of paste tomatoes, drying 1 last pint of basil and oregano, and I have to do something with the 1/2 bushel of hot peppers. And there's probably another 1/2 bushel of hot peppers out there to pick (but my basket was full). Habaneros, jalapenos, chili and Hungarian wax.

I'm voting for running them through the dehydrator. But Todd just mentioned on the phone canning them.

My response was that's fine - as long as you are going to help me do this!.

These are the yellow onions I ran through the dehydrator a few weeks ago. And oh how yummy they are in any dish that needs onions!:

I can tell summer is on it's way out.....

Kris

Bag Swap

Look at what I received from Jeanette - all the way from Finland - my bag from Linda's bag swap!! Oh how I love it!!!


I love the stitching on it - the chickens, cow and the horse pincushion.







And she filled it with so many extra goodies! Some of which were already put to use (especially the sewing needles - I am forever loosing mine - maybe because I had no place special to keep them?)



THANK YOU SO MUCH JEANETTE! This absolutely made my day!

Mine is on it's way to ???? but I won't be showing any pictures yet - it's a surprise!!
Kris

Newest Additions

What a great weekend!

Jessie's soccer game was canceled due to lightning and thunder Saturday morning. So we loaded up and went down to Millersburg (about an hour south of us) to pick up these 3 heifers that we brought over Labor Day:

It rained off and on most of Saturday morning/early afternoon - so I cleaned the house and did some sewing.

Then Sunday, Todd and I put halters on all 3 heifers, and wouldn't you know - Tyler jumps right in there to start working with them! The boy has no fear.

The black heifer (Ali) is the calmest of the bunch, although they are all very quiet. Tyler named one of the red ones "Mittens" and Jessie named the black one "Ali". They may never be shown, but we like all of our cows to at least be handleable - makes it easy if you ever have to work with them.

I hope everyone is doing well and recoving from Hurricane Ike. We had horrific winds all day yesterday - power off and on - lots of downed trees and limbs, and about 1/2 the siding was blown off the one end of our house.

Later,

Kris

Last Fair Day

Well, it's over. Demo derby is over. Animals are home. Decorations are down. The only thing left is the camper, which had a flat tire when we got there Saturday morning, so Todd has to get it fixed before the camper can come home.


The demo derby was such fun. I think I want to drive in it one of these years (I'd have a good excuse to crash into things!). We got in to sit with the fire department, since Todd was working the demo derby and the kids had a blast.

Yes, I'm a dork with my hat on backwards!

This is a friend of ours, who won his first heat, and then came back in the open jackpot heat and won that. Our friends' daughter, Allison, asked him if he made enough money to fix his car so he could bring it back next year:)

Going in:

Coming out (a little worse for the wear):




A really cool tribute car to 9/11. The photos don't do it justice (he had firefighter emblems all over the car):





And the kids cheering everyone on while standing on top of the firetruck. They were so loud, Todd could hear them down at the other end of the track where he was standing to make sure there were no fires in cars. There were only 3 fires - it was a good night.

Now I guess it's back to my garden and yard - see what's still surviving out there.

Kris