More prayers requested (gonna be a long one)

     I'm asking for more prayers, on three fronts.  I'm sorry I haven't blogged so long, but it's been crazy here these last few days.  CRAZY!!!  (Of course, in a way, it's always crazy here since I'm crazy, lol, but crazier than usual is what I meant!)  Oh, geez, where to start.  I guess I'll start with the beginning and go on from there.  Last weekend was International Hermit and Stitch weekend.  As always, I participated and forgot to post a piccy of my progress.  I worked on Lust Friday and Saturday.  Watched a new movie over the weekend (at least, I think it was over the weekend.  So much has happened since).  It was good.  It was a horror movie, of course (cause I just LOVE the scary movies).  It was called Devil.  Basically, five people get trapped in an elevator, except one of them is the devil.  In the ensuing mayhem, you have to figure out who it is.  No spoilers, but I figured out who it was right away.  I followed the Mary Higgens Clark model to figure it out.  If you read her books, you know what her antagonists always have in common.  I don't wanna say anymore in case someone wants to watch it.  If you really want to know the MHC method, feel free to email me (jnemitz@cinci.rr.com) and I'll get around to you eventually.  I enjoyed it, and got a lot done on Lust.  I also scared the crap out of myself.  On the first section of the first row on the first page (which I'm still on, lol), I miscounted.  I was terrified I'd have to rip out what I'd done, but it looks like it will be easy to fudge.  Whew!!  I should have done fourteen stitches in a row and I did fifteen.  So the spaces are a little bit off, but it's all background color, so it'll be okay.  I was happy to see that I could fudge it because I've got thousands of stitches in it so far, and it's a straight up B*&^% to frog over one on twenty eight count, even using tent stitch.  It's hard to keep the stitches apart.  You work your needle under and you have two stitches and you can't pull them both out at the same time cause it would mess up your fabby, but you can't get the second stitch off there.  Ugly!!  Anyways, here's the piccy.  It really doesn't look like much, but it will eventually!!  I didn't make my goal on this one either.  I think I'm not fully taking into account that I'm only working on each piece for three days a week.  (I have four SAL days now, so that leaves the other three for rotation stuff.)  Anyways, I still feel like I got a pretty goodly amount done.  And another day, and I would have met my goal.  Then Sunday was heart attack day again (mine this time, not mom's).

     I watched the Bengals's game on Sunday afternoon.  I was up all night, for some reason which I now cannot fathom.  I just remember trying to get some sleep that morning before the game and not being able to at all.  I was probably still stressing about mom, but it feels like that was weeks ago, so...  Anyways, we lost again.  I have to admit, I have a lot of hope for next year though.  Our QB is a rookie, and he actually looked like one for a few drives on Sunday.  Since this is the first time he's looked even remotely flustered, I have to admit to being really amazed by him.  He's done really well.  Almost (last minute of the game almost) won against Pittsburgh last week.  This week, we played our division leader, Baltimore.  And we lost with twenty eight seconds left in regulation.  He threw three picks.  One of them, I put a lot of blame on the receiver.  Andy threw into double coverage in the end zone, expecting his receiver to go up and fight for the ball.  When he didn't, it was an easy pick for Ed Reed.  (I don't like Ed Reed.  As a matter of fact, I hate everyone in Baltimore this week.  No, everyone in Maryland.  Sorry Randi, I hate you this week.)  It was an amazing few drives he put together to get us back in the game though.  We were missing our best WR and our best cornerback too (AJ Green and Leon Hall) so that hurt us.   We also had some key injuries on the offensive line which left Andy Dalton in perpetual hurry up mode.  I got some done on Jesus, but not as much as I would have liked.  I took my pills with about fifteen or so minutes left in regulation.  Then I took two sleeping pills as soon as the game was over.  I wanted to get a nap in before my alarm went off for the eight thirty game, as I really wanted to watch it.  It was Eagles Giants and that's a pretty big rivalry.  Danni is an Eagles fan, so I had to root for them.  (Speaking of Danni, say another prayer for her family.  Her mom is still in the hospital and she's not doing well.  I know Danni and her brothers and sister would welcome any prayers said for all of them.)  I laid there and laid there and laid there, and I couldn't sleep.  Julie called at five thirty and I got up and talked to her for a while.  Then I finally fell asleep about seven thirty.  Slept right through my eight thirty alarm.  For an HOUR!!!  Slept through till seven AM as a matter of fact.  Then I got up and played.

     I've been playing an awful lot lately.  It's all Freak's fault.  He's one of my best friends, but I could have killed him Saturday night.  He talked me into doing the Crevice Dungeon, which bores the crap out of me.  I'll do it for him, but only cause I love him.  So he talks me into it.  We get the party together, and we get inside, and he's like, "Everybody just chill out so we can see if we can solo this."  I was ticked.  So now I'm in a dg I don't like, and I'm supposed to just stand here and look pretty while you fight?!?  I was mad.  So I'm sitting there watching his knight friend fight and thinking how cool his moves are.  I have a knight.  This guy was level 153, and I was lvl 61, but I had a couple of the moves he was showing off.  Made me want to play with my knight.  So I switched characters.  Epi, my knight came out to play, and LaDameBlanche, my seggie (healer character) got put on the shelf.  She was lvl 122, and a lot of fun, but my knight can be fun too.  I've been having so much fun with a new char, I've hardly stitched.  I've actually lvled from 61 to 74 since Saturday night.  (That's about six hours a day of playing.  My neck is killing me, lol.)  So I've hardly been doing emails or stitching, which is why I'm even further behind than I was.  I'm gonna make an effort over these next few days to do some emails and try and get somewhat caught up.

     I worked on Jesus on Sunday, of course.  I didn't get a lot done on him, but put in about a hundred stitches or maybe a little bit more.  I'm working on his clothes now, and so it's hard to see where the stitches were added.  Hopefully, sleep will not be an issue with me on Saturday night this week and I'll be able to watch all three games.  Here's what Jesus looks like now.

     And then along came Monday.  Mom and I have been talking about Monday for a while.  She called me a couple of weeks ago to tell me that her sewing machine was ready to be picked up.  It's heavy, so no way was I gonna let her go get it herself.  We then made plans to do some shopping afterwards and have lunch.  We've been planning this for quite some time, so I had her call me when she got home from Cardiac Rehab on Monday morning.  She also wanted to go out to Hancocks and look at fabby.  My cousin wanted her to make robes for her daughters for Christmas, and since sewing doesn't involve lifting anything, mom said she would still do them.  No big deal right?  So we looked at fabby, then we headed down to the sewing machine store.  It's called Luke's and it's right down the street.  We pulled into the parking lot and the store is dark.  She mentioned it, and I answered that maybe there was something wrong with the lights.  We parked in front, and she said, "Tuesday, ten to six."  And I laughed and said, "You do realize today is Monday?"  And she said something I won't repeat.  It started with an s, lol.  They're closed on Monday.  Silly woman, lol.  So we went to lunch.

     We went to Red Squirrel (my choice cause they have the best ever turkey and bacon double decker).  The hostess took us back and basically said seat yourselves, as the whole section was open.  So we picked a table and sat down.  She came back two minutes later with a single man and gave him the same treatment.  And here we go with the impulsiveness.  I asked him if he was alone, and then if he wanted to join us.  Turned out he had been to my mom's street before.  He's a retired priest, and one of his parishioners lives across the street from my mom.  Mary is lovely, and we both really like her.  So we had a nice lunch.  I thought it would be good for me to get out of my comfort zone, which this really did.  And he didn't have to eat alone, which I really hate, but he's used to.  It was nice.

     Then we went and did some more shopping.  We didn't get home till late.  Then I came home and played and talked to Randi.  The next day, she called me at about noon and said she was still having sweats and she had called to see if her doctor could see her.  She was STILL waiting for them to call her back.  When she finally called them back, they were out to lunch.  She finally got a hold of someone and they said the doc had responded that he could see her at nine am on Wed.  So we got a late start.  We got her allergy shot done, went to Hobby Lobby (I bought a small piece of twenty eight count antique white fabby for the rest of my ornies), Penn Station, Hancocks again, and Luke's.  Oh, and the grocery store.  We really got a lot done.  I dropped her at home, and came back here.  I cleaned the kitchen, and futzed around the house for a bit.  Randi had just called me after my bath at about one oh three when mom beeped in.  I immediately switched over.  Mom doesn't call after eleven unless there's a really good reason.  She "didn't feel right".  She didn't know what was wrong, but she could feel her heart beating and she wasn't supposed to notice that.  She wanted me to take her up to the hospital.  Of course, I immediately felt bad for taking her all over the city the last two days to shop and run her errands.  I'm sure I should have made her wait now, but I thought if she had a problem, she would tell me.  I get there to find her on the phone with 911 who she called when she started having pains.  They did an EKG in her house and transported her to Mercy Hospital, which is in the top fifty in the country for heart problems.  I followed them up after gathering some things for her and locking up her house.  She had me text David, Cathy, and Beth at about four.  Cathy called back two minutes later.  I didn't want to tell her anything because I didn't want her to come up to the hospital and worry mom.  Of course, she got snotty with me.  She called my cell phone then asked to speak to mom, who of course told her everything.  She decided she needed to come up to the hospital.  Mom said no, don't, and my sister argued with her about it.  Mom didn't want to stress herself unnecessarily, so she just said okay, go ahead.  I'm so pissed at my sister for this.  Mom decided at about four thirty that I should go home because she worried about me driving myself home from the hospital tired.  So I went ahead and went home.  I made a couple of calls for her, then called and talked to the ER nurse and asked her to let mom know I made her phone calls and made it home safe and sound.  The best thing I can do for my mom right now is not give her anything to worry about.

     I worked on ToS while I was in the hospital with her.  I finished up part two, Smyrna Stitch and started part three, Eyelets.  Eyelets are easy for me, so it was no big deal.  I got a few put in, but not many.  People kept asking me to move so they could get access to mom, so I was up and down a lot.  Here's a piccy of it.  

     Then yesterday, she was having more problems so they did another angioplasty. There were three docs working on her this time.  They were talking about doing surgery, but decided against it.  She'll be coming home today, hopefully.  I had to go up and get the turkey today, so it's thawing on the kitchen counter now.  I REALLY don't think we'll be having turkey tomorrow, but we'll see.  I called the nurse tonight, and she said she's doing well, so I"m somewhat relieved by that.  I have no idea what tomorrow will bring, but if you could all say a prayer for my mom, I'd really appreciate it.  And one for me that I get myself under some semblance of control.  I'm having dad flashbacks (first Thanksgiving without him) and don't want to stress out like I am.  So hopefully I make it through the next few days sane, lol, but we'll see.  (Or at least as sane as I usually am!)

     Third prayer is for Julie M.  She's been having some really tough times lately with her bf out of work.  He's got a line on a job atm, and we're both hoping he gets it.  So say a prayer that he gets it and they pay him a decent wage!  She's been doing a lot of shows lately, and that has kept her mostly solvent, but I think she only has one more to go and then she's done, so things will be really tight for the next month or so.  I'm happy she's been doing fairly well at the shows though.  A few sales almost every time, which is good.  And she usually gets at least one special order from shows too, so that's good too.  I'm happy that her business is doing okay, and hope that things improve for them soon.

     And that's enough for me tonight.  I put about six stitches in my SAL for Wed (ornie SAL), so I'm not gonna bother to post a piccy of my ornie tonight.  I hope this finds you all well, and Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!