A DISCOVERY

Okay, I found out what I need to be productive and bring my bead fairy back......very large doses of Prednisone.  I have been sick over a week now with bronchitis and it made my asthma kick in so the Dr. put me on Pred.  I think I've discussed my love/hate relationship with Prednisone before, so you'll have to forgive me if I repeat myself, I am old you know.  Anyhow, this time I am on Pred  60mg for 5 days.  O.M.G. I am a wizard!!  None of my joints hurt.  I can zip around the house like a well oiled machine.  I require little sleep  and I have ENERGY!!  It is heaven on earth, but also sad because it will be over so soon.

Meantime I am cleaning out closets and drawers and making beads.  My daughter, Sara, lives at a community called Day Spring and we are having our annual fund raiser in May.  It's a Ball and this year has a Kentucky Derby theme.  I am selling my beads in jewelry form at the event to raise money.  Here's a picture of a necklace I made yesterday for the Ball.  Now I have to go make some more beads while the Pred is still working :) If you are so inclined to support things online you might want to read about Day Spring.  Here is the link. http://www.dayspringky.org/  You can buy a ticket for the 15,000 raffle for just $10.00 and your chances of winning are a lot better than the lottery....just sayin'   Look for the second ticket down on the right-hand side of the opening page, click it, pay by credit card and you are IN to WIN...sorry, got carried away....I tell you, it's the Prednisone.  I can't help myself.  I am wired!....but if you do buy a ticket let me know, so when the winner is announced I will know if it's one of my people that won.  Now wouldn't that be cool???

A BORING LIFE

I'm not complaining about it, but really who wants to read about it?  I go to bed, get up, run errands, cook meals, go to the grocery, bank etc, watch grandchildren, try to make beads......repeat, rinse.  Looking back I think our lives go through cycles.  There are times of intense activity, when you don't have time to gather your wits, and then times of quiet  when your life settles into a comfortable routine.  One thing I've learned though, just when you start to feel normal with either life style something big comes along and pulls that rug out from under you, so I've kind of been waiting for the other shoe to drop.  I love the time with the grandchildren, but seriously, I forgot how busy they are! I've been fighting bronchitis all week so my energy level is low to begin with, but one smile from those little faces and I feel well again.  All in all life is good!

CATCHING UP

Well, the bead show was pretty much a bust, which was kind of sad.  There are 8 of us who have been doing this show for 6-8 years now and over time we've seen our sales go down.  We all do different things and it used to be a great show for us, but the popularity of making lampwork beads increased.  Now we have imported beads, mostly from China, not annealed, and cheap.  To the uneducated public those beads seem like a great deal and the true beadmaker's beads languish at the side.  Some of the beads I make take 1 1/2 hours to complete before they go into the kiln.  Beads like this one.  It has flowers on both sides.  It's a long slow process, one I love doing, but not for $25.00.  So, now I ponder where I go from here.  I do have my beads in a gallery and they do well there, but the owner has some illness in her family and is closing at least part time.  For now I will just think about it.

UPDATE

Just a quick note to let you know that I am still kicking.  I have a show Sunday and I am in my usual panic mode.  I work best that way.  HB is off to St Louis to stay with grandson #1, which is a good thing because I can work and sleep when I want.  I do this every show although I promise myself each time that next time I will be more organized.  I just think I work better under pressure.  I will try to post some pictures before the show.  Have a great week everyone.  Oh wait.  Here is a necklace I made.

RELIVING MY PAST....

some thirty years later.  The past two days HB and I have been talking care of three of the grandchildren during the day while mom is on a business trip and dad is working.  We arrive at their home around 7am and the race is on.  The dad( our son, has lunch boxes, backpacks, milk money, and important papers all in order) From 7 until 8:30 we awaken a 2 1/2, 5, and 6 yr old, feed them, oversee dressing, supervise teeth brushing, tame unruly hair, find shoes, and search for a missing blankie.  HB takes the oldest to the bus stop while I put the finishing touches on the younger ones.  By the time we drop the little ones off at preschool at 9 am we are certain we have put in a full day's work :)  Two pm comes before we know it and we are back at their house waiting for big sister to get home from school and dad to come home from work.  Watching the children's interaction is really interesting.  Today there was a 30 min. altercation concerning three piggy banks and a variety of accusations about who took money from who's bank.  There were tears, some yelling, and many unknowns.  The 5 year old was the most upset, just sure that his oldest sister had taken money out of his bank.......and then the sweetest thing happened.  The littlest one said, "Don't cry, Buddy, I'll give you some of my money" and upstairs they went and she put some of her money in his bank......all was right with the world. Wouldn't it be nice if we could all settle things this easily?

I would not trade these days or this time for anything in the world, even though by nighttime I am feeling pretty worn out...it's a happy tired.  I feel so lucky.

INSPIRATION

Just in case no one knows yet, my bead mojo is gone.  She has disappeared, left the country, found another soul mate.  Who knows?  All I know is that I miss her and wish she would come home.  In the mean time I occupy my time exploring the Internet trying to find inspiration.  I think I hit the jackpot.  Look at what I found last week,  The Sewing Attic.  I fell in love with the blanket she crocheted so I wrote to her and she sent me the pattern.  Her website is just full of color!  Besides crocheting she is also a quilter and a photographer and I spent a good two hours on her site.  Here is the yarn I bought for my blanket.  I'm hoping it will inspire me. So far I have made 3 squares.....she said it took her a year to make the blanket......yikes !

I CAN'T SMELL

About a month ago I noticed that I couldn't smell anything.  When we got our new car I couldn't smell that new car smell.....and seriously, we only get a new car every 10 years so I wanted to enjoy that new car smell!  Then my DIL gave me some roses for my birthday and there was no smell to them for me, although everyone else thought they smelled wonderful.  I made a pot roast for dinner one night....nothing.  Now I have a nose that could smell our dryer burning in the basement from the second floor in the house.  I could smell Reese's peanut butter cups being chewed in a closed mouth and don't ever think that you could hide any kind of chocolate from me because my nose WOULD find it.  Unfortunately my nose also finds molds, budding trees, and ragweed.  These items do not make it happy. I love smells....the ocean, puppy breath, chocolate cake in the oven, my grand children's clean heads, fingernail polish,  fresh mint, potato chips when you first open the bag, coffee brewing,...I could go on and on....but as you can probably tell, smelling is kind of important to me.  So today I went to the nose doctor.
He said I have a very inflamed nose.  He determined this by sticking this long black stick up my nose and then looking through a camera at the other end.  When I first saw the stick it looked like some form of torture, but in reality it didn't hurt as much as I anticipated. I kind of thought it was a piece of cake until he told me that he couldn't get the tube in far enough because of the swelling...yikes!  So he ordered a bunch of meds to reduce the swelling and then I go back in three weeks, so he can explore my sinus cavities, the higher regions of my nasal passages, and who knows what else.  I am thrilled at the prospect :(
One of the drugs he ordered to clear the inflammation is Prednisone...for three weeks, starting with 40mg a day for a week.  I have a love/ hate relationship with Pred.  It makes my aching joints feel wonderful.  My neck no longer hurts and my knees don't complain as I walk along.  I have energy, too much energy.  I can't sleep and I become a cleaning machine.  There is no job I will not tackle...clean the oven, clean out the frig, clean closets and drawers, organize EVERYTHING...but my house could use it so I guess this all goes under the love part.
Now for the hate part.  I can't sleep.. It wires me.  I am always hungry and therefore always eating.  It is a shaky "get something in your mouth right now" kind of hunger.  It isn't pretty.  Neither are the pounds I gain while on Pred.  It makes me grouchy........or maybe grouchier.  Well, sometimes I just feel like my skin is going to come off...that's a little unnerving.  I have a bead show in 6 weeks, if I remember correctly it messes with my creativity too and I haven't seen the beadfairy for over three months now.  Things aren't looking too good for me are they? BUT if I get my smeller back, It will be worth it.

OMG, I AM OLD

Today is day three of watching my three youngest grandchildren.  They are 6, 5 and 2 1/2 and busy, busy, busy. The youngest, a girl spilled her drink a total of 4 times just today before I could get to Target for some sippy cups.  Sometimes the spills were OJ,... very sticky.  They call me Happy and most of the time I am, until today when I found a melted Popsicle on my bedside table.  Popsicle's are to be eaten in the kitchen or in the room with hardwood floors, not in Happy's bedroom.  Not only was the Popsicle a melted mess of goo, it's essence had been absorbed by the oldest GrD's Junie B Jones' new book.  Oldest GrD was not amused, neither was Happy. Youngest GrD did not see the error of her ways, but she is just 2 and 1/2 as she will proudly tell you This mishap required an immediate trip to Barnes and Noble to replace said book...and guess what? (Junie B says guess what a lot) There were other Junie B  books there that were calling GrD's name...and of course we couldn't leave without a book for the other two, even the Popsicle Offender.

I am so loving the time with them, but oh am I old.  I am in denial that I will be 68 this Wed.  I awake in the morning and my joints are very unhappy and they complain when I try to move them.  I have to spend a lot of time stretching and convincing my body that it really does want to get up.  Then I have to take two Tylenol (On blood thinners so no Motrin for me) and a really hot shower.  With the grandchildren here things don't necessarily go in that order :).  I wouldn't trade it for anything though.  This is a little bit of heaven that not all grandparents get.

Oh dear......guess what we just found that SHE (she being the Popsicle offender, of course)
 did?  Here's a picture and it's permanent marker, in case you are wondering.  She found it in a desk drawer.  Clever isn't she?  Now what was I saying about not trading them?

But look at that face  

                                                                                                             

THIS IS A GOOD, GOOD DAY

I've been waiting for this day for a long time.  I wondered if it would ever happen.  There was talk about it several years ago, but plans changed.  I've been holding my breath for the last several months, even when he started his own company and took on a project up here, even when they sold their house in Georgia, I still wouldn't let myself believe it.  Then they rented a house here in Louisville....and tomorrow(well, actually today, since I am writing this after midnight) the moving truck is coming to their house in Georgia.  By tonight I should have three of my grandchildren in my house as they wait for their furniture to arrive.  My son, his wife and their children are actually moving to Louisville.  Since I retired and HB has been sick I have really felt like I haven't had a whole lot of purpose in life.  I think that's going to change and I am so looking forward to it.  There will be baseball games, horseback riding lessons, ballet, and just pick ups from preschool and kindergarten.  I need to be needed again.  I want to read stories and play games and explore unknown places.  I want to do the things with my grandchildren that I never seemed to have the time to do with my children.  I want our grandson from St Louis to come spend time with his cousins.  HB and I love being with all of them.  I think this is going to be a real change in our lives, but a good change.  I am smiling as I am writing this.

OH THE PAIN

So yesterday HB and I were out running some errands on a cold and rainy day.  I asked him to stop at Starbucks before we went home and while I ran in he was reading the car manual of the "car that confuses us."  I was feeling good as I left the store.  Meredith (yes, I know their names) had made me an extra thick mocha frapp and it was so big she had to put a dome lid on it.  I was admiring it's beauty as I left the store.  This caused me to forget that there was a cement curb that I needed to step OVER on my way to the car.  BAM, in a nano second I did a perfect face plant.  If it had been an Olympic event I would have received 10's across the board.  My nose even hit exactly on center as it was pushed back into my head.  As I picked my head up, the first thing I saw was my beautiful frappacino spread in a fan like design across the blacktop in front of me...and then the pain struck.  My nose and my right knee were on fire and I was lying in a puddle of cold, cold water.  I could not get up.  I banged on the side of the car.....nothing.  I banged again, still nothing.  I managed to get to my knees and pull myself up by the side view mirror.  There was HB sitting in the car reading the damn manual.  He looked up startled and came to my rescue.  I was kinda mad when he said "I was wondering what that pounding was?" Well, actually more than kinda, but the pain overruled everything at that point.  Several hours later and lots of ice and Tylenol and there was no major damage, just bruises and sore joints.

Today I am just a mass of aches and sore spots.  Nothing rest and Tylenol won't fix. HB has been informed that it is necessary to get out of the car and investigate all pounding sounds when I am with him.  I hope I don't have to find out if he remembers this.