What the Hell have I gotten myself into?

So today is my last full day at home with my mother in law in charge of Hunter. I feel I must be as elusive to those two as possible and do everything I've ever wanted to do with my little man. I finally got some sleep last night... not until 5am did that happen but I slept ok until 10am so I will claim some success. Now I am playing on the computer and just realized that I never fully engaged my Ravelry account back in the fall of 2007.
What's Ravelry? It's a social networking and personal organizational tool for rabid knitters. You post all your yarn on there, your needles, your patterns, pictures of your finished objects, your knitting blog, and so forth. It's quite addicting. Most big time knitters I know are on there. It's a great place to find new patterns and knitting co-horts.
So considering my enormous yarn stash and crazy pile of needles, books and other knitting accessories I would naturally like to make sense of it all. Of course this also appeals to the OCD freak within.
I just got back onto the site and started updating my profile. Then I went to an area known as 'Notebook'. This is where all those great organizational tools are hidden. Then it hits me - This will take all freakin' day!
So, do you think I will do it?
Does a bear shit in the woods?
I'll see you all tomorrow!

FYI - As you guessed my ID on Ravelry is SerineKat!

Stoned

I ran out of my vicodin 550s. No biggie, I thought. So I poured through my old bottles and came across some vicodin from when I had my c-section. Only it was the 750s and not the 550s. I only had three so I've been on those for the past day - holy crap that stuff is intense! I was totally stoned and talking werid stuff all day. My final pill got me to sleep 6 hours this afternoon. i don't think i will need anymore vicodin for my wrists. Right now there's still pain but nothing horrible. It's just very tight. I'm trying to keep the braces off and let my wrists be 'normal'. I still get some sharp pains when I try stupid things like lifting pots of hot water or stirring something thick.
In totally different news it finally snowed today! The base was even CLOSED! The Husband stayed home with us and shoveled snow and The Cheat was doing puppy crazies all day outside. Our home is at the top of a hill on base and all the kids were out front today sledding down the hill. Tonight it all turned into freezing rain and we have like an inch of ice on everything... so hopefully tomorrow will be another CLOSED base day.

Freedom!

I let my wrists free last night. I couldn't take those darn guaze clubs anymore. I'm now wearing a band-aid on my wrists covering the incision and wearing the wrist braces that I bought at Wal-Mart ages ago. This gives my fingers more mobility and doesn't make my hands sweat as much. I'm also letting my wrists be free more often when I'm doing light work or tasks like typing or watching TV. The scar tissue is starting to build up in both wrists now. A neighbor encouraged me to start doing deep tissue massage on the wrists, which really does help. Overall I think my hands are happier today than they've been in awhile. I'm even cutting back on my medications a little.
In even more encouraging news I was able to cheat the DRY CLEAN ONLY label on my favorite bedding. My parents bought me the Anna Paisley Bedding from Anthropologie a few years back. I love it and it's $50 to dry clean. I know, disgusting. So I've only cleaned it twice. Over the past month the dog now sleeps on the bed more often and the quilt is looking like it might get up and walk out. So I had to make my move. I put it in our huge washer with like a 1/2 cup of vinegar, and 1/4 of the soap recommended for that size load. I also washed it in cold on the gentlest cycle known to man. As for the dryer I again used the delicate cycle and low heat and after 90 minutes, clean and perfect! I feel like I've cheated death! The darn quilt is like $300! I'm so cool!
No knitting yet. My hands are good but I'm not going to tempt fate just now. My mother in law is here for just one more week so I am setting up daily goals so that I can handle my 11 month old when she's gone. Right now I can pick him up in a bear hug sort of way. I can make and give him his bottles too. That's it. Tomorrow I am going to work on feeding him his solids again, Tuesday will be bath night, Wednesday we will dress him and finally on Thursday I must tackle the diaper debacale.
That's it for now. My wrists have had enough of this typing crap.

Franken Mommy

Carpal Tunnel surgery has still got me down. I was able to take off my guaze and bandage the other day. Doesn't look too bad. Lots of bruising but the incision site looks clean. I'm still on the vicodin every 6 hours, sometimes I take two. I also take ibprofren too. I'm getting lots of sharp pain today. I think it is all normal for this type of surgery. I have been pretty good about lifting things. Starting monday I no longer need to wear the guaze and bandage. This will give me a little more range of motion with everything.

Pain and Progress

I spent my day in bed recovering from my wrist surgery. It went well. I'm on some heavy drugs to deal with the pain. I can't lift anything more than 2 pounds and I can't drive for 4 weeks. I can still do plenty of other things like wipe my own butt. Typing is ok for me to do but doing anything for too long does cause some pain.
I haven't had much of a chance to spend time with my little man. I think he's just about had it with me tonight. He cries whenever I walk by. My mother in law is doing a great job watching Hunter and keeping house.
Because of my condition I was able to watch some of the ignaguration. It was all well done and quite historic. I'm too stoned to take it all in. Forgive me. It's now time for more vicodin. Happiness.

Happy Hot New Years!

While the rest of the US is under like three feet of snow, we are in a heat wave here in the mountains of West Virginia. Today I had all the windows and doors open. It's nuts! I took the baby and dog for a walk on base and we played fetch at the baseball field and I let Hunter swing on the toddler play ground. Then we came home and I opened mail on the front porch and flipped through a magazine. Meanwhile family in Idaho and Washington continue to live under an assault of snow. They keep reporting numbers like 16 inches in a day, 4 inches in an hour, cars completely covered... not here, no here we are sitting on our front porch, watching kids run around on the playground and sunbathing.

FYI - If you are still waiting for your Christmas cards guess what... I'M STILL WORKING ON THEM! I know, I'm so slow! I blame my poor wrists, they are acting up and are very painful these days. I will get the cards out, eventually. Please be patient with me!

It's Official, I'm Old.

So the 28th is my 30th birthday. I am old. Not scary old but just old. I think The Husband and I will go into town and see and movie and go out to dinner at Red Lobster. Hunter is going to get babysat by our neighbors. It should be a nice break. I'm hoping that in January before my wrist surgery we can go into DC for a night and hang out but it depends. I guess the inauguration is going be a zoo around the capitol. We don't want to go down there then... it would be neat to go to but we've heard that they are not allowing strollers on the mall... which is just plain crazy! We don't leave the house without a well stocked stroller! So, we will watch the festivities on TV.
Anyhow, that's the latest update from West Virginia where it was 70 degrees today... I know, it's like Christmas in Hawaii.

Packages? Anyone?

It seems the US Postal Service is having a tough season. I sent out my packages to family and friends on the West Coast from the East Coast on December 15th. All were shipping Priority, which meant all would arrive in time for Christmas. Whatever. A couple did but the big ones to my parents did not arrive until today (the 26th) and my husband's family is still waiting for theirs.
I understand that 90% of the country is covered in snow. That will definately slow down some packages but priority packages usually arrive within 3 days... it's been like 2 weeks! Come on! I'm shocked that the news hasn't picked up on this story. I've seen stories about FedEx having some issues but not much on the USPS. My aunt sent me a package from the west coast around the same time... I still haven't seen that either!
A news organization in Arizona has this little article about the troubles.
Enough of my whining. I'm cool. I'll chill.
I was surfing through my daily news sites and came across this little story out of the pacific northwest -

BOZEMAN - A researcher at Montana State University says Jell-O, ultrasound, microwaves and electroshocking are among the possible solutions to eliminate lake trout in Yellowstone National Park.
Lake trout were introduced illegally into the park and threaten native cutthroat trout in Yellowstone Lake. To find the best way to destroy lake trout eggs, Al Zale received a grant from the National Park Service. Zale heads the Montana Cooperative Fishery Research Unit at MSU.
He and his collaborators will analyze several potential solutions and recommend the best.
If Jell-O is chosen, Zale says it would probably be unflavored. He says workers could spread it over the fish eggs to smother them.
Zale adds that it would seem efficient to get rid of the eggs during spawning season, which occurs primarily during late fall.

So if you know anything about Idaho and Utah and Mormons and Jello then you know the punch line to this story!
That's it for now... The husband has cooked me dinner. I must eat!

Christmas Videos

And another late addition...

Cookies and Cards

Seems like these are the only two items I can never get done one time. Most of my cards are done and will be out by tomorrow. The cookie thing has been a month long project. I keep making a batch here or there and then eating half and then making more. I wanted to have some cookie plates to give to neighbors for Christmas but at this point who knows. I've got two batches of sugar cookie dough chillin' in the fridge... now that it's time to bake them I'd rather go back to bed. Grrrr. Must... get... cookies... done.
The Cheat doesn't make cookies nor does she get to consume them but that doesn't stop her from smelling like vanilla. We took her to Petco on Friday and she got the Christmas Spa package. This included the shampoo, cut, dry and teeth cleaning. They used special soap to make her smell festive. She also got lots of treats and a Christmas bandanna to wear around her neck. She's been prancing around the house and base all weekend long showing off her new look. I haven't even gotten my hair cut since July! The Cheat is one spoiled little lady.