AN FBG WALK, THEN HOME TO STEW

 

First up for today, I'm off to Cambridge to an FBG walk.  I won't be staying for the morning tea after the walk.  I'll get back here quick smart... so Stew isn't on his own for too long.

Though, I expect the Landscape man will be here doing the driveway.  So, there will be someone nearby.

Plus, he does have his phone if he needs help, so I'm not going to worry too much.

He's a big boy.

And he has Coco.  😂😅😉

ABOVE: This is how the driveway looked after the landscaper left yesterday.   I hope there's a big change when I get home from my walk.

It doesn't look like a big enough area for my car, it is very deceptive.

ONWARD...

ABOVE:  A lovely sky this morning  on my way to Cambridge.  

And its not even cold enough to wear my new FBG sweatshirt.  

I have got a freakin' head cold. Sniffing and sneezing, not fun. Seems to be going around, Steve and his kids have it too. Stew hasn't  caught it ... yet.
12 noon.

The walk was really good...

ABOVE:  Today's walk stats.  Walk photo to come later.

After the walk I came back to Hamilton, grabbed a few things from the mall... and home in time to make our lunch.  Which was Chicken/Bacon Tortellini.  

ABOVE:  knee progress.  It's looking good.  Another week and the clear dressing can come off.

ABOVE:  Progress when I arrived home... all ready for the pavers.

ABOVE:  And there it is, the first paver is down.  

I bought some Covid tests while I was out, cos my throat is killing me, and sneezing???  OMG, they won't stop.  But, THANKFULLY... my covid test was NEGATIVE.  Very relieved about that. 

And now... I'm knackered and might just have a quiet afternoon. 

ABOVE: Today's walk photo.  

Stew and I lay down after lunch... and he went to sleep and snored like a trooper.

I didn't sleep... why?

Cos my socks were annoying my toes, and I couldn't be arsed bending down and taking them off!  How dumb can ya get?  Well, clearly that dumb.

It's now 2.50 pm, we are both up and listening to 'W' cutting up pavers.  He's got another day of work before it's finished.  And I can't drive on it until Saturday or Sunday, so the concrete edge can set.  The concreting will be done tomorrow, then covered up with grass.  It's just to hold everything in place apparently.  

It's going to look awesome.
 

RUNNERS... AND A NEW DRIVEWAY

 

Today... is THE DAY.

We are getting our driveway extension started today.  I am thrilled beyond words.

I have kept my car down in the distant carpark for now, as I didn't want ANY BASTARD NEIGHBOUR to get wind of what's happening, and put in a formal complaint before it's even done! 

I'm damned if that's going to happen.  I want our new driveway, and my car up by the house to be a fait accompli before anyone gets an idea to complain about it.

Once it's actually DONE, there will be no way they can stop me putting my car ON MY OWN GODDAM DRIVEWAY.   And a driveway WE PAID THOUSANDS of dollars to get installed I might add.

You can expect photos!

ABOVE: This is the before photo... with the letterbox already moved to it's new position, off to the left.

ABOVE:  Those are the four Braid Runners I finally finished yesterday afternoon.

I'm now contemplating what to make next.  I'm thinking.. some more Bags?  

ONWARD...

10.30 am, and things are ticking along nicely today.

Stew is all good, in pain but that's to be expected.  It will get better day by day.

He's fed and watered, and now in the front room relaxing.

I've been sewing.

ABOVE:  I'm so happy right now.  I've found another use for fabrics that are not suitable for Braid Runners!  Tote Bags.

That's the first one for today.  The next one is using some really old fabric from our friend Martyn's Mum's Stash... happy to be using some of her fabric too.

ABOVE:  'W' arrived at 8.30 am and got right into ripping up the old pavers.  He reckons the job will take him 2-3 days.  Whoop!!!   It's happening. 

Right, back to C.Q's.

ABOVE: We now have a little digger in our yard.  😊

ABOVE: Bag number two for the day features cats.  I'm experimenting with sizing.  This one is fairly large.  Might make the next one smaller. 

ABOVE: Stew's lunch today:  Chicken Salad, Mussels with a Tangy Seafood dip, and fresh fruit.  I'm feeling very, very GOOD WIFEY-ish.  *snort*

DOGSTARS:  I think the village manager IS worried about there being a 'run' on people wanting to do what we are doing!  But, as I've said before, many of those that live here only have one car, or can use their garage for one car, and have the other on the driveway out the front.

We are having to use the garage for my sewing 'room', hence no where to put a car in there.

Stew is doing small walks around the house and doing his exercises right now.  I don't think he will be going on any walks outside yet, as uneven ground would not be safe right now. 

3 pm, and I've spent an hour having a catch up down at Craft Group.  Stew is sleeping, so it was a good time to nip out.

I didn't do any work down there, just sat and yakked.  Yakking is good for the soul. 

8 pm.  I got home from Craft Group to a sleeping husband, and no driveway man working.  He had knocked off early.  So, not much else got done today.

I haven't done much else myself either.  Had a quiet afternoon/evening.

Forgot to get Stew his dinner... Whoops.  He got himself some yoghurt and fruit.  He needs to move anyway... I'm consoling myself!

Time to sign off for the day.

Catch ya tomorrow.

HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY TO COCO

 

ABOVE:  Our beautiful Coco is 16 today!   She is still doing extremely well for her age, and no one who meets her believes she's that age.

I'm going to give her some special treats today.

ABOVE: I watched this on Facebook the other day, weird things pop up all the time.  This one made me smile.

It's SO TRUE!  😂😉

ABOVE:  Yesterday afternoon I was looking at Stew on his lazy boy chair in the lounge, and thought, NOPE.  His knee was still bent, and it's supposed to be kept flat/straight.   So, I kicked  him out of the lounge.

ABOVE:  I set up the sofa bed, and made him sit on that.  He has a big screen tv in there, with SKY SPORT... he's set.  He might find it more difficult getting up and down from the lower seat, but he must keep his knee in the correct position.   We ain't doing anything 'wrong' in relation to his recovery if I can help it.

ONWARD...

11.55 am.  So far so good!  We both slept fairly well, no problems sharing the same bed.

He's not been in too much pain, it's kept at bay with pills of course.

I made him breakfast, before he settled down for the morning in the front room, watching rugby.

I meantime, went into CQ's and did this:

ABOVE: The first of two Fat Bottomed Girls Sweatshirts I'm making myself.   I'm happy with this one... now to think of what to put on the back of the second one? I'll have to think on that.

Right now though, it's time to make our lunch.  We are having a Chicken Salad.

6.10 pm, and I've had a busy afternoon.  After lunch I got into CQ's and finished all four Braid Runners I had 'on the go'.

Photos tomorrow.

Then I prepared 'dinner' for Stew, which is usually something light.

Tonight I gave him this:

ABOVE: Probiotic Berry Yoghurt with fruit.  And decorations.  He smiled at the decorations, handed them to me and said 'Use them again tomorrow'.  😂😉

Now I am winding down for the evening, and will probably sit and watch TV, do a jig saw and not much else.

Stew has enjoyed a quiet day, took his pain killers on time, did his exercises, and watched the telly in the front room.  

I will encourage him to join me in the lounge for a while tonight, so we are spending some time together.

I have been giving Coco some 'treats' the past couple of days, and some really yummy tinned dog food, which she doesn't usually get.

AND... yep.  Massive gut reaction, diarrhoea everywhere outside!  So, no more treats for her sadly.

And well... that's me for the day.  I know it's early to sign off, but seriously, not much else is gunna happen now.

Better not anyway.

Catch ya tomorrow.

FBG SWEATSHIRTS

 

On Wednesday afternoon I ordered two plain purple sweatshirts online.  (blanktees.co.nz)

The arrived less than 24 hours later!  Amazing service.

I am going to wear them on FBG walks when it's bloody cold.

And now... I am making them 'mine'.

ABOVE:  Once the first one is finished, I shall show you.  I'm hoping it looks OK.

ABOVE:  Last night, once it was cool, I planted the two new little ground cover plants we got for by the letterbox.  I also put a paver there, one that's not heavily 'decorated'... I think it looks nice there.

Stew's surgeon is visiting him around 11 am this morning. Depending on how that goes, Stew could be coming home today.  I am going up at around 10 am, so I'm there for when the surgeon arrives. All indications from yesterday suggest he will be coming home today.

ONWARD...

12.30 pm.

And he has been discharged.

ABOVE: Getting in and out of the car was difficult, luckily he won't need to do that again for about a week.

ABOVE: Me being the dutiful wife... lunch is served, with decorative greenery and a flower.

I've told him not to expect that again.  😂😅

ABOVE: now he's safely ensconced in his chair with a cuppa tea and food, I'm popping out to the supermarket for the fresh fruit etc.

He has his phone handy in case he needs help... but I think he will be just fine.  He has Coco.

2.40 pm:  And PHEW!  I'm knackered.  I did a rather big grocery shop, picked up Stew's prescription, came home and unloaded it all, then grabbed some lunch for myself.

I think we have enough food in the house to last us a month, at least!

7.25 pm, and we've had a quiet afternoon, as expected.  I looked after 'the man', made sure he had everything he needed, then had a nap.  I needed it.

My head is pounding... should really take a chill pill.

That's us for the day, we shall be off to bed at a decent time tonight.

Hoping Stew gets some sleep, and me too.

We are going to try sleeping in the same bed for now.  If it doesn't work out, for whatever reason, I'll move into the spare bedroom for a while.

Let's just wait and see how we go tonight.

Catch ya tomorrow.

THE SCHOOL RUN

 

This morning I am doing the 'school run' with the boys.

Bex is in Invercargill and Steve has a hospital appointment.  He's taking Lily with him, so I just need to get the boys to school.  Easy as.

After that, I will go up and visit Stew in the hospital.

I will ring the hospital soon to find out what his night was like. Hopefully it was OK.

ABOVE:  I forgot this photo from last night.  It's the nurse showing us the little device that is connected to inside his leg.  They will be using it to infuse pain killers directly into his knee... literally flooding the area with drugs to keep the pain levels down.  Shame ya can't go home with that.

At some point he will have to contend with pain again until his knee is all healed and working again.  But he will have pills to take, thankfully.

ONWARD...

ABOVE: Stews breakfast, Eggs Benedict.  How nice. He's had an excellent night... he's sparking on all fours in fact. 

ABOVE: And there it is in all its GORY. It's going to be fun watching it progress from that to ?  Time will tell.

ABOVE: First time up on crutches... the physiotherapist is really impressed with how well he's doing. Bearing in mind all the pain killers he's got on board right now, it's no wonder hes not in too much pain. He's been warned tomorrow will be a different story. His pain will actually get worse  before its slowly gets better again.

He MIGHT be home late tomorrow. 

ABOVE: Morning tea in Braemar... and even I was given a hot chocolate, and a hot custard tart! That tart was bloody delicious 😋. 

I left the hospital after an hour or so, and went shopping.  Nothing fun, just some dog food and a night light for the bathroom.

I didn't find a night light I liked, so thought about it and decided to use one of our Scentsy wax burners.  It lets out quite a bit of light, so I'll see how that goes tonight.

 

Stew has been finding the light coming into our bedroom first thing in the morning wakes him up too early.. hence I want to now close the curtains, instead of keeping them open.

BEFORE anyone comments:

*** It is so private around here, having the curtains open overnight was just fine, and let air in through the open windows too. ***

It is now 12.10 pm, and I'm going to have a nap.  I'm so damn tired!  I will visit Stew after me nap.

4.45 pm.  And the nap didn't happen.  I simply could not fall asleep, so I just lay down for an hour or so.

Then one of the maintenance men arrived to instal a new smoke alarm.  Then I went up and visited Stew again.

He is still doing really, really well.

His surgeon has said he will most likely discharge him around midday tomorrow.

That would be awesome, provided he's still doing as well as he is right now of course.

Now I'm home again, and will probably do bugger all for the rest of the day.  I've got last night's Coronation Street to watch, then I MIGHT go into C.Q. and work on my latest little project.

The four Braid Runners 'on the go' have gone on the back burner for a few days, until I get this other little project done.

Weird how I've felt like a wet dish rag all day, and now, at 6.30 pm I'm feeling like doing all sorts of jobs!

I've just sorted out the linen cupboard, scooped dog poop (eeewwww), got a huge load of washing off the line, and am about to tackle a couple of other little jobs.  Go me.

8 pm and all those other little jobs are done and I feel good for having done them.

Time to sign off for the day.

Catch ya tomorrow.

I forgot something monumental!

I gave myself my Trulicity injection!

It was easy, I didn't even shake!

So proud of myself.

SURGERY DAY FOR STEW

The day is finally here.

Stew goes to hospital today to have his left knee replacement.  He has to 'report' to the hospital at 4 pm this afternoon, and his surgery will be at around 6 pm, all going well.  It's much later in the day than we expected.

I will be staying at the hospital with him until I know he's out of surgery and recovering well.

No way will I leave there until I know he's OK.

The other thing happening today... Bex is flying down to Invercargill for her eldest brother's wedding.  She is going on her own.  Steve will be working from home while she is away.  Bex has never left Lily before, certainly not for several days.  It will be a long few days for Steve I'm sure. lol

I will try to help out where I can, but I doubt he will need me much, if at all.  He's very domesticated.  😂😅😆

And of course, my focus will be on Stew and his recovery.  

Because we don't have to get to the hospital until late this afternoon, I suppose we will just have a quiet day here... not tempt fate by going out and about.

I will work on those Braid Runners I think.

ONWARD...

So already there's a slight change to the plan. The hospital now wants Stew there at 3 pm.  All good 👍. 

Already ticked all the boxes for pre-admission.  And I've been out and picked up my latest prescription, new letterbox numbers, grocery run done, washing all up to date, Stew's bag is packed, all ready to go.

ABOVE: From this angle, you can see the marked difference from one knee to the other.

ABOVE: These other two angles, the difference isn't so marked.  His leg is not very swollen today.

I will take new photos once his surgery is done, and he's home again.

2 hours till we have to leave for the hospital.

Just had lunch.  Stew couldn't have any lunch, so had a good, solid breakfast instead.

ABOVE: And here we are.  He has an enormous room!  The nurse is here running through all the questions... nothing is left to chance.

ABOVE: That's the surgeon, running through his questions.  Nice bloke.

ABOVE: Making sure they fix the correct one 😂😊.

ABOVE: 4.15 pm. And off he goes... much earlier than anticipated.

And now we wait...

6.50 pm and Stew was wheeled back into his room. 

All went well... and he looks GREAT. 

ABOVE: Looking at my man! Ready for his dinner no less. 

He's in no pain, he's got pain killers on board to keep him comfortable for the next few days.

I will hang out here with him for a while, then leave him to sleep it off.

9.10 pm and I'm home.  Everything is going so well... he had a good dinner, his blood pressure WAS a bit high, but has come down now.  His Blood Sugar level is stable and his pain is under control.

AND...

ABOVE:  Just a couple of hours after surgery and he's up on his feet and walking to the bathroom!!!  Just as well 'things' are working in that department too... or it would have meant a catheter.  And I'm sure he didn't want that.  😂😅😂

I'm so relieved he's got that operation behind him, and can now move on to recovery.

I am EXHAUSTED.  Most likely from nerves and stress... and all that sitting around in the hospital waiting.  I will be off to bed very soon.

Catch ya tomorrow.

So glad today is over.

NITE NITE