The Crazy

The truffle boxes I made for Emil's work party.

So looking back over the past couple of weeks I've decided to call the period from Dec 11th to Christmas "The Crazy". It encapsulated Kirstin's 2 knee surgeries, my biggest Christmas order ever and Emil's stroke. Needless to say, I am glad the crazy is over.

Emil's work asked me to do the desserts again for their work party way before the crazy came into play. Thankfully I had done all the work to prep it prior to the crazy and just had to do finishing touches. The party was Dec 14th. 2 days after his stroke. I can't believe I pulled it off. I'm so glad I did so much in advance. Sometimes it pays to be a planner. By far the most troublesome item were the 72 boxes of truffles. Next year I'll charge more, much more. If they go with them again. 

We went to the neuro-ophthalmologist on morning of Christmas Eve. They had someone cancel and we were able to get in. He looked over Emil's MRI and they did a field of vision test and discovered that the area of vision loss was greater than Emil had estimated. Originally he thought he had lost 10-15% of his vision but after testing him they told us that it is his entire upper right quadrant-so a full 25%. That will not improve or change. However the issues he's having with colors may improve since it was beside the area where the stroke occurred and that is good news.

 It sounds bad to be missing 25% of your vision but I think we were both relieved. Relieved to know that was as bad as it was going to get and that he can still see and drive. That even though he's missing that part of his vision he can "scan" the area and see things that way and that his eyes have already begun to do this naturally and that ability will only continue to become more refined and intuitive with time. His color vision seems to gradually be improving but it has been slow going. 

Christmas Eve we spent with Emil's Parents and siblings. It was very tender to be there as a family. Having this experience has helped me appreciate what we really need to be happy. Despite what the world would tell us, the list is surprisingly short. 

Christmas day was spent home. Lazy and cozy. Noah got a set of Drums. (I tried adding some video of him playing them but I'm stumped. Curse Technology!)

I love seeing him finding something he likes and is good at. I hope that this will open up an entire new world to him. 

Kirstin made Emil M. a cloak. Which I loved. I loved that she took the time to make something so unique for him and his joy of her thoughtfulness.

Some of my favorite gifts I made this year were these velvet pillows. Working on Velvet - not so much but the outcome was beautiful.

I also made a bunch of table centerpieces. This one was my favorite. All the colors came together just right. And I loved the stitching in it. 

Just sitting back and watching Emil play Just Dance with Noah on Christmas morning was a thing of beauty. 

I'm not sure Blaze agrees. She doesn't quite know what to do when they dance.

Kirstin is still recovering from her knee surgery. She had been taking it a bit too easy with couch potato-ing being her main focus. Saturday we talked to her about developing a workout. The Doctor said she wouldn't have to do Physical Therapy if she would exercise so we have been encouraging her to move in that direction. She was showing us today that she already has more flexibility. It isn't without pain but it will be worth it in the end. 

Since Christmas Emil has been finishing up some long standing projects. We knocked out the last little bit of the wood flooring in the dining room. He did the crown moulding on the built in bookcase in the study and has been working on patching a part of a wall in our coat closet today along with some car maintenance. This is about as quiet as I can keep him. At least he's at home and not in the ocean. He can rest when he needs too. If he will...

He took this week off  but will go back to work next week.  Which I know he's ready for. We have a follow up appt. with the neurologist on Thursday morning. I'm not sure exactly what it will entail but we will see. 

Hope you all have a wonderful New Year!

Different Strokes for different folks....

How do you write about a event that changes your life?

Just jump in I guess...

One day after Kirstin's knee surgery, on Kai's birthday, Thursday, December 12th, at 9am, I got a call from one of Emil's co-workers. Telling me Emil had lost his vision and was with the EMT's- they were transporting him to Albemarle Hospital. 

I got another call on my way there from Rob Taylor explaining to me exactly what happened. Emil had been leading a meeting when he suddenly heard a loud ringing in his ears, he then got a sharp pain in his head and lost vision in first his left eye and then his right. His co-workers sat him down, calmed him and called the EMT's. Since he works at the Coast Guard Base in Elizabeth City they have medical personal dedicated to the Base and they were there shortly after it began. They quickly assessed that he needed to go to the hospital and put in the call. 

I arrived at the hospital at about 9:40 but he hadn't arrived yet and didn't for another agonizing 20 minutes. I waited with several of Emil's co-workers who had come and beat the ambulance as well. Apparently the driver of the ambulance had a medical emergency of his own and needed to take a bathroom break in the middle of their transport. 

He arrived at the hospital and I was able to see him. Some of his vision had returned. They ran all sorts of test and couldn't find anything wrong -they were telling us he had suffered a severe migraine headache. They decided to do an MRI and after that our Branch President arrived with another priesthood holder to give him a blessing. Emil's parents arrived and we waited most the day to find out what was going on. The Dr. on call was able to read the MRI in early afternoon and determined that Emil had suffered a stroke. They checked us in but we didn't get to talk to the neurologist on call until about 5pm. He decided that Emil needed more test and that Albemarle didn't have the equipment to perform so we needed to be transferred to another hospital. They were saying that Sentara Heart Hospital in Norfolk didn't have any beds so we would need to go to Greenville, 3 hours away.

We were not ok with this at all. I asked the Dr.'s if there wasn't something they could do to get us into Sentara which is only about 45 minutes away. They said they couldn't so we decided to call our Stake President who is the VP of Sentara. He was able to get us in and informed us that Sentara had several beds open and had not been contacted by Albemarle about Emil. This was such a blessing!

Emil was moved about 10:30pm that night. It was thursday. I went home, told Kirstin and Noah what was happening during the afternoon, while Emil's parents were with him and then went home and showered that night when they transported him to Sentara and then went there and spent the night with him. 

This was how our schedule went. Me staying the nights and part of the mornings and Emil's parents staying during the days. How thankful I am for Emil's amazing parents. Emil remained lucid and alert during the entire experience, well except when they gave him morphine for the headache. His speech has not been affected or his motor skills. His main complaints were on a persistent headache ranging from a 2 to a 8 on a pain scale of 1 to 10 and loss of vision. We were at Sentara from Friday to Monday. It was a long weekend. 

We discovered that Emil has a PFO. Which is a hole in his heart. We all have it before we are born. For 80% of the population it closes but for 20% it doesn't. Typically you live your life without knowing it's even there. However occasionally something will happen and you discover it. From all the test they did they can't determine where the clot came from that traveled to Emil's brain. It is possible that it went from one side of his heart to the other through this hole. We'll talk to the cardiologist more when we have the appt with him in January. They do close up the hole sometimes. If we decided to do that it can be done 6 weeks from his stroke. They do it orthoscopically so it's not as invasive as it could be. We'll decide what to do after the appt. but I think we would both feel better knowing it was closed and that if he does have any more clots then they can't pass through this hole to his brain by that route.

Since he has been home his headaches have gone away but his vision has continued to change. The first few days he had a blind spot that slowly got smaller but since he's been home he's lost colors. He describes it as everything looks washed out. His good time is in the morning when he first wakes up but as the day progresses it gets worse and the lighting seems more dim that it should be. They told us at the hospital his vision would get worse before it got better but we really don't know more than that.  We are working on an appt. with a neuro-opthomologist in Richmond in the beginning of Jan. There was one closer in Va. Beach but the soonest appt. was Feb 22. Way too long for all the questions we have. 

This past week has been full of scheduling doctors appts. Kirstin had the knee surgery on her other knee on Thursday. It went well. She is hobbling around on both of them now. We thought about moving her surgery but wanted her to have the time to heal over Christmas break. Friday I picked up Emil Michael from the airport. It's so nice to have him home. When things like this happen I just want all my kids close to me. Thankfully it worked out that it was possible.

I am so thankful for our amazing friends and family that have been there to help us in any and every way we needed. People have sat with, fed and driven my kids to and from school. I've had friends and family listen to me cry and worry. Others that came to the hospital and visited with us or served us in small and simple ways. We've been blessed to have priesthood holders that have given us both blessings. Once again, I have seen our community pray and serve us. Selflessly, willingly, lovingly. 

I am thankful to know that we are an eternal family. I am grateful to have Emil here with me and our children for this time. None of us know how long our time on this earth will be. We learned when we lost Kai to treasure each day. I have tried to do so but life gets busy and time passes and we lose focus of what is really important. We are so blessed that his side effects weren't more severe. They could have been so much worse.

 So treasure your loved ones. Forget the presents and busyness that so often fills this time of year and just look at those you love next time they are talking to you. Watch them and soak them in. Realize how precious they are, the beauty they bring to your life. Look at how they have touched you and think about the way you touch others. Love one another. 

Merry Christmas!

Christmas time is here....

I guess when you only blog once a month it's enviable that you're going to end up with a ton of pictures. Were to start? 

Halloween 

Kirstin insisted on carving pumpkins. I tried to get them to go with vinyl. (I know! Such a cop out.)

 I convinced Noah but our plan didn't work since the pumpkin was cold and the skin was bumpy so the vinyl kept falling off  by Halloween night his pumpkin only had one eye. We went with it and called it our pirate pumpkin. 

You may be wondering why my children are dressed like Ninjas? I had just gotten them some thermals to wear under their Marching Band Uniforms and they were both trying them on. 

First Band Competition at Hickory HS

We let Noah go out one last year. He went with a friend to his neighborhood. He was a Cereal killer. We taped these boxes to a shirt.

 It was pretty funny. All the adults loved it! No pics of the actual costume because, while he's still young enough to go trick or treating he's too old to want to pose for the pics!

Not to be outdone by Ninja kids, Emil Michael was in a Flash Mob on Halloween. His Norwegian class, well actually the entire department, did a rendition of What Does the Fox Say. Check it out! Emil Michael is the second one in, all dressed in black with a white tie and his signature fedora. The best part is that he got to be the fox at the last minute when the guy who was assigned to do it couldn't make it. What a stud!

Senior Portraits

Kirstin had a couple of options for getting her Senior portraits done but what we ended up with was me! 

We took a nice day at the end of October and went to the Whalehead Club in Corolla and did some shots there. 

 I haven't included her favorites. It seems that we both like different ones. I've included the ones I like, because to me, they catch her personality the best.

After  Whalehead we headed over to the beach. 

We are so lucky to live by the beach! It was a beautiful sunset!

Oh? Look who we found!

Emil was surfing on his new board. It is so long, I think it's a boat. 

What's cooking, Good Looking?

OK this has officially turned into a bunch of mini post for the month!

 I haven't been baking that much for my business. My friends Cafe, where I'll be baking, was suppose to open originally at the end of summer but they got behind waiting for permits. Then they were hoping for December. Thankfully, that didn't work. Don't get me wrong, it would have been great for the Cafe but I would have been crazy woman. So now they're shooting for sometime in January. 

After seeing French macaroons all over the internet and tasting some at my niece, Sheila's, when I took Emil Michael to school this summer I decided to give it a go this week. These are Raspberry Creme. They were very tasty! I've got a little tweaking to do on the recipe and then they'll be a new addition to my cookie repertoire.

This is a new recipe (and cake stand- how cute!!! I've got a serious weakness for cake stands)

Black Forrest Cheesecake. It was amazing but a little soft. Little more tweaking there too. (Not to be confused with twerking, we won't even go there!)

I'll be doing Emil's work party again this year. Last year I did like 8 cakes and cheesecakes. They want the same this year but to add more finger desserts and give gift boxes with truffles. We're talking about 75 gift boxes with 4 truffles each! So now I'm a little crazy woman.

This Ole' House

So you know how we've been doing lots of work on the house. First it was the carpet in the living room. Then the flooring in the downstairs. Then the stairs. Last month I painted and painted and painted. I was just going to touch up but it I couldn't find a match to what I had on the walls. I ended up painting the downstairs hall, entryway, stairs, and upstairs hall since they all connect and they needed it. Along with the trim for it all. 

The color was just a little different. Less brown. The big improvement was the trim. I found a tutorial on-line that gave a great way to get clean lines so I did it and it was amazing! That swallowed up October.  

I was on a roll by then and since I haven't had a table in our dining room since we sold ours in the spring I decided to take the plunge and make my farmhouse table I've been wanting. 

I got the wood and legs from Home Depot. Sanding and staining the boards for the top. Then screwing them all together.

I used a tool that sets the screws in at an angle and painted my apron (or the boards that connect to the legs) and then assembled it all. It wasn't too bad. I got a tool and some great advice from a friend who does quite a bit of wood work. 

I did it entirely by myself! I was definitely having a "I am woman hear me ROAR!" moment when it was done. We had the missionaries over for dinner that night and I showed it to them. I was bragging on myself a bit and said "I made this entire table, like- from scratch!" Our brand new missionary asked "Really you even turned the legs?"(That was a bit humbling) I was like "NO- and the wood isn't from my trees in the backyard but I did everything else!" We all had a good laugh. 

(Seriously??? I can single handedly make a table but I can't get blogger to put it in this blog straight??!!!) OK so it's awesome- even at a side angle. Don't ask me what's going on.

Are you starting to feel like this is the post that never ends? There is more.... I was busy!

Sew.....A needle pulling thread.

So my latest crafting trend has been doing stitchery. It's like cross stitching but with out the crosses and grid material. I began with these cute little hexagon centerpieces for your table.

The stitcheries are the leaf, acorn and pumpkin in the pattern. They're cute and fast. 

Then I saw these little elfs and fell in love! I'd really like to do them on red velvet but I'm still trying to work up my nerve. These are on crushed velvet and it's much easier to handle. Velvet is very difficult to work with. From what I've heard, it doesn't play well with others... ok -I just couldn't resist that one. 

So it's December and my brain is full of Christmas crafts and goodies to make. I love this time of year but there is not enough time in the day to do all I want to do. I am going to really try to focus on people and giving and sharing with those that need me and my time and those that are special to me. Emil Michael is coming home for Christmas and that's going to be a highlight. 

Kirstin is having minor knee surgery, twice. (It's another post entirely!)

Kai's Birthday

I hope to post again before Christmas but if I don't remember why we have this season.

Take Care!