One week

since The Hub's ablation and as Sonny and Cher once said, "The Beat Goes On". Keep your fingers crossed. Better yet, say a prayer.

As you know

24 premieres tonight (2 hours tonight and 2 hours tomorrow. I promise that you'll be hooked by the end of this evening if you've never watched before). We highly recommend that you watch it along with Dave Barry. Here's his preview.

Unfortunately, beginning next week it will be on opposite Heroes. I *really* need to get my PVR up and running again. I've been having to use the VCR for a few months - I feel like I'm living in the Dark Ages!

Tuesday morning The Husband had an ablation done on his heart in an attempt to stop the arrythmia that he's been in for 3 years. We are cautiously optimistic that the procedure worked. He had popped back into an arrythmia on Wednesday morning, but as the cardiologist came in to check him out before sending him in for a second ablation procedure (which he was not looking forward to - 4-6 hours on the table then another 6 hours of lying flat and not bending his right leg) the doc discovered that he was back in a normal rhythm. After an hour or so of trying to induce an arrythmia (by having him exercise while attached to an EKG monitor) he was finally released. He will be monitored for 3 weeks while hooked up to a telemetry monitor and we'll be seeing the cardiologist and the arrythmia specialist frequently in the coming weeks, but at the moment he's feeling pretty good (albeit somewhat sore).

Also, his MP3 player that seemed to have been 'fried' by one of the machines they used at the beginning of the ablation has been resurrected by his lovely wife.

7 Days...

...til the sixth season premier of 24 .

Check out DeeDee's post
“Basic Truths About Jack Bauer”

In the Workshop

**I'm not ready to publish this post because I don't have a photo of the completed project yet. Blogger has other ideas and won't let me save posts as drafts or edit posts. Grrrrr. So I'll upload an accompanying photo tomorrow.**

Here are some images from the Christmas Workshop (aka the kitchen). We made 13 Nativity sets for family and friends. Everybody helped - Daddy and the older two cut wood and sanded, everybody except Younger Daughter did some woodburning and staining, and everybody, including YD (especially YD) did some painting. The top photo is of the staining process. The wood was stained with Walnut Ink that I made this fall from Black Walnuts that my InLaws gathered for me from their yard last year (Black Walnuts are Biennial - they fruit every other year).
The second photo below shows YD painting. We used Grammy's paints and brushes, which thrilled the kids.

Happy New Year!

I have some blogging to catch up on now that Christmas is finally done. Well, Christmas isn't done until January 6th, but we have finally seen all of our family and exchanged gifts and all that. Dad and Joan came down from Maine in a snowstorm on Saturday and we saw them at my sister's house yesterday for a few hours before heading home to get ready for church. I didn't make it but The Husband took the kids and his parents. It was a Love Feast service and we really enjoyed the Christmas Eve Love Feast and Mom and Dad wanted to experience one, too.

One of the things the church does at the beginning of the year is hand out a Bible verse to everyone (they're all different and random). I don't know if it's a Moravian tradition or one particular to this congregation. It's a special verse for you to focus on and perhaps study and meditate on. My verse is:

God alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
Psalm 62:6

Back to Christmas. Santa was good to everyone, especially Younger Daughter who actually got a warning note from Santa, pointing out that he *should* have put her on the Naughty List this year but he is giving her a warning and a Grace period to clean up her act!

The theme for The Boy seems to be 'Gross Stuff'. Aunt W and Uncle D gave him a GrossStuff board game, Papa and Grandma gave him a Gross Stuff electronic game, and Daddy gave him a book entitled "The Day My Butt Went Psycho". Lovely. Grandma P gave him a really nice Yankees Jersey and some other assorted Yankees items.

The girls got lots of books and jewelry and other girly stuff. Older Daughter got a Swiss Army Knife and Younger Daughter got a Polly Pocket Cruise Ship with a million and twelve tiny pieces. Santa and others gave us some games to play. I need to sit down with the kids and actually see who gave them what - so many little things. Since the week of vacation was spent mainly playing video games (thanks AuntieL! The Husband is addicted!) today is Room Cleaning Day so we can start the year in decent order and with presents put away nicely. Well, I can dream, can't I??

Mom and Dad got each other nearly identical MP3 players, unbeknownst to each other.... I'm loving mine - I've been listening to lots of podcasts. For The Husband I've been 'ripping' some of his audiobooks to MP3 format for him to listen to.

More later--

Busy, busy, busy

The Husband is officially on vacation until Jan. 2 - and his cardiologist is on vacation all next week so hopefully we won't be summoned to the hospital til after New Year's.

I ran out to Michael's this afternoon to return a few things. I shopped around with a 40% coupon and a $10 gift card in my wallet and didn't spend a thing. I even gave my coupon away. Then I got to my car. No keys. After a few minutes of panic and a call to The Husband I spotted them in the car. I have OnStar but Hubs came down to open the doors since he was coming that way anyhow. I took him to lunch and spent the $ I had gotten back from the returns.

While I was waiting I wandered into Barnes & Noble, a place I seldom go because Amazon and Half.com are so much cheaper. I need to do that more often because I sat in the magazine section and read all of their papercrafts magazines (they have at least 30 now) so now I don't need to buy them. And while I didn't see MAKE magazine, they did have Make's new sister publication, CRAFT. At $15 an issue I'm not likely to subscribe, but it's definitely fun to read (and I'll be at B&N when the next issue comes out). One of the interesting articles (that isn't on the website) was about an artist named David Cole who knitted a Ginormous American Flag using two excavators holding light poles. His yarn was 18" wide lengths of felt. I have no plans to take up knitting on that scale at any time soon.

Older daughter and I finished up her friend's gifts this afternoon - we made 50 'pots' of lip balm in various flavors, and we're getting most of our family Christmas project painted tonight. Tomorrow I'm expecting the last Amazon.com shipment and I have some ornaments to finish up. I might actually have most everything done before 2007! It'll be really nice to be able to enjoy the church services on Christmas Eve. The church is having a Love Feast at all the evening services and The Boy is excited about getting to have a snack in church.

Twisted Sister goes caroling

Trees

This is one of the deformed giant trees at the first tree farm we visited last week. Fortunately, Older Daughter spotted another tree farm over the ridge and we managed to find our way over to it. Younger DAughter in her Elf hat. Can you guess what she wants for Christmas? The school nurse pulled her loose tooth last week when it wouldn't stop bleeding.

Here's the tree we picked. Apparantly we had to sell our son's winter coat in order to buy it.

The final cut:

Dr. Update

Sorry - I couldn't post last night and today we've been out Christmas shopping (almost done!!).

We left the hospital together yesterday - and before 5pm. It was probably one of the shortest visits ever, but it helps that they're consolidating some of the services that we used to have to run all over the hospital for into one area.

The Husband came home with a Holter monitor on (24 hour EKG) so they can see how his rhythm is over time. We'll get the results from that on Tuesday. Meanwhile the Cardio is consulting with the Arrythmia specialist to see whether another ablation procedure could feasibly help. Stay tuned.

The Boy's first concert

Second row, green shirt. He started playing violin in September. They played Jingle Bells and Good King Wenceslas very nicely.

One of our straightforward road signs:

Dr. update

The appointment was moved to Thursday so I went shopping instead :o)

Done!

The van finally fits back in the garage! We couldn't believe that we got it done this afternoon. The Husband and I did a lot of it by ourselves while the kids dealt with cleaning up from a sick dog. Better them than me...

Tomorrow is Tree Day. It's 'supposed' to be 50 degrees and sunny out -- time will tell.

Monday, if you're keeping track (JG) The Husband has a cardiologist appt in the afternoon, meaning we'll probably be heading out of the city between 5 and 6 - my favorite drive time on the GW Bridge!

Jenny -- sorry I haven't called you back about your email -- I haven't had a voice all week (the one person I had to call kept calling me "Mister"!). And I updated the post below for you :o)

Searching for charity

Searchkindly.org is a site that launched in October. It is powered by Google and they donate all of their Google AdSense revenue to charity. The current beneficiary is Invisible Children. Thus far they've raised $370 since they launched, but they're hoping to spread the word and be able to make "significant" donations in the future.

FYI, The Boy is fine. A day or two of rest and some Aleve (and a negative x-ray) and he's back to tormenting his sisters.

I keep finding dead leaves in the house. At first I thought they were blowing in with the wind, but today I noticed that when Wilma chases leaves she doesn't leave them outside. So now I have to check her mouth before I let her inside.

We got some chores done on Sunday, despite The Husband's raging cold (which I seem to be getting now). This morning I slept in. Around 8:30 I heard a scratching at the headboard which woke me up real quick! I sat still listening for awhile until I heard a thump and then felt a rabbit jumping up onto the bed. Guess who escaped and came upstairs for a visit? So I got up and took all the animals downstairs (since there was no chance of going back to sleep with 3 dogs and a rabbit on my bed...) and let everyone have the run of the downstairs until the kids got home.

Gotta run - it's hard to blog and watch Heroes at the same time.

So much to do...

I've been hit HARD with fatigue lately (sleeping as much as 12 hours a day and being groggy and listless most of the rest of the hours). We had grand plans for this past weekend, of which very little actually got done. I was hoping to get outside Christmas lights up while it was 60 degrees out instead of later this week in the rain. I just checked and Thursday's highs are supposed to be in the 60's - I'll keep my fingers crossed that I'll find some energy that day.

We're working on a family Christmas gift project involving wood and saws and paint and woodburners. We managed to get much of the wood cut and some of it sanded, so at least we're making some progress.

I make Christmas ornaments every year with the kids photo inside a glass ball. I've also started making them for my sister to give as gifts and some as gifts for friends (if I have a pic of their families), plus I've sold some. I've managed to make a dent in my sister's and some others, but we haven't even gotten a photo of our kids yet. We also need to take a Christmas Card photo - I have the cards halfway finished but the photo is part of the design.

The Boy woke up this morning with a very painful spot on his thigh - barely able to walk on it. The Husband has him at the Doctor as I type this. And he just called and they're going for an x-ray. The Boy couldn't pinpoint any injury or anything. But he is a member of the familly of medical mysteries...

It's 5 o'clock - I guess I should start thinking about dinner. Crackers and popcorn are currently at the top of the list.

High-speed videography

53 degrees

I can't believe that kid's father let him out without even a shirt on....