Long Overdue Update
During the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics the Loom Knitters Group over on Ravelry hosted a Tea Party which I took part in then won one of these :
The Knifty Knitter from Provocraft large purple round knitting loom. I have wanted to try one of these for a while now, this loom is talked about often on my loom knitting group but so far as I already have lots of 1/2 an inch in gauge looms I could not justify the expense of purchasing one more so havent had a chance to look at it yet. Parcel posted on Sunday 5th from the US arrived today and also contains 30 packets of Jello, the kids are going to love these, I asked Lori the prize giving lady if she could include a couple of packets, was totally blown away when I saw how many she'd sent today. The box arrived much quicker than when I purchase thing from online shops within the UK, it was only three nights.
On Monday I turned 42, it was a lovely day with friends and family, bit tiring for me though and I am suffering for it all now especially the build up over the weekend with trying to make the house a) toddler proof again and b) clearing away anything we didn't want fiddled with by little children's hands. Here is a photograph I didn't know was even taken, Angelica snapped this one just at the right moment I am sure you will agree
Health wise I continue to improve although a weird lump is now at the base of my spine just above the coccyx bone area, this is undoubtably causing me some anxiety as I do not know what it is or how it came to be there. Doctor is sending me for a sample test which is next week if it does not subside on its own. Its not like a boil or anything like that, its normal skin colour and a bit hard, sensitive when touched or when any pressure is applied it hurts like hell because of its position, basically its sitting on the outside of the skin patch where all the nerve endings from the spinal cord are housed. My hair is feeling pretty good these days and has become my weapon of choice these days, I simply do my hair if I want to feel better placed to tackle stressful issues either on the phone or in person. Imogen has now become my personal hair dresser as well as stylist. She is so good with my hair, helping to wash it and brushing it which takes ages given its now super long length, but at least with all the scalp treatments its now not falling out in bunches any more and feels really healthy which I guess could be put down to not being dosed up on codeine any more.
Here is Ivan and me, this picture was taken two weeks ago by Angelica on our balcony when I arrived home from a big hospital assessment appointment :
As of yesterday's weigh in, my weight is definitely shifting again as I've lost two more kilos within the last two weeks, this made me very happy as in total I have now shifted 28.8kg since February 10th, that is a whole lot of pounds too : 63.49 lbs !!
A massive achievement I have to say, feeling very proud indeed.
Now all I need is for one of the pharmacies around here to re-stock the Orlistat and I can really get moving some more with more pounds coming off at a quicker rate. Lionel has taken in all my trousers now as I could no longer wear them because each time I put any of them on and stood up, down they would fall :) Actually that makes me feel pretty good as well although annoying.
Both boys have been driving me insane this summer since the start of June. Both Joseph and Lionel take it in turns to stress me out or wind me up. They have become lazy to the point of ridiculousness, make so much mess way more than all four of our other kids put together if they try and do anything themselves in the kitchen, I am certain this is a ploy for not wanting to clean up after themselves but they came unstuck because I just started dumping all their filthy plates, cups, bowls and cutlery along with any pots or pans they used to cook with right inside their beds then refused to wash the bedding or allow them to use my washing machine. Needless to say Joseph now cleans the kitchen on a regular basis but Lionel still has to be called although over the last couple of days he's not been so bad until the kids left for camp yesterday, this owning neither of them got up before 1pm and only then because I started shouting that the wet clothes in the washing machine would be put out with the rubbish if they were not in there within three minutes to hang it all outside as I am not up to doing that today and I'd been asking them since early this morning in between cooking Harvey's breakfast then lunch, cleaning and generally putting away all the things they'd washed up after using yesterday night but left all over the side.
Lionel goes back next week Thursday or Friday, the kids come home Saturday from summer camp with the air scouts and Joseph starts at his uni in just over three weeks. I am counting the days where we can all just get back to normal around here. Dom left on Sunday just a few days ago and already there is a huge weight lifted off the house, it was lovely seeing her and spending time together all nine of us but perhaps it was just a little bit too long for me not to mention financially draining on the household in general with all three big ones in 24/7.
Ivan phoned today tearful saying he wants to come home, oh dear, the poor thing is terribly home sick bless him. Will chat to him again tonight to see how he is then. I am not worried as the leaders with this new unit are fabulous and I know that once Imogen told them about how Ivan was feeling they would have been encouraging him to stay with lots of things to do and general confidence building exercises. Ivan really gets on well with one of the leaders too so he's taken him under his wing as it were today for us. Hopefully that will work out and he'll want to stay until the last day on Saturday.
Loom knitting - well, since the end of the Tour de Fleece last month I've been trying to finish Robert, so far he is looking pretty good with his upper body assembled with head and face. I love the way he's turning out, he's almost the same height as Harvey so definitely 'life-sized' and I simply can not wait to see Harvey's face when he sees him next week. I should be able to finish everything by the end of the week if not before, its basically attaching the legs and trousers, boots and hands left to do now so not much, all the hard technical stuff is already finished and complete.
I had a big assessment appointment with the specialists at the hospital two weeks ago and yesterday, they agree with the surgical options I have chosen and have now made the referral for my chosen surgeon as well. Just waiting on the approval to go ahead from the Primary Care Trust now and this ball can well and truly be set off rolling on its way. Feels so good to be finally making progress on the health front and can see an end in sight although it is a bit of a way off yet, I can almost taste it and am soooooo looking forward to having the nerves untapped from the metal plate, a new smaller one fitted and getting into some sort of healthier state. Intensive Physio for building up muscles prior to surgery will start after the assessment on the 29th August.
On the whole I am less stressed today than I was yesterday although some peace to listen to my new audiobook The Painted Veil would be nice.
The kids bought me these headphones for my birthday, I love them they sound superb :
The Knifty Knitter from Provocraft large purple round knitting loom. I have wanted to try one of these for a while now, this loom is talked about often on my loom knitting group but so far as I already have lots of 1/2 an inch in gauge looms I could not justify the expense of purchasing one more so havent had a chance to look at it yet. Parcel posted on Sunday 5th from the US arrived today and also contains 30 packets of Jello, the kids are going to love these, I asked Lori the prize giving lady if she could include a couple of packets, was totally blown away when I saw how many she'd sent today. The box arrived much quicker than when I purchase thing from online shops within the UK, it was only three nights.
On Monday I turned 42, it was a lovely day with friends and family, bit tiring for me though and I am suffering for it all now especially the build up over the weekend with trying to make the house a) toddler proof again and b) clearing away anything we didn't want fiddled with by little children's hands. Here is a photograph I didn't know was even taken, Angelica snapped this one just at the right moment I am sure you will agree
Health wise I continue to improve although a weird lump is now at the base of my spine just above the coccyx bone area, this is undoubtably causing me some anxiety as I do not know what it is or how it came to be there. Doctor is sending me for a sample test which is next week if it does not subside on its own. Its not like a boil or anything like that, its normal skin colour and a bit hard, sensitive when touched or when any pressure is applied it hurts like hell because of its position, basically its sitting on the outside of the skin patch where all the nerve endings from the spinal cord are housed. My hair is feeling pretty good these days and has become my weapon of choice these days, I simply do my hair if I want to feel better placed to tackle stressful issues either on the phone or in person. Imogen has now become my personal hair dresser as well as stylist. She is so good with my hair, helping to wash it and brushing it which takes ages given its now super long length, but at least with all the scalp treatments its now not falling out in bunches any more and feels really healthy which I guess could be put down to not being dosed up on codeine any more.
Here is Ivan and me, this picture was taken two weeks ago by Angelica on our balcony when I arrived home from a big hospital assessment appointment :
As of yesterday's weigh in, my weight is definitely shifting again as I've lost two more kilos within the last two weeks, this made me very happy as in total I have now shifted 28.8kg since February 10th, that is a whole lot of pounds too : 63.49 lbs !!
A massive achievement I have to say, feeling very proud indeed.
Now all I need is for one of the pharmacies around here to re-stock the Orlistat and I can really get moving some more with more pounds coming off at a quicker rate. Lionel has taken in all my trousers now as I could no longer wear them because each time I put any of them on and stood up, down they would fall :) Actually that makes me feel pretty good as well although annoying.
Both boys have been driving me insane this summer since the start of June. Both Joseph and Lionel take it in turns to stress me out or wind me up. They have become lazy to the point of ridiculousness, make so much mess way more than all four of our other kids put together if they try and do anything themselves in the kitchen, I am certain this is a ploy for not wanting to clean up after themselves but they came unstuck because I just started dumping all their filthy plates, cups, bowls and cutlery along with any pots or pans they used to cook with right inside their beds then refused to wash the bedding or allow them to use my washing machine. Needless to say Joseph now cleans the kitchen on a regular basis but Lionel still has to be called although over the last couple of days he's not been so bad until the kids left for camp yesterday, this owning neither of them got up before 1pm and only then because I started shouting that the wet clothes in the washing machine would be put out with the rubbish if they were not in there within three minutes to hang it all outside as I am not up to doing that today and I'd been asking them since early this morning in between cooking Harvey's breakfast then lunch, cleaning and generally putting away all the things they'd washed up after using yesterday night but left all over the side.
Lionel goes back next week Thursday or Friday, the kids come home Saturday from summer camp with the air scouts and Joseph starts at his uni in just over three weeks. I am counting the days where we can all just get back to normal around here. Dom left on Sunday just a few days ago and already there is a huge weight lifted off the house, it was lovely seeing her and spending time together all nine of us but perhaps it was just a little bit too long for me not to mention financially draining on the household in general with all three big ones in 24/7.
Ivan phoned today tearful saying he wants to come home, oh dear, the poor thing is terribly home sick bless him. Will chat to him again tonight to see how he is then. I am not worried as the leaders with this new unit are fabulous and I know that once Imogen told them about how Ivan was feeling they would have been encouraging him to stay with lots of things to do and general confidence building exercises. Ivan really gets on well with one of the leaders too so he's taken him under his wing as it were today for us. Hopefully that will work out and he'll want to stay until the last day on Saturday.
Loom knitting - well, since the end of the Tour de Fleece last month I've been trying to finish Robert, so far he is looking pretty good with his upper body assembled with head and face. I love the way he's turning out, he's almost the same height as Harvey so definitely 'life-sized' and I simply can not wait to see Harvey's face when he sees him next week. I should be able to finish everything by the end of the week if not before, its basically attaching the legs and trousers, boots and hands left to do now so not much, all the hard technical stuff is already finished and complete.
I had a big assessment appointment with the specialists at the hospital two weeks ago and yesterday, they agree with the surgical options I have chosen and have now made the referral for my chosen surgeon as well. Just waiting on the approval to go ahead from the Primary Care Trust now and this ball can well and truly be set off rolling on its way. Feels so good to be finally making progress on the health front and can see an end in sight although it is a bit of a way off yet, I can almost taste it and am soooooo looking forward to having the nerves untapped from the metal plate, a new smaller one fitted and getting into some sort of healthier state. Intensive Physio for building up muscles prior to surgery will start after the assessment on the 29th August.
On the whole I am less stressed today than I was yesterday although some peace to listen to my new audiobook The Painted Veil would be nice.
The kids bought me these headphones for my birthday, I love them they sound superb :