A little bit of our Christmas Eve

Wendy and her Dad





Matthew and Sarah













Caroline at my tree

Matthew ---->

Bits and Pieces of our Christmas Eve -----------

Caroline, Frank and family portrait!

I had the privilage to scan a copy of a Family picture that Caroline had made a few weeks ago at the Value Fresh store near me. They did a great job and everyone looks fantastic!

A very happy family for Thanksgiving!

Amber invited her boyfreind, Khalil, standing next to my new Blue and Silver tree.












Sarah and Darin in the play room

Wendy looks good!

Wendy with cousin Steve, Uncle Ed, Caroline, and Aunt Sally. Glad they could still make it for this Thanksgiving!

Sarah and Matthew digging in to the meal!

Darin and Khallil played some pool!

Amber and Khallil going to play some pinball.

Barlow and Frank got their plates, not enough room at the table, the family room is comfortable.

The lovely Caroline, looking great!

The Bufffet full of food!

Barlow getting his serving, happy dance! lol!

The Buffet, (2 turkeys, potatoes, stuffing, yams, and gravy, with sides of Vegies breads, cakes, pies, and jello. Caroline made the deviled eggs and brought her special spinach/ cream cheese dip for the crackers! Thanks Caroline!

Everyone loved the food and the deserts, we even made muscles and shrimp cocktail, for treats. Darin and Frank polished off ALL the muscles! Full bellies were the word for the day. Frank and Darin headed up to Caroline's freind , Barb's house last night for a chance to kill a Bambi's dad. Hope they get one, Darin is rooting to get one this time!

Still doing good!

Well, so far so good again! I saw the vascular surgeon today, and he doesnt think my corotids are quite as clogged as the hospital thought. He says its about 60% or a little higher, but they dont feel surgery is necessary yet. He wants to talk to the Doc who did my Cat scan once more, but he dont feel I need surgery yet. 70% or more they would do it right away, but he has scheduled me for 6 months from now. He also will discuss with my family doctor to folllow up with a cardiac doctor to check if the clots might be somewhere in my heart area. I got back in mid May for another ultrasound of my corotids again. Phew!

So far so good!

Well, so far so good. My vision is back in my left eye and on October 20th I went for the CAT scan with dyes to have my corotid arteries checked and see how much blockage is really in there. I go to the surgeon on November 9th to see the results. Ill report his findings soon.

The hardest thing is staying away from smoking any more. My husband smokes like a train and I enjoy my smokes. I know they told me to quit, but it is SO HARD! My hubby tried to smoke outside, but that only lasted 2 days! It got cold outside! I have tried to reduce my smoking, and spread out the cigarettes about an hour apart. There is NO magic pill to help me. (I wish there were) I want to be around for a long time Any sugestions to help with the cravings?

I had another stroke this week!

This Tuesday, September the 21st, at 11 a.m,,I went blind for a day. Turns out that I had another stroke in my left eye, and blood was being cut off in it! I was up and getting dressed and had just sat down before going over my Wendy's house to help her take her son to the dentist. He had a tooth that would not break through since the baby tooth was holding tight in the place it needed to be. I sat down to wait for the time to leave when suddenly I could not see anything but a white veil over the whole vision field! I have lost a lot of vision from my right eye over the last year and a half from a previous stroke that bled into that eye last March. The eye specialist has been treating me with Laser to treat that. He stopped the bleeding, but I was left with a cloud or haze over the eye, from the damage to the retina. I can see shapes, and colors of the surrounding areas, but no detail! I cant read a sign or make out a clock or words on the Television.

This stroke that happened Tuesday had BOTH eyes in the same cloud!!! I couldnt even read the phone to call the doctor! I had my hubby help me call the doctor's office and they told me to come right in by 1 pm. Hubby had to drive me! The doctor dialated my eyes and had a scan of the inside, then they put a dye in the IV and tried to see how fast the dye reached my eyes! It didnt show any blood coming into my left eye at all after 2 minutes!

The doctor then had his girls prep me for a proceedure that he put a needle into my eye and sucked out some of the internal matter. This procedure allowed the pressure to let blood come back into my eye, he patched my eye and sent me directly to the hospital to have the rest of my head checked for further signs of more stroke going on in my head! He was concerned that I could have a major stroke!

I spent 4 days in St. Johns Oakland hospital and they have done MRI's and Cat scans and doplers of my head and Arteries . One surgeon thought that I might have an infection of the arteries in my neck and wanted to do a biopsy of one near my temple. If I did have that, I would be put on steroids for a year to help clear that! steroids can really mess with your head! thank GOD I didnt have that! BUT....... while they were cutting out a piece of the vein and stitching me up, I woke up while they were working on me!!!!!!!! I told them I could feel them up, and ouch! that hurt! there from under the surgical drape they had over my face!!!!! They were flabergasted that I had woke up!! They hurried and finished me and got me back to my room!

They told me on Friday that my kidney are too weak to do a test in the MRI with dyes to enhance my arteries, but the original MRI shows that my right corotid is blocked more than 80% and i will have to have the test again and then arrange for the surgery soon to clear it!!!

That still dont explain how I got the blockage to the left eye though! I had the same kind of blockage in my right corotid soon after my original stroke back 6 years ago ! It was more than 90% blolcked!! I have to follow up and find out soon! At least the shot in my left eye save my eyesight in that eye for the time being!!! I got it all back the next day after the procedure he did for me, he save my life!
Ill keep ya posted on future events as they happen!

My digital camera died!

Its been about 6-7 years, but my trusty digital camera died ! Ive got a lot of pictures out of it over the years, but it finally give up the ghost when the pictures it took were all black. Guess the lens doesnt open to take the pic. It took a few weeks to finally find one that I could afford, and it turned out an Olympus Stylus. I havent taken many pictures yet, but Cider mills are now opening, and I hope it lives up to the hype. We'll see....

Family Reunion Picnic

On the 14th of August, my niece Tammy, who had took over organizing our Bagnasco family reunion at Stoney Creek park. We had at least 60 adults and kids show up, and thats just a small sample of ALL the family my husband has... Many couldnt make it. We had a pretty good (cloudy) day but it was great to see all that came again. My hubby has 6 sisters, and only 3 were able to come to this one. My thanks to my niece Tammy for taking over arranging the picnic again. We just couldnt handle it anymore. She even made a booklet with all the family tree diagramed in it, with pictures of many of the family.










< my niece Margaret





My hubby, Barlow with Bunny---

My Caroline ---------->

My hubby, Barlow with 3 of his 6 sisters.---

When we first got there.... Movie clip^

Heres some Beautiful Lillies that are blooming in my pond garden right now. There are 5 stems of blossoms getting ready to bloom. I love iT!
Also, some pics that Amber took of my pond with the LED lights on the fencing around it that Amber helped me put on. Looks like a fairy land at night! And last but not least... A blanket throw I made from the left over yarns in my basket with black rows between the bright colors. It will be nice and warm in the winter for when Im lounging on the couch. Just finished it yesterday!
Now we need some family to have so more babies for me to crochet for............. Keep me busy!

Last but not least... Ive been seeing a eye specialist for over a year for a stroke in my right eye. He has been zapping the blood in my eye with laser to stop the bleeding. Im going again for laser tomorrow. BUT... he says the white haze I have in my vision is from damage to the retina and that will Never get better..... I was hoping it would. OH MY!

New baby stuff for my Sister's daughter, Amie.

My Sister, Nancy who lives in Florida, has a daughter named Amie who is now expecting a baby girl in November. Ive been working the past several months on the following items as a gift to her first baby. She was the girl who married 2 years ago in Indonesia to her Indonesian husband she met while working on a cruise ship!







This is a frilly little bonnet .













This is her first HOODIE SWEATER!












This is a detail of the blanket I made, the yarn has light tones of pink, blue, yellow, white and a little purple in it. Stitch is a fan stitch again.













This is a larger view of blanket.










A better shot of the hoodie sweater.












This is a stuffed toy Wackie Duckling that I made for her first toy.

A closer look at Wackie Ducky!

I guess my toys are making a hit with my friends and family. I just got a request to crochet a puppy dog for a young grandson of my daughter's neighbor. Back to WORK!!

Water leak led to Remodeling our kitchen!

Several weeks ago, we discovered Water, coming from under our cabinets, and leaking into the new kitchen floor on the laminate flooring we had done 2 summers ago. The laminate was swelling and buckling up at the ends. We thought it was a leak from under the sink, but my contractor while looking for it, found out it was a leaking DRAIN pipe that led from my kitchen sink to behind the wall into a main drain, within the wall behind the cabinets. It was flowing down the wall and onto the sub floor under the cabinets and out behind my stove onto the kitchen floor. Let me tell you, I was SO glad that it wasnt a leaky water pipe! Everything I ran into my sink and down the dran was getting into my lower cabinets and out onto the floor!

They had to take out the cabinets and all the old subfloor, and replace all the cabinets from the sink left to the stove, then apply a Mildewcide to the other plywood to kill the mold. Now, the house insurance paid for all but the plumbing work, and paid for the new cabinets, and MORE so that I had enough left to finally get my backsplash done in ceramic tile also. With a suggestion from my contractor we decided to do the wet part of the kitchen, around the stove, refridgerator and sink with ceramic tile also, so it can be just mopped up. I think it was a great IDEA! My kitchen looks so much more modern and up to date now! He did the counter tops 2 summers ago for me and they look so nice against the new cabinets and floor!

Here is the new lower cabinets from the sink left to the stove. ( one of the old cabinets remain right of the dish washer)

The wet part is the newer stripped subfloor after spraying with the anti mold product.

Here my contractor, starting to prep my untiled backsplash for the tile he was going to put up. He used rope to measure the seams between the tiles.

Here is a close up of the tiles I choose for the backsplash. The glass tiles put a real pop of color to the kichen. The color is blue lagoon!

The finished behind the stove area! Before grouting.

They laid cement board down on the kichen floor to accept the tile flooring.

Almost finished! The tiles are nice light tan!

Finished with the stove back in its home!

New floor and the fridge is back in place also!

Happy Birthday to ME!

May 7th was my 61st Birthday. Caroline had me over tonight for cake and ice cream to celebrate it. Here's some highlights. Barlow took me out for dinner at a nice resteraunt last night, he had the fish and chips while I had a Huge City Chicken stick! YUMMY! Wendy brought me over a nice "Grandma " tee shirt, that I'll model later.

By
By the way, Barlow and I celebrated our 40th Wedding anniversary on May 1st. Seems like only a short time ago in my memory but a long time in reality.

Happy Mothers Day!

This is a Mothers Day tribute to my Mom, Jeannine Potulski who died at the age of 45 in 1972. She passed with ovarian cancer. She was a talented woman who could draw, paint, knit, crochet and sew anything. She was a 19 year old bride in this picture with my dad, Art. She looks so happy here.

I miss her everyday and hope somehow that she is smiling from up above at us and my beautiful grandkids! She and Dad are loved and missed so much.

A baby bonnet and blanket for Cindy's new baby coming in July!

My niece, Cindy Korber is due to have a baby in late July or early August. ( He third child) I have been working for 3-1/2 weeks on these for her. The thread has pinks, blues, whites and puples spread throughout. I edged it in pink, cause shes having a girl. The little cap has a ruffled edge around it. Im loving the colors! Hope she loves it too! The stitch is a fan stitch of 5 double crochets.