Ugh... What's Going On??

Five days ago, I had a nice little trip to the Urgent Care and also arranged for a cat scan. Kind of like this:

Lucky me--- I came down with 2 kidney stones! On top of it I also had a pretty bad bacterial infection at the same time. So after starting a course of antibiotics and the luck of being able to pass pieces of the stones (without needing surgery!) I am finally on the mend. I am feeling better and moving around now.

And of course the week before I had oral surgery on my gums and now a couple of the sutures are coming loose. I'm supposed to keep them in until Thursday.  I get to go back to the dentist tomorrow afternoon to see if they need to be retied or resewn, or if we can just leave things go as they are.

Lots of fun, huh?

But I'm looking forward to SPRING. Although we are forecast to get 3 to 5 more inches of snow tonight, today's temperatures went to the 42° high. The snow on the road and the driveway has melted down to bare pavement. Although we still have a couple feet of snow in the yard, and the snow banks up front are three plus feet high.

I stepped back across the street to take a picture of the house. Little Binney didn't want to go anywhere with Steve and wanted to wait for me. Stubborn little cuss.

We took a walk around the block in the beautiful sunshine this afternoon. 

We have noticed that we have flocks of beautiful red winged black birds that have arrived, and some of the neighbors have seen robins already. It's too bad that we're going to get lambasted again tonight with another snowfall. I have no idea what they are going to find to eat other than the bird seed and suet at our feeders. 

But the Sun was shining and there wasn't any wind so it made for a beautiful walk. Didn't even need to wear a hat. We got around to the back side of our block and realized that the rest of the road was not plowed. 

We've been hoping somebody might have driven through with a four wheel drive so we could walk in the tire tracks. Cuz we were only in shoes and not boots, we weren't about to traipse through the deep snow. Instead we turned around and came back the way we came. 

The neighbor girls were out and about... the oldest even took out a skateboard!  Spring Fever has begun. 

Binney suggested that we sit out on her favorite front porch for a while and enjoy the afternoon.  She sure loves it out there.  She got to give a few woofs to passerbys, and made sure they knew she was on duty to patrol the neighborhood. 

Steve chose to set back and relax on the porch swing. It's been a long winter, and this porch is really an extension of our living space throughout the spring, summer and fall.  We missed it. It's like an extra livingroom. 

We didn't stow away the rocking chairs this winter, instead opting to leave them out on the porch.  They have come in handy a few times to sit on,  or for UPS to leave a package on.  During the holidays we set things on them while decorating and un-decorating the porch.  They are made for all weather conditions, so why not?  Ahhhhh taking a break. 

I noticed my Valentine's Day flowers are going on TWENTY DAYS!  I plucked out a few spent blossoms, but the rest of the beautiful bouquet is still going strong. Thank you, darling Steveio. 

Before I got too sick, I managed to get the quilt backing, batting, and pieced quilt top wound onto my frame.  With this newest quilting machine and frame setup I got in January, it is a lot easier to get the layers all rolled on and loaded evenly with no gaps or wrinkles. I'm getting ready to start the quilting process.  

I'm not exactly sure what pattern I'm going to use or what design I'm going to fill in the spaces with. I asked on my online quilting list for a couple suggestions. Some of the gals took the time to actually draw on diagrams for me with photo editing to give me some inspiration!

or this

I have a doodle book notepad that I work out various designs after I watch inspirational YouTubes of other quilters and what they do. It's all a learning process.  Here I am practicing "feathers". 

I had Steve cut me a 16-in square piece of plexiglass that I can lay it right over the quilt block. Now I can draw on with a dry erase marker and kind of work out a couple different ideas before I start on the big queen size quilt. 

The weather is so pleasant that we are going to grill out a couple of steaks tonight and make up some yummy salads and maybe some baked potatoes. We will eat inside, but it's great to cook out on the grill. Tastes so much better that way. 

Tomorrow, Steve and his brother Pete are going to help their dad again with some more assistance. I'm glad that we stayed home from our vacation so we can help out more and more as his Dad needs all of us.