Toad

I came home from my Thursday night Knit-Out at Panera to find this little guy by our garage door. I ran in to get my camera got this great picture of him (or her-I didn't inspect the underside of this amphibian). It looked like he was waiting for the garage door to open to let him in. Maybe he had a little toad car inside. Whatever it was, he was kind enough to let me snap his picture. Hop away little toad. Hop away!

Doing an "Alison"

My cyberfriend, Alison, has become a verb. She gifts people with her lace scarves and shawls. Sometimes she'll sit in her church and sees someone there who she feels needs one and will gift them right there. She has also had some medical issues recently and has gifted the nurses and doctors who have taken care of her. On our list, KnitTalk, those who have followed her example call it, "Doing an Alison". I am doing an Alison to my pediatrician's office.

This year has been a tough one for our family, especially for our younger son. From appendicitis to an infection to surgery for a broken nose, our pediatrician's office was always there for us. Linda, the receptionist who would take my phone calls and probably heard the tears in my voice to both Dr. Lasser and Dr. Meir who got on the phone with us when we were at the ER again to answer our questions and visited Elijah each time. Finally, the nurses who would answer my non-emergency medical questions and would call to find out how we were all doing. I once called them from the recovery room after the nose surgery because a nurse upset me so. Dr. Lasser came on the line and told me that everything was fine and not to worry. Hearing his voice telling me that made me feel so much better. Little did he know at the time that I was in the nurses' bathroom crying my eyes out because that recovery room nurse scared me so. The whole practice was there for us. I hope I will never have to use them again in the capacity we used them in this past year but it was so reassuring to know they were there for our whole family.

I decided to do an Alison. I got it into my head that I wanted to make everyone something, like Alison does, but I thought scarves would take too long to make. I decided to make them market bags. They are colorful, easy and fast to make and "green". I started to make them a few weeks ago and when I completed bag #6, I decided that I should call the office and find out how many people are on staff in total. I left a message on the non-emergency line asking if I should want to send something for everyone in the practice, how many of those items would I need? I got a call back from one of the nurses who told me that the magic number was 10 and she wanted to know what was I doing? I told her not to worry about it.

Today I finished #10. Here's a picture of my environmentally-friendly market bags.
I'm going to pack them up in a box with a thank you note and send it to the office. I hope they like them.
(Here they are all piled up)

I'm going to take all the scraps and make some for myself. I realized while knitting these bags, the ones I made I gave away or our dear Shadow destroyed them.

Thanks again to our pediatrician's office. You guys are great! Thanks Alison for the inspiration!

Knitting is My Drug of Choice

Today I spent countless hours in an ER again with my husband. He woke up with the dry heaves and insisted that he had a strep infection in his blood AGAIN. (We've been through this two times already!) I called the doctor, got him an appointment and hoped that all he had was a stomach virus or something like that. The doctor felt that he may be suffering from diverticulitis. Remember that sketch from SNL when the couple from New Jersey (what exit) would go out to eat in a restaurant and all they ordered was macaroni and cottage cheese because they had diverticulitis? I actually felt sorry for Neal because if he had it, he would have to give up his beloved berries and other seedy/nutty things. We had to go to the ER, not our usual place, but one this doctor was affiliated with. Thank God I had my knitting with me along with a mini-shopping bag of all the medications my beloved takes. I couldn't believe that I was in an ER again! Once he was given his IV to increase his fluids and some drugs to take away the pain and nausea, I whipped out my needles and knitted my heart out.

I was so stressed out that when the lady came with the pet therapy dog, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this cute bug-eyed pooch. She asked me if I would like some lavender on some cotton to help me relax at night. I told her I would take it now because I was on the verge of asking a nurse if they could throw me some kind of anti-anxiety pill. The lavender actually worked. I picked up my needles again and knitted away on my Diamond Blossom Scarf. Score one for this hipknitta!

After his CT scan, we found out that Neal did not have diverticulitis but possibly a virus. That was a relief. I don't know how I would of reacted if he needed to stay over or have surgery. So, after a few days of light eating and rest, let's hope that Neal would be as good as new and that I'll be able to find more time to knit...outside of an ER that is!