Out with the old.. In with the new.

Wishing everyone a healthy and happy 2015.

I am happy to see the back end of 2014. It has been a very mixed year for us. There were some good things and some not so good things but we survived it all.

It is pouring rain out here in Scottsdale and pretty chilly for this time of year (40's). We have frost warnings in effect for tonight and tomorrow. Not my type of weather! If I look at the rain as washing away 2014 perhaps it will be less depressing.... not working real well.

This is my new ankle brace which I am required to wear around the house. I am slowly graduating out of my boot. It is very strange putting full weight on my foot and a bit uncomfortable. My calf muscles are shot and I need to work on getting those back as well as lateral motion in my foot. I have been having trouble scrunching my toes... found out from orthopedist that they fused my big toe... they "forgot" to mention it till I asked them why I was having trouble! The "cure" is a bit of torture... hold down the toe for 2-3 minutes.... it hurts to do that.

To ring in the new year I am making a chocolate fruit tart to take to friends house this evening. I am not used to being on my feet for so long so poor Ned got all the clean up duty. It won't get fully assembled until tonight so no photo... there must be one somewhere in past years blogs as this is one of my favorite go to recipes when I want to make something that looks and tastes awesome but doesn't require a ton of work. I make the filling the day before, the crust the next morning, and assemble a couple of hours before needed.

I looked back at my blogs for this year and see that I haven't been blogging much. For those of you who are not Facebook friends where I post more often I will do a fast recap:

In January we went to Ohio for the wedding of our (Ned's) niece Maggie... and froze our asses off! We headed next to N.J. to visit with my family. High temp was 4 degrees a couple of days. I was not a happy camper, but my grandson is awesome! Life was pretty quiet for the next several months... I think I blogged in March so won't repeat. At the end of May I went back to N.J. for Will's 3rd birthday... yikes, time has flown. I managed to find a pothole and twisted my foot and broke the 4th metatarsal in my right foot. No cast but a boot for 7 weeks. It slowed me down but didn't knock me out. I was relegated to flat heeled shoes for the next 6 months... a real bummer since I had purchased some killer heeled sandals the day before I broke said foot. I returned the shoes.. reluctantly but knowing there was no way I was going to wear them for at least a year, if ever.
In July I went to L.A. to meet up with some doll buddies and Ned met me a few days later and with another couple did some wine tasting near Santa Barbara. We had a great time and bought lots of great wines.
At the end of August with Ned in China, I had a bit of an incident with some Sour Cream. I am severely lactose intolerant and am normally pretty careful. If something dairy has live cultures, I can usually eat it. Our local supermarket carries a brand of sour cream that I can eat. Someone apparently put a container of regular sour cream in with the stuff we usually buy. I wasn't paying attention apparently and picked it up instead. I ate some and in the middle of the night I was in severe agony.. I will spare you the details but about 6 hours later I managed to drive myself to the emergency room. After some scans and other tests they admitted me to the hospital for 2 days. Bill for 2 days stay and doctor bills came to almost $28,000.00! Thankfully, we have insurance but we also have a very high deductible. This was very costly.
End of October and a trip to London (for my dolls) with stops in D.C. and N.J. A very close friend of ours moved to D.C area after his wife passed in May. She was 93 and a real pistol. They were the parents I wished I had. N.J. of course to see Robin, Brett, and Will.

In the summer we found out that Robin was pregnant with twins due end of February/beginning of March. I had a problem... I had developed this very bad bunion on my left foot which was getting very bad.. so bad that I couldn't put on closed shoes. This was not going to work well in the cold weather.. also, Robin's house is 3 levels. I promised her I would come for a month when the twins were born. When I was at the orthopedist for my broken foot it was discussed what I needed to do to fix the left foot. It needed to be done but I was not in a huge hurry (then). After my little episode in the hospital and having reached our rather hefty deductible, I decided that November would be a great time to fix my foot so I would be all healed by the time the twins arrived. ( I was optimistic they wouldn't be too early!) You can read all about that adventure on the blog.

This pretty much brings me up to the present... ... as I look out the window I see that it is snowing! WTF!!!!!

Happy New Year!

2014 is winding down....

I cannot say this has been a good year, but it hasn't been a bad year either. It certainly has been an interesting year.
Christmas day was spent playing with dolls before going to a friends house for Christmas dinner.

Ned contributed to the meal with potatoes Lyonnais. There was good company, excellent food, and fabulous wine of which I had too much.... food and wine! Thanks Anne Marie and Donald.

My foot continues to heal and I have started Physical Therapy. Not surprisingly I have lost a ton of muscle tone in the entire left leg. I have my work cut out for me.  Next appointment  with doctor is Tuesday and I hope to get a brace instead of having to wear the boot all the time. I do have to say I cheat in the house and just walk on my heel and outside of my foot. Slow going but I can get to the bathroom and back before I can strap myself into the boot and find a shoe with the right height heel for the other foot! I am trying to walk more without overdoing it. I have home exercises to do and I am supposed to alternate ice and heat several times a day.

Ned made chocolate pancakes this morning for breakfast; a treat we indulge in once a year. While sitting at the table we saw a family of coyotes saunter across our front yard. They looked quite well fed. I think our rabbit population is down this year. We have been seeing quite a few hawks around as well so I am hoping they are keeping the rodent population in check as well. We used to have a resident owl but I haven't heard him lately. There have been sightings as well of bob cats but I haven't seen them.

At this point I am looking forward to 2015 and the birth of twins. It will be a busy year.

I will do a recap of 2014 in a day or so.

Happy Holidays!

We are an equal opportunity household. Some years if Ned is interested we put up a tree. We haven't done so for the past couple of years. Is not going to happen this year either as I am not up to it.

However, the girls have a tree! Not being too mobile this year was a real challenge for me to set up my holiday photo shoot. Everything was in different places and I had to sit on the floor to set it up. Getting up proved to be a problem and I had lots of help.... from Lucy of course. This probably took me 3X as long to put together as it normally does and I apologize for the poor lighting. I can only do so much.

Madam and the girls are waiting ... for the postman to arrive with their gowns.... or so they say.

Happy Chanukah and Merry Christmas.

Sherryl

Sound bites

Can now put weight on my booted foot.

Starting Physical Therapy next week.. 3X a week for 4 weeks.

Two more weeks of boot then brace.

Got some nice creative goodies for Chanukah. Will get more for Christmas. This is an equal opportunity household :-).

Temps are in the 60's and the sun is shining. My idea of winter.

Happy Chanukah!

1 for the little girl....

0 for the medical supply company. Remember those crutches that almost did me in? Well I was checking over my medical bills this morning and found a charge  for them that was not covered by my insurance company. Turns out the hospital used a vendor that was not in my network. Hmmmm. They never asked or told me. So I called the medical supply company this morning and told them that I had not approved them and was not going to pay for them.  I wasn't using the crutches anyway and I was going to return them. They let me. I brought them back this afternoon and now have a zero balance. Geez, you really have to watch every little thing.

On another good note.. I got on the scale this morning and after sitting mostly on my butt for the past 5 1/2 weeks, I only gained 1 pound!

I am hobbling along here in my boot. Been on my own this past week as Ned had to go to China. I survived. He is on his way home... good thing as I am almost out of food.  The grocery store on my own would be daunting. I have had many friends offer to do the shopping for me and I thank you all... I would have asked if I needed it.

Doing a happy dance.....

well not quite but close. Went to the Dr. this morning to have stitches removed and an X-Ray to see how the foot was healing. Was not looking forward to another cast. I apparently was a very good patient and followed orders.... and am healing well. Sooooo.. I got a boot instead of a cast! Yay!. I can only walk on my heel for the next 2 weeks but at least I can now take a shower by myself and manage some other small things. I still need to pretty much stay off my foot and still keep it elevated and iced. Timing is perfect. Ned has to go to China for a week and is leaving on Friday morning. A bit less stressful for both of us.

 

I hate Traders Joe's. We did some grocery shopping (I am a menace in a motorized cart) on the way home and they had Chocolate Peppermint Bark.. I had to buy some which means I will have to eat it. 

I cannot thank my husband enough for the wonderful care.  Ned, you have gone beyond what I expected and continue to surprise me. 

Now that I have mastered the scooter, I get to master a cane and a walker. Not sure which will be better for the next two weeks.