Mommie Marzie

This is a hard post for me to write. I’ve had an internal debate on whether or not to write about this. I don’t want it to sound like “poor me,” but it is about something that has changed my life and my family forever. I have to write about it or my future posts will all seem kind of like they aren’t the full story.

Last Tuesday my husband had a heart attack. It was really quite shocking. Especially considering that he is only 31. He was at work, yet alone. I can only imagine how terrifying it must have been for him. He was barely able to call 911.

I was very scared. The administrative lady for the plumbing company Joe works for called me and said that he was being taken by ambulance to the hospital in
Redmond. My first thought was that he somehow got injured on the job. While I was in route to the hospital, with my two boys in tow, I got a call from my husband’s cell. It was a paramedic saying that they were taking him to the hospital in
Bend and that Joe was suffering from chest pains. I don’t know how I made it to the hospital since all I could think about was that I might be widowed on this day.

I made it to the hospital just in time to rush to the cath lab to see my husband. The doctor wheeled him out so I could have one, maybe two minutes to tell him I loved him. That’s all the time the doctor would give us. Joe ended up with having angioplasty and a stent put in one of his arteries. But the doctor also found lots of damage to another artery.

I was blessed to have Joe’s co-worker and his boss’s wife sit with me. I will forever be grateful to them for talking to me and my boys and trying to keep my mind from thinking the worst. It had started out as a bad day anyway since my youngest woke up throwing up. He was extra super clingy all day which wasn’t very easy. But my oldest would go with the ladies to walk around the hospital and to go get lunch.

And I had to call Joe’s mom and tell her. That was a hard one for me. But really, who likes delivering bad news? And I had to call someone in my family. I really would have liked to talk to my mom but my parents were, and still are, on a cruise of the Panama Canal.

It was a long day and it has been an even longer week. Joe was supposed to come home Saturday. But on Friday night he had to go back to the cath lab to have blood clots removed from his artery. I’m thinking it was a blessing in disguise. I was so worried that I would get him home and something would happen to him. He finally got to come home today and he looks so much better.

We have been very lucky to have the support of family and friends and our church. Two of my sisters, Dena and Tracy, drove up here to help out with the kids. Joe’s dad drove up here to help out too. We’ve had so many people praying for us that it is just overwhelming and humbling.

And it’s not over yet.

Joe has to have bypass surgery. He meets with the heart surgeon next week to schedule it. He’s going to be off work for at least the next three months if not longer. It’s going to be one tough struggle for this single-income family. We have some money saved away, but not nearly enough.

And we didn’t COBRA our insurance when Joe changed jobs. Who thinks that something of this magnitude is going to happen to them? We thought that at worst we would have to pay for one or two doctor visits. Our new insurance starts tomorrow—a week too late. At least we’ll have it when Joe has bypass.

I’m trying to be positive about all of this and not dwell on the negative. I keep trying to think things like “It will be fun to mow the lawn and pull the weeds,” “It’ll be nice for the boys to have their dad home for the summer,” “Now we can eat even better.” But really, what else can I do? If I focus on the negative it’ll be bad for all of us and we need to stay positive to help Joe recover.

I’ve felt bad for the boys all week. When I would spend time with them I felt guilty for not being in the hospital with Joe. When I was with Joe I felt guilty for not being with the boys. My oldest has been very concerned. He kept telling people that his dad was sick. My little one has been put through the wringer. He’s always been a mama’s boy and this week he’s had to grow up a lot. But I was so proud of him on Wednesday when I left him with our Bishop’s wife. He waved and said “bye” and was good all day. Once my sisters got here it was easier for me to leave him since he was with his aunts.

And I’ve cried a lot this week. But mostly when I’m on the phone talking to one of my sisters or Joe’s youngest sister (gosh can she make me cry). I’ve tried to be strong but it’s hard. I was really touched one night when Joe looked at me with concern and asked me how I was. There he was, sick in bed hooked up to monitors and IVs and he wanted to know how I was. See, another reason I so love that guy!

So yeah, it sucks but we have to move on.

I love mail days like today. Love It, Love It, Love It!

I was expecting two things in the mail and they both showed up on the same day! Tee-Hee!! (Yeah, I got two bills along with the good stuff, but I’m not focusing on those.)

Firstly I got a package from my sister Tracy. She bought me all these fun and funky fat quarters and some yardage of some other fabric. I’m in heaven! I’m already thinking of things to make. Ha ha ha!!! As I was pulling the fabric out of the package I pulled out four pieces that really caught my eye (the last four prints on the bottom right). And guess what, three of those four are Amy Butler. I’m so in love with them!

THANK YOU TRACY!!!!

Along with the package from Tracy was a note from my niece Sandy. I sent her one of the diaper cases that I made. She sent a thank you. I just love her writing so I had to include that in this post as well.

Don’t I just have the coolest family? I certainly think so.

And for the grand finale…

I ordered this book from Kristen at Taylor Made Designs. The whole package was just phenomenal. From the outside in it was fabulous. I would highly recommend buying something from her etsy shop. Everything was incredibly put together and beautiful. I’m so in love with it. And the book is Scotchgarded so I’m sticking it in my purse so it can go everywhere with me. The funniest part of it was Kristen’s business card. Her title is “Creative Czarina” and it so fits her. Thanks Kristen!!!

My Goofballs and I visited the post office a few times in the past week. While there we noticed a large poster/cutout of Star Wars. Did you know the USPS is going to do a Star Wars stamp? And you can vote? And you can enter a sweepstakes? Go check it out!

http://www.uspsjedimaster.com/main/splash.html

Gosh, I just love Star Wars! I really want a stamp from the original trilogy, Episodes IV, V, and VI, to win. Not a stamp from the good yet not so great Episodes I, II, and III.

GO VOTE!!! 

My Big Goofball is doing the St. Jude’s Trike-A-Thon at his preschool. His teacher did a good job with it. She has taught them about tricycle/bicycle safety and helping other kids who are sick. Big Goofball has been excited about it.

When I dropped off Big Goofball, Little Goofball was very upset that I didn’t bring his bike and that he wasn’t staying. So I ran home and got his bike too. He wanted to ride like the big kids. Wednesday I’ll be prepared and will take both of their bikes.

Thankfully they are riding in the parking lot of the county fairgrounds so I don’t have to stress about them being out on the street!

Here is Big Goofball with his best bud–he calls all kids his “best friend” but this guy really is his best friend. (Big Goofball was “too hot” and had to take off his jacket. And check out his snazzy bike!)

Here is Little Goofball (borrowed the helmet from Mrs. L, need to get him his own).

Thanks to all of our families who are sponsor him. He’s excited and I think we’re going to raise enough for the level 2 prize.

Diapers, Toilet Paper, Laundry Detergent, and Deodorant. Yup. Mental shopping list.

But also… My blog stats tell me what people typed into a search engine to reach my web site. Is it OK to be offended with a search for “Yummy Mommie” (sounds risqué to me) and “Big Mommie”?

And lastly (Sorry Sadira!!) but that Hips Don’t Lie song by Shakira but I keep replacing “Shakira Shakira” with “Sadira Sadira”! AYE! If I didn’t like her and her blog so much I’d be thoroughly disgusted with myself.

I’ve used the apron tutorial, so that’s 2 of 5 that I’ve used from my tutorial post. It was so easy to make. I didn’t use the extra wide double fold bias tape. I wish I would have. I used some bias tape I got on clearance. Yeah, I was being cheap. But I really love the lavender bias with the orange and gold dish towel! I did make the neck hole 20” instead of 15” – I must have a big head or something! I pinned it with a 15” hole and it was a tight fit. And I’m not a small person so I made my ties longer than 22”. It was fun and easy and I’m ready to make more!

My next project is the notebook covers. Gotta start now or I won’t have them done for preschool graduation in May.

And can I just say I think it’s kind of silly to have a graduation from preschool. Especially since my Big Goofball’s class was a mix of 3- and 4-year-olds. The younger ones will probably be back again next year while the older ones move on to public school. Oh well. It’ll be fun, I guess. But it makes me feel like I need to buy him a shirt and tie so he’ll look all dressed up.

My Little Goofball is saying more words. My favorite new one is “hair” because of the way he says it. Think of some bad East Coast accent and then say “hair”. That’s how he says it. He is also into saying “where is” but it sounds like “whis”. So he’ll say “Whis Da?” or “Whis I?” (“I” is how he says his older brother’s name) It’s so cute. Last night, though, he says “Whis Da?” when Joe was sitting on the couch with us. Such a goofball!

I finished the bag for Khris at least a week ago. I know, shame on me. I just haven’t been to the post office. So last night I packaged it up and I’m planning on going to the post office today. Here is the bag. Actually, here are two bags! After I cut out Khris’ bag I had enough fabric to make (a slightly smaller) one for me too! It’s OK that they are matchy-matchy since she lives in Arizona and I live in Oregon.

The bags are big enough to fit magazines (that’s how I got them to stand up for the picture). It works much better for me. I’m able to fit diapers in this bag like I wasn’t able to do with my spring bag.

I hope you like it Khris!

Now I’ve been “hired” by my sister Dena to make one for her. Hee hee! I picked out some awesome green fabric, again at Wal-Mart, because green is her favorite color. And I tried not to go too wild.

More sewing to do! I better get my rear-end off the computer and shower so I can get cracking!

I’ve been working on the diaper cases I mentioned in my last post. LOVE THEM! I cut out four and have sewn two together. The robot print is for me. I had to use scraps from my two red pieces as my lining but it worked great! The red and purple cases are for my niece Tiffany who has two girls in diapers (one for each girl so she can keep the separate sizes straight). The green one is for my niece Sandy who has one boy in diapers. Then with the scraps from the purple and green I’m going to cut out one for my friend April who is expecting her first – she dropped by while I was sewing so I offered to make one for her too. She seemed pretty excited about it. Edited: I’m an airhead! I couldn’t think of anyone else who had a baby in diapers and I totally forgot Joe’s sister, Alina. DUH! So I’ll make one for her. April can wait, she isn’t half way yet so there is plenty of time to make one for her.

This pattern was pretty easy to follow and didn’t take much time. My only issue is that I can’t sew curves. I even drew out the curve so it would be easier to follow and it didn’t turn out so curvy (see robot case). So on the red one I just did it square and it turned out much better. And that will make it easier to cut out too. I used my rotary cutter to cut them and cutting curves with that was not easy for me.

I’m going to finish up the diaper cases, hopefully today. Then I can start on the dishtowel apron! I bought a simple orange dishtowel at the dollar store and want to make it into an apron. (Joe went to the dollar store for the first time on Saturday. He asked “Is everything really a dollar?” But I don’t think I’ll get him back to the store.)

I’ve been enjoying this world of blogging and blogs. I’ve found some cool sites and some awesome tutorials. I’m so amazed these women take the time to share something they create with the hopes that someone won’t rip them off and claim them as their own and mass produce, etc. I wanted to share my top 5 favorite tutorials. And, for the record, I haven’t actually done any of these yet, but I plan to. So I can’t attest to how easy these are to complete, but the instructions, which I have read, sound easy enough to follow.

Patchwork Notebook Cover. These just look so cool! I really want to try doing them for all of the kids, and Mrs. L too, in GB1’s pre-school. I thought it might be a cool “graduation” present. The lovely writer of Craft Apple has so many cool things on her blog. She has pictures of bags, pencil rolls, pad folios, etc. etc. And they all look pretty nice. She also has some patterns for a diaper bag and seamstress apron (I want one!!) for sale in her Etsy shop.

Embellished T-Shirts. I love the idea of updating an old favorite T so you can keep wearing. And my track record for spilling on myself and my kids getting me with their messy fingers attest to the need to do this. I especially love the T-shirt that Kirsten updated with a bleach pen and a mehndi design. AWESOME. Now I know what to do with shirts that mysteriously get bleach on them. (Seriously, I don’t use bleach very often so it’s a mystery to me.)

Cloth Baby Shoes. My kids are too big for these but they are so cute! I think that this along with the Diaper Case (see below) would make excellent baby shower gifts.

Diaper Case. This idea is just fabulous! I don’t carry a diaper bag any longer, but I still have a kid in diapers. Right now the diapers are in a Ziploc at the bottom of my bag. This is just an awesome idea! Maybe it’ll be my next project on the list and use the CUTE robot print my sister sent me.

Dishtowel Apron. I so need one of these! I’m a messy cook (as well as a messy eater). Randi just has some cool stuff on her blog too.

Do you know of other cool tutorials? If so, please share!