Possible Winter Digs?

This morning when I opened up our bedroom curtains, I looked down on the garden and was surprised to see blue birds flitting about and they seemed to be interested in all of our birdhouses...though the one pictured seem to get the interest of both the mama and the daddy. One would go and look in the hole and then the other would go look inside. I'm not sure how many there were down there at the same time. I just know that when I looked at one or another of the bird houses there was one sitting on it too...hard to keep track of just how many when trying to capture one or two with the camera. Now we will have to wait and see if we have bluebirds live in our garden throughout the winter. Woody walked four miles this morning. Later in the morning he went to the funeral home for a visitation. Then a bit later he went to the Life Care Center and had Bible study with Jeff. I stayed home and sewed. After I blogged Saturday night, I hemmed my skirt and then yesterday got under way with a knit top. I am just about finished with the top...just a few details remain. Late this afternoon while I sewed, Woody made one of our favorite soups--J. Hatheway's Italian Sausage. We both enjoyed it for supper. I think that I am through with sewing for today. It gets to the point that I figure that it is just as well to stop before a big mistake happens! And, at this point with it almost finished, I don't want to make a mistake and ruin it! I think that my recliner and a book sound good for the evening for me. Woody is downstairs in his recliner and a book and I hear the TV...so looks like we are settling in for another typically quiet evening for our household.

A "Sew Super Saturday!"

I had a really good time sewing and eating and visiting and then more sewing and more eating and more visiting...you get the picture! I managed to get a skirt finished except for hemming it (hem is turned up and basted so all it will take is sitting in my chair watching a show on my iPad to get that sewing job finished). And, then I got underway with a knit polo shirt. So it was a productive day along with lots of fun just being with others who have a love of sewing! I even got to see my good friend/partner in many sewing "crimes," who moved from Tullahoma. Connie was back in the area and stopped by to visit with her former quilt guild. I had sew perfect of a day that I didn't even take my camera out of my purse till on my way home. Woody took me by the beautiful ginkgo tree and stopped so I could get out and capture it in all its current golden splendor. The next path on the way home led us to another ginkgo tree that was a bit ahead of the top picture...and its leaves have now just about totally fallen off...the fate of the top pictured ginkgo tree..probably in a matter of days its beautiful branches will be totally bare, as these trees tend to drop all their leaves in a very short time (what we wish our majestic oaks would do!). Woody was pretty much on his own all day except for being my chauffeur to and from my sewing day. My machine is too heavy for me to lift so he takes me and comes and gets me and my machine. Today when he picked me up he had a bit easier time of getting the machine to the car as I was gifted by Connie with a rolling case for my machine...her current machine doesn't fit in it so I was the lucky recipient! Besides being my chauffer Woody walked four miles and went to the grocery store and has made brownies, which I am tempted to go sample...except I have really had what "should" be my quota of desserts for the day, but that "might" not stop me!

Friday

Woody came upstairs this morning to check the radar on the computer to see how close the rain was. And, it was close...so he took an umbrella. Not long after he closed the door the bottom fell out, but it didn't rain hard for too long...at least not here...not sure how much rain he had on his six-mile walk...not enough to cut his walk short. Later in the morning he went to get the oil changed in the Fusion and also made a stop at the library. I spent the morning gathering everything together for the projects that I plan to work on tomorrow at "Sew Super Saturday." I just unplugged my machine and put the carrying case over it. So the machine is ready to go and all the other things that I will need (at least I hope that I have gathered up what I will need) are packed in the laundry basket. I have a skirt cut out and a top...those should keep me busy...but if there is more time or if I get tired of one project or another I can also make some piping that I am going to need for another project or I can work on making one of my needlework pieces into a pillow. So there should be plenty to keep me occupied for quite a few hours. I did take a break from the sewing area long enough to do a little cooking today...made one of our chicken thigh recipes.

Pinky Raised?

Woody headed off on a twelve-mile walk before I started having school this morning. Joseph always looks for Goosey (Woody)...especially when we look at the picture of the goose in our animal book. He then looks for "Honk Honk" (Woody) when he tells me what a goose and Goosey say. We had another modified school day. Joseph and Isaac had their regular time with me and then Esther came over a bit early for her Grammy/sewing time. I needed to be through a bit early as our Sunday School class had an outing planned to Southern Charm's Tea Room this afternoon in Bell Buckle, TN...a piece down the road...one of the towns that Woody and I head through when we go the back road to Vanderbilt. We had a nice group of fourteen enjoy tea, sandwiches, soups, and some had afternoon tea goodies. I know that my grilled cheese with pesto sandwich was delicious as was my velvet chicken soup. I think that a good time was had by all. I came home and got busy and cut out a skirt. I have been cutting out several things that I want to make for myself. I plan to sew on them when I go to "Sew Super Saturday" this Saturday. A whole day blocked out for sewing...what could be better (at least for me!). This special sewing day is put on by one of the local quilt guilds. I am not a quilter, but do sometimes have quilting projects of sorts that I work on when I go to this...but this year it is straight up garment sewing for me. I have been included in this quilting event for years by a friend who was a member of the guild. She has moved away, but another friend in the group continues to issue me an annual invitation. So I am gathering sewing notions, etc. that I might need...it's a bit hard to anticipate everything that I might need when I sew outside of my own sewing room. Well, back to preparing the pieces for the skirt that I am going to make on Saturday. I have a top all cut out too...so perhaps it will be a productive day? Time will tell. Woody is downstairs reading. It's a pretty quiet evening in this Dorrell household. I don't even hear the TV downstairs.

Progress

When I called for Joseph to come over this morning for school, he was out at the playhouse/clubhouse construction site. I headed out to get him and checked on the progress of their building efforts. Tonight's pictures show the progress they made from yesterday afternoon when we got home from Vanderbilt (first three pictures)and today when I went out the last time before Abigail had her sewing time with me. They had a nice sturdy floor when last I checked. Woody did his Krogering this morning along with checking on the progress of our Taurus, and stopping at the local Farmer's Market. When he checked on the car it's window was fixed, so sometime while I was working at the church library this afternoon, he walked to the car repair place and got the car. (I did offer to take him when I went to the library, but he wanted that to be his walk for the day.) So we once again have two cars that have working windows. After I worked at the library I ran a couple of errands. First I stopped to get some sewing supplies that I needed and then I went to the public library to return a book that I had finished. I decided to look around and found several other books that I decided that I want to read. So once again I have quite a stack of books next to my chair to read or at least peruse. One of them is the history of Thanksgiving...not sure that I will read every word, but thought that it would be interesting to at least look through it and read the parts that intrigue me. We had an easy supper tonight. I gathered some more things together for my latest sewing endeavors. Then I sat down to read for a little while and next I knew I was asleep. Then when I came in to blog the computer was very slow to wake up. Woody is downstairs watching a library DVD.

Foggy Start to A Keytruda Anniversary!

Our morning started out foggy but other than fog and a slight slow-down a couple of times on the interstate...the rest of the day was smooth sailing. We got to Vanderbilt about an hour before Woody's first appointment...and all the appointments continued to go ahead of schedule. Once again shortly after we sat down in Dr. Sosman's outer waiting room, someone asked if anyone in the waiting room had an appointment with Deborah Wallace (Dr. Sosman's nurse practitioner). Woody's appointment was with her so he was taken right back. She told us that his PET scan showed that everything was pretty much the same...nothing new = good news. Dr. Sosman hadn't discussed with her the possibility of Woody stopping Keytruda either at the end of this 12 week time or after the next 12 weeks. She said that she would check and let us know if a decision had been made when we come to the next appointment in three weeks. We were out of that appointment so quickly that Woody decided to go check if a church friend was still in the hospital at Vandy. She had been discharged so we headed back to the infusion clinic and he signed in there. He got taken in thirty minutes early for that appointment and the Keytruda infusion started about five minutes before his actual scheduled appointment. Shortly before the infusion was finished, a nurse from Dr. Sosman's office came in and had him sign some papers as it is time to get reapproved for Keytruda. Guess what that means...he has been taking Keytruda for an entire year. I checked in my running notes from all his Vanderbilt appointments since his return to Vanderbilt after his time at National Institutes of Health...and...sure enough his first Keytruda infusion was November 6, 2014. Time marches on...swiftly! We were waiting on our car to be brought to us just a few minutes after noon. So a very smooth day of Vandy appointments. We did stop for lunch at Steak and Shake. We hadn't done that in a while. We enjoyed our hamburgers and fries and Woody also enjoyed a strawberry shake. Then we headed on down the road for home. Woody stopped for me to take some pictures of the most beautiful ginkgo trees in town. Wish that the sky had been blue behind it...we stayed cloudy all day. Here are a couple of pictures to see it...it still hasn't taken on its really bright yellow hue...still a bit of green in the leaves...but a really breathtaking tree...the trunk is also so unusual...I was told one day that the reason that it had so many trunks was that it was run over by a lawnmower in its early days and it came back multi-trunked.

We got home and Nathan, Kathy and children were out working on the "clubhouse" out back...getting the foundation and floor underway. They decided that they had better take advantage of the mild and dry weather that we are supposed to have for the next couple of days. After supper Woody walked to and from the church prayer room. I sat down in my comfy chair and fell promptly to sleep...reason that the blog is a bit late tonight. Our Vandy trips always wear me out no matter how smoothly they go. But the Vandy patient sails right through hardly affected by the day and he is the one being treated!

Dark Thirty

Tonight's picture shows what the time change has done to us...dark before 5:30pm...really pretty dark at 5pm. The light that is on the porch is from the street light. Our bodies are still trying to adjust to the time change. I keep thinking that it is later than it is...and really it is an hour later to my body's clock. Woody headed out on a seven-mile walk before school started for me this morning. Joseph, Isaac, Joy, Esther, Abigail, and Elijah all had some time with me today. It was Elijah's "long" time with me...today we read a book about Morse Code and then deciphered a riddle that had been written in Morse Code and he wrote his name in dots and dashes. Late morning Woody went to Life Care to have Bible Study with Jeff. I continued on with some sewing preparations this afternoon. I'm trying to have several things cut out so I can sew on them on Saturday when I go to a special all-day sewing day that one of the local quilt guilds puts on yearly. I am not doing any quilting at the moment, but do have several things that I want to get made...so I plan to garment sew...hope that they don't throw me out!!!!! I made chicken salad for our supper tonight...guess it is time for me to get back to cooking...I have taken a bit of a break since Erin was here and we have been eating leftovers or other easy meals. I just hung the towels back in the upstairs guest bathroom...got the bed changed the other day in the guest room...so guess we are ready for the next guest/s that might come our way. Tomorrow we will head to Vanderbilt for Woody's next labs, seeing docs, and Keytruda infusion...so I am gathering what I will be taking...a book, camera and batteries, iPad, etc...to pack into my tote bag...I want plenty of choices as to what I will do to wile away the waiting hours.