So January. Such a long month and it's been so cold and snowy everywhere. The past week has been a reprieve for sure after weeks and weeks of extra cold temps. I screen shotted a number of weeks where, for the most part, it was -38 during the day and colder with windchill at night. I then realized that that wasn't really anything anyone wanted or needed to see, although I did enjoy sending a couple of them to Sue in AZ and Shari in NZ, just in case they were homesick, which they weren't.
Christmas came and went and we had such a good stay at your place, Mark and Jen. Time went so fast and we really appreciated that the dogs were allowed to come. The food was awesome and we really enjoyed seeing everyone again - been way too long since we've been to Estevan and hope to come in the summer for a longer visit with you Mom and Dad, and of course Pettitts.
A few pics from Christmas? Well many of them would have been nice, but evidently I developed the shakes at some point and,well, to say Christmas was over in a blur, well, SO WERE THE PICS haha.
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| Jenny and Mark's beautiful home |
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| The drive down. Not the most special drive ever - the wind was bitter, the truck key broke off in the ignition while the vehicle was running and our expensive chrome bug screen broke and blew off somewhere around Regina. |
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| Jen and Mark being amazing hosts and cooking us up some fabulous brunch |
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| ADORABLE coasters made from trees slices cut by Mark, wood burned by Max, and designed by Jen. Hey - Kira found these on the fireplace and undid the string. Luckily I caught it in time before she played sticky-chewy-stick- stick with them. I noticed, fortunately that they had started to get a bit moldy in between. Not sure if it is just humid in our house, or the wood wasn't quite dry, but they are too adorable to have ruined. Might want to undo yours and let them dry out a bit more to save them! |
Dad and Max and sorry, Koko - not a super pic of you but you should have seen the other ones. *sigh* Told you I don't do people pics well.
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| This does not appear to be a dog in the pet bed, but no doubt he was hairy enough once he laid in there :) |
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| Jen taking a pic of max who was completely overjoyed at his gifts. |
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| Treats at mom's - hey Shari I ate that pink stuff for ya! |
Such a pretty tree in such a pretty house. Gorgeous!
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| The watchers at the farm.. watching Sumi and Kira act like idiots. |
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Ok here goes... taking the balsa wood off that wall ... I originally thought it was some sort of vinyl but it actually balsa wood veneer almost. Stained to match the other wood... and i may have left it had it not been bubbled and buckled.
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View of the same thing from the
stair case. What do you think? |
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| Here is is - now just have to patch the walls and sand and then paint |
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| Random amaryllis |
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| Mooned ya! |
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| This was under the tree for me.. It just said "To: Tami From: The Internet." Best. Gift . Ever. |
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| Would you like some champania!? Oh Dar, you are so continental. |
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| northern Lights were out one night until SURPRISE! it clouded over. Creeped me out a bit listening to the coyotes and standing in the dark .. hearing the noises in the forest |
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| Pretty sure this is where crystal designers get their inspiration from |
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| She played so hard, then dug a bed and was asleep before her head hit the pillow |
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| Random amaryllis again. It was pretty but nothing special |
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| Putting up the new fan |
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| Maybe the wood look was a bit too much but it's a huge fan and I really really liked it. I think once the walls are painted it won't seem so overdone |
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| This is the cabinet of Darwin's great gramma's old radio. We were really pleased and proud to have been given it and will take great care of it. It was gutted a long time ago, but Darwin added some LED lights and a tablet for a face plate, put in a speaker, and we listen to music on it. |
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| This is what the balsa wood kind of looks like. In places it came off in large sheets, in other places where it was glued it came off in little teeny tiny pieces. I thought maybe a heat gun would help so I tried out my hair dryer which is way too hot for anyone, and tada! it works wonderfully as a heat gun. Silver lining, y'all |
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Ok that is all for the pictuers and for anyone who made it this far and actually cares, I did get to the surgeon about my MRI results. As I suspected 2 years ago (!!) I have what he called "an extensive partial tear" in the rotator cuff. What that means is that of the two major muscles there, one has come away from the tendon and sort of buckled under . THe tendon holding it in place now has nothing to do so it slips out of place and starts to wear on bone and fray, like a rope.
He said that there is a danger that the tendon will actually snap and then surgery needs to happen within 8 weeks. As it is right now, he would have advised surgery long ago, but it could not have happened when it should have anyway because of the frozen shoulder dealio.
So the freezing shoulder is gone and i have 85% mobility in my right arm. It hurts at about a 4 out of 10 all the time but still a huge improvemnt over last year when it hurt a 8 out of 10 and i couldn't even move it. he says they could possibly debride my shoulder to clean out any scar and loose stuff but that i would probably only regain 5% more mobility. For that it is hardly worth it.
So I am to continue the exercises for life... and very likely the tendon will snap at some point and then they will do what they can surgery wise. It is also possible that it will never get any worse. He says it will indubitably happen in the other arm and I feel that now, however with exercise maybe it will just stay the way it is. He feels that i probably injured my shoulder at some point and natural wear and tear has just exacerbated things.
Long story short - I had a reason to be in pain and I should now suck it up. Great to know and it only took two years. Surgery is probably an option at some point, and also he says that that type of injury can never heal itself.
HA! There is a first for everything!
Ok that is all for now - sorry to have been so long winded. The internet has been bad here with the wind and it's hard to do anything online for too long,. With the wind yesterday our internet tower / antenna which was bolted to the house and stood about 15 feet high, actually bent in half, and blew over almost off the roof. We are now using our phones for wifi in hopes that Darwin's Dad can get out here soon to do something with it.It's just been so brutally cold I am not sure we should hope for that until spring but wee will see.
ttfn!
