Category Archives: Health

Moving right along

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Terri | 3 comments

Still stiff from Wednesday’s tumble but am thankful that’s all that has shown up. It’s still rather uncomfortable getting up if I’ve been sitting (i.e. stitching) for a long time, or first thing in the morning when it’s time to come downstairs. I’ve ditched the slippers for now and am even more cautious than before. I hate falling. I’ve always been afraid to fall. It’s why I only went snow skiing once in my life. I don’t know why it kept me from it since I used to ice skate, and water ski! Oh well. More cautious on the steps.

I finished up my 10 hour rotation on Peacock Tapestry yesterday. I finished the gridding Thursday evening at my weekly stitchin, then put it away until I was home and better able to concentrate.

I’ve decided to take Hannah Beeby out of my rotation and make her my stitchin piece until I finish her. The chart’s easy to read, there are only 3 colors, and the fabric is 28 count, making her easy to stitch on, and not mess up, while enjoying the company and conversation at the stitchins.

But, back to PT. When I picked her up again yesterday, and started stitching, because of the gridding I found a couple of small stitching mistakes that would have made it very interesting when it came time to backstitch. I made great progress on it, even with the little bit of actual stitching I did. I did something wrong with my camera when I took the before picture, so there’s only an “after” this time around:

Peacock Tapestry by Teresa Wentzler

The Great Spreadsheet spoke again, and now I’m working on Haiku by Dimples Designs. I started this during one of the Guilt Free January’s I participated in. 2004 to be exact! Here’s the before shot of the little stinker:

Haiku by Dimples Designs

The stitching is going rather quickly. This is the third WIP that fits into the Theme-a-licious-ness for January!

I’m getting a lot of stitching done but I know it will slow down when I start my quilting class in a couple of weeks.

I’m making slower progress on one of my other yearly goals (which I didn’t publicize). I want to become more familiar with all the technology I own! I made a tiny step by changing my tabs up top to drop down (I’ve had this blog for how long and didn’t know I could do that?) Part of my problem with it all is that I don’t understand the terminology. I figure if I could master the latin of law, I should be able to better handle technology terminology. Right? We’ll see 😉

3 Comments

Posted in Haiku, Injury, Peacock Tapestry, Stitching, Theme-a-licious, WIPocalypse

2012 Stitching Thoughts

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Terri | 3 comments

I was going to post this yesterday, but yesterday didn’t go as I thought it would. It started out as any other day — get up at 3 a.m. to watch the Quadrantids meteor shower, go back to bed at 4 a.m., get up at 7 a.m., fall down steps from kitchen to family room, nearly faint from the pain of falling down, while trying to not freak M out too much when I yelled for him….yeah, not so much what I had planned. Spent as much time as possible getting up and down all day so I wouldn’t get too stiff. Was shaky all day and very thankful that the worst injury seemed to be to my pride. Don’t know exactly what damage I did but when I finally came to a rest I was sitting on my butt with my left leg bent out to the side of me. I heard a loud pop when I fell and was scared to death to move afterward, thus my yelling for M, who was still upstairs sleeping. In the end, I hurt my right palm, left wrist, left knee, left ankle, and my neck and shoulders were stiff. This morning I’m stiff, but not feeling anything like I was worried I would be feeling. I’m moving sort of slow and walking around like an old lady, but I’m up and about, and not going to miss going to my Thursday evening stitchin or to Vegas next week.

Now, for the original reason behind this post:

As shown by my ort jars for 2011, I had several months where I barely touched any of my stitching. Even then, I stitched more in 2011 than I did in 2010. I’m hoping, now that I’m no longer working, that I can at least double the amount of stitching in 2012!

For the past couple of weeks while unpacking my stash, I’ve been thinking about what I’d like to accomplish in 2012. It’s been fun reading what other stitchers are hoping to accomplish and nice to know I’ll be in good company whether or not I succeed. I think I do better with goals, or rather putting down what I’d like to see happen, on “paper.” Sometimes I get caught up in the crowd mentality and forget what I wanted to do if I don’t have some sort of written plan to bring me back to earth!

So, for 2012 I plan on:

Get back to blogging more frequently. I stitch more when I blog. I am a horrible photographer, but I enjoy sharing my stitching just like everyone else!
Get back to rotating my stitching and tracking my time. I know a lot of people think this is too much work but when I was doing it before I felt such a sense of accomplishment and I seemed to stitch more, just like when I blog more.
Stick to my WIPocalypes goals and keep my page updated.
Post to the Theme-a-licious challenge as often as my rotation works into it.
Post my monthly TUSAL.
Participate in at least 6 Fair and Square exchanges.
Finish out all 6 received Fair and Square exchanges. I plan on taking advantage of the great finishing tutorials in bloggy land.
Stitch 3 Santa ornaments for my Santa display.
Take at least 1 stitching related class.
Finish logging my charts into my spreadsheet.
Start organizing my freebies.
Organize my magazine designs.

When I read back over my list I feel like I’ve set an extremely overloaded year for myself and am so tempted to “downsize” that list.

What I don’t plan on doing….depriving myself. I don’t handle deprivation well. Just see how I respond when you try to take chocolate away from me — and it never fails that just as soon as I say “I’m not going to buy anymore stash until I stitch ____ number of pieces” someone publishes something I can’t live without. I’m just going to take it month by month. Or maybe, newsletter by newsletter 😉

I have non-stitching goals this year too! But those, I’m keeping to myself.

I picked up Peacock Tapestry Tuesday and immediately remembered why it became a UFO instead of a WIP.

Back in 1999, when I first started it, gridding was something new to the stitching world. I didn’t grid before I started it and while I love stitching on it, the backstitching is what got me. I have requested a copy of the backstitching chart. I tried to backstitch it Tuesday, but gave up. Yesterday I started stitching on it, but decided the smart thing for me to do is to grid it. So, that’s where I’m at. I’m 5+ hours into it this rotation. I’ll finishe the gridding during this time, and get some more stitching done, too. Next time I pick it up I should have the backstitching chart and I’ll go back to that before adding more stitches.

I’m trying to decide whether or not to take it with me tonight if I don’t finish up the 10 hours by then, or to take Hannah Beeby again, since she’s so “easy.”

3 Comments

Posted in Goals, Hannah Beeby, Injury, Peacock Tapestry

TUSAL and framing TaDa!

Posted on April 19, 2011 by Terri | 6 comments

I am running as fast as I can to catch up! I hope it’s not too late to share my TUSAL for April 3. It totally rocks, and you’ll see why in just a second.

It’s so full because I finished queenie and now she’s back from the framers!

Here’s a closeup of the frame. It has the same deep blue/green colors in it as the mat.

I have absolutely no confidence in myself when it comes to choosing frames so I always drag M along with me because he is so good at it!

I’ve been stitching on my ornaments and Houses of Hawk Run Hollow.

I haven’t posted about my weightloss journey because I haven’t had anything to share. About 6 weeks ago I stalled out. Last Thursday I finally saw the scale start downward again (-1.8#s) and if my home scale is anything to go by this week’s loss will be good, too!

6 Comments

Posted in Finishes, Framing, HOHRH, Mirabilia, TUSAL, Weight

Weigh In and a Recipe

Posted on February 17, 2011 by Terri | 1 comment

Thank you all for your support over my last couple of posts. As expected I did have a gain today. I was up .2 #s!

Work was chaotic today and I ended up leaving an hour early. I came home and made some comfort food for supper. It’s super easy and even has the HarleyQuinn seal of approval.

Vegetable Beef Soup

1/2 pound extra lean ground beef
11 oz can of whole kernel corn
14 oz can of cut green beans
14 oz can petite diced tomatoes
1/8 cup of Emeril’s Essence or creole seasoning

Cook the meat and seasoning together. Pour in the veggies, juice and all. Bring to a simmer for 30 minutes and enjoy!

This makes 6 1-cup servings at 3 PP each. Double up and it’s still only 6 PPs!

I normally double the recipe and use 1 or 2 pounds of beef depending on what’s in the freezer. The only ingredient that is NOT a power food is the seasoning!

HarleyQuinn almost loses her little mind when you open a can of green beans so we fondly call this ‘green bean soup’ 🙂 M will pull out a couple of green beans to cool off for her (and Jasper) to eat at the end of our meal.

1 Comment

Posted in Recipe, Weight

Tagged emerils, weight watchers

Oh the joys of a busy life

Posted on February 16, 2011 by Terri | 4 comments

I can’t believe it’s been almost a week since I last blogged. There has been so much going on since my last post.

Work has been crazy CRAZY! We’ve had a case fall apart on us, one settle, and there have been so many little post-its on my desk that I had to stop what I was doing and just get them done. I hate when that happens.

Last Saturday was my monthly stitching day. Thank goodness, because that’s the only time I’ve made for myself to stitch lately!

I stayed the night with Melissa and the two of us were joined by Darla that night at Downtown Disney‘s Rainforest Cafe to celebrate Melissa’s upcoming birthday. The next morning Melissa and I headed back to Downtown Disney and had chicory and beignets at the Jazz Kitchen. Oh calories, how I love you! Especially donut-y calories! I actually have chicory coffee at my house and drink it all the time. It’s been a very long time since I made beingets though.

Then of course, Monday was Valentine’s Day. Much to my surprise, especially since he never said a word beforehand, M called me at 4:30 asking me if we were going out to dinner that night to celebrate. I left it totally up to him where we were going and since we couldn’t get early enough reservations at his first choice we went to El Torito’s and split a carne asada platter. It was the perfect amount of goodiness for my Mexican food craving self (I swear I could eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner — in the same day!). My gallant knight also came sweeping in with a dozen long-stem red roses, purchased from my favorite little mom and pop corner flower stand.

This morning’s weigh in at home for the Power of One challenge at Sisterhood shows me up some more, but you know…I don’t care! Ok, I care, but I’m living with it. After last week’s near meltdown over being up one pound I had a long think with myself — and a good talking to from M. This is lifetime. There are going to be times when the scale is going to go up, I just have to not let it defeat me, and get right back into the swing of things immediately.

Tuesday I packed a very healthy and filling lunch.

Last night I made up a quickie broccoli and beef stir-fry. I winged it with some pre-cut sirloin for fajitas that I tossed in 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, added in some garlic powder, garlic pepper powder, kosher salt, ground ginger and “fried” it in 1 tablespoon of olive oil, I then poured in 1/2 cup of chicken broth, 3 tablespoons of soy sauce and while that was bubbling up I steamed up some broccoli, then tossed that in. It made 3 large servings. Well, it should have been 4 but M ate 3/4 of it!

Today, I packed the same healthy and filling lunch as yesterday and added in a banana and blueberries. Tonight it’s BFD (which we do a couple of times a week).

Is my official weigh in tomorrow at Weight Watchers going to show that scale going up? Probably. Am I going to freak out about it like I did last week? No. Am I going to be disappointed in myself. I’m going to try hard to not be, but I’m only human.

4 Comments

Posted in Food, Recipe, Weight

Tagged el torito's, weight watchers

Would you like some 2PP cheese with that Whine?

Posted on February 10, 2011 by Terri | 2 comments

I have gained 1 pound.

There are so many things going through my head as to ‘why.’

M thinks it may be water related because he says one of the things we had for supper last night was salty. I don’t normally eat really salty foods and now I’m wondering if I’m naysaying because he’s trying to make me feel better, if he really means it, or if I’m grasping for excuses.

I’m thinking it could be the change of clothes, partially, but I am reasonable enough to know that my clothes don’t weigh that much more…or do they? The home scale this morning showed me weighing the same today as last Thursday.

I tried to talk to my WW leader about it during the meeting because she asked if anyone had any problems non-Super Bowl related but feel like she just gaffed me off. I had to leave before the end of the meeting because she talked a whole lot about Super Bowl temptations before she got the meeting started and I had to get back to work.

Do I feel like I failed? Well, I didn’t think I did, just more confused. However, I had planned on a 7 PP something for lunch and had a 10 PP something instead. Oh, and I got a diet soda to wash it down, which means I’ve gone almost 2 weeks without drinking a diet soda. So did I feed feelings of failure? Maybe so.

I really don’t know how to explain how I feel except that I think my feelings are hurt that I’ve gained, and how stupid does that sound? I had 10 more WPs left over this week than the week before and I gained.

2 Comments

Posted in Weight

Wednesday, already?

Posted on February 9, 2011 by Terri | 4 comments

Wow, I feel like I lost Monday and Tuesday!

I was really glad to get to work on Monday morning. The weekend was full of nothing special so I don’t know why. I did manage to stitch some though.

Tuesday found me at the hospital getting my annual mammogram. The tech told me she can tell by comparing last year’s xrays to this year’s xrays that I’ve lost weight. I’m glad someone can tell because I sure can’t!

Which leads me into this week’s Power of One. I’m down again in my unofficial weigh in. Sometimes it’s hard to track because while I’m stepping on my home scale for the Power of One challenge, I’m not caring what it says because my official weigh in at Weight Watchers is what I’m going by. (That sounds harsh reading back over it!)

I’ve had a major struggle the past couple of days. I’m not hungry, but all I can think about is eating. Cravings like crazy for home made fried chicken, coconut cake, soda. Everytime I think about needing to go somewhere the very next thought in my head is what food place is near/next to it. Tears have been involved. Today, a co-worker brought something from the Danish bakery down the street from us. I just want to cry again.

We finally made it to see The King’s Speech last night. It was educational to both of us in some aspects and we both enjoyed it. I read a book a very long time ago about Wallis Simpson, so was familiar with the era and the goings on in that direction, but didn’t know much else about the royal family. It was heartbreaking in several places.

This coming weekend is my monthly stitchin and I’ll be spending the majority of the weekend with Melissa 🙂 Can’t wait!

4 Comments

Posted in Movies, Weight

TUSAL Thursday and WI

Posted on February 3, 2011 by Terri | Comments Off

Today is the day we’re supposed to share our ort collection for TUSAL. I’ll show mine in a moment.

It’s been a fairly quick week! I have a ton of little piddly things to do at work that keep me trotting back and forth down the hall between the filing area, copy room, and my desk. We had a staff meeting today and we are on track to have all trials over by the end of June!!!! Yikes! Anyway, all those piddly things make the time go by fast.

I had a lab work appointment this morning. It’s time for my annual physical and I always try to get my lab work and mammogram done beforehand so I can get the results at the same time I get my physical. Because I knew I had a staff meeting at lunch (which is when my Weight Watchers meeting is), I stopped by the meeting on the way to work after the lab visit and weighed in.

Down 1.8 pounds this week! I’ve entered a new ‘decade’ in my weightloss journey!

I’m going to have to change my Weight Watchers’ “uniform,” too. I have been wearing the same trousers and blouse to work on Thursdays to help me keep things as close to similar as the time before when I weigh in each week. I can now pull those trousers on and off without undoing them 😉

To answer a couple of comments from my last post:

Susan – we are moving to Arizona. We have been looking at homes in Mesa, Tempe, Queen Creek, areas.

Katrina – this is only the 2nd time I’ve been excited about moving. The first time was when I moved to Japan (with a 10 day notice!).

Figuringitallout – thanks for visiting!

Now for my TUSAL. I love several of the Yankee Candle scents (although my favorite candle is Circle E). I decided to repurpose some of the smaller sized candle jars for my monthly TUSAL. So here’s January’s next to my empty jar waiting for the first ort of February.

Comments Off on TUSAL Thursday and WI

Posted in TUSAL, Weight

Woohoo Wednesday

Posted on February 2, 2011 by Terri | 3 comments

I can’t believe it’s February! I know where January went but still! Hello! Slow down. Or maybe speed up?

M and I had another nice talk last night about when we’re outta here. Something set him off at work this week and he’s ready to cut and run. He calculated his leave time on the books, included his ‘house hunting’ leave, and figures he can tell them to take this job and shove it in November. He wants us to sign papers on a house in October! Yikes! Yippee! Woohoo! Yikes!

Still no stitching. Sigh. I have been spending 15 minutes a night in my craft room though. Decluttering. I can see a good 6″ square of desktop now. Just kidding. Sort of. It’s a disaster in there!

All kidding aside, I’ve adopted a new mantra this year.

Put it UP instead of put it DOWN.

Just by spending 15 minutes each night I was able to gather the supplies for two designs (they were scattered willy nilly). I need some floss toss help with the fabrics and have loaded both of them in my stitchy to-go bag for the next Stitchy Saturday.

As to my weight. Woohoo! I got on the scale this morning for an unofficial look for the Power of One challenge at Shrinking Jeans. I’ve been a little nervous since I’ve eaten 2/3 of my weekly points. First time and I am curious to see what it does to tomorrow’s official weigh in at Weight Watchers.

Hair appointment this afternoon so I’m out of work early. Any day away from work is a good day in my book.

Thank you gals for checking in to the new blog.

3 Comments

Posted in Retirement, Weight

Since I last wrote…

Posted on July 14, 2010 by Terri | Comments Off

Oh my stars! I can’t believe it’s been 3+ months since I last blogged. I have meant, so many times, to sit and write about what’s been going on in my life, not because it’s earthshattering news, but because I wanted to remember it! 🙂

But so much has happened and I have a horrible memory! What I can remember since I last blogged:

I’ve had the Shingles. Boy was that fun. NOT!

We had our road trip to Mesa, AZ! We were headed there on May 21st, but, thankyouverymuch Marine Corps, Kahuna could not get off work. Then were headed there on June 18th but one of Kahuna’s friends died in a surfing accident and the memorial service was scheduled for June 20th (which was also Father’s Day and our 29th anniversary). We ended up going June 25th and it was a very lovely trip. I loved Mesa! We’re planning on returning in the fall for some more searching. We mostly looked from Mesa to the south and if it had been 9 months in the future we would have made at least 2 offers! Next trip we’ll be looking to the north of Mesa.

Came back from vacation for 1 day and had to take the rest of the week off because I got sick!

I entered 2 stitching pieces in our county fair and got blue ribbons on them both! Woohoo me! It has been a huge boon to my stitching mojo and I find myself getting frustrated when something keeps me from stitching. Yay!

Kahuna and I have started working out to the P90X program. It is kicking my @.S.S.! I actually have a love/hate relationship with it. I hate to lose the time it takes to do the program, but love that it’s actually kind of fun. It’s definitely challenging! I hate that I hurt so badly in almost every joint/muscle I own because it shows me how out of shape I am (I used to do step aerobics 6 days a week!) but I also love that I hurt because it’s reminding me that I am doing something about being so out of shape and I’m trying to keep reminding myself that next time it will be easier and hurt less if I don’t stop. I plan on taking my photo once a week to see the progress. I STILL haven’t heard from the hospital about the surgery and I’m upset with myself for waiting almost 6 months and not doing anything except the bare minimum they required. If nothing else comes of the surgery prep at least I know I am healthy since they put me through so many medical tests to get approval for the surgery.

I have attended a couple of stitching days with the group at Needlepoints, Ltd. I love getting together with those women. I can’t exactly brag that I get lots of stitching done but believe me when I leave there my soul has been regenerated. The bad thing is I’ve sort of picked up a new hobby…I’m being sucked into the needlepoint dark side.

I currently own 4 projects. Number 1 is quite old from a class I was unable to attend about a hundred years ago for a weight. I really need to get that sucker stitched up since I’m going to need it for the project I purchased this past weekend. Believe me when you follow this link, those that really know me will understand when I say project Number 4 is SO me 🙂

The 2^nd piece I own I actually have had for a long time. I got it from Annette when she finished her project but was intimidated by it whenever I looked at it. Now that I’m actually working with a needlepoint instructor, I’m looking forward to stitching it.

Project Number 3 I’m actually actively stitching on right now. It’s a beginner piece by Margaret Bendig (the above mentioned instructor) and I’m enjoying learning reading the charting and stitches.

This new piece is being slipped into my weekly rotation. I did NOT finish the Queen for the fair (I just couldn’t stomach forcing myself to stitch on one project so quit stitching altogether). I really REALLY missed my rotation. Between working out 6 nights a week for 1-1 ½ hours and trying to keep us eating healthy, I don’t know how much stitching time I’m going to be getting on the week nights, but I’m trying.

As to stash acquisition. Oh boy, have I acquisitioned! Most of it has been Carriage House Designs. But I’ve also shopped for my birthday, plus have some things coming from Mesa from my trip to The Attic. I am going to have to ratchet it down though and go back to stitching from my stash, except for purching what I need for my aforementioned canvas project. Wish I could figure out a way to JUST SAY ‘NO.’

Since I last wrote I’ve also received a blogging award. Thank you so much Christina. There are so many blogs I enjoy reading. Please don’t make me list them though, since this post is going to be long enough as it is. Suffice it to say that I read stitching and non-stitching blogs everyday and am inspired in all walks of my life by you all.

Finally, Kahuna put in an extension to take his current enlistment to March 2011. In November 2010 he is putting in for retirement and is going to put January 2012 as his requested retirement date. I don’t entirely understand how it works but supposedly he is allowed to say when he wants to retire, even if it takes him past his current enlistment. January 1982 is when he entered boot camp so he’s going to request January 2012 as his retirement date to take him to 30 years. Man. 30 years. Who could have guessed! Anyway he is actively saying things like “when we live in Arizona,” etc. and we took a tour of the university while we were there since he will be attending college for the first 4 or so years after he retires. If things go the way *we* want them to he will be taking terminal leave November 1, 2011, and we’ll be headed to retirement land.

Which leads me back to stitching! 😀

I need to thin out my stash. My tastes have changed so much over the past 35 years. I plan on posting some to my blog, then put it on eBay, but if it doesn’t sell, what do I do with it then? I don’t want to throw it away. Any suggestions?

And while I’m asking for suggestions — I went through a lot of my WIPs/UFOs during my vacation/sick time off and organized them a bit more. I actually only have a couple that don’t hold my *love* anymore — believe me I have no problem tossing them in the trash 😉 — but really don’t want to just in case my interest in them returns. What do you do to re-peak your interest in a WIP/UFO?