What a beautiful day yesterday! Alli and I played baseball in our shirtsleeves! It was actually getting 'warm' by the time the game finished! Alli did much better at the game yesterday - she needed minimal instructions from me to do what she was supposed to do. I give her a lot of leeway, though, so it isn't a constant battle between us. Yesterday, one of the 'helpers' for the other team was working with her to pick up the ball and throw it in, and she worked better for her than for me! Alli also voluntarily picked up a ball as it rolled by her and threw it (sort of) back in a few times, and....even hit the ball by herself! I stood in front of her, and held the tip of the bat, and turned it loose, and she hit the ball! Of course, she then continued to hit the batting T, but....she hit the ball!



Spinning in the outfield!



Sitting in the dugout.

A quick update on Ales - Ralph and he visited with the Cardiologist yesterday. AJ is scheduled for a treadmill stress test next week, In the mean time, he is off from sports. The doctor is keeping him on a beta-blocker for a couple of months, and if nothing happens in those two months, he will taper him off the meds, continuing to monitor him. If everything goes smoothly, that should be the end of it - a once time anomaly. But.....if not, we will look at different treatments available. The beta-blockers won't be the best choice for AJ at his age - they keep his heart rate down, even when exercising, so when he plays soccer, he will get tired faster, etc. There is a surgery available, but...it is surgery, with all the inherent risks of surgery. I'm hoping it was just the one time anomaly, and it never happens again!

Mm and David made a flying trip down yesterday, and Mom bought her RV! Okay - she put a down-payment on it, and now is working on the loan. The plan is now for her to come down next Wednesday to pick it up. Cool! It is pretty, and I feel a road trip coming on!

What a day! It started out normal enough, but....it sure didn't end that way! I went in early to work, so I left before Ralph and the kids. I got a call from the school nurse at U-Prep about 9:30. AJ was in the office, and his vital signs were all over the charts. His heart was racing, and his blood pressure was high and then low, and he was having a hard time standing up, and he couldn't walk up the flight of stairs at school without feeling like he was going to pass out. I called for an appointment with his doctor before I went to pick him up, but Dr. Short was full - would I see another doctor? We had an appointment with Dr. Harden at 12:30. I took AJ back to work with me, and he rested and ate snacks. (I figured he couldn't be too sick if he was hungry, right?)

I took him up to the doctor's at 12:30. They ran an EKG and did chest x-rays (we had to wait for the tech to come back from lunch for the X-rays), and then Dr. Harden wanted to consult with Dr. Short. Unfortunately, Dr. Short had evidently just gone to lunch when he decided this. We sat around until 2:30 to see him. Then, they called the cardiologist, and we had to wait for him. He came in and re-ran the EKG, looked at the X-rays, and sent us to the emergency room.

Surprisingly, there was almost no wait at the ER. We waited about 10 minutes to triage him, and he went straight from there to a room in ER. (I loosely call it a room - an area surrounded by curtains.) They monitored him and tried a few physical 'tricks' to get his heart to slow down (it had consistently been 140+ beats a minute) that didn't work, so they started medical treatment. They gave him two different doses of one drug that didn't work, and the third try - a different medicine - dropped his heartbeat within 5 minutes back to normal. He was finally discharged from ER at 7:30 last night. Both of us were exhausted!

He needs to see the cardiologist today for a follow-up. The paperwork the ER sent home is for "Supraventricular Tachycardia (Benign Rapid Heart Rate, PAT)". Hopefully, it was a one time thing, and we never go through this again!

Next week, I think I need to video Alli in the outfield! She has so much fun spinning and dancing out there! It is always a huge interruption to stop and throw a ball back in to the pitcher! Running the bases is pretty fun, too - we get to stand on the base and jump up and down on it - pretty cool!



It is harder to catch AJ in a photo at his game - they move too fast for me! I have what I think will be a perfect shot, and the ball goes out of the area, and the shot is gone. I have more pictures of AJ walking (the ball was passed to someone else) or someone else runs between him and the camera at the wrong time! (There are also the shots I take where he looks like a dork because he is moving - I don't use those either!)



It was a beautiful day - slightly warm, with a breeze that kept it cool. I sat in the shade and visited with a neighbor I never get to see - we are both just too busy!

Speaking of busy - I have a ton of things planned for the day - I got very little done yesterday, so I need to catch up! Housecleaning is number one on my list. It looks like it will be nice and sunny today, and I can dry some laundry on the line, too!

What a lovely day! The games were good, and the company was the best! Alli was a little 'off' today, but she enjoyed the first part of her game. AJ played well, and they won their game. The walk was beautiful! I really enjoyed the trail.



We didn't see the smallest of the goslings Susan had seen the day before (she thought they had just hatched out), but we did find one family of geese. Too cute! The Red Wing Blackbirds were especially vibrant in the sun today, too!

I'm getting ready for a busy weekend - but a good busy weekend. Allison has a baseball game at 9:00, I'm going for a walk on the McConnell trail with Susan at 11:00 and AJ has a soccer game at 2:00. All fun activities! It looks like good weather today, too - a high of 74! I haven't been on the McConnell trail before, and Susan thinks the baby geese should be out, so I am hoping for some cute pictures! Somewhere in all this, I still need to go the store and clean house, but...it will get in there somewhere, I am sure.

Some pictures of Lucy through the years.

The Vet just called. We didn't get Lucy in in time, and she didn't make it. RIP, Lucy.

What a day yesterday! I had a wonderful lunch with friends, and then a grueling supervisor training session, and then an all-staff dinner (including our Roseville Office - they closed the office at 2:30 and bussed them up!) and then another training session. The evening session wasn't that grueling, but it was long. I left town at about 9:20 (after getting to work at 7:15 that morning), and then walked in the door at home (thinking of nothing more than a glass of wine and to sit down and relax) and Ralph met me at the door with a sick cat.

Lucy got into some antifreeze. The vet was hopeful we got her to the hospital in time, but I won't know until later in the day if she will pull through or not. Poor baby!

What a dark and stormy weekend! Yesterday, I did very little - watched TV, did laundry and crocheted! I didn't even make it to church. We got almost an inch of rain so far out of this storm, and more to come. What a change from last week - sunny and warm!

Mom and Freda came down last week - Mom is shopping for an RV. I took Tuesday afternoon off, and we ran all over Shasta County looking. We started in Anderson, and found the best option for her up by Shasta Lake City. The price wasn't right on that RV, but at least we know what we are looking for now. Not too bad for one afternoon!

After shopping, we took Freda down to the Sundial Bridge. She had seen it from the highway, but had not been across it. Lucky for us, it was also "free Tuesday" for the Arboretum. (It was probably a free day for the museum too, but we didn't get that far.) I had not been into the Arboretum myself, so we took a nice little walk through. It is very pretty! Unusual for me, I didn't bring my camera, but I did bring my cell phone. I took a few pictures with my phone, and I am very surprised at how well they turned out! I forget that the cell phones now have as good a camera as my first digital camera. I am just spoiled by my 'real' camera.



There is a sculpture along the main path titled "The sound of water" (I think - relying on memory here - work with me!) It had three different waterfalls - all lovely. At the base are ponds that will be quite lively with gold fish - when it warms up. We saw one large carp, and the rest are all baby feeders - and they are all huddled up together to keep warm.

I did go in yesterday and pick up yarn for my next baby afghan, and got it started. The base of the afghan is 80 rows of double crochet, 120 stitches wide. After the base is made, you crochet a tree and a giraffe and a few other things and applique them on. The base afghan is boring! I got about 18 rows done yesterday, so it is started. Good thing the baby isn't due until August! The pattern has a matching pillow and toy giraffe, so if I have time, I want to make them too. We'll see how enthusiastic I am after I get the afghan done!

Here are pictures of the finished baby afghan. It is done corner to corner, and I really like how the pattern worked up.



Here is one of my 'mystery' patterns from a Yahoo! group - I turned stars into bookmarks. I used worsted weight yarn for the blue one - too big - cotton yard for the red one - too bulky - and white size 10 for the white on - too small. I think if I used a larger size thread (3 or 5) it would be better. I think I have some size 5 with a pearl thread through it that I used for snowflakes - I'll have to give it a try!



A couple of friends are cleaning out their house - and I am the beneficiary! Both Kimberly and Michelle gave me a ton of yarn! Michelle had 19 large skeins of gray and white yarn, and Kimberly had an eclectic assortment.



She has a baby afghan almost done - I need to get the pattern from her and finish it up - just a few more squares, and it would be large enough for a cute car-seat afghan.

Alli seemed to have a lot of fun at her baseball game. She ran from the car to the game - which is unusual in itself! She must be 'in the groove' this year. I needed very little physical contact with her to keep her on the field, and she automatically went into the dugout when it was time. What a change from over the years!


AJ went up with me to the start of Alli's game, and took pictures. Ralph came up to the game at 9:30 and relieved us, and AJ and I went to his scout meeting. From there, we went to his soccer game. It was a fun game, and they lost by two, I think. AJ made the statement that he really likes playing the spring soccer because it isn't so serious. He can play and have fun, and no one is all stressed out about it. While we were at the soccer park, there was a tournament going on for the next level of players (Division III). Quite a few of AJ's friends play in that division, and he was hoping they would win, because everyone is happier when they win. That would explain why he doesn't want to play at that level - he likes the game, but he isn't that competitive.

Here is a doily that I finished last month, and then didn't post a picture of because it was in a contest for the homepage picture of one of my Yahoo! groups. I won! That means this picture is up our website for the month (or until someone else does an absolute fabulous job on something and they bump it off to showcase it. If that happens, it is usually for something pretty stupendous!) I was pretty proud of my doily!



I finished up my baby afghan last night, now I need to take a picture of it and post it! I am off today (I hope) to get some more yarn to start another baby afghan. Then, I need to make some booties and hats to go along with the afghans! Good thing both babies are due in August - I still have time!