Finally some pics of my yard

I mowed the grass and did all the trim work and decided to finally take some pictures of all the yard improvements and plantings I did over the summer. It was a lot of work but I really think it turned out pretty. Check out the pics by clicking on the “Yard” link in the top right corner of the page.

I plan on putting some finished cross stitch up on that page as well soon.

A little good news!

My friend’s husband has gotten his test results and although the cancer has spread to his abdomen, his lymph nodes are negative! That’s great news for them and thanks to anyone who has kept them in their prayers.

Only two weeks to go until surgery and I simply can’t wait. Not looking forward to the actual surgery but I am looking forward to some relief. Not only from the knee pain but the three weeks off from work are much needed right now. We are so busy and so shorthanded that it is nothing less than dangerous. We only had six guys in the field today to patrol the most violent and call-heavy area of our city. They just cannot continue to be worked like they have been without someone getting hurt. It’s truly ridiculous and no one will do anything about it. We try to stick together and if there’s not enough people to handle a call then it just has to wait. But sometimes things just fall in your lap and you can’t wait for backup. Those are the things that worry me as a supervisor (and friend) of those guys out in the field. Something’s gotta give and soon!

I have tomorrow off before an eight-day stretch at work and I plan to take full advantage of it. I’m going to have to mow the lawn before it consumes the house, hurt knee or not. After that, I plan on sitting in my living room with my old pawpaw dog next to me in my chair, listening to music and stitching the day away. Then I’m going to our weekly stitching get-together at the LNS. Then I might just come home and stitch some more!

Nothing New

I’m still here but don’t have anything to report. I have been stitching but don’t have any pics to upload as it hasn’t been much! Work has been busy and I have been spending some time setting up a local project. This week I have stitched on my niece’s pillow, the Huge Secret Project (HSP from now on…hehehehe), and “Pompeji”.

I have had bad news from a dear friend. Her husband went in the hospital on Friday to have 80% of his colon removed due to colon cancer. Once they got in, they found that the cancer has spread into his abdomen and his lymph system. This has been such a blow to my friend and has consumed my thoughts lately. Please keep them on your prayer list and ask that they receive that peace that passes all understanding no matter what the outcome may be. Their names are Steve and Terri and their daughter/son-in-law Stephanie and Josh.

So here’s the question…

Where is it that stitchers find all of these cool round robins and friendly exchanges and secret sisters? I want to get in on some of this action! I love to get stuff and I like giving it just as much. I would be a really good secret sister! I read all of these blogs and see all of these pics of the cool stuff people are sharing and stitching for each other and I am quite jealous! If anyone is reading my blog and knows where to send me, please leave a comment or email me!

Okay, now that I have that off of my chest, I will say that I am tired. I have been really trying to work as much as possible as I really want to pay off my credit cards. They are looming over my head and I just want to be rid of it. I have been a cop for over 21 years and have always worked lots of hours. I don’t want to admit it, but I think I am getting older and I just can’t go as fast or as long as I used to. I am also having so much trouble with my knee that I think it drains what little energy I have. I work in the busiest and most dangerous district in the city and it is always non-stop. I still like my job but it is wearing me out.

Speaking of being busy,  I must go handle yet another call since all of my guys are busy on their own calls. Ah, the life of a supervisor…

Not missing my Academy days!

After watching 34 “kids” get sprayed with pepper spray and then have to fight two and sometimes three instructors to keep their guns, I’m not missing my academy days today! Bless their hearts, they were really beat up! Some of them were already having trouble walking before they left training. They are going to have a miserable weekend. I think the beating was worse than the spray!

Many people ask why it is that if we want to carry the spray that we have to suffer through being sprayed. It’s pretty simple, really. How can you shoot someone that’s about to spray you or already has when you don’t know how it will affect you? Not everyone has the same reaction when sprayed, and in fact, there are those few that are not affected by it at all. So when you are sprayed, you feel it, you know it incapacitates you and probably makes you incapable of defending yourself or preventing someone from taking your gun and killing you with it. I for one know that if anyone ever takes my pepper spray or has some of their own, I will definitely have to use deadly force. When I went through instructor school, I had to be sprayed. I can tell you that it affects me in a way I never want to experience with a bad guy. I couldn’t see, it hurt to breath, and it burned so bad I can’t even explain it. I can tell you that it is nothing you ever want to happen to you! Now your kids on the other hand…hehehehe.

My dog is feeling better and even went outside on his own today through his doggie door. He’s not running around mach three with his hair on fire, but then again he is about 90 years old in people years!

Needlework and Nursemaid

I have been stitching quite a bit the last two days. Mostly on the secret project but I did put some time in on my neice’s pillow. She is to be born in December so I have plenty of time. Boo is still not feeling well so he has been in my lap or right next to me in my stitching chair for two days. He’s not shaking but he is still very slow to rise or walk and we have to force him to go outside for a break. The vet said give it a couple of weeks and see how he improves. If no better he wants to x-ray his back. My vet is a good friend of mine and we have been friends for over 15 years. When I took Boo to him the other day, he said “We (vets) do two things here: one is we treat the pets, the other is treating the neurotic parents of the pets!” He’s so funny and a dear friend. I have only had to put one dog down and he did it for me on a Sunday afternoon when the clinic was closed. When Braedon swallowed a rock and it got stuck, he came out literally in the middle of a hurricane!

My knee surgery has been tentatively set for November 15th. That is the first available date the doctor has so I will be hobbling around for a few more weeks. It will work out pretty good with my days off and give me several weeks off. That means I can completely recover and not have to go back to work on light duty. I’ll be glad when it’s over! The worst thing is that I’ve already gained about 5 pounds as I have not been able to do any cardio for three weeks. I won’t be able to do any until about three weeks after the surgery, so I’m looking at another 6 weeks with no exercise! If I continue as I have been, that’s another 10 pounds! I just can’t afford to let that happen as I worked too hard to lose those 25 pounds and looking forward to losing another 25. I just have to really watch what I eat and get my toning and weight-lifting done.

I have to go work one of my details tonight from 5:00 to 10:00 then up for 5:30 for pepper spray school for the kids in the Academy. After that I’m going to the MercyMe concert, then back to work for the club violence taskforce. Saturday it’s 10 hours working the LSU game then club violence after that. Ten hours each on Sunday and Monday It’s gonna be a long weekend!

For the love of dogs…

My oldest dog Baboo (almost 14) has been feeling poorly the last few days. He has a bad back and it flares up now and again. He walks all stooped over like a little old lady and you can plainly see that he hurts. I gave him some baby aspirin and that helped the first day but not much the second. So I called the vet and we took him to see him.

The vet came to the same conclusion and since I had given him aspirin, he didn’t want to give him a shot of cortizone. So instead, he gave him a painkiller, the equivalent of the stuff they give pregnant women in labor (Stadol). It was quite an interesting trip home! He was high and was making some pretty strange noises. He was growling and barking at Daphne. We were wondering if the drugs were making him think she was some scary monster! Then the poor thing got the hiccups, which, combined with the strange noises, was quite funny.

Once we got him home, we put him in his kennel thinking he would go right to sleep. Fat chance. He continued with the barking, strange noises, and hiccups, then added a new twist. He was trying to stay awake and fighting it hard. He would sit up, hiccup, bark, and then start to fall over sideways. Just before his head hitting the pillow, he would sit up and start all over. It was really quite pitiful and in the end, we ended up taking him out of the kennel and just holding him while we watched TV.

He seems to be hurting some this morning but not as bad as yesterday. I think I will stick with the baby aspirin and leave the second dose of Stadol in the fridge!

To Surgery I go

I heard from the orthopedist this evening and I am up for a knee scope, yippee!! He said that I had some debris (i.e. cartilidge) floating in my synovial fluid and that I had arthritis. He is going to scope it to clean it out and to see how much he can alleviate the arthritic component. It will be a long few weeks but it will feel so much better afterwards! I am hoping he can squeeze me in some time this week. If not, I won’t be able to do it until around November 5th. That’s a long time to hobble around and wait, but there are some upcoming events at work that I cannot be absent for.

On the stitching front, there hasn’t been any! I haven’t been able to put thread to needle since last Thursday. Work has been very busy and I have worked overtime three nights in a row. It seems like all I have done for the last four days is work and sleep….oh yeah, that’s what I have done! I’ll miss quite a bit of my extra duty and overtime over those recovery weeks so I’m trying to make up for what I can now.

Both of my fantasy football teams got hammered this weekend. I don’t know what the deal is but I have never done this poorly before! And I’m catching all kinds of smack from the guys at work for it, too. LSU lost and we were lucky that we only dropped to #4 in the BCS poll. It’s really hard to stay at #1, much harder than it is to work your way up there. I think they will still go to the National Championship this year.

This Friday is another training day. I’ll be teaching the academy kids how to use their pepper spray, which includes spraying them and then fighting them for a full minute trying to get their guns out of their holsters. Obviously I won’t be fighting because of my knee, but I’ll be spraying them. We have to be sprayed if we want to carry it and as an instructor I’ve been sprayed countless times. It’s bad, but once you’ve earned the right and gotten sprayed yourself, it’s hilarious to watch other people get sprayed. I know, cops have a really bad sense of humor!

How the police have fun

The pictures below are what happens when cops get together for a little fun and training. Actually, I helped the Academy staff yesterday teaching the cadets how to perform vehicle stops. There are six different stations, each with a different basic scenario. There’s one that is just a simple traffic violation where the violator is cooperative, there’s one involving a deaf person, and on and on up to and including high risk felony stops like armed robbery suspects and stolen cars.

I usually get to do the mundane deaf woman or woman that tries to talk her way out of a ticket because she has to pee. But this time they put me on a multiple-occupant station with semunition guns, YEAH! Or so I thought.

I got shot three times. Once in the elbow, once in the hand, and once in the stomach. I got shot in the face too, but since we wear masks it didn’t hurt or leave a mark. It was fun and I got to really teach the young guys some stuff. I also shot more of them than shot me! But next time I do believe I might wear my vest, some gloves, and a long sleeve shirt!

Not real bright…

I got tired of looking at my yard and the high grass so I decided to mow. That was not such a bright idea! It wasn’t the best thing for my knee, but I have not done anything physical in about two weeks and it was driving me nuts! My friend Donnie offered to cut it for me yesterday and I should have taken him up on it. But I am hard-headed and don’t like to take advantage of good people. Anyway, it’s done now and it looks good.

All of my new palms are doing well and some of the grass is starting to fill in where the trees were taken out and the stumps ground. It ought to look super by next spring!