TanyaLavine

It’s finally summer break. Yay!! I am so happy that we have no classes for the next few months. I am happy to say that I managed to improve my marks over what I ended with last semester. My health has greatly improved since Christmas, which contributed to my marks improving. I went from a C+ in Ancient Greek to a B+. I went from a B in Microeconomics to an A- in Macroeconomics. I am super happy. I feel much more positive about next years classes. It is amazing how much better I have felt. There are days that I feel crummy, but they are getting fewer and farther in between. My hip is still giving me a ton of trouble. My MRI is scheduled for June 2, but it will probably come back clean. I don’t expect to have the doctor say much about it. I do have an issue with running though. I did a wee bit of jogging last Friday, and now it’s Wednesday, and it still hurts. It’s swelling when I do any activity. It’s getting better, but slowly. I have cut out all running until the next appointment with the Orthopaedic surgeon. That should be sometime in June or July.

We have decided to take a trip to Virginia to visit everyone this month. We are looking forward to it, although I still regard travelling with some much anxiety. I just have issues with travelling. And now, I have the added issue of what I can eat. I will make myself some sandwiches to take with me the day we leave, so that I can rest assured that I will have something to eat. The great thing is that we leave early in the morning, and get to VA just after 3 our time, which is technically dinner time there. It should work out well. We’ll be super busy while we are there. But, the kitties are going to stay at the vets office again, and our house is on video surveillance, so there is no problem there. We aren’t gone for as long as we would like, but we have to get back to finish off the stuff for Joe’s permanent residency. They are asking for some information to confirm my citizenship, and confirm that our marriage is real. I’m sure they get a lot of applications based on phoney marriages, so we have to prove that it’s real. We have some pictures and things printed off, and we’ll take some pictures while we are in VA. We’ve been married nearly 5 years, so we shouldn’t have an issue with his residency.

I am currently working on a sweater for a friend. It’s called Sylvi, and it’s a long red sweater with a hoodie. It’s a cardigan style, so I have to go find buttons for it. I told her I would have it done by September, but here I am barely into May with the front finished and the back just about done. The back will be completed tonight. Then I just have sleeves and hoodie and sewing left to do. I should be done early in June. I’m not taking it with me down to VA, because it’s far too bulky to put in a carry on, and I am definitely not risking having it in a checked bag.

My biggest decision to make over the next week is what in the world to knit on the plane! I might take my shawl, and Joe thinks I should work on socks. I think socks would be best on the plane because I can stop working on those quickly. The shawl is too picky to stop part way through. I’ll take that with me to work on while in VA, though. We found some nice bags at Chapters yesterday that will be great for taking on to the plane as a carry on. It fits in the specs easily, but it’s a nice deep bag. It has handles, and a shoulder strap, and pockets. We’re hoping to travel light this time. hehe Famous last words.

My list of wants and wishes for 2012 might get a wee bit long. See, the problem is that the end of the year seems a long way off. It is after all only the 17th of January! I accomplished one goal today. I made fresh pasta, created ravioli with it, and it was totally and complete edible. hehe It was really good!! I would like to get away from buying a lot of the boxed stuff from the store. We have eliminated a lot of the packaged items, but pasta was a tough one. Most pasta calls for eggs. I mean, and authentic true pasta needs eggs. But, seeing as I can’t have eggs, I had to compromise. So, tonight we made a pasta dough that was egg free. It was simply Semolina flour, Salt and Water. Easy enough. It turned out fantastic! I didn’t do pictures, because well…let’s just say that the look of the ravioli was not indicative of taste. lol They were some big and ugly ravioli’s. lol But, they are tasty. The texture is perfect. J made the stuffing out of ground lamb and some spices. In case the ravioli ended up failing, we had a backup plan. We were going to use the lamb and make meatballs. Luckily, we didn’t need that plan B.

I had a bit of a panic attack a couple days ago. I’m knitting another pair of socks out of Chroma yarn from Knit Picks. I may have miscalculated a little bit on the length I needed. Normally I will knit one sock and then continue with the second, but this yarn seemed to lend itself to making two identical socks. This is where things went wrong. I unravelled to where I needed to start the second sock in order to match. I have gotten to the point in the sock where I am making the heel flap. I noticed my remaining skein is getting really really light. I look down and count the colours. I don’t have enough colours to match, let alone finish the socks! After some panicking I decided that when I get down to the toe I am going to just have to suck it up, splice the yarn and add some of the originally cut off portion to the toe. It should be close enough to match within a couple rows. I might get lucky and not need it. I am finding that my socks don’t match after all. The heel flaps are a different gradation of colour. (sigh) Oh well. Close enough for me. lol It’s not bad for my first try. Next time, I will make sure I have enough yarn to make the socks match. When the pattern calls for 433 yards, and my skein only had 396, well that means trouble right from the start. It’s all about the adventure really. I should have these done in the next few days to take some pictures.

I did, however, finish these socks recently!

I am in love with these. They are soft and comfortable. These socks sat in my knitting bag for months while I was sick, because I’d react to them every time I tried to use them. I now don’t have a reaction to alpaca, and I am really excited about that.

On the topic of my health, I have started experimenting. You see, I still feel icky. I still have issues with arthritis. My right wrist has been letting me down, big time. So, I did a bunch of research and things, and came to one realization. Most of the treatments for people with the issues I have that don’t involve toxic drugs circle around one vitamin. Vitamin D. So, I made the choice to do a vitamin D therapy. I understand what is safe and not safe with the vitamin D, so it’s not a problem there. I feel comfortable with taking the amount I am. It’s still in the ‘safe’ range by doctors, so I’m not taking a high dose by their standards. I’ve only been on it a few days, but you know what? I have no pain. None. No hip pain. No neck pain. No foot pain. No knee pain. The list could go on for a while. I had the energy to make homemade pasta, and to roll it out by hand. I cleaned the kitchen today, even doing dishes by hand. I actually feel…dare I say it…good. It’s like my body is resetting. Between this and controlling my allergy, I am hopeful that I will continue to improve. This is all making me feel very positive. I didn’t even need a nap today. This is pretty huge for me. I look forward to seeing how I feel as the weeks go on. For now, I am enjoying being able to feel more like me, and being able to get things done.

As for the hopes and goals part, I have aspirations of good health. Also, I want to lose 20lbs. We have been eating much healthier, so this should be fine. And if I can feel better, I might have the energy to start exercising. My knitting goals are too lofty to list. But, needless to say, I have a lot of yarn that needs to be knit. So, I guess I could sum up my goal for 2012 as being that of stashbusting. I’m going to make as much as I can out of the yarn I have in the house without getting any more. Other than what is in the mail to me right now. lol I bought some yarn for hats that are going to be presents for this upcoming Christmas. Should be fun. I have no place to store more yarn, so I have to use what I have to clear out some space. Time for some fun!

I am not sad to see 2011 gone. It was a rough year for me. It wasn’t overly busy, once we got past the month of January, but it wasn’t a great year. We landed in Edmonton on January 3, just in time for a whole bunch of snow to hit and ended up having a very snowy winter. Very unusual for here, really. I swear that there was at least 3 feet of snow at all times on the ground until about April. Things were calm over the summer, and we were able to get away to Virginia for a bit. Classes in our first semester were fine, and we got through them well. I don’t remember what I took, actually. lol 2011 truly ruined my memory. lol When classes started up in September, I thought I was rested and ready to do well. Then I was dealt the terrible hand of being sick. It started in July really. My hip started acting up, and has been painful ever since. From there I started getting flu like symptoms that the doctor thought could be rheumatoid arthritis. My symptoms worsened until November when it got so bad I was close to going to the hospital. Through sheer coincidence, a friend mentioned that many people with RA have egg allergy issues. I had been trying elimination diets of various sorts at this point, but egg I had not tried. I immediately improved. When the US Thanksgiving rolled around we had turkey. Again, I fell incredibly sick, and this time it was worse. That told us that it was a full poultry/foul allergy, not just eggs. Since the beginning of December, I have been working to remove all egg and poultry products from my diet, and getting rid of all the medications that contain egg. That stuff hides well. Anything with Lecithin in it, is likely to be an egg product, so out the door they went. Soy lecithin is made from soy instead of from poultry, so it has no problem staying. A lot of companies are changing over to the soy lecithin, so it really hasn’t been that difficult. Advil is one company that uses the egg version in ALL their products. They might have one or two that don’t list it, but they have a coating on them. They aren’t required to say what is in the coating, so I avoid them too. There is also the risk of cross contamination. I ran into that with some chocolate milk that was made in a facility with egg nog. Yikes!

So, here I sit in 2012, hoping for a better year. I’m starting off slowly. I think I am going to drop myself down to a part time student status this year. Everyone has agreed at this point that it would be for the best. I’m still trying to get my body to level off and stop tormenting me, so if I can keep the stresses down to a minimum, that would be best. That means I need to drop a class that I had been looking forward to all year. But, it should be offered again. I would rather take it later, than get sick and fail it. I need to work to bring my GPA up a bit. It’s not horrible, but it’s not at a level that I would like.

In an effort to get as much done with my knitting as possible, I seem to have triggered some sort of tendinitis in my elbow. I did get some projects finished though!

Three of the socks for my cousins family:

I also finished the socks for my cousins son. His was the last pair of the four to be finished. They can be mailed out this week.

I also finished a scarf for the Special Olympics.

I have many more projects on the go, but at least I can say that I have started off the year with some finished ones. In all, I think it has been a good start to 2012. I hope everyone has a wonderful and very blessed year!

This year we stayed at home for Christmas. It’s the first time in a long time that we have. I have felt so terrible the past few months that travelling just wasn’t an option. Mom and dad came here for Christmas, and spent the weekend. I’m slowly feeling better, but I’m not at 100% yet. I ended up having to take a bit of a nap this afternoon again. My ears and sinuses are not impressed. In an effort to figure out what has been going on, we have dropped the heat in the house by 2 degrees. It’s possible that it’s too warm in here, which is making it even drier. It’s not helping yet, but at least it will drop our heating bills. Our bills aren’t bad, but I’m game for saving a couple bucks. hehe

So, Christmas was great fun. I’m taking the opportunity to rest and relax now. I didn’t take many pictures, but I do have a few to share. We opened gifts on Christmas eve, after we had gone to Mass, and after we had eaten dinner. Instead of seafood chowder this year, we did a seafood pasta. It was shrimp and scallops on pasta with a butter garlic sauce. It was light, and very yummy. Seeing as how we weren’t eating until around 7pm, we didn’t want anything too heavy, since none of us wanted to be up all night with indigestion.

Mom and dad hanging out after we finished opening presents:

Daisy wants whatever mom is trying to pile up. Considering the state of that pile in the morning, I think Daisy thought it was hers. hehe

Abby has adopted my bed lounger. I love this thing. I makes knitting in bed so much nicer. Daisy plays with the ties on it, and Abby likes to just lean on it. hehe

The kittens may have gotten a few toys. I opened the bag of mice and they just kept pulling them out. They had a ball!! These things are all over the house now.

Joe liked his pillow pet. It’s the Octopus from the Detroit Red Wings. hehe

We had some very yummy food on Christmas day. We had cinnamon buns for brunch, and pie for desert after dinner.

Daisy was very happy when things calmed down and she could go back to just sleeping under the Christmas tree. The presents were all in her way. hehe

All in all, Christmas was very good. We missed seeing everyone in Virginia, for sure. But, it has been nice to relax and get my strength back. I still get tired just trying to have a shower. I’m fighting a bit of a cold right now, I think, but it hasn’t fully taken hold. I’m hoping that by the time classes start I will be back to my old self. It would be really nice to actually be able to remember my own name, and not forget whatever happened 2 minutes ago. I am improving slowly, but surely.

Wow, it’s December 9 and I am done all of my Christmas presents. I am even done my shopping. Considering I have been sick for the past two months, I’m still not sure how I pulled this off. It definitely helped that I started making Christmas gifts over the summer, when I knew I had time to knit. One of the gifts is something I absolutely have to make for myself. It’s called Wisp. It is beautiful! Here is a picture of one of the ones I made, while it was on the foam boards blocking:

It is made with Rowan Kidsilk Mohair, and it’s light, soft, delicate, and beautiful! I have enough left to make one more, and I think I might just make one for myself. I’ve made socks, mittens, legwarmers, hats, a pillow, Wisps, and I don’t know what else. lol I have two pairs of socks left to make before I can mail off one package, but since it’s technically not for Christmas, I don’t feel rushed.

One hat that I particularly love is this one:

It is all black with the Skyrim image on it. It turned out fabulous! I can’t complain about it, and hopefully the recipient will love it too.

Now that we have completely figured out (I hope) what my allergy issues are, I am feeling so much better. It’s amazing what a food allergy can do to damage your system. Not only am I allergic to eggs, but I am actually allergic to all things poultry. And I do mean all things, and it’s bad. Even bread or pastries that have been egg washed will cause my throat to swell and I have a very dangerous reaction. I literally pass out. Once we cut out the poultry products out of my diet, I lost 10lbs within a week, and lost 2″ off my waist. I was so terribly bloated that it was shocking. I have a lot of energy now, too. I went from sleeping all day, to not being able to stop. My arthritis symptoms decreased significantly. Also, my iron levels shot up through the roof. Now that my stomach is not upset, and I am able to absorb proper nutrients, my iron pills are actually having an effect. My mental sharpness has also improved. It has been so hard to take all my classes and keep up while being so sick. I managed somehow, but my marks do reflect the troubles. Well, mostly just one course, because I had to write two papers, and at times I could barely remember my name, let alone be able to write a coherent paper. lol But, I muddled through.

We just finished making some more of those super yummy eggless chocolate chip cookies, so now it’s time to take my cookies and my milk and head up to bed to finish watching the Edmonton Oilers hockey game. I plan to do lots of knitting in bed tonight. I have a sock that is crying out to be finished.