First Craft Show

I did my first craft show yesterday here in town. I have done craft shows here before and they really don't make you any money so I figured I was paying my $20 booth fee to advertise. I did make around $120 though so I did 10 times better than I thought I would. I took 5 special orders. Two of those were for the kids hooded towels (a total of 3 towels).

My next craft show is October 18th. I am still keeping busy making lots more stuff.

I was able to figure out on my digitizing program how to add lettering to stock designs so I am pretty proud of myself for that since I have no clue what I am doing with that program.

See my embroidery blog for some pics of the special order bibs I did today.

Tests

I went for my EEG today and my bloodwork. Obviously won't know anything until they get the results back to the Dr. I was supposed to go for my MRI tomorrow but the referral hasn't been approved through Tricare yet so I will have to wait for that and then reschedule it.

I was supposed to be sleep deprived for the EEG this morning so I went to bed last night at around 10:40 pm and probably didn't get to sleep until after 11 pm. And the alarm clock went off at 1:30 am. I was supposed to go to bed at the regular time, which is usually between 10 and 11 and then get up 4 hours before I normally get up. Well, I normally get up around 5:30 - 6, there fore 1:30 am it was. Mark gets up around that time to get ready for work anyway so he was up with me.

I did come home and take about a 3 hour nap but I am headed to bed here shortly as 3 hours wasn't quite enough!! LOL!!

I'll keep everyone updated on the test results once I know something. Hopefully it won't turn out to be anything.

My new embroidery machine

These are some pics of my new commercial embroidery machine that was just delivered on Monday. I have been messing with it now for a couple of days to get the tension right and all that and I finally did my first item on it. It was the hand towel for the scarecrow towel set that I have posted on my embroidery blog.

I am very excited about my new machine but there is lots to learn I think!! And, of course, hooping things is a lot different than on the home machine I have so I am having to work on that too. It will all come with time (which I don't have right now because I have a craft show on Saturday!! Yikes!!).

Having some tests

Please keep me in your prayers - I have to go for some tests. I go Wednesday for some blood tests and an EEG (An electroencephalogram (EEG) is a test that measures and records the electrical activity of your brain. Special sensors (electrodes) are attached to your head and hooked by wires to a computer. The computer records your brain's electrical activity on the screen or on paper as wavy lines. Certain conditions, such as seizures, can be seen by the changes in the normal pattern of the brain's electrical activity.) I will also have to have an MRI but that hasn't been scheduled yet.

I am having this done because back in July I started having what felt like a muscle spasm in my left hand. It was tight and my fingers would move and twitch all on their own when I wasn't doing anything. It started on a Friday night and over the weekend into Monday morning it worked its way up my arm into my neck and jaw. By then I thought maybe I was having a stroke or something and I called the hospital. They set me up an appointment in the clinic and when I got there the PA that I saw told me to go to the ER. He said that that is where they should have told me to go in the first place so that they could do a CT Scan to make sure that I wasn't having a stroke. So I went to the ER.

They did a CT Scan and did a regular bloodwork and a blood test for Lyme's Disease. The CT Scan came back normal so I wasn't having a stroke, which I thought was a good thing and all the blood tests showed was that I was "slightly anemic". The anemia didn't surprise me because most people who have the weight loss surgery that I have had have low iron and B12 so I started taking more of those 2 vitamins.

Anyway, the doctor in the ER said he wasn't sure what was causing the spasm in my arm so he said that he would put in a referral to a neurologist. The "spasm" continued for 2 - 3 more days and then quit. The referral to the neurologist never came and I didn't think anymore about it.

Well, about three weeks ago I get a call from Tricare (our insurance) wanting to know if I had made an appt from the referral. I ignored the call and a couple of days later I got another call. See, when you make an appt from a referral then you have to call Tricare and let them know when your appt is. Well, I was going to call them back to let them know that had never received the referral and the next day I got the referral in the mail.

So, I made the appt with the neurologist and I went this last Wednesday. She did some observations and "tests". Like I had to push and pull against her hands and then she tried to pull or push my hands and legs, etc. She looked in my eyes and in my mouth and told me to say "ahhhh". She poked me with a safety pin to check my sensory nerves (yup - I can feel it - it hurt slightly). She tested my reflexes with her rubber hammer and then ran the sharp tip of it along the middle of my foot (that hurt worse than the pin pricks!!!). Then she had me walk across the room normally and then in a straight line with one foot right in front of the other and then she had me stand with both feet together, arms out of front of me and close my eyes.

After she was done testing me she said that I have significant weakness in my left side. She asked if I had had any spasms or weakness in my leg and I told her not that I noticed, only in my hand and arm. She said that what happened that day could have been a seizure. She said there are other things that can cause these "spasms" such as a deficiency in calcium (hence the bloodwork I am sure). She has ordered these tests to see if they can see anything else. On the orders for the tests she put down the diagnosis as a "focal movement disorder".

If you care to read more about it you can go here:

http://www.neurologychannel.com/movementdisorders/index.shtml

This is the website that I found had the most organized information about it.

I have not had anymore "spasms" but she said that sometimes they can happen and continue over the course of a few days like mine did and then it may not happen again for days, weeks or months but then they eventually can come more often.

So, I guess I get the tests done and we'll have to see what happens. I am a little nervous but trying not to worry until I really have something to worry about. I suppose that if they find something she will call me and let me know and if not I have a follow up appointment in 6 months.

I'll keep everyone posted.

Family Weekend

After having to have our truck repaired (a major repair that cost a lot of money and two trips to the repair shop - once being towed there) so we could go - we went last weekend (September 11th - 14th) to the State Fair in Hutchinson. We pulled the camper down to Halstead, which is about 20 minutes from Hutchinson, and we stayed at the Spring Lake RV Resort (http://www.springlakervresort.com/). We have stayed there before and really liked it lot.

We left Thursday morning around 9 am and got to the campground around 10:30. Got the camper unhooked and set and then headed to the fair.

(Entrance Gate at the Fair)

We got to the fair grounds at around 1 pm. It was drizzling a little bit and did that most of the day. If it rained too much we just went to the inside exhibits and when it quit we went to the outdoor ones.

(This was the biggest pumpkin - it weighed 652.7 lbs)

(This was a very funny looking rabbit - it looks like a poodle to me!!)

(This is a Watusi cow)

We walked and walked and walked some more until around 9 pm that night. Hannah went to see a Puddle of Mud concert that night by herself while Mark, Sarah and I hung around walking some more.

On Friday morning we left for Wichita at around 6:30 am for Hannah's eye appointment which was at 8:15 am. This was her appt to see if she could wear contacts. It rained VERY hard all day Friday. Wichita even had some flooding and had some areas that were evacuated. It was miserable. What should have taken us around 40 minutes to drive from the campground to the Dr.'s office took us just a little over an hour.

Anyway, after they put the contacts in, it was amazing at how much more she could see with them. We had to hang out until 2:30 pm, which is when they wanted her to come back to the eye clinic to see how it went with the contacts in. We went for breakfast at IHOP and then went to places like Sam's, Walmart, the mall, Hobby Lobby, etc. When we went back to the Dr.'s office he checked her again and since her eyes had adjusted to the contacts she was able to see even better. So, Hannah is getting contacts. They had to send them back to have them tinted and they will probably be in sometime this next week. To say that she is excited is an understatement!!! LOL!!!


Friday night we played Bingo at the campground's Clubhouse. Hannah won 3 games and I won 1. Their prizes were things like notepads, a can of Pringles, candy bars, etc but we had fun doing it and it was still raining and beat being cooped up in the camper for the evening. Then we ate homemade ice cream that the campground does.


Saturday we went to the State Fair again at around 10 am and we walked and walked and walked some more. It was drizzling just a little bit when we got there but by about 11 or 11:30 am it quit and the sun came out and we had to take our rain coats and umbrellas back to the truck.

We looked at some antique tractors and watched a man do chain saw carvings.












We had concert tickets that night to see Jason Michael Carroll and Joe Nichols. It was a pretty good concert and I got some good pics.

(Jason Michael Carroll)

(Very nice close up of Joe Nichols!!)

I got an awesome shot of the moon and clouds while at the concert too. It was an absolute beautiful evening after all the rain that we had had.

We left Sunday morning to head for home. It was a fun weekend but boy were we beat. And then, of course, we had to take Hannah back to Kansas City for school.