This is what will get done:
Master bath: new granite counter, new vessel sink, heated ceramic tile floor, new tiled shower, all fixtures and lighting.
Guest bath: granite counters, heated tile floors, new sinks, fixtures and lighting.
Basement bath: new granite counter and tiled floor.

and now a couple of “before” pictures of the master bath….

I’m just hoping that the drywall dust and the tile dust doesn’t mess with my sinuses, otherwise, I’ll be checking into the nearby Holiday Inn with my knitting basket and laptop. Will report back with updates.

The only Christmas thing that has happened is Bob singing in the Holiday Pops Concerts with the Grand Rapids Symphony. It was five performances over a 4 day span. I attended on the opening night concert and it was quite a push into getting into the spirit of the season. Oh yes, the lights are up on the porches… we string them on evergreen branches and drape them on the front porches and tie up with red bows… it does look pretty. The tree will go up next week sometime, usually taking one day for the two of us to get up and another 3 or 4 days to put on the decorations.

Eventually Christmas will get here.

The show was taped on Thursday night so we got in early, had a nice leisurely late lunch and then got in line for the show. It takes an hour and a half to make a one hour show.. the other half hour gets cut in the editing. It was way cool. Pictured here is the host of the show, Peter Sagal doing his thing.

On Friday night in Milwaukee, we went to a really trendy steak restaurant called, ‘Carnivore’, and had oh so yummy Kobe steak… so tender, it didn’t need a knife. Our art entertainment for the evening was with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra as they performed Bartok’s ‘Bluebeard’s Castle’ which was more of an opera for two. It was sung in Hungarian and the set design were glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly. Imagine. This photograph is from the local Milwaukee newspaper.

Sunday we went to the Art Museum to an exhibit of Andy Warhol… his later work, and I was surprised at some of his pieces. He was quite religious toward the end of his life incorporating his beliefs into his work. I couldn’t photograph any of the pieces in this exhibit, but there are permanent works in the museum that I was able to capture. We strolled through other exhibits as well including native daughter Georgia O’Keefe. So between the radio show, the symphony and the art museum, it really was an artful weekend.

Last weekend was devoted to knitting and new knitting friends as I attended a locally sponsored Fiber Retreat here in Holland. Four days of knitting, talking, shopping, and spinning. It was great and I can’t wait to go to another. This pic shows just some of the women who were knitting, purling and frogging.

Why have we been holding on to  these things? Maybe we’re trying to hold onto family, or maybe thinking someone would need something down the road, or the fact that we paid good money (as what? bad money?) for it. Whatever the reason… it’s going. A Big PURGE.  Lighten the load!  Unfortunately, boxes upon boxes of garage sale items have been stored for a couple of years and honestly I don’t even know everything that’s there.  I’ll attempt to get rid of… ahem, sell… the big pieces like the furniture and maybe later this summer we’ll do another sale that will have ALL the other stuff… once it gets unburied.  What’s left will go to Goodwill or some other charitable place…. it’s NOT coming back in the house… or the garage.

What would you grab if you only had 5 minutes to leave your house? Do you know where all your important papers are? Are they all in one place? What would you take?… photos, medications, computer, insurance papers, other documents, family treasures? Granted your family and pets are first… but after that… what? It made me stop and think and start to take inventory.

I’ve missed out on so much of life these past several months…. symphony, theater, parties, family celebrations and hanging out with my knitting and scrapbooking friends. I can also get back to the house redecorating process. Art to hang, furniture to rearrange and old furniture to sell. On the list is replacing the bathroom counter tops with granite in 3 of the 4 bathrooms and getting the master bath painted., but the very next project is the front sitting room. We did buy a sofa sleeper and ottoman in paprika red and fortunately it’s a 6 week delivery date, so that gives me time to contact the painter and get that room emptied out and ready. I also have my yarn cabinet (actually a chest of drawers) in there and I’m considering replacing it with something else… so that’s more furniture to buy and sell. Bob ordered a new computer system for himself.. which includes a new scanner/printer for me and more shuffling around of computer equipment putting a workable unit in the rec room for scrapbooking purposes… which means selling a small computer desk and moving a larger desk down there.  I need to get someone in here to help move furniture… that’s a job NOT for me.

It’s been almost 2 weeks since my surgery and I’m home recuperating.. slowly, but getting better each day. I relish the small milestones, my first shower, putting on my socks, making my own breakfast and able to sit in this chair long enough to write in this blog. I still am tender and sore, still hard to get up out of my chair, still hurts to laugh, sneeze or cough and still hard to roll in bed… but even all that is improving.  A bed pillow across the abdomen helps to hold things in when coughing or sneezing and acts as a great barrier for my uber-exuberant dogs who want to jump and sit in my lap…. no!! bad dog!!

Bob has been wonderful being my nurse and caretaker, but I sense he’s getting tired of the fetching and I’m getting tired of him doing it. I want to be able to do for myself already. My friends have been amazing in keeping their distance  (at my request) as I hate the hovering.  I tried really really hard in keeping a positive attitude through this…. at finding the news of the cancer,  during the surgery and hospital stay and recuperation at home.  Making jokes, keeping a stiff upper lip and all that.. mostly because I hated the pity, and the ’sorry’ eyes. I couldn’t however, keep it all in much longer and last Sunday I had a minor meltdown. It hit me how very afraid I was, how the cancer scared me especially since my mom died from it, how the thought of surgery frightened me and the possibility of  not being there for my family.  I was terrified, but still put on a good face and kept it together.  Because that’s what I do.

I don’t have a lot of memories of the actual surgery.. as it should be. I was in the pre-surgical room getting all the vitals taken, the nurse asking me those important questions, like “Am I pregnant”… yeah, I’m in there for a hysterectomy… duh…. I guess it was something the anesthesiologists needed to know. And speaking of them, it took two of those guys to find an artery to put in a stint.. lots of poking around from one arm to the next. That was  in case I needed an emergency transfusion, I was ready to go. (blood type B+, just in case) . I kind of resembled a marionette with tubes and strings coming out of both arms.The other arm had the IV with the knock out drug.

I remember being wheeled down a very long hallway and into the operating room and coming face to face with the surgical robot, Mona. I remember saying something to the doctors/nurses there and then nothing until I woke in recovery with people buzzing all round. But even that was a faint memory… I think. I don’t remember going from there to my room, but I woke up in the room with a nurse and Bob there. The next couple of hours was fuzzy.. in and out of sleep being pumped with pain meds and I really hated that feeling.  It wasn’t until the next day that I was up and walking the hall and then walking to the bathroom… huge accomplishment.  The first night I slept in the bed, but by the second night I was so uncomfortable,  I spent most of the night in either of the two chairs in the room. Needless to say, I was so happy to get home.

The surgery went well, so I hear, it lasted longer than the doctors thought and the tumor was bigger than they anticipated. It was 6cm by 8cm and had reached into the cervix, so they removed that too.  During the procedure I was on a bed tilted with my head downwards which cause fluids to flow into my head and apparently my face was so swollen, it resembled a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade balloon. Fortunately, after a week , my face and hands returned to their normal state and I was happy to get my jewelry and wedding rings back on.

At the end of the month I see the gyno/oncologist again for my  post-op follow up and he’ll determine whether I will need to go the radiation route.  Pathology reports from the lymph nodes showed negative for more cancer but because of its size and location, it was considered grade 2 and makes me a likely candidate. We shall see.

I’m just happy to be home and have this behind me.