May update

A lot has been going on lately! This week has been pretty intense. Dennis had his dental implant surgery on Tuesday. It went well, but he has had to take ibuprofen round the clock for the soreness. It has to heal for about 3 months before the dentist can build the crown on the implant post. He isn’t supposed to chew on that side until his follow-up appointment with the surgeon in 8 weeks. He will be SO glad when he can finally eat normally. With missing molars on both sides of his mouth, he has had to use his front teeth to do most of his chewing for quite some time. It will be next year before he gets the other implant, due to the expense involved. This year isn’t a good time to be liquidating stocks!

Flowers from Dennis' oral surgeon. What a nice surprise!

Sunday night, when I was getting ready for bed, I noticed my eye felt irritated. When I woke up the next morning, it was almost swollen shut. It didn’t really bother me at first, but the longer it has gone on, the sorer it has gotten (and itchier!). I went to the doctor yesterday and she put me on antibiotic drops. She said it is probably a stye coming on. Dennis and I noticed 2 spots on my upper lid last night. One has disappeared today, but the other is definitely becoming more pronounced. Glad that it is just a stye! It is very uncomfortable but not serious!

I’ve gotten in all of our family pictures that I ordered! I love them!!! I ordered a 20x30 of the bunch of us walking. The frame that I ordered for it came in today, so it is ready to be hung. I have all of the others framed and ready to hang, too, as soon as Dennis feels like doing that for me. (Hanging pictures is not exactly his favorite thing to do!) I also received our photo books today. I got one for each family. I love family pictures! Once I get everything hung up, I’ll share some pictures.

Dennis now has his own closet! He still has to build some shelves on one side, but it is already “operational”. As soon as he completes it, he’ll demo our old closet and redo it for me. I’m so excited to be able to have and arrange my own closet! After the closets, we’ll move onto our master bath. That will be a pretty extensive job! I still think it is possible to completely finish this year, or early into 2023. So exciting!

I’ve been working on Nam’s quilt for the past month. I took a couple of weeks off from working on it when he came for a visit. Dennis started putting together a deer head puzzle during that time, and it took up a large portion of the dining table. I finally asked him to move the puzzle (it is taking a LONG time to do!), so I could get my sewing machine back out. The quilt is going well. It is supposed to be his birthday present, which isn’t until late November. Don’t know if I can wait until then to give it to him! I plan to work on Jesse and Shepherd’s quilts simultaneously, since I’ll be using a lot of the same fabrics on theirs. I’m excited about their designs. They both wanted a Star Wars/space theme. The colors are really pretty! I hope all of the recipients of these quilts enjoy them as much as I do making them. Hopefully they will realize that a lot of love went into them!

Well, it has been a year now since I started losing weight and I am down 57 pounds. I’ve really slacked off for the past couple of months. I’m still losing, but it is VERY SLOWLY! I just got tired of being SO strict with my eating habits. So I’m still logging my food and restricting my calorie intake (for the most part), but just not as low a level as I had been. I still want to lose another 30 pounds or so, but I expect it to take me at least another year to get there. That’s ok, though. I’m feeling so much better and able to do so much more already. Every further pound that I lose is a bonus, no matter how long it takes to come off! The downside of losing that much (at my age) is all of the loose skin that is left behind. I looked online, and they said that due to the decreased production of collogen as we age, it may not ever tighten up. Oh well, I’ve never been all that concerned about my appearance anyway (or at least I try not to be!).

I hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! Be kind and stay safe!