Lots of stuff

Sooooooooo, let me see. It's been a month since I last wrote anything here and naturally, as soon as I get here; my mind goes blank.

So, as per usual, this post will probably be a bit rambly LOL.

First of all, Matt turned 18! I'm planning on taking him out clubbing tomorrow night - wonder how drunk I can get him LOL.

Then Jess had her high school prom, finished her exams, left high school and has applied for an animal care course at college! This is a pic of her in her prom dress, doesn't she look absolutely stunning!

Also, June is Woolfest month - I'd been looking forward to this for months and even missed out on being a bridesmaid so that I could attend!

I drove up to Ilford where Claire lives on Wednesday, I slept in the van outside hers on Wednesday evening and she filled the van up with all her stuff LOL. Thursday we headed for the Lake District.

On the way I met up with Dora & Kathy who bought my Majacraft Rose from me and paid me cash which was very handy as I was planning to buy another Ashford Joy so that I'd have a travel wheel and a plying wheel - I love Sherry The Cherry, but carting her about is cumbersome and she takes up a lot of room!

We arrived in the Lakes at dinnertime and Claire took me to a Chinese takeaway for a birthday dinner - it was very nice! China Garden in Ambleside if you're interested.

After that we headed for the Derwentwater Hotel - there's a little dead end road that the hotel sits on and the end of the road doesn't have any double yellow lines or 'No camping or overnight occupation of vehicles' signs so we parked up there for the night.

Unfortunately, a cockeral now lives in the field right there and started crowing at about 4.30am - I was not amused but managed to ignore it for the most part!

We headed into Cockermouth for Woolfest on Friday morning. It was awesome, I walked loads, spent quite a bit, saw loads of old friends, met some new friends, had an absolutele blast, but Isis was the hit of the show. Loads of people came up to say hello to her LOL.

Friday night was the Cumbrian Sausage Fest and the Spin In - it was delicious and gave me the opportunity to check the Joy was all in full working order.

That night a couple of officials were kind enough to let me park with the vendors who had chosen to camp there for the night.

We attended Woolfest again on the Saturday and spent most of the day with 'The Mogs' in the Interactive Area - they run the Interactive Area at Woolfest & Wonderwool, it's a meet up place, a demo area and an area where anyone can come and ask questions, learn a new skill, buy/donate yarn and fibre - all proceeds go towards the Air Ambulance and this year The Mogs raised £230!!

If you're interested you can view all my Woolfest photos here.

We went back to the Derwentwater Hotel road despite the cockeral for Saturday night and Sunday night we were invited to visit Damaris at her home - which is gorgeous and I want it! She even has a flat bit outside that was suitable for the camper!

We were going to visit The Mogs on Monday night, but they had a family emergency, we were both exhausted and decided to head back to Claire's!

I stayed at Claire's on the Monday night and Tuesday I went to visit Kerry for 2 nights.

I got home at lunchtime on Thursday, I was exhausted, filthy and dying for a shower.

Before I could do anything, Mel called and asked if I could PLEASE collect Mason from playschool and take him to her Mum's. After which, I came home stripped off, ran the bath and discovered that there wasn't one clean towel in the whole house!

Luckily, Damaris had loaned me towels when I showered at hers, so my towels were unused, but I was NOT happy!

On Tuesday, Live Foods By Post who I get all my snake supplies from posted this picture.


BABY CORNS! And they're black!!

Yes, I've already been in and reserved two :D

I also got a message over the weekend telling me that Matt had a job interview Tuesday morning at Arreton Barns. He went in today for a trial and by 2pm they told him they wanted to hire him! My baby is all growed up with a proper job *sniffle*

Today, Walter came to live with us, he's a little chinchilla born from the pair that Mel has so I know he's been cared for properly and I've definitely seen his parents LOL

He's had loads of fun, chewed hay, his cage, shelves & box, pooped, eaten and snoozed and I've held him a couple of times too.

So, the first day has passed

Forgive me; I have NO idea what this post will look like; it seems blogger won't let me use compose mode, so I'm having to write this in HTML mode lol.

I didn't use my Mac yesterday, but that may have been more because I wasn't HERE yesterday!

Matt and I went to Southampton as he's being transferred from the paediatric team to the adult team this year and the adult team decided they wanted another MRI done *sigh* so we wandered over, caught the bus (which turned out to be the bus which goes all round the houses. By 1.10, I was starting to worry as we were late, so I called the department.

It wasn't until that moment that I realized the letter said 1pm on NOVEMBER 1st!!!

I ended the call in embarrassment after asking if there was any chance of being squeezed in (they refused), got off the bus and phoned home to rant.

Got back on the bus to go back in to Southampton and went straight to KFC for something to eat (ranting takes a lot of energy, you know!)

After we were both fed, I dragged Matt into Fabric Land to buy fabric for a new knitting bag that my friend Rachel is making me

Then we wandered around Southampton towards the ferry.

It wasn't until we were pulling into Cowes that Matt realized he'd lost his phone! We asked the staff at Cowes who called through to Southampton who confirmed it was there - this is what happens when you wear your trousers down so low 'teenager style'; everything falls out of your pockets!

Unfortunately, a ferry had just left Southampton, so we had to wait an HOUR for a member of staff to turn up with it.

By the time I got home, I literally had time to grab a few bits and head off to knit night!

We went to a different place this week after the debacle at Table Table and it was perfect - or it would've been if they hadn't had quiz night! Which we knew nothing about when we booked and is apparently held every Monday!

Shame really, it was quiet and very well lit. Oh well, the hunt is still on for a good venue and I'm still loving the iPad!

*edited to add* I took my iPad to knit night last night, I carried it in my bag with my purse, Mandala and a project bag with two support spindles, 100g of fibre, the 5 metres of fabric from Fabric Land and my new knitting project (I'm knitting up the alpaca/merino I spun during the TdF this year)

I pulled the project bag out and carried it independently but my bag was HEAVY! Giving the fabric to Rachel helped, but my bag was still heavy on the way home - the iPad weighs a lot!

Parenting

I've just had a huge row with Matthew for a comment he's made about my parenting on facebook.

Three years ago, Matthew was arrested for stealing a chocolate bar from our local Co-op. The Co-op is a minute walk away and is our local corner shop.

His excuse was: "I felt shaky and needed sugar."

I was so furious with him that I grounded him for a month. In our house that means you're not allowed out, you're not allowed on the computer or any of the games consoles.

I did this to teach Matt a lesson.

Last week, Alex was arrested for assaulting another teenager at school. I grounded him for a week.

Wildly different groundings and here's why.

Matt was at school at the time, so for six hours a day; he was at school with his friends. He walked to and from school with his friends.

He still defies me in that he smokes in the house, he gets drunk nearly every weekend and he has his girlfriend over to stay. He asks if his friends can stay with a moments notice and I usually don't say a word!

I don't ask him to contribute financially and I don't ask him to do anything around the house as he's rarely here. I paid for all of his college material and didn't ask for him to pay it back when he got his EMA (which is the whole purpose of EMA!) - I don't even ask him to show us what he's learning at that college and cook a meal once in a while!

I have been quite relaxed as a parent with all my children.

Alex is at home with me all day! He is not out wondering the streets, he has not been allowed to meet up with his friends when they finish school and Alex is sorry for what he did! Matt was sorry he got caught!

Matt has deemed me unfair in this decision. Well, when you're the parent Matt, you get to decide!

Home from hospital

We were late getting there as we missed the ferry, but they were ok with that.

As soon as we got there, Matt had to go and do the exercise test - he did very well on that.

We then went back to the ward and Matt spent the afternoon having various tests: Cardiac ultrasound, ECG, x-ray, blood test and had a cannula put in.

Here's a pic of his arm with the 'magic cream' (it numbs the area) on and the cannula in.

Amazingly we rushed through everything and from about 4pm; we were sat twiddling our fingers. Thankfully, they had some reasonably decent DVDs, an X-Box, a pool table, TV's everywhere and some stuff to keep Matt occupied. I had my knitting!

He was scheduled to go to theatre second on Tuesday morning, that should've been around 10am. Unfortunately, they had an emergency case come down from Neonatal ICU so we all got bumped down a space which meant Matt didn't go down until 1pm.

The procedure itself went well, but his blood thinned quite a lot during it and refused to clot so they couldn't take the sheaths (which they run the camera wire through) out of his groin while he was still under. They gave him a clotting agent and then removed the sheaths. He said the pain was awful and he coped brilliantly!

After a Cardiac Catheter you're supposed to lie flat for an hour, bed rest for the next four hours and very gentle exercise for the next two hours.

At first the consultant said we may be able to go home that night, but due to the delay in going down to theatre and the delay in coming back from theatre, it meant that the above didn't get finished until 10.15pm and hospitals get a bit funny about discharging people at that time of night. Especially when there's a risk their artery may spring a leak on the way home!

So we stayed in another night and were discharged early this morning.

Matt just has to take things easy for the next few days, gentle exercise and to keep an eye on the wound site to make sure his artery doesn't bleed again.

The surgeon and consultant were very pleased with the results; the hole has now completely closed, the aorta itself is leaking slightly along with the regurgitation but they're in no hurry to operate to fix it and his left ventricle is slightly enlarged, but they don't know why. We go back and see the consultant in six months.

I didn't sleep well there, the bed was ok - but it was boiling in there and I feel exhausted now.

I managed to work on the shawl, but didn't get as much done as I would've liked. I'd like to work on it now, but I'm finding it really hard to keep my eyes open (and it's not even 2pm) so I think I'll have to have a nap LOL

Hospital

My second son, Matt, has a heart defect.

He has a VSD (Ventrical Septal Defect - a hole in other words) and aortic regurgitation.

The VSD acted like a vacuum and sucked, the aorta valve was pulled toward it.

He had surgery 6 years ago to plug the VSD and give the aorta a 'lift'. The surgery was mostly successful, he still has a small VSD but the aorta has been overstretched (kinda like when you overstretch an elastic band) and will eventually need replacing.

Matt is going into Southampton General Hospital tomorrow for a few days. He will be hooked up to a machine and will run on a treadmill so they can view his heart under exercise. He will also be anaethetised while they put a camera down his throat and one in an artery in his groin so that they can get a good all round view of the heart.

This means that Matt will be admitted tomorrow morning and discharged on Wednesday morning.

As Southampton is so far away; I, naturally, will be going with him.

Hopefully I'll have signal on my BlackBerry, so I will try to update my blog and twitter as often as I can.

I'm hoping that I will have the opportunity to get loads done on my Ravelympics project!

Matt passed!

Matt was told that to get into college he needed at least 3 E level GCSE's.

I'm so very proud of him because he not only got the 3 E's, but he also got 3 D's, a C and a B!

Now he's going to go on and do catering at college!

Prom & Socks!

Friday night was Matt's prom night, we spent Friday getting him all dolled up; we dyed his hair black, painted his nails black he even put on black eyeshadow...you get the idea!

AND he wore his pink prom socks!

Here are some pictures of him with his date, Milly.

As you know, my first attempt at Vortical was a failure and I've had to reknit it. I finished the first sock this evening and it fits! It fits so well that it's given me more enthusiasm to finish the second one!

Sweet Sixteen

Today my second son, Matt, turned 16.

I can't believe I now have two children who are technically old enough to leave home!

Very mixed feelings about this.

Have a look at this:

It's a height chart, I started doing it a few years ago as the boys starting shooting up in height leaving Jess and me far behind. I measured Alex today, he's 13 and is just half an inch under 6ft!!!

Matt’s ankle

So, it's been over a week since Matt injured his ankle and it's still healing. I'm not convinced that it's 'just' a sprain. I'm wondering if he's cracked the bone or broken one of the smaller bones in his foot. He's still using a crutch and is still limping and requires painkillers if he overdoes it. This is how it looks today!

Matt

I knew I'd remember something else!

Last Saturday Matt and Arnie were bouncing about on the trampoline. Apparently they weren't doing any stunts or anything they shouldn't have been doing, just bouncing up and down and Matt landed awkwardly. He felt loads of pain in his ankle; it made him quite nauseous so he got Arnie to help him up the stairs to the loo in case he was sick.

After a bit, Arnie came down to tell me that Matt was ill.

I went up the stairs to find Matt, white as a sheet, extremely faint and sweating buckets. Now, I knew he was near to being sick because that's exactly how I am just before…………….well, you get the idea!

I sent Arnie down to dampen a towel with cold water, Alex to get a glass of water and Kyle to inform Mum that I'd probably be making a trip to A&E so she'd have to catch the bus to work.

I got him cooled down and when there was colour back in his cheeks I asked if I could look. He swivelled round and extended his foot towards me. He still had his sock on and it looked like someone had shoved a tennis ball down the outside of his ankle. I managed to ease the sock off and this is what I saw!

I got Arnie to carry Matt down the stairs (Arnie is 6ft 7ins and weighs about 250lbs and Matt is a 5ft 3ins twig) and we bundled him in the car and headed for hospital.

Can you believe that it's not broken? Apparently he's just sprained it!

Here is a gallery of how his ankle has gone through the week, above is the photo I took in the A&E waiting room on the 18^th April. Below from left to right photos taken on 19^th, 20^th, 21^st and 22^nd of April.