High Hurdles

I feel like we are in a high hurdle race.

At Ray's physical the last week of January, the doctor felt something hard during the prostate exam. The next week, the urologist also felt it. The PSA score was normal. A biopsy was schedule for a month later, March 5. And the results finally got back to us on March 19. Cancer. NOT what we expected. Everything was done in such a laid back manner that we thought there was just an abnormality. Although we know that Ray's dad passed away from prostate cancer that metastasized in the bone.

Our lives have changed. We have more phone calls, more email, more messages. Our sons are anxious to know what is happening with their Dad. We are too. 

The scans - a bone scan and a CT scan were done Monday. Today we saw the urologist for the results. We both felt blessed and relieved when the doctor said the scans are clear - the cancer is localized. 

One hurdle cleared!

We are in the process of freeing our schedules including a conference in Washington, DC. We will do whatever we need to do. We have a few more hurdles in this race.

We meet with the surgeon on Monday…

Ray feels good - in fact the best he has felt in a number of years! With the help of an Alternative Medicine Doctor, we  have both lost some unnecessary weight since January. We both feel so much better and we lead a very healthy life style. We know all of this can only help in the journey ahead.

A new grandson!

Leo Edwin has arrived! He was due on the 14th and we've all been waiting… especially his mom! He made his appearance at 5:40 this afternoon, weighing in at 7 pounds, 10 ounces. He is 20" long. Son Brent said Leo and DIL Emily are doing great.

We hope to meet Leo tomorrow. First we need to help out with the big brothers.

QOV Blocks

Kevin over at Kevin the Quilter is hosting a block drive for some QOV (Quilt of Valor) quilts. His pattern is "Pathway of Valor". The blocks are really simple and I had plenty of fabric in my stash - didn't even make a dent!

Sorry this photo is a little blurry. The block is 12.5" square. Just two seams! That stripe can go anywhere you like. Easy Peasy!

I made these 5 blocks to send to Kevin: 

This is a neat quilt. Kevin is using 30 blocks per quilt in reds, blues, golds, and whites. If you'd like to make a block or 5 or 10, check out his post.

Ok, time to get these packed up so they ship out tomorrow.

A very cold weekend...

This past weekend we went to a hockey tournament where Grandson Mack's team was playing (Son Brent is the coach). The tournament was in Baraboo, Wisconsin, and it was SO COLD! I think part of there facilities are permanent - the concessions stand, locker rooms, and restrooms. The rink itself seems to be temporary. We wonder if they take the plywood walls down in the summer. It was -6° F outside Sunday morning and close to that I think in the rink!

Mack had a few break aways like this one. He scored on a break away in the last game. Woohoo!

Mack on a break away.

We were at the rink for all three of Mack's games. Other than that we roughed it at Ho Chunk. Nice room!

That is Ray's camera bag on the bed.

It really was a nice weekend and it only took until Monday to get warm!

Two finishes: a vest and a scarf

Last week I had two knitting finishes. The vest is a little heavier than I'd like but it is warm!

Guess the neckline was folded down a bit. 

I love the texture. This is a vertical picture of the vest - I did not turn the camera.

Neat buttons! You can see the edging to the right of the button. All of the details are here.

This infinity scarf uses self-striping yarn. It can be worn short like this.

Or long like this. All of the details are here.

Bear Hugs

The third baby quilt for our soon-to-arrive grandson might be my favorite! 

The background on the front is off-white cottons; the blue stars are flannel with a cotton surround that matches the inner border and binding; the bears are all Minkee with black cotton noses and red cotton hearts; the outer brown border is also Minkee.

The bears are adorable! The mouth detail is embroidered with pearl cotton as are the black (hard to see) eyes. I must say that while making this, I didn't think the bears were adorable! Each bear has a number of pieces to be appliquéd and I sat with a vacuum by my side for all of the fuzzy pieces!

The back is a creamy white Minkee that matches the bears' paws, ears, and faces.

This approximately 48" X 48" quilt has polyester batting. I machine quilted this in straight lines across the quilt - I wanted to be sure the quilt stayed very soft.

Colorful Chevrons

The second quilt for our soon-to-arrive grandson is all about chevrons and color. His mom likes color and she pinned this quilt on Pinterest. 

I decided I could do something similar without a pattern. This is the baby's quilt.

The color pieces are all batiks while the white fabric is cotton.  I really had trouble finding the fabric I wanted. I started with just turquoise and white blocks but that was too blah so I moved on to batiks and added the orange.

I machine quilted this following the chevron on both the colored and white parts - lots of corners to turn but it turned out fine. 

The back is flannel. The batting in this quilt is cotton.

This quilt is about 46" square.