Carey Family

Sue

My pal, Hashimoto’s

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We’ve been living together for almost 3 years now and we’re getting to know each other quite well.  I’m now able to discriminate between hyper- and hypo-thyroid symptoms which helps me to deal with them better and not think I’m crazy.  This is good news.  I struggle every day with the effects of thyroid disease and how to deal with it and I keep talking to more of my friends who are being diagnosed with various thyroid diseases.  It’s amazing how many women in my personal orbit are dealing with similar issues: 6.  One of the daily battles we’ve all mentioned is trying to keep our spirits up when it’s discouraging or when new symptoms emerge.  Currently, my migraines are under control but I am having numbness and tingling in my arms and hands which has been diagnosed as cubital tunnel syndrome.  It always something……

I figured that if my IRL friends are struggling and need support, there must be some cyber friends that could help us, so I went a-searching.  And found some blogs I’d like to highlight in this week’s installment of “Pay It Forward”.  I’m enjoying Hypogirl, who has some stories to tell about Hashimoto’s and life.  There are more.  One is called Dear Thyroid and encourages people to submit their writing about thyroid disease in an effort to help with healing.  (If you visit, click on Who We Are on the right sidebar and find out about the pin-ups!)  I Am the Face of Thyroid Disease.org has resources and patient-submitted videos, some of which made me cry.

Every day seems like a small mountain to climb, and it’s nice to know there’s a support community out there with people who are experiencing the same kinds of things.  It gives me hope.

 

Adventures in quilting

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For Christmas, Scott gave me a stack of fat quarters in fall fabrics for a Thanksgiving quilt I want to make.  I have a landing that’s prominent in my living room and I like to hang a quilt on it to soften it and dress it up a bit.  So far I have a patriotic one and last year I made a Halloween one, which was my third finished quilt.  (Did I mention that I’m a novice quilter?  Hence the need for more time to quilt.  I’ve made 3 finished and hand quilted, one that’s partly hand quilted, 2 pieced tops for charity that someone else finished, and a UFO pieced top made from scraps leftover from the quilt that I’m quilting now.  That’s my entire inventory.  I’m not counting all the tied quilts I’ve made over the years because what I really wanted to learn was how to piece and hand quilt.)

OK, back to the fall fabric.  I’ve been looking through my books and magazines for a pattern that I want to use to make this quilt and so far I’ve been underwhelmed.  On July 2 we went to lunch at Archibald’s Restaurant and did some shopping at Historic Gardner Village because it was my birthday weekend and I wanted to.  🙂

Scott sat on a bench outside while I browsed around Pine Needles, looking for bargains and inspiration.  I found both!  Cute Moda charmpacks 1/2 off and a quilt sample done up on the wall that I just fell in love with.  The quilt had a sign on it saying the pattern was “Off the Grid” from Moda Bake Shop so I called over a saleslady and asked her about getting the pattern.  Discovery:  Moda has oodles of free patterns online using their products.  Who knew?  Well, all the savvy quilters knew, I’m sure, but I discovered a gold mine when I got home.

So I looked up the pattern, printed the instructions, and found the designer, John, has a blog of his own called Quilt Dad.  Which brings me to the Pay It Forward section of my post.  (You were wondering when I was going to get to that, weren’t you?)  His blog is packed full of cool ideas and I’m linking to one of the best parts: his charity quilting.  He participates in quilting bees where members contribute blocks to make charity quilts.  Check out his blog!

Back to me.  Last week I cut out the pieces to my Thanksgiving quilt and here they are.  I can’t wait to get started sewing.

Garden Report

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“I was a writer long before I was a gardener.  Like most writers, I’m in the habit of looking for interesting characters everywhere I go.  So it’s no surprise that my garden is not the color-coordinated, beautifully designed, soothing outdoor space it could be.  It’s more like a crowded bus terminal filled with people who have mysterious inner lives-unmentionable pasts and unknowable futures.  The inhabitants of my garden are all characters in some horticultural novel written across the pages of my front yard”.  –Amy Stewart, Sunset April 2009

 

I love this quote from Amy Stewart because even though I have good intentions of designing well, I really just want to plant what I love.  So I design by putting some color contrasts in place, but I  love everything there, so they are all a bunch of characters.  Here are some lovely re-seeding biennial Canterbury Bells with Pink Friesland salvia hiding my new antique milk can, and some marigolds in front.  (I simply adore Canterbury Bells!)

 

 

I started these Cherry Brandy Rudbeckia from seed last year and this year they are coming up great.  The photo doesn’t really do justice to the lovely dark red and orange-red color.  These are some of my favorites blooming right now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My new antique iron wheel is set off by blooming purple catmint on the right, bee balm in the middle, and a really cool plant on the left called Redbirds in a Tree.  See why my gardens are like a crowded bus terminal?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now to the vegetables: keeping up with the garden without kids at home is harder, but doing it with a husband recuperating from rotator cuff surgery is really hard.  I’ve despaired that we would get any vegetables this year, but with some serious weeding the last couple days I’ve found the vegetables.  Yay!  Turns out we’re going to get some after all.  We’ve got tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, squash, beans, and potatoes going out there.  I’ve included a photo Scott took of me repairing the irrigation ditches because he always gets amused at me playing farmer.

Elder Brian’s June updates

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6-7-2011
I am doing so good, the weather is cool (we are in “June Gloom” right now).  But it is super nice.  The ocean is beautiful and I love seeing it every day!
Miercoles: We went to the train station and we sang hymns and contacted people and it was SO fun.  We had some sweet experiences.  This one guy from Africa came and talked to us and [we] were able to teach the Restoration to him and he felt the spirit strong!  Then, this one lady came up to us and said that she was thinking about the missionaries that morning and how she needs help with her daughter who is heavily addicted to drugs, so they set up an appointment and met with them that night!!!

6-14-2011
Wow, so for my news….I am being transferred!  It was a shocker for sure.  I was not expecting that, not even for a minute.  I was only here in San Juan Capistrano for 6 weeks?!  Gah.  Well, I guess the Lord needs me somewhere else, so I am ready to go for it.  This area is insanely crazy, we have seen way more miracles than we have deserved.  This has been the most productive area that I have been in, and truly it has been a great experience.  On Sunday at the stake missionary correlation I was talking to President Cook and I am also being released as a Zone Leader!!!  Hallelujah!  I have been a Zone leader for 8 months.  It is time for someone else to be a zone leader too.  What President Cook told me was that I am going to be a district leader in a Spanish area (hooray), so that this transfer I can get to know the area and then for the rest of my mission I will train.  President wants to have the experienced missionaries be trainers because for awhile most of them were just really young and inexperienced.  This transfer there aren’t any Spanish missionaries coming in, so he is “arranging his pieces”, so that next transfer and the transfers that follow, I can train.  So that will be awesome, I am
really, really, really excited for that, but I am sad to leave San Juan.

6-21-2011
IMG_0041Ok so for the news on my transfer.  So now I am serving in Mission Viejo as the district leader of the Mission Viejo Spanish District.  I cover the entire Mission Viejo stake, and the ward that I am serving in, (the Mission Viejo 5th Ward), covers three stakes!  So there is one companionship assigned to each stake and there are 6 missionaries in the ward. We cover the cities of Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Ladera Ranch, and Wagon Wheel.  President Cook told me that they are putting me in position so that I can train here soon. The district is small, only 6 missionaries, and they are all great, so this will be a really nice transfer, where we can get a lot done!!  We have a full-time car (covering 4 cities), but the car got wrecked a few days before I got here, so we were walking and hitching rides until a few days ago when we got the car back.  The area has a ton of potential, and historically has always seen a lot of success.  Right now, we don’t have a whole lot going on, but we will see here in a little bit and hopefully we can get things rolling!

6-28-2011
I do now know my release date and everything.  So the official day (as of right now) is December 20th.  That is a Tuesday, so I will either stay in the mission home that night and come home on the 21st, or I will go home that day.
Jueves:  In the morning we had a MIRACLE!!!  We were going to check up on a referral in these apartment complexes and this 15 year old kid came out.  He was all like, they aren’t there, but you can teach me if you want!  So, we did, and we taught him about the plan of salvation and the Restoration and we invited him to be baptized and he said yes!!  We are working for July 30th!  He is awesome and has so much potential.  After him, a lot of our appointments fell through until we were able to teach one of our progressing investigators in the evening.  It was a really good lesson about the plan and she really felt the spirit strong.  Then after that we ran over to English classes and helped out with them, and then at the end we gave the spiritual thought.  The classes are so fun!  I love teaching English!

This work truly is the work of angels and miracles never cease to exist!!