I landed in Salt Lake this morning from Edmonton and went straight to the hospital to see Dad. I haven’t seen him since Thursday, and he looked lots better—but he also looked very tired. It’s exhausting to have his dressings changed. When I got there this morning, that’s what the nurse was doing, and it broke my heart—and made me smile at the same time—to hear him ask if it was OK if they just changed the dressing every other day.
After changing the dressings, they whisked him off to physical therapy, where he rode a bike for 20 minutes. Again, he was so tired. He kept wondering if he was almost done, and I thought about asking if he could just have a quick 15-minute cat nap, but I didn’t. . . . I knew that would have been a welcome treat, but we want to follow the prescribed schedule and regimen.
Dad still needs oxygen and he’s still got a feeding tube, but he is starting to eat a few solids, which is a wonderful step forward. And his hands look great too. Like I mentioned yesterday, they’re good enough that he can handle a phone! They got his left hand into a glove today, which is a good thing. His right hand is still way too swollen, but it has more healing to do (all 5 fingertips on the right hand were amputated, while the left had only 2, although they're still watching the others).
The doctors aren’t willing to commit to when he’ll be able to go home, but we’re crossing our fingers and hoping soon. Dad is 6’4”, and let me tell you, those hospital beds are not made for people that tall! He is anxiously looking forward to sleeping in his own bed again.
Anyway, it’s been hard to watch Dad suffer like this, but he’s a fighter and I’ve been very proud of him—and so grateful for his progress. It’s been delightful to spend so much time with him, and I will miss him when he heads back home, but it will be a much-anticipated milestone.
As promised, here are the photos of my Edmonton projects. I forgot to mention that I also demonstrated Halloween bookmarks, and I’ll show them first since they are so simple and don’t need much explanation.
I’m making a bookmark for each grandchild, and Sterling and I will sign the bookmarks, laminate them, and then include them with a book. I love to read, and I’m hoping to pass that favorite pastime on to my grandchildren, so books are frequent gifts from us.
The second project is a Laffy Taffy pennant.
This project is also pretty straightforward; the only thing that really needs an explanation is what I call the “double-pennant” fold. You’ll notice that it looks like there are two pennants, which there are, but I only ran the die through the machine once because I folded the Designer Series paper (DSP) a nifty way before cutting the pennant.
First, I cut a 12x12 piece of DSP in half, so I had a 6x12 piece of DSP. Then I folded the left side of the paper over to the center plus ¼ inch. Next I folded the right side of the paper over to meet the left side, so it’s actually folded ¼-inch less than halfway.
Next I unfolded it just enough to form the “w” that shows in the next photo, then I folded the two sides back to back.
Finally, I laid the paper on the die with the slightly longer fold lined up along the fold line on the pennant die cut. When you run it through the Big Shot, you’ll have two pennants, one slightly smaller than the other. It sounds kind of complicated, but if you look at the photos carefully and experiment a little, I think you’ll get it.
I’m making these candy pennants for our younger grandchildren. The older ones are getting a game, which I’ll be showing at San Antonio next weekend, so be sure to check that out!