Happy Easter! Some Not Fun Stuff, Plus I Got What I Wanted!

  Happy Easter to those who celebrate it. I am fairly subdued this Easter season. I have been having some weird heart dances, higher blood pressure than I normally have, and have gotten over some swooney spells I was having a couple of months ago. They were pretty bad. My doctor ordered an ultrasound of my carotid artery, an echocardiogram, and a CT scan of my head. The insurance refused the CT scan, claiming my doctor said I had a problem with my nerves, and that wouldn't call for a CT scan. Apart from the fact that my doctor never said that, I still think it's terrible that an insurance company that has never seen me, gets to decide what I need medically, over my actual doctor who HAS seen me. My doctor was able to resubmit the request and it has been rescheduled. In the meantime, my heart continues to dance and my swooney spells have gone away. But a few days ago, I suddenly found a huge lump on the side of my leg, just below my knee. It was black too, like a giant bruise. The only thing was, I hadn't actually done anything to my leg to cause it. My hypochondriac mind immediately jumped to 'blood clot', and I ran for the emergency room.

Where I spent the next few hours.

  I was assured the lump couldn't possibly be a clot, due to it's position. (Blood clots occur in the back of the legs, apparently.) They were going to send me home, but when asked if I had any other complaints, I said my chest felt tight. Then they wouldn't let me go home. They tested my everything, including bloodwork, different bloodwork to check for a heart attack, an x-ray of my heart, echocardiogram, blood oxygen, pulse, etc.  As usual, everything came back perfect. My blood pressure was a little high, but the doctor said they expect that in the ER. I also figured it could have been my nerves because I was afraid. So now I have a follow up appointment with my doctor, and I still have that appointment to get my head examined. (Ha.) 

  I think the root of the whole thing is the lack of sleep I've had since Ken had his strokes last July. Since then I have slept through the night twice I think. Since the stroke affected Ken's left leg, arm, and hand, he needs help with his toileting, and since he also had kidney damage, he pees a lot. Sometimes it has been once an hour, or sometimes every two hours, all night and day. There have been days when I am completely exhausted and can hardly stay awake. He's improving though, (He was in the hospital again a couple of weeks ago with another UTI. Fortunately this one was less serious than last time, and he was only in for a couple of days. Thankfully, since I only had a very uncomfortable chair to sleep in this time. It was like torture.) He has been given something to help him more completely empty his bladder when he goes, which is supposed to help prevent UTIs.), and I have slept more lately. I'm hoping that will help. The ER doc said stress and lack of sleep could definitely be the cause of my heart flutters and blood pressure problems. I've had stress flutters before, three other times. Once was when my dad was living with us, when he had dementia. I had to go to the cardiologist, and he verified that it was just stress because nothing even showed up on my overnight monitor.

  This Easter is weird for me, because I'm not making Easter baskets for my kids. Even though they've been grown for a while, I still made their baskets up. But Ivy lives in another state now, and Emma lives in another town. We're also living on a limited income now, which makes money a bit tighter. I also added to our debt recently. I was taking Ken to his appointment at the heart failure clinic. It's a multilane one way street. As I got almost up to the turn in to the parking lot, I put my turn signal on, checked there was nothing in the left lane, and started, very slowly, to ease into the left lane.  I had barely gotten the edge of my front fender into the lane when a huge red Jeep vehicle came speeding up in the left lane and whammed into us. I stopped, but the red Jeep continued on, and bounced all over the street, and slid sideways. It ended up crossways in the left lane, ahead of me. I was still in the right lane. The guy immediately jumped out of his vehicle and got on his phone to the police. I had to get Ken inside, to his appointment, because he had been having very low blood pressure. He couldn't miss it. To cut a long story short, I was, of course, cited, because I was entering his lane. However, he is claiming that I hit him, when he is the one who hit me. The only damage to his vehicle is a scubbed right front tire, and a scratched streak along under his passenger side door. That's how high his vehicle was compared to mine. Our car, on the other hand, has a crunched front fender. I had a hard time getting my door open after the crash, and the fender was rubbing the tire so bad, that I had to stop at the garage on the way home and have them pull it out so I could drive the car. The rim of my wheel is bent up, and my tie rod or something is bent. So I get a ticket and an insurance deductible. They'll probably drop us because we used them. 

  Anyway, on to the stuff that interests you more. As you might recall, I had my eye on the Mini Verse Make It Mini Spring set, with the deviled eggs. I manage to scoop up a lot of the Mini Brands sets free by getting the empty cases with the sample toys on them from the stores. But the only Spring display I saw was a huge one, about 4 feet tall, and attached to an endcap.

Ken, looking suspicious by the Spring display.

  Recently Fuzz and I went to the only store I had even seen that display in, and it was GONE! Gone, and probably just thrown in the trash. That was the only store in town that even had the Spring series. I was disappointed. But then we walked around to the other end of the aisle, where the clearanced toys are, and there was ONE Spring ball! I wondered if it was actually clearanced though, because it didn't have a clearance sticker on it. Fuzz suggested taking it to find out. I agreed to that, and we continued our shopping. I had something else to do before going home, and I had to get back to Ken. So we finished our individual shopping and went through the checkouts. I totally forgot about the ball, because I was tired and in a hurry. When we got out, Fuzz handed me the ball. He bought it for me. I asked if it had been clearanced, and he had no idea. We had to look at the receipt. It was not. They must just have only had one left and had just tossed it on the clearance shelf to get rid of the display. (Sniff!) I told Fuzz he could consider it my Mothers Day gift.

  So I took the ball home, anxious to see which set I had gotten. I mean, there are four sets. What are the odds I would get the deviled egg one? I was hoping, but how good is my luck? Well, I could see this showing through the ball. Looks like a good sign!

  Oh yeah!

  Things were almost certain at this point! I mean, the package has the deviled eggs pictured on it! This must be the one! 

  And it is! What were the odds of that?!

  The set comes with a two piece table, tongs, a bowl to mix the 'eggs' in, and a spoon to mix it with, a chicken shaped tray for the prepared eggs, a container of already halved boiled eggs... 

...a jar of  'mayonaise',(The resin for holding everything together.), a jar of  'peppercorns' to use for eyes on the eggs...

 and a container of little orange things to use as beaks. (Carrot pieces maybe?) Cheese?

There's also a little bunny head that clips on to something. I'm not sure what you're supposed to clip it to though.   

  The directions aren't the clearest. Kids are going to understand this? And why do they start at the bottom of the paper and go upward? I read from top to bottom. Or am I just old fashioned?

 

  One thing that's a cool little detail is, the eggs themselves have two different textures. The whites are sort of rubbery feeling, and the yolks are rough.

  I'm going to have to use some tweezers to put the little faces on. Those tiny tongs are never going to work with my fat fingers. I'm not sure I want to do all of them. It would be nice to have some plain ones too. Tammy World thinks they taste fine just the way they are.

  She's wondering if you remember her Easter dress I made for her a few years ago. She did quite a photo shoot in it, which you can see by clicking on the highlighted link.

  I'm making curried eggs today, which I have been doing for Easter for years. We're also having sauteed Hosta shoots from our yard. (Well, the shoots are. They didn't come out of the yard sauteed though...) We haven't had any the last two or three years, due to 'circumstances'. (i.e. house fire, living at Emma's, etc.) We used to do it though. We had a batch yesterday, and they were pretty good. There's been quite a crop this year. And yes, I mean Hostas, those plants with big leaves that flower and grow in your yard. They are quite edible. In fact, they were originally for eating, and only became strictly decorative when they came over here. They can be cut at four or five inches tall, up to two or three times, and will still grow back and flower in that season. Anyway, have a good day. I'll see you again soon.