Last Monday MomChops tried to crochet herself a new knee and for some odd reason it did not work (she even made it in teal and everything)... so they had to put in a fake knee made from to top secret metals and spaced-aged polymers. She now has x-ray vision and a brand new sparkly knee (she evidently gained deep insight into the whole area 51 thing with the installation of the alien knee... so if you want the scoop let me know!!!).
DadChops brought her home from the hospital on Thursday in the midst of a massive Texas snow storm. We are talking nearly a foot of snow here folks. It's unheard of round these parts!!
She's already up and around and ready to get back into her craft room (she's been making aprons like a mad woman to sell to Southwest Airlines flight attendants - my sister (a SW airline flight attendant herself) hawks them for her at little craft fairs they have in the lounge (who knew right?!?!?!)) So if you are flying SW Airlines and see a flight attendant wearing an amazingly crafty apron while they are serving you drinks and peanuts... that's more than likely a MomChops original).
Casseroles Casseroles and more Casseroles
Ron and I cooked all weekend and made up a mess of casseroles for Mom & DadChops. We'll be going over there nightly this week to hang with them and my sister (who is in town for a week to help MomChops adjust to her new Bees Knees)! I can hardly wait to see her! I'll be taking pics of her latest knitting and tatting creations and will be sure to share them with you guys too!
I did the video tutorial for the heart and flowers picture and well... ummmm... I evidently recorded it in the wrong format. I shot it 5 times and RonChop edited it all nice and crafty and when we tried to upload it to Vimeo it just would not take the format (I had the post written and everything... it was a sad sad moment). So I'll be doing it all over again and posting it real soon! I swears!
So guess what?
I very quietly reached 1 million blog visitors on Super Bowl Sunday afternoon. Probably while RonChops & and I were watching the Super Bowl with the Chops Clan (and munching on some KILLER MomChops food creations - she basically made half of what we ate from recipes over on Our Best Bites... not even kidding). So thanks you guys. Thanks for linking. Thanks for commenting. Thanks for sharing your lives, your crafts, your dogs, cats and kids and even a few farm animals... but most of all... thanks for hanging out with me these past 18 months! It's been pretty darn fun and I feel pretty lucky to have virtually met so many wonderful people!
Sew...
Since I was not expecting to reach that goal so soon I am not ready with my handmade prize giveaway. I'll do that real soon... Instead of crafts and such, I have something else to share! Seeing as how I met this lovely lady through my blog and I reached this amazing milestone I figure it's pretty darn fitting to do this today.
Meet Kimble
Shaina from Just Because I Am Me has been a LollyChops blog reader since my second month blogging (she she's been insanely faithful - always dropping by, checking up on things and just in general being there and hanging out with me this whole time). She's left comments when I had giveaways, craftastrophies, and surgeries! We did a craft swap and even talked on the phone once when I needed some sewing advice! What I am trying to say is ... she's good people.
In April of 2009 her and her husband found out they were expecting their 5th child. Within a very short time they were told their sweet new baby boy would be born with congenital heart defects. Without
immediate treatment after birth, he would not survive. He was
diagnosed with Pulmonary Valve Atresia, Tricuspid Valve
Hypoplasia/Atresia, and a Hypoplastic/Hypertrophied Right Ventricle.
Basically, that medical jargon means that half his heart isn't working
and would not be able to pump blood to the lungs to get oxygen. Without
oxygenated blood, the body cannot survive.
Birth Day
Kimble was born on November 4, 2009 weighing in at 6 lbs 5 oz. After his birth they were in the hospital for 5 weeks. During that time Kimble
underwent many procedures and heart surgeries. He currently has a
shunt in his heart, which redirects some blood flow to the lungs, and
then back to the heart. This shunt is only temporary, and in the next
few months, he will have another open-heart surgery to bypass some
arteries, which will send blood flow directly to the lungs, instead of
to that broken part of his heart. In about a year he will have
another heart surgery to re-direct more arteries. If all goes well, he
will be able to run around and act like any other child, but will most
likely have limitations throughout his life.
Kimble also has a cleft lip, which will require surgery as well (that's a lot of surgeries for such a small tender little lamb like Kimble).
So why I am telling you all this?
Shaina is a totally amazing cook! She's been a recipe guest here twice (back in the olden days when I did stuff like that). Once with her Pumpkin Roll (recipe card HERE) and another time with her tasty Grape Chicken Salad (recipe card HERE)!
So before Kimble was even born she put together a sweet little cookbook (I bought one of the first copies and it's really fantastic). It's called "Just Because I Like to Cook" !
Shaina is using the proceeds from her cookbook sales to help pay for Kimble's medical bills. If you would like your very own copy you can get it HERE (they even ship internationally)! If you want to send Shaina some HUGS you can swing on over to her place HERE (she has loads more pics of her sweet family and gobs of awesome recipes too)!!!
Thanks you guys!! Kimble is too darn precious not to share with you all!
I'll leave you today with a few Worldwide HUGS (thanks for leaving me so many HUGS in your languages you guys... that was FUN)!!!!
More hugs than you can stand (as if there was such a thing as too many hugs)!
P.S. If I goofed up any of those HUGS up there, let me know! Some of those accents are hard to figure out!!!
O.M.T. I think my favorite world wide hugs have got to be Drukkies (that's HUGS in Afrikaans) and Knuffels (that's HUGS in Dutch). They sound so cute don't you think?!?! Which ones are your faves??
