Nummies 911

Tech Tuesday

Apps We Love

I have an iPhone. I made the switch to Apple products about eight years ago when I started to have less time and patience to devote to programming my PC to connect to the internet and keeping it free of spyware and pop-ups. I just wanted to turn something on and it WORK. Just work, without me knowing how it works. Apple products do that. They work. Period.

My first iPhone was the first product I ever bought with a fully charged battery out of the box. Really? Who would have thought of such a novel idea? Even Santa every year on Christmas Eve has to open boxes and plug in chargers so the next day children don't have to wait 24 hours to play with their toys. But I digress. I was going to talk about apps. 

Since my first iPhone, I have waxed and waned about my interest in apps. I guess because first and foremost, I see my iPhone as a phone. Novel idea, I know, but that's why I bought it, because I needed a phone. However, since my iPad came along, I've delved deeper into the world of apps because my iPad is NOT a phone. But it's not a computer either, so basically it's an APP runner. 

I'm rambling, I know. Long introduction to a short subject, but here is today's app review. 

Grocery Gadget is one of the few apps that I use every single week. Honestly, I don't know how I survived without it. More than just a list maker, the best thing is that you create your own "group" or "network." That allows you to share information with members of the group. Simply put, I can make a list, hit update, and it sends a message to the group that the list has been updated. In other words, I can add items to the grocery list and notify Anna to pick them up on her way home. I can add a photo to the item so she'll know EXACTLY what I want. I can even scan a barcode to add information. 

       

I don't use half the features this app has, and I still get more than my money's worth. You can add prices and search for e-coupons. You can designate stores for each item and shop by store, or you can designate different lists. Incredibly flexible, yet still very simple to use. It has a website portal that you can use to input items or update your lists. Grocery Gadget is great, and beats other apps in this category by a long shot. It also comes in versions for Android, Blackberry, Nokia and Windows phones. So if you are tired of crumpled scraps of paper, post it notes, or even plain text notes on your phone, give Grocery Gadget a try. You won't be sorry. 

 

Tech Tuesday

I thought I would start to share some of my favorite gadgets, tech tips, etc. with you, my readers, those few of you who keep checking in with me to see if I'm still alive :-)

Let me begin by saying that I am by no means an expert in modern technology, but I do discover things that I have found useful when shared with my friends and family.  So that's what I aim to do, highlight items and techniques that I have found to be beneficial or fun. I'd like to encourage you to do the same by chiming in via the comments.  Let us hear any related information so that we can all benefit without having to scourer the computer mags and blogs every week. 

So today, I'd like to give a big thumbs up to skinit.com. I had read their ads before in magazines and online, but I never ended up on their website. I did however pick up a case for my new iPhone 4S while shopping in a megastore. The case is basically a black bumper with a clear back. The purchase price was only $20, which I consider below average considering the purchase included a free skin of your choice from their website. I rarely see any iPhone case that appeals to my artistic side. They are either boringly corporate, cartoon silly, or just plain loud and rubber. I was attracted to the idea that I could either choose a skin I liked, or customize my own with a photo. (I anticipated a photo upload given my history.)

It was after I started browsing the skins that I became hooked.  There were so many skins that appealed to me, that uploading a photo was quickly dismissed, and the next hour was spent trying to decide which skin to order. I finally decided on a beautiful purple background to an OM symbol. 

The skin and shipping were free with the code included in the purchase of the case. I think that is a bargain. While the check out made it seem as if it would take weeks to receive your skin if you didn't upgrade the shipping and pay for it, I didn't and received my skin in under a week. On top of all that, I also received a code for 20% my next purchase, and Skin It encouraged me to share it with my friends so here it is. 

Enter code FEB12 for 20% off your order.  This code expires 2.29.2012.

Check it out and let me know what you think. As for me, I'm going to be looking for an OM sounding ringtone to complete the look and feel of pure bliss.

 

Better Late Than Never

Many of you know that I have been sick since August.  It gets better and worse at times, but more about that later. I'm just mentioning that to explain why this post is so delayed.

HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY CAMILLE!

She is six years old and STILL into horses big time. Notice the red cowgirl boots which were an early present. 

Yoga Retreat Fall 2011

I returned this week from the Fall Yoga Retreat with Lisa Lofthouse of Breathing Space in Fayetteville, North Carolina. 

The following is a poem that was read one afternoon.

Self-Observation Without Judgment

Release the harsh and pointed inner
voice. It's just a throwback to the past,
and holds no truth about this moment.

Let go of self-judgment, the old,
learned ways of beating yourself up
for each imagined inadequacy.

Allow the dialogue within the mind
to grow friendlier, and quiet. Shift
out of inner criticism and life
suddenly looks very different.

I can say this only because I make
the choice a hundred times a day
to release the voice that refuses to
acknowledge the real me.

What's needed here isn't more
prodding toward perfection, but
intimacy - seeing clearly, and
embracing what I see.

Love, not judgment, sows the
seeds of tranquility and change.

by Danna Faulds
from the book One Soul: More Poems From the Heart of Yoga 

Act 10 - Square Hats

 
Lately, I've been into the instant gratification knitting. Thereby knitting small objects on large needles with bulky yarns.  It has been so much fun.

Here are some examples:

Sweet little warm beanies for these fall and winter babies.

A little cocoon that will hold about a 7-8lb baby for a photo shoot.

Party hats in all shapes, colors and sizes, from newborn to elementary age.

Funky square hats that look absolutely daring on.  I don't have a model at the time, but Camille's bear didn't mind. 

 

Act 9 - Dyeing Yarn

While being in Creative Yarns, our local yarn shop (or YSL) is the equivalent of a being in the best bakery on earth, I couldn't help but notice some Montana undyed bulky yarn hiding in the sale section.  It was such a good deal, especially since I had just read an article on how to dye yarn using a crock pot and Wilson's food coloring on Craft Gossip. One of my other favorite hobbies is baking, so I have a rainbow of Wilson's food coloring gels. I have a crock pot, so all I needed was this $8 skein of yarn. 

I dipped one half the hank into hot water with coloring and vinegar. I turned the crock pot to hot and let the water evaporate as it seeped up the yarn.  I turned it around and did the same with another color. The directions were vague, but the results were great.  I am making Camille a watermelon colored hexagon blanket and I thought a green and red skein of thick wool would blend nicely. It did.

Here is the dyed yarn. 

And here is the yarn incorporated in the blanket.  

Pretty good match, if I do say so myself.

  

 This is the hand-dyed yarn.

 

Party Hats & Party Girls : Act 8

This is Heidi. Don't let her name fool you, this child is brilliant, decisive, outspoken, a leader and sometimes just a trial of her mother's nerves. I love her, though. I appreciate the outspoken honesty and unlimited curiosity which combined with her lack of patience often get her in trouble from simple disobeying to climbing up to a zip line and lacking the ability to dismount she does what any Heidi would do, she let's it rip. She was wearing a helmet I recall. So you can see where I get my drift.

Anyway, after my surgery, I spent two weeks recovering at my sisters and Heidi saw a party hat I knitted. She asked for one right away, you know the way kids ask for a candy bar or an icee, never thinking of the money and time that goes into buying those things or knitting a hat. Their lack of currency knowledge is refreshing to me. So, of course I knitted her a party hat and while she was slow to warm up, she was quite the model toward the end. She was very proud of it, which warmed my heart and she insisting on wearing it every where she went in the 100 plus degree weather of South Mississippi in August.

I've got lots of yarn left over, so if you want a party hat for a special little (or big one) just let me know. I'm going to put a few on etsy, but I love taking special orders from those I know.

Thanks Heidi for making me laugh, and from one short gut to another, we gals gotta stick together.

Love you,
Aunt Becki

 

      

 

Where Have I Been???

Well, it was a crazy summer with all the kiddos together.  It was great   fun, until, on the last event, a trip to Myrtle Beach, I got very sick. It wasn't until we were on our way home, that I decided the pain was severe enough to stop at an ER. We stopped at McCleod Memorial in Florence, SC.

After admission, they found my abdomen (below my diaphragm) was full of air, meaning that there was a break somewhere in my digestive system. I was sent for a CT scan and scheduled for surgery, only to find out that the CT scan showed no obvious breaks.  The contrast didn't leak out anywhere.  Thank goodness I had the best surgeon I've ever met since my gastric bypass surgeon. He was patient enough to wait and every day something weird would happen, I'd spike a temp, or drop 3 points in my hemoglobin, things like that. Still he wanted to wait, and so did I. We kept waiting until finally after five days a barium swallow showed no leakages. I was allowed to eat and once I did fine with that, I was released.  It has been assumed that most probable cause was an ulcer in my post gastric surgery stomach that was probably thinning the lining and finally allowed a break during an episode of throwing up (which I did just previous to going to the ER.) Both the hospitalist and surgeon have told me my likely survival would have been dim had I not gotten to the hospital when I did.

Now you guys know I'm a nurse and my sister is a Medical Tech, and we don't make the best of patients.  But these guys, the staff at McCleod were absolutely the best I've ever seen.  At one point I was taking morphine every two hours and even on a busy day, at shift change or the middle of the night, I NEVER had to wait. The doctors worked together and never entered the room empty handed when it came to test results and plans for action. The nurses and docs never balked at our questions or suggestions and if they disagreed, they politely explained why and we understood their reasoning. The surgeon even went so far as to contact my gastric bypass doctor in North Carolina. On my day of discharge, I leisurely ate my small breakfast and we joked that maybe we would be out of there by noon or 1pm, knowing how busy things are.  I was released about 10am and that was mainly because WE were not ready. So all and all, if you have to get sick on the road, Florence, South Carolina is a very good place to do it. Their customer service rivals that of Disney. I even got a follow up call from the nursing staff a few days after my discharge. Not the doctor, but the head of nursing staff for the floor on which I stayed.  She said, "Call us anytime if we can help or answer a question for you.  We hope you are feeling well." 

Thank you McCleod, for some of the finest medical care I could ask for. Thank you Lisa and Dean for coming to sit with me when it was still early and I didn't have a clue what was going on. Thank you for taking my three children to Fayetteville. Thank you Liz and Kevin for taking care of Camille while I was in the hospital despite the challenges you had going on that week. Thank you Stacy and Amanda for driving way to far just to be with me in the hospital and making me laugh when I had abdominal pain (thank goodness for the morphine.) Thank you for driving me to pick up Camille and driving me home.  And lastly thank you Anna, for believing me when I said I needed help and for taking care of everything else that needed attention while I was away. And for everyone else who kept in touch via text and calls, thank you for your concerns, thoughts, and prayers. 

I'm still recovering and you know my impatient self is frustrated with that. But it will come, it will. I just need to believe and spend this time healing. I need to learn to accept the help, and it has come in so many forms, from so many people that I'm sure I would leave someone out if I tried to name them all, but you know who you are and believe me, I think of your kindness almost daily now. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. 

 

 

Think You Can't Do Yoga?

Think again! Even my five year old modifies the poses. In fact, I think she may be developing a whole new set of "five year old" yoga poses. 

 

Molly, Me & Movies

Having a great time with Cullen and Molly here for the summer. Molly and I are watching lots of movies and having great talks about plots, foreshadowing, prejudices, and humor. Last night we watched Betty Davis in Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte. Another favorite was Lars and the Real Girl. Any suggestions? Or care to share your favorites?