Back to normal

DD and SIL left about 10:45 yesterday morning. The road cameras for the passes didn't look too bad and hopefully everyone went home Sunday LOL. It actually snowed over Christmas at their house (very rare) so they had snow all the way from my house back to theirs, LOL. It did take them 9 hours to get home, so about an extra hour and a half, but they made it safe and sound. One of their neighbors even shoveled their driveway and walkway for them, which was very nice of them. DD said she'll make a plate of cookies to take over to them. Then it was quiet in the house after they left, haha. It's not so much them that are noisy (they are pretty relaxed and quiet) - their 2 dogs are the extra chaos, really.  Kitty was glad to have his house back to himself. Plus they always seem to have so much stuff with them, LOL. I don't have a ton of kitchen countertop space as it is, and when they are here it all just gets covered in their stuff. 

Christmas morning SIL had taken a picture on his phone from standing up in our loft and emailed it to their good friend, B. We have not met B yet. He was sick during their small wedding and wasn't able to attend. Anyway, the 3 of them have a group text they do all the time. B is also going through a divorce and now living at his parents temporarily, until he gets his half of the money from his house sale and finds a new house to purchase for himself. After SIL sent him the picture he said "WOW! Do your parents want to adopt me?!". DD read the text message he sent to me and I laughed and said "tell him we happen to have an opening for a son! LOL". She told him what I said and I guess later in the day when they were texting he started calling DD "sis". Then we were telling dh about the "adoption" and he's like "heck ya - does he like ladders?" 

After we dropped my mom off we stopped at the grocery store for a few things. They wanted me to try this Mexican hot cocoa mix - Abuelita's - that they really like (It's delicious!) so I got 2 boxes, one to send home with them. As we were home putting the few groceries away dd was telling me that their friend B's parents are super cheap about everything. They won't buy anything brand name - all store brand or generic foods. Which is fine for some things, but some things just taste better with the brand name and when B (who has a good job and can certainly afford a few "luxuries", such as a brand name food item, tries to buy his own food to have at his parents house, they chastise him for buying "expensive" stuff. He loves this hot cocoa mix so bought it and keeps it at DD's/SIL's house, LOL. I picked up the extra box of Abuelita's off the counter and said "here, give this to B and tell him his adopted mom will buy it for him!" haha.

We have lots of snow and this week is supposed to get very cold, down to zero. DH has been keeping very busy shoveling and plowing. Today we plan to take down the inflatable outdoor Christmas decorations. Time for 11 ft Santa to go back in the box.

You should see the pile of misc electronics and cords sitting on my desk I confiscated from mom's place!  I don't even know what a couple of the cords go to, but I think I managed to match up the cord that goes with her "emergency call button" the apartment gave her when she moved in. That she wouldn't use and of course now would have no idea or remember to use it even if she needed to. I will hold on to it to return when she has to move out at some point. I have an old tv remote, an old cordless phone (just the phone, not the base), and that old digital camera she found and was carrying in her pocket last week, thinking it was her cell phone. Oh, and an old gate opener. Assuming it's for the gate to the gated community she lived in for years, before she sold her place. I thought I had thrown out all old medicines (OTC) but still finding some coming out of the woodwork. This time it was a box of cough drops - expired in 2013. And laying next to her medication dispenser she had this blister pack of tablets for dry mouth. I think my dad used to have to take those, so they are at least a dozen years old. My guess is when her dispenser the past couple of weeks was giving the message on the screen that one of her meds was getting low, she went in search of meds to refill? Apparently, she thought maybe these were it. Who knows. They are in my garbage can now. Oh, and I found at least 5 slips of paper where she wrote down what day and time I was picking her up. And while looking for her missing wallet cards, I was looking in one of her bedroom closets and there was the bag of laundry I did for her over Thanksgiving. It had been emptied - except for all the underwear and a towel! Like a dozen pair of underwear. She just stuck the bag on the floor in her closet. So strange. So, this time I emptied out the bag I brought back  and put most of it away. She kept saying "oh, I can put those away", but I did most of it and left some on her bed. Some tops to hang up. I took the empty bag with me. I also brought black electrical tape with me again and taped the cord that plugs into the back of her digital calendar/clock, so hopefully that "guy" can't just walk into her apartment and walk off with it again...wink wink ;) 

One of my best gifts was from dd/sil. One of those chiropractic neck traction things you put around your neck and pump up with air to stretch the neck for about 10 minutes. Already is helping my neck feel better. My chiropractor used to use one on me sometimes and it was helpful.

One of the cute things dh got me was a "dinner bell" to hang outside. Very cute. DH loved his 2 pound salted nut roll I gave him with his stocking stuffers, LOL.

With changing my mom's health insurance mail to come to my address I learned something I didn't know. Her medicare advantage plan offers a benefit of $25 per quarter for OTC supplies. A catalog for 2022 came in the mail. I logged into her account and she had the whole $100 to still use up for 2021! I got online and ordered a bunch of stuff to use up the $100. It's mostly all generic brands, but ok with me. I ordered tylenol, multivitamins, vitamin d, anti itch cream and neosporin and a couple other misc items. I'll have to remember to use it for 2022. If you don't use it, it rolls over to add to the next quarter, but expires at the end of the year, so I'm glad I caught it. I think I'll wait until there is enough in there next year to get a blood pressure cuff monitor. Would be handy to have.

I have all this week off and I can already tell it's going to go by too fast. Sunday night we watched the new Matrix movie that is just out in theaters and also streaming on HBO Max. It was so funny. SIL really wanted to see the movie and the Matrix movies are one of dh's favorites. So, SIL was saying to dd they should subscribe to HBO Max. She was like we already have 3 other streaming things we subscribe to! He was like but this one streams some new movies out in theaters! She sorta said ok. Then Sunday evening I said lets watch a movie on tv and SIL said ya, lets do that Matrix movie and DD said something about ok, go get signed up for the HBO Max and SIL says "um...I kind a already did yesterday". LOL! Anyway, I keep getting the benefit of their signing up for extra streaming because they give me a log in too :) The only one I'm mad about is Paramount +. It will not stream for me without buffering so it's too hard to watch (trying to watch 1883). Every other streaming service works fine on my tv.