Not much going on

Not much new going on in my world. Trying not to look at my IRA and 401k balances. My investment guys weekly-ish newsletter keeps reminding us of that LOL. I'm sure he gets lots of calls from stressed and panicked clients. DH (who hates to deal with money stuff) will ask me how my investments are doing, seeing the news, or he's relaying the panic he hears from the guys on this stupid message board (that is not about money, it's car guys) he reads. I told him if "you/they" can't take the ups and downs, then you shouldn't be invested in the stock market. This is temporary, it always is and it always comes back and we then reach a new high. And if you are already retired or very close to it, well, then you shouldn't have most of your retirement funds in the stock market - it's not a short term game.

The work week seemed to go pretty fast, probably because I had Tuesday off. 

DD told me she made some homemade ice cream with her kitchenaid ice cream bowl that was salted carmel flavor. She made it to take to work for a co-workers birthday. She's never made this flavor before so of course kept some for herself and SIL, to taste/eat. She said it's so yummy. Now I want ice cream, LOL. She's not taking it to work until Monday and said she ordered some little throw-away ice cream cups from Amazon, so her co-workers will have something to put the ice cream in, if they want to try it.

DH mowed the lawn yesterday for the first time this year. So, it begins, haha. That'll help keep him busy now. Then last evening Mr. mowed. DH said while he was outside he ended up talking to Mrs. Neighbor for quite awhile, which surprised him. She rarely will chat too long. She's volunteering in town a couple days a week and going to exercise a couple days a week (she is 75) at the senior center in town, so she's keeping busy.

Our little weekend trip with dd and SIL is less than 2 weeks away now. They will be driving over that week on Thursday and going home the next Monday, so it will be a nice visit with them. I hope the airbnb we picked out for our 2 nights stay, is good. It looks really nice from the pictures. I've never stayed at an airbnb type place before. 

Time for me to have some breakfast. I'm really liking that ready to drink Carnation instant breakfast light, with a little added milk. And I'm using so much less milk now and I like the taste of it better than the powdered kind.

More waiting

We had our phone consult call with a nurse from Mayo Clinic, yesterday. Bascially, she had all the images and tests, and just wanted dh to go over the timeline of it all and make sure she has everything. She even had the results from the MRI on Tuesday, already. The thing she was waiting on was lab tests that were done when dh was in the hospital for 9 days back in 2021. They sent her all the scan images, but still waiting on the labs. She is a nurse in their "pancreas dept" within the GI dept. She said they have a team of 7 doctors that only handle the pancreas. A doctor is supposed to review it all today and come up with their recommendation and if it involves visiting there, a scheduler will call within a week. She said the main goal is for them to find out what is causing it and how to manage it, which is exactly what we are hoping to accomplish. It's helpful that he has very recent images they can look at an compare to the other ones. She did want to clarify that no pancreas biopsy had ever been done during the endoscopies and we confirmed that and told her the doctor made it sound like he didn't see any signs of cancer (from images or lab tests) so they didn't want to do a biopsy and disturb the pancreas while it was inflamed. So, maybe a biopsy is something that Mayo would want to do with him.

Last night dh was talking to a friend on the phone about his consult with Mayo and this friend tells him "don't go to Mayo - you'll just be a guinea pig there" Huh? I have never ever heard that about Mayo and the 2 friends that suggested he go there, both had first hand and good experiences. I told him to stop listening to this guy, LOL. I asked him what source his friend has that this is true, but he didn't have an answer for that. He just said some neighbor of his that has pancreas issues...and I asked "and he went to Mayo?" It doesn't sound like he did....who knows. But, if anyone does have a bad experience at Mayo, it would be our luck - that's the sort of luck we seem to have with getting answers from doctors over the years. 

I got a notice in the mail to report for jury duty next month. Jury duty here is so strange. First off it's for a year (no that is not a typo LOL). I'm to report one day next month for a trial jury selection. Most trials here (and there aren't many) are typically done in a day and the jury is selected in the morning, that same day. I'm pretty sure I know what this trial is going to be about. Hopefully, I won't get picked or maybe we'll be on our way to Mayo Clinic and I can get out of it. Also, most of the trials are only 6 person trials, because we are such a small court/jury pool, I guess. A couple years ago (I seem to get chosen for jury duty every other year) I went in for jury selection for a 6 person jury. They asked all their questions of the group as a whole, then chose 6 people out of the first 2 rows of chairs. I was in the 3rd row. 

I was chatting with my half sis this morning. She was the one who took care of our bio-dad's little funeral, back whenever that was. I can't even remember now what year it was - at least 10 years ago. Anyhow she mentioned today that she keeps meaning to find out if the VA did actually ever put the headstone for him at the cemetery like they said they would. I told her check on the "find a grave" website. She did and found a picture of his headstone, so she was happy to see that it did in fact get taken care of, all those years ago. I think dealing with her step dad funeral recently, it made her remember she never found that out (living out of the country).

Two for One

This is the post I had started, meaning to post yesterday, but ran out of time and then forgot to post it, haha. 

The dinner I made Sunday night was meatloaf and rice. I should make it more often. That is one of the few things we end up using up the leftovers. There is always enough for us to have meatloaf sandwiches for dinner the next night, which is what we had last night. Meatloaf reminds me about the ketchup - awhile back I tried switching from Heinz ketchup to much cheaper Walmart Great Value brand. Neither of us has noticed the difference. A 32 oz bottle of Heinz is $5.24. A 32 oz bottle of Great Value is $1.94.

While the 3 large/deep drawers dh built for underneath his big wood working table helped him get those items now stored in it out of bins and out some other shelving, he still has SO MUCH stuff in bins. His plan has been to build a bench with shelves underneath (and probably drawers). It would be a pretty big (and costly project). We got into a little discussion yesterday, where I was trying to make him see that all his time and effort, he needs to get the most "bang for his buck" (ie his his buck being his energy). He was talking about building one more smaller drawer for some space at the end of his wood work table. It really wouldn't hold a lot.....plus those heavy duty drawer slides are super expensive! $500 for the set. All just to store some boxes of wood screws. While building a bench w/shelves along part of the back wall would allow for lots of storage, it will still be a lot of work and costly. We both kind of ended up having the same idea. He found a good sized tool box at Harbor Freight, for less than $300. He could buy two of them to set side by side, along that back wall. They will hold lots of stuff he can then empty out of bins and he'll have it in nice organized storage space, being in nice slide out drawers. And he'll have a nice solid wood top from both, he can use to work on. All for $600.

We've known for 2 1/2 months now that Dh's follow up MRI is on 4/15 and his phone appointment with Mayo Clinic is the next day on the 16th. The other day DH asks me what time is the appt on Wed? I say noon. Yesterday morning I tell him our check in time for your MRI tomorrow is 9am. He says ok, but apparently (as usual) wasn't even listening to me. A little bit later I also remind him that with the MRI no food or drink after midnight. He says "so I have to go until after noon without eating? No....your appt is at 9am....somehow after all this time (and me even saying your appt tomorrow morning is at 9) he thought the MRI is on Wednesday and the phone consult is on Thursday. I said no....they are on the 15th and 16th. Sigh...........

TODAY'S POST: 

DH's MRI went well and the result was posted to his MyChart yesterday. We are reading it as the pancreas is showing improvement. The one area of inflammation has resolved and the other area has reduced in size compared to the MRI in January. Today he has his phone consultation with the Mayo Clinic and we'll see what they say, though we won't hear from their doctor about it for another day or two. I guess this call is with a nurse who gets all the info and then the dr reviews it the next day. We are still hoping for some answer as to what is causing this ongoing issue and if anything can be done to help with it.

As we were walking up to the hospital entrance yesterday morning we ran into a friend coming out. He is doing cancer treatments and he said he had like 20 more to do. He's the one who suggested to dh to call Mayo Clinic.

It was over an hour wait for dh to get done, so I had my ipad and earbuds with me, so I watched some of The Morning Show. After dh was done, we went over to Harbor Freight. The tool boxes have to be pre-ordered, they don't carry them in stock, so we got that taken care of. Except the sale price dh saw them when looking online ended yesterday, so we missed out on that :(

I had brought dh a sandwich and a soda with us, so he ate that when we got to the car after his appointment. By the time we were ready to leave the city it was almost lunch time, but since he wasn't hungry we opted to just head home and didn't stop for take out. Fine with me. After the 45 minute drive home, we then got some lunch and around 12:30 headed into our little town to take care of paying for a vehicle registration. As almost always, it's a quick in and out at our courthouse, which we always appreciate. 

After we got back home I decided to take a nap. I didn't sleep the best the night before, as dh wasn't sleeping good, because he knew he had to get up early.  He went back out in the shop to fiddle around. It was such a nice day yesterday - it got to 72.

I'm glad I took the whole day off. I'm going to have several annual appointments coming up I have to take care of (I always wait to do them when winter is over and no chance of bad roads), my annual wellness exam, mammogram and an annual vet check up for Amos. I'll likely take some days off for those. I'm just waiting to schedule, to make sure nothing conflicts if dh does end up needing to go to Mayo Clinic to be seen.

Clean up day

Sunday was a nice day. I kept fairly busy. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner and clean up after each, as always LOL. I made a loaf of banana bread (and cleaned up again). I cleaned out the chicken coop. I did a little bit of yard clean up, with getting all the old daylily growth pulled out for the ones on the sides and front of the house. There's a row of them out along the front fence and I will get those done tomorrow, on my day off. I figured it would be better for my back to break up the job into a couple of days.

I finished watching the Barbie movie. A cute movie, but I probably would have enjoyed it more as a little girl...maybe? LOL. I LOVED playing Barbies when I was little. I had Barbies, Ken and a Skipper. I remember my aunt used to make me Barbie clothes. Some she sewed and some she knitted.

Last evening I watched some more of The Morning Show. I'm still on season 2, as I took a break last week, while watching some movies instead. While Jenifer Aniston's acting is really good, I'm just not liking her character at all this season, LOL. She seems to hate everything and everyone.

DH needs a new pair of tennis shoes, so I got that ordered. Seems like about once a year, he needs a new pair to rotate into the 3 he wears, depending on what he's doing. I feel like I've mostly gotten them under $50 (on sale/coupon) in the past, but everywhere online had them for the same $56 price. I ended up ordering them from Kohl's just because of the $10 Kohl's cash and $4 in Kohl's card rewards. I hate getting sucked into the Kohl's cash cycle. Maybe I'll use the $10, maybe I won't, but figured since they are the same price on Amazon, I might as well get the $10 Kohl's cash and if I can use it on something, it's a savings. But, only if it's a NEED or something as a gift. I'm not just going to try to find something to buy just to use it. Especially when I'll most likely have to spend more to get free shipping.

A new week started and still all quiet on the lots next to us. I'm just expecting either/both of them to get started any day now. The one thing we were told about the older guy who bought one of the lots (he lives in the city near us) is that he was going to build a shop first, to store all his stuff and live in a cabin he owns on some other property, while the house is being built. So far he has not put his house in the city up for sale yet. 

Carts and movies

I liked the suggestions I got yesterday to add some cheap item to my Walmart cart. Unfortunately, nothing is working so far. The baking soda doesn't show as a shipping item. This morning, while making my cup of coffee I saw I am low on green tea bags. It shows as a shipping item but when I try to add it to my cart it says out of stock for shipping. So, here I sit still .08 cents away from free shipping, LOL. The stuff for dh isn't an emergency and I'll just leave them in the cart and something will come up soon that I need to order.

I watched that Netflix movie "The Life List" yesterday and enjoyed it, so thanks to Lori and Alice for recommending it. Kind of a Hallmark vibe movie - but way less cheesy haha. Last night I started watching Barbie and got about halfway through it before it was past my bed time. I'll finish that one up today, sometime.

When this fog burns off, it's supposed to be sunny today, but not very warm. Only like 50 degrees, but then sunny and in the 60's the rest of this week. My plan today is to get some of the yardwork done and clean out the chicken coop.

This morning I was going to get my half sis's FBAR (foreign bank account) reporting done. Ugh - she's got 4 years worth and lots more bank accounts to list. She sent me a sheet where she wrote all her balances for each year, but didn't give me the bank name and addresses I had told her I need, as well, so I couldn't finish them this morning, like planned. 

Ok, finally figured out something to add to my Walmart order. Some cat treats I always buy. We are getting low. DH and I both keep a container at our desks we pour some into, to give him treats, and I poured the last of what I had into his jar the other day. He likes Temptations Jumbo stuffed cat treats :)

Well, my DD is up early, over in her neck of the woods and messaging me, so I'm going to chat with her awhile.

A dollar short

With dh spending so much time out in his shop working on projects he's already almost gone through the case of blue shop paper towels we picked up on our last visit to Costco. I usually either order them from Walmart or Amazon. Walmart is the cheapest per roll, but why is it every time I need to order something from Walmart I am l literally less than a dollar below free shipping? This time I was trying to order 2 things he is low on: the shop towels and some yellow Windex cleaner. I am 8 cents below $35. Then I have to figure something else to add and that seems to take me hours to think of something......yet as soon as I do, we'll come up with something else I need to order (that would have made it over the $35). Never fails. Plus, what I also find annoying is Walmart online will show items as shippable, but once you try to check out they say they are not.

I finished watching The Whale yesterday. It was good/ok. Not likely a movie that I would watch again, compared to lots of other movies, I have seen numerous times over the years.

I was looking for something in one of my file cabinet drawers yesterday and what do I find? A wifi adapter....so apparently my boss did send me one last summer! Geez! I remembered us chatting about it, but have no memory that I actually received it - and then shoved it in the file cabinet. So, the one I just ordered last month to have on hand, I didn't need! I can't return it now, I've already opened it and threw away the packaging. Oh well, it was only $10. 

I'm looking forward to the sun coming back tomorrow for the next week. It's looking like dh will have to start mowing soon. I need to get out there and pull out the dead "stick" from all my daylilies. They pull out easy (there's just a lot of them) and I see the new green growth for this years plants have already started. I'll wait and do that tomorrow, when there is some sun (and Vitamin D) out.

Looking forward to the weekend

Oh gosh - it's Friday again, already. And mid April, to boot. I'm really trying to be more present in each day, but then I look back and go how did we get to mid April already?!

Just before bed last night I started watching The Whale on Netflix. I haven't gotten too far yet, so not sure if it's good/I'll like it or not yet. I'll finish watching it this evening. I was looking for another movie, to see if it might be on Netflix (it's not) but noticed The Whale and remember hearing it was supposed to be good.

Next week I have Tuesday off work. DH has his 3 month followup MRI on his pancreas, mid morning, so I just decided to take the whole day off. The the next day is his call with Mayo Clinic.  

I also just put in for some more PTO at the end of June/beginning of July. 4 days, plus we get the 3rd and 4th of July off. I may need to add a day or two to my time off around Memorial Day, if our friends from Texas decide to come up then for their annual visit. They didn't come last year, because we had the cruise planned in Sept.

No big weekend plans (as usual, LOL). We were supposed to go to a coffee "get together" with a small group of people, like we did last month, but I don't think we are going to go this month. It's seemed to have turned into a political activist type of group and we aren't interested in being a part of that. Too exhausting, LOL. Kind of sad, because it's really just one person (and her husband) who has steered it in that direction, when a couple other people we talked to aren't interested in that either. I'm not really sure why the person that organized this coffee chat, in the first place, is letting it become that - it doesn't sound like that's what he really wanted either. I was looking forward to getting to know some more people in our area. Oh well. Or maybe he should just set up another get together next month and not invite this couple, LOL.