Happy New Year

Christmas was very nice, even if it was just the two of us. It snowed all day. I put our little turkey in the oven and while it was roasting we took the dogs for a walk. It was perfect.  We opened our gifts on Christmas Eve. DH had done a bunch of gift shopping when he was visiting his friend, so he had quite a few things for me :) Afterwards we FaceTimed with DD. She is doing well and loving her new home.

I've been off work since last Wednesday before Christmas. Sleeping in a bit, reading, watching movies. Last Saturday we went and visited that friend of DH's, who he used to know through work, where we lived before. OMG! What a lovely amazing home and I didn't even really get to see much of it. It's about a 6,000 sf log home. We sat with the guy and his wife in their living room the whole time and visited. Both super nice people (in early 60's I'd say), I really liked them and enjoyed their company. It would have been nice to tour their home, but I also liked that they weren't "oh, look at our house!" type of people, too. Just sitting in their big living room with the fireplace, some coffee and watching it snow outside was so nice and relaxing.

We have about a foot of snow accumulated now. It's been one month now since winter really started. I like it :) Though I will be glad when it's all gone and spring is here and don't have to worry about what the road conditions are.

Unexpected money keeps coming my way again this week. I got a check from my previous mortgage bank for $1244 for overpaid property taxes. I thought the escrow lady had said we'd be getting about $1200 back, but I had gotten a check from the bank for like $100 or so and thought that was it, but that must have been for interest.  Then I got a check for $24 from a class action settlement I signed on for awhile back. It was for same bank and something to do with overcharged appraisals back in 2007 time when we refinanced our home. And I got a very nice $150 Visa gift card from my boss for Christmas. Wooo!!!

DD and her BF went on their own phone plan. I guess it didn't really save me as much as I thought, being able to drop down to the 2GB plan. It dropped it $15, but I was already paying 2/3 of that $15, and now I'm paying 100% of the $35 2GB plan, so really only saved me $3 a month. Better than nothing, I guess. I also received a $25 Netflix gift card for Christmas so that pays for the next 3 months, which is nice too.

We decided to get another laundry room cabinet. It's a decent sized laundry room, so we might as well utilize the space available for extra storage.

We also found a use for a couple of old wood shelves from our old house. Again, very little storage space in our bathrooms, so we put on in each bathroom. The medicine cabinet I ordered to match the vanity wood also came this past week and we installed that. SO much nicer to have all the stuff off our our sink area.

Wishing you a Happy New Year!

Vacation days

I've been enjoying my past couple of days of vacation time. Wednesday DH and I drove into the city and did a bunch of shopping. Went to Walmart and got stocked up on food and things. Made a trip to Lowe's for a few things and got some cabinets for our laundry room. Nothing too fancy or expensive, but looks much neater having the supplies inside a cupboard rather than on an open shelf that was on the wall

They also had a tall narrow cabinet that we have decided we will also get that can go between the washing machine and the hot water heater that you can't see in the picture.

Yesterday I spent cleaning, baking and wrapping presents, so all that is done. I made my annual sugar cookies (mom's recipe) and as always, while they taste amazing, they always poof out and lose their shape so really don't look like any of the Christmas shapes they are supposed to. Wish I could figure out the trick to that! I've tried all the things I know: refrigerating dough (the recipe says too), adding flour, I've tried real butter, I've tried margarine. Oh well. I also made a couple of loaves of banana bread.

Tuesday night we went to the restaurant in town for our weekly dinner out. For the most part we have had the same waitress every time. She's a sweet, shy, young woman. I know she has small twins and not sure if any other kids. My usual tip is $4-5 (20%). This time when I went up to the counter to pay (she rings up too) I handed her 2 $20 bills and told her to keep the change ($16). I thought she was going to start crying. She came around the counter and gave me a big hug. She is the sweetest.

Not sure what we are doing today. It's supposed to start snowing again later today. DH mentioned going to visit a guy he knows - he used to live over where we did and DH knew him through work. The guy is a millionaire, lives on a huge ranch nearby, and DH has been meaning to stop and say hi to him. I would love to see his home. It's for sale and the pictures are just amazing. (hmmm...we didn't have 12 million, so couldn't buy it HAHA!) Though in typical DH style instead of asking the guy a couple of days ago if he'll be around or when is a good day, DH will try to text him today at the last minute, haha. So, likely we won't end up visiting today.

We will open our gifts tomorrow, as we traditionally open Christmas Eve and then open small gifts in our stockings on Christmas morning. I found a small turkey to make that and all the trimmings on Christmas Day. We will just be having a nice, quiet, white Christmas with just us two and the dogs. Perfect.

The busy weekend

It's time to get caught up! Thursday afternoon I flew "home", so I could attend my company's year end meeting and Christmas lunch on Friday. I love the airport in my area! So small and not crowded at all. I had about an hour wait before boarding - which was a small prop propeller type of plane and we walked outside to get on. When I walked up to the TSA station I was the only one in line LOL. Where does that happen?! We had a little delay as we had to de-ice before leaving. About an hour and 20 min plane ride and I got in about 5pm (dark of course). People EVERYWHERE! Got shuttled over to the rental car building a little after 5:30 and it was about 5:50 before I was able to finally start heading towards DD's new home - which was an hour and a half drive because it was still rush hour traffic. Plus my GPS direction app on my phone was not giving me voice instructions so when I got off the exit to her place I'm trying to drive in the dark and look at my phone to see the map on how to get there. GRRR...

I got to her lovely new home a little after 7pm - starving, because I'd still had no dinner. Thankfully she had made some pulled pork in her crockpot and we had yummy pulled pork sandwiches. Then I took the tour of their home and we visited for a couple of hours before we went to bed (because they have to leave at 5:15 in the morning and I had to leave around 6am as my drive was going to take at least an hour and I wanted to try to get to the office as close to 7am (start time) as possible. They keep their house freezing cold, LOL, plus their new bed hadn't been delivered yet, so I had to sleep on the futon couch, which was pretty hard and lumpy (that was that futon I bought her for her college apartment). Thankfully it was only one night, but I've pretty much had a neck and headache since then. Bleh! Wish I could have spent more time with her, but just wasn't in the cards this trip.

I got to work Friday morning, said hi to everyone I haven't seen in 2 1/2 months and then helped my boss put names on all the Christmas cards and stuff with our bonus checks. We chatted while doing that and got caught up (all personal chat, LOL). Though later, I did go in her office and ask her if there was anything that wasn't working for her with our new arrangement of me working remotely 100%. She said nope, it's all working fine. I got a nice hug from one of the owner's and I told him I appreciate all they have done for me more than he will ever know.

We got done with our lunch and meeting around 2:15 and I then headed down to my mom's house. It was nice having a rental car. For $65 I got a nice mid-sized Chrysler that was very comfortable to drive (once I figured out how it all worked). I got to my mom's in about an hour or so (terrible traffic even that early in the afternoon) and we just relaxed for the rest of the afternoon and evening. She has twin beds in her guest room and the bed was at least comfortable. Though she has her heat come on about 5:30 AM and then I'd get woke up because I started getting so warm. Not sure why she does that so early, as she doesn't get up until 8 or 8:15.

Saturday morning we went and did a little Christmas shopping - got a few thing for DH, that I could fit into my suitcase. I had packed as light as possible, so that I'd have room to bring some things back with me. More traffic and more people! I do not miss that area one bit - especially the god-awful traffic everywhere. Saturday afternoon I took a nap (still had the headache from Friday) and after I woke up my stomach didn't feel to well. We were going to go out to dinner but just ended up staying home and having some leftovers. Thankfully my stomach felt better in a few hours.

I headed back to the airport Sunday at 2:30 (almost an hour drive). Dropped my rental car off, caught the shuttle back to the airport and stood in the long TSA line. Something happened (not sure what) with the guy in front of me and the scanning machine, so finally they had me step over and just walk through the old fashioned metal detector. Then was the long walk, and walk, and more walk to my gate (I think the airport where I live now has like 5 gates haha!). I should have had about an hour wait to start boarding but that ended up being delayed almost an hour, due to maintenance issues. I was supposed to get home at 8pm, but ended up being 9pm. Ugh. It was pretty boring just sitting at the airport and they kept announcing little 10-15 minute delays and to stay close by, so by then it was getting toward 6pm and I was getting hungry and couldn't leave to go find something to eat. I did have a granola bar in my purse, so I at least had that. A nice young Army kid was sitting next to me and we chatted a bit while waiting for our flights. He was such a Baby! so young. Just enlisted in August. When I asked him if he was flying home for Christmas he said "yes, ma'am!"

Glad to be back home for sure. Still lots of snow and cold. I'm only working through tomorrow this week and then have off for vacation days until Jan 2nd. I always take off during this time just to relax and enjoy the holidays.

I got my bonus check ($3900 before taxes) for the second half of the year and we were also told that next year they are increasing the bonus program to 15% of our annual salary (from 10%). When I opened my emails this morning (I hadn't had access all weekend) from my side job there was an email that I was to cut myself a bonus check...for $1500! That was so nice of them! With my regular salary, side job and bonus's that will make my income at $99,660 for the year. If I get another $4k next year in bonus and maybe an estimated salary increase of $2k that will put me at about $105k total income next year.

DH brought the dogs with him to pick me up at the airport, so I got lots of doggy kisses and life is good.

Snow and the week ahead

It was a quiet weekend. Lots of snow falling. We made a snowman just for fun. Got that out of our system, LOL.

DH got home Thursday afternoon. He had borrowed friends truck to use so I picked him up at friends house about a 30 minute drive down the highway. He got in just in time before the snow started falling on Friday and thankfully I only had dry roads before then to go pick him up. Saturday morning he took me to the grocery store in town. I'm not too happy with their stocking of breads! They are always out of the sandwich bread we like, as well as English muffins. They were out when I went last Thursday too. At first he was like "can't you just drive yourself?" and I said that was the deal you promised me to move to where it snows! You drive me! It's certainly not like he has anything else to do and he's already saying he's bored. Which is exactly what I told him would happen when we first talked about moving here. Duh. He always has to be doing something and there's not much to do now.

Dinner last night was courtesy of some leftovers I had frozen. "Taco Soup" and I made some corn bread to go with it. I like those easy kind of meals. Tonight will be some chicken breast tenders I thawed out in casserole type dish with white rice and mixed vegetables. Tomorrow we will head back to "the restaurant" for our weekly dinner we have missed the last 2 weeks.

Thursday I fly out to go to a work meeting on Friday. Our year end company meeting and bonus check hand out :). I'm staying in town through Sunday afternoon. I will drive to DD's Thursday evening (I get in at 5pm) and see her new house and stay with her. I think I will spend the rest of the weekend at my mom's. DD has a friend flying in from Australia on Friday afternoon and will be busy with her all weekend. They started being pen pals when they were probably 10 years old and have kept in touch ever since. I'm just going to rent a car, so I can come and go as I please. It'll only be about $60 to rent one.

It pays to ask

My company is generous with paid holidays. We get Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the day after off. Usually we get all of New Years Eve and New Years Day off. I was looking at the company calendar and noticed we did not get the Monday after New Years Day off. I always thought if a holiday falls on a Sunday, then Monday is usually considered the paid holiday. The company I do my side job for is closed that day. DD's company is closed that day. Normally, I would just not say anything, but I decided to ask my boss. She was like "you know, I didn't even think about it! Let me check and see if our main manufacturer is closed....". Today we got an email that not only now are we closed that day, but our owner's also added in Dec 22nd. I'm glad I asked :)

DH should be home around dinner time this evening, instead of tomorrow. He's making better time back, not pulling a trailer, and got to the town his friend lives in, this morning, so they went and had a late breakfast instead of dinner and DH is now back on the road. A winter snow storm is supposed to be coming tonight, so he is wanting to get back before then. He had a bit of scary driving through Wyoming last night - got blown off the road a couple of times and it was very icy. He got to a hotel as soon as he could.

I need some groceries! Gotta start planning dinners again (ugh! LOL). Well, it's cold cold here right now at 12 degrees but I'm going to go to the little grocery store during lunch break and get some things. The dogs don't even want to go out .They go out for a minute and want right back in. Apparently the kids at the grade school I can see out my office window don't mind it - they've been out at recess playing! BRRR!

"Vacation" almost over

DH is making his way home now. Should be here mid day Friday. He's taking a half day extra to stop in and see a friend on his way home, have dinner with him Thursday and stay at his place and then make the rest of the trip home Friday morning.

It's been a very nice, quiet 10 days so far! But, I'll be glad he's back to scoop dog poop. HA! I'm sure I didn't get it all before it snowed Sunday night so there's probably some left under there :/ I'm heading out there soon to see what I can pick up. I haven't done it for a couple days. I'll have to get super bundled up, it's 15 degrees out.

Not sure how/why it happened but the seller of DD/BF's new house had the gas turned off on Monday (the day it closed). They didn't get the keys until like 6pm on Monday. They called Tuesday but gas company said they couldn't come back out to turn on until today! Good grief and it's like 25 degrees there this week. WTH?! They aren't staying there yet (not until they get all moved in this weekend) but it certainly is cold enough to freeze pipes with no heat on. When we sold/bought nothing was turned off on our old our or this new one.

In the backyard of DD's new house is a shed. They never got to see inside it, as it was locked. They got the key now and she sent me a pic of what was inside the "mystery shed" (I assumed nothing - ha!). Inside was sections of a tree that had been cut down (in their back yard). My immediate thought was all the Pinterest things I have been seeing recently made with slices of big logs! DD said she thought the same thing and was excited to see them :) Her BF saw firewood - haha!

 I told her to save me a slice :)

Oh mom.......

Oh boy, trying to help my mom with a computer issue.......sorry, it's not happening. I honestly just cannot even understand what she is trying to tell me! it's literally "I open that Firefox thing and then I see something about "s-y-m - symatic or something. I can't get to my aol or anything. Over on the left is usually that one thing, you know? but now I can't find it". Good lord, I honestly have zero idea what she is talking about. I asked her if she's tried turning off her computer and turning it back on? (always a good thing to try first) Her reply was something like " well, ya, but (and then she's trying to explain something else about it" Mom - did you actually shut off your computer? "yes, I did and you know that little button on the front, well I did that but....(and then she totally made no sense)".  "Norton keeps coming up".  Me: oh you put Norton on again? (I had advised her not too). apparently she did. I recommended she would probably be just best to take her computer in somewhere (this is the new computer I went with her to buy and set it up for her not too long ago) and have them take a look at what is going on. Other than uninstalling Norton (which I know she wouldn't know how to do), I don't know how to fix, nor do I really understand what the problem even is.

Then she says "what do I take in to them? just that box under my desk?" Umm.....didn't we buy you an "all-in-one" computer, where your computer unit is built into your monitor? "Oh, maybe we did". I think what's under your desk is your modem.  "oh, it says Comcast on it". Right, you don't need to take that to the computer shop, that isn't part of your computer. Just take the monitor unit that is on your desk.

Today she calls me before she's getting ready to take it in...."will they need the password? is it the password you set up to do my taxes?" WHAT?! LOL. No, mom, that password doesn't have anything to do with running your computer.  I know she always turns her computer off each night....do you have to put in a password each time you turn on your computer? (I didn't remember doing this when I set her up). First she said yes, then she said no.  She has no idea. "well, my password for AOL is already in there". No, mom, that is not the same thing.  Mom - when you turn your computer on each morning, do you have to put in a password before anything (meaning desktop, but I knew she wouldn't know what that was) will even show up on your computer? She honestly doesn't know! "I guess I'll bring my list of passwords with me just in case"  (which is literally a bunch of slips of paper with partial info on them that drive me INSANE) "But I can still see my AOL mail and facebook on my ipad mini..that's weird". Well, mom, the ipad doesn't have anything to do with your desktop computer.....

Sigh....I wish I could help her and I wish I could understand her explanations that make no sense and bounce around all over the place. I probably should have set up something like TeamViewer on her computer before I moved so I could log into her computer and try to see what is going on, but she'd have no idea how to even open it anyway to let me get logged in. She really does like 3 things on her computer. Goes to the internet to see her aol mail, her Facebook (don't even get me started trying to explain that to her! "why do I keep seeing so and so's stuff?" umm...because you are friends with them...."well, how do I get rid of it?" You don't,unless you unfriend them. As peoples new posts show up, the old posts fall away below them, etc etc.), and her banking with her bank and her investment company. That's it. Oh, and she plays solitaire. So, I installed AVG just so she'd have some virus protection in the background and added Firefox and put her 4 websites she goes to as favorites showing on the top bar. So, all she would have to do is turn on her computer. Click on Firefox, and then she could go to her 4 spots. It should have been pretty fail-safe, right?

Hopefully the computer repair shop can fix her up and she doesn't have to pay too much.

Not starting off to a very good day so far

I just got DH signed up for a new health insurance plan. UGH. An extra $158 a month was not in my budget planning. I'm offsetting some of it with not having money deducted from my paycheck for FSA in 2017. That will be about $100 a month (pre-tax). Mostly what I had used it for was chiropractor visits and DH's expensive Crestor prescription - neither of which I have anymore. At least I'm trying to go without seeing a chiropractor monthly (I went about every 5 weeks) and see how it goes. Probably come spring, when I can safely drive to the city on a regular basis, I will find a chiropractor there to go to at least every few months to get adjusted. I need to also let his old health insurance company know he will not be renewing for 2017.

Well, that's just great. When I signed up I had to provide a credit (debit) card # and clicked on set up for recurring monthly payments - it's already hit my account! I assumed it would come out when due on the 1st of January. So, now I'm $511 short, as well as the $124 I got double deducted earlier for 2 electricity payments that came out of my account for some reason. Not very happy right now.

I think I am done Christmas shopping for DH, at least. I just ordered a CD from of a musician he really likes. The actual CD is coming in the mail, but figured out I can also listen to it now in the Amazon music app! .

When I decided to go out and drive at noon yesterday our street had all melted. Nice - now it will be a normal drive into town. No - all the other streets were still covered in snow! Why in the world just our street had melted I have absolutely no idea! So weird. But, I had no problems, other then when I was backing out of my parking space at the store and then turning to go forward I slid a bit, as it sloped off a little. But I had parked as far out as I could, so no issues, LOL.

DH will be home mid day Friday sometime. He's going to take an extra half a day to come home, which I am glad about. He has a good friend on the other side our our state (which is on his route home) and will stop in Thursday afternoon to have dinner and stay at his place the night. Friday morning he'll have about a 5 hour drive home.

One of the changes for us, living here, is no more fast food. Obviously a good thing, but still a bit of an adjustment that I just can't run and pick up burgers, Subway, Chinese food, etc, whenever I feel like it.  Or order a pizza delivered. We do go eat at the restaurant in town once a week. We are regulars now - Even have a punch card ;)

Monday is here already

It was a quiet, uneventful weekend. I decided to not drive to the city to do shopping on Saturday. I was getting all ready to go, about 9:30am, and brushing my teeth and just decided that I really didn't feel like driving almost an hour each way! Then I walked into the kitchen and saw it had started snowing. haha. No real snowfall until yesterday evening, where we got a couple of inches and it's only 22 degrees out.

I got some laundry done, vacuumed the house. That's about it for chores. Watched some tv and movies. I tried to get into The Crown on Netflix, but became bored with it about 3 or 4 episodes in.  I also got through a bit of my boxes of papers and was able to toss some of it out. I at least eliminated one smaller box and was able to add some into a file drawer.

About 6:30 this morning, for almost a half hour off and on, I kept hearing what sounded like snow shoveling and it sounded like it was coming from our neighbor. I was like what the heck? She literally works around the corner and across the street. Why would you spend all that work and time to drive your car one block. Just walk! Plus, their driveway isn't that big, why was there so much shoveling? did it snow more last night?...But once I got up and it was light enough to see outside (it doesn't even get light around here until almost 8am) it wasn't her. So, it must have been coming from the place across the alley behind us. I just saw a kid walking by to school - in shorts! Kids!

I know that to people who are used to driving in the snow, it's no big deal, but to those of us that aren't - it's freaky! I know I have some packages to pick up at the post office and want to get over there today. Guess I will have to brave it - haha! it's less than a mile and all flat. Plus I think they put de-icer on the main street through town. And a snow plow just drove by HA! The cars I have seen driving by so far seem to be getting along fine. Plus, I want to stop at the grocery store for a few things. I want to make some spaghetti for dinner, which I can eat for 2-3 nights.

I did some online shopping at Target. I didn't realize I could order grocery type stuff from there, with the prices being what I normally spend there (still cheaper than grocery store here in town), so I added a bunch of stuff to my order: mayo, tissues, dental floss, dog treats, dishwasher tabs, etc. I got DD a Target gift card for Christmas, as they were having 10% off of them yesterday, as well as a couple other gift ideas she gave me.

She and BF signed all the papers for their house on Saturday and it should close today and they can get the keys to their new home! What a quick and easy process for them. Just a bit over 30 days since they made their offer. The mortgage broker I referred them to is awesome. He did such a great job for them. He referred them to the agent they used, and they really liked her too. At her apartment they have been using the futon I bought for her, which isn't comfortable at all, plus they don't have a dining table. BF's parents are giving them their old sectional couch and dining set, so that is nice. I had given her our old coffee and end table awhile back, so they have that too. She just bought the washer and dryer and BF is going to buy a king sized bed and mattress for them. She has a queen sized one from IKEA, but they want a new bed and then can use this one as a guest bed.

It was a weekend of "found money"! I was looking in my cedar chest for something and flipped through a baby book - two savings bonds fell out! One for each kid. I thought I had kept all of them in our little safe box, over the years, (cashed in by now) but apparently not. I will take DD's to her when I visit next week. Not sure what to do with DS's. It does have my name on it too, as an "or" owner, so maybe I can just cash it out and take it off the thousands he still owes us......When I was paying for my Target order online I was getting out of my wallet 2 $5 Target gift cards I had in there. I also found a Visa gift card that I thought probably only had a couple dollars left on it. I checked and it has $21.54! Nice :)

We are surrounded by hills/mountains on all sides of us. Here's one of my views from our house

Weather forecasts and gift giving

The weather forecasts here are just dumb. LOL. It is rarely correct. It was supposed to snow every day this week. It was supposed to snow last night. In fact, right now, it's supposed to be snowing. It's not and other than a little bit Monday morning, we have not had snow any of the days and days it said it was supposed to snow.  The only thing that seems to be predicted right is the temperature.

So, I am hoping it's wrong again on Saturday (or Sunday)! I want to go into the city and get my Christmas shopping wrapped up. DH's I have ordered online. I got him some Romeo shoes (or are they considered boots?) he's been wanting. I also ordered him this neat wooden state sign I found on Etsy. It's cut into shape of state, has longitude and latitude of our town and the town is marked with a bullet shell casing. Will look nice on the wall over his computer desk. I'll need to get him a few smaller items and stocking stuffers.  For DD's boyfriend, we already purchased his gift several weeks ago. The first trip they were here and we were eating in the town restaurant, he really liked this metal wall art they had. When we were in the restaurant again over Thanksgiving weekend, he was eyeing them again! So, I know he'll like it.  I haven't gotten anything DD anything, but I got a list of ideas from her last night. I also need to get my mom's present. Usually I get her a calendar and some crossword puzzle books and a gift card.

If I can't get into the city, then I will do some shopping when I fly over for my annual company meeting in two weeks. I'm flying in late Thursday afternoon, will be at work most of the day Friday and then staying until Sunday afternoon, so I will have time to go shopping. Gifts for my mom and DD I can just wrap and leave with them, then.  DD should be in her new home by the time I go over, so I will stay with her at least the first night. She lives north of my office about an hour, my mom lives south about an hour, so I will probably go to my mom's after work on Friday and spend the remaining nights with her. DD is going to be busy hosting a friend visiting from Australia that flies in Friday afternoon.

We will be getting the second half of bonus's for work, at the meeting. Sales are going great. We've also been working on really trying to get our commission % increased, too. We have some leeway on how orders are priced for most of the manufacturer's, which then in turn increases the amount of commission we receive (our sole source of income). Even if our sales stayed same at 100 million, a 1% increase in commission rate is a million dollars more in revenue to our company - pure profit for really no extra overhead at all. Something our owners keep reminding our quotes and sales force dept's....something they'd love to pass on to the employees!

Today DH is visiting the grassy knoll landmark in Dallas where President Kennedy was shot. What a coincidence that just over Thanksgiving we watched a movie about his assassination. He sent me some pics. He even got to go right up inside to the window at the book depository. Yesterday was his friend's wife's birthday, so he paid for their dinner at a steakhouse. Less than $80 for 3 at a steakhouse - seems kinda cheap to me, but then again none of them drink alcohol, which keeps the bill down for sure.

My short lunch break is over. Back to work. I do not feel like working today at all. Ugh. I wish tomorrow was my half day Friday, then I could have gone into the city at noon tomorrow instead of waiting until the weekend.