The trees

The decorating for Christmas continues, but I have the majority of it done. I do love decorating the house for Christmas. The Monster tree is done, though even adding 50 more red and gold balls to it that I bought yesterday isn't really enough, haha. But it will do. 

It does seem like they put more lights on the top 2/3rds of the tree than the bottom. I may add a string or two more next year and there is that one spot that doesn't have any, LOL. DH already wrapped his gifts. He's an over achiever.

I decided to put my smaller extra tree in the corner of the dining room. I moved a small table out of that corner to the other side of the french doors. This tree seemed like a piece of cake to decorate after that Monster. I did it all in blue and silver ornaments I bought years ago when I had a white tree. That white tree was something I got on clearance at Walmart for $9 whole bucks and it did last quite a few years, but after taking it out of the bag it was stored in (not used last few years) it had yellowed so we threw it out last year.

Today I'm going to wrap some fake blue and silver presents to put underneath it.

This is the first time I've ever had 2 trees  - or the room to display 2 of them. Now I'm addicted and want more! LOL. This decor page I've been following on Facebook, a bunch have been posting about this flocked 6ft $30 tree from Walmart and all their pictures. My Walmart had them in stock so I decided to get one yesterday. It's adorable.

Step 1: fluff out the branches

Step 2: I added 2 strings of white lights

Step 3: I was going to call it a day and finish up today, but had to keep going, so I added gold and silver ornaments (bought a set when I got the tree) and a few woodsy squirrels. I didn't have a tree skirt but I did have an old gold and white table runner that does the trick fairly well.

And done, except for a topper, but I'll dig around and see if I can find something before I buy one for it. Total spent $68.

Saturday dh tried to see what outside lights he has and what works. Seems like too much mismatch stuff for his OCD. We decided to spend some extra and some good quality commercial grade lights that should last quite a few years. We went with the C7 style. Since they are so expensive we decided just for now to get 2 50' strings and one 100' string. Then we sat at his computer and debated on colors for an hour. He loves blue,but we didn't want all blue. We kept looking at the blue and green but something was niggling at me about it - then I realized it totally makes me think of Seahawks football colors, which is all over where we used to live, haha. We nixed that color combo. We decided to go with blue and white. That seems like "winter" and should look good when it snows here.

Now that I'm addicted to Christmas trees in every room, haha..will there be a 4th??!!

Have I mentioned how glad I am to have today off work? ;)

E.X.H.A.U.S.T.E.D.

I am exhausted. I'm realizing 5 days/4 nights with mom here is just too much for me. It needs to be 3 days/2 nights. That's about how long my energy (and patience) will last before I need to recharge myself. I am SO glad I decided to take tomorrow off work. Now, having her here is like double exhausting because I have to talk louder (I don't have a loud voice) so I feel like I am yelling or I have to repeat myself because now she is constantly saying "what?". And it not just one or two questions she asks repeatedly - it's almost everything.

We left to take her back at noon. She needed a few things at the store and I wanted to stop at Target before I get my Walmart order anyway. After I got her suitcase and laundry basket put in my car I forgot to put in my cooler and cold food bags. Ugh. Oh well, it's only like 36 degrees out, so the stuff will make it home ok. But, when I realized I forgot it during the drive and commented on it, she was like oh, you don't have to come up to my apartment then...I said no, that won't change anything. I'm not picking up my groceries until after anyway and can't pick up until 2pm. I had to tell her this like 3 times. It's fine, I NEED to come up to your apartment - you are confused on your meds because they changed a couple pills and they look different. And we need to find your new bank checks and get rid of your old ones now.

We get to Target and there's a stupid line to get in as they are only letting in small amounts as others leave. oh sure, let's stand there in 36 degree weather. And she can't find her mask...she last had it on in my car on the way to my house and took it off and put in her purse...I finally had to open her suitcase and found it there. And of course I forgot that it takes so much longer to shop with her. She did make a list but a good half of the items I don't know why....she put 2 of her prescription meds on the list (don't get at Target and she has plenty). Every single time her list has "TV Guide". (do they even make those anymore??) I told her for the 100th time - there is a guide button on your remote control, you just press that and it will show you what is on. 

As we are pulling into her apartment she's looking for her keys and of course cannot find. I finally told her I have a set, we'll use those to get in and then we can look for her set. Then she found them in her pants pocket. I got her meds all figured out, extra bottles thrown out etc. Then I told her to give me all her bank of america checks, I'm taking them so she doesn't accidentally write a check with them and told her to find her new ones...so then we spent 10 minutes trying to find them. "someone must have taken them". I finally found them on a shelf under her desk. I gave her one booklet and took the rest with me.

I was supposed to pick up my groceries between 2 and 3 and it was after 2 when I left and I still wanted to go inside Walmart to look for a tree they have for $30 and then they notified me they were out of turkey lunch meat and so sub. I didn't really have as long as I had planned to look at Christmas stuff at Walmart as it was getting close to 3. I really didn't want to make another stop at a different grocery so I quickly walked to the food section and just found a different brand, which was fine.

I got home at 3:30 or so, got everything put away and made a quick dinner of salad and turkey sands and then I finished decorating the monster tree with the new balls I bought. It was a set of 50 and still not enough I don't think, LOL.

More on my 3rd tree just bought tomorrow............

The Monster

 My goodness! This 12 ft artificial tree we bought last year for half off after Christmas is a MONSTER! It was a chore just for dh to set it up (though it clicks in easy and the lights connect that way). Then it all needed "fluffing". I think that took me 2 or 3 hours just to do that and that is with mom helping a bit with the first bottom section.

And there's no way I had enough colored balls to go on it. I might end up with enough ornaments, but that's only because dd gave me a bunch of new ones for Christmas last year. I will be buying more balls and probably a few more ornaments when I take my mom back home tomorrow. So, right now only the top half of the tree is decorated. An 8 ft ladder was needed and even that was hard for reaching the top because it's hard to get it close enough with the bottom sticking out so wide. The top of the tree wasn't very good for putting a topper on, was the only issue. DH did some of his "upgrading" and ended up cutting the tip off, LOL, and then the topper fit ok.

And during the whole process I don't know how many times I answered the same questions about it over and over with my mom. DH got the stuff put out at the front door area for me. I did get the little piano top decorated and my sofa table and fireplace mantle done. I decided to put the smaller 7.5 ft tree in the corner of the dining room, so dh did get that one set up for me. That one now seems a piece of cake to set up compared to the Monster. And it looks so puny, LOL. I do have a full set of blue and silver ornaments that I used to use when I had a white tree, so I'll use that on this tree.

This morning mom got up a little after I did but said she didn't feel so good, so I suggested maybe she go back to bed for awhile.......hence I had time to write this post!

Today we'll get that smaller tree decorated and mom should be able to help more with that due to the size of the tree. I'll also get my village set up in the loft upstairs and maybe/hopefully get the garland on the stair railings. If not, there is always tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving Happy Thanksgiving

Cuz you know....mom's here and I'm repeating myself LOL😄 Unfortunately I think she might be starting to get a little hard of hearing, so as I told dd,  I'm having to repeat what I repeated! oh dear. Before I left to pick her up I put my "decorative" hand towel that hangs over the edge of my sink in the drawer, so I don't have to hear "do I use this towel?" a hundred times. haha. But, whenever she uses the half bath downstairs she will come out and ask me every time "do you want this door left open or shut". Open please. 

Dinner was good and we have lots of leftovers. The freebie turkey I got (often I get a Butterball) was really good and juicy. I'm glad I decided to make a pumpkin pie, it was nice for dessert in the evening. We facetimed with dd for a bit.

Today we should keep busy putting up all the Christmas decorations and tree. I know she will enjoy helping me with that and it will probably take me today and tomorrow to get it all done, as I now have 2 trees. I still haven't decided now where to put my "smaller" (7.5 ft) tree yet. I think I'll wait and do that one last, and then decide. I don't even know if I have enough ornaments for 2 trees, probably not. If not, I will have to stop at Target or Walmart when I take her home Sunday and get more.

One thing I need to get figured out today, is her new debit card with her new checking.  She had given me the # over the phone a few weeks ago but I haven't been able to get the card to work. I just checked and she gave me the right #. I'm guessing she didn't activate it, so I'll call the bank later and see if they can help me figure it out.

She's in the shower and I walked into the room she's sleeping in and do not see her pill box. I'm freaking out that she forgot it (she told me yesterday morning, when I asked she took her pills....) and I'm just hoping it's in the bathroom, ha! I'll bet it is. Otherwise we'll be taking a drive back to her place.

Well, let the decorating begin!!

Getting ready for some days off

My poor mom. As I mentioned I have had to tell her daily the past week or so that I am picking her up on Wednesday afternoon for the Thanksgiving weekend. She even called yesterday afternoon to ask again, so she could write a note for her apartment mgrs to let them know she will be gone and won't need meals on those dates. Then this morning she calls to say "what time did you say you are coming today?" 

DH has one side of the gate "built". Of course it needs staining, so I'm going to run to the lumber/paint store in town to get some at lunch. Hopefully, I can get that stained for him tomorrow morning, before I have to leave to go get my mom. It shouldn't take me more than a couple of hours, I wouldn't think.

I'm getting frustrated with the salespeople at my side job. They get monthly expense/auto reimbursement checks that I mail to them after they email me their expense reports. Since I mail the checks, it takes usually 4 days to get to them. I used to mail them to the office, but since COVID, I mail the checks to their home addresses. If they want them timely then first off they should be sending them to me right after the end of the month, instead of waiting until the middle of the month and suddenly they need the check right away. The first issue was one of them emailed me his new address a few months ago, as he moved. Both months his check took like 10 days to get to him. I went back to his original email to make sure I had typed in his address he gave me correctly. It was. Then I googled his address. It came up with a different zip code. He had given me the wrong zip code! Geez.  Then about 10 days ago one of the other sales people emailed that he's going to be out of town until the end of the month and to please mail his check to this other address (in another state) - and could I send him tracking on it? No....I just mail these from my home as a regular first class mail. I quadruple checked the address he gave me, even emailed him a picture of the envelope (window kind where the name and address shows through) and told him it will probably be there in 4-5 days and I mailed it out on a Saturday. The return address that shows through the window is the company name and address (on corner of check).  I get an email from my boss lady late yesterday that she got the envelope returned to the office as "no mailbox". Oh good grief! I looked again and I had typed in the exact address he gave me. I can't believe he wasn't emailing me at the end of last week saying it hadn't arrived yet. I promptly send him an email telling him the check is at the office, so let the owner know what he wants her to do with it. Geez.

I had ordered some sawtooth picture hangers 2-3 weeks ago from a 3rd party seller on Walmart.com. It was advertised as a set of 12 for $4.70. I ordered 2 sets, so expecting a total of 24 hangers. I got 6. I emailed (through Walmart) and no reply. I emailed again. Finally got a reply that I will be refunded. I get an email this morning that I was refunded $4.70......how does that math work?! They owe me for 18 missing hangers, so my math says the refund should be $7.05.  Not a lot of money, but just annoying all the same. It's not that hard to figure out. Seems like it would have been easier for them to just send me the rest that I wanted in the first place. Now I still need to buy some more.

I've got a couple of things I have to get done today, since I'm not back at work until next Tuesday. Payrolls being the main things. After one little "glitch" (it's always something) I was able to get my main job payroll already done this morning. My side job payroll would be due tomorrow, since Thurs and Friday are holidays (normally it would be due Thursday, since pay day is Monday). Yesterday I get this weird email from the payroll processing company saying either payroll has to be submitted on Wednesday or would they rather make their pay date on 12/1 this time? What?! No! I replied back that I had planned on doing payroll on Wednesday morning, so no need to delay people's pay by a day. Weird.

Now, I just have to get the state monthly tax return done and the rest of the day can be whatever gets done gets done.

Animal poop and pie

Neighbor stopped by yesterday afternoon and dropped off some cookies she made - I gave her 1.5 dozen eggs I have overflowing my fridge. Turning the coop "porch" light on for a bit first thing in the morning and for a bit, until they go inside their coop at night, seemed to do the trick to bring the egg production back up to 3-4 eggs a day. I got the coop all cleaned out yesterday. I switched back to using the pine shavings instead of the chopped straw. Much easier to scoop poop out of, in between complete cleans, and not all dusty when scooping it all out. I had to wear my disposable face masks when cleaning out the straw stuff.

Other neighbor's 2nd baby due date is getting closer. We've all offered to be the back up ride to the hospital in the city, in case she happens to go into labor while her dh is at work (in the city) and she needs to get there sooner than waiting for him to drive 45 minutes home and then 45 minutes back. Though now his mom lives a few miles away, so I'm guessing she can drive, too, if need be.

I'm only working 2 days this week. Picking my mom up Wednesday afternoon. She asks me every day which day I'm coming to get her. Or she'll say "you said you are coming to get me Wednesday, right?".  Thankfully the weather is staying dry and no snow, so it will be an easy trip to go pick her up and take her back, it sounds like. When I take her back on Sunday, I plan to pick up a big grocery order at Walmart.

I have been hating my hair the past couple of years now. It's gotten pretty curly, which isn't so bad, but once it's all dry it just poofs all out and looks awful. Most of the time I just end up putting it in a pony tail. I tried leaving it all one length, thinking it might weigh down the poof, but not really. I've tried to layer it again, but hadn't really gotten brave enough with the scissors to get much layering in the back. Saturday I decided to go for it with the scissors. It turned out ok and layered around my face good and more in the back......but once it's dry my hair still just is a poofy mess. The curling iron works to help a bit, but not much. It looks great when it's still a bit wet and drying LOL. I've tried my leave in conditioner but no luck there either. I think I either just need to keep it in a pony tail or get a hair straightener and try that, but I don't really want a completely straight look either. I'm guessing the curls and poof is from it all being white now and it's a different texture than my hair before. I try to blow it dry so that I can get it a bit smoother and less poof and it looks ok for awhile and then later on I'll walk into the bathroom and Poof!

The banana cream pie I bought at the town grocery store on Saturday is sooo good. Better than I could make, haha. It's dh's favorite kind of pie and has been good for dessert in the evening. We've spent the last couple of evenings watching Yellowstone. But, then I go to bed and he watches another episode or two and then I have to catch up. It's annoying, LOL. We just started season 2 when I went to bed. This morning he said he's liking season 2 better than season 1. More realistic, he said. Not so much "jumping the shark". Last night as we were watching one of the characters get into yet another fight, dh says "isn't this like his 4th fight in less than 2 days?". 

I went to bed with a headache and woke up with it. Feels more like a tension type of headache at the base of my neck. 

Our front yard keeps getting covered in deer poop! Like a LOT. They are apparently having a party out there at night. Usually we/camera only sees like 3 deer coming around, but that last couple of nights it has to be more with all that poop. DH said he scooped up like 4 shovels full today just trying to clean it up. They can't poop in the 1000 other vacant acres around, haha.

Weekend this and that

We decided we'd like another cabinet in our laundry room. Something tall, like our bathroom linen type cabinets, but we'd like the bottom section to be a tip out drawer, so we can have a bin attached with dog food. Currently the wall has a small folding table with dog treats on top, dog toys and stuff in a basket underneath and our ugly plastic dog food bin next to it. So, I emailed the cabinet lady...........

I know! what are we thinking trying to engage with one of the sub contractors again?! Are we nuts?! Of course, it's been days since I emailed her and no reply. Nothing's changed! It won't do much good to call her either, as it will just be a voice mail, as it always was before. I'm guessing sometime next spring we'll probably finally get the cabinet...I wonder how many times I'll have to email and call her.

Neighbors have a little grove of walnut trees they planted 2-3 years ago on their 2 acre lot on their other side of them they bought (the lot we first looked at, but decided where a house would need to go would take away some of their river view. Once we pointed that out, they bought the property!). First they had little wire cages around all the trees, then last year they put up a fence around the whole little grove. Mr told dh yesterday if he could use any of the small cages around the trees, help himself, as they don't need them now. DH ended up taking 5. Mr neighbor said while the deer won't eat our little pine trees, they often rub up against them, which isn't good when trying to grow. So, dh put 3 around 3 pine trees we planted earlier and then put 2 around the 2 shrubs that we know the deer do like (and have!) eaten on the leaves. 

Yesterday I used my new Shark vacuum again. Still loving it. It does good on hard floors, too. The dirt canister cleans out really easy compared to the Dyson. This one I just open the bottom and it all falls out. With the Dyson it has like a cylinder inside the canister and all the fur and dirt would stay stuck up inside between the sides and the cylinder and I always had to dig it all out every time I emptied it. It also "clicks" in easily for everything. To put it upright it just clicks right in and stays. With the Dyson it doesn't always click into place so I have to be sure it has clicked in place or I'd let go and it would fall over.

Last night we started watching the tv show Yellowstone. It's a "marathon" weekend of all the episodes, so I'm recording them. We are starting from the beginning since it's been a couple years since we watched part of the first season. At least we'll now have something to watch for awhile in the evenings.

I got my turkey out of the freezer this morning, so it can start the thaw process. Always a bit of a struggle to make room for it in the refrigerator, LOL.

Here we go again

Right before I was about to be done with work on  Friday and ready to relax for the weekend my mom calls. She got "some call" from "someone" about "her insurance" and she thinks she gave them her social security number. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Why why why?!! I got on her verizon log to see what phone number she talked to. Someone called and talked to her for 10 minutes. She said first it was a lady talking but she couldn't understand her very well (there's your first clue!), so then a guy came on the phone.  I called the number just so I could at least maybe see who was calling and what they were trying to get out of her, but it's just a recording that says please leave your message. 

So, I got online and signed her up for a year of Lifelock identity protection. I locked and/or froze her credit. Hopefully she's protected now from someone trying to use her social security to get a credit card or something. Bank of America is always good about detecting fraud on her checking and credit card (and we will only have that bank for few more weeks anyway). I log into all her accounts almost daily and keep an eye, so this Lifelock will be an extra layer of checking/protection. 

Don't know what else I can do. She has to have a phone, yet she can't seem to understand to not answer these calls or at least just hang up on them. My uncle had a kind of good idea......he said tell her you had to get her a new social security # (since she gave it out to fraud) and then give her a fake#........he said she can give that # out all day to the spammers, LOL. I said that is really good idea, BUT she won't remember I told her she has a new #.........she can't even remember she has a new bank account. :(

She needs a cell phone that she can only take calls from set numbers. Is there such a thing?

Window(s) to my world

While dh was putting the cellular shades up in the 3 windows upstairs, the faux wood blinds for his shop got delivered. So, then he installed 6 of the 7 of those, which kept him busy most of the rest of the day. He couldn't get to one window in the corner of the shop yet. There is a big pallet of stuff in the way. He's thinking about rearranging some of his "stuff" between the shop and the garage. He's getting his leftover lumber pile widdled down, especially now that he cut up all the boards for the fence gate. All this, as well as his big table with wood saw, is in one bay of the garage. But the garage isn't heated and the shop is, so to work on the wood projects he wants to do in the winter it would be warmer to be in the shop. So, he's thinking of moving some of the shop stuff over to that bay in the garage and moving the wood bench and wood out to that space in the shop. 

These 2 upstairs bedrooms and my office windows were really hard for me to decide on what to get....hence half the reason it's taken me over a year! haha. Partially, I didn't want to get anything until I had my basic decor decided. Then I struggled because I didn't want curtains/drapes that would cover the nice wood window wraps. Then I didn't want regular blinds that would partially block the views. I ended up going with cellular shades. They can stay up and not cover or block anything and come down when some privacy or less light is wanted. I'm still not 100% loving it, but at least they don't look like bare empty windows any more.

Hard to cover up the view........and if you look down you see the river.....but curtains would probably look better......

There is tv show I have been watching for quite a few years called Heartland. It seems like I've been waiting forever to see when season 12 gets on Amazon Prime. Still nothing. Recently I saw an ad for a 14 day free trial of UP Faith and Family streaming, where all the seasons are available, so yesterday I signed up for the 2 week free trial. I think I have 2 seasons to catch up on now, so I've just been watching it on the ipad mini here at my desk off and on during the day while working. At the rate I'm going, I should get through both seasons in a few days, haha. I put a note on my calendar to remind myself to cancel the subscription when the 14 days are up. Though it is only like $6 a month, or $5 a month if you pay for  year. After I watch this show, I'll have several days left to check out what else they have to offer in the way of shows and movies.

Vacuum love

So far I have to say this new Shark vacuum I got with the self cleaning brushroll is AMAZING!! Life changing! I vacuumed the whole upstairs (all carpet except for bathroom) and did not once have to stop and cut off all the hair/fur wrapped around the brush. The fact that I do not have to stop, after each room, lay the vacuum down, take off the cover, get down on my knees, and sit there and cut out all the fur wrapped around the brush, is so nice.  And eventually, even though I cleaned it constantly, the hair would suck into the motor part, between the 2 rollers and start ruining the brush motor/smelling like burned hair. DH would have to take the whole brush head apart and try to get out what he could. This new vacuum is also much lighter than my Dyson, which I noticed really helped with my back. Usually I will finish one floor and either rest my back for a good hour or even just wait and do the other floor the next day. I'm ready to just continue on with the downstairs now. Instead of that big ball (it still does swivel like the Dyson) like on the Dyson,  it fits under things better. Like my staircase landing that is carpeted, the vacuum head fits all the way under the wood stair hanging over it, so I can get to all the edges of the carpet now. 

And did I mention I got this amazing piece of equipment for only $100?!! Heck ya! Even the regular price of $300 would have been worth it. So, if you have a long haired (I'm talking really long haired - like my dogs fur is 8 inches long in some areas....and black...and lots of it....) dog, this is the vacuum for you.

You can see the long haired super shedder is as excited about this vacuum as I am! 😁

Some of the blinds I ordered apparently got dropped off by FedEx last night. I have no idea what time - I noticed the box at the front door this morning. What's weird is I seem to always get texts from FedEx when something is coming and after it gets delivered. Like this morning were 4 texts that some more of the blinds are coming today. But there was no text for this delivery. Well, it's all stuff that will keep DH busy for a day or two, so that's a bonus. What came last night is the cellular shades for the upstairs bedrooms and my office. What's coming today is all his shop blinds. The roman shades I ordered for living room are still in process.

Credits and vacuums

I logged into my mom's old xfinity account this morning and miracle of miracles - they already processed the credit! Yay. They did it for the whole $120 charge.......so now her account is back to a $34 credit balance, LOL. One of these days I'll have to contact them again to see how to get her refunded, haha.

My new Shark vacuum I ordered arrived last night. Poor UPS guy - it was late and dark and he said he still had lots more still to deliver on the last area of his route. I didn't unbox it last night. It was too late and I didn't feel like messing with it, so I will do that this morning and give it a try. Keeping my fingers crossed it works like they say and doesn't wrap hair around the roller brush.

DH got started cutting up boards and beams (still leftover from the trees cut down we had cut into lumber) to start making the wood fence gate for our front entrance. It gave him something to do for a few hours yesterday afternoon.  Weather has warmed up and most all the snow is melted now. It will be almost 50 degrees today.

I'm taking the day before Thanksgiving off and will go pick up my mom that afternoon sometime. Yesterday I decided to add the following Monday to my long weekend. I figured I'll need a day to unwind after having mom here for 5 days, LOL.

My mobile vet sent an email to all his customers that he's only seeing pets for end of life care at this time, due to the rise in Covid cases. Apparently one of his clients he had been around got it, though he never did. You'd think he could adjust his practices a bit and still see pets. Typically he comes inside the homes to take care of the pets, but he has this really nice mobile van that is basically a vet exam room. Why not do like my dd's vets office does. Just bring your pet to the door and hand them off, wear masks while doing so. He can call them to come back out to the driveway and get them when he's done. Just seems a bit extreme to basically shut down your income when he could pretty easily keep the 6 ft distance and wear masks as they are handing over the pet for care.

Ok, got the vacuum assembled and gave it a go in my office. Well, would ya look at that! Vacuumed a whole room and don't need to stop and cut out all the hair wrapped around the brush!

So far so good. I'll give an update after I've used it a few times. It is much lighter than my Dyson, which I like. The cleaning path isn't as wide, but it's easier to push, so that's ok. It seems to have really good suction.

What a headache

An hour and a half of my life I'll never get back - dealing with Xfinity. I called my mom's previous apartment place for a 3rd time to try to talk to the manager and find out if her service had been set up/paid for by them or not. This time I was told she isn't in until Wednesday, but it was a different person who answered from before, so I asked her what she knew about the cable with xfinity and she said the apartment does not cover it, it would have been set up by my mom. hmmm...I don't think so...

So, then I called xfinity. Got some guy in India or wherever........so you know how that always goes.....first he told me he was working on getting the charge removed. I was on hold forever with him "working on it". Then he asks where she returned the equipment to/which store. I said that's my whole issue - I don't think that it was. Then he put me on hold some more, then came back and said he's showing it was returned, but it was past 10 days so that's why the charge. I said $120 for being returned late?? Apparently....but I'm not buying that explanation.

Then I was online with her account looking at it again and they had a "chat" option so I started chatting with a different agent. I said they charge a $120 "late" fee? He told me no, that is the charge for unreturned equipment. I said well are you showing it returned or not? He said it hasn't been returned but the account is showing $0 balance. I'm like oh, ok! Great. We sign off and I log back in and it's still owing. So I start a new chat with a 3rd person. She says it is not showing $0 and has not been returned. Ok...I said that's what I figured, but have been told 3 different things today, so I'm just trying to get a definitive answer.  She said she was removing the device from the account (whatever that means) and working with her "back end" team to waive the charges. Then she came back and said they can't access the credit but someone from that department will call me in the next 10-15 minutes to discuss it. Well, it's been that long now and no one has called.  If I don't hear back by the end of today, I'm just going to pay it with my mom's card. I've done my best to try to resolve it.

It's the strangest thing, though. It shows she started that service end of Sept last year. Her first billing under that account# shows a credit balance brought forward from her old house xfinity account of $64. Then her first months bill at her apartment was like $30, leaving her a $34 credit balance. Then the next month it shows her voice service canceled with an additional $3 credit and her "monthly" charge for tv and internet from there forward each month was $0 (she just had that $34 untaken credit each month on her bill. The bills say "landlord limited cable" so it was paid for by the apartment! and if so, then wouldn't the equipment also belong to them? I'm calling this dang manager back on Wednesday. She's the one I need to talk to and clarify this.  Like where my mom lives now (different cable company) the cable tv is included in her rent. The tv box was in the apartment when she moved in. It won't be her responsibility to return when she moves. Seems like if her old apartment place also paid for the cable tv, then the equipment is theirs........

Finally someone called me back and I had to explain it all over again (even though the previous person said she would include notes what was going on). I said well, she doesn't have the equipment anyore so we'll just have to pay this bill and she says something like "well, if you don't return it you'll just keep getting charged for it!" What?! How does that work?  and the lady is in the middle of telling me something and we lose our connection. That happened with the first person, but he called me right back. This one hasn't called back. 

I also found a "general" email address for mom's old apartment and sent an email there attn: the manager. Maybe she can reply that way, since she won't call me back. People are annoying.

UPDATE:  I called back the # that called me. This time I got some customer service agent in Russia, LOL. Again have it explain it all. He says there is no equipment showing attached to the account now. I said well, the 3rd person I talked to did say she was removing it from the account. He says, well, since it's been removed the $120 charge will go away in about 72 hours. We'll see. I'm not holding my breath.

Saturday was an art decorating day

We ventured out of the house yesterday for a quick trip to pick up that painting I wanted. The lady only lived about 15 minutes away and easy to find her place. For $30 I really like the picture. Not everyone's style, of course, but it fits the bedroom that already has the buffalo stuff, haha. The bed has some burnt orange throw pillows and throw blanket, so fits the colors of the painting. I still have 3 dang walls in that room that need something! Ugh. Being a dormer type room really adds walls. I decided to put it on this wall as you walk into the room. It's 17x17 and just seemed a bit small on the other walls.

I'm ending up with darker wood in this room.....the bed posts are not quite as dark, but the 2 dressers seem way too light. They are old dressers from when dd was a baby. They are sorta wood, but the surface is kind of fake/laminate type stuff. I'm contemplating painting them, but no idea what color. I don't think they could be stained, other than maybe a gel stain just put over the top. I'll have to research more. I like the looks of what people do with chalk paint, I'm just having a hard time deciding what color.

The extra plain black picture frames I ordered also came yesterday so we finished hanging them up in our master bath. I also put one in my bath upstairs. Simple but nice. I have a wolf painting print over the toilet.

I'm thinking I'm going to return those Christmas pillow covers to Amazon, if it's not too much of a hassle. They just don't fit the pillows. One of the 6 black picture frames glass was broken. The frames were all wrapped in thin bubble wrap and the picture in the middle was broken. Strange. But, I really only needed 5, so whatever.

DH had to do some driveway plowing yesterday morning. Our neighbors visiting family (I think they go home today) were outside in the snow, all in matching jammies taking some pictures, most likely for their Christmas card I'm sure :)

I've been trying to record movies on your YouTubeTV so that we can watch something on Saturday evenings. Last night we watched Tombstone. The service has a feature where you can see upcoming movies and tag to record and then it saves them in your "library". Easier than trying to remember when the movie is coming up. I also see that all the seasons of Yellowstone are going to play next weekend, so I'm going to see if I can set those to record. We had watched most of the first season before we moved, but after we moved we didn't have that channel anymore. Now we have Paramount channel but they haven't offered the past seasons on demand.

 

They don't want dh's money either

Geez, my dh is just pathetic when it comes to something as simple as putting in your credit/debit card # to make an online order! He just tried to order something online with his new Visa gift card. And it won't work. He's tried like 3 times now. I got back online and the card is showing active.  So, then I made a small online purchase with the card # from Target. Worked fine. I don't know what his problem is or what he is doing wrong. So, now he's crabby and stressed because he can't figure it out. Is it really that complicated to enter the info online?? And of course, since he doesn't want me to see what it is, I can't stand there at his computer and help him figure it out. Him and basic stuff like this is ridiculous. It's like someone from 1800's just time traveled to this time and doesn't know/understand anything, LOL.

I told him I'm sure dd could help him order it, but he's being crabby and apparently when she visited here a few weeks ago he mentioned to her he needed her help with figuring out how to order me some gifts without me knowing/seeing the charges. Well, apparently he thinks she was supposed to follow up with him on it, rather than her waiting for him to let her know when he needed help. Typical way he acts. And then most likely, once he calms down, he'll end up getting a hold of her and of course she'll do it, no problem.

It sounds like he gave up trying to order something from that website and was able to use it on a couple other websites (Walmart one of them) with no problem. Then he was trying another order from another website and when entering the expiration date of the card, they give a drop down box of years to choose from, but only until 2029 and this card's expiration date is 2030. He's frustrated! At this point I don't blame him. He's a guy.....he just wants to get his Christmas shopping done and be done, haha!

I'm still trying to figure out that Xfinity bill my mom got from her old apartment. The manager hasn't returned my call. Every time I call I ask if she's available and they say yes, but they can't transfer a call to her, so she'll have to call me. Finally today, I said, ok, but I left a message yesterday morning and she didn't call me back. The "bill" before this one with the equip charge has actually been a credit balance of one months charge. I assumed her apartment place must have paid an extra month in error after she moved out...it wasn't my mom's credit to have....but if she calls me back and says we were supposed to take the equipment back to xfinity, then I'm just going to pay the $82 balance (with their credit!) instead of the $120 balance.  Even her wifi "name" when she lived there was the apartment name and her apt#, so I assumed it all belonged to the apartment. If she'd just call me back I can resolve it one way or another. Geez.

I joined a Facebook page about farmhouse decorating a week or so ago. I've come to realize, while I like some of the style, here and there, in my home, I am not a big of fan of it as I thought I was LOL. It's too "much" and too "cluttery" for my tastes. I don't want a wall full of pictures, greenery, signs, etc. haha. I don't want a table display area or shelf completely full of various stuff, LOL.

DD and I were getting a little laugh, though, over a couple of pictures I copied and messaged her from the page. This one room had a full mirrored wall on one end and 4 couches in the room and 2 coffee tables. Just weird to me, haha. DD was like - I don't even want that many people sitting in my house LOL. Then another was this more rustic/lodge type of room (more my style) but it had 3 big screen tv's on the walls the room! I don't get it! LOL. I told dd maybe these 2 people needed to live together, haha.

Well, as I figured, DH settled down and called dd to help with the purchases he was trying to make with the gift card. 

I'm disappointed with the Christmas pillow covers I ordered from Amazon. They say they are 18 inches square but they are only 17 inches. That inch makes a difference in trying to get my sofa pillows inside  them. I ripped the zipper seam trying to get one in. 

My new coffee table arrived last night, very late delivery. Poor guy, dealing with the snow slowed him down. I LOVE the table. It's very thick slab of wood, sturdy and heavy, and since each piece is unique  you don't know quite what it will look like. Eventually this sitting loft area will be furnished complete, haha.

Then last night someone posted a framed picture for sale that I like for $30. The post said she was from the city, so I messaged I was interested but wasn't making a trip there until the day before Thanksgiving if she could hold it or ship it. Then it turns out she's actually in the next town from us, only about a 10-15 minute drive, so we are going to pick it up later this morning. We got another few inches of snow last night, so dh said he will drive me to her house.

Well, I need to put my boots, coat and hat on and go take something to the mailbox and then get in the shower and get ready to go out later, to pick up that picture.

They didn't want my money

We decided to go the "visa gift card" route for dh to purchase Christmas gifts for me, so that I don't see the amounts and who he bough them from, since I'm always watching our bank account and credit cards like a hawk. I found where you could buy online from vanilla visa and either have the card info emailed or a plastic card. Since he's not going to any stores, I just did the email way.  He also didn't know exactly how much (but he typically will spend a few hundred) so I got one for $500. Whatever he doesn't use, we can of course just use for regular online purchases I make all the time.

What an ordeal to try and get it! I tried to place the order and charge to my credit card. It wouldn't go through. I tried again. Nope. Then I tried my bank debit card. Nope. I'm thinking maybe it's getting denied because they think it's fraud and due to the amount? So, then I tried my Paypal debit card. Nope. Finally, I gave my last credit card (a Target red credit card) a shot and that worked. The confirmation said it would be 24-48 hours to get the info on the email. Then about an hour later my phone rang from some out of area number. I don't usually answer, but I'm expecting another call and maybe this was the # the person was calling back from. It was the visa gift card company. She just wanted to verify I ordered it, my email address and zip code. Then she says "you are sending this to yourself?" Yes...LOL...I'm getting it for my husband so he can buy me Christmas gifts without me knowing. She laughed. Shortly after I received the email with the card info.

I need to come up with some ideas to get dh for Christmas. I bought one thing so far (some buffalo bookends) but I have no idea what else to get him. I'll have to do some thinking on it here, soon, as I know dd will want an idea of what to get him, too. DD's last year gift (the game camera) has been a hit all year. We need better binoculars, but I have no idea what would be good. I know one of his hunting guy friends has this pair but it's supposedly like $2000! That ain't happening but there must be something quality that is better than what we have (an old small pair of my dads, and a $70 pair we bought him as a gift several years ago), but NOT $2000. 

I ordered dh some "sawtooth" picture hangers you can nail into the back of picture frames. The items description (3rd party seller on Walmart) said "set of 12". I ordered 2 sets, so he'd have 24. They came yesterday and in the package is 2 sets....of 3ea, so a total of 6 hangers. GRRRR! I email the seller but haven't heard back yet.

My metal chicken water heater base arrived. It says to test to make sure it's heating (it it set to heat if below 35 degrees) by setting it outside in less than 35 degrees or in the freezer for an hour, then plugging it in to make sure it heats up. Well, of course it was then 37 out. We waited until evening and the temp dropped and tested that is worked. This morning I filled it up and put it out, so the frozen water issue is resolved and this one is easier to fill up. You don't have to fill up from the bottom and then try to flip it over without spilling all over the place.

My new coffee table for upstairs loft area is supposed to come today. Yay. 

Getting Thursday going

Goodness, it takes a long time for the Social Security Administration to change bank account info for the monthly payments. I changed it online for my mom on 9/24 and they said it won't update until the December payment. I just want to get this old bank account closed, so it helps my mom be less confused. One more month....

I ran into the town grocery store to get a few things. The last 2 times I went in the past month or two it was masks mandated, because we had more than 4 active cases in our county. Now we are under 4 and I was wondering if people will still continue to wear them, just as a precaution (as our county health dept recommended). I'd say a majority were not. Our town is just rebels, LOL. A few in the store had them on, but none of the people that work there did and most of the customers did not.

I pulled the trigger and bought another vacuum. A Shark Liftaway Navigator with self-cleaning brushroll. Kohl's for the win, with all the coupons and Kohl's Cash. It is reg. $299 on sale for $199. I used a $10 off $25 coupon, a 30% off coupon, and $5 Kohls cash I just got in the mail ("anniversary" gift), which brought it all down to $129. I earned $20 in Kohl's Cash, $6.47 in some other Kohl's rewards, and will get 2% back from Rakuten (formerly Ebates). Basically got it for $100. If nothing else I'll now have a vacuum for upstairs and can leave my Dyson down (or vice versa). It would have cost me over $130 to buy a new Dyson vacuum head. Or if it just doesn't work well, I'll return it to Kohls.

I got a bit worried yesterday morning when I tried to call my mom a couple of times and she didn't answer. The first was at 10:15, so I thought she must be in the bathroom/shower. Tried 20 minutes later and still no answer. Then it was around 11am and her usual exercise class time, so I didn't want to try again, if she was busy doing that. I tried back after I got back from town/lunch break and she answered. She had been downstairs to a new activity during my calls, LOL. Wii bowling on the big tv and she said she even got a strike, LOL. She said it was her second time doing it and she enjoyed it.

My uncle called the other night and wants to get her an Alexa thingy for Christmas. He has one that he says he loves. Of course he wants me to order it for her and then he'll pay back. He said his kind of looks about the size of a peanut butter jar and was about $100. He uses it to remind him it's time to take his meds, ask what the weather is and tells it to play music. Honestly, other them me setting it up to remind her to take meds, I doubt she'll remember she can talk to it to tell it stuff.  The meds reminder would be good though, as I think she would like that kind of reminder better than her digital calendar clock which just does a buzzer she has to turn off each time. Do any of you have one? recommendations on what to get?

Both FedEx and UPS are supposed to deliver stuff today. One of the UPS packages is from Amazon. I cannot figure out what it is! My Amazon orders doesn't show anything for delivery today and the tracking # doesn't match anything I have coming/ordered. It's a mystery. I know the FedEx is some stuff I ordered from Walmart.

And now my mom has some bill from Xfinity for her previous place - $120 for unreturned equipment. I am so confused, because tv/internet was included in her rent. I don't know why, but she would get a billing statement from them each month, that showed thel $31 charge and then $0 balance saying "paid with credit card".  It was nothing that she ever paid with her credit card, so I always assumed it was the apartment place. I didn't move her in, but assumed the modem for tv/internet was supplied by the apartment place when she moved in, since they were paying for it. We just left the modem there in the apartment. I tried to call the apartment place, but the manager was out yesterday and won't be in until later this morning. I think I remember even going downstairs, when we were moving her out, to ask about the tv/internet.

Everything finally working this week IT wise with work, so keeping my fingers crossed the day will keep going smoothly.

Another challenging morning

 It was a big bowl of Lipton noodle soup for lunch kind of day yesterday.

I use one of the fabric swatch samples as a coaster :)

I'm working my way through this long book I'm reading fairly quickly, but then dang - 3 more ebooks I reserved are also available. They weren't supposed to be available for a couple more weeks or so. Guess I'd better read faster. It always seems to be feast or famine, haha.

I'm working on my small shopping list for going to town today. I'm trying to figure out meals for basically the next 2 1/2 weeks to see if I have enough to get through then until I do a big grocery pickup.  Mostly I just need milks (dh likes chocolate), bananas and some cheetos, haha. And grapes.

Well, still having accounting software problems this morning. We thought IT had fixed it at the end of the day yesterday. We were both able to log in. Now we are not, again. 

And my upstairs is not heating up. We have 3 zones in our heating system. When I get up I always stop at the control and turn the heat up for upstairs. That way by the time I get up there, after feeding the dogs, making dh's eggsandwich and saying hello to the chickens, it's warm up here. I've been sitting here 40 minutes and realized I'm cold! The control says "heat to 70" but the temperature still shows 66. What the heck! Dh got up and turned the downstairs up. I waited a bit and still not warming up. I went and told him. He said something about the condenser unit (outside) maybe defrosting...it takes an hour and a half? It's starting to feel warmer up here, but the temp isn't showing it's warming up.  I don't know why this morning would be any different from any other cold morning here.

And now for some reason I have a stomach ache. I finished my coffee a bit ago and then a half hour or so later I get some breakfast. Well, it's breakfast time and now my stomach feels bad. This day isn't starting out too well, either.

And again, I can't go take a shower and get dressed for the day because I'm waiting on IT to call, if they need to remote access my computer to work on the issue.

Let's see...what else is new. Oh, DH decided to close his Facebook account. We'll see how long that lasts, haha. Like most of us, he is/was addicted to it. Mostly he's tired of the big brother aspect of it. Seriously, how do you fact check someone's opinion? He also doesn't like that he will be talking about something, go sit down at his computer and there is an ad for it in his Facebook feed. Happens constantly. He also deleted his twitter, but he didn't use that much. I have never used it. One of his Facebook friends is trying out a new social platform called Parler, but Dh didn't like that they require your cell phone number to sign up.

Well, I'm just going to go take a quick break and get showered and dressed. If IT calls, I'll just call them back. I can be done in about 10 minutes LOL.

 

Out of sorts day

Well, boo. I thought I ordered some more black picture frames for my dad's sketches last weekend, but apparently I didn't get them added into my Walmart cart. Oh well, I'll try again, LOL. 

Trying to finish up payroll processing this morning. Had a new challenge. An employee that had been on leave still owes for her dependent benefits, so I had to figure out how to add those for her to catch up on her deductions now that she is back. And now our accounting program won't open for both me and boss at same time. I told her I would just log out and she could log in for now. I'm too busy with payroll to need it, and too busy to deal with our IT with it right now. Payroll needs to get done first.

It's snowing. I had to walk to the mailbox to get something out in the mail for my side job. It wasn't too cold though. My new chicken metal base waterer heater was supposed to come today (the waterer part came yesterday) but now it's saying Thursday. 

I need to make a trip to the grocery store in town. Just about out of milk. Out of bananas. Have a few other things on my list. I'll try to go tomorrow. Not supposed to snow tomorrow and it's supposed to be a bit above freezing. I'm kind of in a spot where I'll need to do some shopping before Thanksgiving, but since I have to drive to the city on the day before Thanksgiving, to pick up my mom, I don't want to make another trip in there before then, if I don't have to. I also don't really want to do a grocery pick up (or go in a store) the day before Thanksgiving. It will be a zoo and/or the pick up will be a long wait or end up canceling on me or something. My goal is to just try to get what I need in town to tide us over through Thanksgiving. Then when I take my mom back home Sunday after Thanksgiving, I will do a  grocery pickup order after I drop her off...if I can wait that long.

Usually I get up, make Dh's breakfast egg sandwich and my cup of coffee. Then head up to my office for about an hour to get started with work. Then come down and get my breakfast about an hour later, go out to the coop and give the chicks their bread treat. Then work another 30 min or so and then go back down and take a quick shower. Well, it's almost 11am and still now shower! First I was trying to gt payroll done. Then once that was done I put in a ticket for IT help and am still waiting on that. I know if I go jump in the shower is when the guy will try to call me. I hate these kinds of mornings. I don't get in the shower right when I get up for 2 reasons....it's too dang cold in the house, haha, and dh is still sleeping, so I try to make as little noise as possible until he's up (usually by 8 or 8:30).

Ok, finally showered and dressed. But, my boss just messaged me that she still can't open the accounting program, but she had to leave the office, so I guess we'll figure her out another time. 

Decorating

Has anyone started decorating for Christmas already?! I just joined a couple of Facebook pages for decorating your home and holy cow, everyone on there is already putting their trees and decor up! I gotta do Thanksgiving first. But come 8am Friday morning after Turkey Day, it's on! People have some beautiful arrangements and decor/displays and I'm thinking where do they find all this stuff? I'll get an idea for a display but then I can find like one piece in my idea, LOL. I guess I just don't have the ability (or close access) to be out shopping/looking for stuff all the time.

A lot of the members post pictures/questions on what they should do with a certain area/room. Of course they will get hundreds of replies. Before I read them I will think what answer I would give and often times it ends up being what is the most liked, too, haha. I guess I must have some skills, though often when it comes to some of my own areas to decorate, I can't figure it out either. 

Part of my problem is dh butting his nose in. I'll have an idea and he has to question everything, no matter what. My best bet is to not even ask him anything or say "what do you think of this idea?", because it wouldn't matter what I said - he'd disagree. I can't even tell him where I want a picture hung - he'll say it has to adjust 1/2 an inch, LOL. We have this little wood shelf, with pegs and a heart in the middle - it was something I got for DD's room (over 20 years ago!) when I re decorated it from baby/crib to "big girl" room. When she moved out/we moved she didn't want it. I didn't want it either, but dh took it out of the goodwill box and it moved to our new home. When I was decorating there I told him, no I don't want it put up anywhere. It doesn't go with my rustic/western/farmhouse decor style. Then we started decorating in this new house and I told him same thing. Well, he came across the damn thing again the other day and says don't you want to put it somewhere? No....not really. Finally, I just said put it up in the laundry room, over the dog shower. Somewhere to set the dog shampoo and hang their drying towels. We used old ratty towels to dry them, which of course look like crap hanging there, LOL. I told him when we get his new shop blinds in and he can take down those dark brown towels hanging over the windows in the shop and we can use for drying towels to hang there.  Of course now it needs some things in those little boxes (dd had knicknacks) and I have no idea what to put there.

I should have just took that shelf to goodwill one one of my trips into the city. Just forgot about it :( 

The wall above our tv (fireplace below) NEEDS something there. Of course, the thing that would look the best there is a deer head mounted, which dh agrees. But, he's not going to hunt and he won't just buy one off someone who wants to get rid of one, so the wall sits empty. So, I guess I just need to figure out something to go there. It's such a huge focal point of the inside of the downstairs. It has to be something good  which is going to cost $$. I'm thinking maybe some metal art. I just saw a post of a guy who does some and it's awesome, but it's $450 plus shipping. There's this artist lady I follow on instagram, who does these amazing buffalo oil paintings that are a bit abstract, but I'm sure her stuff is in the thousands of dollars, so that's not happening.

The loveseat I ordered is supposed to be here sometime before Christmas. The coffee table is coming later this week. I will probably get a similar side table for the chair and a floor lamp to go next/behind the chair. Oh, and I guess some pillow covers and a small throw blanket to drape on the chair. The loveseat comes with 2 throw pillows, but I am wanting some cowhide pillows on it. I can probably just buy the cover to go over the pillows it comes with, I hope. There is also this super cute little "baby firepit" I'd like to get for the coffee table. You can view them here: Baby fire pit. It does look like their prices went up since I originally saw them and saved the link.

The unrelaxing Sunday and birthdays

Sundays seem to be my mom's day to try to figure everything out. She will call me like 4 times. Thankfully it's not every Sunday! It doesn't make for a very relaxing day when my phone is ringing all day, that's for sure and I'm repeating myself over and over.

I talked to her Sat morning to let her know dd's birthday was coming, up if she wanted to send her a check for a gift. She didn't think she had her address (of course she does) so I gave it to her again. It sounded like she was going to get off the phone with me, write the check and get it in the mail yesterday. She also asked me when DH's birthday was, as she couldn't remember when (June).

This afternoon she calls and says "are you going to be seeing DS for his birthday?" Um....no..it's DD's birthday coming up. His was last month (I didn't bother reminding her he still doesn't talk to us). She says oh ok, I knew someones was coming up, so I'd better get her a check in the mail. I'm not sure I have her address. I said oh, we talked about her birthday yesterday and I gave you her address, not sure if you wrote it in your address book or just on  a piece of paper on your desk?. Then she found it. Then she says is it DH's birthday? No...it's dd's. I think I had to tell her like 6 times in this conversation it was DD's birthday next week. Supposedly they have greeting cards available downstairs she can take one so she was going to look for a birthday card there. Of course she can't find her stamps.....of course someone took them......

Then she called back that there were no good cards downstairs so she's just going to put a note in with the check. I said that is great. DD knows she can't get out. Then she starts in again about her bank accounts. I had to remind her again that I gave her a new check register to use with her new account transactions so far written in. Who knows where she put it.

So, dd is either going to get 2 checks, one check or no check......and DH will probably end up with one LOL.

Easing into Sunday

Woke up to a bit of snow. It's supposed to snow all day with accumulations of 3-7" in our area. Seems a very wet snow, so, so far, won't require Dh to need to do any plowing. Though it would probably be good if he did need to, he needs to get out and do something to blow off a little steam.

Yesterday I did some house cleaning. Dusted, vacuumed downstairs and some laundry. Got the bedding on a guest bed washed up, so it will be ready when we have my mom here for Thanksgiving. She seems back on track with feeling fine in the mornings again (went to exercise class yesterday) now that we have her meds back in the right time slot.

Speaking of meds, mine needed a refill and I forgot to do it week before last. Last Sunday I realized I only had 8 days left so I reordered, thinking well they will get here by Saturday. Nope, still in transit and they shipped out Monday from Arizona. Tonight is my last pills so hopefully they will be here tomorrow as tracking is now showing. I put them back on "auto" fill. I had taken off because they were going to ship out like a month before I needed them....then I forgot :(

The neighbors son and family (and 2 dogs) showed up last night, to stay for a week, again. Hopefully the snow and very cold temps this next week keeps them all inside and quiet, haha. Any bets on if they will leave their dogs to stay?? They'll probably have a new excuse that she can't handle 4 kids (and one in school) and the dogs right now, during Covid. The oldest boy must be in Kindergarten or 1st by now. Not sure if he's distance learning or in class, but I'm guessing where they live it's distance learning going on.

Today I'm going to vacuum upstairs (where it's all carpet except the bathroom). Yesterday I got 4 eggs, which was nice. I've been getting between 2-4 since the weather got colder. 

I had ordered dh a bunch more frames he needs for some of his loose pictures for the shop. I was hoping they'd be here by this weekend, to give him something to do. 

Money and wildlife

Well, good grief. My new "upgraded" credit card showed up in the mail yesterday. Ok, good. So, I go to sign on to activate it and the website is down, LOL. I suppose I should research what extra "benefits" this new card has compared to my old one. And of course, while they kept my same card#, the 3 digit code is different, so I will probably have to change my bills I auto pay with it. I just tried to access my account again this morning and it keeps going to a bad page. I logged in with my phone app, but there was no option to activate the card. Weird. Then I tried logging in with a different browser and that let me log in.

While I was searching for the envelope in my desk drawer  (while it was sitting in my mailbox) I came across my statement from my homeowners insurance that renewed last August. So, I put that in a good spot and set a reminder on my calendar for next July to get some quotes from other companies. $2800 a year seems like a lot (up from $2400 last year). It's not like we are in a flood plain. We are very high bank river and are not considered in any flood zone. 

Also in the mail was an offer from AmEx for a credit card. Spend $1000 in 3 months and earn $200. (also zero % interest for 15 months). I decided that would be an easy $200 to get so I applied online and was instantly approved. It showed my FICO score is 771. Nice.

Early evening we were treated to a "rafter" of wild turkeys in our back yard. Seems they like the chicken feed left out for the deer too, LOL. Then neighbor dog came out and barked and they all ran off.

Then a bit later, after it got dark I heard a yipping. DH had dozed off in the recliner. I turned the tv sound off to listen and heard it again and said what is that? DH woke up and thought it was probably young neighbors dog got loose (he comes to our house and whines). We went out on the back patio and were treated to a pack of coyotes howling, apparently right down on the river below us.

Oh and the other day, when dh was scooping poop down where those turkey are.....he's pretty sure he also scooped up some bear poop........

Happy Friday

This week has zoomed by. Woke up to rain this morning. We've been having 3 deer visit our yard each night. DH had filled up the 2 bird feeders with seed and each day it was gone. We figured out it was the deer eating it all, which is fine, LOL. But, now we are out. DH put the game camera on the bird feeder. They basically lick out the seeds, haha. And hopefully they make it through hunting season, but dh said this morning he heard 2 shots really close by :(

Wednesday dh filled them up with some of my chicken scratch. Figured they'd like that just as well since it has cracked corn in it and they did eat out of the one in the back yard.  I have a lot of that in the bin, as it was a 50# bag and I only give the chickens a small amount each day. These are probably the same 3 deer I saw crossing the road about a mile down when I went shopping last Saturday. DH said he's picking up more deer poop than dog poop these days. If he doesn't try to pick up as much as he can, our dogs eat it! Gross. and then they puke at 3am.

I looked at the coffee table on Amazon this morning - it's back to $269. Weird. We decided to order the gate hinges for the gate dh will build for the main entrance in our driveway. They are a bit pricey, since they need to be so heavy duty, as it will be a timberframe type of gate out of our beams leftover from our cut trees. But at least it will be able to now get him started on building the gate.

My mom's investment account is $151 away from a million dollars. Sooo close! I just want to see it be over a million, haha. So, I logged in later this morning and it apparently did an update. It is now $1,002,000! I sent a screen shot to my uncle. haha. I know he trusts me, but just wanted to show him I'm not stealing her money, like Step bro told him I would (asshole!).

I was logged in and checking my mom's facebook. She doesn't use it anymore, but every so often I log in, in case one of her friends had tried to message her or something, not realizing she doesn't use it anymore. She didn't use it much before, as she has never really understood it. Anyhow, a couple of her Facebook friends are from her old neighborhood, where she lived before moving to senior living. It was next to a golf course. The golf course got sold to developers and apparently now the site work has started. The lady was saying she can't take the 9 hours a day of constant noise and vibration from all the construction. She said everything rattles in her house all day. A couple of other neighbors commented they agreed with her and it was really getting to them. My mom's place was right along one of the holes, so I am glad she isn't there anymore to have to deal with all that. They said it's week 8 of dealing with it.

But, then one of the neighbors commented to the lady "go see your doctor. Sounds like you have an anxiety issue". I'm sorry - it just drives me nuts when that is people's answer to dealing with annoyances in life. That was my mom's answer and I can't tell you how many times she told me to just go on anxiety meds when I was going through a stressful period. And look at her now. She can't get off the damn stuff, not to mention it more than likely has contributed to her memory issues. I know it caused her heavy weight gain and her excessive sweating issue. 

One of the dogs is shaking his head, which means he is probably getting an ear infection. He gets one every so often. Last time I ended up buying some ear solution called Zymox. It cleared it right up. This time, while his ear isn't really red inside yet (so I'm not exactly sure which ear it is), I'm trying to be proactive and so I put some in this morning. One ear appears a tiny bit red compared to the other, so I'm putting it in that one.

I have an email into the manager where my mom lives to see if they offer auto pay for the monthly rent. If they don't, I think then I will just set it up as a "bill pay" on automatic payment with her bank account. 

I got an email not too long ago that my Paypal credit card was being upgraded and a new card was coming. I don't think it has come yet, but when I log in it is asking me to activate the new card. I did just get a new debit card from them, but that's because my old one was expiring and I got that and activated. Now I'm wondering if it came right before dd visited and I was cleaning up my desk and now it's buried somewhere in a pile! I'm a terrible "filer". I'm a piler and I know whats in what piles on my desk. But it cleaning up to make my desk all clean I think I just took most of it and stuffed it in a drawer....honestly I don't even remember what I did with the stuff on my desk, haha. I guess I'd better do some searching and make sure that card isn't in there somewhere. Usually, though, I am really good about opening mail right away and tossing what is junk, but it it happened to come that day I might have just stuffed in away, LOL. I wanted my desk clean! I'm looking through stuff now. I might go back through my informed delivery account with usps and see if it shows in my mail pictures in the last couple of weeks.

No weekend plans. I guess I'd better figure out what I am making for dinner tonight, so I can take something out of the freezer. Even dh said the other night that he is tired of eating dinner. I said me too, not to mention tired of trying to decide what to make/what sounds good. Maybe I need to find/try some new recipes.

I have a new book to read I just downloaded from my library and it's a long one. I still have 5 other books in my reserve waiting queue, but it appears they are a ways out before I'm next in line. The one I just finished was pretty good. Kind of a psychological thriller with a twist at the end. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides. I don't typically read thrillers, unless they are more like CIA/spy stuff.

DH frequents this huge forum/message board online and a couple of the people on there said they went to grocery shop this week and see toilet paper was all out of stock again. Oh great, that'll be fun to go through again. Thankfully I have been buying some just about every shopping trip, whether we need it or not. I suppose I should see how much we have. DH keeps taking it out to the shop, so it's out of sight/out of mind for me to know exactly how much we have on hand right now.

A bit of everything post

Well, shoot. Yesterday afternoon dh was looking out a back window in our great room and sees the window has cracked! It had to have just happened. It's about a good 6" crack in the bottom corner, on the inside (triple) pane. How in the world did that happen or what would cause that? It certainly did nothing to help the bad mood he was already in. Our windows (Milgard) have a 10 year warranty, but you all know how warranties are.........I emailed the building supply guy where we bought them from to ask him if it might be covered under warranty. He emailed back he'll see what he can do and check into it. Mostly dh is worried about how hard it will be to replace, if the siding and inside trim needs to come off, etc. The window itself is less than $300, but I'm sure it's the labor to replace that will cost $$. Then dh remembered they accidentally ordered 3 of these sized windows and one was sent back, during construction. I emailed the guy to remind him, in case they might still have the extra one sitting in storage somewhere, LOL. Special made size, so who knows, He emailed they probably don't still have it, but he'll check.

I've been eyeing a certain coffee table on Amazon for quite some time, for this sitting/loft area. It's always been $269. I was looking at it yesterday. I was waiting to purchase until my bonus check gets deposited (should be today, I mailed it to the bank yesterday). I get online just now and it's now $337. What the heck! There is a similar one I found on Houzz that is $248, so I guess I'll probably end up ordering that one.

After all my complaining about needing ship to addresses on purchase orders I made a goof on one! Can't remember the last time I did that. I do a copy/paste of the address they give me into the PO, when I am creating it. I must have been working on 2 po's at the same time, or when I copy/pasted

 I didn't notice it had the prior address I had copied. The mfg had just sent a shipping confirmation yesterday and the salesguy noticed it had wrong address. I emailed the mfg and asked if there was a possibility to get it rerouted to the correct address and thankfully there is and it's getting taken care of today.

I also think that now that I have the bonus $ I am going to try out that Shark vacuum that is supposed to be a tangle free brushroller. I'm thinking to buy it from either Target or Walmart, that way if it doesn't work for me like they say, then I will just return it to the store and get my money back.

Last year we ordered a fresh wreaths that this lady in town sells for a fundraiser thing at $20 each. As we've gotten to know her more, dh is not too impressed with her (she owns a business in town) and some of her actions, so he's not really wanting to buy them from her this time. I see on Lowe's website they will be selling live wreaths, that can be shipped, for the same price, so I am just going to buy one of those, I guess.  

I also want to do a donation to a friends son. He is suffering from cancer (stage 4 I believe) and there is a donation account set up to help him and his family out, as he cannot work while he's going through treatment. I believe he's self employed, so I know firsthand (when dh was self employed) how that is. There is no sick leave pay to use, no unused vacation days to take for pay, etc.

Did I mention we decided to keep the tv stand/cabinet I was trying to sell (with no luck)? DH decided to put it in his den. Good storage and he can set stuff on top. I bought him some buffalo book ends for Christmas, so those would look nice sitting on top of that with some books. He had an old 2 drawer nightstand in his den. Super old and just cheap particle board crap. He threw it in the burn pile and burned it with some other stuff yesterday.

Today's weather is kind of backwards. It never got down below like 62 overnight  and now during the day today, its supposed to get colder, rather than warm up. And steadily get colder again, down to 11 on Saturday overnight.

Well, I have a feeling my mom forgot to take down her rent check this month. I reminded her the day before. Then on Tuesday I asked her if she paid and and she said she thought she did, but she was doing something when I called and didn't want to have to go get her purse/checkbook out of the closet. As of today, the check still hasn't cleared her bank, and usually it clears right away after she gives it to them. I will email the manager to see about doing an autopay with it.

Mom also hasn't been feeling good the past several mornings off and on this past week or so. I had a feeling she was off on her pills.....last time a couple days ago I asked her if her pill box was filled up and she said she still had to fill her pill box up but she had just taken them out of her pill bottles that morning when she supposedly took her pills.....she said she would fill up.  Then this morning I call and she says she's still not feeling quite right. So, I said is your pill box filled up? "well, no, but I know I took them this morning.". One of her pills to take is omeprazole, which she has always kept the bottle by her bed and takes when she wakes up, because she has to take 1/2 hour before eating. Then after breakfast she has 2 other pills and a vitamin to take. Those 3 are supposed to be in her pillbox...one of those pills is a half pill (that I cut them all in half) and she says something about her half pill beside her bed. OK, well, she got them mixed up and has been taking her 1/2 pill when she wakes up and her omeprazole later in the morning (after eating, which is no good). I said this is probably why you aren't feeling well lately. So, I made her put the omeprazole bottle next to her bed and take the other one and put with her other meds and pill box. I then made her fill her pillbox up while I was on the phone with her. She had been doing really well with her pills and every time I visited I checked her pill box and all was going good. Then I asked her again if she took her rent check downstairs, as it still has not cleared her bank. I made her get her checkbook out and sure enough, she never wrote a check, even though she told me twice she had. She cannot find the vitamins at all. I don't think she is out of those yet, but could be. It may have been few months since I bought them, though I thought there were 150 pills. I'll just ordered some from Walmart to have shipped to her.

My bonus check deposit made it to the bank (I mailed it yesterday) so I'm good to go to spend some more. I placed the window treatment order. That was almost $800 - 11 windows (7 are in the shop). But, other than when we ever get to finish the bonus room, I am done with window treatments. It will be nice to have one in my office finally. During summer months the sun shines in the window late afternoon and I can't see my computer screen. Usually it starts right about as I'm done with work, so not really an issue, but if I ever need to go back to my computer for anything during that hour or so when the sun is shining right on my screen, I can't see a dang thing.

I've been trying to get this post up all day and keep getting interrupted.

 

Some shopping

Some of the bonus money is going to go towards things I still need to finish the inside of the house and the blinds dh still needs for the shop windows. When we were living in the shop I did buy faux wood blinds for the bathroom window only. The rest of the windows he just hung dark brown towels over and those are still there. The blinds (Bali) are 40% off right now at blinds.com, so this is the best time to order them. I need 7. 

I also need 2 more roman shades for 2 of the living room windows. I put 2 in the dining room last year, but we have 2 windows that face the side (where our living room "bows" out, there are 2 windows that face the side, not out back towards the river, if that makes sense).

And I really need some type of window treatment upstairs in the 2 bedrooms and my office. Really the only reason I haven't ordered anything all this time is I can't decide what I want! Curtains block part of the views as well as cover up the nice knotty alder window casings/wrapped windows. I guess I want something that can be "up" and not block any views, yet be available to pull down when needed. Then I couldn't decide whether to go cellular shades, roman shades, roller shades?

I think I am going to do woven wood shades, but I still haven't pulled the trigger yet on the order. BUT, the more I think about it - those woven wood shades look best when part of them are down, letting the light shine through them. The more I think about it the more I think I won't want them pulled down a bit, because it will partly block seeing the mountains view out the windows. I think I'm just going to go with the cellular shades. In the up position you barely know they are there, but are there to pull down when needed. We have one of these in the long vertical window above our bed. UGH. I can't decide.

The loveseat I want (and had ordered several fabric samples of awhile back) today now shows a 6-8 week delivery time. When I was looking online last night it was 16-18 weeks! I can deal with 6-8 weeks. 

Oh good grief. I'm placing the order for the loveseat. The one I already have like 8 fabric samples of. There is like 104 colors to choose from in total. Now I have to choose what fabric I want the throw pillows in! I can't do any more decisions, LOL.

More short and very sweet

Holy cow - did I get a surprise today in the mail. A card from my boss and a bonus check for $5000!!! (well, actually more than $5k, because that is the bonus amount net after taxes). To thank me for the successful audit we got through. I was not expecting that at all. Wow wow wow. Guess I can order my loveseat for the sitting loft now. And the coffee and side table, too. LOL

Short and sweet

Nov 3 and another warm sunny day of 63 ahead. Better enjoy it while we can, as Saturday is back to the 20's during the day, haha. Yesterday dh put up his snow stakes around the driveway. He figured it was a good time to get it done, while the ground was warm and easier to get the stakes in the ground. But, mornings are still very cold. I just walked some outgoing mail to the mailbox and had to wear a very warm coat and hat.

Another issue the neighbors have been having with their dogs the past couple of months is something new. When Mr. gets home in the afternoon (he gets home before Mrs) two of the dogs will start fighting one of the other dogs, almost every time. They don't bother the other dog all day when they are gone, but as soon as Mr. gets home they start trying to fight with him. The only thing we can think is as Mr is trying to say hello to all the 3 dogs, the 2 are jealous and trying to keep the one dog away? Yesterday was quite the growling and snarling session going on when he got home. More so than usual. Hmmm...not a healthy pack. Also, Mr told dh that their son and family are coming soon for a week, again. He laughed and told dh he hasn't recovered (nor fixed all the things the kids broke) from their last 2 1/2 week visit.  It's hunting season, so that's the reason for the visit, but usually their son just comes for like a long 3 day weekend to hunt with his dad.

Well, back to work - oh hey.......another purchase order request with no ship to address........