New Year's Eve

In my effort to save a few bucks, I realized that the square boxes of tissues I like to buy are twice as much, per tissue, as the long boxes. So I bought long and just did "operation tissue box". I carefully opened up the flaps of my 2 empty square boxes and refilled them from the tissues in the long box. One long box filled up 2 square boxes. I carefully re-taped the flaps and good to go now.

DD and I made some cute candles while she was here. I still have a couple of little glass jars/containers to fill up and I have some leftover candle wax flakes so I'll do that again one of these days. These are the candles we made (2 of each) and then also one other one that dd took with her.

I funded my new Wells Fargo checking account with a direct deposit of $1000 from my paycheck, so I have met the requirements of the account. Now I just have to wait for them to credit me the $325. I do have to leave $500 balance to avoid a $10 monthly fee so I will do that until I get the $325. I may end up keeping this checking and getting rid of my current checking with a local bank in the city. The Wells Fargo is just down the street from that bank, so still convenient to use when needed.

I don't typically do New Years Resolutions as I always fail, LOL, but my goal for 2023 is to start tracking spending on a spreadsheet or something. I want to get a better idea what we are spending on food and misc stuff. There is always so much misc "stuff" purchased. I am hoping that by tracking it, when I go to order something it will make me first think myself, do I really need this? and if so, is there a cheaper option.

My ipad purchase I linked to Capital One shopping rewards and am getting almost $60 back, plus I already have $1.50 from some other purchase(s). When that $60 credits I'm going to cash it in for an grocery store gift card that I can use on groceries, which will be a nice amount to reduce a grocery bill. 

My new ipad arrived via UPS last night, finally at 7:30 LOL. Ahhh...it's sooo much better than that Fire tablet! 1000 times better, LOL. I just got the case ordered from Amazon this morning. I was going to use some of my gift card balance but then saw that I had earned cash back on my Amazon store card. I had gotten the prime free for a month and got 5% back on purchases, so I used that balance towards the case. I'm also glad I went with the 10.2" instead of the mini ipad.

Now that it's light out this morning I can see we got a little bit more snow last night. Thank goodness dh had spent that 20 or 30 minutes getting that ice berm removed from our driveway, as like I said, just a few snows on top of it and we'd then be trying to drive over a foot tall bump within days.

K said the transition to the Depends has gone well, so that is a relief. I did buy 2 large bags at Walgreens, and I think there were 22 in each bag and she said she's using about 2 per day, so enough for a few weeks, until I go back in to see her and will bring more. Certainly don't want to run out of those. 

Well, today the putting away of Christmas is getting done. With 3 trees, and especially the huge one, I'm sure it will take me most of the day.  I have no plans to be up at midnight ringing in the new year. Never do, LOL. I'll be reading a book and going to bed at my normal time.

Friday this, that, and the other

It's supposed to be vacation/no work this week, but I had to do about an hours worth of work on my side job yesterday morning. Ugh. Their CPA wanted the latest info through that day...um..I usually post everything once I have the bank statement at the end of the month and then reconcile to that. So, I had to enter all of December looking online at the bank transactions. I've done as much as I can do and sent it off to him. I'm sure it has something to do with the new owner taking over Jan 1st.

DH took down all the inflatables in the yard the past 2 days. Well, he took them down on Tuesday and blew them back up in the garage and shop to help dry them out (it was raining, of course) before he can put them back in boxes, which he did Wednesday. He hasn't taken down the lights yet. I'll do the inside putting away this weekend, maybe start tomorrow. I did start some Wednesday with washing and putting away Christmas bedding and taking all the throw pillow covers off. I put away all the kitchen Christmas decor yesterday.

I had mailed the gift cards for K and C to K's business mailing address over a week before Christmas. I told dd it was kind of strange not to get a thank you text from her (mostly so I know that they received them). As soon as someone sends me a gift card I message right away a big thank you. My boss sent me a $100 Amazon card that I received in the mail Tuesday and I messaged her a thank you. Anyway, yesterday afternoon I get a text from K with a big thank you for the gift card. Maybe she just doesn't get her office mail very often, but I'm glad to know the cards and gift cards got there.

DH has been wanting to get this big 4'x6' rubber mat (it's a horse stall matt). He found one online at Tractor Supply and sent me the link. I told him that it shows no shipping, you can only pick up at the store. The store is actually about 10 miles south of the city, so not super convenient. We have been there a few times over the years, but not in at least a couple of years. When we were in the city after taking mom home he thought about going to pick it up but with 4 of us in the car and a full load of groceries in the back, he decided the big mat wouldn't fit this trip. Yesterday morning, with the weather dry and had finally stopped raining and some sun out and roads dry he wanted to go get the mat and I had also recently mentioned that one of these days we need to stop at the flooring/carpet store to pick out some carpet for the bonus room, as they are only open Mon-Fri.

Well, as the gate is opening for us to leave dh realizes young neighbor guy apparently "attemtped" to plow the slushy stuff that was all over the road from the raining and snow melting the previous couple days. He left a nice 8" high berm/ridge of snow all across our driveway/gate entrance, which of course then froze solid. So, now we have this big ice berm to drive over. Dh was so mad. He's like never in a million years would I plow and leave a berm across someones driveway! Never! To try to plow ice is hard on the plow blade and also hard on the asphalt. Plus in front of our house and in front of Mr.'s house the street is 2 lanes (it goes back to one lane starting just past our house). Dh and Mr both keep all the snow plowed/pushed all the way out to the edge of the street. The other neighbor pushed the icey slushy crap (which then froze when the temps went back down) and left half of it about 3 feet out from the edge of the street. Because young neighbor works full time and leaves early and doesn't get home until like 5:30 or 6pm Dh has pretty much always just plowed the whole street down to them. Otherwise they just rarely plow, they just drive over and thru the snow, making this rutted narrow path to get out. So all these years dh just makes a few extra passes up and down and keeps it plowed and wide enough for a them, deliveries and garbage truck. There is a culdesac down there and dh always keeps that all plowed so the delivery and garbage trucks have room to turn around. And now with the new snow plow it's even easier for him. Even the state snow plow struck that goes by out on the main road does not leave a berm of snow across the entrance to our road (or anyone's road or driveway along the road). When they get to a road or driveway they turn their blade straight so it doesn't leave berm to have to drive over. Same thing when we lived in town, the town snow plow guy did not leave berms in front of people's driveways. Just common sense and common courtesy.

DH has finally decided he's done plowing the whole street past our house (young neighbors live down at the last lot). He's only plowing from our property line out to the entrance from the main road (unless Mr has already gotten out there and done the first part of the street/entrance as he is the first 2 lots, we are the 3rd). We'll see if dh holds to his new plan next time it snows, but I doubt it, LOL. I have repeatedly told him over the past few years, especially when he had our little quad/plow that it was really wearing out to plow the whole street, to stop plowing past our house. It's not our responsibility, but he tries to be the good neighbor and it doesn't get reciprocated back in any way.

So, we are almost to the city and dh says where are we going first? I said I assume you want to go get the mat first? since it's at Tractor Supply and then do the carpet place on the way back? He's like all confused..Tractor Supply? isn't that down past the city another 10 miles? I said yes....the link you sent me to the mat was for Tractor Supply so I assumed that's where you are getting it. I guess he got TS and another farm supply store mixed up and thought we were going to the one right in the city. So I looked online to see if they had the rubber stall mats and they did, so we went there. Since we were there I decided to get a big 50lb bag of chicken scratch as I'm getting low and also got another bag of pellets feed and some coop bedding. Now I am really stocked up and it was at a much cheaper price than I've been buying online (just lazy lately and buying online instead of going to the farm store).

The guy that we worked with/owned the flooring store retired a couple years ago so it's a new guy running the place who helped us. Or I should say me, LOL. DH has no clue what to get and he'd pick out something ugly anyway, haha. So, I picked out a berber low pile type I liked and the guy is coming out next Wednesday to measure the room. 

After we got home dh worked with a big regular garden shovel with metal blade to get the ice berm out of our driveway. Kinda hard when it's frozen solid to the asphalt. And good thing he did because right this morning it's been snowing and sticking and if that berm was there it just would now be a couple more inches higher with the new snow added. The bigger it gets and frozen solid like that, the harder it is to remove and before you know it we are trying to drive over something a foot tall! Sometimes dh plows from our place out to the street entrance before Mr gets out there and dh has never ever left a berm across their driveway. He said it takes like literally an extra minute of his time to make one more pass with the blade in the right direction and clean that up. Or he has a snow shovel on his plow and hops off and shovels it out of the way. And when plowing all the way down to young neighbors driveway he has also never left a berm there, he always cleans everything up. So, with the snow we're getting this morning dh will likely have to plow today and we'll see if he sticks to his new plan. Any bets? LOL

My new ipad is supposed to arrive today. Yay! I'm so excited. I picked out a case for it from Amazon but haven't ordered it yet. I'm still just picking out stuff to use up my gift cards balance on and will order all at once. I may change my mind on something so I am waiting to order it all at once. I sure am enjoying these days off, though I think if I was retired now I'd be a bit bored, so I'm glad I still am working.

A sleep in day

DD and SIL had a good normal drive home yesterday. The roads were all good. They don't go back to work until Thursday of next week, so they have a nice long break still. I think she said today her inlaws are coming over and they are going to do Christmas with them.

I finally decided to get myself the new ipad I've been wanting, for what...like a couple years now?! LOL. I got that Fire Tablet awhile back and really just do not like it much, compared to the ipad mini's I had. While I do like the bigger screen for watching shows, it's just not near as good as the ipad. I hate the sound buttons. The lowest setting is still really too loud. Turning it on, I always have to skip past an ad that shows up, etc. I decided this would be a good thing to use a little of my bonus on.

I debated between the ipad mini and the regular 10.2"ipad and ended up going with the 10.2" size. It's cheaper than the mini (used to be the other way around) and I got a good deal through Staples and 18% cashback will be coming from Capital One Shopping rewards and the ipad is supposed to be here on Friday. I do still need to find a case to buy for it. I'll probably use my $50 Amazon gift card I just got through work. Turns out that email from one of the mfg's we rep was a legitimate gift. Very nice! That's quite a gift to send each employee and if they did that with all their reps across the country...wow! Then in the mail yesterday was a card from my boss with a $100 Amazon gift card. Very nice :) An Amazon gift card is also what I gave myself (LOL) from my mom, so I have quite a good large gift cards balance on my account right now. I had mom give me and dd Amazon cards and dh Cabelas and sil a Sportsmans Warehouse card.

I've been wanting a new coffee maker for awhile, but just kind of waiting for my old Keurig to die. It's a good 12 years old, at least. I was looking online and there are so many different kinds to choose from. I just want the single serve type, but I also want to be able to use my own coffee grounds, not just the pods, which are too expensive to use daily. I usually just keep those on hand for guests. I'm kind of leaning towards the Keurig mini. Takes up less counterspace.

I was watching the camera at mom's last evening and sometimes K brings her little girl with her (about 2 or 3 yrs old) and as they were leaving the little girl says "mommy put your jammies on your bed". It was so cute. And later mom did actually put her nightgown on, for a change. The other "funny" was the evening of the day we took her back to her place. My phone rang at like 7pm with the number from the office at her apartments. I thought oh no! But it was mom on the other end. She couldn't figure out how to call me from her phone so apparently had them dial me, I guess. She said she didn't feel well, but then I realized it wasn't feeling sick, she was just really confused. I told her to go back to her apartment and I would call her. I had to tell her like 3 times her apartment number. A couple minutes later she got into her apartment and I called. I told her she's had a really busy couple of days and was probably just really tired and worn out and she needed to get her nightgown on and go to bed and get a good nights sleep. Which of course she didn't do, she went to her recliner and slept for about an hour or more. She was up and about again at 8:30. I decided to call her again and try to get her to get her nightgown on and go to bed. She tried to tell me she was ok to sleep with what she had on (I could see her still fully dressed) and I said well, no you don't want to sleep in your clothes..she said well, not my pants but the top is ok. I again said your nightgown is on your bed, so put that on and go to bed. I still had the camera open on my tablet when we hung up. She hangs up and says "I'm sorry, but you're NOT going to tell ME what to do!". OMG, I had a good laugh. She did go to bed...in her top and underwear, haha. I came back downstairs and told everyone else and they had a good laugh too. DD said "oooh, mom got in trouble!" haha.

Christmas recap

We had a really good time with dd and sil over the almost 5 days they were here. They left this morning about 8:15. Much better roads going home than getting here. They had snow all the way from their house to our house coming over. This morning it's raining and roads are much better. They got here Friday about 3pm so we had that afternoon and evening together. 

Saturday I made the breakfast that our friends sent as the gift basket. Bacon, pancakes and real maple syrup. DD and I made some candles with a candle making kit I bought. They turned out good and cute. We also started on a Christmas puzzle that we finished up last night. Dinner was homemade pizza's I made. 

Saturday/Christmas eve we visited, worked on the puzzle, just hung out relaxing. For dinner I made spaghetti. Then we opened our gifts (we always take turns one by one). I got some new tops, a new jacket, ear buds, some canvas wall art dh had made from some pictures, a domed serving tray (like to put cookies under) and a few other nice things. One of the things we gave sil was the two Top Gun movies. We hadn't seen the 2nd one (they did) and it came with a digital copy we could stream so we all watched that Saturday night. I enjoyed the movie. Christmas morning breakfast was the fancy cinnamon rolls I had bought and scrambled eggs.

Sunday thru Monday morning was the 24 hours with mom. After we dropped her off we went over to Sportsmans Warehouse as sil wanted to look for some gun stuff. Then we went to Harbor Freight for some tools dh wanted. Then picked up my grocery order. We grabbed lunch at the Wendy's drive thru and headed home. Last nights dinner was turkey dinner leftovers.

I plan to take a much needed nap this afternoon!

The 24 hours of Christmas

It's been a good Christmas with DD and SIL and their 2 pups. As expected, it was an exhausting 24 hours of Christmas with my mom. Dh and I drove in yesterday at picked her up at 11. Roads weren't the best, but driveable. DD and SIL stayed at our house and got the turkey in the oven for me while we were gone picking my mom up.

As DD described it, it's like as the clock strikes 5pm she's (my mom) "gone". We had been sittting in the living room awhile, after dinner and clean up. Then dd got up to go work on the puzzle at the table in dh's den. Dh was on his computer in the den and then sil got up to go to the kitchen. And then suddenly she had no clue who any of us were or where she was. I moved over next to her and was trying to tell her I'm her daughter. She kept asking these strange questions. Something about "were or are we close?" or did we live "close". Then she wanted to know when I finished school. At that point I texted dd in the other room "Help!" Everyone came back in the room and we just kept talking to her but she kept saying "this is your house? you live here?" I don't know how many times (from an hour after she got here) she said "oh you can take me home any time" and I had to say over and over you're staying the night and we're taking you home tomorrow. Just after 6pm (exactly like she did Thanksgiving) she said she was ready for bed, so by the time I got her all changed into her nightgown, etc, it was a bit after 6:30. She was up twice in the next half hour.........for some reason she got it in her head she was going to live here. First she said "well, I guess I could try it out for a month or two. The second time up she told me she thought about it and wants to stay where she lives. I just said, yes, you are staying where you live and we're taking you home tomorrow. Then up again at 3:45am (which at that point she asked me twice who I was). Apparently she even opened dd/sil bedroom door. I got her back in bed.

Then I got up at 7:30, before any one else. I walk into the living room and there she is! Asleep in the recliner with a blanket draped over her shoulders....a blanket that had been at the other end of the house upstairs, in my office. OMG! We never heard her up or come down the stairs at some point between 3:45 and 7:30. My biggest fear is she would do something like this and fall down the stairs! Thankfully she didn't, but oh my! No more staying here. I just can't do it. 

Sometime during the night she took the garbage can from the bathroom and put in in her room (there already is a waste basket) and had taken her underwear off and thrown in the garbage can....?? ok...When I helped her get dressed I could not find her shoes, which I had set  on the floor the night before. Finally I found them downstairs.

We all went with to take her back this morning and every 3 minutes it was "can I get you guys lunch?". Finally we got her up to her apartment and her things put away and settled in before she had to go downstairs for lunch at noon. DD and I got in the elevator and both just breathed a big sigh of relief. 

 

Merry Christmas Eve

DD and SIL made it safe and sound. Just a long drive with the extra time it took due to road conditions. They didn't get here until 2:45 and dd kept up udpated during their travel. I got them fed some sandwiches for a late lunch. The cat went and hid for awhile but later he made his appearance and then decided under the back of the tree was the safest spot from those doggies.

I made homemade pizzas for dinner and we just spent the rest of the evening visiting. No one is up yet, but my plan is just for a relaxing nice day and evening, but with activities LOL. I'm going to make the "breakfast gift" we got from friends with the bacon, ham, pancakes and maple syrup. Then dd and I can make the pumpkin pie. We also have a Christmas puzzle we can work on and stuff to make some candles, which we can either do today or later Monday, after we get back from taking my mom home. I'm just going to make dh's "chicken" spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner. We will open our gifts tonight. 

Mom did ok yesterday and last night. K is on duty this morning, doing her shower and laundry. 

I was scanning my work emails on my phone yesterday and one was a $50 Amazon gift card from one of the manufacturer's we rep. I hope it's legit and not a scam email. LOL.

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Friday is here

DD and SIL left their house at 4:10 this morning. They have made it over the first of 3 mountain passes. That pass was probably the worst they'll experience and it wasn't too bad. The current weather is -4 and warming up to around 20 today so at least the temp is going in the right direction now. They are taking the drive slow and easy but have flat mostly bare highway the next couple hundred miles. I'm guessing they will be here around 1:30 this afternoon. (they lose an hour due to crossing time zone). Tomorrow through Monday it's supposed to be around 40 degrees, so a lot warmer.

Ooh boy, mom had a very confused day yesterday. She called me 4 times between 2 and 4pm. It seemed like everything I tried to say to explain or help actually was just making it all worse. She pretty much had no clue about anything. I'm hoping a sleep last night did the "reset" she usually has after a bad day. I have a feeling it's because it's Christmas. Her brain sort of knows something is going on with it all, but can't remember the details so she's getting worked up. She mentioned again yesterday about Christmas and she didn't know who she was inviting over. When I told her (again) that we're picking her up Christmas morning to come here for dinner she did not remember that at all. I don't bring it up, unless she does but I'm sure all the decorations, activity and talk around her makes her know something different is going on. I kind of remember this a bit from last year, too, and I'm sure it's worse/harder for her this year to process it all. And then I just got a text from K that she feels it's time mom switches to Depends, so now that new aspect to deal with. I honestly cannot wait until there is an opening at the memory care place. It's time, for sure.

I found out yesterday my side job is going to continue for a while longer, just at a much lesser capacity, so there will still be some income coming in. The new owner takes over Jan 1st but the old owners are still retaining their accounts receivable, so they will need me to process that and reconcile their bank statement for it. This will probably be another 6 months at least, so it will kind of give me an "easing" out of it all, financial wise. And it sounds like at some point I'll be picking up that new small side job, too.

BRRR!

A couple days ago dh happened to be outside closing up our gate in front of the shop. The garbage service company had finally picked up our damaged can and brought the new one. Neighbor lady with the hyper dog was starting to walk back down the street from meeting her kid getting off the school bus and had her dog on leash. He was acting up and she kicked him! So in case you were wondering if she was serious in her text to me last week about just kicking him in the butt to get him to go home, yes she was. People suck.

My January work meeting got changed to the end of January (better, I think) and changed from a Friday to a Thursday. I'm going to fly over the afternoon before. There has always been a morning flight that got me there around 7:30 or 8 but they apparently aren't offering that one anymore, so it's either a 6am flight or a 2pm flight. I am not getting up at 3:30am (at the latest) to get to the airport by 5 am. Nope. Plus, if there are any delays like last time, where I got there 90 minutes late, I'll be too late, as this meeting is supposed to start like 9am. Not taking a chance. But mostly, not getting up at 3am! Boss will book me a hotel for that night. Thursday afternoon dd will pick me up after she gets off work (she's off by 2:30 and then it's about an hours drive to my office) and we'll go back up to her house where I will stay through Sunday, so we'll get a nice visit in for a few days :) Plus, I'll get to celebrate my birthday with her. 

Yesterday I took a lunch break and made some snickerdoodle cookies from the package mix. Dh mentioned he wanted to give the road snow plow guys some cookies like he did last year. Our "retired" friend plows snow in the winter for the state and is one of the guys who plows the main road past our house (as well as the highway). I got them boxed up and dh texted him to text him when he's coming past our house and dh will go out to the road and meet him with the cookies to take back to their office to share with the other plow drivers.  

Well, it got down to -21 where were at. Now it's warmed up to -17, haha. Tomorrow we warm up to a high of +21. So far so good for dd/sil driving over. She is packed and ready to go and they plan to leave their house at like 4 or 5 am tomorrow. This is their normal wake up time anyway, for their jobs, so they are used to getting up that early. Plus they are hoping by leaving that early they beat some of the holiday traffic out there. SIL is always super good about making sure their vehicle (they are driving their truck over) is ready for travel. DD said this trip he did an oil change, a new thermostat and filled up the antifreeze. They will pack prepared for bad conditions.

I had a funny conversation with my mom last night. She was mentioning Christmas and saying she didn't know who she was going to invite over for Christmas. I told her she was coming to my house for dinner and we'll pick her up. A minute later she kinda remembered she was coming here and then said "but I don't have a car" I said that's ok, we're coming to pick you up. Then she said "well, I should probably still look into getting a car again" Hahaha! Um....NO! LOL. I said we don't want you out driving in this weather and besides you'd have to retake the driving test to get a license now ;)

And then this morning I had a bit of a panic. I get up at 7 and look at my phone for her camera notifications. When I went to bed (around 10) she was asleep in her recliner. From earlier clips it appeared she put her nightgown on, but still had on her jeans (and a sweater on over the nightgown). Around 2am she got up for about 15 or 20 minutes and kinda wandered around her apartment and then went back into her bedroom, appeared to go to bed. No other notifications. I got really busy right off the bat with work and about 8:10 happened to look at my phone and see there were no notifications that the caregiver came and woke her up. No clips at all. I log into the camera live and don't see anything going on. Did they not come? she's probably still asleep then...I call and no answer. Then I got a bit panicked. I texted K to make sure - maybe it's just a camera glitch? While waiting for K to text back I looked at the last clip from 2 am when she went into her bedroom - her main door had the chair in front of it. A live view now showed the chair pulled back. It must be a camera glitch and she's down at breakfast. Finally after like 20 minutes K texted me that yes, C woke her up and mom is down at breakfast. I guess maybe her wifi stopped working for awhile so no camera clips. But, in the past, whenever her wifi or power went out her Hero med dispenser app would send me a notification that it was offline from the dispenser and I didn't get that. Who knows, but just glad it was all nothing to worry about.

Payroll processing was pretty easy breezy this morning. Wooo! The rest of the day should be easy stuff and then I am off through Jan 2nd. 

Oh, and we received a really neat gift from our friend who visited in September. She took one of the pictures she took at the lake we hiked up to and had it made into a soft fleece throw blanket. It's awesome and such a neat idea.

I'll leave you with a little video clip of fog and ice floating down the river. I think because the river is warmer than the air outside right now!

It's a bit chilly

Ok, getting braced for the extreme cold. Our phones weather app says it's 0 this morning. Our outside temp weather system that displays in our house says its 15. DH had to do another round of plowing and shoveling after dinner last night and it pretty much snowed the whole time he was doing it. This morning he's out cleaning up what snowed after that, but we are not supposed to get any more snow for a couple days, just super cold. It's really windy out right now. Making me nervous we could lose power, aside from being cold, I'm more worried about not being able to work - as I have to do payroll tomorrow. I'm working on getting it all as ready to submit as I can right now. I've got my phone and tablet charging. We got the heat in the house turned back up a bit early this morning, just so at least it would get up to temperature (we usually do 69 or 70) and be a bit warmer for awhile, if we do lose power. Wind + heavy snow on trees does not make for a good combination with power lines.

Monday we got a nice gift basket, but no indication of who sent it. It was a really nice frozen basket of bacon, ham, pancake mix and maple syrup. It all looks so delicous! I figure it either has to be our Texas friends or our friend in Missouri. I messaged our Missouri friend first to ask if it was her. It was not, but in our chatting she told me she has met a guy she has started seeing last month. A friend of a friend. I am SO happy for her, with what she has gone through the past several years with her hubby of 30+ years cheating on her, leaving her and moving in with his 35 yr old girlfriend and never divorcing her. And then him dying last year. She's been through a lot. The gift was from Texas friends and will be enjoyed either Christmas eve morning or Christmas morning.

K made it back to work last evening and had another girl with her she was training. I'm kind of surprised she didn't have a face mask on, since she's been sick.....This morning C is back on duty, after being sick too, and she did have a face mask on. It was a good relief though last evening and this morning to not have to worry about making sure mom was taken care of meds and getting up and clean clothes on today (she wore the same thing the last 2 days with no one to help her out). Mom did ask me about Christmas the other day. I still think sometimes she thinks I live really far away. And most times she doesn't think dd lives far away, LOL.

I went ahead and submitted my side job payroll just now, so it's done and I don't have to worry about it. We are really just having to wait and see how it all is, if dd/sil should make the drive over here. Hopefully it will all work out ok.

I didn't realize until yesterday that doing my online grocery orders with Albertson's is earning me 2% cash back with Rakuten, plus I earn 2% on my credit card, so 4% total is a help with the high cost of groceries. I've earned some decent cash back with some of the Christmas gifts and am getting like $50 back on my next "big fat check" in February.

The cat has always liked to drink water out of the big dog water bowl we have in the laundry room, so we just keep using that for his water. But for some reason lately he keeps tipping it over and dumping the water out! So, this morning I just put the bowl up in the dog shower so if he tips it, it can go down the drain and not get water all over the floor and up to the cupboard and baseboards, from where it was sitting before. Dang cat.

Sick caregivers, pills and cookies

My mom's caregivers are still both out sick this morning. Gah! I'm sure this has made K realize she needs more staff. She's probably just been assuming well, if one of us is sick, the other can cover, but now both are sick. She did text this morning that she is training a new gal this evening. Last evening, when my mom's med dispenser chimed at 6:30 I just waited to see if she could figure it out or not, as on occasion she does, but she thought it was the phone ringing, so I called her to tell her to push the dispenser button and when we hung up she went right over to the sink and took her pills, I saw from watching the camera. That camera sure has been a good thing to have.  By the way, I ended up not getting a gift card for a new caregiver. Other than one evening on the camera last week, I have not seen her training anyone and there has been no new gals tending to my mom, yet. So, I just mailed the gift cards for K and  C.

Mom did ok last night. Went to bed just before 9 and even put her nightgown on. I had to call her about 7:40 to wake her up and tell her to get dressed and go down for breakfast. I always wonder now what time she'd get up on her own, if no one was getting her up. She'd never get any breakfast! She did put on the same clothes she wore yesterday, of course. I was messaging dd about her last night and said well....if the wait for memory care is going to be 12-16 weeks, I am about 3 weeks into the wait now, so maybe 25% of the way into the wait. That made it seem like we're getting closer to when I can move her. I hope! It is really time.

My bonus checks arrived UPS yesterday right after I got done working for the day. Since it was after 4pm, the deposits I did via my banking phone app won't show up in my account now until tomorrow. 

DH is making me wonder/confusing me with what time he keeps taking his morning pills. He's supposed to take them an hour or so before eating. So, most often he either takes them when I get up (and he goes back to bed) or he'll be up (usually 6-6:30) to go to the bathroom, so he'll walk out the kitchen to take them. I always take them out of the pill box the night before and put them in a little bowl that we have sitting next to the coffee maker, just for his pills. With big fumbly fingers early in the morning he finds just dumping the pills from the bowl into his hand much easier than trying to get the 4 pills (2 are vitamins) out of the pill box. But, often I will get up at 7 and when I go into the kitchen to make coffee I see his pills are gone from the bowl and do not know when he got up to take them. Pretty much anytime he gets up after 5:30am to use the bathroom I get woken up enough to know he got up and know he walked out to the kitchen.I hear him open and close the fridge to get out a water bottle to take the pills.

Then this morning he tells me I forgot to put his pills out last night. All signs point to I did put them out! First off, I have to give him one pill just before I go to bed. That is when I get the pillbox down from the cupboard and of course take out the next morning pills. I put them in a little bowl next to the coffee maker (easier for him to get the pills into his hand then trying to get his big fumbly fingers into the pillbox). I also always push the bowl up next to the backsplash. When he takes the pills he always leaves the little bowl setting out farther from the backsplash, in front of the coffee maker. That's where it was this morning. Plus the pillbox was empty for Tuesday am and the days lid was open, meaning yes, I removed the pills. He has no idea what time he took them or even that he did. I'm going to have to start paying more attention to what time he's taking these morning pills, I guess. Lately I've been starting to suspect he's just taking them when he comes to bed at 1:30am or whatever time it ends up being. 

We got a couple more inches or so of snow again last night and it's supposed to snow all day today. I think dh will be busy, that's for sure. When he got down plowing yesterday it was just before noon so before he put the plow away I asked him to take me down to neighbors in it, so I could drop off my box of cookies. It's a nice little ride, LOL. Then we pulled down the driveway of Mr and Mrs and I dropped that box off. Mr saw the rosettes in the box (box has a clear lid) and said "oh, those good Scandanavian cookies!". A bit later Mrs texted me thanking for the cookies and said the rosettes reminded her of her Scandinavian heritiage as her mom used to make these cookies. And where did I get the cute box from? (amazon, LOL)

A busy Sunday

I got a text this morning from mom's caregiver that both she and the other caregiver are sick. I called mom at 7:35 (she was still in bed, as usual) to tell her it's time to get up and get dressed to get downstairs to breakfast at 8am. And she did, so that was a relief. K did say that she has 2 new hires starting next week, so then she'll have better coverage if someone is out sick.

We got a couple or so inches of snow last night, so it will be a plowing day for dh. I've noticed now that Mrs is retired, Mr doesn't have to get out there at 5 or 6 am to plow their driveway so she can go to work. I'll bet he likes that, haha.

I got my rosette cookies made yesterday. The first several are a bust. I had kind of forgotten the technique, since last year was the first time I made them. I forgot I needed to have something to blot the oil covered hot iron on before dipping into the batter and to also hold it in the batter a few seconds. Then I was good to go and made a bunch. I have some leftover Christmas "goody" boxes I had got from Amazon last year, so later this morning I will put some of both cookies in 2 boxes to take over to the neighbors. 

We also had a visit from our retired friend yesterday, so I set out a plate of cookies and he had a couple. I just decided to do that, rather than make up a box for him to take. I didn't have the rosettes made yet and I'm being selfish in that I really don't want to have to make another batch of sugar cookies, LOL.

I also got all my presents wrapped yesterday afternoon, so one more thing checked of the to do list. DD and SIL plan to be here Friday afternoon. I also have Friday off, so that will give me time to get last minute things done. I'm trying to decide when to make the pumpkin pie. I'll probably just make it Christmas eve morning, or maybe I'll make it Friday. I'm also trying to decide what to have for dinner Friday and Christmas eve, with dd/sil here. I think I'll do spaghetti Christmas eve, but not sure what to make Friday. Christmas day will be the full turkey dinner and we can have that for leftovers Monday and then they will be leaving Tuesday. I kind of wish I had taken at least taken Thursday or even Wed and Thurs off this week, but I have payroll to do on Thursday, so decided not to. I do have all next week off. But, it would have been nice to have some time to relax and prepare at the same time. 

The weather report for later this week just keeps flopping back and forth. Now were back to -26 for Thursday. Must be something coming down from the north, that's usually when it gets super cold. At least it's only supposed to be for a couple days, then up to lows of 30.

Are you ready for Christmas?

Good cookies

Alrighty then! The sugar cookies turned out well. Finally. When I was growing up I remember making these with my mom every year. I never recall her having any issues like I have almost always had. She still made them every year after I grew up and moved out, so in my early adult years I never made them myself because we always had her cookies, LOL. Later years I started making them off and on, with little success, but I do recall some years they turned out fine, because I always gave a plate to our "good neighbor" (who dh still chats with on the phone every few months). 

Finally, with enough flour on my floured cloth laid down, I was able to cut them without sticking. And then they actually baked without flattening/poofing out and you could actually still recognize the shape. Yay! Either way, they've always tasted yummy (they almost melt in your mouth) but I don't like to give them away when they look wrong. The recipe is with powdered sugar, not confectioner's.

So, I got the whole batch made up and texted a picture to dd that I finally got the cookies to turn out. She replied back "good, now you can do the same thing next week". I'm like "wait.......what?! Her reply was "well, I want cookies at Christmas LOL". Ok, ya, she's probably right. By the time I give some to neighbors and we keep munching on them this week, there probably won't be any left by next weekend, LOL. I'm really going to try to put them in a sealed container and keep some for next weekend. I really do not want to make these again, LOL.

When I got them to turn out I was thinking of my mom and how she always made these and they always turned out. I'm sure when she's here on Christmas she won't remember these cookies anymore, but maybe a little part of her brain will remember, even if she doesn't realize it. The funny part is when she was here Thanksgiving overnight and the next morning I put the plate of breakfast in front of her she remembered that she used to have these plates. It was nice to have a minute of conversation to say yes, you did and I always loved them and was so happy when you passed them on to me and I still use them every day.

Today I will make rosettes. Much easier for me and more enjoyable. I never tried making these until last year. And these cookies so remind me of my grandma, because she always made these and I would often get to help her. My grandma was so sweet and mellow. I'm a lot like her in the mellowness (not sure about being sweet LOL). I'm lucky I got to have her in my life so long, as she lived to 95. I was 49 when she passed away. I asked dd to make the white chocolate bark stuff she made last year that was so good. It's just white chocolate, pistachios and cranberries and she said she would make some and bring with them.

I know I'm going to jinx this 100%, but the hyper dog has not been seen for several days now. More than likely it's just an explanation of something like they've been gone most of the weekend or something like that, rather than them actually making sure he's staying on their property, but the little break from the dog has been nice. I can imagine Mr and Mrs Neighbor are enjoying the peace from not having the hyper dog getting their dogs all riled up a couple times a day, too.

I came across a Netflix show I've been watching the past couple of days. "Life after Death with Tyler Henry". I used to watch Long Island Medium quite a bit years ago. I don't know why these people fascinate me so much, but they do. I don't even know if I can totally believe it, but apparently I do, LOL Anyway, something to watch and keep me entertained for a bit. I'm also finding his backstory with his mom and her "adopted" mom pretty interesting. Crazy story.

Ok, time to get some breakfast in me, then in the shower, so I can start making the rosettes. I made sure to have enough cooking oil on hand this year for it!

Baking weekend

The Christmas sugar cookie dough is made and in the fridge chilling for 3 hours. I know I'm going to regret making it when I'm trying to get it rolled out and it's sticking and when the cookies come out all flattened out and not in the cutter shapes, LOL. My plan is to make these cookies today and the rosette's tomorrow. 

I think I need to dig out my neck adjuster thingy dd got me for Christmas last year and use it a few times. My neck has been feeling tight this week. Probably from the stress about worrying over my mom. 

The cat just knocked over my old wood antique sled that I have some greenery and lights on it - well now the lights won't work. Grrr, LOL. 

What is it with people telling me not to vent or rant or complain on my own blog?! How dare I?! I find it quite funny. Do these people have such perfect lives that they are never upset about anything, ever? Never talk (or write) out what is going through their mind at the time? Spoiler alert! My life is not perfect! I am not perfect! Sometimes things (and people and dogs) bug the crap out of me.  How boring it would be to only portray a perfect life to everyone. And funny when I'm saying the good things (which there are a lot of) in my life, I don't see them commenting on those posts, LOL.

Neighbors want to have a dog? Whatever. Enjoy your dog (we sure immensely enjoyed having our dogs). But it's YOUR dog. It's not my dog. It doesn't belong in my yard or on my back patio, daily, usually twice daily. I chose not to have another dog. YOUR dog should not be MY problem, whatsoever. 

Finally Friday

I had a UPS email later yesterday that said I was getting a package/envelope from my work delivered Friday. I was kinda excited and thought oh, boss must have shipped my bonus checks overnight. But when I logged into my UPS this morning, it showed that the package label was created but it hasn't been picked up from the office yet, so it won't be here today, LOL. 

Not the best picture, but outside with all the trees covered in snow and the sun just popping up over the mountains behind us, the outside looks like a black and white picture with the tips of the mountains across the other side just showing a bit of sunshine on them. 

I watched a good Christmas movie on Netflix last night called "A Boy Called Christmas" based on the book by Matt Haig. I have read several of his books, but somehow missed this one. It was a good Christmas movie. 

I try to read things on brain health and dementia. Sometimes it's just articles I come across. The other day it was a TED talk, which led me to one of the books by Daniel Amen, MD. He's been doing brain imaging for years, showing what a healthy brain looks like compared to not healthy brains. The good news is, according to his years of working on this, some of it can be reversed and of course the major way to do that is to stop eating the "Standard American Diet" (SAD). Again, sugar is such a huge villian in our health and especially brain health. It looks like he's written several books, but I'm currently reading "The Brain Warrior's Way". The takeaway, so far, is there is a lot we can do to lessen the chances/delay dementia by taking care of our brains. I also went to his website and did a test they have to help determine what "type" of brain I have. I apparently have a type 1 brain, which from the results they sent back, is a good sign, at least. 

I have cookies to make this weekend. At a minimum I'm making the Rosette's. I may attempt sugar cookies (I skipped them last year). They are such a pain for me to make and while they taste super yummy they are always a total disappointment in that they flatten out and do not hold the cookie cutter shape. My mom used to make them perfectly. 

Mrs Neighbor brought over a plate of goodies she made yesterday. Quite the variety, like 4 or 5 different things. I said oh, you were busy! More time now that you are retired, LOL. I tried a few of the things, thinking to myself I've been doing so good cutting down on chocolate and sweets....oh well, back at it next month...haha. But, honestly the 3 little things I tried I didn't really like....don't know if it's my taste buds changing or what, but I later looked at the plate of goodies and thought well, good, now I won't eat all of it! Dh is more picky with homemade sweets - he really only like peanut M&Ms, a few cookies and a little bit of chocolates. If someone brings over a plate of homemade goodies, he usually won't try them..which means I usually end up eating it all! I might put it all in a covered plastic container and put it in the fridge until dd and sil are here and see if they want to eat any of it. Or I may send it back with my mom when we return her the day after Christmas, if the goodies are still good to eat by then. They may not be....neighbor said she made them last week when their grandkids were still here.....

Aside from a diet change, I still need to drink more water! Even though I'm trying to drink more water every day, I'm still only drinking about half what I should be. and exercise....and learn NEW things. It's not enough to do crosswords and brain puzzles, your brain already knows how. We need to learn new things. 

Mom continues her journey. The last 2 nights, sleeping in her recliner again. Wednesday evening C put her nightgown out for her on her bed. She never put it on, slept in her clothes in her recliner until she got up at 5:30am and went into her bedroom and got half undressed and went to bed. Last night K was on duty (usually she is Sat-Tues) and she got mom in her nightgown before she left at 6:30. But again, mom slept in her chair until 6am this morning and then got up and went into her bed. I'll just be glad when she is living in memory care and there are staff there that can guide her through the evening.

A new thing I'm noticing her doing is she'll be sitting/resting in her recliner during the day and evening and constantly getting up to look out her door. I think what is going on is because her apartment is right next to the elevator she is hearing the comings and goings and is thinking someone is at her door, is my guess. Since I found her tv remote when I was there Sunday, she has at least been watching a little tv the last few evenings. I just think, sadly, she turns it on, but none of it really makes sense to her anymore.

Well, the weather forecast for next Friday, when dd/sil are driving over sure has changed from what it showed a few days ago! A few days ago it was going to be a low of -25. Now it's going to be a low of 29 and a high of 40! Good grief. That's almost a 60 degree difference!

People and dogs

I don't know why we even try or expect people to act decently and respect boundaries. So, dh is outside plowing when I finish up work yesterday. I go out to the chicken coop to tend to them and hear dh out at the entrance to our neighborhood talking with young neighbor, who lives down at the end of the street, who has the hyper dog now being let loose all the time. She was there waiting for the school bus to pull up. So, I go back inside and hear dh back to plowing.

A few minutes later I get a text from young neighbor: Hello! It sounds like D is really being a pain in the ass. Coming over and crapping in your yard and making (Mr's) dogs bark, jumping on your doors… I’m so sorry that he’s doing that!

I read the text and think "ok! she gets it and is going to take care of the problem". I'm trying to think of what to text in reply and before I can think of what to say she keeps texting:

I’m not sure what to do about it right now.. but I did tell (dh) though, seriously STOP giving him treats and you really can kick him in the butt when he shows up. Maybe we could try stopping any positive reinforcement whatsoever to start with (act like you hate him?) and see if that helps?

WHAT?!! Seriously? She doesn't know what to do about it?! No, we are not kicking your dog (and she meant that literally) and no, we are not being mean to your dog. I was just speechless and no idea what to even reply. I knew I needed to reply, but dang! I didn't want to be super nice because that just lets her keep doing it. But I didn't want to sound rude, either. I had no clue what to say back to her.

Then another text:  And if he's still a nuisance when spring rolls around we'll see about a fence or something maybe? Sorry about him

OMG! So, because you don't want to keep your animal on your property, it's ok if he just goes and does whatever he wants, wherever he wants and it's our problem, not yours?! At this point I'm just keeping my fingers off my phone because what I would text back at this point would not come across as very neighborly at all.

So, then dh comes inside from plowing. I say to him, apparently you talked to young neighbor about the dog again? He says ya....and she's not going to do anything about it! I said ya....she texted me about it. I told him what the texts said and he said, that's not what she told him. She told dh that she wasn't getting a fence unless the other neighbors (meaning the eventual neighbors in the 3 2-acre lots between us) decide to "be assholes about it". 

Anyway, while she's out at the corner talking to dh and her son is getting off the bus, she has the dog on a leash and he's constantly trying to jump up onto the mule/plow. She kept pulling him back and saying 'he doesn't jump up on our stuff". Dh said she kept jerking him back on the leash and he kept jumping up against the mule. (I'm thinking to myself how hard is it to take a couple steps back so he can't reach the vehicle he's jumping up on? or shorten the lead you are giving him). Anyhow, dh offers little boy if he wants to ride down the street with him to "help plow" and of course he does, LOL. Mom walks back home with the dog. They get down to their property and dh said they are almost snowed in their driveway and have not plowed. She says, ya, our quad broke. DH says I'll plow it for you, no problem. With this big plow he has now he was done in short order and at least they have a path out their driveway now.

Then she texts me again (I still have not responded to her). A big thank you to dh for plowing!! It's so nice. I finally replied and said "He loves to plow and thank you for working on the dog problem". At this point there is really nothing that will help the situation when someone thinks it's ok that their hyper dog doesn't need any boundaries. Think of the hyper-ist dog you can and this is this dog.  And we could totally deal with this if it was like before - where it was just randomly, every so often, the dog would come and be annoying. Now it's every day, twice a day. An hour or so before this conversation (dh had just gone outside to start shoveling) Mr and Mrs got home. They let their dogs out of their kennel and were outside with them while they ran around their property. Then here comes the hyper dog....just causing total chaos with their 3 dogs to the point they had to put their dogs inside the house, just to get it all calmed down and so that the other neighbor's dog would leave.

Customer service and bonus time

Last week our big garbage can cracked right down the middle of the back. It needs to be replaced and isn't going to hold much weight until then. I went online last Thursday to get the garbage company phone number from my account online and they had a link where you could report a damaged container. ok, easy peasy. I reported it for replacing and received an email back saying they received my report and gave me a case # with it. I decided to call this morning to find out WHEN it will get replaced. Like...are they bringing a new one with our weekly garbage service tomorrow morning? Well, of course not. They have no record that I filed a ticket for can replacement. When she enters in the reference case# I was given, she says it goes to a different account/address. So she put in the claim again and now says it shows the earliest it will be replaced is 12/22. But she did say she sent a message into our local dispatch (she is from an office in Colorado, apparently) to put a rush on it and see if they can replace it earlier, so let's hope so.

And I'm still trying to find out if I need to make the cookies to ship out UPS today. The package that is supposed to come today is still not showing "on truck for delivery" yet. It made it to the local distribution center at midnight, so that usually means it will get on this mornings truck, but it's still not updated yet and usually it is by now. I want the cookies to be as fresh as possible since it will take 2-3 days to get to them. 

Bonus's! Yes, I found out at the end of yesterday how much I am getting and it's twice what I figured I would get, so that's an even nicer bonus bonus. Ok, I'm still trying to get them all entered in our payroll system....LOL...because of course that system is never easy. My boss asked our payroll advisor to set up this bonus batch of live checks (not direct deposit) and so that no one sees it when they log into their payroll account until after the checks are handed out, to be mailed to the office, and set it up to be taxed at the bonus supplemental rate. So, advisor set up a "bonus" batch I could then enter them all in, but after running the report to review it my boss said 401k contributions weren't supposed to be deducted from the bonus's, so now it's back to the advisor to see how she fixes. We are hoping she can adjust it from her end without me having to re-enter all the bonus's again. Anyhow, since they are live checks and then my boss has to mail me mine, I'm not expecting it until later next week.

Ok, the UPS just updated that the package is out for delivery today, so now that I know our UPS guy will be stopping here today, I can get the cookies made and the package ready to give to him. The earliest he is ever here is late afternoon, so I have time. It usually takes me less than an hour to make them. We got some snow last night and it's snowing now, so dh has some work to do this morning to keep him busy.

No Title Tuesday

Every so often kitty will sleep all/most of the night with us, but most of the time, 5 minutes after I go to bed he's meowing for me to take him upstairs, LOL. But, 2 of out of the last 3 nights he slept all night. Last night he followed me into the bedroom, but then left after I got into bed. He came back when dh came to bed around 12:30am and snuggled in next to me and slept until 5:30. Then he got down. I was expecting lots of meowing, but he just meowed a bit and then apparently went somewhere and waited or kept busy until I got up at 6:55. I'm kind of preferring he doesn't sleep with me, haha. He likes to curl up against my chest and then I feel like I can't move all night because if I do I'll disturb him and he'll then want me to take him upstairs. The things we put up with for our pets.

I saw K started training her new caregiver she hired. She was with her when she came at 6:30 to do mom's meds and K did get mom to change into her nightgown. I heard mom try to say she'll do it herself, but then I heard K say "your daughter wanted me to help you with it", so she agreed. K just showed up for this mornings help, but she is by herself. Maybe because this morning is a shower morning and K does those. The new gal looks pretty young. I think K did say she's young, but she also worked her last caregiver job for 2 years, which K said is impressive as there is a lot of turnover in the caregiving business.

Did I mention that my "trick" of covering up the off button on mom's heating unit seems to be working well? K says it is helping and when I got to her apartment on Sunday it was actually really comfortable in there for a change. I have a feeling (and I hoped) that by not turning it off and on all the time, she is able to keep her apartment at a more normal level and not such drastic changes, because she would walk back in after being gone an hour or so for a meal and it's freezing, so she'd turn it on and crank it up to 90!

I thought UPS was coming today, so I was going to send out a package with him. A Christmas gift to our friends in Texas. I'm making the guy peanut butter cookies (his favorite) and had picked up his wife some cute salt and pepper shakers. So, I planned to make some cookies quickly later this morning and get the package ready for this afternoon. I logged into UPS to double check and while it says scheduled for delivery today, when I looked at the shipment progress it shows what we are expecting is still in transit to our nearby distribution hub, so now it won't be until tomorrow. So, I'll make cookies tomorrow then.

I was just looking at the weather forecast. The low for next Thursday, the 22nd.....MINUS 25 degrees! Brr. I don't think it's been that cold since we've lived here. -10 or so, but not -25.

And sometimes I sit here, with this blog post open, trying to finish it and all's it needs is a title and I can't think of one!

The missed day

I didn't end up posting yesterday. I didn't have much to say in the morning, so I just decided to wait and see what news the day brought. We went into the city yesterday to see mom and get groceries. I had put my pickup order in on Saturday for Sunday, anytime between 11am and 7pm. There was no snow predicted until like 5pm and we planned to be back before then. We left the house at 12:30 and of course right after we got on the road it started snowing, LOL. As soon as we got to my mom's it started snowing even more and was sticking. I only ended up staying about a half hour, but that was fine. As I've said before if she even remembers 15 minutes later I had been there, she certainly won't know how long I stayed.

I brought toilet paper with me this time. They supply it, but she's obviously going through a lot (typical of those with dementia, from what I read) and the last 2 times I was there, the first time she had a little bit left on one roll and no extras. When I got there the visit I cleaned her carpet, there was no toilet paper! I went downstairs and asked for more. Their rolls are small and cheap, of course. So, I brought 6 rolls of "the good stuff". Plus they are the large sized rolls, so a roll should last her much longer. We'll see if she has any left when I go next. At least I have a gauge now of how much she'll use.

I then found her tv remote in her nightstand. Then proceeded to try to find her keys...again. Sometime last week I noticed the bowl with the "PUT KEYS HERE" sign taped to it was no longer on her dining table. I found the bowl (and the one from before I couldn't find!) in one of her dresser drawers but no keys. Boy, those keys were illusive this time! Usually they are in the dresser somewhere. Finally, I found them up in a little clear plastic dessert cup (that their little desserts and snacks come in) up on a shelf with her drinking glasses.

While I was emptying my bag I always take to her place (to either bring or take stuff) with the toilet paper, in her bathroom, I decided to see what I could take with me. Under her sink she had a box with an old blood pressure monitor, some shaving cream and sun screen. I took those. Now all that is under her sink is some bars of soap and talcum powder. On her dining table was sitting on old radio. Who knows where she dug that out of, but if it even works, the one battery in it is all corroded. I'm throwing it away. And as usual, I also grabbed papers and any junk mail. 

One of the pieces of mail was from her doctors office (I use the same place, but I see a PA and mom sees an MD). Does this sound strange to you? It was a letter from the doctors office saying they have scheduled her annual medicare wellness exam for May 2nd at 10:40. Then, if she needs to discuss any chronic issues, they have scheduled a follow up for August 2nd at 11am...What in the world? First off, they have always called me early in the year to schedule it (every year they try to go a month or two earlier then the previous year) because I am on file as the one to contact, due to her dementia. So, since I am bringing her it needs to be when it's convenient to ME. But just to schedule an appointment without even consulting the person as to if that is a good time or not? Just weird to me. This is the same doctors office, that when I called about a month ahead of time to schedule my annual checkup (for late Sept/early Oct) they told me they can't get me in for 6 months. I'm kind of thinking I might be done with this office and try a different place. This all just seems bizarre. Plus, once mom gets moved to memory care, they offer on site physician visits, which seems much easier than taking her to an appointment, especially if it's just a wellness check. I'm sure I'll let their nursing staff take over in that respect.

Dh and I got the grocery order picked up about 2:20. I had ordered a whole frozen turkey to make for Christmas dinner. I wanted the 16-20lb size. They had several different brands, I went with the cheapest, since they were all expensive and none on sale. My substitute preference was same size, different brand. Well, they subbed a different brand but only a little over 14lb. I hope it's enough for the 5 of us, plus leftovers. I might go to our little town grocery store and see what they have. I'm know the 14lb is plenty for Christmas dinner, but we also like to have leftovers for 2-3 nights and some turkey sandwiches.

I think the plan for having my mom here for Christmas is to go pick her up later Christmas morning. Someone can stay behind, so I can have the turkey in the oven before leaving to go get her. Once she's here we can just exchange gifts with her (we will have done our exchange with DD and SIL on Christmas Eve and stocking stuffers in the morning) and dinner. Have her spend the night and hope it goes ok...and then take her home the next day. DD said they plan on being here from the 23rd to the 27th, so that gives us some time to spend just with them, rather than also having my mom here several days, too.

The drive home in the snow wasn't too bad. DH is really liking the new snow tires and says they help a lot. Of course by the time we got home, the snow then stopped. It looks like we got an additional dusting of an inch or so during the night, so I'm sure dh will shovel and plow it off a bit today. 

Well, it's payroll processing day, so I need to get started on that. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a really quick and easy one like last time. I've realized most of it is waiting on my boss to answer questions about it, LOL. I already asked her all the questions last Friday, to get a jump on it. I'm trying to be even more prepared as I never know what may come up with mom nowadays. But, I have one employee I need some answers on as to his time for a business trip he took last week (he's hourly) so now I'm waiting on that answer before I can continue. I've realized that's what slows me down. I wait and wait, then finally get to move on to the next step and then there ends up being some "error" message in the system I can't figure out, so then I have to email/call our payroll advisor...and wait for her to get back to me. Then once I do get it done, I then have to wait for boss to review it...and wait and wait...and then remind her and then she says "oh sorry, I forgot!". LOL. That's why the last payroll went so quick...she was on vacation, LOL. (I told her that too. We laughed).

Stains gone

The carpet cleaning guy got to mom's place a little after 2pm and was able to drag their big long cleaning hoses up through the window in the 3rd floor, LOL. I was watching on the camera when he first got there and then he said "I was told it was just the bedroom" so they went in there and he's like ok, I'll get this clean and mom says "yes, someone brought their dog in here".....From the camera video it appears he cleaned all the bedroom carpeting, not just the stain area, so that is nice. From the camera view it looks nice and clean. I'll see when I go in on Sunday. Or might wait and take some time off and go in on Tuesday mid day. We're kind of just watching the weather forecast at this point.

I was thinking of taking her computer with me next visit. It's one of those kind that's a monitor/computer all in one, so it's really just the monitor to carry out. My goal is to also fill up one garbage sack and dispose of it more stuff in the big garbage can that is in the laundry room on her floor. Do this every visit, so I have less to get rid of at moving time. DD said she agrees it would be easier to just have her fly over for a couple days to help rather than using up 2 days of driving here and home. But, then when I got up this morning I had a thought that if I remove the monitor she will then notice the modem behind it and probably try to mess with it and then my wifi connection to her cameras will be lost. I think I'll just let it stay where it is.

She did not have the best evening last night. A little after 6:30 she was being restless like she was looking for something or trying to figure something out. I was going to call and she left her apartment. She did come back shortly and her guy friend was with her (he has a walker now) and he's standing just inside her apartment and he says "your bedroom door isn't locked" (it was wide open). She says "what?" he said "you said your bedroom door was locked". Then she says "oh, I don't know...." and he told her to go check her bathroom door, which was also fine and then she said "oh, ok, you can go back to your place now, I don't need to bug you" or something like that. A couple minutes after he left I called her and it was something about not being able to lock her door so she could sleep. After a couple minutes I think I got her calmed down that her door was ok. I also suggested she get her nightgown on and ready for bed.

She then did walk into her room and had her nightgown in hand. She walked out of her room, turning light out and over to her recliner, turned light out and was sitting in her recliner, fully dressed. I'm like No! She is not sleeping in her clothes, in her recliner all night again. I called her back. I'm sure the room is a little lighter than it shows on the camera (and her digital clock/calendar throws off some light) but she's talking to me on the phone in the dark. I told her its time to get her nightgown on for bed, that I didn't want her to sleep in her recliner. She said she doesn't have anywhere to sleep here. I said yes, you have a bed in your bedroom. She said she doesn't know. I said turn a light on so you can see! and then I said go into that other room, you will see your bed. So she did and then seemed ok. When she got off the phone she turned the light out and went into her bedroom/bathroom and I didn't see any movement for awhile. Then about 20 min later she called me asking if I just tried to call her. I didn't think to say it might have been uncle (and a look on the call log this morning and it was). She went back to her bedroom, with her top and underwear still on and went right to bed and slept in that. Well, at least she slept in her bed all night. I have been trying to tell uncle that it's better now if he calls during the day, as she's going to bed pretty early these days. I will try to remind him again. Even if he calls her at 7pm, she's likely snoozing in her recliner and so when talking to him she's going to be even less "with it" at that time. At least it's Saturday now and K is back on duty, so I always feel more at ease with that. And she'll get her a shower this morning.

Today I'm going to get our Christmas cards addressed and ready to go. I should probably start wrapping some presents. They are starting to pile up next to my desk and on top of my filing cabinet. DH always wants to get something for the delivery drivers and mail carrier. I try not to get the same thing every year. This year I decided to go with Frango's. Does anyone know what those are? I know they were pretty regional to the area I grew up in, sold by a nice department store called "Frederick and Nelsons". They were a melt in your mouth chocolate mint I fondly remember almost always having at Christmas time, growing up. Years later the store sold to "The Bon Marche", which later sold to Macys. You can still get Frango's at Macy's, I discovered, so I ordered 4 boxes (an extra "just in case"). They don't come in the cute little box they used to always come in, now a flat box. I wonder if they even taste the same. It's been many years since I had Frangos. Dh's mom used to always get me some for Christmas. It was either that or she would get Brown and Haley's (another local chocolate maker) Almond Roca. Another of my favorite (thought not for my teeth!). Speaking of Brown and Haley's. Years ago, I used to carpool to work with a girl and her sister, who was pregnant with twins at the time, went into labor. I may remember the story wrong, but it's quite the story. Her dh went to get her to the hospital and their car wouldn't start! They had to call a taxi. She couldn't make it to the hospital and started having the twins in the taxi, right in front of the candy factory! LOL. It might have even been that they didn't know they were having twins, too. I just know it was a crazy story.

I need to mop my kitchen floor too. I should probably do that, LOL

Busy Friday

It's been a busy morning already. First the lady from the carpet cleaning company called to ask if it would be ok if they came this afternoon instead, like around 3pm? Apparently a job they have this morning, the woman added a bunch of stuff to the work order she didn't originally request be done. She said she will have the technician call me about 15 or so minutes before, so I can have a heads up and try to make sure mom is in her apartment (I had told her she has dementia, so if by chance she's not there, ask the front desk or call me, LOL. They have to check in at the front desk anyway).

Then my boss emailed about a company "event" they are trying to plan for early January and she included all the remote people to ask if we are available to fly in for it. I haven't gotten any other details, but I guess I'll know soon enough. I did a quick search on available flights (cuz there is only one airline that flies between here and there) and not much liking my choices for times. I guess I'll wait and see what time the "event" starts to figure out when I'll fly over. My only options for getting there that morning are to get there at 6:30 (which would mean getting to the airport at like 5am. Ewww... too early LOL. or get there at 9:30am, which might be too late, by the time I can get to the office it would be 10am. I've done the first thing in the morning flight before and no thanks. I have no desire to get up at 3 am to leave for the airport at 4am. I'll probably fly in the day before and just stay in a nearby hotel. Again, not liking my 2 available choices, LOL. Get in at 11:45am or 7:30pm. I don't want to arrive in the evening and be trying to get around in the dark, so I guess if I go the day prior, I'll get there at 11:45 and hope by the time I get to the hotel, I can check in, or it will be close to check in time. Then I'll most likely do my "usual", have DD pick me up when she is off work Friday and stay at her place for the weekend and go home Sunday afternoon.

I was about to email the guy at the memory care place to make sure he got the deposit check I sent, but then I decided to check her bank account and see the check cleared yesterday, so he got it. Now to hope it doesn't take too long. I think when it comes time to move her, I'm just going to tell her that she's going to a place for awhile to see if they can help with her memory....I'm not sure of all the logistics yet, but I'm hoping dd can come and help when the time comes. Take her out somewhere while I get her new room set up with her stuff. Or bring her here for one night, while I go in and get her stuff moved (planning on hiring mover to do it) and set up and then have dh or dd bring her in. I'm obviously not taking everything from her current apartment to the new studio sized place, so hopefully I'll still have some extra time before I have to have everything out of her apt. I can just have the stuff we are taking moved and then either take the rest to goodwill or arrange to have it picked up (preferably) to go to charity. 

I like having all my ducks in a row. I don't like "winging" stuff at the last minute.

 

 

Carpets and movies

I had to leave a message for the carpet cleaning service to call me back and the lady did yesterday, so it is now scheduled for Friday morning. She said something about we were just at your mom's place for a different apartment on the same floor (3rd) but we weren't able to reach it with our hoses, so we'll have to see if we can get to hers. Ok...geez, I just thought they showed up with some cleaning solution in a carpet cleaning vacuum, LOL. I said her windows in her living room and bedroom face the back of the building, right above the sidewalk to the back entrance, so she thought that will probably work. I'm not sure what I do if they can't clean it? I gave the lady mom's credit card# and they will charge that once they do the job and she will email me the receipt. I did email the manager where my mom lives and let her know they are coming to clean it.

I've watched a few of those Hallmark type Christmas movies on Netflix. The last one definitely wasn't the wholesome Hallmark type. I think it was a Netflix original, called Holidate. And while the premise is if=s course the same as all of those movies, they had to have a bunch of F words and talk some explicit stuff. I was like "really? this cute romance needed this in it?" It was with a girl I remember being on one of those Nickelodeon kids shows I used to watch with dd when she was young. The movie sure didn't need the "extra" in it. I didn't think my streaming service has the Hallmark Channel (hence why I was trying to find Christmas movies on Netflix) but I found it does, so I'll stick to watching their cheesy Christmas movies, LOL.

Not much new going on, which is a good thing, I guess. I haven't heard any more about when my side job company will finalize the sale, but I'm sure it's still in the works, probably getting down to the final lawyer-y/accountant-y stuff with it all now. 

 

Leftover Wednesday

For dinner last night I made spaghetti. DH loves having chicken in it instead of meatballs/hamburger meat. So, I got some chicken breast out of the freezer in the morning and let it thaw. I had some fresh mushrooms in the fridge. I had recently read that buying them whole and not already presliced makes them last a couple weeks in the fridge. Normally, I buy a bag of frozen sliced mushrooms, but only Walmart apparently carries that and I haven't been grocery shopping there in awhile. So, last trip I bought a little container of fresh whole mushrooms. First used them on homemade pizza and left the rest in the fridge. I was able to cut up 3 more last night to add to the spaghetti sauce, plus I diced up some onions and sauteed to add, then cooked the cut up chicken pieces in that (with a little olive oil) and then added the sauce and mushrooms. It was good, I liked the extra mushrooms in it, and more than enough leftovers to have for dinner again tonight, which we will.

Just praying every day is nothing going on with mom, but I know there will be more to deal with before I can get her moved. I did update my uncle in an email that I have put a deposit down on a memory care place and will be moving her as soon as that is available, most likely in a few months or so. K did have mom get into her nightgown when she came to do the meds at 6:20 and that worked again. She went and slept in her bed around 7:30 or 8.

We are definitely getting a bonus at the end of next week for the 2nd half the year, I just don't know how much, but I'm sure at a minimum it is the same amount we got in July. Mine will either be going to pay down the snow plow vehicle even earlier....or I may decide to use it to finally get the carpet installed in the bonus room. I'm kind of leaning towards that. It's on my want to do list for this next year for sure. Once the carpet is in, dh can then start watching for a good deal of someone trying to get rid of their pool table for a good price. My mom has a pretty large tv (I think it's like 55 inches) that I don't plan on moving with her, so I'll just use that in our bonus room, for awhile (though I think we eventually want something bigger). She never watches tv anymore and if I do decide to put a tv in her new place, I will just get her a smaller one to use. She won't need a 55" tv in a room not much bigger than a bedroom. I'm hoping when I move her I can fly dd over here for a couple days to help with the transition/moving. I'd say about half her stuff is going to Goodwill. Most likely just taking her bed, nightstand, dresser and recliner. Maybe her desk or small round dining table, if there is room for one of those. Probably take one or both of her dining chairs, so when visiting her there, will have something to sit on. DD said she'd like to have her glass nesting end tables she has in her living room. I'll end up taking her loveseat, but only because it's too nice and antique to just give to goodwill. It doesn't go with anything in my house and dd doesn't want it, but if nothing else I'll try to sell it. I might like it better if I had it reupholstered....pink isn't my thing, LOL. It would look nice a cream color. I'll have to take a picture of it next time I visit.

Uneventful

Another uneventful day. I'm going for uneventful in my life right now. Hopefully by this time, in a few months, I'll have mom cared for in a memory care place and not be worrying about her on a daily basis. I called her last night around 7. The past several days or more I have either been talking to her morning or afternoon. She was still of the mindset that she's staying "somewhere for awhile and will be going home in a few days". I just agree with her now. K is also just going to start having her get into her nightgown at 6:30 when they give her her meds. The past couple of weeks, more often then not, mom is either sleeping in her clothes in bed or in her recliner. She did try the nightgown routine Sunday night and that worked. Last night she did not and mom slept in her clothes all night in her recliner, so she's going to start having her get her nightgown on going forward.

Ugh, I went to bend over this morning and a pinched nerve in my lower back. I just used my foam roller thing and did some light stretching, so hopefully that fixes it.

I think neighbors DIL and kids went home, her car isn't out in front of their garage this morning. I guess the reason she stayed longer than originally planned (the son left Monday because he had to go do a month overseas or something) is since her dh won't be home for the month to help her, she stayed longer. Plus she's able to do this now, because she is homeschooling the oldest two, now. I'll bet money she didn't take her dogs with her. When they dumped the dogs off 6 weeks or so ago, he didn't know then he was going to have to be overseas for a month. I guess their older dog (the big one) is going blind. I'm not sure how old the little dog is, but they've had him at least as long as the big dog.

Ok, well the cat is trying to catch the cursor on my screen, so it's hard to see what I'm typing, LOL

Hoping for another uneventful day.

Cookie success!

For the first time, in YEARS, I FINALLY made chocolate chip cookies that weren't all flat as can be! I tried a few things differently - (but from the same Nestle's recipe on the bag). I added a little bit more flour, I chilled dough a little bit, I made the cookies much bigger, and I let them sit on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes after taking out of the oven, like the recipe says. They even taste good, too ;)

I did have to call mom just before lunch to remind her to go down to eat yesterday. I then mentioned her clock was laying down on her cabinet next to her phone....once she figured out what I was talking about she set it up. I had forgotten awhile back I had taped the little stand in back to stay open, so she was able to set it upright and good to go. I'm glad to have had an uneventful weekend, as far as mom goes. I am going to call a carpet cleaning service later on this morning and see about getting that set up to be done. 

If you are one of those readers who don't like me complaining and expect me to just have this perfect life where nothing annoys me, you can stop reading now. Now we are starting to get annoyed at the neighbor's, down at the end of our street, dog. Why can't people just keep their dogs on their own property? They have had this mega hyper bird type dog (that they don't use for bird hunting/never trained one little bit) for a couple years now. He has never yet calmed down and actually seems to be getting worse. He's like a wrecking ball. For the most part they just keep him tied up outside, (they don't even feed him dog food - he lives on their table scraps! I know this because I offered her all that fresh dog food I had gotten just before our old guy passed away and she said no, she doesn't feed him dog food, he just eats their table scraps) but for the past several months now, about 2 times a day they will just let him off to run wild....cuz you know...he always comes back, so who cares what he's out doing while he's out running.....He runs down the street and comes onto our property between the walk thru opening between our gate pier and fence post. He wants to go see the neighbors dogs (who are in their kennel run) so after he runs all over our place (whining and barking), he finally gets down to the very back corner of our fence where it ends, before the river bank goes down and goes around the end of the fence to get to neighbors property. There he proceeds to rile up their dogs to no end until Mr or Mrs get tired of listening to it all and bring their dogs inside, hoping he'll go back home. Then the dog decided to go back home and goes back around the corner of the fence and across our back patio. This is now happening a couple times a day. With how extremely hyper this dog is it will only be a matter of time before he rips out the cables holding all the inflatables down or knocks over the manger scene. The last few days dh took our 2 big garbage cans and blocked them in front of the walk thru areas on each side of our gate piers. Nope, the dog just crawls under the gate. It would be great if he were smart enough to just continue on down the road a little bit to Mr & Mrs driveway, since that's where he's headed anyway, LOL.  Late yesterday afternoon dh was out in the shop and heard a commotion and yelling and went outside to see what it was. I guess the neighbors with this dog were out in the street trying to call their dog back, who had gone under the gate to our place. DH got the dog to go back to them (opened the gate to get him out) and even said to them that their dog is why he put these garbage cans blocking....."because your dog is a wrecking ball on steroids". But, I'm quite sure they won't get the hint. Of the 3 acres they own, the 80 acres of state land on the other side of them and the 6 acres between them and us...the dog has to spend 90% of his "free" time at our place, of course. My guess is the reason they are letting him loose a couple times a day is so that he'll go poop somewhere else, off their property, and they don't have to pick up after him.

December is moving right along

Dang it's cold out! -5 degrees (I tried to make a degree symbol but how google says to do it didn't work). Yesterday at 5 we drove into town to watch the first Christmas tree lighting. There were a lot of people! That was neat to see. Since it was a whole 11 degrees outside, thankfully we got there just before the trees got lit up, so we didn't have to wait too long. That was probably the longest I have been out in super cold with the snow boots I bought last year and I'm happy they kept my feet warm. They had lights in all the big trees on 2 blocks, plus all the building. I thought maybe they were doing the bridge across the river, but I suppose no power there. But they did have some big huge wreaths with some lights (must be battery).

DH got the inflatables put up. That Bumble is huge! LOL. I like it :)

Sometime last evening mom laid her clock/calendar face down again. I texted K this morning just a couple minutes before she got to her apartment to ask her to set it upright so she's aware of the time during the day. I also told her it looks like mom went to bed in her clothes again last night. She went to bed at 8. Like I said earlier, I'll take her sleeping in her clothes over wandering and calling me at midnight. She hasn't had any more wandering/late night restless since last Monday, thankfully. 

Mom has several cardigan type sweaters that she wears often. She also has this "sweater set" that is a sweater top and cardigan in one. Awhile back she must have pulled it out of her closet of clothes and seems to put it on over her top every so often. Only now she can't seem to figure out how to get it on anymore. She put it on after she got back from breakfast and headed downstairs, only I could tell it wsn't on right. Later another resident was sweet enough to come back up to her apartment with her and got it on her correctly. 

K responded to my text this morning about her clock with a thumbs up, but then never uprighted it. After mom went down for breakfast I texted K again, mentioning the sweater set and asked her to please hide it out of mom's sight and I'll take it with me next visit, as she is having too much trouble getting it on and she has plenty of other sweaters to wear. I'm hoping that will remind her she needs to go back to mom's room to upright the clock! I have tried to get mom to upright it before and when she finally does understand what I am talking about she doesn't understand how to pull out the little stand in the back.

I mailed a $500 deposit to be on the "Prority waitlist" for the memory care place. Let's hope it happens sooner rather than later. They have 2 room type options in memory care. Both are studio sized rooms, one with a private bath and one with a shared bath in between. At this point either is fine with me. She's soon going to be to the point she won't realize it's a shared bath anyway. The shared bath room is $700 a month cheaper than the private bath.

Tomorrow I'm calling a carpet cleaning company to go in and finish cleaning mom's bedroom carpet. It was recommended by the assist. mgr I talked with Friday. I'm hoping I can just pay over the phone or mail out a check for it and then they can go take care of it when they can schedule it. If I knew she was going to be able to move soon, I'd just wait and do it closer to that time, in case we have more accidents to clean up, but since it sounds like it will be 3-4 months I'll get it done now.

Ok, I'm annoyed that K didn't take 3 seconds and set that clock upright while she was in mom's apartment getting her to put clean clothes on for the day :(  I bought 2 $100 Amazon gift cards to send to her and the other lady for a Christmas gift. K told me Friday she just hired another person to help with everyone they work for there where mom lives and will start training her (next week I think she said). So...do I get another card for this person? I kind of don't feel like someone who will have only worked with mom maybe 2-3 weeks deserves a $100 gift card....C has been helping mom since June (she was the other caregiver company owner's employee and K kept her on when she took over the business), but do I leave this new person out or get them something like $25? 

A calm day so far

While I was at my mom's cleaning yesterday, I replaced the batteries in the one camera. Well! She had for the first time in the 6 months or so I've had the cameras, she found that one that was on the shelf under her tv. It appears during one of her times to unplug everything from the back of the tv cable box, she picked up the taped down little camera and set it on her desk. (this was sometime in the last few days, after the battery died on me). I also went ahead and replaced the batteries in the camera up on her kitchen cabinet. They are probably getting close to wearing out, too, so at least I know I'm good to go now with them for a couple months. I also moved it a little bit so that while I can still see her recliner, I can also see her entrance door all the way now. After I plugged her tv cables back in I realized her remote control isn't next to her chair. I looked around some for it, but didn't find it and by then I was ready to get out of there. I left K a message that I plugged her tv in and if she happens to come across the remote to set it next to her chair, please.

I also am going to try a little "trick" with her heater. I mentioned recently she keeps turning it off completely when she goes downstairs or goes to bed. Too chilly! So, I put some tape over the Off button (just a flat type button) and took a black sharpie she had in her desk and covered over it. So, now all's she sees is "heat" "cool" and the up/down to adjust the temperature. Hopefully now she won't turn it all the way off, so it won't get so cold and she won't walk back into her apartment and turn it up to 90 because it's cold. When I put the little camera's back, after changing batteries, I adjusted the one under her tv a bit so that it more faces towards her kitchen and door. I can still totally see her in her recliner, but now I can also see the door fully.

So far so good last night and this morning. She fell asleep in her recliner around for awhile last evening and then got up and went to bed at 8:40. I had thought she shut her bedroom light out too quickly to have changed into her nightgown and from this mornings video clip I see she took her jeans off but slept in her top. K got her up this morning and dressed, so no issues this morning, thankfully. 

Early this evening is our town's first ever Christmas lighting event, so I think we are going to go see that. There is a huge tree in front of the courthouse on "main street" and all the business's on the street have put up lights, too as well as the bridge over the river. There is going to be a Santa, hot cocoa and cookies, 4-H selling wreaths (wish I had known that before I bought the ones at Lowes, but I'll remember that for next year), and sleigh rides (perfect as we have snow).

It's -1 degree out this morning. I have to take a walk to the mailbox to leave outgoing mail. Time to get my long underwear on. Oh, and Mr. sent dh an email last night/this morning. Their son's dang dogs caused a fight between 2 of their dogs. This happens at some point every time their dogs are staying here. The whole dynamic of 5 dogs just messes with their own dogs routine so much. I would not put up with it and it's awful that they allow this to happen to their dogs. I don't know how much they have spent in vet bills over the years dealing with this. With that dump of snow we had, their DIL's car was sitting in the driveway covered in almost a foot of snow. Do you think this fully able late 30's lady could go out and clean it off? No....her almost 73 mother in law (Mrs Neighbor) was out there with a broom cleaning it off.

Dh was really impressed with our new snow tires yesterday, so that is good.