More tests

I had my extra mammogram and ultrasound done and now on to the next appointment with it :(. It's a different mass, but near the other one I have that is a cyst. It's a little bigger and the doctor said (like 3 times) he's pretty certain this is also just a cyst, but the color is a little gray, vs black, which he said is likely just "debris" in with the fluid. But, to be certain he'd recommend having a needle aspiration done. If it comes out fluid, it's a cyst, if not they'll do a biopsy to send in. Or he said I could wait 6 months and have another ultrasound to see if any changes. I opted for the needle. I'd rather know for sure now then wonder. The nurse set me up for the appointment Tuesday of next week.

We are seeing some small signs spring is on it's way. The snow is melting, the days are a little warmer out, and one of my favorite signs....some baby calves at the ranch down the road about 5 miles. I also heard some Canadian geese honking on the river the other day, so they are back.

After my appointment we stopped at Lowe's to get some more screws dh needed and the closest rods. He had sent me links on Sunday evening to the boxes of screws he needed, via Amazon, but yesterday morning, as I was looking at Lowe's for the closet rod stuff I looked to see if they carried the boxes of screws he needed and they did and one box was $10 cheaper and one $8 cheaper than Amazon, so that's a win, plus he'd have them right away. We got all the screws (and then some) that he needed and headed back to the closet aisle. What a mess! They were basically remodeling that aisle and half the stuff was out in the aisle or shoved on other shelves. It took us twice as long to find what we were looking for, but we finally found what we came for.

I had set up a grocery pick up at Walmart, but we decided to stop at Wendy's drive thru first because we usually have to wait 5 or 10 minutes for Walmart to bring our stuff out, so we'd eat while waiting and that worked out good. Then we were also able to head home out the "back way" from Walmart, rather than going back thru the busy traffic area. We had last picked up an order on the 7th, so almost 2 weeks, but I really didn't need a full typical order. Mostly I needed bread and milk for sure, but still stocked up on some things since I was getting an order and that just lets us go longer until needing to go back. I spent about half what I normally do, but between that order and the one on the 7th, I'm in line for what I find I typically spend a month on groceries and misc supplies/personal care.

Since I just saw mom last Thurs and have to go back in next Tuesday morning, I decided to skip stopping in to see her. I was tired and just wasn't in the mood to channel my patience and ability to repeat myself over and over, all with a smile on my face and in my voice. My appt next Tuesday is at 7:45 am. I have no idea how long it will take, but I'm sure we can then stop at mom's after I'm done, which likely would be after 9am and she'll be done with breakfast. I also got an email yesterday afternoon from one of the ladies who works where mom used to live, asking if by chance I still have the emergency call device she was given 3 years ago when she moved in. I do have it (had forgotten about it) so I will drop that off next Tuesday morning to them. Mom never would wear it and kept forgetting what it was, etc, so early on I had just taken it home (still in the box) with me to hold on to, so it didn't get lost or thrown away.

Well, that's all for today. Back to work.

 

Work in progress

DH got quite a bit done on my closet yesterday and a little bit on his. We have matching closets, except my side ended up with the ductwork after we added our air exchanger system. They aren't huge walk in closets, especially after you start adding in the actual closet shelves. It's hard to get a good picture because taking a pic inside is too close to see much and outside you mostly see the doorway, LOL.

Here is the before, when he first started making a frame around the ductwork

Here is what he's gotten done so far. Lots of cutting and measuring pieces, that's for sure.

Next he needs to cut the plywood he got to make a shelf to go across the top, on all 3 sides and also another shelf there a bit lower on the left where that beam goes across. We may add more shelves later, but that is what we are starting with now. I'm happy with it, so far. We certainly aren't DIY'er experts at all, so while not a fancy (and too expensive!) custom made closet system, it will do.

While we are in the city today (for my extra mammogram imaging) we are going to go to Lowe's and get the closet rods and more screws he needs. I'm also going to see what they have for wood hangers. The rods will be on both sides and the back. Basically we need to put in the shelves, rods and trim pieces to cover up the shelf edges and it will be done. His side will look similar but instead of the enclosed corners, his will be shelves. A good place to put all his sweatshirts.

90% of the time I receive a new friend request on Facebook it's someone I don't know, nor do we have any friends in common. I just got one from some lady in Minnesota. Ok, I've known a couple people with her first name in my past history (an old coworker and a 2nd cousin), but she doesn't look familiar, fit the age, etc. I thought maybe she's a member of one of the groups I follow. So, I just replied back that I got her friend request, but I don't recognize her name, are we acquainted? She looks around my age, maybe a little younger. Basically I wanted to know why she was sending me a friend request. She just replied back "No". Ok, LOL. People are odd.

I'm just ready to get today done and hoping for a good/benign result, so I can put that out of my mind. At least we know where we are going haha. I've been there for an ultra sound before and dh had to go there for at least a couple of images when he was having his pancreas and gall bladder checked out.

Stain, rest, repeat

Just to clarify - me being sick of staining has really nothing to do with dh. It's just not my "thing", but I'd rather stain any day than have to paint, so at least there's that, haha. I'd rather do just about anything than paint.

The staining of all the boards and beams is just a small portion of these projects dh has (finally!) started on. He is doing so much, from the design/engineering, the figuring out what lumber and supplies he needs, getting them at the lumber store, or ordering online, measuring, cutting and then actually building. None of which I have any clue how to do, nor have the physical strength to do what he's doing. I can help with the staining part. Do I enjoy it much? not really. In small doses, I don't mind it. He was being really stupid (and probably very tired) Friday evening when he thought all the boards he had just cut up for the closet project were somehow going to miraculously be stained and clear coated by Saturday morning, LOL.

Here is the mostly done loft in one corner. He still wants to finish the underneath "ceiling" of it with tongue and groove (more staining!) and figure out some lighting, but he's going to wait until he's done with the big loft that will go across the back of the shop. But, it's ready to store his junk and he's been able to already fill it up. He got started a bit on the back loft yesterday.

Yesterday wasn't too bad. My wrist was feeling better by morning and my wrist support helped and with the amount of boards to stain, I was able to work about an hour and be done, wait to dry, then the second coat, a few hours later, always goes on faster. Then after dinner the second coat was finally dry and I had just 4 boards that needed the clear coat brushed on.

It's just now starting to get light out this morning. Still too dark to see much outside but I can hear all the turkeys gobbling again this morning. Yesterdays temp reached 54 degrees. It was wonderful. And then dd texted me a picture of all the flowers at her Lowe's garden center. I'm still a couple months away from seeing that where I live, haha. The cat is going outside more and more as the weather is warming up. A lot of the snow is melting away now.

I think today he will be able to work on my closet some more, the boards should be dry and ready to use. I need to figure out a grocery order to put in to pickup after my mammogram/ultrasound tomorrow. 

I haven't heard from the woman mom's previous caregiver asked if I would talk to her about the m/c place, as she was considering moving her father there. But I did get a text from my TX friend yesterday. Her best friend's mom is showing signs of dementia (her dad passed last year and now she and her siblings are really seeing how bad her mom is) and had some questions about the cost of memory care, so I passed on what my mom's cost and that part of the cost is the care depending on what "level" of care they are assessed at. I also told her to tell her friend (I have met her before) she's welcome to call or text me anytime if she has questions.

For dinner last night I made spaghetti, which we will probably have again tonight as leftovers. If I have time today, which I should, I think I'll make some brownies. We haven't had those in a long time. That last cake I made was a bit dry. It was one of those "funfetti" cakes and usually I have always gotten the Pillsbury brand, but for some reason the 2 boxes I bought last time are Betty Crocker. So, not as good? I'll get Pillsbury again and make that next time to compare.

 

I'm over it

I am so sick of staining boards. I worked all day yesterday and then spent 2 hours staining boards and putting a clear coat on some that will go in the closet. By the time I was done I couldn't even move my carpal tunnel wrist. I think it's the putting on the clear with a paint brush that is hurting my wrist. When I apply the stain I just use a rag and wipe it on and haven't had any wrist issues. This morning I need to do one more coat of clear on the boards. Ugh.

Plus dh was being annoying about the whole thing. He has no patience and I don't know how many times I've told him how many coats of stain and clear need to go on. Two coats of stain, but those dry pretty quickly, and then 2 coats of clear. The clear takes a lot longer to dry. I don't know how many times I've said "2 coats" and how many times I've said "you have to wait for it to dry". While I was staining after work he kept complaining that he won't be able to put these boards up into the closet until Sunday now and acting like I could have done this sooner, with the clear coat. How? I just got the staining done Tuesday evening. Wednesday I had work and we were gone half the day going to my dr appt and errands. He decided to take Wed eve off from working on it, not to mention I was too tired anyway. I got to it the next chance I had. It's not like he's on a schedule or has to be back at work on Monday morning so he needs to get it done by Sunday. I just ignored him and kept staining and clear coating. He did say, as he was watching me stain a beam for the shop loft "you do it better than I do. I put on too much and it's a mess and too much doesn't end up soaking into the wood" I just said yep, plus I'd rather not have my rag sopping with stain and making a big mess around everything. 

Temps are still cold overnight and in the morning but it is getting up to mid to high 40's during the day. Where dd lives her tulips have started to sprout the green leaves. I can now start to see spots of our (brown) lawn where the snow is finally melting, LOL.

I'm not looking forward to doing more staining this morning, after he gets up and going. I have my wrist thing on and will try leaving that on under the latex glove, while I'm staining. Hopefully that helps my wrist last a bit longer.

One more appointment done

I had my annual check up with the new doctor. I liked her, she seemed nice and I got it all done, even the blood draw. Apparently now they are saying it's not so necessary to have to fast before it, so that was good. I didn't have to make a different trip to get that done. By later afternoon I already had those results in mychart and all was fine. My BP was good at 121/70. This office has a lab there, so that is convenient, too. I also said I needed a refill on my prescription to the mail order pharmacy and when I got home there was an email from the pharmacy that they are processing the order.

DH had driven me in and we then went to Harbor Freight to pick up some latex gloves as I have used what he had left with all my staining. We were trying to kill a little time before stopping in to see my mom, as I didn't want to get there while she was in the middle of eating lunch. We then stopped at Wendy's and got some grilled chicken sandwiches to go and ate in the parking lot at mom's place and I went in about 12:50. Everyone was done with lunch, but a few were still sitting around the dining tables. It's so quiet in there when there isn't an activity. I guess it's because the residents really do not talk with each other much, at this point. I will see some sitting at a table together but they never really seem to be talking much.

Mom seemed good. Her room was all tidy this time, but most of her clothes in her closet were not there, nor in her hamper, so I'm really just hoping it was out being washed, LOL! She was glad to see me. The only negative type comment she made, when I first got there was something about "they" don't want me joining in. I'm not sure who "they" are, but I think she's referring to the other residents, most likely because most of them really don't say much. She's still a bit focused on how much this place is costing her but then will say but I don't think they've raised it in awhile, have they? I just told her the amount she used to pay at her old place and nope, they haven't raised it at all. Two minutes later she'd say the same thing. I stayed about a half hour. I got the POLST form taped to her door and a copy dropped off at the nurses station on my way out.

Uncle had just texted me about 20 minutes before I got to her place. After I got there I texted him that I was with her and would he like me to call him so he can chat with her a minute, but he never replied back before I left, so as I was leaving I just texted him I was leaving, but she was in her room for now, if he wanted to try calling her.

We did not need any groceries, since we just stocked up last week, so we headed home and I got back to working around 2:10. I'll also be back in the city on Monday for my extra mammogram/ultrasound, so will probably pick up more groceries then. I'll most likely stop in for another visit to see mom afterwards.

For dinner I made pancakes. Good fluffy, from scratch pancakes (the only way to make them, haha). I love the buttery/vanilla flavor of these pancakes. Dh doesn't even really like pancakes much, but he loves these pancakes, to have once in awhile.

Ever since I woke up this morning I'm feeling like there is something I'm supposed to do, something I am forgetting to do. No idea what. I did get another email from the company making our hidden bookcase door, that it is now in staining part of production and that takes 4-7 days, and then it will move to packaging/shipping. I'm sure the shipping will take forever as items like this they tend to use this freight company out of the city to get to it's final destination and they only come out this way like once a week and then we are last on their route, so if they are late, we get cancelled and have to wait another week. I hate that big freight items have to come through them, but it is what it is.

Grumpy day

I apparently woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. I'm feeling extremely grumpy and just not feeling in the mood for anything today. I do have to leave in about an hour to go to my doctor's appointment for my annual check up. But, I don't think that's why I'm feeling grumpy. No idea why though. I don't usually feel like this.

I see mom's m/c charge finally went through her checking. I know there can/will be extra charges above the monthly rent/care level charge. Like I signed her up for them to supply the depends. If she has her hair cut, or they take them to the new coffee bar in the other part of the building, it goes on their monthly billing. But, you'd think they would either mail or email a detail of the billing? So, now I've emailed the business manager to ask that, as mom's charge was $35 more and I'd just at least like to know what it was for. 

I watched the new show "Shrinking" on Apple+tv. It's a good one. With Jason Segal and Harrison Ford. Other than I guess I'm old fashioned and don't feel the F word is necessary in every scene, it's a good show. One line I could relate to, for sure, haha. The woman (empty nester) next door's husband is due to retire soon and she's worried about him always being home. She said something to the effect "I love you to pieces, but I can only love you an hour and a half a day, so you'll need to find stuff do do out of the house". LOL. 

When I get done with my dr appointment it is most likely going to be right in the middle of mom's lunch time, so that's not super convenient for a visit time. I'll probably go run an errand at a store for a half hour and then try to get to m/c around 12:45. She should be finishing up by then. I don't plan to stay too long. I'm not taking the whole day off work. Sometimes, when reading the dementia caregivers page I follow, people will comment they visit every day, or stop by every evening for a couple hours, or they comment when they visit they stay several hours. Then I feel like a terrible daughter and think to myself how do they do it every single day? or even for several hours at a time? I can't imagine being there for 2-3 hours every visit. After 15 minutes I have already answered the same question half a dozen times. Typically I'm there about 30-40 minutes. I haven't gotten a call yet from the person mom's old caregiver wanted to visit with me about the m/c place. It's a hard decision, I'm sure they are going through a lot of stress and emotions.

Well, time to leave for my dr appt. Back home in a few hours, I guess.

To do this and that

My mom's credit union actually called me yesterday when they got my POA and change of address form. I had included my phone number. Her CD doesn't mature until April 12th and she said it's best to wait until that date to close it, otherwise there would be like a $1200 early cancel fee! I said no problem to wait until the CD matures. She has noted the CD to transfer over with her savings account there, then they would send out a check for the account balance. I asked if there was a way to electronically transfer it to her bank and she said she will email me the wire transfer form. I think that will be much easier and quicker than mailing a check....which I would then have to wait and deposit it when I am in the city, delaying it even more. But, the wire transfer email she sent with the form also includes a form to get notarized....to do a wire? Ridiculous. So, I guess I'll just have them mail the check and either mail it into mom's bank for deposit or deposit it when I'm in the city. I'm not spending an hour or more, including driving just to go get it notarized. I was happy that someone was on the ball and actually called me, rather than me calling and trying to find out if they got my documents. My mom actually worked at this credit union many many years ago. Like over 40 years ago, LOL. Back when it was just a single office within a company and there were 3 ladies that worked in the credit union. I still remember my mom's boss's name. Crazy I can remember her name and now my mom no longer even remembers she worked there for like 10 years or so.

Yesterday afternoon I got a text from mom's previous caregiver K. She has a client with dementia who is declining fast and his daughter is considering the m/c place I put mom in and was hoping she could talk with someone who has a family member there and was wondering if I'd be willing to talk with her. I said of course, I'd be glad to help any way I can. She is giving her my number to get a hold of me.

Yesterday during my lunch break I got the coat of Kilz primer down on the plywood floor of the little loft he built in the shop. After dinner I then applied the coat of paint to it, so now that is done and once dry dh can move his junk up there. I also stained another 4x4 beam he will be using for the other loft. 

The wood hangers I ordered from Target arrived this morning, or rather one box did. Why wouldn't they just ship both boxes at the same time? So dumb. Anyhow, I don't like them. They looked like they had a bit of a stain color to them in the picture, but they are natural wood. I want something with a little bit of stain color, plus they seem small. The pants rod that goes across the bottom of the hanger isn't very wide. I'll probably just return them to the actual Target store, rather than try to ship them back. I guess I'll just get the ones that have the silver hanger hook, there were lots of different ones in that style with a more stained finish. I'll just order them from Amazon.

I need to remember to take that green sheet of paper with the instructions to tape to mom's door when I go in tomorrow I'm just going to scotch tape it along all 4 sides and hopefully she won't try to take it down. It's very likely she won't even notice it. She sure never paid attention to any signs I tried to make and leave for her in her old apartment. I also really need to get another chair for her room. There is plenty of room to set one and we need the extra seat when I am visiting and if we are in her room. I'm not sure what to get, it doesn't need to be anything fancy, that's for sure. I'm tempted just to pick up a folding chair.

I've resubcribed to Apple +tv so I can start watching Ted Lasso. Such a good show and I'm sure I can find some more good shows on their to watch while I have it for a couple of months.

And oh ya, unplugging my firestick from the wall outlet appears to have done the trick...now it's working again and while I've only watched it a couple of times since, it connects right away and hasn't froze up once during the shows. At least I can hold off for now in buying a new firestick, so that is good news. 

Banking and more banking

A few months ago I took advantage of earning $325 in a cash back reward by opening a checking account. It was to take 90 days and I just checked the account this morning and the $325 has been added. Nice! I had to deposit $525 and also do one paycheck electronic transfer of at least $1000 and then leave a $500 balance in there to avoid the monthly fee. Now I can pull the money out and close it. I'm going to look for another rewards account, be it checking or a credit card. Most of the checking/bank account ones are for pretty high deposit amounts, so I can't do those, but this one for $325 was nice and easy.

Speaking of banks, with work I'm having to update several vendor payment accounts as they had been using Silicon Valley Bank. I opened my email yesterday morning to find several emails that these companies have had to change banks. A couple of them I have sent via ACH before, so I need to update their new banking info on my end.

And still speaking of banks. I mailed a copy of my POA to my mom's credit union last Friday. I'm guessing they will get it today. I'll try giving them a call tomorrow to see if they got it and can get that account closed out and the money transferred to her regular bank she uses. 

And one last bank thing. I've spent since Friday reconciling bank accounts for work, haha. I'm doing January right now and down to $551 off. GRRR! We have so many transactions each month, it usually takes me a couple hours or more to figure it all out. This is when I have to waste paper and print the statement out, so I can use a pen or highlighter to mark off each transaction. I always try to just have the statement open on one screen and the register open on the other to reconcile and once in a blue moon I get lucky and reconcile quick, but not usually.

I guess I'm going to have to set my alarm for awhile until my body adjust to the new time. Usually I'm awake between 6:30 and 7 and up by 6:50 or 7. This morning I woke up at 7:27. 

We didn't hear back from the hvac guy yesterday, so we don't know yet when they plan on getting back out here. The guy needed to confer with the owner on how best to fix it and the owner is supposed to be back this week. Hopefully they will be getting out here again soon.

Work week

Dh is making progress. The small corner loft is ready for me to paint the floor part. We just use up some leftover white paint from the shop to seal the floor. I'll probably end up working on that during lunch or after work - or both. I still have one more coat of clear to go on 3 beams for the closets. It got warm out yesterday. Sunny and 45 degrees. Once I get the floor part painted and it's dried, dh can then move some stuff up there. He still has the underneath to finish, but he will probably wait until he gets the back wall loft done and do them at the same time. He will finish it off with tongue and groove boards (yay, more staining.....) and also needs to figure out what he wants to do for some lighting. 

Of course it was hard to go to bed at my normal time last night, so I stayed up later and then of course hard to wake up my normal time this morning. I wish they'd just stop the daylight savings time and leave it the same all year. 

I just got an email from the business manager at mom's m/c place and she did get my email with the banking info attachment, from my other email I tried, so she will be processing that today. I need to remember to stop using that one email if I'm attaching. Grrr. That's so ridiculous that it won't work. It's Comcast for goodness sake, you'd think it would work no issues. I can receive attachments, no problem, just can't send/reply with any. At least it's resolved now.

This week coming up I have my doctor appointment, with a new doctor, for my annual check up. I didn't go see my mom this past weekend, as I saw her during the week last week and I'll stop in again this week, when I go in for my appointment. Then I'll be back in on Monday the 20th, for my ultrasound, so I'll see her again that day. At least that gives me my weekends free for a couple more weekends.

DH just got back from the lumber store. Turns out the original stuff that we had for those access panels to the attic area in the garage are "birch" plywood, which is cabinet grade type plywood. Funny thing is it's cheaper than the other plywood, LOL. I'll get this plywood stained and dh will cover the ducting up in the corner of my closet. That's really going to change it in there. I don't think he's going to do anymore work today. He's pretty worn out and I'm tired, too. I went out quick this morning and did another coat of clear on the beams and realized how sore my wrist and arm is now from all the staining.

I tried to call my mom about 10:15 morning, but no answer, but just now she had one of the staff guys call me from her phone in her room, as she was apparently having trouble knowing how to call me. I wouldn't say she's confused - just not remembering much at all. But at least she's not telling me she wants to leave or go home. Somehow we managed to have an 8 minute conversation about nothing ;) I guess when she asks me what I'm going I probably shouldn't say I'm working as I spent most of the 8 minutes repeating myself that it's totally fine if she calls me when I'm working. I work from home and can take a break and answer my phone just about any time.

My work email and messaging has seemed quiet this morning and then I realized my boss has today off, LOL. Often those are good days to get more done ;)

Busy Saturday

Yesterday morning we went into town to the lumber store to pick up what dh ordered. A bunch of beams and also a couple pieces of plywood. He was also wanting a certain drill bit, but they didn't have that size, but suggested to hardware store, so we went there and they did have it. After we got home and dh took a closer look at the plywood, he's thinking he either ordered the wrong kind of they gave him the wrong kind. He wanted the more expensive plywood that is finished on both sides. This has one side, kind of smooth and finished, but even then, nothing like the piece he had gotten a year or so ago. Well, he didn't get it. He had hired this local guy to put in attic accesses into our garage ceiling and he picked up the plywood from the lumber store and told dh it was a nicer, more expensive kind, but would look a lot nicer because it is so smooth and finished. This is what dh wanted but what he got yesterday doesn't look anything like the small scrap piece he has leftover to compare it to.

I stained 2 more of the big beams he just got (for the shop loft). I have to do 2 coats, so while waiting for the first coat to dry (by then it was 2pm) I went in and took a nap. Mostly just to rest my back muscles, which had tightened up. Earlier I had emptied out my closet, which probably helped to overdo my back a bit. He worked on putting some 2 x 4's together to enclose the ducting in my closet. When we added that air exchanger system last year, the only place the hvac guy had to put this duct work was, unfortunately, in my closet. When dh is done, both corners, with the ducting, will be covered with wood. He's going to check back with the lumber store on Monday to see if he got the wrong plywood or what. But, he's kind of bummed because now he can't move forward until he gets the right plywood he wants to use. Putting in the bedroom closets shelves and hanging rods is really going to make the closets seem smaller, LOL. They weren't huge to begin with, but there are 2 of them, so plenty of room for each of us to store our clothes and things, but it will seem much different in them, once we are done.

Last night I watched a couple more episodes of Doc Martin, which I am enjoying. I like the dog, LOL. 

This morning I did just find some wood coat hangers with black hooks, with Target. I ordered 2 30 packs (though will most likely need more) to start with. They are $30 for a 24 pack and I still had $30 left on a Target gift card, so one was no cost to me. Sitting on the floor of my closet had been a box of old hangers, of all kinds. Plastic, wire, and a few padded. I handed to box to dh and said this can go in the garbage, unless you want to hold out a few wire ones (seems like those end up being needed for other things every so often). Good lord, you should have seen his face! "These are good hangers" No they aren't!! Throw the damn box away! I should have known to just throw them out myself. I'll bet you money the box is now in his shop somewhere.

Now when I turn on my tv's firestick it won't connect to wifi at all. Yesterday I tried unplugging it from the wall behind the tv. I was then going to turn it on to try, but dh then called out for some help in the garage and after I got done with that I totally forgot, haha. I ended up watching Doc Martin on my ipad, as by evening I didn't even want to try messing with the tv and figured it wasn't going to work anyway. I'm sure I'll just need to buy a new firestick. 

It will now be lighter out longer this evening, which will be nice. I didn't really lose an hours sleep, since I just wake up at the same time every morning anyway. I'll feel it tomorrow morning when I have to be up at 7 and it will feel like 6. Then it seems to take me a good week or two to adjust completely.

I also cut a good 2 1/2 inches off my hair after I got out of the shower yesterday morning. It was getting way too long. I still need to get some layers put back in, as I cut most of that off, but I usually do that a different day, and when I have more time to spend on it, which I did not yesterday. 

For the past several days the muscles in my thighs are so sore. The only thing I can think I've been doing this past week is just standing on concrete and staining boards. What that has to do with my thigh muscles, I have no idea, LOL I'm sure today will be more staining. Not my favorite thing to do, but I'll take staining over painting any day. I hate painting.

One project done

Well, we got lots of snow yesterday. Big fluffy flakes coming down for hours. For dinner, I took some frozen salmon patties out of the freezer. I need to get some more of those, they are really good. Walmart doesn't carry it, so I think when I'm back in the city next week for my doctor appointment I will stop at the grocery store that does and pick up about 4 more boxes. We like to have that about once a week or so. I won't need another grocery order from Walmart next week, so I will just swing into the grocery store and pick up the salmon after my appointment.

I'm getting annoyed with 2 things. The main email I use for personal stuff has been really glitchy the past several months if I'm attaching something to an email. The recipient doesn't get the email. If there's no attachment they get the email. The other thing I'm annoyed with is repeating something I already did. I've been watching my mom's checking since the first of the month to see her new m/c rent deducted. I supplied them the form and a voided check with all the move in paperwork. I emailed the guy to ask him about it and he forwarded it to someone in the accounting department. She sent me another form to fill out and said to also include a voided check. I replied back, just attaching another copy of the move in paperwork I had saved to pdf and said please see pages 2 and 3 with this info. This was late Tuesday. Yesterday morning nothing has come out of her account. I then remembered I've been having this attaching/send issue (I don't attach very often) so I emailed the lady in accounting to ask if she got my email with the banking info attached? She said no. So, I replied back that I'm having issues with this email address so I will send it from a different email and also said the info is in my original move in paperwork that they have. So, I sent her 2 emails back in reply, one to let her know I was sending it from a different email and then I sent one from the other email, with the pdf attached. I asked her to let me know she got it. No reply. There should be no reason she shouldn't have gotten those 2 emails. So annoying. Not to mention I'm not going to fill out their EFT authorization again and scan another voided check when I already did this and gave it to them. If it hasn't come out of her bank on Monday, I'll call her.

DH got the shelf added to the gun safe closet in his den. It was really hard to find a stain to match our trim, because Golden Pecan stain on pine wood looks absolutely nothing like it does on knotty alder. But, I think we got as close as we could. Later this morning we are going to to the lumber store to pick up more lumber posts he ordered that have come in. He wants to get started on my walk in closet today. I will have more staining to do, LOL.

The Murphy bookcase door for this closet is in "pre-production" status as of an email I got a few days ago. 

A long time ago I told myself when we ever get our stinkin master closets done I want all nice wood matching hangers. I need some for the guest closet and guest bedroom closets, too. This morning I remembered and was like "oh! I can find some hangers to order now!" LOL. It seems all the metal hanger piece that goes over the rod are all in silver metal. I'd love to find some hangers that are in bronze. Wonder if there is such a thing. I also want new hampers for each of our closets. We've had these old hampers forever LOL. One is pink and one is blue. The pink one is a hand me down from my mom probably 30 years ago haha. It's unfortunate that the one I like online is wood and $209....for a hamper! And I'd need 2. Not happening. I'll keep looking.

Happy (snowy) Friday

I finally called the credit union mom has a savings and cd with (well, I did try once before and got a recording to leave a voicemail). The quarterly statements she gets show the maturity date on the 5 year cd as April 2023, but in looking through the files I took from her apartment when moving her, I found a little slip of paper on the CD that says it matured on Feb 2023. Oh well, either way I'm closing out the account and getting it transferred to her checking so the money can be used for her memory care rent. They told me to mail in my DPOA, along with a copy of my ID and then once they have that on file, I can take care of closing the account out, so hopefully by next week. I will get this out in the mail to the CU tomorrow Or if the CD doesn't actually mature until April 12th, I'll wait until then to close it, if there is a penalty for closing early. The amount that is in this CU will cover about 4 months of memory care costs. And getting that account closed and that money put in with her regular checking/savings will be one less account I need to keep track of for her. 

Mom's previous caregiver, K, texted me again asking how my mom is adjusting. She's very sweet to check in on her.

Apparently our issue with our heating system is not an easy fix. Some wiring needs replaced and they are trying now to figure out how best to do it. It sounds like its some wire from the outside heat pump that goes inside to the furnace, from the kitchen wall, to communicate with each other. At least that's where he said he traced the bad wire to. He said they don't use that kind of wire anymore, due to problems. I asked why it took 4 years to start having a problem, LOL. They don't know. He needs to get with his boss (company owner) to figure out how to fix it, but boss is out of town this week.

I did manage to catch my mom in her room after lunch yesterday and she answered. A little confused, but not terrible. I've noticed lately, as I often try to call around 1:30 or so, that she looks at her digital clock and thinks the 1 is a 7. That's happened several times, even before the move.  She kept asking if she has my ph# and I kept telling her it's programmed into her phone with my name next to the button. She'd see it and say oh ok, and 2 sentences later would ask again. Then she mentioned she must have drove her car here (where she lives) and would have to check on that. I just said ok. She said well, I must have driven, otherwise I don't know how I would have gotten here.

It's snowing again and supposed to snow most of the morning and early afternoon. Sounds like another plowing and shoveling day for dh. This is his start on the corner loft in his shop. He didn't get too much done yesterday as the hvac guy was here until like 12:30.

Ok, I just walked down the street in the snowing weather to mail the documents to the credit union and some other mail to go out. Definitely still winter, here. There was enough snow on the ground that I put my boots on. Neighbors walk to get on the school bus less than an hour earlier and their tracks in the street were almost covered up.

Today I am processing payroll, so that will take me most of the morning, I'm sure, but so far it's going smooth and I only have one question my boss needs to answer and have sent that email off to her and am waiting a reply. We have an company outlook calendar for PTO days off, but sometimes they do not match up with the days off showing as requested in the payroll system.

I did find that show Doc Martin and started the first episode, but only about halfway through it so far, but it seems good so far and looks like it will be something I enjoy.

Dh and I got a laugh the other day. He has this "architects ruler", this 3 sided thing with 6 different measuring scales, that he uses often. It's actually a ruler I got back in my college days, when I took a drafting course. Well, it snapped in half the other day and he brings it to me and says he loves this ruler, oh no! Can I get him another one? I said well, I'll look.......that thing is literally 40 years old! (god, I'm old), they probably don't even make them or use them anymore, with everything being computers now. But, what do you know, the same exact ruler by the same company is still made, so I ordered him one from Amazon for $6.70. It should last another 40 years, LOL.

It's really snowing hard. Just in 30 minutes my footprints are pretty much covered up now. It looks like dh will keep busy today :)

More appointments

The new doctor for mom had told me her office administrator guy would call me to schedule mom's next appointment in 4-6 months and he did call me the very next day, so now we have an appointment to see her again in August. Nice that they seem to be on top of things and follow up as promised. One of the things the dr. took care of during the visit was filling out a "POLST" form, which I wasn't familiar with. It's "Provider Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment" and gets taped to the back of her room door. She did go over it and asked mom her choices, which mom seemed to pretty much understand. We went with No CPR/do not resuscitate and allow for natural death, ok to do selective treatment, say for example she had an infection or broke a bone, but not intensive care, and no feeding tube if she stops eating.

I had my mammogram done and have to go back in for additional views. I had to do this 5 years ago for what they determined was a small pea sized benign cyst in my left breast. I have dense tissue, which I guess makes it hard to see, so the ultrasound was needed to make sure. The mammogram results are reading pretty much the same as 5 years ago "mass in left breast at 9 o'clock", more imaging recommended. So, I'm hoping that this will be just the same thing as before, but I go in on the 20th. When I went 5 years ago they told me right then it was just a benign cyst.

DH is making a little progress on his lofts, but mostly it's been me staining everything he's getting ready, first. I did some more during a lunch break yesterday and then after dinner. I think I am done for a little while now, while he now gets started building. This morning we are just waiting for the hvac guy to get here, pretty soon.

I tried to call my mom a couple of times yesterday morning, but no answer. I don't have voicemail set up on her phone (obviously she wouldn't know how to access it) so after about 5 rings it goes to a recorded message that says the party you are trying to reach does not have voicemail set up. So, I tried again after lunch and rather than ringing the 5 times, it went straight to this recorded message. That tells me she got her phone off the hook. I tried several more times over the afternoon, but same thing. When dh was there with me a week or so ago, he noticed her phone was partially off the base and set it back on right. I'm sure she's done this again. I'm not sure how long we'll be able to let her have a telephone. It doesn't do much good if she's leaving it off the hook and it doesn't work. And I'm not going to bother the staff to call and ask them to set it back on. They have enough to do without bothering with that. Probably why most of the residents do not have phones in their room. I'll give it a chance for awhile longer, but we'll see. Her not having a phone would also give me the break from uncle calling her - and then me, right?! When I visit her I could just call him from my cell and he could talk to her then every so often.

My side job boss (who I also have become friends with over the years, so we chat often about non-work stuff) texted me the other evening that they've been watching a tv show I'd probably like called Doc Martin. Have any of you watched it? I'll need to find out what streaming it's on to check it out.

The new doctor

Yesterday afternoon was busy, but productive. I worked until 12:45 and then we left so I could be there for mom's new doctor appointment with the doctor that comes into memory care. Her appointment was at 2pm but I wanted to get there early, just in case, so I was there a little after 1:30. Mom was in her room, sitting in her recliner, with the telephone in her lap. But what a mess her room was! The recliner had been pushed over closer towards the end of her bed, from the corner where it was, so now all her cable wiring for her modem/telephone and her modem sitting on the floor were exposed (instead of out of sight behind the recliner.) Her bed unmade and lots of clothes laying on her bed. Even a pair of pants were on the little counter next to her sink. I moved her chair back over. Those cables are the black kind that are kind of stiff and don't bend too easy. Plus it looked awful with all those showing and potentially a trip hazard, even though they were next to the wall. I then started picking up all her clothes, not sure if dirty or clean. She had put her hamper in the closet. One of her shirts was wadded up down between her blankets, when I made her bed. I peeked in the shared bathroom and there was a shower chair in the shower with something draped over it. I picked it up and it was mom's dress pants.....why they got put there, who knows!

The doctor came in about 5 minutes after 2 and she is AMAZING! I really really like her. She spent almost an hour with us. She (purposely) tried to ask mom all her questions, but of course mostly got "Oh, I don't know" and then mom would ask me. Or answered wrong. She asked her where she lived before moving here. Mom said the town in Oregon where she grew up. I have had a feeling she is now back in that time, especially as she had been wanting to call her mom those first few days after the move. The doctor asked her how many children she has. She thought for a second and then said 3. I said no, it's just me and mom said something like, well I'm thinking of those other 2....my guess is she was thinking how many kids were in her family back then, 3, her and her 2 brothers. Even if by some very slim chance (and I highly doubt it) she was thinking of my step siblings as included, the answer would have been 5, not 3. I don't think she was thinking of them. I don't think she even really remembers now her marriage of 37 years to my step dad.

The doctor said definitely no on that Aricept med and I explained what happened and she's not supposed to be taking it but her previous doctor did not remove it from her list of meds. This doctor said she wanted to pretty much discontinue all meds that we can. She said at this age and stage of Alzheimer's there is no benefit to most of what she is taking. So, we are stopping the cholesterol and the acid reflux meds and also the Paxil (anti anxiety/depression med). She said that med is actually not good at all for dementia patients and can make them more confused. She said that she is on a very low dose and wants to try just stopping it and not replacing it, but if we do need to replace it with something else, there are much safer meds to use. She's only keeping her on one med now, that is for her essential tremor she has in her right hand. I was happy to hear all this.

She was just such a kind sweet person and when she was done and telling my mom it was so nice to meet her, my mom said "it was nice to meet you and I really like you!" That made me feel good. Of course she won't remember her 10 minutes later, but still, LOL. Earlier in the day I had emailed the m/c guy I did all the move in paperwork with as her March rent was supposed to come out of her checking but it hadn't yet. He replied back and also said my mom seems to have settled in well and he always sees her doing activities and dancing (always with the dancing LOL).

The doctor left at 3 and I left right after. I had an appointment for a mammogram at 3:30 just a few blocks away, so we decided to go into Wendy's and get our dinner early and at it at the med office parking lot until it was time for me to go in for my appt. I was in and out of there in less than 15 minutes and glad to have that done for another year. Then we stopped at Walmart and picked up a load of groceries I had ordered and headed back home.

And then at 7:40pm my uncle called. Ugh. He had just called my mom and had an "upsetting" call with her where she was telling him people are taking stuff from her room, she's scared, etc. I again explained that late evening is not a good time to try to have a conversation with her, she is confused and tired. Not to mention then he has to call me. There's nothing I can do about it! I just said, well, that's why she's there, because she's confused, especially at night, and now she can be looked after. He said yes, because if she was at her other place she could wander around. I will send him a text today to try to remind him he needs to try to call her during the day or right after dinner. She could have already been in bed at that time he called as when I had the camera at her old apartment the last couple of months she was often in bed by then. He said she also told him she hasn't seen or talked to me in a long time. I said I was just with her for an hour and a half today ;)

Now our furnace issue is supposed to get fixed on Thursday. Hopefully he gets back out here sooner rather than later, only because having to heat our bonus room now is costing extra.

Zoned out

The lady from the HVAC called back around 2:45 yesterday and said the service guy was done with his calls he had and would head out to our place now. He got here around 3:30. It's something to do with the zones control. He thought he had it fixed by replacing some wire out at our heat pump, but then as he was standing there for awhile chatting with dh I noticed the zones stopped working again. So, back down in the crawl space to the furnace he went. He's not sure exactly what it is, but will have to start replacing parts to see, so he'll have to come back. Probably not until Wed or Thursday now, he said the lady will call me to let me know when, as she handles their scheduling. We do have heat, thankfully, it just heats all the house the one temperature now, we can't control our 3 zones separately (first world problems). We usually keep the bonus room doors closed and like 62 in there, since we aren't using it yet. There rest of the upstairs is a zone and then all of downstairs/main floor is a zone. I think this is all still under warranty. Components are 5 years, the compressor 10 years. It says our air exchanger system is 20 years.

While the hvac guy was here it started snowing. By early evening we had another 4 inches. The hvac guy didn't leave until 6:30, so I made a quick dinner from leftovers heated in the microwave. Later I went out to the shop for about a half hour and stained those boards for the closet with the new stain we got. It's nothing like our interior trim, but it will be fine for inside a closet.

On tap this afternoon is my second round of appointments. Mom's doctor appointment at 2pm and then I have my mammogram scheduled for 3:30. Then pick up a load of groceries. I'm working until we leave for the city at around 12:45. Since we won't be leaving the city until after 4 I'm sure we'll just stop at Wendy's and get some dinner from their drive thru. Last time dh tried a bite of my grilled chicken sandwich and said he should get that next time, instead of a burger. My bet is he'll still get a burger, LOL.

Our scale is out in the shop bathroom. I haven't weighed myself in probably a few months. Last time I did is also the time I was just starting to cut down on sugar in my diet and I was sure not happy with the scale. Even though I feel like I've really cut down on sugar every day, I haven't really felt (clothes wise) like I've lost anything, but haven't felt like I gained either. Well, when I was out in the shop Sunday staining boards, I used the bathroom and decided to weigh myself. This was with a sweater and a coat and shoes, LOL. I have lost about 6 pounds, so I was pleased with that. At least gives me some motivation to keep working on it.

Dh had told the hvac guy if it works out that he wants to come this afternoon (while we are gone) that is fine. Dh leaves the garage side door unlocked and he can get into the house that way. We would totally trust him. He's worked for the hvac owner a long time and a really good guy.

In additional good news, my side job boss sent me an email and said she wants to pay me my regular amount thru March now and then start the hourly amount in April. Nice!I get to budget one more month of my normal pay, I wasn't expecting.

Thermostat troubles

I'm having "fun" this morning trying to figure out why our thermostat isn't working. It's one of those smart things with a little computer screen that we're too dumb to figure out. Some alert code about it not communicating because it lost communication with a system component. Dh has the HVAC owner's cell and has texted him many times in the past several years if we have an issue. So, when dh got up this morning I told him that there was a problem and a code "31" and had printed out the page with that code info, but it basically says to call the HVAC company. We had a same/similar issue a year or so ago and dh texted or called him and he told dh what to do. Something just had to get reset.

DH says well you'd better call them. I'm like can't you just text owner, like you always have? Apparently not. He's butthurt because he tried to text him to ask him about something a month or so ago and he didn't respond back. OMG. One time, out of how many? So, I called the office phone number and of course got a recording. Their office lady did call me back pretty quickly and told us to restart the power on the furnace and it should reset everything in about 5-10 minutes. Well, once it was done doing that it came up with a new error code number. So, I called her back and had to leave another message, but it's been about a half hour and haven't heard back. Frustrating and annoying. DH is being frustrating and annoying, too. He gets down into our crawlspace, where the furnace is, and asks "did she say if we need to leave it off for a few seconds before turning it back on?" I just said, she didn't say and I didn't know to ask. (insert rolling eyes). Why she hasn't called back or had the owner or his tech assistant call us, who knows. Finally, after 2 hours of leaving a message I texted the HVAC lady and she eventually texted back, sorry she got swamped and will call me in a few minutes. That was an hour and 15 minutes ago.

She finally called back and they will have to send their service tech out to fix it - either tomorrow or Wednesday, she'll let me know when she finds out his schedule when he gets back at the end of the day.

I spent 2-3 hours staining boards, yesterday. Easy enough. I'd rather do that than paint any day. The snag we ran into is the boards he got for the closet shelves. They are pine. The stain in our house for doors and trim is "Golden Pecan", except it's all stained on knotty alder. Golden Pecan on pine looks like a washed out natural color. So, during my lunch break we went back into the lumber store and the guy helped me try to find a stain that would look like golden pecan on pine. No luck. Everything looks brown or red. We just ended up deciding to go with a light brown stain.  The guy at the lumber & paint store took about 6 or 7 different Minwax stains and made strips on our board of pine. None of them look like what is on the can when you use pine wood. Good to know. 

The HVAC lady just called and the tech finished his afternoon job early so he is heading out our way now, so that is good. He actually doesn't live that far from us, so it's not too far out of his way home anyway.

Weekend to-do's

Two things got accomplished yesterday. I made the cake later morning. It looked to be a sunny day and dh said "oh I was thinking of going to the lumber store, but you're making cake now so I guess not". I said it will be done in about 30 min...."but then the lumber store will be closed by the time we get there". They used to close at noon on Saturdays (small town) but I reminded him since the new owner took over they stay open until 4pm on Saturdays. So, we went in and he got some of the lumber and I picked out a can of wood stain that is close as we could get to what we used before. What we used before was leftovers from the house build and apparently that stain color is no longer being made. He figured that the big beams he needs would have to be ordered and yes, they will order them on Monday and probably have them here Wednesday. The guy also said he could deliver them for free if dh didn't want to come in to get them. Thankfully lumber prices are much more back to normal now, another reason dh was waiting. The $400 we spent in lumber yesterday was 3x (or more) that a year or two ago. A sheet of OSB had gotten up to $120. Now it's $20.

I guess be careful what I wish for because guess what I get to do with my day today? Stain boards LOL. He also got boards so he can at least put some shelves up in our master closets and then we can get some rods hung up. He got some nice sanded plywood and then he will add trim to the front to make it look more finished. This is how he had done the guest bedroom closets and our coat closet in the entryway.

And then I'll talk him into making me some shelves on my side of the closet LOL. 

For the first time in a good 4 or 5 days,  I did not get a call (or I should say callS) from my mom yesterday. I'm hoping/assuming they did not give her that medication on Friday evening and maybe she was less confused yesterday. I will trying to give her a call today and see how she's doing.

Has anyone read the "Kay Scarpetta" series of books by Patricia Cornwell? I started reading them years and years ago and have always enjoyed them, expect for the last few have not been as good and then read one a few weeks ago (2nd to last in the series) and it was awful. But, her latest one became available for me to borrow the ebook so I gave it a go and it's really good. Much more like she has always written and I've been hard to put it down. I don't know how many she's written in the series, a lot, so had just chalked it up to she's run out of writing material about the character by now.

I came across a video on how to clear out your firestick from apps staying open in the background. Apparently when you open an app it never really closes and uses up processing speed. I had 21 apps open and "forced closed" them all and nope, didn't help a dang bit. Tried to watch a show I had recorded and had to try to restart 3 times and finally gave up and went back to my book.

We now have 13 turkeys stopping by to visit. Those toms sure are rude to the hens. They tolerate them with them, but barely. Two of them were putting on a display yesterday morning. Excuse the window glare. I was taking this from my office window upstairs.

Happy Sunday. I guess I need to dig out my "painting" clothes.

Seriously?!

OMG! I get the mail yesterday and there is a statement from the pharmacy that the m/c place uses to fill mom's prescriptions now. I'm looking over the list of meds and prices and they have Donepezil/Aricept listed on there as filling! Her doctor prescribed that last June and she was on it for only about10 days and SOOO off the charts confused that I messaged her doctor and she said to take her off of it. At one point, months later, when I was reviewing her chart online, I marked that med as discontinued, as it was still on there. And then, when I had her into the dr not too long ago I reminded them AGAIN that no, she isn't taking that med, when the nurse reviewed her list of meds with me. Why they couldn't mark it as no longer taking/being prescribed I don't know. Just careless and negligence. What if that had been some med she had had a bad allergic reaction to or something more serious?

But, they sent this med with the list of meds to fill at the pharmacy so mom's been taking it since I moved here there! And here I've been thinking it's just the big change/move that's got extra confused. No, it's that stupid medication. Probably why she's sundowning so bad again. I called the nurses/med desk at memory care to let them know I don't want her taking it, that the orders for it was a mistake. She said they will stop it and also would be good if I could get the doctors office to fax over a discontinue order. I called the dr office and they are supposed to fax that over to both the m/c and the pharmacy. In all the paperwork I had to fill out to move mom there, I had to list all her meds and dosages. That med was not listed, of course, so you'd think they would have compared it and at least asked why this med was filled, when it wasn't on my list I said she was taking.

GRRR! It will be very interesting to see how she does after getting off that med now. Hopefully this extra sundowning and confusion she's been having will reduce back to her normal. Geesh!!!

Let's eat cake

Mom is apparently realizing more she has a phone LOL. She called me at 11:15 yesterday and seemed happy, but I could tell she wasn't quite all there memory wise. She asked me if I was married. Then she called back a few minutes later and said she forgot to ask me - I can check on her bank account right? She just wanted to make sure everything was ok and I said yes, I check on it all the time and it's all good and balanced. She said thank you, she appreciates that I take care of it. Then she tried me a couple of times between 3:30 and 4 but I was in a work meeting and I figure unless it's a call from the nurses desk where she lives, it's not an emergency. 

I mentioned the other day, back when I first set up her phone, I decided to turn the label over, so she didn't see uncles name there next to a button. I just put my name on that side. I didn't want her calling him until she's more settled. Well I guess she was just pressing buttons yesterday, haha, and because he's still programmed in there with a button, she did call him. This was around the time she called me twice (or actually it was 3 tries) between 3:30 and 4. He texted me that evening that she called him and that she told him she was at the casino gambling! She used to do that a lot. I replied well at least she thinks she's somewhere she used to enjoy being at ;)

Then she just now called me at 8:45am. Said she's not feeling well. I said ok, did you let the nurse know and she said yes, I think they were going to call you (no one has yet) then she said she did eat something and was going to sit in her chair. The good part is she never remembers for very long if she doesn't feel good. And of course if it was something serious, the nurse would call me. If she was still living at her previous place, I'd be sitting here worried/wondering how sick she was and what to do. Now I can let them handle it. She did ask if I was coming to see her and I just said yes, I'll be coming and she said ok. I didn't say it's not until next Tuesday, when she has her dr. appt ;)

And she just called again, now 9:45. She wanted to know if/when I was coming? I just said well I'm working today, but was going to see how you are doing first...she said "oh I'm fine now" (and she sounded fine) so she said I didn't need to come today and I just said again, I'll be in in a few days.

If she calls again in the next few hours, I'll probably just let it go to voicemail this time. As always, I start my blog post before I start work in the morning, but never seem to get it finished up and keep coming back to it, when I get a few minutes.

I couldn't get onto my Firestick at all last night, so I couldn't even try to delete the app and reinstall it. I'm going to keep an eye out for a sale. Amazon seems to have them every so often and for now I'll just watch it from my ipad. I don't want to pay full price for one, when I know they put them on sale every so often. 

At least it's Friday, right? DD is the one who is actually sick with a bug. She started to feel crummy the afternoon before her flight home from the work trip. She got home late Wednesday evening and she just worked from home yesterday. Just has a bit of a temperature and really tired, but no other symptoms. Today she just decided to use a sick day and is going to get rested up and try to sleep it off.

My plans this weekend include making a cake. I need cake and ice cream, LOL.

Another call, baby steps, expenses and Firesticks

Mom called again yesterday, a little before lunch. She's still confused, it sounds like. Unsure where she is. Plus, for some reason she could hardly hear me, though I could hear her fine, so I'm not sure what was up with that. When I answered she said oh I pushed this button on this thing and got you. I said yep! Then she asked if I knew where she was? I wasn't quite sure how to answer, so I just said yes, you are in (city name). She said ok and this is where I live? yes. But you could tell she was confused, plus she kept saying she couldn't hear me when I'd answer, so then said she's glad she got to talk to me and she'll let me go.

I'm glad to be having her doctor appointment, next Tuesday, to get established with the doctor they use at her facility. But, I'm sure I'll end up disappointed with the doctor, just as I am with most all doctors. But overall, I'm sure this doctor will much more convenient then where I was taking her before, plus this doctor is a geriatrician.

Dh finally seems to be making progress out of the planning stage of building the lofts in his shop to the actual "doing" stage. He ordered a bunch of bolts and screws yesterday (he does shop online to find the best deal, at least) and a tool he'll need (he found one ebay for about $50 less than regular stores). As long as there is no snow this morning (none yet) he said he will probably go into town to the lumber store and get some of the lumber needed to get started. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Plus, he's about to get put in Facebook jail, LOL, so he's going to need something else to do, haha. 

Ok, it's March now, I'm at least ready for some warmer days, like in the 50's LOL....or even 40's. Nothing like that on the horizon yet. 

I'm still doing my little expenses spreadsheet to track my variable expenses each month. I budget $600 a month for groceries/personal care/household supplies. In January I spent $454, in February $641. I think I need a couple more months to get my monthly average tied down. I did create a separate category for pets (which includes the chickens). I don't have a budget, but sort of have always included it in my $600 groceries/household. In Jan I spent about $50 on pets. February was $243, but $150 of that was the vet bill and $93 was stocking up on 2-3 months of chicken feed/scratch/bedding. House maintenance in January was $287, in Feb it was $0. We spent $0 on clothing both months. Gas was about the same both months, right around $160. Gas was more than I thought I was spending per month, but I also feel like we had quite a few extra trips both months, taking/picking me up at airport, same with dd. Lots of extra trips in for my mom. We'll see if it goes back to my normal $80 a month budget.

Eating out (drive thru and restaurants) was about $150 each month. Both months we had a restaurant visit (vs the normal fast food stop), in January for our anniversary and in Feb we took dd out to dinner after we picked her up from the airport.

My firestick for the tv is still giving me lots of issues, so I guess I'm going to have to order a new one. I had to reset it like 3 times in 45 minutes while trying to watch a show last night. Same thing the night before. Kind of annoying that they don't seem to last too long. But, I just had a thought - maybe it's the Youtube tv app giving me issues and not the firestick....that's about what I watch 90% of the time, but I guess when it's giving me issues (freezing and saying not connected to wifi) I should see if I have any problems watching Netflix or Prime or another app for awhile. I think tonight I'll try deleting the app and adding it back, and test other apps on the firestick before I order a new one.

phone call and the hoarder

I tried to call my mom before and after lunch yesterday, but she wasn't in her room. Then she called me around 3:30. Her sundowning seems to be starting earlier now. Used to be more after dinner. She (vaguely) told me there's too much going on here that isn't good and I need to come pick her up and take her home (I don't think she means my home). I said what's going on there? Of course she couldn't come up with anything and I then said "hmm...I guess I need to know more what the problem there is?" Then something about feeding them and she doesn't think they are going to get fed. I told her they feed her breakfast lunch and dinner and she said "well, I don't think so. I didn't get anything tonight" and I told her it's not dinner time yet, it will be in about an hour. Then she said I don't have to come get her tonight, but tomorrow would be good. I finally just told her ok, I'll look into it for her tomorrow. She did mention her car again and she wasn't sure where it was, but she could just take that to go home. I'm just glad she's there and I'm not having to deal with this at her old place! Just best to try to redirect her or put her off until "tomorrow" or "the weekend", which of course she will forget that. 

I'm kind of surprised she doesn't call me a bunch of times in a short period, because she'd forget she just called me. She used to do that a couple years ago and it drove me nuts. Especially when I'd tell her I was coming and she'd remember just enough that I was coming but not when....so then there'd be 3 phone calls in 30 minutes. Or I'd call her to remind her I was on my way and get 7 calls in an hour on the way there. This was back when she still had a cell phone....which we never did find when we moved her, by the way, LOL. That first weekend we moved her in and visited her 3 days in a row, on that 3rd day (when I was trying to get her landline working) I decided, until she was settled, to flip the little label on the landline over and only write my name next to my button to dial. I decided to leave off uncles for now. I'm glad I have because I don't want her also calling him a bunch when she's agitated....because then he has no idea what to do, so he just calls me about it. I've got enough just dealing with her calling me, I don't need him calling me about her, too.

My guess is at some point I'll end up removing her telephone from her room. I remember when I asked if we could have a landline in her room and he said yes, but that most of them do not. I know, that first week when I didn't have her phone working, if she wanted to call me, the staff called for her and gave her the phone they use. If she started calling me all the time (which so far she rarely thinks to call me) because she thinks she needs to leave, I'd probably end up taking the phone out and just letting the staff deal with it more. If she was asking them to call often, I'm sure they'd redirect her to other activities/thoughts. I'm still kind of not sure about a tv in her room....I really don't think she'd even turn it on much and not too far outside her room door is a seating area with couches, chairs and a big tv to watch. There's another similar tv area at the other end (it's an L shaped area) near the entrance.

OMG, this morning dh decided to go through the 3 bins of old clothes he has in his closet. It's stuff that's been packed for years (I have the same in my closet). He said all with conviction "I'm going to go through all this and throw away most of it. I haven't worn it in years and likely won't".  5 minutes later..."ONE! c'mere...  I can't get rid of these shirts. I can't get rid of these boots (that he literally hasn't worn in 20 years).". Then he brings out like 6 of those orange construction t-shirts he used to have to wear for work (and hasn't worn in 10 years). They still fit! So?! LOL. are you ever going to wear them again? "well, I might". Finally he put them in the bag. I really doubt much of any of it will end up staying in the bag to go. LOL. He definitely is a hoarder mentality.

For the 8 days in February that I started doing MTurks, I made $95.

Extra pay

I was emailing with my side job boss, answering a question she had on how to handle something and if she could do it a certain way (accounting wise). I told her that's probably not the best practice and I would do it such and such way, especially to make sure they have everything recorded in case of an audit down the road. She replied back "ok, that's why you are paid the big bucks" LOL. I replied back, speaking of pay, now that I'm working less hours for them, I've just been keeping track of my hours for February (I have always been paid a flat monthly fee) and to just compensate me based on that or however they want to do it, is fine with me. She replied back that she wants to pay me my full month fee for February and then start the hourly pay in March. I said that works for me! Which is a nice surprise I was not expecting and had only put a much smaller amount in my budget for getting paid today. 

We've gotten a bunch of snow since early this morning. Dh thought it was slowing down, went out and shoveled, came back in for a bit and then it started dumping again, LOL, and almost as much as he just shoveled off. But, his new snow plow makes such a quick job of it. He's already done with our driveway and the street out in front. 

It looks like my regular job boss is getting close to posting the job for my assistant. Yay! She had me review the job posting yesterday, so I take it as she's getting close to posting it. I was kind of hoping maybe she would get our receptionist to take the job, but from what she has told me before, she's tried to get her to take other jobs as they've come up over the years, but she's always just happy to stay doing what she's doing. But, whoever gets the job, it will be so helpful to me.

It seems like it's taking me forever to get this post finished today.  I guess there's not too much going on, other than I am happy to have the extra income I was not expecting this month.

Emails, chair, and memory

And it's Monday again. It started out, once the west coast time zone was a more appropriate time, haha, texting my side job boss that my email isn't working anymore for them. With the winding down of their old company/transition, I wasn't sure if I would still contact their IT company, but yes, I was to do that. They figured it out pretty quickly that for some reason the license attached to my email had expired and was not renewed. The IT got that fixed and I'm up and running again. Basically, it shut down late Thursday afternoon, so only really Friday possibility of getting emails that I couldn't see, but there's weren't any.

The accent chair I ordered for dh's den finally arrived today. I do like it. It's about an "average" on the comfortable scale. Not great, not bad. I wanted to see how the chair was, because I was thinking of ordering 2 for the bonus room. I'm still on the fence. I think I'd want something more comfortable sitting up there, which will get used much more than a chair in dh's den. I'll think about it awhile. Most likely Amos will like it and it will be covered in orange cat hair soon, LOL. I don't have a lot of color in my house, it's mostly neutrals, so this dark blue is a nice little addition of color. Then dh promptly took a fleece blanket he has and put it on the seat for the cat to lay on, LOL. It looks stupid now. Oh well, I tried to make it look nice, haha.

As always, I try to share the good and bad of my journey with my mom's dementia. The bad yesterday was mostly me :( I was not a good daughter. I went to the bathroom and left my phone on the chair arm. Came back to a missed call and voicemail from my mom (this was around 2:30pm). It was a 90 second voicemail where she was pretty confused. At first she did seem to realize she was leaving a message but then didn't know what time to tell me she had called. Then she thought it was early morning and mentioned this a couple of times, that she was probably calling too early. She did seem pretty confused and even said that she was, but she didn't seem upset or anxious. Towards the end of the voicemail it sounded like she thought I had called her. I was tired, about to take a nap, and so did not feel like talking on the phone, especially with a conversation I knew was going to just go in circles and repeating. I decided not to call her. I wasn't going to help her confusion any and 5 minutes later she wouldn't remember she talked to me anyway. Cue the guilt, but once in awhile I just can't deal with it and I guess yesterday was it. I was planning to call her this morning around 10:30 and see if she was in her room, but then I was waiting on the IT guy to call me back, so I wasn't able to try. Now it's her lunch hour, so I'll have to try in a half hour or so. 

Earning Sunday

Yesterday was a good day. The cat started feeling better around noon and is fine now. I got the upstairs vacuumed. It takes more now that I have to vacuum the bonus room carpet too, haha! But it really didn't need it, since we've hardly been in there. I'm not going to do it every time I vacuum upstairs. It's a big room! I got our sheets and pillow cases washed and the bed remade. In between I managed to earn almost $7 on MTurks, not bad for a weekend day. I haven't earned anything yet this morning.

I took a short nap in the afternoon and then got up and made peanut butter cookies. At 4:30 dh said he wanted to go into town to get some food for dinner from the store deli, so we did that. This time I tried some chicken bites that had a honey garlic glaze/sauce on them. They were really good. Since we were at the store I also picked up a tub of margerine and a half gallon of ice cream. I haven't bought ice cream in a long time and keep forgetting to get some every time I grocery shop. I'd like to make a cake one of these weekends, but every time I think about it, I realize I have no ice cream and dh only likes cake with ice cream. Since I just made cookies, I'll probably wait and make a cake next weekend, but at least I have the ice cream now.

The neighbors DIL and kids went home finally, yesterday. I think they took their dogs with them, but I'm not 100% sure on that.

I was kind of hoping dh would have wanted to go into the lumber store to get some of the stuff he needs to start on his shop lofts. Maybe this week he will. I think he's overthinking it all on how best to build it.

As I've sat here typing this blog post out, I've managed to earn $2.10 in Mturks, almost to my halfway daily weekend goal. My brain is telling me, ok you earned almost $7 yesterday and it costs $7 to subscribe to a month of Apple+tv, that works good :)

My dd just texted me. She is at the airport, early this morning, going on a business trip for a few days. She is not happy that she's having to spend her whole day off/Sunday traveling, but apparently she kind of has to go along with how the purchasing agent half of her group plans it out, at least as far as when to be there. She can book her own flight though and for some reason the PA booked hers into an airport 1.5 hours drive from where they are staying/meeting with the supplier, when there is an airport in the city of destination. DD booked her flight to the small city. She said she's not spending half the day at the airport and flying halfway across the country to then spend 1.5 hours driving in a car......in North Dakota, LOL. Especially because it's like 10 degrees there and on Wednesday when she flies back out, it's supposed to be snowing. Nope, not driving 1.5 hours in the snow in a rental car. Just dumb. 

Last evening I got an email that an e-book I reserved through the library was now my turn, so now I have something to read this week. It's the latest in the Jack Reacher series.

And just like that I got another $1 Mturks study/survey to complete and I earned a $5 bonus from it! Now I'm up to $8.10 for today already. Yay!

Sick Saturday

The cat isn't feeling well, a reaction from the 3 vaccines, I'm sure. He threw up around 10pm last night. I did not hear him at all during the night or at his usual 5:30 or 6am activities. I got up at 7, and usually, wherever he is, as soon as he hears me up, he's right there. I thought well, maybe dh put him upstairs in my office last night, so I first went up there, but the door was open. Where is he??! I found him in my closet. He likes to sleep there sometimes. There are a couple of bins in the corner with some clothes and sweatshirts on top and it's comfy and dark in there. I gave him some pets, but he didn't want to get up and he's still there. Poor kitty.

I've got my MTurks on and trying to find hits. So far I've only gotten one, but it was $1.50 for just a few minutes of time. I'm going to try for $5 for a weekend day. I have the payments set up to transfer to my bank account every 3 days and this morning it just transferred $38.

I had gotten a free 90 day subscription to Walmart+ from about Nov through January. It was kind of nice to not have to meet the $35 minimum order for free shipping, but I did not renew it. And here I sit the past 2 days trying to get to a $35 order LOL. I started out needing to order dh's deodorant. So, I picked a 6 pack that will last quite awhile, then I added some toothpaste for me, then some pistachios. Then some stevia packets. And I'm still short a couple of dollars. This is when I usually find something, but then 2 days after I do that, something will come up that I realize we need and I have to start over again with trying to do $35. Dh has enough deodorant for awhile, so I'm just going to leave it all in the cart until I actually need whatever comes up next. But, it's annoying, LOL. But, it's not worth the $98 a year, to me. If I lived where they would deliver to me, I'd probably be all over it.

Since I saw mom yesterday I'm not driving into the city again this weekend. I need to do some bedding washing and mopping. It's a nice sunny day and the temps are back up to normal and supposed to be around 40 today.

Hopefully the cat feels better soon.

Another busy Friday

We did a quick trip to the city this morning. First to the vet appointment. Kitty is doing great and 12 pounds and about 1 1/2 years old now. He had to get 3 vaccines, but 2 of them are now good for 3 years, so I won't need to pay for them again for awhile. The whole visit came to $149. We were in and out of there in less than 30 minutes. 

Did you know orange kitties get freckles? She noticed his black whisker and I said ya, that's new...and she explained orange cats get black freckles on their pink areas, like edges of eyelids, nose and inside the mouth. He does have black freckles along his eyelids and she showed me one inside his lip.

Then we drove over to see my mom (like a mile or so from the vet) and she was in her room sitting in her recliner when we got there a little after 10:30am. She was really good and happy to see us. It's such a change with her from day to later afternoon/evening, when she starts sundowning. She even said "I like it here" and was happy the whole visit. We only stayed about 25 minutes. It was like 7 degrees out and the cat was in the carrier out in the truck and we didn't want him to get too cold. Her little latchhook rug was folded up on her closet shelf, so I took that with me. The only "odd" thing she said was "I told you I got rid of my car, didn't I?" I said yes, and she said ya, I probably don't need it anymore. LOL. I agreed and said the roads were snowy and icy to drive on ;)

Then we stopped at the feed store and picked up a curbside order. I stocked up on chicken feed, scratch and bedding, so I should be good with that for a few months now. We were back home by noon and I made a quick lunch and back at my desk to work the rest of the afternoon. Since I have 3 appointments in the next couple of weeks, I didn't want to take 3 full days off work, so I'm just taking the partial hours off and just going to use up one day of PTO for the 3 days of being gone 2-3 hours those days.

I wasn't going to do MTurks today, but decided to log in and see what I could get today. So far I'm a little over $5 for maybe 30 min or less. I'll take it. I still have about an hour and 15 minutes of sitting at my desk, so maybe I'll get a few more to do before the day is over. I always remember weekends were usually pretty slow, so I'm not expecting much this weekend and especially as I don't sit at my computer too much after my morning coffee and blog update time.

DD said she and her dh both got their annual raise and bonus's this week. Between the 2 of them they are now making over $200k a year. Pretty good for a 27 and 32 year old. They are on the ball with everything, that's for sure.

I saw online that the new season (and final, I think) of Ted Lasso airs on Apple +tv on March 16. I can't wait. It's such a great show and will be worth subscribing to the streaming service again for a couple of months to watch it. There is also another show on there that sounds really good called "Shrinking", so I'm going to watch that one too. I'm not sure when Severance returns to Apple tv, but that is another one on my list I'm waiting to return and watch.

Good and bad

I got a call after dinner last night from the nurse at mom's memory care place. She took a little fall in her room. One of the items we took with us to decorate her new room was a small latch hook rug (she made years ago). We just put it up next to her wall on the side of her recliner. Out of the way, but still visible (hoping to keep familiar stuff with her). Well, she must have moved it because the nurse said it was over by the door where she was after falling and must have tripped or slipped on it. 

She said mom was fine, not hurt or anything and doing well, but they do have to call and let me know and also send a report to her doctor. I said I will be in on Friday morning, so I will take that little rug out with me. She said for now they put it in her hamper, so that is good.

The "good" thing is now that she is in memory care and has a fall, there is a nurse on staff to check her out. She took her blood pressure, etc. When/if she had fallen at her other place there is no one to do that and no one to check in on her after, like there is now, so I feel much better about that. I did just try calling my mom to check in on her, but she's not in her room (as usual, LOL).  The other thing I like is they have me on an email list and that has been nice, so far for general info. They even just emailed out March's activity calendar, which her other place never did. I saved it to my desktop and now have it to look at for next month.

I decided to give doing MTurks surveys a try again to bring in a few extra dollars, since I am losing my side job for the most part. It's been 2 years since I did any. It took me a little bit to remember how it all works, but so far so good.  I didn't start until Tuesday afternoon and made $12 Tuesday and $17 yesterday. Today, so far, I am up to $9, though it's taking me longer to find ones to do, $9 is good to me for it only being noon.

Tomorrow is a partial work day. We have to take the cat into the vet for his annual visit, stop and see my mom for a quick visit before her lunch and then swing by the feed store to pick up chicken feed and supplies and then head home and back to work for the rest of the afternoon.

The antique/vintage mystery purchase

I don't know what made me remember the little stool my grandparents had, but I do remember it vividly. I just had no idea what it was called, to even try to find one! I don't know what happened to grandma's stool, but obviously my mom got rid of it when she moved my grandma into nursing care. At the time I was so busy with teenagers, working, etc, that I don't even remember thinking about taking the stool. 

When I was visiting dd last month and we were antique shopping, something triggered my memory of their old stool. I googled different names for the stool and finally got a hit and then started finding these stools for sale. At first I wanted to find one exactly like my grandparents stool. It had a black wood base with a white(ish) leather cushion. All the stools I found with the same exact base that matched my grandparents were all red leather cushions....and pretty worn....and like $300. I set aside the idea for a couple of weeks. Then started looking again. Again almost buying a red one that was very worn. Then I came across a bunch on ebay, and while they were priced great (under $100) the shipping on all of them was over $100. 

Then I came across this one. The base and cushion are different colors, but it's exactly the same stool and I think the colors go much better with my decor. It was a decent price and shipping was only $29. I love it! The leather is in really good shape. I don't know for sure where I am putting it, but for now it's in my foyer entrance.

Do you know what type of stool this is called?

House projects

My dinner of pork roast and veggies was good, but the bread machine bread was not. Too dense. I have had this bread machine for years and the only bread I ever made in it was from a box mix for bread machines I used to get at Walmart. I can't remember the brand, but it was for white bread and apparently isn't made anymore. So, I went with the scratch recipe in the book that came with my bread machine, but I did not have bread flour, so I am guessing that is the cause. I may buy some bread flour and give it a try again some time.

I woke up to it snowing and a little snow on the ground and it stopped shortly after. I don't think this is going to turn into the big "winter storm warning" they say it's supposed to be.  

DH is (I hope) finally making plans to get started on the big loft he wants to put in his shop. It will be a big loft along the back wall and also a smaller one in the opposite corner. He thinks he can get started on the smaller loft, now, without needing to wait for warmer weather. To do the big loft along the back wall he'll need to move a lot of stuff outside to give him room to work, and that's going to have to wait for good weather days. But, at least he seems to finally be moving towards starting the project. Underneath the loft along the back wall he also plans to build a long workbench, which will also have shelves under and probably put in some cabinets above. The loft and the workbench will allow him to put a good majority of what is taking up all his floor space, up above and on shelves and then give him some actual floor space to move around in and use. At least to get started on the smaller corner loft, it won't take too much supplies and he said he still has one beam left he can use for that. With the floor space he will gain, he will finally be able to move his big wooden "woodwork bench" out of our garage (almost taking up a whole bay) and into the shop.

We also just FINALLY ordered the hidden bookcase door for dh's den. There is a small closet in his den that holds his gun safe and the plan has always been to put a hidden bookcase door there. Only took us 4 years....gosh, it's hard to believe that our house was finished almost 4 years ago now. We sat down on Saturday and went thru the door website to order it and pick out all the specs we needed and then it calculated shipping....$1351....excuse me?! The company is in Utah, practically next door, LOL. The website had a chat function and I got online with a rep and said is that a mistake? She said she would check into it and get back to me on Monday. So, now with a 10% discount and a huge reduction in the shipping cost, the shipping is $500. We can live with that. It will be a big heavy thing to ship, but $1351 was insane. Our door opening is larger than a standard size door, it's 42wX94H and we are getting knotty alder to match our trim and other doors in the house and stained, and also some bookcase doors on the bottom. It's supposed to take 3-5 weeks, so hopefully that's all it takes. 

A couple weeks ago I ordered a navy blue chair for his den. It's sold on lots of websites, so of course I shopped for the best price and ordered it from an Amazon seller. Only it never shipped and then this morning I got an email the order has been canceled. So, I ordered it from someplace else, but had to pay $25 more. Oh well. Hopefully this one ships out soon. It says we are to have it by this Friday. Once the chair is here and the hidden bookcase door, that room will be completed. I'm really trying to just let him decorate it, he put his collections of stuff in/on the display cabinet, etc. but it's so hard, because he is the type that ends up with WAY too much stuff. He's the type that would have every surface and every spot on a wall covered with something.......and it's too much. He knows this and on a few things asked for my opinion. I'm like every blank spot on a wall does not need something. It takes away from what is already on the wall. (OMG, you should see his shop walls as you walk into his shop. Pictures galore. You can't even focus to look at anything there is so much. It gives me anxiety just to look at it all. He knows this isn't a good look in our house/his den and he's trying to not over do it. He knows he wants it to look "classy" but doesn't know how to go about it, so I'm probably going to have to step in and get him to pare it all down some, especially when he also gets to fill up the hidden bookcase shelves with even more stuff. I hate clutter and also told him, if he's going to have that much stuff then he's going to have to be the one to dust it all!