Ready to wrap up 2024

The last day of 2024. It's hard to believe it's almost a year now since my mom passed. I had a reminder of her yesterday - dh was in our upstairs hallway adding an outlet behind one of the bookcases, so I can plug in the lamp I bought (almost a year ago LOL). He had turned the power out in that area and then when he turned it back on reminded me that the alarm clock in the guest bedroom would need to be reset. I went in there and no alarm clock on the bedside table. I opened the drawer and it was in there and then I remembered why it got put in there - the last time my mom stayed overnight (which would have been Christmas 2 years ago) I realized (after having her Thanksgiving) that the clock was bothering her - she kept trying to change it, so I just hid it away in the drawer and totally forgot about it all this time.

The reason it took dh almost a year to add the outlet? Because he would have to open up the attic storage area that our Christmas trees and other big indoor Christmas items are stored in and he didn't want to have to haul it all back out, so he decided he'd wait until next Christmas when the area would be empty and easy to get back into. 

This is the storage area

Inside it turns a bit to the left and goes back partway down that wall behind the bookcases. 

Where those studs are on the left is where the first bookcase out in the hall is. He cut through the wall and the back of the bookcase to add the outlet

He's not done yet - he needs to go buy the outlet, but it's all ready to connect. Here is everything put back together. This whole area is still a bit of a work on progress. I still needs lots more books and more decor items here and there

One of these days we may put an actual door to that storage area, but so far this has worked fine. Dh just unscrews the screws holding the framed panel to remove it. Either way it will look odd - because it wouldn't be a normal sized door.

He got the lights cut out of the 12' tree. I'd say, in total, it took him about 7 hours over 2 days. I'll have to try to figure out how many lights/strings I will need to buy for next year. We're definitely going to buy the "commercial" kind that if one light goes out, the rest still stay on. All our our outdoor lights we bought commercial grade from a company called Christmas Lights Etc. They aren't cheap, but very good quality, and we see that they also have good quality indoor tree light strings. I think they usually have a sale in July, so I will look for some then. Hopefully I can remember, but I think they also send out a postcard type flyer in the mail about the sale.

I won't ring in the new year - I could blame it on being old, haha, but I've just rarely cared to stay up until midnight. Dh makes fun of me, but he stays up past midnight EVERY night, so it's no big deal to him. If he give me crap about it again tonight I'll tell him I'll make a deal with him - he has to get up tomorrow at 7am, when I get up then, and stay up.

I hope everyone enjoys their evening, if they do celebrate to ring in the New Year!

Decluttering mode

I keep forgetting to mention I did call my uncle on Christmas Day. Was expecting his usual 30 seconds of call time - he did not disappoint and this call was 25 seconds LOL. I'm not sure if I should even bother, but I did and will at least make the effort.

I commented over on SAM's blog about too much stuff - especially in the kitchen. I am working towards pruning it all down some. My problem is I have to do it w/o DH knowing I'm getting rid of stuff! It doesn't matter what it is - he will find a reason to keep it. He has no idea we even have the stuff in the first place...but if he sees that I'm throwing something away or setting it aside for donation, he will go into "gotta keep it" mode. I'm not going to donate a 40 year old blender that only works (barely) on one speed, so I will have to put it in a garbage bag and then throw it away. About every couple of weeks I take a kitchen garbage bag and fill it up from the small wastebaskets around the house, my shredder, etc. So, I will put that in first, haha. I really don't feel like having yet another discussion on why we should keep something we don't use or need, let alone barely works. 

I know there is quite a bit of old linen type stuff that can go or transfer to the rags bin out in the shop. I just need to pull everything out of the linen closets and go through it all. I wouldn't say my cabinets (whether it be kitchen or linen) are cluttered. Everything is in order - but still way too much stuff that isn't even needed anymore.

One of the "stuffs" in the kitchen is an old metal cheese grater. I also have a new style one from pampered chef. I never use either one. When it came time to start packing up for our big move 8+ years ago, I had put the old metal one in the box for Goodwill. DH pulled it out, for some reason, even he doesn't know, we had to keep it. He has never grated cheese in our married life, LOL. Not to mention - I always buy shredded cheese now! Well, for my home made mac and cheese and pizza, while dd and sil were here, I decided to buy good block cheeses. SIL first grated some with the old grater, then I got out the other one and he tried that. His conclusion was the newer one was easier to use. I am going to get rid of that old metal one - dh will never even know. If I asked him "where do I keep the metal cheese grater?" He would have no idea. 

My back is really sore this morning, from taking down and packing up all the decorations yesterday. Usually a nights sleep puts it back to right, but not this morning. I guess I really did over do it. The only thing I have left to do is try to defluff the big tree and take off the garland from the stair case railings. DH was using the wire cutters on the big tree, trying to get the lights cut off/out of it. As expected it is not an easy or fun job. He put on his bright headlamp and that helped him see what he was working on better. He's almost half way done, but at least the rest he can do standing and not up on a ladder. It will be worth it, once it's done. It is a nice tree and while stringing lights on it every year going forward will probably be a bit of a pain, at least the tree should last many more years now.

Usually I like to leave everything up until Jan 1st or the weekend after the first, but this year I was just ready to have it all put away and my house back to normal, for some reason.

Amos caught on the game camera - he looks like a mountain lion LOL. 

Plugging along

Yesterday was more of the same - working on taking Christmas stuff down. It's a lot! LOL. Every year I tell myself I'm not going to put out as much next year.....haha.

I got the sheets washed on the guest bed and remade that and took off the Christmas duvet, so that room is all back to normal. Some reindeer and trees got put back in their big boxes. I took the decor off the table in the entryway and the guest half bath and set it in a pile on the coffee table, since all the bins are still up in the closet. DH was too busy and tired after taking down all the outside lights and I'm in no hurry. I'll have him get those storage bins out of the upstairs closet today. I took the lights off the tree next to the staircase. Took the tree skirt from under the big tree. Amos was not happy about this. He likes to nap on it. I had a little Christmas "village" (it's just one house with accessories) that was my mom's and got that put back in it's box.

It pretty much rained all day yesterday, but dh came back inside and had remembered he now has a lightweight rain jacket I had gotten him for our Alaska cruise, so he put that on over his coat and kept dry. It was strange weather, it would get cloudy and rain and then the sun would come out for a bit and then cloudy and rain and then sun again. But, he got it all taken down and put away and didn't have to freeze doing it, since the temp was almost 40.

Before Christmas dd had asked for some gift ideas from me. I did get 2 of the things on my list (the canisters and some books). I was thinking yesterday I should just order the other 2 things (just small/not expensive items) but then I remembered I have a birthday next month and she might get me those for my birthday LOL, so I'll wait ;) Next month is my 61st birthday and our 40th wedding anniversary. 

Hard to believe in a few days it will be 2025.

More de-Christmasing

I got some of the Christmas stuff put away yesterday. I got the bedrooms done, the throw pillows covers off, all the kitchen decor put away. I got all the wrapping stuff put back into the organizer and tote bin. There is still LOTS to do, of course, but at least it's a start. On Thursday dh took down the inflatables. Mostly because he wanted to get them down before we are supposed to have snow. He still had to get them dried out (in the garage) after taking them down, as they were wet from rain. Yesterday he took down the manger scene and everything at our front entryway.

We'll see what I can get done today. Everything else needs the big bins brought out of the closet - more than half of the bins brought downstairs. I'm not sure if I'm ready to do all that yet, LOL. But, there are some larger items that go back in their boxes (easily pulled out of the closet) and I can carry those up and put in the boxes as well as I still need to take off the pillow covers on about 7 throw pillows downstairs. I can also take the garland off the staircase. Half of the sections have the lights out now, so I'll have to just throw those out. Luckily they aren't expensive ones. They are the one's Lowe's carries and usually puts on sale Black Friday for $5-$10. They do seem to last at least a few years before the lights stop working. To take them down I just have to cut all the zip ties off, that I used to hook onto the railing.

I got some new copper kitchen canisters for Christmas. They look really nice in my kitchen and dd wanted my old set (red ceramic type) so I was glad to get rid of the old set so easily. My old set just had 3 canisters, but the new set has 4. I decided to put the 2 largest where my old set was (on the other side of my bread box) with flour and sugar and the 2 smallest I am using one for coffee grounds and the other for monkfruit sweetener, next to my Keurig. DD also took my old coffee canister. 

I've been wanting to resubscribe to Apple+tv to watch the new seasons of a few shows, but one isn't coming out until another month or so, so I have been waiting - but there are hints out there from Apple that something is going on next weekend Jan 4th and 5th and the theory is they will be doing a free viewing weekend. I hope so - then I can try to binge watch 2 of the shows.

Here is a picture of my table set for Christmas (Eve) dinner. Nothing fancy. I got these plates last year.

Since we had the turkey dinner a day early (it was all thawed out, by the way) and then 4 of us eating leftovers, the rest of the turkey was gone by yesterday, for dh's lunch sandwich. I've just been eating up the leftover mac and cheese, which is just as good reheated. 

Since I have next week off, weather permitting, we'll try to go in and get groceries on Thursday or Friday, rather than waiting for the weekend. Next weekend will have been 3 weeks again, already. 

Has anyone ever made their own peanut butter? Since this new Ninja blender I got also came with a food processor attachment, I kind of want to try it. Seems easy enough. I just need to find some organic peanuts to buy. Seems worth a try. I've seen a couple recipes, one adds a bit of sea salt and a bit of honey. We were just given a large jug of local honey, off our friends property, so that would be a great use of that honey.

The day after

DD and SIL had a safe trip home. They don't have to go back to work until the 2nd of Jan, so will be able to enjoy some free time until next Thursday.

Usually I wait until New Years to take down the decorations, but I'm kind of ready to do it now. I'm going to at least get started on some of it. Put away the kitchen decor and I can put the bedrooms bedding and pillows back to normal. I also have a few things in the guest bathroom I can put away in that linen closet.

DH's game camera caught elk just on the other side of our fence, in Mr's yard

They seem to use his yard, while the deer use our yard.

Amos never likes us having guests, LOL, especially of the 4 legged canine variety, but he did ok and at least didn't hide in our closet for 2 days. I can tell he's happy to have his space back, though. 

Not much else new around here. Shortly after dd and sil left yesterday, I took a long nap, which felt really good.

A wonderful Christmas

Christmas 2024 is done and in the books. DD and SIL will head home today. It's been really nice having them a bit longer than they usually stay. We had a super low key day yesterday. Breakfast was blueberry muffins and some strawberry-banana smoothies made in the new blender. Then we opened our stockings. 

Later afternoon we started watching the 3rd Die Hard movie. DH had invited some friends over to meet dd and sil and they messaged they would come around 5:30. We had a really nice visit with them until around 8:30. I put out the candy that was in my stocking - in hopes it would get eaten up and I wouldn't be tempted, and a lot of it did disappear, so that is good ;)

I'm ready to not be in the kitchen so much, though, LOL. And ready for a good nap. I've been surprised at how much dh is napping (ie falling asleep sitting on the sofa or loveseat). I have a feeling he must be napping during the day when I am up in my office working or when I am taking a nap on weekends and I just never realized it. He did make it through the movies though, which usually if we sit down to watch one, he's out in minutes. I really needed a nap yesterday, as I only got about 4 hours sleep Christmas Eve night - I was having terrible acid reflux. Too much food and sweets. I did take an omeprazole yesterday around dinner time to see if that would help for last nights sleep and apparently it did. I will be glad to get back to my normal eating/foods.

SIL helped dh get his game cameras set up yesterday, so I'm sure we'll see lots of deer pics this morning as we could see the deer out there, from our windows, last night as soon as it got dark.

Now we are finally supposed to get some snow starting today and all week, but it sounds like the kids will be able to get on the road and ahead of it and not much is expected today, anyway. I'm just ready for a big enough dump that dh get to get out there and plow LOL. It's a great relaxing thing for him, just like mowing the lawn is.

My big tree has had even more lights go out. Now only the top 1/3 and bottom 1/4 is lit. Bummer it didn't last longer than 5 years. I tried to suggest to dh, if we get another tree, to make it 10 feet instead of 12 LOL. He wasn't going for that. Maybe at least that would be a little easier to manage. I'm going to be seeing what is on sale now, but so far the ones I found, that are now like 50%, off are all pre-lit. I did just find one through Target (12') that is regularly $900 for $300. I'll keep this one bookmarked while I keep looking. I am expecting whatever I decide to pay for a big un-lit tree it is going to (should) last us for many years to come.

DH liked his teeny tiny present I wrapped LOL. He was surprised :) It does sound like he will probably buy the aftermarket towing mirrors, so that will be much cheaper, which is good.

 

Merry Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve :)  It's cold and frosty here this morning, but still no snow.

Most of yesterday felt like it was spent in the kitchen. First making egg sandwiches for breakfast. Then dd and I started to make cookies and the cracker/toffee "cookies". Well, I messed up when we were doing the ingredients for the shortbread cookies! Too much talking and distractions I guess, but instead of grabbing the can of cornstarch I grabbed the can of baking powder and put 1/4 c. of that in instead! I realized it after I did it. The cans are the same shape and similar looking and I just wasn't paying attention. So, we dumped that out. Bummer because I had bought expensive Danish butter for it, too. I had another pound of it, though, but we had to wait and let it get soft to start over. So, then we made the crackers cookies and by the time we were done with that the butter was soft enough. It's really good butter. DD and I both liked it.

I had dd and SIL try that organic coffee I bought to see if if they thought it didn't taste good, either. Both of them didn't like it at all, either. I threw the (expensive) bag in the garbage. 

By early afternoon we were all feeling pretty sleepy. Dh fell asleep in the recliner, SIL on the couch. DD went up to the loft to read a book she brought and I went and took a nap. Then it was back to the kitchen to make the homemade mac and cheese and pizza for dinner. All of that turned out delicious, but that mac and cheese is a lot of work. Plus I bought good cheeses that 2 of them had to be shredded, but we put SIL to work doing that, so that helped. 

After dinner we watched the new Jeff Dunham Christmas comedy special. We all laughed and dh fell asleep, of course. Then we decided to watch Die Hard, because dd had never seen it. DH managed to stay awake (and actually put his glasses on) for that. I have a feeling we'll be watching the second one tonight ;)

Today I need to get the turkey in the oven. I usually try to get it in around 10, so we can eat around 2:30 or 3. Then  after dinner we will open our presents. There's a lot of presents under that big tree for just the 4 of us. I think we all got a bit carried away this year. Oh well, it will be fun and we always open slowly, with everyone taking a turn.

It has seemed different not having my mom here (or not having to go see her, as we did her final Christmas) but as dd and I were talking - it's also the first Christmas I've had in quite a few years that I wasn't stressed out trying to have her here and worrying about her and her safety, due to the dementia. I'm glad she can join us in spirit now and she's all whole again 💖

Over the river and through the woods

I got done with everything I needed to do around 12:30pm. I got all my presents wrapped before dh even got up. Back didn't hurt too bad and a few presents I put in bags or boxes that didn't need wrapping. I got 2 loads of laundry done, changed the sheets on our bed, and finished the vacuuming upstairs.

DD and SIL got here a little after 1pm yesterday, so they made good time and all the roads were good. Their pickup is big and sturdy, so I don't worry much about them driving anyway. SIL is always prepared when they take a road trip.

They only have the one dog now, which makes things a little less chaotic. Amos seems to remember the dog and while he, of course, keeps his distance, he is not hiding in my closet for 2 days this time, LOL. 

I've kind of been monitoring my work emails from my phone (just to keep all the junk cleared out) but there was one with an invoice to pay for a subcontractor we use. I didn't want him to have to wait 2 weeks for his payment, so I just hopped onto my work login this morning and got his payment processed. Then I logged right back out.

Today we'll make some more cookies - which just reminded me I need to get some butter out to soften. Be right back......These shortbread cookies will be made trying this Danish butter I bought. 

Dh said when he went outside last night around 10:30pm, to go lock up the shop, there were 3 elk and a small group of deer in our front yard. He's going to be happy to have a game camera again. DD bought a 2 set of game cameras for one of his presents and I got him the battery packs and sd cards for them. It's a rechargeable battery pack made just for these outdoor game cameras so I'm guessing they will be more weather resistant than his old game camera which he was just using AA batteries (and 8 at a time). 

Both SIL and dh were wanting to open presents yesterday LOL. Even dd...I finally said I don't care - you guys decide! In the end no presents were opened haha. Yet........

Dinner was spaghetti and garlic toast. Tonight's dinner will be my homemade mac & cheese. Maybe a pizza on the side. Lots of carbs and comfort food :) That mac and cheese is a favorite of anyone who has had it and I haven't made it in awhile, so I am looking forward to it.

Most of the evening was just spent listening to dh talk LOL. At least 95% of it was not about politics haha. We all had to laugh, while sitting at the dinner table, after eating, dd asked him a question and in true dh style, he spent an hour getting side tracked with story after story and then never did answer her original question! Typical. I'm just happy he has someone else to talk to besides me, for a few days, LOL.

Almost ready for Christmas

I took the advices yesterday and put the frozen turkey in the sink filled with water. I'm not sure how long I left it there - 4 hours or so. The water stayed cold the whole time. I know our well water is very cold and maybe the copper sink also kept it cold. I kept checking it to see if it was getting room temperature and I'd put in some more cold water, but it was cold the whole time. I'd say the turkey got a good day ahead of my original schedule now, LOL. I'll check it again tomorrow and see if I need to do that again for a bit to help it along.

That organic coffee I got not too long ago is awful. I decided to try it again, using my "strong" button on my Keurig, but that didn't help either. I just went downstairs and dumped it out and made myself a cup of good old Folgers (Dark Silk). I'll see if dd wants to try it/take it home with her. It seems too expensive to just throw away.

Yesterday morning I messaged a funny gif to dd (we had not been messaging yet) and at exactly the same time as I hit send, she hit send....to send me the exact same gif! We were like wait! what?! LOL. What are the odds that we would pick the same one?

I still have a bit of upstairs vacuuming to do this morning. I got the downstairs and part of the upstairs done yesterday, but my back can't take doing both on the same day, especially with the upstairs being all carpeting. I've also found, with the upstairs, it really helps if I just do one, maybe 2 rooms and then stop - before my back starts hurting, and then continue on with another room in a half or or so.

And all my presents need wrapping. I know that is going to hurt my back, so I think that's why I keep delaying it. When I did those 4 gifts for the delivery people, my back hurt just doing those. I think I'm just going to give it a try sitting on the floor, rather than bent over a table. Probably what I should be doing is using more bags and doing less wrapping! Or I should break up the wrapping into short sessions.

DD messaged and said they left at 5am instead of 4am, so have been on the road about an hour and 15 min. Getting near the first of 3 mountain passes to go over. First one is bare and wet.  Second one is rain and 3rd pass says scattered wet, so should be an easy drive over here. 

Ok, I just wrapped some presents sitting on the floor. Nope! LOL. That just hurts my hips and lower back. I have lots of bags - just going to use some of those to help the situation ;)  Work smarter, not harder.

From busy to relaxed

I was kept busy with work yesterday, so I skipped blogging. Payroll, taxes and the last day of the work year, so lots to get done, before having 2 weeks off. Though I was able to get the 2 "big ticket" items, payroll and the tax filing, done in the morning, so the rest of the day wasn't too stressful. My boss sent my bonus check over via UPS and that's supposed to get here Monday.

DD and SIL plan to leave their house at like 4am tomorrow so they should be here around noon (they lose an hour when they cross the state border), which will be really nice and will feel like we have the whole day with them. They are staying until Thursday. No white Christmas this year. Not even any snow on the ground, what we've gotten kept melting.  DD was supposed to have to work from here on Monday, but one of her coworkers decided not to take it off, so dd was able to now take it off. She was really happy about that. Now she can just totally relax. I think we'll make more cookies on Monday.

On Thursday I had taken my Christmas treats down to the neighbor at the end of the street. Had a nice chat with her for a bit. After I got back she texted me "those ritz cracker cookies are amazing!"  Everyone sure seems to like them, even dh. Then our retired friend stopped by for a visit yesterday, so I gave him some to take. Plus I am out of the shortbread cookies. Those are my favorite, I think. They just melt in your mouth. The recipe only makes like 2 dozen small cookies, so might have to double the batch next time.

DH said he'd like our big turkey dinner on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day and then just have leftovers Christmas Day. That sounds like a good idea, but wish he would have suggested it a day earlier, LOL. I just took the 17# turkey out of the freezer yesterday afternoon. I don't think it will be thawed by Tuesday morning. What's a quick way to get it thawed the rest of the way Tuesday morning?

Well, I still have lots to do before the kids get here tomorrow. Clean, vacuum, wrap ALL my presents, a couple loads of laundry.... My plan for dinner tomorrow is spaghetti. If we do turkey dinner Tuesday, then I will do the homemade 4 cheese and bacon mac and cheese and a pizza (can you say carbs?!) on Monday. I was trying to figure out what to make for Monday anyway. Hopefully, I can get the turkey all the way thawed by Tuesday morning.

At least it's Thursday already

Holy shit show! The incompetence of some people/companies is crazy. Myself and 2 of my coworkers have been dealing with one of our manufacturer's and I honestly don't even know how this company has managed to stay in business. On Monday, our salesman just wanted me to send them a purchase order for a very small order - a sample he needed on jobsite by Thursday, our customer willing to pay the overnight shipping. If this sample gets approved by the customer, then of course hey - big order will come....

Several emails on our end the next day trying to confirm it was shipped...finally a reply mid afternoon "your accounting needs to contact our credit dept". I emailed right back - please give me name/email/ph# to contact? We have a main ph# listed in our records for this manufacturer so I tried to call. I got a rude person basically saying "why'd you call this number? we are "sales" OMG - just transfer me to your credit dept then! She gives me another number to call so I try that but can only get voicemail. Our sales support assistant then tried calling 3 different numbers to this company yesterday, all with no luck actually getting anyone. Nor did they reply to any of our emails about the order yesterday. Their order dept person, who first emailed us that we needed to contact their credit dept doesn't even have a phone number in her signature line. Hows that for great service?!

So, finally they email back this morning that they have sent us a payment link so we can prepay the order before it gets shipped. Um....we've been emailing you since Monday that we needed this on the jobsite TODAY! What a joke.

DH wanted to get our garbage man the gift this morning. The garbage truck typically arrives in the morning on Thursdays around 7-ish, but he got up at 6am to wait to listen for the truck, to make sure he didn't miss him. It's now almost 9am and still no garbage truck. Of course, LOL.

I was trying to kill 2 birds with one stone yesterday by not having to walk all the way down to the end of our street to drop off the Christmas cookies to neighbor. Her son gets off the school bus at 4:30 or so, so I was watching for the bus from our dining room window and then would get out there and meet up with him as he's passing by on his walk home and then I'd continue over next door to Mr & Mrs house to drop off theirs. It was very windy rainyish day, which is why I really didn't want to take the long walk down to their house. I get out there, the bus has gone by and no kid. Damn it! LOL. I guess he didn't go to school yesterday, so I walked over to Mr&Mrs and dropped off with them and brought my other box back home. I'll text other neighbor today around noon and make sure she's home, before I walk down there. I think today's weather will be better for a walk.

Annoying cat behavior

More "teaser" snow overnight, but it's warming up and a bit of rain coming or at a minimum it will melt off again today.

I got an email from my health insurance company yesterday about don't forget to claim your rewards. I vaguely knew something about this program, but thought I'd better check. I had $25 to claim for an Amazon gift card, from having my annual exam and screenings this year. Oh nice! Then I decided to explore what else they offer rewards for. I earned another $30 answering a questionnaire and putting an app on my phone. Glad I looked - that was an easy $55 found/earned. I will have to remember this for next year, where I can at least get another $25 for my annual check up.

DH also really likes the "Christmas crack" toffee treat I made with Ritz crackers, chocolate, peanut butter and toffee and the top sprinkled with mini m&m's. He said it tastes like a really good Reese's. I agree. 

I made myself a to-do list for work, so that I (hopefully) don't forget to take care of before I'm off for 2 weeks. Worse comes to worse and I wake up one morning, in the next 2 weeks, suddenly remembering I forgot to do something, I can always log into work and do it, haha. 

DH is going to have to get up early tomorrow so he can try to catch the garbage man and give him his (giant LOL) box of chocolates. I think they usually come around 7am but it's not super consistent. Even if they don't come until after I am up, I don't typically even hear them out there. He did manage to fit the box in our mailbox for the mail carrier yesterday, so she got hers. We also still have the box for our FedEx gal. We don't get FedEx here as often as UPS or USPS. I told dh a week or so ago, as far as I know, we don't have any packages coming via FedEx before Christmas and offered to order something from Walmart (who usually ships FedEx) so that she has to stop here, but he just said oh, let's just wait and see. Oh well. Maybe we'll get something by New Year's.

My cat is being very annoying lately. He's just acting very agitated a lot of the time. Maybe it's because he wants his normal outside time off and on during the day but he's not liking the cold, so he comes back in. Mostly he sleeps most of the day now but when he is up he just seems restless. Then as soon as I go to bed he wants to meow and up on the bed, down, up in the window ledge, down, out to the living room, then repeat. After I went to bed last night dh shut his den doors (french doors with windows) because he was talking to a friend on his phone and didn't want to wake me up. I guess Amos was meowing he wanted in, so dh let him in the den and reshut the door. He immediately started meowing he wanted back out. Repeat. From about 5am he was annoying. I let him out when I got up at 7 and left him out there for about 40 minutes. He followed me up to my office (where his food and litter cabinet is). I fed him, gave him his treats. He starts meowing. I played with him and his mouse on a stick for awhile. Then he went downstairs and I didn't hear him meowing again, and he woke dh up (again). He's back outside now. Dh was not happy. I guess I'll just have to put him up in my office for the night. It seems like, in the past, when I have done this for a few nights, the then seems to mellow out and doesn't act like this for awhile. Hopefully he gets over whatever is going on.

Miscommunication

Yesterday morning, while it was snowing, dh came upstairs and said "Bumble died". We had this whole conversation where I asked what's wrong and he said the motor died, it won't go up. Bumble is what he named his big white sidexside snowplow. I thought he was talking about that and that something was wrong with the plow part/motor that raised and lowered it. Off he went to try to fix it.

Only I kept hearing noises right outside the front corner of the house. Hours later (because I was busy getting our bonus payroll submitted and other things) I go look out the window to try to figure out what in the heck all this noise is. He was working on Bumble.....Bumble the inflatable Christmas decoration! RIP big Bumble. He didn't last very long.

Bumble on top of Bumble (old pic)

Boy, we had a lot of snow that year compared to now, with barely a dusting on the ground.

Ok, I got Monday done. I still don't think my expense program syncing with my accounting program issue is fixed. I guess I'll find out when I have to try to sync again. Seriously, if it is, I'm just going to wait until after the holiday to figure it out, I think. I can just add the info manually this week, plus we don't usually have many expense reports being submitted mid/late month. They are supposed to get them in the first week of each month (ha! who am I kidding?!)

As dd and I say to each other: we now have 5 more sleeps until we see each other :)

I've been thinking about someday getting a new area rug for my living room. One that's a bit bigger, with maybe a bit of color in it. What has been catching my eye are rugs that have copper and blue colors in them. I'm always seeing those ads for the washable type rugs. And then this morning I see an ad for them, but they now have holiday rugs. How cute would that be to be able to change out the rug for the holidays!, but easy to store when not using it. I'll have to keep that in mind, whenever I do finally decide to get a new rug. DH would be "OMG - you have a rug for Christmas now?!" haha. 

Oh, Monday!

I got up, ready to take on Monday and the week and was immediately annoyed with the first email, from work, I read, LOL. We have this vendor we purchase from fairly regularly - for years. They email me the monthly statement, and for some reason also always email it to our dept head that purchases from them. Our dept head, while I love her to pieces, always has to forward it to me and half the time is questioning me, if we are past due. I have told her repeatedly over the years, that I also get this same statement email.

This morning I wake up to this email from her: 

Making sure you had seen this from XXX. Since it's unlike us to be overdue on payment to XXX (Invoice 9172....), I'm hoping it's not a case of a check being lost or anything. As such, I wanted to bring it to your attention.

First off, if by chance, I missed getting an invoice from them, then I will see it on the statement and get it taken care of right away. You don't need to remind me. Here is my reply to this one:

It's all good - 9172.... is a Credit Memo, not an invoice, that was on last months statement and it will get applied to the current invoice on the statement, that is not due until next month. 

Give me a break - I've been doing this job for 20 years (40 years of experience). I think I know how to do my job. I'm just annoyed because she does this all the time and all the time nothing is wrong. From now on, I'm not even going to explain myself anymore, I'm just going to reply "ok, got it".

Then I go to do a process where I sync our 3rd party expense reporting system with our accounting system and now suddenly that doesn't want to work.

But, then I got a nice surprise. My boss emailed the report with all the bonus's listed, for me to enter for a payroll batch, and turns out I'm not getting half of what I would have gotten, if we had met our goal, I'm getting more than that, LOL. As usual, there are a few getting extra and I am one of them. I will put my annoyances aside (once I figure out what the heck is wrong with our expense report system!) and count my blessings.

I made the pork chops meal last night and it was a total hit. The added packet of Lipton onion soup mix, in addition to the cream of mushroom soup, made the rice taste really good. My only complaint was it needed more water, there wasn't enough of the soup/gravy for the rice. Or maybe I just needed to cook it about 10 minutes less. The recipe said an hour, but these weren't very thick pork chops. I'll work on tweaking it next time I make it. Plus it looks easy to make a homemade copy cat recipes of the onion soup mix and cream of mushroom soup, with no additives. It looks like pork chops are a great source of protein. I only bought a 4 pack this first time, because I wanted to make sure we'd like them. Now we have to wait almost 3 weeks before we shop again LOL.

A shopping, baking Saturday

It was a fairly busy day, at least by my metrics (which doesn't take much, LOL). We left the house at noon to go get our grocery order. Arrived about 45 minutes later and our order was ready a couple minutes after we got there. We were pulling out at 1pm and then went to the other grocery store. I got some dinner rolls for Christmas dinner. Grabbed a couple more loaves of bread and a loaf of white bread. Got dh's tortilla chips (to which he says, as I'm putting the bags in the truck "I'm getting kind of tired of those" and to which I reply "you heard me say I was going in here for tortilla chips because Walmart was out of stock!" Men!) Decided to get one more gallon of milk and ended up putting that in the freezer. 

I also picked up some organic peanut butter to try (with my daily apples and peanut butter). It will be a little to get used to. I have literally eaten Jif peanut butter my whole life. I'm used to the thickness and sweetness, but I managed to gt it stirred up some (still very runny!) and on my plate with my apple slices and it was a fine combination. Maybe keeping it in the fridge would help? At least it's much healthier. Organic peanuts and a bit of sea salt. No added sugar and seed oils and no mono and diglycerides.

By then it was 1:30 and dh suggested stopping at Wendys. I said sure (we had eaten lunch at home around 11:30) but the drive thru line was packed. I said maybe McDonald's isn't so busy. It was, but he pulled in to the gas station next door to fill up and as we were pulling out McD's line was almost gone, so he pulled in. I ordered a chicken sandwich. Worst sandwich ever! Flat dry bun and nothing on it but the chicken (kind of dry too) and 3 pickles. $7 - a complete waste of money. I've never ordered one before, so I assumed it was like Wendy's, which has mayo, lettuce, tomatos and pickles. The cute kid at the drive thru window looked like he was 12 years old. DH says you don't look old enough to be working, the kid proudly said "I'm 14!" Learned something new - I didn't know kids could get a job that young here. Where we lived before you had to be 16 and even then many places (retail and food) wouldn't hire 16 year olds.

I took a nap after we got home and I got the groceries all put away.  When I got up dh was out in the shop, and I figured he'd want dinner a little later, since he basically had 2 lunches. I made the Christmas shortbread cookies. They are so easy and so good. He came in and was like "what? no chocolate chip cookies?" So, I got out some more butter to let soften and made his cookies around 7pm.

They turned out the worst ever! OMG! Flat as always, but on both cookie sheets (I have 2 different kinds) they overcooked on the edges of the cookies and the middles weren't done. I gave up and put the rest of the dough in the fridge. He'd rather just eat the dough anyway.

Today I will make the "Christmas crack" or Toffee crackers or whatever names they go by. Then I will get them packaged up to give to the 2 neighbors and leave a few for me (dh will be eating his dough, LOL) to munch on. He might give the toffee crackers, that have the mini m&m's on them a try. He can't resist m&m's. Then once he decides "oh, these are good, I'll have to make another batch for us, LOL.

Next weekend, I'll probably make some more of the shortbread cookies and maybe some of the sugar cookies. I might skip making those, though. If we have the shortbread, some of the toffee crackers, plus I am making a pumpkin pie for Christmas, that's plenty for the 4 of us.

I also bough some pork chops to make something for dinner. DH suggested it (because a friend suggested it to him, if I had suggested it he would say no). I said you told me early on in our marriage you didn't like pork chops so I never buy/make them.....anyway, I remember a recipe my mom used to make us for dinner - kind of a casserole type dish with rice, cream of mushroom soup and pork chops, but I can't remember how she made it or what all ingredients she used. I'll have to see if I can find something similar online to make. Porkchops and applesauce. If you are my age you will get the reference ;)

Grocery gettin' Saturday

Just before I was going to bed last night I thought to myself 2 more weeks until I see dd...then a few minutes later I realized, no! it's only one more week. Christmas is sneaking up fast, it always does.

I entered my Walmart order yesterday for pick up today at 1pm, so we'll have to leave home around noon. We are going to have to make a quick stop at the other grocery store. The tortilla chips dh likes are out of stock at Walmart and I also want to look in their bakery for whatever rolls I decide to get for Christmas, that I can freeze. I think I also might pick up more milk than I ordered from Walmart because we'll likely use more with dd and sil here.

A week or so ago it sounded pretty promising that we would make our sales goal at work, to get our year end bonus. I found out yesterday that we are not going to make it, but because we are very close, they are going to pay out half of what we would have gotten. A bummer that we didn't make it, but half is better than nothing. We are probably only a couple of weeks shy of making the yearly goal - so darn close.

A little more snow this morning (yesterdays little bit melted) but it supposed to warm up to 42, so this will likely melt as well, or more rain.

I will be making some cookies/treats this weekend. Most will get shared with the 2 neighbors. I plan to do some easy shortbread cookies and then make 2 kinds of "Christmas crack", one with just chocolate, one with peanut butter and chocolate. I have different toppings: pecans, mini m&ms, and red and green sprinkles so I will do sections with each kind. I haven't tried making the one with peanut butter yet, but it's basically the same recipe. Maybe the Monday before Christmas dd and I will make the sugar cookies I usually make (just for us).  I told dd next year I think I will forego the cookie making (so no sugar consumption temptations) and make some candles to give to the neighbors. I can make those anytime next year and then no rush to get stuff made right before Christmas. Plus dd/sil won't be here for Christmas next year so I won't feel like I need cookies for them.

Well, better go back downstairs and see if Amos is ready to come back inside this morning. He wanted out when I got up at 7:15 and hasn't been back at the door the last 2 times I checked.

Finishing up Friday

It's Friday, it's payday and there's a little bit of snow on the ground. It's a good day :)

Some friends of ours with 2 young kids drove by our house last night to see our lights and yard decorations. DH told their dad - have them tell me if it's too much, not enough or just right LOL. Their assessment: it's awesome, but they would add some lighted candycanes. Guess what we'll be adding next year? haha.

We got a call yesterday from the new owner of the lot next to us. (they live in Tx). It just kind of sounds like more of the same...basically trying to feel dh out, to see if they can do what they want and if anyone's going to care. We have restrictions (not covenants) on how close we can put a permanent foundation/structure to the edge of the properties where they drop off down the bank. No closer than 25 feet. We also have restrictions that we cannot touch the river bank. (We are high bank properties, like over 100 ft up a steep bank). I think its our DNRC that control this. So, even though we technically own our property part way down the bank, to the high water mark, we are not allowed to alter it. Of course new owner wanted to know how close he could build (it's right in your lot CC&R's...) because they wanted to build right up next to the bank, and then says "ya, I need to figure out how to make a trail down to the river". (but then at one point said ya, I saw that about the 25' - so why ask then?)

DH just said do so at your own risk and told him what happened with our other neighbors (Mr & Mrs) who first built here 8 years before anyone else and tried to build steps/ramp down to the river. He also told him about another property owner about 1/2 mile down river. She bought her property like 10 years ago. It's a wide piece (10 acres) and not quite as high bank and the previous owner had basically cut in a little road to get down there, apparently years before. But over the years it got overgrown, so wasn't really noticeable. A few years ago new owner decided, hey, I'd like to use this little road trail to drive my quad down there, so she cleaned it up, pulled weeds, etc. Well, she got notified by the DNRC she was in violation and had to restore that hillside and they literally gave her like a month deadline.

I was the one who answered the phone (he called on our landline) when he called and dh was in the shower. He said their builder had some questions on what they can/can't do, so he was wondering if we knew. I decided dh would be best to talk to him (since he dealt with all that during our build) and told him dh will call him back in a bit. But, before hanging up I did say "so, are you guys going to get started building next spring?" He said well...we're still trying to decide if we need a house in Montana. We live in Tx and also have a vacation house on a lake in another state, so not sure if we need another one. Plus, still trying to find out how much it's going to cost to build". 

They bought this lot, without seeing it for themselves. Only their son had checked it out and I'm guessing he had just told them/assumed they would be able to just build right up next to the bank,  (because his wife wants to see the river from inside their house) and hey, just make your own access down to the river. Now they are trying to figure out how they are going to build 25' back and see the river and apparently their idea/solution is build a 2 story house up on stilts...........

It's been 3 weeks again since we went to the city for groceries. My time flies. Once dh gets up and going this morning I'll ask him when, this weekend, he wants to go in. At least, with our 3 week schedule of getting groceries, this month we only have to go in once :)

I just checked the hospital's patient portal to see if dh's blood test results are showing yet and they are. Negative, so it's not autoimmune pancreatitis. Now we wait until the next endoscopy on Jan 9th to see if we can get any answers. At least we got the test in before the end of the year and it's not going to cost me anything.

Temptations everywhere

I will say I've notice, since cutting down on sugar (most days I don't have anything with added sugar) that I have not been experiencing the energy crashes I used to always get around mid afternoon. I had one yesterday - why? well most likely because Tuesday afternoon I had a chocolate covered donut and then yesterday Mr Neighbor dropped off some holiday treats his wife made and I had a couple of those. Mid afternoon yesterday I could hardly stay awake. I will have to do my best to not eat the treats. DH rarely will eat them, he never eats the treats anyone ever drops off, so I end up eating all of them. Looks like there are 3 different kinds in the container. One I did not like at all - looked delicious but way too sweet for me. The other one I tried looked kind of like a chocolate chip cookie, but flatter and cut into triangles. And it wasn't chocolate chips in them - dates, I think, and that one was really good.

After we got dh's blood draw done, we stopped at the store in town to pick up some milk. DH went in with me and we always have to walk past the donuts (it's a very small store LOL) and usually they never have any donuts left by afternoon (or even late morning) but lately they seem to have donuts still. And since we rarely get them, like once every 2-3 months (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!) we treated ourselves. DH loves the maple bars. I had a chocolate covered bar. Honestly, it was probably 2 months since we last had a donut, we don't go to that store very often and most of the time they are out of donuts. They do make very delicious fresh donuts.

One these holidays and extra food/treats are done with in 2 weeks, I am back to what I have been eating/not eating. Then just as I was done with work yesterday our little neighbor boy down the street (who is getting so tall and big now! he's in 2nd grade) stopped by with the Christmas treat his mom made - a freshly baked loaf of sourdough bread. Yum! It was still warm. Then UPS showed up with a gift from our good friends in TX (the ones we went on the cruise with) and it was a box of apples, pears and some nuts and cheese. I'm actually more excited to see the goodies in this box than the sweets we've gotten, so that's a good sign, right? 

DH noticed the tiny package under the tree last night. LOL! It's already driving him crazy what it could be. DD thought this was hilarious. 

I guess my side job will go on about 4 more months and then I'll be done. It would be great if about the time I lose that income, I get another raise at my regular job ;)

The incompentency

The doctor's office finally called around noon yesterday to say they sent over the orders for the blood test. I waited about 45 minutes and called the hospital to make sure they received it. I could just see us driving the 11 miles into town, getting there and them saying "no, we don't have anything yet". And there would be no way to call the dr office from there and get it resent, because they never answer their phone.

But, they did get it, so we went in to get that done. We sat there outside the lab for at least 20 minutes. No one else waiting for lab work and no one came out from there. Finally, a guy in a lab coat comes out, looks surprised to see us there. "Are you here for labs?" Yes... he looks around the corner at the lady we checked in with at the main desk and starts to ask her and she says "oh, I was waiting for your phone light to go off, before I called you and told you he was here". OMG. I think she just totally forgot. Annoying. Then we still had to wait another 10 minutes before the guy came back out again, and got dh. Anyway, that's done and they took 3 vials of blood from him. Of course dh didn't think to ask him about how long it would be before his dr. has the results. This dr office (nor the hospital) doesn't report things to MyChart, which is a bummer.  But, then I just remembered the hospital does have a patient portal log in, so his results should show up there. I'll watch for it,

At least it was a beautiful sunny day for the drive to town. After we got home I got another call from the EUS scheduler from the day before. She thought she had talked to me the day prior to set up his appointment, but apparently she then didn't enter it in their system! Can you imagine if we had waited a month for this, get to the hospital to check in, and they say "we don't have you on the schedule"?!

I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with one more gift for dh. For years he's been wanting some towing mirrors for his old pick up. I asked SIL if he knew what he wanted (of course he did LOL), but he said dh wants original OEM and they are going to be really hard to find (and expensive) so if dh can't find those it will have to be aftermarket ones (MUCH cheaper). I decided to just have SIL send me a link to a picture of some mirrors so I can print it out.

Dh likes to wrap presents as soon as they get here. He put this really big box under the tree the other day and says this is going to be the best present, LOL. I was going to find another big box and do the same, but all the boxes are out in the shop, up in the loft and I'd have to ask him to get me one. He'd say "why? nothing that has come in deliveries is that big??" So, I found the tiniest box I could. A box of matches. Took out the matches and printed the paper with the pic of the mirrors and folded it up small to fit in the box. Wrapped it with a tiny bow I have and put it under the tree. Waiting to see how long it takes him to notice. It will drive him absolutely nuts to wait until Christmas to find out what it is, LOL.

I need to fix that tree light cord, LOL. DH put the skirt under the tree and didn't put it over the cord. It's all in the details ;)

My long time side job, is fully coming to an end next month. The owner and his wife (who is the one I communicate with 99% of the time) are 70 now and he is having a lot of health issues and she has finally convinced him to completely retire. I've been working for them each month, the last year and a half, on a much smaller scale, as he has just been doing consultant type work and I have been keeping track of that income and expenses. She and I have become pretty good friends over all these years and that will continue. 

Back and forth

The scheduler for the upper EUS finally called mid afternoon yesterday and the soonest they can get dh in for the procedure is Jan 9th. That's very disappointing. Another month waiting. She said their office is only open these next 2 weeks and then closed for 2 weeks for the holidays and not reopened until Jan 6th. This endoscopy isn't done at their office, like the one last month was, we have to go to the hospital and the dr performs it there. He had an EUS 3 years ago, before his gallbladder was removed and they did it at the hospital, then, as well. We have to be there at 6:30 in the morning. Ugh. Oh well.

Then I called the hospital in town to make sure they had the order for the blood test and of course, they did not. So, I had to call the dr office back again, and am still waiting for a call back or message, this morning. I mean really - we have to know that the lab got the order before we try to go there. I don't want to have to keep calling the hospital every day to ask. Geez. So, I just sent another message, asking for an update on the order. There needs to be a better system, LOL. The doctors office is at some point going to say, yes, the order has been sent. Then I'm going to have to call the hospital again, just to make sure they got it.

DD has confirmed they will be here on Sunday the 22nd and will be able to stay until the 26th. This will be nice visit and glad to have the extra couple of days with them. She will have to work on her laptop from here on the 23rd, but should only have to work part of the day and it should be a slow day for her as most people have taken it off.

Nothing much else is new. I have to get payroll processed today. Still iffy/close on if we will be able to get our end of year bonus. While there's still 3 weeks left, we all know everyone's work slows way down after next week. Keeping fingers crossed.

Not Temu sized

Holy cow! I had ordered boxes of Russell Stover chocolates to give to our delivery people....they arrived yesterday via an Amazon driver. They are HUGE! I did not realize I was ordering these monster sized boxes, LOL. I just thought they'd be regular sized boxes of chocolate. Usually things ordered come smaller than expected, not bigger, haha.

I got them wrapped and ready for dh to give out the next time we see the drivers. My supervisor was on the job

Boy, Amazon sure is being slow getting stuff here. I ordered a bunch of other gifts (plus my vitamins) over a week ago at the same time I ordered these chocolates. First it was all supposed to be here yesterday. Then today. Now I see the rest of the order is saying tomorrow...why? probably because they are using these independent drivers to get stuff here and don't have enough drivers.

Yesterday dd messaged in our group chat that their "tree guy" was getting started yesterday on removing trees from their property (to build a house on). My reply was "Woooo!" Later she messaged me privately, that they were driving over to the property and SIL read my "Wooo!" reply on his smart watch and said "your mom is so supportive". Awww! That made me feel good. I'm so excited for both of them. From a few things dd says off and on it kind of sounds like his parents can be a bit negative. When they tell them stuff/plans they often get "why are you doing that?" type of responses.

I see from my USPS informed delivery that my side job check is finally in the mail today. Boy, that took the scenic route to get here. I'm just glad we don't have to go through canceling a lost check and reissuing it and waiting another week for it to get here.

Well, my work day started a little earlier than planned. Our satellite office on the other side of the state's internet is down. Apparently I'm the only one who gets notification, via email because I'm on the account as the contact, so I just figured out how to add our main guy over there's cell phone number, so he can gets texts to alert him if there is an outage.

40 year old appliance

DH wants to try drinking fruit smoothies. I had made some years ago and while they were good, my old blender was lacking and it sure seemed to take a whole lot of fruits just to get one glass. I told him if I'm going to make him some strawberry/banana smoothies I need a blender that isn't 40 years old LOL. I still have this blender - a wedding gift that will be 40 years old next month! It will be good for both of us to eat more fruit. I will just have to freeze fruit or buy already frozen, since we only shop every 3 weeks. He wanted to get me one more Christmas gift, so I'm going to pick out a blender to order. Plus, I'm sure the protein powder I've been buying can be added to smoothies, as well. I'm guessing I can buy big bags of frozen strawberries at Costco. I can freeze the bananas, as well.

We just got rain yesterday. Then when the temp gets back down below freezing again, (like it is this morning) the rain goes away so we still get no snow.

I've done 3 weeks of the intermittent fasting. Some days I make it 16 hours, but most days it's 15 hours when I will have my cup of coffee, with creamer, and then another 90 minutes or so before I eat breakfast. Absolutely no change in my weight. Not even a half a pound. Not to mention about a month ago I added walking to our mailbox Mon-Sat, sometimes twice a day, if I have to take something out to mail. It's about 750 steps I added per day with one trip. I know I need to add more. Bah humbug.

DD and SIL are getting dh a set of 2 game cameras for Christmas. The one he had for quite a few years got ruined when the batteries leaked/exploded/something. We know there have been lots of deer in our yard at night. He will go out to turn off the Christmas lights and they take off, LOL. It will be fun to see some pictures again and having 2 cameras he can put on in front and one in back and not have to move it around, like before. I'm going to get a couple of the microSD cards, the cameras use, to put in his stocking.  

I ordered a bunch of stuff from Amazon for Christmas gifts/stocking stuffers (and for Amos, too!), along with the multivitamins I take, and it's all supposed to be delivered today from an Amazon driver. They always only seem to deliver in our area on Sundays, otherwise the stuff comes in the mail or UPS. No one around here much likes having these Amazon drivers - they are people hired who use their own cars, not the Amazon vans with actual Amazon employees that deliver. They always seem sketchy, too. It's never the same driver, either.

I heard dh get on his phone after I went to bed, which he does a couple times a week, talking to either of 2 good friends of his, that he's know forever. Then I heard a bit of what he was talking about and realized it was son in law he was chatting with. I think they must have talked like 2 hours LOL. SIL did some modification to one of his Mustang's and I think they were talking about that and all the extra horsepower, haha.

Results and more waiting

The nurse from the GI doctors office called with the MRI results and said dh's pancreas is still showing "abnormalities" in the head of the pancreas (as with the CT scan at ER), so they want to do an upper EUS and scheduling will call to set that up. As soon as I hung up I'm like wait a minute - he just had an upper endoscopy 3 weeks ago! He needs another one? I called back to confirm this (because I don't trust doctors/staff to pay attention that he just had one) and had to leave a message. It took till mid afternoon for someone to call back, but yes, this is a different type of endoscopy that uses an ultrasound on the scope that goes down his throat. Fine. I am still waiting to hear back on when they can schedule it and am praying they can get him in before the end of the year, since he's already met his deductible and out of pocket this year. Then I asked the med assistant that called, if the doctor is still going to want to do the blood test for autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) can we get that done before the end of the year as well? He sent a note the the doctor about it.

Not too long later the nurse called back and said yes, he will put in the order for the blood test and dh can go get that done next week here at our hospital lab, in town. And I suppose, if by chance, that shows he has that condition - maybe then the endoscopy wouldn't be needed. I did read the MRI results from dh's MyChart and it (from weeding out the medical terminology) sounds like the abnormality in the pancreas is still the inflammation they are seeing at the head of the pancreas. There was a comment that cancer wasn't likely based on these findings, but would need the EUS/further tests to rule it out.

The propane heater rebate showed up in the mail yesterday as a check, not a credit to my account. It didn't show up as mail in my informed delivery and I was hoping my missing side job check was just having the same issue, but still haven't received it. I know twice this week I got neighbors mail and was worried a bit about that - but it still should have shown up in my informed delivery info, even if she put it in the wrong box. Plus, I know neighbors would have either put it in our box or brought it over (that's what I did with their mail).

I still want to get dh one more gift for Christmas, but I can't think of anything. I guess I could get him a gift card to Harbor Freight. I know he can walk in there at anytime and find 10 things he wants LOL, I just never know what those things are he wants.

Happy for the weekend here, but no big plans, as most weekends go. Probably will get the gifts that have showed up, so far, wrapped and under the tree. DH always sets up a "wrapping station" on a table he sets up in the bonus room. Might be rain, might be snow later today. 

I didn't make ham and cheese sliders for dinner last night. It felt like a long day from work and when I opened the freezer and saw some frozen fish fillets, I decided we'd have those, instead. 

Friday that feels like Wednesday :)

I still haven't received my monthly check in the mail from my side job. It usually comes around the 3rd of the month. I can log in the company bank account and see the check was processed (through bill pay) and looks like it should have went in the mail on Monday. I guess if it doesn't get here by Monday, I'll have to have her cancel it and send me a new one. 

Looks like I am going to have to call our propane company to ask about the rebate. The guy made it sounds like the rebate would be processed to my account with them and he said "you should see it next Monday". It's still not there and the full bill is due soon.  I guess I can just pay it and when the rebate/credit gets posted it can sit on my account and go towards the summer fill up.

My poor sis is still dealing with her (step) dad and his ongoing/increasing health issues. Very stressful. He's like 92 and REALLY needs to be in assisted living. He ended up back in the hospital (small town one) for the past few weeks and decided he wanted to go home again. She and her sister in law finally got some help for him, but would only come like 4 days a week and then another person for some other type of help, one day a week. They got him home and of course, he then told the nurse that was to come in 4x a week, she only needed to come in once a week and there's not much they can do. He's extremely stubborn. Well, then this morning she and I were messaging about work and she suddenly said "I gotta go - dad's not doing well". There is no way this man can live by himself! The nearest other relative (her sis in law) is an hour from him and my sis is 2 hours from him.

I'm so glad it's Friday already. Of course the week went by fast for me, since I had Monday and Tuesday off. The weather looks like rainy tomorrow but turning to snow on Sunday. It would be nice to see some snow. We've been getting lots of fog, that freezes onto all the trees and almost looks like it has snowed.

We are still waiting to hear from dh's doctor about the MRI results. I guess we'll give a call if we haven't heard by this afternoon. That's what the MRI nurse told him to do. She said his doctor should have the results next day but if he hasn't heard by Friday, to call the doctor. But, this is the doctor's office that is almost impossible to get someone to answer the phone - it always goes to recordings/leave a message, so I'm sure even if we call, we'll still be waiting to hear, just like we are now.

I think this weekends dinners will be ham and cheese sliders tonight and pizza tomorrow. I've been craving pizza. The weekend before Christmas will be my cookie making weekend. I'm going to skip making the rosettes this year. They haven't been turning out that great the last 2 times I made them and they don't stay fresh very long. I'm going to make the "Christmas crack" - 2 kinds. One with chocolate and pecans, and one with chocolate and peanut butter. I have some mini m&m's and red and green sprinkles to top, so I'll likely do half and half. I'm going to make the good little shortbread cookies I made last year. They are super quick and easy to make and very delicious. Then I'll most likely make my sugar cookies I make every year. It's tradition, LOL. If dd and sil are here on the 23rd (I think they are coming over on the 22nd) maybe she and I can do those cookies together. Or even on the 24th - we don't really have much planned for the 24th - other than opening the presents in the evening.

Thursday this and that

I got my Christmas cards done and they are now ready to be taken out to the mailbox. I still have Christmas stamps left over from last year, as I didn't use them all. I definitely have to bundle up and wear a hat walking down to the mailbox these days. I don't think it ever got above freezing yesterday.

DD was telling me last night she is thinking of getting another tattoo. She has 2. One she got when she went to college, on her back shoulder, representing family. Then she got one a few years later on her ankle for her great grandmother -who she got to have in her life for 17 years. Now she is thinking of getting another one for her grandma that would include her grandma's handwriting from an old birthday card she kept. Very sweet. 

Hopefully dh hears some MRI results today. I'm guessing this is still going to be something pancreas related. I guess I should be glad we're not in Canada trying to get appointments. My sis said her dr referred her to a spine specialist almost 2 months ago. She just got a call from the spine dr office - they said it would be a 12-15 MONTHS wait to get an appointment. And she waited to months for them to call and tell her that. She told them what's the point? LOL. Sure....tell me again how great socialized medicine is? Plus, the stuff she has told me about her step dad's care is terrible.

Today feels like Tuesday, LOL. I'm going to be so happy when I wake up tomorrow and it's already Friday haha.  

I'm about to lose it on dh. He wants to buy me a Christmas present, but it's on Amazon, so of course he doesn't want to use my account, as then I'll see it on there. I said then either set up your own Amazon account or send the link to dd and have her order it for you on her account. He decided to set up his own account, but apparently years ago he had already done that with his email address. I had him choose forgot password (because of course he never writes down and saves passwords) and it sent a code to his email, but after entering that it wanted to verify it was him by entering the expiration date of the cc on file with the account. Well, no can do on that of course- as the account was last used years ago. Who knows what the expiration date is/was? I called customer service and the only option is for him to set up using a different email address  - which I had already suggested to him to just do that.

He didn't want to use another email address - says this is the only email he has/uses. I said well, WHY in the hell did I have to go through all that hassle a year or so ago setting you up with a new email through our internet carrier? that he just had to have?? Then he doesn't use it?

Finally he got a new account set up, got his payment method added (with my help) and then when he went to order whatever it is he wanted to order he hollers upstairs - it says free prime shipping, do I chose that? No - you have to pay extra/month for the prime account. If your item is free shipping there should be an option in the shipping choices that is free. Well, without me looking at the screen, apparently there was no free shipping unless you had prime. "Why can't I just sign up for this free 30 day trial?" I said you can BUT you damn well better remember to cancel it before the month is up or you will be charged for it. Of course he's not going to remember. I just put a reminder on my outlook calendar to remind him to cancel it.  Some days he can be so exhausting.

Back to busy

We tried a resetting our furnace and that didn't work. So then dh texted our hvac guy to ask him. While waiting for him to reply (we both knew we had this issue one time before, but couldn't remember the fix) dh said "didn't we have to pull this thermostat off the wall and plug it back in one time, to fix it?. I said yes, but it was the small one upstairs in the hallway. We went up and did that and everything came back on and synced together, so that was a relief. Dh texted hvac guy back that all was ok now. He did call dh back and said it's possible that small thermostat "puck", as he called it, could be going bad and needs replacing, and said if it happens again let him know and he'll do a replacement on it.

This morning we were up bright and early....well it wasn't bright out, still dark....and got into the city so dh could get his MRI done at the hospital. They got him back in right after we got there. It was only supposed to take an hour, but ended up taking almost 90 minutes. It's a small waiting room and not crowded until about 5 or 10 minutes before dh was done and came out. It just exploded with people checked in, waiting to be checked in. I was like this is too many people for me, so I got up and went out and waited out on the hallway for him, LOL. They told him he should hear the results from his doctor in the next day or two.

I didn't get my Christmas cards started/done while on break. I started a few of them today, but better for me to do a few and then stop as my handwriting can only stay nice for a few at a time, and then my carpal tunnel kicks in and my writing gets sloppy. Good thing I don't have that many to send out. Only about 10, haha.

I am not feeling the back to work feelings today. But, only 2 1/2 more weeks and then I'm off for 2 more weeks. I can do it!

Another day off

My day off yesterday, I got busy and didn't end up posting. We're planning a little weekend trip with dd and sil for next May and were trying to nail down the airbnb. After a few messages back and forth with the host, I got it reserved for us. It's a few hours drive from us, so not too far from home. Then dd said she thought they had an airbnb gift card to use, so once she sent me that info, I was able to get it reserved and did the partial payment option. It will be fun - the guys can enjoy their car stuff and dd and I will get an opportunity to shop some antique and gift stores.

I've got most of the Christmas shopping done. I just want to come up with one more idea for dh and I need a couple more stocking stuffers for him. Usually I do candy, but trying to keep away from that with his stomach issues. I did order a nice Cross pen (thanks for the suggestion MegB!) for dd.

Our furnace isn't recognizing the other 2 zones this morning, so I'm not able to turn up the heat upstairs in my office. It's done this before, but I can't remember what the HVAC guy had dh do to fix it, so dh will have to figure that out when he gets up this morning. I should write this down, so that next time (if it's something dh can fix himself) we will know what to do. It's been 2 or 3 years since this last happened, so I can't remember now. Not to mention, we've had other issues, so the fixes get mixed up in my mind. I think this issue just has something to do with the "zone damper" and just needs to get "unstuck" or something. Probably because it's 19 degrees outside, LOL. So, until dh wakes up, I just have a chunky sweater on and a blanket over my lap to stay warm. (it's holding the heat at 66, that we set it at last night, we just can't adjust it)

We got through most all of our leftover turkey. The sides are all gone. I didn't end up freezing any of the turkey as we've been managing to get it all eaten. Last night we were back to regular dinner, with some salmon.

I just finished up the November stuff for my oldest side job and emailed that report off. Gotta wonder how long this is going to last. They are still doing a little bit of business (more like consulting now) so have kept me on to keep track if that income and related expenses. I'm guessing not too much longer. Hopefully, when it does end, I'll be about due for a raise from my regular job and that will offset losing that.

Almost done

Yesterday I continued to decorate, but it wasn't as exhausting as Friday was. The only thing I have left to do is put the lights on the pencil tree and put the "box" collar under it. I also needed to find where I stored 2 Christmas blankets and I just went and looked in one of the guest bedroom dresser drawers and found them. I don't even want to think about putting it all away again in a month. Ugh. LOL. I have not bought any new Christmas decor this year. I'm trying to be good ;)

My coffee tasted good in one of my Christmas mugs, this morning

We were just having leftover turkey for dinner again (of course) so I decided to just have a turkey sandwich and I ate it at 3:30, so I could easily get my 16 hours fasting in and be able to have something to eat/drink at 7:30 this morning, and not have to wait. I'm not getting 16 hours in every day, but probably 2 out of 3 and the 3rd is working out to 14-15 hours.  There's enough sides left for dh to have one more dinner out of it (which he wants) so that's what we'll do again last night and I'll just have a sandwich again.

One of to-do list items, while I'm off through Tuesday, is to get our Christmas cards ready to go in the mail. That sounds like a good tomorrow project. 

Most of today I just plan to do online gift shopping and try to get it all done. I just finished up SIL. A folding knife and gift card to Sportsman's Warehouse and I needed to spend $10 more or pay $5 shipping, so I decided to order him some BBQ rub for another stocking stuffer. I also got him a camera battery charger thing from Amazon dd said he wanted.

I want to get DD a nice ink pen, but I need to decide what brand. I don't know what is good or not, so I'll have to do some researching I guess.

I ordered a nice fresh greenery type table centerpiece, with a candle, to have sent to our friends we went on the cruise with. I still need to get the delivery people gifts. I thought someone asked if we have the same people as before, but I can't find the question, so maybe it was in my head LOL. But, yes, we have the same people as we've always had, other than the first year or so, we had a different mail lady, but at like 80 years old she finally retired, but we've had the same one since. We've had the same UPS and FedEx and garbage man all these years.