I'm done!

I decided to go ahead and get the rest of dh's boards stained after dinner last night. What was left I estimated would take an hour to an hour and a half and I was done in an hour and 15 min. I am done staining finally! He still has about half of the tongue and groove to put up in this small corner loft and add the light. I am so glad to have that done and now won't have to spend any of my weekend time doing it.

He gets the tongue and groove boards added, one by one, and nails them in easily with his nail gun (run off of his air compressor). Also, now that all the lights will be installed, those long (4ft) boxes they come in aren't taking up room anymore, either.

I've started tracking all our expenses, starting with this month. I've tried this in the past (many times!) and always give up before too long. I think it's because I spend all day doing that and then don't want to have to do it on my free time. I also got a friend to agree to keep me on track with it, LOL. But, I made it through this month with flying colors and kept up on it daily. I really want to do this the next few years, at least, so I can get a really good idea of where we are spending (outside of what I normally budget for stuff) so that I will have a better idea of what we will need or can live on when I retire. For January, my unexpected expenses were 4 things: $615 in lumber, $38 for some fancy shop paper towel holders, $22 car (truck) wash, and $18 to get dh a new knee brace, as the one we got about 6 years ago wore out on him. Everything else spent was budgeted for.

Our 4-26 inches of snow predicted, starting today, appears to have been way downgraded - to maybe 3 inches, which means likely nothing at all. Boo! LOL.

My weekend plans include the usual housecleaning stuff, finish watching a show of 4 seasons (I've got a few episodes left), maybe starting on the puzzle dd got me for my birthday. I also really need to give myself a good hair trim. It's getting way too long.

the long month

This is feeling like the slowest week and month ever. But that's ok! It just usually never feels like this, anymore.

When dh came to bed last night (or I should probably say very early this morning 😏 ) he said he was feeling much better. He actually went to sleep and stayed asleep. Still very odd that he got that high fever for that short period, but whatever it was I guess his body fought it off quick, though the nausea did linger for another day. Maybe like a 24 hour flu.....? or he had also done something to his thumb the day before (he couldn't remember what) and the next day it was really sore and he said a little puss came out - maybe it was getting infected and his body fought off. Who knows.

The weather report says possible snow this weekend - 4 to 26 inches...I guess they are covering their bases with that prediction haha. I'm hoping we get a good dump and dh keeps busy for a while plowing. He needs a good snow. We barely have any on the ground. This isn't a good picture, as it was just starting to get dark, too far away, and you have to zoom in, but Amos walked across the patch of snow to that old tree that's fallen and hangs out over the river bank. He just sat there like he's frickin' Mufasa looking out over his empire 😂

He's a weird cat. DH has several friends he talks to on the phone regularly. When he's on his phone with one of them, and only this guy (who Amos has never met), he will go into dh's den while he's on the phone with him, every time. DH likes to get up and pace when he's talking, so Amos will get up into his chair and curl up while the hour long phone call is going on. This is the only time he ever gets in dh's chair. It's the oddest thing. I told dh he needs to tell his friend to come for a visit (he's out of state) and see how Amos reacts to him.

Slow answers

Yesterday got away from me, in regards to getting a post typed out. DH wasn't feeling well - ran a fever all day Monday and spiked high Monday evening. It came back down yesterday morning and has been normal since, but he still feels kind of crummy. 

Plus, I had payroll to get processed yesterday. I was trying to get it done early, even got up early to get it done, just in case we had to go to the doctor. Thankfully we did not, as of course, payroll had a glitch with some new code that needed to get applied to every employee (that my boss knew about but hadn't done yet), so there was a delay in me submitting it, waiting for that to get done.

On Monday afternoon I filled out the online info for an appointment request with Mayo Clinic. It said an appt. coordinator would be calling within 3 days, so should be hearing in the next day or so. Their online application was a very easy process. I kind of scoped out hotels in the area, should we have to go there. It sounds like most of the hotels nearby offer a shuttle to the clinic, so that is handy. I'm thinking the Holiday Inn Express. But, I also want to see what's nearby and convenient for eating.

While I was typing this the Mayo Clinic appt. coordinator called. This is going to be a slow/long process. It will be April 16th before they can even do the initial "pre-visit phone consultation". By then he'll have also had his next MRI his GI dr wants him to do (that's on April 15th). But, I guess on the bright side, this should all be able to get done in this year, so still covered 100% by insurance.

A different kind of mayo

We got the 2 lights installed yesterday afternoon and the back wall loft ceiling is all done. Those lights are a PITA to put up. I don't know how he got the others up by himself. The 2nd one went in easier and lined up good, but then he realized he forgot to pre-drill the holes in the frame on that one. I think I cussed under my breath a bit on that LOL. Hopefully he will rest for a few days. He sure wasn't feeling very well last night and he didn't sleep well, which in turn makes me not sleep well. 

Other than that I just did some light chores. Ran and emptied the dishwasher. Emptied out all the small wastebaskets. I was tired (and sore from holding my arms up) after helping with the lights so I took a short nap. After that I made the banana cream pie. Yum. We had some for dessert last night. Using the sugar free pudding mix makes for a low calorie dessert.

I went out to add some more bedding to the chicken coop and found my first egg since September. Go Gladys! LOL. Hopefully she'll start laying a few a week, again. I've decided if I can find a couple of hens, already grown, I will get them. I don't want to deal with chicks and then have to get supplies and feed, etc just for them. I'll have to start keeping my eye out on Marketplace and Craigslist.

A couple of our friends (one a retired nurse) have suggested we have dh and his faulty pancreas checked out by Mayo Clinic. This might be a good idea. Like friend said - the pancreas is nothing to mess around with and if it takes a turn for the worse, it always seems to happen fast. At a minimum it sounds like they can review all his tests/chart records and see if there is anything else they think should be checked. He's met his OOP max for this year, so anything else is now covered 100%. If we had to go there, for him to be seen, it sounds like they are very efficient with your time there. Plus, dh has been wanting to do a trip to MN, to see the farm his dad grew up on (he went there once as a kid), that apparently a cousin still owns part of. 

HAHA! My phone just rang and it was from my bank, in the city, and I'm thinking oh oh! what's the problem? I forgot - they call and wish their customers a Happy Birthday. LOL. 

I'm having issues with my work email - suddenly this morning all my sent/reply emails, the screen is really small. I think I sorta fixed it, but it still feels off. So annoying. Why would it even change in the first place?

More missing food

Speaking of eggs being out of stock - what's with not being in stock (at least my last 2 grocery orders) with the 30oz jar of Best Foods Mayo? I don't like those huge jars and the little ones or the squeeze ones are too expensive. I found a 3 pack of 30oz jars (for same per jar price as usual) that Walmart will ship, so I am ordering those. I also forgot to buy more pizza sauce (Classico pizza sauce) so I'm adding a 3 pack of that to my order (working my way towards the $35 free shipping).

I had enough leftover pizza sauce in the fridge to make pizza for dinner last night. It tasted so good. I also have not been able to get any bags of the frozen mushrooms anymore that Walmart used to sell. I decided to get fresh baby bella mushrooms and just freeze them myself, except they were out of stock of the smaller container, so I had to get the 16oz size. I put them on trays and froze them and then transferred to a big ziploc bag. Now I have lots of mushrooms to use for pizzas and spaghetti. I use jarred spaghetti but like to add in mushrooms and sauteed onions.

I usually only make pizza about once a month and buy the smallest little can of sliced olives. Use about half and then end of throwing out the rest, because I didn't think they would last opened in the fridge that long, but apparently they can last months. And I noticed that a larger can was actually a bit cheaper than that tiny can. So I used some olives for the pizza and poured the rest into one of my glass containers that seal really good. Trying to waste less food and save money! I might even chop some up tiny and toss in my spaghetti sauce next time I make spaghetti.

The staining, part 2, got done yesterday afternoon. About 2 1/2 hours worth. He is done with the ceiling on long back wall. He just has a little corner loft to finish and there is a small group of boards that need stained for that. I'm guessing about an hours worth of staining and I will be done. Not sure if he's working on that today or not. Probably, but he still needs to get the lights installed in the part he finished yesterday and I know he will do that today and then he'll probably carry on with finishing the other part.

I am liking that we're getting a little bit more daylight time now. Gradually getting lighter out earlier and staying light a bit longer. 8am now and I can see outside for a change. Still very cold, though. 7 degrees when I got up this morning. 

I just went to let the cat out and caught this sunrise. Happy Sunday!

 

No eggs

We went to dh's follow up GI doctor appt yesterday. Basically what we expected - he just reiterated what the doctor who performed the EUS said. They don't see anything alarming, have another MRI in 3 months and come back for a follow up appt for that. If the pain (which is off and on now and not bad) worsens, let him know.

Not even a few weeks into this year and he's already met his health insurance out of pocket max of $5,000. Ouch, especially since I just spent that for him the last few months of 2024. For this I am just going to take it out of my HSA to pay for. $10k in less than 4 months time is a bit much to cover on my own. At least the MRI (the last one ran around $2000), dr appt in 3 months, his proscriptions, and anything else he may have this year will now be 100% covered. 

After we got done with the appointment dh decided he wanted to take the truck through a car wash. We haven't used that in awhile. Boy, they sure have raised their prices. But a one time expense (most likely) for the winter months is ok. Too cold to wash it himself and it really did need it.

Walmart had notified me they were out of eggs and my coffee creamer. Completely out of eggs that they couldn't even sub? same with coffee creamer - it's just french vanilla, there's lots of brands with that flavor. I hadn't planned on stopping at the other grocery store this time, but we had to have eggs, so we had to stop. I made it worth my while while there and went ahead and got more of the salmon and also decided to grab more bread. DH has been going through the amount I normally purchase quite fast as he's started having a sandwich in the evenings, as a snack. The other store had plenty of eggs in stock.

Today I will be staining. I'm guessing it will be about 4 hours, like last time. This should be the last of it, though. I will persevere! At least the shop is heated and the tv is playing youtube music.

I bought stuff to make a banana cream pie. I got the sugar free pudding mix, so hopefully not quite as bad to eat/sugar wise. Plus, it's my birthday on Monday, I want a treat :)

Happy Friday

Happy Friday! 

Dh worked most of yesterday afternoon on his loft ceiling and he even did a bit of staining himself (yay! LOL). When I got done with work, he had come in to rest (and knew it would be dinner soon) and said he just needed 2 12' tongue and groove boards stained and he could be done with what he wanted to get done for the day. I said, if I have to go out and stain then I'm not making the "big" dinner I had planned. He said, that's ok, just make dinner, I'm too tired anyway.

So, I proceeded to make dinner. Not really "big" LOL, but it was chicken sandwich ring, which is more involved then just making it easy and heating up some soup. Then what does he do? - after we eat, he starts hinting he sure would love it if I could stain those 2 boards, as he went back out to the shop. I went out there, walked past him, to the work table and muttered "asshole". We had a good laugh. Two boards was really quick, like 10 minutes or so, so it didn't kill me.

I'm stopping work at 1:45 today, to go with dh to his GI dr follow up appointment. After we will pick up groceries and grab Wendy's for dinner on the way home. A rare, no cooking night, sounds good to me. I logged into work a half hour early and won't take a (1/2 hr) lunch break, close enough.

I got my mom's fed and state tax returns submitted online yesterday. Hopefully I won't have to go through additional hoops to get the refunds, but I'm sure I will. I still have her checking open, waiting for that Social Security payment. So, once I get these refunds and if I ever get that SS payment, I'll be all done and able to close out her checking, finally. 

Sis said her stepdad has been doing much better since getting moved to the hospice care place. He told her he's enjoying his meals and gets to order whatever he wants!

More lumber

DH got his lumber delivered shortly after he ran into town to order/pay for it. Different driver kid this time. Must be new, dh said he was really nervous. He got most of it cut into the lengths he wanted. He tried to hint at me doing some staining last night...no thank you...I'm available on weekends, LOL. I think this is all the lumber he needs to finish up the ceiling underneath the loft. There's also another small loft in the front corner of the shop and I think he got enough to finish that off, as well. Basically, he has one section on the long, back wall loft, to finish and then that other smaller corner loft.

After that, I think the next project is to purchase some cabinets to put on the back wall, under the loft - or maybe he will build the bench with shelves underneath next. He should probably do that part next. Once he gets the bench/shelves and cabinets he will be able to get a lot of the stuff he has in bins and on carts put away into the shelves and cabinets and that should free him up some more floor space. The cabinets are expensive :/  We had purchased some several years ago for the wall when you first walk into the shop, where he has this long metal bench with shelves under. He had gotten that long metal bench w/shelves years ago on Craigslist for cheap. I think it was from a restaurant kitchen. We've always called it the "kitchen table" for some reason, LOL.

I see that my mom's retirement account tax document is coming in today's mail, so that's good. I can get her return finished up and submitted. Hopefully, I don't have to go through the delay I did last year. Her return did not get marked "deceased" because according to the instructions (and that's how TurboTax did it) it gets marked that on their final return and for 2023 she wasn't deceased. Anyhow, with showing deceased now, in the tax program, it is creating the form that goes with it, saying who/where to send the refund to. That's what I ended up having to send in last year...which I thought odd because everything I read said the IRS doesn't get notified of deaths (like Social Security does) but apparently they do. Speaking of Social Security....still waiting on that payment...........

Tomorrow afternoon dh has a follow up appt with his GI doctor (not the doctor who performed the endoscopy), so I guess we'll see if he has any idea/suggestions on how we figure out what is going on with dh or what to do/try now. After that appointment we'll pick up groceries again. 3 weeks goes by fast, but I am almost out of bread, I am out of apples, and enough turkey lunch meat through tomorrow. DH has started making himself a sandwich as a snack in the evenings and is using up the bread faster than usual. I ordered an extra 2 loaves on this order. 

I have run out of the churro type cat treats. This is bad LOL.

What Wednesday

What I'm reading: You Are the Placebo by Dr. Joe Dispenza.

What I'm watching: Monday night I watched a 2 1/2 hour documentary mentioned in the above book, about quantum physics. Most of it is way beyond my understanding, but I have always found it a fascinating subject.

I'm still watching the tv show Scorpion and just started the final season 4. Then I will switch over to the 2 shows I want to watch on AppleTV+ (with my free 3 months). 

What I'm seeing: ice on the river  

What I'm buying: apparently today it's going to be some more lumber for the shop project. At least when I went to bed last night, dh said he was going to run into town today to order some more and have them deliver again. I forgot - the other day I took a picture of what he's got done so far and meant to post it up. I'm an expert stainer LOL

What I'm feeling: hmmm....in general, good. Not much to complain about at the moment, which is always a good thing. My feet are cold, LOL. Even though I have the heat on upstairs at 69 and socks on.

What's funny.....I had just started reading a new to me blog by commenter Lori (Culinary Adventures with Lori) but hadn't looked at her blog yet this week. While sitting here trying to think of more to add to this post, I decided to read some other blogs first. What does her last post do? "Weekly W's"!! I swear, I am not copying you Lori! Great minds think alike? LOL

What I am working on: Tax returns. Ugh. But I have both my mom's and mine mostly done. I just need my tax document from my HSA and for my mom I need her 1099-R. Even though I know what her 2024 distribution was and tax amounts withheld, I want to have the copy in hand to make sure it all matches, before I file for hers, which will be a refund of about half the taxes she paid with her distribution. For mine, I will owe a bit to Fed and get a bit back from the state, so not much owed in total. I guess I did pretty good estimating at the beginning of last year.

Enjoy your Wednesday!

Tuesday this and that

It was very nice having an extra day off yesterday. I got another load of laundry done and vacuumed the downstairs. I did not watch any of the inauguration. None of it much interests me anymore, as I have pretty much lost faith in all politicians.

Guess what's coming up this year? Property tax assessments! Oh joy. (it's every 2 years in my state). They said it will likely be 20% increase this go round, which means ours will probably be 30% or more. Our state legislature is finally trying to work on a "fix". There is a bill they are going to try to pass, that so far, would add a homestead reduction and increase property taxes for those with vacation/2nd homes. Based on the info so far and based on our current assessed value and mill rate, if this homestead reduction passes we would save about $1000 a year in property taxes. I'll believe it when I see it. Any savings we might get will just get eaten up by the ever increasing assessed value and increasing budgets they base the tax mills on.

My guess is they are going to get this homestead reduction passed, just in time for the new assessments to come out, so they can say they've now "fixed" the problem and they aren't screwing the taxpayers. They are doing us a favor, LOL.

With my grocery list, I just added ketchup, as the bottle is getting below half and I don't have any extra in the pantry. I've always bought Heinz, but I added a small 24oz bottle of great value brand to give a try. If it tastes the same/ok, then on a 32 oz comparable size, that will save $3.07. Fingers crossed it will be good. For the most part dh just uses a little bit on his morning egg sandwich. If it doesn't work out, well then I'm only out $1.28 to try it.

This post seems to be taking me forever to finish up today - so I guess I'll call it good.

Some budget tweaks

A nice (cold!) day off. -4 when I got up this morning. Now it's up to 17. But sounds like this negative stuff is just for this one day - then we are back in the teens to low 30's.

I've gotten another load of laundry done and put away and vacuumed the downstairs. I'm getting my next grocery order (for Friday) worked up and added online. We have to go in to the city Friday afternoon for a follow up GI doctor appointment and it's time to also get more groceries, so nice that we can do both on the same trip.

I'm working on some tweaks to the budget, to cut down some, where possible. First was I finally and for good, canceled SiriusXM for my car. The car seriously hardly even gets driven. It's stupid to pay $6 a month for that and the year of getting it for $6 is almost up. When canceling via online chat, the bot did try to offer me $5/mo but I declined. If we drove regularly, yes, I'd use it, but we don't. 

Then working up my grocery order I made some adjustments to brands or sizes to see where I could save compared to what I normally purchase. For example: I usually buy the 18 roll package of Quilted Northern but realized the 24 roll works out to quite a bit of savings per roll and on 18 rolls, it saves $2.95 in total. Overall, for my list, I was able to reduce it by $18 vs what I had been spending/buying.

This $18 is in addition to my already change made last trip of the milk and eggs I was purchasing - I am saving a whopping $23 a month on milk and $10 on eggs (and still getting organic milk). I'm also not renewing the Costco membership and am discontinuing my multivitam (for now).

All the above works out to almost $100 a month savings and will be pretty painless, not really even noticed. I'll take the extra $1200 a year!

A milestone

Happy Sunday. Today is our 40th anniversary :) In honor of putting up with him for 40 years I added some white chocolate sauce to my coffee this morning, LOL. He always has flowers delivered - now 40 carnations (red and white). It gets more expensive every year, haha. They had to get delivered on Friday, since our little flower shop in town is closed on the weekends. I think we'll skip going out to dinner somewhere. There's really no good restaurants close by, roads are a bit slippery at night, and we still want to keep dh's food intake on the mild side, so we will just enjoy a meal at home and stay put.

We got some snow Friday night.  Amos decided Nope! and turned around and came back in

He's out this morning, but it's 14 degrees out, so I doubt he will want to stay out too long. 

Dh did have to plow and shovel yesterday, but he said it was a lot easier this time because it was colder and the snow wasn't so wet and heavy. It really does go a lot faster with this big plow, compared to the little quad with a plow he used to have.

I got some laundry done yesterday, changed the sheets, texted with sis, loaded and ran the dishwasher (but still need to empty), and got my tax forms downloaded. I think I have everything I need to do my tax return. For my mom I'm waiting on her retirement account 1099-R. I can't get it online anymore, since they closed her account, so I'll have to wait for it in the mail. Sis and her family got her step dad moved to the hospice facility on Friday. She said it's a really nice place and they are all very relieved to have him there now.

I finished a book I was reading (The Life We Bury) that was really good, but now I have to find something new to read. Nothing else I have on reserve has become available yet.

Good news but no answers

DH got his EUS endoscopy done yesterday. Four hours in the hospital for it seems a bit ridiculous and almost half of that was waiting for the doctor to come back and go over his findings. Good news in that there were no abnormalities in his pancreas found. Bad news, I guess, is we still have no explanation why it was inflamed and why he's still having pain (though much much less than 3 months ago, when it started) and nausea. All the doctor could suggest is that sometimes, once a person has had pancreatitis, their pancreas is more sensitive to having problems. The doctor did recommend having another MRI in 3-4 months just to make sure it's still cleared up.

We checked in at 8, they got him back to pre-op room around 8:15 and took him back to do the procedure at 9am and I went back out to the waiting room (it was freezing in there, by the way, LOL) and they finally called me back to his post-op room at 10:25. Not much later the nurse had him ready to leave..and then we sat there until noon, when the doctor finally got out of his next procedure/surgery and had time to go over the results. That was annoying to wait so long and the nurse had given me the printout of the procedure results and said we didn't have to keep waiting, if we didn't want to, but both of us wanted to hear it from him, especially as some of the report is in medical terminology that we don't understand and I didn't want to assume/google it! Plus, we're paying him a damn good amount of money for this and him go over the results is part of what he should be doing.

Sis has better news. Her one stepbrother (than lives in the state) had come up and had talked the doctor (his doctor sounds like an idiot) and their dad into going into hospice care at a facility and that transfer is supposed to happen today. She is very relieved now. Hopefully he will stay there! I can just imagine him getting there, not liking it, and saying he's going back home.

The temp at our house got up to 47 yesterday afternoon. So warm! But now it's supposed to keep getting colder and colder and -4 on Monday.

I'm glad it's Friday and also that this is a 3 day weekend, as we get MLKJr day off.

Wednesday what not

Getting this blog post started, at least, before my 2nd zoom meeting with the bank. This time is so they can show me how to set up international wires that we do on a monthly basis. (one to my sis). I've printed out both's wire instructions, so hopefully this meeting shouldn't take too long. I am hoping it's not as complicated as our current bank is, for international wires. Their set up procedure made my head spin.

I was messaging with sis this morning, asking how her step dad is doing. There is no way he had a "massive stroke" - she said she got to the hospital yesterday afternoon and there he is - sitting up in bed, eating a meal, talking and crabby as usual. How is that even possible?! Her step brother, from the states, has now arrived and things are going better, so far. He has managed to talk their dad into going into hospice care, rather than returning home to his apartment. Thank God! Sis is so relieved. The transfer is being worked on right now, plus this hospice place is about a half hour closer drive for her, so 1 1/2 hours, instead of 2 hours. 

Even though I put "goop" as I call it, in my eyes before bed last night, my eyes still seemed to get extra dried out for some reason. My right eye has been a bit blurry all morning and looking at the computer screen is hard. I'm hoping with having tomorrow off, and less computer time, it will be better after that.

Dh has his endoscopy tomorrow. It seemed odd that his MyChart doesn't show a check in time. We were told verbally (by the doctors office inept scheduler) an 8am check-in. We got recorded phone call reminding him of the appt on Thursday, but dh also though it was odd that there was no time given. Yesterday afternoon I called the hospital's day surgery and of course had to leave a message (a voicemail that says leave a message and we'll call you back as soon as possible). Well, it's been 24 hours and no call back. How hard is it to take 2 minutes and return a patient's call? Also every appointment that has shown up in MyChart, in the past, has always had available a "pre check-in" the day before and I even get an email or text reminding to do the pre check in and nothing is showing up. If we get there tomorrow at 8am and that is not the correct time, I'm going to blow a gasket.

This eye strain all day is giving me a headache. Time for a break I guess, maybe just take off early today and go rest my eyes.

More health

I'm appreciating everyone's thoughts and comments on my blog post yesterday about multi-vitamins. Keep the thoughts and info coming, if you have an input on it. Part of me reads the ingredients list in the OneADay, with all artificial flavor and colors added compared to the multivitamin I take and think ya...it's probably worth the extra $. 

I am intrigued by barbaradougherty126's comment about the dehydrated beef liver and pure organic Turkey Tail. I had to look up the Turkey Tail. It's a mushroom. Also obscure's comment about the over 55 plant based vitamins and her increased energy. I'd love to know the brands from both of these commenters.

A year or two ago I tried some of the "fruits and veggies" supplements, because I know I don't get enough of either. I didn't go with the super expensive "Balance of Nature brand" but tried a less expensive brand, for 2 months. I stopped because I had no noticeable change in how I felt. I picked up a bag of a healthy smoothie with fruits and green stuff in it but I have yet to try it. I will give it a try this evening and see if I like it. If I do, that would be a better way to get my fruits and veggies, then via vitamins.

The only thing I have tried that I 1000% noticed a difference in how I feel is the grounding mat. That was worth every penny. And as I mentioned yesterday, I can vouch for the Zyflamend Prostate supplement dh is on, as well. 

My half sis is still stressing and dealing with her step dad's decline. He's one tough SOB, that's for sure! After his broken pelvis, from a fall, last summer, they were told his body is filled with cancer (He is like 92 or 93 years old). He's been in and out of the hospital, but once they clear him, he wants to go back to his home and he doesn't want his family to get him any help. That's has been the most frustrating part for my sis. There is no way he can take care of himself. He can't walk yet somehow gets himself into his wheelchair. He's somehow (not well, of course) feeding himself. she said his feet are so swollen they are blistering. I can't believe he's made it this long. The family finally did get him to concede a couple weeks ago to having a home care aid come in to administer his meds. It was twice a day, but his doctor added meds and last week they started coming in 4x a day. Yesterday morning the care aid found him on the floor unresponsive, so of course called 911 and they took him to the hospital. Later yesterday afternoon he suffered a major stroke. Yet, he's still hanging on. I guess the only silver lining in this is now he will have to stay in hospital/nursing care and at least sis and the family won't be stressing about him trying to take care of himself on his own. She will be relieved when he's passed and over all this suffering, that's for sure.

Well, I need to get back to work from my break. My boss and I have a zoom meeting with our new bank. We're having to switch banks, because our old bank is turning into a credit union and that won't work well for business banking. Fortunately, it's with a new bank, our banker lady moved to, so she is familiar with us and our business, so it should be a pretty smooth transition.

What are your thoughts on multivitamins?

I'd be interested in hearing people's thoughts on taking vitamin supplements. Do you think they really help at all/make a difference in health?

I've read where they don't really even get absorbed into your body to do any good. I've been taking a multi-vitamin for the past couple of years. I can't really say whether they do any good or not. I have at times gone a couple of months without taking them and see no difference. But maybe it's just subtle difference that is beneficial over years?

I've taken the less expensive kind that mass retailers sell (Walmart, Target etc) and the one's I've been taking for the past couple of years are from the brand that makes the prostate supplement I have dh taking. My thought process has been this: this supplement he has been taking got rid of his prostate cancer! Obviously it works and obviously whatever this company is putting in their supplements must be effective, so I started buying their women's 55+ multivitamin. This vitamin costs me about $230 a year. (Dh's prostate supplement costs about $365 a year and I am not stopping that one)

For info, in case anyone is wondering, the brand is New Chapter. I haven't seen them in stores, but several online places (even Amazon) like VitaCost, sell them as well as you can get direct from New Chapter. 

Am I just wasting $230 a year? Could this $230 be better spent on something else, healthwise, that would be more beneficial? Would I be getting just as much benefit (if I even am) by just spending $37 a year on a cheaper multivitamin.

For comparison, there does seem to be quite a bit of difference in what is in something like OneADay multivitamin compared to New Chapters, which also has some various organic herbs for digestive and hormone support.

One A Day:

New Chapter:

I'm the type of person that needs to see tangible results (like with dh's prostate supplement from New Chapter) and I've never felt like I've gotten anything out of vitamins, when I have tried taking them over the years. I know there are people that take all kinds of supplements and swear by them. If that's you - what benefits are you experiencing? I just feel like I am kind of wasting my money and really only getting some psychological benefit, where I think it must be helping me.

I'm done (for)

I powered through yesterday and got all the staining done. Here's the stacks that awaited me and you can't see 3 piles of smaller cut boards on the other side of that post - he had that heavy post on the long 12' pieces to keep from warping as much as possible as they dry out (the lumber yard keeps the lumber in an enclosed area, but it's open on both ends of the building).

When I got about halfway done, he then brought out 3 more stacks of short boards he had set somewhere else! I was like "well that's rude!" LOL.

We got started at 11am and it took me almost 4 hours (we took a quick break for lunch). My back didn't start bothering me until about the last 15 minutes, so that was good, but then it was done for and I spent the rest of the evening on the heating pad. All this for only one "section" of the ceiling under the loft, LOL. Still one more section, I think about this size and then another section that is much smaller. He has to get this done in order to get the lights put up.

I didn't feel like spending too much time in the kitchen standing, making dinner, so I just put some of the pre-seasoned frozen salmon in the oven and some garlic bread heated up and that was quick and easy.

I slept good last night and an extra half hour, so hopefully I am back to full energy today. So far, my back feels ok and recovered. Usually that's all it takes, is just some rest, thankfully.

While I was waiting for dh to get up/ready yesterday I spent the time on my computer, getting caught up with saving my medical receipts/eobs to pdf and getting them uploaded into my HSA account. I had done everything through dh's 10/15 ER visit, but hadn't done all the claims for the subsequent dr visit/endoscopy/MRI in November and December. Plus I had a few OTC receipts to add. I also realized that an OTC item I just bought is eligible for HSA, so I went back and found 4 more online purchase receipts from the past couple of years and added a total of $70 for that. 

No extra plans today - hopefully just a bunch of relax time. I need to figure out what I'm going to make for dinner. I think I'll do the chicken/rice/veggies casserole, so I need to get some chicken out of the freezer - like right now! LOL

Another "clerical error"

In yesterday's mail was another statement from the GI doctor's office. It was dated 12/30 and had a bunch of different charges on it, some I thought I had already paid online on 12/27. Once I figured out that I had paid some of them, there were 3 new charges, for the pathology done for dh's first endoscopy - charges totaling $842 and saying my share owed is $482. I'm like how is that possible, when dh had already met his deductible and should only owe max 20% of this?

I called their billing office (I think they use an outside billing company) and they made a mistake applying the insurance payment. They put what I owed as the provider write off adjustment. Once she fixed it, now I owe $90. 

ALWAYS compare your insurance EOB's with what the provider is billing you and make sure they match! This was a $400 "clerical error" that I'm sure many people would not have caught and just paid it.  

I'm just sitting here, 7am-ish. Drinking my coffee. Fed my new "churro addict"....on a plate (thanks for the tip! haha!) and trying to psych myself up for a day of staining boards. Hopefully dh doesn't get up too early and we get to get started at his normal "get going time" of around 11am LOL. Last night he was trying to pep talk me into it - "it'll be great. I'll have music playing in the shop, we'll have snacks..." What kind of snacks? "Water and Mountain Dew" LOL.

DD had to get a new oven a couple of weeks ago. What a fancy new one they got - it does convection, air frying and dehydrating (and probably more). She said last night they were trying out the dehydrator function with some bananas. What a better way to save counter space, then to have all these extra appliances. She said they will definitely be getting one like this when they build their new home.

It seems lots of people in our area do not like that Amazon is now using the delivery drivers hired with their own vehicles. It's been a new thing since about last spring or early summer. Half of them seems as sketchy as heck. It's never the same driver twice. Apparently one was caught taking pictures of a guys wife and a lot of people are feeling like they are getting scoped out for theft. We were expecting a package yesterday delivered by one of these drivers. Tracking showed they were very close, we were the next stop but the map was showing them still up on a road that is at a pretty high elevation - gravel road up there, snow....then tracking just showed they were up there and not moving. Then tracking said GPS tracking was lost. Then a vehicle pulled into our street, passed our house then turned around and parked out on the street between our house and Mr's.  Dh figured it must be the Amazon driver so he went out there. Mr's dogs are barking. DH stood at our first gate, by the shop, waiting to see if the driver was getting out the packages or what. Finally dh yelled "hey!" "do you have a package for me?" and the guy said no. I'm just waiting to meet up with another driver, to hand off some packages. By this time Mr comes out of his house to see what all the barking is and why someone is basically parked in front of his driveway and hollers out to dh "hey [MrOne] - do we need to shoot some terrorists?"  DH laughed and said, not this time. The driver looks at dh and asks "did he just call me a terrorist?" Finally the driver with our packages pulls in. DH is still standing inside our first gate and assumes the guy that had been sitting there waiting for her would say to her - this guy is waiting for his package...No, she gets back in her car, while dh is waving for her to stop there and just keeps on driving down to our other gate. No snow tires and trying to get up to these homes up on steep, high up roads. Dumb.

All this to say, I just wish Amazon would go back to using UPS. or at least the USPS, as they were before they started with these drivers. DH won't let me go out and meet them at the gate and he won't let them come onto our property either - doesn't trust them. Plus, I'd say about 80% of the one's we've had don't even speak English. I'll probably be seeing if stuff I want to order can just be ordered from Walmart or Target or some other place that will ship using standard delivery services.

Friday this and that

DH decided to get the tongue and groove boards yesterday. These are in 12 ft lengths, so would have to hang out the tailgate of his pickup, which he did not want to drive the 10 miles on the roads covered in de-icer grime and have it splash up all over the boards. They said they could wrap them, but he'd still have to have the back of his pickup open and it would still all splash up, just causing him to have to get it cleaned out (and it's not garden hose season, LOL). His truck has a canopy on the back and he keeps it clean and dry in the bed. They also deliver for free, so that was kind of a no brainer then.

But, they wouldn't take his cc over the phone to pay for it. I know in the past they have done this and I called and gave them my card #. We had also put our card on file with them 2 or 3 years ago, but I guess they only keep it on file for a year. So, dh had to drive in, pay for it, and drive back home. They said the delivery kid would be right out (the kid was standing there behind the counter doing nothing). 3 hours later he showed up, LOL.

So, tomorrow I get the fun job of staining all the boards. Oh joy. I hate it when dh's projects cause me work! haha. He's going to get them all cut to the sizes he needs today. There's 18 12ft boards. I'm guessing, from all the staining I have done the past several years, this will take me a few hours, so not too bad.

I'm confused. I had gotten Amos some catnip cat toys. They come 5 in the box. Soft, little stuffed toys. Inside the box is a little tiny ziploc sealed packet of catnip. What am I supposed to do with that? The stuffed toys are completely sewn. There's no place to insert/add the catnip. I'm just not very familiar with catnip toys, I guess.

I had also gotten him some of those "squeeze up" type cat treats. I just gave him the first one. OMG. Now he won't leave me alone. We finished the first packet (while I had to sit there and keep squeezing up the treat, so he could lick it off) and now he wants in the box that has the rest of the packets. They are kind of annoying to have to sit there and keep squeezing and with his head in the way it's hard to see how much is coming out. There's 10 in this box. Oh boy, LOL.

Well, time to get logged into work. It's payroll processing day....yay....

 

A "clerical error"

Sure enough, dh's appointment for the endoscopy was not on the day surgery's schedule. I waited 2 hours for either them or the GI doctor's office to call me back and then tried calling the hospital day surgery again. I got someone this time and she said "no, he's not on our schedule for tomorrow". I said the paperwork the GI dr office sent us has tomorrow and I have a call into them, but haven't heard back yet. She then asked if I called the Radiology dept, to inquire about the appt with them. I said no, because that's not the procedure we were told he's having done (and they aren't likely going to know anything more either).

She then said Dr S is here, I will ask him what he knows about it and I know his office is really hard to get a person to talk to when you call and we have a back end ph# for them, so I will call and find out for you and call you back. She called back about half an hour later, asking me if the GI office scheduler had called me yet? Not yet.

Ok, she will be calling you, but I just wanted to let you know his appt is actually on the 16th, not the 9th. I said weird - because the paperwork they mailed me says the 9th....She says well it was originally the 9th, but got changed to the 16th. Their scheduler will be calling you.

About a minute later the scheduler calls and says "there was a clerical error" and his appt is really the 16th. and it's at 8am, not 6:30am. I said ok........and then I started to ask her about this radiology appt that is on the hospitals schedule (I was going to ask who will cancel it?) and before I could finish she says  "well, does he need the appointment tomorrow?" I'm like what? No. I think it got made in error, in place of the endoscopy, but they think he's still got an appt since it's still on the schedule and it needs to get canceled. She finally understood what I was trying to say and said she would take care of canceling it. (but I had my doubts she would do it)

She's a ditz and I'm sure this is all her fault. Not to mention if the appt had gotten changed to 1/16 some time earlier (and they forgot to tell us), then it would have shown up on MyChart as an upcoming appt (for the correct procedure) and it was not! They just figured out, after I started questioning what was going on, that the appt for the endoscopy was made as a different procedure, and got him added to next Thursday. 

My guess is, when she goes to make the procedure or surgery appointments with the hospital, she does it online and there's a drop down box of procedures...EUS (what she was supposed to pick) is probably right before Flouroscopy, which got picked as his procedure.

I waited until 4:30 (almost 3 hours later) to see if the flouroscopy appt got cancelled in the system and it was still there, so I just went ahead and clicked on cancel the appt myself. It had me choose a reason or type in a reason, so I just put the scheduler at GI office made this appointment in error, it was supposed to be for an EUS.

Anyway, SO GLAD I figured this out and we didn't spend an hour driving in there at 5:30 in the morning only to find out he wasn't on the schedule! We both would have really been furious. And dh is happier with the new time being 8am, instead of 6:30am.

So, then I instantly had to worry - oh great, now that we have to wait a week, now the weather will change and it'll be all snowy/snowing while I'm having to drive the hour back home, but so far so good - it looks even a bit better weatherwise next Thursday (a bit warmer temps).

I think I have gotten a strawberry/banana smoothie made that dh really likes now. Took me about 4 tries but the "secret", haha, seems to be 1/2 c. milk, a handful of frozen strawberries, one banana (I've been using the fresh bananas I bought, so I haven't tried frozen with this recipe yet) and about half a scoop of vanilla protein powder. I like it the best so far, too. I've been making this in the big pitcher for the blender, but I think it would likely fit into the smaller, individual size, so I'm going to try that part next. I wish I could make bigger batches, that would last a few days, but they don't seem to do well sitting in the fridge - I think the banana part gets really ripe.

Really?

What the heck?!! I got an email from the hospital, where dh is having the endoscopy performed, saying he can now get pre-checked in for his appointment tomorrow. So, I log in to do that, only what first catches my eye is that it say a 7:30am check in time. The paperwork from the GI doctors office (one of their doctors is performing the EUS) said 6:30 and check in at the Day Surgery dept. Then I notice that the online with the hospital the procedure says "flouroscopy exam" and check in at Radiology dept.......WHAT?!! These aren't even the same procedures, let alone at the same place in the hospital.

I now have calls into both the hospital's day surgery dept and the GI doctors office to ask them to clarify what procedure he is having. It's been over an hour so far, an no one has returned my call.  The procedure paperwork the GI office sent specifically says an EUS procedure, 1/9, check in 6:30am at Day Surgery Dept, performed by Dr. S.  The appointment online with the hospital (MyChart) says "Flouroscopy exam" 1/9, check in at Radiology. 

It appears someone messed up, but sure would be nice if someone could call us back and straighten all this out. I'm going to be really mad if this has to get rescheduled after waiting a month for this appointment, but would have been even madder to show up at Day Surgery at 6:30 am tomorrow for them to tell us they don't have him on the schedule!

The lady that did the scheduling in the GI doctors office seemed kind of flaky, so if it got messed up I'm sure it's probably her. She called us to schedule it (after they got his MRI results) and then the next day she called me again, asking "did I talk to you yesterday to schedule his EUS?" I said yes, for the 9th..." She said ok, I had a note here about it, but then I couldn't remember if I actually scheduled it or not. Then she said she was mailing out the paperwork on it to us by the end of that week, because their office would be closed for 2 weeks for Christmas and New Years and we did get the paperwork/instructions that next week. Did she mix up what she was scheduling for, with the hospital or did someone at the hospital get it wrong? 

So, I am annoyed today, that's for sure.

Back to it

As expected, work took all my time and focus yesterday. It usually takes me half the day just to get caught up on emails. My sis didn't work either and started back yesterday. I had told her to take the time off if she wanted. She had family staying with her for about a week, plus she's still dealing with a lot with her step dad's illness/old age/dying. I honestly can't believe he's been able to keep hanging on this long. Last summer they were told his body is full of cancer (he's like 92 years old). She's got a lot of stress from this, which is sad, because 1 - she's his step daughter and 2 - he has like 4 bio kids who aren't doing a damn thing, other than one of their wives is helping as much as she can. Not to mention sis lives 2 hours from him. She already wrecked her car trying to drive down to see him in bad weather. It's just not good and he's being a very stubborn old man and not letting them get much help for him and he refuses to go into nursing care. She said that since July he's been having swollen feet but now it's really bad. I said that sounds like congestive heart failure?

I swear that last weekend I ordered dh's prostate supplement from Walgreens. Prices on it can vary all the time, so I always look for the best price. Then it's been niggling in the back of my mind - where's the order confirmation/shipping confirmation? Apparently I didn't order it. Most often I order from Amazon and decided to go this route again as they were offering 30% off one bottle (I was ordering 2) and also more if I put it on subscribe and save, so I did that again. I've had it on subscribe and save before, but again - sometimes that is not saving me, as the price changes, so I always have to keep an eye on it. Plus then Amazon offered me 30 days of free Prime, so when that gets offered I always take that. That let me charge it to my Amazon card and get 5% cash back (while I'm on Prime). I also chose a later shipping date and got a digital credit. Dh likes to use those digital credits to buy music.

I always sign up for class action lawsuits, when I'm sent notification on them. Of course they take awhile and I usually forget about them, but apparently one was for Verizon and I just got $14.57 in my paypal account for it. I also just got a notice on one yesterday for Walgreens pharmacy. Since we had purchased 2 prescriptions for dh back in October, he's eligible, so I signed up for that one. 

DH went into town to the lumber store yesterday. He got the outlet so he could finish up the plug in at the bookcase. He also got some lumber, so he can work on getting the rest of the shop lights up, underneath that loft he build last year. Hopefully, that will get him motivated to get it finished. At least it will give him something to work on for a bit. 

The weather app on my phone said it was 20 degrees out when I got up. I opened the door because Amos wanted out and I could hear the water running in the gutters. Well, obviously it's not 20 degrees out! I went and checked our thermometer in the window and it said 30, so still not sure how it was melting, LOL. Still so far so good for driving on Thursday, no snow expected and the high for that day is 35 and sunny. DH is a bit worried about it being icy driving in at 5:30 in the morning, but he'll be doing that driving. I'll just have to drive us back home and by then it will be warmed up and fine.

It has been a bit warmer than last year. I just got my December electric/heating bill and last year it was $315 and this December it's $296. Plus, we didn't have our Christmas lights up quite as long and we didn't leave them on all night, other than Christmas Eve and Christmas.

Work is having an employee party next month. No thank you, LOL. It's on a Saturday night. I know dh won't feel like driving over there (especially in winter). He hates flying, and I don't want to fly over there and deal with navigating around a major city downtown at night by myself (it's being held at an event place right downtown). No thank you! I'll pass on this one. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Final day of time off

Of course my 2 weeks off work has gone by way too fast. I'm not ready to go back yet, but go back I must, LOL. At least I go back knowing I will stay caught up, since I have sis to help. She is loving the job, so it's a win for both of us. 

It just started snowing again this morning, but it's not supposed to be enough the make plowing or shoveling a requirement. Friday's snow was so wet and heavy, but dh's plow just makes it so much easier than using a quad with a plow on it. He's still not plowing down the road, past our property line, like he used to, so good for him. The neighbor who lives at the end of our street doesn't have a very good machine to plow with, at all, and it was a lot of heavy wet snow and his little machine was having a hard time of it. Plus he had to work all day and then get home and plow. Too bad they were so unappreciative over the years, so dh just stopped doing it for them. With our sidexside and big plow, it would only take dh probably 10 or 15 minutes to clear the rest of the (one lane) street down to their house for them.

Last night I made the pork chops and rice dinner I made awhile back. This time the chops were a bit dry. Plus I'm still not liking this recipe in terms of it doesn't seem to have enough liquid in it to make all the rice done. Half the rice ends up just dried and baked. I'm going to have to find a new recipe to try. But, the Lipton onion mushroom soup mix sure does give it a good flavor. I have enough chops for one more dinner from this 3 week grocery trip we just did. More than enough time to search for a new recipe to try out. I think I might try finding a crockpot recipe for them.

With my cutting out sweets (except for what I made/ate during Christmas week) dh is having a hard time finding snacks in the pantry. Plus I haven't made any desserts (because I will eat them!) like cookies, cake or brownies, but I guess I will have to make him some, so he has something to snack on.  I do miss baking on the weekends. I'll make him some peanut butter cookies today. I have a couple of packets of the Betty Crocker cookie mixes that should probably get used up, before they expire, anyway. They are quick and easy to make and the peanut butter (and snickerdoodle) are really good.

Mostly yesterday I just binge watched shows. I finished up season 2 of Shrinking. Such a good show and Harrison Ford is so good in it. Now I've started Silo, which is quite a different genre than Shrinking, LOL.  More of the same today :)

Snow

 And just like that - a winter wonderland is here! (this is looking out my side dining room window)

There was maybe an inch on the ground when we left to go to the city. It had started coming down pretty good when we returned and then was just dumping snow for the next several hours. DH got lots of plowing in, so that made him happy and was good to get him a bit of exercise shoveling, as well.

Friday at 1pm and Costco was a zoo, as always. I have yet to go there when it is not filled with people. After this little trip we both decided we really do hate shopping at Costco! LOL. It wasn't quite as crowded as other times (by view of the parking lot) but still lots of people and it seemed nobody could move their carts - they were just either stopped or barely moving. When my membership comes up for renewal in a few months, I will think about if I want to renew. I do want those beautiful and well priced Christmas wreath's next year, but I think I will do a work around to get them. Next year dd and sil will be coming for Thanksgiving and maybe I can get them to get the wreaths from their Costco before they come. Or I will have her purchase me a Costco gift card and from what I understand you can use those in-store and not need a membership card. Before my membership expires this year, I will try to get us in there for one last "big" shopping trip and we can try to really stock up on anything we might want there and that should last us quite awhile.

I had also gotten the Gold membership and so far we have not spent enough to make that worthwhile either. Though the lady at the membership desk did say that even if I don't earn $65 in rewards, to pay for the added cost of the Gold membership, Costco will pay me the $65, but it sounds like, reading the fine print, that I'd have to downgrade to the regular membership. I'm not going to worry about it or go to the trouble of doing that, if that's what's required. As it stands right now my 2% reward is about $31 and only that much because we spent a lot of glasses and sunglasses. It also sounds like they will be issuing me the annual rewards certificate a couple of months before my membership expires, which I just checked and it expires on 3/31, so at least I can get it used one last time, before the membership expires. I did just look at my account online, because I thought I might have been on auto renewal, and I was, so I canceled that.

I got into the bank, in and out quickly to get some cash out and then we went to Walmart. It was snowing then so my job - to stand at the back of the pickup and put the cold stuff in the coolers and bags, I was getting snowed on. DH was loading at the side of the truck, into the back seat area, so he was staying dry, haha. We did decide to treat ourselves to Wendy's on the way home. DH only ordered a single burger instead of his usual double, so good for him for cutting down a bit. Plus it saved like $3 or $4 from what the usual total is. 

I've been tracking what I've been spending on groceries since October. I used to budget $600 a month for groceries (this includes paper, cleaning, and personal care since I get most of that with my Walmart order). It appears, thanks to inflation, I'm going to have to bump that monthly budget amount up by about $100 a month. That's almost a 17% increase. Boo! I've also just done the math and just realized the packages of frozen hamburger patties from Costco, while large in package size, are not saving me any money. They work out to $1.39 per patty and I can get the ones I like from Albertson's for $1.20 per patty.

While dh was outside plowing, I got started watching the first show, Shrinking, on AppleTV+. I watched it the rest of the evening, getting about halfway through the new season. I should finish that up today. 

Since we had both eaten some lunch around 11:30, before we left to go pick up groceries, and then the burger and chicken sandwich (me) around 2pm, we didn't do much for dinner, so it was nice not to have to make anything. DH just had a sandwich and then later in the evening had the last of the 2 frozen taquitos we had left in the freezer.

Our power went out sometime during the night. I had woken up a bit before it came back on at 6am and realized it was out. The snow is very wet and heavy, so I'm not surprised it went out. 

It kind of feels like a Sunday today. Being off 2 weeks from work it gets easy to lose track of what day of the week it is. No more snow is predicted, which is probably a good thing. DH needs to work his way back into shape to shovel ;)

Well, now I am excited!

We are going into the city to get groceries today and will leave around noon. Again, it's snowed a dusting but will likely be gone by the time we leave. Either way, not really a big deal - dh is more than adept at driving in it. I just don't want any next Thursday! Pretty please! 

I'm still trying to find a smoothie recipe (bananas and strawberries) that's the sweet spot. First try tasted too much like orange juice. Second too strawberry-y. Then dh said how about just bananas? So, I tried that last night. It was ok, but even after I added more bananas it still didn't seem like enough flavor. I even added a bit of honey. I might try adding some of my vanilla protein powder next try. The ninja blender does seem to work well and fast, though. 

I also want to stop at Costco to pick up a couple bags of the frozen hamburger patties, so while we are there I will see what they have in the way of bags of frozen fruit to buy. If I start making smoothies for dh most days, we're going to go through a lot. We're also going to go through more milk, which may end up having us need to run into our town grocery store more often, in between trips to the city for groceries. I drink quite a bit of milk (dh never has) and I always buy what my fridge will hold, so I can't really buy more. I can freeze, but I find that annoying, as it seems to take so long to thaw out. I'll also see if I can find the organic peanut butter. Our bank is across the street from Costco, so we'll stop in there so I can get some more cash out. We like to keep some cash on hand and we used what we had when we took it with us on the cruise and most of our trips into the city have been on the weekend, when the bank isn't open.

DD just messaged me that it's been 10 years since she and her dh started dating. I remember it so well, haha. He's 5 1/2 years older than her and I remember her (away at college) messaging me about him. I asked her if they were going to go out on a date when she was home on winter break and she said "mom - he's like 6 years older than me!) She had just turned 19. I said so?! you are like 19 going on 30, so what's the problem? haha. I always knew she'd end up with someone older than her. Now they are 29 and 34 :)  She picked a good one.

DH has gotten so bad the past few weeks of going to bed later and later and sleeping later and later. Next Thursday we have to be at the hospital at 6:30 am, so have to leave around 5:20, just to make sure we give ourselves enough time and also get parked, which is across the street from where the day surgery is. We'll have to get up like 4:30 (UGH!). I told dh at this point, you might as well not even go to bed next Wed night! Geez! He's even going to have a hard time getting himself up this "morning" to leave by noon. He typically needs at least 90 minutes of being up before he really gets moving much, due to his muscles getting stiff while sleeping. It always takes him awhile to get going.

I finished my first book yesterday and got started on the next one. I probably won't get it finished this weekend, because I know I'll be binge watching a couple of shows on AppleTV+ free weekend LOL.  I want to watch the second season's of Shrinking and Silo, or watch as much of them as I can. Then I just read that the free streaming starts today, but I just tried and nothing is streaming free yet. I'll check back in this afternoon- maybe I'll be able to get a head start with the 2 shows today.

Oh oh oh! I was just reading that the free streaming actually starts today, you just need to log in with your apple ID. I did that, but not able to watch anything yet. Then I was googling to see if I could find out what time today it started and came across a Reddit post that Target Circle members can claim an offer for THREE free months of Appletv+. I claimed it. WOOOO!!! Now I won't have to pay the subscription when Severance season 2 (finally after 3 years!) comes on. I cannot wait to watch that show again. It was soooo good!

Relaxing days off

I'm getting my grocery order added online. Geez! The price of 18 organic eggs is now over $10. We're switching back to regular eggs, for the time being, I guess. My remaining hen is not helping, with no egg laying, haha. (The powers that be really do not want us eating healthy, do they?)

I'm very much enjoying my time off work. Not looking forward to next Monday, so far. But, I'll get back into the swing of it, soon enough, I imagine. My goal is still to retire at the end of 2030. 

I've been doing lots of reading. Finally, one e-book I had on reserve came available. As soon as I got started on that, 3 more, in the last few days, have become ready to borrow. Now I'm swamped with too much to read. I will finish the first one today and get started on the next one. 

Yesterday I realized I overpaid the GI doctors office by $34. They sent me a statement dated 12/2 for that amount. Then a week later I got another statement for $108. I added the 2 up and paid online, not realizing that the $34 was included in the 2nd statement. Who sends out statements weekly? LOL. Plus, when you log in to pay, it doesn't show your balance owing, or I would have caught it, then. Well, I'll owe them more after next Thursday, so I'll fix it then. At least it wasn't a large amount.

I see my side job check is in the mail today - it was supposedly mailed on Tuesday - last month it took 8 days to get here! 

I don't really expect 2025 to have any major changes or events going on.  Well, unless we get disturbing news about dh's endoscopy/pancreas - but I have a feeling they are going to say he now has chronic pancreatitis. Not good news, of course, but could be worse. (the MRI results said nothing typical showing of cancer). He hasn't needed any of the anti nausea med in the last couple of weeks, so that's good, too.

DD and SIL will be getting started on their house build this year. That will be exciting, but much easier to just be a bystander for it :)

2025 is here

Happy New Year! I remember when the year turning 2000 was such a big deal (mostly for the computers!) and here we are now a quarter of a way into this century.

Yesterday was more relaxing and less work, since all the Christmas decorations were put away. I spent a good part of the day reading. I do need to vacuum, but wanted to give my back one more day of rest before I tackle that, so I'll probably get the downstairs vacuumed up today. I'm still finding those pesky little green pieces off the trees on the floor.

One more year done and closer to retiring, is how I'm looking at life now. 6 more years, max. I know it will go by fast. Fortunately, I love my job, so it should still be an easy 6 years to manage. 

For this coming year, I need to (again) make sure I am taking all the PTO time I earn. I almost took it all this last year - then the company decided to give everyone a couple more days off between Christmas Eve and NY and I ended up with 2 days not used, haha. I haven't even begun to get into all my accrued time on the book (over 300 hours). But between now and 6 years, it could all pretty easily get used up if I got sick or if dh got sick and I needed extra time off. I'm also fairly certain that when I retire they will pay me out a good portion of it, as a retirement "gift". I will have worked there 26 years, if I retire in 6 years. This year is my 20 year work anniversary - oh gosh - please don't give me more PTO LOL. (they added a week ever year when I hit my 15th anniversary). I need to look at the calendar and at least get most of the days requested. Tomorrow and Friday are 2 days and I now also have to take off the 9th, for dh's endoscopy next week.

I've been watching the upcoming weather predictions, since I will have to drive us home, after the procedure. I've been stressing it's going to end up a very snowy, awful roads day, but so far so good. Still no snow predicted and so far it's showing next Thursday as a 40 degree day. Whew! Keeping fingers crossed. I wish they were doing this procedure at the GI's endoscopy center (like the first one was), rather than at the hospital. It was much easier going there, but they must not have the ultrasound type of endoscopy equipment at their own surgery center. It is going to be the same doctor who did his EUS a little over 3 years ago, when they determined his gallbladder needed to come out. 

I still have to do my mom's last tax returns (state and fed), as soon as I get her tax document. It should only be the 1099-R from her retirement IRA account, where I had taken a distribution just a few days before she passed. I did an estimate and looks like she will be getting back about half of the taxes that were withheld from her distribution. Hopefully, it won't be a hassle to get that fed refund, like it was a bit last year (I still haven't received her last SS payment). I didn't have any issues getting her state refund last year. When I filed I didn't put deceased on either return, because she didn't die in the year I was reporting (2023) but this year will be marked deceased on both returns, so hopefully it will all go smoothly. I sure would like to get these returns/refunds and that SS payment off my "to-do" list.

DH can't figure out his game camera's - they work off a cellular service. The cameras come with 100 free photos each month. If you want more you can pay for the service monthly. We are just giving the 100 free a try, first. But, the cameras are not consistent for sending the pictures for him to view on his new account with the cameras. One time it will transmit a photo to his "gallery" right away. Another time a picture will show up hours, even a day later, with a time it was taken before another picture that showed up right away. It doesn't make sense. And he certainly won't take the time to try to learn/research about it.