Exceedingly Mundane

I need to be catching up on my blog, I need to watch the mountain of shows on the DVR that are mine (cooking, Masterchef, Dancing with the Stars, etc), but all I seem to do is unpack! And then later, try to figure out where I put something! I think I’m going to be doing that for a long time, figuring out where I stashed something in the frenzy that is my unpacking.

Current phrase heard around the new house: “If you were an X, where would you be?” As in, if you were the scissors, where would you be? If you were the bath soap, where would you be? 🙂

Let’s see, this past week has been a blur, which is par for the course. Monday, I went to the old house to clean everything. Suzanne came and helped and cleaned out the fridge for me, and also broke down some boxes that were left in the garage. After that, we came back to the new house (gotta start calling it “home” now! LOL!) and had leftover pizza and then got to work lining shelves. We lined until we ran out of shelf liner. Tuesday, I went to Walmart to get more, a lot more! I think I got 18 more rolls, which turned out to be close, but I bought too many short rolls and not enough longer ones. Anyway, I picked up Rally’s for lunch on the way back, as Tim was busy at work all day Monday and Tuesday with conference calls. Wednesday, I stayed home all day and worked on unpacking, lining shelves, etc.

We got another offer on the house on Wednesday evening. We made a counter offer, then heard back Thursday morning that they did not accept our offer. Our realtor was pretty confident though, that after they had seen other properties in the area in our price range, they might think differently. And apparently, they did, because they made another offer late Thursday. We slept on it, prayed on it, made one final counter for a minor difference, and then had a verbal agreement Friday morning. We went and signed papers Friday afternoon at our realtors office, then went to Ridgeland Specialty Hardware to get the trash bins that should have been installed before we closed, but were not. After that, we came home and did some more unpacking.

Friday night, we went out to have a celebratory dinner and a long over due date night. Tim took me to Two Rivers, which we had never been to before. Tim had a ribeye and I had the grilled redfish with shrimp. Since we were celebrating, we had tiramisu for dessert, which was delicious!

Tim took two more vacation days, on Thursday and Friday. He has been SO wanting to work on his new surround sound, so he did just that. Thursday, I ran to Fresh Market to get the Thursday Little Meal deal (bacon, juice, potato/cheddar/chive pancake mix and some other items), and also stopped at the old house to check the mail. When I got back Thursday afternoon, he had started cutting holes in the ceiling in the great room (five). Friday, he worked on getting everything hooked up to his components, and we were busy Friday with negotiations on selling the old house. Saturday, he worked on getting his outdoor speakers installed on the screened in porch out back. They sound awesome! All of them 🙂 What really surprised me was that he has it fixed where you can listen to one thing in the great room on those speakers, and at the same time, you can listen to a different input of music out on the back porch. Way cool! Saturday afternoon, we also took both vehicles and loaded them to the max at the storage unit and brought and unloaded them here. Exactly what we needed, more boxes! But we are wanting to get that storage unit emptied so we can stop paying a monthly rental on it. We stopped and picked up Sonic on the way home and had a late lunch at 4 PM, ugh, I hate eating that late! 🙂

Sunday, always my favorite day of the week, was a very busy day for us. We made it back to church, after missing last week (which we both hated to do). We started a new sermon series, Next: A Study of Joshua, and had a great lesson in Sunday School. Gail had texted me on the way to church, saying that she was driving down to pick up David, who was flying home from Alaska. He’s been gone all summer, working for Holland in Alaska and is finally coming home. Well, for about 10 days, then he leaves for a month or more to tour Iceland, Europe, and take a cruise from Venice through the Greek isles, Mediterranean, Straits of Gibraltar and back across the Atlantic. That boy has a tough life 😀 Anyway, she said they would come out to our area of town to eat lunch and hoped we could meet them. So, we met Gail, David, Elizabeth, Jeremy, Kathryn, Katelyn, Sam and Suzanne for lunch at Newk’s. Afterwards, everyone came to see the new house and we visited all afternoon, which was great. Elizabeth stayed a while after to grade papers and watch some of the Saints game with us. It was great to hear it in surround sound! The Saints finally won one, beating the Vikings at home, and are now 1-2. After that, Tim and I split up, and I went to our bedroom to watch some of my massive amount of shows on the DVR and he watched an old movie in the den (Vertical Limit, I think).

So, that catches me up for a little bit. It’s Monday morning now and we are working on new routines. Tim is back at work, I’m doing laundry, but we still have a mountain of boxes to wade through and unpack. One box at a time! I need to go to the grocery story today, and one day this week, maybe tomorrow, I need to make a huge run to Sam’s Club. I had gotten low on many items that I regularly buy there, so there would be less to move. Time to start back stocking up (I don’t like running out of paper towels and toilet paper, LOL!)

Hope everyone is having a great day and will have a great week!

I’m counting down the days to closing on the new house!

Let’s see … the last boring rambling post ended on the Saturday before Labor Day. I posted in the morning, while Tim was playing golf. After I got off the computer, I got in the kitchen and tackled the last great job – starting to pack my kitchen. I made a small dent, packed about 3-4 boxes and partially emptied a couple of cabinets. Still a long way to go, but I hope to get more packed on Labor Day. I got a call from our realtor while I was slaving away, that she wanted to show the old house at 1:30 PM. That was a first, so far she’s just been the listing agent and had not shown it herself. It was a friend of hers, she said. Tim got home from the golf course after lunch, so we got cleaned up and headed out around 12:45. I let Tim pick where to go eat (after all that hard work lugging his heavy golf bag for 18 holes, he should get to pick!), and he picked Five Guys. Not exactly healthy, but still very tasty! We love their drink machines, and the burgers and fries cannot be beat. After that, we left and drove to the new house and met Tim’s buddy Charlie. We spent a couple of hours there, going through the house again and adding more items to the punch list. Charlie works for a builder and has a great eye and pointed out a lot of things we had missed. It was raining when we got to the house (yeah for not having to water at the old house for a few more days!!) and I got to stand out on my back screened porch and see it rain, hear it in the trees, smell the freshness. Bliss, sheer bliss. I told Tim, expect me to be out there quite a bit when it’s raining. Now that the screen is up, there are no bugs and it’s just heavenly. Anyway, after that, we headed back home and settled in. USM was playing on the brand new SEC Network against Ms State, and as I feared, it was a huge blowout. We used to have such a good football team, always having winning seasons and going to bowl games almost every year. That came to a screeching halt two years ago, and our poor Golden Eagles have not won but one game in two seasons. Ms State humiliated us on tv, beating us 49-0. Excruciating to watch, to say the least.

Sunday is always my favorite day of the week! Church, with our regular pastor, still in the sermon series “All In”. This week’s symbol was the yoke, as from Matthew 11:28-30, “come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you… for I am gentle and humble”. Another great sermon. This week in Sunday School, Skip led the lesson rather than Tommy and chose a passage from Leviticus 25:1-7, about the Sabbath and the land taking a break on the seventh year, as well as the people observing the Sabbath. Very interesting discussion and we really enjoyed it 🙂 After church, we texted Suzanne and told her we were going to lunch at Newk’s and invited her to come. She was having a hard time and said she really needed to see us, so she was glad to come meet us. Tim had a bbq chicken pizza, I had a half caesar salad with salmon, and Suzanne got the grilled pimento cheese and tomato basil soup. I can’t wait to be in the new house and it gets to be fall, and I make my homemade tomato-basil-parmesan soup in the crockpot, LOL! We visited a long time at Newk’s, till a little after 2 PM. After that, we came home and Tim did the live draft with our fantasy football league. I decided to let it auto-draft for me this year, I have enough stress with the two houses and packing and moving to worry about fantasy football, LOL! 🙂

Monday morning, Tim had another early tee time. Nothing like waking up at 6 AM on a holiday 🙁 He left to go play, and I started cleaning up the house. We had another showing at 10:45 AM. I have already (after ONE week!) gotten tired of dressing and going to a store to wander for an hour, so I took my Kindle, went down to the gazebo near the lake and read while the house was being shown. Tim called after I got back, and was headed home, after helping a buddy with his golf cart (translation: they had to soup it up!). He stopped and got us Chick-Fil-A on the way home, which was good and also very sweet of him. After eating, he went down to the neighbors to help with his fence, but he’s still not ready for help (which I think means he is stalling, because he knows we are moving in a little over a week!). We ended up visiting with our neighbors for a while, which was nice and might be the last time we sit and visit 🙁 After that, we both got to work packing, me in the kitchen and Tim in the garage. After several hours, our next door neighbors came over to check out our current house, and stayed to visit. We offered to take them to see the new house and we were so happy they agreed, and they said they loved the new house, just beautiful!

Tuesday, we got back to work. Tim woke up with a sore throat, and unfortunately I had packed most of the medicine! Lucky for him I knew where I had put that box 🙂 I got busy cleaning the house, defrosted the outside freezer (MAN, i can’t wait to upgrade to a frost free one), cleaning bathrooms, floors, sinks, etc and basically keeping the house “show ready”. Good thing too, because we got a call from the realtor saying that we would have a second showing this afternoon from one of the ones that came to see the house this weekend. Anyway, I made some supper, early in the day and put in the fridge and I told Tim, this may very well be the last meal I cook in this house! Sniff sniff. We got the house ready and left, and headed to the new house. We were happy to see more of the punch list done, and that they had started to do the cleaning. Also, the gas was on, so the gas lanterns were burning out front, the posts and corner pieces were installed on the front porch and I got to play with lighting the gas burners on the cooktop 🙂 After we got home and had supper, we watched a little tv, then Suzanne came over to visit for a while. She tried to run, but it was raining, so she had to do the treadmill. She’s training for her 10K in November, so she really does need to stick to the schedule of running.

I know these posts are NOT interesting to anyone else. They’ve turned into a diary of what we are doing, with nothing really fun or interesting for others to read. Tim wants me to keep a record of showing the house, and this seemed like the easiest way. Hopefully we can get an offer soon, but if not, then maybe it will show better after we’ve moved out. Anyway, I’m glad to be able to get a lot of things down that are going on. I know as the date approaches for us to close, it’s going to be nearly impossible for me to blog regularly, and I hope that I can remember a lot of it once we do finally get to a point where I can sit down and type it all out on the blog. In the mean time, it’s now Wednesday morning and our day count is down to seven, we are set to close a week from today! Tim and I will start moving on our own after closing and then next Saturday, we’ll have the “big” move. I can’t wait!

More later, as time allows!

Let’s see, time to do another little catch-up post…

September, thankfully, has now come and gone, and it’s October! One of my most favorite months of the year, if not THE favorite. I’m ready for fall! It’s supposed to cool off a bit this weekend and one night is predicted to be in the low 50’s. I’m ready!

Last weekend was fairly busy. We went to see Katelyn and Sam (and their cousins) play soccer. We picked up my dad about 8:30 AM and drove out to Clinton to their soccer fields. Katelyn played first, followed by her twin cousins, Keaton and Logan, and then Sam played at 11. Well, Sam’s game was not really full blown soccer, but they were out there having fun and trying to kick the ball and score. Sam seems to enjoy the sidelines, drinking his Gatorade and spitting on the field the most! Like most 5 year old boys, I assume. I took a bunch of pictures of all the soccer players, but haven’t transferred them yet, hopefully soon! Afterwards, we all packed up (about 20 or more of us) and went to the Blue Rooster for burgers. Tim and I have been wanting to go to the Blue Rooster in Flora, not realizing they had one out in Clinton. It was really good. Gail and Don tried the vegetarian burgers and said they were good, I might get that next time. I had a good old fashioned beef burger, built my own, with sauteed mushrooms and swiss cheese. After lunch, we took my dad back to his assisted living place, and after we swung back by the house, Tim and Don left to go play golf at Lake Caroline. Gail and I decided to go shopping. We went to Target for a while (I got a new fall purse, burgundy or claret, whatever they call the color these days), and some things for Halloween. We also went by Sam’s Club for a few things. After playing, the guys wanted to meet at Dickies for supper. Neither Gail nor I were very hungry, so we mostly entertained the guys while they ate ribs.

Sunday was equally busy. We went to church (really good service, we’re in the Exponential series, a study of Ephesians) and then home to change. We picked up my dad again and headed to Tim’s parents house. The kitchen is almost completely done (everything but the oven), and it looks fantastic! Linda cooked a great lunch (pork roast, rice and gravy, sweet potatoes, green beans, rolls and banana pudding for dessert) and we got to eat at the new kitchen table. I should have taken pictures, but didn’t. After lunch, we visited a few hours before heading home. After dropping off my dad, Tim and I went home to eat leftovers (Mr. Chen’s from Friday night, a full weekend of overeating!) and watch Sunday night football.

Monday, Tim was ready to start back with P90X. He’s doing his best to talk me into doing it with him. I’m not much into exercise, especially of the extreme variety. But, he said he’d start back walking some with me, so I agreed to give it a shot. I won’t be able to do it every day like he will, as this week was fairly free, but next week I get back to having to take my dad somewhere at least once a week. I am not overdoing it, in fact, I can barely do a lot of the exercises. Day 1 was an hour of pushups, pullups and situps. For the push-ups, I did 1 or 2, where the fanatics and Tim did 25 or 30. But, I am trying and that’s better than sitting my butt on the couch. I need to be better with my portions, the eating and snacking are what really help me pack on the pounds, I think.

Speaking of… I’ve been doing a lot of cooking this week, LOL! I’ve pulled out my crockpot for the week. Monday night, the Saints played the Dolphins (both undefeated going into the game, and we’re now 4-0!!!), and so I made a french dip all day in the crockpot, along with homemade buns, roasted broccoli and oven sweet potato fries. Tuesday, I made Tim biscuits and we had breakfast food. Wednesday, I made red beans and rice in the crockpot. Today, I’m going to try a new recipe I pinned on Pinterest for a crockpot beef and broccoli. I had also planned to make a pizza, but that may get pushed back a few days. The fridge is full of leftovers, plus food I bought at Kroger yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised to find that several items in the bulk bins at Kroger were marked half off. I certainly hope they are not getting rid of them, or phasing them out. Our Whole Foods across town has not opened yet, not sure how many months before it will be open, not to mention, it’s more than 10 miles down there. Anyway, I didn’t need a lot from the bulk bins, but since walnuts, dried cherries, steel cut oats and roasted pumpkin seeds were marked 50% off, I loaded up! 🙂

Most all of our TV shows are back on now, which is great. Tim cut our cable package the other day. We were in a promotion that gave us all of the premium movie channels and it expired on October 1. So he cut those and cut back on our tier. Not going to save us a lot of money, but every little bit helps. Plus, with football and all the new shows back on, we definitely don’t need the movie channels. We can stream movies from Amazon or Apple TV, or I can get most new releases at the library (just have to request and wait for them, most of the time). We still have several movies on the DVR that I recorded from the pay channels while we had them, that we still have not watched. I’m mostly about football these days, along with NCIS, Person of Interest, Elementary, Blue Bloods, and a couple of new ones, especially The Blacklist. Tim loves that one 🙂

I’m not reading nearly as much as I was earlier in the year. I’m reading my Bible and Jesus Calling Devotional every day, and plugging along with books. Current book I’m reading is one I actually bought, Double Cross by James David Jordan (read the first one, Forsaken, and loved it, so I knew that if I found the second one free or discounted, I would get it. Paid 2.99 and it’s worth every penny so far!). I will go over 100 in the next few weeks, well surpassing the goal I set. I might even beat my previous high goal of 104, if I can keep it up 😀

OK, nothing exciting, but I guess that mostly catches me up, LOL!

Well, here it is two weeks since I’ve posted, and I’ve once again neglected my blog. I’m so grateful my little blog is so faithful, always sitting here patiently waiting on me to return 🙂

Let’s see, nothing exciting or earth-shattering to blog about. Just skipping on along, trying to get through August. The end is in sight though, LOL! Yippee! 😀

* The last couple of weekends have been busy, which is the way that Tim likes it 🙂 Two weekends ago, we went over on Saturday to his mom’s house, to help with more of the kitchen renovation. Her cabinets were in (most of them) and a couple of the appliances. They moved the dishwasher back in, put down moulding on the floor, laid new flooring and got it looking a lot better. She’s waiting on granite countertops and an issue with the cabinets and wall oven. It’s going to look awesome in there, it already does!

* This past weekend, we went to Indianola for the day on Saturday. Tim played in a charity golf tournament with Don at his club. Gail took me out to eat lunch at The Crown, since I had never been. I had the Catfish Allison and Gail had a chicken salad plate. We both had some dessert, big splurge, and it was all really good! Left at nearly dark, which means we always have to stop half way, coming out of the Delta, and go through a car wash. Those bugs up there are killer! We can’t see out of the windshield and so we have to stop and clean it all off.

* Did I blog before that Tim shot par? He’s shot 72 one time so far at his home course, which is a par 72. He’s up and down, but has shot it once and is very fired up! He’s been playing 5 days a week all summer, so his game has really improved. Now, he wants to break par! He’s ordered a new putter, a new shaft for his driver, and something else.

* He also ordered me two happies, I think he felt bad about getting so much golf stuff for him 🙂 I got a new Timex indiglo watch with a maroon cloth band, I really like it. And today, a package was delivered for me, a bluetooth outdoor speaker. Now, once the weather cools and it is fall, I can sit outside on the deck or out back by Beau’s grave and listen to my music streaming from either my iphone or my ipad.

* Speaking of my iPad, I am running down the battery every day on the thing. I have a new addiction, thanks to Linda and her sisters, they’ve gotten me playing HayDay. Very similar to Farmville that I used to play all the time on Facebook, except this one is done on a phone or tablet. And the crops never ruin, it just sits and waits on you to come back and play, which is really nice. And, I am still playing Cafe World in Facebook. Over 2 or 3 years, I have a consecutive day streak going, somewhere in the 1075 day range. Yikes. Bad addictions 🙂

* Ready for football! USM opens this Saturday with a home game at The Rock. The Saints play their last preseason game this week, then a Sunday off before the regular season starts. Can’t wait!

* Been busy with my Dad the last few days. We took him with us on Sunday to Magee, to celebrate Linda’s birthday with a big family lunch at a local restaurant, Berry’s Seafood. I think there must have been 35-40 of us! Imagine the hostess when the first one comes in and says “Table for 40”!!! We had a good time and got to visit with everyone, and my dad had a blast. Yesterday (Monday), I took him to the dentist. Tomorrow is a trip to a new lawyer, to update his will. And then Thursday morning I have to go to the dentist.

* Have tried a couple of new recipes lately, and also gotten a couple of “real” books from the library, I’ll have to post about those later 🙂

Let’s see… today is Tuesday August 13. Maybe, just maybe, I might make it through August after all! Seeing light at the end of the tunnel!

* 18 days till kick off at The Rock, which is the beginning of college football season for us! Hoping for a better season than last year (0 wins, truly deplorable, and the worst in 18 seasons).

* Preseason football has started. The Saints won their opener (yes, I know it’s preseason and it doesn’t count). This just means one thing – real football is just around the corner!

* Quiet weekend for me – Tim played in the Whisper Lake club championship this past weekend and was gone almost all day Saturday and Sunday. He was so disappointed – he didn’t putt well and came in fourth in his flight (the top three win prizes!). He was still so upset about it on Monday that he didn’t go to play golf! Bonus for me, he stayed home, grilled out chicken and veggies for me. And then we rented a movie from Amazon Prime, the remake of Red Dawn. Turned out to be a pretty spectacular Monday for me 🙂

* Last Friday, we got to see Tim’s old Air Force friend Beth and her husband. They came through town, driving a US Army 18 wheeler, transporting stuff to Fort Polk. We went to Cock of the Walk to eat and visit, then back here for a bit before they had to get back on the road. I had never met Beth or her husband Mike, so that was great 🙂

* Going to be a busy week this week – haircut for me tomorrow, got some errands to run. Then taking my dad to his retina doctor appointment on Thursday. Friday I’ll probably grocery shop and might go to Sam’s. Saturday we’re tentatively scheduled to go over to my in-laws, for Tim to help more on the kitchen renovation. Depends on what they get done this week. Cabinets should be in, and Tim is needed to help with flooring and mouldings.

* Since Tim was gone most all weekend, I didn’t have to cook a lot. We ordered pizza one night (cashed in my Papa Johns points, so the pizza was free!), and I make homemade ice cream another night:

New recipe for snickerdoodle. We both liked it, very cinnamon-y. Mine, of course, was better with chocolate syrup poured on it. Tim did say that the last new one I tried (hot cocoa ice cream) was better than this one though, so file that away for next summer!

* Current Kindle book I’m reading: Heart of Stone by Jill Marie Landis. Just finished two I really enjoyed – “The Deposit Slip” by Todd M. Johnson (legal thriller, sort of like a Grisham) and “Paid in Blood” by Mel Odom (NCIS book, very similar to the series, but obviously a different team, good characters though). I’m currently ahead of where my goal shows I should be, on track to read at least 100 books this year. I’m hoping to top my all-time record, which was 104 a couple of years back.

* Currently watching: still enjoying summer shows. Looking forward to football and new fall shows. Recording several movies off pay channels. Rented Red Dawn last night from Amazon Video (love the new apps on our Samsung Smart TV!). I’ve been re-watching all the Harry Potters in order. On my third or fourth time through, currently about to start Order of the Phoenix.

* Current weather – finally got hot in August. Did have a nice rain last Friday. Most of my flowers are nearly dead, and I’m good with that 🙂 Hopefully will rain today and/or tomorrow – 60 % chance both days.

* Current want – I still want to get a dog. Tim is not ready. Sigh. I’ve found two on Petfinder and have tried to get him to go to the shelter and check them out. Now, they’ve both been adopted. While I’m glad they’ve found good homes, I want a dog. I miss my Beau, horribly, every day, and want a new puppy to love. Tim doesn’t seem to understand, he’s busy with golf and not really wanting a dog these days. Sniff sniff.

* Current time waster – Pinterest. Man, can I lose a lot of time just going through pins and reading blogs and stuff. Ugh.

* I made progress today. I walked for the first time, by myself, without Beau. It was a sad walk, but I finally forced myself to get out and go. 3.3 miles, so at least I didn’t wimp out after the first mile 😀

* Had to make an emergency run up to the assisted living place to check on my dad this morning. More health issues, this time, thankfully nothing very serious. I guess being around so many more people than he was before (he lived alone and rarely saw anyone other than the checkers at Walmart), seems to be making him sicker.

* I’m currently decalcifying (is that how you spell that silly word?!) the coffee pot for Tim. I made myself some coffee once or twice in the last week (I use a different coffee maker that is stored in the garage, an el cheapo Mr Coffee from Walmart)… I imagine that will be the last coffee I make at home until fall and winter rolls around again. Tim, however, drinks it 365 days a year, so we have to clean his coffee maker fairly often.

* Getting warm, I guess spring is finally here. Supposed to be 80 degrees today.

* Current book I’m reading: on my Kindle, a cozy I downloaded from my library’s website called “A Slice of Murder” by Chris Cavender. So far, it’s a pretty good little cozy mystery 🙂

* Trying to work on a menu for the week, I think I’ll do stir fry tonight, get Tim to grill burgers tomorrow and do fish Wednesday or Thursday. Tim hasn’t opened up the grill in months. There might be small creatures nesting and living in there. He doesn’t grill much any more. He says he needs a new grill and he probably does. I bought myself a Cuisinart Griddler last fall, to use inside, with some of my Swagbucks winnings that I redeemed for Amazon gift cards. I’ve been using it a lot, but have yet to try to grill burgers on it.

* Also, obviously, trying to get back into the swing of blogging. I read through quite a few old posts yesterday, I was missing my Beau baby something fierce, and started reading and looking at pictures of him. It made me miss “the old days”, when I used to blog regularly. These days, with Facebook, Pinterest, GoodReads, my iPad and everything else, I rarely find time to blog. Trying, yet again, to work on that 🙂

* OK, time to finish cleaning up the house, work on unpacking some things for the garage sale of my dad’s stuff, and then time to cook supper!

Well, it was three weeks ago yesterday that we lost my precious dog, Beau. I still miss him terribly. He was so very loved. I talk about him all the time, and I think Tim is tired of it. I have looked on PetFinder and found a dog in a nearby shelter that I want to go see, he reminds me of Beau. But Tim is not ready. He wants to rebuild the fence. He wants to work in the yard. He says a dog will tie us down while we go back and forth to work on my dad’s house, cleaning it out and getting it ready to sell. We can’t go on vacation at the drop of a hat if we have a dog. He has a hundred reasons, but I just want a new dog to fill the humungous hole left in my heart by having my Beau go so fast and so suddenly. Sigh. I know he’s right, but still. I want my Beau back, or I want a new puppy to love.

It was three years ago this morning that I woke up with tinnitus. I hear it now, screeching away. I’m grateful that I hear it, and I hope that I never lose my hearing. I’ve learned to live with it, most of the time. I can now sleep most nights, although there are times when I wake up, hear it, and can’t get back to sleep. I’d like to think that’s part of the whole middle age insomnia thing. I know I’ll have tinnitus as long as I’m on this earth, but I have learned to be ok with that.

It’s been three days since I’ve seen my dad. That’s the longest he’s gone since we moved him up here in mid-February. It’s still been an ongoing thing with him. He can’t seem to catch a break. First was the kidney infection, dehydration that caused his fall. Then after we moved him into the assisted living facility, he was starting to get better, and he got a bad stomach virus. They shut the whole place down for several days until they could get everyone semi-healthy. Then he got an upper respiratory infection. Then, my sister Gail and I took him to the eye doctor for a steroid shot in his eye (an ongoing thing, he’s been seeing a retina specialist for about 18 months). The shot seemed to have gone ok (it’s an implant thing, a one time only thing, thank goodness), but he scratched his eye with the gauze patch they put on. So, a corneal abrasion necessitated 3 more trips back to the doctor to get his eye checked and repatched. He had a patch on his eye for about 5 days and he was so tired of it, and I don’t blame him. Now, the home health nurse says he is probably anemic. We just can’t seem to get him well and feeling better. I’ve stayed away this week, giving him time to feel better and try to get settled in. We think he’s in a great place, they have lots of activities and things for the residents to do, but my dad is not a social person. He has no interest in bingo, or card games, or movies or chapel or devotions, or going on the trips they schedule, or any of the other activities they plan. I keep hoping he will, but so far, he’s just not interested. He is getting therapy about 4 times a week, 2 times OT and 2 times for PT, which should help him. And he does get out of his room some, and go sit in the lobby and people watch, which most of the residents do, LOL!

Easter is this weekend, really early this year. We’ve had cold weather all week, very unusual for us this late in March. 29 at night and 50’s during the day have been awesome. I’ve worn my thick hoodies, snuggled under a big quilt at night, drunk hot tea and coffee and cocoa, trying to milk what last little bit I can out of winter. Spring is coming, and Tim will be gone a lot playing golf. He ordered a new bag and it came in today, so he’s really pumped up to get back to playing. He’s been doing P90X since right before Christmas and he’s doing great. He’s down nearly 25 pounds and looks very slim to me. He still says he has a long way to go, and I keep telling him, if he loses much more, he’ll be thinner than me! LOL! 😀

What does this look like to you?

To me, it looks like cough syrup. But, it’s not. It’s what I’ve been putting in my morning coffee for the last few weeks. I have blogged before about my love of flavored coffee creamers in the past, and we’re definitely coming up on my favorite time of year – when Coffeemate brings out their holiday flavors like gingerbread, peppermint, etc. I normally buy other flavors of Coffeemate (as many in the lowfat variety as I can) to use throughout the year. But a few months ago, I tried buying a bottle of flavored syrup at Sam’s Club, and just using fat-free half and half in my coffee. I think the syrup lasts a lot longer and I think it may be a bit cheaper to go this route. Either way, it’s always nice to change things up a bit 😀

This is the cough syrup flavored syrup I’ve been using:

The raspberry tastes good, although I think I like the vanilla and caramel flavored syrups better. I just can’t get past the look of it! It’s a bit disconcerting to put that red syrup in my coffee, it looks just like cough syrup! And, with the red syrup and white half and half, my coffee comes out looking pink! 🙂 Good thing it tastes good….

Have a wonderful day!