Exceedingly Mundane

Let’s see… I keep saying I’ll make some kind of interesting blog post, but still, I keep just jotting down what we do every day. My own online diary… B O R I N G! I know, but still a lot going on and it’s all I can do just to record some of this for my horrible memory 🙂

Last week was another busy one, but another good week. On Monday, I ran errands all day. And by all day, I definitely mean all day, I think I went to 7 or 8 places. Walmart, Home Depot, the dollar store, Kroger, Sam’s, Ace Hardware, the bank, the post office and the old house. The Sam’s Club run was, as I had predicted, monumentally large! I had gotten low on so many items, and didn’t even get everything on my list, but still had an overflowing large buggy. Glad to have the pantry and new kitchen to stock up for!

Tuesday and Wednesday were relatively quiet days. I tried to mostly stay home unpacking. Tuesday morning I got up, made myself some coffee and sat out on my back porch, trying to catch up on my Bible reading. I’m SO far behind. I would say that I enjoyed the peace and quiet, but there’s construction all around us, so I heard all of the trucks, machines, equipment and workers. Still, it was very enjoyable! Wednesday was the home inspection at the old house, and Tim got a long list of nit picky items that will need to be addressed. He played golf Wednesday though, and had fun 🙂 Wednesday, I made red beans and rice for supper, which was good.

Thursday, I finally got my rear in gear and got out the door to go walk for first time in the new subdivision. I will have to work on a route, and learn the distances. Later that morning, we met with the landscape guy at new house, as I had a lot of questions about the plants (what are they, how to care for them, how to prune them, when to prune them, etc, especially the roses they planted out front), and Tim had questions about the irrigation system. Tim spent a big portion of the rest of the day on the phone with items from the old house inspection. After work, he headed to Lowes and then the old house to work on items on the old list that we weren’t going to get an electrician or roofer to handle. He got home really late, after dark and was exhausted. He had eggs, sausage, grits and homemade biscuits to look forward to, so that helped a wee bit 🙂

Friday, I got up and went again on a walk, and found a new route! I mapped out some streets that gave me about 3.2 miles, which is about what I like to walk. After I got home and had breakfast, I was talking to Tim and saw a white blob fall out of the sky and land on our driveway… A weather balloon landed on the house!! Tim climbed up on the roof to get the deflated orange portion down, and we put the recorder box in a prepaid mailing envelope attached to it, to mail it back to NOAA. It was pretty cool! Tim spent more phone time, working on items for old house (termite inspection, electrician and roofer), and then after work, we both went to the old house to finish things up (last cleaning, Tim fixed the washer spigot, cut grass, loaded up the mower and weed eater, etc). After that, we came back home (to the new house, can’t call it that much longer!) to meet Gail and Don and then go eat a late supper with them and Elizabeth at Majestic Burger. Don and Gail spend the night, so were our first houseguests at the new house!

Saturday, Gail and Don left early for a soccer game for Katelyn and I asked to tag along (Tim stayed here to work in the garage). Katelyn did really well and scored two goals! After the game, Gail and I dropped Don off at Lake Caroline to play golf with Tim, and then we went shopping. I got a few new things for the house (sponge holders, cast iron griddle, drawer organizers, new rug for front door, two fall wreaths). Poor Gail got to drag around with me from store to store, looking for doo-dads that I wanted. And this was just the tip of the iceberg, there’s still SOOO much more we need, especially shower rods. No one can come stay and take a shower in the guest bath, since I don’t have a rod and curtain or a shower door yet! After shopping, we met the guys for a very LATE lunch at Jason’s Deli (3:30 PM, I was beyond hungry, and fairly irritable!). Don and Tim stopped by the old house to spray a wasp nest, then they went to get the treadmill from the storage unit. Don and Gail headed home, and I know they were exhausted, because Tim and I both were!

Sunday was church and Sunday school. Then, we stopped on the way home at GermanFest (in Gluckstadt) for brats, sauerkrat and shish-ke-bob. We used to go every year when my dad was alive, but had not been in the last couple of years. The sign said 28th annual, and I didn’t realize it had been going on that long! We got enough for us for lunch, and us plus Liz for supper. We had a late lunch, and watched some of the Packers/Bears game after church, then we went walking down the street to look at new houses. We stopped to talk to the neighbors two doors down, the first family that moved in on the street, but we had met everyone but them 🙂 We visited a long time, maybe a couple of hours! Then, we came home to meet Liz and watch the Saints/Cowboys game on Sunday night football (my poor Saints, they can’t win this year, boo hoo)

Monday, we were up early to let Liz use our shower, then get ready to go to the closing. We closed on the old house today, and have now ended that chapter of our lives. I miss the old house, it was the house my parents helped me get when I was still single, that I had when I met Tim, that he came to live in with me when we got married, and where we had lived all of our married life until a couple of weeks ago. A lot of memories there, but it’s time to put that in a box on a shelf and move on to the next chapter. We have a beautiful new home, and as of closing, we now own only ONE home! After the closing, Tim came home and went back to work and I went on another large grocery run. We went after work to get the last load of stuff from the storage unit, so we could close it out by the end of the month. It will be nice to not have to pay for that every month now! Our garage and dining room are our storage units now, LOL! I fixed chicken fried rice and egg rolls for supper, yummy. I’ve been craving Chinese food for quite a while now, can’t wait to go soon.

And, that ends this portion of my boring daily life and my modified online diary! Poor blog, you are pretty neglected except for these daily snippet posts 🙁

I hope we are at the five week mark, or even less! The last time Tim talked to our builder, he said on one hand, we are 90% complete with the house, but on the other hand, he said September 15 for a closing date. So that should be five weeks from today, or maybe sooner. Tim hopes he is “managing our expectations” and that is the latest and it might, just might, be finished and we can close sooner.

Another busy, really busy week, in the books. It certainly helps that we are staying so busy with so many things, it does make the time go by faster. This past week was particularly rough for Tim. He was still crazy busy at work. He worked so many hours, all day, most every night, most nights till 1 or 2 AM. He was chasing the problem on his new project all week and it was driving him nuts. He told me one day, I’m so tired of looking for a needle in a haystack and not being able to find the needle.

Ok, a quick recap of last week. Tuesday night, we had to go to a family support group therapy meeting at Suzanne’s outpatient facility. I’m not really the sharing with strangers type of person, so this was rather difficult for me. I didn’t really feel like we got anything out of it, the counselor just talked in broad terms, platitudes is what I described it to Tim as, afterwards. They want us to attend the next one in two weeks, we’ll see where we are with the house and if we are able to go. After the meeting was over, I let Tim pick someplace to go out to supper, and he of course picked something really unhealthy! We went to CiCi’s all-you-can-eat pizza buffet and proceeded to pig out. Ugh. It was good, but soooo bad for us!

Wednesday was a busy day for me, which worked out well for Tim, since he was nose down all day at his computer. I got my hair cut and colored that morning, then met Gail, Elizabeth, Katelyn and Sam at Chick-Fil-A. Gail had come down for her second annual day with DeeDee before school starts. She and the kids had a busy day, but thankfully came to our part of town so Liz and I could meet them for lunch. The kids had a good time playing and it was nice to catch up with Gail and Elizabeth. Elizabeth was getting ready for school, which started on Thursday. After I left them, I ran by HomeGoods to look around (I want to buy some things for the house SO BAD, but Tim refuses, saying “it’s more to move, just wait”.) I offered to stop and pick up Tim’s favorite, Dickey’s BBQ. He had “forgotten” to eat breakfast and was a couple hours late for lunch. He gets like that when he is busy working. He did stop work at the normal time since we had an appointment to meet with the hardware people at their warehouse in Gluckstadt. We picked the last of the hardware and also got the name of a glass guy to replace some windows in our existing house. After the meeting, we went by the new house to check on progress and found that they had started installing fixtures and ceiling fans. We also dropped off another load at the storage unit, it is getting full!

Thursday was another fairly busy day. I made a grocery run to Kroger, then Suzanne came over after her treatment and brought a huge bag of clothes that she had bought, to try on for me. She stayed a while and visited, and ended up staying for supper. I fixed an Asian chicken salad for everyone and we had frozen yogurt for dessert.

Friday, I tried to get some things done around the house. I spent the morning dragging around sprinklers and watering the grass, as it has been so hot and dry. The grass at our current house was nearly dead, and we want to try to keep it alive for when we put the house on the market (which we still have not done, with Tim so swamped at work). The glass guy came by mid afternoon to look at the windows we need replacing and said he would get us a quote on Monday. A bit later, Tim finally found a solution to his problem at work. He was ecstatic to finally find his needle and get it fixed! We decided to stay in and I fixed a new recipe from Pinterest, Philly Cheese Sloppy Joes (a big success!) along with some oven fries and roasted veggies. We watched the Saints first preseason game, which they won.

Saturday was a busy work day around here. About mid morning, I cut the grass for Tim, as he had started painting. He painted ALL day. He was doing walls, baseboard and trim in the front hallway and front guest bedroom. The rest of my day did not go as planned (I was going to clean, purge and pack more). Suzanne came over to trim the bushes but it started raining, so instead we went to Renaissance to go to Chico’s, Lucky Jeans and Barnes and Noble. She did great in the clothing stores, but then had a breakdown in Barnes and Noble, too many memories she said. So I drove her back, and we stopped at CVS to get another prescription filled for her. She’s going to have good days and bad days for a long time, I would imagine.

Sunday was by far my favorite day of the week! I spent the entire day with Tim, every minute, so that made it spectacular 🙂 We went to our regular service at church. We started a new sermon series, called “All In” (our pastor has been reading that book by Mark Batterson). This week was “Promotion Sunday” for all the kids moving up, so we thought it would be a good time for us to try our first Life Group! We picked from the list an open group led by one of the staff and it turned out to be a fairly small group, about 10 people this week. But we liked the teacher (Tommy Jarrett) and the passage he chose 1 Peter 4:12-19. We really enjoyed it and plan to go back and try this group again. We had several people tell us that people move around and we can do that till we find one that fits and feels right. We got out a little after noon, so we had a late lunch afterwards at Corner Bakery. I had the turkey on a pretzel roll, Tim had a Steak and Cheese sandwich. After stopping at the house to change, we were anxious to go see the new house! They had not only started on the tile work but it looked to be 40-50% complete. Our tile shower was nearly done and some in the other bathrooms and laundry room. The best part — the granite is installed in the kitchen on the countertops and island! It looks awesome! And the second best surprise, they had started the landscaping out front! Most of the front has flower beds, bushes planted and pine straw in the beds. No sod yet, but probably soon, at the rate they are going. We texted Suzanne before we left, and she texted back before we were leaving, so we stayed (and sweated profusely!) till she could drive up to the house to look around. We came home and waited for Terry and Mitchell to come with the trailer. They were going to load up the old wood from the fence Tim replaced and also take our old patio table and chairs. After they got here, it was so hot, Tim suggested we take them up for a tour of the house, which we did. They had not seen it since it was in the stud phase, prior to insulation and sheetrock. When we were at the new house, it started pouring, so we knew we couldn’t get back and get all the wood loaded. They ended up leaving the big trailer on our driveway and Tim and I (and maybe the neighbor) can try to load it this week for them to come get and take the stuff back. They visited till dark, then headed home, and poor Terry, he called about an hour and a half later and asked if we had seen his wallet. Which I found in a chair, so someone will probably come get that today. i hate losing my phone or wallet somewhere! After they left, it was late and I didn’t really want to cook, so Tim offered to drive us through Wendy’s for more bad fast food.

Here’s hoping that this week is equally as busy and goes equally fast, or faster. I’m pretty antsy these days to get a firm closing date and get busy packing the last of the house to move! 🙂

Well, another three months have come and gone and no blogging from me 🙂 What else is new?!

It’s January 6, 2014. It will take me a while to get used to writing 2014, I had just gotten used to 2013 and now it’s in the books.

My favorite time of the year has come and gone, seemingly in the blink of an eye. My birthday in October (Tim took me shopping all day the day after and bought me every piece of clothing I could find that I liked, so half a new wardrobe!), Halloween (mostly rained out, but Gail was here, and Kathryn and the kids came), Thanksgiving (Gail and clan were at Disney, so Tim and I went to Mount Olive at Aunt Becky’s, while Daddy stayed at Ridgeland Pointe, as he was not feeling well), and then our 3 Christmases have all come and gone. The regular football season is over (Saints were 11-5 in regular season and have won the first wildcard playoff game, Seattle is next) and that is always so sad for me. Football season is hands down, my most favorite time of the year. Christmas is packed and put away, all the lights from the tree, my garland and my Snow Village are gone and I’m just about over missing them.

Let’s see, I accomplished my goal for 2013 (I never set goals!), which was to read through the entire Bible. I’d tried in the past and never made it through the early parts of the Old Testament. In 2013, I used the YouVersion Bible app on my ipad and read through the One Year Bible, which uses the format of a section from the OT, a section from Psalms, a section from Proverbs, and a section from the New Testament. It was very doable for me, and I was able to accomplish my goal, yippee! Now, I’m going to make that a goal every year, and try to read through it yearly. I need to spend more time reading Scripture and less time watching tv and playing computer games 🙂 I bought the MacArthur Study Bible and a chronological one called Reading God’s Story, and I’ve decided to do the MacArthur one this year.

Let’s see… we’re currently having quite a cold snap, so I’m happy to stay inside and enjoy winter! Today’s high was supposed to hit 26, not sure if it made it. Tonight should set a record, 12 degrees. As Siri says on our iphones, Brrr! Needless to say, we’re not walking. It’s harder for me to get out and walk without Beau, and convincing Tim to go, so when it’s cold, we just don’t go.

Tim has now successfully figured out a way for me to wish for spring and golf season to get here faster (whether he realizes it or not!). Normally, I enjoy winter and having him home more (which I still do), and being able to spend more time together. However, he’s making me do P90X with him, and now every day that we do that, I secretly wish for winter to be over, so he can go to the golf course and I do NOT have to do that stupid exercise program. I don’t like anything about it. He did it last winter and lost 30 or 35 pounds. Me, I’ve been doing it since October and maybe I’ve lost 2 pounds. Sigh.

Last year was all about my dad, since he fell in mid-February and we moved him here shortly after. We lost Beau in March, and I’ve missed him every day since. I’m hoping this year is going to be more focused on us. We have some plans for this year (including a dog, hopefully), that I hope will come to fruition.

I don’t know if I’ll get back into blogging or not, but I’m going to try a bit. I’m not cooking much (so no new recipes to share and no food photos) and I don’t have Beau (so no cute Beau photos or videos). I’m not posting much on Facebook because of those things, and because Tim doesn’t like me to post when we go places (movies, out to eat, etc). Sigh. Hard to come up with things to blog about 😀

Ok, not much of a catch-up post, but a start. I always want to look back on my blog and see what we are doing, that’s hard to do with these 2-4 month gaps I’ve been having, LOL!

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!

I’m SO glad that fall is here, even though we’ll still have plenty of hot days. At least maybe the nights will start cooling off a bit, and my early morning walks will be less sweaty and stinky 🙂

We got one or two new tv shows last week, but this week, it really starts cranking up. Some new favorites are returning and we’re going to try a few new shows.

Here’s some of the new ones we are going to give a test drive too and see how we like them…

* Sleepy Hollow – this one started on Fox last week and we both liked it! It reminds me a lot of Grimm, which Tim loves and watches by himself. I’ll give this one a try for a while, until the creatures and monsters and stuff start to get to me 🙂

* Hostages (CBS) and The Blacklist (NBC) – both start Monday night at 9 PM here. Not sure about either one, but they have some decent actors and a decent sounding plot. We’ll give them a try.

* Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD – Tuesday night on ABC, and I cannot wait! I love all the Marvel movies and loved the Avengers movie. I hope this one is great, and it’s even better because although Colson died in the last movie, he lives in this tv show! 😀

* Ironside starts in early October, I think on NBC. I remember Blair Underwood from a show a LONG time ago, I think it was LA Law. Boy, I’m getting old 🙂

And then we’ve got a lot of favorites coming back, including both NCIS shows, Person of Interest, Elementary, Blue Bloods and several others. I have a new season of Top Chef to look forward to, and a new Dancing (which started last week). I’m really on the fence about The Voice. I loved,loved,loved it last season with Shakira and Usher, and now they are gone and the two I dislike intensely (CeeLo and Christina) are back. Bleh. I will give it a limited shot, mostly because I enjoy Adam and Blake.

As far as fall goes, I’m ready for more. Cooler temps, more comfort foods, holidays, birthdays and of course, the football that I’m already enjoying. Our college team is not doing well (again, hard after a streak of 17 winning seasons), but the Saints… oh, my Saints! They are 3-0 and we have such high hopes and happy expectations every Sunday. I love this time of year! Bring on some cool temps, let me pull out jeans and my favorite long sleeve shirts and sweatshirts, light a good smelling candle, and I’m a happy camper 😀

Hooray! Made it through the two hardest months of the year for me, July and August. Today is September 1 and while it’s hot, and I’m sick, I’m grateful that the last four months of the year (my most favorite time of the year) have arrived.

Had a busy week. Had to take my dad to the dentist one day, to a new lawyer another day (and THAT opened up a whole Pandora’s box of problems, issues, decisions, etc), and then I had a dentist appointment another day. Tim got sick on Tuesday, maybe even Monday late. Sinus, we think. Now, I have it and it’s not fun. It’s not as bad as I’ve had before, so I am very grateful that I’m not feeling worse than I am. I’ve had bad sinus infections before, and almost always at this time of year (Sept 1-15 is notoriously when I get these) and so far (KNOCK ON WOOD), I’m not nearly bad enough that I need to go to the doctor and get a shot and some antibiotics. So very grateful 🙂

It’s gotten hot again, July hot, just in time for Labor Day. We’re not going to do a thing this year, for the holiday. In years past, we would have Labor Day parties here. But this year, most of my side of the family is out of town, Linda is just now starting to get her kitchen back, Terry has the store open, so we’re just not going to have anyone here or go anywhere. My dad is not very happy with me, but he’ll probably get over it by Halloween 🙂

As I saw posted today on Facebook, today is the last Sunday until February without football. Yippee!
Our fantasy draft is tomorrow morning, so we’ll have that to play with as well. USM played their first game last night, it was not on tv, so we listened to some on the radio. Once they had turned the ball over 4 times, Tim decided to turn it off and go back to watching golf (they lost, sigh, just like last year, when they were winless). Oh, and we watched a decent movie last night that I had recorded, Trouble with the Curve, a Clint Eastwood movie.

I’ve been reading a couple of secular books lately, and I’m sorely reminded of why I prefer Christian fiction. I was on the wait list at the library for a hardback copy of The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (pen name for J.K. Rowling) and while it was ok, it was not what I prefer to read. I just don’t like the language. I know she can write good books without all those f-bombs, I’ve read the Potter books! Such a shame. And then, as I was finishing that one up, my name finally came up for the digital download of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. I’ve been on the wait list for months, I think when I got on the list, I was number 23. It took months, and was bad timing to come available as I was finishing up the Cuckoo one. This one is better, the language is bad (but not AS bad) and the plot is better. After this one though, I’m going back to clean Christian fiction.

OK, well, just a quick post, glad September is here, not feeling great, sinus and stuff. And I have a bit of my summer doldrums left over, just don’t want to do much of anything other than play games, read, watch tv and be lazy. I’m not even motivated to cook these days 🙁

As Scarlett said, After all, tomorrow is another day! 😀

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 🙂

Yes, I’ve been away from my old blog for another long while. I miss it sometimes, but just never seem to think about sitting down and writing a blog entry.

I needed to look something up again, today, so of course I turned to my blog. It is great for looking back to see what we did, where we went, what we bought, etc. I miss that, and the interaction with my blog friends who used to come by and visit regularly, the most.

Anyway. I was reading some old entries and found it interesting to read about tv shows we watched, books I had read, meals I had cooked, etc. I thought I’d do a little of that right now:

I’m still using GoodReads to keep up with the books I read. Last year (2012), I read a total of 94 books, which is probably the second most since I’ve been keeping track of how many books I read per year. This year, I hope to read at least 60-70. So far, I’m off to a good start. I’ve read 6 so far this year:

1. The Homecoming by Dan Walsh (sequel to The Unfinished Gift, which I read right before New Years)
2. The Lady of Milkweed Manor by Julie Klassen
3. A Time to Love (Quilts of Lancaster County #1) by Barbara Cameron
4. The Negotiator (O’Malley #1) by Dee Henderson
5. A Time to Heal (Quilts of Lancaster County #2) by Barbara Cameron
6. False Pretenses by Kathy Herman

Almost finished with The Girl in the Gatehouse, also by Julie Klassen. Not sure what I’ll read next.

Tonight is the Super Bowl. We’re not having a party this year. We had them regularly until 2009, the year the Saints went to, and won, their Super Bowl. We haven’t had one since and I’m ok with suspending them. A lot of food, a lot of people, and you never really get to watch the game and commercials with a house full of adults and kids. They were fun, don’t get me wrong, but I think I’ve just moved on from having them.

Tim and I will watch the game tonight, just us. I’m not rooting for either the San Francisco 49’ers or the Baltimore Ravens. I’m just glad the Super Bowl is in New Orleans. Wish the Saints had not had “Bountygate” all year and had made it. Maybe next year 🙂 We were going to do ribs in the smoker, but Tim decided that would make a lot and have a lot left over. So, he’s going to grill a few brats, and we’ll have those with sauerkraut, some home fries and salad. He’s still doing his healthy eating thing. He’s down 16 pounds since he started in December and looks really trim to me 🙂 He was doing P90X daily until he hurt his leg, jogging with Beau last week.

My shoulder is still hurting. I’m trying to do some stretching exercises and procrastinating on going to see the doctor. Boo.

Ok, enough updating for now. Maybe more later, maybe not 🙂

Last Monday (Oct 22), it was time for Beau’s yearly visit to the vet. He’s so cute, I tell him we’re going to see the doctor and he hides his head in his bed and doesn’t want to get up. I finally coaxed him into going with me, and he had a good trip. He’s happy, and healthy, and hopefully will be with us a while longer. We’ve had him six years now, and I worry about him aging. I see a lot of grey, but he still has a lot of energy and gets a lot of exercise. He’s gained a pound or two every year, so he’s doing great. He was skin and bones when we adopted him, and I’ve always aimed to make him a healthy weight.

Hambones was down for a few days this week, so Tim was busy working on that. The week ambled on by until Thursday. I got my hair cut Thursday morning and then ran errands until mid afternoon. It was Elizabeth’s birthday and she came over late afternoon and hung out with us for a while, until we went to Biaggi’s for her birthday dinner. Her parents came down, and Kathryn and the kids came out to meet us (Jeremy was out of town). We had a great dinner (most everyone had pasta, but I had the tilapia with steamed green beans and it was delicious!), and then came back here for cake. Gail made another homemade cake, this time Elizabeth’s favorite which is strawberry. We all sang, including Beau who did a fine job! Kathryn and the kids didn’t get to visit long, since it was a school night. Elizabeth stayed a while and of course, Gail and Don spent the night. The guys got up early Friday morning to go play golf, and Gail and I took Beau for a walk. After that, we cleaned out and went shopping at Target. The guys had lunch at the golf course, so Gail and I came home and ate leftovers. Don and Gail stayed a while to visit, then left to pick David up at the airport and take him home to Indianola. Tim and I went to run errands. I’d been wanting to go to Steinmart and look for some church clothes. I found a couple of tops and some new shoes. If you know me at all, you know that is a HUGE statement. I detest buying shoes. Shopping for shoes ranks right up there with underwear and bathing suits for me. So for me to find two new pair of shoes was nothing short of amazing. Those should last me 3-5 years, or so I hope! LOL!

Saturday, Mark and Amanda and the kids came. The weather had gotten cold and it was pretty chilly all day. We visited a while inside, the kids had a snack, then we went out back to hit golf balls and play with Beau. We came inside to warm up and played the Wii for a while. Before dark, we headed to the park for the kids to play in Liberty Village. They’re nearly too old for that now, although Abby had fun. Tim brought the football, so he, Mark and Ethan tossed the ball till it was nearly dark. We all went to Majestic Burger for supper. I had my regular there, a seared tilapia sandwich (on homemade sourdough, I was bad and got that huge bun!). Soooo good. After dinner, we came home and visited a while longer, till they had to head back. We were so glad they came, it had been ages since we’d seen them and really had a chance to hang out!

Sunday was busy with church and Tim once again graciously agreed to go grocery shopping after church with me at Kroger. He had lunch, then headed to the golf course to play. I caught up on some stuff on the DVR, some laundry and picked up around the house. The Saints played the Sunday night game and I had such high hopes, only to have them dashed and they lost. Again. Our teams are just not doing well this year, and it’s hard. I love football season so much and it’s awful to have both teams not winning.

Monday was busy with cleaning house after all the company. Then, David texted and called and wanted to come stay a few days. So he headed down and now we have more company, although he’s gone most of the time. We’ll have a crowd here tomorrow for Halloween. I’ll probably try to post again later, after trick or treating! I should be posting pictures with my blog, but I’ve gotten bad about just putting them on Twitter or Facebook, it’s just easier. To put them here, I have to transfer them from my camera, size them down, FTP them to the server, blah blah blah. I’m so lazy these days!

Let’s see… last week Gail came to visit some, and Don came in Thursday night. Gail and Don went to the homecoming game at Hinds, out in Raymond, for Katelyn to be a part of the homecoming court. We didn’t go (we went out to eat at Krilakis and then watched some tv), but we were glad they were able to come for their granddaughter! Friday morning, I got up early and went walking with Beau, nearly 5 miles. Tim and Don left early for the golf course, and Gail left to go pick up Kathryn, Elizabeth and the kids to go to Hattiesburg. Katelyn was also in the homecoming court at Presbyterian Christian, and they went to visit Dad and pick him up for the parade. Don and Tim finished golf around lunchtime, so they swung by to get me and we all went to eat at Chili’s. Don left after lunch, having more work to do, but Tim had taken a day of vacation, so we went to run errands. We had some returns to make at Marshall’s and TJ Maxx, and we also went by Toys R Us to get Sam a birthday present (party next weekend!) and to make another big trip to Sam’s.

Saturday, we watched USM lose another game on TV, this one to Boise State. They are now 0-5 and it’s just heartbreaking. They’ve had winning seasons for the last 17 or 18 years, so it’s hard to watch. After the game, Tim went to play golf, and Beau and I stayed home. I caught up on some shows on the DVR and did some stuff around the house.

Sunday, we had church (current series: Give Yourself Away) and then we went to Corner Bakery afterwards. Tim had breakfast (breakfast panini and oatmeal) and I had lunch (cup of potato soup and a small harvest salad), and it was delicious as always. After that, we ran by Kroger to get gas (3.41 a gallon, but we had a discount from buying groceries), and to pick up food for the week. The Saints played the night game, and I made a big pot of taco soup before the game. Finally, the Saints won a game, beating the Chargers at home, so their record is now 1-4. Let’s hope this breaks their losing streak and they can turn the season around.

It was great weather over the weekend, and today (Monday). Low’s in the upper 40’s and low 50’s and high’s in the upper 60’s and low 70’s. Feels like fall! We got up at 6:15 to go walking, it’s dark and it was chilly, about 50 degrees. I love it!

Got more company coming this week (David and some friends are staying with us a night) and then a busy weekend ahead, with Sam’s birthday party.

Life is good!

Toilets!

But first, less interesting news! My dad came this week, on Monday the 24th. He had a quick errand to run at the credit union, and then came to visit and spend the night. I had setup two appointments at retirement homes near us, and he agreed to go visit both of them and check them out. Tim and I really like one of them, it’s fairly new, very close to our house, and actually the cheaper option. The only problem is that there is a waiting list, and my dad is really dragging his feet on moving. None of us can really understand. I mean, we do, I know it would be hard to sell my house and most of my things and move into a smaller apartment with strangers. But, on the positive side, he’d have all his meals prepared and served to him every day, housekeeping to clean his apartment, activities available, a shuttle service to take him places, etc. But none of that appeals to him, he sees it as losing his independence and being around people he doesn’t know. So, sigh. It’s going to be a long road. My sisters and I just hope that he is able to move into one of these before something more drastic happens, and then his only choice might be a nursing home.

Poor Tim didn’t get to play much golf this week. He didn’t play Monday and Tuesday because my dad was here (and he burned a day of vacation too, to go with us on Tuesday, he’s truly a prince of a guy!). Then he played Wednesday, but wasn’t able to go on Thursday or Friday, they had outings and tournaments scheduled at his club. So he was really looking forward to playing today (Saturday) in a tournament with our church. He got the word late yesterday that they had a lot of people cancelling, probably because of the weather, and so they cancelled it. Poor Tim, he was SO disappointed. So, instead we decided to work in the yard.

We slept late this morning, watched a little Ryder Cup (he’s also really excited about that!) and then worked outside, and put out a bunch of bales of pine straw. After that, I tried to talk him into more tv, but he wanted to work on the toilets. We had bought new parts for both toilets a couple of weeks ago, new valves and flusher things, basically all the inside parts except for the handle and big black floating bubble thingie-ma-bob! He got the master bath done pretty quickly, and said “I’ll do the guest bath and then watch Ryder Cup”.

Well, that didn’t work quite as planned! He had gotten all the parts replaced, and had put the tank bank on. He went outside to turn the water back on, and when he came back in, I heard him say very loudly “Oh No! Oh Crap!”. Which, from Tim, is very unusual and very serious! He was trying to tighten something because it was leaking and BOOM! The porcelain tank cracked and started dripping lots of water. So, we ended up having to buy a whole new toilet. He worked tirelessly for hours, never stopped for lunch, and finally got it all done. I tell you what, that boy is a keeper. I am definitely going to hang on to him, there’s nothing he can’t do or fix or replace! 🙂

So, now we’re watching football, and listening to the rain. It was supposed to rain all day today, tomorrow (Sun) and Monday. It didn’t start raining till mid-afternoon, so I think they could have gotten their golf in, but oh well. At least I have pine straw in all the flower beds, a repaired master toilet and a brand new guest bath toilet! LOL! 🙂 I’m a lucky girl! 😀

found this cute button on an old post at Jen’s blog, a Good Cup of Coffee, and she said it came from another bloggy buddy, Karen at Over the Backyard Fence. Both wonderful ladies, with terrific blogs. Hope they don’t mind me swiping and using!

This was the weekend that I could have done without. Tim was happy, oh so happy, since he played in his club’s two day championship tournament. He ended up doing really well, he came in second in his flight (although he was upset, he only lost by one stroke and he *really* wanted to win, he said!). I knew he was playing, and had some girly movies all lined up, a book to read, things to do, so I was more than happy to stay home with Beau and hang out. Tim was gone about 9 hours on Saturday and about 8 on Sunday, so I watched 2 football games by myself, then re-watched them with him when he got home. Both our teams lost (USM to East Carolina and the Saints to the Panthers, boo hiss).

No, the bad part was that I started getting a horrible headache on Friday. Saturday and Sunday were miserable. Friday wasn’t too bad, we went out to eat at Zaxby’s (since it’s next to Sam’s) and also ran to Marshalls and TJ Maxx and then did a huge trip to Sam’s. I may have spent more in Sam’s than ever, our bill was atrociously high. Anyway, Saturday morning I woke up and my head was so much worse. I don’t know if it’s just the weather or time of year, but I always seem to get sinus and a bad sinus pressure headache in September. Ugh. Sunday was a smidge better, not much. I did get out and go grocery shopping at Kroger, and also made a big batch of homemade calzones for Tim. He had one when he got home, and now he’s set for lunch for a few days.

Today is supposed to be rainy. It wasn’t raining this morning yet, so Beau and I headed out on our walk. Tim had to work last night, so he slept in and didn’t go. I walked a whopping 19 miles last week, so I was happy. Of course, I haven’t lost a pound (all of those cookies, homemade bread, ice cream, etc are not helping), but the exercise is good. I had hoped it would help my head, but alas, not much. It’s supposed to rain later, so maybe once that moves on through, my head will get better.
🙂

The Saints played their last preseason game last night. Our USM Golden Eagles open the season tomorrow at Nebraska. Our family fantasy football league has the draft on Monday. Yes, finally, football season is upon us!

I’m so glad, it’s definitely my favorite time of the year!

Hurricane/Tropical Storm Isaac has come and gone. My dad wanted to come and stay, but Tim and I both felt that he was better off staying put, and not getting out on the roads, in the wet, rainy, windy conditions. He was mad at me for a couple of days, he thought he wasn’t welcome, and never thought that Tim and I just had his best interests at heart. Well, and I was being a bit selfish. Tim works from home and he’s been incredibly busy at work lately. The last couple of weeks, he’s been working 10, 11 and 12 hour days. He’s got a big project he’s working on and it’s just better for him for it to be quiet in the house (something it’s definitely NOT when my dad is here, he can’t hear and he talks loud and blares the tv at about 90% volume). Anyway, alls well that ends well. We had some rain, about 3 or 4 inches, a little wind, no damage, no tornadoes, no loss of electricity. Dad had more rain, 7-8 inches or so, but no damage, no power outages, etc. The sun is back out now and I was even able to take Beau for a walk this morning! We only missed one day due to the weather, so that was good.

Got a busy 3-day weekend ahead. Tim is planning on playing a lot of golf, we have a birthday party for Zack, football games, the draft, etc. Looking forward to it! I’ll get to be lazy some and read and watch movies while Tim is out playing golf. I’m grateful for some quiet time 🙂

Hope everyone is having a great day and will have a great Labor Day weekend!

Another quick update…

Still enjoying the Olympics! Tim is watching some with me, and I’m watching a bit more during the day. I’m playing along on Viggle (on my iPad) and earning lots of points. Should be able to cash in a couple of $10 iTunes gift cards soon. We use iTunes money to rent movies through our Apple TV. We discontinued Netflix a while back, and have just been mostly watching tv shows and also recording movies on the DVR from the premium channels we get with our UVerse package. With the “free” iTunes movie from the Viggle points, we get free money for movie rentals. 🙂

Speaking of movies, we always go to a few movies at the theater in the summer. This year, so far we’ve seen The Avengers, The Amazing Spiderman and Dark Knight Rises (sensing a superhero theme?!). It’s still hard for me to go with my tinnitus (I look LOVELY in my yellow ear plugs), but it is a bit better than it has been the last two summers. I’ve also learned to sit as far away from the speakers as I can, in the middle, between the rows where the speakers line up! LOL! Anyway, Tim is also really looking forward to going to see the Total Recall remake and the new Bourne movie (Legacy, I think), soon. Hopefully this month.

The Saints play in the first preseason game this Sunday, the Hall of Fame game against the Cardinals! Football season cannot get here soon enough for me! Who Dat!

Terry got the Pineville store this past weekend. They opened on Saturday, and he’s been on vacation all week, at the store. Tim took a day of vacation today for us to go over and help out and see the store. On the way there, the warning system on the Explorer went off, saying “Check Charging System”. We stopped in Pearl at a gas station and Tim checked a few things, and decided it was probably the alternator. He decided to turn back and come home and go get parts (alternator and serpentine belt) and get it fixed. By the time he got it done, he decided it was too late to head over, so we stayed here. He’s gone to play golf and I’m catching up on stuff on the DVR.

And lastly, I finished the last Harry Potter book yesterday. Sniff sniff. I have been reading them pretty quickly the last couple of months, and I am quite sad to have them end. I’d gotten quite attached to Harry, Ron and Hermione. I will admit that the epilogue was wonderful, showing us what happened to the characters (although I knew from the movie). Very satisfying. All was well. 😀

Well, here we are on the second weekend in December. Wow, this year has alternately drug by and flown by. Some days during the summer, it seemed like summer would never end. Some days when
my tinnitus was so bad, I wasn’t sure I’d make it through a day. Then, at night I couldn’t sleep and wasn’t sure I was going to ever sleep again. But summer finally ended, with our hot temps, and I’m glad to say that my tinnitus is a bit better, too. It’s not gone — I’ve given up hope that it will just go away, and although I pray daily for that mercy, I’ve resigned myself that I will hear it every second, for the remainder of my life. But I have made many changes with diet, food and medicines, and either a combination of those or something *has* helped. I’m thinking the gingko biloba has made the biggest difference, but it might not be that. Either way, it is better and I’m learning to co-exist with the noises in my head.

Summer finally ended, and my favorite time of the year began – football season! The Saints are currently 9-3 today (game in an hour or so, so hopefully 10-3 soon, LOL!), and we are cautiously hopeful about the remainder of the season and their playoff chances. We’d obviously love to see them do well again, after so many years of being perennial losers.

OK, for an update of this weekend:

We’re a day shy of two weeks (yikes, typo, thanks Michelle!) days from Christmas. Wow, where has this year gone?

This is the second weekend that Tim is having to work a ton, for his big project at work. Last weekend was so bad. He worked three nights in a row, including one night where he didn’t go to bed until 7:40 AM. I cannot pull all-nighters any more. Just can’t. I feel so bad for him, but am so grateful that he has a job and works so hard to take care of us and provide for us.

I’ve gotten most of the Christmas presents wrapped. I have 3 or 4 left to go. I got the Christmas cards finished and mailed a few days ago. I’m seriously contemplating NOT doing any baking at all this year. My mother-in-law does a ton, and we just don’t need it around our house. I won’t have anything to take the neighbors and that’s my only drawback. I’ll have to think a bit more on that.

Yesterday was semi-warm (60’s) and today a front has blown through and it’s COLD. Current temp, 39, wind chill 29. Cold for us.

Yesterday, I planted pansies. In years gone by, I always had pansies planted by Halloween. I didn’t even want to plant them this year, I’m OVER planting annuals, but Tim talked me into it. And he helped 🙂 I hope they survive our overnight temps of 20’s for the next couple of days.

And yesterday, I ordered, for the first time ever, Amazon’s Deal of the Day! LOL! They had a stainless steel Breadmachine bread machine on special and I used some of my Swagbucks money to order me one 🙂 I hope it is a good one. My last bread machine (Sunbeam/Oster) has been going strong for 11 years, and while it still works, it doesn’t mix the ingredients as well, and it’s gotten really LOUD. Distracts everyone in the house while it’s running. So, Santa Stacy ordered herself a new one 🙂

Oh, and I’m still LOVING, absolutely loving, my Kindle! Tim got me the Wi-Fi one for my birthday and I just love it. I’ve gotten so many great free books from Amazon and I’ve downloaded a couple of Christmas books to read. I really love reading on it, it’s so light and easy to hold 😀