Exceedingly Mundane

Since my last blog post about what we have been doing was way back on July 16, I felt like I had a bit of catching up to do! I’ll try to break it up into a couple of posts. Not that anyone but me reads these, but I like having them down to remember. You know, for in a few years when I develop dementia or Alzheimers or whatever, all I know is my memory is bad and getting worse by the day! Haha! 🙂

July was a long, hot month of no rain. It looks like August is going to be the same way. We’re having problems with the new sod (as in, Tim sprayed some weed killer on a large portion of the front yard and some in the back, and it not only killed weeds, but has killed the grass too). We’ve lost 2 more azaleas, they will have to be replaced. We are running the sprinklers 3-4 times a week, and still things look terrible and are dying.

In mid-July, we took care of our neighbors dogs for a week while they were at the beach. I learned how to scoop kitty litter (they have a cat too!) and fed the dogs twice a day, checked on them a lot because it was so hot, and went over to read on their back porch and hang out with the dogs. It was blissful, it was like having two puppies all of my own for a week! Some days, I really miss having a dog.

We tried another couple of new restaurants in late July. One is a local place in Gluckstadt, Angelo’s. We went on a Friday night for date night. They have a strange menu – Italian, pizzas and barbecue! What an odd combination! We didn’t know what to try first, but Tim picked pizza. He picked an all meats one and it was pretty big, so we had leftovers to take home. Good thing, since Tim only ate one piece at the restaurant and I looked like a total pig, eating a whopping 2 slices! It was good, but pricey. I much prefer making my own pizza or order pizza hut than going to pay 23 bucks for a pizza! Next time, we’ll have to try the italian or barbecue.

Saturday July 18th was a fun day! Tim didn’t go play golf, so we hung out at home for a while, then headed out to Dogwood to shop all afternoon. We stopped at Panda Express for a late lunch, since I have been terribly hungry for Chinese food. It was ok, not great, but the first time I had been to one. I didn’t realize they had opened one out that way, we don’t have one near us. We shopped for rugs and art for the walls and came home with several pieces. No rug yet, we can’t agree on what we want to put on the floor in the keeping room.

Here’s some of my new wall art, I’m very happy with what we got, most of it came from Hobby Lobby:

Sunday July 19th was a tough day for Tim. We didn’t make it to church, since we knew he had to work all night. He did go play golf all afternoon, then started work around 8:30 PM. He came to bed around 5:30 AM, and I woke up and asked him, “did it all go okay?” To which he answered, “No, we had to roll it all back out”. He slept about 3 hours and got up and worked all day, trying to find the problems that had caused them to back out the code and put things back the way they were. He played golf that evening, Monday, and then was pretty exhausted the rest of the week! He has been searching for the problems and solutions ever since, and we know he has another long work weekend coming up, but we just don’t know when it will be.

Boom Shaka-laka, now June is almost over! Good grief. My mom always told me that the older you get, the more time seems to fly by, and as I’m learning, she was right about that too. She was right about a lot of things. I wish she was here for me to admit that, sheepishly, to her. I observed the thirteenth anniversary of her death this past week. 13 years that I’ve missed my mom every day. And over a year since we lost my dad, good grief, I’m getting old.

OK, back to the topic. June mostly flew by. I had my follow-up appointment after my second surgery and got a good report, it all seems to be healing. I have one final appointment, a 3 month follow-up, in late September. Maybe most of the bruising, numbness and tingling will be gone by then. Either way, I’m no longer wearing the hose, I am no longer in real pain (just the aforementioned numbness, tingling and occasional shooting pins and needles stuff), and I am so tearfully happy to have it all behind me!

My sister Suzanne also had surgery in mid June. She had a torn meniscus (I don’t think I know how to spell that word!) in her left knee and had it repaired. Crutches and PT are in her immediate future. Tim and I got her a few days after her surgery and took her out to lunch, brought her here for a change of scenery and a shower, and to visit. Gail and I saw her this past week for lunch at Jason’s Deli and she seems to be doing better.

My mother-in-law and Tim’s Aunt Jackie both had colonoscopies on the same morning at a place near our house. I went to check on them and keep Aunt Sandra company. They both had a bad time, getting sick and vomiting, which I did not experience with the prep you have to do, drinking the stuff, and I felt so sorry for them. Thankfully, this type of procedure is over fairly quickly and I think they are both fine now. Good reports, no polyps and no cancer, thank goodness!

We went to Tim’s parents house on Father’s Day weekend. Tim helped Terry all day in the new store and I got to visit with Linda and Emi and also to help snap a few bushels (it seemed like!) of green beans. Tim was wiped out by the time we got home, about 15 hours later 🙂

Gail came last week and stayed with us. It was my “make-up” shopping day, as we called it. I spent 4 1/2 weeks mostly home, recuperating from the two leg surgeries and wearing those hot, ugly hose, limping around, so I didn’t want or feel like going shopping. So we made up for it this past week! We hit most of our favorite places like TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Home Goods, Target and Steinmart. Maybe next time we can hit Belk, Penneys or Kohl’s, because I wanted to find some shorts and couldn’t find a single pair that fit. I did, however, buy 4 new tops (3 casual and one for church) and some jewelry. I got a few kitchen things like a set of 3 red bowls, new measuring spoons, a grill basket, some food specialty items, etc. Needless to say, we had a blast and I look forward to her next trip down to visit and shop! 🙂

It’s gotten really hot. We had to turn the sprinklers back on and run them this past week. Then, we got a good rain one night and I was hoping for more, but alas, just hot and dry. We finally hit 96 or maybe 97 one day, which is our hot summer weather, considering how humid it is. Tim is doing his norm, continuing to play a lot of golf, no matter how hot or whatever the weather is. The only thing that keeps him from playing is when he is at the course, a thunderstorm with lightning blows in, and they blow the horn to get everyone off the golf course. That’s the only reason he is at home and not playing golf these days 🙂

I don’t tend to blog about current events or hot button topics, so I’ll only remark quickly that I was saddened and grieved for our nation, with the Supreme Court decision that was handed down two days ago. Legalizing gay marriage is something I expected, but was holding out hope that it would not be the law of the land. It doesn’t change my feelings, I believe in God and in his Son Jesus Christ. I believe the Bible is His holy word and what we all need to live by, I know it is what I try to live by always. It is clearly stated in God’s word that homosexuality is a sin before God, so our nation legalizing it doesn’t change anything for me. I deal with this personally every day, but that doesn’t mean I love my sister or others any less.

Lastly, we knocked another place off of our to-try list. We went to The Gathering at Livingston today for lunch after church. Their Sunday blue plates are fried chicken and pot roast. We both had the roast and it was deeee-licious! Good sides, good cornbread and a nice new fun place to eat. I hope we go back again soon 🙂 Of course, we have more new places to try, plus all of our regulars we love. Not enough time!

Not much to report on the tv,movie and book front. Tim thoroughly enjoyed watching the US Open and watching Jordan Speith win his second consecutive major. He’s anxiously awaiting the British Open in a few weeks, to see if he can keep his Grand Slam hopes alive 🙂 We watched a couple of movies we’ve seen before and tried to watch Noah, with Russell Crowe, before deleting it about 6 minutes in. Too far off track for me. We’re back into Major Crimes and Murder in the First. Rizzoli and Isles is on the DVR, but we haven’t gotten to those yet, and I think Falling Skies returns tonight for the final season. On the book front, my reading is subsiding now that my legs are healing 🙂 Let’s see, since my last blog post, I’ve completed “The Dance” by Dan Walsh and Gary Smalley; “Mucky Streak” (Squeaky Clean #7) by Christy Barritt; “A Simple Faith” by Rosalind Lauer (an Amish book I downloaded from the library for something different); “52 Steps to Murder” by Steve Demarree and “Attracted to Fire” by DiAnn Mills. Well, that looks like more than I thought! LOL! Still, that was most of June, so not as many as I would have liked. Not sure what’s up next, maybe I’ll get off the computer and go find a good book to read!

Coming up this week, a haircut, then the big family reunion we go to every year on the Fourth of July. Fun stuff! 😀

Another uber busy weekend in the books! Not interesting for anyone else, but I like to record some of what is going on these days. Especially when we do fun things like go check on the house (our new big thing, LOL!) and we spend time with family and have such a good time!

I had thought Tim was going to go play golf on Friday after work, but he surprised me and said he wouldn’t go, so we could go check on the house and go out to eat. Such a sweetie pie! We went and checked on our house (Tim had been there the evening before to meet with the builder and electrician). I had not been since last Sunday, when Tim’s family came to see. From Sunday to Friday, they had made a lot of progress – the roof was finished, the front and back doors all installed, all windows have been installed, the two fireplaces are in, and the duct work done for the heating/ac system, which was also installed in the attic. We also went and looked at a couple of others houses further along, being built by our builder, to get an idea of fixtures, finished details, etc. We have to meet with the decorator soon to pick out a lot of things. Lots going on!

After we left the house, we were hungry and couldn’t decide where to go eat. We both decided that since we’d been good all week eating salads, we deserved to splurge and be bad, so we went to Pizza Inn for the all-you-can-eat pizza buffet! That’s something we hardly ever do, it has probably been 3 or 4 years or more since we’ve done that. I usually make pizza and every once in a while, we order or pick up pizza, but we never go to a buffet. Plus, I wanted to check and make sure they would deliver to our new house (they will), since I think we’ll be too far away from the Papa Johns we both love. After supper, we went to Dick’s to look for golf balls for Tim and ran into my old buddy Braxton. We talked to him for a long time, and it was good to see him and catch up on things. We were going to go check out the new Harbor Freight, but it was getting too late, so we went next door and ambled through Home Goods till they closed. So many things I want to buy for the house. Tim is like, you have to wait, I don’t want to buy more we have to move!!

Saturday, Tim had an early tee time with his buddies. After he got home (I had cooked lunch, but he brought us Chick-Fil-A home for lunch, as a surprise, along with a chocolate shake for us to split, do you notice a pattern of splurges!) and we ate, we got ready and headed out on more errands. We went to the new Harbor Freight they just opened near us. Tim had a blast, browsing and shopping, and after nearly 2 hours, I finally coaxed him into leaving. We went to the dollar store and TJ Maxx after that, and then, even though I had food cooked from lunch, we were out, we were hungry, so we stopped for supper! We went to the Papitos near TJ Maxx and had a huge meal. Tim ordered the Fiesta Dinner, which came out on two huge platters. I got the Baja Fish Tacos and they were really good! We took leftovers home, but haven’t had a chance to eat them yet.

On the way home, we called to talk to Mark and Amanda. They actually had been trying to reach us at home, to see if we had any photos of the church Tim and Mark grew up in, as they were having their 100th Anniversary on Sunday. So I spent several hours going through old photos and sending to them, and Mark worked all night on the slide show for the anniversary. Sunday morning, we got up and drove over to Tim’s family and we had the celebration at church for several hours. They read the 100 year history of the church, we visited with lots of family and friends (Tim had not seen a lot of these people in 20 or 30 years), we had lunch, then singing from two different groups. Kindred Spirits, which has Steven in it, and the Leaf River Boys, which has Tim’s Uncle Richard in it, playing the harmonica. After all the festivities at the church, we all went back to Linda and Mitchell’s and visited for several hours. Tim had brought his pistol and everyone took a turn firing it. I, of course, was the worst shot by far 🙂 Ethan had a shell casing come back and pop him in the face, so he had a nice bright red shiner to show for his first effort with a pistol! Brittany took me, Amanda and Abby down to see her new trailer. She’s so excited! It needs a lot of work and I asked her if it would be ready before our new house, and she said she wasn’t sure! It will get all new paint, all new floors and a lot of other work before she moves in. We stayed pretty late, then left and swung through Wendy’s for a late, late, late supper on the drive home. Obviously, WAY too much eating out this weekend, but that always happens when we stay so busy, always easier to pick up food while we are out running crazy. Tim and I are both pretty tired today, but we thoroughly enjoyed our weekend! (Note to self: no pictures here from the 100th anniversary at the church, I posted them on Facebook instead).

Some random and assorted thoughts and things going on:

It’s been chilly in the mornings when we walk! Sorta feels like fall. I know it will warm up, so I’m really enjoying the cooler temps while I can. One morning (just one!) was 51 degrees, so it was nice! I even broke down and splurged on a mug of hot tea Friday morning and coffee Saturday morning… they were both awesome!

Gail came Tuesday night and stayed with us while Don was out of town. I had to get my hair cut (and colored!) Wednesday morning, and after that, she ran errands with me. We went to TJ Maxx and Marshalls, and I picked up 2 more pieces of cookware.

I have been sort of wavering on Cuisinart vs Calphalon for some new stainless cookware. I had bought a couple in the Simply Calphalon line, but there seems to be a lot more sizes, shapes and even levels available from Cuisinart. I don’t really want to get a whole set, there are pieces I don’t want, and I really don’t have enough room for a large set (Tim found a 14 pc set at Sam’s he wanted to get me). Anyway, I found a couple more pieces Wednesday at TJ Maxx in the Simply Calphalon line, so I went ahead and got them. I need to pick up or order a couple more, but I think I’m going to go with that one. What I like about them is that they have a silicon grip on the handles and lid, instead of being all metal (I’m worried they’ll be hot). What I don’t like about them is that they have that black silicon grip, it doesn’t look as sleek as the all metal ones, LOL!

We also went to Kroger, the bank and post office. Gail left going home, and Tim went to play golf. He’s really enjoying the weather and his golf, his game is going well right now and he’s shooting lower scores than ever. He has one more tournament coming up at the end of the month. The days are getting shorter, so he can’t get as much golf in as he would like.

Survivor is back on and we watched the first episode Wednesday night! Hard to believe it’s the 25th season and we’ve watched every episode except the first one or two of season one. I tried the new Jeff Probst daytime talk show, and only gave it one day. I didn’t like the format. I much prefer The Chew and Rachael Ray for my daytime nonsense. I would give Katie Couric’s show a try, but no affiliate here is airing it.

Bought a jar of apple butter recently and tried it on toast, pretty good. I’m getting excited about fall and cooking more seasonal stuff with apples, pumpkins, soups, etc, and of course, Tim grilling out for football games and stuff. Love this time of year!

P.S. Saturday turned out to be a nice day together! Tim has been playing golf every Saturday for a while now, so when he said he wasn’t going to play, I got pretty excited! He’s been busy around the house and yard. We went to Lowe’s and got all new floodlights, and he’s put all of those up outside (the old ones were rusting and peeling). We also got pine straw, but haven’t gotten it out yet. We had to make a second trip to Lowe’s to get stuff to patch the roof, he found a hole in one of the shingles, yikes. Going to watch our college football game on the computer tonight, it’s not on regular tv, just ESPN3.com, so it’s hard for us to watch on the little bitty computer screen! 🙂

It seems like most of them do, but this weekend really flew by in the blink of an eye! My weekends are always a lot more fun and a lot more filled when Tim does not play golf. His plantar fascitis in his foot is still bothering him some, but mostly, I think my darling husband is just making a concerted effort to spend more time with me lately. Either way, I can’t complain, I love to be with him and do things together.

Friday night, we had date night at home. I made crockpot Chicken Santa Fe, which I normally make a lot during football season, but decided to start early this year. Tim thinks of them as nachos, since he eats his over chips with a lot of cheddar cheese on top. We watched a Harry Potter movie (Deathly Hallows part 1) and some of the Olympics. Team USA is still doing well!

Saturday, we ran a bunch of errands. We went downtown to pick up some motors for Terry and the new store (a fan in one of the coolers needs to be replaced), and we went to the Farmers Market. We also made stops at Marshalls and Academy Sports, before heading over to Tacqueria La Guadalupe for lunch. This time, we decided to eat in (they only have 4 booths and they were all filled, but we stood around and waited for one to open). We also decided to try their tortas for the first time. Delicious. Huge, homemade buns, sort of a Mexican burger. Tim got carne asada and all the toppings, including jalapeno. I got pollo (chicken), but without tomato and cilantro. They were delicious and so big that we each only eat half and brought the other half home to eat for supper. We stopped at the house for a bit and checked on Beau, then decided to go to a late afternoon showing of “Total Recall” at Malco. Better than I expected, and we both really enjoyed it!

Sunday was busy, we went over to Tim’s parents house for Emi’s birthday. We all ate and hung out, then went to the store for several hours to help out. They had a lot of stock to unload and put out, and Tim and Mark helped move a few heavy things. Terry replaced the motor we had brought, in one of his coolers, and we did what we could to help with arranging stock on the shelves and stuff. It had rained as soon as we got to his parents, hard, and rained for a while. Poor Beau was soaked to his bones but dried out some while we were at the store working, so he didn’t stink too bad (wet dog smell is the worst!) on the way home. We got home late, but had set the DVR for the first Saints preseason game. They played the Cardinals last night in the Hall of Fame game from Canton, and won!

Tim had to work late last night, and said he was going to stay up afterwards to watch the Mars Rover “Curiosity” land on Mars. I told him to wake me, and he came in to wake me up, but I was so sleepy that I passed on that opportunity! He watched it all on NASA tv and then told me all about it today, I was good with that 🙂

Back to the grind on a Monday, cleaning, laundry and trying to figure out what to cook all week! Just another day in paradise 😀

I learned a lot from my mom, including how to be frugal and how to shop for deals. I also try very hard to stick to a list and not get anything that isn’t on my list. I have my Grocery IQ app on my phone, but also on my iPad (and I use it daily), and as my new giant Kroger has free wi-fi, I just carry my Ipad to the store. It’s a tough life 🙂

Anyway, I deviate from my list when I find “deals”. Recently, I found some Laura’s Lean organic ribeyes in the clearance bin, so I snatched them up. Same with a whole organic chicken, which Tim smoked on his new smoker he got for Christmas (ooh, I feel another blog post coming up!). Today, I found a basket full of reduced priced items in the Natural/Organic section. I could have bought a lot more, but I was good and just came home with these:

The agave was my big score. I had *just* bought a bottle of this brand in their organic section two weeks ago. Luckily, I have been using it and knew it had a good taste. Instead of 3.99 a bottle, I got them for 99 cents each. Me and my “oatmeal on steroids” are set for a while now, since I add agave to my oatmeal every morning. I’ve bought Bare Naked granola before and liked it. The organic “pop tarts” are a new try, but maybe they won’t be too bad. 🙂

I love a good deal at the food place!

I’m a complete oddball, because my favorite thing to shop for is… food! I actually love to grocery shop, love to go to Sam’s and stock up on food and household supplies, and when we travel, I love to go to new grocery stores. Yes, I’m weird, and I know it 😀

When we went to the beach before Labor Day, I got to get in two food stops. We went to a Publix to shop for food for the beach house for everyone while we were there. This particular Publix had a nice organic section in the produce and several healthy options on the shelves. I didn’t buy anything here, but I easily could have 🙂 In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever been to a Publix chain store, or if I have, it’s been a couple of decades.

My other stop is one of my all-time favorites – Harry & David. Whenever we travel and go near an outlet mall that has a Harry & David, I always want to stop. Years ago, I would browse a lot and not buy much. These days, I have finally realized that I don’t get to go very often, so I better buy while I’m there and it’s available 😀 We normally only go near a Harry & David every 2 or 3 or sometimes 4 years, so it’s a nice treat for me to go in and find something new to buy, or pick up an old favorite. One of our all time favorites there is their tomato and pepper relish, which I use to make a dip for football season. This year, I made a pointed effort to get mostly new things, and so I am trying all new stuff this time!

Here’s the link to the last post I made about this, two years ago: click here

And here’s a photo of the stuff I bought this trip, I actually did pretty good and didn’t go overboard! 🙂

P.S. In case you’re interested and can’t see from the photo, I bought: Multigrain Tortilla chips, Sesame Garlic tortilla chips, Moose Munch decaf coffee, Raspberry scone mix, 2 kinds of salsa (habanero and black bean & corn), one jar of queso, one jar of cherry preserves and one jar of cherry butter. I like apple butter, so I hope I like the cherry kind 🙂

This has been a busy weekend! Lots of good stuff though 🙂

– Date night Friday night was an in-house date. We went and picked up some fast food and then watched a Harry Potter movie (#3, Prisoner of Azkaban)

– Saturday morning – Tim played in the church golf tournament. I went walking with Beau and my neighbor and we walked a longer route than normal (3.25 miles).

– Late Saturday morning – I went and picked up my mother-in-law Linda and our niece Brittany, and we had a girls day out. We went shopping at Hobby Lobby and Kohl’s. We picked out a ton of cute new clothes for Brittany for school and I even splurged and got 2 new sets of scrapbook stickers at Hobby Lobby. GOLF ones for Tim and birthday ones. I showed considerable restraint by not buying more, they were 50% off! We all went out to eat at one of my favorite places for lunch – Corner Bakery. I had the Chicken Pomodori panini and fruit, delicious 🙂

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