Oh, Christmas Tree AND a mouse

Happy Monday and happy last day of November! Hope everyone had a good weekend. We did. We had a nice day on Saturday celebrating Rebecca's 14th birthday. Yesterday we spent the day decorating the inside of the house for Christmas. We put up our tree and put other decorations out. It was a nice, low-key day. 

We had decorated outside last week. We added lights to the back of the house this year as that is where we park and it would be nice to see them when we come home at night. They make me smile. 

So we are done decorating, except for getting some small ornaments for our tree in our bedroom. I have no idea what happened to the ornaments that we had on their last year. Last year when we packed everything away from the holidays, I purged a ton of stuff and am wondering if I ended up donating the small ornaments.. they weren't anything special, just generic ornaments. I will say that this year it was so nice to just put out those things that were important to us and not have to deal with a ton of extra stuff. 

Today, I got a rude awakening. I heard the cats running around around 4am. I didn't think anything about it as they have toys they play with. Well I got.up at 6 with my alarm and went to go to the bathroom. GusGus was sitting on our bathroom sink looking up and he had a mouse cornered on the door frame! 😡 I got Bill up to get it but it got away and ran into the closet of doom. Bill set a couple of traps and put them in there and then blocked the bottom of the door with blankets. Certainly not the way I wanted to start a rainy/snowy Monday. 

Speaking of Monday, the kids are back in school. It was a pain getting up to that alarm. LOL. While they are at school I might work on cleaning some of our basement or maybe I will watch episodes of The Crown. I don't have my tutoring digital kids this morning as it is opening day for deer gun hunting season and they are hunting. (Most of the other schools in our county are closed today as well, but not my kids' district.) We are supposed to get some winter weather later today and into tomorrow and in fact have a winter weather advisory starting later this afternoon. They are calling for 2-4 inches of snow. Our first real snow of the season. I will believe it when I see it. 

Well, I should get off of here and do something. Bill is off work today so I should make him help me with the basement since he didn't get the mouse! LOL

What are you up to today? Have you decorated for Christmas yet? Have you ever been surprised by a mouse? 

Rebecca's birthday party

Happy Sunday everyone! Hope you are having a good weekend. We had a wonderful day yesterday. Rebecca got to spend the night with a friend Friday night for girls night. While she was gone I baked and decorated her birthday cake for her. She requested a chocolate cake. I decorated it with logos from her favorite musical acts.

 

In case you were wondering top left is Billie Eilish, top right is Panic! at the Disco, bottom left is iDKHOW, and bottom right is Twenty One Pilots. 

Saturday afternoon, my parents, niece, nephew and sister came over for pizza and cake. We ordered pizza from Little Caesars through their app and it was super easy to do. I also made a huge salad for those that wanted salad. We ended the evening with cake and presents. She enjoyed her presents... my parents got her a kalimba, and we got her several Billie Eilish items including a t-shirt, poster and cd.

Overall, I think she had a great birthday. 

Today, the boys have basketball this afternoon. We are also planning on setting our Christmas tree up and decorating for Christmas I think. The weather is supposed to be pretty nice so I may suggest we take a walk too. We shall see. 

What are your plans for today? Have you decorated for Christmas yet?

Rebecca is 14!

 Happy Saturday! Today is a special day in our house--- Rebecca turns 14 years old today! Seems like just yesterday she was a newborn. Where oh, where does time go? I thought it would be fun to see how she has grown from a baby to where she is now... So here is a review of Rebecca's 14 years on earth...

Happy 14th birthday Rebecca! We love you so much! 

Lacie's Birthday and Thanksgiving 2020

Happy Friday everyone! It has been a busy few days around here. The kids had school on Monday and Tuesday. I just have to share this cute photo from Wednesday. Thankfully, Gus Gus seems to be on the mend and the cats are again loving each other. The spent a couple hours lounging on some boxes that were delivered.

Wednesday night we went out to my parents' house to celebrate my niece's 16th birthday! We celebrated her with ice cream cake and presents. Lacie loved her Scooby Doo shirt and Scooby Doo Christmas dvd that we got her! She kept thanking me for coming out for her birthday. :)  

Yesterday, was Thanksgiving day. I hope those who celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday had a wonderful day. We started out the day by watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. The only complaint I had was that I didn't enjoy the Rockette's performance. It was lackluster and boring in my opinion. While that was on, I also did a little Christmas shopping online taking advantage of Kohl's black Friday sales prices. 

Last night, we did in fact celebrate Thanksgiving yesterday with our family. We decided that we would still have our regular Thanksgiving meal, as we have been around the same people regularly. My mom stated last Thanksgiving that she wasn't cooking anymore for Thanksgiving. So my youngest brother Joshua decided that the kids would cook this year. And honestly it turned out pretty well. I ended up cooking 2 smaller turkeys. I also made vegetarian stuffing, and gravy. Josh heated up rolls. His girlfriend, Bobbi, made deviled eggs, green beans, broccoli-cheese-rice casserole, and 3 different types of pies (pecan, pumpkin and peanut butter!). Mary made rice krispie treats, corn casserole and a tofu-turkey roast. Mary's girlfriend Cecilia made mashed potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce, and sweet potato casserole. It was a ton of food, but so yummy. My niece set the tables for everyone. It was a really nice evening meal. 

Today, Bill is off to get 2 new tires for one of our vans. It is the van he drives for work and the tread on the front tire is almost gone. I hate having the expense but it needs to be done as he drives half an hour each way to work and can't risk a blow out.

Later, I have to take Rebecca to a friend's house for a sleepover. My other plans for today are baking a cake for Rebecca's birthday tomorrow (how is she turning 14?!?), doing laundry and maybe bringing up a few Christmas decorations to put out. We will probably put our tree up on Sunday so our whole family can do it. 

Well, I need to go and get started on the laundry and making the cake. I hope everyone is having a wonderful day! 

Did you have a nice Thanksgiving? What is your favorite Thanksgiving food to eat?    

Catch-up Post

I didn't mean to disappear for 2 weeks. Sorry about that, and thanks to Nan for giving me the push to post a blog post. I have been reading blogs (mostly on my phone which is hard to comment on or blog from) and I keep thinking about writing a post, but honestly I have been busier than normal and just trying to get through each day. I have been battling some depression I think as well. Bill has been having some issues with work again and that hasn't helped my mood either. I have also been trying to stay off social media and the computer and focus on things that I can control, like cleaning out my pantry, organizing, etc.  

Over the last couple weeks the kids have been back in school full time and Rebecca's after school activities have started up again (at least for now). Between that and tutoring I have been pretty busy. I also spent several days at my mom's house doing laundry. Finally, this past Monday my washer part came in and the repairman came to fix it. Only to have my dryer vent come apart Monday night and it took me until Wednesday to get it fixed. (Duct tape for the win!) 

On one of the days I went out to do 2 loads of laundry at my mom's house, we ended up going to Walmart so she could do some shopping. Thankfully she is healing well from her surgery, but I needed to help her lift groceries. While there, she bought me a sloth Christmas blanket that Jacob stole when I got home. LOL 

I also spent time sitting out on her deck and watching my brother's puppy who was digging holes in the yard. LOL 

Speaking of animals, we had a scare this week with Gus Gus the cat. He has been having issues puking off and on for the past 2 weeks. We know that he has a very sensitive stomach and is allergic to beef, salmon and shrimp. Well, Monday morning I heard him throw up and went looking for puke. As I was looking in the bathroom, I happened to look over to the litter box and there was a fair amount of bloody diarrhea in the litter box. Not a good thing. We were able to get him in that morning to a new vet (our regular vet couldn't see him until the next day, wtf?) who diagnosed him with kitty IBS. He had blood work done that ruled out lymphoma. So we have been giving him 2 antibiotics and a steroid since Monday. 

The kids are doing well. We had virtual parent teacher conferences for the boys and they are doing well. We got the kids' report cards and they all got all As! Ben has decided he wants to start cooking with me. He helped me make chili one night for dinner and he loved helping. Another night he helped me put frozen fish sticks on the pan. LOL 

What else have I been doing? I went to Walmart to pick up cat litter and they had an air fryer on sale for $30 so I picked one up to try. I figure it will give me another option for cooking.

 

The weather around here has been crazy. We've had warm days where no coats were needed, cold and snowy days, and everything in between. We have had some very pretty sunrises as well. 

Yesterday I woke up kind of feeling alone. Well, I had several things happen to help. I ended up talking to my mom on the phone for over 2 hours as we were both doing things around the house. I had a friend call me while we were both waiting for our daughters to get out of school. She just called in to say hi and catch up. I got "kidnapped" by a friend who stopped by to pay me for watching her kids in the morning just as Bill got home from work. She took me for margaritas and dinner. Then I get the comment from Nan checking in. All these made me feel better.

Today, I spent a lot of the day laying down trying to get rid of a horrible headache that I woke up with. While I was resting, Bill put up our outside Christmas lights. Thankfully my headache is finally starting to lessen tonight so hopefully it will be completely gone soon. 

Tomorrow, I need to help Ben with a school project that is due on Monday. I also need to have the boys work on their PSR class work. The boys also have their basketball clinic from 1-3. It should be another busy day. I might see about getting a walk in tomorrow if the weather cooperates as I think lack of nature walks may be part of my problem. 

How are you guys feeling? Anyone else dealing with some depression? 

Hope everyone has a good day tomorrow!  

  

Some results are in...

Happy Friday! Hope everyone is having a good day! Here the weather was absolutely perfect today-- sunny and 70 degrees. Tomorrow and Sunday are supposed to be very similar! 

We still don't know who our next President is going to be, but I have had some other results come in from my last post. 

First, Bill's COVID test came back negative! YAHOO!! We didn't get the results until late this afternoon. He missed 4 days of work this week, unpaid as he does not have sick time, but so thankful that he was negative. 

One part of our washer came in, but not the part that the repairman ordered. Hopefully early next week! 

Our city's water boil alert ended yesterday. That is one less stress for me. 

That is about it for here. I hope everyone has had a good Friday and a good weekend! 

Four Things I am Waiting For

Happy Wednesday everyone! Today's post is going to be all about waiting.... What am I waiting for, you might ask. Well, I am waiting for:

.... a part for my washer which broke this past Saturday. I had to order one part as my repair guys' distributor was out. I got it cheaper on Amazon ($65 versus $150). The repair guy ordered another part. Once those are in then he will come out to fix my washer. Ughh. I went to my mom's house yesterday and did 5 loads of laundry to hopefully get us through. UGGHH.

 .... Election Results. Enough said. 

.... Bill's COVID test results! He woke up yesterday with a low grade fever and body aches. He went to Urgent Care and they did the rapid test. That test came back positive for COVID antibodies (meaning he had been exposed in the last 4 months), so they had to do the regular test to see if he actually has COVID. He is under quarantine until they get those results back (hopefully in 2-3 days). The doctor says that the kids and I didn't have to quarantine if we didn't have symptoms. 

.... End to our city wide water boil alert. This is the 2nd one in three weeks. Yesterday as we were coming home, I happened to look down one street and there was water gushing out of the middle of the street. Not good. We had another water main break in town. Ughh. We are on a city wide water boil alert for the foreseeable future. Not looking forward to winter when water breaks are more common. I picked up 3 gallons of water for here and will pick up more each time I go to the store. 

So that's the things that I am waiting for that are forefront in my mind. 

Anyone else waiting for anything? 

Trick-or-Treating 2020 and SNOW!

Happy Monday and Happy 2nd day of November! We survived Halloween! Our Halloween weekend actually ending up being good. 

Friday night I surprised the family with a spooky dessert of dirt pudding after our usual pizza. (Couldn't find gummy worms so we had ours with gummy snakes and frogs!) We enjoyed it while watching this week's episode of "The Masked Singer." I don't know why I have never made it before as it was simple and yummy! 

On Halloween, the boys got dressed up in costume and my dad brought my niece and nephew over to go trick or treating with us in our area. Our town was having Trick-or-Treat from 4pm-7pm to try to ward off huge crowds. Well let me say it really didn't work that well. But it is what it is. We wore face masks (and were in the minority) and we didn't do our typical route as it was packed.  We did see lots of people who were doing the candy chute idea, or had tables set up with candy spread out, or were using tongs to place candy in the kids' bags. The kids had fun and that is what matters. Oh and the weather was PERFECT-- Sunny, around 60 degrees! 

This year we had a taco....

a Spiderman....

And a dragon and Captain America to round out the dressed up bunch!

After trick or treat the cousins counted out their candies and played in the leaves for a bit before my dad and niece and nephew left. Then we had our traditional Wendy's for dinner that night. 

Sunday, we woke to cold temperatures and LOTS of wind and showers. Well, in the afternoon those showers turned to SNOW!! It is too early for snow! None stuck but still.... so not ready for that white stuff. 

Today, I have a couple of tutoring jobs, have a couple of people who are supposed to pick up DVDs that I am selling on Facebook, AND supposed to have a repair man out to look at our washer along with picking up and taking kids to school and other normal Monday stuff. It won't spin very fast. When it gets up to a certain speed it will make a noise and then slow way back down. I am hoping for a cheap, easy fix. 

What are your plans for this Monday? How was your weekend? How was your Halloween?