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Tuesday, August 27, 2019

We Made It Back...

We actually got in Sunday... Mid-afternoon...

It was rough. We drove like 36 hours in a 65 hour time span.

The drive out was easy enough. We split it up into about 3 hour shifts, though I took an extra shift since That Man hit a wall. The rental car was okay, but the seats sucked. Definitely another "sitting on concrete" kind of thing.

We made it early Friday morning. Hugs and love and hanging out, then we took the rental car back. Stopped for breakfast/lunch, then back to the house. We were going to take a nap, but got caught up in checking out the camper and doing the legal stuff associated with our purchase. Went to dinner, and then pretty much crashed when we got back, though I did spend some "auntie" time with my aunt. Still in bed by 9pm though. Rough sleeping night due to the ultimate exhaustion - mostly That Man since he was still dealing with a horrible cough.

Got up Saturday, packed our stuff, did camper readying, and hit the road. Later than we'd hoped, but still okay. The drive home was pretty brutal. It was my turn to hit a wall and I hit it pretty quickly. I did drive for a while, but nowhere enough to make it fair. I could not wake up and focus. That Man had bonding time with the camper.

Anyway... It's a little rougher than we thought. The floor at the back is pretty much gone and the roof has several leaks. BUT all of that can be fixed. Overall, it's not bad at all. We have plans and a lot of the work will be done this weekend. Once the structural stuff is done, then we can tweak it to fit our needs. We've been doing stuff to it all week - the LP tank is full, the generator battery is new. We're slowly learning about it, but we're so excited!

We're camping this weekend, so we'll make a plan and start to get the stuff done. I wouldn't be surprised if the roof gets fixed this weekend, and possibly the floor - though I think that might take a bit longer. I'm just excited - this camper opens up a bunch of possibilities for us!

Behave!

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Mid-Week Insanity

Only a half day at the day job tomorrow though! That Man will pick me up, we will pick up our rental car, come home to load up and hit the road. The house/pet sitter is already in place and everything is taken care of for that.

We're super excited. Not just for the camper purchase, but for the road trip together, and to see the midwest family - no matter how quick of a trip it is. We're mostly packed - just waiting on a load of laundry. The stuff has been organized. Other stuff has been taken care of.

We ran to the notary tonight to get the title taken care of for the 'burban so we can donate it to "Vehicles for Veterans". We're happy it's going to a charity like that, but we are both just devastated to have to get rid of it. It's been the best vehicle we have ever had and we have so many special memories with it. Ugh. The brain knows it's the right move, but the heart is not on board - especially after it was washed and looked so good.

Bookstore day was a ton of fun! My signing went really well. I met a lot of readers and other writers. After the signing, I found a corner to write in. Though some creep guy kept standing over my shoulder and I had to give it up. It was authors and readers after the store closed. We had pizza, a scavenger hunt, and so many other things to do. I ended up going home instead of staying over. There was no way my air mattress was going to fit anywhere inside the store, plus, I had been there for about twelve hours - standing on concrete. I was sore and had a killer headache. Next year, I will take a smaller air mattress. It really was fun though and I'm sad I missed the sleepover part!

The mammogram was good. Got the all okay results today.

That is all for now! Laundry is done and it's bedtime.

Behave!

Friday, August 16, 2019

Feel Good Friday!

For a four day work week, this was a long one!

Next week, I technically only work three days. Full day Monday. Leaving for mammogram/gyne visit Tuesday for a few hours. Full day Wednesday. Half day Thursday and then off Friday. It's going to be a long week though since I'm super looking forward to the end of the week.

We're travelling to Missouri to purchase a camper from my uncle. Yes. We are driving about 2200 miles in 3.5 days. It's fine and good. We were going to fly out, but the camper has sat for a few years and we felt more comfortable having tools and things with us. Plus, holy expensive flights! The drive will be That Man and I - there and back. We are excited to do a road trip just the two of us, and I highly doubt either of us will sleep while the other drives. We're excited to see That Uncle and That Aunt, and we're excited that we negotiated this camper deal with them. We've been talking about this with them for a while now, so this feels like a dream that it's actually happening!

After that we have camp! (With our new old camper! Whoot!)

Tomorrow is Bookstore Romance Day! I am signing at noon and then in for the night for a slumber party! I'm excited! We're "sleeping" over. Though I have a feeling not much sleeping will be done. It's an awesome opportunity and I'm so thankful to have been asked to participate! I only hope I get to sleep a little! I am too old to stay up all night anymore! ha!

The writing has been crap all week. I have spent every single night doing estate stuff and other stuff I can't mention. I didn't make a single blast for my writing chapter.

Oh! We need a list:

1. Sleeping in tomorrow.
2. Bookstore day!
3. Next week!
4. Camping!
5. Not having kids going back to school! First time in like 25-26 years? (we had college last year) Ha! We did school shopping with the grandkids, but it was 1/100th of the scale of what we used to have to do and it was beautiful!
6. The PA part of the estate being done soon. Waiting for one more thing and then... hopefully we're done!

That's all I have! I need to make my list for tomorrow and get some sleep!

Behave!


Monday, August 12, 2019

Weekend Wrap Up on Monday!

It was a crazy, crazy weekend!

Started out Friday night with K5 and Mr. B. We had a "campout" in the living room. Pizza for dinner, s'mores, strawberry shortcake, The Princess Bride. Air mattresses in the living room. I don't think any of us slept well. The kittens were being crazy. The dog couldn't settle. It wasn't cool enough down here and the downstairs fan died.

But... still... It was fun. It really was.

We did the school shopping thing. Which was fun, but equally as stressful thanks to other people. How many freaking screaming kids can fit into a Mega Mart? Not my screaming grandkids. They were awesome and so well-behaved. (I'm not saying they always are, but they definitely were on Saturday) Both of them were like "that's ridiculous"! We did have a blast. Went to a bbq place for lunch and the woman running the cash register totally hooked us up. It was super cheap and very good. Dropped the kids off and came home and crashed for a while.

Later, we went downtown to hear K4's man's gig at the local wine shop. He did really well. We stayed longer than we planned, but it was really a good time. Got home and did some laundry. In bed later than we'd hoped, but still at a decent time.

Sunday morning, we went to see my sister in the hospital. We will talk about this at another time. We don't really know anything yet and I just can't.

After that... we travelled to MD to see Chris Stapleton in concert. The concert was amazing!! I had some absolute culture shock though. I haven't been to a lot of concerts, but still... How on earth can people afford to get trashed at these concerts? A cheap beer was $11. A good beer was $14-17. We saw people carrying four to six beers. For themselves. I swear we were the only sober people out of at least a thousand people! And the garbage left behind!! Holy crap!

But... Chris Stapleton! Amazing! His voice and is guitar skills. His encore was fantastic!

Our hotel had a shuttle service, which we utilized on our way to the concert (even though we ended up in the cargo area of the van! Ha!). On the way back, however, we chose to walk the mile to the hotel. We beat the shuttle back to the hotel by at least 10 minutes and it was fine. It was an easy, quick walk. We were so tired though. Our section of the hotel did not have an elevator, so it was three flights of stairs each time.

This morning, we went to the main part of the hotel for coffee and took the elevator to travel one floor. That's how done with stairs we were. Ha! Sitting by the lake was really nice and relaxing though. It was good to be off work today.

We stopped at a diner on our way back, took a nap when we got home, then did laundry. I did estate stuff while That Man went to help a friend with some construction.

Tomorrow is back to the real world. I'm not ready and I don't want to... But I must. The next two weeks are super crazy here.

Behave!

Wednesday, August 07, 2019

Mid Week...

It's Wednesday... Which is awesome, but I have to say that I'm so very tired of wishing my week away. It's not supposed to be like this.

And, by this point, we all know why... That brain draining day job. I'm frustrated. Well... beyond frustrated. I need to talk to the boss tomorrow. I'm exhausted - mentally and physically. Or physically because of the mentally. I'm not sure which. I know things are going to get better, but until we have these new people trained up nothing has changed. The pressure is intense.

But only two more days to work and then a full weekend ahead. We're getting K5 and Mr. B this weekend and taking them school shopping. Then, off to our concert on Sunday. No work on Monday!

I did get the August calendar completed and it's super crazy. Things are insane until the very last week of the month. I have two writing classes, an overnight book event, blast week with my writing group, a mammogram, a crazy random trip... and well... a lot of stuff. September looks a tiny less crazy, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

Writing has been slim this week. We had company Monday night. I had a massive headache last night, and tonight I had a million and a half things to do. I should get a few words done before bed though.

And that is all!

Behave!

Sunday, August 04, 2019

Weekend Wrap Up!

Monday comes too soon! I need one more day! I know... I say that every week, but it's true...

Let's backtrack...

Saturday's writing meeting was good. Good business meeting. Good program. Good lunch. There was a lot of laughter and discussion. Definitely what I needed to recharge.

Got home to a houseful. K1 & J were here. K1 needed to work on his car and clean his crap out of the 'burban. They did some laundry, too. Friends came to help with car stuff. Got epic grandsons time. Baby B is so stinking cute. He's crawling and he's fast. He's such a chunky monkey! Mr. B was very busy and spent a lot of time reorganizing the toys we have here. Ha! I made spaghetti and meatballs because I know it's one of Mr. B's favorites and we had K1's bestie here for dinner, too.

So, the 'burban is going the way of the white wind very soon. We wanted to restore it, but we don't have the time, money, or space to do so. It won't be long until we get told about it from our borough because that kind of thing is happening all over the place around here. We've had many, many conversations about what to do, but have come to the conclusion that we have to let her go. I am super sad and wish there was another way, but logically, we don't need a vehicle that big anymore. We don't have time to fix her up the way she deserves, and the amount of mold inside those doors is dangerous. It's really, really bad. So...

Today was cleaning. I did a crapton of work - including washing the entirety of our bedding thanks to our old lady cat pooping and pissing on our bed last night! ARGH!! She got trapped in there and I guess it was long enough that she felt she had no choice, but...WHY on the bed? I mean... seriously! And, if you didn't know, we still have a waterbed. It's not just sheets and blankets, it's padding and a lot of it... but thankfully, a mattress that can be disinfected easily. It's a day long process. I managed to replace everything temporarily enough that we could sleep semi-decently last night, but today I had to wash... and K1 & J needed to finish their laundry, too.

It worked out. We had an amazing diner. Baby B continued to crack us up. Mr. B and I played "treehouse" and watered plants. The bed is nearly made and That Man's work shirts are done. There's a load of towels to do thanks to be stupidly overflowing the coffee pot yesterday. Dumb. But on the whole, we're in a good place to start the week.

I'm so tired though... Maybe tired thinking about the upcoming week, or tired from two days of constant peopling. I don't know.

What I do know is that this coming week is my only week in the next three weeks that I work a full five. We're going to a concert next weekend and will be coming home on Monday, so we're off. The next week I have my mammogram, and then we're heading out to parts unknown...Then it's labor day. By then it's September! Woah!

That's all I have... I am off to do the writing now!

Behave!

Friday, August 02, 2019

Feel Good Friday!

The kitty babies are doing well post surgery. Fred recovered far more quickly than Regi, but then again, Regi had super major surgery and Fred just got a snip. Regi was still a little slow this morning, but I let them out of confinement anyway. She snuggled in my arms before attacking the couch, but I still worried as I left her with "the boys" and the dog.

They are fine. Needy, but that's to be expected. Nothing bad happened, but K4 kept an eye on them as soon as she woke up. They are eating well and playing, albeit slower than normal. Elsa was super worried about them and was protective and annoying with them.

I have met my writing goals this week, which is awesome! Progress!

So, the kid got her braces off today! OMG! She looks amazing! What a great smile! I left work early to go with her! So awesome! The actual removal was quick, but then they had to grind off the adhesive, which took a while and they gave her dark sunglasses for that part. She will have to wear retainers for a bit, but... holy smile! My kid... And her smile! Beautiful! What a long road, but so worth it! (Still retainers, but...)

Tomorrow is my writing group meeting! So looking forward to it! I missed last month and that hurt. So many things going on. I am on the board right now, but I don't think I will be next year. I can't keep up and I can't do the things I need to do. I'm pretty solid in my decision. It kills me though. There are many reasons that I can't continue though. We will see...

And I think that is all I have right now...

Behave!