Feel Good Friday - A New Year is Coming

So let's back up to last week...

1. Christmas Eve was good even though we were missing some ill family members and some working friends. Dirty Santa was a riot and the soup turned out pretty good. 

2. Christmas Day was equal parts chaos and relaxing. If that makes sense. We weren't up super early either. Scotch eggs and breakfast sandwiches were first. K3 & A came for breakfast and then skedaddled to A's family. We headed over to K1's to take the boys their gifts and hung out there for a while. Back home for a nap. Then it was birthday time. Lasagna and garlic bread for dinner. Chocolate cake with peanut butter icing for birthday cake. K3 & A returned and our niece and nephew to be came to harass K4. The young adults played a game while That Man and I watched a movie. We were in bed pretty early!

3. Monday was a completely lazy day. We did nothing but what absolutely had to be done. I slept in, then dozed on the couch. We had leftovers for dinner. Nice.

4. Back to work on Tuesday. So many people are on vacation that the office has been quiet. But there's end of year stuff to attend to, so the week kind of went fast for me. 

5. Off at noon today. We swung by our friend's house on the way home and spent some time hanging out with them, which was nice. We hadn't seen them in a while. 

6. And tomorrow is New Year's Eve. And I could not care less about it. Our plans are to lounge on our couch in our jammies, eat some shrimp, and go to bed early. I don't want to do anything else. 

7. New Year's day will be the traditional Lord of the Rings marathon; pork and sauerkraut, black eyed peas, and more chaos. I know my boys are coming for dinner, which is fun. The kids rarely get to hang out together since they work different schedules. We're off on Monday again, which will probably be another lazy day, but we'll see. We have car stuff to do and the tree to take down, though I'm not in a huge hurry to do that. 

So, I doubt I'll be back on here before Monday. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. 

Behave! 

Christmas Eve Eve & Feel Good Friday

Well here we are! Almost there!

And today is Friday! 

So let's just get to the list!

1. We were supposed to leave the day job at noon today. Due to the winds and potential for ice, the bosses kicked us out at eleven. That was cool. It was a super quiet day, though my system glitched and caused me a lot of hassle when I tried to write checks. But it's all good now. And we don't have to go back until Tuesday!

2. Getting home and getting stuff done. (And I took a nap!) Now all that's left is the bathroom, dusting, and vacuuming. And cooking. Lots of cooking. Which I love, so I'm good with that. (The cooking, not the cleaning.) (That Man and K4 will take care of the cleaning while I cook)

3. We did go out to dinner on our anniversary. We had a blast and then took care of some shopping. It was a really nice evening. 

4. We had no plans for dinner tonight and there was no way we were stopping at the grocery store. (we drove by. it was insane looking) We found some chicken patties and then made potatoes au gratin. It turned out pretty well, even though I accidentally shut the oven down halfway through the cooking time. 

5. Except for the cleaning and cooking, we're pretty much done. I'm sure I'll find a million things to do tomorrow that have nothing to do with what I've planned, but that's par for the course. 

6. Looking forward to hanging out with family and friends tomorrow! 

7. Despite the crazy week, I have managed to get some writing in. Yay me! 

8. Man, it's freaking cold out there! I'm sure if you live on the East Coast, you're well aware of that fact! But holy cow! My dog is so clueless though. She just wants to stay outside and play. She sulks when we tell her it's time to come in. Also, I almost froze my hand to the screen door after taking a bag of ice to the cooler on the back porch. 

9. Sleeping in a little tomorrow. Ha! Like that is even going to happen! 

10. It's not feel good, but I'm definitely missing my folks this year. I'm also missing other family members, but there isn't anything I can do about any of it. 

And that's about it! 

I doubt I'll get back on here until after! So I hope you have an amazing holiday!

Behave! 

Five Days...

Oof. I could have sworn I posted sometime in the last 11 days!

Obviously not!

Well, here we are at five days before the big day. We're mostly ready. 

The tree is up and so far the cats are just messing with it a little bit. Though when an ornament hits the floor, it's free game. Apparently. Yeah, we keep the fragile ones at the top. We did have to stuff some more lights in the tree. So... years ago we had a little gathering when we decorated the tree. Our lights didn't work, so we sent the young adults out for lights. They came back with bush lights. And ever since, that's what we've used, mainly because people keep giving them to us. Ha! So half of the bush lights went out. There's no easy way to remove it, so we just shoved string lights in so we didn't have to undecorate. It works and you can barely tell. 

The shopping is 99.9% done and wrapped. We went pretty small this year. There are too many expenses and upcoming expenses and let's face it, everything is more expensive right now. Not that we ever go huge on Christmas. 

And today is our anniversary. 36 years married and 40 years together. How crazy is that? I'm not going to get mushy, but I wouldn't change a thing. He still makes me laugh after all of this time and we still have tons to talk about. We're going to dinner tonight, and just goofing off.

We had the older grandkids this past weekend, which was an absolute blast. Little brother joined them for a few hours on Saturday and he was hysterical. We made cookies, did a present exchange between the three of them, and laughed a lot. Having the two oldest for the weekend was a lot of fun. They're at the age now where conversations are a little more real. K5 and I spent a long time talking about writing, which she loves. That was cool for me. There was hair fixing, sock races, stromboli making, and a lot (and I mean a lot) of scaring--hiding under the bed, popping around corners, and doing their best to get me (which they did. Once.). Oy! That Man and I absolutely loved the weekend, despite the fact that we were wore out! Ha! 

There are two and a half days to work the day job. Then it's cooking, cleaning, and prep. K4's birthday dinner has been decided and ingredients are mostly purchased. She wants stuffed shells, and we're having a heck of a time finding the shells, so we might have to slightly switch gears, but we'll see. 

And that is all for now...

Behave! 

Feel Good Friday!

Ho Boy! What a week!

But it's Friday! And Friday is always a good day even if you end up in the dental chair for twice as long as you expect and bleed a lot... But more on that later... 

Here's the list:

1. Ladies Night at the greenhouse! What a freaking blast! Hanging with my friends. That was amazing. We don't see each other enough even though we talk every day. Selling books! I did pretty well, which was unexpected and awesome! I'm super happy about that! Talked to a lot of really great people, too. It was an awesome evening!

2. Lunch out with the work people. We went to our standby place, which is never disappointing! The food is amazing. We talked about all manner of things not work related, laughed, ate cheesecake, and had a really nice time. 

3. Leaving early today... (Here's where the blood comes in) My hygienist (first time with this one) saw some stuff on my x-ray's and went to town on my mouth. She scraped and sprayed. I was a little stunned because I was just there six months ago and there was no mention of this crap. (and that's when x-ray's were taken. Apparently it was there and nothing was addressed. I'm at odds with that and will need to discuss with my sister who works there) Anyway. It's all fine even though my mouth and face hurt now. But my teeth feel good. And she suggested a water flosser, which has been ordered and I will use religiously so I don't have to go through what I did today again. Ha! 

4. Pretty easy weekend plans. We're getting our tree (I hope), and hopefully seeing the grandboys! Tomorrow is sleeping in. (I hope) We already did the big box store run, but we forgot a bunch of stuff. 

5. Making good progress on my story. Whoot! 

That is all! 

Behave! 

19 Days to Go...

Yeah, I'm counting down. But not really... Ha! 

It's been a long week so far and it's only Tuesday! 

One more full day to work and then some easier stuff. Thursday is our lunch out with the boss, so I'll be out of the office for at least two hours or so. And we always have fun on these lunches. It's been a while. We used to go out as a department every few months, but we haven't since last Christmas. Not sure where we're going yet. It's not my turn to pick, but I know it'll be good. 

Next week is our Christmas lunch for the day job with everyone. Things are coming together and it should be a good time. Our department is in charge of getting everything together and so far so good. 

And then on Friday, That Man and I have dentist appointments. We'll leave a few hours early and likely not make it back. We've been making up time, so there's that. Not that having a dentist appointment is fun, but it's not terrible either. 

What else?

The porch is decorated and the fall stuff is put away. The Christmas coffee cups are in use, and the dish towels are washed and folded (I only did it tonight because I need a tablecloth for tomorrow). The porch looks pretty good, though it still needs some touches. Tree procurement is this weekend. We've started the shopping and the birthday shopping. But I have no idea of anything else at this point! Ha!

We're still watching ridiculous Christmas movies. I know they're stupid. I like them because they're brainless. 

Tomorrow evening I'm participating in a ladies night at the same place where we do the Valentine's signing. I did it last year, too, and it was a lot of fun. I don't expect to sell a lot (or any) books, (last year it wasn't the right kind of crowd) but I get to hang with my friends, so there's that! I can hope though... 

That's about it...

Behave!

Feel Good Friday - The Trying to Be Here More Often Edition

I made it back! Yay me! 

So let's recap the good this week! 

1. Friday! Obviously! It was a long day job week. Very busy. 

2. Putting the day job Christmas tree up! It was a fun time. I had the help of a coworker, and I hooked the television that hasn't been used since we went home for the pandemic to the Internet and found some Christmas music. Every day since, I have put a fireplace background for the work day time and it's been a huge hit. I love it. 

3. That Man and I having a impromptu date night. We had to stop at the store and we ended up going out to eat just the two of us for the first time in forever. We went to our usual favorite place, but the service was terrible. As it's been the last three times we've been there, so unfortunately, I doubt we'll go back. 

4. Words on the page! I've done reasonably well this week, so I'm happy with that. 

5. Watching ridiculous Christmas movies. Most of them are so poorly acted and filmed, but some have a good story. It's just something we do. It gives us something to talk about, I guess. But it's fun. 

6. Sleeping in tomorrow. I need it. 

7. Being warm when it's so cold outside. 

8. Plans to get our tree and get the decorations done. No, I haven't gotten the fall decorations put away yet, nor have I made any progress on getting Christmas stuff out. But it's coming. 

That's about it... 

Behave!