What's New- Tuesday
Good Morning Julia and Friends, I managed to stay in bed til 4:30am before the bathroom called so loudly that I couldn't ignore it!
Had a delightful but exhausting weekend with the grand daughters and our daughter this weekend. It was nice enough to go to the park to play, throw rocks in the pond, and have a "nack" at a picnic table.
The twins' language ability is growing so rapidly. It was fun to listen to them talk when they woke up. Erin has them "trained" to stay in bed until it's light outside so they reach over and get some books by their bed and read and tell each other stories. Tho they get into an occasional hair puller event once in a while they also are best friends. I always wanted a sister!
Briley is crawling everywhere. She spent hours trying to "pull" the knots out of our hardwood floor. At least it was entertaining and not dangerous!
After they left about noon I spent the next few hours washing sheets, towels, putting the house back together. Then I had a dentist appt at 4pm. Luckily all is well there.
Mike and I are both packed and ready to go to much warmer Arizona tomorrow morning. I've got a GPS, a laptop, cell phone, and binoculars. Also all of the chargers and batteries necessary for all of the above! We're just traveling with carryons. Our first motel has a guest laundry so I plan to wash before we leave there after 3 days. That will give us clean clothes for the rest of th trip. We plan to pick up a cheap cooler so that we can have some of our food with us. It saves so much to not have to eat everything in a restarant especially cold drinks!
Best get my bed changed. We have a former student, now 26, staying in the house while we're gone. Cheaper than a kennel for the dog and we like having someone we trust in the house.
Hope you all have a good day wherever you are.
Karen C
Mike's at least acting like he's looking forward to the trip. It's definitely out of his comfort zone to go anywhere unfamiliar. However, he actually enjoys the road trips once we get there. We like to take drives and enjoy the scenery. We're neither one fans of large cities so we skirt around those as much as possible. We've been to Arizona before but just as far south as Flagstaff. Looking forward to seeing the Saguaro Cactii!
Wanted to take a hot air balloon ride over Sedona but don't want to do it by myself. And. . . so far he is not open to that experience!
Have a wonderful day my friend. Hoping that John gets to feeling better soon. Where will the wandering traveling home take you this year? I know gas is so expensive but if and when you ever get anywhere within several hundred miles of me I'll come see you. And, you and John and Yoda and your traveling home are welcome to come see us anytime. Spring and fall are especially nice here in eastern Washington.
Karen C
Heading out to work in a few minutes. . . .Windy day but tomorrow afternoon we'll be in Tucson, AZ. Hopefully in the warm sun.
Monica, I envy Florida. I've just experienced Northern Floriday beaches but loved those. Hopefully one of these day. I hope you have a chance to get together with Candy when she's in Florida. Will she be anywhere close to you and Carla? You could have "mini" reunion. It's always such fun to meet up with our sisters from this forum. One of these days you and I are going to be in the same neck of the woods and what a grand time we'll have!
Karen C
Morning Julia and OFF family!!!
Julia...what kind of dog did you adopt? I seemed to have missed that post...
Well we have a bit more snow on the ground here on top of the ice...grrrrrrrr Looks pretty but I liked the green grass look much better!!! (even if it wasn't really green yet!) Its 19* and wind chill of 4* right now and its BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR out there!!!!!!!!
Work yesterday was S L O W ! I work the 5-9 shift tonight and I am sure it will be even SLOWER!!! EWWW!!! I hate slow shifts with a passion!!! I go stir crazy with nothing to do!!!
See there are alot of new people popping up on OFF and I want to welcome them all!!! Hope they are reading this and will post along with us on here so we can all get to know them better!!!
Nothing new so I will get going. Back and hip still bugging me at times...grrrr
Thoughts and prayers going out to those in need!!!
HUGS
Julia, I did not see you as complaining but simply stating the obvious, that while you have much to be grateful for, you find living in these times very challenging and somewhat unsettling, most especially because in many ways you planned for your retirement in a certain way and now because of people who basically, lied, cheated and stole and those in our government who turned a blind eye to it all because somehow or another it benefitted them, you are upset with just how it might affect you. As you said, there are so many, who are worse off, I feel especially sad for those retirees who are now forced back into the workforce because their savings or plans have gone in such a direction as to have no choice, those that have lost their homes because taxes are driving them from them. This country had best wake up and do things differently, I am one who don't know how, if ever, I might retire, but so long as I am healthy, I will be ok and I do what I can to voice my opinion, it is called voting and for too many years, too few did that and so, there is a reason for what is happening now. . . sorry, I got on my soapbox here, but as I said, you simply stated how you are being affected and that my sweet friend is not complaining in my book.
As for Starbucks and tea, I drink decaf after 10 a.m. and most places have that option available, so you don't have to forego drinking it if you like it, the other option is to carry your own decaf teabags.. .
I had a wonderful weekend, it was spent doing a variety of things, Saturday I did laundry and went out to purchase a new washer/dryer, as my current one is in need of replacement and so I settled on a Samsung which can be stacked, got 15% off and 18 months interest free to pay it off, bought a few things for the house and then hung out at home. Sunday Tony came down and we went to the Reading Terminal Market, which was a real treat, though to be honest, I wi**** was someplace I had gone before WLS (lol), there was food from all ethnicities and a market to purchase fresh fish, a wonderful butcher, places to purchase produce, spices and we went there to a place that we saw on one of the food channels that Tony likes to watch, DiNic's, the roast pork and broccoli rabe sandwich, made with sharp provolone was absolutely delish, I could only eat 1/4 of the sandwich, but I enjoyed every bite. Bought some produce and then we went home to the movies where we saw Unknown, it was a suspenseful movie, went to dinner and bed. Yesterday, we hung out and when Tony left I did some straightening up and then went and had dinner with my granchildren and DIL at Chili's which was a trip, I ordered ribs and could only eat two of them. Needless to say with all the food we went out to eat this weekend, I don't have to cook all week, even though I did make some chicken with basil and wine (had to cook it). The main ingredient in this weekend was that my home is now peaceful without the stress of having Diane living there, so sad, but I am grateful to have my home as a peaceful place again.
Well I went on and on giving you guys a blow by blow description of what I did this weekend, I must say for a change it was a weekend, that while I did a whole lot in it, today I feel like it was longer than 3 days. . . it was well spent!
Well I wish you all a wonderful day and peace and strength to get through the more challenging aspects you may be facing.
Laureen
My Mantra is that I do not determine my success by the number hanging in my closet, nor will I let the scale determine that success either. . . It is through trial and error I will continue to grow and succeed. . . Laureen
"Success is a journey, not a destination." Ben Sweetland
