hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

[hqueen13]

@baymule sage smudging is a very old tradition that comes from native americans, though many many cultures have smudged with various things, including herbs and incense. The thought is (as I understand it) that it helps to clear the energies in a place.

Settlement went SMOOTH as butter. The woman was AWESOME and explained every single piece of paper to us, and told the BF where to initial and sign. She was really sharp and on top of things. I was super pleased with how easily she answered questions and explained things. Our realtor was starving, so when we finished he took us to breakfast at Waffle House next door, LOL. I love our realtor! We at and chatted about things we can do to improve the value of the house and such, and then we headed up to the unit while he went back to get the keys and the final paperwork. We grabbed a few things (though the BF wasn't really in DO mode yet, which was frustrating me because I was chomping at the bit!).

We got up to the house a bit before the realtor did, and so we walked around outside a little. Somehow we found out how pleased they were that they mowed the front yard, but they didn't bother to do anything else, like clean the gutters out. We found that all over the house, little things that just weren't done all that well. They left a LOT in the house, mostly junk, but quite a few things that are probably valuable. We'll have to figure out how to find the value of them and make sure we get our money's worth!

We putzed around mostly, smudged the house, and brought in the handful of things that we had with us. I don't even remember what all we did, but it wasn't that much, mostly, I think, because we were a bit overwhelmed at that point.

Friday we spent way too long talking to GH that morning, and then TW, before we finally got on the road to get up to the house. We met the BF's mom at the storage unit and loaded our pickup, plus her and my SUV's and managed to clear the 5x7.5' unit. That made me HAPPY! We took everything back up to the house and got it all unloaded, after the BF's mom had to have the grand tour that took forever (seriously, the house is not that big!).

Saturday started a little slower than we wanted, but we managed to get moving. I met my friends K&D up at the unit at 9 and we got our SUV's loaded, and then headed to the house. The BF got slowed down picking up his cousin's trailer because her husband had put a lock on it and she couldn't find the key and then it was full of wood chips that he had to empty out. He got there just before my friends and I got back, and had the fridge, dishwasher, and table top in the pickup (why he did all that by himself I don't know!!). We loaded the 2 SUV's again, and by that time his brother and mom got there with the pickup. We got everything loaded and headed to the house. It took WAY longer to unload everything than it should have because his dad and grandfather showed up, and THEY had to have the tour, too, and then everybody started goofing off. K and I ended up doing a lot of heavy work because she and I were the only ones that kept moving. I finally got everybody wrangled (seriously, my cats are easier to herd than this) and back to the unit for a final run. All told it took 5 SUV's, 4 pickup trucks, and 2 trailer loads to empty the 10x20 unit. We finally finished up as it was getting dark. We would have taken everyone to dinner, but they all had to leave, so we went and grabbed a bite before we went home and crashed.

Sunday, we picked up a chair from TW and managed to get some things done in the house. We started on the spackling and taping in prep for paint, and rearranged a few things. The learning curve on this house is big! LOL It's just odd, and old, so things aren't always quite like they should be. They left us an upright freezer, but it wasn't defrosted, so we started that process, and of course made a mess. Seriously, how the hell are you supposed to defrost a freezer without making a mess?? I was wishing there was a floor drain right at that moment, but there wasn't!

We started painting the master bedroom, and that ended up being a little crazy. The color we picked out ended up going onto the wall PINK instead of gray purple like we wanted. We were trying to get rid of the pink in the house (the other two bedrooms were already pink AND so is the bathroom!). After several trips to Home Depot I got the color I wanted, they were kind enough to retint the paint, which I didn't think about the fact that it would make it darker. I ran out of paint, and went back for a gallon (thankfully I bought a gallon and not a quart!) of the new color. When I started painting the new color by itself it was WAY lighter than the mix so I had to repaint the whole room anyway. Oh well, so it goes.

So finally, by yesterday evening we had accomplished quite a bit. I got the green on the wall and finished in the guest room, got the tape down, and we set up the bed, plus put a few pieces in the room where they are going to go. The master bedroom is painted and finished, but the tape is still up since it was still drying a bit. We got our bed-in-a-box onto the bed with the new box spring, where it is 'inflating' as we speak. We managed to get the kitchen shuffled around so that we had room to put up the table so I have a place to work at least. The freezer is defrosted and drying in the basement. I need to scrub it out because it is filthy. We moved all the stuff in the office into the middle of the room so that I can finish spackling, sand, tape, and then paint on Friday.

The plan is to finally sleep there officially on Thursday night. We still haven't yet because the bed hasn't been ready and I've been doing so much painting.

Oh, and the baseboard heat is AWESOME. It keeps the house SUPER toasty! 68 degrees of baseboard heat is WAY warmer than 68 degrees of forced air! Hopefully that will help us save money!

Now I'm just itching to get back in there and keep working! I'm in the office until Thursday, so I will have a break, which probably isn't a bad thing since my body is SO sore from the painting. I would have loved to get in the hot tub again last night but it was too late. I guess I might be able to get in tonight, I'll have to text the BF and see if he wants to....

 

[hqueen13]

Alright, some pics, finally!

Not really sure how this works, so we'll just wing it.

This is our little cozy house, with our freaking awesome weather vane. Realtor says that it's worth about $1000.00... it's old school fancy!


This is the view out of the big picture window in the living room.

I'll start with that and get the rest of them organized as I go along. I need to figure out how to get before and after shots out of the video that I took because the before was crazy!

 

[hqueen13]

Yes, @baymule I have to keep reminding the BF of that!
Yesterday 2 of my friends came over that I met when we all took an animal reiki workshop together. We've become really close and supportive of each other, and so they came over to celebrate the house and to help me smudge the place really good. We had so much fun, and the place still smells like sage, LOL. One of the gals is an interior decorator by trade, and so we talked over paint colors and ideas for the living room. I have some things to work with now, and so I need to go buy some samples to see what I like.

Yesterday the BF got to come home for a little while, which was awesome. How he backs his tractor trailer into the street I have no idea, but he does. I don't think I want to know, either, frankly. I worry that someone is going to hit him because they aren't paying attention and come flying down the road. But I guess that could happen anywhere he goes because he often has to back into and out of places that are tight. He is a great driver and can do it, I just worry about all the other crazies on the road!

I got some of my pictures hung, finally, yesterday, which made me feel great. I want to get more of that done this weekend, along with painting the living room. Then we can finally put up a tree. Better late than never Since we're having a party on the 6th I'll at least get to enjoy it for a few weeks. I'm sure in that time frame the cats will try to destroy it, so we'll see how THAT goes.

It ended up being a late evening and a pizza in the oven instead of the stew that I planned. I'm just proud of us that we have not eaten out since lunch on Saturday this past week. We've planned all our meals, and even yesterday I had leftover soup that the BF could eat for lunch. That's a big accomplishment for us!

Yesterday I also stopped at Joann's and spent WAY too much time in the store looking over things. I did find the end of a bolt of the original fabric I had for the valences in the office, so I picked up more of that just to have in case I decide to rework those. I also got a wreath for the front door, and a hanger for that, plus the felt I needed to put underneath the super heavy box that the BF made me to store my oils in so that it can sit on top of one of the other pieces of furniture that I have. The wreath was hilarious, I found one I liked that was a bit different and sent the BF a picture, and he replied that it looked like it was made of spinach. Ok, guess that one is out! So then I sent him pictures of like 5 other wreaths and he picked out his favorite 2, so then I got the one I liked and picked up some ribbon to make a bow with. I got it all home and set it up on the door, and it looks awesome. I've got to figure out how to get a photo without too much glare on the storm door so you can see it. I tried taking a picture with the door open from inside the house, but there was too much shadow. I'll have to try again tomorrow and see if I can get a better image. It turned out super cute.

So not much has really happened in the bigger picture. I've done a lot of little shuffling around, but nothing major. I really need to dive in and get more things sorted so they can be put away, because I'm just so tired of living with boxes. We've gotten a huge amount done, but I want to be finished with that part of things! I'm ready for it! I'm hoping this weekend we can get a lot done. We've got to get the basement presentable to the cats, and then get them down there so that we can finish spackling, and sand, and then paint the living room and hallway. I don't want them upstairs for any of that or it could be a disaster for them and the house!

The BF was late getting off work yesterday, but his boss told him he'd try to get him off at a better hour today. I told him I'd rather have him off at a better hour tomorrow because I'll be home! Today I'm in the office and we're having a holiday party after our meeting this afternoon, so I know I'll be late getting home. It's extra hours for me though so that's ok, even if it is going to take me about an hour to get all the way back up to our end of town.

I got some texts from the girls in the barn, and the gal that feeds on Friday and Sunday needed help on Friday, so I'm going to cover for her on Friday and she's going to cover for me on Sunday. That's a relief because I couldn't figure out how I was going to go to the family dinner and go to take care of the horses. I guess it gives me less of an excuse to get out of going to midnight mass, but we'll see. I really don't want to go because I don't want to be dead tired on Christmas morning when I have to get up and go take care of the horses before we go to his family's house for christmas celebrations. I would really like to relax on Christmas day but I don't really see that happening all that much.

Hopefully next week will be a little slower and I can get more stuff done again. Then we'll have another 3 day weekend to get things ready for the party. That's part of the reason I'm not all that stressed about it, even though the BF is rather worried. We have plenty of time to get things presentable, and our friends aren't going to care if it isn't perfect. We've done so much, and it's already looking great. There really isn't that much left to take care of at this point. I'm slowly getting excited!

 

[hqueen13]

Deb, many of them are just too far from the barn where the electric is, and she doesn't trust her electric to run cords (which is probably a good thing, cords that are makes me nervous anyway). I need to light a fire under the BF to get him to help me get the stuff set up at the house so I can bring Storm home so that it will stop costing me time and money to keep him there!

I'll have to get yall a picture soon! I'm terrible about that, LOL

We've managed to continue to get things picked up and cleaned up. The BF finished installing the new light in the bathroom in the basement. I think I forgot to mention that he took apart the faucet and replaced some gaskets and now it doesn't leak and it works! We debated buying a new faucet, but at the price that they cost, I told him I'd rather not spend the money only to settle on something AND know that we are planning on redoing the whole thing anyway. It's got paneling in there, and when we redo the bathroom upstairs we're going to have to rip it all out to get to the plumbing as it is, so it makes more sense to just wait and get something nicer when we're ready for it. Besides, the gaskets to fix it were only $2. I'd rather spend $2 and settle with what's there than spend $20 or $40 to settle on something new. So now I just have to clean up all that crap from the mess he made!

While he was finishing up that I hung the pictures in the hallway, so that's done. A few more things off of the guest bed at least!

I got the shopping done yesterday morning. I still need to find plates, but I found cute napkins for .20 since they were on holiday clearance. I spent WAY too much at BJ's again (I'm afraid that's going to become known as the $150.00 store...), and stopped at Aldi and Target for a few things. I'm sort of hoping that we have left over food so I can eat that for a few days since I spent so much money on it! I still need to get the beer and plates, oh and some bagel chips for the Chex Mix (I LOVE home made chex mix!).

I worked in the office yesterday getting things sorted out and straightened up. There are things I'll need to deal with after the party, but at least for now they are tucked away. I have 2 boxes of knickknacks that I need to open. I'm afraid to open them because I really don't want to clutter things up. I need to though because there are a few of my things that I want out of there. I guess maybe I can pick and choose and wrap the rest of it back up.

I also got the sheets changed, and then washed the duvet, and put the down blanket in the dryer with the dryer balls and some essential oils. My allergies have been bothering me and I was wondering if it was from the blanket. It seemed to help a little, but we'll see. Nothing like crawling in a fresh made bed though!

Yesterday after he got home we got a few things organized, and then he helped me get a bunch of things up into the attic. I was getting frustrated because he wanted to do other things and I finally was like *I* can vacuum the mess in the bathroom, I can't put things up in the attic by myself. He gets so easily distracted sometimes! I appreciate him wanting to clean up the mess, but I can manage that. I can't manage the big heavy boxes! So we finally got all that up in the attic, which felt so good! I can reach the closet in the guest bedroom again!

This morning I woke up to a mess. Blowing snow everywhere. It is only a dusting, but it was really bad on the roads. I got up at 5, when the BF was leaving and he texted me a few minutes after he left to tell me not to leave because the roads were so bad. He saw the plow JUST getting onto the highway when he got on. And since our road has a downhill directly into a busy road, AND since my tires have no tread left AND my 4wd isn't working I decided to wait it out a bit.

So I worked more in the house, I got the guest room picked up (mostly stuff shoved into the closet, but you know), and then dusted our bedroom (seriously, where the heck does it all come from?!?! We've only been there a month!!!), and then vacuumed the bedroom and the office. There are still a few more things that need to get moved off the floor in the guest room and I'll dust and vacuum it. I got 2 more pictures hung in our bedroom, and emptied the dishwasher. I'm glad I was able to do something since I wasn't able to be in the office so early.

I finally left at 8, and the snow was crazy blowing. It was scary getting off of our street, but I managed, and decided I was going to stop at the auto parts store to get more washer fluid because I was OUT and salt spray is NOT good for seeing clearly. Poor guys in the autoparts store thought I was a guy because I was bundled up from head to toe. It was crazy trying to pour the stuff into the little tank, too, it was blowing all over the place. Finished that and headed to my friend's. Her driveway hadn't been plowed, so I just parked at the top and walked down, and prayed nobody needed to leave the driveway (they live on a shared driveway). Finished the chores in a hurry and drove to the office. I decided to switch offices for the day because I didn't want to drive all the way to the main office down back roads and stuff.

Got into the office about 9 and discovered that the boss had decided that we didn't need to open until 10:30. Gah. But I also discovered that nobody had really prepared for this, and so the phone was going crazy, and the morning patients hadn't been called. I sorted that out and then finally got to talk to some people to figure out what was going on about 9:30. Fun times.

So I'm going to sit here alone on my butt for most of the day and then head back to my friend's to take care of the horses and go home. I hope traffic isn't too bad this afternoon, but at least by then the slippery stuff should be gone.

I texted my realtor this morning and told him that this winter was going to stink because it was going to be nothing but really annoying little snow storms that don't amount to anything but mess things up because we bought a house and he bought an old Bronco with a giant snow blower on the front of it (yes, old truck with snow blower, not plow, blower). So we're just gonna have to deal with this tiny storms that mess things up but don't amount to anything. Very annoying!!

 

[hqueen13]

Yeahhhh it may come to that. We'll see. We did get pictures of the coop this weekend, and got the nesting boxes in and the roosting bar installed, so I can get the new pictures posted and hopefully it will SELL so I can have some CASH!!

@baymule to answer your question regarding "on" all the time or not the answer is yes and no. So I kind of liken it to conversations happening around you. If you're just walking around in a crowd, you can hear lots of talking, but you don't necessarily hear all the conversations. They're there, but you're not really listening to them. If someone speaks to you, you can hear it, and you can either acknowledge them or choose to ignore them. You might not hear them clearly at first, so you may have to ask them to repeat themselves. If you're tired, or not focused, you may not even hear them at all, and they'll have to say something to you a second time. That's pretty much how it works Sometimes I have animals that say things to me out of the blue. I was leading the horses in to eat at the old farm just after one of the horses arrived, and he was giving me trouble walking in, so I told him when he stood there with his head in the air he looked like a mule. The next day he was walking fine, but it was my horse that didn't want to walk this time, and I clearly heard the other horse say "It's HIS turn to look like a mule." My reply was NOBODY is going to look like a mule, let's go! So sometimes it does happen, but most of the time I'm too preoccupied with whatever I'm doing, so I don't hear the chatter. A lot of the time I pick up more on feelings and energy than I do on actual words.

As for being afraid of the pigs, well, they will know it. They're highly intelligent (probably the smartest animals that we eat, really), and so they'll KNOW if you're scared of them. That's not to say that you should cover up your fear, because that will make it worse. Now the animal knows you're afraid (because they just KNOW) AND you're acting in a manner that doesn't align with the fear. Admitting you're afraid is the best thing you can do when working with animals you're scared of. I've been there plenty of times with horses, dogs, or other livestock that I HAD to get a job done around. So I just tell them, "hey, I'm scared of you, because I'm afraid you'll XYZ, and I don't want to get hurt, but I have a job to do here (which is probably FEEDING them, LOL), and tell them that we just need to get along long enough for me to do that. I say all this outloud, because it helps get the energy aligned and it helps convey the message. Talking is our way of communicating, but so much happens nonverbally, so for us talking can help align all the nonverbal stuff that we aren't aware of and find it difficult to control.

I could chatter on about this forever

We had a great weekend. We got SO much done! Now to see if I remember it all....

We got most of the house picked up and straightened, and Lilith's cage cleaned, and several loads of laundry run.
We ran some errands, and managed to get the coop taken care of and pictures taken.
We got the chimney's swept out (I think that happened on Thursday or Friday...)
We got the leaves blown out of the gutters, thanks to the neighbor's AMAZING backpack leaf blower (In his words "it'll blow a brick, so it will be just fine blowing the wet leaves out of the gutter!" I was like Oh my!)
We got a load of firewood for free (needs to dry and be split but it was FREE!)
We had a nice visit with GH and SH who stopped up in between their trips to see the house.
I got to soak in the tub.
We got the Christmas stuff put back up in the attic, and straightened some of the boxes up there.
The BF got the rest of his gun stuff organized and put away.
I even had time to knit and I got the BF's awesome scarf finished that I started last Christmas as a present. I just need to tuck in the ends, put on the fringe and then block it.

It was a great weekend, we got so much done, and yet we also had some down time together. It was the best way to spend the weekend in my opinion. I also didn't have any extra horses to care for, and I didn't have to go to the barn on Sunday because I traded out one of the days that the other girl owed me, that way we could hang out with GH and SH for a little while. It was SO nice to not have to go to the barn and do all that work. It will take me about 10 minutes per day to care for Storm and a buddy if they're at my house, maybe 20, possibly 30 on a "bad" day. I REALLY want to get him home!!!

This week looks much more "normal" thankfully. I'm really looking forward to my business call again on Tuesday so I can figure out what's next in my to do list to get moving forward so I can start generating consistent income. This is a priority!
Otherwise, I really need to do some cooking this week, because we've been eating way too much junk lately. I'm so sick of the junk food. I want real food again, but I get so tired of cooking it!
I think TM is going to come up on Wed and see the house and trim my hair. I think we're going to have lunch together, but I'm not sure exactly what the plan is yet. I think I'm also going to send my truck in to have the auto armor put on it and have the dent repaired in the front bumper. I need to check in with the guy today to see if he can bring me a loaner to the barn so I don't have to drive all the way down there to do it. I'll miss my truck for a day, but I really don't have many places to go, so that helps.

So I filled up the truck again, and the BF was right, they hadn't tripped the odometer in the truck when I got it, I thought he did it but he didn't. So I'm getting just over 17 mpg, which is not terrible at all, and the tank is bigger, which means I don't have to fill up nearly so often, which is NICE! It stinks because it's over $10 more at a time to fill it up, but only having to fill up once a week even with all the extra barn chores is NICE. This week I won't be doing a whole lot extra, so I probably won't have to fill up until the weekend, which is great. I think I have enough in my budget to get me to that point, which is super helpful!

That's about all that's happening from 'round these parts. It's been GORGEOUS this weekend, like sweatshirt weather instead of layers weather! But that also means that now it's muddy as crap and we have rain on the way tonight/tomorrow am. I'm not sure what's worse, cold and layers, hacking ice but frozen ground or warmer, no layers, no ice, and slipping all over the place in the mud....

 

[hqueen13]

FEM, I tried that once, but didn't like the way it was set up here. I haven't figured out a knack for organizing things well enough to take advantage of the curbside pickup. I would always forget something I needed or something like that.

Thanks @sumi I appreciate it! Yeah, rain rain rain all weekend.

@baymule I looked into those, but many of them run about $10.00 per meal per person, and there really isn't enough for leftovers. That was too rich for my budget. This gal charges me a flat rate for shopping (and she goes to BJ's AND the grocery store for me), and then an hourly rate to prep the meals. Some things she'll just give me the ingredients, and some stuff she makes, but all in all it is working out to be roughly $60 per week for her fees. For that price I'm getting 3-4 different "meals" out of it, but when I say "meals" she brings me HUGE containers that will be 4-6 servings for us, so 2 nights for dinner for both of us, and usually 2 lunches. That's way more than what those services would cover! And she shops with coupons and sales, which is awesome. I'm thrilled to be able to give someone local a little extra cash to do something they like to do. She mentioned that once her daughter goes to school that she might be looking for a job. I'm going to suggest to her that she investigate doing this on a more formal scale and maybe pick up 2-3 clients and do the shopping. I don't know what the rules are about food prep, but she might have to stay away from that legally speaking, but the shopping portion is super helpful.

This weekend was just gross. We managed to get some more wood moved and stacked (the only junky stuff never got completely moved from where we originally stacked it next to the shed, and then it fell over, and then it got rained on, and then it froze to the ground, fun times), and covered by tarps. The BF grabbed his dad's chainsaw to cut up a few pieces that were too big for the stove from the good stuff that he got, and the saw wasn't running right. Our neighbor 2 doors down wandered over and offered to help. Apparently he was a wildland fire fighter and a bit of a chainsaw junky, and was able to teak some settings on it to get it running better (it was stalling out, so running at all was a good thing!). We had a great conversation and found out that he stays home with their son (who was running around the yard at this point). I think he'll be a good resource, and I was relieved to know that he was home a LOT if I need anything. We stood there talking until the rain started, and then we all headed in. We sat around a lot this weekend. The rain didn't help any motivation, which was annoying. I managed to get the office cleaned up, I got a bunch of files pulled out of the filing cabinet and ready to go into the basement file cabinet. Then I drug out my sewing box so that I could hem the curtains, but that's as far as that went. I got it all spread out all over the floor (the contents of the box, not the new curtains) and that's where it's still sitting.

Sunday we did more of the same. We cleaned out the stove since it is so warm and raining it was a pretty good day for it. I did get some laundry done, and got the chinchilla's cage cleaned up again. We also vacuumed the basement since the cat litter was everywhere and the wood had brought in a lot of dirt. It had gotten pretty gross, so I was glad to get that done. Other than that we sat around most of the day until I had to go to the barn. The BF ran out to grab some stuff to clean the stove with, and I went and did chores. I was early, but very relieved that it wasn't raining and that it was still light enough I could SEE where I was going in the mud. It is AWFUL. Both my boots are covered well over my ankles. I'm so sick of it. It's raining every 2-3 days, and raining a lot. It's mostly cloudy in between, and just plain gross. This is NOT normal weather for us right now. I'm ready for something different. I think it's supposed to be breezy enough that it should dry things a little today. Tomorrow I think is supposed to be nice, so I'm going to attempt to work Storm before I do chores. We'll see how that goes. Hopefully it won't be as slick. But then again if he's gonna act like an idiot he can bust his own butt in the dirt. He's so jacked up it's not funny. Every time I go to bring him in I can feel his energy. He's just dancing with it. He tosses his head around a lot. I was pleased last night that he shook really hard, which can be an energy release. I'm so ready to not have to deal with the mud and the long walk into the barn. I need to call the gal that my accountant referred me to that has a farm around the corner from us. I'm just done with the long drive and trekking through the nasty mud.

This week is gonna be crazy. My coworker is out, so I fill in for her, which means extra hours which is fantastic, but it also means being away from home a lot more. And it will mean being busy in the office, too. I'm not exactly thrilled about it. But the paycheck will be good, especially since this month is short! So you might be hearing from me more if I am not too swamped and need a mental break! LOL

 

[baymule]

I have a saying.......(no offense to you guys out there) Every man is an A-hole. It's just finding which degree of what A-hole you can live with.

And guys, that can certainly work in reverse. Nobody is perfect and we all have our irritating habits that drives our significant other nuts.

hqueen your BF has his good points and bad points. The good must outweigh the bad or you would not put up with the not so dear to you habits.

I have bad habits, my husband has bad habits. We laugh and tell each other to live a long time, cause nobody else would have either of us. LOL LOL

 

[baymule]

I hate getting stuck in the mud. It is a sport, mud doggin', but that is one sport I can do without. I went to Sam Rayburn lake on my 25th birthday, by my self to have a cook out. I got stuck. I walked back to the paved road, then walked up the road until I came to a yard full of 4 wheel drive trucks. A redneck dream house! LOL I knocked on the door and several guys came out and were happy to go pull me out. While telling me what I did wrong, Redneck Mud Dogger got stuck. No problem, one of them walked back to the house to get his truck, he got stuck too. Another one walked back to the house for his truck.....and you guessed it, he got stuck too. By this time most everybody was well on their way to being rip roaring drunk. I dropped the tailgate on my truck, standing past my knees in watery mud, lit up the hibachi grill and cooked hamburgers for everybody. Another guy walked back to the house and came back with a neighbor that was not only sensible, but sober too. He pulled everybody out. My truck wouldn't start, so he took me home. By this time it was past midnight. It turned out to be a pretty good birthday. Maybe a little not the ordinary birthday party, but it was fun anyway. I went back a couple days later with friends and we dragged my truck in for repair.

Thanks for that memory, your getting stuck reminded me of it.

 

[hqueen13]

Hmmm, I'll have to research that one @baymule I haven't heard of it!

OMG @sumi that's hilarious!!!! I've had a few moments like that in my life, too. Thankfully this wasn't poop, so that was a little better at least!

Not a whole lot happening, which I guess is good. I managed to stop by a little woowoo shop in town and scheduled a day to sessions. I hope that goes well, income would be awesome! I also had lunch with a good friend of mine that I haven't seen in a while. We both said we must do it more often, and I would really love to be able to to do that.

I finally got my new logos back and I'm so excited to start using them. I've got to get all my images updated with the logo now, which takes a while, but I don't mind, that's fun work! I need to get business cards designed so I can start using them!

Not much else going on otherwise, I guess that's good. Of course they're calling for snow this weekend again, but they keep changing the amount, so we'll see what we actually end up with.

 

[hqueen13]

Just got back from NC with family. It was a great trip, though emotionally really challenging. There were LOTS of laughs, and a few tears, and a beautiful memorial service for my grandmother. There was so much food given to us, which was amazing, and lots and lots of support. We had 23 family members in the front row, which is WONDERFUL. There were a few missing, but not many at all. My allergies did ok down there, not as bad as up here, thankfully, but yesterday on the drive home they just exploded. It was NOT fun, and I was in bed before 8:00 last night. I took a benedryl and slept pretty good. This morning my lungs and ribs hurt from all the sneezing so I feel like I can't get a good breath in. It's so awesome to feel asthmatic while I'm still sniffing and sneezing.
I need to get the # for an a/c guy from a friend because ours isn't working. The BF tried turning it on before we left, and it didn't work. Thankfully it cooled down while we were away so the house wasn't all that warm. Now we've got to figure out how to get it fixed. I'm not looking forward to that bill or future power bills, but it needs to be done. That poor washer is never going to get purchased at this rate.
While I was down there, my dad told me that some friends had purchased 2 shares of stock when I was a baby. The company was sold recently, and the new company decided to cash out the stock at 17% over what the market rate was on the day they closed. So I came home with a check for $347.42! That was a LOVELY blessing! I should be able to catch up on my "working" credit card, and then maybe have a little left over to treat myself to something.
So we're hanging in there. I think there's rain coming later this week, at least I hope so because I need a break from the pollen for real. I'm in the office the rest of the week covering for a coworker who is away, which will be extra hours for me, thankfully, since I had to miss some being away.
So things are still chugging along, in between sneezes at least.