Wednesday Wins

[blessedw2]

hello d elizabeth hope briggs does better. have fun shopping for your dd,
glad he is back in range d nancy

hi d twins.
(((your sweet mom)))
sounds right about DOT we have IDOT illinois dept. ...

d harriet - hope the line at post office goes fast. We had that the day before yesterday.

finished home blessing in dining room. not always a favourite for dh as he likes to sit in there and read, eat lunch, read his newspaper but I tried to do it when he wasn't there.

[Twins' Mom]

Got that stuff dropped off and answered an email from dcousin that I saw earlier. She was sending me a list of shared DNA matches on Ancestry.

And another win: rescheduled colonoscopy!

Doing a little genealogy, won't go upstairs but sit here...

[LadyMaverick]

Home from the Y. I spent 2 hours all by myself and totally enjoyed myself. For the first time, I used the spa at the Y and it is about 10 times better than any other spa I've ever used. Today I walked the track for 30 minutes, did the Elliptical and recumbent bike, played basketball, and then got into the spa. It felt like I was getting a massage from 3 people at the same time. Oh my....it felt so good.

I listened to DMom talk while driving (30 minutes). She is doing well today. We made plans for tomorrow.

[Harmony]

Elizabeth, the phone DOT (might have the wrong name for this thing) is that round rubber thing that sticks onto the back of the phone or the case that starts flat but pops out to make a little gripper that you can hold the phone with, easier to take selfies, etc. and you can prop it up on a surface with the gripper too. Something this phone obsessed generation would like and use.

DH says "whatever is that" and can't see the purpose... he's definitely not a COOL grandpa but they love him anyway.

Oh, and it's not Z Bucks, it's V Bucks! Couldn't figure it out so I looked around the store for teenagers and they got me started. I've had 3 phone conversations with DGS19 and finally managed to get the 2 cards. DGS started explaining about the points and I thought he was talking about dollars YIKES! Goo gle X B ox cards with Mic rosoft in the corner work for this but NOT X B ox LIVE cards. Who knew? Gift cards are supposed to be easy...these ones weren't - for me anyway!

I got DH's grab bag gift and wrapped it and he's on his way to his Youth Group party. In his pajamas.

I think I have all my gifts bought, but still need to do the sewing. DH needs me to help at job tomorrow and I told him I couldn't spend much time, I was too busy. Homeowner was supposed to help but he went up north.

Ok, I'm off to my sewing machine.

I cannot believe how this holiday has gone. It's way more hectic than any I can remember.

I've been meaning to ask: has anybody read Ramblin Rose's post from yesterday? I am just in awe of the way she's got everything done, planned, organized, all ahead of time, and she had enough time to go pamper herself.. and here I am so far behind and wondering if I can find time to get my hair trimmed Friday. Just amazing.

[Nancy]

Dd loved the idea of a reminder in her phone calendar to writre the bus p ass for dgd to come here. Thre is the bus now. H is home.
I put a pic of the rug I just finished on fb.

[LadyMaverick]

ARGH! The 2 young dogs have decided to become Houdini dogs. They have escaped from our backyard TWICE this evening. DS10 and I found where they got out the first time and we fixed it. We have no idea how they managed to get out the second time. They are going to spend the night in the garage tonight and we will start again tomorrow when the sun is up. The good part is they escape from the backyard into the cow pasture next to us then they run to the pasture gate, down the road then to our front door. They stand on the front porch waiting for us to open the door. I can watch them on the security cameras coming from the pasture to our door.

Product Review - 30 days ago I started the test of these burners covers. I installed them on 2 of the 5 stove top burners. I had no clue how (or if) they would perform. I am totally happy with them and just finished putting them on the other 3 burners. It is so easy to clean the stove top now!

Another product review - I don't use the phone poppers because they get in the way when I slide the phone in/out of my hip pocket. But I have been struggling to stay up with my phone. I lay my phone down and forget about it. I get so many alarms, phone calls & text messages a day that not responding in a timely manner isn't working well. A DFriend showed me how she carries her phone on a lanyard. I honestly didn't think it would work well for me, but in desperation, I decided to give it a try. The first day I didn't care for it and it bugged me. But I couldn't argue with the fact that my phone was always with me. I persisted in using the lanyard and after a couple of days, I become accustomed to it hanging from my neck. Now I feel lost when I take it off. I am surprised to say that it is now my favorite place to carry the phone.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

LadyM:

Burner covers: Not what I expected. I used to have metal ones for the electric stove that fit overtop the burner to make a solid surface to put something on, and also stop spatters from an adjacent pot from going into the drip pan. I loved them, but I kept turning on the wrong burner and setting the paint on them to smoking. I would have loved something similar for the gas stove but they aren't made for safety reasons. So it took a moment for me to realize these are more drip pan covers, than burner covers and go under the burner grate. At least, I think that's how they are used.

Re: phone on lanyard. Maybe I'll try this since you say I'll get used to it. At home, I put on an apron and put my phone in the pocket. But this might work and certainly wouldn't fall out by accident when I bend over.

I'm off to bed now. I'm feeling under the weather, not sure if that's sick or just overtired due to short night and no nap today.

This afternoon I worked on finding the dining table. Not quite finished but big inroads in that department. The rest of the apartment is much tidier as well. It is amazing what a day at home can do. So that's a 1.5 wins.

Dh took me grocery shopping (and out to dinner.) I managed to price match things I needed and the Christmas grocery shopping is almost done. Another win.

We got a toaster oven. The one I researched was a strange shape, not deep enough but wider than the old one. Yet not wide enough for a 9x13 pan. So I gave up on that. Dh wanted the air fry one, so we paid a little extra and got it. It isn't an expensive one, just $10 more so I'm betting it is more of a gimmick than anything else but it does everything else we want too. We still haven't unpacked it but I'm counting this as a win.

I spent an hour sorting credit card receipts this afternoon. They were sorted, roughly, by which card but now I've also sorted by month. I have 7 months to enter for one and 6 for the other but at least they are now well organized. And the loose chits from around the house are gathered up as well (except those from tonight!) Another win.

Finally, while sorting through papers, I found the renewal for the car license tag. It expires in 11 days! (The notice came about 2 months ago.) So when we came up from the car, I brought up the info I needed and that is done. There's a receipt to print off and carry until the stickers arrive in the mail so we're set until Jan 8 or 9. Even with Christmas and all the holidays, the stickers should be here by then. That's a big win.

That's a pretty good day. I may even make my 6K steps for the day. If not, I have extras from yesterday to protect my weekly average.

Tomorrow is lunch out with my childhood best friend and then we are off to see Mary Poppins. And I will be driving by the good Costco so will do my returns then. That's all I expect from myself that day.

[BookSaver]

Small wins:

* Christmas prep -- Precooked the ground beef and onions for the nacho cheese sauce so the morning of Christmas Eve all I'll have to do is pull that container out of the freezer and add the tomatoes, cream of mushroom, spices, etc. and get it all into the crock pot.

* Switched out the filter in the water pitcher. It takes time to pull all the pieces apart to clean them, soak the filter, install it, and run at least 3 batches through before it's usable. It was a good day to do it, though, and in the spring when I'm trying to figure out when it's due again, I can remember that I put the new one in just before Christmas.

* Scrubbed the stove top with baking soda. Again, multiple parts to the gas stove, so it took time. As Kathryn said,

It is amazing what a day at home can do.

* Used the sewing machine last night to mend something. That's not as much fun as sewing something new, but at least I finished it!

* Got rid of excess packaging from a gift because it was taking up so much space. I received a box with 5 different flavors of hot chocolate mixes. Each flavor was in a separate box and the boxes all had really cute holiday illustrations. Really cute! I was sorry to put all of the boxes in the recycle bin right away since I just got the gift yesterday, but it was just too much cardboard. The individual envelopes of hot chocolate mix are all labeled with the flavors, so I put the envelopes together in a small container and tossed all the extra packaging.

* Trash and recycle bins are out on the curb.

[lucylee]

I haven't even cuop yet -- y'all bear with me.
I do have a few WINS for the day, though --
* laundry completed (so dh can do towels tomorrow)
* cooked supper so maybe dh can get his weight back under control -- we've been eating out waaay too much lately!
* notified ass't living that dmom will be leaving tomorrow
* dmom's groceries bought and refrigerator cleaned out (so dmom can come home tomorrow and won't poison herself with out of date food!)
* also delivered some of dmom's stuff to her house, including the wrapped presents which she will give dgrands and all her files for 2018
* bought ornament for dgd -- apparently I did not order the one I really wanted, which I can't even remember now, so Hello Kitty will have to do.
* ordered bar-b-que for Christmas w/dbil etc on Christmas Eve

LOSSES for the day... * sigh *
* DS's picture frame arrived at Wmart (for the theater poster I'm giving him for Christmas) UNFORTUNATELY, it arrived at a Wmart in CALIFORNIA.
I am completely on the other side of the country from California. I have NO IDEA how this happened. Girl at Wmart got that cancelled for me, and I have re-ordered, and it should arrive "by 6:00 pm" on Christmas Eve. So... got some anticipation going here, right?
OTOH -- dgs's ornament, which IS perfect for him, is coming from China and may not get here till Jan. 11.
AND... I FINALLY found the dvd dmom has been asking for for YEARS -- Mayerling. (It stars Omar Sharif.) Guess where IT is coming from? GREECE.
Lots of anticipation going on here...
* Another loss for the day -- dh has my sore throat crud, and he can't even take a steroid shot, so he is very depressed about the weekend trip coming up...
* Our college team lost in a grand style -- 10 points, maybe? -- to one of the teams in Harriet's state. I can never remember which team Harriet's family pulls for. I must have a mental block where this is concerned. This team we lost to has STATE in their name. DH is also very depressed about this. LOL... he says it's a good thing our tickets to a future game sold on S tubhub today, b/c they certainly wouldn't be selling tomorrow.

Well, looks like the wins outnumber the losses, so I guess I'm doing okay. And I am feeling better. The shot did not keep me awake (possibly because I took some Nyquil?) so I got a good night's sleep, and I gargled with warm salt water, which feels soooo good while I'm doing it, but you know, you can't just stand there and gargle all night long... and I took a nap -- and some Aleve -- this afternoon when I started feeling tired and achy again.

Thinking of you ALL!

[Nancy]

I have a win I am on the home stretch getting the next warp going.
Dgd got ready for dance class before she left.
I walk the dog to the corner each evening to see the light it does not get old.
H had a nap a win for me his mood is better.
Watching a Christmas special.