Thursday, a new month begins

[helia]

Popping in, having a hard time staying on task, although time constraints should be forcing that upon me. LOL! I think 3 friends will be here in 2.5 hours for our Thursday dinner together; 1 friend and dh are out of town. I need to get in a good jog before them.

I found a $885 charge on my credit card at a Wm supercenter in Dublin, OH. We don't shop at Wm, nor have we been in Ohio this year. . . I've started making phone calls but need to call the store back tomorrow between 8 and 2. There is only one suspicious charge so it is not like someone has our card number and is continuing on a shopping spree with it. It is possible that dh ordered something, and Wm was the supplier, but he can't remember any such purchase - which is why I need to check to see what was purchased.

Christian Devotional guides for teens: I didn't read carefully but saw your post, Harriet. I'll be honest, we have struggled and somewhat failed to find good devotional/ Bible study guides for our children. Dd16 is not very interested unless it is very Scripture intensive and Scripture focused; she' not so much into life antidotes. For her, I've recommended some adult Bible study guides that I like, Navpress Lifechanges series or some IVP study guides. I'm not sure she went for them, though. She was reading her Bible when I went down to tuck her in last night, which was gratifying to see. I'm not sure what dd13 or ds are currently doing; I think ds may read his Bible on his own, very occasionally. I should ask them! Both ds and dd16 are in small group Bible studies through our church which gives them some study time, and we try to do a family "worship" night weekly that involves Scripture reading and discussion, as well as prayer. I must say, with everyone's busy schedules, it is extremely difficult to do this weekly. In fact, we probably do this monthly.

I'm going to reclaim the kitchen, start a lol, and prep the chicken for the dinner crew tonight. Then, I'll head to the gym.

[helia]

. . . .Adding, it may have sounded that I don't shop at Wm on principle. However, it is a matter of practicality. There is no Wm in our city, I don't like the one nearest us, and therefore, I don't have a habit of turning to Wm here or elsewhere when I need something. When we lived in Austin, TX, I did shop at Wm regularly. My parents have a lovely one in their city, and I've patronized it before.

[Nancy]

Granny duty is underway. Creche' is up yea. We mixed up three batches of cookie dough today and they are chilling our grand daughter helped! We've found mickey's Christmas but dgd decided on jungle book instead today after watching half of the Franklin's Christmas.
H. seems to be sleeping better and not as feverish now.

Lunch was simple and over now I need to spiff up the kitchen a bit more after our baking adventures.

Last load of laundry is going now.

Made a phone call to the church, they have after school help it's for the older kids but thought they could work with dgson but he will not be able to go to the youth group. Older kid{s} may be able to help him. Glad it may be a possibility b/c what they are doing is not working & dd is at her wits end.

[Elizabeth]

Power is out in lots of places in Albuquerque due to 50 mph winds. I don't know yet if my art class tonight has power. If not, there is no point in going. I am very tired and would not mind not going. My caffeine at lunch yesterday made it hard to sleep last night and I am dragging. At least I know why. I am still at payroll slogging through documentation.

I just got off the phone with the vet. Dcat18 needs an increase in her meds, not a surprise, she had lost weight. I asked if she will need an ever increasing amount as she ages. Unknown. At about 4 years on the meds, she is one of the older patients. She is too much of an outlier to know the prognosis. They could simply remove her thyroid, then it has much less chance of overproducing hormone. (Some thyroid tissue can regrow, so no absolute guarantee). But the vet and I think that if meds can control it (and they have), then why operate on a geezer kitty, who would then have to take thyroid supplements for life.

[OKay]

Lilac - CONGRATULATION!!

I have the fall decorations, cloth napkins, table runners, quilts, flowers, wreaths all cleaned, ironed and put away into 2 orange-n-brown tubs. I feel so accomplished and organized.

I brought up 5 tubs of Christmas decorations from the cellar and will get the rest down from the attic tomorrow. Then it will be time to sort through them and decorate the house. DGS14 is begging me to not put up the tree until he is here this weekend. He always enjoys doing it.

Well. The legal paperwork did not arrive. Not sure what all this means. Lawyer will talk to the judge and let us know. Limbo. We've been here for 3 years and it seems we will continue.

DH is at an elder meeting so I didn't cook evening meal. LO and I had pita bread, ham & cheese. Tasty, quick n easy.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

My ds came for dinner so we had a lovely 'Sunday' dinner on Thursday. Why not?!

My meeting went ok but there was some confusion of company names, they started a separate corporation to try and get charitable contribution status and failed. But it seems they haven't been paying attention to the corporation and there may be consequences. Not for me, I'm not on the board of this shell company, but it is a concern for some of the others.

The tea with residents was lovely. Lots of baking and almost all of it went. We left one tray for the knitting group tomorrow and another tray of goodies in the lobby for anyone to nibble on. I spent time talking with a couple who had emigrated from Denmark. He gave me a hug goodbye and said how nice it was to talk to someone who knew Denmark and the politics, geography and social issues.

My errands went flawlessly and I was home shortly after 5. Dh had started the potatoes and Yorkshire puddings, and ds had the carrots ready to start when I came through the door. Dh had a bad day at work and was on a call when I came through the door.

Ds was all about going to Australia. We went over the credit card bill and he's on track to pay off all his debt with me in January.

He's off on a side-job tonight fixing computers and then to work tomorrow. He's worked 9 days in a row, tomorrow is his 10th, then two days off, a shift, 2 more days off and then 11 shifts over 10 days. He can't have that many shifts (he's limited to 10 over 14 days) but his training is in obscure areas of admissions and makes it hard to find people to cover his shifts. The following pay period includes Christmas and he has one shift too many then, too but not when pay is 1.5x per hour. Still he has 8 hours at 1.5x regular pay over those two stat holidays. He's working overnights again on Christmas and Boxing Day (plus the evening shift on Christmas Eve, so someone with kids won't have to work.)

I'm giving him snow tires for Christmas. We decided that tonight. He thought it was too expensive but then I pointed out that I'd be paying for his sister's flight so then it felt fair. I haven't checked with dh but I'm sure he'll feel the same way.

It just occurred to me that when he goes to Australia, I'll end up with a second car again, so at least it will have snow tires!

[Twins' Mom]

I never really got going at home today. Looong meeting with the rabbi - we covered a lot of subjects tho and it was good to just have a wide-ranging discussion with him. I checked out another neighborhood with new houses but it's too far out and houses are smaller. Went to try to get car serviced but it was lunchtime and line was out to the road (again.) Did emissions testing and passed so I will renew my license online tomorrow. I also walked through antique mall just to look at things as recreation. Got home middle of afternoon, napped, responded to a few emails...etc. etc. and the day was gone. Early this morning I also made my flight reservation for trip to Washington D.C. in two weeks for Reform Judaism conference.

Also haven't reviewed all the paperwork regarding an offer on new house as requested by dh. I did move dd's car, however, check the Volvo for ds's personal items and leave a key in it (so it can be towed and serviced) and set the printer back up so I could print requested items for dh, so I don't have to admit to him that I goofed off at all today.

The beast has woke me up the last two nights in the middle of the night for a potty run outside, so I just took him out for a walk around the yard. He really doesn't like going out at all. Hopefully, he'll let me sleep tonight.

Tomorrow have a temple meeting at 8:30, then services and dinner at temple tomorrow night.

OKay, no resolution yet, huh? I think that's the hardest part that the process just keeps going.

Indiana, thanks for the report - I think we all assumed it was your breathing. I hope you continue toward recovery.

[Lynlee]

friday
Summer officially starts here in December.
sheet change for a new season today, also other bedding thst gets washed seasonally.
changed Lounge covers.
a load of washing out in the wind - mostly cloudy today.

Kathryn - I hope ds enjoys his time here. I hope the weather treats him well. We are hoping all the weather emergencies of last year don't reoccur, but nature holds the trump cards for weather.

Lilac - I'm sure as your belongings arrive the home will become more "your own" though there will be lots of memories with it already.

I once gave dd2 the same money I'd lent dsil so he could buy a motor bike to get to work because it annoyed me they hadn't repaid it as I thought... then I just wiped the debt from my mind.

re -joint names - see if its possible to have authorized persons names listed up front when acc set up. Also with bank accounts. While "whats ours" in one account may be good - if something happens to one person the account gets frozen here. I spoke to someone once who was unable to access any money when her DH was seriously injured.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Lynlee: ds won't be there for 2 more years. It will take that long to save up the money to go (5,000AUD plus return airline ticket.) His plan is to arrive in Jan 2014, thus missing most of our winter. He'll travel around, doing agricultural work, he thinks. The closest he's ever been to agricultural work was folding boxes for tomatoes to be packed in at a local greenhouse. So, I'm interested in how long he'll last!

Apparently New Zealand has a similar program so he's thinking of applying to that and doing the two back to back (if we'll loan him the money for NZ!)

He's young and I'm not keen on him traveling so far away from me except I know we'll be going to visit him at least once during the time. Plus we know lots of people in Australia (and fairly even spaced - Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth.) He's well traveled and loves to travel so I think he'll be just fine. Besides, his most favourite day of his whole life was in Brisbane so I think that is part of why he is anxious to return.

[Nancy]

Dgd & I had a great day, it was fun with her energy and enthusiasm here. I brought in the pumpkins and squash from on the deck b/c of the cold temps. she sat on 'em and crawled on them, she was playing with the smaller ones on the table too.

We had soup for dinner with some other stuff.

Vent warning: The Realtor called said she never did make it over so I got her name and realty co. said we were sick she said she would call back the first of the week. Hubby was NOT happy b/c I did not hand him my phone {I did not want his flu germs on it.} He wanted to unload on her about not giving us a heads up for not showing after we cleaned up and got ready it may have been beyond her control but on the other hand it's not MY fault either. So there in lies the catch 22. So I've been hiding out in the basement and now I"m in the back of the house on the p/c.

Dd came to pick up dgd and was upset about dson and his school work situation, he's not doing well in school and will fail 3rd grade if it does not change she needs to face this and so does dgson in our opinion we could be wrong. He seems to care less about it his math work book has been at home for weeks dd just now found out it's supposed to be in the classroom she though it was extra make up work. I blame some of this on the vacation trip they took were gone right after conferences and had their minds on that. It's the same old same old, dgson is not mentally challenged just doesn't give a rip. Boy I can relate been on both sides of that when I was a kid and then later as a parent. Thanks for letting me let off steam.

Okay back to focusing on the positive, laundry is folded now dishes have been rinsed and the dish washer is loaded .