I am extremely late this year starting my seeds. Will they sprout? There is no telling. I don’t know why I was putting it off, but yesterday I began the task of getting them all done.
I have no room in the house so I put in the enclosed garden.
After this was taken I went out into the shed and found trays to put them in so that I can keep them moist.
I had picked up some garlic at the Asian Market last week and it had already started sprouting so I decided to go ahead and plant those.
I didn’t get all of them planted so they are sitting with damp paper towels on them in a pie plate. I did manage to get 8 of them done.
I cut up our celery for the week and decided to plant the “celery butt”. I can’t wait to see if it will grow. I did it last year and it did grow but it got too hot and it died. Hopefully I’ll have better luck this year.
I also planted the white part of some green onions. I have a lot of luck with those. They grow fast and you can just snip off the green part to use in cooking. I didn’t take a pic of those. I just forgot.
I was pleased to see that our hosta is coming back in full force. I swear it grows at least an inch a day.
The plant we got when we got the Hosta is coming in. It’s a bit of a slower grower but, I’ll take it, because at least it’s coming back.
We still have the construction going on. They are actually moving quickly, but it’s a mess. They are digging on the opposite side and our side will be next.
It’s hard to believe that today Hannah turns 19! It seems like just yesterday she was having to wear a cape everywhere because she was obsessed with Underdog. We would spend hours outside in swinging. She went through a phase of wanting to wear her moose antlers everywhere.
She has always been just the sweetest person.
Since we had gotten her gifts over the past week tonight she got to choose where she wanted to have dinner. She chose the Fun Noodle Bar. That girl is a sushi lover. Gavin was such a good sport because sushi is his least favorite food.
Instead of getting a cake we decided that it would be more fun to let everyone pick out a dessert at The Butcher Shop, who has the most amazing array of sweets.
We all had the hardest time choosing what we wanted. I ended up getting the carrot cake.
One last picture outside of the Butcher Shop before Hannah and Gavin headed to the carnival.
I hear parents saying how disrespectful their teenagers are to them but I can honestly say that we don’t have that problem. Hannah likes to spend time with us and we love spending time with her. She was definitely a gift from God and I hope that she always knows just how much she is loved.
A few months ago Jackson had asked for tickets to see Tyler the Creator for his birthday gift. I can remember seeing Billy Idol for about 9 bucks back in the day so purchasing tickets that cost more than my car payment came with a sticker shock. Tyler is his favorite artist and he’ll only turn 18 once (even if it isn’t until the end of April) so I bit the bullet and got tickets for him and Hannah.
Monday morning we headed to Dallas. When I tell you the wind was blowing us all over the road, along with the 18 wheelers, it was just so bad. If you ever need a good, basic motel to stay in, the La Quinta on 75 is the one. It was super clean and looked like it had been remodeled recently. It had 2 beds in the main area and then a separate bedroom. Not to mention it was only 4 miles from the American Airlines Center.
Donny rolled the desk chair outside to watch the cars go by.
They let us check in early. We didn’t want to sit around the room for hours so we decided to take the kids to the Galleria. I think if we could have just dropped them off at the concert venue Jackson would have preferred that. He was so ready. I am not a mall person. I don’t like shopping or crowds, but I had forgotten how pretty this particular mall is.
If we would have had time I would have loved to have gone ice skating.
Hannah did find a cute dress and some jewelry so it wasn’t a complete bust. Her birthday is actually the end of this month. We went back to the motel and let the kids rest for about 45 minutes and then headed out. The reason you could not pay me a million dollars to live in Dallas again is because it took us almost 45 minutes to get to where the concert was. The traffic was SO bad. Living in Longview you tend to forget just how bad traffic can be. We finally made it and were able to drop the kids off a little after 6. Jackson texted me a picture from their seats.
He said the seats were awesome. There was only one snafu, Hannah needed to go to the restroom and couldn’t remember what area the seats were in. She asked one of the concert workers to help her and they wanted her to call Jackson but she didn’t have her phone. The tickets were on his phone. She remembers a “J” being in part of the ticket. They finally found the right area and she saw Jackson and he showed them the tickets because apparently that area was roped off and you had to show your ticket to get back in. But all ended well.
While the kids were at the concert we had discovered this cool little pub called the Old Monk. Since it was St. Patrick’s day it was slammed. We were meeting Nikki and Brandon there and we were afraid we wouldn’t be able to find a table, but we managed to find one outside of the patio which worked out perfectly because it wasn’t as loud as being on the patio or inside.
What made it even better is than it was only 1 block from where we were staying so we just walked so we didn’t have to mess with parking. It was so good to see Nikki and meet Brandon. We had so much fun.
Jackson texted me about 11:15 to let us know that the concert was almost over so we headed over to get them. They had so much fun, were able to get the concert tshirts that they had both wanted, so it was money well spent. They will always remember going to this concert with each other when they are older.
We slept in a little and were back on the road by 10:45 the next morning. If I thought the wind was bad coming up, it was nothing compared to going back home. We had cars swerving everywhere. When we stopped at Buc-ees to get gas the birds were having a hard time flying. I was never so happy to get back to Longview than I was when we pulled into our driveway. Now if they could just turn off the wind tunnel it would make it even better because holy cow it has not stopped blowing since we got home.
For a while my hair has been bugging me. It was about 4 inches from my waist in the back. It was catching on everything and when I would put it up in a clip or ponytail I would get a really bad headache. I knew with the Summer heat, that is right around the corner, I would be just putting it up everyday. So I decided to make a major change. Here is the before hair.
My hair is curly, but not in the “oh wow your hair looks so good curly” way. This means I have to blow dry it and that, to me, was a pain. My wonderful, hair magician, Desiree did such a fabulous job.
I got almost 10 inches cut off and she razor cut layers. It’s kind of a modern shag. My head feels about 10 pounds lighter and now I don’t just look like a ball of hair. It even looked okay when I woke up this morning which a normally have a tangled mess.
After the flood in 2016, where we lost almost all of our furniture, I found this little table at a thrift store in Baton Rouge for $3. It has served as an entrance table, Hannah’s desk and an accent table. It started off white with paint wearing away, then turquoise and finally a bluish gray. It now sits on our patio right by the side door that we mainly use. It had gotten quite ugly. It was chipped and stained so yesterday I decided to give the poor thing a makeover.
I used a sander on the top and drawer instead of paint stripper and it seemed like it took forever. I stained the top and drawer in dark walnut because I just love dark wood. I painted the rest of it green. I didn’t do white because I am not a big fan of the farmhouse look and honestly prefer colors over the gray and white that was so popular.
The patio needs to be repainted and Hannah needs to redo her chalkboard art for Spring, but I really like the way the table turned out. I added lights that I already had. I like the way they look at night.
I did more work on the patio, but nothing is quite finished yet. I moved the rooster out from the yard and the plants that we moved inside during the winter have now found their new home outsides.
We still need to work on the outside gardens and will hopefully get that done soon. The weather has been cooperating lately, thank goodness.
I have not wanted to go to the grocery. Aldi has completely rearranged their store and it’s so confusing because items are not grouped together like they should be. I decided that we really need to use up what we have before I actually forced to go shopping. Because the weather has been absolutely beautiful these past few days we have been eating outside and I’ve been sprucing up the patio. The hens have been laying again so that means more meals using our eggs.
Dinner was a hit with everyone. I whipped up a ham and cheese quiche. I pulled some spiral sliced ham out of the freezer and I had cheese in the fridge.
We also had some strawberries and blueberries that needed to be used for something so I added sugar and some water and cooked those down to make a compote for waffles.
It does take a while for the berries to cook down, but it’s so worth it.
I just make the waffles while the quiche is cooking.
I found the best recipe for waffles.
While I was cleaning out the pantry I found a can of sweetened condensed milk and made some cookies. I had never made these before, but they were so good.
I feel like I’m really late getting my seeds started, but I was able to get a plant table done. We got the mini saw horses at an estate sale last year. I had the boards so I just stained them all dark walnut. I plan on painting the saw horses, but I didn’t have enough paint.
I love sprucing up getting ready for summer. I try to use what we already have. I am planning some fun, funky additions to our little patio. It basically serves as another room since we tend to eat and spend a lot of time out there. I can’t wait to get started.
Night before last I stayed up until 2 am watching a limited series. It was so good I didn’t wanted to finish it. It’s 6 parts and I got to the 4th episode before I had to call it quits because I just couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. The next morning I finished the last two. It’s called The Undoing. It stars Hugh Grant, Nicole Kidman and Lily Rabe. It’s a murder mystery with twists and turns. Hugh Grant is amazing and so is Nicole Kidman. This was filmed when Nicole Kidman’s face actually moved and showed emotion. I had watched the series The Perfect Couple that she was in recently and could hardly stand it because her face is so frozen and weird looking now. Anyway, The Undoing is on Max/HBO and I highly recommend it, especially if you like murder mysteries.
Last night I watched The Heretic also starring Hugh Grant. I have been waiting for this to come out on a streaming service and when I saw that it was releasing Friday on Max I planned my evening around watching it. I love horror movies and this particular one was highly rated on Rotten Tomatoes. It was good, but I wish I would have watched this movie before I watched The Undoing because I think I would have liked it so much more. The Undoing was just that good. Hugh Grant was very good in this role. I think the older he gets he can get away from the romcoms that made him famous when he was younger and I like these grittier roles for him.
Before I settle in to watch The Heretic I made Instant pot ribs, baked potatoes and brussel sprouts. It was such a beautiful night that Gavin, Hannah and I decided to dine al fresco.
I picked up this tablecloth months ago at a thrift store and it turned out to be the perfect size. Hopefully we’ll be using a whole lot more since the weather is warming up. We ended up staying outside for quite a while because no one wanted to go inside. I just love nights like this.
Today I woke up telling myself that this is going to be a great day. Nothing is better than an overcast cold Monday. I can get everything that needs doing done inside the house and not feeling the urge to go outside to work on stuff. I made breakfast for everyone. Donny took Jackson to school. I ran Hannah to work at 8:30. It was going to work out perfectly today because she gets off at 1 and Jackson gets out at 1:20.
I made myself a different breakfast than normal, peanut butter and bananas on sourdough. I added the banana skin to my jar because the banana water makes great fertilizer for my plants.
The day was going perfectly. I lit some incense in my room while I dusted from ceiling fan to floor then hung up our freshly washed curtains.
I had this little one vying for my attention loudly.
The chickens have started laying again, to which we are very appreciative.
The day was going so well. I made the kids to-go lunches and headed out the door to pick up Hannah. When I see her walking to the car I can tell there is something wrong. When she gets in her eyes are filling with tears. I try to find out what happened but all she says is please drive. When we get on the loop headed toward the school the tears come and she starts spilling what happened.
I’m going to backup for a moment. Hannah works at Beall’s. She really likes her job. She has only called in sick once and she was really sick. She will pick up shifts when her coworkers ask her to. She will stay late if they need her to. They have a loyalty program that each employee, when checking someone out, has to get the customer enrolled in, or at least ask them to enroll. The employees have 3 levels: green means you have enrolled the number that is required, yellow means you need to step it up and red, well, we all know what that means.Hannah has never been on anything but green. Her numbers are over 500. EVERY other person in the store is on red with only about 30-40 enrolled. My point is, if you ask Hannah to do something she will do it and to the best of her ability.
Fast forward to today. There are 4 registers, but they normally only have one cashier. Hannah was the only one on the register and she had a customer whose credit card, when she ran it, was giving her a weird message that she had never seen before. They all carry walkies so they can get a hold of someone because you can’t just leave the register. She tried to get the manager on the walkie 3 times. By this time a line had formed and she was apologizing to the customers. She said everyone understood. One of the men in line said that he knew what the manager looked like and he could go find her. When Deidre, the manager, finally made it to the front she told Hannah that her walkie wasn’t working and that Hannah should have known to use the phone number to call her in the stockroom. No one had ever told Hannah that there was a number to call because they have been trained to use the walkies. None of the customers were upset, but the one who went to get the manager told Hannah, you’re too pretty to work here. You can find a better job and the manager heard him. Everything was taken care of so Hannah thought everything was okay.
When her shift was almost over the manager told her she wanted to speak to her in the stockroom. She told Hannah that she had left hangars everywhere. She had had a 200 and 300 dollar sales. The hangar holder is at the furthest register from her. She asked the manager if she could move the holder closer to her whenever she was on the register. The manager’s answer was, everyone else can handle it so you should be able too also. Then she told her that she was too slow and that the district manager mentioned that to her (the manager). This is the first Hannah was ever hearing about this. She had been told to try to keep the hangars put up and she had always tried her best to do that. Never had she been written up for anything. The manager had even given her a box with a bookshelf in it that she told Hannah to put together. It didn’t have any tools so Hannah was having a hard time. The manager came by and said, you’re not done with that yet? She did finally get it put together.
But all of this isn’t what broke her. It’s when the manager told her, “no one likes to work with you. ALL the employees and ALL of the supervisors have come to me to tell me how much they don’t like working with you”. Then throws in, “oh, a customer called and said how helpful and nice you were”. This is a grown woman who is close to my age. Hannah did not cry in front of her and did not say anything rude back to her. That was it for her though. She was devastated. She kept asking me why wouldn’t they tell me if they didn’t like working with me? She takes criticism very well, but what that woman said to her was cruel. Hannah said that she felt like the other employees liked her. They were always very nice and friendly. She respected them since she was the youngest in the store.
If you know what we went through with Hannah then you know what a punch to the gut this was for me. She has come so far and was finally gaining some confidence. I felt sick. Gavin came over to console her. I called Donny and he was ready to go scorched earth on that woman. She was supposed to work tomorrow but told me she just could not go back there. This wasn’t the first incident with the manager, but it was the first time she got personal and mean.
Hannah decided that she was done. Her confidence was shattered and she was deeply hurt. She wrote a resignation letter and Gavin and I walked it into the store. I know I should have had her do it, but she had been through enough today and I didn’t want them to just not have her show up. Deidre finally came out of the back, which I found out she stays most of the time, and took it. She just said, “well she needs to come in and fill out paperwork”. I ignored that and told her I needed the contact information for HR. She went to get it and was gone forever. She finally came out when an associate when to find her. She handed me the card and ran back to her office.
I don’t know why this woman didn’t like Hannah or why she would lie about employees not liking her. We are encouraging her to call the HR rep that actually lives here. The turnover at this store is staggering. Two supervisors just quit, once saying that Deidre has the least empathy of anyone she’s ever met. Hannah needs to let him know her side of the story, even if it’s just help someone else who might get treated the same way.
She’s going to be okay. We’ve been through so much worse. God’s lesson is somewhere in this. When He closes one door He opens a window.
The Funky Frugalista 