Bethany and Micah left Monday morning to go to the hospital. Bee was being induced at 9. I stayed with Cassidy and we played and played and played. He loves to have the wiffle ball pitched to him and then he knocks the tar out of it. Unfortunately one whizzed right into my right eyeball so hard I fell to the ground. Luckily I have no bruise, just a very sore eyeball.
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.
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.
It’s only Tuesday, but this week has already been a juggling act. Donny got had jury duty on Monday. The guy settled, so there was no trial. He came home for a bit since he had taken the morning and afternoon off just in case he was chosen. I got a wild hair and decided that we needed to clean out our bedroom closet. Donny has two large fabric cubes that he had just been throwing clothes in that either didn’t fit or he didn’t like. It became a problem when every time I had to pull down my jeans basket his stuff would fall on my head. I couldn’t go through it because I didn’t even know what all was in there. Well yesterday he went through both cubes and the hanging clothes. I went through my stuff and this is what we accomplished.
That’s a LOT of stuff. During the process I looked around and thought, there’s no way we will ever finish this today. This was the bedroom mid clean.
This morning Hannah had a doctor’s appointment at 10. I had made the appointment last week. They informed me that she already had her yearly appointment scheduled for today. They said they would add what her GP had suggested be looked at. Well, when we arrived, where we always go, we were told that her doctor had moved closer to the hospital. We rushed over there and they had no record of her appointment. When he switched offices he also became the assistant chief medical doctor and all of the appointments made in 2024 were just dropped off. They were supposed to call and let us know, but didn’t. They told us that they could try to get us in in a few weeks. Nope, what they are thinking this is cannot wait. Hannah is learning how to make her own appointments and she learned an important lesson today. Everyone needs to advocate for themselves. We told them nicely that we understood there was a mix up but this can’t wait and we need to be seen asap. They were able to squeeze us in tomorrow morning at 8:15.
Next Hannah drove around our neighborhood. She’s working toward getting her license. She did really well. Longview is a scary place to drive. The amount of red light runners, DUI’s and wrecks is insane in a town of this size. Also just people driving and being on their phones adds to the problem. She’ll get there though.
She wanted to come with me to pick Jackson up so we could go thrifting. She hadn’t been able to go in a while due to work and she wanted to hang out with her brother. She found some cute tops for work. Even though she works in a department store she’s very frugal and saves her money. We were in the one we call relish when Jackson came and got me because he found some framed artwork that he wanted for our home. If you have ever been in our home there’s really no space for anymore artwork. The pictures were really cool so we bought them and I found a place that I think is just perfect.
They are right above where the cat bowls are.
The past two days have worn me out. I feel like I’m living in the kitchen when I’m at home. Last night I’m thankful that Donny cooked the steaks and all I had to make was the broccoli and rice. Tonight the kids wanted waffles, sausauge, bacon and eggs and that was alright by me. I just took a shower and really do not feel like going and cleaning up the kitchen. I’ve found that if I just go and push through it doesn’t take much time and I’m not walking into a messy kitchen in the morning. I’m getting better at staying on task and making sure what needs to get done does. Although it does sometimes feel like I’m juggling balls and keep getting new ones thrown in.
P.S.
I saw a video that if you do 10 body weight squats every hour your mobility increases. Ever since I quit working the bounce houses I feel like I’m getting creakier. The squats really help with that. Just a though.
The other day one of my older daughters was giving me grief about making Hannah’s breakfast and taking it into her room so she could eat while she got ready for work. I reminded her that I used to do the exact same for her and her older sister. In fact, one of my oldest daughter’s friends never ate breakfast in the morning before school so I would go pick the friend up and bring her to our house so that she could have breakfast with us. To be clear, both of my older daughters have families of there own and do not live in the same town as we do or they would get breakfast too if that is what they wanted.
Every day I make Hannah breakfast and, if she is working, pack her lunch. Jackson doesn’t eat breakfast and, because he gets out of school at 2, he doesn’t eat lunch at school. Technically they don’t really have a lunch at his school. They can put in an order for food at The Spot during their break or get something our of the vending machines, but Jackson doesn’t like to do that. Therefore, I bring a lunch and drink when I pick him up so he can eat in the car. I guess you can say that that is my love language to my children.
Saturday evening Jackson and two of his friends wanted to go to Film Alley to see a movie and hang out at the arcade. I’m always worried that he might not have enough money or that one of his friends might fall short. That’s why I always give him more than he will probably need. He actually gives me back what he doesn’t spend. I picked up his friends and took them home because I actually enjoy doing that. One day both Hannah and Jackson will be ready to move out and be on their own. Until that happens I want them to be able to live a stress free life and feel nurtured and loved. And yes, they do make food for themselves if they get hungry. Granted it is mostly in the middle of the night when I’m asleep, but they are very capable young people and I adore both of them more than I can say.
Can I also mention that yesterday I realized it was 5:30 and it was still light outside. Since I’m not a winter loving person this made me so happy.
This morning when I went outside to feed the stray cats there was this light in the trees. It was the moon! I could not believe how big, bright and low it was.
Moon pictures never come out when I take them and I had to enlarge this so it’s wonky, but it was gorgeous.
Well, today wasn’t exactly my hair day except I was getting ready this morning and walked into the living room to tell Donny something and he just started laughing and asked me if I had looked in the mirror. I never really think about what I look like while I’m getting ready, but Donny has never really seen this. I have to straighten my hair in sections due to it being so wavy so I clip half of it up.
He actually thought I had styled it like this.
It was the kids’ actual hair day. Jackson had asked me last week if he could get his hair cut. I think he was just sick of it being long. This is the only picture I got, but it actually ended up much shorter and more layered.
When Hannah found out the Jackson was getting his hair cut, she wanted to get hers cut also. Luckily Desiree had an opening a few hours after Jackson’s appointment.
The girl has so much hair. She just got the ends shaped up and more layers. We all go to Graffiti Hair Studio. Desiree is so good. You should definitely check her out if you’re in Longview.
I will need a cut soon, but right now I’m liking my hair. I have no idea why my eye is swollen. It finally went down a little bit. I think my allergies are getting bad because they itch and I sneeze a lot.
Also, if you have an Aldi, their spiral sliced ham are 49 cents a pound right now. When Hannah and I got home from her appointment Donny had just pulled it out of the oven. Of course this was taken after we had pigged out on it.
He didn’t use the glaze that came with it but instead used hot honey. Sooooo good!
Today was the last family brunch that we will be attending at Jackson’s school. They always have it the day the kids get out for Winter break. It’s always outside (it’s a small high school and there isn’t any other place to have it) and it’s always cold. There is always a huge variety of food always brought by the parents and it’s always good. I hadn’t eaten breakfast so I was starving and it didn’t disappoint.
The dessert table was also amazing. The kids and parents always have such a good time.
Jackson hanging out with his friends.
It always ends with the superintendent giving a little speech. He is such a great inspiration for the kids. I never seen a school where every member of the faculty genuinely care about the students. We will miss this place when Jackson graduates in May.
On the way home we stopped by La Michocana grocery because I was almost out of vanilla. If you have never tried the Mexican vanilla it is truly the best there is. It took me a couple of years to get through the bottle.
We also picked up this amazing treat. They are sooooo good.
I cannot tell you the relief I felt when we got home and this was waiting for us. It’s Hannah’s big gift that I thought wasn’t going to make it in time.
To top off the day, at 4 pm, Jackson came into the kitchen and told me that his computer chair had snapped. I have been after him for a few months to find a new one because his was getting so raggedy. He kept telling me that he liked it and it was broken in just right. We decided to try to find a new one after we dropped Hannah off at work. She works next door to Big Lots and all they had were gaming chairs. He didn’t want those so we went to Office Depot. Fun fact, it’s in the same strip as TJ Maxx, Michaels’ and Burlington so the parking lot was insane. There was ONE chair that he liked in the whole store. ONE. It happened to be $199. A little steep for less than a week before Christmas. I googled the brand and style of the chair and found it online for $89.99 with free shipping. I also found a coupon for $5 off. No wonder office Depot was completely empty. I’m glad we were able to get a deal even if it won’t be here until the 30th.
I am not a Black Friday shopper. I had no intention of going out and getting in the melee of crazy shoppers trying to run me over with their shopping carts. There was only one problem, I was almost out of cat food. Hannah had to be at work at 2. I figured by that time of day it would be safe to hit Walmart because the Black Friday shopping would be finished. As memory served all of the deals happened in the wee hours of the morning, right?
When Jackson and I pulled into the parking lot I knew I was wrong. After finding a parking lot in the nether regions of section 8, we got our steps in as we made it into the store. There were maybe 5 carts to choose from and I finally found one that didn’t have a wobbly wheel.
We headed to the Holiday shop because I needed ornament hangers. It was crazy in that department. Then as we were walking toward the pet food area I told Jackson that I remembered I needed something in housewares. I just needed to pick up some more glass food containers, but Jackson said, “are you going to get an air fryer?!?”. He has been hinting for me to get an air fryer for over a year. The thing is, we have a small kitchen with limited counter space and those things aren’t small. He found the display on a shelf and said, “look at this one”. Then he saw the $150 price tag and knew I wasn’t going to go for that. I told him that there could be some in the center isle on sale and if he found one at a good deal we could get it.
And look at what we came home with. We found it on sale for $50. Jackson was one happy camper. In fact he was so happy that Saturday morning he got up early, took a shower and, before I knew it, he had it out of the box setting it up.
He decided to christen it with pizza rolls.
The jury is still out on how much we will actually use it, but I do like the dehydrator feature. At least Jackson is now wanting to cook a little more so I’ll call it a win.
I sometimes, well most of time, have an event planned in my head. In my imagination I know exactly what I want to happen, when I want it to happen and everything is going to go perfectly as planned. Two years ago I planned what I thought was going to be the perfect Thanksgiving. It was a fiasco. Like a big, I never ever want to celebrate this holiday again, fiasco. So this year I decided to just roll with the flow. We had one goal: we were going to eat at our traditional Thanksgiving restaurant, Cracker Barrel.
We didn’t set a time the night before. In fact, I turned off both mine and Donny’s alarm. I had mentioned to the kids about going to the movies, but in truth, there was really nothing that anyone wanted to see.
I slept in until about 7. Took a shower. Kids still sleeping. Donny and I watched the parade. Jackson was actually up early. He thought we should leave by noon. I woke Hannah up at 10:30. Then we waited and waited and waited. Luckily for everyone in our home I had decided to not stress out. I knew we would have lunch maybe dinner at some point. I didn’t want to eat anything because it could be 30 minutes until we left. It could be 3 hours. No one knew. Well, one person knew, but she wasn’t spilling the beans.
I did slice up some fruitcake so that we wouldn’t go into a low blood sugar coma.
Don’t judge on the fruitcake. Donny and I both really love it.
Then we waited some more. I guess Donny pretended that he had already had a nice Thanksgiving meal because he fell into the obligatory after meal nap. Coping skills are necessary when waiting on a teenage daughter.
Finally, after almost 4 hours, we were on our way. There is no greater Thanksgiving joy than 4 hangry people, in a small car, anticipating the wait list and knowing it could be hours before we see food.
Don’t let the smiles fool you.
Admittedly, once we got inside and found out the wait was only going to be about 40 minutes and we were surrounded by all the Cracker Barrel extravaganda of Christmas we were all back on an even keel. Because we arrived between lunch and dinner (3:30) the crowd was actually not bad. We were able to move around the store part without knocking people over, unlike last year.
If you have never shopped Cracker Barrel they have some really good deals. It gets us into the Christmas spirit every year.
I don’t have words for this poor Santa. Donny said it was freeze dried candy. I think there are some things that should just be left alone.
As it turned out, we got the exact same table we had last year and everyone ordered the same meal as last year also. I got Chicken fried steak, Hannah got Chicken and dumplings and both Jackson and Donny got the grandma’s sampler. It was so good.
We don’t have phones at the table, but Jackson was trying to find out if a certain movie was still showing. It wasn’t. Then we discussed watching a Nicholas Cage movie he had wanted to see when we got home.
Actually smiles because we finally got food.
When we got home, fed all of the animals and settled down, the kids were already doing their own thing and didn’t want to watch the movie. Donny and I watched the end of the Cowboys game, the new episode of Survivor and the Packers game. All in all it was a very good Thanksgiving. I guess when I get rid of all of my expectations and just accept what happens, when it happens, it all turns out okay.
P.S.
If you have Drug Emporium near you, they have these cute Christmas candles that are made in the USA from soy and beeswax and scented with essential oils. They smell so good and burn clean.
We decided at the last minute to go to the Art Walk downtown. The last time we went I found Annie, this precious little girl who makes the best jellies. We were leaving the Fine Arts Museum and there she was selling her jellies and jams. I had gotten in touch with her mom when I ran out of my orange jelly, but life got busy so I was never able to meet her to buy more. I had also been thinking about her lemon jelly which I was told “packed a punch”. Well tonight I was able to buy both the orange and the lemon and let me tell you that lemon jelly is SO delicious. I love lemon anything so it is right up my alley.
I cannot wait to make toast in the morning.
We walked in one of the buildings and found another one of my favorite vendors. I had been to another craft show and had bought 2 of her bracelets. Tonight I picked up the cutest pair of earrings. Her prices are so good and she hand makes all of her jewelry.
We have a really good fine arts museum that I always love walking through. I really liked the exhibit they had on display tonight.
The accordion players made for good background music.
While we were walking to our car we saw this cool mural down a random alley.
It was so good to actually have a sunny day for a change.
Jackson got his driving permit today. He doesn’t want to do his actual driving part at a driving school, but wants me to be his instructor. I registered and downloaded the driving book. If you think about it, please say a little prayer for both of us because I’m not the most patient person and he really doesn’t want to drive. I know we can do this though.
P.S.
He refused to smile for his permit license so it looks like a mug shot. I swear he does actually smile and laughs in real life.
The Funky Frugalista 