Even though it was a cold windy day, we managed to get the Christmas decorations out of the shed. Nothing is put out yet, but hopefully soon.
I’m almost finished with the winter cat house. It’s not pretty, but it should keep the ones that hang around warm. Milo is still afraid to stay inside for long. He is so deathly afraid of the ceiling fan, the heater clicking on and the TV.
Our cats don’t like any type of cold weather so they’ve been hanging out inside.
I do like the colder weather because it makes our home feel so much cozier. There’s something about having twinkle lights burning and snuggling under blankets that makes me love winter.
This wasn’t today, but yesterday. I could hear the balloon firing up, but couldn’t see it. Turns out it was just very low. I caught a glimpse of it through the trees.
I’m not really a black Friday shopper. Today Jackson hit me up to take him to Entertainmart to see if any of his manga series were on sale. I was surprised that the crowds at the mall weren’t too bad.
He didn’t find anything he was looking for, but I found the next book in the series I am reading and because it was buy one get one free I picked up another that looked entertaining.
I also picked up 4 CD’s: Billy Joe Shaver, Cat Stevens and 2 Michael Buble. Not a bad haul for 20 bucks.
I have been looking for these cookies since I had then at a meeting FOUR years ago. I finally found them today at Drug Emporium. They are light, crispy and not too sweet. Delicious!
We said goodbye to Felix, our Ford Flex. I still love the Flex, but I don’t love the amount of gas it drinks, the small things falling off of it or the car payment. We used to only have one car and then when Donny was working in Nacogdoches it was a necessity that we have two. We purchased the Flex because, with only one car, we need a very large SUV so we could have that third row seating. That is no longer the issue.
So, meet Marky Mark. He’s a Hyundai Sonata GT.
It’s going to take a little while to get used to driving so low to the ground, but this little guy is peppy and very comfortable. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that Felix had, but that’s okay by me. The amount of money that we will be saving every month it’ll be worth it. We were worried that my daughter’s 6’6″ boyfriend wouldn’t fit in the backseat, but he fits fine.
And we had another cat make himself at home. I have been seeing this tuxedo cat around for quite a while now. He has been so skittish and would not let me get near him. A few days ago he just let me pet him and now wants in my lap all the time. He came into the house this morning, but is still a bit afraid of other family members. We’ll be working on that. Meet tuxedo cat. I’ve been calling him Tux, but I need to come up with a better name that isn’t so generic.
My back seems to be getting better and I’m attributing that to this wonderful device that Donny calls the swing thing.
Please excuse the specks of dried wax all over it. My cat knocked a wax warmer off and I’ve yet to scrape it off. I also put a towel on it just to make it more comfortable.
Anyway, you put your ankles on the platform and lay down. You can do it by minutes or choose one of two programs. There are different speeds.It swings back and forth so your body does a figure 8. The most popular brand is the Chi Swing, but this one works the exact same way.
They are pretty expensive but I scored this one at an estate sale for $30 and it’s been worth every penny. It works on your circulation, muscle tension, Nerve pain and is also a good passive exercise. It’s done wonders for me.
I’ve been down for the count these past two weeks and have not felt like cooking. Yesterday we picked up this 16″ Mama Cozzi’s Pizza from Aldi. They are not frozen and the kids love them. Try them if you have an Aldi near you.
I haven’t even thought about decorating for Christmas yet, but someone has done a Santa altar at the entrance where we turn into our neighborhood. We had a wind storm and he fell over, but someone fixed him.
I think I’m going to have to get a closer look soon because it is really kind of bizarre. In a good way.
Halloween is so different when you have teenagers. Hannah went to her boyfriend’s house to take his little brother trick or treating. Jackson had no interest in joining them, so he was online gaming with his friends.
That wasn’t going to put a damper on our Halloween. I made my traditional beans. I don’t know when this tradition started, but I still do it every year. I made pork chops, rice and cat head biscuits to go along with them.
After dinner we lit all the all the Halloween candles, turned on the spooky lights and snuggled down to watch the Rangers play.
I have another tradition that happens every year. Every. Single. Year. Since the rangers were so far ahead, I got right on it.
i absolutely, 100%, LOVE the original Halloween movie. I only watch it on Halloween night and look forward to it all year.
We are expecting freezing weather tomorrow night in which I am excited about. I was finally able to start painting the chest of drawers for Jackson. It used to be in Hannah’s room and was a teal color. Jackson wanted me to paint it black so we got the color Black Hearth, because it looked black, sounded black, is not black. Surprise! It’s purple!
This is only the first coat, but it’s dark purple. Luckily, he likes it.
The hardware had turned dark brown, but with a little polish, they shined right up.
Now just a few more coats and it will be ready to go.
I am finally feeling decent today. I was scrolling Tiktok and saw a woman talking about a virus that was going around. She described exactly what my symptoms were and I read the comments and there are a lot of people experiencing the same thing. Fingers crossed I keep feeling better.
The candle I bought at Oktoberfest had a bad wick. I contacted the small business I bought it from and she mailed me a new one immediately. I highly recommend Rockin G Candle Company. Not only top notch customer service, but amazing smelling soy blend candles.
She also threw in some wax melts. How nice was that?
Something definitely died in Donny’s car engine. We tried to bomb the inside but it didn’t touch the awful smell. Y’all, it’s SO bad! We’ve looked everywhere trying to find the source of the sink, but I’ve heard a mouse can climb into the parts we can’t see. We’re going to contact our insurance company and see what they say. I feel so bad for him having to drive it.
Today several sweet things happened. I made strawberry cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting.
i made our favorite drink – sweet tea. If you live in the South, this is a must have, always, in the fridge. Homemade is best. This is how I make it and it’s fool proof.
Bring about 6 cups of water to a rolling boil. Turn off the heat and add 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda. Sounds strange, but it takes any bitterness away. Add 10 small tea bags of black tea. Let steep for 30 minutes. Remove tea bags and add 1 1/2 cups sugar. Give it a good whisk and then pour it into a gallon container and fill the rest up with water. Y’all, it’s so good.
We also found this treat at Aldi. It was surprisingly good. I mean it’s not Kumori, but it’ll do in a pinch.
i also made a sweet little side table for our vintage glider. I’ve looked for one, but nothing suited what I wanted. I used a marble table top from my childhood home and a plant stand that I had lying around. It’s the perfect height and cost nothing.
Please ignore the chicken pen, that’s STILL in our living room. They’re growing like crazy. Only a few more weeks until they can go outside.
Since it’s officially Halloween month we’ve been watching spooky movies. I do love Halloween.
i had to get up and get thing early for my annual doctor’s appointment. During the summer I hardly ever wear my hair down because it’s just so hot. Today the morning started off cool so I actually blow dried my hair and wore jeans and a 3/4 length sleeve shirt. And I was wrong. It was so hot waiting to be called back that I was hoping the other waiting patients didn’t think I was stroking out because I sweating. Really sweating.
Not a cloud in the sky and just look at that sun.
Donny was off today and surprised me with breakfast when I got home.
This delicious creation, from Panera Bread, is a croissant souffle with spinach and artichokes. It was so good. I wish I could figure out how to replicate it.
We had to make a quick run to Drug Emporium and this greeted us when we walked in.
They taste just like Buc-ees Beaver Nuggets! The Drug Emporium ones have more flavors than Buc-ees and they aren’t as sweet, which I prefer. I can’t wait to try the cinnamon ones. Go Drug Emporium!
We also got the cover on the greenhouse. We still have a lot to do in the backyard, but with the temperatures in the high 90’s we got as much done as we could.
And because we are still getting over this virus that’s been going around, Donny surprised me again by ordering us some chicken fried steaks from Jucy’s. Probably the best meal around.
Now we’re full and sleepy. Time to relax and watch a movie. I’m ready for the weekend.
Today I woke up knowing exactly what was on my to do list. I was going to steam clean the rugs, touch up the paint in the bathroom, start on the Halloween decorations and finish up the laundry. I had deep cleaned the bathroom the day before and had noticed that there was some water marks on the baseboards behind the toilet and next to the vanity. It seemed dry. It wasn’t. I ran the sink to see if any water came out onto the floor. It did. I don’t know why these things always happen on a Sunday. We rent our home and our landlords live 5 streets away. I immediately texted them and they were over in less than an hour. The easiest access to the leak was from the kitchen. This is how my kitchen looked.
You can see the water damage. Luckily the pipe is just dripping. they will be back tomorrow at 8 to cut open the wall all the way to fix it.
I had to move everything out because our kitchen is small and they need all the room to gain access.
It feels so empty and not like my home. When we were looking for a house to rent, it was smack in the middle of quarantine. Our lease was up at our other house and although it was twice the size there were problems with it starting to pile up. They were also raising the rent quite a bit. We just didn’t really like the house. We started looking and we found only 2 that were in the right school district. The first one was already rented so we came to see this one. There were no pictures of the outside and when we drove up we knew why. It was just a plain box. No landscaping and the whole house was white with chipped grey shutters.
When we walked in and both Donny and I looked at each other and said nope this isn’t going to work. It was small, half the size of what we were coming from, but the backyard was huge. There was only one bathroom, but everything had been very well maintained. There was carpet. Everywhere. And not pretty carpet either. Then we talked to the landlords. They were just so nice. They don’t ever raise the rent once you move in. Ever. And the price was less than most one bedroom apartments. They said we could put in flower beds and I could paint the front door and shutters. The only stipulation was that she didn’t want me painting the walls. They had been freshly done, in white, and I loved it. So that’s how we got here and we’ve been here for 3 and a half years.
I just covered the carpet with rugs. Lots of rugs. Now all clean rugs because I did manage to steam clean them today.
Cute runner I ordered off Wayfair.
Woven leather rug we got 90% off from Ashley and a vintage wool rug I got for $30 at an estate sale. The leather one is super hard to take care of though. You can’t use the vacuum on it. I have to use the brush attachment, but it was such a great deal I don’t mind.
I did get some of my Halloween decorations up outside. Yes, they are super cheesy, but the kids still like them because we’ve had them for years. We used to have 3 tombstones, but one blew away last year. We just make it work, cheesy or not, but most of the time cheesy wins.
Friday morning I have the treat of getting a colonoscopy. If you’ve never had one, I haven’t, come on this fun journey with me.
I went to work this morning. The owner and I had already decided that working tomorrow probably isn’t a good idea. I was able to get everything done that was needed before the weekend.
Lucky for me there was only one smallish bounce house and a tarp to clean out. Not so lucky for me the weather was moving in fast.
Yep, I ended up getting soaked but I’m off for the next 5 days, so I didn’t really mind.
At 6:00 tonight I had to stop all solid food and start my liquid diet. I decided to go big and eat stuff I normally wouldn’t right up until that little hand hit the 6.
Lunch was chili cheese tater tots with mustard.
Mmmmm, super healthy, but not near as healthy as dinner.
Oh yeah, that is Long John Silver’s. And that’s my last food until Friday afternoon.
Truthfully, it’s not the fast that has me concerned, it’s what I’m having to take tomorrow. It’s scary and I’ll take you along for the ride so if you ever have to do a colon prep you’ll know exactly what to expect.
And what does your family do for fun on a Wednesday night? Ours goes to Walmart for popsicles and jello. I’m telling you, Wednesday at 8 is the time to go because there was hardly anyone there.
And yesterday I found this cute Lucky Brand tshirt dress, with pockets, at my favorite thrift store for 4 bucks. Since I ate such crappy food today I’m thankful for no waste band. The print reminds me of mattress ticking.
The Funky Frugalista 