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.
Sometimes I just don’t feel like cooking so I want to make something easy that everyone likes. Plus Hannah asked me to make these for her. So I make easy pork chops.
Put some oil in a skillet and heat it up. Make an egg wash. Dip thinly sliced pork chops in the egg wash and then in Italian bread crumbs then fry on both sides. It’s really good. Not really healthy, but sometimes that’s ok.
I made mashed potatoes and threw a quick salad together. Super easy.
We have Morris the new stray that adopted us and we have Bodhi who lives between a few houses. Well, Bodhi is jealous of Morris and Morris is jealous of Bodhi so they stalk around each other growling and making horrible cat noises. It’s so loud. Bodhi, who doesn’t like cat beds, had taken over Morris’s so I had to create another bed. It’s like West Side Story over here.
Monkey prefers to watch from a distance
Donny and I always buy something from school fund raisers when the neighbor kids knock on our door. Well today one came in. The BEST one I’ve ever chosen.
I’ve been looking for a spatula just like this one forever. It was worth every penny.
It seems like all the past two days have been is doctor appointments. I had made an appointment because I was having stomach pains that now I’m thinking it’s just gas bubbles. I do not like my doctor. I tried to explain that I wasn’t even sure if I was still having the pains because I face planted at work and my whole body is sore. His response was “I don’t understand what face planting is”. He was very dismissive, as always, and just wants me to get an abdominal CT. He’s always pushing me off on different specialists. I really need to switch doctors. But, he did do blood work and my thyroid is in the normal range for once. So yay!
The office was 79° and I was sweating like crazy.
It’s hard to tell, but I was glistening.
Hannah’s appointment was the next day and because she had basically taken herself off the meds and was doing so well, her doctor decided it was time to take her off of them. She only needs to take her folate and magnesium. This is huge and she is where we have been trying to get to for 3 years.
The daylight savings has been kicking my butt. It gets dark so early that I think it’s hours later than it is. It takes me about a month to get used to it. My body just feels wonky.
i have given myself a leave of absence from work. Luckily we are heading into the slow season, but I still feel guilty because I know my boss needs help. It’s hard to put myself first and just say, right now I need to do what’s best for my body. Plus I need to take care of things around the house that I’ve been putting on the back burner due to just being so worn out.
One of the things was to go through all the condiments and clean out the fridge. I mean toothbrush scrub it down.
The house came with this fridge, so it’s not the greatest, but it works, so there’s that.
I’m also loving these Popsicle makers. I’m trying the mango nectar this time. I sure could’ve used one of these at my sweaty appointment.
if you ever have chicken and you don’t know what to make with it, dip it in an egg wash, then in crushed Doritos. It’s actually really good.
Jackson made this art that we had printed. I have always wanted it. It’s been on his floor so today when I went to put his clean laundry up I took it. I don’t even know if he’s noticed.
It just makes me happy and isn’t that what art is so about anyway?
This weekend has been hard. Ever since I did that face plant at work I’ve had to take it easy. I realize I must have tried to put my arm down when I fell because now from my shoulder to my knee is very achy.
My daughter’s medication was changed at her last med check appointment. Her dad took her and he’s never been before. Had I been with them I would have definitely vetoed what the doctor had suggested. Like my thyroid meds, her meds are also hard to find that sweet spot where the meds work with no side effects. So back to the drawing board. She is refusing to take them because they make her feel so awful, but trying to convince a 17 year old that going cold turkey is NOT the way to go is difficult. Calling for an appointment first thing in the morning. Hopefully we will find a solution.
Last night I finally was able to move around a little bit better. My kitchen was a wreck! When my house is a disaster I feel like a disaster. Here’s the before and after.
The taco stuff stayed out until Donny got home and ate.
And then because Hannah was having a rough day and was getting off work, I made cupcakes because she loves them.
I took down the Halloween decorations on the first of November and they’d been sitting on our table.
Finally got those boxed up today.
This time change is throwing me off so hard. It gets dark so early.
In other news, a new cat adopted us. We named him Morris. He just showed up and hasn’t left. He eats A LOT. He’s nice to the other cats and doesn’t bother the chickens. He’s also the only cat that appreciates the car bed I bought last year. I have tried to find out if he has owners. No luck so far.
We had big rainstorms over last weekend so that meant, when I went to work, the inflatables were wet. Like so wet my sweat pants were soaked. It was also in the 40’s so it was quite cold.
I was wiping down the slide on this one when, all of a sudden, my feet just slipped out from underneath me and I face planted on the slide.
i didn’t really think much about it until I was on the next one that has about 10 pylons inside. Because we don’t inflate then all the way out was mushy and it made the pylons hard to maneuver around.
Needless to say, I wrenched my back. Bad. I can barely walk. I made a doctor’s appointment for Monday, just to check everything out, but now I’m going to have to do some soul searching to figure out if I should keep working this job. I know I use it as a workout, but when it’s doing more harm than good, it’s s problem.
i have been able to watch the Harry Potter movies. I had really only seen the first one. I like them, so there’s that. And laying in my bed a lot.
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.
For the 2nd year in a row we’ve gone to Marshall, TX to visit Piney Park.
We got a later start, than we would have liked, but you just have to make the best with what you’ve got. We picked Hannah’s boyfriend up and drove the 30 minutes to Marshall.
It’s nice because you pay one price and all of the attractions are included, except food and drinks.
We decided to do the trail of lights first. The moon was crazy cool.
i love the reflection of the bridge and moon in the water.
Lots of spooky sights along the way.
Halfway through there’s a snack shack where you can get sno cones, ice cream, floats and hot chocolate.
Of course I got ice cream.
My kids don’t like having their pictures taken, but I promise the whole family was there.
The snack line wasn’t too bad. There were spooky scenes to keep everyone entertained.
After we crossed the bridge the kids went to shoot the air cannons and I went down the slide, by myself, because no one else wanted to go down it. Their loss because it was really fun.
I think Donny took a video that I will not be sharing.
The light maze is always so pretty.
It was so hot with the humidity at almost 100%. We are getting a cold front early Monday morning. Like in the 30’s! It cannot come fast enough.
After the kids jumped on the pillow trampolines we decided to call it a night. We’re just happy we were able to make it this year with everyone’s schedules so crazy. See you next year Piney Park.
I woke up at 1:30 Monday morning with horrible indigestion and a bad stomach ache. I feeel asleep sitting up on the couch. Donny ran the kids to school and stopped and picked me up this magic liquid.
Donny thinks I picked up something from a chopped salad I ate. Could be, but now my joints are hurting and I’m just not feeling well in general. It could be the higher dose of thyroid medicine I started a few weeks ago. I have blood work soon, so hopefully I’ll find out if it’s that.
Wednesday is always estate sale day. I only went to one because it was in one of my favorite neighborhoods. I ended up going later than normal so a lot of the items had been sold. I was making one last pass before leaving and that’s when I saw it. When our home flooded in 2016 I lost my favorite cookbook that I’d had forever. I had looked online but could never find one. I walked through the estate sales kitchen and a woman was looking at the cookbooks when I sped it. I grabbed it and said, I hope you weren’t getting this. Luckily she wasn’t. I seriously almost cried.
It’s the Junior League cookbook from my hometown and I can’t never I found it in Longview. I used to use it constantly and missed it terribly. I finally found a unicorn 🦄
Saturday was our 18th wedding anniversary. Because Donny had to work on Saturday we decided to celebrate on Friday.
The morning started off with the most beautiful cotton candy clouds.
Most Fridays I don’t work, but I had to finish that darn Gauntlet and the gnome dome.
I was never so happy to see 12 pm.
i decided to go ahead and give Donny his gift. We never really get each other big gifts, just something small.
i got him his favorite candy, a new coffee thermos, because he left his other one in Nacogdoches, and the Sopranos boxed set. We had been watching the series on Max and the free trial ran out. I found the set on mercari for $10 and had a $10 coupon so I just paid for shipping which was $8. I think I was more excited to tell Donny that than give him the gift because we both love a good deal.
We were going to go to dinner then go play bingo. I’ve never played actual bingo, that wasn’t at a school carnival, but I was so tired from the week at work that we decided to just do dinner.
And we were dressed like twins. I can’t really explain that.
We decided on Mexican food and a new place had moved close to us so we decided to try it.
I’m guessing skeletons are a big thing this year because everytime I leave the house I see skeletons in cars, on cars and hanging off cars.
The game was good. The Pina colada rivaled my very favorite from the now defunct Crystal confectionary. My date was excellent. The service and food were awful.
Our server just threw a new bowl of chips over the old one that still has chips in it.
Cheese enchiladas that look like lasagna. They were so bad I could not eat them. But we still had so much fun because you can’t let bad enchiladas and a surly server ruin your night.
On Sunday I finally moved the chicks out of the house, for good. We had tried it a few days earlier but they got out of the separate pen inside the coop and the older hens were pecking their heads. Hopefully we have that problem fixed. At any rate, they aren’t coming back inside.
Getting used to the outdoors before the big move.
I had mentioned to Donny that it would be fun to go have drinks and appetizers at Applebee’s since the game was on. Then I took a phone call and realized I was tired and just wanted to be a couch potato. He urged me to go so I took 40 minutes to grab a shower and get dressed. That’s seriously record time to go out. I’m so glad we did because we had such a good time. I’m thinking we absolutely need to do this more often.
at least we weren’t twinning again.
And if you’re wondering what Donny got me for our anniversary…
Pumpkin earrings. He also got me turkey earrings and said, I know you don’t like Thanksgiving, but you can wear them when we go to Cracker Barrel. I do like Thanksgiving when Cracker Barrel is involved. The little store always puts me in the Christmas spirit. And chicken fried steak, that always makes me happy.
The Funky Frugalista 