What Did You Do Today?

[DianaB]

I'll catch up on the threads later. I just wanted to say that I posted in the safe section because of all that's going on.

[DIANE W]

Originally Posted by DianaB

I'll catch up on the threads later. I just wanted to say that I posted in the safe section because of all that's going on.

Diana.... I am so sorry this has happened, i have been watching out for your update, it is really sad, i hope Dae Lynn is ok, she will get through this, she has good strong family beside her.

Take care, sorry i dont understand what safe section means??????

[Janet]

Today we have a 2-hour school delay. I would rather have the whole day only because the delays kind of screw everything up. The wind here is deafening. We did get some snow, but from what I can see out the window, I can still see the grass, so I don't think we got much at all. I'm glad....I really don't care for snow at all....only in pictures!

I'll be on vacation after today and don't have to go back until January 8th. Yay!!! I hope to get some things done, but I'm not going to hold my breath....lol. I tend to get real lazy on vacations.

[gja1000]

Janet, we had that horrible wind for 2 days here too. It was just awful! It broke off a limb from my redbud tree.

Well, this is my last day of work too. I have off till the 7th. I'm pretty much ready for Christmas, but as soon as I say that, there will be something I forgot! I have a Christmas party to go to tomorrow afternoon, then I have to pick up a honey baked ham, then pack to go to Houston. Mom and I are leaving Sunday morning.

[2tiredmom]

Another STRESSFUL day here. I had a blood test yesterday for my thyroid. It has not been right for a while. So every 3 months i have a blood test. Dr office called me today and said dr wants me tohave an MRI ASAP. My levels were way off...
SO go on the 26th for that. He wants to check out my brain......Checking Pit GLand. Have dr appt on the 28th. I am on vacation. So not looking forward tothis...I am claustophobic really bad......So i get to take valium before the MRI.
Hubby is on vacation too so he will be taking me. Merry Christmas everyone.

[Janet]

Sorry you're so worried, I know it's hard not to be. Keep your faith focused where it should be and it will help. Glad Gary will be there to help you. As always, you're in my prayers.

[gja1000]

Oh Linda, so sorry this is going on right now, but it's best to get it checked out quickly. Thyroid is so wonky, it can really get out of whack for, what seems like, no reason. Then viola, it's within normal limits again. It's really hard to get a handle on. Do you take any thyroid medicine like synthroid? Keep us posted!

[gja1000]

I am baking some today and knitting. There is a Christmas party I could be going to right now, but I just don't feel like talking to a bunch of people I don't know. The host is a good friend of mine, but she will have a house full of people that I don't know, so I don't thnk I'm going to go. I'm just uncomfortable with people I don't know and I'm just not feeling very festive right now anyway. So, I'm just going to stay home and cook and knit.

Why is it that so many bread recipes are just not quite right. I have a bread recipe that turns out perfect every time. But everytime I follow someone else's bread recipe, it's not right! I'm making cinnamon bread and I could tell that the recipe didn't call for as much flour as the bread recipe I usually use, but I thought, oh well, this is the Pioneer Woman's recipe (great cook, I might add), so it must be right. Nope. The dough was a gooey mess even after I added the extra flour she said I might have to add. So I added more, kneaded more (in my Kitchenade mixer) and it STILL was a gooey mess. So I kept adding flour till it was bread dough consistency. I hope it turns out!!! This happened with a recipe for Amish bread I tried a few days ago. I had to add WAY more flour than the recipe called for. Why does that happen to me???

[DianaB]

I don't know about what goes wrong with your recipe. I have just a couple of bread recipes that I use for the same reason!! I can make bread but it's not my speciality!!

I can understand about not going to the party. Some times I don't mind talking with strangers and other times I really don't feel like it. It is an effort to talk to people and keep conversing with them especially when they don't try to carry their side of the conversation. I understand completely!!

We've had sooooo much going on that I don't even remember what's gone on the week. We didn't have our kids' church program last week because several of our main characters and Amy were all sick so we did it this morning. The practices were so awful that I really didn't think that they'd pull it off but they did!! I was so proud of the kids!! There were a couple of places in the play that weren't suppose to happen......like a little bench got tipped over and had to be sat back up......so Karlie informed everyone that "That was not part of the program!" so everyone had a laugh out of that!! Then since she was an angel she got to climb a ladder to be above the nativity.......well.....she climbed clear to the top......touching the ceiling and was waving to everyone!! I had to motion her to go back down a couple of steps!! Again laughter!!

After church Dae Lynn and the kids....and Glen and I went to my Mom and Art's for leftovers. They had Christmas with Art's family yesterday and had a lot of food left. I think that Mom also wanted to hear for herself what all had happened to Dae Lynn.

Glen and I did make it to Wichita on Friday. I got to go to my favorite antique mall while he went and shopped for some stuff. Later I went to Hobby Lobby and got some things to hang on the walls in Jaci's room. I got the curtains up and with the stuff on the walls it's looking really cute!! I have a few more things to do before I'm done. I found a cubby shelf at the antique mall that I really wanted but it ended up that it wasn't for sale. I was not happy!! Oh well.....that means that I can still look.

I've watched the kids a lot with everything that's gone on with Dae Lynn and Damon so it's been hard to feel like I'm ready for Christmas. We're just giving money to the kids and grandkids so I don't have any wrapping to do. Glen and I decided that our cruise is good enough to consider it our gift. I haven't been anywhere to buy him anything and we're both pretty good about buying what we need for ourselves so we're not trading gifts.

I had Kera come over this afternoon to do some cleaning. It will help keep the stress off a little better. I still need to pick up but at least it's dusted, swept, and the bathrooms have been cleaned.

I can't remember if I mentioned that we went to Feyn's church last Sunday and watched his kids in their Christmas program. All 4 of them were in it......Baby Jed was Baby Jesus!! He played his part well!!! It doesn't usually work out that we can go because our programs usually fall at the same time so we were tickled to get to see them this year! They have so many people that we know in their church that it's almost like we have two churches!!

Tomorrow I'm going to pick things up and start cooking. The kids are all coming over here for lunch on Christmas and I think that most of them can stay all day!! Glen's trying to come up with some games and stuff to play so it should be a good day!! Mom and Art will be here too!!

In case I don't make it back on here tomorrow......I love all of you and I hope you have a Merry Christmas!!!

[Janet]

Today, I started my spring cleaning, my bedroom is completely done now. I can tell I'm getting way to old to move furniture around even with those easy glide coaster things. Tomorrow morning will be the real test I guess....if I can move...lolol. I sure hope I can because I have a hair appointment at 9:00 in the morning.

I'm not spring cleaning the guys rooms....they can do it. I've tried getting them to help once I get started...basically all they have to do is go through things and either keep it or throw it away and they never finish the job. So...I'll just keep their doors shut.

Sorry I haven't been here much, nothing really has been going on and you all know me after all these years that the seasonal depression thing sucks. It will get better, always does one way or another.

[gja1000]

Janet, you have so much energy. I need to move all the furniture in my house and clean under it! I'm going to do some cleaning over my break, but I prolly won't move my furniture!

I'm so sorry you are feeling down, I wish we lived closer so we could visit!

[gja1000]

Up early this morning, well.......not really THAT early. LOL! I'm not going to make my trip to Oklahoma to see Gary's family. The weather up there is just too iffy. There is a forecast for some freezing rain today and then a big chance of snow on Monday. So, I've just decided to stay home. There is no sense in me getting out on the busy roads this weekend if the weather is going to be bad. I'll miss seeing Gary's sisters, but his oldest sister who lives in Kansas City is not coming down either. So, we'll just have to get together when the weather is better.

It's OK, I have a lot of things I need to do around here and out in the yard. i need to have a little bit of landscaping done but I've been so hesitant to do it because of the lack of rain the past 2 years. But I think I'm ready to maybe get started, even if I don't plant all the plants I might want. I just don't want to get into a situation where I have to spend a lot of money on water. I know I'll be planting things that are low water usage, so I just want to be careful. I've found someone who I think can help me figure out a design and what to plant, and also put in the beds and drip irrigation. So, maybe I can spend some time this week thinking about that.

I also need to find some new jeans for my mom. She's gained some weight and her jeans are looking pretty bad. So, I'm going on a shopping run today to see if I can find her some jeans. Shopping, YAY!

[Lindsey]

Christmas just didn't feel Christmas-y to me this year. I didn't think it would be SO different from my family, but it is. My family is pretty celebratory all the time, but especially at Christmas. There are always friends stopping by, drinks and cheers all around, and ALWAYS Christmas movies on in the background! With Scott's family, it was just like any old time we get together. We just sat around the house. They watched tv and movies (regular ones, not Christmas - except for one night I asked if we could watch one Christmas movie so we did, but they weren't at all interested). On Christmas eve I asked Scott if we could go drive around to look at lights. His parents weren't interested so the two of us went. But otherwise, it just didn't feel like anything special.

Oh and even when we went to his sister's house to open gifts, I couldn't believe how nonchalant it all was. We made both of our sets of parents a photo book of our wedding. We spent hours online, going through our hundreds of professional photos and making it perfect before ordering. His dad opened it, looked through it, handed it to his mom (we were sitting beside her) and she glanced through it and said "Hmm. So did you get this done by the photographer?" Scott said "No we did it ourselves online" and she said "Oh. Hm." and put it in her bag of stuff and continued watching everyone else. No "thank-you" or "it's great, I love it" or anything. Just "Hm" My parents tried calling me a few times throughout the day and I was able to talk to them once when we went back to Scott's parents' house to let the dogs out. I talked to everyone who was there (my brother, my parents, my grandma) and they all gushed about how they loved the gifts and thanked us so much and wished us all Merry Christmas!

I guess there is always next year. We'll be with my family then and it will feel more normal to me.

We got home on the 26th and didn't even think to go upstairs until bedtime. Scott went up first and then ran downstairs, back up, and downstairs again... finally I found out our furnace wasn't working and it was freezing upstairs (we have two furnaces - one heats the basement and main floor, the second heats the upper floors). He couldn't get the pilot light to go back on. We called the 24 hour line for the energy company and a guy showed up at around 12:30 am. He couldn't figure out why it wasn't working, but at least there were no issues with the gas (Scott turned it off but wanted it checked). He said best bet would be calling a furnace guy in the morning. So we froze overnight, and in the morning Scott called a few people. When one guy finally showed up, it turned out to just be some debris in some hose that was blocking airflow. He blew it out and it worked perfectly. Thank goodness! He didn't even charge us for it.

Yesterday we picked up construction materials because Scott is starting on our laundry room build today. I also bought tons of groceries so I can make some use of my days off - I am making 5 hashbrown casseroles, two pots of spaghetti sauce, a pot of chili, as much as possible of hamburger soup, a roaster full of cabbage rolls, and sweet and sour beef (we eat it over rice) in the next TWO days Either I'm in over my head, or I'm housewife of the year I want to portion everything out and freeze it so we can have good homemade meals on days when we are short on time after work!

[gja1000]

Lindsey, it's always hard when you marry and spend some holidays with your in-laws. Their traditions are never just like yours. It's always a lot more fun with your own family. But you make the best of it and like you did by requesting a Christmas movie, you try to show them how to have a little fun on Christmas. When you have children, maybe you will decide to have Christmas at your house, so that "Santa" comes to your house. Then you can have some celebrations before or after Christmas with your families. Or maybe your families will decide to come to your house for Christmas. At some point, you may want to have Christmas with Scott and you children in YOUR home. Gary and I went to my daughter's house for Christmas ever since her daughters were old enough to look for Santa to come. We loved it and I still love watching the girls get up and rush to see what Santa brought them (the 16 year old still has to pretend for the 6 year old. LOL!).

[gja1000]

Janet!!! You inspired me!!! I got up this morning thinking that I really needed to work out but I really didn't want to but I really needed some exercise. So Janet, I thought of you and all the cleaning you did this week - so I did it too - instead of exercising, well I DID get my exercise moving furniture, vacuuming, and cleaning and polishing the hardwood floors. I only did the living room but it took quite a while and I got a clean living room and a good workout!

Thanks Janet, you're my inspiration!