Tag: family

Reflections

March Reflections 2025

Karen

One of these days, I’ll actually catch up to these Reflections’ entries. I really want to finish these because they’re an extension/expansion of the daily journal I write in

Mar 1

Mom wasn’t exactly feeling up to getting together today but I guilted her into it. She needed to talk and purge her feelings about losing my aunt, her sister. I worry about mom being by herself all the time. It’s not healthy to bottle up our feelings – get it out. Burn off that excess emotion with something positive. We ate at our favorite Chicken Salad place, she got some things off her chest, we came back to my house, we watched our two episodes of Survivor (our Saturday thing), then we worked on some felting crafts. I’ve never worked with felt before … it’s fun.

Mar 2

Boys came over for dinner, we had pasta bake. (Basically, spaghetti with penne noodles). We had a good conversation and we encouraged them about their jobs. I wish they could find their niche. I remember that disorienting feeling when I was younger of where do I fit in? What do I do with the rest of my life? Heck, I’m STILL wondering where I fit in, what am I doing with my life? We see the kids so much around the holidays and then virtually never the rest of the year. I’m going to try and make more of an effort to have them over for dinners, maybe a game, at least once a month.

Mar 3

I’m not a huge fan of homemade yogurt. It’s “supposed” to be good for you – give you the probiotics you need for a healthy gut. But either I’m doing it wrong or it’s just not for me but I sort of hate it. It’s so sour! I made the mistake of not refrigerating the probiotics and the went bad. That batch of yogurt stayed with us for days. (::ahem::), so I learned my lesson on that and now I refrigerate them. But still … I’m not a fan. I’ll keep trying because it’s “good” for me …

Mar 4

I’ve been making a point of saying good morning to Blake every week day. He’s getting off work about the time I’m getting up and getting ready for work. I hate that he’s back on overnight shift. He’s a night owl and I think he prefers it, but it’s lonely and isolating. He’s done the overnight shift before and he got a little depressed never seeing people, feeling like he was missing out on family stuff even though we made every effort to schedule things around his schedule so he could come, but still, it’s hard on the body both physically and mentally. Hopefully, this is a temporary gig until he can find something with more normal hours but in the meantime, I’m hoping my good mornings are helping, just a little.

Mar 5

Woke up to about an inch of snow on the ground. It’s windy and cold. How annoying, I was hoping winter was on the way out – I’m ready for some green – too much gray.

Mar 6

The supervisor role posted today. I had a friend send me a snippet of it and encouraged me to apply. I’m tempted. I would rock that role. I have a lot of ideas on how we can make things run more smoothly, more efficiently. But unfortunately, it would never work. The team lead, which is the person who would be my right-hand woman, is also applying. How awkward would it be to work with her if I got the job? I’m now her boss? I don’t think so. The biggest reason I won’t go for it? The head honcho is a bitch. I can’t stand her. She’s one of those bosses who thinks every idea she has is the ONLY idea and even when her idea is proven to not work? She refuses to even LISTEN to alternative ideas. I can’t work under someone that unwilling to listen to the worker bees. I would be fired within one week of that crap. So no. I will not be applying. Besides – who wants to be stuck on meetings ALL DAY LONG. Because that’s what supervisors do. I like my work. I’m good at it. I’ll stay where I’m at, thank you very much.

Mar 7

Lost my shit at work today. It was implied that I wasn’t doing my job by not cleaning up other people’s crap, even though I have plenty of my own crap to deal with, and patients were being rescheduled. Um, no. Patients are being rescheduled because the head honcho won’t allow us to try something different. What’s the definition of insanity? Or yeah, keep doing what is not working and expect different results. She’s such an idiot. On top of that, I had to leave early to pick mom up to go to my aunt’s funeral. Talk about an emotional switch. This was my first time going to a funeral where someone was cremated. It was so strange to stand around the wall where her ashes would be put into. She will be in the same wall space as her husband, who passed some years back. It was especially sad when they screwed the plate back on. Just the sound of the electric screwdriver in dead silence. Surreal.

Mar 8

Got together with mom today. She really needed some company. I wish I could keep her company during the week, too. Listened while she got some things off her chest. Ate at Panda Express for lunch, not my favorite, but mom likes it. Treated ourselves to a miniature Bundt cake. We love those things. We like to treat ourselves with something sweet while we watch Survivor. We ran to JoAnns to pick up some zippers mom needs for the cute crochet cross-over bags she’s making us for us to carry around on our cruise in August. CAN’T WAIT.

Mar 9

Someone jerk ran into my father-in-law with a cart at Walmart. The lady didn’t even apologize, just glared at him like it was HIS fault. What is wrong with people nowadays?! He didn’t fall, but it was hard enough to make his leg bleed. Kevin talked to management. He was furious. He wanted to press charges. Don’t think that can, or will, happen. It’s possible the woman didn’t even realize she bumped into him, we’re trying to look at all angles here, but he cried out in pain so even if she hadn’t realized she did it, would she not hear him? People are assholes.

Mar 10

Was in a bad mood. I felt bad for dumping my frustrations on my team lead but it was something we’ve all danced around for months and needed to be said. Who knows if there are changes or if it affects my job, but I just can’t hold in my frustration any more. I muted everyone on Teams, put my head down and worked my butt off today. It was nice to not anyone bugging me, staying away from the drama. The pre-registration department dumped a lot of cases on us. I’m wondering if this is the new norm?

Mar 11

Another beautiful day! Got up to 80 degrees today – I’m so ready for Spring. Told my boss that I’m happy to clean up other people’s crap – after my own work is done and if they want to pay me overtime. Not sure she was very happy with that “compromise” but – bite me. Don’t care. I looked up my Social Security account today to get an idea of how much I’ll be paid when I retire – more than I thought, but not nearly enough. It’s criminal how much you pay into the “system” and how little you get back. I can take early retirement at 62 … TWO years away!! The big questions is: WILL I?

Mar 12

The chicks are really growing!! They’ve reached the “teenage” years. They have lost their cuteness and they’re losing their baby feathers to make room for their permanent feathers and they’re looking spotty and ratty. Our oldest Chicken is really gentle with the younger chickens – the second oldest chicken picks on them. Most likely because she was picked one when she was young. Kevin is rearranging their hen house. He also build a triangle-looking cage to put on his lawn mower trailer so he can bring them over to our house so they can eat our bugs. We have soooo many bugs.

Mar 14

The winds were wicked today. Wind always makes me so nervous. Straight winds is what took out one of our trees in our backyard several years ago. Kevin called me, which always freaks me out because he NEVER calls – no one EVER calls me except when there’s an emergency. One of the trees at the rental house blew over and was leaning into another tree. He called someone and they came right out to cut off some limbs. They’ll be back tomorrow to cut down the rest of the tree. There goes another $1700!! GAH – trees are pretty but so expensive to maintain. I got to “duck” my first Jeep today while we were grocery shopping. Was fun, and a little terrifying, tucking a rubber duck into someone’s door handle.

Mar 15

Went to mom’s. We talked about our cruise and we’re planning on going luggage shopping. I can’t help but picture us struggling with luggage as we walk through the airports. I know mom’s luggage is super old and our luggage is pretty worn down, too. The wheels on our luggage aren’t very good and I just don’t want to have to worry about crappy luggage as we travel. Kevin and I talked about taking some road trips in the Jeep before we turn it in in April 2028. We thought it would be fun to drive down to New Orleans again and catch a cruise. So … we booked another cruise in November! It will be our birthday cruise! We booked it on Norwegian – we really like how they have their food/restaurants set up. Instead of one big dining room and a buffet, they have smaller, themed restaurants set up throughout the ship so everyone is spread out. So excited! Two cruises in one year??

Mar 17

My gosh the winds are terrible this year! We always get a lot of wind in March but I feel like this March is especially windy. Mom and I ran into a fancy yarn shop over the weekend and I encouraged her to check it out this week. I’m hoping she can make some friends! Mom is obsessed with yarn.

Mar 19

Think I’m eating too many bananas. My heart is doing crazy stuff, skipping, beating hard, my hands have started to go numb. I Googled it – I think I’m getting too much potassium. Eating a banana every day. Time to cut back. Some of it is stress, too. Need to re-center and not care about my job quite so much.

Mar 20

We all had a shock today. One of our supervisors, one of the women who created this department, just left. She was planning on retiring soon anyway but after a meeting with the head honcho woman and being dismissed, again, she had had it. Tensions have been building for a while. This supervisor was the only woman who had the guts to stand up to this head honcho bully. It’s really frustrating to work under a woman who refuses to listen to what you have to say, or entertain the thought that perhaps some of the decisions she’s making are DEAD wrong for the group. This head honcho wants yes women … I am not a yes woman. I have thoughts, opinions and suggestions and I’m always willing to work with whatever ideas that are presented, but to not even acknowledge that A. there is a problem and B. we need to fix it?? Yeah – I will NOT be applying to part of this management team. It’s amazing how many people have left because of this moron. Get a clue, lady.

Mar 21

Another person quit today. The department is dropping like flies. Too bad someone above honcho lady isn’t noticing and more importantly, wondering, why is everyone leaving??

Mar 24

My supervisor and team lead shadowed me today. It’s so awkward when you “train” management. Also, why do we train management? Shouldn’t they already know what we do? Hence the problem with management, right? Not just our management, but management in general. Ordered a new Bissell vacuum for the hardwoods today – the Dirt Devil finally bit the dust.

Mar 25

Blue Cross Blue Shield’s portal was still down today so I had to cancel the the “training” session today. Not much to do if one of our major insurance portals is down. Getting lazy on the treadmill walking before work thing. I would just rather sleep an extra hour. But I sit so much throughout the day, that’s not good.

Mar 26

Brandon, our baby, turned 30 yesterday! He’s not taking it very well. I remember turning 30, then 50, then 60 … yeah – those milestone birthdays are hard. He’s still working on his digital art. He knows a lot of people in the industry but it’s a tough industry to get into. He’s self-taught – really proud of him for taking the initiative and having the discipline to teach himself. Not to mention, he has saved THOUSANDS of dollars by not going to college. College is pretty much a scam nowadays. All they want to do is teach our kids how to be woke and a lot of useless nonsense. Nothing that will prepare them to be kind, empathetic, productive humans in society. In the meantime, Bran is still working at the bank. He’s not crazy about being on the phone and dealing with customers but also, it’s really good to have that experience – not only for work but life in general. I think everyone should be required to work with the public at some point in their lives – I think the world would be a better place, to be honest. We took him to Fuji’s – a Japanese they-cook-your-food-in-front-of-you place. The food was good, but they rushed us out, didn’t really give us a chance to enjoy our food, or the company, we were done in under an hour, and then it was $150 on top of that. Yeah, we won’t do that again. We came back to our house afterward and had our traditional Great American Cookie cake. Which is also stupid expensive. I remember the days it was $25, which I thought was nuts, now it’s double that! But we can’t stop buying them – we’ve been buying them for decades and it’s a tradition. Birthdays are expensive. lol

Mar 27

Management is going to keep track of our productivity. This has made a lot of people mad, and I’m annoyed, but also, I get it. We’re remote. It’s like they can walk by our desk to see if we’re working or not. And let’s face it, some people probably DO take advantage of the fact that they work from home and aren’t supervised as much as people who work in the office. I’m not worried – I definitely carry my weight, and then some, (a lot), but it’s still a little nerve wracking they are “watching” us. They also want to know how long cases take, which, fair, but also, hard to gauge as some cases are more complicated than others. Not to mention, some providers do a terrible job of documenting what is happening so it takes more time to dig for documentation to build a case and present to the insurance company so they can make their decision. I’m pretty fast at the process, but I think in large part because I have Medical Assistant experience. I know the “lingo” and understand the provider’s though process and the steps it takes to reach the patient’s goal. If someone doesn’t have that experience, it would be way harder and definitely more time consuming to put the puzzle pieces together.

Mar 28

Lost another person, this time on my team. We can NOT keep people on the Urgent Action Team. And to be honest, I get it. This flow, time frame, this amount of multi-tasking is not for everyone. It doesn’t help that management expects us to be the clean-up crew for another group of people, either. I’m hoping all of these people leaving will open the head honcho’s eyes and we can finally start making some positive changes. We’ll see. I’m not holding my breath. Now this means I will be expected to work harder and faster until we can hire another person. And guess who management will expect to train this new person? Exactly.

Mar 29

Got together with mom for our weekly Saturday thing. We went to the mall today. I haven’t been to the mall in ages. It always sort of depresses me. It’s so … empty. Both in customers and retail stores. We went to JCPenneys to look at luggage for our cruise in August. Mom bought a five-piece set for $100! I’m so relieved. I was worried about her struggling with her luggage on our trip. Trips are already so stressful without having to worry about if your luggage breaking down. We bought cookie dough at a shop in the mall for our treat. Then watched Survivor and set up a Google Meet to talk to my sister. It was a good day! Went by fast!

Mar 30

One of our my teammates called in sick today – I have a feeling this will become a patter with her. She seems to have a lot of physical ailments. That left three of us today. I covered 15 alpha letters so I was pretty busy. It’s Patient Access week, which means management will kiss our butts, tell us what a great job we’re doing but no, we’re not going to change anything so that your jobs actually become easier. Par for the course, I suppose. I have zero interest in participating. I’m pissed, tired and overworked. Bite me.

Thanks for reading.

At the Moment, Life

Knee Deep

Karen

I’m a spoiled princess.

I know this. It’s no secret. Kevin spoils me rotten.

I rely on him to be my fix-it man, and my yard guy.

Confession: I have never mowed our grass. Any grass, really. Could I do it if I needed to? Sure. Would I struggle and look like an idiot, (how do you turn this thing on?) Yep. Most definitely.

But I haven’t had to because I have a wonderful husband who takes care of it, and who does a really good job taking care of it.

Call me a 50’s housewife – it’s fine. You won’t hurt my feelings.

(Unlike some people – I don’t run around with my feelings on my sleeve).

My mom was the same way. She never had to take care of things outside the home because she had my dad to do it. And he enjoyed it. He loved being outdoors fiddling around with … man stuff.

I don’t pretend to understand man stuff.

But since he passed away, (the 3rd year anniversary of my dad’s death has just come/gone – can’t believe he’s only been gone for three years and yet at the same time, it feels like he’s been gone longer), mom has had to try and figure stuff out. Sure – she has us to help her, and Kevin has done a FANTASTIC job of helping her, but, Kevin also has our house, our rental house, his chickens, his elderly parents … he has a lot on his plate. He’s one man – he can only do so much.

Mom has been learning to do the outside stuff on her own. I’m so PROUD of her for rolling up her sleeves and figuring out how to use the lawn mowers, the weed eater, etc. It hasn’t been easy but she’s stubborn and persistent and she’s been figuring it out.

I worry about her, though. She’s 79 after all. I’m not sure it’s a good idea for her TO do it. I worry about her getting too hot, or getting injured and I have tried, and will continue to try, to talk her into hiring someone to take care of her lawn but like I said, she’s stubborn. She says as long as JT, (the lawn mower – a nickname my dad used – I think it stands for John’s tractor, but I could be wrong), continues to run, she will continue to ride it.

Now that the weather has been wildly too warm for this time of year …

(Side note: Take a GANDER at our temperature ranges these past few weeks! )

The trees are blooming, the flowers are coming out and yes, the dang grass is growing.

So – she’s been out there on JT. And she mentioned that the last time she was on JT she drove over a few holes in her lawn. At one point, it scared her because she thought the mower might tip over with her on it.

And that, of course, scared me.

She mentioned something about needing some dirt so she can fill in those holes. Mom and dad used to have rabbits. And they would dig holes in the yard whenever they ran around the back yard – hence where the holes came from.

I mentioned that Kevin had some dirt and maybe he would have some time to go over to her house and fill the holes in for her.

When I said something to Kevin, he said he would go over there and fill them in, but that was a few weeks ago. Remember the busy part? But, he kept thinking about it and this past Saturday, when mom came over to our house to hang out with me, he took some dirt over to her house and filled in the holes. Mom mentioned that there was one hole that she thought was pretty deep … and she wasn’t wrong.

That’s Kevin standing in the hole that mom “thought” was pretty deep.

She was right. If she, or someone walking around her backyard, had stepped into that hole, that person would very likely snap his/her ankle. Not to mention, it was the perfect size to snag a riding lawn mower tire and topple my 79-year old mother who is too stubborn to hire someone to take care of her lawn for her.

:;gulp::

Crisis averted. Kevin saved the day. The holes have been filled and that’s one less thing I have to worry about.

Thank goodness mom said something and Kevin went over there and fixed it. When things like this happen, I can’t help but wonder if that was God’s way of tapping us on the shoulder to say, “Um, excuse me. I see a potential problem and I don’t want you folks to get hurt. You might think about taking care of that.”

Thank you for taking care of us, Father.

We definitely need looking after.

Reflections

February Reflections 2025

Karen

One of these days, I’ll actually catch up to these Reflections’ entries. I really want to finish these because they’re an extension/expansion of the daily journal I write in.

Feb 1

Pinner’s Conference! Mom and I made the trip up to Kansas City for the Pinner’s Conference again this year. You can read about last year’s trip here. For those that don’t know, a Pinner’s Conference is:

Pinners is two incredible events in one: a hands-on conference with 100+ creative classes led by top presenters, and a vibrant shopping show with hundreds of unique businesses showcasing the best in DIY, fashion, crafts, cooking, beauty, photography and more.

You don’t need Pinterest to join us, just your creative spirit! So join us and see where shopping and learning come to life.

They host these conferences in various places around the US: Kansas City, Utah, Colorado, Texas, Arizona and even St. George … Virgin Islands? (no clue).

If you’re even remotely into crafts, THIS is the conference for you. Not only do you get to shop various crafts booths, you can sit down at a make-and-take-it table and make a craft to take home, (it’s not free), AND they offer craft classes throughout the two-days where you can again, learn how to make a craft and take it home.

It’s a lot of fun. Mom and I had a blast last year so we decided to go again this year.

Mom wrote a lot more detail on your blog post, you can read that here.

There were two crafts that I participated in that I really loved this year:

This wall hanging that says, “Faith Can Move Mountains” … and it really can, if you believe.

Here is what the final project looks like:

And this CUTE home decor piece we worked on … I think this might have been the very last class – saved the best for last, in my opinion …

Here is the final project …

I also bought two more kits to paint and switch out with the cow …

We were pretty pooped after two days of the conference, so we packed up our goodies and hauled it the two blocks back to my car. (We had to park quite a ways away from the conference center). We ate dinner at Wendy’s and crashed. The next morning, we met David and Angie (my brother and his wife) at a place called “The Shack” for breakfast. It was really good food and a fun send off before we drove home.

Can’t wait for next year!

Feb 3

Sooo tired. The weekend trip to KC really did a number on me. Had a hard time keeping my eyes open for work today.

Feb 4

Kevin dropped his phone one too many times and it wouldn’t turn on. He took it to a Verizon shop but they wanted too much to fix it so he bought a refurbished one on Amazon for a lot cheaper. It’s supposed to come tomorrow. It’s amazing how much you miss your phone when you don’t have it!

Feb 5

Lost a chicken today. We have two chickens left – Kevin is talking about getting more but .. it’s so much work for him. And yet, he really enjoys it so .. who knows if we buy more or not. We have a program at work called a rewards program. It’s a program that your peers can use to thank you for being a good team player, going above/beyond, etc. I cashed in some points today for an Amazon gift card and bought a little printer to print some pictures from my phone. Looking forward to using it!

Feb 6

Getting bored with my job. I guess this means I’m getting more comfortable with my job duties. Rumors are floating around about another mgmt position opening up and my supervisor thinks I would be a good fit. I’m seriously thinking about it … but I’m not sure I would want to be in meetings all day. I really do enjoy being a worker bee … just sort of bored with it right now.

Feb 7

Blake is between jobs. I wish he could find his niche in life. He’s just not sure what he wants to do. One thing about Blake though, he’s slow to make decisions but when he makes a decision, it’s WELL researched and thought out. Just hope it finds something soon, he’s living off his savings right now and that makes me nervous. Brandon is still pursuing his digital art passion. I have to admit, the kid is persistent and has been trying to make a go of it for the past nine years. He’s got an impressive portfolio and he’s self-taught, which takes a lot of discipline .. just wish he could find something in the field. It’s a very competitive field though so … all he can is try.

Feb 8

Saturday with mom. We had Chick-Fil-A for lunch while watching Survivor. (I’m really getting hooked on this show!) Fired up the laptop and we talked to my sister while we painted/finished our projects we bought from the Pinners’ conference.

Feb 10

Mom got her passport today!! I’m SO relieved!! She actually got it quicker than I thought she would. Now I don’t have to stress about documentation for our upcoming cruise in August. Got my little printer today – it’s so cute!

Feb 11

Got our yogurt maker, inulin and probiotic stuff today! I’m excited to make some yogurt. I watched Dr. Berg’s video on how to make yogurt and I want to give it a go. This yogurt is supposed to be good for your gut, too, helps replenish the good bacteria.

Feb 12

Snowed about an inch today. Weather like this really makes me thankful that I work from home!

Feb 13

Lost one of our really good UAT people today. She’s a nurse and is moving to the MED/IV group, which makes sense given her nursing background. I’m sort of relieved, we didn’t have enough work for the amount of people we had on the team but also … the people remaining are nice, but not very bright so … more work for me, for sure.

Feb 14

Watching A LOT of videos on what to pack and how to pack for our cruise in August for Alaska!!

Feb 15

Saturday with mom. She came over and we went to Fazoli’s for lunch then Michael’s to see if they had any wooden rings for a project. Treated mom to Starbuck’s, (I used my gift cards, otherwise, I NEVER go there – can’t stand the company, quite frankly), then back to my house to watch Survivor. We were going to get together with my sister, but we ran late and my sister ran late so we canceled it. But, I think mom and I need to get together earlier so that we have time to Zoom call my sister.

Feb 18

Snowed about five inches today. Blake came over and picked up his passport. He’s going back to work at Wal-Mart overnights. He just can’t settle on a job right now and he needs to make some money. He’s going back to overnights, which I’m not crazy about, but it’s something. I keep telling him it’s only temporary, don’t give up on finding something else and if that means he has to take a class, or get a certificate, so be it. Don’t give up.

Feb 19

My supervisor called me and encouraged me to apply for another supervisor position that opened up. I was very flattered but things are so crazy right now with mgmt, I just don’t think I would be a good fit. I was tempted for a hot minute, but ultimately, no. I think I would be miserable.

Feb 21

Super busy day. Now that we’re thawing back out, patients are making it back into the clinics and providers are busy working people in that missed their appointments. Spent a lot of time working RAD’s pendings, which pissed me off, and put me behind, so mgmt got involved and asked (told) them to take their own damn pendings back. (I added the damn part). Wow – so it CAN be done – they CAN work their own crap? Hmm … today only showed me that going to mgmt, for me, would be a huge mistake. I’m too opionated and headstrong … they want a yes woman, I’m NOT a yes woman.

Feb 22

Saturday with mom. Got her out of the house. We went to the mall and walked around. Ate Chick-Fil-A for lunch, shopped at Bath and Body Works, (didn’t buy anything – I don’t pay full price – only when stuff is on sale – they’re way too expensive), watched Survivor, talked to sis and did some more painting. I wish I could do more for mom … she’s by herself way too much and I know it depresses her.

Feb 23

Kevin said Blake text him about a tube TV he’s had his eye on for a while. He saw it on Facebook, (or was it eBay?) but it sold before he could make an offer. When Kevin was out doing his treasure hunting, he said he actually saw two, text Blake the serial numbers and Blake wanted the second one. Kevin said Blake was literally shaking when he took it back to the house, he was so excited. He came back over to our house and picked up some old games we had in storage along with some cords to make it work. It was really nice to see Blake smile. He’s been in a funk lately.

Feb 26

My cousin text mom – mom’s sister is not doing well. She has dementia and has had to go to a nursing home because it wasn’t safe for her to stay home by herself anymore. Mom would take her out every Thursday, just to get her out of the home. She had these weekly get together for years, but it’s become harder and harder for mom to take care of her sister – she’s lost so much of her speech and motor skills .. Dementia sucks. It drains the life out of people so they are only shells when it gets done with them.

Feb 27

My aunt died. Mom text me after work and I called her. She was able to go over to the home and see her but my aunt was in so much pain they had to give her some pretty heavy-duty pain medication so she wasn’t really aware of anything going on around her. Mom was planning on going back later in the day, but my aunt passed away before she could go back. This was mom’s younger sister, by just one year. Death is so strange, people are here, and then suddenly, they’re not. Mom only has one brother left in her entire family. I feel so bad for her. She’s had a rough two years.

Feb 28

I had the day off today. I take the occasion Friday off to give myself a long weekend. Well, sort of. When I’m off Fridays or Monday, I typically work Sundays to make up the time and so I don’t have to use PTO, so it’s not really a long weekend, but it’s nice to have off, just the same. I didn’t do much, but I did start another batch of yogurt. I wish I could figure out why it tastes so sour.

Thanks for reading!

At the Moment

Life Overview

Karen

Hello stranger.

Still breathing.

And still working from home. You can catch up HERE.

I have been working remotely for two years and three months.

OVER. TWO. YEARS.

I’m sorry … what?? In a lot of ways, I feel like I’ve just started this job – I feel like I’m still blindly stumbling in the dark with my arms outstretched trying to figure out this new gig. But in other ways, I was MADE to do this job. I’m good at it. I feel pretty confident doing it but my confidence level swings back and forth like those big pirate ship rides you see at sketchy county fairs.

I’m very fortunate, I realize this. I know a lot of people would LOVE to be able to work from home. My daily uniform is a tank top and gym shorts in the warm months, and sweats and slippers in the cold months and I’m lucky if I brush my hair most days, but I’m WAAAAY less stressed than when I was working in the clinic and I don’t see myself going back to an office for the rest of my working days.

EVER.

I get bored sometimes, not gonna lie. My group, the Urgent Action Team, has gone through a lot of people. And no, it’s not because I’m a bear to work with, (at least, I HOPE that’s not the reason), but our group … we’re designed to be the janitors of the precertification departments. I continue to work today, tomorrow and the next day’s cases and of course, if/when there are any problems our pre-registration group contacts my group, (i.e. me), to figure it out. If it gets too bad, I just direct them back to the person that created the mess.

It’s exhausting and frustrating to always have to clean up someone else’s mess and THAT’S a big reason we can’t keep people on my team. Honestly? I’m thinking I may ask to transfer to another group at some point – I’ve been cleaning up after people now for nearly 2 1/2 years, I’ve put my time in.

But now is not the time. The hospital I work for is switching over to a new EMR (Electronic medical record) and though it’s going to be really cool once the dust settles, it’s going to be pure chaos before that happens. So, asking to be transferred out 1. is bad timing and 2. likely won’t happen even if I ask. The hospital flat out discouraged anyone from taking a vacation during this time period – they need all hands on deck. And that’s fair. I wouldn’t have done that anyway, I’m not a jerk, (most of the time). But once that dust settles? I make no promises.

Kevin is doing well. He’s loving retirement. He’s busier now than when he was working. He has to take care of me, our house, the boys and the rental house, LeRoy, (his special-needs uncle who also lives in the rental house with our boys, yes, the boys are still living there), his elderly parents, our seven chickens and in his “spare” time, he goes treasure hunting to fill his three thrift booths. (He’s getting a reputation for having fun, unique stuff – his monthly paychecks from that are pretty good!). Kevin knows to leave me alone when I’m working and he’s typically working on some project after I get off work so he does that and I bury my nose in my cross-stitch projects so we rarely see each other save for Friday/Saturday nights. (Our dates nights).

Blake is also doing well. He quit Wal-Mart and is now working for a prominent shipping company. He’s working from home from 6:00 PM to midnight, (he still likes his evening shifts), and he seems to enjoy the work. This has built his confidence and it’s heart warming to see him start to figure out where he belongs in life.

Brandon is also doing well. He just quit the bank when he found out that his big brother was making more money than him AND working from home, so he is also getting ready to start working for the same shipping company as Blake and will be working from home, eventually. He has to go in to the office for six weeks for training, but ultimately, he’ll work from home during the day. Blake is my night owl, Brandon is my early bird. He’s pretty excited to start that adventure.

I pray this job works out for the boys. I think a big reason they have these positions is because of Trump’s tariffs thing he’s started so … who knows if it continues when Trump leaves office. I’m quite confident that if a Democrat gets elected to the office, he (or she), will promptly undo everything Trump has done, (on so many levels and regardless of whether it’s been good for the country because ORANGE MAN BAD), so, we’ll see. That’s still three years away … a lot can, and likely will, happen in that time frame.

Not to bring politics into this … YET.

We’re coming up on three years since my dad passed away. Mom is doing better but she struggles daily and I’m sure she will continue to struggle daily. She’s adjusted but it’s a roller coaster ride. We still get together every Saturday to catch up, go out to lunch, watch Survivor, (we’re getting ready to start season 16!), and work on crafts. I look forward to these days with my momma. She’s my best friend and I enjoy our time together.

I mentioned cross-stitch – I’ve really gotten back into cross-stitching. It’s SO RELAXING! I subscribed to “Just Cross Stitch” magazine, it comes out quarterly and mom and I look forward to thumbing through it when it arrives. I’ve been bookmarking my favorites and my goal is to work at least patterns from the magazine. I’ve also jointed Audible because I spend so much time working on crafts now after work that it just makes sense to listen to some books. I’m still an active Kindle Unlimited member, but I rarely actually read anymore so I think I might cancel that and become a member of Audible when my free trial is over.

We recently returned from a two-week cruise! We drove the Jeep down to Galveston Texas to catch the boat there. We were LITERALLY one day ahead of the crazy cold, snowy weather that hit most of the US. If we had delayed our travel time by even a day, we would have struggled to get down there. We took a gamble booking a cruise the last week/first week of January/February but it’s cheaper to take a cruise that time of year, (for obvious reasons), and we decided to go for it. Up until we left, the weather had been pretty mild and we thought, “cool – no problem, we’ve got this.” And then … Mother Nature wagged her finger and said, “not so fast, chicka.” lol

Writing more about the cruise is on my list of things to write about, (don’t hold your breath folks – if you had a dime for every time I’ve said that, right??), but in a nutshell – to sum it up – the jury is still out on whether I like being on a ship for two weeks. Kevin could have sailed longer, he loves it, but … I started to get a little homesick and started to feel a little claustrophobic, which is stupid given we stopped at eight ports during that two week time. We were busy and off the boat quite a bit but still … it’s a lot. Would I do it again? I don’t know … I guess it depends on the trip but … it was a lot.

The Jeep was a dream to drive. No issues whatsoever and we even got pretty decent gas mileage – better than I expected. And driving down there WAS more relaxing than navigating the chaos and stress of flying, so liked that part. But, the down side – it took two days to drive down there and back so … there’s that. Would we drive to a port again? Absolutely.

Kevin surprised me with one of those digital picture frames. His folks have one and they love it. His mom really loves that the family can upload their pictures to their frame through the app so she feels like she’s constantly being updated on how the family is doing. We both took a lot of pictures on our vacation and posted them there so it’s been fun to see them scroll through. We’re going to make folders and start uploading more vacation pictures. We have soooo many pictures. It’s also a goal of mine to make photo books of our cruises, camping trips, holidays, etc. Mom has been busy sorting through all of her pictures and putting them in albums and it’s been quite a project for her. But she doesn’t want to leave a bunch of random pictures in a box for us after she’s gone to scratch our heads over and think, “who is that??” So that has inspired me to get our photos organized and ready to view. We have sooo many cool photos, both print and digital – the challenge is to put there somewhere so we can easily look at them.

These are the highlights of my life right now. Obviously, there is SOOO much more to say – I have so many thoughts and opinions on what is happening with the world right now, it’s overwhelming to think about sorting through all of that – where do I even start??

I’ll figure it out. In the meantime, I hope you all are doing well and hopefully we’ll “talk” soon.

Reflections

January 2025 Reflections

Karen

Jan 1

Boys and LeRoy came over last night. We played a few games of Lords of Waterdeep, (one of my all-time favorite board games), and watched Wayne’s World – a classically stupid movie. Slept until 8:00 this morning, fought a sinus headache for a bit this morning, then made myself take the Christmas tree down. I put it up early November so to say I’m sick of looking at it – yeah. Kevin took the outside lights down, too. It’s supposed to turn bitter cold this weekend and into next week, so it’s better just to get it done. I’m still hacking my fool head off, though I have been coughing up junk, (sorry – TMI but keeping it real here). I should get the antibiotics I ordered from the Family Pharmacy tomorrow. I’m still not sure if I’m going to take them as I’m not entirely convinced it’s a bacterial infection, but it’s been over a week now, I’m still pretty stuffed up, coughing and … it’s not going away if it’s bacterial. We’ll see. It IS nice to know that antibiotics are available without having to see a doctor. Just be careful with that – you don’t want to take too many antibiotics.

Jan 2

The antibiotics I ordered came in the mail today. They came in an orange bottle, just like if you had picked up the medication from the pharmacy – which, I suppose, shouldn’t have surprise me, I bought it from a pharmacy, for pete’s sake. I didn’t know what to expect, but it seemed pretty normal. I haven’t taken them – I’m still stuffy, but my snot is still clear (sorry – TMI), which means, I don’t think I have a bacterial infection and if it’s not bacterial, there is no reason for me to take antibiotics. But it’s nice to have them – it gives me peace of mind to know that I have them, just in case. I literally wore a hole in my fitted bed sheet. I ordered some new sheets from Amazon, they are supposed to be hotel quality – we’ll see. (P.S. – I actually really like them). I regret not buying the boys sheets and pillows for Christmas now. They’re guys – there’s no telling what kind of shape their bedding is in and that’s something we all hate to spend money on – most of us, anyway.

Jan 3

We were freaking busy today. Being the first of the year, and all of the insurance changes, we were kept quite busy running new insurance for testing. I have decided that I do not like working the first week of January – maybe I’ll take it off next year. Still haven’t taken the antibiotics …

Jan 4

Mom and I had our standing Saturday date. It was SO GOOD to see her! It had been two weeks due to us being sick – I didn’t want to get her sick because what ever I had, (maybe it was COVID, who knows, don’t care), I certainly didn’t want to pass it on to mom or the boys. We ate at Jimmy Egg, which is a breakfast/lunch place. I had the chicken quesadilla and it was delish! We will definitely be putting that restaurant into our Saturday rotation from now on. Went back to mom’s house, watched Survivor and crafted. Mom made some shortbread cookies with a dollop of blackberry jelly in the center – SO GOOD. My family has become her guinea pigs – she loves to try new recipes and I get to take home the goods afterward. Sometimes I share with the guys … sometimes not. hehe We talked a lot about going on a cruise – she would need to get a passport, first. She acts interested but, I’m not sure if we’re there yet. Close, but not yet. I asked her if she could go anywhere, where would she like to go? She chose Alaska. GOOD CHOICE!

Jan 6

Had a meeting with just me, the supervisors and the manager. She wanted me to show her an issue in our process that everyone insisted we continue to do because it made sense for our process when the Asst. Director of the department kept insisting we didn’t need to do it. It’s so frustrating to work with a management team that make “policies” that actually hurt our process and slow us down. It’s incredibly frustrating to work with a management team that do not truly get what we do and yet they think they know best on how we should do it. I like all of these ladies, don’t get me wrong, and I appreciate the opportunity to explain why we should continue to do this specific process to them, but overall, I feel like I have to fight just to do my job. I think I got through to our manager, maybe – we’ll see. The bottom line? I’m going to continue to do what I’m doing – screw it. I don’t care. It doesn’t make sense to change it. Since a number of flu cases have gone up, the hospital has implemented the mask policy for the nasty “unvaccinated” workers. I’m SO GLAD I’m not at the hospital right now. Such BS.

Jan 8

One of the supervisors used me as a guinea pig today. She wanted to test out a new “dot phrase” in an effort to make our documentation uniform and consistent. I’m all about this – it’s amazing how all over the board we are with our documentation and I’m sure it’s confusing and frustrating for the clinics to try and figure out what they are reading and get the information they need to take care of their patients. A dot phrase is a quick text – something that you can input, for example, type in .document and a pre-determined phrase comes up in the patient’s chart. This quick text is a template that we can fill in with the necessary information about the test that we ran through the patient’s insurance and let the offices know the outcome. I was also asked to be part of a “focus” group to help my co-workers navigate our new electronic medical record (EMR) system that the hospital is gearing up to start using in March of next year. It will be an EPIC change. (Epic is actually the name of our EMR we’re getting ready to switch to). Again – very honored to have been asked to do this – I think my Technical Writing skills will come in handy for this project. I won’t be writing anything, at least, I don’t think I will be, but taking information and regurgitating it into comprehensive information that the worker bees can understand … I’m pretty good at that. So – we’ll see. I have no idea what my involvement will look like, but I’m looking forward to getting involved. Left the house, for the first time in three days, to grab some Qdoba for lunch. It felt good to leave the house. Also – starting to seriously think/plan our vacation plans for 2025.

Jan 9

To my utter surprise, Kevin is not keen to go on a cruise this year. !! I was pretty shocked to hear him say that. I don’t think it’s the cruise, per se, I think it’s more the flying part that he doesn’t want to do. Flying is stressful, there’s no doubt about that. But still … no cruise?? Maybe I can convince mom to say yes to the cruise. She’s soooo close! I think it would be fun to go on a cruise and never leave the ship. Take a route that we’ve already done and I’m not really interested in seeing again, like the Western Carribean cruises – those ports are a little scary, not gonna lie, and instead of spending money on excursions, like we normally do, spend that money on a cabin upgrade, or on a VIP package where we have access to more private places on the boat – not open to the general public. I think that would be so fun! I’m just not sure if Kev would be up for it – when it actually came time and we were sitting in a port, I think he would feel like he was missing out on something by not leaving the ship. I don’t know, I’m not giving up on that idea. We’ll see. For now, we’re talking about maybe flying down to South Padre Island in Texas and staying in a cabin on the beach. It’s pretty expensive, but we’re seriously thinking about it!

Jan 10

We got 5 inches of snow today!

That’s the most we’ve gotten in a long time. If we get snow, it’s usually just a few inches and a lot of times, it’s not even snow we get, but ice. We get a lot of ice in my area of the country. Luckily, we only got the snow. Times like this is SOOOO NICE to work from home. I don’t have to worry/stress about getting out in this mess. It’s pretty, but only because I don’t have to get out in it. I opened my big mouth to my supervisor and offered to help her with other projects. She seemed pretty stressed about other teams needing some serious help and stupid me was like, “Hey! I can help!” So, of course, she took me up on that offer. I wish I could just be one of these employees that everyone forgets about – someone who just sort of lingers in the background, you know the ones – we all work with people like that. But alas – no – I have to open my big mouth. So – I will be helping Therapy fill out some paperwork to help them get caught up. It’s not hard, just fax some forms, but still … it’s okay – we’re really not that busy and I would rather stay busy. I text mom today to ask if she had found her birth certificate so we could get the passport process started. It was sort of a test to see how serious she was about us going on a cruise. To my UTTER surprise – she said she found it and it was in her purse! OMG!!!! We’re going on a cruise!!

Jan 11

I braved the elements, got out, picked up mom and me some nuggets and chili from Wendys and went to her house today. The roads actually weren’t that bad. The main roads are clear, just the side roads were a challenge. But the Jeep got around really well, so it wasn’t that big of a deal. (Did I tell ya’ll that we leased a Jeep??

Brand new, 2024 all blue Jeep. We leased her back in October for 3 1/2 years. Who knows if we’ll keep her after the lease is up – we’ve never done this before – call it a mid-life crisis splurge – OMG – I love driving her!! Yes – it’s a her. Use the correct pronouns, please. **SMIRK**). Mom was happy to see me. We watched our Survivor episodes and chit chatted about our cruise the rest of the time. Mom is going to make an appointment to apply for her passport at the post office. We did a lot of researching on my laptop together. She wants to go to Alaska, so now we’re looking at cruises to Alaska. Kevin and I took a cruise to Alaska about five-ish (?) years ago so I know what to expect. That ended up being one of our favorite cruises together. It’s funny, because when I first suggested Alaska to Kevin he wasn’t all the gung-ho about it but once we went, it ended up being one of his top three cruises. I jumped down a rabbit hole …. and bought a Traveler’s notebook. I’ve always wanted one. I just wish I had started this years ago … I could have had so many notebooks filled out with all our vacations and trips! Oh well, better late than never, I suppose.

Jan 22

What am I going to do when I retire? Kev asked me that today and honestly, I don’t have an answer. I like to work, I like the push to get something done, I like the mental stimulation. I like having a purpose and a goal. I love the feeling of accomplishment and the feeling of a job well done. I know me, I’m lazy. If I don’t have a goal, some deadline, something to work toward, I will spend countless hours in front of my computer watching gamers game, or jump down YouTube videos. (I have to mark “not interested” on YouTube shorts – otherwise, I spend HOURS just needless scrolling … ). Technically, I can retire in a little over two years. It would be nice to have my time back, but we would have to think of some options for health insurance since Kev is currently on my health insurance. Kev can get on Medicare in a few years, but I still have a ways to go for that. For now, I will likely continue to work, though, it will be nice to have the option of retiring at any time after 62. I don’t know – it’s something I need to seriously think about.

Jan 24

Crazy busy day today. Richelle was already off, April signed off after a few hours of starting because of a migraine, which left me and Cheri W until Cherie C and Lori clocked on at 12:30. And Fridays have not been quiet here lately. We were able to keep our heads above water, but it was a lot. We currently work 72 hours out, management is talking about adding more days on to our “window,” which means possibly working four or five days out. I’m all for it, we certainly have enough people. I’m ready to be busier.

Jan 25

One of mom’s friends text her to ask if we might want a “vintage” chest of drawers to either use or put in Kevin’s booths. I contacted Kev and he said he would take it so mom’s friend and her husband dropped it off at the house. Kevin still has three booths in the flea market. He toggles between wanting to keep them, downsize or get rid of them entirely, it IS a lot of work for him to go out several times a week to not only replenish his “inventory” but to make trips to his booths to rotate stock, add to his stock, etc. But believe it or not, he not only makes his rent every month, but he makes a tidy profit on top of that. He does pretty good business. Probably because he and LeRoy find some unique pieces and I think he has a reputation for selling interesting stuff. Mom and I have a “treat” after lunch every week. Usually, the person hosting makes muffins or cookies but this week we went to Hurt’s Donuts – we bought two donuts and it cost $6.00! What?! Uh – they were good, but not $6.00 good. Yeah, we won’t be doing that again. Wow.

Jan 26

Weather is looking decent for our trip to the Pinner’s Conference this weekend. It’s always a gamble to plan a road trip at the end of January – especially in the Midwest. Our weather is so unpredictable. I looked at my Hotels.com account and had a butt pucker moment – oh stop – you know what I’m talking about, those moments when your heart drops to your feet, because I didn’t see the hotel reservation on my account. I KNOW I booked it back in August or September. I called the hotel to confirm our reservation and they told me we were good to go – they had us booked. I then remembered that I had booked the hotel through Kev’s account and when I signed on to his account, yep, there it was. Whew!! Mom is really looking forward to this trip, if something had happened to our hotel then I would have to find another, more expensive alternative because there was no way we weren’t going to go.

Jan 27

Our department is downsizing, we have too many people and not enough work. I KNEW this was going to happen and I tried to tell management we didn’t need any more people, but of course, they didn’t listen. They are moving some people around to other groups and I think a few of them are quitting. I need to make myself indispensable so I have more control over my own “options.”

Jan 30

We’re heading to Pinner’s! I’ll write another post about that soon(ish).

Life

Christmas Postponed … For the Second Time

Karen

And it was all my fault – both times.

The year was 2010 – and it was a tough year for our family. Kevin had his motorcycle accident, (the ER doctor said his pelvis was a “bag ‘O glass”), in April 2020 and by Christmas time, I couldn’t pass gas or have a bowel movement. (TMI, but we’re friends here, right?)

I remember being SO UNCOMFORTABLE when we went to Brandon’s Christmas concert at school, (he played the saxophone in band/Jazz), and I thought I was going to explode. I looked six months pregnant. I felt like a walking whale.

I couldn’t stand it anymore and went to the ER. They gave me a bunch of laxatives, kept me for a bit, nothing happened, they sent me home.

Let me repeat that, they pumped me full of laxatives and nothing happened. Now, my gut is full of liquid crap with no way to exit … after about a day of feeling like I was going to implode, I went back to the ER. They did a colonoscopy and prepped me for emergency surgery.

I had a blockage.

I mean – DUH. I tried to tell them that the last time I was in, but whatever, I was about to be fixed. The doc said, “No problem. The scar will only be about six inches long – you can still wear that bikini.”

DUDE – you clearly haven’t met me. This body hasn’t ever seen a bikini and never will, but I appreciated the positive attitude.

This all happened right smack dab during Christmas. I had my surgery shortly before Christmas and was in the hospital Christmas Eve/Christmas day. And my incision? Was gigantic. It went from the bottom of my belly button to nearly my lady bits.

I’m no math wizard, but my incision was CLEARLY longer than six inches. And I was stapled, so that was unbearably uncomfortable. But I pooped …. boy howdy, did I poop – eight times in the hospital, to be exact. And it was GLORIOUS. lol

It wasn’t until my post-op appointment w/ the general surgeon that flayed me open did I learn why my incision was much bigger than anticipated. I had not one, but TWO twists in my intestines and they ended up removing nearly three feet of intestine.

So. That was fun.

But being in the hospital during Christmas was awful, and sad. And I don’t wish that experience on anyone. (Don’t recommend having your intestines removed, either).

The boys were in high school when his happened. So, they were disappointed but it wasn’t like they missed a visit from Santa. I got home on the 27th and we had a late Christmas at that time.

Fast forward to now.

We had our family Christmas party on the 22nd. My family came over to our house – it was our boys, my mom, my brother and his family, and my sister’s sons. Mom brought over her signature “goodies”, (i.e. cookies, fudge, peanut butter cups, snowballs, etc- all homemade, by the way)., and Kevin and I made tacos, with all the trimmings, and little smokies. Mom brought over macaroni and potato salad. It was quite the spread (and I stressed about not having enough food … we had juuuust enough food).

After we ate, we played our (now) traditional Saran Wrap Ball game. Mom wraps up a bunch of small gifts, money and this time, she put numbers in the mix, up into a giant Saran Wrap ball. One person unwraps the ball, (you can’t tear it!), while another person rolls a pair of dice and tries to roll a double. Once a double has been rolled, the person unwrapping the ball must stop and hand it off to the next person while also handing off the dice to the next person to roll another double. It sounds easy, and it is, but the game actually lasts much longer than you think. When a prize falls out of the ball, the person unwrapping the ball can keep the prize.

The numbers are for picking a gift after the game is over. Everyone brought a “gag” gift with them to the party and after the ball had been completely unwrapped, we went down the line, starting at one, and people picked a gift of their choice. Other players had the option of stealing gifts along the way.

It was a lot of fun and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I filmed the game while Kevin looked on.

But during the game, Kevin said he started to feel sick. I had no idea this was happening and I felt fine but when Monday rolled around, Kevin was down. He had a 101.9 fever and he was pretty much comatose. I made sure he was drinking fluids, giving him Tylenol and putting a wet cloth on his forehead to cool him down, but I felt fine, save for a dry cough.

Christmas Eve rolled around and yep … I’m feeling sick. I had chills and a fever but my fever never got as high as Kevin’s. We had to contact mom and the boys and let them know not to come over. We didn’t want to take the chance of infecting them, especially since we were running fevers. Kevin still had a slight fever on Christmas Eve, but not as bad as Monday.

By Christmas day, I was down. It had settled in my lungs and sinuses and I was coughing up a storm. Still a dry cough, but more consistent. We contacted the boys and had to tell them we needed to postpone Christmas.

What a terrible, sinking feeling that is to have to cancel something that people are looking forward to. I not only felt physically terrible, I just felt terrible, period, for being the reason it had to happen.

By Friday, my sinuses were a solid block of concrete – I couldn’t even blow a puff of air out of either nostril. I don’t know what happened, or what triggered such a reaction, but it was terrible. And of course, it happened while I was on the phone with my supervisor because yes, I still worked during this time. I didn’t feel bad enough to be bed bound and I work from home so … why not?

Neither one of us went to the doctor, and we’re still recovering though to be honest, neither of us are at 100% yet, (I’m still coughing up crap and sinuses are still pretty stuffy), but we were pretty sure we had the flu. Maybe it was COVID? Who knows. It doesn’t really matter at this point, I’m just GRATEFUL that no one else seemed to have gotten sick after the party and I’m especially grateful that my elderly mother didn’t catch anything. Getting sick, in general, is terrible and a challenge, but when you’re an elderly person, it can be really bad and this virus? Was pretty bad.

So, Christmas 2024 was a bust. It was a huge let down but what can you do? Viruses are out there and though you can make healthy life choices and cut down the number of times you get sick, you can’t avoid getting sick entirely. All you can do is get through it and try not to pass it on to another person.

How was your Christmas?

At the Moment

Merry Christmas … Again?!

Karen

The world is spinning too fast, I’d like to get off, please.

I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but seriously folks – IT’S TIME FOR CHRISTMAS AGAIN?!

Are you ready? I’m not, though I do have some gift ideas. The only people I really buy gifts for anymore is my mom and our boys. Which is silly, because the boys are 32 and 29, but you know how it is when you’re a parent – your kids will always be little in your mind.

We put the Christmas tree up right around my birthday, which is early November. I know, we’re THOSE people. But I don’t care. I feel like we get the tree up, don’t get a chance to enjoy it because we’re so busy with work and other obligations, Christmas happens and it’s time to take it down. Nope. We’re putting it up early November and keeping it up until New Year’s. We get six weeks to enjoy it.

Plus, it’s a lot of work and I hate doing work with little pay out.

What is up with Christmas lights? We’ve had two strands burn out on us so far this year. Kevin just pus another strand on, the tree is decorated and it’s too much of a pain to take everything off, change out lights, then put everything back on again. So. When it’s time to dismantle the tree, we’ll be peeling off about two extra sets of dead lights.

Fun.

But I suppose that’s like everything else – nothing is made like it used to be. We used to get four, or more, years out of a strand of Christmas lights, now we’re lucky if we get four, or more, weeks out of a strand of lights.

We’re planning a few Christmas parties. We’re supposed to go to Kevin’s family’s party on the 15th, then we’re having my family’s party on the 22nd. We’re having Kevin’s party at his parents’ clubhouse. It’s the clubhouse that everyone in the neighborhood uses. It’s a really nice space that comfortably houses everyone. It comes with a kitchen, too, so it’s really handy. We’re planning on having my family’s party at our house on the 22nd. I think mom would have liked to have the party at her house but our house is bigger.

Hopefully, I have my voice back by then. These past two weeks have been ROUGH for me. I left work/home to drive up to Wal-Mart because I needed a few things and as I was walking into the store, I got THAT feeling. You know, THAT feeling when you start to feel sick? I can’t even describe THAT feeling … just an overall pressure/heaviness that weighs down your entire body. And it came on HARD. I had been feeling a little run down before that and had loaded up on Vitamin C, Zinc and Zicam but apparently it wasn’t enough to stop the freight train that slammed into my entire body. I quickly got what I needed from Wal-Mart and came back home. I felt ok-ish for the rest of the day but by Tuesday, my throat was really sore and I had a dry cough.

Swell.

Wednesday, my sinuses started to thicken up and my voice was raspy, but still, I thought I would feel better by Thanksgiving.

Nope.

I woke up Thanksgiving day and felt like a dog had dug me up and treated me like a beloved chew toy. Yum. We were supposed to have Kevin’s parents, my mom, the boys and Leroy over for Thanksgiving dinner. Kevin had cooked the turkey the day before, but he went ahead and cooked the entire meal, by himself, the day of (God bless him), and he ended up taking food to his folks and having lunch with them while the boys took my mom some food and had lunch with her. It was just me and my germs at home.

Still though, I had a dry cough, I could barely speak, but I didn’t feel that bad, overall. I wasn’t in any shape to be around people, but I wasn’t feeling that bad.

The week after Thanksgiving, my cough turned phlegmy, heavy and loud. I was glad, actually, that meant whatever crap I had caught was finally started to break up. My body had figured out the key to this sickness lock and I had turned a corner. Monday, I could talk but it sounded like I had a cold, Tuesday, it was a little weaker, but I started training the new girl that day and I talked ALL DAY so by the time Wednesday rolled around, I could barely speak above a whisper. I had to train her via text, which was fun … not. (Reminder – I work from home and my company uses Microsoft Teams to communicate with one another). I trained via text pretty much the rest of the week.

It’s a good thing I’m a fast typist. The new girl was being nice, she said she didn’t mind it because it slowed us down, and she was right about that! But still, I felt guilty. I’ve NEVER had laryngitis this bad in my entire life. I felt fine otherwise, I just couldn’t talk.

Friday, mom picked me up and we drove up to the Middle School to set up her Christmas craft booth. It was only a one-day event but we went up the night before to set it up. I was fine until about halfway through the set up and then a wave of nausea hit me so hard I had to go outside, around the corner of the building and throw up. I felt better for about 15 minutes and then, it started to hit me again. Mom said I looked pretty bad so she could tell I wasn’t feeling well, so we left. Mom has a harder time seeing at night, so I drove my dad’s truck back to my house. As soon as we got to my house, I said bye and rushed into the house, straight to our bathroom and threw up two more times.

Dude. I don’t know. Again, I’m NEVER sick so by this time, I’m getting pretty annoyed with myself. I don’t know if I ate something bad? Or if it was because I hadn’t eaten anything before going up to the school and I’ve been pretty sedentary because I’ve been sick and it was the sudden physical activity, or maybe it was because I sucked on a cough drop on an empty stomach, maybe it was a combination of all these things, but after emptying my stomach, I felt loads better and I feel good today.

I have A voice, it’s not MY voice. It still sounds like I have a stuffy nose but at least I can talk, people can understand me and my throat is no longer sore. I had heard, from other people at work, that a sickness has been going around and it was affecting people’s voice boxes … who knows. All I know is I’m glad I’m back to semi-normal and life has resumed once again.

The craft show on Saturday went well. I woke up Saturday, took a shower, got ready and started feeling nauseous again. AAARGH. I ate a piece of dried toast, took a Tylenol, laid down for about 30 minutes and felt like a new woman. Kevin dropped me off at the school shortly after the show started and I was able to sit with mom all day with no problem. Still couldn’t talk very loudly, but I could talk. There weren’t as many people there as we had hoped. It started out busy in the morning but by about 1:00 PM, traffic as practically nil. It was a beautiful day and a lot of people were out, but not a lot of people were at the school shopping for crafts. Overall, mom did well. She sold quite a few things, I sold some of my dorky diamond painting ornaments, my cute diamond paining cow picture and I ended up buying a super cute snowman from mom’s craft neighbor and friend.

I’m just glad I felt better and was able to sit with her. The show ended at 4:00 and we were packed up and driving away from the school by 4:20!! That has to be a record. Granted, I did move her truck up closer to the school about an hour before closing time and we lucked out and got a spot right outside the doors when it was time to leave but we timed it perfectly and kicked butt getting out of there.

Now, to get through the rest of the holidays.

I just wanted to post a little something-something to let ya’ll know I’m still here. I’m feeling the urge to write again but don’t worry, I’m sure it will go away like it usually does. Ha! I’m hoping to write a little more, if not consistently, in 2025, but you know me …

K – time to shift focus and get ready to clock on for work. Since I’ve been training I’ve been working 10:30 AM – 7:00 PM and I sort of hate it. Not the training part but the hours. This right-smack-dab-in-the-middle-of-the-day shift is for the birds. Not a fan. Boo!

Christmas is right around the corner … are you ready?!