Thank you CriticalMass 🙂

Well, it had been so long since I had looked at or even thought about my EE bonds that I was mistaken.
They were 1000.00 not 100.00
Anyways...
I cashed in all six of them and have an envelope with 11,047.20 now.
I made 8,047.20 in interest over the years from my 3,000.00 investment.
I got a "Take&bake" pizza that is in the oven now and I have a Pepsi to go with it.
Thin crust, pepperoni, mushroom & black olive.
It snowed a little bit.
Teeny tiny little snow flakes that blew around in the wind like fine sand.

Meant to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY TILLIE! 😊

Thank You All for the bday wishes 😀

Hi CriticalMass
WTG! for getting the doll clothes done!
Good luck with your organizing plans while roommate & dog are away.
Please find someone to answer your financial/disability questions. That would really help to ease some of your worry. (((HUGS)))

Hi Motown
😀

Hi Tatoulia
YEA! for taking out Mom's "trash", I guess.
Happy the can wasn't messy and "no harm, no foul".
Sorry she will never allow you off the hook. (((HUG)))

Hi Subclinical
Please spend the two days in bed and leave this nasty bug behind.
How is your iron level?
We do NOT want you getting anemic again.

Beautiful sunny day with a few high & scattered white fluffy clouds.
Yesterday I didn't feel like cooking so I just ate random junk while I watched online videos all day.
Been thinking that maybe I should cash in my EE savings bonds now and put the money in the safe?
I bought them about 30 years ago for my "old age".
It's not much, just six bonds bought at 100 each.
I wonder what they are worth now?
Still sitting here in bed drinking tea and have no idea what I'll be doing today yet.

Hi, sounds like most had a nice Christmas but SubC I hope that bug you've been fighting will decide to pack his bags and get outta town and not come back!

Tillie I have learned so much this year about cats and their territorial behaviors. Your guy who claims four beds is kinda like our boy, whose motto seems to be "What's mine is mine, and what's yours is mine."

Tatoulia, I saw on Facebook about Sister Wendy's passing. Lucky you for having the chance to meet her. My roommate's degree is in art history, and I took a few classes back in college. Makes me want to watch Sister Wendy's shows because I've only seen a few.

I'm finishing up the Barbie doll clothes and hope to deliver them today. We had a nice quiet celebration here. Got a large order of barbecue meats from our fave place and I had a package of butter flavor instant potatoes which weren't bad at all. Watched National Lampoon Christmas Vacation and Charlie Brown Christmas.

She is soon to depart for her family out of town and I hope to take advantage of the chance to pull a bunch of stuff out of my bedroom and put what goes back into some kind of order. Some items I'd hoped to work with - doll crafting mainly - I may decide to park in the storage unit. That and quiltmaking I sometimes get excited and gather a bunch of stuff then don't have time to get to. But keep hoping, and feel confident I will. But in the meantime it may need to be shifted so I can cope with the day to day in my limited space.

Also want to catch up with some writing and being in touch with friends I'd hoped to write Christmas cards/letters to but time ran out. Maybe just call them.

And of course there will be plenty to do riding herd on the two cats, four bunnies, and one frog. The dog goes with her and that's good because the scope of decluttering I want to do would be difficult to accomplish with him around.

So, happy last few days of 2018 to everyone. What a crazy ride it was. I'm thankful to be starting a new year in a little better shape with the van that actually runs. Now I just have to find ways to recover from the financial blows the old one dealt, one after another. Drained me dry, basically.

Hoping maybe selling stuff like the doll clothes will help until I can figure out if it's possible to have a steady income stream to make ends meet without jeopardizing the disability. It's sad to admit, but with no living family and the mental health issues that dog my heels, I'm beyond terrified ever to let go of that, shy of winning the lottery or something. My track record with jobs has been abysmal and thinking about relying on being 100% self supporting feels like tightrope walking the Grand Canyon. That's even assuming I could GET a full time job in today's market. People with flawless employment histories often can't.

Sigh. I need to find some people to talk to without being locked into anything too scary too quickly. The senior center maybe, or someplace. I had a bellyful of therapy in the past and really don't want to go down that rabbit hole anymore.

Okay, enough. Been carrying all this around in my head so I spewed. But must stay positive and not get discouraged. God's got my back, must have faith! Iced tea clinks!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TILLIE!!!!!
Hope you celebrate it just the way you want and have a nice peaceful day!
More later but just had to say that in case I don't get a chance back on here today.

Peace, love and happy birthdays!

Motown

Happy birthday, dear Tillie. You are dear to us.

SubC I do hope you can rest up. You poor thing! You haven't caught a break this winter, I'm afraid.

I am already late for work. I need to walk in to work since I am terribly sluggish from the holidays. And exhausted.

I brought some groceries and supplies to mom's last night. Mainly stuff I had but she needed, like butter and paper goods. I stopped to get some milk and bread. I got to her house around 10 PM and we visited for a moment then I took her garbage out and came home. Around 11:30 she called to find out what I'd done with her laundry. She'd gotten her laundry all together in a white plastic bag for her aide. Oops. Luckily the trash can was empty other than a new liner and no one had put more garbage on top.

Unfortunately mom will now use this to decide that whatever's missing was thrown out by me. She still challenges me weekly on things I moved when she was in hospital in 2017. Even Christmas Eve she was upset that I'd gotten rid of one of her bookcases. She had done that with me, but had forgotten, and I was able to remind her that we'd done that together in order to make room for a table for kitty to eat on (mom is unable to bend over to feed the kitty, so I bought an end table at a consignment shop. Works out perfectly for the two of them).

Ok I'll dry my hair now and make it look like I'm going to the office.

Happy birthday, Tillie.

Happy birthday Tillie!

Kids are gone except dd2. We're heading east with youngest in tow to see our birth families.

I am still very sick. Plan to spend the two days at his mother's house in bed so that I will hopefully be well for my family.

Hi Tatoulia

YEA! Miss Kitty's new bed!
Happy she is enjoying it.
My big orange tabby boy officially has 4 beds and he insists he needs all of them.
He does sleep in all of them equally too.
My cat "sleeps around". ')

So sorry you lost someone special to you (((HUG)))

Must be so quiet there in the building all alone.
Living in a big city it's not often you get to enjoy the sounds of silence.

When people would comment on my always being busy doing things I would always explain to them that I do so much so nobody will ever realize that I'm truly just very lazy.

This is the anniversary of the day I got my tiny little blue eyed white baby cat.

Tomorrow is my bday.
Today I watched a LOT on Youtube.
Right now I am watching "The Birds".

Still me. I've showered but not much more. Awaiting a package from fed ex. Must be a gift basket with champagne or wine as the phone message told me I need to have ID.

I'm very sad to learn that Sister Wendy, the art historian has died. I met her many years ago and she was just so dear.

I'll do some more work now and await my fed ex guy.

I forgot to mention that I shredded an entire folder of my brother's paperwork last week. I kept just enough out of that folder in case he tries to sue me at some point. I have plenty of other folders to go through.

Very quiet here. No one's in town and I'm the only one in my building. Kitty got a new bed and she's snuggled in it now. She doesn't need two beds so I'll have to decide what to do. I had just gotten rid of one of her beds and was blissfully down to one. This new one was a gift from a neighbor child. His mother uses my car to get him to and from school. Pretty sweet gift and the colors go with my house.

Hey it's me! Not late for work today, the opening at noon helped with that.

I am so tired. Mom called me a little while ago and said, I wish I had known you had a half day. I think she doesn't realize that I'm a sloth.

I just wiped up the kitchen and I changed kitty's boxand wiped up in bathroom. I hope cleaners can come next week. The house misses them.

I'm going to brew some coffee and take a shower and get dressed.

Great gift for husband! I love how Tillie worded it!

We ended up going to our favorite little spot and getting a chowder today. I'm still full from last night. I came home and slept, now up so I can go back to sleep. I'll feed kitty and take my pills. Already washed up and in pjs.

Work starts at noon tmr, which I think is pretty nice. I'll be working from here, but the soft opening will really help me along.

YEA! for three months of trash service!
Instead of being "the gift that keeps on giving"
that's the gift that keeps on taking. 😀
So nice you have your family with you (((hug)))

Hi Tatoulia
Enjoy your peaceful relaxed day (((hug)))

Merry Christmas all!

All my kids are here, and dh loved his gift.

Bright sunny cold day here. I'm finally out of bed and dressed. Going for a walk up to see BF then back to bed.

No garbage pickup til Friday. I will put my recycling in bin.

Good Morning Everybody

Hi Tatoulia
Yea! for having a lovely evening. 😀

Scooter is being crazy cat again this morning.
Keeps putting cat toys on me so I will toss them and he fetches them back, and so on...
Cold dark dreary with a mix of snow & rain.
Nice day to be inside doing whatever strikes my fancy.

Merry Christmas 🎄 🎄 🎄

Still in bed. We were out late last night great time at BFs. Food was delicious and it was a warm and wonderful time with Mom, BF and his neighbors.

Take and bake for birthday sounds perfect!

Hi CriticalMass

LOL SO TRUE ;D

If somebody wants to pay my bills
I happily give them permission to do so.

Been gently drizzling most all day.

Talked to Steven about the clothes.
Suggested that he looks through them all and throw away the really worn out/tattered ones and get rid of the ones that are not his size.
There was one Tshirt in the wash that would only fit a 10 year old boy but he bought it because it says "Grateful Dead".
He has lots of other Tshirts and regular shirts in his closet/dresser that he never wears so it's not like he really needs the worn out rags.
He dresses like a hobo/bum/homeless person.

Since Netflix is eliminating "The Shining" in January I'm watching it now.
The book was so much scarier.

Tillie, when you mention having to sign authorization for his pension, I'm reminded of a meme - hopefully the link will work

Good Morning Everybody
Iced chai masala "Clink!"

Hi Tatoulia
Hope all your baking plans have gone smoothly.
Have a wonderful time at BF's clean home. 🙂

Hi Subclinical
WTG! DS for sorting out and organizing the Lego bins.
Have a wonderful time with all your family, dogs too. 🙂

Hi CriticalMass
Wishing you a peaceful stress less holiday 🙂

Hi Motown
Enjoy all your holiday activities and keep dreaming about your brighter future. 🙂

Scooter has been being crazy cat this morning.
Running & jumping all around playing and singing.
I'm still sitting here in bed even though it's 10:30am.
Soon I will get up, shower & wash my hair.
Still have not decided what I want to eat on my bday.
We need to get to a notary for me to sign a form allowing automatic deposits to the bank account for his pension payments.
For some reason I have to authorize this transaction too, not just him.
We will probably do this on my bday since the holidays makes it hard to conduct business this time of year.
So since I will be in town that day I could easily get a "take & bake" pizza. ;P

Merry Christmas Eve to y'all!!!!
Working half a day and then off to cook pies and cornbread for dressing and then celebrate Christmas at my mom's this evening and then at my house tomorrow all day.
Hope all your Christmas wishes come true and each of you has a blessed day.

Will check in after Christmas.

Love all of y'all!

Merry Christmas everyone - going to Mass this eve and then again in the morning. That has been my pattern in recent years that makes it register in my mind and heart that it's really Christmas.

This month hasn't yielded as much time for quiet reflection and Bible reading as I'd hoped, but once again I'm extremely grateful not to have the seasonal depression. It'll be okay.

The preparations are getting down to the wire and even though ours are simple, I can feel my ADD disorientation kicking in, and am praying I won't start stressing. The gal I'm doing the Barbie clothes for said don't worry, between Christmas and New Years is fine, which helps. Because they aren't done! Hoo boy!

Good morning!

Still sick, but I woke up hungry, the cough is a lot better, the head is barely stuffy, and the coffee actually tastes good today.

Yesterday dd1 came over on her own and baked cookies all afternoon, so my house is full of cookies (and also covered in dog hair, which I do not like, but I love my kids and I like their dogs, I am just not a dog person. I can vacuum later.)

The kids have really been wonderful to me. Other people have been keeping up with all the dishes and food and I have been keeping up with washing spilled on tablecloths and post muddy walks doggy towels.

Today ds is going to visit some of his local friends. Deli might stay here and work on the puzzle, because she doesn't like some of them, it will depend on what group gets together. Dd2 also has friend plans, so dd1 is not coming over. She has an in-law event this evening anyway. I'm hoping to use the window to finish wrapping the presents for tomorrow.

Ds has been sorting through our many bins of legos making them more usable (dividing out pieces needed to build special kinds of sets from standard blocks) and finding lots of things mixed in that weren't actually legos. We even have a plastic grocery bag of non-standard knock off blocks to donate and a race track set to give to d❤️Gs.

Tillie, I hope you enjoy your quiet day and that Steven respects your laundry.

Tatoulia,
Have a lovely dinner!

Do what you enjoy, Tillie! We will be at BF's very clean house! Fingers crossed my meal goes well.

I haven't finished baking. I went to sleep after being at mom's.

I rubbed it in. I wanted some decent protein and I got it. So delicious. Would have loved for you to be here with me.

Hi Tatoulia

Yep, the laundry is not done until it's put away.
You have really been doing fantastic with doing the laundry from start to finish.
Really makes life a lot easier when stuff is where it should be and smelling fresh.

YEA! for royal icing success!

Yeah, rub it in that you had a shrimp po'boy. ;P

So is everybody who does XMas all ready?
Wishing you all peace joy and love.

For me, life will continue on as just another day.
Some people find this hard to accept but this truly is the way I have always wanted it to be. 🙂

You are a saint, Tillie.

One comment about the laundry reminded me how I used to leave it draped on a chair. Then the clean would mix with the dirty, and other things would fall to the floor, then because my house was dirty, I'd wash it all over again and keep the laundry draped on my chair, on a dresser, etc. since you've all taught me to wash and fold and put away, I have no such problems any more. I do hope he puts it away. And takes the rest to the laundromat.

I consistently try to reinforce my good habits. I have to.

Fun at mom's decorating the pre-made gingerbread house. OH I just love my new kitchenaide mixer!! I made the royal frosting here, and put it into tubes here, and brought the tubes over in a large ziplock. Great fun and it turned out absolutely beautifully. I brought home her two dish towels I used to protect the table, since that dried royal frosting is akin to cement. I'm also running the dishwasher right now.

I just had a shrimp po'boy and I'm going to nap for a bit. I'm the only one in the building; last person left yesterday. I can pretend it's my own house for a while.

I'll be making a cake tonight and pumpkin bread. After my nap.

Hi Tatoulia

So very glad that cold didn't linger on. 😀
People in a school environment seem to always get some nasty viruses.
My brother (high school English teacher) always had something.

YEA! for BF and his cleaning fairies!

Have fun with all your baking and decorating.

Accepted the fact that the only way I would ever get that nasty funky dirty old smell out of the house
was to wash his laundry.
He refused to do it.
Did one load of white socks & underwear
two loads of shirts and
two loads of trousers.
The house finally smells clean.
Now he had better respect all the hard work I did and when they are dry put them all away properly rather than the usual just tossing them all in a big heap with dirty clothes.
Right now they are all on hangers & drying racks in his bedroom.
He needs to take his sheets & blankets & heavy cotton robes to the laundromat & wash them.
The house machine can not handle all the cat fur & etc. on them.

I can smell the breakfast from here SubC. Mind if I stop by? I'm glad the kids did most of the work! Congratulations on having a party! It's still a lot of emotional and mental work and you did it! My cold is gone. This was the first "successful" cold I've ever had. Hope this is a start of a trend for me. I drank a lot of vitamin C and zinc and a lot of juice. I also kept walking three miles a day. I can't say this was the magic combination but next door I'll test this theory. I'm also not around kids and work from home a chunk of the time. At the office, since I don't have a desk, I sit in a desk that is not near anyone. And I sit in a department that is sparsely populated. My own department is too noisy and I'm not perfectly crazy about everyone.

Tillie I bet you are sore. I hope you took your bath and cuddled up with a cat or a book! I've read a lot about Bird Box! You are so brave.

So BF loved the work the cleaners did. He is now thinking of having them do a deep clean of his office. His office is cleaned nightly but now he's seeing what he doesn't see. There were three people who showed up yesterday, the regular two ladies and the husband of one. They may have had a commercial job coming up that day or they may have felt safer with the husband there. In any event BF was thrilled and now sees the importance of having them at least once a month. He also wants me to get them back over to mom's.

We made a lot of changes in my life this year. I cannot thank you enough for getting me to this place. Where will you take me next year??

Tillie I baked brownies last night in my house-shaped pan. I will decorate it later. I still need to make pumpkin bread and a cake.

I am going to mom's soon to decorate a gingerbread house. Then I need to get back to the grocery store as we are both woefully low on kitty food. I had walked to the grocery store last night and was limited by the number of things I could carry. As it turned out, BF called and offered to pick me up. At that point, I'd already checked out.

Good Morning Everyone

Hi Subclinical
So happy you all had a good time!

Please take advantage of this holiday vacation to get enough rest to shake that darn cold.
(((HUG)))

Cold dark and drizzly day so far.
Plan to cook some food and clean the kitchen.
The cats are happy with the house being cleaned.
They really never make much of a mess anyways.

Hi Tess!
The spa sounds lovely.

Tillie, I am very glad you hit your car back. I hope your hard work lasts a while.

Hi Tatoulia! Enjoy your holidays!

We had a wonderful party here last night. The "kids" from both families did the heavy lifting, but I am completely wiped out.

My cold has decided to never get better.

But my son is here, making breakfast.

Good Afternoon Everybody

HI TESS!
YES! spend the day at a spa!
Wonderful gift for yourself.

Hi Tatoulia
What are you baking?
Yea! for getting in exercise while you do errands.

Was starting to post this morning but the computer insisted on doing updating.
Anyways, I have spent the WHOLE day cleaning house.
Got everything done except dusting the wood furniture.
Too sore to do any more today so I will dust the furniture tomorrow.
But EVERYTHING else has been washed and/or vacuumed.
Hated every minute of doing it but I'm so happy it's been done.
I warned him about all the filthy messes he made and that he had better STOP.

Need to eat soon, take a shower and go to bed.
It's only 4:00pm