Catching Up Part 4

I can't believe it's January 28th and I'm still talking about Christmas.  Just goes to show how far behind I actually got.  Sheesh!

Despite all the December problems, I actually had a lot of fun.

It was the park's first Winterfest and working it was a joyful experience.  It rained RAINED practically the entire month of December (except for that rare blizzard we got) which was disappointing, but when the weather cooperated, Winterfest was a blast.

We had Craft Day in the office and made paper snowflakes and ornaments for our tree. Some of us were much better at cutting out snowflakes than others. The tree's star was made out of money straps.

I had told my boss that I needed two nights off during Winterfest.  One so that I could attend Winterfest as a guest and attempt ice skating, and the other to recover from the broken leg I was going to have from attempting to ice skate.  Being the good boss that he is, he complied.  (Although he did tell me I could work on crutches.)

Luckily, I did not break a leg.  Or any appendage, for that matter.  But I'm also not sure you can call what I was doing 'skating.'  Sarah and I were crying laughing at my pitiful attempts, which were made even more embarrassing by the fact that no less than 98 employee friends happened by and waved or shouted out to me as I 'skated' around the rink.  But despite the resulting sore muscles and embarrassment, we had a great time.

Next, we made our way to the living nativity scene so that I could pet the camels.  You actually got to pet and feed the camels!  (And goats, donkeys and a cow.)

We did a little shopping while we were there and we each bought a few gifts.  Okay, okay.  I bought things for myself.  They had quite a few small artists/creatives set up craft-fair style plus all the park shops that normally sell t-shirts and stuffed animals were selling Christmas decor and giftables.  I was quite impressed with it all.

I fell in love with this paper Christmas tree but couldn't begin to afford it.  It's made entirely of rolled up paper.  One of these days, I'm going to dig out all my scrapbooking paper and attempt to make my own.  (I knew there was a reason I was hoarding keeping all those boxes of paper.)

Winterfest was a blast but eventually our feet began to hurt, the skating muscles started to catch up with us and thankfully, it was closing time.  (Yeah, we had to leave because the park was closing, not because we were out of shape.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

Since I didn't have to spend my second day off hanging out in the ER, Sarah and I took our annual Christmas lights tour.

We hit all our usual stops, got out and walked around at the James Center, and found several new houses that had been added to the Tacky Lights Tour this/last year. (Christmas, 2018.  I really should have shared this a lot sooner.)  And, I'm proud to say, we didn't get lost.  Past years, we've always ended up lost in some neighborhood and it takes us 30 slightly panicky minutes to find our way out.  We may have finally mastered the use of a GPS!

National Dog Day

It's National Dog Day, a day to celebrate and acknowledge the importance of the dogs in our lives.  I'd be lost without my fur-ball, four-legged children.

Max

Minnie

 And because he knows he's the favorite,

National Sister's Day

It's National Sister's Day and I'm shouting out to the best sister a girl could have.

She may be ten years older and growing up, was frequently more like a mom than a sister, but she's the best!  Thanks for always being there for me, Cary.  Thank you for never killing me for playing in your makeup, thank you for allowing me to tag along on a few of your dates, and thank you for introducing me to 'real' music such as the Stones, Three Dog Night and Crosby, Stills & Nash long before my peers were tuning in.  You helped shape my life in ways you'll never know.

The scary part of this holiday is, how is it possible that the most recent photo I have of the two of us together is from the fall of 1980 when I went off to college? And why was I taking all those plants with me?

Bitter old woman

I'm quickly turning into a bitter old woman.

courtesy of clipart-library.com

As of Monday, I stopped putting sugar in my coffee.

My husband, who is normally a firm believer in adding bacon grease & a about a half a cup of salt to every single thing he eats was apparently hypnotized by some food/diet related TV show he watched a few weeks ago.  For a little over a week the only, and I mean ONLY thing he would talk about was wheat belly and how bad sugar is for you and then he'd morph into a rant about processed foods.  He even brought home gluten free bread.

By the way, gluten free bread is not bread.  It's a cinder block. The reason it's better for you & you don't gain weight from it, or it doesn't make you sick, or what ever the hell it is that gluten supposedly does to you is because you won't actually eat it.

But back to the coffee.... I've been married to my dear sweet husband long enough to know that his little food obsession-melt down wouldn't last long.  But, being the worrier that I am, all I could think was, what if he does loose weight?  I must not allow him to be the healthy, skinny one.

So I decided to give up the sugar in my coffee.  Giving up my sweet coffee shouldn't be that big of a deal.  I used a little less than a teaspoon per cup. I doubted I'd really even notice the difference.

For the most part, I haven't noticed the difference.  At least, I don't notice the difference in each cup of coffee.  What I have noticed is the amount of coffee I'm drinking.  Before, with sugar, I was drinking close to two pots of coffee a day.  Now, without sugar, I get about half way through the third cup and all I really want is water.

You'd think that would be a good thing right?  But, damn if I'm not waking up extra early every morning with a killer caffeine withdrawal headache.

I swear, I'm turning into a bitter old woman.

#30DayChallenge results

I have never, ever, in my entire life, ever been so glad to see February roll around.

Remember my #30DayChallenge to not do any impulse shopping during the month of January?  Well, I survived.  Barely, but I did survive.  I even kicked it up a notch.  Originally, it was only going to be no impulse spending.  But I did so well, or I was so badly tempted, depending on how you look at it, that I didn't do any shopping at all.  Well, that's not true.  I just decided that I had to 'report' all pennies spent, not just the impulse ones.

You'd think I'd be over here rolling in dough like,

Borrowed from theodysseyonline.com

 I did really well.  Even counting my purchase of Woodsmoke, a collection of cable patterns from Knit Picks, I only spent $46.07 the entire month of January.  That even includes groceries!  Granted, my husband picked up bread & milk a few times, we've eaten bean soup three times in the last two weeks, and the only thing left in our pantry now is a rusted can of water chestnuts and a half a jar of cake decorating sprinkles.

Borrowed from boingboing.com

I should be sitting on piles of money after only spending $46.07 all month.  But nope,

Borrowed from comfytownchronicles.com

there's the matter of my daughter and her schooling.  The $46.07 doesn't count things like the electric bill or my daughter's educational expenses.  She's almost finished her EMT program and over the last few weeks, she's had to buy (i.e. I had to pay for,) not only a gazillion dollars worth of text books but also her own stethoscope, blood pressure cuff and the EMT uniform (2 of them) required for her class & ambulance ride-along adventure.

Good grief! It looks like I picked a good month not to spend any money.

I really can't complain though.  By mid August, she'll be debt free and done with school.  All those meals of bean soup won't seem so bad then.