Finally Friday....

It's finally Friday, but that also makes it the last day of November.  I sincerely don't know where this year has gone.  Each one goes faster and faster.  Slow down!!!

Joe and I have plans to go to Sam's Club after work.  He has a prescription ready and there are a few things we need to get, that we like to buy there.  I also need to gas the car, and Sam's usually has the best price in town.  

Tomorrow (Saturday), we may pop in on an estate sale.  I get a notice from a company that does estate sales for people.  They go into a home (or business) and put prices on everything, then open the house to the public.  Friday, prices are full price, cash and carry.  Saturday, anything left goes 50% off, also cash and carry.  The estate that is listed today and tomorrow, is in a wealthy section of Lakeland, in an area where I will just be happy to see the inside of the house!  If we find a bargain, that would be a plus.  Joe is interested in this one, for some reason, so I'll take advantage of that and we'll see what is left when we get there!  A few years ago, we bought a refrigerator for the garage (for beverages & over-flow) for $50.00!!  Bargains are possible.

I decided to host my "girls" Christmas luncheon this year.  It's past my turn.  My "girls" group of girlfriends are all retired or not working, and don't have to take time off to hostess, but I need to take my turn.  I asked for Friday, December 14th off, and so far it looks like it is a go.  I need to decide what to make, but it will be fun for me.

Last year, I didn't bake one Christmas cookie.  I was really into Weight Watchers and doing well, and we didn't have company coming to help eat them.  In previous years, I would make five or six kinds of cookies.  This year, I want to be able to give cookies away, so am planning to bake five or six kinds again, and bought trays to use for gift giving.  The dollar stores are great places to find inexpensive cookie tins and trays!!  I also purchased gift bags there too.  We like the store called DEAL$ here in Lakeland.  They have a great variety of merchandise and food items for ridiculously low prices.

Not sure what else we will get into this weekend, but (as usual) it will have to include some cleaning and laundry time.  I hope to finish my Christmas cards, too.  Joe got stamps for me this week, so I have no excuse

Wishing you a good Friday evening and weekend ahead!!  Peace, love & hugs.

Thankful Thursday....

Thankful for a good night's sleep!

Thankful that my heel is already feeling better.

Thankful that I got a nice deposit put in the bank for work today!

Thankful that I don't feel like I'm catching a cold anymore!

Thankful that Joe wanted to go out for Chinese food tonight!

Thankful that tomorrow is Friday!!

Thankful, thankful, thankful!!!

Blah Wednesday....

If you saw my Facebook post this morning, you know that I stayed home from work today.

One of those nights when I just couldn't get to sleep.  I'm not worrying about anything, or concerned about anything.  It was probably because of the Mexican food I had for dinner, and/or the cold medicine I've been taking - maybe even the injection in my foot.  Who knows.  Anyway, I finally dozed off just before 3:00 and my alarm went off at 5:00.  I called in to take the day off, and went back to bed.

Feeling much better now, and I've been doing the stretching exercises for my foot, so it is feeling a little better.  It's sore in a different way, if that can make sense.  I'm walking better on it, so my knee isn't hurting as bad - bonus!

Hope your Wednesday has been better than mine, though I did start working on Christmas cards.  Printed the labels and got them stuck on.  I have cut our list down again this year.  Each year I knock some off - people we haven't heard from in years, other than at Christmas.  Kind of silly to trade cards and have no interaction at all during the year.  Is that bah-humbug of me?  I honestly don't think our card will be missed by those we have cut.

My sister sent me a birthday present and it came today - two weeks early!  What fun to have a box to open!!  She gave me an awesome purse (love it, Patti!) and a beautiful blouse.  There was also a package of pasta in the box, and the pasta is shaped like cats!  LOL  Not sure how that will feel to be eating cat heads, but I'm sure it will taste good!

Wishing you a good Thursday.  I'll go to work tomorrow.  Hope the sleep comes fast tonight!!  Peace, love & hugs!!

Ten-Thought Tuesday....

I'll give this a try and see if I make it....

1. Today is Board meeting day.  It went well, thank goodness!
2. My podiatrist says the bone spur on my heel is in a place to not cause pain (I saw the x-ray), so after ruling out a stress fracture, his diagnosis is plantar fasciitis .  He gave me a shot of cortisone, which hurt like the dickens, and stretching exercises to do, along with an ice pack at night for 20 minutes or so.  All doable.
3. Joe is at home today, with our heating and air conditioning guy.  We have to get a new air handler.  The last one was put in, in 1998.  Yikes.  Wish we hadn't bought the new furniture two months ago.  Sigh.  Hind sight is always 20/20.  True.
4. I put Christmas decorations up in my office yesterday afternoon.  I have a ceramic tree, a wreath on the door and a swag that says PEACE.  It's festive and makes me happy!
5. I need to drink more water.  Seriously, I do.
6. I work with amazing  people here at the Museum.  Amazing.  So blessed!
7. Our neighbors are going on a cruise next week.  We are watching their house and their two cats, Murphy and Millie.  Good cats and not a problem to walk next door for them.
8. We are going down to Naples the weekend before Christmas, Friday to Sunday.  Our same neighbors will be taking care of our fur-children while we are gone.  Blessed again, with good neighbors.  Happy to spend some of the holiday time with Grandson Tristan, and Granddaughter Lauren will also be home!!  (We were invited for Christmas, but this will work better.)
9. Still waiting to hear from the Orthopedic office about my synvisc.  Maybe by tomorrow.
10. Wishing you all a great afternoon and evening, and a good tomorrow!

Peace, love & hugs.

Monday Evening....

I am late getting to the computer tonight.  Had a busy day at work, with no time to pop on Facebook or Blogger.  Meeting after meeting followed by getting payroll done and working the doctor appointments in.... just one of those days.

The orthopedic doc had me get xrays before the appointment.  She told me that my knee has no cartilage left and is now bone-on-bone.   I need another shot of synvisc.  http://synviscone.com/  I've had two, and this last one has lasted nearly nine months.  Six months is the usual.  Anyway, my insurance company now requires authorization before I can get another shot, so I am waiting on that.  They will get me in ASAP when they get the okay.  Sigh.  She offered me a cortisone shot to get me through, but too much cortisone isn't good - not to mention I really don't want two needles in my knee.  One will be quite enough.

Then she told me that I do indeed have a heel spur - a huge heel spur.  It is so bad that she didn't want to risk making it worse - not her specialty - so I see the podiatrist tomorrow morning.  Not sure what he will do, but I have to get some relief.  They did give me some gel inserts for my shoes, which will hopefully take some of the pressure off.  Fingers crossed.  I'll let you know what I find out tomorrow.

As for an eventual knee replacement - she told me to keep getting the synvisc as long as it does the job for me.  She said knee replacements are barbaric and horribly painful - the hardest surgery they do....her words.  She advised me to put it off for five or six more years if I can.  It takes 6-8 weeks to recover.  I like her advice.  She said when it gets so bad that I can't get out of bed in the morning - then get the surgery.  Kind of surprised me, because I know they have made some good progress with orthopedic surgeries, but I guess this one is still tough.

So, that's my news for today.  I did make some yummy soup with the rest of the turkey.  I have enough for lunch tomorrow, too!  YUM.

I have some company on the sofa tonight.  Joe is in his man-cave, watching Eagles football, while I watch Dancing With The Stars.  This is Onyx and Lilly....

Wishing you a good Tuesday!  Peace, love & hugs.

Thanksgiving Sunday....

I have had a great day.  Slept late, made breakfast for us, read the paper, and had a couple of cups of coffee to get the day started.

We went to Lakeside Village and did a little Christmas shopping, then went to the movies and saw 'Lincoln'.  Very powerful and a different look at Lincoln and his life and the politics behind Amendment 13 and the end of the Civil War.  Quite interesting, actually.

After the movie, we popped into Saigon Bistro for a late lunch.  We will munch on leftover turkey sandwiches shortly.  The end of a very nice four-day Thanksgiving holiday break!

Back to work tomorrow, but the housework and laundry are done, the house is decorated for Christmas and we will move on to the first Sunday of Advent!

Tomorrow is my appointment with the orthopedic doctor about my knee and my heel.  Wish me luck, please, and prayers are appreciated!!

Wishing you a good week!  Peace, love & hugs.

Saturday After Turkey Day....

The weekend is here, and it's so nice to have had two extra days off this week!

Joe got the outside lights finished, and I am finished with the Christmas decorating inside.  It feels good to have that done.  I am doing laundry today and we will go to the Saturday Vigil Mass at 4:00.  We are using a $10 off coupon for dinner tonight, at a local eatery called The Red Elephant.  It's not our favorite, but it's okay and even better with $10.00 off!  We also need to visit our local Ace Hardware for a few things.

Tomorrow, with the work all done, we are planning to go to the movies.  There are several out that we want to see, but "Lincoln" may win the toss for tomorrow.

Below are some photos of our Christmas decorations.  We aren't doing as much this year as we have in years past, but the house still looks festive.  Once it gets dark, I'll take a few shots outside, with the lights on.  Wishing you a good Saturday evening and Sunday!!  Peace, love & hugs.

 

Our Tree

 

Advent Candles

 

Banner outside - will have spot lights on it.

 

Banner on the light post

 

One of my most treasured holiday pieces.  My BFF Elaine made this for me years and years ago.  It is a music box, too, that plays Frosty The Snowman.  I love, love, love it!

 

Grandson Tristan gave this to us a few years ago.  It was hand carved in Bethlehem, from olive wood, and sits in our foyer during the Christmas holidays.

 

Our collection of Santas....

 

Our Angels and more snowmen sitting among other treasures...

 

Stockings for Cookie, Lucy and Lilly

Stockings for Joe, Terri and Onyx

 

The Wreaths I made for the front doors.

Got the night-time pictures, though Joe has a few bulbs that need to be swapped out.  We usually have done more than this, but this is enough.  We have a Nativity set and a star, and some spiral trees.... too much for us to mess with now.  We're old.  True!  LOL

Friday feels like Sunday....

I woke up this morning, and it felt like Sunday!  Then, it felt good to know that there are actually two more days before going back to work!!

Joe and I cleaned the house this morning, then started pulling the Christmas decorations down from the attic.  Made some good progress getting things out and placed around.  We have a Santa collection, a snowman collection and an angel collection.  I decided to leave the collectible Nativity set packed away.  Lilly is still a little clumsy jumping on things.  I don't want a piece to get broken.  We have a wooden nativity that is out, so we're covered for the true meaning of Christmas.  The tree isn't completely decorated yet.  I'll finish it tomorrow, and Joe will finish the outside lights tomorrow.  Will post some pictures then.

We're not expecting company for Christmas, but we will be very busy the week between Christmas and New Year's Day.  My cousin, Stacy, her husband Tunney and their two girls will be at Disney that week.  Our nephew Jim, his wife Mary and their two kids will also be at Disney that week.  Our nephew Lou, his wife Peggy, their girls and two friends will be down that week for a soccer tournament, too.  Hoping they can stay for New Year's Eve, but we don't know yet.  It's nice to anticipate seeing family!

I put a turkey breast in the crock pot this morning, so we had turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberries and corn for our dinner.  It actually tasted better than all that food at the country club yesterday.  We have leftovers for tomorrow!!  Hooray!


 





We are watching "A Christmas Story" tonight.  One of my favorites!  Will follow it with "A Christmas Vacation"....getting the season started!

Wishing you a good evening and Saturday!  Peace, love & hugs.

Food Coma....

We have had a lovely, lazy day!  Our Thanksgiving dinner (lunch) was at a local country club.  They put on quite a spread for their Thanksgiving Buffet.  I can't begin to tell you all the different foods, but the salad tables had every kind of salad you might want, as well as sliced raw veggies.  The second group of tables had cheeses and crackers, lunch meats, shrimp, smoked salmon and sushi.  The "main" tables had rice, pasta, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, roasted potatoes, green beans, mixed broccoli and cauliflower, fried chicken, baked chicken, baked salmon, fried fish, turkey and gravy, roast beef and ham.  There is no way one person could have eaten everything.  THEN, the dessert tables had red velvet cake, German chocolate cake, chocolate cake, brownies, bread  pudding, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, cheese cake... I'm sure I've forgotten something.  Food coma!

I will say that, as good as all of that was, I would much rather have cooked for a big family gathering right here at home.  I miss that.  We had our friends, Al & Helen, with us, and Helen's niece, Cheryl.  It is always nice to share the holidays with them, but we do miss having family here.

We talked with both of our 'boys', Jeff and Joey, and daughter-in-law Darlene. We spoke with both of my sisters and my grandma.  We spoke with Kathy and grandson Tristan.  It's nice to hear their voices.  Kathy invited us to come to Naples for Thanksgiving, but this is the weekend they decorate the house for Christmas, and we do too.  Kathy has been traveling for business most of the last three weeks.  We decided to decline.  We are going down for two nights, the weekend before Christmas.  That will be fun, and Lauren (granddaughter) will be home, too.

Time to get the PJs on and settle in for 'movie night'.  We're going to watch the original 'Miracle on 34th Street', with Natalie Wood, then (if we aren't ready to sleep) our 2nd favorite Thanksgiving movie...'Planes, Trains and Automobiles', with John Candy and Steve Martin.  I love both of those movies (and so does Joe).

Hope you had a great day!  I will put a turkey breast in the crock pot tomorrow morning, so we can have "leftovers"!  LOL  Wishing you a good Friday!!  Peace, love & hugs.

Thanksgiving Eve....

Wishing my fellow American friends a very blessed and happy Thanksgiving!!

Tuesday evening....

I am watching Dancing With The Stars.  The finals begin next week, so there are two eliminations tonight.  So far Apollo is gone.  Not surprised.  This has been a good season, though, with former champions competing.

Had a good day at work today, getting caught up on things that have slipped under the pile (so to speak).  It will be very quiet tomorrow.  I think more than half the staff have the day off, including the boss.  It will be good to finish a few more projects, hopefully!

Joe verified our reservations for Thanksgiving dinner at Eaglebrook Country Club.  I'm looking forward to it, though would much rather be cooking dinner for a whole bunch of family.

Well, Emmit and Cheryl were just eliminated.  I predicted yesterday (on FB) that the boys would be gone!  It will be a good finals show next week.

I don't even have a photo to share tonight, but I sure hope my friends who are traveling during the holiday, do so safely.  Those staying at home...I wish you a blessed day!

Have a good Wednesday!  Peace, love & hugs.

Thanksgiving Monday....

Monday is almost over and we are on to Tuesday... one day closer to having a nice long weekend.  Ahhhhhh!!

Some of my co-workers have taken the week off, since the schools are all closed this week.  We also had some kids using the small conference room for games and movies today.  That works just fine during a quiet week like this one.

Yesterday, our new little Lilly fell in the pool!  All of our cats (now), except Lucy, have been in the pool at least once.  Fortunately, cats are natural swimmers, even though most of them hate the water.  Each one has been able to get out, and run dripping into the house.  Usually, we've been able to grab each one with a beach towel and help dry them off.  Lilly went under the bed and no amount of coaxing  would get her out.  When she finally emerged, she was nearly dry, and pretended nothing happened.  LOL  They can be so funny at times.

All of the cats drink from the pool, and I think sometimes they just get top-heavy and 'dive' right in.  Onyx fell off the diving board once.  We had the diving board removed last year, but he liked to go out on the end and sleep...until he rolled off once.  The deep end is eight feet deep, but he got right out, on his own.

We have a pet door so the cats can go in and out (open only when we are at home), around the pool in the screened enclosure.  It's nice that they can have some outdoor space, without actually being "free".  This picture is of Lucy (blonde) and Lilly (gray).  You can't see the cat on the other side of the fence, but they were very interested in keeping another cat out of our yard!  

 
 Wishing you all a good Tuesday!  Peace, love & hugs!

Sunday evening...

As we head into our Thanksgiving week, I wanted to wish those who are traveling a safe trip and a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

I have Thursday and Friday off, and am looking forward to a short week!  We aren't traveling, and won't have family here, but we will enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with our friends, Al and Helen, and Helen's niece, Cheryl.

Today, I got laundry done, and finally tackled a month's worth of ironing.  DONE!!  I made a big pot of spaghetti sauce (gravy) yesterday, so we had some yummy left over pasta today.

Hope you have all had a good weekend!  Wishing you a good week ahead!  Peace, love, hugs, and giving thanks for your friendship!

Sweet Saturday....

My day started slowly - got up around 8:00 and had breakfast in our PJs.  I love PJ mornings!!

We got cleaned up and dressed, and headed out for our favorite Italian market, over in St. Petersburg - Mazzaro's.  We actually did a little Christmas shopping there, and Joe got some of his favorite sweets.

Then, we decided to have lunch at a place my blogging friend, Lisa Prause, told us about... Luke's Coney Island Hotdogs.  We had brats with spicy mustard, and brown cows!!  Haven't had a brown cow for years and years... who knows what a brown cow is?

After lunch, we drove into Tampa, to the Hyde Park Art Center for their arts & crafts show.  Our friends, Becky and Matt Larson, had their Airstream Boxfotos Studio there.  They were surprised to see us and gave us a tour of their studio on wheels.  Matt is a photographer and Becky uses pinhole cameras and mixed media for her art.  Lots of fun seeing them there.

We left Tampa, heading for Lakeland, and decided to stop in Plant City, at a store called Southern Hospitality.  They have furniture, baskets, silk flowers, pottery, a framing studio, arts and crafts supplies....a bunch of everything.  We hadn't been there for a year or so.  It was fun walking through.  I bought some ribbon, to make bows for the wreaths I put together a few weekends ago.

Stopped at Publix for some groceries before coming home to crash!  LOL - a busy but fun Saturday!

Luke's Coney Island Hotdogs, was full of Michigan sports memorabilia.

 

 A brown cow is a root beer float, with vanilla ice cream - yummy!

 The Boxfotos Airstream - Becky & Matt's rolling studio.  Check out their website:  http://boxfotos.com/

Joe and Becky.

 All the tents at the arts & crafts fair.  Lots of interesting stuff,

 but nothing that we needed to buy.

Wishing you a good Sunday!!  Peace, love & hugs.

Celebrating 20 Years....

Today, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of my friend and co-worker, Palemeschia (Pal).  I was able to get her first supervisor to come, and the husband of a co-worker who passed away a few years ago.  Lunch was wonderful, the cake delicious and Pal felt blessed.  There were 20 of us.  She got presents and a giant card with photos taken through the years.  It was great fun, and I enjoyed organizing it for her.

I am already looking forward to not setting the alarm tonight.  Tomorrow, we may head over to St. Pete, for some shopping at Mazzaro's Italian Market.  There is also an arts and crafts show in Hyde Park, and we know two of the artists, so we may stop in there.....or we may stay home.  We'll see how the spirit moves us tomorrow!  It's been a very busy week.

Pictures from the luncheon party follow.  Wishing you a good weekend!  Peace, love & hugs.

Gems & Jewels Artist Market & Holiday Soiree...

Good Thursday evening!  Actually, it's Friday eve!!  Hooray!

I had a very productive day at work today, and got my financial reports finished!  Another hooray!

The Gems & Jewels Artist Market had steady traffic all afternoon, which was great!  The Vintage Holiday Soiree started at 6:00, with some yummy finger foods and a cash bar.  We had 88 RSVPs for it, and by 7:30 there were 127 people!  It was a very successful event!

I had a great time catching up with some people I hadn't seen in a long time.  I also ran into one of my fellow church women, and she told me that our rummage sale last weekend made over $4,000!!  Wow.

I took some photos before most of the crowd arrived.  I also made a couple of purchases from two different artists.

Hope you have had a good day, and I wish you a Friday that goes by quickly so the weekend arrives early!  Wouldn't that be nice!  LOL

Peace, love & hugs.

 

Both of these trees are full of hand-made ornaments, for sale.

 These next photos are of the artists, set up and ready for customers.

 These two shots are of our gift shop.  It also did quite well today!

 Co-workers, Terry (our gift shop manager), Sandy (our PR & Marketing Manager), 

and Lisa (our Membership Manager)

 

Sandy, me, and Lisa

Our entertainment for the evening - he played some holiday songs along with a good mix of other songs.  It was very nice having the live piano music.

Festival of Trees....

We had a lovely time, yesterday, going to the Orlando Museum of Art to see their Festival of Trees.  There were only six of us, and one person has an eight passenger Durango - she drove for us, so we only had to have one vehicle!  That worked out great.  I volunteered to drive, but wasn't looking forward to it.  I don't like driving in Orlando, unless I just have to.  A couple of times a year is enough!

After touring the galleries, full of trees, I also spent some money in the gift shop.  Only two things for me, and the rest are Christmas gifts, so I didn't feel too guilty!  We left the Museum and went into Winter Park for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory.  No, we didn't eat cheesecake, but I had a great Cajun burger and sweet potato fries!

Maggie got us back to Lakeland safely, and bless her for driving!  Below are the photos I took of some of the trees, and a couple of the dozen or so gingerbread houses.   This is just a sample of what they had, and all were for sale (or had been sold).  They also had a gallery full of wreaths and table decorations for sale.  I didn't get photos there - too many people in a narrow space.  (Notice the tree made out of Tupperware bowls!)

Today is our quarterly Investment Review Committee meeting, at lunchtime, and I am working on the October statements and financial reports.  Wishing you a good Wednesday!  Peace, love & hugs.