A Week in the Life of

I'm still finding my way around these posts. They are essentially what happened in the last week. I haven't really had an order to them yet. I just went through my "A Day in the Life" posts to see if I had anything to talk about this week. I'm not going to rehash my Instagram posts, you can follow me on there if you want to see my post a day.

Monday night we didn't have much to walk so I searched for a movie. If I don't already know of a movie, I just pick one of the streaming services or on demand and go through it until we find one. We ended up watching Unknown, I believe it was on Netflix. It stars Liam Neeson and we hadn't seen it so we figured why not. It wasn't anything special but it was a decent movie. Enough to entertain us for just under 2 hours.

Had Taco Bell this week. If you don't know my history with Taco Bell, here's a quick reference. Used to love it, had it all the time (see my stats post). Last year they took a bunch of stuff off their menu, including most of my usual order. Haven't been going there nearly as much but my wife likes the Queserito so I would just grab some chili cheese burritos. The problem with that is her order can only be ordered through the app, not a problem, use it anyways, but the chili cheese burritos aren't on the app, no idea why. So basically I get annoyed every time I go there because I have to do an online order as well as one at the drive-thru. When I get to the last window, they'll hand me one order and I always have to explain that the next one is mine as well. Like I said, it was just annoying.

Well this week when we grabbed it, I noticed a Club Chalupa and tried it. It was pretty good so I can order that now instead of having 2 orders. They also announced that they were bringing back their Cheesy Fiesta Potatoes which is one of the items they took away that I liked. So my Taco Bell intake is looking up. I just hope the Club Chalupa isn't a promotional, it wasn't listed there on the app so I think it might be a regular menu item.

I pass a mall on the way home from work and it's a dead mall (see above). A really dead mall. There are only a few stores left in it besides the anchors (JC Penny and Hobby Lobby). There are supposed to be 4 anchor stores and even 2 of those are empty. Basically, it makes it nice to walk, not many people and warmer than walking outside right now. I see more mall walkers than customers. I ended up walking 3 days last week. I started Tuesday, went back on Wednesday. Thursday my sister-in-law and niece were visiting my wife so I came straight home after work to see them. My wife tends to visit all of her family in the middle of the week while I'm at work so I don't see them often. My mom ended up meeting me out there and we walked on Friday. I went over 2 miles each day which is my goal, for now. 

Part of the problem I have with walking at home (other than it's winter right now) is by the time I get home, I just want to shower and relax so I talk myself out of walking. That's the main thing on why this mall walking might be good for me. We'll see how long I sustain it though, because to be honest, I really don't enjoy walking.

We had to work yesterday (Saturday) and I might have stopped there on the way home but I had made plans to have lunch with my youngest daughter. Her girlfriend and my wife, neither care for Hacienda and we both like it so we tend to go there. It's the second time we've done it, I'm going to try to make it a regular thing. Every month or two or something. Otherwise, I don't see her much as she doesn't visit us much more. Even though she is in the area all the time. Damn kids!

I ended up walking 7.75 miles at the mall this week. Hopefully I can make it a regular thing since last time I went to the doc, for the first time I was over 300 lbs. Being 6'3" helps we wear it better than most but I would like to get rid of some of my gut. I've been pretty steady in the 290's for a long time so it's not like I put on a ton of weight but there's something about that number, 300 pounds just seems like a lot.

Not to much going on at work. The city surprised us with an inspection on Wednesday. During our Q&A, he mentioned that he only schedules us for an hour because he knows the walk through never takes long because we are always on point. He said some places he goes he has to schedule 4 hours. Everything went well, he even contacted our EHS coordinator and told her that he was impressed with our staff (which is me and our EHS person) so that's always good to hear.

The wife and I went out Friday night, it seems to be becoming a regular thing where we drop my son off at work and than go to 5-Guys burger and fries (they have curb side pick-up) and than we just sit in the parking lot in our car and have supper. Afterwards we run down to Steak 'N Shake and grab a couple of shakes, and again, sit in the parking lot and have our dessert. It really is the perfect date night for us. We enjoy the food and I would rather sit in the car, listen to our tunes and enjoy a meal than be stuck in a restaurant where people are annoying and it's usually loud so you can't really talk that well. My wife has issues with a lot of noise, it makes it hard to focus when there is a lot going on so it's a nice date night for us. We can even stay in our PJ's which is what we tend to do. Don't worry, our PJ shirts are regular shirts so you won't notice unless you see our PJ bottoms.

Not sure how much this will continue though because my son is taking his driver's test on Tuesday. Hopefully, he'll pass it so we don't have to drive him anymore. The taking him isn't a big deal. The picking him up between 10 and 11 pm is because on work nights, I'm in bed around 10 and my wife has trouble driving at night. She goes and gets him, luckily traffic isn't really bad and it's not real far. Her eyes have issues with the lights coming at her as they don't dilate very quick so she can't go from darkness and than a light in her face.

I guess that's all for last week. No real plans as of this week other than my son's driving test. Hopefully see you all back here next week.

New Family Member

I didn't post one of these posts last week because I did my annual stats post which takes some time to set up but I did post. I just went back and looked at my posts in January each year and it's usually higher than most months. The last few years it's been almost half the posts that I put out for the year so I'm guessing I usually tell myself this year, I'm going to make sure I post and by the time February hits, I've stopped. Hopefully this year will be different.

One thing I have been doing so far this year, is using my Instagram account. I send out daily Snaps on Snapchat to my daughter and my mom (called streaks) so I said how hard would it be to take a daily photo on Instagram, so that's what I'm doing. I used to have a widget over there on the right side but it stopped working awhile ago. I tried updating it but apparently everybody wants money for it so screw them. I'll just post the content right here. I do encourage you to go to my Instagram and follow along. You can click the Instagram icon above this paragraph to go to it. So here's getting you caught up since the 1st, next week, I'll just do the past week.

January 1st we had freezing rain and the 2nd it all got covered with snow.

     

January 3rd is our cat in her princess pose, January 4th I had to go back to work.

January 5th was my first Tuesday morning Taco Bell breakfast, the 6th we brought home a new dog.

January 7th is our cat again, in her daily position on my recliner, the 8th I tried to visit my daughter at work.

Yesterday, the 9th, I wore my new hoodie.

As you can see, nothing really exciting but a little look into my life. I haven't taken a photo for today yet so I guess you'll see that next week or on Instagram later.

Milo, Duke, Kitty and Trevor

On Monday, we drove to Michigan City to see "Dude" at the local human society. We were looking for a companion for our dog Milo. We wanted someone that would play with him but also be a pretty chill dog as we have a pretty quiet household. On Tuesday morning, we got the call that we were selected to take him home so we drove out again to pick him up. We took Milo with us so they could meet and that went well but they really wanted us to bring 2 cars to take him home. Well, it's an hour drive and because of my wife's MS, she can't drive at night because her eyes don't react quick enough to the lights coming at her. So we took my son and told them we'll be good, we brought the teenager to separate them if we need to so we eventually talked them into letting us bring him home. They both pretty much laid on each side of him all the way home. You wouldn't have even known there were dogs in the car.

He's a German Shepherd/Lab mix. He is a pretty sweet guy, he likes to cuddle more than Milo. Although we did have to change his name, we didn't want to because if he's used to a name, it would be cruel to change it but we couldn't leave it Dude because my wife uses that word so we change it to Duke so it sounded the same and he wouldn't be confused. 

My wife has occasional doubts on whether it was the right decision or not. She's a very clean person, likes things orderly and in their place and Milo was pretty good about that, Duke, not so much. When he drinks he walks away from his bowl and drops water all over the place. He licks himself on the couch and leaves big wet spots so stuff like that just drive her nuts. We moved all the squeaky toys downstairs and kept the noise free, rope ones up here because they like to tug against each other.

They've been good for each other though and Milo is definitely playing a lot more than he was which is good for him. 

Ignore my wife's meds.

That's what has consumed our week so far, it's starting to get into a normal routine more and more each day and than we won't even think about it.

A Week in the Life of Me

Not too much going on so this may be a quick post, it may not, once I get typing, you never know.

We watched the season finale of the Mandalorian yesterday and it was pretty awesome. I hope Disney does just as well with their other Star Wars shows they plan on putting out. I don't want to spoil it but the ending of the finale was so cool, and was such a good ending. I can't wait to see what the next season entails.

We're in the middle of the final season of Homeland. They finally put it on Hulu with the rest of the seasons. We may even finish that this weekend. Other than that, a lot of the other stuff we watch is on winter hiatus. None of my sports teams are even on for another week, Christmas day at that.

At work, we finished a 5S project that we've spent the last month working on. I got volunteered for the the project, I think, because we were doing the battery/chemical storage room and the majority of the chemicals in that room are mine. We got all kinds of compliments about how great it looked now. We'll see how long it stays that way. 

I'm officially a 5S Champion now.

We we're supposed to meet every day for half an hour and work on the room and there was originally supposed to be 4 of us but the team member from one department quit right away. Another department's guy would show up every day, 10 to 15 minutes late and than leave right at the end of the half an hour. Me and another guy would be there almost an hour a day working on it. On Friday, the day of recognition, where they brought in management to see what we did, the late guy was there before me and I'm always early. Pissed me off but I didn't say anything, I just look like the asshole if I do.

I guess where I work is changing their logo so now I'm going to have a lot of clothes that are outdated. That's alright, because other than a couple of hoodies, everything with their logo on it I wear to work anyways. I've accumulated quite a few things with their logo in the 6 1/2 years I've been there. The basic shirt is the logo on the front top left and the core values on the back. I have 5 gray ones and 3 black ones of that. I have a red volunteer shirt, a green company picnic one and 2 black breast cancer ones. I also have 2 hoodies that I love, because they fit great and are so comfortable. I wear one back and forth to work in the winter and the other I wear around the house (I have it on now). All that doesn't include the keychain, backpack and multiple hats. The nicest thing about having all those is I didn't pay anything for them, they were all given to me so I can't complain about that. Next week is the last week before Christmas so I'm curious if they'll give us something else. The last 3 years were the hoodies and last year was a hat. With the way this year has gone though it wouldn't surprise me if we didn't get anything but they did go around asking everyone their shirt size awhile back so we'll see.

As busy as we are this year, we didn't get our usual 2 weeks off at Christmas but I had enough time saved up to take the last week off so after the 3 days this week, I'll be done until the first week of January. I have no plans but it'll be nice not having to go to work.

Not sure what I'm going to watch with all that time off but I'm sure we can find something.

Santa came to work on Friday.

So far the plan is we are still getting together for Christmas. We didn't get together for Thanksgiving with all the Covid outbreaks but it's been relatively quite lately. I was even worried about going on Thanksgiving just because a ton of people at work were coming down with it and I didn't want to bring it in to everyone. Of course it didn't end up mattering since the majority of my family have gotten it. Nobody in my household or my mom's household has but a lot of the extended family has.

December 14th (2020)

My wife sent this photo of her and the cat. Kitty doesn't usually allow us to hold her for very long anymore.

December 15th (2012)

This is my oldest daughter holding Kitty back in 2012, I would say she's probably the reason Kitty doesn't like to be held but I don't really remember her ever liking it.

December 16th (2011)

This was taken back in 2011, my youngest son was into Lego's big time and they had a Lego thingy outside Chicago and we took him up there. He absolutely loved it. He wasn't even into Star Wars when I made him take this but he is now so it worked out.

December 18th (2009)

My wife (back then my girlfriend) sent this to me. We started dating long distance so this is what we did. We were young(er) and in love, we were probably nauseating to most.

December 18th (2019)

I snapped this in a meeting last year, it's how much my work paid out in workers comp claims. Notice the biggest number in the orange, oops. That's from when I burned myself with Sulfuric acid. Nothing like getting called out in a meeting you're sitting in.

December 20th (2019)

Me and Santa at work last year. I think he grew this year. I looked a little "special" in this photo.

I'll probably post again next week since I have time off so I'll talk to you all then.

Update - Wife

Since I have a couple of weeks off (not Covid related but I'll get to it), I figured I could take some time to throw some updates here.

Cheri

An actual recent photo - we don't take very many.

She's doing okay, I guess. With all her issues it's hard to tell. She wanted to go the chiropractor yesterday but they were closed and the guy she likes has Tuesday off so she has to wait until Wednesday.

She has finally taken some advice from me. I've been telling her for years that she needs to get a hobby. Her old "hobby" was sitting on her phone, playing games. She wasn't so bad that she ignored everything to play, just that it was all she did. It would annoy me that she would play while she was eating. She'd say something about me keeping my stats, or blogging about my cards. I would just say at least I feel like I'm being productive on my down time.

It was tough for her to find something because there is all kinds of things she would like to do, but her body won't permit it. She likes doing things with her hands but her hands say no. She used to do woodworking and staining and big projects like that. She really enjoyed the creativity of it but like I said, her body just won't let her do that. She googled hobbies and went down the list and finally settled on cross stitching.

I don't know that she absolutely enjoys it, but she feels productive and she is creating things which I know she loves. She dove right in on it and picked a pretty detailed picture for her first one. Made lots of mistakes that frustrated her but she also knows that she's still trying to figure out the best way for her to complete it. She finished it (it looked really good) but I can't show it as it is a Christmas gift and I'm not sure if that person would see it here or not. She's working on another one now for her mom for Christmas. I can show that one when she's done because her mom can barely figure out the internet.

She's now getting injections in her neck and back to help alleviate pain. She's done the neck one a few times and they have really helped with it and her shoulders. She has a bulging disc in her spine that they really can't do anything with so this gives her some less painful days. I want to say it'll last a few months. She just got some in her lower back a couple of weeks ago (I think). I don't think they were as helpful but any help is good at this point. We're waiting to see how long until she needs another one of those. If she decides to do them back there again.

All in all, she's better than she has been in awhile. She has actually gotten off a lot of her meds and is more reliant on herbs and natural supplements and they have helped her quite a bit. She has reduced how much insulin she has to take for her diabetes, her goal is to get off of it all together. Her A1C has gone way down compared to where it was. Even her doctor has told her to keep doing what she's doing. She's actually more active around the house and has even taken the dog for an occasional walk when the dog guilt trips her into it (and she complains about my guilt trips.)

So while she still has all kinds of medical issues, she is doing better.

I was going to do one post with updates on everyone but this one is now over 600 words so I'm going to cut if off after Cheri and come back tomorrow and tell you why I have a couple of weeks off work (again, not Covid related.) I already know that update will be a fairly decent sized post so maybe another post with the kids. We'll see. I have the time, just have to take the time to do it.

Hopefully see you again soon.

Work is fattening me up

 

Today went pretty much as planned. I did my usual stuff and then sat at the computer for about 2 1/2 hours working on the other stuff. I'm almost done with it so hopefully a little time tomorrow and I will get it done.

The crew I work with really loves to spend their money on food. Apparently that's my gain and by gain, I mean the 50 lbs.

I headed home and had to reinforce the gate to our back yard because apparently, Milo got out today. Cheri was telling me how much she freaked and I could imagine how bad it was. She tried the old trick that we used to do growing up with our dog. Hopped in the car, drove up and asked if he wanted to go for a ride. Works every time.

I was getting into my computer stuff this evening and crashed hard. I fell asleep in the recliner and I can tell how hard I slept by how easy it was to wake up. I couldn't wake up, that's not good. That means I will probably struggle to fall asleep tonight and I have to work tomorrow. Like I said yesterday, an endless cycle.

We just spent the last half an hour looking for the key to Cheri's Brink's Home Security Box. It has all her meds in it and she went to fill out her 2 week worth of her pill box and realized it was gone. After searching through everything, I told her I would MacGyver it the lock box with a bobby pin. Guess what? I did it. I'd like to say it's because I'm just that good, but it was all luck.

Sunday Thoughts

You can see above about when I got up. Which isn't great because I probably will have trouble going to sleep tonight which means 4:45 am is going to come awfully early tomorrow morning.

I have no plans today, sit on my laptop and not do a damn thing. Cheri left not long after that photo was taken above to meet our oldest daughter in Indianapolis so it's just me and the kids. I'm sure they'll play video games most of the day but I don't have any extra money this week to go do anything. I do have some plans Tuesday that will take a little cash so I have to save what little I do have. Right now, I'm in my recliner, on my Chromebook and listening to my playlist.

I was going to mention this yesterday but I forgot. I keep track of who I listen to as far as music go, I do this for my stats as well as my Last Song of the Day blog. Last month, Taylor Swift was my most listened to artist. Why? Well because she released a new album and my wife if obsessed with her and will listen to it over and over for a few months. I get stuck in her car occasionally and she plays it.  Yesterday, we went shopping and once again, I got stuck in her car again. So guess who has a huge lead in this month's list? Cheri can't stand the type of music that Taylor plays now (Pop) other than a few songs but because it's T-Swift, she loves the album. I don't get it. I did add some of the songs on my playlist because a few of them weren't bad but to listen to that album over and over, I'll pass. I might have to start carrying headphones with me.

Day 378 - Friend, NE (1218.1 miles)

Since there is nothing going on today and usually most Sundays, I thought I would give a minor update on my steps for the year on Sundays.

You can see above that I'm still in Nebraska but I am heading West for the mountains. Good think I'm not actually walking in the mountains, I'd be dead. Here's some stats so far this year.

Goal = 1500 miles (4.1 miles/day)
Currently = 39.33 (3.02 miles/day)

That's not going so well. The 1500 miles a day goal is rounded up from 8,000 steps a day but because I've had more days off work than normal, I'm still quite a bit lower. A couple of Mondays off because of New Years and a court date as well as I have only worked one weekend so far, also because of the holidays. I generally average around 8,000 on work days so it'll be a matter of making up for my lazy weekends which in most cases will only be Sundays because I generally work most Saturdays. I imagine the miles per day will gradually go up as it gets warmer as well with home projects, mowing the lawn, ect. I won't be quite as lazy. Who knows, maybe I'll get out and walk the neighborhood occasionally.

After blogging the first half of this post, I took a break and got around to putting away the cards I've picked up the last couple of months. I tend to let them stack up until I get around to putting them all away. They are out of sight, so the wife doesn't usually complain but the drawer I keep them in was getting full.

I don't remember what she did to be a pain in the ass. We ended up hooking the Wii up because I had brought it up from downstairs. Cheri and I have talked about doing the yoga and stuff on the Wii Fit. We used to do it a few years ago and we both felt better, had a little more mobility so we thought we might try it again. Samantha and I got it set up and ended up doing a the balance games before starting to do the games. Trevor joined in after awhile and we ended up being on it until Cheri got home.

New Year, New Post

Another new year has come and once again, I'm promising to post more. Not that that has worked the last few years, but there you go. You got 2 posts today so that's a good start, right?

2017 had some ups and downs. I had the thought to go to Facebook and go through the last year to post the ups and downs but to be honest, I don't put my stuff out there, which tends to be the problem with me posting on here. So I guess I'll try to figure it out by memory but I'm old so it isn't all going to be there either.

• My ex finally got arrested for something so she's been drug to court for her lack of child support. That was early last year and I still haven't seen hardly anything. The court hasn't done a damn thing for me and I'm the custodial parent. More proof that Father's have no rights when it comes to their children.
• We found out our youngest daughter has been self harming herself and may have some psychological issues. She is currently going to therapy but a psychiatrist takes a few months to get into because they're just isn't very many of them.
• Our youngest daughter is also 15 now which means she has been learning to drive and has her permit. Although with all the snow lately, she hasn't been able to get out to much but she won't turn 16 until July so she'll have plenty of time to catch up in the spring.
• I started a new job in September which has been going very well. Technically, it's a new position as it's the same company but at a different plant. It's the highest paid job I've ever had (which isn't saying much) and hopefully sometime this month, I should have my own lab.
• Our oldest daughter graduated from college and is now living in Indianapolis. She's still looking for a job in her field but is carving a nice life for herself down there.
• Our oldest son and his girlfriend have moved into their own place. She has 2 children so it's the closest we are to having grandchildren at this point. My wife communicates with them all the time.
• Our youngest son signed up for a academic team, we haven't seen yet what will become of it but I'm excited for him. He's only 13 and it would be great for him.
• I had to have my gall bladder removed in October after a painful trip to the emergency room. My first surgery since getting my knee scoped way back in high school.
• Cheri hasn't had a great year as far as her MS goes. She's had a few flair ups which has caused some numbing sensations and more pain.
• We just celebrated our 2nd year in our new home and are still in love with it. Love being out of the apartment. Love having a garage and we love our neighborhood.

As you can see, there's been some ups and downs. While it may seem like the downs are more significant, I think all in all, we're doing well. We're happy and that's all we can ask for.

A Catch-Up Post

It's been a somewhat busy week or so for me which is a rarity. On Thursday of the previous week, I called up to the general managers office at work. I walked in and said "I feel like I'm in trouble and got called to the principals office" he replied with "nope, it's all good news." So I sat down and he asked me a few questions about previous anodizing experience (I have 14 years in that field) and proceeded to tell me that one of the other plants have been asking about me and basically wanted to know if I was interested. After all was said and done, I am. This all came about because my old supervisor at the place I have the anodizing experience, now works at the other plant.

I then got called to go out to the other plant for an interview, on company time which is nice since it's a half hour drive. I drove out there, they basically interviewed me while they gave me a tour of the plant. I was out there for around an hour and a half, met a bunch of the big wigs and headed back. They ended up offering me the job later that Friday and I accepted. They told me that they would like to have me out there the next Thursday and Friday for some classes that they were giving so I let my plant know and they said it was cool.

That Friday night we headed out to Jellystone to go camping with the family. It was a good time but both of my kids didn't really take advantage of all the swimming and pool slides and stuff available so while it was a great place, I don't see myself going back. It is kind of geared more for younger kids than mine are but all in all, it was a good time.

It was a relatively slow work week on Mon-Wed as I'm just biding my time until they let me transfer. Thursday and Friday I spent out with my new job for a couple of hours as well as the time spent in the classes. The new job is a really good opportunity for me and I can't wait to get started out there. I had all kinds of higher ups introduce themselves and would tell me they were glad I was there, basically, made me feel important. It's been a long time since I felt that way at my job. Most of them know about me because I am filling a created position so it's like it was created specifically for me. It kind of sucks that I have to go back to my old job next week.

All week long while I was working, Cheri was home baking 40+ dozen (mini) cupcakes and a wedding cake for our niece. So the house has smelled extremely good. On Thursday, after some drama from the school, while we had our daughter sitting in front of us, we had a discussion on whether or not she was allowed to date because she had a boy that was interested in her and she was in him. So on Friday, she came home telling us she had a boyfriend now. Yikes!

Friday night, we went out to where the wedding was being held to drop off the cupcakes and most of the wedding cake. We also nabbed some Chik-Fil-A as we always do when we are on that side of town.

Saturday evening, we had the wedding, We went out an hour early to get the cake stacked all up, I should have gotten a picture for you all but honestly, we were putting everything together and I don't think I took more than 2 photos all night. It was a truly beautiful wedding, on a beach off of a lake. We had a good time. Our oldest daughter made it up as well so we got to spend some time with her. Our relationship has gotten a lot better in the last couple of years and I enjoy spending time with her. Plus, we're dog sitting her dog for a week until she comes up for another wedding next weekend. That always makes my wife happy, she loves that dog.

Today, we didn't do much. I ran the kids around a few places. Samantha dropped off a job app and filled out another one online so we'll see how that goes. She's only 15 so her places are limited as to where she can work. She's also been busy taking her online drivers ed so it could be a rough year for the nerves.

Tomorrow, I have to go back to court for child support. The ex-wife made one payment in 3 years and that apparently is enough for her to take me back to court to try to lower her weekly non-payments. Whatever, she doesn't pay so does it really matter on how much she gets added to her back support every week.

I think that's about it. That may not seem like much to you guys but we don't do much around here so for us, it's been an eventful couple of weeks. Once I get transferred to the new plant, I'll give a little more details about my new job but just know, I am very grateful for this opportunity and it comes with a lot of benefits that I don't have now.

House projects

We buckled down this weekend and got some stuff done around the house. I mentioned in my last post (about Fitbit) that I had worked on the house last Saturday and what we did then, and it took all day was to get the wood up for the board and batten in the living room. It was a lot more to it then I thought, my plan was to just glue and then nail the vertical boards to the wall. My stepdad, however, had another idea where we attached them to the horizontal pieces and then nailed the horizontal to the wall. It took a lot more work but I'm sure it looks way better than what I would have done.

We woke yesterday and sanded some spots on the wood, and then went and caulked the board and batten since the vertical pieces weren't attached to the walls, Cheri wanted it to at least look it was so we caulked all around the pieces. I had to make another hardware store visit just to pick up more caulk, we had no idea how much it would take. We originally bought 2 tubes and ended up using double that. After the caulk dried we painted again. Cheri painted the wood while I followed her and painted the wall between it. We were afraid that if we just painted the wood, then the wall wouldn't quite look the same since they were painted at different times plus you could see where she painted around the wood. It took a few hours to paint and we were both dead once we finally finished but it looks great.

While we were waiting for the caulking to dry so we could paint, we finally got around to hanging up the clock Cheri had purchased as well as another vintage type shelf. I'm not sure what other decorations she has planned for the living room so I don't know how close it is to being completed. I know she wants to hang the TV but she wants the cords to run behind the wall so that's a little more than just hanging it and there is also a mirror and hooks for coats that she wants to hang by the door. The mirror is off the dresser we bought a few weeks ago and then we are attaching coat hooks to the bottom of it so it looks like one piece. The mirror is really heavy which is why we haven't hung it yet, it's a little more than just pinning it to the wall. Cheri wants to do a couple of touch ups with the paint on the white and we need to touch up the gold where we caulked on it at the top of the rail.

Here's before and after.

Before

 

After

Ignore the picture sitting on the railing at the left of the picture, I like to put stuff on the railing just to annoy Cheri. I keep telling her I'm going to put my baseball cards on it. You can see we changed the colors plus see the board and batten. You can also see the new clock up there, or down here

It says Laws & Co., Est. 2010

This is the other corner, she hung up the vintage shelf looking thing up there. Cheri has a few books on it (from the 1800's) but she's not sure what else to put up there.

Today our new dishwasher was delivered. I had planned on disconnecting the old one and connecting the new one. That didn't work out to well. I got the old one disconnected pretty easily but once I got the new one in and started hooking up, I noticed one small problem. The old one plugged right into the wall where as the new one is supposed to be hard wired. I'm not messing with electric so needless to say, it didn't get finished and I have to wait for my stepdad to get home from his anniversary trip to help me out. I had shut off the water to the kitchen in order to work on it but since I didn't get it hooked up, I had to figure out a way to get our water back on. I went ahead and hooked up one hose to the dishwasher figuring that would hold and the other hose I'm not sure where it goes. I almost wonder if I need a bigger hose to hook up to the new dishwasher so I took a drill bit and stuck it in upside down into the smaller tube just to plug it. I placed the end of that hose in the sink just in case it manages to spit out the bit. I went downstairs and turned the water back on and no leaks so yeah for me.

I really wanted to get the dishwasher hooked up because I am widely known in my family for not being handy so I was really hoping to be able to do it myself just to say I did. Of course, that didn't work out so now that I had to call for help, I failed, again.


House list

• Den - Paint.
• Dining Room & Kitchen - Paint and Stain the cabinets.
• Garage - Rearrange and clean (clean probably won't get done till spring.)
• Living Room - Put some kind of tile at the front door (there's carpet there now).
• Main bathroom - Paint, possibly restain the vanity.
• Master Bath - Paint, possibly restain the vanity.
• Master Bedroom - Paint walls and possibly ceiling.
• Outside - Reseed grass (spring), stain the deck and the porch, put up a column, paint the door, replace the lamp post.
• Samantha's Room - Paint, take down fish wallpaper, put up chalkboard paint on one small mall.
• Trevor's Room - Completed.

House update

So, since my last post, we have done a few things with the house. We might have everything perfect before we die, that's how I feel and we've only been here a few weeks. I joke with my wife that I don't have a "Honey To Do list", I have a "Bitch, Do This list." Mainly because I always refer to myself as her bitch. She doesn't like it, but she doesn't deny it, she says it makes her sound bossy. I do these projects to make her happy, she can't do them, otherwise I know she would.

Last week, my brother came over and helped me replace the toilet. We wanted to switch out the toilet in the master bathroom to a taller one because my wife has relapses of her MS every so often to where her knees hurt and it's hard for her to get up from a low seating position. I shouldn't say my brother helped because he pretty much did all of it. The only thing I was there for was to pick up the toilet. He got everything together, but the new hose between the floor and toilet leaked a bit so we headed down to Walmart to get thread tape. We went to Walmart because A) I had just replaced my car battery and needed to return my old one for my $12 back and B) my brother wanted to pick up ammo which conveniently, is right next to the tire entrance.

Saturday, we ran to the Habitat for Humanity store to look around and donate the old toilet. We didn't buy anything, but I still find it odd that I was shopping there. It's all home supplies, which is just something I never shop for. After that we went to Pet Smart for some food. Doing that on a Saturday was a mistake, I had to drag Cheri away from the kitten adoption thing that they had set up. She even said that she could very easily become a cat lady with 1000 cats. Once I got Cheri up on my shoulders and carried her out (not really) we headed to Lowe's. Does Lowe's have a rewards card? I need to look into that because I've been in 3 different ones in the last few weeks and tend to spend a bunch of money every time. Up until buying this house, I bet I hadn't been in a Lowe's or Menards this many times in my life. I could say the same for the local hardware store up the road. I may have been in there once or twice in my life, but I was there and back 3 times in a 2 day period and a couple of times since. Now if I could just learn to actually do all the home projects. We picked up more paint and wood and some small stuff at Lowe's before hitting the grocery store (I've been there a lot) and headed on home.

Sunday, I slept in till just after 10 (I must have been dreading the day in my sleep.) I got up, put my painting shorts and a work shirt on and headed out to the living room. I painted the upper half of the living room with another coat of paint (Bungalow Gold) and touched up spots towards the ceiling, then I painted the lower half with primer and followed it up with a coat of an off white (Bistro). Let it dry and put another coat on, then let it dry and put another coat on, or at least three quarters of the wall since we ran out of paint. I wasn't expecting to have to put 3 coats on. After we let the last layer dry, we spent an hour rearranging the furniture. Cheri liked it the way we had it, but during the day, the light from the front windows glared into the TV so we were going to rearrange so we didn't have that issue. The problem was, the shape of the living room only allows it to really fit one way and that was the way it was originally. We figured that out after I moved everything 4 times. The couch and recliners were a piece of cake, the buffet, however, was not. The last spot we ended in, we quit, even though it'll probably get changed back in a few days, but I was to wore out to move it anymore and I heard a nice, hot shower calling my name.

                  Before                                                              After     

Today, I came home from work and sat on my ass all evening. I'm feeling it, my body is sore because it is old. I was also waiting for my trash bin from our trash pick-up that was supposed to start last Wednesday, but I'm still waiting on my damn bin. My garage is going to be completely full of trash at the rate they are getting me my bin. That's the excuse I'm using for sitting in the living room, I was waiting for our bin to get delivered, had to keep an eye on the driveway.

I tell myself this to make me feel better

So that's what we've done so far. I'll keep you updated with any other changes and believe me, there is plenty of coming.

• Den - Paint.
• Dining Room & Kitchen - Paint and Stain the cabinets.
• Garage - Rearrange and clean (clean probably won't get done till spring.)
• Living Room - Some touch up to the paint and put the wood (board and batten) up. Put some kind of tile at the front door (there's carpet there now).
• Main bathroom - Paint, possibly restain the vanity.
• Master Bath - Paint, possibly restain the vanity.
• Master Bedroom - Paint walls and possibly ceiling.
• Outside - Reseed grass (spring), stain the deck and the porch, put up a column, paint the door, replace the lamp post.
• Samantha's Room - Paint, take down fish wallpaper, put up chalkboard paint on one small mall.
• Trevor's Room - Completed.

Like I said, plenty to do. I reread all that and it makes it sound like we bought a dump, but in reality, the previous owners did a crappy paint job with colors we don't like, that would be most of our issues.