What's happening at our house...

Chloe (right) sweet 16 with her 'big' sister Caitlyn (left)

...after two months away from blogging.

I've read nine books.

We went to visit my mother-in-law.  Took my sewing machine along and made her two new walker caddies while we were there.

Carey has completed painting the house exterior except for the hard-to-reach dormers which he is going to try to hire someone to do.

I worked at gathering up a decent-sized donation of craft/hobby supplies to donate to a creative thrift store.  (Think Goodwill but it's all craft supplies!) In the last batch of donatables, I had intended to give away all of my jewelry supplies.  I found I couldn't do it, and while I did give away a lot, I ended up keeping more than I felt good about.  I gave myself an ultimatum...if I haven't used it by the next donation appointment,  I will let it all go without looking back.  (At this particular store, they have limits on appointed days/hours that donations can be made, as well as the size of donations...4 banker boxes.  I set myself a reminder to book an appointment on the first day that they opened up their calendar, and I have made my next donation appointment for August 20.)  I am now working on my next collection of donation items.  

So far I have also made 3 necklaces to add to my work wardrobe.

I've made quite a few cards.

I have reorganized my crafting desk and card-making supplies using organizers I had on hand.

Summer is birthday season around here.  Caitlyn turned 17 in June, and is now a high school senior.  Bobby had a July birthday, as did Jared and Beau.   

And Chloe, our baby, our littlest grandgirl, turned 16.  Where have the years gone?  Yesterday she was the little firecracker of the family, and then I blinked my eyes and she's a 16-year-old high school junior!  Still a firecracker, though.  I happened across a perfect tee-shirt for her in my Amazon suggested products...I think Alexa has been listening in again.

Rudy had his annual vet appointment.

I had 3 Fridays off in July: one pre-planned and approved vacation day, one sick day when I was suffering with muscle spasms in my back and a little loopy from the muscle relaxers, and  Friday the 29th I took an emergency personal day when, at midnight Friday, Rudy encountered a skunk in our backyard and took a direct hit to the right side of his face, neck, and shoulder.  Thank goodness he came immediately when I called him, because I did not want there to be bloodshed; of course, that meant that the full force of the smell came in with him.  I bathed him immediately.  Then I bathed me.  Then I phoned the office and left a voicemail saying that I would not be in at 8 a.m.  When the boss got into the office, he very sweetly...or in self preservation...told me to just stay home.  LOL  And now here it is August 10th and the house is better, but still not completely free of the skunk odor.  I kind of feel like I'm in a Seinfeld episode...remember the one where his car, and every thing and person who is even momentarily in it, smells of the smell that won't go away?

My mother-in-law fell and broke her hip, and has been in rehab center, but tomorrow she gets to return to her assisted living facility.  Carey went up to help out right after her fall, so he missed the immediate chaos of the great skunk debacle!

We are so far surviving the heat (ugh!).  We need RAIN.  It is dangerously dry.

I am counting the days till our autumn vacation.  It is still SO far away.

What I'm reading Wednesday...

The Hoarder's Widow by Allie Cresswell

Monday night I finished The Hoarder's Widow.  I enjoyed it more than I expected to.   Likable characters, and it made me want to clean my house.  :)

Little Souls by Sandra Dallas

This is Sandra Dallas' newest book.  I've enjoyed her other work, so when I saw a blurb about this one, I immediately got on the reserve list at the library.  I picked it up yesterday afternoon, started it last night, and got about halfway through it.   This one is about the 1918 pandemic.

Frugal Friday File 2022, week 22...

 

1.  Ugh!  I missed the free shipping on meal subscription this week.  That's what I get for not checking my email daily.  But I did have enough loyalty points to get $10 off.

2.  Credit card hackers struck again.  This time it was Carey's gasoline card.  I got the call this morning asking if either of us charged $124 in a coastal city this morning.  Uh, no.  So they canceled his card and will expedite delivery of the replacement.  Thankful that they nipped it in the bud before any more was charged.

3.  My road trip last weekend was a long (8 hours one way), boring (barely any radio reception) drive.  But the time that I was at my destination made it all worthwhile.  Loved seeing my friend and my sister and nephew.  I had attempted to download an audio book for the trip, but wasn't able to for some reason.  My hosts fed me fabulous meals, and my friend even made me a bag of snacks for the trip home.  Sweet!  As for entertainment, we stayed in and made cards...stamping with a friend is so much fun!  So while the gasoline was expensive, the experience was priceless!

4.  And of course the weekend included an extra day thanks to the Memorial Day paid holiday.  The trip home was very moving as small towns all along the way had decked out their cemeteries to honor their veterans buried there.

5.  We are saving the ticket theater price and NOT going to see Top Gun.  We never saw the first one, so don't feel like we are missing anything.

Frugal Friday File 2022, week 21...

 

1.  Packed lunches to work or came home all week.

2.  Forgot to place meal order for this week in time, so have been cooking at home.  Not sure it was a great savings over the subscription, but it was a savings over eating out which we did not resort to.

3.  Carey rotated my tires, and gave my car a good once over in anticipation of my road trip this weekend.  He may be an amazing jack of all trades, but his very first trade was car mechanic, so he is amazing to keep around.  :)  I'm driving seven hours alone to visit a friend and my sister.  Very exciting.

4.  Because we cooked at home this week, there are left overs to hold Carey over while I'm out of town.

5.  Jared has been in Chicago for two weeks for some work training, and left his car here rather than long-term parking.  Carey will pick him up at the airport later today and park in the free cell-phone lot where you can park and wait for the passenger to call you after they are through baggage claim and waiting at the curb to be picked up.  I love that they added that lot  and keep it free.

Frugal Friday File 2022, week 20...

 

I was even scarcer than usual around here this week.  I had an out-of-town work meeting that threw me off.  So here is my frugal file for this week.

1.  We have already had temperatures over 100⁰.  Last weekend Carey noticed something was up with our 27-year-old air conditioner.  He took the cover off of the unit and found that the insulation surrounding three wires had worn away due to their constant vibration against each other over the years, and once the now uninsulated wires were in contact with each other they became, for lack of a better description, welded together and a real danger.  My fabulous husband, who was outdoors painting on the house, not only immediately noticed the change in sound coming from the air conditioner, he was able to diagnose, replace, and repair all in about 3 hours.  No waiting days in the stifling heat and humidity for an a/c tech to get to us, no bill, the house didn't even heat up much in that time.  I know I say this all the time, but his skills are amazing, and marrying him was my best frugal decision EVER! 

2.  A coworker at another branch offered to drive a group of us to the work meeting which was about three hours away.  She will be reimbursed for mileage, so we didn't have to share the expense (though I will be sending her a thank you with a little something tucked inside).

3.  My company paid for a nice, and very comfortable, hotel room for of each of us.  A king-size bed all to myself is something I haven't had since Carey retired.  :)

4.  We went out for one meal before the meeting officially began, for which we requested separate checks.  After we got home, the driver of my group emailed each of us instructions to submit the receipts for reimbursement, which I promptly completed.

5.  I thought about going to a book festival this weekend in the city.  It would have been nice as there were lots of authors there for small group talks.  However I know I would have purchased books that I hadn't budgeted for.  So since I was really tired, and wanted to get some things done around here this weekend (as I will be gone next weekend for a rather long solo road trip), I decided to give it a miss.

Frugal Friday File 2022, week 19...

1.  I cancelled a subscription that wasn't as I had hoped.

2.  I finished my library book just a few days into the borrow, so I passed it on to Carey who is now reading it.  Doubling up the free entertainment.

3.  Enjoying playing The New York Times' Wordle on my phone.  There's something nice about a game that doesn't suck me into huge blocks of wasted time.  This one limits me to one short game a day, and it's free.  And I love that my granddaughter recommended insisted I try it.

4.  Continuing to learn about Medicare plans before I have to make selections.

5.  Made it through another week of work!  (Strains of Huey Lewis' Workin' for a Livin' running through my head.)  

What I'm reading Wednesday...

Ghost Ship: The Mysterious True Story of the Mary Celeste and Her Missing Crew by Brian Hicks

 Pretty sure that I've mentioned that my boss and I are both readers and are having a bit of a competition this year.  He outpaced me early, when I started out the year with an 800 pager, but I have since caught up.  

He came into the office with this book last week, and it sounded so interesting.  If you've not heard of the Mary Celeste, it was an American cargo ship that was found floating near the Azores in December of 1872.  There was no one on board; all the crew, along with the captain's wife and two-year-old daughter who were sailing with him, were nowhere to be found, and no hints as to what had happened.

Paul is willing to let me borrow it when he finishes, but I had just finished my last book, and checked the library website and found they had the hard copy available.  I started reading it on Saturday, and it is so hard to put down.  

I haven't told Paul I am already reading it yet.