HAPPY 4th of JULY !!!!!

How are you stretching $$$ ?

HAPPY 4th of JULY !!!

I hope you can read this. Aurora is on my lap. She is insisting on some attention. She really is a lot of fun.

I ate lunch with Mom & I had a cheesburger, baked beans, and watermelon. I didn't eat the potato salad. Mom ate a hot dog & she had ice cream for dessert plus the beans & potato salad. It was a nice lunch. We ate out on the terrace & they had decorated things. I know that I grumble about the expense of the nursing home, but they really do a nice job. They decorate for different events. Mom was one of the few people who had a guest for lunch.

I went grocery shopping at Food LIon & I bought my ingredients for party  mix. I also bought Aurora's wet food & had a coupon for it.

I went to Red Lobster and ate supper with my friend. She and I went to The Fresh Market after supper. Oh & our supper bill for the 2 of us was $27.03 plus a tip. I think my supper was $10.99 plus my drink & a lot of taxes.

I bought 2 pounds of almond amaretto coffee & molten chocolate coffee plus 3 basil plants in 4 inch pots. I spent under $35.00. The coffee was $9.99 a pound & you grind it yourself. I now know where I'll be buying coffee !!! The basil plants were 3/$10.

I have just realized why my legs are cramping. I have hit 4 grocery stores since Wednesday......Walmart, Harris Teeter, Food Lion, and The Fresh Market.

I got a free sample in the mail today for Fancy Feast's new Appetizer Treats. It looks a lot like Aurora's Wholesome Goodness wet food by Meow Mix. I will see how she likes it. I may end up buying both brands of food for her. She gets a mixture of dry foods daily for hairball control and weight control. I mix up her dry food in a container I got free at the vet's several years ago.

Aurora will be happy. I'm staying home on July 4th. My septic tank guy is coming over to drop off the contract & he'll pick up 2 checks. He found me someone to mow the grass at the rental house.

I saw my realtor on Friday when I was at the nursing home. Her Mom is at the same nursing home as where Mom is. She'd called me on Friday morning. Please cross your fingers for us that things go the way it looks like they will about the rental house. Someone from another state has seen the ad for the rental house on one of our internet ads & they are most interested in it. They are coming to see the house !!!! It will be such a load off me if I can get the rental house sold so that I can invest it wisely for Mom's expenses.

I will be replacing my 2 heat pumps in this house after the rental house is sold. I'm sure that other companies could offer me a really good deal on prices of heat pumps, but I'm most likely going to get my Plumbing & Heating guy to do the job. Why ? Because he gives me fantastic service & he always calls to let me know when the repair guys are coming. Yes, he's pricey, but he gets the job done correctly the first time.....except for the time his nephew did the water softener. The nephew screwed up royally ! I wish that you could've heard him mutter under his breath "I'm going to kill him." !  The water softener works fine now. But.....there was a time when I didn't have any water (he didn't turn it back on) and when it tasted like airplane glue/fuel oil. I have a good relationship with my Plumbing & Heating guy. You can't put a price tag on that.

I'm going to make party mix. I'm going to heat up the rack of ribs that I paid $6.99 in the Deli at Harris Teeter. My ribs & other stuff (baked beans & corn bread) will cost me way under the $20.00 I'd be paying at a restaurant for the same thing.

Happy 4th.  I am up early, waiting for a buddy to come and hike with us.  Decided I better get out today and tomorrow!  I haven't been as physical as I should be.

Should be stretchy today.. just odds and ends kind of stuff.  No big meals to cook.  DD goes with Daddy on the 4th, it is a tradition and I stay home.  Just like I like it.

Have a great day and stay stretchy!

Yesterday's planned trip sorta went slightly off but nothing major when we reached the cheese store there was a costruction site not a store so going to that cheese store was out. We got to the camp just as ds#2's old counselor was leaving and blew his horn at us (we'll stop at a local car show that he shows off his antique recreations). On the way home we deceied to skip the resturant opting to grab Arbys instead. We'll do the resturant on the way home from vacation next week instead with ds#3 not yet hitting his human food vacum phase chances are we'll be able to get a meal and ice cream deserts for under $30. 

Dh and I had planned to be up early so I could finish cleaning the 2 rooms I missed and bake a batch of chocolate chip M&M cookies for next week while dh got the back seat out of the van, the cooler & playpen out of the storage shed. At 5 am dd#2 had a nightmare and crawled into bed with us for a little while the going back to her bed. A little later I heard her saying "Daddy I have to go potty" (she knows she shouldn't go downstairs without one of us) and looked at the clock to see it was 10 am. Most of the errands are done execept a quick run to the pharmacy and the store ds#1 works at to get a light bulb for dd#2's night light.

Happy fourth of July!!!

thought I was babysitting my friends kid today but I guess not. works for me. high maintenance kid. my own ds is giving me enough attitude lately.

 hot and sunny here.  suppose to be cloudy early in the week.  our student is  bored and is willing to work so work he will :)  lots of things for him to do.  only has summer school in the morning with only a little homework. 

 We got a free pool off craigslist last year so we need to fiqure out how big it is.  our yard is only so big.  then go to walmart to get supplies like a cover if it fits. they are blowing out their summer stuff already. dh bought styrofoam for underneath.

took out some chicken breasts for grilling.  have hotdogs to use up too. plus a big seedless watermelon.

still early and in our pjs so the day is still ahead. don't know all our plans.  have the usual housework but I am not washing floors until after the weekend. because the floor will just get dirty right away and I will get upset :)   but still need to do the bird cages and vacuum at the minimum.

nice to have a weekend that is not booked up with lots of things! 

dh is watching the woodsmith shop and kids playing in their room.  now if the parrot would be quiet....

Happy 4th of July everyone.

I think we will have another stretchy day here in central NC.  Not planning on going anywhere today so should be a no money out day.  DH & DS's 1 & 2 have been helping a friend put together a project for VBS so they have been busy outside all morning.  I worked in my craft room most of the morning.  Straightened up the fabric for my upcoming sewing projects and pulled a fleece remnant out to make a couple new winter blankets for my little dog.  Already have all the supplies just need to put them together.  I'm going to work on them when I get off the computer here in a little while.

All meals will be from home today.  Breakfast was scrambled eggs, gravy, link sausage, biscuits and cantaloupe.  Lunch was sandwiches. Supper will be some rib eye steaks I found on mark down a while back, baked potatoes, a hugh salad and chocolate pie for dessert.

Our town had the 4th fireworks last night (I know, kinda strange but that's what they did) we decided to not go since it's usually really crowded and DH is having a lot of back issues right now and standing for a long period of time is not working for him.  So, all in all looking like a really stretchy day.  Only money out for tomorrow will be gas to drive to/from church in the morning.  Have a great 4th of July everyone.

Shellia

Happy 4th to everyone!

My plans for going out went out the window. I DID NOT sleep at all last night. There were 2 things that I know kept me up... finishing a book (I tend to get 'anxious' about doing that) and I had a can of pepsi after 5pm (my cut off is normally 4pm). I vacuumed and did dishes and took a shower last night. Some reason, all of that spiked my fibro pain.  Ran in the rain (by a car, not feet) to Walmart at 5am. still forgot to buy more vinegar! *argh* (I'm not out but low on it). It is cloudy and very very muggy outside. Only consolation is it isn't too warm (70). I did get some sleep from about 7am til about 12:45pm... head hurts due to the drugs I took last night. 

Heating pizza (got microwave pizza) in toaster oven. Going to watch tv and movies today while enjoying sitting in front of a fan.

hello all,

dh,ds and dd and i went out for breakfast at denny's, it was so nice to be a whole family again, sometimes you miss what you had so long ago,lol

 then we all went to nc fair ground flea market, we got some great deals, , but my blood sugar crashed ad the ser. guards had to come and help, what a mess, drama!

 dinner tonight are rolled tacos, and smores for dh and ds, i bought some fireworks so once it is dark, we will do those, we have free firework display here in the captial, but i am not going to fight the traffic!

The fireworks display last night was great.  Daddy really enjoyed himself.  He didn't want to eat the hamburger at the Police Department so we had catfish supper at a local restaurant beforehand.  We all took our burgers home.  It was nice to see people I worked with for so long but I think that will probably be my last gathering.  Too many unfamiliar faces and stand-offishness.

The vet called this morning to let us know that BG ate a little and is drinking like he wants.  He has her close to the a/c and has a buzz fan going for her.  She's as spoiled as Aurora!  One of the other poodles looked all over the house for her last night and then sat in BG's special cahir and whined.

DH has some sort of swelling on the side of his nose.  We can't tell if it's an insect bite on the outside or an ingrown hair.  I've been putting warm compresses on it.  Then he decided to do it himself and nearly scaled his nose!  He has taken some vitamin C and a couple of Tylenol and is asleep in his recliner.

We had Chinese buffet for lunch but won't get out again today so just leftovers or soup for supper.  NASCAR later!!

re-tired  

I've had a very productive and stretchy day today.  I picked green beans last night and canned 5 jars today (wish it could have been 7 to make a full load, but oh well).  I've been picking wild black raspberries all week, and already put 3 pies in the freezer.  I used the rest of the berries today to make jelly.  Not a large quantity but sooo good.  I also cut my basil and have it drying in my kitchen.  Meals consisted of items from my freezer and pantry, including a large peach cobbler made from last year's frozen peaches, so cheap yet so good.  Sadly, there are no peaches on the tree this year to put up.   Also had pork steaks from the hog we had butchered last spring, some red potatoes from the store and home canned green beans for dinner.  I managed to get my freezer reorganized last week so I know what I have to use up before the fall when we have another beef butchered.  There's not much beef left to get through - mostly steaks - for some reason we just don't eat those as often as the other cuts.  There's still quite a bit of pork left to eat.  July and August are big-time canning months for me, so the green beans are just the beginning.  I won't have as much fruit this year (last year, the orchard went crazy) but I'll still have more pears than I know what to do with.   One more week for the wild black raspberries and then the wild blackberries will be coming on.  It's raining here, so no fireworks tonight.  We can usually see two or three different shows (from neighboring towns) from our backyard since we live on a bit of a hill, but we'll have to wait until tomorrow night.