Reflections

I thought that I would get out early and do some shopping. At Kohls by 8:00 am. Have I mentioned I love Kohls. I purchased a few items and with my Kohls cash and coupons only spent $7.29. I’m hoping to persuade dear hubby to go back and look at some curtains. I also so there great hot chocolate cups that might make some nice office gifts. Now I’m sitting at Ulta waiting  for them to open….got to go…store is open….then home here I come.

Well, I had some many things that I was going to do this evening. I was going to be super woman and get all the chores done, all the bills paid, and organize – clean my horribly messy office. Of course, I was going to get this all done while watching “The Voice”.  Well, it turns out the electricity has gone out. So I can not do those chores, pay those bills or even do much on the Internet. It is pretty hard to do anything on my cell phone. The screen is so small….

So here I am sitting in the dark typing away on my cell phone.  I do have a flashlight and a book I might try reading next.   Or even better just turn off all devices, skip reading and just go to bed….naked of course, cause the house is way too hot to have any clothes on…..😐

Every so often you need to get away from the everyday grind of life and enjoy nature. Hubby invested in an already loved fifth wheel. He traded in the old Artic Fox for a Cougar. We went from one slide out to two. The Artic Fox was purchased in 2001 and the Cougar is a 2011. Since we are older and now wider we needed extra living space. What a difference a few feet make.  Dear hubby wanted to do what he calls a shakedown.  We found ourselves at Brazos Bend State Park for the day.

Lots of wildlife and nature. Just what I need to get away from the stress of the office.  Here are a few pictures to enjoy.

Saved the best for last.  I was glad he was full of food and not too interested in us.

The renewal for this website domain is due in September. I do not have the super duper one but I was wondering if I should renew. I have not “blogged ” much this year….if fact I have not blogged much at all since I switched from a free site to this one. 

I decided I would give it one more year.  The last few posts are from my phone. I will say it is easier to use my phone and write what is on my mind at the moment instead of waiting to use my desk top computer.  

To day I’m sitting in my gazebo at lunch. I have a few minutes before I need to head back to the office…to make a living.  My sunflowers are now drooping. It makes me a little sad. 😥

However,  I put a hummingbird feeder in the gazebo and now I like to sit here and watch the hummingbirds.

It is the first time I have been able to attract them so I’m excited they are here. :).

Well times up….back to the grindstone.

Once again I’m in the waiting place. I did not bring a book to occupy my time so I checked email, played games on my phone, read old magazines. Then I realized that it was a perfect time to do a blog update.

The kitchen is 90-95% complete. We are just waiting for the electrian and plumber to connect the water and electric back up. And we are
waiting for the trash to be hauled away.

Here are some pictures of the cabinets with the counter tops.

Pictures with backsplash.

Now I have the task of finding a home for all the kitchen stuff. It will be hard but the plan is to get rid of some of it. Supposedly, I have more space but when I look at the boxes I wonder if that is true.  We shall see.

The kitchen remodel is coming along. The cabinets are in and I like them very much. Chief was disappointed that next week we will have no progress. We are waiting on the granite. I’m okay with that because it gives us time to do some painting and I can work on some time sensitive work at the office instead of trying to work from home.  The cabinet guy also still has some minor things finish up, too.

I also think we are a little tired of the eating and now the laundry situation. Actually, the eating situation is teaching me to eat less. Bizarre! I do not want dirty dishes so I am not fixing large meals. I have become addicted to the prepared chop salad mixes. We are eating a lot of prepared food and frozen food. We usually only buy enough for two servings. It makes you realize how much makes a serving and of course there are no extra food for second helpings.

Today, I decided to check out the laundromat.  Wow! Things sure have changed since the last time I have been in a laundromat.  The majority of machines are the commercial ones. I’ve never used one before. I do have a front loader.  However, when I do the laundry at home I  do not worry about load size and I know how much soap to use.  For starters the commercial machine indicated that one wash load  is like three loads.  I only have three loads but I do not want to wash towels, heavy pants, and light weight clothes together. I decided to use two machines. I just cannot wash towels with clothes. Good thing Chief is at home. He would put everything in one machine. The next problem was how much soap. I think I put too much soap in one of the machines and not enough in the other. And talk about crowded. I also think everyone must come to do laundry on Sunday.

The plus to going to the laundromat – writing this on my cell phone as I was waiting.

Here are some kitchen remodel pictures.

Wow, it is already nearly five and a half months into the year 2015. I feel like it is passing me by. First of all. I tore the meniscus in my right knee at the end of 2014. I went to the doctor and knee surgery was recommended. I decided to put off the surgery until after April 15. I did this because as a tax accountant the majority of the work load is in the first four months of the year. I did not realize how much exercise gets me through all the pressure I feel during this time. I took up swimming but it was not the same as jogging or using the spin bike. For one thing, I do not think I have actually tried to swim since I was in high school.  If I remember correctly, I would not put my head in the water because I did not want to get my hair wet. It has taken several months to swim one lap freestyle and I am still not very good at it.  Tax season came and went. I put on a few pounds due to lack of exercise and poor eating habits.  My knee surgery was two weeks ago. I have started physical therapy. Today was my first day using the recumbent bike. I could not make the pedals make a complete revolution.  My head knows that it takes time heal. I also saw how long it took the Chief to recover from his knee replacement surgery. But having to deal with it personally stinks.

Now the other big thing that is happening is our kitchen remodel. We talked about this and decided to remodel during the summer at the end of June or middle of July. Somehow that project is going on right now. To date we have been two weeks without a kitchen.  Do you know how hard it is to fix a meal with no stove or sink….well, now I know and I don’t like it one bit. Today the workman put up the drywall and may start putting in the cabinets tomorrow. The most nerve racking thing about a kitchen remodel is the budget and color schemes. I wake up in the middle of the night worried that the “new kitchen” is going to look horrible, especially since it is costing a lot of money.  Then on some days I think that the kitchen needed to be remodeled. The original house was built in 1981. The kitchen cabinets were the originals. I think that about 13 years ago we replaced the formica counter tops with new formica. I think that we repainted the cabinets twice since we moved into the house in 1984.

Here are some pictures of the kitchen remodeling.

Demolition – All the drywall was pulled off today and replaced.

New drywall.

Decisions, decisions and more decisions. I did not know how stressful making decisions can be.

Well, that is just a small bit of what has been happening and causing me to have the blahs.

It’s October 17, two days past what those in the tax profession call the 2014 filing season. This past week has been horrible with 12 hour work days, shortened tempers, unhealthy food choices and lack of sleep.

I thought that I would be back to doing the things I always do – exercising, eating healthy, feeling good about things. But that inner voice that gets me moving and doing things seems to have vanished. Right now, I am having a hard time making decisions, wanting to exercise – wanting to do anything at all.

Last night I thought that I would get up and go to the gym. However when the alarm went off I was just happy to make it into the kitchen for a cup of coffee. I did finally make it upstairs to our garage exercise room to go through some motion of exercise. While exercising I started to bemoan in my head my lack of an exercise partner. If only I had someone to kick me in the butt, then I would get off my butt and get moving. If only I had someone who would go with me to the gym I would have such a buff body – Ha!. I’m thinking to myself – where is all this coming from. The light bulb went off – I have a bad case of the Blahs – my inner motivation has gone. Motivation, please come back. I miss you desperately. Maybe after a few more days of rest and normal work hours you will come back. 😜