The last day of January 2024!!

 I'm happy to be ending the month of January! It's my least favorite month of the entire year. It's usually very cold, snow filled and just blah! This year, we've had the warm up! No snow on the ground and it's going to be sunny and 50 degrees! How's that for ending the month! February looks pretty good too at least the first 10 days or so in the mid to upper 30's and some 40's too. January and February and usually the coldest months, so to get through these with nice weather is super!!! 

Last nights spatular sunset going to Cub foods. Sure was pretty!! 

Sold for $25 dollars! This was my childhood rocking chair. At least 55 years old. I had it in my bedroom growing up and then moved it into 3 houses along the way. It was in my kids bedroom for a few years when they were babies but the chair has been in our spare room covered in clothes. Just collecting dust and serves zero purpose! So I listed it and it was sold within a few hours. At least I made some money off it and purged more items we no longer need or will use. 

I finished the two closet doors and put back on the door knobs, only to realize that my closet door was never painted on the otherwise! So now I have one more door to paint and I need to purchase one more door knob. I used one of the new knobs for another bedroom door that had not been replaced, but spray painted over the shiny gold. We have 1locking knob and 3 other door knobs still to replace. Its not super urgent to replace those, but it will happen eventually. So I'm back to painting another door and will start painting my bathroom trim at the same time. I did go around with the caulking gun and fill in nail holes and areas where it needed a little filling on the doors. 

Good news as I picked up another new client last night. Got a call and went to meet with them at 4:30pm. It was in the same neighborhood as the client who is moving lives in. So it replaces them and adds a bit more money into my pocket as well. It's all from doing a little advertising last Wednesday! I have been doing at least an hour of advertising daily Monday- Thursday/Friday.  Steve had some estimates and we sent off a few quotes. Wish we would have heard back, but nothing yet. He does have his parents house to work on in the mean time and a job lined up at the end of February, plus the deck in April. We have another quote to get out that could be a small job too. Plus, he has another customer to contact for a bathroom remodel job that he can do at anytime. It's a bit stressful when we don't have jobs/projects months in the future lined up for him. Or at least it stresses me out! 

Got a call from our accountant yesterday. We owe the Feds once again this year. It's going to be pretty much the same as last year, no shock, but still a bummer! I pick them up today and will know the grand total we will owe in April. Yuck! 

This could be a fun thing to do. Free ice skating and a coffee shop in mpls. Although, this week the ice could be slushy! I'd rather do spring like activities, but what? Not sure?? Maybe a bonfire outback? I could even set up the tent and try winter camping. lol.. with a heater! That's a lot to get down out of the garage, but I'd do it for something to do if I wasn't going out of town this weekend. 

Tuesday...and it was 50 yesterday!

 We did reach 50 degrees yesterday and are beating temp records set a long time ago! It's not going to be as warm today, but looks like we have a chance again tomorrow to beat some records. 

Guess I'm heading up for the girls weekend on Friday at 8:30am. We will arrive around 10/11am. and I'm not sure when we will be home, but I hope its early. 

Today, I need to get some more coffee as I'm out. I have just enough today for a super sweet coffee, which is not great. I just like it a tiny bit sweet. 

Picked up the 2 door knobs yesterday and they were only around $33 dollars so we still have about $50 in Menards rebate money to use up for the upstairs trim project. I didn't put the door knobs on yet, because I wanted to make sure I don't need a 4th coat of enamel. I sure hope I don't have to do that! I want to move on to painting our trim so Steve can attach it. 

Still haven't gone to Goodwill to get rid of a small pile of stuff to donate. I'd like to gather a bit more before I make the trip. 

I got a lot done yesterday too. I had a new client, so that's always fun doing something different. Then I did 1 hour and 15 minutes of advertising. We got 1 call off the flyers for Steve and he has an estimate today. We also wrote up one quote and have another to finish up today. I went to Costco for supplies and some items for dinner. Stopped at the bank to pay Logan's apartment. He is renewing for next year too. So now only 15 months to go of paying for his college apartment! I'm also hoping rent did not increase!! $9,300 to pay aprox. 

I pick up our taxes tomorrow from the accountant. One more day till I know if we get money back, break even or pay in. Sooo much stress!!! 

I'm planning on doing more advertising today. Steve just works for a bit this morning and then I'm thinking he will be able to advertise with me this afternoon? Better ask I guess. It goes much faster if I have help. We have quotes to get back and home projects to work on too. Plus, we are off to the gym soon to go workout, which I need to get ready for! 

The January into Feb warm up!!

This weeks winter January into Feb temps!! 

We never get warm ups in January or Feb.. it's more like lots of snow and cold. Well, this week is looking good for weather. We will see the sun and warm up to almost 50 degrees by Wednesday. I'll take 40's at this time of the year! No snow on the ground is also a plus!! 

Sunday, I painted 2 coats of enamel paint on both closet doors. I have one more coat of enamel, then I need to purchase 2 door knobs. Lucky for us, we received a Menards rebate for around $88. More then enough to cover the cost, plus pay for some needed trim to finish up that project too upstairs. It will feel great to get this done today. 

Celina had her soccer game at the UofM, so I drove with her to watch. I was also watching the remainder of the Chiefs VS Raven play off game to see who goes to the Super Bowl. Which I was so happy the Chiefs won! Now to the Super Bowl game in two weeks!! Chiefs VS 49ers. I've never been so invested in watching football! All thanks to Taylor Swift dating Travis Kelse. 

This week is also pick up our taxes. Fingers crossed we don't owe like we paid last year! UGH!!! Soooo worried about that as always. I'm already feeling the stress. 

I also have a girls cabin this weekend. Friday- Sunday. Last year there was only 3 of us, which was small but more my speed. This year, 9 total! Yikes, not sure what to think of that? Since I really see only 7 places to sleep unless you double up in two of the rooms. I'd rather be in the bunk house with 3 others and have my own space/bed. Guess we will see?? I do need to pick up coffee so I have something to drink and also bring some candies for fun drinks. I already have some seltzers I'm bringing to drink and will get a thank you gift for Mollie too. Plus, some snack foods to share? Not sure what as of yet? 

I have work and advertising to do this week, which is my main focus then home projects. After I'm done with the painting of the doors and trim, I'm going to clean up the office/spare room and look at tackling the basement storage area. I'll need to make a trip to Goodwill and do a drop off. I'm hoping to purge a bunch of stuff too. That should be enough with going to the gym. 

Meet up Saturday with neighbors

 I have zero photos to show for our night out with neighbors last night. We all met up at the local brewery Omni. We spent more then I would have liked at the brewery with two drinks each and a subpar- pizza. We stopped at the liquor store to pick up beer and seltzers to bring over to the neighbors. We played a new game that was odd! I don't recall the name, but you try to guess who everyone is after you play a recording on your phone where everyone's eyes are closed. We played 3 rounds and that was it. I was hoping to find a fun new game, but this was not it! 

Here are my V-day decorations on our front entry table. I still have winter mixed into the decorations. 

I took off my dog grooming clipper blade. First I unscrewed it and cleaned it off. Then I read the directions and that little black lever in the middle of the bottom of the blade is where it detaches and you can replace. So I did that and once again, had to clean off the blade from all the dog fur. Now at least I know how to get that blade off and switch it out fast! I ended up purchasing a new longer fur blade for $35.00. No need to use that plastic guard now to trim the fur longer. I still will use the super short blade to trim up Zoey, but now have options for a longer cut. It's about a 1/2" length of fur. I want to try it out! I wish I would have done this before trimming the dog last Friday. It would have been much easier to cut with an actual right size blade!! I might just try it out on Zoey to see how it cuts. I'm just not sure if her fur is long enough to even notice the trim with the longer blade. Her fur length is probably at 1/2"! The new blade wasn't a big investment, which is nice. I do need a better dog dryer before I offer my services to other dogs. I do need a dryer that will work quick. I've been using a regular hair dryer and it does just okay. I do need to time how long it takes to bath and dry. I picked up a bathing rubber scrub pad to make it easier to shampoo. I'll try that on Zoey and see how it all works. I'd like to get the dog grooming time down to 2 hours max for a cut and blow-dry. Is that possible?? I do need to also call around and get prices for grooming different types of dogs. I'd like to earn more then $20 an hour if I'm going to do this. I'd say my minimum would have to be $30- $35 per hour to make it profitable. I won't charge until I have more skills at grooming obviously. You have to start somewhere! I already have groomed at least 5 different types of dogs/fur, so I have a good baseline with the equipment I own. It just can't take 2 hours to cut and then another hour to bath and dry! Yikes! I have looked into cage dryers too, but those are costly and I'm not sure I feel comfortable just having that blow on a dog for a set time. I did see they put a sock over the dogs ears to make it less noisy. 

What's on the agenda for this Sunday? 

I'm starting to do the enamel on the 2 closet doors today. I want to make popovers for diner. Plus, do a little purging in the office? I'll have to go through all the cabinets etc, maybe move stuff out of there and find another spot for the stuff we aren't using as much! 

Steve is working today to finish up a rush paint job. Good thing this came though at the right time. He has one other small paint job then has a job break due to another big paint job being pushed out till the end of February. Ugh!! We do have 2 estimates to get out today which could result in work asap? Fingers crossed it all works out and that he can just jump right away on those projects. There are also decks scheduled in April which he might be able to do sooner since its going to be near or at 50 degrees with zero snow the ground, but I think to be on the safe side of it not snowing, it will wait till April. Nice to have that all lined up for spring! It wasn't great news that this next paint project was delayed, but at least it wasn't canceled, just delayed a few weeks! 

It's hard to not compare where we are with others. Seems everyone is moving to the next phase of looking at what they will do in retirement. We should have passive income from renting out our house and the cabin we will be building. Living out of a van traveling will give us this freedom. We can even work while traveling if we are camp hosts or something like that to stay for free. There is Woofing where we work in exchange for a place to say in our van. Lots of fun things I'd love to try and do for variety with all the new places we can experience. Steve will also be able to build out a van. We will100% be able to get back all the money with reselling, so it's a win/win for us on that too. He's not 100% sold on the Van idea, maybe a large SUV at first to test it out. I don't want to do that option as I'd like to be able to stand up and move around too. I know others in retirement are just thinking of buying a 2nd house somewhere. I just don't want to be tied down to one spot. I'd like to move around and see new areas. Plus, spending less on living costs would be a better option. No cable TV, only cell phones, no heat, water or electrical expenses. Just Auto insurance, gas for the vehicle, food and minimal buying with maybe paying for some places to stay. Even if we paid for Hipcamping at $35 per night that's only $1,050 per month or $500 each! I would do it right now if our house was 100% paid off and we had built the cabin. Of course we have a few more years till retirement, so plenty of time to finish paying for our mortgage and building a cabin! 

2024, 2025 and then 2026 the final year of paying off our mortgage! It can't come soon enough! Of course I'll be that much older! So a few more years of feeling like we are spinning our wheels, not getting anywhere, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. 

I'm pretty amazed that we figured out how to be self employed all these years. I'd have a hard time going back to work for someone else and having a boss. Plus, the thought of working 40 hours a week! YIKES!!  After we both were laid off with in two months of each other, my only goal was to have the kids grow up in the neighborhood and not have to move. I kept saying at least get them through High School. Considering Logan wasn't even born and Celina was 18 months old at the time. We've some how managed and now it's coming up to 24 years later this May that we've been in this house. It's the longest I've ever lived in the same house. The longest was always 10 years or less. We haven't had the need to move as this house is as big as I'd want for a family of 4. Now with Logan in college and will graduate the spring of 2025, he won't be living at home long I predict if at all. Celina and Don are almost ready to move out. She just needs to get hired on permanently, and not be under contract to feel secure in her job. We won't need this big house for just the two of us, so makes sense to rent and travel. 

The weekend...

 It's the weekend. Steve is working and I might be working for a bit too? I have yet to hear back from a client. It would be nice to earn a little bit of money today since I have nothing going on. 

Here is Koda, it was a mix dog with poodle. The fur was THICK on the back. A challenge to groom but I had help with the pup owner who held her a little while I did the grooming. I would have gone shorter, but seems like most people like a longer fur cut and not shaved down. Just a refresh trim up. I completely forgot to take a before picture, but she looks 100% better. Cute dog and you can see her eyes now. 

I had to do a lot of scissor cutting on her legs and body. In all it almost 1 hour and 40 minutes aprox. About 20 minutes longer than I would have liked. I didn't even give her a bath and blow dry. That would have been another 30 minutes. So 2-1/2 - 3 hours! I'd have to charge a lot more then $55 or $60! That would not be enough $ to make grooming worth my time. 

I do need a longer metal clipper that I can adjust for this longer length. My clipper just comes with a very short blade. The plastic clip on guide for the longer cut, just doesn't work very well on thick fur. In all, it was a good learning experience. It sure helps that the pup owner is there to let me know how they like the cut done. It wasn't 100% perfect since I trimmed the back paws down more then the front, but in all I did a good job. 

I wrote up a flyer to just advertise in our neighborhood to start maybe picking up a few clients. I am now working on drawing a dog for my flyer and this is the result so far. I'm going to need more practice!!

This is what I wanted to draw, 

lol.. not very good! I'll keep practicing and see if I can get a better looking dog to add to my flyer. Its only my first attempt at copying the drawing. 

You would think it was spring time and not the end of January! Almost all the snow is gone and the grass is looking green! The sun could come out today or tomorrow. It was up to 41+F yesterday and today they are saying 38+F. I see mid to hight 40's next week. Could we get a 50 degree day? I sure hope so because Wednesday its going to be full sun! Such crazy weather this winter. I think in all they said we had 7" of snow and that was spread out and kept melting. The last 1" hung on over that cold snap were we had a week of below or at zero temps. Now that's almost all gone! February is looking mild too. Can we beat the warmest temp winter on record that was set back in 1877-1878? I sure hope so!!! 

Yesterday in addition to working and doing dog grooming, I had a new client meeting where I picked up another job! I do need to raise my prices as she said I was very low. I'm like then pay me more or give me a nice tip! This does remind me that I just need to ask for more money! I just wanted to make sure to get the job since I need the work right now. I know Steve and I don't always charge as much as we should and we need to start charging more even if that means not getting all the work. My new client also needs some work at her house, so there is potential for more work for Steve too. Which is a win/win!! It's easy for me to recommend him to my clients as he has gotten a lot of work over the years that way! Everyone is always super happy too! I did get a little overly worried about his work schedule being really light and not having jobs booked out far. Now I feel a lot better that he has booked jobs and some waiting. It sure stresses me out some times! I'm still going to keep doing some advertising each week until he is over loaded again and tells me to stop. I'd like to pick up a few more jobs, so I do need to keep at it for myself at least. It's just more productive to do both at the same time. 

Grooming, will be done once in a while. I don't want to take on too much since it doesn't pay as well and takes longer to do. I think it would just be a fun side business to do once in a while. 

Today, I'm doing more painting of the doors, the last primer coat. Letting that dry and then starting one coat of enamel. 

I'm going to the store to pick up a few items we are out of. So much for a no spend weekend. We are also going out tonight for pizza/drinks with neighbors to a local brewery in Rosemount then going back to their house for a Murder Mistry game night. Should be fun as we haven't gone out with other couples in a while. 

Sunday, is the 2pm chiefs football game. I sure hope they win, but it is whatever at this point! I'm sure painting the doors another coat of enamel will also happen. Steve could be working this day too? I sure hope not, but it all depends on if this wall paper comes off easily. Oh and grooming our dog! Maybe I'll get a new clipper blade too!! More spending! lol... 

Then it's back to Monday.. working and advertising will be my day! Plus, stopping at the bank to pay Logan's apartment bill. I probably should deposit cash in to Logan's account too. As I bet he is going to need food / bill money soon. My week will be just working, advertising and then girls weekend at a neighbor friend cabin. 

Fri_yeah! Trying something new!!

 My work life is always changing every day which I love. Lots of variety, but yet the same too as I have repeat clients. Today, I work at 11am and work late into the afternoon till 4pm. I'm trying something new, a new business of Dog Grooming. I looked up Fur Baby Grooming and it's not used, so I'm going with that name! I have my 2nd client to groom today. I hope all goes well as this kind of decides if I should start doing grooming a little here and there! I only set aside 2.5 hours because I have a client meeting at 4pm today. I'm sure the job is mine too, but need to meet in person first. Going back to grooming, there is so much I probably still need to learn, but like everything else, you just learn as you go with any business and make adjustments. I'm just going to start out slow and get a few clients and we will see where this all goes! I figure I can offer in home services or at my house. I'll just concentrate on clients close to home where I can easily advertise and build up slowly. Probably time to do more research and get organized, etc.. I'll do that after I see how today goes. 

I haven't gotten back to painting the closet doors. I skipped yesterday since I worked pretty much all day till 4pm. Plus, I made dinner and cleaned the kitchen dishes etc.. So that filled up my night. I might put another coat of primer on this morning since I start work later, but I am pretty much going to do nothing till work since it's going to be busy with work and dog grooming. I'm just going to get my stuff all in the car and ready to go/organized for my day so I'm prepared. 

We had a lot of snow melt yesterday. My ice sculptures all were gone and melted by the end of the day. It was up to 37*F, foggy, misty, cloudy day, but still melted pretty much all the ground snow with the exception of the side of the driveway where there was a little more snow piled up from the one shoveling

Early morning, looking out the window. It's still dark here at 7:10a.m. It won't get up till 7:38 and sets now at 5:12pm. Look at all that snow melted.. Just a little left and I'm sure it will be gone today! 

Sooo closet to the 40's and maybe 50 by next weekend!! The weather is supposed to be warmer then normal for Feb, March, April and May, but mostly Feb is defiantly mild and its close enough for the weather to be more accurate right now. 

What else is going on this weekend... Football Chiefs game Sunday 

Saturday- painting/cleaning our house and maybe neighbors over? It's to be determined. 

Friday - working and maybe Mocktails and games tonight. 

Steve will be working both Saturday and Sunday, so I'll end up going to the gym by myself too. 

I'm trying the no spend weekend. Well, limiting it to purchasing a few supplies we need.. Eggs and some zip lock bags/ gallon and sandwich size. I do have a return at Walmart, so I can use the return money to keep spending down. I'm just trying this challenge for fun to see if I can do it or not? It's a win if I spend under $20 for the weekend! We have dinner already planned for tonight since we need to cook up some steaks, plus have pork left over from last night. I made really good crispy sliced potatoes last night for dinner (microwaved and then baked with olive oil/salt/pepper and I need to make that again along with parmesan bread. Sooo good! Sunday is the only day where we might have to purchase something to eat for dinner if we don't have other leftovers?? 

Next week, is work M-Th in the mornings till around noon/1pm. Friday girls cabin weekend at our neighbors place. 9 women going and only beds for 7! Although, one is arriving late and only for Saturday night. So that just leave 2 doubled up I guess?? They do have an office that can be turned into a bedroom, I think? So I suppose that works. I'd like either my own room or in the bunk house again my own bed, but sharing a room with 3 others, but at least don't have to share a bed! YIKES!! I'm hoping since I RSVP's 1st, I'll have the better choice?? I'm thinking rooms will be assigned for less confusion and issues, but I'm not really 100% sure at this point! We shall see!! 

Foggy and the January/February warm up!!

It's a foggy start to the day, a January and February warm up is on the way! Here is the 10 day outlook. 

47*F degrees on Feb 3rd, now that's a warm up! We have a 2 more cloudy days to get through and then the sun will come out and hopefully melt what's left of the snow! We might break the warmest winter on record dating back to the late 1800's when they started tracking the weather. Guess we will see how February plays out. The weather reports says we could be in for another polar snap with a quick warm up again. I'm hoping that doesn't happen! It's too late in the season to bother getting any cross country ski pass. That's even if we did get enough snow 7" or more. I'm ready to skip all skiing this winter and I suppose if it did snow, I'd just purchase a daily pass to at least ski one time if any at all?? I don't expect it sticking around at that point. I'm not even going to talk of any snow, as I want it all melted and gone. Thankfully, we've only had max of 1 -1/2 inches on the ground and we can always see some ground /grass below all winter. We still have all of Feb and March to get through.. so we shall see??? 

I had another productive day on Wednesday. I had a chiro appointment at 9am, followed by working at 10a.m. I did some advertising/flyers for an hour in the A.V. area. Had some lunch and then got to painting our 2 closet doors (Logan's room and the spare room) I need one more coat of primer on the trim for the linen closet and Logan's room before I start the enamel 2 or 3 coats of paint. I should finish up by the weekend for sure! My next project will be going through our basement storage room. Re-organizing and going through the holiday decoration bins/purging as I go. I'll probably need a few more bins as some are broken or maybe I can purge enough to not need any extras which is the goal overall. 

 I have enough to do to at least fill up my day, making myself more productive with working, home projects, advertising etc. Makes the winter months go by faster and we get stuff done around the house too. Eventually we will rent out our house and all the projects need to be completed. We can't have an unfinished house in some areas! It's just the little things that need to be finished up. 

We have trim to paint upstairs and attach. 

Master Bathroom to remodel

Nook to finish in the hall. Paint/add shelf. 

More to purge everywhere! We are still keeping too much stuff! 

A day full of good news/bad news

 Yesterday was one of those good news/ bad news kind of days! Just filled with ups and downs! Ugh!!!

I started the day with bad news, finding out of of my monthly customers is moving. So losing a job! UGH!! An easy, good paying job too. The good news part is they need a lot of painting and wall paper removal before they sell their house, done asap! Steve has time and they want an estimate and he will most likely get the job! It will be a good amount of work and good pay!  So good news on that part! 

Also they want me to groom their poodle/mix little dog at their house! I'm excited and it will pay too! I might just start a side business!! Its a start to figure it out anyway! I'm doing this Friday at 1pm. We will see how it goes. I need to take a before picture and after! Grooming doesn't pay as well, and takes me longer but it's something I enjoy doing and can earn a little more late afternoons at least once a week maybe?? 

My advertising paid off! Not only did Steve get a big job from it, I now have a new customer that I'm meeting with this Friday and will start the following week. It's not exactly a replacement from the customer I'm losing, but it helps! I still need to replace the other customer I lost that was twice a month. So more advertising todo to fill up my work schedule this week. I've been pretty good about doing at least an hour a day. Just a lot slower going doing it by myself. 

We went to Bingo last night. The prices were raised to $20. $6 dollar increase. They messed up and gave me one extra packet. It didn't help because we didn't win. The pay outs were good at $99 each win and the coverall was either $200 or $1000. We probably won't go again for a long time. Its held in the back room, not in the bar area, so it's just a different vibe. 

Today is another busy day. I have our accountant appointment this afternoon. Work and a chiro appointment this morning along with advertising. I am starting on a house paint project too. Getting some of the closet doors done. 

Drizzle in January!

 It's a foggy, drizzle day... a gloomy Tuesday. At least it's in the 30's and keeps getting warmer as the week goes by. 

I had a very productive Monday. Got all my errands done! Zero purging done on the house because the garbage is full, but stuff did get to the Goodwill! I need to make another pile to bring there too. We have a bunch of VHS tapes that no one is ever going to watch. I am guessing they will just go in the trash as I don't think anyone has use for those any more. We have a bunch of Disney and other tapes, plus CD's etc.. Ugh!! Endless... Time to purge those and quit holding on to them because they could be worth something to someone. No.. its no one! lol... 

We've been making it to the gym in the mornings before work. I just do 24 minutes of weights with 2 sets each, 10 reps. It's a quick workout. I do like the days where we can do a 10 min massage chair after for a reward. I always think I'll go later on in the day, but I'd rather just do it right away and get it done. No procrastination that way! 

My ice hearts are still holding up. I'm sure they will be all melted this week. It's not sunny, so that at least is helping them stick around a bit longer. 

Today is more of the same with less errands. 

Just working, Advertising and that's about it. 

I made banana bread yesterday afternoon. I still haven't made white sandwich bread, but I think that would be a good idea to try making that today as I've never made that before. 

I do need to go to the store. We are in need of eggs and more coffee. Probably should make something other than leftovers for dinner. Not sure what? Easy Rotisserie chicken or tacos? 

Steve doesn't want to see a movie tonight, so we'll probably continue on season 2 of the Bear. It's finally getting good and we are almost done with it. Then we will have to figure out something else to watch. 

Back to Monday and January is almost over!!

I'll be super happy when January is OVER! Then to get through February, which is the other month of the year with normally the coldest days. I see nice temps ahead for next week, high 40's! Wow!! Looking forward to the snow all melting! We only have maybe 1-1/2 inches total to melt away! It should go fast if the sun is out. This week we are in the 30's all week after last weeks cold snap of temps below zero and around zero for the high, I'll take 30's!! 

We had Steve's parents over for brunch to say goodbye to Logan till spring. We dropped him off at the airport yesterday afternoon to fly back to Milwaukee for spring semester. It does get easier saying goodbye, but I'd still like to have him home or at least be able to see him often. 

I made a quiche and crepes along with air fried tater tots. Steve took care of the waffles and bacon. Easy and good Sunday brunch. 

After dropping off Logan, I finished his laundry that he couldn't fit into his luggage. Put together pairs of socks to mail back and other items he couldn't fit into his bag. I also hung up most of his clothes in the closet and we finally put back on his closet door. He didn't want a closet door when I was painting all the doors white, so I have to paint his door and finish the spare room bedroom closet door too. That will give me something to do before he is home again in the spring. Felt good to get that project clean up done. I did get rid of some tax records in my closet. I have a lot of clothes I could purge, but I'll do that little by little as I'm not ready to donate all just yet. It will be a paint week and finish up little projects. 

Steve is off after Tuesday- Friday, so I'm wanting him to install that hall light and finish the flooring in the front closet. I'll paint the trim in there and it will be done finally! He also has trim to finish upstairs after I paint it. Just needs to be nailed on and then some more trim attached /cut around the doors etc. I'm hoping he will want to purge more from the spare room where he keeps all his clothes etc.. It needs a good cleaning in there it would be nice if it was usable. 

We also watched a lot of football yesterday. I only wanted to watch the Chiefs, but ended up watching some of the Detroit pay off game too. The Chiefs won, so I can still be excited about watching football and Taylor Swift next week too! Got to find out when and who they play next. 

This is my MONDAY PLAN!

Work at 10am

Pay my Auto loan

reschedule my Chiro appointment 

Mail Logan's stuff and pick up food/etc for the box

Costco stop for Logan's stuff. Walmart too. 

Advertise for an hour/Cut flyers 

Below Deck TV tonight. 

Goodwill drop off 

Should fill up my day! 

 

Sunday....

 The day has arrived and Logan flys back to college for his last semester of his 3rd year. I'll be super happy when he is back home in May. Only a few months to go and then he is on to his senior year of college! I will be so happy to see the last of my 3 kids graduate from college! I'm super proud of all three of my kids. They have a very promising future! 

Last night, I joined Celina, Don and two of their new friends playing Mexican Train Dominos. Seems everyone has discovered this game! We only played till round 7 and called it quits so I could watch the Packers vs 49ers. It was a good game up till the end where the Packers lost. I'm hoping the Chiefs can pull out a win! Tonights game is at 5pm, so I will be watching just for the Taylor Swift/Travis part as I'm a new fan of that team and in football! 

I did a little more purging yesterday. I went through my dresser drawers and have a pile to donate and threw out a bunch of stuff too. I still have a bunch of stuff in my drawers that has zero purpose other than costume jewelry from my teens and 20's, photos and some other misc stuff. I have an old laptop that I'm not sure what all todo with. Maybe I should plug it in to see what happens? I think it's non-working. I'm sure there are lots of downloaded photos on that laptop that would be nice to have off of it. Just don't want to spend the money to get them off for no one to ever look at them. I should toss, but I'll plug it in one more time to see if I can salvage any of the photos. I threw out old records/ bills from 2001 - 2006. No need to keep those!! I know we have stored years of taxes that also need to be thrown out. I did find an old letter from my Nana, so I kept that. 

I had an old friend pass away a few years ago and for their son's his wife too the love you with her husbands handwriting and put it on a necklace or bracelet. I think I might do that for the love you, Nana. I do miss her. She was my favorite grandparent. I Didn't know my mom's dad, (poppop) because he died at age 53, I was probably 4 or 5 at the time and my mom was 35? 

I used to write her letters as much as I could. I think at one point I might have been writing a letter a week in my 20's. I think she enjoyed getting my letters and I defiantly liked getting them back from her. She shared my news with my Aunt and I'm sure that info got passed down to my cousins too? We had a small family with my Dad having 2 siblings and only 1 having 2 kids our age. My Mom had one sister and had 3kids, with the oldest Steven dying at age 23 from a motorcycle self inflected death. Going 90 mph at midnight. My cousin Diane and I are only 6 mo apart with her being I think older?? They lived in Delaware/Maryland so I didn't see them often. My other cousins on my Dad's side lived in New York. We'd only see them if we traveled back in August every 2 years or so. We would go to the Cape, where my grandparents(Dad's side) had a cottage/and retired there on Seaspray drive. I loved going to the ocean. My grandparents were closer with my other cousins since they lived in their old NY house and lived closer to them. We didn't see them enough to ever be close. My grandma would make tables full of homemade ravioli. That was the best part of seeing them. She would spend all day making and drying them to eat that night as a big family. You'd think we were Italian, but full German. Other relatives also moved /had cottages on the same street on the Cape. It was always a mini family reunion on the Cape. 

This is my favorite and only photo of my nana. I took this photo when I was maybe 10, 11.?? I had just gotten a new camera a 110 Kodak. She hated her photo taken, I think because she didn't like her teeth. They were crooked, but not awful. I just love this photo of her. She always dressed up and wore heals. She had her hair done at the beauty school every week, went to church on Sunday and then out to eat with other women. Kept the creamers from eating out in her freezer and once she had enough, she would make chocolate fudge with it. She kept all the bread bags and would reuse them. The basement is were my Popup would grow tons of flowers/plants. She wasn't into that and they all died. The basement was unfinished and musty. She kept old games and ceramic faced dolls from my mom and her sister that would would play with. We'd stay with her for a week with my mom and then drive to meet up with my dad at the cape to visit my other grandparents. We'd spend at least one or two days with my cousins too while there. I'd always sleep with my nana in her bed. My mom and sister would take the other bedroom with the twin beds. Her bathroom was off her room with a shower and it was all pink tiles floor to ceiling. We would sit in her den and watch TV. I'll have to find a photo of her house and figure out the old address in Delaware. I don't recall the address or street. She moved into assisted living in Hockessin the last few years of her life. She started having mini strokes, so she moved and died at age 83. Her lungs filled up with fluids. She said never get old. Well, you have to get old or you die young, so I'll take getting old. I miss her! 

Satur YAY

 Just waking up late this morning at 9a.m!! Sipping iced coffee on a 11 degree morning, but it's sunny and shining in the front room window to warm me up!

I made two drinks last night because I wanted a fancy drink for fun. I did melted chocolate dipped in gram crackers around the edges and toasted the peppermint marshmallow peep. I added some peppermint & coffee liquor to my iced coffee. So good, but next time maybe I'll make this hot? 

Then I made another drink with the red melted chocolate and sprinkles, topped with candy hearts. I just added a can of High noon, pineapple flavor. We played 2 rounds of cribbage with us each winning one round. We called it a tie and ended the night with that and drinks. 

My two drinks! I'll have to make more of these for fun! When we stay in at night, it's always a good idea to make it like a night out. I would never order a fancy drink out because I don't want to pay $10 to $15 for a drink. Making it at home. Free! I'm going to pay around with using other glasses we've had and never  use. Just to mix it up and I'll try making more drinks with the shaker even if they are non-alcohol drinks. I've got to practice up!! 

I have a few places I want to try eating out. This is one of them. There is another Mexican/Mayan restaurant in Apple Valley that we went to the grocery store already and now I want to try the restaurant. The kids went last night per my recommendation with their grandparents. They had a good cheaper happy hour with tacos at $2 after 7:30pm and $5 drinks. They had high reviews after eating there. 

I was productive on my Friday. I printed out all our tax records for the accountant and put away the bags of receipts to be stored away for 7 years or more. Then I dropped off some Legos/starwars stuff to Evan. After I did some advertising/flyers in Rosemount for maybe 45 minutes until I was mostly out of flyers. I could have done more if I had more ready to go. No calls yet! So far we've only had one call for Steve. It's a bummer, but we eventually will get calls. We always do as it's a good way to advertise for cheaper then doing an ad. Mostly we advertise word of mouth, my customers and referrals. It all helps. Just would like to pick up more work for both of us. It's still Jan when people are spending less after Christmas. Things always pick up in the spring. At least that's what has been happening every year. We started our business in the worst time, right after 9/11 and got jobs. Then in 2007/8 some where in there, people were getting laid off like crazy and we still got jobs and lost some too. So there has been ups and downs for years, but we've made it work the past 23 years! It's been since 2001! Now we have until 2026 to pay off our house, only a few years left to go!! 

Logan has one more year left of college after this semester. We will be done paying for his apartment and giving him money every month to live. That's a huge savings too. We will be one year from having my SUV loan paid off too. I'm sure we will be buying another truck once mine is paid, but at least only having one Auto payment at a time. We can rent out our house, travel when we have SS to live on along with rental income. I'd like to be nomads for a year at least to see the USA and then maybe another year in Europe doing the same?? Okay 2 years or maybe more?? That's the plan! I'm doing it no matter what! 

I also went to the gym yesterday which we are going to do this morning too. Plus, I cleaned out a few of my dresser drawers. I haven't purged them since I was in my 20's and added a few more things along the way too. I'll do the rest at some point. Have a few more things to bring to Goodwill. I'm still trying to sell a few items which I will drop the price or offer for free just so we don't have to bring them anywhere. 

Logan is in Mankato visiting friends and will be home at some point today. We just have today and some of Sunday to spend with him before he leave for a few months to finish college. We are doing brunch tomorrow. So I'll make a quiche and crepes. We need raspberry jelly and some bacon too. 

Tonight is watching the packers and making a few more fun drinks. I wanted to go to a Wisconsin bar to watch, but with it being only 11 degrees today and dropping temps tonight. I think we'll just stay home! Burrr... Cheaper to eat/drink at home. We have plenty of freezer foods to cook up for a hodgepodge meal like last night frozen pizza. 

I'll probably work on purging more stuff around the house. Maybe get Steve to look at his room? He is done with this job on Tuesday, so he will have Wed-Friday to get more house projects done in those few days. He starts another job Monday and I think that will last a week or two then one more bathroom and his parents house and that's all he has booked. We'll have to get more jobs or maybe he will pick up the one he had an estimate for ?? Hard to say?? We can survive the slow times and conserve for now as it's usually famine time and then feast again in the spring and summer/fall. Just a cycle of work! 

I keep a weekly Pro/Con list to help put things in prospective. 

I usually have weather, bills and fun things listed. It all balances out and I like the pro list always to be longer. You have to look for the little things that makes life out weight the cons. 

Friday... Friday...

 Not sure how this happened to my ice sculpture, but I got a good laugh out of it. 

How does that even happen?? 

I used my red colored heart ice in a mocktail last night. I couldn't wait to try the ice out. Even though my drink was red, it was still pretty to have heart shaped ice. 

I need to try this idea for a drink. Gram cracker crumb lined glass with a toasted marshmallow on top. I'll make this tonight! They used white chocolate to stick the gram cracker crumbs on the side of the glass. I'll search for other fun drink decorations to add to my mocktails. I might make this with some liquor since we have coffee and peppermint flavored liquor. 

I didn't get a whole lot done Thursday. I worked till 1pm, had some popcorn for lunch, had a Chiro appointment with Logan at 2:15pm, and that was pretty much it for the day. I did take a shower after I got home and was cold. I've been warming up mysids of the bed with a heating pad, which as worked great! It seems to get hot fast and I don't end up using it long, just enough to warm up my feet under the covers. 

I have Friday off from work. I'd like more work and I'm doing something about that. Advertising today, which I suppose counts as work, unpaid, but still work! I'll drop off some of the Star Wars /legos to Evan today and then will do a little advertising in that area. All the new houses no longer put up mail boxes or newspaper slots, so I have to go to the older neighborhoods to advertise and even those they are getting rid of the news paper boxes. I put our flyers in the news paper slots, so I have to skip any neighborhood that doesn't have that available. Maybe in the summer, I'll go door to door with rubber bands and put them on the doors of new neighborhoods? That does seem like a lot of work, but not sure how else to advertise in those areas? Something to think about. 

This weekend is more football play off games. Packers and Chiefs are the two teams I'm interested in watching. They play on Saturday and Sunday night. We will make up some mocktails, maybe I can get someone to play some games too and then work on home projects. We'll have to drop off Logan at the airport Sunday. I wish he could live at home, but school is in Milwaukee and he needs his independence as he already wants to live some where else this summer. Even though I want him home all summer. Guess it all depends on if and where he gets an internship. Fingers crossed he gets something!! Would be nice for him to earn some money this summer! I think all his other friends are also getting jobs this summer, so he needs to figure that out! 

Our good friend neighbors are listing their house to sell. Now that we can rent out our house we will stay put and finish paying off our mortgage. Dec 2026!!! I can not wait!! We won't be 100% debt free, but having that mortgage paid off will be huge!!! We will be able to do soooo much more! I do think about selling and just having Steve build something on land for sale. I do keep looking at land. It just seems like a huge project to do that right now with Celina and Don still living here. Maybe if it was just the two of us, we'd be more likely to do that option. I do like the rent out this house option too. We could actually travel and afford to do that in retirement. 

I need to concentrate on weight loss this winter. The last week, I've been off my dieting. Need to get back to it and stick with low cal foods. No more treats in the evenings.

Thirsty Thursday!

 Making more heart shaped ice to make mocktails fun. I found 2 silicone molds to make little heart shaped ice cubes. I made some last night but they weren't all frozen. I was able to use 3 ice cubes in my mocktail. I think today I'll make some with red food coloring. 

My ice sculpture cranberry froze kind of funny! lol...

I'm making more ice sculpture to put on the mail box posts. 

I'm on a roll with making dinners this week. Made my chicken lettuce wraps last night! Always sooo good! We do need a new rice cooker. The cord started sparking. I had to make rice the old fashion way, on the stove and I almost burned it up because I forgot it was on high! Good thing I noticed just in time and it turned out perfect! 

Here are a few mocktail ideas using ediable flowers. I'll have to plant some this spring, so we can use the flowers in drinks. 

Would be a cute idea for V-day too and all of February. 

What else is going on with..life... 

Still cold today with a high of 9 degrees. We start the warm up on Sunday with temps back into the upper teens then 30's all next week! Just got to get through 3 more days of this cold blast! I need gas today, which is not fun when it's this cold!! 

I did 1 neighborhood of flyers/advertising yesterday. I'd like to pick up a few more customers and book out Steve more for jobs. It wasn't a whole lot of advertising, but some which is better than nothing. It's slow going on getting any calls from our efforts. There are jobs out there, so just got to wait and keep at it. I'll probably do more this afternoon or Friday if it's not windy. I did look into advertising with the local paper. The ads are business card size and for 4 weeks/weekly delivery it's $280 for the month. It goes out to the whole Metro area, so we really don't want to be all over. Just 30 min from home. Guess for now we will keep at our flyers since I know that works and we can control the amount of new jobs. That's mostly what's on my mind. I'd like to be more busy. I keep thinking about filling my schedule with dog grooming. I would really like to start that up too. Just want to start with small dogs, just one or two, but it doesn't pay as much for all the effort. I'd get what $50 for 1.5 hours/2hr of work. Ugh! $25 per hour! Not a whole lot for what it all involves. I don't think charging more when I need the experience would be a good idea. I'm sure after awhile with more experience, I could up the prices. Something to keep thinking about. Winters would be the only time I'd like to do that type of work and only in the afternoons. I doubt summer I'd want to do it at all. 

It's been 4 weeks since I trimmed up Zoey and she is getting a bit furry again. Probably will wait till next week and then trim her up again to keep it short. I figured out why there are razor lines, its when you trim too fast. I've been watching a few U tube videos and found that out. Also how to hold the trimmer. I'd better start doing that because I'll get in a bad habit and won't be able to break it. 

Just keeping up on our house, with the dishes in the kitchen seems to be a constant. I do have a few paint home projects for next week. Just need to purchase some cheap disposable paint brushes. 

I'm still in purge / organize the house mode. Got through our spice cabinet. Now to go through the rest of the cabinets and purge. I just don't always feel like doing this as it's not super important. Plus, we can't fill up the garage anymore this week as it's over flowing. Those types of projects are going to have to wait a bit. 

I'm still looking for a new rug for the front room. Just gets a lot of traffic through that room, so the rug needs to be dark or it will just look awful pretty quick. I am not loving the shag brownish/gray rug we have currently. Just not sure how to keep the traffic from cutting through the front room?? 

Well, off to work I go.