Happy Easter!!!

 Easter we had Kendra and family over for Easter with our neighbor friends along with Paul's mom and sister's daughter. It was a simple breakfast since our oven start button isn't working, so no quiche or coffee cake, nor caramel rolls. I Made waffles and crepes, then Steve cooked potatoes and scrambled eggs with 2 types of sausage and I cut up fruit. We had champagne for mimosas, so all was good! 

I gave the kids easter baskets and then had a small easter egg hunt for them. I was limited with jelly beans due to Madelyn's allergy to nuts. They were happy with the bubbles and all the candy. 

Steve and I used a Chinti grill gift card last night to share a pork dinner and some drinks. We still have 3 gift cards to use up for another time. 

Logan is with a friend this weekend to celebrate Easter. Glad he has friends houses to go to for the holiday and isn't sitting alone in his apartment. I did send him an Easter care package that he should get on Monday. So glad it was delayed because orig it was supposed to be delivered Saturday afternoon! He isn't going to be back till later today. 

We are going over to Jean and Wes, Amanda's parent house/Tim's gf parents for Easter Linner at 1:30pm today. They live in Hastings. Not sure all what to expect, but I'll bring along some games to pass the time. 

Celina made a strawberry cake and Steve made some rainbow coleslaw. I had clean up and all the breakfast stuff this morning, so I'm pretty much done with serving etc.. Nice to get a small break between breakfast and this afternoon. We normally have everyone over here, so it's nice to be invited out! 

I have a busy work day on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I haven't heard back from the move out clean which is a little worrisome. I'll have to actually call and see what's going on with that and make sure it's still on the schedule! It's been ages since I meet with the people! I sure hope I still have that job as it's good paying! 

Steve also had lost a job or is on hold till further notice. It wasn't a big job, so not a big deal but still a bummer! He does have at least 2 - 3 jobs lined lined up when we get home. I'll have time to advertise and get more jobs hopefully after he finishes up those jobs by the end of May. We also sent off a quote, but have yet to hear back. Hopefully that will result in a job pick up too. 

We do have options should Steve not get enough jobs, which is move and build. Like I was saying, it would be in our best interest to actually do that regardless! We could build a house and a cabin being debt free right away after we sell our house. 

Celina didn't get the GM job. Ugh!! Now her contract ends May 31st. There just isn't much for jobs right now. So not sure what she is going to do if she is unemployed?? Maybe go back to school? Get a masters degree?? 

Saturday...

 We slept in only to be awakened by Zoey throwing up in bed. UGH!! So now I'm washing all the layers of bedding. I sure hope it comes out because it was Bright Yellow!! ish! 

We went out last night to our neighbor's friends new condo in St. Paul off Mears Park. They had setup the beds and couches but everything else was still in boxes. They moved in early and it took about 4 hours to have the movers get all into the condo and a total of 8 hours moving time. I should have taken some photos. We see the pro's and cons of living down town. With a dog I think that would be a big con, having to go and let out the dog in all types of weather and in the dark. Yikes!! Also just having all that concrete and big building all around tends to feel closed in. The homeless all around, etc.. it would be a lot to take in. The plus, it does seem like fun to live in downtown where there are restaurants, breweries, baseball games, the farmers market. Etc.. They have a cabin to escape to all year round, so only need to live in the city 3 to 4 days a week. I probably would have rented to figure out if we liked it before purchasing something that was on the market for 2+ years. 

Today, is check my SUV's breaks. They have been grinding a bit, so Steve needs to see how the break pads are holding up. We'll go to the gym this morning and workout. We did the Costco shopping yesterday. We still need a few items for breakfast Sunday/Easter. Chicken sausage, hash browns and raspberry jelly along with some fruit, pineapple, raspberries, blueberries and strawberries and potatoes. Should have picked up more of that stuff last night while at Costco!! Maybe we'll do Sam's which is less busy! 

I need to put together the grandkids easter baskets and figure out if I have enough stuff for each. Plus, set the table and clean the kitchen. 

I did most of the prep for camping yesterday, blowing up the air mattress to check to make sure it holds. I also checked the batteries in the fan and now we need to get down the rest of the camping stuff today. I don't want to wait, since we need to know if the lights work or if we need more batteries for those too. 

The weather still doesn't look good for our trip. Rain/thunderstorms. Ugh!!!!!! We'll still go but it would be a bummer of a trip as we wouldn't have as much fun with dealing with rain etc. We'd stick to car camping and skip tenting altogether! Steve might even suggest just driving home and skipping looking at anything or staying in the different places. It wouldn't be so bad if it was just rain for a bit then stopped but storms?? Not so much. I'm going to hold out that the weather changes and we don't get the washout vacation! 

Learned a new game last night. 5 tiles of 5 rows and you make words starting with 5 tiles, once you use all your tiles you say go and everyone grabs another tile etc.. till they are all gone. You add up the points and subtract the tiles left over. The winner of that round gets 25 extra points and you play to 500. That's using the scrabble tiles. I played one game but would like to play again. So I'll be teaching it to the kids and see how it goes. A good brain game. 

Friday, Friday, Friday!!

 I need to stop checking the weather for the 8th! It's not looking good and then it could keep raining in the places we are camping on the drive home from Texas. Ugh!! Could this be a wash out of a vacation? Maybe, stay tuned... We will still go but maybe change our plans a little? 

I work today at noon, so I have time to do some morning errands and get to the gym. I slept in till 7:30am, so getting a very late start for me!! 

Some of the snow melted on the yard yesterday and I expect a lot more of it gone after today. I see temps in the high 40's coming up with a 60 soon. The buds on our trees must be super confused because they are dropping all over our deck. It might be too late to do any clear coat on the deck with all the tree dropping since it's already started. It just one dropping after another as we have a Maple tree and cotton trees all around us. 

The neighbor friends officially moved out yesterday. I went over yesterday at noon to help with the move out. It was supposed to be today, but the closing is at 8:30am. The new people will be doing the move in today. It won't affect us as much as our other neighbor friends who live across the road from them. Change is tough sometimes. It's going to be a younger family too, so not as much in common of course. When we were at that stage we were always hoping for young kids and now want older people. It sure did switch for us! The neighborhood is once again getting more young kids mixed in. We've lost quite a few originals, but there is at least half of us still here. 

I didn't do great on my diet yesterday. I ended up eating some candy gummies after dinner. I decided to make pasta for myself and some parmesan toasted buns, then had a Thai salad for lunch which was just okay but only $2 from Costco so no loss on that. I'll still eat the remaining 2 salads that aren't as good as the poppy seed dressing salads that I normally get. 

It's Easter weekend. We will have plans most of Sunday, so won't really do a whole lot that day. Saturday I'm assuming we will gather up all our camping stuff for the trip. I'd like to do a few home projects that day too or even this afternoon. I really need to finish up the mud room and be done with the painting! I'm always wanting Steve to work on the spare room and at least install the closet shelf we got the brackets for. I'm not wondering if he even knows where all the brackets are we purchased? That's the next room I'd like to update with fresh paint and recover or get a new headboard and finish up the trim. Also the nook still needs some more mud, sanding and then painted. It's a project I'd like to finally wrap up! Guess we will be saving that too for another weekend we are home! grr... 

I did sell that 2 cube for $10. Which reminds me, I need to change the listing as sold on line. It would be nice to sell stuff daily. So now to look for more to sell!! Most of our stuff is so old and out of style by the time I want to sell it, I am just giving it away for free to get rid of it. 

The day is moving. s l o w!

 It's been a very slow week. I haven't worked on many projects, but I did keep myself busy on Monday with cleaning etc. I still have to paint the mud room and for some reason I just keep putting that off. At least I did groom Zoey and gave her a bath. I tried clipping her nails and failed. She just won't hold still. I'll have to get out the grooming table to keep her from running away. 

I had to for the 3rd time get the insurance guy to send me the insurance form to renew Steve's contractor license. This time the date wasn't correct! Grrr... What a pain! 

I also helped our neighbor friends a little bit with moving out of their house. They really didn't need much help and were stressing out for nothing. It was nice to go over there once last time before they move out. I keep thinking we need to have everything perfect on our house before we can even sell, but when I looked around, they had scrapes on the walls, all different wall colors, not everything updated etc. So I guess we just keep working on replacing something and don't worry about other stuff. 

I sold the 2 cubes for $10 or will tonight. I was actually trying to drop the price to $5, but it sold or will around 6pm tonight. Now to sell the mirror! I listed it for $25, but should try and drop the price to $20 or $15 to get it sold. 

I found a gas stove similar to ours on FB Market place for $200 in Eagan. The seller is not getting back to me. Grrr. I did ask if they would take $175. I probably should have just said I'll take it. It's a delayed sell since they need it till mid April, which is perfect. Our start button for the oven quit working so we need a replacement. We could get brand new for $800, but $200 sounds a lot better since we owe taxes. 

I've been busy looking for new lights too. I just want a good discounted price on them. Also looking for rugs etc. Not a rush, just always looking to see what I can find. 

We are still trying to check off the house project list. Steve isn't as enthusiastic as I am about getting some of his projects done. Mostly, I want to be able to work on the house exterior/finish power washing behind the garage, sand the deck and seal with a clear coat. Fix the grass, buy sod and add dirt/seed. Cut down some trees and remove the branches. I can paint the garage walls white once its at least 50 degrees. We also have a lot of purging to do out there!! 

Am I ready for our trip? Nope! We have to take down from the garage storage all the camping stuff. Well, not all, just the tent we are going to use, the carpets, rugs, tarps, chairs, lights, stoves and pans. I also need to test out the air mattress to make sure it still holds the air. I don't want to be surprised and have it deflate on us at night. We also forgot to bring one along on one camping trip, but managed to buy a single double air mattress which was not the same as the double queen!! I'd like to find a king air mattress!! Or have Steve switch to a cot. 1 week to go before we hit the road! 

Guess we'd better pack our rain jackets!! Right now Friday and Saturday and sunny and in the 80's, so we can at least get a pool/biking day. It's still over a week away and the weather report keeps changing daily when I look. Of course it also says rain for our camping coming home and staying in the Ozarks. We might be doing more car camping then anything else if that's the case?? OR just drive on home which would be a bummer! 

The warm up begins!

 We are starting off the day a little chilly and then the warm up begins again back up to the 40's and 50's!! I can not wait till all this snow is melted. Even with the 27*F temp yesterday the sun helped start the melting at least on the roads and our roof as it was dripping like crazy. I'll be happy to see all the snow melt away!! It can't come soon enough! 

This was taken yesterday, so the roads were not clear. 

I only worked yesterday. I didn't even get to the gym or workout at home. I did manage to go to Costco, but forgot the main reason which was to pick up paper towels. I'll have to make another trip Friday. We will need some camping supplies, paper plates, silverware and some propane tanks. 

Today is more of the same, work in the morning and not sure what else in the afternoon?? Steve goes out with his brother every Thursday so I'm on my own for dinner. 

Dieting yesterday went okay. Ate more calories than I should have, but still around 1700 aprox for the day. 

My swim suit still hasn't arrived and I haven't gotten any notices either. I'm starting to wonder if it will ever arrive? At least I have a back up for the trip! 

I keep checking the weather for Austin on April 8th. Hoping it's clear to see the eclipse. It's supposed to be thunder storms that day and rain for the next 5 days in row. The weather keeps changing so it's too far out as of yet to really know. I probably shouldn't have looked so far out! It will be a huge bummer to not be able to see the eclipse due to cloud cover!! Not sure what we will do if it rains there! We mostly want to sit by the pool and be outdoors. Good thing they have an outdoor area that's covered so we can still sit there. 

I didn't feel like finishing up my mud room project, painting the walls/wood with enamel.  I probably should do that today? Steve is also painting at his brother's house today his 3 bathrooms. He also works tomorrow installing a garage door opener and maybe other misc items?? Next week all he has is a door install. He did pick up another job with misc items from a client of mine. It will be work for May. Plus, he had an estimate for a kitchen remodel, so we will need to get a quote out. I'll just wait till we are back from our Texas trip before I do any more advertising. Doesn't make sense to try and advertise with the snow and then leaving, so we wouldn't be home to meet with people etc. 

Celina still hasn't heard from the job she interviewed for. They said she would get an email if she didn't get the job or a call if she did. Ugh!! Well at least it's a slow let down. I sure hope the department and team she is working with has some openings asap!! Her last day would be Friday, May 31st. 

Almost done with March!!

 I'll be happy to see March end now that we've had all this snow! Temps are also down into the high 20's, which doesn't feel great at all! At least the sun is out today. We have a lot of melting to do in the next week! 

That's what we are seeing this morning. Maybe 6" of snow, good thing the other 5 melted in the rain/snow on Monday. 

Here's where we picked up the extra snow all day Tuesday. We decided to go to the gym, which was probably a mistake due to the roads being so icy! It was a slow drive there and home! This was taken on Yankee Doodle road which is one of the main roads and was in bad condition at 9a.m! 

I listed the cubes for sale. We are going to eventually put up another row of shelves in our mud room closet. It will give us a lot more storage space then just adding these two cubes. If they don't sell by the weekend for $10, I'll lower the price to free just to get rid of it. 

Zoey also got a bath and I attempted to trim her nails without any luck! I'll have to get out the grooming table to do her nails or bring her in to have them trimmed and just pay for the service. I'm guessing it's around $10? I will try one more time to do it myself. I need to do a few touch up spots on her stomach with the scissors anyway. 

We went to the neighbors friends goodbye party last night. Quite a few people showed up. We stayed till after 9pm. It's sad to see them leave but I'm sure we will stay in touch! 

I have yet to finish our mud room. I still need to paint the hook wall. It was on my todo list yesterday, but instead I washed a sleeping bag, more clothes and then washed our floors by hand, vacuumed the whole house, cleaned the kitchen, and wrote up some Invoices/quotes for Steve and we went to the gym.  I was pretty much done doing anything by 2pm. 

Since our stove's oven start button isn't working. We tried our microwave that is also an air frier and bakes. We've never baked anything in it. I decided to bake some sweet potatoes. I just microwaved first to get soft, then I baked for 30 minutes and what do you know! Crispy on the outside and soft inside. We now need to try heating up bread with the bake setting and then maybe making some cookies? This is a good oven option since we won't be buying a stove till at least May. Who knows, we may never need our oven again! Well, we do make lots of big pans of roasted veggies which you can't do in the microwave due to it being a lot smaller, but we can bake smaller batches. It's going to be fun to test out different options. 

What's on the agenda today? I have work this morning. Not as much as I'd like but at least work the next three days. Next week M-W is going to be BUSY! Good money making too which will be nice! 

I should go to the gym, but will go this afternoon if Celina wants to go. 

I have painting back on the todo list. Not really much else. I could always find more to clean or purge which I might just do. I'm waiting for the weekend to get out all the camping stuff for our trip. As most is in the garage and it's too cold to go up there and get out the stuff. We need to gather up all we want to use this weekend, so we are ready to go and can easily pack up the car. We are going to try and bring as less as possible, but still be able to cook etc. 

I also need to go to Costco, we are out of my lunch/popcorn. Plus, I need paper towels as we are almost out. I'll need to get jelly beans to fill up the Easter Eggs for the grand kids. I need to check to see what I have for them. I can't do other candy due to Madelyn's allergy to nuts, so it will be just simple candies and a few misc items to fill up a basket. Good thing I picked up some items right away when they first were on the shelves. 

Easter is Sunday, we are going to Tim's GF's parents house at 1pm for lunch/dinner. We are having Kendra  and family over for Easter Breakfast and the egg hunt. They will be going to her Dad's side Grand Parents house for Easter dinner. 

Not sure what we are making for Easter, Waffles/crepes, eggs, hash-browns and chicken sausage? I'd like to make a coffee cake, but that's not happening even with our microwave oven. Maybe I'll try making crackers today and see how they turn out. I also need to deposit money to pay for Logan's April rent. 

I'll tackle the storage area once again and see all what we can purge to make room for Steve's work tools. We have far too many holiday items too that we need to go through. This might be a good week to do all that. 

Tuesday, March snow showers!

 We had rain all last night with the "warmer" above freezing temps and now this morning the temp dropped and we are back getting more SNOW. I'm over it! It's of course going to snow all day till 5pm and we could get another 3 to 5". It will stick around all day Wednesday and then start to melt in the sun on Thursday with the semi warm up to 34 and then the 40's the rest of the week! 

I sure do miss looking at brown grass! Here's the view from my front window this morning. The snow is already sticking to the roads. At least I don't have to travel anywhere today. I could go to the gym, but might just workout at home again. 

I got soooo much accomplished on my day off Monday. 

Here's what I did...

Cleaned the kitchen

Cleaned all the bathrooms and used the new "Pink" cleaner on the glass shower doors! It works!! 

Vacuumed and washed the main floor. Picked up. 

Cleaned the stove's oven and cook top.

Washed all the bed sheets/comforters our room and Logan's/made the beds

Washed my clothes and bath towels

Groomed Zoey

Before grooming

After grooming. I'm getting a lot faster at it, plus it helps I didn't wait as long so her fur was shorter. 

I didn't trim her ears as I think they are fine. After her bath, she will need to get her nails trimmed too. It's the part I hate doing, but will have to do it. 

I tried to keep busy all day and then after 4pm, I was done! I saved grooming Zoey for last because I'd have to shower after since the fur makes me all itchy. 

I have off today too. Lucky for me, a once in awhile customer called so I put her on the schedule for Friday! It's an extremely slow work week and I can't even use it to advertise. I am looking on Next door neighbor to see if anyone needs work. 

Today, I'll work out, clean the kitchen (a daily thing sometime more then once!)

Wash the rest of my clothes and dry them (in progress) 

Give Zoey a bath and re-clean my tub

Steve also has the day off, so get him to do a few home projects:

Finish mud/sand nook, install cube in closet, hang closet rack in spare room, go through his clothes. 

Paint mud room wall. I think he could get all this done in one day, but you know that's not going to happen. 

We also need to write up a few quotes and get an invoice out to get paid. 

Our oven is done for. The start button won't work any more. The stove top gas burners work just fine. We were going to just replace the control panel board and they no longer carry parts for our model. Go figure! We will wait to purchase a new gas stove until Steve secures more jobs and has many lined up for months or gets a big job! We have a microwave that is also an oven and air fryer, so we are going to try out that feature to see how it works. I think we can manage without buying a new stove till we are back from vacation. We do have our old white stove in the basement we can also use, but I don't really want to do that for an option. Not even sure why we saved it. Probably because it was hardly used before being replaced. We've had this oven for at least 22/23 years and it looks like it. We just never found another gas/electric duel fuel stove for a reasonable price. We'll have to switch to either all electric or all gas. We are going for all gas! So that's the next big purchase on the agenda. 

Celina never heard back yesterday on the GM job. She was supposed to get a call/got the job or an email didn't by Monday. I'm pretty sure this means she didn't get the job since she didn't hear by Friday. Ugh!!! Back to job searching! She still has time to find a job by the end of May or maybe another contract job somewhere else? It's a bummer as it would have been a perfect job and great timing, plus she wanted to stay with GM. Maybe, just maybe her manager will get the okay to hire her? She did mention at Christmas time they were going to hire 2 people, but then not getting the approval. 

My diet yesterday. Well I ate more, ran out of popcorn so I had rice and peppers with salsa for lunch, rice and pork for dinner and snacks, banana, hummus and pita chips and one biscuit. I still made okay food choices, minus the biscuit. I did avoid the cake temptation as I'm counting that as a win!

I also did my 12:30/1mile on the cross ramp and did my Dumb bell weights 1 set of 10/10/30/10 reps and 1 min plank. Never made it to the gym, but like I said, kept moving all day long. Maybe I'll hand wash the kitchen floor today to make sure it's extra clean since I just used the swiffer yesterday which doesn't really clean the floor! 

I work tomorrow morning thankfully! I sure hope the roads are okay by 9am because I have to drive all the way to Prior Lake. If it's nice on Thursday, after working I can do more advertising. I'd like to Wednesday too, but I think it's supposed to be windy 20mph. 

3" in March??

 Here we are at the end of March, 25th and we finally get more snow this winter! It only looks to be about 2 or 3" of really wet heavy snow. Of course the plows snow at the end of the driveway will be the worst to move if we even bother to shovel at this point. We have rain on the forecast for the rest of the day, with a little more snow before the storm finally moves on after Tuesday. It will melt as there are 40's and 50 degree temps coming soon. The sun is also stronger this time of year, so if we get a sunny day, it should melt pretty fast. 

Here's looking out the front door this morning. Maybe 2"? I just would rather see semi green and brown grass out there than snow! 

I keep checking the extended forecast for Texas the eclipse to see if it will be clear or cloudy. So far it's not looking good for April 8th. 

It could be worse or better as it gets closer and more accurate. Not loving seeing rain, but is only for the morning right now then says partly cloudy in the afternoon, which is when the eclipse takes place around 1:30pm on Monday, April 8th. It will be another 20 years to see the next full eclipse. Crazy to think that I'll be 75 years old, Celina will be 44 and Logan 41! I told them they will have to remember back when we were talking about how old they will be on the next eclipse and where they are in life. 

We are still going regardless if it's clear or not to see. It will get dark either way and we will still have a great trip adventure! 

It's Week #2 on my weight loss journey. It has not been perfect, but life isn't and you have to live a little too. Weekends will always be a little more of a splurge on calories. 

Sunday this is how it all went. Never made it to the gym or did the cross ramp. My bad! I did do a 1 min plank and my dumb bells. Better then nothing! 

Am- coffee, scrambled eggs, hash browns, 1 sausage and a biscuit. 800

Lunch- 3 cups popcorn 130

Dinner- Rice, peppers, pork with salsa and guac, 1 biscuit 700

After dinner- rasp and a banana 150

1800 cal aprox for the day. 

Since I am not working today. Most schools are on line learning or on spring break. This happens every March during spring break, I have a week of hardly any work. I'd rather have some work, but I am at least busy next week! I'll also start advertising again after we get back from our trip! 

Today's plan is to groom Zoey, Clean the kitchen, which I already started by loading the dishwasher and running it. I'll also clean the main level, picking up a bit in the porch and vacuuming/washing the floors. I'll do laundry, washing all the sheets on our bed and Logan's. Plus, clean the bathrooms. I probably should swiffer the upstairs floors too. I might not go to the gym today since I really don't want to go out on the slippery roads. We will have a combo of rain/snow. I'll do my cross ramp workout this morning and get it out of the way. We have some quotes to get out this week too. I think that's it for today. Not sure what I'll do Tuesday with all my time? Maybe clean and do more purging? I also have painting the mud room to finish up that project. 

I have yet to get Steve to install the spare room's closet shelf. Once that's installed, we can clean up the clothes on the bed and put all away in the closet. Once that's done, we can paint and finish up the spare room. 

Celina will find out today about the GM job. I have a feeling that she would have been notified by Friday if she got the job. Bummer, because it would have been perfect for her and would insure she had a job once her contract ends in May. Ugh!!! I am holding out for hope that she does get it. If not, something better will come along  as it just has to. 

Dumper also I'm hoping can't pay up and they start taking his money/property! I'm sure some Hail Mary will come through and we once again will be disappointed there are no consequences for his action and never held accountable. Once again, I'm holding out for hope! A lot going on today! 

Kendra and family left early this morning for LA for their spring break to Malibu. They come home late Thursday on the red-eye flight leaving LA at midnight and returning at 6am. I did check the weather and it will be at least in the low 70's and zero rain. She got a good deal on the hotel, flight and car rental for the 4 days at $1200 for the 4 of them. I think the car rental wasn't included, but not bad in all for a spring break trip when they jack up the prices. Hopefully, I"ll get some photos texted to me while they are there. 

It's Madelyn's first plane ride, but Evans traveled a lot since he was a baby to Washington DC and Florida multiple times. 

Logan arrived back at college yesterday afternoon via the train. His roommate picked him up at the train station thankfully! We will see him in a month as I booked his train ride back for an end of month April mid week concert. It will be a very short visit Tuesday night late 11pm - Thursday probably at noon or maybe he will leave Friday? No idea, he was planning on spending the weekend in Madison with friends so we shall see if he does that or stays the entire weekend? I really didn't want him missing any class, but he says he planned for it and hasn't missed any yet. 

Steve went out see if it was worth shoveling even though it's raining right now. Looks like it's not worth doing as it's just going to be easy to drive over it and it should all melt with the rain and warmer temps today. Or just make a slushy mess? 

That' didn't last long to figure out the snow was way too wet/heavy to bother with! 

He made one pass with the shovel on the sidewalk and now gave up! It's raining too much to even bother! 

Sunday send off... lots of planning and March snow storm

 We were lucky and didn't wake up to much snow even though they were staying 5 inches over night. It was more like a dusting. 

The roads were completely clear, just wet so easy traveling to drop off Logan this morning at the train station. 

Here we are at almost 3pm with the snow starting around 11am. .

I'd say a few inches and it's supposed to continue to 5am when it switches over to a rain/snow combo. UGH!! At least it's all going to melt pretty fast! Just will take a few days. 

We said our good bye, but Logan will only be at school for a month, then returns for a few days to attend a concert Tuesday at 11pm through Thursday morning. He will take the car and drive back to Milwaukee. This way he can drive himself home after his end of year finals. We won't have to go out and pick him up. I'll have to look into the cost of parking for the 2 weeks. Hopefully, it won't be too much extra. 

Our Texas trip is officially planned! It took a long time to do it! I use Hipcamp.com because we enjoy staying on peoples property instead of at camp grounds. Although more and more are offering multiple camping sites on their properties. It's early in the season and will be after the eclipse, so we will most likely have the places to ourselves. We are staying in Stillwater Ok at a lake for the first night. A cheap $18 dollars! It's primitive, but we don't need much since we will just car camp with the truck tent over the back and my window coverings. No need to set up a tent after driving 10 hours the first day. We stay Friday - Wed morning with friends for the eclipse in Leander Texas/north of Austin. We leave Wednesday and will stay at Mount Ida Arkansa at a gem stone place $23.70. We can look for quartz crystals. We drive to St. Paul Arkansas $34.83 after that and stay in the mountains on a river, then to the Ozark in Mo for 2 days at the river beach where we stayed last year. We kind of wanted to stay put for one day. It's the most expensive location at $40 per night, but probably the nicest and we'll have it all to ourselves for the weekend. Grand total for our camp adventure spots aprox $170.00. Since we won't be near restaurants at our locations, most likely we will stop at a store and pick up something to cook before getting to our camp spot. I'm sure we will go out to eat while in Texas at least one or two times, then eat out in the Ozark at least one night. It will be fun to cook some food too and have drinks at the campsites and explore the areas. We had a difficult time choosing where to stay on the way back. I always like to look more more interesting accommodations and just pick something I think it would be worth exploring. We really liked the Ozark location, so that's why we picked the same spot again even though we enjoy going to new places. 

I hung up the light in laundry room and put the old light cover in the hall closet. Its so fun that I can do my own lights now that Steve showed me how. I really need to do more on my own. 

I'm saving more home projects for Monday/Tuesday. I'll groom Zoey and paint the mud room. I also listed  the mirror we had in the back room for sale on FB market place. 

I listed it for $25, but might drop the price. It has a ring on the shelf. I did use some wood fix it on the spot and it does look better, but not completely covered up. 

Hopefully, I can sell this and get it out of the house. If not, I'll drop the price to $5 or free and if I need to, take it to Goodwill. Always nice to get a little bit of money. Maybe I can work to earn $170 in selling stuff around the house?? That would pay for the camping nights. That seems like a lot of items to sell, but you never know?? I'll have to look around. 

Party time

 We threw Wayne an early 85th birthday so Logan would be here. We had taco's and all the fixings plus roasted carrots, peppers and onions. Steve made enough food for 20 people so of course we have tons of leftovers. 

We didn't set aside enough time to bake a cake for Wayne, which he always requests carrot, so we went to Sam's and picked up two cakes. One was plenty! 

I of course had cake, and a few drinks of wine, seltzers and a beer. At least two of the three were low cal at least. I stuck to one pork taco and some rice with a few roasted carrots. So not too bad on the diet considering all I had was 3 cups of popcorn that day. 

We did manage to get to the gym and I lifted weights for 24 minutes, did my home plank and weights plus, made sure to do my mile on the cross ramp. Burned at least 200 cal with exercise. Better than nothing for the day. 

Steve showed me how to take down the old light and then hook up the new one. It was difficult and we noticed it was missing one nut so off to ACE Hardware for the 60 cent part. I think it hangs too low. Might look better in the office?? I'm still not 100% sure. Steve now likes it in the mud room. No one really said anything last night about the light or it being too low. So I'm not sure what to do now. 

Zoey is getting pretty furry again. I'll have to groom her Monday. I'm not working Monday and Tuesday due to customers being on spring break and moving to last week or next week. So it's a very slow work week, but the short three days before our trip I'm going to be busy with work and a move out on top of that! Ugh!! Not complaining because I'd rather have work!! Just better to be more spread out then all at once which is what's happening. I also had a client call to stop service due to finances, so that's money I'm out of. Ugh!!! I do plan on advertising more when we get back from our vacation as Steve will need to book out more work too. He is picking up more jobs on his schedule and some how it all works out. Usually he is booked out till Fall by now, but I think extra taxes everyone had to pay has something todo with the slow season so far. Someone always needs work! We also have quotes to put together, so that is more potential work 

Logan heads back to college today on the train at 8:50am. Good thing it only snowed a tiny dusting last night. They still say we could get a few inches from today around 10 to Monday when it turns to rain.

 Logan will be back in exactly a month to watch a concert on April 25th then will drive back to school, so he will be able to drive himself home after school is done for the summer. We won't have to pick him up this spring. Which we don't mind doing since we combine with camping. We'll have to do that next year, so might as well enjoy the break as we will be taking him back this fall. Funny how when I checked the train prices its only $38 for one way, compared to $100+ what I paid for today's train. They sure do jack up the prices for holiday and spring break! 

Today after we drop him off at the train, I will install the old light in the laundry room. I started installing it and then wasn't sure we would keep the light in the mud room. I'll just finish that up today and get myself to the gym. Day 7 of my diet, as I'll always have weekend cheats with drinks as I've done that before and still lost weight. I have some party kitchen clean up, putting away the washed dishes and then loading up the rest of the dishes that didn't fit in the dishwasher. We have tons of leftovers for dinner, so that's what's on the menu. Plus, we are supposed to get more snow 1 to 3" today, so it's a stay home kind of day. I'm sure Monday is going to be a stay home one too, unless we go to the gym in the morning. That's going to be my only outing. 

Saturday. Last full day

Friday nights sunset 

 It's Logan's last full day at home for spring break. He will be on the train most of Sunday leaving at 8:50 and arriving back in Milwaukee around 2:30pm. We are supposed to get maybe a foot of snow! YIKES!! Let's hope they over hyped this storm and we don't get as much or rains and it melts the snow. The snow we got on over night Thursday was pretty much all melted by Friday afternoon. We can at least see the ground and it's bare in lots of places, but of course shaded areas still have the same 2 or 3". I am not ready for a foot of snow! At least it will only be around a week or less since it's supposed to be in the 40's again the following week and do a lot more rain/snow next week. We do need the moisture, so at least that helps this winters drought. I'm just not wanting to see snow at this point as we are ready for spring!! Green, plants growing and warm weather!! At least when we are in Texas it should be all of those things in 11 days. I keep checking the forecast for our trip too. Fingers crossed it's all good weather! At least Texas looks good, but I did see rain that Friday when we do the last part of our drive from OK to Texas. Might be a good idea just to car camp that night and have zero tent to put away! I'm all for easy set up and put away to get on the road and have little to do once there. 

We went out with Steve's parents because they wanted Friday Fish fry. We just went to the Legion along the river in Hastings as they have the best fish. Steve of course had the broasted chicken that looked really good. I think for the 6 of us the bill with at least 4 drinks was $112? Not bad considering it's easy for 2 people out to spend that. They treated us to dinner, which was nice! I of course went a little off my diet to enjoy 1 beer and some fried fish and cheese hash browns. Plus, I had a cookie and some Cheeto's at Madelyn's grandparents day at her preschool. 

Madelyn had to remind me that she is allergic to peanuts and the M&M's could be made with nuts. Yikes!! I didn't even think about the m&m's. Glad this 4 year old let me know! She's a smart girl. 

My hair sure is looking red. It must be color fading. I only color the roots, but as it grows out it's picking up all the reds in my hair with the fading. I might have to do an all over color before our trip! Then it will be too dark. I'd really like it professionally done, but don't want to spend the money on that since I'd have to go monthly for touchups. I like the price of the box color! It's all the same stuff as I know from making hair color back in my Aveda chemist days. 

We are celebrating Wayne's 85th Birthday today. We should do Steve's mom's too since we will be gone for her birthday on April 6th. Might have to do that the week we leave and just stop over with flowers etc. Maybe go for dinner Tuesday night at their house as she will be 86. 

Today is home projects, hang the light, the gym and having everyone over for pork taco's tonight. We'll have to go to the store to pick up a few items for tonight and I'll have to decorate for his birthday with at least a  HB sign. 

Sunday, I'll finish painting the mud room and I'm hoping I can get Steve to install his closet rack in the spare room so we can finally clean up his clothes all over the bed. It would be nice to look in that room and not see a huge mess. After we clean it up, we can paint the walls and I can redo the headboard in another color and get a new bedspread or use our duvet that we only need in the winter months. We have plenty of pillows and sheets etc.. 

Logan will be back in a month Tuesday - Friday to see a concert. I just checked the train prices and it's only $37 with a 15% student discount. Go figure, sending him back was $107 on Sunday! He will just take the car and drive to school keeping it for little over a week as he finishes up classes early in May. He can then just drive home and we don't have to go pick him up this spring. We just will have to pay for at least a week of parking. Guess we will see how much that costs. His roommate can park on the street and we can pay for her spot or I can contact the apartment complex and see how much it would cost for that time to park his car. That might be the option we go with! 

Looking out my window this morning, it's sunny.. the calm before the storm. Just a little snow peppered with bare ground. It's going to turn cloudy and the snow will be starting around 1am. Let's hope the roads are okay for the drive to the train station as we can't be late! Trains don't wait!! 

Woke up to March SNOW

 I looked outside this morning to see about 2 inches of wet snow. At least the driveway has only patches of snow to maybe shovel? The sidewalk to the front door defiantly needs to be shoveled off and the roads are clear. At least all the snow has stopped for now. The next round is Saturday night and all day Sunday into Monday! Actually, all next week is peppered with snow/rain combo before the 40's come back again. 

This morning photo VS last night. Probably should take down the hammock later this afternoon before Sunday's snow! I want to use it on our vacation! 

I made some more fried rice last night for dinner to eat with the pulled pork. We now can make Mexican taco's, BBQ pork or asian pork with fried rice. Three ways to eat up all that pork! 

This was much better than my other previous batch of rice. I actually had Kikoman's soy sauce and not Trader's Joes which is completely different! I don't know if there is a shortage of that brand, but I only found a small bottle in both Cub locations. 

Here is Logan at the popup bakery he went to with Maggi. He also went out to sushi with Celina yesterday and then had coffee with his Meme'(grandmother) at her house in the morning. Still am not sure if he applied to internships/a job for this summer? That's on him now. I've done all the reminding I can!! 

We leave for our Texas trip in 13 days!! I'm looking forward to our weeks vacation! We are trying to make it as cheap as possible, saying at Hipcamps and at our friends. Cooking our own food and bringing drinks instead of eating out and going out for drinks. We'll explore parks, take walks/hike, swim in the pool and have an adventure staying different places and seeing new scenery. The main event is the solar eclipse which is 100% free! We plan to stay all day at their place and have a pool day/happy hour/meal making kind of day. I think we do plan to have dinner at least one night out with our friends. I should figure out a gift to give them for our stay?? Not sure exactly what?? Maybe Mexican Domino's train?? Or we'll call it the Texas Domino's train!! lol.. Plus, maybe some flowers that we can pick up before arriving as they do have a Costco near by. There is also some gemstone mines in MO that I want to get some rocks at and if we stay at a certain Hipcamp we can look in the river and find them for free. I do love my rocks from each location we go. Now I can bring a few home from Texas too! 

Diet Day #5 made it this far and now I'm on my way to day 100. I don't know why it takes me so long to get back on track when I venture off. I have a pretty easy time with sticking to it. Although, I did not go to the gym yesterday afternoon like I planned to lift weights. 

Here's what I ate:

Am- coffee with cream 50 cal

noon- popcorn 3 cups 130cal

1 wheat bread 120 cal

1tbsp honey PB 100 cal

Eve fried rice 2 cups with Pork loin 800

1 sm banana 70 cal

1 cup rasp 50 cal

Total ate: 1320 cal which is higher than I would have liked because I ate an extra cup of fried rice. Some days I'm going to need the extra calories but it's still with in range 500 to 1500 cal for the day. 

What did I do for exercise:

1 mile cross ramp 12:40 min = 100 cal burned

Cleaned = 2 Hours = 400 burned

Plank 1 min/Dumbbells 10/10 /30/10

I ran errands yesterday getting supplies for my rice and getting more fruit so I had something to eat after dinner. I do like something sweet after dinner and fruit is the trick. 

I also cleaned up our kitchen. 

I've now decided to put the new light in the mud room. 

This new light will replace that ugly boob light that we've had since we built the house 24 years ago! Maybe I'll put that in the closet instead? We have an even uglier light in there! Kendra and Mollie helped me decide that this is where it should go and not the office as I was originally thinking. Glad to have help deciding! Now I need to find a good office light! Just not sure what?? 

I will finish up the painting on our mud room this weekend. I'll enamel all the white and it will be 100% done! 

It's going to be a stay at home type weekend anyway with the snow coming. We might go out for Fish dinner tonight to celebrate Steve's dad's 85th birthday. We need to pick up flowers and some kind of candy to go with that? I'm not sure what else to get him?? 

I work today at 11 and then am going to Madelyn's preschool for grandparents day around 2:30pm. I'll bring her home so I need a carseat which we still have Evan's when he was that age. I just need to get it down and put into the car then adjust it for her.