Winding Down and Other Random Thoughts

Well, as it has been for most people, we've been busy lately.  Christmas is over. Decorations are down and safely packed away until next year.  Some cleaning has been done.  All is well and we are happy.

I hope you've all had a peaceful holiday.  Golfer and I are not really party people for New Year's Eve,  so we're looking forward to some snacks and some movies.  We got some new DVDs as Christmas presents so we're all set.

Cutie Girl had a good First Christmas.  She kept us laughing during dinner.  And she liked her gifts, but seemed more interested in chewing the paper and playing with the boxes!

Golfer and I watched some of our favorite Christmas movies once the reruns started on TV.  In "Christmas With the Kranks" (Tim Allen) there is a scene with Christmas carolers.  It got me to thinking about caroling many years ago.  It doesn't seem like there are many groups that go caroling any more.  When I was a little girl in small town Ohio caroling was a big deal at Christmas.  There was always caroling planned by various church groups, girl scouts, boy scouts, and other organizations.  The tradition was to bundle up - seemed like we always had knee deep snow about then - and carry your flashlight and music sheet.  We would walk all around town.  The leader had a list, probably of shut-ins or ill folks, and we'd stop in their front yards or on the porch and sing.  Sometimes the people sent cookies out or made a donation, but that certainly was not necessary.  We always ended up at the end of the evening back at the church or the school and had hot chocolate and cookies to warm up.  Good memories.

Some of you know my personal belief about Winter already.  For those of you that don't, I am fine with Winter, cold, and snow up through Christmas.  On December 26th I am ready for warm sunshine!  I very rarely get my wish.

So, time is moving on.  It's the time of year I sort of switch into clean-out mode and want to sort through closets and drawers and clean things out.  That will probably happen this year, but a little slower.  I continue to progress with the PT and am gaining strength in tiny bits.  But I will be the first to tell you, with Golfer ready to second it, that the six months or more of lower back pain and hip pain that the doctor told me to expect after surgery is getting really old really fast.

But life goes on and life is good.

Stay safe and have a Happy New Year!

Early Present!

Bikini surprised us with an early Christmas present.  She made us a new quilted tree skirt.  It's lovely!  Thank you, Bikini!  The furry kids have been jostling each other around to see who gets the prime spots under the tree.  They all want to sit on the new skirt.

Cinder won this round!

Physical therapy is going okay.  So far I've been able to do what they are asking of me.  I feel a little better every day and am able to do a lot more now.  I just have to pace myself and remember Dr. Aldridge's rule of don't do anything for more than ten minutes.

Christmas preparations are coming along.  I need to have a wrapping day soon though!  Golfer appears to have his all done.  He prefers the "bag" wrapping method.

So all in all, life is good.  Stay safe!

Finally!

Hooray!  The sun is out today!  Honestly, I have not been counting how many days were dark, gray, cold, and wet.  It was wearing me out and making me miserable.   But today the sun is out.  It is still cold, but oh, so much better! 

I had an appointment with my surgeon last Friday.  He told me I could stop wearing the back brace.  And said it is now time to start physical therapy.  He's very good about letting me ask questions and talking to me and I told him I am terribly afraid of moving wrong and having something slip or pop loose.  He said not to worry, everything looked good and the bone was growing very well.  He also said I could try to do anything I felt like trying but to not do anything for more than ten minutes.  And obviously, if something hurts, stop.  So I am cautiously trying things.

I had the evaluation appointment with the physical therapist and have the actual first appointment tomorrow.

Christmas preparations are coming along.  I've been getting caught up on some other things.  Life is good.  Golfer and I went to the first movie since my surgery.  Saw "Thor" and we enjoyed it very much.  We also saw some previews for a couple other movies we will want to see.  I did fine sitting there watching, but was pretty stiff when it was over and it was time to stand up and move.  Just something to deal with.

The furry kids are still enjoying the Christmas trees.  I check on the tree skirt in the dining room a few times a day and put it back in place!  Finnigan went through a spell of wanting to take the garland off the living room tree, but after I fussed at him and got the spray water bottle out he's been a little better.

I hope all is well with everyone.  Stay safe!

Elves

Bikini has posted a picture of the elf moving around their house keeping watch on the children.  I thought I would post a picture of our original elves.  We've had these since Bikini and Nurse J were tiny girls.  Our elves are not adventurous,  they stay on the tree.  :)

 

Stay safe!

Horrifying and Appalling!

Golfer and I have GE appliances that we bought a couple years ago from a very nice store in our area - Shawel's.  Good service, good deals.  We recommend them.  Our refrigerator/freezer has the ice and water dispenser in the freezer door.  The water stopped working recently, so I set up a service call.  Turns out the water line that runs up the side of the freezer door was frozen and had to be thawed out.  The very nice man said this happens sometimes.  Nothing needed to be replaced.  It works fine now.

However...this was a multipurpose service call.  For several weeks Golfer and I have noticed an odor in the area around our refrigerator and dish washer.  Sometimes so bad we could smell it down the hall.  Other times just faintly in the area.  We checked and there was nothing spilled and not cleaned up and no other messes in the area or under anything. I think everyone that knows us would say we are clean and neat and orderly.  Our floors are cleaned a couple times a week; more often if needed.  But there was this persistent odor.  I wondered if it might be sewer gas from one of the drains.  

Anyway, I explained to the nice man that I would like him to check the plumbing connections and drains.  He said "no problem!" and started looking.  At first he said he couldn't smell anything.  Then he got a whiff.  He pulled out the refrigerator and got down on the floor behind it.  The smell was stronger there.  He said he had never had any issues with a refrigerator putting out nasty smells but he was checking it all out.  He took part of the back off.  The odor got stronger.  He got down there and started poking around and looking and then there was a gasp and he hollered "I found it! I'm gonna' need some plastic bags!" 

What he found was a frickin' dead mouse!!!!!  In the back of our fridge!!!!!

GROSS!!!!!

A mouse.  In our fridge.  The nice man said he must have crawled next to the condenser to get warm.  He also said there was no other mess.  No mouse "droppings"  Nothing.  And in all our floor cleaning we have never seen any mouse poo or unexplained messes.  And there's no obvious holes where one could get in.  It is a mystery.  Golfer said he must have beamed in like on Star Trek!

So that's all been cleaned up and he sprayed down things with a deodorizer.  It is better this morning in our kitchen, but ICK.  GROSS.

And we have four cats in our family.  Four loveable, happy, indoor only furry kids.   Obviously they are not hunters.

Stay safe!

What Is, Is.

It used to be that I would do all the Christmas decorating, clean up afterwards, and still do all the regular daily chores all in one day.  Those days are gone.  I pace myself.  So what is, is!  The new state of "normal".

Golfer and I have been working on the decorating.  We finished up yesterday.  And even though it took several days to complete, it looks nice.  Golfer did the heavy stuff, moving boxes and containers, setting up the trees, vacuuming, etc. 

Here are some pictures. I was quite excited while decorating the living room tree.  This was the very first year ever that the Star Trek ornaments all worked on the first try at plugging them into the light string!  This is unheard of!  Some years it has taken hours to get them plugged in and working.  A couple years it involved taking a trip to the store to buy a new string of lights.  The new Hallmark ornaments that are battery powered now are soooooo much easier!  I wish Hallmark would reissue the older ornaments and put batteries in them.  We have a couple original ones that have stopped working.  I miss our Borg Cube!

Living room tree

Dining room tree.  This looks nice from the street!

The Christmas spirit makes Cecil more sociable. 

Cecil (on the left) and Angus under the tree last evening.

Cinder under the tree

And while Cecil, Cinder and Angus were enjoying rearranging the tree skirts and resting under the glow of the Christmas lights in peace and calm, this is what Finnigan was up to:

Finnigan on top of the shower wall.  This is about six feet high.  He was practicing the balance beam and walking back and forth.  Also tried to sit on the top edge of the bathroom door!  Life is always interesting with our furry kids around.

So.  That is the state of things around here.  Stay safe!