Less Hustle More Coffee

George and I ran errands Friday and basically got to enjoy a nice PTO day. We picked up the police report for my identity theft (finally) since we were off during the police headquarter business hours. And we headed over and bought my iPhone 13 Pro Max (ordered it) for part of my Christmas. We went to Belk and I bought 5 pair of pants (much needed for winter) and a Christmas gift there. We also went into the book store, Books a Million, in Mount Juliet and had a fun time looking through all the various books and toys for Little Roo. We laughed at a few things we saw. I mean Betty White in a children’s book made us cackle. And of course there is the Big Foot Research Kit that everyone must have.

There is the Do Not Disturb sign, “Probably” Working from Home which I happened to notice was sitting on top of an Inflatable Gumby.

And how about these Virtual Meeting Props? Can you imagine the laughter and sidekick humor in your “favorite” virtual meeting?

I personally like the Dammit Doll and might need to keep a set of those – one for work and one around the house. Why do I have a desire to put push pins in it (?) – is that a voo doo kinda of thang? lol!

I also wondered if I would like this author. Have any of you read hers? She has a best selling Novel “Nightingale” that is to become a motion picture. So I’m thinking it might try an audio book.

Most people have seen these. I know people that have this in their bathroom and it’s good smelling stuff. I would love to have some for our bathroom. If I get any for Christmas I won’t be offended. lol I told George to put some in my stocking. Not sure if he will remember. ha.

After our fun we went to eat sushi and a side trip to Tuesday Morning. George was thrilled to go to Mori Mori in Mount Juliet and we ordered a wonderful lunch of sushi and talked about the food and realigned and caught up on where we each were toward “Christmas Shopping” and updated my list book. I have a little spiral notebook Christmas shopping book going.

So….when we do sushi, I don’t eat the raw fish like George does. His plate was the first plate. I believe mine was a California roll. I also had a Ginger Salad and ate 1.5 spring rolls dipped in the sweet sauce (oh my gosh, so good). The Shrimp Tempura – also an “oh my gosh” experience over the shredded carrots there. It was quite yummy and also came with a sweet brown sauce. I enjoyed a Black Abbey Rose along with lunch – because I could and we were on vacation. 😉

So Tuesday Morning shop has a wonderful selection of modern rugs and the prices are not too bad. I mainly took this pic for Mom as with her new and shiny wood flooring she is considering a rug but we just have to be careful as not to get something she can trip on. Her furniture is likely to scratch it all to pieces. We have bought felt and felt pads to glue onto the braces. It seems everything has been so complicated with this move. The bed sizes and mattress issues come to mind, the not having to scratch the wood flooring (makes me grateful for my luxury vinyl flooring and the ease of care, or lack of care, I should say, in our busy world). I bought a few gift items and also some Christmas napkins from here.

So we went back to Mom’s new villa and worked a bit and then headed home and went back out for The Lost Cajun.

I love their catfish and fried okra and got the potato salad which was quite a stingy release of it and it’s more like creamed potatoes with more mayo and pickles than potatoes but it was of course good. lol We did not need fried food but honestly this was the only thing I really care for there. I like Gumbo and Red Beans and Rice sometimes but wasn’t really in the mood for it. I think I’ve had both there and prefer the catfish. So I ate catfish. And of course it was good. One thing I do not love about the Lost Cajun is the inability to change your order. I wanted other sides besides fries but NO it all comes with the fries and you can ADD other items if you want. So they “gotcha” because you want the side you want. I’m not sure I saw baked potato or hush puppies on the list. It comes with toast. But hush puppies are better! Anyway it is what it is. And that is my honest review. But I will say they were very friendly!

We had to laugh at George’s parking. He always parks so far away from the curb. And I never noticed it until Mom began riding with us. She really needs to hold on to the car and allow the car to help her attempt to get up the curb but George parks so far back she has to switch to holding on to my arm. And that is fine only the car is more stable and not moving. Here in the pic below it is not as noticeable as other times. I called it “curbophobea” (fear of the curb) making Mom laugh.

MOM’S MOVE UPDATE

We had to be at Mom’s Saturday morning early for the Lowe’s delivery of the fridge so we stopped at the donut shop and got kolaches, breakfast sandwiches, apple fritters, and donuts. And guess what! Lowe’s had all of her appliances (washer and dryer also). Not just the fridge. I had prayed for nice surprises and we had some. We had been scheduled for the 12/1 delivery of the washer and dryer (a pleasant surprise but a little oopsie on their part for not communicating this). So we were ecstatic that they all came. However, George and I had many things staged in the utility room for unboxing/moving in – so we had to scramble at the last minute to move all that. It would have been nice to know. And sadly the washer had a dent in it. It was on the side and hardly noticeable so that was good. I showed Mom and asked what she wanted to do but told her it was hardly noticeable and I asked the guy if we could get a discount. He said “sure”. So they took a picture and told their “boss” and Lowe’s called back and gave her a really good deal. She was happy with that. It was quite a chunk off. And they will return that on her card. Good deal.

When we left yesterday the fridge had still not made ice but we’ll see. She bought the same fridge we have and I think I remember ours taking a while to begin cycling through. But we’ll see when we go over again what it is doing.

We FOUND THE WHITE DISHES. George did. It was in a section of boxes we couldn’t get into. We never found the router. But AT&T came out yesterday at 3:30 to install her internet. They had to set up and install everything into the nice “box” into the utility room that GoodAll has just for this. So I mean they had to have the lines run and everything and had to drill and they drilled into the wall and it went into her pantry. It was only a small hole and we can fix it as it we were left the materials from the building of her house (paint and spackling, etc.)

I worked on getting Mom’s plasticware washed and with its mates and into the cabinetry. I got out her coffee pot and her air fryer. And we went through a lot of boxes from her guest bathroom and we have about 3 yard sales boxes already. We have much of her kitchen set up but we have to wash and put up her pots and pans still. The box was too heavy for me to move. George will bring it in for us.

I also, on the next workday, will work on boxing up the clothes she doesn’t want for a yard sale. She has quite the pile and we’ll get that into boxes and set up for the spring yard sale.

It didn’t seem like we got a lot done yesterday, but a lot was accomplished considering the delivery of appliances and the setting up of her internet. They didn’t need her router after all because they had their own – a different kind built into the system of what they were installing. So the missing router is now not an issue. I guess all in all we emptied about 6 or 8 boxes.

So where we are with the move now? The Next Steps...

• The truck for Nov 20th of the final big furniture (china cabinets and couches etc.) has been booked. He could not get one with a lift though. So he had to get a ramp.
• We need to put felt tips on the bottoms of her recliner and sofa so it doesn’t scar the wood flooring
• The mattress situation is a critical piece in which when resolved, she can go ahead and move in.
• Security system can be scheduled
• George can install her TV
• George is working on getting the parts needed for installing a bar getting out of each shower and also a bar to hold onto going down her back stairs, and hanging things on the back porch (brick).
• Mom and I can finish her pantry and wash her pots and pans and get those up and finish her clothes
• She and I can work on setting up her bedroom dresser and drawers, we are lining with the paper that Lisa gave her (smells so good – like roses) and working on her bathroom area.
• I think we can go ahead and pick out what she needs for bathrooms and shower stalls (bath mats, rugs, curtains, etc.)
• It’s all coming together slowly.

More on the Mattress situation.

She will be calling mattress stores near by. I told her we could research that today and see if we can find a store to visit one night this week if they stay open past 6. She is wanting to talk with them first to see options for extending a reg bed into a queen size. *Note for those at work reading/snooping (lol) I know I could buy Mom’s mattresses cheaper from our company but it is not convenient to do so. 1) She has to try it out 2) The show room is in Antioch and we are not. 3) Even if I drover her down to Antioch I’d have to take off work to do so 4) Our company does not deliver so we would have to rent a truck (aaaaaagain) and take off work (aaaaaagain) to go down and pick it up. 5) If Momma is not happy – I will be the one having to deal with it. 6) There wouldn’t be a return unless there was a flaw of some sort.

I have been quizzed recently about this since I work for a mattress company and was told it was unfortunate (silly) not to get my discount and pay 50% more or whatever it was but —it was our business. Yes it is our business. And yes it is sad or silly (whatever term it was) to pay more but are ya gonna let me have the free time off, give Mom advice on the various kinds of mattresses and be her sales guy and answer her questions? Are you gonna pay George for his time off to drive the truck, pay for the truck, or move it for us, give your sweat equity and tears to set it up, and deal with Momma in the process? No I didn’t think so. So you see, ain’t no amount of money worth all that. So she will need to go somewhere close and be able to hear the sales pitches and ask her questions and try it and see and then have it delivered.

Note to self and everyone else: Once we get this move done on the 20th we are officially resigning from moving furniture at that point, lol. I think if we move ourselves we’ll have to have someone else handle it. So….

The Tribe Has Spoken.

So, at 7:00 last night, I’m asking myself, is it NOT bed time yet. I think this has been the hardest time change ever. A week in and I’m ready for sleep by 7! I know the stress of the move and all the excitement exacerbates the issue. But last night we had soup and I went to bed and Mom went to bed. I’m sure George enjoyed some quiet time to himself. I had enjoyed more of the “Polar Girl”, which I’ve endearingly named the girl that lives near the North Pole in Svalbard. Again for like the 3rd night in a row, I’ve watched about 3 YouTube shows while snuggled under a blanket. Watching the snow makes you really cold.

Our Next Plans Today and Forward

So it’s Saturday and I got up at 3:30 as I was awake of course from going to bed so early. Today’s plan is to get laundry done and critical things here at the house and ready for the work week. We may possibly head over with a load of stuff left over in our basement, more of her food, and so forth. And do a bit of work over there this afternoon. George wants to watch the ball game.

George and I are excited that things will be moving toward a new normal. We are looking forward to 1) Eating lamb 2) Watching Netflix shows while we eat dinner 3) I’m looking forward to getting my bedroom back, having room to move my fall clothes upstairs and do the switcheroo (it’s getting cold) 4) Me getting my office back as an office/Santa’s workshop. 5) Looking forward to having my shoe rack back. 6) Looking forward to having my bathroom space back. So as we move and set up we are also looking at the next “to do” list for the house.

Yes, a lot going on.

So IF YOU made it this far, you have to let me know. I really love hearing from you. I will likely not be back here until Wednesday. Tomorrow morning I’m working on the next video and then Tuesday is my early day but hopefully back on Wednesday for a midweek update post.