Less Hustle More Coffee

Friday at work there was a baby shower for one of our coworkers. It was one of the most beautiful baby showers. Very neat and very professionally put together by another coworker or two at work. In the days of bad news and rumors of wars, sickness, the beginnings of drought and famines, and all, it is nice to be able to enjoy and share something good.

My friend Lisa J made this diaper cake. It’s just gorgeous. I have some talented friends and coworkers.

It was in our break room. I love the break room window how you can see out to the patio next to it. My office is upstairs and each quarter of the building has a little kitchenette (no stove) but sink and microwave and such so I usually just eat at my desk.

Here’s more pics and ideas for baby shower. But it looks like we bought Publix out with all the many little desserts. It was so precious. And the games were so cute. I just had to share with you all.

The shower was just what I needed to set the weekend off right. It had been a long week and I was very tired. I think just less sleep than normal, a lot more on the “to do” list, less free time, and feeling like I’m burning the candle at both ends.

The REAL ID:

Earlier in the day Friday I “attempted” to get my REAL ID so I could fly. However, they would not accept the original birth certificate much to my surprise. It has to be the one from vital statistics. The one I had was the one the hospital gave Mom. It had the county seal on it but the DMV requires the state one instead. Also I need documents to show how I got the name Cox – so marriage certificate. I will try again. But that was almost two hours wasted by the time I drover over, waited, and drove back. I at least got a Wendy’s hamburger out of the trip. You know…I reward myself for trouble. lol

Saturday – no rest for the weary. Up and out the door at 7:00 to go get Mom and Fancy for Fancy’s dog trim. Fancy was in bad shape. She is looking pretty bad these days – just very old and very tired. I think she is 16 or 17. I can’t remember. She’s been coughing a lot but Mom refuses to allow her to be seen saying they have already done what they can do for her. But she was due for a trim and looked better after the grooming.

Mom and I ran a lot of errands and did a lot while Fancy was in grooming. First order was breakfast. Mom and I both enjoy a big breakfast. I hardly ever get one as I prefer a Saturday of coffee, blogging, and hanging out in my PJ’s over rushing out and getting ready and getting breakfast. If I really want a big breakfast I usually do one at home. Most of the time though the pajama party on Saturday morning wins. But since we were already out we got breakfast. Mom is wanting to move Fancy’s trims from every 6 weeks to every 5, further jamming up my Saturday mornings. But I didn’t complain. Fancy will not be here much longer. Once Fancy is gone our early Saturday morning running will turn into afternoons. I’ve grieved over my one day a week to stay home. We are three Saturday’s into being gone and then the busy season starts. Most of it fun and most of it I still get my Saturday mornings though. It’s important to me working FT to have this block of time – my only day to sleep in and rest and not have to rush out. I get cranky big time when this time is not there.

I wanted to remind you of the 55+ menu that IHOP has. For so long I kinda didn’t want to eat at an IHOP because I felt it was fattening. It seems to have a different menu from the one we went to in Hermitage. This one is in Mount Juliet. I am impressed that there is the 55+ menu and they have healthier options now. They have multi grain bread and healthier protein pancakes. I got the Rise N Shine. I wasn’t in the mood for pancakes after having all the sweets the night before. lol. I needed protein so eggs and bacon.

Then we went to get our toes done. Mom has waited a while for this because every time she would be ready to go she would get gout. Forgive my pic. I don’t look my best because I hopped out of bed and didn’t do much with my hair.

I’m happy with the color I picked for my toes. It was nice to sit and get a back massage and have someone massage and pamper your feet. I look forward to it monthly or sometimes a little longer if the polish holds. I also catch up on emails and social media in the mean time. It’s a nice quiet time for me.

Mom wanted to go to Sally’s Beauty Supply next door. Then we went the other direction to the Dollar Store after that. I had some purchases as canned goods were a pretty good price. And they have miniature suddenly salads that is just perfect for fixing for one person for a couple of day’s lunches. So we each bought several bags of stuff. I bought some fall flowers. They have pretty cute decorative items. When leaving I realized “uh oh, I have to carry both mine and Mom’s things”. I managed. Except I had gotten out my car keys as I forgot we were in her car. She likes to take her car since I’m running her errands. That is nice but it messes me up as I have to transfer things over and remember which car I’m in. Her seat I can never fit to my liking and the brakes and the gas are different. I take off like a jet at red lights and nearly send us through the window when stopping, til I get used to the difference. lol. So anyway I dropped a can of soup trying to get the keys out and it went rolling under the car.

Of course when I got the bags in the back, I had to go through all the bags to see whose can of soup it was. We BOTH bought soup! lol.

After that we went to Academy Sports where Mom got some more shoes to wear around the house. She got some Adidas that worked well. I hope they do. Sometimes after you get home they don’t work as well. But she needed more arch support and said those felt better on her feet. Hopefully she can walk better on them.

They called and said Fancy was ready so went and got her and I took them home. We had a rain storm coming. The worst of it broke off and went north and south of me. But I ended up having to drive home in the rain. It was not dark so it was ok. But it’s a problem in the dark when it rains as I cannot see the lines. Everything shines the same and I can’t tell where turnoffs are and such, in areas where there are no lights or I’m not familiar with it. But this rain was light and it was ok and it wasn’t dark!

After II got home George and I went to take the dog for a bath at Dolly’s Grooming. It was $13 to use their soap, tubs, water and utilities and such. She showed us how. We put aprons on and it was a good thing too. Dexter bucked like a mule or donkey in that tub and nearly knocked both of us out of the way but we managed to hold him in there and figured out how to use the head leash thing to secure him in. He was NOT a fan of the shower. Next time we will pay the $100 something dollars and let the professionals do it. They can do nails, ears, gland expressing, and teeth brushing. We won’t have to do it often but maybe we will do it every quarter or so, lol. We will just brush him a lot. Might see if there is some kind of wet cloths to clean him with in between. But I’m so glad we got this out of the way. I’m not sure that we really got a good lather or a good bath in, but at least we got him wet and got some soap on him.

The little fellow was just exhausted from his traumatizing experience. He normally doesn’t nap in the day when we are home. He might lay down sometimes but watches us and keeps his eyes open. Now I wonder if he will want to go in the car with us anymore, lol.

Mom told us yesterday that Dexter could not go to Texas. I was surprised she said it as she doesn’t get to decide. lol. I told her that would be up to Katy, Sonya, George and Dexter and we had not decided yet. If we take him we have to stay in a hotel. I don’t really want to do that, but I suppose we could. I love staying on the ranch and having coffee in the early morn on the ranch though and I would miss the early mornings with River. The hotels are boring and not always up to snuff. I would hate to board Dexter and would love to take him but I’m unsure. I hate that this is always an issue. But he is a big dog and I’m not sure how gentle he will be with River. He’s still a puppy and if we took him he’d have to be on a leash while at the house and watched every second and then we’d have to leave him alone in the hotel in which he’d probably eat every thing in there. While it is not Mom’s decision, she is probably right that he should not go but the reason she is concerned for is one that can be controlled. The other might cost us a lot of money in damage IF they even allow us to have a big dog in the room. It’s never a good situation to figure out. But it’s one we need to figure out soon so we can make the appropriate plans, reservations and such so that we have a “choice” instead of one having to be made for us. I kinda think we need to board him as hard as that will be. But if he is in the right boarding situation he might enjoy it. His neutering is coming up in October. He may settle some then and he may not.

Well I have to get in the shower. We are going to church and meeting with the minister today about placing membership.

But first, this week: We have Mom’s Eye doc appt on Friday. Plans with Susan and Kevin on Saturday. I have already done most of our laundry as I started Thursday night knowing this weekend was impossible to get everything done I needed. So I have some time planned in the kitchen to make the Loon Chicken Salad which is an extravagant version – uses a roasted chicken, grapes, almond slivers, celery and seasonings. We are hitting up Kroger after church for the ingredients. I want to work on some things in my office in the afternoon after that. I want to see if I can work on the movie. I have to get 45 min down to about 28 or less. I prefer them to be around 18 to 21. But we’ll see. I’d love to be able to get a few things done around the house and knock some things off the list I’ve been wanting to do, but I may have to plan a day off and not tell anyone about it to be able to get some of my personal things done. I have to look at my PTO and see where I am and what I can afford to do.

I’m happy we got some of Mom’s list done. I think she has furniture she wants to look at and also she needs some treats for the dog (budding that she puts fancy’s meds in). We will get that today and get it to her somehow this week.

She wants to unpack all the boxes in her garage and sternly said yesterday “those will have to be unpacked and gone through”. I told her we could bring in some boxes and she could go through them at any time. She had told us she was tired of doing it. I told her we did not have spare time to sit and watch her go through it all, but can bring her the boxes. Her doc appt and errands take up a huge chunk of our spare time and I told her we had unpacked her essentials for living. But we can bring in the boxes to her and she unpack and get in some exercise instead of sitting in the recliner letting her muscles waste away. Anyway, we can’t all have our way.