Went to get Mom after work yesterday. EVERYONE is traveling for the EASTER WEEKEND! lol. The interstate was packed. WAZE app took us the long way around just so we’d not be stuck in traffic. But Fancy dog did good and so did Mom!
We went to Slim Chickens and picked up Chicken fingers and wings to go. We got the “Crowd Pleaser” and it comes with 10 different sauces. Also with potato salad and slaw. They had other sides but that is what we picked. No beans though. They should add baked beans or some kind of beans to the menu! Anyway we had a fun night eating our quick, but late dinner. And sat around and talked and watched a show and then went to bed. I went about 30 minutes before everyone else did as my day started before anyone else. Sleep was good, George’s snores were tamed (breath right strip?) and Roger only got up once that I know of.
This morning I got up fixed coffee, started laundry (I needed jeans!) and got showered. Everyone else got up and began to get ready.
Nadine’s Hermitage Haven for Breakfast
We went out to a place called Nadeen’s Hermitage Haven in Hermitage, TN (very close to us). They have a grand reputation of having a great breakfast and also seemed to have a good lunch menu too. Even our new neighbor that has not hardly even moved in yet, told us about it. I had already had two others to tell me about it! It lived up to its reputation. It just restaurant in an old Pizza Hut building. The food was awesome. The inside had it’s charm.
George’s meal looked awesome. Hueavos Rancheros. We should make this at home!
I just ordered the plain breakfast of eggs, choice of meat and hash browns. They do have country ham too. But I love my bacon. I felt guilty over the biscuit, but not too guilty, lol. It’s Easter weekend.
The Butt Hut….LOL!
We had to laugh at the little BBQ shack next door to Nadine’s. Just a little hut. The Butt Hut. It had a little patio. Apparently it is primarily a biker spot and they often have live music (outdoors I think). I looked it up on Facebook. Looks like a band called Pretty Grim plays there. I never knew this existed and drove by it a thousand times. But…it’s not like I’m a biker and I never will be. Not much of a partier any more either. ha. But a fun spot.
Took Mom to look at a Model home today in our Area!
So we went to see the area Mom is interested in living in. The continue to build the homes and she would be able to pick her model. But she loves to sit outside and the back patio is just not very big and not very interesting to look at. Not much grass for the dog. There is the front yard grass though if the HOA allows dogs to go there. There is a dog park nearby but it may not be convenient to walk the dog over there a lot. Mom needs to be able to just let the dog go out while she watches. The main deal was the lack of a good patio area. This will likely be the case in many of the conjoined homes, I suspect. But the insides were beautiful in the open model we toured. They only had a town house model open and she would want a main floor.
The patio areas were kinda in back but there are brick walls you see in between, not an open area. But enough area to put a small patio table and chairs. You have to park in the back. There is a garage and drive way.
The entrance was pretty.
So I’m not sure this will work for Mom. But if she can figure out what the patio looks like on the model she wants and can get a cover over it, she would be happy I think as long as Fancy is happy. I know of another area that might work for her I told her we could drive by and see it. She’d have to wait til something came open though. Once she knows what her house is worth and gets hers sold we can look to buy. Most of the time you can’t do a contingency, but never say never I guess. She really just needs to talk to the realtor to have these conversations because I’m not familiar with the market. And Mom will not believe me anyway but she will be more likely to listen to the realtor. I mean come on, what do I know? Right.
So within the hour we will be getting our toes done. I’m also trying to work on laundry and do some of my weekend stuff as I can, aka blogging! 😉
Not much to tell though. We have a BBQ, white beans and corn bread tonight for dinner. A relaxing evening. Tomorrow we don’t have a lot to do and will be home most of the day. I may ride her around and look at some neighborhoods though. So she might have some ideas if some places come open.
I would love to have her up here. But again it’s a big scary decision and she may be too scared to make the move. Where there is a will there is a way. One thing though is that if Mom makes her mind up no one will stop her. So it really depends on whether she wants to do it or not. If she does she WILL find a way. We told her we’d help her with all of the processes – every bit of helping her through it and including the moving part – once she gives the green light. I’m not pushing though. It’s totally her decision. But it would be wonderful to have her up here where we can help more. We just can’t be down there as often as she is going to need help. Assisted living will come sooner if she stays down there. We can give her company and get things for her and help out more when up here, take to doc appointments and so forth and keep her going in a place up here for much longer.
I’ve prayed about it and it’s mainly b/w God and her. All I can do is offer the opportunity and help provide information as long she doesn’t retort that I’m being pushy. My information stops dead in the tracks and on the spot if that happens. I don’t want to get in the way, I’m just trying to help. That is all I can do.
Better go. We are headed out shortly. Maybe I can sneak in again at some point.
Ahhhh what a glorious weekend! George and I got out and ran some errands yesterday. We had planned on going to a restaurant that we thought was already open, but it was being built! LOL. No worries, we went to Burger Republic. I’d been itching to go there. Always a good time and a good vibe. We also had a spirit store run – liquor store. I hate saying liquor/beer store! Anyway we went there as there were a few items we can’t get at the store. We go to Providence Wine and Spirits. They had a nice St. Patty’s display.
We noticed that our favorite taco company is coming to Mount Juliet. We love Oscar’s tacos in Franklin. However, there’s so many places to eat in Franklin,TN that it doesn’t always “win” when we play our “games” to decide where to eat. Lots of top places to eat in Franklin and we are there so infrequently that it’s hard to eat at them all. But we’ll be eating here a lot when Oscar’s opens in Mount Juliet. We’ll be regulars for sure. We love our tacos.
We both did the Irish flight at Burger Republic. It was fun! And very good of course. We sat and planned all the restaurants we wanted to go to in Mount Juliet and also in Franklin. Since Nashville has been so crime ladened and the traffic and parking so bad too, we like to go more toward Franklin for our excursions. I’m going to doing a Bucket List for Spring/Summer which is really more of an idea/goal list I guess. I’ll be hanging that up in the kitchen in the Bucket List section. That wall has been blank for a while! It’s been pointless really to have it during the pandemic.
I got a gluten free bun and it was good. It had a homemade taste. And salad instead of fries. Don’t get too excited at my attempt to cut calories as I had the creamy jalapeño dressing, LOL. It was all very good and I was truly stuffed when we left. Then we went to the grocery store.
Harp made the best “beer lace”. I love to see the beer lace. I guess little things can amuse me.
Progress on the To Do List?
Well, of course, I have to remember that a lot of what I did this weekend was in the house and not on this list. This list is to help me remain focused! It’s a place to park all the things I think about. And I put household things on there that are out of the ordinary sometimes to force my doing it.
I cleaned out a section of our cabinet that houses the Tupperware. Oh my gosh that area was driving me crazy. I always put the top on the container after it dries and then you reach up and get it and it’s all there. George puts them up there separately and eventually you tear the whole section apart looking for matching tops and bottoms! Not to mention it is just the top of my reaching and I can’t even see all that is on the shelf. So in my reaching, things fall off and hit me in the head. So there is no point of raining curse words along with the falling Tupperware when you can just have a calm peaceful reach for a set – (well it’s not really Tupperware but rubbermaid and off brands). Anyway, I stopped to do that this weekend and was happy to have it on order again.
But the good news is that with the time I had at home, I was able to get caught up on laundry, ironing, and I GOT THE INTRO TO THE VIDEO DONE! It may not be the BEST intro but it was what I could “piece together” for now. It’s not BAD by any means. But as I have better clips to use in the future I can be more organized and save those clips for using in the intro. I really wanted videos of us instead of just photos. But I’m going with what I have for now so I can move on. I realized that getting this intro done was the FINAL “to do” keeping me from doing the videos.
So I began working on the Christmas video. No one is going to want to see our Christmas video in March. I think most everyone kinda keeps the holidays out of their videos so as to not “time stamp it” so much. But I want to capture what it’s like being it our house at Christmas on a video. It’s a special magical time of the year!
I like being a little bit behind now that I am organized as I can now begin to work on the videos and hopefully get them to a 3 week apart faithful commitment. If I can get them made ahead of time and can get them edited and ready to go by the 3 week date. I need to have them ready to upload at a certain date and time so those watching the channel know when it is coming and can depend on it. Right now I’ve not wanted to make a commitment I cannot keep. This hurts the ratings if you want to grow the channel. All I can commit to right now is “about once per month” which is what I said on a prior video. This is all a learning process and I didn’t want to set myself up for failure. Working FT, I don’t get a lot of opportunity to do these. Weekly is too much and for now even the 2 weeks is too much. But I’m learning so much at once and I’ll get better and faster as time goes by. I am having to learn how to use the camera, how to use the software and various ones – not just iMovie, but YouTube, TubeBuddy, Canva, and so forth, and the Mac itself was a learning curve as I came from windows. Plus there is learning accessories and devices and storage and back up, etc. 2020 and 2021 is certainly a learning curve time period and the foundation setting as well. But I can and still say that I love EVERY bit of this process! Even when we are not doing anything, I’ll find something to vlog about, and learn about. Still so much to learn! And I’m always planning up to new levels and improvements. But the INTRO is done and I can move forward! The hurdles are all cleared now!
The other big win was getting the hem back in my navy blue pants. Now I can wear blue matching tops again! LOL
I also got caught up on some shows. I’ll never get caught up on those though b/c I always have more selected than I can possibly watch. But I like to watch them while eating or when I get tired and need to rest my legs from working in the house.
Outlook for the Week Ahead?
So, what’s up for the rest of the week? George is making a corned beef meal for St. Patty’s day on Wednesday. And we bought some nice quality beer to go with it. I think we bought Scottish Ale. And you can see below my “make up” or DNA shows I’m “British/Irish” in origin.
This time last year St. Patty’s day was such an afterthought. We were all focused on the virus. I remember thinking in April I was looking forward to St. Pat’s and realized “oh wait, that already passed”. It was weird. Our brains were on overload and trying to figure out what was going on.
So I need to get off of here and get ready for work. But I’m going to leave you with Roger. He’s a sweet little boy. He sleeps most of the time now, gets up to get water and food and goes back to sleep. He follows you when he wants a treat and he’ll gallup to you if he thinks you have a treat in your hand. lol. He still has some energy left for Gallups but most of the time he wobbles when he walks and loses his balance.
In the week ahead I’m looking forward to St. Pats, but we are supposed to have severe storms that day. I’m looking forward to updating the to do list for the following weekend and I’ll try to work on a few things during the week here. I am still thinking of taking a PTO day Friday. It’s just a good day to do it as the next quarter starts soon and it’ll be harder to get off for a while! We do have Good Friday HOLIDAY coming too and this will give me a couple of good much needed catch up days.
I’m also looking forward to sun being out later. Of course it’s a rainy week this week but daylight savings has happened now. And I’m looking forward to planning some for the next quarter, personally! We have some things we want to put on the calendar! So ya’ll have a good week! What’s on YOUR agenda?
Didn’t get the daily blog in the last couple of days. Left early Friday morning to get to work early so I could leave early. When I go to see Mom it’s good to get out before traffic is horrible around Nashville. It was already bad enough. But honestly other than Franklin traffic on I-65 South where three lanes come down to two, the only bad traffic was near Columbia (Tennessee) where I guess everyone was getting off work from Saturn (auto plant) or other factories and offices. I’ve never seen such traffic there accept for Mule Day weekend. And that is not until April.
Before leaving work though I had a productive day there. I have been trying for two months to get boxes packed but quarter end, year end, vacation week, snow weeks, and two month ends, kept me from finishing. I managed a box here and there. When all was said and done I had 34 boxes of 2018 and 2019. Now I should have room hopefully for all the 2020 and 2021 records. Everyone keeps commenting about how boxed in my office gets. Teasingly I tell them “I know I’m getting a little claustrophobic back here. lol”. I had to tag each box and label it and also keep a sticker for myself on another sheet with the description. I will turn that in to the master book and scan a copy for myself so if we have to ask for a box back at any time I will have the tracking number. Pretty neat system. I got all 34 boxes labeled and logged and scanned for my records! I was also tired and used muscles I’d forgotten I had.
I felt like the Cat’s Meow by the time I got the project finished!
That said it still felt like forever til “getting off time”. I watched the clock, ready for my escape into the weekend! But once there at Mom’s we left to go eat dinner. Mom chose Ruby Tuesday’s (in Columbia, TN). She knows I love to eat there and like their salad bar. We were not sure they would actually have a salad bar in the COVID world. But they did! However, upon a quick glance it did NOT look like it had been maintained. It did not look inviting. It looked picked over. It looked tainted. It even had big huge chunks of lettuce and salad ingredients lying about. So we turned down the salad bar. I was disappointed but I was not eating off of that. I was thinking that at dinner time they should definitely have the salad bar refreshed and ready to go for the evening meal. After all there would be a rush. But…ummm…look around. There was no rush. There was hardly even anyone else there. Maybe two other tables one on each side of the building and one lonely guy at the bar, lol. There seemed to be only two people working the restaurant and the bar itself. The person seating people and what looked like a manager type woman that was waitressing and doing bar. And believe me there was no rush there either. lol. The woman was busy but also managed to have conversations and such with others. Meanwhile our food came out by some dude from the back in the kitchen. It was lukewarm. It had been sitting back there. Even the cheese on my baked potato had gelled. We had waited a long while – maybe 45 min for our food, which is not usually that long. Or maybe it is and we just never noticed as we had salad bar first usually. But we were both so hungry we didn’t want to complain b/c they would take our food away to heat it up or bring new! We didn’t want to have to wait another 20 to 45 minutes for either option so we ate lukewarm food. The food was good – just not hot like it should have been. I guess it sat back in the kitchen while the one waitress flit about having her conversations with everyone, lol. Grrr. I’m surprised Mom didn’t say something. But we just ate, knowing we would not be back, and making comments under our breath no wonder those other Ruby Tuesday restaurants closed and Mom said that is the reason I wanted to come here and go ahead and use up my gift card, lol. So I guess we’ve had our last Ruby Tuesday meal there in Columbia. I won’t go back now. Unless Mom hears that something has changed. That is so sad as it has good potential. It needs a revival of some sort. I guess the Pandemic steam rolled what was probably already a weak link.
At Mom’s I was quite impressed with her weather station! I mean OMGosh! How cute and pretty is that. My colors too! ha. I may have to check that out. Like I need one. I have all that in my phone and on laptops. But the display is nice with date, time, inside/outside temp, moon phase, humidity, and you can see if pressure is falling or rising, indicative of storm prediction and systems coming through. I love it. I looked them up on Amazon and there are several ones. There is one with a WiFi app. And that one was twice the price at $82. But that one would be the one I’d want, of course, LOL. The others were around $40’s on Amazon. I need it like a hole in my head but it would make a nice gift for someone! (Moi! lol).
Anyway at Moms I slept in the Gone with the Wind Bedroom. IF you follow me on Instagram you got a little bit of a scene with that in my stories there. (My instagram is in my side bar – if on laptop and and scroll down if on iPad or phone. But it is: @lesshustlemorecoffee)
Mom’s bathroom also is very colorful.
It’ll wake you up in the mornings, lol!
Little Roo has had some really good smiling pics lately. I love the fact that he is starting to show personality. They love to make him laugh. Laughter is a happy thing! He laughed a lot after his bath time.
He is just the cutest little thing. I just want to hold him so bad! It hurts my heart that I cannot be there to hold him and love on him. I miss him deeply! And can you believe he is already 2 months old! I get to see him in June! His Momma goes back to work soon after their spring break there. She is going to miss this little guy during the day, but I’ve done it and many of us have done it – having careers and babies at the same time. WE used to be told in life it couldn’t and shouldn’t be done. We are doing it and while it might not always be ideal, it does provide more opportunity in many cases. We all have to make decisions. And well, it’s hard to have a lifestyle you want if you both don’t work. It just depends on what the situation is and whether one spouse can carry the load or two of you. We always needed both of us to be able to afford everything. We had grandparents though to help with child care. Day care called ALL the time to come get Katy. That will be the hard part is having no one to help out. Of course even if we were there or they were here, we work too still. But he’s my little cutie pie and I miss him and I can’t wait each day to see pics and videos. His Momma is good to share with us or post on Instagram. I got Momma set up on her new tablet so she could see him too. I tried to copy and send videos to her but it didn’t work. So now she can see the instagram ones. Is he not a little ham? I could stare at this pic all day and smile!
I did get to love on Mom’s dog Fancy some. She is due for her grooming. But she came to see me and sat in my lap for a few minutes and also gave me a hug and let me pet her tummy. Then she wanted to go back to her Momma. I told her, teasing Momma, I was going to sneak her home with me as I didn’t have a dog and needed company, and asked her if she thought her momma would notice, lol. Fancy is on heart meds now and it took a LOT of fluid off of her and she is now able to move about more and has more energy.
Spring rains brought greener grass in these parts. This was Mom’s backyard. I love the “Texas Star” as I call it.
Mom fixed breakfast for us of eggs and bacon and biscuits. It was so good. And then we went out to run some errands: Lowe’s to get grass seed booster and Mom had a return. We went to get her car washed and we vacuumed it out. We went to Sally Beauty supply and she bought shampoo and nail polish. I bought also an OPI brand of polish for $12. I have never in my life spent that much on polish but after everyone says it stays on longer, I thought I’d try it since I’m not getting my French nails done anymore. I will do an occasional manicure though and polish when my nails get in horrible shape. But I’ll try to keep them up myself and save money.
We went to Dollar Store and I bought 4 tops! All were $12.50 each or under. They were good brands and poly/cotton blend that won’t shrink. And made well. So why not. Not ALL of their clothes are made well, but I’ve found sometimes you can pick up a good find there. I mean two of the shirts were Bobbie Brooks. That used to be a brand we loved when I was a young girl, and sold in the dress shops as a high quality find. After we did all that we finally decided we were about ready for lunch. This time we picked Legend’s. Oh my gosh it has been renovated and it’s the bees knees now! I failed on getting proper pics on this restaurant. I find when I with Mom I’m less likely to be focused on taking pics and focusing on her needs. I was driving, parking, locking the car, making sure she sees steps, opening doors – all that is normally when I’m taking pics! I did get a pic of our food. The food was excellent, the wait staff superb and very friendly. I got the strawberry walnut salad and oh my gosh it was perfect! I may have to recreate this salad at home with it’s grilled chicken, walnuts, dried cranberries, blue cheese, and real bacon bits and fresh strawberries!
I left mid afternoon to come back home. Mom seemed happy to have gotten out. Here’s her Facebook post I noticed later.
That said, Mom does not want the vaccine. And we still need to be careful. But life seems to be heading back to normal. I’m not thinking I want the vaccine either. I don’t want the chemicals in my body. I am wary of so many things about all of it. And I’m not so sure we haven’t already had it. I mean they said that the antibodies don’t stay long and of course the thing morphs so I guess people will have to be revaccinated again in the future. I quit getting the regular flu shot because I intake pure ingredients with the system I use that expel toxins from the body and when I get a vaccine it tries to get rid of the mercury and other elements that are not supposed to be in your body. I understand that certain things have to be in it for it to take and be absorbed. But I’m not sure this is for me. It may be that we have to get it at some point to be able to have access to things. I don’t think it is the mark of the beast as some do b/c it is not a matter of worship or making of a spiritual choice. But I was already not wanting the regular flu shot. So it’s not to say my mind won’t be changed at some point, or changed for me, as I age and become even more at risk, but for now I’m saying no.
Anyway, on the way home, I saw an RV place on Nashville Highway that has some Minnie Winnies. It was all I could do to NOT stop. So I didn’t stop. I was curious how much it was though.
Mom had told me at her house she didn’t see how I could tow an RV with the truck I wanted. I asked her if she had done her research before declaring such. She knows I don’t want a big truck. But I do want a Ford truck for my next vehicle and that is half way to getting my dream set up. I have not done the exact research but know of others that are able to tow a small RV as I watch them on YouTube do it every week. lol Anyway, here is my dream set up. Don’t tell me I can’t do something or I will surely do it. Don’t be messing with one’s dreams! That makes for a dangerous lot! I just picked a ford – any ford any year. I don’t have to have a new truck. I will want a dependable one. One with a sun roof so it doesn’t feel closed in and lets sun through, one that has the closure top in the back for storage (this bed looks shorter than I’d want I think) and the twin cab so others can ride.
And I then I want to get a Micro Minnie. It also does not have to be a new one. But I want to be able to get some extras such as lithium batteries and solar panels so I can dry camp some when needed. Will also have to get a Mac laptop at that point too, lol. Might as well include that in the package. So I can make the videos from all the travel.
I professed my love for this again to George last night. I told him I wanted to go out in loops after we retire- it didn’t have to be full time. He does not want to be cramped to live in a small space even for a time. He didn’t say “no” but he didn’t say “yes”. I told him I’d worked too many years not to be able to do something like this at retirement and buy a small RV. No argument there. I mean I have worked too since age 15. So we’ll see. When I told him how I wanted to go out west and listed the places, I actually cried when I said “and see the redwoods – I’ve never ever even seen redwoods”. I was shocked that I had tears start to fall. I began realizing this dream after watching people on YouTube and I have a deep driven desire to do this. I’ve tried to overcome it and deny it as it is not George’s dream. It’s mine. But we are a marriage and marriage is compromise. I don’t have to travel full time or sell a house. But I feel I’ve chosen a way that is manageable, affordable, and doable – and if ever we can get to the point of traveling and monetizing our videos, it will help on the funding of the travel so we can do more when we go. We can do long loops and come back home. We can do long weekends. We can go see Katy and Cody on the ranch. We can go to the Keys. We can go up the coast to Maine. We can go up the west coast and go to Canada. We can do loops and come back home! Or I can go and he can fly out and meet me when he feels like it. lol
But, I need to go. It’s Sunday but it’s my Saturday of sorts. I have to do laundry, clean my house, run errands and try to get something done on my list today and try to relax too. Yeah, big week ahead with appointments. And I’ve also got a hair appointment. I picked out my possible hair styles. I’m wanting to get a “shaped short and sassy cut” to match my short and sassy self, lol. And I’ll let it grow out again as I enjoyed all the different stages last time. While we sat around at Mom’s yesterday some, I picked out some short styles that I can show my hair stylist. Of course we all know that I will end up with the same Laura Bush cut I always do. But I’m changing hair stylists to see if I can’t get more of what I want. But I think it’s not easy to for them to copy what is in a picture. They do the best they can. But here is a few:
I like the longer one there, but honestly I’ll go shorter and as it grows it will look more like that. But I don’t want it real short. But this is what I like longer layers at the top and willing to go shorter in the back. But not stupid short. This is what I mean when say “long layers”. I don’t want feathered hair like a bird and that is what I tend to get! This is feathered below. I don’t want that! When I say long layers I usually get some form of the below (a bit longer). So I’m taking a lot of pics of the right way and this pic of the wrong way! lol. Out of all the above cuts, my favorite is the blonde in the red shirt. But if she can do any of the above, I’ll be happy!
Every Day Lillie - Lifestyle, Early Retirement, Renovation, Travel, Fashion, Beauty, Health and the Occasional Rant about Important Issues like Climate Change
