Tag: Restaurants

Christmas Shopping and Eating: Sushi, Cajun, and Donuts in Mount Juliet

On By BackporchwriterIn Restaurants, Shopping13 Comments

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.

Moving Mom, Unpacking, Eating Out, Pleasing Others

On By BackporchwriterIn Home, Life, Lifestyle, Relationships6 Comments

Odd Schedules. I have overslept the past two days ya’ll! I have been awake in the early morning post-midnight hours (shopping on Amazon and checking email, and doing things I’ve not had time to do all day ) only to fall back asleep around 3:30 and to be woken up by George. It’s been the strangest things. My alarm set didn’t go off, or if it did it was on silent which was likely the case. Therefore I have felt so disorganized. I have been off my routine and schedule and it has thrown me for a loop. My shower, coffee, prayer journal, blog or video editing hour, all out the window. Blood pressure meds forgotten and taken later at night and having to get up at night several times (water pill that is in it). You would think a couple days off would not be so hard on a person, lol!

Mom’s Closing. However, having giving up all those said things above, I was able to get Mom closed on her house Friday. First of all on the way out (because with Mom you leave an hour before you really need to, lol) we had time to go sign her up for her Water service and stop at “Ready Teddy’s” for a breakfast sandwich. Mom laughed b/c she said “Ready Teddy’s” sounded like a sexy lingerie place instead of a coffee cafe. True That. I had never been – except for maybe a coffee through the drive through. We decided we only had time for drive through Friday before the closing but we had the BEST breakfast sandwiches. I mean REAL bacon, mayo, tomatoes that tasted like they were from the garden. We’ll be back there I’m sure. We had to laugh again at their “401k plan” to which we happily contributed.

Back at Mom’s house, most of the things had been done: The sod in place, the garage pressure washed, the blue electrical marking touched over. The screen door however, to the patio does not work. Oh they put it on, but it won’t slide. At all. I mean they had to known. It’s too big for the door. So I’m not sure what happens now. I feel like they will make it right but we’ve closed so it might be all Mom’s problem at this point. Also the dishwasher top pull out is really tight so she will likely have to contact the appliance company for that under the warranty. We don’t have the fobs to the clubhouse yet, but that may come later as the clubhouse had been hit by the tornado back last spring and it’s being remodeled. We “think” we have mail keys but there is no way to know what number her mail box is as nothing corresponds. It has a number on the key but that doesn’t work and there is no other corresponding number. There were probably 30 or 40 mail boxes – it’s almost like they do mailboxes in an apartment complex. And I wasn’t going to try all of the mail boxes so she’ll have to call and find out about that.

We went to Target and she bought sheets and towels and also kitchen towels and washrags. We did good to remember to bring her toilet paper stash from home, lol.

We were able to figure out how to “program” her keys. Thank goodness I video’d the explanation. It was pretty simple, just a bit awkward. I had never seen anything like that where you had to have a tumbler to reprogram keys. The original key we first got in with is no good but we programed her key set in all the key holes. If you program one key the rest of the keys cut the same way work. We were proud of ourselves for getting that figured out. We decided we didn’t need to paper the cabinets b/c it just needed a wipe out. So we are only putting papers in the utensil drawers. We will return the other liner to Lowe’s and get a bit of money back. We sealed her grout in the kitchen and also did the granite.

By this time we were ready to get a late lunch about 2 p.m. as we had done all we could do. Mom was getting tired. And so we went to Local Joe’s as we were both wanting “meat and three” – most of us just get a meat and two, lol. But we call a place that has the meats and veggies – a meat and three – for those not in the south. In some places they are called “cafeterias” if there is a line you go through like you do at Local Joe’s. Mom and I got catfish, lol. I got green beans and navy beans. Oh it was so good. Their hushpuppies had a bit of jalapeño in it – just enough to be good and not too hot. They also have yeast rolls which I said no to but Mom got one and shared a bite with me and it was so good. Then the man came around with fresh baked hot chocolate chip cookies and served us each one off the pan. No worries as they were small ones that met by “two bite” rule, ha!

I’m sorry I’ve not been good at taking pics lately. Life is just so overwhelming that I end up forgetting the blog and vlog and just diving into whatever is going on. Having an extra person to be responsible for just takes a lot away from you it seems. It’s all consuming as my thoughts are all wrapped up in trying to please her and anticipate what her next “thing” is going to be as she has such rigid rules and ways she likes to do things. The air has to be just right, certain doors left closed or open, and when we are doing things – she gives you several “to do’s” – look up this or that on the internet, lock this or that, close this or that, look at this or that. So I’m trying to explain why I don’t have time to take pics of things or even have my own thoughts. lol. I’m not trying to complain here just trying to explain why I can’t get pics taken of what we are doing. I can’t get her list checked off fast enough to whip the camera out. I’ve had to tell her two or three times in the last day or two “hang on – one thing at a time”. She will “stack you up” with to do’s like I’ve never seen. I remember it as a teen too. Of course as a child or teen she could do that. As an adult, she will have to wait til I can get to her. And I try to meet her needs on a whim but I’m only one person and I have needs too, so my thought time is being all taken up as is my creative time but we knew this would be a crazy period. So we just have to work through it. Both she and I will have to grow and maintain a bit of patience. It’s not all going to happen in one or two days or even a month. It’s going to be a very long and ongoing process to get her settled in. If indeed there is such a thing. lol.

When George is around I can get in more pics as he can entertain her for a few minutes so I can get a thought in edgewise, ha! So once George got home and did a few errands he needed to do, when he was ready we were going out to eat. Mom decided not to go. She didn’t want us to bring anything back. I think she is exhausted and overwhelmed. She is used to just sitting in recliner most of the day on her tablet scrolling. She will usually get up and do up some dishes or sometimes fix a dish or crock pot meal or a dinner. She fixes her quick meals and takes care of the dog but mostly is sedentary and so with us going around doing things all day – it just takes a lot out of her. She has not been getting her naps in the afternoons as much because of the calls she has made or we’ve been busy shuttling her here and there. So she is very very tired. So another reason I think she is so tired she doesn’t really even want much to eat.

So George and I went out on our own to M L Rose. It was kinda like a date night in a way. We had an hour wait so we sat at the bar and got a beer. They have a great tap. I got a hazy IPA which has kinda been my go to lately when we go out.

So we had a good time chatting and talking and then finally we got a table. This place is quite the restaurant favorite in Mount Juliet. There are several favorites but I think this is the new one.

My salad was really good. It was supposed to have blue cheese but it was feta. All good though. It was a strawberry walnut salad. I don’t think I even got chicken on it this time. I just really wanted to eat light as Mom and I had catfish for lunch. ;-). I drank a big beer size glass of water – true to my new goals – and so then when we ordered dinner I ordered a flight! LOL. It just kinda came out of my mouth when she said “what to drink?” I wasn’t driving – it’s been a long dang month and Mom just closed on her house so it seemed fine. They had a flight of local brewery favorites and it sounded so good.

But then……..While we ate dinner, George asked me if I would come out of my bedroom more. I’m like what???? Our conversation went something like this.

G: Will you come out of your bedroom more?

S: What? What do you mean? I’m hardly in there. I go to bed at 8:30 because I’m exhausted. I get up an hour early so I can get a bit of time to myself in the mornings and spend time in prayer and Bible reading, do my blog entry (which I’ve done for what 20 years or more now?) And then I rush off to work. When I come home I do chores and maybe get a sneak in time to do order’s on Amazon, check off things from my to do list, or check email before dinner as he likes to be the one to cook -so I have some time then to do chores and to do’s.

S: When are you thinking you want me to come out of my room?

G: Maybe come out of your room one morning a week?

S: And do what? What do you want me to do when I give up my “me time hour”? Watch you get ready for work? Watch you read YOUR email? What am I supposed to be doing with this hour?

G: Never mind, just never mind! I just want to watch our show again.

S: Well we can do that when we get to eat dinner on the couch when Mom is gone, and watch a show again. We can’t watch our show in the mornings, lol.

So I immediately clammed up. I don’t understand and if he can’t explain then I can’t help him. And he was unable to explain what he needed from me, other than he wants to watch our shows again. That is fine but usually after dinner is when we can do that and he is off in the back in the bedroom on the computer in Mom’s temporary bedroom. So………….give up that time? lol That is probably his only hour of the day to get things done. And then he has an hour in the mornings too and then he has an hour after I go to bed. If I get an extra hour it’s in the middle of the night at 1:30.

So I’m not sure what all that is about, but I clammed up because I just don’t understand what he wants from me and it immediately made me feel like I’m inadequate and not pleasing and I started to go into that mode of being frustrated to the point I wanted to cry until I remembered some of my recent training on relationships and boundaries and self-care and manipulation and all that. It’s the other’s responsibility to be able to state what they need. It’s NOT my place to try and figure it out and be made to feel guilty or controlled by another. So…….I immediately shoved it away to pat myself on the back for what all we have been able to do with the time we have.

If a need cannot be described then I can’t meet it. I can certainly watch a show with him but it requires him to be present too. I mean what do you do with that conversation? I decided to do nothing because I can’t deal with things I don’t know what I’m dealing with. I cannot meet a need if I don’t know what it is – to be fair. So other than this blog entry of simply mentioning it – I’m tossing it out the window. I will be happy to adjust when I know what the adjustment needs to be and it makes sense. I’m not going to give up an hour and sit on the sofa and just be there for the sake of just sitting there while others do things they want to do. That doesn’t make sense.

There seems to be an underlying problem but I am not sure what it is. Maybe he thinks I am too independent. Is he wanting to control my time? I have no idea. But he is not happy for some reason. I can’t fix everyone’s happiness if I don’t know what they need. ::Sigh:: So as I went to sleep I just gave it God. I’m only one person. I can’t please everyone. I try but it’s never good enough and it will never be. But I’m not going to suffer in silence if someone else cannot voice their opinion.

So I made the decision to get up the next day and do what I know to do. Live the best I can with God’s help and try to do as much as I can with the time we have and still be my own person somewhere in the process. We don’t get to really program those around us like they are a TV station we turn on and off. So I’m confused by the whole conversation. All that said, I’m still sad knowing there is some issue that I am unaware of what it is. Is he feeling insecure? Does he think something is going on with me? Is he worried about me? Or us? I have no idea. And it’s not healthy to make things up and not fair to me to have to guess. So out the window it must go. I have too many other things in my head to try to guess how someone needs to be pleased if they cannot tell me with words what they need. If it’s simply a show I can certainly watch a show with him but he needs to be present too, lol.

So yesterday morning, I took George to get the UHaul truck. It was a foggy cold morning. I went back to our house to load a bunch of Mom’s hanging clothes in the car from the basement. And put in all that I could put in my car.

George went to the storage unit and brought a load over. We unloaded a lot of corning ware and a lot of unneeded things. But we began washing things in hot dishwater. Much of it has been in the cabinets for years anyway. We put much of the corning ware up and her clothes that we took.

About 1 we went to Zaxby’s for a salad and got George a sandwich too. And that was good. We worked some more and Mom was worn out. She rested off and on and we quit working around 3:30 or 4 p.m. and headed back to the house.

George loaded boxes from the basement into the U-Haul and I loaded suitcases filled with Mom’s clothes from the basement as well as other boxes that I could lift and carry. We both had our own tetris games going.

Last night around 7 p.m. George and I went to get groceries and then went through this Hibachi drive through place and took dinner home. I took a shower and went to bed. I was up twice in the night since I took my BP meds late and then at 3:00 I just stayed up so I could get laundry done, put up the dry goods of groceries we were too tired to do last night, and be able to get my prayer journaling done and Bible reading and blog entry. I feel like a real person again. Sortof. lol.

But it is time to eat breakfast and get on with another busy day of setting up and unpacking. Furniture – most of it – won’t come until next weekend. We were supposed to go get my iPhone 13 today ordered but decided we will need to do it at night one night.

While in the drive through last night, I worked on setting up the “scheduled summary” on my iPhone after a recent update. I chose what apps I wanted to see notifications from at certain times of day ONLY. It seems lately that my phone is wanting my attention. I’m allowing calls, messages, weather, emergencies, and yes even WordPress notifications to come through immediately. But news items, Facebook, Instagram and other messages have to wait until certain times of the day. I’m ok to check it in the mornings and again at lunch, and again after work, and again before bed. I want to know what the headlines are but dang – they send alerts every few minutes so no more of that. It’s so distracting. I may change it to three times a day but I like kinda knowing what is going on with our nation so we have a heads up. Things are so volatile now.

Ok ya’ll what an entry! Let me know if you made it to the end. I’ll try to come back with a blog entry in the morning on Monday. I think today is Sunday, lol. I’m so off schedule. I have a busy 3 days coming up. I will do what I can to bring some pics back. I’m a little worried about this 3 day week but a lot will have to be shoved into the next week until I can catch up. It is what it is as no one is doing my job while I’m gone. So it will be what it will be. Again, hard to please and hard to be everything everyone needs me to be.

EVERYONE has NO CHOICE but to be patient including myself. I don’t have wings, don’t have a magic wand, and no magic potion. And according to some, I don’t have what it takes to make them happy or complete. But you know what? I have me, I have God as a resource. That may not be much. I may not mean anything or mean much to others than whatever it is that need from me at the moment it is needed, whether it be doing their laundry or setting up their household or getting their payroll done. But I am me and I am going to be happy with me even if no one else is. I know what I want. All I can do is try to understand and change accordingly to help others with what they want, if it is something I can provide or change or am willing to change.

Tribe…yeah, it spoke. 😉

Vietnamese and Thai Food, Appliances Purchase, and Challenge Update

On By BackporchwriterIn Food, Home, Wellness11 Comments

Surprise! I’m here this morning! I just wanted to pop in with a few updates. We are very excited that we were able to get Mom to Lowe’s and she ordered her fridge and washer and dryer. The fridge arrives Saturday the 13th and the Washer and Dryer on Dec 1. Not bad in today’s world. She was able to get the ones she wanted for the most part. She bought a fridge like ours that has the little see through door that opens up within the big fridge door. She was happy! I will have to do her laundry for a couple of weeks.

We were going to come home and have hot dogs but George suggested we go out for Pho as we’d not taken Mom out to try Vietnamese food. In Mom’s head, I know she was thinking “Good Grief” and she admitted she wasn’t sure when she saw the place. But I suggested the Orange Chicken and it was perfect for her. She loved it.

So the place had nice relaxing music and a nice little vibe. The decor seemed to say “Happy Everything” as it was decorated with Halloween, Fall, and Christmas, and they admittedly said they had decor left over from Valentine’s Day sitting around. lol. The food was excellent. George and I got a Singha Beer from Bangkok.

We had several appetizers including the egg roll or spring rolls and chicken satay. This place had both Vietnamese and Thai food.

It was all delicious. And they do an amazing amount of take out. There was a constant stream of people picking up to go orders. I ordered a ginger salad, because I love them so. Their lettuce was the freshest I’ve seen anywhere in a long time. I also selfishly had ordered hot green tea also. I drank both my beer and the tea and loved it! ;-). Better than getting a 2nd beer right?

Can’t you just see the freshness of this lettuce? That was really good to see. I’m so tired of bad lettuce. Things are taking longer to ship and the store’s goods are just horrible these days. So I’m not sure what their secret is, but I loved it. I could eat there every night. I would have Ginger Salad and Pho or Chicken Satay or Orange Chicken, lol. Every night! I had a bite of Mom’s and it was awesome! We must go back soon!

Here was my Pho. It has rice noodles, chicken, scallions, red onion, probably basil and bok choy. I couldn’t eat it all. The broth was an amazingly good flavor. The waitress said we got the last of the Pho last night.

It was a happy place.

We needed happy.

Back home, with our first freeze of the season at 30 degrees F, George put Little Bit’s box on the front porch. He was in it when we got home, lol. It’s not the most pleasant looking thing on a front porch but he will be warm there. Don’t worry, when it gets much below freezing he comes inside and stays in our basement which is probably 50 ish to 60’s as it gets heat from the house. The box is a little dusty it seems. Or maybe it’s the shadows/light. I didn’t notice that being that way last night. Anyway, it has a warm blanket inside. I need to put another one over that one though b/c I think he will get his claws stuck in the threads of this one. I need a thin little baby blanket or something to put over this one. We’ll get him fixed up.

Mid-Week Update

Traffic was horrible yesterday. I’m not sure why. I was running behind and hopped on the interstate. I got to work by 8 – barely – but it was very slow. I really enjoy the back roads but if in a hurry I have to go the interstate as it shaves off about 10 to 15. Sometimes the back ways can be slower than normal but I just enjoy the more pleasant pace of the back streets. I don’t have to worry about as much.

So today is my Friday. I’m off tomorrow for the closing. We have a full day lined up. We have to go sign up for the water – that was the only thing Mom has to do in person. And I need to go get my police report from where someone stole my identity. They are only open during the hours I’m at work so I have to go do that. And Mom will have a few errands. We need to get our plan on tonight so we don’t have any problems tomorrow about what the plan is – if you know what I mean.

We also brought the grout sealer for her backsplash and also for the granite. And we got the shelving paper. So I’m sure we will start on those things first. Snoksred suggested the chair – not to forget it til the furniture arrives. Thank you! Yes, we will need to go put that in my trunk tonight. TWO chairs, and maybe a little cooler with water. We also have to program our own house keys and we have to figure that out. I’ve never in my life seen such a thing. There is a tool you use and put the key in the door and program it to the lock. So how do we know someone has not already done this and has a set? Weird. And where are those garage door openers that were missing? Can someone get in now? Or will they be reprogramming the new set? I have no idea how that works! But what if some construction worker our there still has the openers and can get in?

Also anxious to see the place with the grass added. I’ll be sure to take pics in the upcoming days with our progress.

Garnishments Process at Work

Work is coming together with me getting month end done. I only have two or three more states to do. And I need to work on garnishments today that have come in. I never get garnishments unless it is a busy time for me. Then it’s like someone turned on the magnet – “hey Sonya’s busy, lets send all the garnishments now”. lol. They take a while to set up as there are a lot of components since we do our own payroll. The employee gets a copy, you usually have to respond to the company or agency, you set up some of them in excel if it’s a true garnishment and you do a percentage. If it’s child support, it’s good b/c usually you can set it up as a deduction to come out every week, but a lot of ours have to be figured as a percentage with EACH payroll. So I have garnishment tabs on each person. Also you have to keep up with their balances so you know when to stop the garnishment. So I have a tab for that too. Then I have tabs for the actual “cover sheet” that goes with the check showing what the garnishment is covering so the agency knows who the check is for. I also have a little half sheet cover sheet with the A/P code that I use when I run the actual garnishment checks. I have to enter it in the A/P system every Thursday to create the checks. So I have to set up the garn agency as a vendor in the system before I can even do the check run. And I have to put work sheet reminders in the plant payroll folder so I actually remember to figure the deduction and enter it in the system for the employee’s with percentages. After payroll I go in and zero it out so I can start over the next week. There is a lot to it but I have the system down. Then of course after payroll I have to do a reconciliation spreadsheet to make sure what comes out of payroll is matching what I’m sending on the checks and for TN I actually have some that I pay online. If it’s one child I pay on line. If they have three to five different child support payments to varying custodial parents I usually have to do during payroll because it’s certain percentages of the total that go to each parent, up to a certain amount. Anyway it’s all very detailed. I think I have two or three new garnishments to set up today.

Growing To Do List.

So I have quite a to do list of itty bitty things that need to be done. Last week was carefree at home as I working on Quarter End but this week it’s all built up and now I don’t have time to do any of it LOL:

  • Order Christmas things on line that Katy wanted
  • Change George’s sheets
  • Work on Christmas Planning (what the heck to get everyone?)
  • Update my Apple Watch. It won’t do the last update for some reason and it says it should when I look online. But I’ve not had time to reboot the watch. So maybe I will try that.
  • I think Mom has some internet orders she wants me to do.
  • Finish the next video before I do the upgrade the Mac to Monterey. I don’t think it’s any big deal.
  • I kinda want to go to good will and look for more jeans. I don’t want to spend a fortune on new ones!
  • Audible credit is out – need to download another book
  • Need to update my wellness company order with some changes
  • Want to make whole grain bread. Just something I want to try. 😉 I bought the flour and we have the yeast. But ain’t nobody got time for that these days.

Challenge Update

I had to give up making check marks on my sheet for my challenge. It’s all pretty much engrained into my head what I need to do. It’s just been too busy to keep up with the check lists. I’d get two or three days behind. I quit actually tabulating my ounces of water. I would try but by afternoon just had to quit trying to keep up with it. Too much else in life. But I did it long enough to engrain it in my head. I think the goals will stick strong. I won’t be perfect at it but at least I’m significantly better and more disciplined at water, movement, helping others, not eating dessert every night but stretching it out to 5 to 7 days at least. The hard part has been embracing Whole Foods. And that is mainly b/c I live with other people, who don’t or I allow stress and time to blur what is important. But I try to make as good of a decision as I can. It’s been a wonderful challenge despite those that have joked by saying I’m a cheater or tried to sabotage the efforts in some way. Most of those folks who have done that, do not seem to have any desire to improve their own situation in such manner so it makes it easy for them to jab at me who does want to improve and quite frankly, has improved! I’m proud of myself for taking it on and for improving 50 to 75% in many areas! Yay me! lol I will celebrate my efforts. The challenge is NOT over yet. Quite frankly – it’s a challenge to develop good habits so it’s kind of a funny thing – it just sort of morphs itself into reality. I mean why would I want to go backward and stop doing these things? But I can see where some challenges especially if you are doing some specific things like “no sugar” or “studying a certain subject for a period of time” would not go on forever. So anyway, I’m calling the challenge a success and kicking the checklist to the curb. I like the rules I created for myself and I’ll stick with them. But I am going to do another improvement challenge in 2022. It will be little more specific and targeted. And that will truly be a 55 day challenge from beginning to end.

And so now I’ll probably be back Saturday morning since I blogged today. I’ll let you know how closing went and what all we are up to in getting her ready to move in.