Last day in November

 Good bye November.. bring on December and rush through the rest of the winter months ahead! 

Seems everyone is posting their favorite things. Might as well join in and it no particular order! 

I loved my Garmin for years. Now that the band broke, I realize how much I need exactly the same one!  My new blue Garmin just is not the same. 

Our new cross ramp. Easier to run indoors on cold snow filled winter days.

My favorite peanut butter pretzel nuggets! The best as a morning breakfast and a quick snack

Our new floors.

Small Christmas trees. Simple to put up and take down. They also fit any where. 

Peppermint patties! 

The easy to make meal in the crock pot. 

My white coach purse or any of my other coach purses! 

I couldn't find photos for the following items. 

Outdoors table top fire pit

Our new huge 2 minute pop up tent

Large baking sheets and parchment paper

Small rubber scrapers for baking

Slip on shoes

My fuzzy sandal slippers. 

Sunday = fun day?

 Sunday just feels like any other day not a fun day with Covid going extreme. Yes, they used that word "extreme" Red Hot in our zip code. To think we aren't even into the worst of the winter months, Dec, Jan and Feb! We have 90 days or more to go! We are staying home as much as possible, mostly only going to stores that won't deliver and only on non-busy times of the day. We go to work where we are only around a few people, socially distant at all times, and always wear a mask. The kids are all on line learning. Logan does have a job, but wears a mask, is outside half the time, only in contact with a few other workers and maintains social distance. We are trying to stay Covid free till the vaccine comes out for all of us sometime in the spring I'm guessing. This is the number #1 thing on my mind every single day. I want to know the number of cases in our county, and state. I also did download the Covid notification app on my cell phone. It just alerts you if you've been exposed 15 minutes or more to someone that tests positive for Covid. Good to know! 

I put more lights on our front trees. I was going for Soft white lights. Well, it looks green in the photo and also two different kinds of lights. I'll have to fix this mess! I also need more lights for the tree at the street. I didn't want to make a trip to the store on a Saturday. We will wait till it's not crowded. 

We had a nice weather Saturday, 50+ sunny and low wind. 

Old check book burning. I had a small bonfire in the afternoon to get rid of the office clutter. Less stuff to keep around and one more item off my todo list checked off. 

Monday my diet starts. I need to drop 20 pounds. I promised to do my daily planks, run either outside or on the cross ramp and lift weights daily! Why Monday? I have turkey and stuffing with gravy to eat one more time. 

Today, I work since I didn't finish it up Friday and didn't want to work on the nice weather Saturday. Its just a quick 1-1/2 hours this morning. The rest of Sunday will be spent trying to get the rest of the Christmas stuff up around the house. Tonight, go to the store to get lights to re-do the outside lights. 

What's the orange Stuff?

 Our water pressure was at a trickle in our bathroom faucet, the kitchen worked fine, the laundry room was at a trickle and the kids bathroom. All the other water sources worked just fine. It was a mystery! I texted a few neighbors to see if they were experiencing the same? Nope, but one neighbor knew what it was! The water softener! We checked in the toilet tanks to find a thick 1" orange sludge at the bottom. We shut off the water softener and now its getting back to normal. Not sure why this happens? We'll be installing a new water softener! So gross! 

I've been eating leftover turkey and stuffing for two days. I think at this point, I'm good on leftovers! Time to move on. 

Since it's an almost 50*F day and sunny, Steve and I went for our morning run with Zoey to the U of M property /corn fields. I'm not sure what we plan to do with the rest of the day. It might be a good day to put up lights on the trees, shower, bonfire and relax! 

I'm Stuffed!

 Thanksgiving dinner was delicious! All the food turned out the best this year and for once there were no duds! I think every year we critique the food and determine what could have been made better. This year, we all agreed, it was the best food with everything turned out perfect! 

The only thing that didn't come out of the baking pan nicely, was our turkey. Half the turkey decided to break away. Kind of like we all feel about 2020! Probably one of the better, juicy turkeys we've ever had! 

Turkey, mashed potatoes, butternut squash, purple brussle sprouts, and my favorite stuffing (My dad's recipe). 

Oh and the pies! Both turned out perfect! 

Steve baking the squash and brussle sprouts. 

Lots of friends on FB posted picture of their thanksgiving tables. I have to admit, mine was really plain and I could have just skipped the paper over the table cloth. I completely forgot about the silver under plates I could have used to dress things up. There is always Christmas to try and table scape! 

While waiting for the meal, we video chatted with Steve's parents and Kendra with Evan and Madelyn. 

Since it was a fairly nice Thanksgiving day. While waiting for the turkey we took Zoey for a walk and let her run through the long grass.  

Happy Turkey Day!

 Last year we had our biggest family gathering in all my 52 years. This year will be, not the smallest but close to it. 

(last year 2019)

Happy 25th Golden Birthday Don! We helped Don celebrate his birthday last night. Celina made a pumpkin dairy free cheesecake. 

Steve picked up grass fed beef tenderloin steaks for us all to eat for the birthday meal. Don's other request, which I didn't take a photo, was tator tot hot dish, with hot dish wine from Carlos Creek Winery. 

Today will be cleaning the house, setting the table, internet news reading, coloring my gray hair and eating turkey tonight! 

Friday it will be back to work for me and maybe working Saturday depending on how long I want to work Friday. I'm thinking spread the work out over two days! 

Happy Thanksgiving 2020! 

Getting Ready for Turkey Day!

My Pecan Pie!! I think this is the first pecan pie I've ever made that is cooked correctly and looks perfect with the leaves cut out of extra pie crust! 

I also made more of my orange cranberry/white chocolate biscotti. I actually had an orange with the rind and juice to use. That sure makes a difference! 

 

Celina made really good olive bread loaves. We kept one and dropped off cookies and a loaf of bread for Kendra and Paul. I'd drop off more food for their Thanksgiving but Kendra and Paul don't eat Turkey. 

After my run yesterday on the cross ramp I was so hot, I stepped outside to cool off. 

We are going to have some 40 degree days on Thanksgiving and Saturday. It will be perfect outside running mornings! I'm glad we have the option to run on the cross ramp, but any chance I can run outside and I'll take it! 

I'm thankful for our family's health, our customers that have supported us this year and through Covid. Our new President change coming in 2021. A vaccine coming to all in March/April for all. I am also very thankful for HOPE in the new year! 

Tuesday Turkey Pick up!

 We are off to pick up our fresh turkey from an actual turkey farm! 

I made sloppy Joes for the first time ever! They were delicious! Plus, I popped some fries into the air fryer and they were just like oil fried-fries! I never knew this was such an easy meal to make. I did look up a recipe. I think next time I'll cut down the brown sugar to half a tablespoon. It was a bit sweet. Everyone loved it! 

Good news came in the mail. Logan got into UW Milwaukee. He only applied to two colleges. Mankato he needs to send a H.S. transcript which we plan to do after the 1st trimester ends in December. Now to decide which school to attend in the fall? He will major in Business at Mankato or Architecture if he goes to UW. 

I finally tackled all the stuff in our office and put most away. I ended up going through our files again and found some old 2003 paperwork. It was a college fund my father set up for Celina and Logan 8 months before he passed away from colon cancer. I always knew he had set up funds but never had proof. My mother always denied they had any such account for college. Now I have proof! It really doesn't matter, the money I'm sure has been re-allocated years ago, probably to her three other grandchildren. It would have been nice to get the money for my kids that my father wanted them to have for College, but it's not their money, it's my mom's to do what she wants. They of course are disappointed that there is no funds and will have plenty of college loans to pay off. I did contact the financial advisor on the paperwork. He remembers me and knew my dad well. He still does all my mother's financial stuff, but is retiring in 1 month. So I found this paper work at a good time. I more am now interested in what date the accounts were closed. This is closure for me, because I always knew my dad tried to take care of all my children. I'm just glad Kendra was able to receive her college funds. After all, it is my mother's money and she is free to do with it as she wants. It is what it is, and what was not ours, will never be. I won't be angry over this. Just move on like always. It will be telling to see how long after my father died, when the accounts were closed! TBC...

99.5% done!

 

Yes, we are 99.5% done with our flooring project! Steve finished up the rest of the flooring at the back of the house, minus one last strip in front of the 4 season porch. Carpet needs to come up and the floor need to be build up to match the main room before we can do the rest of the main level into the porch.

I am not missing that golden oak. The floor did turn out a bit dark and it changes colors depending on the time of day and how much light is or is not hitting it. I feel like we have a brand new house. Just wish Steve would have wanted to change around our kitchen island to open it up. That's for another house as he won't be changing our kitchen layout ever! 

I'm not surrounded by all our stuff. Most was moved from the main room to the office. I have yet to put anything away since I want to go through it and paint the office furniture. 

Here's the last strip of golden oak hardwood flooring. I won't miss you! 

It's so nice being able to see the table. We will finish up this project after Thanksgiving so we don't have to eat surrounded by all the stuff in the porch. I am undecided if I want to paint inside of the cabinets white? I think it needs to be painted, Steve not so much. 

A few more senior photos

November and some snow

 We got a dusting of snow last night. Temps are going to be 40 later on today. I was enjoying the snow-less  ground and now we are starting all over again with the white stuff! Making more progress on our floor, but not much on putting back all the stuff we moved. Steve is now almost done with the main level covering up all that golden oak. He's at the back wall about 2 feet left and then only the porch. We are putting that on hold till after Thanksgiving so we have a table and a room not full of stuff. We will have to clear out the porch and move everything out of there. The carpet has to come up and out. We have the fun task of building up the floor to match the height of the other floor. I'm hoping we can just find plywood the same height.

I started my own project on Saturday. Sanding our stairs to get all the poly off and re-stain to try and match our new floor color. The golden oak color was still very golden, so the dark stain didn't really do much to cover that up, but it at least is less golden. I did every other stairs so we could still go up without touching the wet stain. I'll finish the rest today. I'll still be in search of a better stain match. For now, this is our only option and its not even close to the color of our flooring!

You can't really tell from this photo, but the buffet in the kitchen is now almost done with the floor. Steve had to put base trim all around the bottom since it was open under. It would have been impossible to put flooring under since we can't move it. The cabinet is sitting on round legs. Same with our kitchen counter legs. We will be boxing them in at the bottom and painting gray. Another tiny project to add to the floor. 

Since we worked all day on the floor and with the house stuff all over, it was easier to just pick up pizza.  We've been doing lots of Domino's in the last few weeks. Picking it up and using a coupon only sets us back $8. Not too bad for a 3 topping pizza. I used another coupon on Steve's Chicken Mexican pizza for $11. 

While having pizza, we had a few drinks and all played cribbage together. The kids and Steve watched a movie and I went up to bed. Those drinks knock me out! 

One of my favorite photos of Logan. Love the matching background with his shirt. 

Learning new tricks

 Seems some of us are resistant to making shopping changes. I've been trying to do more online shopping for food and pick it up curb side. Steve is resistant to doing this since he loves to shop for food in the store. It's just not smart for us to expose ourselves in stores and to make multiple trips every week. I'm trying to get him to love shopping on line, where he can look at all kinds of food, for hours if he should choose. Slowly, I am making progress! 

Restaurants are now closed for 4 weeks, take out only. I think the governor should have closed them down Thursday instead of waiting for Friday at 10pm, because they all did some kind of 2 for 1 deals to get all kinds of people to come in and catch their Covid before T-day. Not us or anyone I know, but plenty of deniers are probably all lined up. 

My mornings have not changed for years now but I did add somethings to my morning todo list. I always start with Yoga for at least an hour, while going through my daily planner, writing a todo list and  catching up on the news (Internet). Now before I start my yoga, I go around the main level and spray 70% Isopropyl alcohol, on any touched surface that won't be wrecked by alcohol. While doing this the dog goes in and out of the house multiple times because she had to know what's going on in the backyard and front yard. Mainly keeping track of squirrels or any delivery trucks.  Pretty much an all day task for Zoey. I read that we should air out our houses and let in fresh air. Well, I think we are doing a good job of that with a dog that wants to be out, but not for long! I feel like every 30 minutes the door is opened up on both sides of our house. 

We (Steve) is still working on our floor, going on day #6! We still have a lot left to do in the back of our house. I made a small dent in all the stuff we had to move out of the office. I brought it all back in there and piled it up. I don't want to put it all away, because I've decided that yes, it does need to be painted (office desk/cabinets) I'm thinking white with either a black or gray desk. The cherry has to go! 

I am loving the new floors. Funny how they looked more light brown then gray in certain light and other times, dark gray. 

Entry and stairs. I also will be staining the stairs wood and trying to match our flooring. Another project I probably should start today. I have oak scraps of wood I can pre-test the color.  Hopefully, this project of color matching will go smoothly. I read that light floors are also coming in big time. No need to worry, our entire upstairs is light maple real wood. We have both trends covered for now! 

This is what we have left todo. Hopefully we have enough flooring left to finish. Steve is getting tired of doing the floor. He keeps saying "lets not do the porch". I'm like are you kidding? The carpet in there is gross and it needs to match the rest of the house! Take a break, but it must be done! 

My front (dining room) now sitting room is done! We even put the coffee table back in front of the couch but not in this photo. I would really love a new couch for this room but will wait till next years furniture (staging of new houses) sale. 

Just me, where I sit in the middle of everything we had to move to do the floor. It's never pretty during the changes but its sooo worth it! Loving my new floor and the total transformation! 

One photo from Logan's senior photos. There are so many good ones, I'll post one per day as to not go over board. He had to choose one for the year book before Dec 1st! 

.