November 30, 2019 - Spending Part of My Day with Cindy; Dean Goes Back to Brett's.

November 30, 2019 - Spending Part of My Day with Cindy; Dean Goes Back to Brett's.


I slept in for me - as it was a little after 5:30 before I crawled out of bed to start the day.  Coffee was ready by the time I finished my morning excercises.  I enjoyed it while reading my daily devotion and the chapters designated for today, as part of reading the Bible in a year.  I am enjoying reading the Bible more than I ever have in the past.  As I get older I appreciate God's word more than ever, and I can look back on my life and see how he has taken what I considered the bad times in my life and turned them in to the best times of my life.  When I may have thought my world was falling apart he showed me how he could put it back together.  I'm so thankful for that.

Cindy called me to see what I was doing today.  This is her fourth day of five days off work.  I said do you need to get out and do something - yes!  So we are going to Joplin later today. She had some things to return, and a couple of places where she needed to buy something.  I really didn't need much but I was ready to get out to.  Since it's supposed to be a beautiful day and Dean is going back to Brett's to work again today, I may as well go with her.

Dean emptied the tanks this morning, so I ran another cycle in the washer/dryer combo to release anymore lint that may still be there, washed my dishes and once the final rinse cycle was done on the washer, I took a shower.  I had plenty of time to get everything else done before Cindy picked me up at 10:30.  Dean decided he would go to the garage for awhile since he is not going to Brett's until after lunch.

Our first stop was at Peddler's Junction, a flea market, at Crestline, MO.  Cindy had read on their Facebook page they would have random gifts located throughout the booths that could be exchanged for a prize/gift.  Cindy found one right away and she received a set of knives.  Later I found one, but I held on to mine until we finished walking through, looking at each of the booths.  While we waited for the owner to finish up with a customer I noticed some Barbie doll clothes that were handmade.  When it was our turn I asked her about the clothes.  She said a 90 year old lady makes them.  I told her I was going to check with my daughter-in-laws to see if their girls are playing with Barbie's yet and I might get back with her later.  I turned my package in and my gift was 2 individual bottles of Pepsi, a box of Buttery Kettle Corn, and two Popcorn containers.  

When we arrived in Joplin, we were both hungry so we stopped at Sonic just off of 7th Street and Maiden Lane.  We both ordered the small double cheeseburger and something to drink.  The burger was very good but whoever dressed this thing did a lousy job.  We had ketchup and mustard everywhere.  It was a challenge to eat it and not have it all over me.

I sent Marc a note and said I hope you never dressed a burger like this when you worked at Sonic.  When I lifted the burger off the paper, ketchup and mustard was all over the bottom too.  However, it did taste good.  

In no particular order we went to Home Depot, Kohl's, The Dollar Tree, and Walmart.  Cindy found a Christmas tree she liked at Home Depot, but she didn't buy it at the time.  She was hoping they would still have one of them in the store.  Unfortunately, they had already sold them all.  We stopped at Hobby Lobby but she didn't find anything there she liked either.  She is wanting a slim tree and those seem to be snapped up pretty quick.  While at Hobby Lobby she bought a couple of neat combination wood/metal decorations.  She's been looking for something like this for a wall in her house.  

Our next stop was Kohl's where Cindy needed to return something.  I looked at some sweatshirts and purses but decided I'd spent enough on me, with Christmas right around the corner.  From there, we drove across Range Line to the Dollar Store.  I bought some cards and a few items for a game we will be playing for our Christmas get together.  Our final stop was at Walmart.  While I didn't need that much, I was literally all over the store so Cindy ended up waiting for me.  I needed to go to the toiletries area, pick up some things in the RV department, to the computer area to get ink for our printer, and then I needed a couple of things for dinner tonight.

On our way back I had Cindy stop at Peddler's Junction again.  I heard from my daughter-in-law's, and two of our three young granddaughters have Barbies, so I picked out two outfits for each of them.  

Cindy dropped me off at Bentley.  After putting things away, I worked on the blog, watched TV and made chili for supper.  Dean made it home from Brett's just before 7:30.  The chili tasted good on a cold, windy evening.  We'll have enough for leftovers tomorrow night.  

Today I am grateful for the ability to have/get food when we need it; with easy access to grocery stores.  It's not that way everywhere.  We are certainly blessed in the USA.

Friday, November 29, 2019 - Dean is off to Work; Laundry; Catching up the Blog and Reading Emails; Christmas Shopping; Dinner & More Movies

Friday, November 29, 2019 - Dean is off to Work; Laundry; Catching up the Blog and Reading Emails; Christmas Shopping; Dinner & More Movies

I slept in this morning - it was almost 5:30 when I woke up, and I laid there for a few minutes before I finally got up.  Dean came downstairs not too long after I did.  He is going to Brett's to help him work on Dacy's little apartment, and plans to leave about 7.  We enjoyed sitting and drinking our coffee.  Then I started a load of clothes and made our smoothies while he was getting ready.  

I'm looking forward to spending the day by myself.  I want to catch up on the blog, read a backlog of blogs I follow, and do some online Christmas shopping,  I usually have to order a few things online; and it certainly helps when we send things to Matt/Megan's kids in NY.  It's so much easier to have them sent directly versus coming to me; then having to send them myself.  

I spent some time texting a few daughters-in-laws, asking questions to approve of a few things I planned to buy, and also asking the older grandkids for ideas on what they want this year.  As of 4:30 or so, I have everything ordered and on it's way except for the three oldest ones.  

I stopped long enough to eat the remaining pork taco I brought home from Mi Puebo on Wednesday evening for my lunch.  It was hard not to eat that peach pie in the refrigerator, but I made myself wait for Dean.  I needed a snack though and finally decided dry roasted peanuts with a few M&M's would work.  

After finishing my shopping I started going through emails, deleting junk, reading and commenting on a few as I caught up on the blogs I follow.  I even found a message in one of the blogs I read from Patsy of the blog Chillin' with Patsy - telling me to check my blog for her comment to a question I had.  Lol!  Thanks Patsy.  The information was much appreciated.

It started raining this morning and it has been raining off and on all day.  Right now it sounds like it is pouring.  It lets up a bit and then starts right back in again.  It's only 47 right now at 5:19pm.  I've managed to stay fairly warm today (except my toes which never seem to get warm enough unless the sun is on them, or they are near/over a heater vent - Lol!).  I sure hope Dean doesn't have to drive home in heavy rain, and I don't expect him back until after 6, or later.

I just read on Facebook that the 3rd annual official lighting of the park will take place tonight at 6pm, and rain will NOT cancel it.  If Dean was home, we might go.  By the time he gets back thought, I doubt he'll want to do anything but rest.  This year when visiting the park, everyone will have the option to tune their radios to 92.3FM as they drive through.  There were 52 trees available for decorating this year.  When we drove through Wednesday night, I'm not sure that many trees were decorated yet, so there might be some new surprises tonight.  

It was close to 7 when Dean got home.  He was going to empty the tanks when he returned, but decided we could probably get through the evening and he'd do it in the morning.  I agreed.  I could see he was worn out and I didn't want him out in the rain and wind to do it either.  I made orange chicken with rice for dinner.  After we ate our dinner, we halved the leftover piece of pie.  I warmed it up a bit and it was just as delicious as it was on Thursday at our Thanksgiving meal.  Thanks again Lonie!

The dryer part of our combo unit kept stopping before it finished a cycle, so I googled what was occurring to see if I could find out what the problem was.  The dryer stops part way through the drying cycle and the lights start flashing.  I found an article about it with steps from the manufacturer (although this information was not in the manual that came with it) about what to do.  If anyone has a washer/dryer combo and is having this problem, and you'd like to have the information, just make a comment on the blog and I will get it to you.  It involves running water in (with special steps) to get it to the mid level of the window, and once it has been done per the instructions, you let it go through a complete wash cycle.  You would not believe the amount of lint that we saw.  I didn't think to take a picture, but I'm not sure how well it would have shown up if I had.  The second time through we did not see hardly any lint until it finished.  When I opened the door, we found 2-3 globs laying inside, with a few random smaller pieces.  I still need to run it through one more cycle - but each cycle takes 1 hr and 45 minutes.  Next time I do this (it should be done every 3 months per the instructions), I will start in the morning, so I can complete it all in one day.  I finished all of the laundry yesterday, so it will probably be Sunday before I have a load of clothes to see how well it works.  (Since it's so close to Dec 1 I will add it to a schedule I have on my phone - to change the filter in our Brita pitcher; change the heads on our electric toothbrushes; and now to clean the washer/dryer combo every three months.)

After our dinner we enjoyed watching another Hallmark Christmas movie.  It was a fulfilling day for both of us.

Today, I am grateful for my husband.  He is such a hard worker and he actually enjoys working.  He loves helping me and our kids.  He's a great dad and stepdad.  If I ask him to take care of something - even as simple as tightening a screw for a knob on the bathroom cabinet; to making me a desk for the RV; he does it.  We enjoy our time together and I am so thankful God put him in my life!