Nice Thanksgiving!

I had a very nice Thanksgiving!  I worked not quite a full day on Wednesday and then had off until this coming Monday.  Yea!!!  The youngest came for the holiday and by Wednesday night we were up to our elbows in chocolate cookie dough.

She wanted to have a little taste!  Uh. .that was not a little taste. 

I had already made the crock pot mashed potatoes and put them in the fridge to let the flavors blend overnight.  We decided my mom would like it if we had Thanksgiving dinner over there. So Thanksgiving morning we took over the turkey roaster, and 2 crock pots and got the turkey, fancy mashed potatoes and green bean casserole going in each of their cookers.

When we got back home it was time for pie baking.

 
I was going to make corn casserole right before we went over to moms and made the stuffing there at her house after we got there.  I also took some cranberry sauce and had made a small lettuce salad too.  We snuck a bottle of wine over to have with dinner. My mom didn't know what we were drinking as we used little tupperware sippy cups. LOL.She had Pepsi which is what she always has with dinner. When we arrived at moms it smelled wonderful!  The turkey had been basting all day and it smelled wonderful.  I asked my mom if she liked the smell but she didn't really notice much.  I'm sure that was because she had been smelling it all day and just got used to it.

Anyway we had a nice dinner and visit and we left some leftovers including pumpkin pie and cookies. 
Yesterday the youngest and I went to see the last of the Hunger Game movies -  Mockingjay 2.  It was pretty good but I still liked the very first one the best.  The games themselves made it a lot more interesting and riveting. Then last night was pizza night. Yum!

Today was small business Saturday and we went shopping in town where they have a neat contest with clues and answers at various stores and then everyone met at one place (this year it was a sub sandwich shop) to hopefully get picked the winner of a gift basket worth over $1700!  The weather has sucked ever since Wednesday night with cold, rain and wind.  The temperature was right around 39 degrees while we were in town.  Brrrrr.. The only plus to this sucky weather is that there was not that great of a turn out for this event. There were only about 35 people I'd guess there at the final drawing which really upped our chances of winning compared to the very crowded room last year.  But alas, neither Stac nor I won the basket. Darn!
 Nevertheless we enjoyed walking around, shopping and getting Thai for lunch.   It was a nice time!

Stac went back home around 4:00PM and I went to a department store to get mom some Clinique that she uses. She dined on leftovers from Thanksgiving for dinner.

Now I'm relaxing and watching Pit Bulls & Parolees.  Hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Shivering Saturday

I just checked the weather outside and it is only 41!  Brrrr...For this area that is cold! It may be around or below 32 for the low tonight too. Glad I'm in for the night!

I don't have the pictures of the completed Saltillo tile floor on this computer so will have to post them another time, but the floor was done, done Tuesday. It took one of the contractor's guys a day and a half  to clean up and make the crappy grouting that was done look way better.  Hubby is not happy with that part of the job and swears they used the wrong type of grout.  But it is done and I think it looks good so he's just going to have to get used to it.  LOL. This guy also reinstalled the sink, which was a project in itself too but it looks good.  I need to spot paint around 

I did have a suspicious mole removed from my back and it came back as abnormal but all the margins were clear so it means that I don't need to get any more of it removed. That's good news, although I'd love to have my 6 month check up and not have any skin issues at all!  Maybe next time.

I still have one more appointment with the acupressure doctor.  I'm not banking on him being able to relieve my allergies 100%.  I still cough in the morning when I go for my walks, so we'll see.  They are at least a lot better.

Looking forward to a short work week next week since it is Thanksgiving and I have the day after off too.

Eleven

That is how many catalogs I got in the mail today. 11 !  Wow!  I do buy from some catalogs but not that many. Guess the Christmas shopping season is here.  Lot of useless tree were chopped down for all these catalogs. I hope at least a few of them are recycled.  Doubtful!

We have been not happy with the tile job that was done last week. It is still not sealed yet. But there were a lot of uneven areas and rough looking areas. It just seemed the guys who installed it were just wanting to get it done, didn't matter how well.  Even one of the longhorn times that were part of the accent tiles was chipped!  Those were the most expensive ones. And the tiles by the front door are all light, so it looks stupid, not random at all. We are getting that addressed (4 or so replaced so that they don't all look the same).   Anyway the general contractor had a guy here all day trying to fix, smooth and even out the floor. He got most of it done  It looks way better than before.  He's to come back tomorrow and finish cleaning it up and sealing it. Thank God the contractor has this guy working for him but it is just a shame the 4 guys he had working for him to put the floor in, didn't do a more careful job. Then none of this fixing would be necessary.   The sink in the powder room was reinstalled wrong too and that still needs to be fixed. 

I can't wait until this is all done so I can exercise in the living room again.  I've only been able to take walks and those are only every other day (because I don't want to be too hard on my knees, etc).  We've got all the dining room stuff in the living room which is why there is no room.

Tomorrow is my dermatologist and acupressure appointments. The skin doctor appointment has been scheduled for 6 months. I sure hope she doesn't find anything that needs removal (biopsy).  Fingers crossed!

Week's Update

I took my husband to the ER on Monday because his back had been bothering him for at least 2 weeks, to the point he could hardly walk. By last weekend it provided no relief at all to lay in bed and do nothing. He doesn't have a family doctor (yet), and we figured even if we contacted a doctor they'd want him to get an X-ray or something anyway and he'd have to go somewhere else too, so Monday I took him. He could barely walk down the stairs.

They took a CT scan and gave him 2 shots, one for pain one for the inflammation in his back. The doctor came in and sort of scolded him for using the ER for back pain. But I don't care. I had been hearing hubby moan in pain and also be in so much pain he could hardly breath at times and/or was nauseated. Hubby could hardly move at all and I certainly couldn't help him (even though he refused my help as he didn't want to lean on me and hurt me ). LOL.

The doctor said it appeared he has a herniated disk but needed an X-ray. They took a CT scan which I guess can't determine that.  Gave him prescription for pain and also said to take Ibuprofen. It took a few days but he finally was better by Wednesday so he opened the store (antique) and stayed all day.  He got through it okay. He is doing much better now, with just some stiffness. The acupuncture doc he's been going to said he had a lot of inflammation in his lower back and I think it was just beyond the point of the acupuncture helping him much more than a hour or two. 

Hubby didn't call any doctor. He wanted to wait and see if he is better and he is.  He is not lifting anything heavy and limiting the amount of time he bends over which apparently is when it hurts most now.  I'm not going to force him to call a doctor. It will be his decision.  He's had back problems as long as I've known him, just not to this extent. So we'll see what happens. At least he is better and I'm very grateful for that.


Hubby and I had talked about getting the tile floor replaced with the same tile we had back in East. It is called saltillo tile and actually I am surprised it isn't more prevalent in Texas since it is Mexican tile. But then again I haven't been in a whole lot of houses here I suppose. We had this job scheduled for close to a month (scheduled it right after bathroom remodel), and hubby said to go ahead with it so we did. 

Here's a picture of part of our new floor, but it is not cleaned and varnished yet. They have to let the grout cure over the weekend. We had accent tiles put in at the kitchen entryways and the tile put in on a diagonal in the kitchen.  I love it!!

It is the last project that we have planned for this year and likely the last of the big projects for a while.  At some point, probably Spring we may get a new fence on the one remaining side that is rather rickety wood. 

It has been fun finally doing some major improvements to the house the last couple years. We've lived here 10 years as of this past August. Many folks around here tend to do massive rehabs or remodels as soon as they buy a 'used' home. We are in awe with how much money those people must have because they had to put something down on the house they buy and yet they still have tons left to do remodels/rehabs.  I'm fine that it took us 10 years to do as much as we did. We can appreciate it more.

Sorry

It has been a while since I posted but there has been a lot going on. I had to go to Dallas mid-week for some training and drove home Thursday night afterwards amid tornado warnings and such.  I got home after 9PM on Thursday.  Yesterday was trying to get back in the grove after a short evening after the drive.

And for at least a few weeks hub's back has been the worst it has ever been. Today he even had to leave the shop (close the doors for a bit until the owner could get over there to tend it). He left mid morning and could barely get into the house. He was in so much pain and I felt so bad. He was even mentioning me taking him to the hospital.  He had to be really, really hurting to say that.

He laid on the living room floor in pain and I had him call the acupuncture doctor. I mainly wanted to see if he could possibly prescribe some sort of pain killers.  He could not but came over and performed some acupuncture on hubby!  I think it helped.  He told him to lay still for an hour or two.  He is still on the floor but has been able to turn over and has been able to get up to go to the bathroom without crawling. I am hoping he can get better without having to visit a hospital.  He is staying home tomorrow to rest his back to.  The doctor was so nice to come over like that on a Saturday! He actually said if Steve needs him to, he can come tomorrow after church to give do more acupuncture.  That is a very, very nice man!!

I'm ending this here as I am pretty beat at this point.  I'll try to write tomorrow.

Nice weekend

Saturday the weather was nice enough and dry enough to visit the youngest thankfully.  I saw a few areas where I could see a flood line but nothing was flooded any longer than I could see. That metal awning at her apartment complex looked even worse (huge mangled mess) in person.  My youngest said she, her boyfriend and dog had to take cover in the bathroom as they got a warning (on her phone).  She could hear the wind sounding like a train so that tornado was very close.  I'm not so sure it didn't hit that awning too the way it was so mangled.

Anyway we went to see the Martian with Matt Damon.  It was pretty exciting actually.  The only disappointment for me was I did not eat any popcorn. It wasn't that I couldn't but I would have had to take my Invisalign (braces) out.  Plus we had just eaten a nice Thai late lunch so I wasn't that hungry but it was tough not eating some.  Next time I think I'll get some anyway.  What's the movies without popcorn?

We had a nice dinner at Carino's (Italian) and visited a bit longer at the hotel.  It was a nice hotel but the towels were very rough.  It was really nice hanging out with her but next time I hope to be able to go for the whole weekend.