Interesting

So I got our real estate tax bill yesterday since the bills comes directly to us now.   I was very fortunate to be able to pay off the house last year after my mom passed away.  But anyway, back to the tax bill.

Working in the mortgage field, I see a ton of real estate tax bills.  There are so many that offer a discount if the taxes are paid early.  Well, not in this state or at least county.  It will save me nothing whether I pay the bill the day I get it or pay it before the end of January.  That sort of floored me that there was no discount at all.   So guess who is paying her bill in January.  It doesn't help me with income taxes either as we don't have enough deductions to bother itemizing.  So I will tuck that bill away for about 3 months.

I have a half day tomorrow so I'm pretty excited about that.  I will have plenty of time to get my Paparazzi ready for tomorrow's live show.  

I am looking forward to turning the clocks back in a few weeks.  With all the rain and it being darker longer, the walks haven't been as enjoyable with the need for a flashlight and sometimes umbrella too.  At least I am commited to walking, with my girlfriend.  She walks every day, I only walk 3 days a week, but I do exercise 3 other days of the week. Saturdays I give my body a break. :)

It's a sign!

Hubby found this leaf the other day and I just had to take a picture and post it.
So...Christmas is coming..it is in the leaves.  LOL

I've been having fun doing some Facebook LIVES with my Paparazzi Jewelry business.

Hubby even made up a rap for me. Click HERE to see it.


The premise behind me promoting my Paparazzi business is two fold.  First, I really love the jewelry and for the price it can't be beat, so let's just say I've fallen in love with it all over again as I've been pulling boxes out, posting jewelry on Facebook and such.  Secondly, although I've been a representative for 3 years, I decided it is time to make something of it, even if slowly so that by the time I officially retire, I will have a nice (hopefully) customer base and possibly team so that it will  supplement my social security - which who know what shape it will be in by that time.
So a good plan I think!

We've had tons and tons of rain this past week and several lakes have been overflowing. One bridge even caved and collapsed.  What a mess!  I am very thankful that where I live, it is not close enough to a river so that I haven't had any trouble with flooding, but many areas in Central Texas have.  Today it has actually been sunny - looks strange!  But gearing up for more rain in the next few days. At least it is no longer in the 40's, for now anyway.  I'd like a gradual change to Winter, thank you very much.

Big time catch up...

SO I see I haven't posted a personal blog since Sept. .8th.  Well since then Stac turned 27, I turned never mind and so did hubby. We also celebrated 19 years of marriage.  Yes, next year we will be married 20 years already.  I'm hoping maybe we can go to Vegas for our 20th.  We'll see.

September was a pretty hot month and our air conditioner stopped cooling once again. That system was brand new just 4 years ago June and I sure wish we would have gotten a different system.  It was not cheap either.  The compressor that we just had replaced then last day of July has to be replaced again.  The A/C guy is coming tomorrow to replace it and it will be the last time we deal with the air conditioning this year anyway.  If it quits again, we'll wait until next summer to deal with it.

I am happy to say that I have been doing some Facebook Lives with my Paparazzi business. I have been a representative for 3 years but it has only been this year that I've had enough time to pursue it more.  My day job was often 7 days a week with all the refinance craze and now it has slowed. Not much overtime these days.   I have really enjoyed doing the lives and often wondered how anyone could really make good money selling $5 jewelry, until I heard there is a rep that actually just broke the Million Dollar income bubble!  Pretty incredible huh?  I have a facebook group where I also post my inventory for sale.   https://www.facebook.com/groups/313074459244817/
If you know someone who could use some extra money selling beautiful, affordable jewelry please have them visit here:
https://paparazziaccessories.com/37964/
Or they can contact me at dstjames@suddenlink.net and I'd be happy to share with them.
I would love to have a nice business built up by the time I retire (which may be 6 years away).  That really doesn't sound like that long from now.  :)

Stac is getting married in less than 30 days now!! November 11th is the big day and we're very excited for her.  I'll also get to see family that will be in town for it which will be fun!  We haven't gotten together like that since Mom's funeral last year.  It should be a wonderful occasion and I am so happy for Stac that she found her true love!!

So tomorrow it is suppose to suddenly get cold.  It is 87 degrees outside right now at 6:51PM and tomorrow's high is last I checked only 47 degrees.  That is really rare for Central Texas.  So it will be interesting.  I'm thinking if we keep the house relatively closed up it will stay warm enough without needing to think about turning on the heat.

My empty nester women's group has been going strong.  We have lunch two times a month (some just chose to come to one) and do other things like last Sunday some of us saw A Star is Born together.  I am so glad I put out feelers in April and made the effort to get it going.  I finally feel like I have friends here. 

That brings things pretty much up to date.  Will try to blog more often, but no promises. :)
Sometimes life gets in the way and other times I just don't feel like anything is important
enough to blog about.  :0)

Thanks to all who DO read these though and miss them when I don't post blogs. 

Bye for now.

Music room is Done..or so he says

Hubby said that the music room is now complete, though I still see a few inches of wall space on the walls.  :-)

First September post

Well here we are already well into September.  Here in Central Texas we finally broke free of the 100 degree days and thankfully have gotten some rain as well.  Let's see, this past week was a nice short work week since Monday was Labor Day. 

Last month when I had my gynecology appointment I talked to my doctor about getting one of those cologuard kits that tests for colon cancer or pre-cancer markers.  I have not had a colonoscopy yet and after taking hubby last year and hearing about the bad experience he had, I really have been avoiding getting one done. So I did get one and and am waiting to hear the results. Hoping for good news.

This month is one of celebration for birthdays and our wedding anniversary. I took a few days off partly to celebrate but also to take some vacation time off as I have to take it by the end of the year or it is lost vacation time.

I can use the occasional break from work too. There is a lot of pressure to get more done in less time. Makes for a stressful day.  Just hoping I can hang in there until I retire.  Time will tell. Hey maybe I'll win the lottery. Yah right ! :)

Finally have A/C

When we had the addition built for my mom last year, the contractor installed a Mitsubishi dual air conditioning/heating system that goes up on the wall.

I should have known when I saw the contractor with the box open trying to read instructions that we were in trouble.  Mom passed away before we needed to use it. Fast forward to last winter. It was feeling cool in the room while I was working and I tried to turn the heat on.  Nothing happened but a light blinked on it.  So I moved the space heater from my old office to my new one and used that when needed.  Fast forward to the hot summer we've had.  One day I tried to turn the air conditioning on. All it did was blow air, and it was never getting cold. Despite having  the windows open and fan on, it just wasn't good enough.

I finally decided today to call someone that dealt with this system as our regular whole house central air repair person did not deal with these, which I thought was nuts!

Anyway sure enough had a nice repair man out today who said that the system was never completely finished being set up and there was also no Freon in it. Figures.  Of course this was one more thing that my hub was able to complain about our horrible contractor. I finally got him to stop complaining about him by the end of last year.  Of course I do wish the contractor would have told me to contact a specialist to get the unit working properly, instead of telling us it was all set.  But anyway after a year and 3 months the unit is finally set up and working.

Doing my part

Well I am proud of myself for doing my part for helping the earth. With all the severe weather occurrences, one would have to live under a rock to not know that we are destroying the earth.  Hopefully it is not too late.

Anyway I got myself some stainless steel straws to use instead of plastic ones. It took me a little getting used to not trying to chew the straw. LOL But I have the hang of it now. I use them for my morning smoothies.