@MusicCandy @SadMe70 New place to communicate

Hello my friend, and Happy Easter! The twins' birthday is also Sunday; they will be two.  Yesterday I went to have the car seats correctly installed. I'll be leaving my car with my older son when I go to Korea, and he will pick us up when we fly back.

Work has started on the kitchen.  Lots of setbacks mainly due to Home Depot messing us around, but still lots of progress.  The counter has new laminate, the three new lower cabinets are in, new sink and faucet are in.  We have the flooring, and I actually like it more in person than on the computer screen, plus it matches the counter laminate nicely. We ordered roll-out cabinet drawer inserts for two cabinets, and the handyman will install those too.  The kitchen should be done in a few days I think.  Next up, replacing the nasty old carpet in the bedroom where the babies will sleep with laminate. I'll be packing up books from the shelves in there today.  This has been a hugely stressful process, but I know it's going to look really nice so I'm glad we finally did it!

Since we had no counter or sink for three days, we had carryout for the last three nights.  I made a good choice Tues/Wed with a black bean bowl and veggies from Wawa - surprisingly healthy and filling from a gas station. Got Indian food last night, a bit more calories but not too bad.  Too much sugar this week (all at school!) and I did drink most days.  I did skip the alcohol for about 10 days though.  Also got decent exercise so I'm back down a couple of pounds

How did your week go with eating and exercise? I do love cake! Most of my extra sweets are all from events at school or things other people give me.  I can mostly keep myself from it, but if it's put in front of me by someone else, I cave.  I definitely not be trusted alone with the remains of a three layer cake!!

I am glad for you that you are done with the suppers. That is a lot of effort to have so few people attend. What are your Easter plans?

I'm so glad you have a good attorney for the guardianship process! I hope it goes smoothly. Do you also name a backup or successor? My aunt primarily took care of my uncle (her brother) who had Down's syndrome after my grandparents died, but another uncle and my mom and dad would help when she was traveling, etc. I don't think there was anything actually legal set up back then though.

I understand about not wanting to give up your income! My husband was ready to retire after our youngest was done college, but we kept delaying because of not wanting to lose the income.  The pandemic made the decision for him, since he lost his job then.  It turned out to be the best way for us since he got a lot of severance that he wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

Now that we have a functional kitchen again, I'm headed to make the chai! 

Happy Easter!

so now, terrible ordeal.

Abi and Mark were going on their delayed honeymoon to Cancun(Thursday AM) and on their layover n Ft. Lauderdale, Mark was arrested, handcuffed and put in jail. His brother is a drug addict and he stole his identity ( this happened before, years ago) and committed some sort of larceny. There was a warrant for his arrest in VA and that was relayed to Florida by his passport. They were told to hold him until he could be brought back, under arrest, to VA.  Abi didn't know what to do, she eventually flew back home after 12 hours in the airport, obviously beside herself. He is without his cancer medication.  Since yesterday, some of Abi's wealthy friends have helped with a criminal attorney, a Richmond police detective and then the U. S Marshalls to try to get him released.  It's a holiday weekend of course. After a lot of back and forth, he is supposed to see a judge on Monday and then he should be flat out released to fly home. an absolute nightmare. His brother apparently jumped bail and is now in hiding.   The brother was clean and doing really well for several years so they never expected anything like this.   I hope your weekend is going so much better with Easter, but i know you will say some prayers for my family.  We believe it will be OK soon, and that is all we can do for now. More news when It is resolved. Thanks for listening and i know you care. 

Oh my friend, I was shocked to read your news.  I can't even wrap my head around it, so I don't know how you all can take in that this is really happening.  I will certainly pray for you all.  I certainly hope that Mark is released today and able to get his medicine.  I can't even imagine how Abi is feeling right now, much less the panic, helplessness, and terror she must have felt when they arrested him.  I am so very sorry that they have had to go through this, on top of everything else they have been through. Sending love and prayers to you all.

Hello my friend, I am hoping to hear that Mark got safely home, and suffered no lasting health effects from being without his medication.  Nothing can make up for what they went through, or the ruin of their honeymoon, but I hope that they are at least safe and well.

I had a noneventful week. Decent nutrition and exercise, back to drinking every day though. My kitchen renovation is done except for some painting that should be done tomorrow.  The bathroom and guest bedroom floors are in, and the bathroom should get painted this week.  The bedroom badly needs painting, but I think we are at the end of our resources and patience with people being in the house.  I am going to spend part of today unpacking most of the kitchen, leaving only the counter bare since that is the wall that will be painted, and also the many boxes of books that will go back into the bedroom.

I did go out to dinner last night with 6 teachers, four of whom I know well plus two others that I knew just a little.  I was surprised to find that for the 90 minutes I was with them, I was actually very comfortable and not wishing to get out of there.  That is very unusual for me.  I'm sure it was the particular mix of people, but I was still very surprised.

I very much hope that your week has been better than last week, and still sending prayers to your family.

Hello my friend, just a short note today.  I had a bad night and am not feeling well.  It feels like allergies kicking in, but I've been on allergy meds for many weeks now so I'm not sure.  I drank too much bourbon last night which contributed to the bad sleep, and I was really cold all night too.

I'm glad Mark is home at least, but the way he was treated is appalling. I am really glad to hear that they will get to have some time at their friend's river house. It won't make up for what happened, but I'm glad they will get some sort of honeymoon. That sounds like a very good friend. I also don't understand Mark's mom, but my mother-in-law was the same way. 

I committed to attending a family fun day for a couple of hours this afternoon to help run a booth for the tutoring center where I work one day a week.  I hope that my chai will kick in and help me feel better.  Tomorrow we are spending with my son and DIL, so I hope it is allergies and not something I could give to them!

I hope you are doing well, and I hope to write more next week!

test

I know what you mean about a night of poor sleep. Miserable, when you are tired, yawning and still can't fall asleep. I also hate it in bed cold. Sometimes I'm cold and oddly too tired to get up and get another blanket! I am drinking just as much. but I did switch to the lower calorie brand and made sure to not drink more, except for 1 cheat night. Still, the weight is the same. 

I hope you are feeling better and that chai was a nice pick me up. I bet being outside with the kids was fun at least. Abi and Mark are better this week. That same family has a big derby party and they are always invited. My life is a big party too here at the Retreat Hospital for hardly anything wrong with the folks who check in. But it hasnt been too busy so far, with the night barely started though.

Enjoy tomorrow with your son and DIL, I will go to church but I don't have to do anything special and then Rachael comes home and we generally walk, if it isn't raining . and then I'm off. Yea. 

Hello my friend, I am feeling worse this weekend. What I think is allergies has bothered me all week.  I started coughing a lot two days ago, and last night my eyes got all red. I woke up in the middle of the night with them goopy and crusty, like conjunctivitis. I googled and there is an allergy form of conjunctivitis, so I'm hoping to get to the pharmacy and get some allergy eye drops, but so far I spent most of the day in bed feeling really tired. 

I did some exercise this week but not much, and one walk with a mask on. It was teacher appreciation week at school, and the PTA piled on the junk, and I ate tons of it. Not my best week, ugh. Lots of rain in the forecast this week.  I hope it all comes and keeps washing the pollen away!

More painting done here this week - the back bedroom. I didn't want to deal with getting it painted, but the walls truly looked awful once the new floor was in, so my husband went ahead and got the guy to come back.  I think, maybe, finally, we are done with people in the house.

I did enjoy seeing my son and DIL last weekend.  I was supposed to hike with them and her mom tomorrow morning, but I've already said I couldn't do it.  We were going to eat together after, and I might try to do that. 

I hope your week has gone well, and I wish you a very happy Mother's Day!

Hello my friend,

Your family keeps getting hit with one thing after another! I am so sorry to hear about your fiance's stroke. I'm glad that at least it was fairly mild.  It sounds like maybe there will be no lasting effects.  I hope so! How is he doing now?  Is he in rehab, or at home now? I'm glad your family has such a strong person at its center. I will continue to keep you all in my prayers!

I'm about the same. Still struggling with allergies, so very little exercise and no walks this week.  Just feeling tired from all the coughing.  I hate filling my body up with all the meds I'm taking too.  Nutrition also blah, but at least very little alcohol. I was not feeling well enough to go to my son's on mother's day, and actually went to urgent care just to make sure my problems were allergies and not something else.

I've accomplished nothing over the last 2 weekends, but I have a little more energy today, so I'm planning to finally get my bathroom unpacked and set back up.  The back bedroom is finally emptied of my husband's stuff, new mattress in there for my DIL, new sheets in the washer right now. I hope tomorrow to hang some little paintings that she did when they lived here (she's very artistic).  They were going to throw them out when the moved, but I kept some because I thought they would be cute in a nursery, so now is my chance to use them.

This week would have been my dad's 99th birthday! I toasted him in spirit, since I was not up for any actual drinking.

I hope that things are stabilized with your fiance, and that he is home or soon will be, and that you have been able to get some rest.  I also hope that nothing else bad happens to you - you've had enough!! Praying for some peace for you all!

Hello my friend, how is your fiance?  How did the heart cath go?  Will he need a stent? I hope he is continuing to improve, getting more mobile and clear-headed.  

School is now over, so I can concentrate on getting the rest of my husband's junk out of the living room.  Then we can start setting up the bedding, getting toys out, etc.  I have a big to-do list.  Also several medical appointments before I go.  

Still struggling with allergies, so staying inside most of the time.  I haven't had a walk in a while.  My birthday was this past week, 55 now.  Going to our son's today for our third attempt at our pizza party! My husband made me the chocolate pie that he came up with years ago, so we are taking two pies over there as well.  

I'm so glad Rachael is going to the new day support!  That is the one you were looking into recently? How are things going with the guardianship process?

Nothing else to report for this week!  I hope yours has gone well, and you've gotten out in this gorgeous weather!

Until next week!