Just need to talk to my: friends (216)

Good morning Friends! Hello mommafour. Tell us a bit about yourself if you like.

I'm Beth, a retired RN and I live in Iowa. I grew up in a small town (pop. 400) where I joyfully led the "horsey life." That is, caring for, loving and showing registered Quarter Horses. After college I married; it'll be 50 years this fall. I worked many places as a nurse; I was kind of a job hopper. I retired at age 55 when my job was eliminated - I tried two other jobs afterwards but I detested them both so called it a day. I now live in a town of about 10,000 (and growing rapidly). Prior to living here, I was in a nearby town of 14,000. I had a huge flower garden and I hated leaving it when we moved. We moved as we wanted to live in a one story house as we aged, and DH is disabled after falling 10 feet off a ladder in '23. We also wanted to be closer to our son and his family so moved to his town. We have 2 kids and 8 grandkids. I spend my days exercising (exercise classes for seniors at the library, gym, dumbbells, walking and jumping at home), working in my yard/garden and reading. Before we bought our home the previous owners had quite a fancy (expensive) home gym. It still has the rubberized flooring but they took the equipment with them. Photo below. I like to travel too.

Lorita, I really like Hesperides grapefruit fragrance - smells citrusy. I currently have Orange Blossom by Jo Malone. It's what Princess Catherine wears. Formerly I wore several different fragrances, most notably Charlie during my teen years, and then Pleasures and Pleasures Intense by Estee Lauder. I hope you can find your fragrance - I bet you could find it on eBay.

Have a good day and weekend!

Hostas at my old place

The home gym belonging to previous owners of our house

Mint, when you have a spare moment, let us know what's happening in your life. We miss hearing from you!

Beth…did you take any hostas with you?

Good afternoon. We had a light rain here and expect an extended rain from about Tuesday through Easter. Kids will hunt Easter eggs in the rain if permitted to do so, but it will be a mess!

I feel great after finishing the meds I got from Urgent Care. Went to the pistol range with S and punched holes in paper for a while. Then we drank coffee, ate Mrs. S homemade poppyseed cake, and solved the problems of the world for a couple of hours. The three dogs of the S household lined up to be petted as well. Not the worst way to spend an afternoon.

For supper, I microwaved a Factor meal consisting of a chicken breast, creamed corn, and rice & beans. I hadn't had BBQ sauce recently so I threw away the cilantro sauce cup that came with the meal and put a dollop of KC Masterpiece on the chicken before I nuked it. Yum!

HB - you're so busy. I don't know how you manage to squeeze everything in.

Beth - I'd forgotten all about Charlie! I used to wear that too. The other one I liked had a lemon scent and the song used in the commercial was "Wear Your Love Like Heaven" by Donovan. I can't remember what the fragrance was called though.

That is one fancy home gym! It's cool that the flooring is still there - useful.

Your garden was amazing.

Lorita - I hate it when our favorite products are discontinued. I was so disappointed when Illamasqua stopped making my favorite nail polish - Cameo. It was kind of a bright periwinkle blue. I absolutely loved it, but poof, it's gone. Here's what it looks like.

I hope you continue to improve.

Carl - That's great! I'm glad you're feeling so much better.

Last night I was up until almost 2am backing up the photos on my phone and then installing the latest security patch on it. I was unamused. I was especially unhappy because I didn't want the "liquid glass" look on my phone (no way to get rid of it), and knew I was going to hate the largeness of the time display and other displays. But, I also know that there's a new iPhone attack, so I wanted to make sure my phone was patched. Ugh.

Today I made spaghetti sauce today (cooked for six hours) and we poured it over farro, which works surprisingly well. It's not pasta, but it has a nice flavor and texture.

I made sure to get to the gym for some cardio and abs.

Other than that, it's been fairly quiet.

Good morning,

I need to apologize up front, I need to vent for a moment. It started with not receiving the 1099s I need for taxes, even though all three had my correct address. After several calls and a few (shame on me) words, I now have what I need. I’ve also have received several denial letters for community service that should have been approved. I never had this problem in Louisiana, but now I have another problem to deal with that is in the thousands of dollars. Of course, as you already know pneumonia stuck its ugly head up and after a round of antibiotics and steroids, my primary care puts me on more medicine to clear it up. Finished all medications this morning. Also, I have a telephone interview the 30th prior to surgery and chest X-ray and lab the 6th of April. The surgery is the 13th and if I’m not clear of all infection by the 6th, surgery will be canceled. Now I’m on pins and needles till the 6th not even knowing if the surgery will happen.

I will end this rant on a positive note! I have been stuck in my camper for awhile and my grandson is in a school play tonight, which I’ll be attending.

Ron

Good morning. Sunny but quite chilly here today. Windy, too.

Beth L— That bed of hosta is stunning. Alas, the deer would have a field day with that in my yard. That is quite the home gym; I've been to actual gyms that weren't as nicely equipped.

Carl— Are the Factor meals truly heat & eat or do you need to prepare them? I know my niece did one service for a time that packaged the ingredients you'd need for the meal but left it to you to do the prep and cooking.

Mint— I was wondering how things are with your mom.

Gothic— That's a pretty blue. I tend to stick to pale sheer pinks myself which mom finds "boring". The principal of DS's high school often got the school colors— Navy & White which was an interesting choice for an otherwise conservatively styled 60+ year-old.

Lorita— I hope you're feeling better and can tolerate some real food today.

Ron— Vent away! That sounds really frustrating all around. I do hope you are able to move forward with the surgery as scheduled.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Mom's cardiology appointment went well except for mom making a weirdly inappropriate joke about DH. The NP added a different diuretic for now. She suspects worsening CHF; echo in early May should sort that out. She was able to get us follow-up with doc in June. Records show that both her appointments (May and Novemeber) had been "canceled by the patient". Mom doesn't have the computer skills to have done this intentionally.

After her appointment, we stopped at the pharmacy to pick up her new meds and then I answered some billing questions she had. Her vision makes reading a challenge some days. I did discover that she somehow is subscribed to Uber One at $9.99/month. I have no idea how that happened. Again, she doesn't have the savvy to download it. FWIW, when she Ubers, I order and pay for the ride through my own app.


In looking at my ridiculous schedule for next week, I forgot that I'll likely need to run her to Costco to pick up her repaired/replaced hearing aids as well. Sounds like a job for DS. He hasn't heard back on his nursing school application. Ugh.

I hope it's a pleasant day all around.

HB

Ron, I'm sorry you're having this trouble! I have had those problems too, but not all at once!

Factor is heat and eat. The food is in a plastic tray with a plastic film covering. I punch a few holes in the film and put it in the microwave. Some of the meals have little cups of sauce, and with those I peel back the film to spread the sauce on the food before resealing it and heating. Then I remove the film, decant the food onto a plate, and eat it. One could eat the food directly from the tray but I choose to plate it. And to cut up the meat rather than pick it up with a fork and take bites from it. 🙂

The meal I ate for lunch today was shredded beef on macaroni with Gouda cheese sauce on one side of the tray, and cauliflower with red peppers and little tomatoes on the other. The macaroni and beef were cooked, the veggies were cut up, etc. No prep, no cleanup other putting a plate, knife and fork in the dishwasher. I could make this myself, but then I would be eating the same thing for about three days.

FEDEX brings my Factor meals every Monday around noon. The box is always on my doorstep when I come home from chair chi about 2:30, so I make a point of going there to refrigerate the food befoe going anywhere else. I received an email today that the delivery will be Tuesday rather than Monday after Easter to accommodate the holiday, so they are good at planning ahead.

One of my friends is using Hello Fresh, a service that sends ingredients and recipes for her to cook. She is saving the recipes in a binder, and that is her main reason for using the service. She likes to cook, cooks for family and friends, and wants some new recipes.

Lorita, I'm glad you're able to eat more. Keep it up!

TTYL

Good afternoon all.

We had our tax appointment this morning. I really like our guy - he's no nonsense, can answer your questions and does the return while your there. Easy peasy. We then went to brunch at a Mexican place we like. I could get used to Mimosa's before noon! I figured I could since we'd come from the tax man. (See how I justified it!) This afternoon I've taken the St. Patrick's tree decoration off and put the spring flower on the tree. That lead to me rearranging part of the garage that I'd let get out of hand for several months. I'm glad all of that's behind me now.

Ron hang in there. You've had some bad situations but your luck is going to turn around. Have you mentioned anything to your son about moving to a facility? Just tell him your lonesome during the day, which you are.

Carl my neighbor has Factor delivered. She said there isn't one they've not liked. She supplements it with fresh fruit or salad she said sometimes.

HB you need a scheduler for your schedule. Your mom's lucky your on top of things.

Lorita I'm glad your feeling better. Since you've not been eating significantly of course your weak. Be careful.

DH is 'wondering' what's for dinner. Apparently a late big brunch won't hold him until tomorrow!! Let's be safe everyone.

You're welcome. It isn't gourmet dining, but I've liked the 30 or so meals I've eaten so far and it breaks the monotony.

Carl - you are so right about buying two of the things you really like. I actually did that with the Cameo nail polish, but you know, that stuff only lasts for so long, so you can't buy too many of 'em.

About Factor …. you gave me an idea. Will they deliver food as a one-off, or do you have to have a long term subscription? I ask because we're going to Charleston pretty soon to see my s.o.'s mom and her facility has very little that I'm interested in eating. If I can order Factor for a week, that would be huge.

Ron - I hope your grandson's play was great for all of you.

I'm sorry you're having to deal with so much - it's time for you to catch a break. I'm glad you've finished all of the medications. I'll be thinking good thoughts that you stay well, and your surgery stays scheduled.

HB - Wow, I'd never think to do my nails in my school colors!

Iris - Those orchids are just gorgeous. I'm pretty fond of parrots too. 🙂 There's just something about them that makes me smile every time I see one.

The ABCs stand for no (A)lcohol, no (B)read, and no (processed) carbs. That really does eliminate most things in bags, jars, and boxes. You essentially shop the perimeter of the store and stay out of the middle.

About your phone - if you have your phone do the updates automatically, you're probably fine. I do mine manually which is why I spent so much time the other night backing things up.

If you're concerned, go to your settings and look for the thing that mentions updates and see if the box is checked to update automatically. I'm not sure what that looks like because I have an iPhone, so I only know what it looks like on an Apple device.

As for me - I got to sleep in late this morning!! First time in at least two weeks. It felt so good.

It was sunny out, still a little chilly, but relatively nice. I got outside for awhile, so that was good. Mostly I just cleaned the house. 🙂

Good morning,

Went out for the first time in awhile and enjoyed my grandson’s play he was in. Of course it was a high school play and the sound quality wasn’t great, but my grandson’s face was.

Still some congestion in my chest, but nothing of color.

Ron