Plants

Plants are coming back into the office!

It’s taken me a while to want to bring plants back in, but shockingly it only took a visit to Lowes rescue rack to get me going!

Yes that’s a few plants ready to go in!

One Dracaena with dying spots that we will address with some love and care. 

One Chinese evergreen. I wouldn’t have guessed that name but we’ll go with it. 

Snake plant 

Came plant 

Succulent 

These succulents are all from IKEA. They have been repotted into MY pottery. Fun stuff. 

Oh and one more. 

. 

Actually a rescue as well. Can’t beat the prices at half off. 

Office without plants

Office with plants. I need a small plant stand for the corner but it’s coming together. I actually have a third stand that will work quite well here. I’ll bring that in tomorrow. 

Keeping up with life

Has it really only been a week and a half since I left Utah from my visit?  It seems like a lifetime ago. Weird isn’t it?

Since I have been back I have done very little. I work. I come home I sit. I’m tired. Not physically but mentally. I went to my first appointment with a new colorectal surgeon. I have my colonoscopy set up for the 18th of February. Fun times. 

I had my security interview for my new job. Talk about feeling under pressure. Ha. I am fine in that but it’s embarrassing when the forms get squirrelly and you inadvertently answer something completely stupid like “have you traveled outside the US in the last 7 years”. Mine came up NO. I distinctly remember answering these as yes because was happy they had a “numerous times in this time period” answer that made out trips to Switzerland easy to answer as apparently that was our go to place while there :). I do love Switzerland!!  It was infuriating with that on line form because if you did anything a touch off (or needed to save to get additional data like your passport number) you had to go through the whole thing again. As in every immediate relative you have to go into them and answer AGAIN “alive/deceased” like the answer would change in 10 minutes since you screwed up in the first (or third) attempt to complete the form. Crazy stuff!!  The gal who interviewed me was sweet though. She, too, was 6’ so we had that in common and lamented we didn’t get to do face to face to just revel in the moment of looking another gal eye to eye. Anyway. That’s done. If folks show up in your doorstep. Sorry, not sorry!!  Ha!  Just answer their questions honestly. I’m an open book.

This weekend was sort of fun. Saturday we met Liz in Atlanta to go to IKEA. Met you ask?  Yes. She was flying home from California and came in at a decent hour so we met up with her and spent hours browsing and shopping. And buying the wrong size pillows BUT we have new pillows. Meh. Good enough. We then went to Anticos pizza. Our favorite place to go and Butch even wanted one to go home with us, so ordered that as well. 

Sunday turned horrible - I had a “sick” headache. Haven’t had one that bad in three years. Got up. Felt like doodoo. Got tea. Already knew it was bad. Proceed to vomit before I even got tea in me. Sigh. Back to bed. Toast and tea. Sleep. Repeat add drugs when toast stayed down. Sleep. Woke up to Liz coming over around 4ish. Soooo got up and filled through Easter and spring in an effort to get things ready to go to consignment. 

That leads us to this week. It’s my last week in my current job. Next week I start with SC. I made my “meet and greet” appointment and invited my team to it. Scheduled the conference room. Made the slide show. Ready to kick this off. 

Amid all this I have been finalizing and tracking move payments. I had to file a set of forms to pay for food and lodging in Germany. Another form (2) to pay for airfare and transportation in German. Another form (3) to pay for food and lodging in Georgia. Another form (4) to claim damages from our temp storage items. Another form (5) to claim damages from our actual MOVE to Georgia. Can you see me pulling my hair out yet??  There is yet another form (6) for the RITA tax credits that I will need next year because although I moved last year o got paid for it all this year.  What’s sad is that each of these “forms” is likely five or more documents and forms to be filled out so I’m going bonkers. I think I’ve been paid for ONE form so far!!. 

What have YOU been doing?

Visit with mom and dad

I made plans to take a longer than normal MLK weekend and go see the folks!  

Pretty moon over the mountain one evening when we were driving out to get salads for dinner ;). I do miss these mountains! (NOT the snow!)

What did we do?  We ate and ate and slept and played games and ate some more. Remember last post when I said I had gotten fat?  Now we know why!!

I did shave Dad while I was there - had fun pulling faces at each other! Mom had fun playing camera man.   

I also took mom shopping with very little success. She found this shirt. Yep. That’s it. One shirt. 

Robert and Janet also came down so we visited and chatted in the evening and spent time talking and enjoying our down time. 

I had a good time spending most of the day with the folks and plan to come down about every three to four months. 

Look at that sky from the drive down to Vegas in the early morning!  So pretty!!

Leaving Vegas

The ONLY hiccup in the flight was me losing my keys to my car. Yep. Seriously. I need to stop losing things!!!  Oh well it’s only keys. I can get them replaced ($300 - dang programmed and electronic things in cars are expensive now!!)

Scanziety.

Ok I have had a flurry of medical appointments but without results and just meetings. First was the regular doc who took blood for a prescription refill and wigged out because my sugar was high. Well I didn’t fast. I wasn’t planning on blood work as I was JUST there for a script refill, thanks. I’m sure that’s fine. We shall see they will take my A1C on the next draw to see where I am. 

Next was oncology to tell them I have not had a scan in YEARS and I have changes. So I had scans ordered. This is a worry and a relief at the same time. Next up is gastroenterologist on the 20th (Thursday) to schedule my colonoscopy. Ah the gift that keeps on giving. 

So one way or another we find out what’s going on. The Amount of accidents I have had lately compared to the last three years is concerning but maybe it’s just because I got fat!  Time will tell. Time will tell. 

Covid booster

I decided to get my booster when Butch took his mom to Florida. I had the afternoon free shipping why not, right?  Oh and I knew I needed (should get) the flu shot so I asked if I could/should get them both. The nurse said “sure”. 

Yeah. NO. Don’t do that ever!!!!  I was not feeling well that evening. I had a low grade fever and felt yuckie. The good news is that it only lasted 24 hours and I was back at it. However I would recommend you get those shots separately for sure!!

Christmas Dinner(s) at Liz’s

Christmas Eve dinner hosted by Elizabeth!

Elizabeth enjoyed hosting all of Christmas. She hosted Christmas Eve as well as Christmas Day. We had spaghetti dinner in Christmas Eve. Then a brunch the next morning followed by Christmas dinner. 

Prep with the girls in the kitchen 

Butch taking a nap before doing the cleaning after dinner. 

Christmas dinner with Christmas crackers was quite good and entertaining. We had a spatchcock Turkey, Ham, green bean casserole, potatoes, gravy, asparagus a

D Brussels sprouts. 

She set the table with my placemats fro Sally, my moms plates and my gold flatware. It set up a great dinner!  Beautiful!  She may inherit a few pieces to use for parties if she going to host :)

Moving and plotting and box heaven

What are the marks on the wall for?  This is for the new TV and where it will work best for the position and where the studs etc. the TV IS huge. 

The TV as it sat on the floor

And mounted on the wall. 

And the new rug for the living room. 

AND in the 22nd the movers we finally HERE!!  Yay!!

9 crates the bow - they spent a LOT of time getting it all OFF the trucks… then we had to dig out. 

And curtains used again from Germany. There are others that we will reuse on Butch’s office. The ones in here are going in the dining to contrast with the dark blue. 

Butch left to get Sally from Fort Walton for Christmas. He didn’t come back until Christmas Eve day. 

South Carolina and the Ashwood’s

For New Years this year we went to Robin and Donalds new house in South Carolina. We had a rainy trip north but the weather whole we were there was beautiful and mild!  We were only there from Friday to Monday as I had work and was avoiding taking leave. I want to maintain at the higher overseas rate as long as I can as it’s 120 hours MORE than they allow stateside. IF I can maintain that amount I can retire and be paid out that extra amount which is a good chunk of change!

They have a cute three bed two bath in a new community to the west of their town. Cute homes. Nice neighborhood and they have close friends who live in the same neighborhood that they knew from their time in the DC area. 

Did I take ANY pictures?  Nope!  Did I have a great time?  Heck yes!  It was a nice visit and a great weekend. I’m glad they are so much closer now. Only 5 hours or a little more. We did take one picture. Don took it on his phone. I’ll see if I can add that soon!  Robin always decorated her house so pretty so we took a picture in front of her beautiful tree!

. 

Dads 90th, family get together, Utah fun

It was a short LONG weekend jam packed with family, family and more family!!

It was a SUPER rainy ride north. I MISS well marked German roads. See there were a few GOOD things the Germans had!!  Either way we made it. Even though I apparently have the bladder of a 9 year old and had to stop and pee. 

I also got to watch Christmas stories on the flight!  Fun!!  I watched a Candace Cameron Burke show. It was cute. 

We also had a few spare pilots ON the flight. Bonus for us!  ;)

Utah was snowy!!



I saw Santa!!!  It looked better when he had his hand up and you could see his plush suit and white gloves. Lovely. He was a GOOD Santa too. I hollered “SANTA, SANTA, SANTA! I know him!!!”  Ha!!


THIS IS Martin and Marilyn with their grands and great grands that we’re able to attend. As Linda points out a LOT were missing from this picture!  They have a BUNCH of greats and a BUNCH of great grands!!

Cousin love!!

My how tall you’ve grown Mike!!

After the get together at Sandi’s we drove down to Cedar Vitg and visited with mom and dad and Linda. 

This is my moms old wedding dress. It was originally Aunt Flo’s dress as well as Carolyn Koenig’s as well. We just came across my wedding dress in storage. It’s in the garage currently :). Guess I should move it!



After a dinner on Monday night. In order if height - purely by accident. 

In chronological order. 

And just like that we were headed to Vegas to fly out. 

Vegas valley. A big dusty. 


Flying out. Until next time.