Five on Friday!

Hello, hello Friends!  

1.  Guess whose back, back again?  Tanner's back, tell a friend.  After nine months away, he is back in the country.  He is busy applying for jobs and honestly, I'm not sure what else.  But he's happy to be home and we are happy to have him home.

2.  Fully vaccinated with Moderna!   I didn't have a tough go about with it.  With the first one, my arm hurt really bad and with the second one, I had a little arm ache, my body turned bright red about five minutes after I received it (it only lasted about five minutes) and I was super tired for about a week.  

3.  I've been working super hard on my front porch/front lawn area and I love it!  Here is a sneak peek from the last full moon.

4.  I met up with some friends at a bar for the first time in over a year.  It was a Tuesday night, so not busy.  It was nice being out and about.

5.  I've been doing Yoga With Cats at Whiskers Cat Cafe.  I love it.  

I am going to list more than five things!

6.  I've been taking a class offered through Parks & Rec at a local Fitness Court.  The first class, we had to sprint.  I ate it.  Here is my leg a week later.  I really ate it.

7.  Alli had prom!

8.  Papa shopping!  He took me out to lunch beforehand a few weeks ago!  We had Chipotle.

9.  We celebrated Mother's Day and my grandpa's 87th birthday last weekend!  That was an adventure.

10. For Mother's Day, Peyton got me some new kicks and Alli made me a delicious dinner!

Happy Friday everyone!! 

Five on Friday

 Five things I did today:

1.  Annual Doctors Appointment.  Everything is fine, except I'm fat.  LOL.  Working on that, K?! :)

2. Ordered a new crossbody purse.  I love the one I have, it's about to break though..  I've had it for about three years, so it's on to retirement once I get the new one (which has already shipped!)

3. Got dose #1 of the Moderna vaccine!  

4.  Set up the dogs water fountain.  They were a little unsure at first, but I think they are okay now!

5.  I went to Bath & Body Works because I couldn't figure out exactly what my coupons were for when I tried to order online.  The girl had the store even had a little issue figuring it out, I don't feel as stupid now.  

What did you do today?

39 Things to Do in the next 365 Days!

 I love lists!  I made one of completely accomplishable things I can do before my next birthday!

1. Visit the Kansas City Zoo (It has been so long and they have so many new things!)
2. Stay at the Elms Hotel - Get a spa treatment and do the paranormal tour
3. Cook all of the Japanese recipes in my new cookbook!  (Gotta prepare the stomach for Summer 2022)
4. Visit the Pioneer Women's store in Oklahoma.
5. Murder Mystery Dinner
6. Cabo!
7. Complete all the runs I've signed up for (I can't remember the number, I'll have to investigate)
8. Drive In Movies
9. Float Trip and Camping Weekend
10. Donate Blood
11. Visit Cedar Cove Feline Conservation
12. Stay at the Crescent Hotel
13. Have a small succulent/cactus garden
14. Have a palm tree (that my cats do not destroy!!)
15. Tour BLVD Brewery
16. Bingo at Chicken N Pickle
17. Kansas City Ghost Tour (Oct 22nd)
18. Hotel Josephine Ghost Hunt (April 17th)
19. Visit Little Jerusalem Badlands and other state parks in Western Kansas.
20. Visit Turpentine Creek
21. Go to one of the Festivals at Powell Gardnes
22. Visit Henry Dorley Zoo
23. Read 39 books.
24. Journal Every Day (You all are going to get so tired of me!)
25. Make a Candle at Cypress Bridge Candle Company
26. Weekend Trip to Chicago
27. Visit Hot Springs National Park
28. Saint Louis Adventure weekend
29. Get Tooth Fixed
30. Write Forgiveness Letters and let go
31. Get the COVID vaccine
32. Visit the Badlands NP again!  
33. Visit Indian Cave State Park in Nebraska
34. Winter Vacation in Minnesota
35. Visit/Stay at the 21c Museum Hotel
36. Create my Library
37. Finally get my new dryer
38. Actually finish a large puzzle! (Before the cats destroy it!)
39. RAOK!

It's my 39th Birthday! I want to celebrate with a list!

 I tried to think of a list of 39 things about me...but that's a lot and it's hard.  I know there are more than 39 things about me, but it got a little boring trying to write it.  

I'll write about what happened today...

1. I woke up at 5 am.  
2. The cat immediately started petting my face with his head.  
3. The dog rolled over on my legs.
4. I decided to actually get out of bed at 5:45 am.
5. I let the dogs out.
6. I logged into work at 6 am.
7. I got a lot of work done in 30 minutes.
8. It was Peyton wake up time.
9. Finally got him out of bed at 6:55.
10. Left to drive him to school at 7:05.
11. Draco came along for the car ride.
12. I woke Alli up to log into online school.
13. I worked and worked and worked. (and we put out some fires)
14. First meeting of the day.
15. Second meeting about 5 minutes after the first one concluded.
16. Worked some more on my projects
17. Finally ate some lunch.
18. Peyton got home from school.
19. Another meeting, this was an emergency venting and working things out session.
20. Alli and Peyton decided to get into a fight.  
21. It was awesome.
22. Alli went to work.
23. I cleared up my work for the week. (I have the rest of the week off)
24. My mom called me to sing Happy Birthday.
25. I logged off at 5 pm.
26. Peyton went to his church with his friends.
27. I fed the dogs and cats.
28. I decided to take an early, relaxing bath and read a book.
29. Cleaned up Peyton's room and put new sheets on his bed.
30. Played a little Angry Birds 2.
31. Let the dogs play outside a bit.
32. Watched "The Challenge"
33. Responded to the Facebook/Instagram messages I had received.
34. Alli got home from work.
35. She brought me Gates BBQ for birthday dinner. My favorite BBQ.
36. She got me a Majesty Palm.  I love it.
37. She got me a Birthday cake. It was delicious.
38. Now, I'm laying in bed.
39. The Kibben is making biscuits. :)

I hope everyone else had a great day.  

Happy March!

 This year feels like it is flying away!  

March is one of my favorites.  It's the end of the winter and the spring is upon us.  New beginnings and such, right?

March is Women's History month and I have some reads lined up for the theme.  

On the first day of March, we celebrate World Compliment Day!  Compliment a family member, a friend or a stranger.  Put a smile on someone's face!

This past weekend was pretty tame.  New tires on Saturday.  A Marshalls shopping trip.  The internet going out for half the day on Saturday.  So much laundry!  Going through towels and old blankets to donate to the local animal shelter.  Oh, and yoga with cats!  

The cats help me work each day.  I do appreciate them so.

I went bowling with my mom last weekend.  The first time bowling in over a year.  I scored over 100, which might be my best ever.  I'm not a good bowler, friends.

We had Door Dash deliver (the driver told me my street and house didn't exist. lol) Fuzzy's Tacos!   The California Heat one is my favorite.  The kids both got burritos and the dogs were super interested in eating them.

A Marshall's find.  This body scrub smells so good!  It might be a new favorite!

Ruby chillin in the dryer.  Because why not?

Peyton goes to school on Monday and Wednesday.  Draco and I take him together.  Draco loves his early morning car rides.  Look at his serious face after P gets out of the car.

My little panthers.  Such good boys!  The Chewy package arrived early Sunday morning.  Thank you, Fed Ex driver, that had to carry that heavy box!  The cats love sitting in the little boxes that separate the canned food.

Happy Monday all!  Hope all is well!!  

We got an exciting email today!  It's about school.  It will still be a hybrid schedule....but....the kids will be able to switch classes four times a day!  I am so happy that Peyton might have a little more normal Freshman year.  I know I got a message from his Auto Services teacher that he asked to principal if he could do small groups in the shop and the principal wasn't opposed.  Peyton will actually get to work in the shop.  I feel like auto repair is a valuable skill one can have.  He has a B in the class, so he will be eligible to go.  

I had planned to take my Grandpa grocery shopping on Saturday, but the side roads were still pretty bad, so we postponed until Sunday.  I ended up doing the shopping for him.  The risk of him slipping on the ice outside was still there and not worth taking the chance.  We had a small lunch together and watched some TV.  He had the gift I got him out.  

My sister came over with her husband and kids to visit for a bit.  We all headed to my mom's house for our postponed New Year's Day lunch.  The champagne that was highly recommended from the Trader Joe's gal was a bust (everything else she recommended has been good though), so we opted for cheap champagne and orange juice.  We all consumed black eyed peas and ham.  LET's get the new year started off with the good luck!

Alli text me and told me she still couldn't get her car out.  She got a ride to and from work.  When I got home, I got her car up the hill and parked it at the church.  That way, she could get to work on Monday.  You can see the annoying, slight incline to the main road up there.  

I had finished up "The Midnight Library" and loved it.  It made me cry, but the ending was so good and I am glad it turned out the way it did.  I have also finished a book called "The Snow".  I like the idea of the book...but the dialogue was atrocious and a tad bit of character expansion would be nice.  The author actually has four more books in the series.  I'm indifferent in wanting to purchase them.  Do I want to know what happened?  Sure, but not with four books and horrible dialogue.  

I did work on Sunday for about 4 hours, so I could start Monday off with less work.  I knew we were going to be swamped with end of the year freak outs and the long weekend.  My coworker came back from vacation on Monday and we had a mini meeting with our c & c team.  On Tuesday, first thing in the morning, she found out her great aunt had passed from Covid, she will be out for the next couple of days.  I feel horrible for her.  I'm going to try to get her address and send her something.  We had a few meetings and started working on a few things.  If she is back on Thursday, we are going to have another meeting to flesh out some items.  I did a rough draft on the definition of business days, when customer service should chat us instead of email and an email template.  Sometimes half the battle is figuring out what CS need/want us to do.  I put some parts about what we do all day and that we have a lot of other work than answering chats or emails.  Like...a lot.... :)  I, seriously, love this job though and I think it's a good fit for me.  It keeps my brain working and there are a lot of moving parts.

I took Draco with me to do a Target run Monday night.  We did the pick up service.  It saves me money not going in the actual store.  So...much...money....  He was nervous when the guy was putting the items in the trunk and wasn't sure what to think.  He was fine though.

After our Target run, we took Alli some dinner.  She was grateful.  Guess what Peyton was doing?  Sleeping.  He had been sleeping since 5:30 when he got home from school.  He woke up at 10:30 and asked me what was for dinner.  lol.

Tuesday was the day of packages.  We got our chewy order, some of the race medals I ordered, some lipsticks I had ordered, the Cat Lady box (which I thought I canceled, even had the email, but was pleasantly surprised with the charge on my card), an amazon package and our BarkBox from December.  Poor BarkBox!  Better late than never.  I did get refunded and a free box for next month because of the shipping delay.  It wasn't even BarkBox's fault.  It was stuck in a facility for over 20 days and finally moved out of the facility on the 29th of December.  I didn't ask for the refund or the free box.  The toys were so cute though.  I love Snoopy!

Alli wanted me to make the Spicy Shrimp Quesadillas.  They turned out so yummy.  We hadn't had them in a while.  I put some chicken in the slow cooker to make meals for tomorrow and Thursday.  

 I set up the last of the Zoom meetings for the BOD search.  I will be so grateful to be done with them.  We will have interviewed 12 Candidates come Thursday and I've been on every single one.  After Thursday, I will do my write ups and opinions.  

How did you week start out? 

Banished Words

 I saw this on the news yesterday morning and had to share.  The Banished Words for 2021.  I wanted to give my thoughts on them too. 

1. COVID-19 (COVID, coronavirus, Rona)  -- I think we are all over hearing those words.  It's not going to stop either.  Not until the numbers go down, people get vaccinated, a semblance of normal life returns....

2. Social Distancing  -- Ugh.  Even introverts are tired of this word.

3. We're all in this together  -- This has been determined to be a lie and I'm totally tired of hearing it.

4. In an abundance of caution  --  Yes, we get it, that's why the world is canceled.  Find some new verbiage please, let's mix it up.

5. In these uncertain times  --  Sigh.  The news says this all the time.  Again, let's mix it up a little.

6. Pivot  -- I don't feel like I've heard this one much, so I have no opinion.

7. Unprecedented  -- Yep, again, we get it.  

8. Karen  --  I think this is funny.  I feel bad for all the real life Karen's though.  The ones that aren't complete you know what's.  

9. Sus  --  I use sus.  I'm guilty.  Especially when I am sus of people cheating!  

10. I know, right?  -- I feel like this has been said a lot for a few years.  This one doesn't bother me.

Which one are you most tired of hearing?

Happy New Year!

 Happy New Year to everyone!  

This morning when I let the dogs out, it was so quiet and peaceful.  There wasn't any noise.  That had gone on for hours the previous night.  Celebration for the year to go away.  I don't blame anyone.  The neighbors had a field day with their fireworks.

I had a rager of a party last night.  Kibben and I were chillin' and watching the ball drop.  Peyton was playing Call of Duty and only realized the clock struck midnight when a quarter stick of dynamite exploded.  Alli was chillin'.

This past week was a calm, easy one.  On Sunday, we had two interviews for the Board of Directors for the Kansas City Roller Warrior.  They both went well and I enjoyed meeting new people, even if it is just by Zoom.  Monday and Tuesday were work days and they were hella busy.  It was the year end panic for some.  As long as they are finished by midnight on the 31st, they are good to go.  Monday evening, I went with my mom to see lights at the Olathe Community Center.  Afterwards, we went to KMacho for Margaritas and Mexican food.  

Wednesday was a PTO day.  I didn't do a lot.  We ordered Wings on Doordash. We had two more interviews for the BOD. (We've had a total of 10.  It's exhausting)  I went to the grocery store afterwards.  Around 7:30 pm.  It was nice,  the people were nice and it was a good experience.  I did have one guy ask me if I was "shopping for the big storm".  I laughed a little and told him I was only buying for the week and I didn't have any milk.  I couldn't possibly be preparing for the storm without milk!  I had eggs and bread, because we were out of eggs and bread.  

Thursday was a holiday day from work.  Alli asked me to go get a manicure with her.  I passed on the manicure, but I did get a pedicure.  I hadn't had one in over a year.  It was nice to sit, relax and read.  I engaged in conversation with the sweetest girl next to me about reading.  I was starved after the pampering and we went to Amigos.  Yes, another Mexican restaurant.  I am so happy we picked it.  I ran into Sharon and Paul.  We got to catch up on gossip (from six feet away and masked, of course) and boy, did I have some juicy nuggets.  My daughter and I decided to leave a 100% tip for our waitress.  

I traded in the scratchers tickets that my mom always gives as stocker stuffers.  I bought more tickets.  Ended up winning $13.00.  Not too shabby for dollar scratchers.  

My friend, Shannon, had her first grandchild.  Her daughter is the same age as my daughter.  I can't imagine having a grandchild right now, but I am happy for her.  She is so excited and is giving the baby all the loves (as the baby deserves).

I watched Death to 2020 on Netflix.  V. Black Mirrorish.  I finished up the A Teacher series I've been watching on Hulu.  It was so good.  It has a few trigger warnings on it though.  

Peyton and I worked to get all his school work turned in.  He's only missing a few thing in English, Algebra and Biology now.  He finally turned in his big essay for English.  He did such a good job on his outline, I don't know why he didn't just turn it in on time.

I let the dogs out and noticed an Amazon package.  I didn't remember ordering anything.  Someone had sent me a gift from the gifting group I am in.

While I was waiting for midnight to approach, I did a paint by sticker page.  Those things are much harder than they appear.  

Today, Friday, I haven't done a lot.  We got our first big snow.  The dogs love it so much.  They wrestle and run around and just have a great old time.  I read a lot of "Midnight Library"  I will probably finish it tonight.  I watched Spree on Hulu and now am weirded out by ridesharing.  Peyton shoveled the front walk.  

That's all I've got.  I have no idea what to make for dinner and nobody is hungry.  Peyton is going to go shovel some driveways for money.  Alli is hanging out in her room.  I am not allowing her to drive to work tonight, the road are still bad..  

Happy New Year everyone!  Keep warm and keep safe!