Saturday and A Slow Day

I slept very well last night and got up and got around early to go to the market. I got the ingredients for my peanut clusters and decided to take those to my daughter's cookie party tomorrow afternoon. I thought they would be something different from cookies. I asked Leslie and she thought that was fine!

I got them finished and in containers and in the frig to finish setting up. Then I began on my Classmate's newsletters. This will be year 20 for me. There have been three others who have had this responsibility over the years but I believe I have had it the longest.

I also wrote some personal letters to my children to express my appreciation for all they do for me. As we get older, it's a good idea to express  these things. We never know when we may suddenly be gone.

I got most of my personal letters and Christmas cards done this morning...unless I have forgotten someone as my cards come in. I have some extras.

It's nearly 11:00 now. I have worked on one thing and another all morning.

I think I will warm up some of that soup for my lunch.

By the way, my Christmas Cactus is about to bloom. This was given me by Leslie, my daughter years ago.

 Here's another view of it. It is even better today. I took these two photos a couple of days ago.

 

I got most of my Christmas cards out today along with an enclosed letter in each one. Bob has a bad cold and is staying away so I got an awful lot done while he has been home.   I had a bowl of that soup for my lunch. I sent some home with him on Thursday because I was going to be gone Friday to Chanute.

I am waiting for the mail now. Hopefully some of my classmates will be sending their Christmas cards with their news and I can put some more of that in the letter. Right now I am on page three and it is usually seven pages. Of course, we've lost a lot of classmates over the years. 

More later....

I spent the rest of the afternoon working on that class newsletter. I called Bob A. about 4:30 and asked him if he would like to go to Kansas Buffet for dinner. I don't usually eat dinner but I had such a small breakfast and lunch that I was hungry. Neither of us were very impressed with the new buffet.  

I came home and watched a movie on Amazon. Afterward I took my bath and Missy and I went to bed at 9:30..

Friday and Another Trip Out of Town

I slept very well last night...only woke up once and got right back to sleep.

I was going to pick up Bob A. for exercise class but he contacted me that he had been sick so he would not be going. Then I started a couple of loads of laundry and after I finished that and remade my bed I decided to go on up to Chanute early to meet Gay and her friends for lunch.

We had a good lunch and a good visit too. I got back home about 2:30.  The woman on the right is my friend, Gay. Her sister, Adele is in the red at the end of the table but is in the sunshine and we can't see her well.

This is the other side of the table but still Adele is sitting too near the window and the sun is shining on her face.

That's Gay again.

Then I began my class newsletter. This is my 20th year to do the newsletter and be the class locator. I have only had three Christmas cards from classmates so far but it is early yet so I will get an early start.  I began having some problems with the Word program. It would take messages from the left column and put them in the right column. I would have to cut and paste them back in the text where they belong. Luckily I am beginning early.

I also worked on my personal Christmas cards and newsletters. I have most of the ones I am going to send out finished. I believe I have four more to do.

I was going to watch some TV but when I went to Amazon with the Tivo to choose a movie, the screen went blank and I was unable to get the "go back" button or the "guide" button to work. I just had a grey screen.

I contacted Esther and she returned my call after they finished dinner. Keith and she walked me through rebooting the Tivo and I finally got everything back. I started to watch a Christmas movie  but got sidetracked with working on the class newsletter  again.

John W. called me this afternoon to tell me about Nora Jean's death. He is the present class treasurer.  I had seen it in the paper so already had her and Chad on the "deceased classmates" list. He said he felt we had plenty of money in the account for this year's newsletter.  That's good to know. We will need three rolls of stamps, and two ink cartridges to print off the letters for those not online. Those online get theirs attached to e-mail.

I need to get my bath done and my PJs on and get ready for bed. It's nearly 8:30 and I am fully dressed. I don't know if Bob A. will be up to breakfast out in the morning or not. We will just play it by ear, I guess.

Thursday and Another Trip to Independence

I slept really well last night.Yesterday had been a very busy day. I awoke at 1:00 and went to the bathroom and got right back to sleep until almost 5:00.

I will dress shortly and get ready for the day. I will go back to Independence and work on trying to get the form filled out for Juanita's replacement car title. She left the original in the glove box and it was gone when she began looking for it. I would never leave a title in the glove box. It should be kept with important papers. Anyhow, she is nearly blind and cannot read the VIN number on the windshield or fill out the form so I will do that and also fill out the form and take it to the driver's license bureau.  I hope to be able to get in there promptly. There's always a long line there.

I had an e-mail from Gay inviting me to lunch in Chanute at Opie's. I want to go. I may just give Bob some of the soup I made yesterday. I gave him the pizza I brought home Tuesday for today's lunch. I have no idea how long I will be in Independence today. And tomorrow I want to see Gay again and see how she is doing now.

I'd better get dressed and get my breakfast and Missy's and get ready for the day. It should be a big one.

More later....

I am now ready to go to Independence but need to wait until 9:00 to leave. It is only 8:40 now. She has drops she has to put in her eyes every morning and night.   I have no idea when I will be back home today since I will probably have to wait a long time in the driver's license bureau. Just as I was ready to go, Bob A. came and wee visited shortly and I gave him some of that vegetable soup for his lunch tomorrow.  I will be going to Chanute to meet Gay and her sister, Adele for lunch at Opie's. 

So more  later...

I got to Independence at 9:40 and immediately started working on Juanita's application for a new title for her car. I looked in the glove box myself just to be sure it wasn't there. It wasn't. So I filled out the application and had her sign it the best she could under the circumstances and then called the County Treasurer to see if it actually went to the Driver's License Bureau. I was told to use the envelope that came with the application and send it to her office and they would take care of it. I intended to take it to the post office after I left and mail it. But Juanita wanted me to stay and help her go through the metal box that had all her important papers in it. I got it from the closet and we began to work through it making two piles....anything that could be shredded and anything we needed to keep...including one large yellow envelope we labeled "important documents".  After looking through about half the contents of the large metal box, I found her car title. So we opened the envelope and labeled it "important" and put it back in the medal box. I tore up her check.

Then she wanted to buy my lunch. I went to Big Cheese and bought us two ham and cheese sandwiches. They were $5.79 each. They came with pickles and lettuce and chips. She poured me a glass of milk to drink with mine.

Then I came home. I got home about 2:30 and began shredding her old documents. By 2:45, I had that finished and sat down to work on this blog. I need to go get some Christmas cards next and begin getting them addressed.

So more later....

Wednesday and Exercise Class

I slept pretty well last night. I woke up at 1:00 and went to the bathroom and it took me awhile to get back to sleep. I slept until 4:20 and then just got up.

I will go to exercise class this morning but first I will put on the vegetable soup I intend to make. I need to go over to Country Mart and get a snack of some sort for the holiday event following the exercises.  I forgot all about that after getting so much done yesterday.

Right now I'd better get myself and Missy ready for the day. It's almost 5:00 AM.

More later...

There's a better photo of my Christmas tree. I finally found a way to turn it vertical.

We have been fed and I have the soup on in the slow cooker. 

More later...


Missy and I have both been fed and I have watched the news. Now I am ready for exercise class. Bob is going to drive today. He will be by at 8:45 this morning to pick me up.

I have the soup on for lunch. It's plain vegetable soup....no meat. It should be good though.  I have also done a little more decorating.

More later...I went to exercise class and afterward we had a little party. That spoiled our appetites and I put the soup in a corning ware bowl and put it in the frig. We may have it Friday.

I went out to Walmart and bought a new tree skirt for my Christmas tree and also had another centerpiece made at the florist. It had a cardinal on it so I didn't put it on my coffee table after all. I was afraid Missy would attack it since she always loved to eat cardinals when we lived over on Catalina. I have no idea what happened to the one I had the past few years.

My decorating is finished now.

Juanita called me this morning on my way to exercises. She wants me to come up tomorrow and help her with the paperwork to  get a replacement title. She left her title in her car in the glove box and now it is gone. She has the paperwork to do to get a new title but since she's nearly completely blind, she can't fill it out to get a new one. She wants me to do that for her tomorrow. I will take it up to the driver's license bureau and hope they will let me get it done for her.

It's nearly 3:00 and my mail came very early today. Usually it comes around 2:30. But it was here at 1:00 today.

More later...

I puttered around and visited my neighbor, Marilyn, in the afternoon and finally settled down to finish my magazine. I went over to Braums to get my yogurt and found they had some Butter Brickle ice cream and bought both.  We love Butter Brickle ice cream. Later Bob came over. He did not want any ice cream but we did open the popcorn and each had a bowl of that while we watched the news and the CBS news. After he left I took my bath and lay down with Missy on the soft to watch Dateline.  I missed the entire show and woke up at 9:00 and went to bed. Missy soon joined me.

Tuesday and A Missed Monday

Yesterday was a blur.  I slept poorly Sunday night and worked hard all day to get everything back to normal...but normal was not to be.

I did manage to go to exercise class and pick up my blood pressure pills at Medicine Shoppe. 

So after that, Monday was a blur. The knob on the tub broke in two when I took my bath Sunday night and the water source was backward. The hot water came out when the knob was turned to the cold side and the cold water came out when the knob was turned to the hot side. The drain would not hold water either. I tried to contact Betty, my landlady, but she had left her phone in the car.

I went over to Carmen's to see if she knew where Betty was. Betty was not listening to her messages on her home phone either. Then Carmen came over and tried to fix the drain.  She also tried to fix the knob which had broken in half.  It seems when she cleaned the tub last week, after the accident with her washer overflowing, (it backed up and filled my tub with filthy gunk) the knob broke off in her hand and she tried to glue it back together with gorilla glue. She did not read the instructions on the glue and did not know that gorilla glue has to be applied only on one side of the project and water must be put on the other side to activate it.

But I finally heard from Betty. She sent her maintenance man over to see what he could do to help so she wouldn't have to call a plumber again.  Then she and he came back after being to Ace Hardware store and finding another knob that would work. They worked on it for awhile and he got a new knob back on and the maintenance man manged to get the drain threaded back together so at least I can now take a bath. Unfortunately, the "stop" is no longer applicable on the faucet so I have to be very careful not to get scalded when I fill the tub. Turning it too far to "cold" will encounter "hot" water again and turning it too far to "hot" will encounter "cold" water again. It's a mess but will have to do. I will just always fill the tub before getting into it.

Then in the afternoon yesterday, I baked my cake, called Karan to see if she remembered to bake one
(she didn't...but will bake one when she got home from Joplin).   She had taken Wendy over there for her chemotherapy. Wendy's husband, John, died of his cancer while I was in Florida. What a horror they went through...and she is still going through.  It is so good of Karan to take her over to Joplin for her therapy.

I went through the mail and scanned the newspapers. I took the two hug bags of newspapers over to Marilyn's apartment and left them on the doorstep. She takes them to Parsons to be recycled.

I washed the kitchen floor and wiped up the bathroom floor. The bathroom floor just had some gritty sand like material on it. I will wash it after I get home from Independence today.

Yesterday afternoon after I dumped the dirt and spent flowers from my flowerpots,  my neighbor, Maureen, called me over for a visit. That gave me a nice break while I recuperated from the day's activities.

Last evening I got my cake iced and Bob brought his over too. Finally, Karan brought hers over. Today, I will go to Independence to deliver the cakes and have my hair done and then have lunch somewhere and pick up my prescription at Walgreen's and get back home.

What a day! More later....I'd better get dressed and fed and ready to go.  I did manage to get a good night's sleep last night...and so did Missy!

I did get everything done including getting the rest of my Christmas shopping finished and wrapped. Then after having a Big Cheese pizza, I came on back home and decorated the apartment for Christmas. 

It's not a very good photo. We can't see the top of the tree. I have a better one but it is vertical and I can't seem to turn it from the blog.

After I finished that, Bob came over and read the newspaper and watched the news. After he left, I took my bath and put my pjs on and lay on the sofa with  Missy and watched "A Christmas Carol". That is a seasonal habit with me.  I even have it on DVD. This one last night was with George Scott and not my favorite. But I still enjoyed it.

Sunday and the Trip Home

I woke up at quarter to 1:00 this morning but managed to get back to sleep until 4:00, when I got up and finished packing and had my little bowl of oatmeal and a cup of coffee. The trip was relatively uneventful and we got back to Tulsa twenty minutes early. John, my son-in-law was waiting for me and as soon as I got my large bag,  I got into his truck and we took off for Coffeyville.

We visited some on the way home.

When I got home, I noticed the apartment looked unusually clean for my ten days away from it. I figured Bob A. had done some cleaning. As I was putting away my clothes, I heard him come in. He and Phyllis F. had been to "Just Us" to eat lunch after church.

He said he had not cleaned. My neighbor Carmen had and Betty my landlady had evidently helped.  Carmen's washer had run over and run under the wall and soaked the carpet under my daybed. They had cleaned all that up as well as the bathroom. The laundry water had come up into my bathtub too and all over the floor there. She not only cleaned the bathroom mess up but pulled the daybed away from the wall in the den and found the carpet in there was wet too. So they put a fan on it and it dried in a day. Then Carmen cleaned the carpet all over my apartment. It needed it but I had not expected they would do that. But she did! How wonderful!

Bob will be back in a couple of hours to watch 60 Minutes here. He had bought some ice cream and left it here so he encouraged me to eat some of it. I did!

I also emptied Missy's litter box and washed it all out and refilled it with clean litter. I took it outside under the faucet. Then I ordered more new litter from Amazon. I am nearly out.

More later....I have not yet opened the mail. 

Bob did come to watch 60 Minutes. After he went home, I  took my bath and went to bed at 8:20. I was thoroughly exhausted!