A birthday like no other!

 I celebrated my 52nd birthday this past week.   I was looking forward to some time off of work.  I had plans for each day and it was going to be, well not epic; but a good day and week.  Little did I know what was coming my way

I started my birthday week on Monday and everything went well.  I roamed a bit and ran some errands.  I was busy but had a fabulous day!   I hit up some thrift stores, roamed through Hobby Lobby, took myself to lunch.  It was great!

Tuesday was my birthday and it was the day that I had planned to go visit an old Civil War Fort with my nephew.  (Jason had to work.). I woke up with a smile on my face ready to enjoy another day off of work and for our adventure.   We went to Fort Duncan. And explored the ruins of this old fort.  The weather was perfect for us.  

We even took a walk down the remnants of an old road and explored an abandoned household 

And we went to the graveyard and drove by a house that was reportedly used as a house of ill repute.

It was a perfect birthday morning.  And then it went belly up.my phone started blowing ip with texts from my coworkers.  Our team had been called into a meeting, the whole team…at the same time.  In a call center environment, it is rare and HUGE if they pull everyone off the phones at the same time.  Yet they did.  I was still out and about when the meeting went down.   My coworkers  kept me apprised.

‘Our team is disbanding as of December 31’

‘They didn’t find new teams for us’

‘We have all lost our jobs’

‘Not performance based, reduction in workforce based on business needs’

‘Possibly have one position that we can all apply for’

I was luckily heading home by that point.  But I held out some slim hope that maybe they were getting rid of everyone…everyone but me that is.  Yeah, I know how crazy and conceited that sounds now that I’m typing it. But that is where my thought was at that point.   

Within an hour I had my phone call.   I was too being laid off…blah blah blah (that is code for all the legalese stuff).  

I spent the rest of my birthday revamping my resume and getting password resets on websites such as indeed…and updating those sites to my current  address and information.   I sat and panicked about money and worked through figured in my head…constantly.

I was still off on Wednesday and I spent some time shopping for a few clothes at goodwill, I had gained weight and have/had no dress pants that fit and I realize that interviews will be in my future.  So I bought pair or two of versatile dress pants.  Mostly Wednesday was just me assimilating the information that for the first time in my life I was given the boot from a job.   For the first time in my adult life I would be unemployed  yes there were tears.

Thursday I was back at work….starting to work off my last 2.5 weeks of employment.

This would most decidedly be the worst birthday gift I ever got.  Not one I recommend at all.   I have started to apply at jobs already.  I am also preparing mentally to be out of work for a bit, hopefully not long….but the odds of me being able to start somewhere on January 1 is a long shot.  But I am prepared. I am making plans for those days off…vowing to job hunt at least 30-60 minutes a day. MINIMUM!   I also have some thoughts to finally be able to finish the picture digitizing project …even adding in my personal photos.   I have some graveyards that I want to visit.  I have some purging that I want to do.  I also want to try to spend some time away from the house daily to prepare the dog for  the possibility that I will not be by her side 24-7 in case I get an office position and have to give up the work from home gig.  Hello long winter walks….as money will be tight and what else could I do for free?

Shocked, stressed, worried.  But praying for a miracle of a job that I love and that pays what I need!

365 Pictures day 32 to 40

 I am still charging full steam ahead with my picture of the day project.  

Day 32       11.28.24 

    Yes, Breakfast was indeed pumpkin roll!

Day 33       11.29.24

    I managed to hit up the Bent and Dent Grocery store and picked up some great deals!

Day 34       11.30.24

    Jason ended up with a stomach bug......this was what he did all weekend.

    

Day 35        12.1.24 

    I finally got my test tube for my DNA test!  

    

Day 36         12.2.24

    This dog is so spoiled!  She does enjoy her Bully sticks!

Day 37         12.3.2024

    I tried my hand at making butter mints.  They taste good but look horrible!

Day 38   12.4.2024

    Zoey loves when we pull out the advent calendar.  Yes, you can indeed buy an advent calendar for your dog.  And yes, we did buy one! (we had one last year too)

Day 39        12.5.24

        We had a dusting of snow.   Not enough to even measure, but just enough to leave some white here and there.

    

Day 40          12.6.24

    I made a honey bun cake.  Seriously, one of the best tasting cakes ever. 

Time Is Flying By

 The last week or two have flown by in a blur!  It feels like it is still before Thanksgiving, yet here I find myself a week after Turkey day!   How can life move by so fast?

Thanksgiving was a good day.  We spent it with my brother and his family.  It is crazy how adult my niece and nephews are becoming (ok, have become as only one is still in high school).  The day after Thanksgiving, Jason woke up and was like, "I think I ate too much last night my stomach is flipping".   He had to work, so he headed out the door.  I spent the day working on some things around the house and I also went to the Bent and Dent Grocery store.  Yes, I got a lot of bargains!  It takes a bit longer to shop because I do check the expiration date on pretty much everything.  However, the deals are incredible.  I texted Jason at lunch to ask how he was feeling and his response came back as not good.   Apparently the stomach pains had escalated as he drove to work and by the time he was at work he was in full out stomach flu mode.  Throwing up, extreme exhaustion chills....  His boss was like "just go home dude"  and Jason said "I don't think I can even drive myself at this point."  so Jason curled up on the floor and slept all morning in their office/'warehouse and the boss went out and picked him up some medicine.  He stopped throwing up at about 1 and felt safe enough to drive home by about 3.  He arrived home at 4 and told me he was going to try to 'stay awake' so that it didn't mess up his sleep that night.   Yeah, that didn't happen.  He was over there snoring within minutes.  He slept all afternoon and evening.  He slept the whole night through and he dozed in and out all day Saturday.   By Sunday, his stomach was fine but he was just still so tired....so we spent another day just resting at the house.   We both went back to work on Monday.   He was thankfully just a bit more tired than normal...and he is now feeling back to 100%.

 I had a day off this past week.  I was super busy though.  Literally, I was on the go from the time Jason walked out the door to go to work until the moment Jason got home.  I had been tiptoeing around the house while Jason slept all weekend and stuck close in case he needed me.  Therefore, all my weekend errands and chores were pushed off until Tuesday. (I knew I was off on Tuesday so therefore I had made that decision on the weekend).   My food that day was a bit higher in calories, but I was ok with it. 

For the month of December I would love to lose weight. However, my goal is to maintain my weight.  I have a lot going on in the month.  Including a ton of time off...well hopefully.   Time off is more difficult for me eating sometimes.  Stepping out of the routine is difficult in terms of eating!  But that's ok.   December also brings Christmas...so more baked goods.  It also brings about my birthday and I do plan on making my filled cookie, the one that my mom made for me each year.   I picked up the tradition the first year mom was in a nursing home and I plan on continuing even though mom has passed.  The only difference is that I won't be able to share any with mom.     The cookies are a once a year treat for me.  Or should I say a once a year bake for me.  The last two years that I have made them, I have eaten a few and then I package them up into individual portions and freeze them.  I pull one out here and there and indulge.  Last year there were months that I didn't touch any...but then months where I had one a week!   But, I will say that I ate my last 2023 birthday cookie in October of 2024.  I plan on doing the same thing this year.  

I am still enthralled with the ancestry thing.  It is quite fascinating really. I flip back and forth on different people.  One day I will be looking at my mom's grandmothers family and the next day be looking at dad's adopted family but the next day I switch to looking at Jason's family.  Keeps it fun and unique.    I did get my test tube for  my DNA test.  I supplied my spit, packaged it up and it has been sent off.  They should have it any day now.    So I'm just in a waiting game for that.   I remain hopeful that we can prove one story of my possible grandmothers right or wrong.   We don't need much to prove it enough for me to be happy.  Basically, if I have a bunch of cousins or close family pop up in the UK then we know the story about the RAF pilot is true meaning the person that we are pretty sure is my grandmother is most likely the grandmother (even though she denied it to her dying day) and in that case we know that the other story is false.   (even though she perpetuated the story that she was until her dying day).  Best case scenario, enough key players in the story have done a DNA test at some point out of curiosity and I get straight answer.  But who knows.  I started doing the family tree just so that when I get my DNA results back that I can have a basis of family line so that I can quickly place any matches.   And who knew that it would be so fun!

Work has been stressful.  I typically plan my vacation out and save a few days to roll into the new year.  Up until a few weeks ago they couldn't confirm that we were allowed to roll days this year.  So I had to frantically start scheduling PTO days into a calendar that was already full.  This meant that I kept getting denied my requests.   I got everything but 3 days scheduled.  Luckily they finally announced that we could roll over time.  I breathed a sigh of relief.  But it was short lived.  I went into work after Thanksgiving and they had retracted 3 of my requests and told me that I was out of time....in essence shorting me about 6 days of time.  I was (and am) panicked!  I supplied a breakdown of my days....including screen shots from my paycheck that showed PTO balances and screenshots from our time keeping system to show that the days that I had recorded and planned actually matched those two records.  Then I had an email from my manager telling me that I had taken a week of PTO in February (uhhh my mother died..that was bereavement and not PTO...I forwarded them the obituary (weirdly enough I got PAID for bereavement and nothing was deducted from my PTO balance....but now they are saying that it was PTO).  So now I am waiting for them to right the wrong and give me my time and days off back.  Yes, I'm stressed.  Days off are like money!  I earned them!

So that is the scoop from here.....

365 Day 25 through 31

 A picture a day for a year.   I am glad that I told myself at the beginning that it would be ok if I missed a day or two.  That would be part of the story of my year.   It took me  30 days before I missed a day.  I honestly thought about the picture a few times, but always while I was busy doing something else and my thought was, 'right after I'm done'.  But well, right after never happened.    I wish I had been perfect in November, but I'm ok with not being perfect.  So here is the next week of pictures:

Day 25  Not an exciting picture, but a common sight for my week.  There must be a nest of something under the tree because this week all she wanted to do was sniff under there.  All. The. Time.

Day 26   The dog always steals the limelight in this house.  But we do have other pets.   We have a hermit crab.   We at one point had a few (they were rescues from people that were not taking care of them) but we were down to one.   They are an interesting creature.  They live in communities, but they also are a bit cannibalistic.  Just this week we decided to get old Hermie another friend.  Lets see how long they can coexist!.   (So here is the thing....when they molt they are very vulnerable and quite helpless.  But while they are molting, they are also apparently very delectable to other hermit crabs.   So we added another crab......it will either be a rousing success or a tasty treat.  Pictured is the original crab......maybe some day soon I can grab a pic of the new one.

Day 27 My view tonight.   The dog curled up beside me and the bird on the perch watching us.

Day 28   Time to wash the 'stinks' off.   Zoey is not overly fond of baths, but she gets one regularly.

Day 29  Mertz stays pretty much sequestered in my office.   This is her choice.  She has the run of the house, but won't get over her fear of the dog so instead basks in the sun on the bed in the office/spare room.  In fairness, she is a geriatric cat.    She loves my work days thought.  She will sleep an hour and then visit me on my desk for a few minutes before going back to the bed to sleep.  And she will repeat that cycle throughout the day.

Day 30  -  The day I missed.  It was a relatively normal day.  I worked.  I ran to the store.  Ohhh, I did create my Christmas Cards and had them printed.  Other than that, a normal day.

Day 31  My new obsession.  I have ordered a DNA test through ancestry.com.  This is in an attempt to prove or disprove the mystery surrounding my fathers parentage. (He was adopted....and there is two possible mothers and two differing stories).   While I wait for my test tube to arrive so that I can send in my sample, I decided to go onto the website and create my family tree.  Oh my word  How fascinating.  And honestly, I am not just fascinated because it's my family.  I am also putting together Jason's family tree and that is just as fascinating!  For example:   Jason's great great aunt must was married three times.  Her first husband died in 1901 in a tragic train accident.  (I've seen pictures of the aftermath).   Oh lets not forget the man who had a family and grown kids and was divorced.  And the census papers showed that he had a live in house keeper who had a daughter that lived there also.     And somehow a few years later this housekeepers daughter was the mother to his 'second' family and his wife.  The skeletons are coming out of the closet.   hahahaha  But yeah, to say I'm somewhat obsessed right now is an understatement.

So there you go, my week.   Maybe I forgot to get the picture on that day due to the fact that I was doing my necessary things and just hurrying to get to the computer so I could play with my family trees.  :-)

365 Days 16 to 24

 The picture of the day continues.  I feel as if my life is extremely dull and boring and thus my pictures will be utterly boring.  However, I am not going to let that slow me down.   Because dull and boring still gives beauty!   SO here we go with the next week or so of pictures.

Day 16

Day 17  I have been working on a lone star quilt that I am hand piecing.  Yeah, I know it would be more efficient to use my sewing machine.  But that would require me to drag it out...set it up and leave it up until the project is done.  It's much easier to hand sew and honestly, probably more rewarding!

Day 18  I have been so intrigued with drops of water lately ...they just catch my eye.

Day 19  I had the pleasure of spending the day with my oldest nephew at The Gettysburg Battlefield.  I don't know about him...but I enjoyed it!

Day 20  I worked diligently on the digitizing the family photos project over the weekend. 

Day 21  This dog is so nosy!

Day 22   The garden is done, we have marigold guarding the empty vegetable garden.

 Day 23   My ever present shadow.   She knew she would get in trouble if she were to sit beside me and paw at me but she didn't want to go far and wanted to make her presence known....so she went around to the other side of the table.....and sat there staring at me.

 Day 24  How is it that I am wrapping Christmas gifts already????

Wither Away

 

I would love to say that this past week was a rousing success.  I would love to say that I lost an amazing amount of weight.   I would love to say that my health efforts had been spot on.  I would be absolutely over the moon to be able to say that the elephant in the room, my mobility had improved.   I would love to tell you all that.   But I can’t.

I started this past week super focused and dedicated.  A coworker and I had been talking and she is big into fasting.  She has decided that she needed to lose weight by Thanksgiving, 10 pounds was her goal in 20 days.  And she was going to do it by fasting.   She and I had had this conversation before and I had been impressed with her losses from fasting a day or so here and there.  I had previously looked into fasting as a regular tool in my healthy living lifestyle.  I even read books on fasting.    And lastly, I tried fasting at that time. And it was a colossal failure then (you can read about that here.)   So why in the world would I decide to try fasting again.  Yes, I for some reason decided that I was going to fast again.  I was going to join my coworker on this thrust to lose mad pounds by Thanksgiving by fasting.  I wasn’t going to do the 2-3 day fasts that my coworker was doing, but I was going to follow the OMAD fasting schedule, one meal a day.  What could go wrong?    (I’m telling you; I had completely blanked out the previous experience.  There is no other explanation.)   EVERYTHING went wrong.   I got hungry during my fast and when that eating window opened, I descended upon food like there was no tomorrow.  I have always said “I can do a lot of damage in one hour of eating”.  Once again, I proved it.  My weight is UP on the scale after a few days of fasting.   NO MORE FASTING FOR ME!

So I had a failure with eating, surely exercise went better!   Except, that didn’t go any better either.   I started Monday so strong.  On my word was I on top of things.  I exercised at 5AM.    I even did a short 20-minute exercise video after work!    Twice in one day!  I was on top of it.  Nothing was going to stop me!   Tuesday, I started out right with another 5 AM exercise and then it went to hell in a hand basket! 

 It was about 7:30 and I was outside with the dog.  In the mornings I pick up her toys and straighten up things that were left out the previous day.  (I swear Jason has some type of attention deficit disorder, he will be in the middle of something and just walk away and let it lay when he moves on to a different project). We were also forecasted to get our first deep freeze.   Because of that, I wanted to get a few summer things put away, namely our hoses. So while the dog was on her lead (after the dog ran away at 5AM, I have not been brave enough to let her loose while I am home by myself and if truth be known, I haven’t let her outside without a leash while Jason is in the shower either!)

   So Zoey was rambling around on her lead while I flitted around the yard doing this and doing that.   I saw something across the yard that needed my attention so I stepped over Zoey’s lead.  I was very cognizant of doing it.  But she was just serenely watching the sky, so I knew that I had time to take that step over without any concern.   Except, that dog can go from zero to 60 in no time at all!  She saw something. (There was probably an airplane flying high over us leaving its jet trail.  You see, for some reason that infuriates this dog.)  Off she took running, while I was straddling her lead.  Next thing I knew, I was kissing the ground. I must have twisted when I dropped because my left knee was bruised and sore but it was my right upper side that took the brunt of the fall.  From my shoulder blade, up through my shoulder and down my arm it hurt.    It was bad enough that the first two nights after this happened, I struggled with sleep because of the pain.  It has diminished and I am starting to feel better.  BUT you know what that did to exercise!  From that point on, exercise didn’t happen.

So it was a week of failure in terms of my weight loss and healthy living efforts.    On Friday I spent the day with my oldest nephew at the Gettysburg Battlefield’s museum, film and cyclorama.  (Yes, we took pretty much the full day to do those things.) As we went through the museum we were talking, of course.  And of course we touched on my parents.   We touched on my mom in particular, and how much we miss her.  (She had a knack in later years for saying the rudest things to me, but she still loved me to no end and I loved her and I can see where her comments to me where frustration and unhappiness in her, especially after dad died.)   We talked about how when my nephew left to go to London for grad school that he resigned himself to the fact that his grandmother would likely pass away while he was gone.   And when he came back to the states how he was so shocked at her decline. (Those of us that were able to visit frequently didn’t see it as much because it was just a steady decline…but looking back it was a pretty big descent.)   We talked about that decline that was so visible to him after almost a year away. We talked a bit about the decline and if there could have been anything that could have been done to slow down that descent.  (We agreed that better physical therapy in the first home may have changed the outcome.  MAY.   But the PT at that home wasted so much time on inefficient therapy.   Seriously, for most of her time there, PT had mom lay in bed and do leg lifts and arm raises.    They didn’t have the manpower to actually get her out of bed to start walking….and didn’t dedicate that manpower until literally 2-3 weeks before her medicare paid time was up….when they realized that if they wanted to have a ‘success’ that they needed to get her walking.  So yes, I think she may have gone further if PT would have been more efficient at that first place she was at. IN fairness though, mom was in a reduced state of physical mobility before her stroke!     But The specialists at the hospital in Pittsburg where she was airlifted had seemed to think that she would make a full recovery….so who knows.  But I digress.   My nephew and I were talking about the decline and in my head, I realized that I am letting my health and fitness levels decline.  I recognize it.  I see it.  I know it’s not too late to change.  But, if I would have a stroke right now, I am already in a reduced situation in terms of my mobility.  I would be starting at a deficit, much like mom had.  Would I have the strength to overcome, or would I just slowly decline and wither away into …….

Day 12-15

 I am still going full steam ahead with the photo a day.  I am really enjoying it.   It has been easy thus far and I have been able to remember to get my picture with no issues.