Monthly Archives: August 2013

September low spend month hosted by Carla!

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SEPTEMBER LOW SPEND MONTH HOSTED BY CARLA,

Im joining Carla over at myhalfdozendaily with a low spend September . Here’s what I have so far

1.for groceries, I’d like to challenge myself to $500.if we eat out of the freezer and pantry and buy lots of fresh produce, I think this can be done

2. For non food, keep it at $100.

3. I’m going to get cash for these,and not use a debit card.
4. B and I are going up to Tahoe in September, but I will budget for that. Gas will be 1 tank,so that’s $60, I’ll bring most of our food, and then we can eat out once.
5. It’s both B and my birthdays, but I think will just say “happy birthday”.
6. I  want to keep up with the 52 week challenge. This week it’ll be, $35, next week $36,$37,$38. I’ll take this out of my library check.
7. my very good friend offered us free firewood, so that’s going to save us at least $300. We’ll just have to plan a day to rent a trailer and go cut and load. But thank you, Sara and Logan!
8. I’ve already budgeted my sons XL twin bed, but it’s still much more than I expected. But I have the money set aside.
9. Household will be tough since we’re finishing the house painting project. Not sure where this will come in, but I’m going to say $200.
10. I’ll keep adding where we can cut things as the month goes on. I think the biggest cut would be food and non food,which can really creep up.
11. Id like to find something’s to sell on Ebay. Maybe my vintage lunch boxes?
I  don’t have a lot left To sell, but I can look around. In this past year of decluttering,I’ve opted to give away as opposed to sell. It’s just easier.

Sunday night chit chat with Carla .

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  • Thanks Carla for Sunday night chit chat.www.halfdozendaily.typepad.com
  • Reading: I’ve just finished two great cookbook stories, “The Sharper Your knife,the Less You Cry”. This is about the authors enrollment in the Cordon Bleu. It was amazing to read how difficult this course was. The second,by the same author ,”The Kitchen Counter Cooking School”. This was my favorite, since it talks about how she took 9 strangers and taught them the basics of cooking. It was so interesting, since you don’t realize how many people eat pre packaged foods.
  • Listening to: just the outdoor sounds as we were sitting outside.
  • Watching: Started “The great Expectations” on BBC. Quite excellant. We also watched last week “The Beasts of the Southern Wild”. This was an amazing story of the ‘bathtub’ area in Louisiana . It was semi based on hurricane Katrina,although that is not mentioned.
  • Cooking/Baking: Wow, I did a lot today, 2 loaves of bread, a Julia Child recipe for braised beef. (Pot roast), froze tomatoes.
  • Happy you accomplished this week: Our house is finally painted except for trim. Walked everyday. Handled my dex pretty well.
  • Looking forward to next week: Finishing some trim work on house, cooking, walking.
  • Thankful for today: I am grateful to feel good, my wonderful husband, and 2 wonderful kids.
  • Bonus question: Are you sad that summer is coming to an end, or looking forward to the fall months?
  • No, I’m always ready for the next season. I’m a fall baby, so I love the change.

So, on other notes, my doctors office called with my m protein. Good news, it didn’t change. So still at 0.6

That’s good news for me. I’ll be seeing him sooner this month to check my blood work, since I’ll have been on Rev for one cycle.

This week starts week 13 walking, and I’ll be crossing the 90 day mark!  Yeah, me!

This weeks goals…..

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Well well, for starters, have B finish painting. We’re going on day 3 tomorrow. I finished work at 2 and dashed down to the paint  store for 2 more gallons before they closed at 3pm. Plus they are closed tomorrow, so I need it to be done! It looks really great. Not sure about trim, but we are thinking about it.

So my L 1 is better, not all the way, but better. It takes a while for the inflammation to go down . Can’t really tell what starts it. It hasn’t bothered me in 3 months. Go figure.

walked this morning. Still smokey from our California fires. Next week starts week 13. Yeah !

So, goals for the week:

1. Finish painting . Put stuff back.

2. Declutter pantry

3.walk

4. Menus for the week

5. Handle dex ,ha, ha,ha!

6. Tally budget numbers for August

7. Decide on a trim color

8. Do budget for September , including propane and firewood.

9. Order XL twin mattress for Z

10. Walk, walk, walk.

Painting!

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Well, even though its been a tough week with dex, lots of weird miscommunications, I was finally able to go buy the house paint. B has been prepping the house all summer. So, were borrowing a sprayer and tomorrow hopefully there will be some progress.  We’ve chosen Strafford sage and Windsor toffee as trim. I think it’ll look good a sage green. I’ll post pictures when done or some of it. 

Im feeling better today, but my L 1 is still inflamed limiting my walking ability and pretty much anything else. But, it feels a tiny bit better this afternoon. 

 

Dex day!

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Well, it didn’t take long to remember why dex is so difficult. I’m one week into my revlimid ,so I take dex on Saturday night. This time I planned to take 12mg on Saturday night ,then 8 mg on Sunday. I don’t think it made a difference really. I slept till @ 3 then off and on. I had some energy sunday morning till @ 1 . Then it was crash and nap. My taste buds are totally off. My dry mouth is back. Did I say ,I remember how I hate dexamethesome . But it’s a necessary evil and is working with the rev, so it’s like 2 days a week are going to be sorta a waste. Oh well, my dr did say I could take the week off when I’m off rev. So that should help at least emotionally. I doubt the first cycle will impact much, but I can hope. Since I think I’m in for the long haul, I better get use to the new normal again.

The William Morris project

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” HAVE NOTHING IN YOUR HOUSE THAT YOU DO NOT KNOW TO BE USEFUL,OR BELIEVE TO BE BEAUTIFUL” this blog is form http://www.pancakesandfrenchfries.com .Okay, it has been a wild day.(yesterday)!! Starting at 6:50 walking, Sacramento by 9, winco, lunch at the new black bear diner,r in Auburn, home, get S to go transfer title ( finally ) on her VW,plus check on AAA insurance in her own name, staples for school supplies and …. Ta da…. My new Brother label maker.

so where does that fit in to William Morris.? Well, everywhere I can make a neat label I will.imageIm going to make labels so my bins and files look neater.I think it’s going to be fun once I get the hang of it. It took me an hour to get the tape in right to work….?ok , I’m a little(a lot) technically challenged.

I think it will make what I label more uniform,and pretty. It seems like a useful thing to have. I did have a staples coupon for $20 off ,so I suppose that helped me decide.Well, it’s off to work and write that incident t report:(

Yikes! What a weird day….

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Okay, this was a weird day. We’re up an ready to go on our walk at 6:55, I always grab my iiPhone and small wallet that holds my license and and debit card Etc. But, its not in my larger purse. …..hmmmm ,so I think, it’s probably still in the car. No, not there. I start to feel a little panicky . Ok, let’s walk, and then I’m sure it’s somewhere.  walk, home….. No wallet. You’ve got to be kidding me. Then I think back to the library yesterday, there was a weird guy walking back and forth in front of the desk, to the teen area. At least six times, no it couldnt be. So I drive over to the library look everywhere , thinking maybe it fell out of my purse. No, still no where to be found. Finally 2 hours later I concede, either I lost it, or it was taken by said person in library. I just couldnt believe someone I would come behind the counter and dig in my purse for my wallet. So I call and cancel my debit card, credit card, PayPal and health card.. I’m still tearing thru the house, garbage, the car ,for the hundredth time. At 11:30 ,  the person working calls and says she found my wallet stuffed backed in the teen area. This is where weird guy kept walking to. I am totally stunned, I cannot believe he would come behind the counter and get my wallet out of my purse.

of course, I didn’t see him so what can I say or do….but at least everything was there. I didn’t have any money in there but….

I still just can’t believe it… But from now on not leaving my purse on the back counter, and I’m taking the money box key with me when I shelve. 

Why do people have to be such jerks about this. And I’m writing an incident report up. Not accusing, because I didn’t see anything but, the incident.

Yikes, my adrenaline has been hyped all day. To weird for me and I guess I feel such a let down that someone in our sweet little library would stoop to this.

Still walking…….

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Sunday started week 11, of walking some everyday. I think the “just walk” has really worked for me. and i am now doing 2 miles. I like challenges and actually need them. It’s more like mini goals. I like to set them almost every day. I think this started when I first was  on chemo. I had a list of one thing I needed to do. I felt good if I did that one thing. So, then a while later I discovered Flylady. Her program opened up a whole new way of cleaning house. Her motto is ” 15 minutes at a time” . I realized I could do a lot in 15 minutes. Try it some time with a timer and you’ll be surprised. So I started doing her zones and it was wonderful and I could do it. Her lists gave me focus. So this is my 4 th year doing Flylady and it still works. 

Flylady also started me on the path to decluttering.  I started with just stuff and now I’m trying to embrace minimalism. I’ve gotten rid of tons of stuff and I I think when you start looking at your space this way ,you start seeing the possibilities. I don’t think there was way to much stuff, it’s just it was too much for our space.  Back in our old hippie days, B and I really wanted the wabi Sabi look and a Japanese clutter free space. That didn’t really happen,but interestingly enough minimalism and mid century looks very similar.

  • so, maybe a full circle. But back to lists…. 
  • Walk
  • work
  • wait for revlimid to be delivered
  • Finish organizing the bathroom drawers( the bathroom is this weeks zone.)
  • Put up new shower curtains

So, I’m a list person, and I like having a notebook to write them in. I use mostly Martha Stewart  notebooks and in the aqua blue which is my favorite.

Sunday night chit chat.

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  • imageReading: Just finished Elizabeth Alder’s “Just Don’t Tell”, ok mystery thriller.
  • now I’m reading”the Silent Wife”. It is excellent, but again this is a true psychological thriller.
  • Watching: I watched a stupid girl movie, “Friends with money”, dont waste your time.
  • Listening to: fire planes, there is a fire in our area.
  • Cooking/Baking:made a yummy chicken stir fry.
  • Happy you accomplished this week: Well, I walked every day, we got the studio painted, inside and out.
  • Thankful for:  My wonderful husband, my two great children, our health insurance , and life is good.
  • Bonus Question: Can you walk well in high heels? Do you wear them often?
  • I would love to wear a pair of jimmy choo’s just once, but alas, I have terrible feet and have to wear something low with a ton of support.
So,on a different note, I should get the call about my revlimid today. I see the doctor on Thursday , so I will explain how unhappy I was that this fell thru the cracks somewhere…
On the other hand I got an extra month off chemo, but if my numbers are up again, I won’t be thrilled about the delay.
The picture is from DLBliss campground in Tahoe, where B  and my daughter Sachi are camping and kayaking.I’m  home on cat duty.

I am not a happy camper!

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It’s August 8. Yes that’s 3 weeks from when I saw the doctor, and 3 weeks from when we decided to go back on rev/ dex. Has it happened, NO! I haven’t even gotten a call from Curascript. I am pretty P.O. No, that is not post box. 

I even called the nurse ,left a message. TWICE. 

So as my mprotein continues to go up, I wonder is it time to change where I go, or is it curascript s fault.

i am not a happy camper!