I heard that.

Well I fretted over nothing on Tuesday. I was worried about the weather and getting to my appointment on time and safely. It was cold out but the roads were fine and I made it there in plenty of time.

I now have my hearing aids. I have to go back in two weeks. She asked if I wanted to go in for a follow up in case I have any questions or problems. Plus OVR requires another hearing test with the hearing aids in. She was going to do that on Tuesday but the room she needed for the test wasn't available.

Let me tell you, I can not believe some of the things I'm hearing. I can hear the clickety clack of the keyboard as I type this post. When I got home on Tuesday I kept hearing a clicking type noise and I could not for the life of me figure out what it was. I finally realized it was Gibbs. His nails were clicking on the floors when he walked across them. I had never heard that before. I've been laughing at all the things I've been hearing.

I used to drive Wade nuts because I couldn't hear. He would get so mad when I asked him what he said. On the drive home I shed a tear or two because he's missing out on me being able to hear. I think he would be very pleased that I got them.

Oh and last night I was able to watch TV without using the headphones. For the longest time that was the only way that I was able to hear the TV.

Wordless Wednesday

Eye appointment

Yesterday was my eye appointment. All went well. I got the exam, picked out the frames and talked about what kind of lenses I wanted.

I had my choice of whether I just wanted a reader or just for distance or a bifocal. I went with the bifocal. Hopefully I'll be happy with the choice. When the doctor asked me how long it's been since my last eye exam he had to remind me that I should have my eyes checked ever 2 years not every 10. It really has been that long (at least) since my last eye exam. I've been getting along fine with just using the cheap readers and I probably would have gone longer had the case worker from OVR not said she would put a request in for glasses as well as hearing aids.

Speaking of hearing aids, today is the appointment for that. I go right after work and I'm hoping that the weather holds out. It's supposed to be really cold and there is a wind chill watch in effect from Wednesday morning till Thursday afternoon. Tonight's low is supposed to be -2 with a real feel of -22. I think the furnace is going to be working overtime.

A rose by any other name

I can't say that this rose smells sweet since it's made from paper. This was a free cut file in Cricut designs space. They have a section that offers free files for a week. The machine draws the black line and then cuts the pieces. I added shading with colored pencils. After I put it all together I decided to do some heat embossing. I used ultra thick embossing powder and it didn't cover completely. I liked the way it made it look like there were water drops on the rose and leaves.

Just another angle.

Today I have an eye appointment then tomorrow I have an appointment for my hearing aids. The weather is supposed to be snowy and extremely cold. I may not have much time for commenting the next couple of days but I'll be back at it when the appointments are out of the way.

A mystery

I'm beginning to wonder what the point is to having a cell phone. I rarely make phone calls and get them even less. I suppose the only advantage to having one is that in case of emergency I would be able to call for help. That's of course is providing that I can get to the phone and am capable of dialing.

These are the strange things that I think of when I've been sitting alone too much. But seriously, I pay $40 a month and the majority of calls that came in to my phone are junk calls. I barely text or get texts. I use my phone mainly  for taking pictures and scrolling through facebook when I'm away from home and have time to kill.

I love you guys

Today I just want to tell you all how much I love each and every one of you. You keep me going. You're there to support me, cheer me on and make me laugh. I couldn't ask for a better bunch of blog pals.

This was a totally unintentional card. I started out by playing with some stamps that I had. After I stamped the hearts and strings I cut it to size then started layering the paper. Before you know it, I had a card.

TGIF

I'm feeling rather whiney and I may have a little pitty party for myself later on. In the past week 3 or 4 times I have broke down into spontaneous bouts of crying for no apparent reason. It has me really glad that I have my job to go to so that I'm out of the house, around other people and not putting myself under a microscope all day long. Who would have thought that I would ever be glad to be going to work?

For today I'm going to just dig in the archives and pull something old out. So here we go. Totally random.

The file name for this was called doodle girl. If I remember correctly I scanned a coloring book page and then colored it in photoshop elements.

This was a motorcycle I spotted in the park that Wade and I would go to in the summer. They had free summer concerts there.

Well that's it for today. Time to head out

Winter wear

Back in the day, I wouldn't be caught dead in a hat or even with a hood up in the winter. It was all about looks and I apparently didn't think a hat looked good.

These day I could care less what it looks like. I'm dressing to stay warm

Gibbs says I'm a wimp

The making of a mountain

I already told you we got a ton of snow Saturday night and Sunday. Well my deck had about 1 1/2 to 2 feet of snow on it. I heard that it's supposed to warm up a little, rain and then snow some more. All I could think of was that all that snow on my deck is already heavy enough but if you add some rain to it the weight is just going to put a lot of strain on the deck. With all that in mind I thought it would be a good idea to go out there after work and start shoveling it off.

I took the supervisor out with me

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Since the railing was never fixed last year after the pool came down there is still a space on the front of the deck where I could just push the snow off instead of having to lift shovel fulls over the railing. You can see that my little mountain goes right up to the deck.

 

Here's another view. That is a lot of snow. I probably should have pulled some of that snow down from the roof too.

Too darn cold

Yesterday was too darn cold. The highest I saw was 13 degrees. Gibbs and I hibernated all day long. I wasn't very inspired to come up with blog material so I grabbed a couple pictures from my daughters Facebook page from Presley's birthday party.

This one is pretty much like the one I showed yesterday but it's before she had frosting all over her face.

Back to work today but I sure wish I had a do over on my day off. I could use some more time at home.

What a day

Saturday night it snowed, and snowed then snowed some more. When I got up Sunday morning I had a hard time opening the basement door to let Gibbs out. I had to go out and shovel a spot for him because he started out into the snow and turned around and wanted right back in.

Then it was get the car cleaned off and hope I could make it out of the driveway to go to work. The plows had gone by while I was out there and the snow was looking very deep. I got in, looked both ways and put my foot down on the gas until I was out on the road. I was very happy that it was a short drive to work. It was nasty out there.

Presley's birthday party was yesterday and they had asked me to make her a smash cake. Well the one I did was a little beyond a smash cake but we don't have small cakes or cake pans so I went with what I had. The theme for her party was "tea party" so I made a teacup from a icecream cone and the handle was part of a cooke

I wasn't sure if I was going to make it to her party. It started at 1 and I worked till 1:30. Then I had to go home, let Gibbs out and change. Also I wasn't sure if I would be able to get in my driveway. I thought I would have to shovel when I got home too. Thankfully my neighbor had been over with his snowblower and cleaned the driveway out for me.
I made it to her party just as she was enjoying her cake. My cell phone takes crappy pictures but here she is.

I promised Gibbs that I would stay home all day long today so no going out anywhere for me. Just as well, it's too cold out there any way.

Not a bad day

Yesterday could have been a little warmer and I could have done without the snow but all in all it wasn't a bad day.

I went out in the morning to shovel and while I was out there the guy who plows the neighbors driveway pulled in and plowed mine.

It wasn't looking too bad out so I decided to drive over to Walmart and get a haircut. It's been over 6 months since I've had it cut and it was looking stringy and horrible and it was driving me nuts. When I came out of Walmart it was snowing like crazy. A nice slow drive home and it was inside for the rest of the day.

Two things that I've been waiting for in the mail came too so that was also a cause for celebration. I've been waiting for the letter from OVR telling me I can make my appointment to get fitted for my hearing aids. That came so on Monday I can call and make the appointment. I also got something from the state regarding Wade's unemployment from last year so now I can get my stuff together and get my taxes done.

All in all not a bad day.

Another card

Presley's first birthday is coming up real soon and they are having her birthday party for her on Sunday. The child has more clothes and toys than she needs so rather than buy her anything I've decided I'll open a savings account for her.

So I won't show up empty handed I decided to make her a birthday card. Not that she will really care or know the difference but you know. The theme for her birthday is a tea party. I had some cut and print files that matched that theme.

Here is the front of the card

And I also cut the teacups for the inside. Now I just need to write something on the other side

I'll buy that.

I was walking through Walmart and spotted this on a pair of pajamas.

I thought the owl was rather cute and I bought the saying but I did not buy the pajamas.

For whatever reason

I'm feeling a bit uninspired today. Maybe it's the cold weather that's making me sluggish. Maybe my brain is taking a mini vacation. I don't know, but I do know that I'm totally winging it here.

A while back I posted about a voice message from Wade that I found on an old phone. Since then I've had a few more instances that make me think he's watching over me. I use the fire stick on one of my TVs and I was checking out what was available on a certain app. As I was scrolling through I saw the show The Rifleman. Wade used to watch that EVERY Saturday morning. When I saw it I said there's your Rifleman Wade but we're not watching it.

Second sign was when I was in Walmart. Wade loved white chocolate Reese's peanut butter cups. You can't always find them but I used to always pick some up when I spotted them. Well the other day I happened to be in Walmart and there on the shelf were white chocolate Reese's peanut butter cups. I didn't buy them though because I don't like like white chocolate. He never had to worry about me eating them.

A reason to celebrate

A birthday is certainly a good reason to celebrate but even more so when I manage to make a card to send to someone for their birthday.

I finally got around to making this card from Awesome SVGs Not only does he provide the free SVG and PNG files to make the card but he has a video showing you exactly how to put it together.

Either I cut the outer card wrong or didn't line it up well but it's good enough. I think I may need to work on my coloring skills as well. The Cricut machine draws the outline of the cake and candles and then you need to color it in.

Here's the inside of the card. Let me tell you, the folding for this one was a real pain in the butt.

A better look at the inside so you can see how the cake pops up.

After taking the above pictures and before stuffing this in the envelope to mail, I decided to add a little stamping to the front of it.

I would make this card again, even though there is quite a bit involved in it. Maybe with some practice folding all the score lines would be easier.

Cheating

I'm kind of cheating today because I borrowed some things I saw on facebook.

Tomorrow I actually have something crafty if I manage to get the pictures ready

Who gives a hoot

I had the worst time trying to write this post. I would click on new post and it would just say loading but never bring anything up.

But that's not the point of my post. Owl tell you what it's about. It's about owls. I have quite a few throughout the house.

This one I believe came from the dollar store. I used to have it sitting out with a couple other things but now it's sits in a cabinet.

For owl I know, this guy could have been flying around the neighborhoot before he landed at my house.

I'm talon you, it wasn't me who made these puns up. I found them at Punpedia.com

Well it's time for me to fly. I must say this post didn't turn out so bad for winging it. Come back tomorrow to see what I post about nest

An enjoyable movie

Friday night when I turned on the tv and the fire stick I noticed a new app that said free for Amazon customers. I've since discovered that some of the content is free only to prime members but there is quite a lot for non prim members as well.

I chose to watch a movie called The Magic of Belle Isle starring Morgan Freeman.




This movie was totally delightful.

Saturday

There are two days of the week that I really like. One is Monday and the other is Saturday. Of course if my days off fell on different days then my favorite days would change.

Any way, I have absolutely no idea what to blog about today. I have done nothing crafty, I haven't gone anywhere interesting and life has been rather boring.

There are times when I miss some of the tv shows that I used to watch but I've been able to watch quite a lot of things absolutely free. The digital antenna gets several channels and on the fire stick I've found several apps that are completely free to watch. I won't ever get cable again. It's just not worth it.
If you have the fire stick and want free content you can try
Tubi (this is my current favorite)
Pluto
Sony Crackle
Fawsome

Thumbs down

The other night I was throwing something away and the bag was a little full. I tossed whatever it was in the bag and then pushed down. The minute I felt it I knew I had made a mistake. My thumb went straight down onto a dog food can lid that I had thrown away earlier. This was no little scratch either. I wrapped it tightly in a paper towel until I could get it to stop bleeding. I probably could have used a couple stitches but it was late, and I was not about to go sit in an emergency room. I played doctor and fixed myself up. I realized how difficult it is to do quite a few things when you can't really use your thumb. Since my thumb is now a bit sensitive, I also discovered how many times in a day I bump my thumb on things. That poor baby takes a beating.

This thumb is not mine. This one is smiling. Mine is not smiling right now.

It's just crazy

The weather has been all over the place lately. On Monday I don't know what the temperature was but at one point I looked out and we were getting freezing rain. I noticed a nice layer of ice covering my car. Later I thought maybe I should go out and scrape some off so it wouldn't be so bad Tuesday morning when I had to go to work. When I went to go out the ice had already melted all off.

Tuesday morning as I headed out to work it was 52 degrees.

Wednesday morning it was 34 and an hour after I got to work it started snowing.

I shouldn't complain about the snow because other years we've had it much worse and so far we've been pretty lucky. I suppose I was hoping that this would be a snow free year but then I forget where I live. I doubt that will ever happen.

Half a pair

Yesterday at work I was bagging the fresh italian bread. I dropped the loaf in the paper bag and the bottom gave out and the bread went straight through and landed on the floor. Well now what do I do with it? The 5 second rule only applies if no one is watching and the deli manager happened to be right there.

Instead I decided I would make a slipper.

Now all I have to do is drop another loaf and I'll have one for both feet.

All in a day off

I had intended to make several phone calls on my day off. Nothing that is urgent just calls that need to be made. I started out in my usual slow paced Monday morning way. Coffee and computer. I then abandoned all thoughts of phone calls and instead went back to the job I started of cleaning crap out of my house. After going through a lot of things I discovered that there is a lot of stuff that just isn't worth the time and effort of anything but tossing it in the trash. There have been a couple things that I've offered to my daughter and son and I managed to have a large metal drafting table removed from my house. There will be a full trash can and a pile of boxes sitting at the curb for Wednesdays pick up.  It sure does feel good to get rid of a lot of this junk and I can't help but wonder why I've hung on to things for so long.

Once I've finished with the clean out then I'll start on painting. Anyone remember the red room? That will be the first one I work on.

Oh and the picture today is just random that I pulled out of the archives because I didn't have anything else. I see it's rather dusty.

The value of 6 seconds

I use my old cell phone for my alarm clock. I would use the new phone but for some reason I can't hear it going off as well as I can the old one. The other night I was checking to make sure the phone was charged enough before I went to bed. I accidentally hit the messenger app and there in front of me I saw Wade's name. Of course I had to scroll through the messages. Nothing much was there, just the typical will you pick up this thing or that, until I got to this....

All he says in those 6 seconds is "Hey Ann, you mine as well get the eggs while you're out" but let me tell you the value of those 6 seconds is priceless. I lost count of how many times I've listened to it.

You light up my life

You may or may not know that Wade used to make light bulbs. His job description was incandescent mechanic. He did that for over 30 years. He was quite proud of the light bulbs he made as they last way longer than any you would buy in the store. He knew it was only a matter of time before his job would end. Since I first met him, I never needed to buy a light bulb. He would always bring them home from the shop.

I opened up a drawer the other day, saw all these light bulbs and realized that he still lights up my life.

A snowy corner

In another corner of my house sits a little table that currently holds some of my favorite snowmen. All three of these pieces were purchased separately but they go together well.

I just love this guy. I think he's totally adorable.

Snow friends

I have a corner curio cabinet that sits in my upstairs hallway. The top half held a few birds items that I had collected over the years as well as some eggs. The bottom half was filled with snowmen. The other day when I was doing some cleaning out I decided I really don't care much for the bird stuff any more. I took all the birds and eggs out of the cabinet, cleaned up the shelves and rearranged the snowmen. Now the entire cabinet is my snow friend cabinet

The top half

And the bottom half

There's still a few more that have to go in here but they are currently out decorating other parts of the house..

In comparison

The local electric company sends out a newsletter every so often that compares you to your neighbors as far as usage. It gives your usage, your efficient neighbors usage and the average neighbors usage. Ours always came in as we used MORE than the average neighbor. That is until now. This time I used 40% less than the efficient neighbor.

The thing is Wade always left the tv on. If he was home the tv was on and that includes all night long. In the winter he also ran an electric heater and sometimes even the electric fireplace in the man cave. November 2017 is when his job was eliminated and he was home all day every day which meant the tv was on 24/7.  He also insisted on keeping the thermostat at 72 degrees. This letter suggests 68 which is where I've had it set. It's a big chilly at times but then I just grab a blanket or put on a sweater and I'm fine.

This chart compares 2017 to 2018. It says that I've used 9% more electrictiy in 2018 than I did in 2017. The light blue, which is kind of hard to see is 2017 and the dark blue is 2018. Every month is higher until July. July was my first full month alone. I imagine when it compares 2018 to 2019 those first 6 months are going to be a huge drop.

Half empty or half full

The first day of the new year was gray, gloomy, cold and rainy. It was also full of possibilities for a bright and shiny new year ahead.

I spent the day with Gibbs doing whatever I felt like doing at the moment. Some of it was spent packing up Christmas decorations, some cleaning out a couple cabinets and some was spent just sitting around with my tablet, kindle or on the computer.

I think it was a half full glass kind of day.

Happy New Year

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When old times give place to the new, I send fondest wishes to you.

Happy New Year