Fun Times at Chez Sluggy

We are busy, busy, busy lately here at Chez Sluggy.

Last week we had our initial Sleep Apnea consult at the Sleep Disorders Clinic.
Geez, I can't even be orderly when I sleep.....

Then the daughter picked up her beau at the airport in Philly.  Say hello to Justin......

The barbecue and ribs I smoked, along with some COC roasted on the grill, hit the spot on Friday night.
Saturday we met daughter and her beau for a late lunch/early dinner.  They don't have "Friendly's" down in Louisiana so they wanted to go there.
They get to pick the venue and Hubs and I get to pick-UP the check. Hmmmmm.

Daughter got this monstrocity called a Grilled Cheese Hamburger.

It's 2 grilled cheese sandwiches for the "bun" of a hamburger.....2 grilled cheese with a hamburger in the middle of the pile.

It's no longer on the menu so you have to ask for it special and it's got a hefty price tag attached.

But daughter says it's, "Freakin' awesome!"


Coming home I didn't like the looks of this cloud.....

It was angry and starting to swirl.
Luckily it did NOT spiral into something nasty and chase us home.

Sunday morning, daughter and her beau loaded up her new car to head out on a 1,300 miles trip to Louisiana.

 

I don't know how they got everything they did packed into that little car.  There's a rather large tv in the trunk, all her clothes and a massive shoe collection.  Yeah, daughter is one of "those women". lol

 She had wanted to take her recumbent exercise bike in that car, which was NOT happening.  Now I get to use it...yay!

Bon Voyage favorite daughter!

*They made it to LA safe and sound. 8-)

The rest of Mother's Day was uneventful and low key.  Oldest son called me that evening and we hardly saw Youngest son since he works in a restaurant and it was Mother's Day.
'Nuff said....lol

Monday I got to go have blood drawn and got the added treat of peeing into a cup. 8-))

Tuesday evening I got to spend the night in the hospital at the Sleep Disorders Center.  I had a sleepover where they wired me up and watched me sleep.  Now how much fun does that sound like.....watching me sleep?  About as exciting as watching paint dry I think.

The Sleep Doc says I have Pickwickian Syndrome(named after the little Dickensian fat boy, John, in The Pickwick Papers, who can't seem to catch his breath).
It's one of the myriad of problems they say I have that is causing me to have heart problems.  Treatment consists of weight loss and using a Positive Air Pressure machine or a BiPAP at night while sleeping.
Oh goody!  Now I get to look like a Snuffleupagus and sound like Darth Vader.

 

Not very sexy at bedtime....

Wednesday I got to go hang out at the Heart Hospital.
I got to sit on a bed in a lovely shmatah and they gave me this cool jewelry.....

The not so cool part was they also got to poke me with needles.  I got two, count 'em two, IV lines!
And the second line took 2 tries to get right.
But wait....there's more!
When they took me in for the catheterization the second line came out when the nurse was futzing with it, so I got a lovely new line put into my artery.
Isn't my bandaid HUGE?!  It matches my huge nostrils.......

They did a right heart catheterization to measure the pressures in my heart.  Just one of the many diagnostic tests I've been subjected to lately.
It involves running a tube into the right chamber of the heart and measure pressures there and into the lungs.
Cross your fingers I pass this test.
It was a SONOFABITCH with no anesthetic.
And since they had to go into my neck artery the trip was shorter but my 40 min. in and out the door procedure took 6 HOURS!  2 to prep, 2 to perform and 3 laying in recovery to make sure I didn't bleed out or something.
Yikes!
It's a good thing Hubs took the whole day off to take me.

The good thing it's a good excuse to be lazy and do NOTHING around the house for 5 days, per doctor's orders.
Go Me!

So we are slowly going down a list of ailments and ticking them off as we find out we are NOT afflicted with them.
I go see the cardiologist next week to see what the next step is.

Today I colored my hair so I don't look like my son's grandmother at his college graduation on Saturday.
Then I had a hot young thang deliver oxygen cylinders to me.  I undressed him with my eyes while he carried those large torpedoes into the house.

And now I am waiting on my brother to arrive from Virginia so I can feed him and he can ride with us to the ceremony.
The weekend promises to be jam packed with activity too.

What are you up to lately?

Sluggy


 

So Many Wonderful Things to be Besides a Princess!

This is a wonderful idea!

Go read it HERE.

There are so many better things to dream of being sides a Disney princess waiting for her prince.  Let's give girls some REAL role models to contemplate!

This got me thinking about all the famous or infamous woman in history I would have liked to have met.

Here's part of my list---

Alice Neel-American painter
Pearl S. Buck-writer and humanitarian
Madame du Barry-French courtesan
Florence Lowe "Pancho" Barnes-aviation pioneer
Georgia O'Keefe-American painter
Cleopatra-Queen of Egypt
Pearl White-film pioneer/actress
Dorothy Vogel-art collector and patron
Sally Tompkins-the angel of the Confederacy
Ayn Rand-writer, philosopher
Phoebe Ann Moses "Annie Oakley"-sharpshooter
Emily Warren Roebling-chief bridge engineer
Queen Victoria of England
Pearl S. White-
Queen Elizabeth I of England
Catherine the Great of Russia
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Nancy Ward "Nanye-Hiwas"-Cherokee leader
Edith Piaf-chanteuse
Sappho-Greek poet
Sacajawea-Cherokee guide
Martha Jane Canary "Calamity Jane"-frontierswoman
Maria Callas-singer
Lucretia Mott-women's rights activist
Elizabeth Cady Stanton-ditto
Mata Hari-spy
Eleanor and Virginia Dare-mother/daughter The Lost Colony
Grace Hopper-1st Navy Admiral & computer pioneer
Margaret Sanger-Planned Parenthood founder
Varina Banks Howell Davis-writer, diplomat, 1st Lady of the Confederacy
Mae West-entertainer
Hetty Green 'the witch of Wall Street'-financial genius
Doris Duke-heiress & recluse
Zelda Fitzgerald-crazy flapper wife of F. Scott
Nellie Bly-journalist
Abigail Adams-1st Lady and 1st Mother
Hattie McDaniels-actress
Marian Anderson-operatic singer/human rights activist
Margaret Bourke-White--photo journalist
Phoebe Yates Levy Pember-nurse and hospital administrator

I kinda would have liked to have met Lucretia Borgia also.....though NOT at a wine tasting party.


If you had a Time Machine, which women from History would you like to meet?

Sluggy

 

Do You Have Enough?

I'm not talking today about food or money....these are things where it's often asked if you have enough.

No, today's question is aimed at something as important as those two but for me, today, is hitting a lot closer to home.

You see, I have a friend.
This friend recently lost her husband of many years.
He was not sick.
For all intents and purposes he was a health man in his prime.
But just like that, he was cut down by something nobody saw coming.
And he died in an instant.

There was nothing anybody could do.
And just like that, my friend lost her lost her best friend and the main financial support of their family.

While my friend does work outside the home, she doesn't bring home the "big bucks" like her husband did.  There is no way she can make up that income that has been lost.
And she still has kids at home.
They now have to live on far less than before and things are going to be mighty tight for them going forward.

My friend thought they had enough life insurance on her husband.
He had insurance through his job and they thought that was sufficient, at least until they got out of debt.  They had planned to pick up hefty amounts of life insurance after they eliminated their debt in about 9 months.

But he died before they got a chance to buy more coverage.
And my friend found out after the fact that they didn't have enough insurance on her husband when, after some medical bills incurred and the funeral and burial expenses, there was nothing left to use to help support their family going forward.

Needless to say, my friend is distraught over her loss right now.

But she is also stressed beyond belief now, at a time where she shouldn't have to think about things like how is she going to pay her bills and stay in her home, and feed her kids and pay for college, etc.

My friend knows I have a blog and I talk about personal finance sometimes too.  So she asked me, no she implored me to write a post about protecting your life and your family by having enough life insurance on the main bread winner in your home.
Let me say that again......Protect your life and your family by having enough life insurance on the main bread winner in your home.

You can never have enough life insurance, she says.
And an emergency fund, she added.  I'm quoting her on what she said about this....

"Emergency funds.  They can never be large enough.  Ever.  Think you have enough?  You don't.  There is no such thing as enough.
Not having enough money in insurance and in the bank is humiliating.  Having to borrow money from your parents for food until you can go back to work is humbling.  Calling your debtors and asking if they can just freeze your debts for a few months until you are on your feet is horrible.  Have a bigger emergency fund and don't wait until you are out of debt to get life insurance."

I'll add that if you have a family or are married, make sure you have a will and it's up-to-date.  If all your money & accounts are tied up in probate because your loved one died without a will, it's hard to pay the mortgage or buy food with thin air.  It's bad enough to lose your spouse to not have to be left destitute because your assets where under protected.

I admire my friend for having the courage and the insight to want to forewarn people, even while she is going through one of the most painful times of her life.
The least I can do is grant her wish to try to help some one out there.

Don't let this happen to you.


Sluggy

The $20K Savings Challenge of 2013....April Update

$20K Savings Challenge.......April Update

In our family we save money. It is important to us to put money aside for "rainy days".  You know.....those unexpected days when things happen in your life that you can't plan on, but that DO happen and they cost you money you didn't know you'd need to pay out.

Our income is mainly the salary my Hubs draws from his job.  We have money taken off each paycheck from the top to put into savings, before we even get our hands on it.  This money that's taken goes into various pots....life insurance, investments and retirement savings.  It's automatic so we are never tempted to NOT put it into savings.
Once the automatic savings, plus taxes and medical/dental/vision payments are taken out, it leaves what we get to "live on".  From this amount we budget for bills, both monthly and irregular bills(semi-annual, etc.) and our variable bills(like food, eating out, etc.)  Anything left over once our monthly expenses are paid, I put aside into a Savings Challenge. 

For 2013 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am going to keep the Goal amount at $20,000 again this year.

On to the April report.....

I have posted my April End of Month $20K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the side bar to your right for the specific numbers.

I have 2 goals each month.....
The 1st is to actually finish each month in the black and not the red.
The 2nd is to hit the targeted savings amount of $1,666.67.

I have to report that we finished up April in the black!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of April with?.......$3,108.15

Income
We had $1497.65 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted. 

Add in a per diem expense reimbursement check and our federal tax refund and we get another $1,610.50.  This brought our gain to $3108.15 for April.

Outgo

As for the expenses this April, here are the good and the bad side of things....

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  The long distance phone bill was $4.04 lower.

*  The cash withdrawals were $225 less than in March.

* The electric bill was $54.53 lower than March.

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  The water bill was $4.05 higher than March.

*  The credit card bill went up $892.261(but was still paid off at month's end.)

*  The music lessons were $60 more.
*  The doctor bills were up $185.30 from last month.
*  We had an additional prorated bill for $200.01 for car insurance since #2 Son has his license now.  I'm not complaining though as it was suppose to be $400, but with taking Daughter off(sort of)the increase was less than expected.

The Food Budget costs for April are in another post, which is located HERE.

We overshot the food budget by $35.49 last month.

The 2013 TOTAL so far.....
With 4 month behind us, our Savings Grand Total for 2013 stands at $8,597.78.  Only $11,402.22 left to save and 8 months left to accomplish this.

 

Looking ahead for May......

*  We don't have any quarterly or yearly bills due this month. Yay us! ;-)
 

*  Due to my visit to the ER and hospital stay and all the new doctor appointments and tests, we will have bills starting to roll in this month, so I can't even hazard a guess if we'll be able to make our monthly savings target of $1666.67 in May.  We shall see in the fullness of time.

*  Gas and eating out spending will be higher this month due to a trip to see our oldest son graduate from college.  sniff, sniff

So how was your April financially?
 

Did you put ordinary living expenses on a credit card last month and not pay it off in full when due?
Did you spend less than the income you had in April?
Did you received any "extra" or unexpected money in April, like a tax refund or bonus at work,
and what did you do with those funds?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
Did you pay off any debt or put extra toward your mortgage principle?

If you posted your financial progress on your own blog, leave a link in the comments so we can go check you out your progress too and celebrate with you!

Sluggy

A Tribute to My Mother

If we want to be honest, no woman has ever had a perfect relationship with their mother.  The mother/daughter bond changes as we go through life.  Eventually the roles we are used to playing are reversed and the parent becomes the child and vice versa.  Some relationships see the roles change back and forth over and over again.
But in the end, no matter how we feel about our mothers and what kind of relationship we end up having(whether a fulfilling one or a "not so much" one), there is the inescapable fact that we are bonded to this woman.  Her presence or lack of a presence shapes us in untold ways over our entire lives for better or for worse.

The following are some thoughts with a pictorial of my mother and how I saw her through my eyes and experiences.
*************************

My mom.
Carole Frances Harper Bowman.
She was an only child who grew up during the depression.
Her parents doted on her.
I would chance to say that she was spoiled and didn't want for anything despite the family's humble beginnings.  My grandmother had been a career woman back when women only worked if life circumstances required it(no spouse, the death of a spouse, etc.).  Back in the 1940's/1950's these woman were the exception.
My mom had a very large extended family of 11 aunts and uncles and their spouses and more cousins than you could count on half a dozen sets of hands, so she was never lonely growing up.

She was your typical teenager.
She joined the high school majorettes.  That's her on the right......


 

Here's her Junior Class picture from 1950-51.....

I don't have a Senior photo because like many girls of 16 or 17 or 18, she feel deeply in love with a boy and left school to get married.  Because back in 1951 and thereabouts, that was the ultimate goal for a "normal" woman.....to be a wife and subsequently a mother. 

Because of the "timing" of events in my mother's life, there wasn't a year or two to wait, finish school and plan a big elaborate wedding.
It had to be soon.....before she began to show.  ;-)

But that was ok because Mom was in a big hurry to grow up and be an adult.  She left school and married my father when she was 16.
Here she is on her wedding day with her parents.....

(She did eventually get her GED years later.)

By Dec. 1951 mom had a baby.
By Jan. 1953 mom had another baby.

6 more years passed before I arrived and we were a family of 5.
My mom was the mother of 3 children before her 25th birthday.
Here we are on Easter of 1959 all dressed up.....

The shot below was taken in 1962.  IT is one of my favorites.
It's 4 generations of the women in my family, on my maternal side.
I have always considered both my great grandmother and my grandmother very strong woman.  Even as a young child, I sensed that these two women in my life were insurmountable forces of nature.  They possessed an energy, a life force and a presence.  They had overcome great odds in life and were survivors.

My mother, on the other hand, never seemed to me to be a whole person.  Looking back on my childhood, I don't recall my mom as a strong presence in my life.  I know she was physically there because I was taken care of, and I had food, clean clothes, an immaculate home to live in and the usual trappings a middle class child possesses.
I knew my mother loved me but we really didn't have much one on one time together.  Though she didn't work outside the home, her life was filled with housekeeping, coffee klatches with her best girl friends and my father.  My father was the Sun around which she orbited.  She was a whole person with him and her moods were merely the reflection of what aura he was giving off at the moment.
To me, as a child, she seemed more of an extension on my father, rather than a person unto herself.

He was also very controlling.  I sometimes think that this is why she was drawn to him.  Her mother was a very strong woman, strong because her life circumstances demanded that she be strong, not out of any desire to be the family's leader and head.  My mother was use to the subservient role so she chose a mate in life who was similar in constitution to her mother.
But my father was also the most controlling person I've ever met.
But I digress......

 

back row l to r--Carole(28), Lillian(48)
sitting, Lucy(73), me(3)

My mother lost her mother in Sept. 1967 and 6 months later, her father also passed away.
Though she was an adult of 33/34 years I don't think she ever fully recovered from these losses.
I remember her being so distraught at the funerals that she sobbed for days and had to be sedated.
I don't think she was ever the same after that.  At least it seemed so to me.

The picture below is 8 years later, taken on my 11th birthday.  My mother was 35 years old.
I look at this picture and remember this being a good time in my mother's life.  My brothers were mostly self-sufficient teens so her workload was less at home.  Mom had a close circle of friends and neighbors who got together on weekends to drink and socialize and my father even joined in and approved.   She seemed happy.  My father had finally gotten his college diploma(going at night for many years)and was then able to make advances in his career so there was more money for the niceties of life, of which my mother had a fondness.  She loved to plan parties and she got to indulge in this hobby since my father's business required him to wine and dine clients.  Mom got to spend on clothes and shopped at the upscale stores we had like Smith & Welton's, Miller & Rhodes, Ames & Brownley and the PH Rose Shoppes.

Around this time my mother began changing her hair color.  She went through many styles and colors, never satisfied with any one for very long.  I see this as a symptom of her trying to find herself.  She was a wife and mother but who "was she"?

The next shot is of mom at Christmastime in 1973.  It was taken shortly before we moved to a new home in a nearby town.  I can see a marked change in my mother's expression in this photo.

I remember this as the beginning of the "bad times" for my mother.
One of my brothers was done with college and off on his own in another city and the other was almost finished earning his degree.
With my brothers grown or almost grown, she was feeling abandoned again, like when her parents died.  We lived in an old huge Victorian era home and I was the only child left at home at 14 years old.  I had just started high school.
Both my parents were drinking to excess by this point and socializing every weekend with father's business associates.  My father liked to throw money around to impress people.  He wanted a wife to show off so mom was always dieting to stay thin but she smoked and drank trying to keep up with dad.  He often belittled her in front of  his clients.  I saw that when he brought them into our home for dinner or parties.
Though she was a voracious reader during her life, my father looked down on my mother since she never went beyond her high school diploma.

The parties and drinking continues and there were trips combining business and pleasure.  The Kentucky Derby, a National Convention in Dallas, a Junket to Hawai'i, etc.  These were all just a way for my father to avoid dealing with his crumbling marriage and the fact that he no longer wished to be married to my mother.  He kept her busy taking her on trips, shopping and kept her drunk.  Mom, wanting to please my father, would do anything he asked.

My parents weren't around much during this time.  I was left to fend for myself, alone with our family dog.  Neighbors would check in sometimes and my brother stayed with me for a time.  My childhood ended in 1973.

This was the era of Women's Lib.  Woman were told they could "have it all" and they could do it all; have careers, make their own money and decisions and raise a family if they wanted.  Women of my mother's generation had not been groomed from a young age to make a life for themselves out in the world independent of a spouse or partner.  My mother had no job skills really other than cooking and cleaning.  She had no support system had she tried to venture out into the world on her own
My mother had no way to support herself and my father, being the financial head of the family, had spent all the inheritance money from her parent's estate on his business ventures and bad investments.
Even if she had had financial resources I doubt my mother was strong enough to leave my father.
She stayed because deep down inside, she believed she couldn't live without him and she loved him.

Around the time this photo was taken, mom had become paranoid as well.  At least that is what I was told.  That was the year she checked into a private psychiatric hospital for her drinking.  That was the beginning of a very dark chapter in my mother's life that continued on and off for the next 9 years until my parents finally divorced.

Once my mother was legally free of my father(with serious misgivings on her part) it took quite a few years until she was able to "let go" of the bad stuff in her past and carve out a new life for herself.

The next photo was taken in 1983 after she had reconnected with one of her old friends from when we children were very young. (Mom is on the left.)
Mom had some financial securities now thanks to the alimony and was enjoying life; buying a townhouse and decorating it, going out with friends, pursuing hobbies, etc.  All her children were back in her life which made her even happier.

I married in 1982.  It was about this time that I started having a "real" relationship with my mother. 
There had been a lot of hurt feelings and resentments over the last 9 years but once I married and was out from under the thumb of my father, our relationship changed for the better.

Mom eventually got herself a "fella" and lived with him as she needed a man around to take care of to feel whole.  It gave her a purpose in life and it was what she was use to doing.  I don't think he treated her very well and eventually he broke it off and sent her away because she got sick.  I will never forgive  him for that.  You wouldn't discard a dog like that....

Even her health problems couldn't keep her down once she became a grandmother.
She so loved being "Grandma".   Mom had an old friend...they had been pregnant at the same time.
In later years when her friend's daughter made her a grandmother, the friend bristled at the thought of being called grandmother.  My mother was the total opposite, she couldn't wait for the day she got to be called that!  Finally, a month before she turned 57, she was granted her wish when my oldest son was born.  The first time she saw her grandson I swear I saw a spark ignite in her eyes that I had never seen before.


My mother suffered from COPD among other serious ailments.  She had to have oxygen therapy 24/7.  That didn't keep her from traveling and exploring with her grandchildren.  I think she kept going a few extra years because of those kids even though her body was ready to check out.  Here she is with her "precious babies", as she called them, during the Summer of 1997.
She had 3 more years with her grandkids before passing away suddenly from something no one saw coming in 2000.

 
I never thought of my mother as a strong woman.  She wasn't born with that strength at the core of her being like I had seen in my Grandmother and Great Grandmother as a child.  She was born a helpless Southern flower.
She grew strong instead, over time.  A strength born of surviving the tribulations of her life.
She overcame what would have done in a woman with less intestinal fortitude.  With each challenge her spirit grew and she survived.

Perhaps my grand and great grandmother were not born strong women after all.
Perhaps we are all helpless creatures who each need to overcome the trials of life to find our inner fire. 


Though I'm 54 years old, I miss you every day Mom.
You weren't perfect but who among us is?
I just wish we had had more time to really know each other better.

Sluggy
 

Some Thoughts on Mother's Day

Everyone has a mom.
None of us would be here without her....not to play down your father's role in the matter, but hey!, it's all about Her today, right?

I am sitting here alone in the house without my kids today feeling sorry for myself.
Oldest son is hundreds of miles away at school.
Daughter left this morning to start a new life in Louisiana.
Youngest son left a few minutes ago to go to work at the restaurant so we won't see him until late into the night.
So I'm feeling somewhat forlorn and alone without my kids today and turning to the internet to entertain myself.

Here are some cute/funny videos I found that say some things I am feeling today on Mother's Day. I couldn't pick just one so I'll let you decide which one is best.








And this one is for a new blogger friend, Java....


Who says moms can't be "hip"?....




Now what are you doing wasting time on the internet!
You should be off doing something special for your mom or that woman in your life who has been like a mom to you in some way or another.

I'll be back later today with a tribute to my mother.


Sluggy

Fascinating.....

I just love Leanoard Nimoy.

My oldest brother, Dennis, was a big fan of Star Trek, right from the first time the USS Enterprise boldly went where nobody has gone before on our tv set in 1966.
Dennis likened himself to Mr. Spock.
He even began to style his hair like Spock's and started talking like him.
Here is Dennis with his prized hi-fi stereo he built looking all "Spockish"......

Dennis had a couple of Leonard Nimoy's record albums that he cut.
Yes, Mr. Nimoy fancied himself a singer and poet.
I'm sorry to do this to you, but play the clip below at personal risk to your hearing.....



And who can forget, really! I WANT to forget!!, this tune he performed on the variety show called Malibu University that aired the Summer of 1967....




Is it any wonder this series didn't make it past 7 episodes?

Here's a Bruno Mars hit music video he appeared  in last year.......



But here is the latest commercial for Audi pitting the Spocks(old and new) against each other.
Let's just say it's a BIG improvement over the Bilbo Baggins song.....
My brother Dennis would have liked this one.
 

Live long and Prosper,

Sluggy

My Friday Date

My Friday involves yet another appointment, but not a medical one.


Then my important date today is with him......

 

You see?
My date is IDEAL.

He is short compact and dresses in black.
And he is smokin' hot!.....

He's quick to heat up but he likes to toy with me and prolong the anticipation.
He takes his time and smolders.
And he is such an exhibitionist because he caresses my olfactory senses right on the front porch for the whole neighborhood to see.

And he is so meaty and spicy....

And the longer we do our slow, hot tango, the more tender he is with me.
But oh, he is sooooooooooo worth the wait!

What are YOU up to today?


Sluggy

Snowball Fights Anyone?

What a grey day we had in Pennsyltucky yesterday.
First off here was my view in the morning....

I was trapped in a hospital waiting on specialists to come poke and prod me.  Mostly I just answered questions about my sleep.  They feel I need a BiPAP machine at night so a new sleep study has been ordered.  Oh goody!  I get to try to sleep in a strange bed in a hospital with cameras watching me and all kinds of electrodes and gizmos hooked up to me next week.
Can.
Not.
Wait.
8-P

Then in the afternoon, here was my view......

Sitting in the car in the parking lot of the grocery store, waiting for my daughter.  I was out of turkey for my new tradition of a turkey sandwich daily for lunch.
Rain was a bad thing since my Hubs replaced my windshield wipers but they aren't working correctly.  They move alright but they just don't REmove any water from the windshield.  I think he pushed down on the center of the wiper arms when he attached them, so that the curve of the glass is not lining up with the curve of the blades, so they just flap back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.....

Here was my view from my back door in the early evening.
About 7pm, the skies opened up and it started hailing......

And it hailed some more......

And more......

And by the time it ended 5 minutes later, the deck looked like it was time for snowball hailball fights.....

Here's a shot from our front door after some had melted......

And here over by our shed.  Where the grass is dead it looks like white flowering ground cover plants.....

Now actual snow in May is not unheard of here but hail at any time of the year is a rarity.

Sluggy

 

APRIL 2013 Budget Results....Food & Toiletries Spending

 

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for APRIL 2013.

I have posted April's totals on the right side bar under Total Grocery Savings for 2013 and updated the Yearly Totals.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in April.  If you aren't interested in that much detail, just skip to the bottom for the Totals Summary.

My spending includes Food, Toiletries/HBA, Pet Supplies, Cleaning Products, Paper Goods & tax where applicable. We are a family of 5(4 at home this month)& 2 dogs. No kids under 17.
******************

MAINE SOURCE(restaurant supply)

OOP  $123.12

Value  $204.13

Savings   39.69%

SHURSAVE STORES(small local independent affiliated stores)
OOP  $243.20

Qs/Ads  $86.00

Value  $329.20

Savings  26.12%

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $69.17

Qs/Ads  $10.25

Value  $79.42

Savings  12.91%

I am no longer adding my rebates received into my food budget directly. I will use them on food on occasion and will note that when used.  I will keep track of rebates/gift cards/certs received here as before however.

REBATE CHECKS RECEIVED IN April.....$0.00

GIFT CARDS and CERTIFICATES....$0

TOTAL Value of Cash/Store Checks/Gift Card Rebates Received...$0.00

COUPONS and FREEBIES

Zero

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Maine Source at 39.69%, the Shursave affiliate market at 26.12% and Weis Market at 12.91%.  l only shopped at 3 different stores this past month. 8-)

TOTAL Out of Pocket........$435.49

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$177.26

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$612.75

TOTAL Savings of...................................29%

This closes out the April food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....

I went into April with $400 budgeted for food/toiletries for the month.  Overshot the budget by $35.49.  Not bad considering I didn't do any of the shopping the first half of April.

Exactly 1 ManQ was used in April.  I did NO Rite-Aid shopping in last month either.

Looking ahead to May---We'll stick to our $400 food budget again this month.  With the sudden changes I need to make to my diet this month I am not sure how this will affect our food budget.  I suspect we will need to spend more on food. May will see even more changes in our food spending.

 

And here is the run down of my Food & Toiletries Spending for 2013 so far--

2013 Total Saved $1109.98

2013 Yearly Total Value of Items  $2527.45

2013 Yearly Total Spent $1426.47

2013 Yearly Savings Total of 43.56%

How much did you spend on food in April?
 

Sluggy

Retiring on the High Seas

Hubs and I are in the pre-retirement phase of life.
We are still undecided about where we will be moving to once he retires from his job.
The only thing for sure is that we WILL be moving from here.

We go back and forth on where to go, what size house to buy, etc.
But I think I have found our retirement abode on Craigslist.

Check it out!
HERE

What do y'all think?

Sluggy

My Sexy Medical Test

Well I had my CAT scan last Tuesday.  It went well.  Too bad they don't take you early if you show up early though, since Hubs drove me and he arrives EARLY everywhere he goes.
Drives me nuts sometimes......

I have a touch of claustrophobia but I didn't feel any anxiety when they slid me into that machine.
Piece.
Of.
Cake.

They snapped pictures and then were going to inject a contrast and afterwards take some more pictures.
The contrast agent gets into your system via an IV line.
IVs.
These are always much fun with me, finding an acceptable vein near the skin surface of my arm and keeping an IV needle in it for any length of time.
I have "Houdini" veins.....now you see them, now you don't.
Also, I get really bad black and blue marks from IVs that take forever to disappear.
Here's my arm just this morning, a week after having this latest IV needle inserted.....

Back to the story......The technician who prepped me found a vein quickly and accessed it.
But after the first set of photos, when they injected the contrast, the needle came loose and the sticky liquid instead of shooting through my veins, shot into my ear, in my hair and all over the pillow.
What a mess!
Afraid to move I was frantically waving my fingers on my other hand trying to get someone in the control room's attention.
When they realized something wasn't right and came to fix the problem(ram the needle around in my arm looking for the vein again), it took about 20 more minutes before the IV was ready to function properly.

The technicians had said that when they inject the contrast you'll feel a warmth in your chest and you may get warm because of the iodine in the solution.
Well, of course I am weird, you all know that, so after I got that warmth in the chest sensation, my nether regions started tingling and heated up like nobody's business.
It was better than any "adult warming gel" for "her enjoyment" advertised on tv.
I know this is TMI and many of you are x-ing out of this page about now but I must say I rather enjoyed this part of the program and I am looking forward to any and all CAT scans in my future.
And my advise is, that if you ever have a CAT scan insist on one with contrast. ;-)

So the doc was checking for Pulmonary Embolisms(aka blood clots in the lungs) to rule them out.
Thankfully that was all clear.  Although it's been a month since I went to the hospital in crisis and I'm pretty sure if I had had a PE, it would have broken loose and killed me loooong before I had this test.

The images did come back showing a nodule on one of my lungs.  It is very small.  Now these can be either cancerous or not, so there is concern depending on what your risk level is.  I am not low risk and I'm not high risk for one of these to grow into something bad.  Because of being exposed to secondhand smoke from my SAHM as a child and having asthma, I have a moderate risk of this thing growing and changing.  So the plan is to keep an eye on it and have another scan in 6 months.

Oh goody!
Can't wait.....and I am serious.
The next time though I'll insist the technicians buy me dinner first.   ;-)

Sluggy

My Son, The Musician

We always liked when our children became interested in playing a musical instrument.
My background is in the "Arts", so I was always keen to find out when one of them showed an interest in something cultah'd.  

We found that the oldest son was a natural stage actor and singer from the age of 5.  It's hard to ignore when at the school wide chorus concert he was in at that time, when you overhear many parents in the audience asking their companions, "Who is that child?  He is amazing!"
And no, I was not imagining it. ;-)
He dabbled in the arts but by high school decided it wasn't for him.  His "acting" ability will stand him in good stead though as he pursues his goal of being a high school or college level History teacher.

The middle child, the Daughter, well, she was gifted in math and science, with nary an artistic bone in her little body.  She did take up the trumpet in middle school but I think that was more as a social thing to fit in.  She also sang in the school's chorus and performed in the musicals.  Though she was no prodigy, she did discover an affinity for the guitar as a pre-teen.  She taught herself to play it and when she continued to show interest we did pay for lessons.  She performed(or played back up for singers)at high school events but she hasn't decided to pursue music as a vocation.  It's a hobby she enjoys and the urge comes and goes.

When it came time for the youngest son to decide if he wanted to join the elementary school band class, he was MORE than ready!  I guess seeing his older siblings both learn and play the trumpet(plus his sister played the guitar and was teaching herself the keyboard), he wanted to do that(play music) too.  He never gave any indication as a little guy that he was artistic and we figured he'd try it and lose interest like so many kids do once they realize the work involved in learning and mastering an instrument.
But then, he told us that the hand-me-down trumpets, from his siblings, he would get to learn on were not to his liking.
HE wanted to play......the flute!
He was drawn to the flute from day one.  So I went on eBay and found a really good quality used instrument for cheap money so when he lost interest after a couple of years, I wouldn't feel bad about spending the money on it, and I might be able to resell it to boot. ;-)

His siblings tried to dissuade him from playing "that girly instrument".  They knew he's be teased for not playing the drums, the sax or one of those other loud brass instruments.  Despite their advice and influences, he decided on the flute.

And instead of losing interest after a year or two, he stuck with it.  He moved up to the middle school band and then was invited to join the high school marching band while still in middle school.  Once he was actually in high school, music became his life as a student.....well that and French class.  A day without a lesson or a music class or a musical after school activity was a day without sunshine for him.

At this point we decided to upgrade his instrument to a better quality one.  He was taking lessons through the school but the time came that private lessons were needed to get him to the next level.
He stumbled upon a wonderful flute teacher.  The local music store had an arrangement with instrument teachers and she was working with them.  Youngest got assigned to her for lessons and the two just clicked.  After a few months, the teacher went out on her own and youngest son decided to follow her instead of change teachers at the music store.  Then his 1/2 hour lesson expanded into 45 minutes.  He is pushing us now to pay for hour long ones.

This is all just a very long way to introduce this video(albeit a questionable quality video as it was taken with Daughter's phone) of #2 Son playing at the student recital for his flute and piano teacher, which was this past Friday evening.  It was his very first public performance as a soloist.

Youngest has been taking "serious" lessons for about a year now.  Though in the music world, he is considered a "late bloomer", he has made great strides in his technique. He has decided to go to college for music(if he gets accepted into a program)and work in some capacity of the music industry/business as his vocation.

Without further adieu, here is Noah performing "Sicilienne" by Gabriel Fauré

Sluggy

The New Way I Grocery Shop

Having to cut sodium down to the bare minimum in my diet and having decided to incorporate juicing into my way of eating, my grocery shopping looks somewhat different from what it use to.

I made my first trip in May to the grocery store on Thursday.  I spent a whopping $113 plus change.

Here is what I got.....(I tried to group the items by category)

Produce
*12 Apples
*1 Jicama
*1 large Ginger Rhizome
*1 bunch Asparagus
*1 bunch Kale
*1 bunch of Parsley
*1 bunch Red Leaf Lettuce
*1 red Bell Pepper
*1 Watermelon
*2 Cantaloupes
*1 box Grape Tomatoes
*5 lb. Carrots
*2 Grapefruit
Meat
*1 package Chicken thighs
*2 packages natural Bacon(low sodium/no nitrites)
*1/3lb. low sodium deli Turkey
Canned & Bottled
*3 cans Crushed Tomatoes
*1 bottle Sesame Oil
*1 bottle Mediterranean blend Spices
Frozen
*2 bags frozen Ravioli
Dairy
*1 container Sour Cream
*1 qt. container Greek Yogurt
*1 cup Yogurt w/almonds(sweet snack)
Beverages
*8 bottles of 100% Juice
*3 2ltrs. Diet Soda(Sucralose sweetened)
*2 pt. size diet Sodas(ditto)
Breads
*3 packages Bakery dinner rolls(small sized rolls)

Now here is the stuff I bought for the family that I can't eat....
Stuff Sluggy can't/won't eat
*3 small frozen Pizzas
*2 packages Lunchmeat
*2 boxes Belvita breakfast cookies
*2 1 ltrs. of Diet Soda(not sucralose sweetened)
*2 x 1lb. blocks of Cheese
(Except for the cheese and diet soda, all of the above was for #2 Son's consumption only.)

Here's about all the types of processed food I bought......

I  brought a coupon for only one item(2 boxes of Belvita), but I still bought some items now because they were needed AND they were on sale, even if I had no coupons.  If an item wasn't on sale and could wait until next week, it stayed in the store for now.

The Northland brand juice was a great buy.  They were the dark fruit varieties that go for $5 a bottle around here so at 50% off, it was a deal I couldn't refuse.

All the bakery products were off the 50% rack.
The chicken thighs and natural bacon had Instant Discount Stickers making them 50% off as well.
I would have bought none of those items if they weren't 50% off. The meat will be frozen for later use and I incorporated the rolls into this week's meal plan.(We used some for Sloppy Hoe's Joe's last night and will find uses for the rest of the bread or freeze the leftovers.)

This is my new normal.
I still will use a coupon, buy on sale, and stock-up on items if the item fits into our new way of eating.
You probably won't be seeing savings rates of 50%, 60% or more like in past years.....unless I need to go back to Rite-Aid for the deals and start getting toiletries and such for free again. lolz
For now, a savings rate of 30% off regular retail on the food I buy is what I'll be shooting for.

And I'll still buy some junky snack foods for the family within reason.  I think I can resist the urge to devour it all if it's in the house with me.
My resolve is high......at least for now.  ;-)

Sluggy




 

My LS Sloppy Joes Recipe

I went searching online for a low sodium Sloppy Joe Sauce recipe.
Most of them I found called for using low sodium Ketchup and a full cup of it at that.
Yah......about that.

Why would I use over half of the small 14 oz. bottle of my LS ketchup, which cost over $3, to make this sauce?
So I used tomato paste and just added or increased the other ingredients that are in ketchup into the recipe.
This first batch was trial and error but I think I have come up with a pretty good sauce.
It's a lot less sweet than the stuff you buy in the can or in the dry mix packets.

Here it is.....

Low Sodium Sloppy Joe Sauce
makes 8-12 servings depending on how saucy you like your Joes

1 6oz. can tomato paste
1 6oz of water(use empty paste can to measure)
1 tsp. garlic, minced
4 TB. brown sugar
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce(or use reduced sodium version to save 20mg of sodium)
1/2 tsp. mustard powder
1/2 tsp. celery seed
1 tsp. cumin(you can substitute cilantro double the amount)

Brown your meat and onions and/or other veggies you put in your Joes.
Add all ingredients above and mix well.
Wait 5 minutes until hot and serve.

I plan on making up a double or triple batch next time to freeze into meal sized portions so this can be a quick and easy dish that Hubs and the kids can make without having me around.

The sodium savings?
Reg. ketchup=160mg in 1 TB vs. LS ketchup=25mg in 1 TB.

If you used 1 cup of reg. ketchup(as the original recipe called for), your sauce would contain 2,560mg of sodium(or about 256mg per serving)from the ketchup.
My recipe is approx. 400mg of sodium(or about 40mg per serving)from the ketchup.
(There is an additional 65mg of sodium from the Worcestershire Sauce too.)

And here is the finished product.....

 

 

 

 Don't know if you can see the onions, grated carrot and yellow, red & orange bell pepper  I put into the meat mix of ground beef and turkey.

Here's my plate before I dug in.....

Sluggy

The Zen of Sluggy

These are just some things swirling around in my brain.  Some are profound while others are just ridiculous.  Still others just prove that I'm not quite right in the head.

Today's sayings......


"Fast Food is the Salt Lick of our Society but with none of the health benefits."

"If McDonald's is the deity of the fast food Universe, is their High Temple in Salt Lick, Kentucky?"


-Sluggy

The Mystery of Mary Creef's Child

Genealogy is like the world's biggest and hardest brain teaser puzzle.  You have some puzzle pieces but nothing fits until you get that one piece that makes them fall into place.  Sometimes you think you are working on a part of the sky but no, the puzzle is upside down and you are really working on a lagoon or a pot with 300 marbles in it.  Or is it Lincoln's nose on Mt. Rushmore?  You are always doubling back and re-evaluating what you know. You need to jump back and forth and work on this part of the puzzle here or that one over there.  Eventually you have enough filled in to make some educated guesses and figure out the big picture.

So I was talking about my sister in-laws ancestors, Manliff Twiford & his son, Fowler, in my last genealogy post HERE.
Fowler was the gentleman who was tried for "seduction under promise of marriage" to one Miss Mary Creef.
Given the testimony, lack of financial resources by Miss Creef to afford an adequate team of attorneys and that DNA testing wouldn't be available for about 80 years past the time of the trial, Master Twiford was acquitted.  His getting off caused quite the uproar in their small community.

I got curious about Mary and her soon-to-be blessed event.  What happened to them?  So I went looking to uncover the rest of the story. 
I searched on her maiden name and her name came up on 3 censuses--1900, 1910 and 1920.

In 1900, Mary is found living with her cousin's family in East Lake, NC at 2+ yrs. old.
In 1910, Mary is found living with her father and 3 brothers in East Lake, NC.  Mary is listed as 13 yrs. old.  This would put her birth date sometime in 1897. The father, James Washington Creef is listed as married, though there is no wife listed living at that address.
Further investigation turned up that James was widowed at that time, as his wife, Civility had died in Dec. of 1898(from her headstone dates).  The married designation was just clerical error.

In the 1920 census, Mary is living with one of her cousins whom she had lived with as a toddler(from the 1900 census records).  Mary, now 23, is living with her grown cousin, her husband and their children up in the big city of Norfolk, VA.

My theory is that given Mary was under a year old when her mother died, and the only daughter, and the only child of the family under 6 years old, she was sent off to be cared for by relatives nearby.
In the same 1900 census, James and 7 of 8 of his male children are living with him in East Lake, NC, only Mary is not.(From what I can gather James and Civility had 9 children together.  Further information indicated that the second oldest son had died in 1900 at age 23.)

From this point I uncovered a death certificate for a Mary Elliot Creef Muse.  Everything points to this being our Mary.  She passed away in 1972, in her home in Elizabeth City, MD.
Someone named Wally Creef, living at the same address is listed as the informant on the death certificate.
Now having her married surname, Muse, I was able to find the man she eventually did marry-Charles Mac Chestnut Muse.  Their marriage record lists his name as Charley Mack Muse (FindAGrave gives his dates as Sept. 1881-June 1963), and they were wed  in 1930.
However in the 1910 census, Charlie is found living in Beaufort, NC, married to a woman named Elizabeth. They state they have been married for 12 years in that census, so they would have married around 1898.  I found them again as a family unit living in Beaufort, NC in the 1920 census.
Charles and Elizabeth had 7 living children in 1910.  Their children would have been grown by 1930, except for the 2 youngest, who would have been 17 and 18 in that's year's census.  But I don't find these children living with either their father as a widower or their father and his new bride, Mary in 1930.

In the 1940 census we find the Mary(Creef)& Charlie Muse family living in Elizabeth City, NC.
After 10 years of marriage, there are 3 children listed--Wiley L. Muse at 16 years, Margaret Muse at 11 years and Harold D Muse at 8 years.
Hmmmm.....this would put Wiley's birth at around 1923/1924.....the same time frame of Mary's "delicate condition".  The newspaper article about the trial was dated June 1923 and noted that Mary was going to be a mother in a short time.

Further research uncovered Wiley's obituary from June of 2004, which listed his birth date as 3 Nov. 1923.  Counting backwards, that would have put Mary at 4 months pregnant when the trial ended.
Given that there is no indication that Mary knew Charles Muse before Wiley's birth, it's pretty clear that Wiley Muse was a Muse in name only.  In fact, indications are that Charles never adopted Wiley, nor did any of the Twiford men claim him, as his obituary gives his name as Wiley Lee Creef and lists his mother, Mary as his only parent.
I suspect Wiley was the person living with Mary Creef when she expired and the informant was listed incorrectly as Wally, not Wiley.
Wiley Lee Creef, worked for 31 years for the Elizabeth City fire dept. served in the Army during WWII and retired to SC after his mother died.  He never married and had no children.

So we know that Wiley was born in 1923 and his mother married in 1930,
but where was Wiley during the 1930 Census?  He would have been about 6-7 years old then. 
Searching under the name Wiley Creef I found him listed in the 1930 census living in the Pasquotank County Children's Home(an orphanage) in NC.
But by 1940's census Wiley was living with his mother and stepfather and 2 new siblings.
In this census Wiley's state of birth is given as Virginia, not North Carolina.

My theory is that Mary had been living at age 23 with her cousin's family in Norfolk, VA.(This is less than 2 hours away from Elizabeth City, NC.)  When she wound up pregnant she was probably told or sent to stay with her cousin or other relatives out of state in VA, where she eventually had the child.
This explains Wiley as listed as being born in VA, while the Creef family were all from NC.

 Back then, being pregnant was socially unacceptable and something families hid from their community.  Girls would often go away "to school" or go "help out a family member who needed a "mother's helper"in the home if they turned up pregnant.  They would then come home after giving birth.  If the baby wasn't placed for adoption  or given to extended family to raise, it was eventually brought home.
Sometimes the grandmother/grandfather would adopt the baby and pretend that they were the parents and the real mother was an older sibling(like Jack Nicholson's grandmother did), or the mother would go on an extended trip with the secretly pregnant daughter and come home with a baby that she claimed to have given birth to sparing the daughter the social disgrace of being an unmarried mother.

Having an out of wedlock child was a stigma on a single woman.  How did you earn a living to support you and your child when there was no one to support or take care of your child so you could work?  How did you find a good upstanding man to marry you with that scarlet A on your back?
The best that Mary could do was probably to place him in that orphanage at some point, unless the authorities were involved and she had no choice in the matter but to relinquish him.  To be 6 or 7 years old and living alone without family in a state orphanage.  The poor little guy!

It is safe to say that eventually, Wiley's situation improved and he had a fulfilling life as an adult and what seems like a close relationship with his mother.

And that is how this story ends.

Except for my ironic twist on things.......you know I have to have some kind of "life is funny" conclusion.

Remember that this whole thing started with a trial against the alleged father of Mary Creef's baby, Fowler Twiford. 
Even if paternity was denied by Mr. Twiford, Wiley Creef was related to the Twiford line via his mother Mary Creef. 
Wiley's 2 x Great Grandmother on his mother's side is Clarissa Twiford, born in 1800.
Clarissa is also the Great Aunt of Fowler Twiford(She is the sister of Manliff's father, Cornwallis Twiford.   Manliff is Fowler's father).

Aren't small towns and close-knit communities great for tangled up ancestral roots?

Sluggy


 

Meal Plan-Last Week Post Mortem & Moving Forward

Last Week's meal plan went as, well..... planned!, until we got to Friday and Saturday.  Friday turned into Rigatoni with homemade mushroom and meat sauce and a Spinach/Green Leaf Lettuce & Carrot Salad.  Hubs had blue cheese dressing I had a mix of my LS Greek dressing with some additional vinegar.
I have no CLUE what we had on Saturday but for me at least, it was low sodium and made at home.   Really, it's hell getting old and loosing your mind.....
And on Wednesday I had a turkey sandwich for dinner.

Here's last week's plan.....
Sunday, I adapted my Lena's Lemon Chicken recipe so I could eat it.  Instead of using half the "cheap" Lemon Pepper seasoning(that's mostly SALT  lol), and half the salt-free Lemon Pepper seasoning, I just used the salt-free variety.  I use to half and half it because we like some salt and the salt-free variety is insanely expensive, and it calls for a large amount for the recipe.  All thee other ingredients are aok to have--chicken, brown rice(not salted when cooking), onions, zucchini, olive oil, garlic, diced tomatoes and tomato paste.

Monday, I made Macaroni Salad(minus the salt)and really loaded it up with carrots, celery, onions, 3 colors of peppers and black olives.  It was more a Veggie Salad really. lol
We had hamburgers(they had cheese, I didn't).  I had one of my half turkey/half beef burgers.  We also had a mélange of steamed corn, broccoli and carrots.

Tuesday, only Hubs and I were home for dinner.  He had a Chicken Enchilada.  I made 8 Enchiladas last week, without salt or refried beans and using my made from scratch enchilada sauce(salt-free).
I froze half of them for easy dinners with the container of leftover sauce in the fridge.  Hubs also ate leftover Macaroni Salad.
I didn't feel like a heavy meal so I just had apple slices dipped in my peanut butter.

Wednesday, tonight will be Italian Sausage, Onion and Peppers Sandwiches. I can't have the sausage so I'll figure something else out later today.  I have baby Portabella mushrooms here I have to use, so I'll think up something using those.  Maybe a bowl of fresh mushroom soup?

Thursday, we'll have Chicken Fajitas. Peppers, onions, mushrooms and chicken.  I'll make my own seasoning since Chili Powder is full of salt.  And cheese for the family but not on my fajita. 

Friday, Fish, Lena's Cabbage Salad, Yellow Squash Sauté.

Saturday, Either Leftovers or Pasta with meat sauce and a large Salad containing lettuce, carrots, celery, peppers, grape tomatoes, red cabbage and spinach. The sauce will be made from scratch and have half and half ground turkey or chicken and ground beef. I'll use my low salt dressing or olive oil and vinegar.

Here is what this week is looking like.......

Sunday, we grilled steak and summer squash outside.  I made baked potatoes as well.  No salt on the steak, a little Mrs. Dash's and some sour cream on the potato, no butter.  The squash got a splash of EVOO.

Monday, this night I roasted a whole chicken with carrots, onions & potatoes. No salt on the bird, but a heavy sprinkling of Mrs. Dash's and paprika.  There was enough leftover for chicken sandwiches, for me, for lunch, as well as stock(after boiling the carcass and adding that to the drippings from the roasting)to make Clam Chowder later this week.

Tuesday, this night was leftovers, as we have a fridge bursting with them!  Hubs & I had Rigatoni....well, he had a big helping, I had about a cup+ (about 12 noodles) and a big dish of watermelon.

Wednesday, I'll be trying out a homemade LS Sloppy Joe Sauce recipe over browned ground turkey on buns.  I have enough summer squash leftover to sauté that with onions for a side dish.

Thursday, another Leftover Night.  Gotta clear the fridge out....

Friday, we have #2 Son's private music teacher's student recital, so we may have leftovers when we get home or grab a 6" sub at Subway on the way.

Saturday, I'll make the Chowder.  Depending on interest I may also make a big salad with lots of veggie stuff in it.  Or if there are veggie leftovers still in the fridge those will be out on the dinner table.

What good stuff are you eating this week?

Sluggy

Chatting About What's New in Sluggy's World

The big news is I continue to drop the lbs.
I'm down 28.8 lbs. since getting home from the hospital on April 5th.
Counting the 18 lbs. I took off the 4 days I was IN the hospital, that makes a weight(and water) loss of 46.8 lbs.

I don't care for blogs that go on and on about diets and dieting and loosing(or gaining) weight, they bore me to tears and I rather think MY weight journey is boring all of you as well, so I won't be making this sort of post a regular thing.
But I could use some "atta girls" and encouragement now and again, so you may see a desperate plea for High Fives now and again. ;-)

Perhaps I'll make a tab on the blog and I can post all the "Downsizing of Sluggy" reads there so those who are yawning even now at this mention of weight loss don't have to suffer through another one, but those who can't get enough of me(hehehe)can stay updated when there is less of me to love.

The big job this weekend was going through the stockpile and cleaning up the garage.  No matter how much I organize out there and try to keep it picked up, the other humans living here like to leave their stuff everywhere and trash my system.  It's my lot in life......at least until they all leave home. lol

So it started out as just going through the stockpile to get rid of everything I can no longer eat.  We did keep a little for the other people who live here since they can still eat it and they like it.
Things I no longer eat from my stockpile, due to the sodium content, that we either eliminated totally or just kept a few of are.....

*Spaghetti Sauce
*Tomato Sauce
*Knorr's Rice and/or Noodle Sides
*boxed Mac & Cheese
*Barbecue Sauce
*Marinades
*canned Soup
*packaged Taco Seasoning
*Lipton dry Soup Mix
*Seasoned Bread Crumbs
*various canned Veggies
*Green Olives
*As well as boxes of Cereal past their use by date(the kids never ate them) 8-(

I was going to throw out the Stove Top Stuffing but if I don't use the flavor packet(and make up my own spices/seasonings from scratch), I can still use the bread cubes.
We kept all the A-1 Steak Sauce too since #2 Son prefers to drown his pork chops and steak in it. shudder

What is leaving is 10 boxes filled with products.  I'll let the brother in-law go through it all to see if there is anything he'll use before I freecycle it all and trash what no one wants.

I also gleaned another box full of toys and housewares to take to Salvation Army while we were in the garage. 

I am STILL trying to learn Windows 8 on my new laptop.  It is so user Unfriendly!  I am taking so long to get the hang of it that I fear some of that weight loss was grey matter. lol
The most insane thing is that the mail program in W8 no longer supports a POP email account...which is what I have with my ISP.
So Hubs set it up with my Yahoo email(web based email) and some other hocus-pocus so that now I can get my email from my POP account into the mail program BUT email won't go to my Inbox.  He had to set up a separate folder in the mail program and all my mail goes into that.
Crazy shit....

I also can't upload photos from my camera to this laptop.  My camera technology is now officially OBSOLETE.
Sigh.
Hubs has to upload my camera card to his desktop machine and then email the photos to me.....into my "special folder" in this stupid W8 mail program.
And I can't find any photo editing feature/software on this laptop......there might be one but I don't possess enough brain cells any longer to FIND it!
Argggggghhhhhh

Plus my Wand Scanner, which I use to digitize all the old family photos in the scrapbooks.....the laptop has no orifice in which to insert the micro card adapter.  At the least, I need to buy something else to get the laptop to download the photos.

And since I'm on the subject of photos......I thought I had saved all my photos onto a flash drive from the desktop computer before it died.  Since Judy never posted about her Swap Sister presents and she STILL is not responding to my emails, I was going to post some photos of her goodies.
By the way, I was her Swapper person if you didn't figure that out from my last sentence. lol
I had taken pictures of her goodies before I sent them off.
Well, evidently I deleted them or never transferred the photos onto the flash drive since I can't find them!
I guess no one will ever see the awesome goodies I sent her and realize what a wonderful Swap Sender I am.  ;-)

Daughter is in her last week of classes for the term at the college.
#2 Son had his school orchestra and jazz concerts this past week.  The Jazz Festival was today and he has a recital this week along with the students of his flute teacher.

One of the highlights of my week was chatting with Mark of Our Simple Lives on the phone.  The only thing missing was a box of wine...... ;-) 
Mark and Fred joined the "Parent of a Teen" Club this week, when their son turned 13.  Hoist a glass or three to them with me!
And then go check out Mark's Facebook page for his side hustle HERE.  He's filling up garages at a swift clip in south central PA with his vintage, Mid-Century Modern, Danish and otherwise fashionable furniture.
Yes, Mark is now a furniture pimp.
 He's got inventory to move so if you are looking for stunning furnishings, check him out.
Of course when he brought up his new furniture buying/selling obsession I got to tell him he was turning into a hoarder, just like me.

Last night was the Junior/Senior Prom.  I snapped a few photos of #2 Son and his Date before they left for another photo session at another girl's house, and then on to the Prom.

I told them to look off into the distance for this one.....I kind of like it because they both started loosening up and had fun with this one.

This week I have 2 medical appointments-a CT scan and a follow-up with my new family doctor group.  The following Wednesday I report to the Sleep Disorders Center.  I suspect that will be a fun filled outing as well.

What's new in your world?


Sluggy